Pilot Pride (A Poe Dameron fanfiction -- Star Wars)

32 (44). Finished Escape

AKAI'S POV

Poe curved the TIE fighter towards the entrance of the hangar and I started to feel an inkling of relief.

However, life is never easy, especially when you are a part of the Resistance (and when you are Leia Organa's daughter, apparently).

The front hatch to my portion of the TIE fighter suddenly banged outwards, leaving me exposed to a very good portion of the First Order's army.

"Poe, my door opened!" I screamed, terror rinsing over me. I could feel panic beginning to set in.

"You need to shut it, now!" I heard Poe yell back, "You have to unstrap yourself and lean out of the car . . . it's the only way!"

I froze for a few moments as the realization of what I had to do set in.

We were high up in a stolen TIE fighter, immobile, in one of the First Order's hangars. Red and green shots from blasters were flaring up in the air on either side of me in the open area in front of me. I had to climb out of my seat into the upwards rain of blaster shots in order to close my door to leave.

I took a deep breath and unstrapped myself from the seat.

Dangerous situations, I thought, this is what being in the Resistance is all about, right?

I tried to make it quick; blaster shots brushed the air around me, threatening to hone in and finally hit the target -- myself. I grabbed the inside handle to the TIE fighter hatch and began to slam it shut.

Just when I was leaning back towards my seat to finish shutting the door I heard a faint, passionately furious shout: "NO!"

I glanced down and saw Kylo Ren — my brother — at the front of the large group of First Order fighters. I caught a flash of his ignited, angry, terrifying expression before I finished shutting the door. Once I was latched safely into the TIE fighter, I shouted to Poe, "Okay, go, go!"

Seconds passed and we didn't move. For a few moments I focused on fending off a panic attack.

"The ship won't . . . Move forward!" Poe yelled back in distress. I frowned, panic rising like a tide in me.

We don't have the time for silly malfunctions to be happening, I thought hurriedly, distracted by the imminent threat below us.

"I'm holding the right levers, Akai! It won't move forward!"

I looked down at the ground and saw what was holding us back.

Kylo Ren glaring powerfully up at us, his arm and fingers outreached.

"Kylo Ren is . . ." I whispered to myself in horror, looking down, and then shouted to Poe, "Kylo Ren is using the force to hold us back!"

". . . What?"

"He's using the force to hold us back, Poe!" I exclaimed, and then I slowly realized that our ship was -- was moving back towards the base. I then shrieked in a shrill, terror-stricken tone, "He's grounding us! He's bringing us back!"

"Shoot at him!" Poe cried out. I gasped and began to search for a throttle, a level, a handle, or a button.

I grabbed a black throttle with a red button on top and slammed my thumb down on the button.

Immediately, red and powerful blaster shots ricocheted out of our TIE fighter into the crowd of First Order fighters below.

Our ship lurched forward and we rocketed into space. Poe cried out in relief and made an amazingly quick jump to hyperspace once we had flown out of the base's force field range.