Kyber Heart - Poe Dameron

Chapter 5

Surprisingly, Nova's crash on Jakku could not be labelled as the worst landing she had made in her piloting career – that spot was still firmly held by the incident on Onderon with Karé after a run in with some particularly brutal First Order agents.

She had managed to break free of the ship before impact, but had cut it very fine. The body of her stolen TIE fighter lay a quarter of a mile south of where she currently rested. Other parts had broken off during the decent, and one unidentifiable part now held her leg hostage.

It did not feel like a break, but her drifting state made it hard to tell.

The sun beat down on her, hitting her face as she tried to open her eyes. She raised an arm to shield her eyes, groaning as her muscles objected. All she could feel was discomfort – there was sand in her hair and her boots, and something persistently pushing itself against her shoulder.

Only then did things start to come back to her: exactly why she had crashed a First Order TIE fighter, her escape with Poe and a now ex-stormtrooper, her imprisonment and torture.

She had no idea what had happened to her comrades in the crash – comms had been one of the first systems knocked offline. But she had faith in Poe's survival skills. Despite evidence to the contrary, he was a smart man.

She was sure he would be fine.

The prodding at her shoulder became more persistent, as did the beeping that came to accompany it.

Finally, she turned, detaching herself from her pilot's chair to fall fully onto the sand. Her throat emitted another groan. Raising her head, she was shocked to come face to face with an orange and white BB unit, leaning to look at her with concern – at least what could be read into as concern.

"Beebee-Ate! Thank the Force, you're still intact!" she gasped in relief.

The small droid circled her like a Loth-cat, beeping rapidly.

"Woah, woah. Slow down."

"Hey! You okay?"

The new voice made Nova jump, falling back onto her elbows. Reflexively she reached for her blaster, but found her holster empty, her weapon having been confiscated upon her capture. She was completely at this newcomer's mercy.

The person in question was a girl; tall and lean, dressed in clothes indicative of a scavenger. She was young, younger than Nova at least, her face still holding a certain innocence despite her circumstances.

She was not unlike Nova in appearance. Fair skin, brown eyes, brown hair tied up securely into three buns down the back of her head.

A quarterstaff was slung over her shoulder.

Nova forced herself to stand, visibly wincing at the pain it brought on. Eventually, she knew she could make it manageable, but her body was still waking up. She had no idea how long she had been out – it looked to be the middle of the day, but she did not know what time it had been when she crashed. It was doubtful she had lost more than a day.

BB-8 stayed beside her ankles, beeping an assurance of the newcomer's friendliness.

Nova looked between them with an uncertain frown – she would need to make her own judgements before easing up even a little.

But she seemed safe enough.

"The droid recognised you," the newcomer noted – she spoke with an accent Nova did not often hear, at least not on her side of the war. "Is he yours? He said he was with his masters before whatever happened... happened."

"He's my friend's," Nova answered shortly. "But yes, he's with me."

The girl frowned, waiting for her to elaborate.