by Cavan Scott
“There he is. The spy. Get him.”
He looked down to see Karkan pointing up at him. The look on the Tevellan’s face told Finn why. This was revenge for not helping save the children.
Finn tried to swing around to the other side of the leg as a stormtrooper came running, but a lone figure hanging from an AT-AT’s knee joint was an easy target. Down below, BB-8 ran full speed at the trooper’s shins, but the trooper’s aim remained true. The stun blast struck Finn between the shoulder blades and he tumbled down, unconscious before he even hit the ground.
Finn woke in a holding cell on board the command walker. He had gotten inside after all, just not the way he’d intended. He groaned as he tried to sit up. Miraculously, he didn’t seem to have broken anything, but he didn’t want to imagine the bruise that was sure to be blossoming on his back already.
GO TO PAGE 77.
“WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND?”
Karkan appeared at the doorway as Finn rifled through the detonators, checking the magna-locks on the backs of the mines.
He turned, grinning at the Tevellan. “I’ve just worked out how to give Major Varak a taste of his own medicine.…”
Poe Dameron’s knees hurt, although he’d never admit it to Varak. The major had made him kneel on the cold metal floor of the AT-AT’s command module for at least an hour, stormtrooper blasters trained on him, but the starfighter pilot had refused to give up any information. Varak already knew that Poe and Finn were part of the Resistance, but that was all he was going to get. The frustration on Varak’s increasingly angry face was worth the discomfort.
The major was about to launch into another round of interrogation when one of his officers gave an urgent report.
“Sir. The astromech. We’ve found it.”
Poe’s jaw clenched. If they hurt BB-8…
“Where?” Varak snapped.
“Right in front of us, sir!” Varak rushed to the viewport. Poe knew he should stay on his knees, but he couldn’t just skulk around on the floor if BB-8 was in danger. He jumped to his feet, the stormtroopers barking at him to stay where he was, but Varak waved them off.
“No. Let him see this.”
Poe limped forward to see BB-8 rolling toward them like a ball down a hyper-bowl lane. What was he thinking? The astromech had always been plucky, but if Poe didn’t know better, he would think the droid was going to ram the walker’s armored foot.
“Fire!” Varak bellowed. “Reduce it to scrap!”
“No!” Poe shouted, trying to rush the pilot. This time, the stormtroopers did more than shout. They grabbed Poe and forced him to watch as laser bolts streamed down from the AT-AT’s head-mounted cannons to blast into the duracrete around the droid. BB-8 swerved, zigzagging across the courtyard as the walker continued firing.
Poe smiled. The droid had been on enough X-wing runs to know that an erratically moving target was almost impossible to hit, especially one as small as a BB unit. Poe had played the same trick on countless Star Destroyers, weaving Black One in and out of blaster fire as First Order commanders fired indiscriminately, convinced of their superiority.
Varak was falling into the same trap, and for good reason. One tiny astromech against an AT-AT walker? A droid wouldn’t usually stand a chance—unless that droid was BB-8!
“Ha! It’s running!” Varak crowed triumphantly as BB-8 swerved into a wide arc to roll back the way he had come.
“It’s heading toward the TIEs, sir,” the petty officer reported. Sure enough, BB-8 was rolling toward the docked TIE fighters. Poe’s eyes narrowed. There was someone crouched on the central cockpit.
Varak had seen it, too. “Magnify,” he snapped, and a holographic image was overlaid across the main viewport, the walker’s cameras zooming in to show a familiar figure trying to open the TIE’s hatch with a crowbar.
“Finn!” Poe gasped.
“He’s trying to obtain access to the TIE fighter,” the subordinate reported.
“I can see that!” Varak thundered. “Take us closer.”
“Sir?”
The major glared at his subordinate. “This is a walker, Petty Officer. Make it walk!”
GO TO PAGE 124.
THE GROUND BENEATH the TIE fighter shuddered as the command walker started tramping toward it.
Finn grabbed hold of the starfighter’s armor plating to stop himself from falling as BB-8 whistled up to him.
“Yeah, you did great!” he shouted, standing defiantly as the walker approached, the crowbar replaced with his stolen blaster.
Staring down the rifle’s sights, he waited as the mechanical monster stomped ever closer, Varak’s amplified voice booming from the AT-AT.
“Surrender now and you will not be harmed.”
Finn doubted that.
“Resist and we will open fire.”
That was more like it, but Finn grinned all the same. He was part of the Resistance. Resisting was kind of their thing.
Holding his nerve, he waited for the walker to get nearer. Still his aim didn’t waver. He needed the AT-AT to keep moving…just a few more steps.…
“Now!” he shouted as the walker passed tank seven.
Hidden behind the TIE fighters, Tarina pressed hard on the trigger BB-8 had fashioned from an old comlink.
Explosions blossomed around the base of the tank as the detonators Karkan and Menon had magna-locked in place exploded one after another.
The tank ruptured, releasing thousands of liters of sticky bacta. The thick liquid gushed over the AT-AT, sloshing around its hydraulic legs.
Finn lowered the rifle, smiling grimly as the giant machine lost its footing like a bantha on ice before crashing to the ground.
“Let’s go!” Finn yelled to the Tevellans as he slid down the TIE’s access ladder.
Fur-covered aliens ran from every direction, not just Karkan, Tarina, and Menon but every Tevellan who had worked in fear of what the First Order would do to their children.
It was the First Order’s turn to surrender.
The walker’s command module was a mess.
The controls were smashed, and most of the crew had been knocked out as the titanic vehicle went down.
Poe scrambled to his feet to find himself staring down the barrel of Varak’s blaster. The major didn’t look much better, his uniform torn and his previously immaculate hair ruffled, but he still had his weapon…unlike Poe.
Fortunately, Poe didn’t need his blaster, not this time.
WHAT DOES POE DO?
PUNCH VARAK—TURN TO PAGE 101.
PUSH VARAK OUT OF THE AT-AT—GO TO PAGE 136.
SNATCH UP A TROOPER’S BLASTER—HEAD TO PAGE 111.
“OUT,” FINN COMMANDED, wondering for a moment if he’d have to physically manhandle the droid into the gunner’s seat. Shaking his head, the astromech shifted position. Finn closed the hatch and dropped behind the flight controls.
How difficult could it be? He’d piloted a ski speeder, after all. Granted, he’d nearly crashed the ski speeder, but that had been on purpose.
It turned out that flying a TIE fighter was a lot more difficult than it looked. Launching the thing wasn’t that tricky, although the sound of the wings scraping against the ground set Finn’s teeth on edge. He even got the starfighter flying in a reasonably straight line toward the walker. No, the problem came when the AT-AT started to move, swinging around to bring its cannons to bear. Finn panicked, losing control and crashing headfirst into the walker’s front leg.
To be fair, the result wasn’t a complete disaster. Yes, Finn was nearly knocked senseless, but he somehow managed to get out of the wreckage before the walker collapsed, its leg buckling from the crash. BB-8 shoved Finn out of the way as the command deck slammed into the ground, plumes of dust rushing over them.
Finn coughed, barely able to see, as a figure loomed over him. It was only the familiar voice that stopped him from lashing out.
“Finn, it’s me,” said Poe, limping from the walker’s collapse. “That was so
me rescue. Come on.”
Helping each other, they escaped in the confusion, making their way back to the med shuttle.
“Allow me,” Poe said as Finn went to take the controls. He was happy to let Poe pilot them off-world. Their mission had been a disaster, but at least they’d gotten away in one piece…more or less.
THE END
CAN YOU GO BACK AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS?
“I’M SORRY,” Finn said, his mind made up.
“And that’s it?” Karkan’s expression was a mixture of anger and disbelief. “You’re just going to abandon us?”
Finn was already heading toward the walker, BB-8 trundling behind him. “Poe needs me,” he called back, scooting around the base of one of the tanks. He felt terrible leaving the Tevellans but knew that Poe wouldn’t rest if Finn was in danger.
There was only one problem. How was he going to get into the walker?
HOW SHOULD FINN TRY TO GET INTO THE WALKER?
CLIMB ONE OF THE LEGS—TURN TO PAGE 119.
USE A TIE FIGHTER—TURN TO PAGE 103.
“I WAS HOPING you could tell me,” Poe said.
Finn shrugged, leading Poe back to the top hatch. “The only way is up.”
Poe climbed onto the back of the AT-AT, noticing immediately that power had shifted in the bacta plant.
The Tevellans had used Finn’s assault on the walker to turn on their oppressors, fighting back against the stormtroopers.
“Way to go, fellas!” Poe shouted down at them while Finn looked around for a way to climb back to solid ground.
“Okay, perhaps this wasn’t the best idea.”
“You’re not kidding,” Poe agreed as a solitary TIE fighter screamed toward them.
He glanced at the blaster in Finn’s hands. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Shoot it!”
A smile spread across Finn’s face.
“I don’t think he’d like that.”
“Who?”
Finn nodded at the droid visible through the viewport.
“Beebee-Ate?”
“There’s only one way off this crate,” Finn said, turning his back on the approaching TIE. “We jump.”
“I can’t believe we’re going to do this,” Poe said, preparing to leap.
“Me neither!” Finn shouted as BB-8’s fighter screamed overhead and they bounded into the air, catching hold of the pipes and ridges in the TIE cockpit’s hull.
The starfighter dipped, and BB-8 adjusted the thrusters to counteract the extra weight of two humans hanging from the cockpit.
The command walker exploded behind them.
Poe whooped as the astromech flew them back to the med shuttle, and Finn resisted the urge to kiss the ground after they had finally dropped to safety.
Minutes later they were rocketing back into the sky, their shoulders aching and their hearts heavy, despite their escape.
“What are we going to tell Leia?” Finn asked.
“The truth. The Tevel plant is no longer under First Order control.”
“Not that we’ll get any of the bacta,” Finn said, glaring at the stars through the viewport.
“True,” Poe agreed, “but neither will the First Order. Let’s hold on to that!”
THE END
CAN YOU GO BACK AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS?
FOUR AGAINST ONE, Finn thought. Sounds like pretty good odds to me.
He should have known better. They rushed the stormtrooper, but the fight was over almost before it began. Tarina fell to a stun blast, and Menon was smashed against the wall. Finn would have been able to knock the trooper down if Karkan hadn’t gotten in the way, making a grab for the blaster. The stormtrooper shoved the Tevellan back into Finn, and the two of them went down in a tangle of limbs.
By the time Finn managed to scramble back up, he found himself facing not just the stormtrooper they’d attacked but the guards from outside, as well.
“I knew there was something funny about that gonk droid,” one of them commented before stunning Finn where he stood.
THE END
CAN YOU GO BACK AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS?
POE DOVE FORWARD, shoving his hands against Varak’s chest before he could fire. The major fell back, tumbling through the smashed viewport.
He landed on the duracrete, his blaster skittering out of reach.
He scuttled forward on all fours, only to be stopped by a calm voice as he reached the weapon.
“Don’t.”
He looked up to see Finn staring down a blaster rifle at him. The former stormtrooper glanced up at Karkan, who was picking up Varak’s weapon.
But Varak was grinning. His seeker droid had buzzed up behind the rebels. It was battered, its circuitry hanging loose, but it still had enough power to deploy two stun prods. The traitors hadn’t spotted it. They had no idea what was about to hit them.
Zap!
A bolt of light shot down from the walker’s command deck, reducing what was left of the seeker droid to scrap. Varak looked up to see Poe standing in the open viewport, a trooper’s rifle in his hands.
“Now,” the pilot said, flashing a roguish smile, “let’s talk about that bacta.…”
“Is that enough?” Karkan asked as Menon loaded another container of bacta onto the med shuttle.
“It’ll do for now,” Finn said.
“Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?” Poe asked the Tevellan.
Karkan indicated the blaster he wore on his hip. “Major Varak’s troops have left us everything we need to defend the plant. Tarina might even be able to get that walker back on its legs.”
“I’m certainly going to try,” the female Tevellan said, her tail twitching excitedly. “What will you do with him?”
She had nodded toward Varak, who was clapped in binders within the shuttle, alongside what was left of his troop.
“We’ll find a nice deserted moon for them to call home,” Poe told her. “One where they’ll survive but have no chance of getting back to high command.”
“It’s better than they deserve,” Menon complained, glaring at their former captors.
“Yes,” said Finn. “But we’re not monsters. Not like the First Order.”
“Which is exactly why we’ll win,” Poe said, slapping his friend on the back before heading for the shuttle’s cockpit, BB-8 at his heels. “Exactly why we’ll win.”
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’VE REACHED
THE END OF THE ADVENTURE!
“TAKE THESE,” Finn said, handing out the stun batons. “How many workers can you round up?”
“Enough,” Karkan said, testing the baton’s weight.
He was as good as his word. Soon Finn was leading the charge against the First Order.
The trouble was, while Finn had been trained by Captain Phasma, Karkan’s makeshift army had never fought a day in their lives.
The workers were soon overcome, unable to withstand the stormtroopers’ superior fighting force. Even Finn was knocked off his feet, stunned before crashing to the ground.
Finn awoke in a holding cell on board the command walker. He groaned as he tried to sit up, wondering what fate had befallen the Tevellans. Whatever had happened to them, Finn doubted they would ever dare rebel again.
GO TO PAGE 77.
CAVAN SCOTT is one of the writers of Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space and IDW Publishing’s Star Wars Adventures comic book series. When he’s not playing in a galaxy far, far away, Cavan has also written for such popular franchises as Doctor Who, Pacific Rim, The Incredibles, Ghostbusters, Adventure Time, and Penguins of Madagascar. You can find him online at www.cavanscott.com.
ELSA CHARRETIER is a French comic book artist and comic book writer. After debuting on C.O.W.L. at Image Comics, Elsa cocreated The Infinite Loop with writer Pierrick Colinet at IDW. She has worked at DC Comics (Starfire, Bombshells, Harley Quinn), launched The Unstoppable Wasp at Marvel, and recently completed the art for the adaptation of Windhaven by George R. R. Martin and L
isa Tuttle (Bantam Books). She is currently writing two creator-owned series and has illustrated the first issue of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny for IDW.
