by Ian Doescher
And love did flourish ’neath an asteroid.
As soon as love had come to us, it fled,
With Han gone to the freeze of carbonite.
How mourn’d I then, although he was alive—
A prelude to my mourning recently.
We sav’d him, though, from Jabba of the Hutt,
Then showed the Empire what rebellion meant,
Help’d on by furry creatures in our midst.
’Twas then the New Republic did arrive,
And with it peace at last. ’Tis too far gone—
The memories of this onetime rebellion
Stir in me now, inside this rebel base.
Here doth rebellion end, or start again,
With newfound strength and hope from our small spark.
My end, my own death, may draw near as well.
If this last scene should, here, be my goodbye,
What would I say to those I leave behind?
Attention pay: this shall not hap again—
Rather than try to understand it as
It goes along, pray, have it go along
For just a while, then understand its meaning.
If ’tis my final act, my epitaph,
Let it be this: upon her shoulders strong,
She did the hopes of generations carry.
Enough of dismal thoughts of loss and death.
[Into communicator:] The bold First Order comes—close now the door.
Enter POE DAMERON, COMMANDER D’ACY, LIEUTENANT CONNIX, and RESISTANCE PILOTS and SOLDIERS, stage left.
Enter several VULPTICES.
Enter ROSE TICO, FINN, and BB-8 inside a shuttle, into the base.
POE There is no knowing to what desperate
An act of vengeance this unprincipl’d
Attack may bring upon us, mark my words—
Fly, fly, you rebels, get the shield door down!
SOLDIER 1 Move quickly, for our foe’s ship here arrives!
[Resistance soldiers begin firing at the shuttle.
ROSE Pray, do not shoot, ’tis us!
FINN —O, end your fire!
[Rose and Finn emerge from the shuttle.
POE Pray, hold your fire! Finn, Rose! You are not dead!
I do consider this odd accident
More fortunate than otherwise. Hurrah!
Where is my droid? My heart’s heart, BB-8?
[BB-8 emerges from the shuttle.
O’ercome I am with joy to see thee, friend!
I’d cover all thy droidly pate with kisses,
Except so many people survey us.
BB-8 Zzwareej blox blooblic blay! Zood zoomzilf blee
Fligflir rooh flirblik blay roilflir blip blee
Rooq bluublis zoonflit flli blav blooflew zoon!
ROSE Alas, but as mine eyes survey the group,
I see how our great numbers dwindl’d have.
Is this the only bit that still remains?
LEIA It may be so, yet it shall be enow.
Let us prepare the base an ’twere our home,
Made specially for us to take our stand.
[All begin setting up equipment in preparation for battle.
D’ACY The scopes herein are fit to track their ships,
That we may know the magnitude of threat.
POE We lost no time in getting on our shields,
Therefore they cannot strike us from their orbit.
Now, use whatever power doth remain
And broadcast out a signal of distress,
Unto the Outer Rim, where help may lie.
LEIA Use thou the code which doth to me belong,
By which they’ll know I person’lly need aid.
If our Resistance hath a single ally,
The time is now or never to respond.
POE Rose, give me thine intelligence about
What ships or weapons thou hast found herein—
Thy passion shall be held in reverence.
ROSE The armaments I find herein are poor:
Munitions of the finest rotting type,
Artilleries compos’d of purest rust,
Half-gutted, frail ski speeders top it off.
POE Well, let us hope the thickness of the thing
Will be enow to keep the enemies
Who shall be tapping at our chamber door,
At least until we can some help secure.
VULPTS. Yip, yip! Yap, yap! A trap, a trap!
FINN Our scopes do show they flaunt their arsenal:
Full many walkers—e’en the new M6—
And, fearfully, a canon batt’ring ram.
POE To friends above, from fiends below, ’tis what?
FINN ’Tis like a Death Star of a smaller kind,
With fire enow to crack our door at once
An ’twere an egg with plans to fry anon.
ROSE Another exit to this cavelike base
Existeth, surely? Who would make a base
With but one passageway to light of day?
POE What say’st thou, BB-8? Do not forget
The trivialest point, or thou mayst lose thy labor!
BB-8 Zoom zoonblee zzwaflig blay, roilzoon flit bloo.
C-3PO The mine’s schematics BB-8 hath scann’d,
And found this door the sole way in or out.
[Aside:] Whose idea was this mine? It was not mine.
FINN Fear not—our time is now. Allies we have,
Who shall appear forthwith to bring us aid.
Forsooth, strong people of goodwill throughout
The firmament entire believe in Leia—
The galaxy is rife with her adherents.
In faith, they shall receive our message and
Be mov’d to hither fly and help our cause.
Meanwhile, we few endure to give them time:
We must defeat the cannon, by my troth.
ROSE [aside:] Brave man, and strong, with wise and noble words!
[Resistance soldiers begin preparing for battle. Exeunt Rose, Poe, Finn, and other pilots.
LEIA The battle preparations do begin,
The soldiers take to trenches for the fight,
And pilots try the old ski speeders out.
Though few of us remain, we’ll make our stand,
Before the walkers and the brazen cannon.
Go, brave Resistance, with thy gen’ral’s hopes!
SOLDIER 2 [aside:] Within a trench my fate doth lie,
Yet naught can stay my curiosity—
What is this substance covering the ground?
I’ll taste it—just a morsel in my mouth.
A-ha, ’tis salt, a portent of good things,
For I know what a person is! Is not
Birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, personhood,
With learning, virtue, liberality,
Youth, gentleness, and such like all the salt
That doth a person season? Aye, it is!
’Twill be a salty battle, that it shall!
SOLDIER 3 Ground forces are incoming—it begins!
Enter KYLO REN, GENERAL HUX, and FIRST ORDER OFFICERS and TROOPERS, above, on balcony.
Enter with them AT-M6 WALKERS and AT-AT WALKERS.
HUX [to walkers:] A-ha, here come my executioners.
How now, my hardy, stout, resolvèd mates!
Are you now going to dispatch this deed?
AT-M6 1 We are, my lord.
HUX —Pray, do not hear them plead:
For rebels are well-spoken, and perhaps
May move your hearts to pity if you mark them.
AT-M6 2 Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
We come to use our cannons, not our tongues.
[AT-M6 1 and 2 step aside privately with an AT-AT walker.
AT-M6 1 What, shall we strike them even as they sleep?
AT-M6 2 No; then they’ll say ’twas cow’rdly, when they wake.
AT-M6 1 What? When they wake? Why, fool, they never shall!
AT-AT Why, then they’ll say we struck at them while sleeping.
AT-M6 1 Begins to breed some odd remorse in me.
AT-M6 2 Art thou afeard?
AT-M6 1 —Nay, not to kill them, for
Such is our order, but to be damn’d for’t.
AT-AT I thought thou hadst been resolute, my friend.
AT-M6 1 So am I now, to let the rebels live.
AT-M6 2 Back to our Gen’ral Hux, and tell him so.
AT-M6 1 I pray thee, stay a while: I hope my humor
Will change; ’twas wont to hold me but while one
Could count to twenty.
AT-AT —How dost thou feel now?
AT-M6 1 ’Faith, certain dregs of conscience are within me.
AT-M6 2 Remember our reward, when th’deed is done.
AT-M6 1 They die! I had forgot our just reward.
AT-AT Where is thy conscience now, my fickle friend?
AT-M6 1 ’Tis in the purse of our First Order rich.
I shall not meddle; ’tis a dang’rous thing—
It makes a mighty walker but a coward,
A walker cannot steal, but it accuseth,
The walker cannot swear, but it checks him,
It is a blushing shamefast spirit that
Makes mutiny within a walker’s bosom.
It fills one full of galling obstacles:
It made me once restore a purse I found,
It beggars any walker that doth keep it,
’Tis turn’d from ev’ry town as dangerous,
And ev’ry walker meaning to live well
Shall try and trust himself and live without it.
AT-M6 2 Unto the battle, then, it is resolv’d!
Enter POE DAMERON, ROSE TICO, FINN, and other RESISTANCE PILOTS in ski speeders.
FINN Fie, I know not how I should fly this craft!
ROSE Engage thy monoski with toggle green.
FINN Far better, Rose—thou hast mine utmost thanks!
POE Take heed, ye pilots all! In joy and woe,
In good and ill, we’ll do th’Resistance proud.
I like not these old ships, like buckets of
The filthiest and passing putrid rust—
Which even now do break beneath my feet!—
And neither do I like our odds herein.
Still, keep a tight formation and be not
Seduc’d too close until the cannon is
Reveal’d before our eyes. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,
Cry “All for the Resistance and the Force!”
ROSE [aside:] I fly, with memory of my dear Paige,
Who gave her life for this: the battle next.
This small medallion mine that I hold, the twin
To which did die with her, is still my strength.
May now its metal frame my mettle boost,
As if ’twere Paige who rode along with me.
Fly, Rose, for thy sweet sister, dead and gone,
And all the hopes the two of you did share.
How many nights we lay abed together,
While dreaming of a better place and time.
Resistance was, to us, a perfect dream—
The cause the two of us could both believe in.
As young recruits, we were most eager, yea,
Past any measure of a normal soldier.
Our hearts did soar each time we had a drill,
And leapt whene’er the general address’d us.
Those days, abounding with excitement, were
Far simpler than the terror of this moment.
O, Paige, how I do wish thou couldst be here
To bring a caring sister’s comfort near.
POE Not all our pow’r is gone—not all our fame—
Ground forces, give us fire and let them burn!
HUX There are but thirteen light craft incoming,
As if they sent a gnat to slay a rancor.
What sayst thou, Ren? Shall we destroy them all
Ere we advance?
KYLO —Nay, for the weak Resistance
Is in that mine, I’d bet my life. Push through.
HUX Call out the swift TIE fighters on the field!
Enter several TIE FIGHTER PILOTS below, from stage right.
POE ’Tis thrilling, and I see, upon the right,
Upon the left, and all the way along,
TIE fighters on the scene! O, separate!
Until they have brought forth the cannon large,
We must maintain our confident attack!
Rose, watch thyself, three come for thee anon!
ROSE I try to speed away, but cannot shake them!
Three fighters follow me at once, to slay me.
Enter REY, CHEWBACCA, R2-D2, and various PORGS in the Millennium Falcon, destroying the TIE FIGHTERS following ROSE TICO.
FINN Fantastic! Here the Falcon comes!
CHEWBAC. —Auugh!12
PORG —Porg!
REY I take the guns into my hands and shoot,
Which is a welcome respite from th’intense
Lightsaber battles I have had of late.
I’d gladly shoot TIE fighters all the day!
KYLO My father’s ship, like ghost, hath come to haunt me!
[To Officer 1:] Pray, blow that junk pile from the air anon!
HUX All fighters, follow that Corellian ship.
REY Chewbacca, peel thou from the battle now,
That we may draw the fighters from our friends.
CHEWBAC. Auugh!13
[The Falcon flies toward stage right, and the TIE fighters follow.
POE —Let us bathe in this crystalline light—
The Falcon drew the fighters off, huzzah!
Each one of them hath ta’en the bait and left.
FINN Forsooth, they hate that most uncommon ship!
PORG Porg!
CHEWBAC. —Egh, egh auugh!14
REY —Be careful flying, Chewie,
Or we shall be as dead as rocks.
PORG —Porg!
CHEWBAC. —Auugh!15
REY A-ha, ’tis done, the rank TIE fighters beaten!
ROSE The cannon, it hath been reveal’d at last—
The biggest gun that ever I did see,
Surpassing ev’ry smaller expectation.
FINN Most heav’ly armor’d is the gun’s façade—
Our only hope of winning is to shoot
Straight down its throat as if to strangle it.
[The cannon begins firing at the Rebel base.
The cannon opens—go, for here’s our chance!
KYLO [to officers:] All power of our fire upon the speeders.
HUX [to officers:] I bid thee, concentrate all power of
Our fire upon the speeders presently!
KYLO [aside:] The man repeats as if he were a parrot.
Some challenges of leadership may yet
Be mine to settle, once this battle’s done.
[The walkers continue to slay the Resistance pilots.
SOLDIER 1 [to Leia:] We take most heavy losses.
LEIA —Rue the day!
We must destroy the cannon, or we’re done.
POE They kill us easily, do pick us off
&
nbsp; As if we were a legion made of ants,
A mere disturbance to their merry picknick.
We shall not make it, pilots, by my troth.
How dark a woe! Yet how sublime a hope.
FINN I’m on my final, swift approach e’en now.
The target is in sight, and guns aflame.
POE Nay, nay, dear Finn, pull back, thou canst not do’t—
Through all our flimsy hopes I see at once!
FINN What dost thou say? Fie, Poe, I’ll not pull back.
POE The cannon hath been charg’d already, Finn.
To make advance is like to suicide—
I tell thee, it would shut thee up in a
Sepulcher, in this planet rife with salt.
Thy path is clear, so pull away at once.
FINN Nay, nay, for I shall be there in a trice.
POE No, ’tis a dream too bright to last! Retreat,
Again I say retreat, Finn, ’tis my order.
FINN He giveth me the order fine and true—
For conscience’s sake I shall not follow it.
ROSE Finn, ’tis too late. I beg thee, do not this!
FINN Nay! Never shall I let these foes succeed.
ROSE Finn, hear me: we must swiftly make retreat.
FINN [aside:] I cannot hear, though it doth bring me grief.
I hate the vile First Order ardently,
For all the pain it brings the galaxy,
How like a bully it doth render fearful
Those who should never have a cause to fear.
Though it do cost my life, I shall press on.
It is a sacrifice I’m bound to make
As penance for the life I once did lead.
The saying’s full of truth: the soldier doth
The bubble reputation seek, forsooth,
And even in the cannon’s mouth. Farewell!
ROSE Nay, Finn, this shall not be, not while I’ve breath!
[Rose steers her speeder to collide with Finn’s, directing him away from the cannon’s mouth. Meanwhile, Poe retreats to the trench.
POE [to soldiers:] Go quickly, get inside! Yea, I do scream
Out my affright! Far too much horrified
To speak, I only shriek—and out of tune.
FINN O, Rose, why hast thou staunchly hurt thyself
To rescue me from mortal injury?
Why stop me from the fate that I had chosen?
ROSE I sav’d thee, lovely man of folly born.
’Tis how our cause shall win, dear Finn: not fighting
What we do hate, but saving what we love.
[Rose kisses Finn and faints.
FINN Fine lass, a Rose by any other name
