When the Day Loved the Night (On Temporary Hiatus!)

Our Battle Cry

"Take your weapons," General Organa nodded to the group of warriors before her, "And use them with valor."

Rey observed timidly as the pilots beside her hooked on their helmets, followed closely by their fellow soldiers who strapped various weapons to their waists.

"This day is for the Resistance," Leia's voice was shimmering iron, "The First Order will rue what they have done. For the Hosnian System, for the Resistance fleet, for my husband, for our children, for their lives and the numerous others so vainly robbed of us, we will fight. Patiently, our enemies await our attack. But, they underestimate one unalienable truth; we fight together. Not with a king sitting upon a throne, puppeteering a fleet of pawns. Each and every one of us has a reason to fight. We believe in one another! We bleed with one another! We will die with one another!"

Shouts clamored around the Control Room, and Rey glanced proudly at her master who'd already been nodding to her valiantly in encouragement of the final battle laid before them.

"If we fail, we will not fail in a forlorn cause. Our loss is not another tally in a statistic of numbers. We defend what is right, what this galaxy is built upon! Hope," General Organa's eyes gleamed in the grief of all the world had stolen from her, but the hollers of the Resistance, erupting in the spirit of the words she'd spoken, brought her gaze back to the loyal fighters awaiting her commands.

"Hope," she finished in a whispered declaration, "Hope is our battle cry."

A roar thundered in the crowded cubicle as weapons and feet rumbled against the ground.

"Peace! Freedom! Justice!"

Rey's voice melded with the shouts of countless others, and the General raised a fist as their chants dissipated.

"Finish what we started! Today is the end!" Leia bellowed with the unfathomable might of their battered and beaten army, "Hope!"

In a unanimous cry, hands soared to the sky, "Hope!"

~~~

The transport ship lurched forward, and Rey winced, clutching to the metal pole beside her. A ping accompanied the blast as alarms began screeching across the fighter.

"Master!" fright bloomed in the young Jedi's stomach.

However, Luke shifted his eyes to the pilots who had been tasked with navigating the pair through the planet's atmosphere to release them on the battle forefront. As if they could feel his piercing gaze, the captain hollered, "You need to land now! We've taken too much damage!"

The port door lowered with a hissing of metal to reveal the battlefield, a considerable distance below the ramp, and Rey shook her head while another blast ricocheted off the ship's opened entryway, "We have to jump!"

At the sound of her words, Luke released his grip on his seat, dashing toward the ground amidst the noise of blasters and falling soldiers with an agility defying his age. The master reached the ship's drop-off and motioned for his padawan. Rey gasped, sprinting until she spiraled downward and tumbled to the ground. Shielding her eyes from the planet's sun, she remained breathless until Skywalker wrenched her off the ground by her arm.

Rey stood, narrowly avoiding a blaster's fire, but her senses had prepared for this as her sapphire bladed lightsaber hummed, unsheathed, between her shaky hands before she'd looked down to retrieve the weapon.