42: A Poe Dameron Love Story

XIX

"Poe!" Kai called after me. I had been running to get my flight suit on.

"Yea?" I said, slowing my pace.

I was again met with those ocean blue eyes of hers surrounded by beautiful fields of freckles.

"I think I know a way I can help," Kai began. "The Mandalorian, they rarely come out of the shadows, but I think this time, we may have an exception."

"What do you need to do?"

"All I need is my ship and your voice," she answered.

"My voice?" I started.

"You're the new voice of the Resistance, remember?"

I stopped in my tracks. Kai was right. And it was a helluva responsibility.

***

Movie Marker: 1:39:39

With our small fleet in the air, we began making the jumps following Rey's signal to Exegol.

The planet seemed to be held together by sheer clouded darkness, only ever illuminated by bolts of lightning.

With each blast of electricity, more and more Star Destroyers were revealed. There had to be hundreds, no, thousands of them, all lined in neat, dangerous rows like eerily straight teeth.

"Look at that fleet," I breathed.

Green bolts from ground cannons began hardly seconds after our little fleet had arrived.

"Dammit!" I cursed, steering out of the way of them. "Welcome to Exegol."

"Watch your starboard, Wexley!" a pilot yelled over the intercom.

"Get to their altitude," I ordered. "They can't fire on us without hitting each other. Don't give up! Help is coming."

"Roger that, general," Kai's voice came through my headset.

"Poe, I see it," Finn now said. "I've got a visual on the tower."

"Incoming TIEs," warned a pilot.

"I see 'em," I said, veering out of their path.

"The navigation tower's been deactivated," Kai relayed.

"What?" Finn began. "Those ships need that signal. It's gotta be coming from somewhere."

"They've figured out what we're doing," I realized. "Call off the ground invasion!"

"Wait . . ." Finn said. "The nav signal's coming from that command ship. That's our drop zone."

"You wanna launch a ground invasion on a Star Destroyer?" Kai asked in confusion.

"I don't want to, but we can't take out that ship's nav system from the air. Give us cover. We gotta keep that fleet there till help arrives," Finn ordered.

"You heard the general!" I called over the intercom. "All wings, cover that lander!"

The engines of every Star Destroyer were egnited, burning a bright blue fire.

"Those thrusters are hot," I warned. "How we doin'?"

"We're gonna blow out way in and take out that nav tower!" Finn called.

The tower jutting out on the Star Destoryer came crashing down.

"Nice once, Finn!" I called. "Nav signal's down but not for long!"

"Still no Falcon or backup," one pilot said.

R2-D2 chirped within the back of my X-Wing. I flipped up my headset mic to keep the others from hearing. "I don't know R2. Maybe nobody else is coming."

"What can we do, general?" a pilot called desperately.

I turned my mic back on. "We gotta hit them ourselves," I decided.

"What can we do against these things?" asked another.

"Just stay alive!" I ordered.

As seconds ticked ever so slowly by, X-Wings began blowing up around me. I watched helplessly as I knew many of my friends wouldn't be returning home. I only hoped Kai could out-maneuver the blasters.

"Snap they're on your tail!" I warned. "No, no, no! Snap! Snap!" He was gone right in front of my eyes.

"Alpha Three is down."

"They're on my tail, they're everywhere!"

"Delta leader's hit!"

"Losing altitude!"

Desparate cries reached my intercom.

"General, what's our next move?"

"Poe, what now?" Kai's voice came through.

"My friends . . . I'm sorry," was all I could say. "I thought we had a shot. But there's just too many of them."

"But there are more of us, Poe," a new voice said in my headset. "There are more of us."

"Lando . . ." I realized.

There before me was thousands of various ships, some still blipping in from hyperspace. My jaw involuntarily dropped.

"Look at this . . . Look at this!" I breathed in awe.

There was still hope yet.