star ▪︎ poe dameron

twenty-six

"How do we blow it up? There's always a way to do that." My father commented on the new situation at hand. 

If we didn't come up with a plan soon, we were all doomed. 

"Han's right." My mother agreed. 

"In order for that amount of power to be contained, that base has to have some kind of thermal oscillator." A man I had seen a couple of times before added. 

"There is one. Precinct 47." Finn pointed to where he was talking about on the hologram. "Here." 

"If we can destroy that oscillator it might destabilize the core and cripple the weapon." 

"And maybe the whole planet." Ayla thought aloud. 

"We'll go in there, we'll hit that oscillator with everything we've got." Poe was starting to come up with a plan for everybody. 

"But what about the defensive shields that our ships can't penetrate?" Hayden commented with a sigh. 

"So then we disable the shields." My dad spoke as if it were obvious. "Kid, you worked there. What do you got?" He now spoke directly to Finn. 

"I can do it." He replied determinedly. 

"I like this guy." 

"I can disable the shields, but I have to be there. On the planet." 

"We'll get you there." 

"Han, how?" My mom objected. 

"If I told you, you wouldn't like it." 

"So we disable the shields, we take out the oscillator and we blow up their big gun." I confirmed the mission's layout and Chewie roared in agreement. 

"All right. Let's go." 

Everybody was clamouring and getting to work. X-wings were being fueled up, droids secured to several ships people all saying brief goodbyes and good lucks. 

"Finn, be careful with those. They're explosives." I heard my dad and ran over to the Falcon. 

"Good luck guys." 

"You too, and hey, we'll catch up after all this, right?" 

"I'd like that a lot." I embraced him and waved a final goodbye. 

As I dashed off to get back to work I came crashing into somebody. 

"Sorry, oh hey Poe!" 

He didn't say anything, he just pulled me into a tight hug, his head resting on top of mine. I wrapped my arms around him. 

"Please, be careful." He spoke softly. 

"I will be, I promise." 

He crashed his lips against mine and pulled me even closer, taking me off guard. For a second I froze shock but I then melted into the kiss, savouring my last moment with him before having to pull away. 

"Good luck out there, Flyboy." 

"I don't need luck, I'm the best pilot in the Resistance!" He laughed. 

"You keep telling yourself that." I joked before dashing up the ladder to my X-Wing. 

"Hey, Ayla, you there?" I spoke over the comms unit. 

"Yeah, I'm here." 

"I couldn't find you on the ground, but good luck out there." 

"Thanks, you too. I'll see you when we get back, ok? You still have to tell me all about your little adventure with your boyfriend." 

"I hope you're not talking about me, ladies." Poe's voice chimed in. 

"No, no we weren't. Now come on, let's get this show on the road!" 

---

"All squads, take my lead." Poe's voice told us, and one by one we all dropped out of lightspeed. 

As we edged nearer to Starkiller there were various gasps over the communication system. The planet was huge - bigger than anything you could imagine. It was even bigger than I remembered it to be. 

"We're almost in range. Hit the target dead center. As many runs as we can get out." I heard his voice over the radio as I continued to fly in formation. 

"Approaching target." 

"All right, let's light it up!" 

With that everybody began to take fire at the oscillator, narrowly avoiding hitting it ourselves and swerving out of the way. 

"That was a direct hit, but no damage!" Someone exclaimed. 

"Yeah, we've got to keep hitting it. Another bombing run." Poe ordered. "Rember, when the sun is gone that weapon will be ready to fire. But as long as there's light we got a chance." 

"Uh, guys? We got a lot of company!" I shouted as TIE's began to surround and shoot at us from all angles. 

Shots of vivid green and red littered the bleak white sky as Starfighters roared, we shot at one another and ships began to tumult to the ground.  

"I got one behind me." Snap sounded panicked. "You see it?" 

"Yep, I've got it!" I swooped around and shot the attacking ship. 

"Thanks, y/n. Watch out for ground fire!" 

As the battle persisted the sun grew smaller and smaller. The sky was now a sombre tone of slate. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, an agonizing pain in my chest made the whole galaxy stop still. 

"Dad..." I whispered, my voice cracking up as my eyes stung with forming tears.

"What was that, y/n?" 

"N-nothing..." I blinked quickly and pushed the gut-wrenching feeling aside. My dad was fine, he had to be, I was just being ridiculous, and the battle had to be won. 

"We're overwhelmed!" Ayla shouted. "What do we do? This isn't working." Her voice was shaky. 

"Black Leader, there's a brand new hole in that oscillator." 

"It looks like our friends got in. Red Four, Red Six, cover us." 

"I'm on it!" 

"Roger!" 

"Everybody else hit the target hard, give it everything you've got." 

I dived down again, aiming all my shots at the now burning oscillator. 

"I need some help here!" I heard Poe's voice and held my breath in anticipation. What if he didn't make it? What if all this was for nothing? 

The high-pitched shots of TIE's came close again, but with the help of the rest of the squad, we managed to hold them off and cover Poe. 

With a huge crash, the entire planet went up in flames. My face grew warm with the amount of heat coming off the destruction and my whole body felt exhausted. We did it. We won. 

"Our job's done here. Let's go home." Poe sighed in relief as everyone cheered and whooped. 

I wanted to join in, but no matter how happy I was, that feeling of grief and hurt still clung strong to my heart.