Rebel

Chapter 11

    Rey and I climb around the machinery on the inside of the panel. I look around and see a vent. "Rey!" I whisper, she turns to look at me. I point at the vent, she nods and we climb towards it, Rey gets there first and opens it quietly, pulling herself out, she turns and looks around as I crawl out, my side giving me a warning pain as I hit the side of the vent. I stand up, and pull my shirt back down from where it had hiked up from crawling around, and find Rey looking at me, "What?" I question, then realize she had seen the burns on my side. I already see the concern in her eyes. "Rey, I know. I'll be fine." She gives a small frown but turns back around. We walk silently down the hallway, Rey raising her blaster, goes around a corner, she and the people around the corner give a yelp of surprise. It was Han, Chewie, and Finn. I smile and lean against the wall as my vision gets cloudy.
    "You alright?" I hear Han ask,
    "Yeah." Rey responds.
    "What happened to you?" I hear Finn ask, "Did he hurt you?" There was a quick conversation that I didn't catch most off when Han cut it short.
    "Escape now, hug later. Where's Alex?" Han questions, I then hear Rey's footsteps quickly coming towards me.
    "Alex!" She exclaims, I feel her grabbing my face, as I open my eyes.
    "Sorry." I say, trying to push myself off the wall and quickly fall back.
    "Kid, stop." Han says, gently grabbing my shoulder.
    "No, no." I say, trying to get up again, "We need to finish this." I push myself off the wall again, and finally am able to stand. "I'll be fine. Let's go." Han looks concerned but nods. Leading us up to an elevator, I reach over on the wall and grab a stim from a box on the wall. Stims where small canisters that were injectable, often glowing green. They were filled with healing fluids and stimulants. It would help me get through the rest of the time on Starkiller Base. I injected myself with it, giving a small hiss as the needle punctured my skin. The rest of my companions looked at me.
    "What was that?" Finn asked.
    "You can't be serious." I said, looking at him, the stim quickly taking effect, breathing was a lot easier and my side hurt less. "It's a stim." Finn just gives me a blank look. I roll my eyes, "It's basically a lesser version of Bacta. You've seriously never used one?" I asked, "They have them on every base." Finn shook his head.
    "I always wondered what they were."
    "Storm-" I was cut short as the doors hissed open, the frigid air racing in.
We step outside and run to the thermal oscillator, X-wings and TIEs in a fiery battle above us. An X-wing comes crashing to the ground sending up a plume of smoke and snow.
    "They're in trouble." Han says, "We can't leave." He turns to us, "My friends got a bag full of explosives. Let's use them." I nod.
    "Han, do you have any way to contact the Resistance? The X-wings?" I ask, he nods. Handing me a communicator.
    "Finn, you, Rey, and Alex get the inner doors open, Chewie and I will plant the detonators." Finn nods, and we set off. I look at Chewie.
    "Bring him back in one piece." I say, Chewie gives a barking chuff in response, laughing. Finn, Rey, and I walk quickly towards the oscillator. I turn on the communicator. Someone picks up.
    "Hello?" They ask.
    "This is Alex. I need to speak with General Leia, I'm a friend of Hans." I say, I hear the person calling for the General and she picks up.
    "Yes? What is it?" Leia says.
    "General. I am on Starkiller Base with Han, we are going to plant detonators on the oscillator. It will give you more of a fighting chance. Is there any way you can connect me to the X-Wings? I was a former special forces stormtrooper. I know weak points in the TIE fighters, I need to be able to talk to the X-Wing pilots though. It would be too difficult to explain to someone who does not know how to fly." I realized what I had just said and quickly tried to back up, "No offense ma'am, not that you don't know how to fly. It's just-"
    "Relax. How do I know I can trust you?"
    "You don't. I haven't done anything to earn your trust. For all you know I could be lying. But I'm done killing for the First Order, and I don't want any more good pilots, and people, to be lost."
    "Patch her through to Poe." I hear Leia say to the person working the communicator on the other side. I hear the buzzing and crackling of the coms as a new connection was formed.
    "We just lost Blue-5." I hear someone say.
    "Poe. This is Alex. Leia just patched me though, can you hear me?
    "I read you." He says, I hear ion cannons firing. Rey, Finn, and I come up on a squad of Stormtroopers, I fire at a few and take cover behind a rock.
    "The TIEs you're fighting, do they have a white stripe on the side of the body?"
    "Erik? You see a white stripe?" I hear Poe ask. A jolt of sadness goes through my body, as I remember Erik and Kai.
    "I can confirm Black Leader." A voice says, famailar.
    "Erik?" I ask, "Erik is that you?"
    "Alex!" I hear him say, "It's me!"
    "How are you alive? Is Kai okay?" I said, quickly switching to Chelidaen, a language spoken by Chelidae, natives on the planet Castilon where Erik, Kai, and I were stationed on a mission, it was necessary to learn the language as there was not a translator droid. Erik got the hint and switched too.
    "Kai was wounded, he's back at the base. He'll be fine. I escaped with Kai, Poe, and Finn, a stormtrooper. I-"
    "What mumbo-jumbo are you speaking?" Poe interrupted, "I know you are a stormtrooper." I stopped and switched back to Basic.
    "Sorry. I thought if I had told you you wouldn't trust me."
    "Where on a time schedule!" I hear Finn yell at me.
    "I know!" I yell back, giving a huff of annoyance. "Aim for the TIEs left side, if you hit the bottom part of the body it will trigger the fuel tanks to explode."
    "I forgot about that." Erik says.
    "If I could hit you I would." I said, shooting a stormtrooper that came too close. I stood up and ran towards Rey and Finn.
    "You heard her." Poe said, "Aim for the bottom left."
    "Roger that, Black Leader." A chorus of responses came from the pilots.
    "I'll keep the com on in case you need anything." I say, then mute my side. Looking back up at Finn and Rey. "Let's move." I said, and we started forward. By the time we got to the oscillator the X-wings had taken down half of a squadron of TIEs.
"Another down! Good shooting Erik!" I hear a pilot call out. Rey now had Finn's jacket, not being used to the freezing climate of Starkiller Base. I had snagged another set of stormtrooper armor. The door opened and we ran inside, I turned to the right heading down another corridor.
"Rey, get the door open, I'll meet back up with you!" I called over my shoulder. I quickly walk down the hall, heading towards the control room, I silently take down the stormtroopers guarding the door and walk in on Hux talking to an officer. I walk up to them. "General, another TIE squadron is down." I say.
"Go send out another." He says to the officer, he nods and walks out the door. I pull out my blaster and shoot the door controls, then point the blaster at Hux. "Trooper, stand down." I take off my helmet.
"I'm sorry, did I step on your moment?" I ask, Hux's face is shocked.
"Troopers!" He calls out.
"I wouldn't worry about them." I said, walking over to the control computer, quickly typing in the access codes. Pulling up data I transfer it over to a holodrive I plug in. I then feel the cold barrel of a blaster against my head. I turn slowly, putting my hands up. Damn it! I think to myself. I should have remembered that officers carried blasters. Hux walks over to the silent alarm, he flips up the cover and presses it, the light flashes indicating a squad is on their way.
"Give it up Alex." Hux said, "Surrender. There's nowhere else to run!"
"No."
"Stormtroopers will open those doors any second and you will be dead!" Hux exclaimed, his eyes almost seemed to beg me to take the offer. But why?
"I'll take my chances." I say, jumping forward I disarm Hux and shoot him with the blaster on stun. He crumples to the ground as the stormtroopers burst in, as I grab Hux's blaster, and tuck the holodrive in my pocket. "Hello boys." I say raising the blasters.