Chapter 1.1

Laser blasts flew everywhere, ricocheting off the walls of the capital ship that Joshua and Zachary Wingerd Starkiller had landed inside. Stormtroopers dressed in their all-white garb fired automatic blasts at the brothers with their F-11D blaster rifles, standard issue for a First Order Stormtrooper. Zach fired automatic blasts back with his SE-14C, and Josh repeatedly pulled the trigger of his DH-17 pistol. They were out of their element for the first time they could remember since the first time travelling to this galaxy over fifteen years prior.

Zach yelled at Josh over the crash of laser blasts. “Bro, I don’t think this was such a good idea.”

“It’s not like we had a choice but to land in the hangar of the Finalizer, bro. The wormhole dumped us right in front of it. It was either crash, or land in the hangar directly ahead. So I naturally landed in the hangar.”

“You should have crashed; I hate our stupid ship.”

Zach had long voiced his disapproval at their design for their starfighter. Even though he had agreed wholeheartedly with Josh with ripping off Watto, he had not been pleased with the ultimate outcome of the ship, and he desperately wanted to get a new Naboo Starfighter.

Josh yelled. “We’ll talk about that later. For now we either got to fight our way out of this, or let ourselves get captured.”

They kept firing. Stormtrooper after Stormtrooper fell. But everytime one fell three more took its place.

“Maybe we should make a run for it,” Zach suggested, pointing at the hallway to their left.

There was a hallway in front of them, filling with Stormtroopers; there was a hallway behind them that appeared empty, and there was a hallway on their left from which they had come before a Stormtrooper set off an alarm, in which sat multiple Tie Fighters and the brothers’ own Jedi Starkiller.

They decided to run, so Josh unclipped two thermal detonators from his belt and threw one ahead of them into the group of Stormtroopers. They fled at the sight of the grenade. Josh threw the other into the hallway behind them to prevent any Stormtroopers from coming at them from behind. The Stormtroopers ahead didn’t all flee fast enough. The grenade exploded, blasting suits of white armor around.

The brothers rushed into the hangar to their left. When they got inside a squad of Stormtroopers was surrounding their ship. “Get them,” came the helmet-altered voice of their leader.

Again, the blaster bolts flew toward the brothers. They dove behind one of many crates littering the floor of the hangar, and opened fire. One. Two. Three. The Stormtroopers fell. CHA-SHING. A bolt hit the crate right in front of Josh’s face. He turned toward its source and fired three shots at the Stormtrooper responsible. The third found its mark and he fell with a crash.

“We need more men,” shouted a Stormtrooper into his comm. He fell when Zach fired a shot at his leg.

“This is our chance,” Zach said. “We gotta make a run for it, or all the troopers from the hallway will be in here.

“Go! I’ll cover you,” Josh said.

“Shut up,” Zach said, firing at a Stormtrooper. “If you don’t go with me we aren’t gonna make it. Besides, my gun is better for cover fire anyways.”

They ran, ducking and dodging bolts, and after several seconds were climbing into the Starkiller. Josh fired up the engines as Zach tried to figure out their location in the nav computer. Just as the ship started to lift off the hangar floor, Stormtroopers flooded out of the hallway from which the brothers had emerged.

Shots were fired. Several bounced off the ship’s hull. And then Josh pushed the accelerator and the Starkiller shot out from the belly of the Finalizer.

“That was close,” Josh said when they were free of the hangar.

Just then their holocrom projector buzzed to life and two figures came into view.

“Don’t get too sure that it’s over,” Zach said. “We just left their hangar and we’re still in the area.”

The hologram showed Kylo Ren and General Hux when it came into clarity.

Hux spoke first in his screeching, commanding voice, “You two have been the deaths of numerous soldiers of the First Order.”

Kylo Ren interrupted. “And now have escaped me for the last time.”

Josh commented to Zach, “At least he’s wearing his mask so he’s slightly intimidating.”

Zach suppressed a laugh as Ren continued, “I don’t know who you two think you are, but I have half a mind to send my whole navy after you. Actually, I have a whole mind to do so, but Hux here doesn’t agree with me.”

Hux elaborated, “In fact, you will notice that none of our turbolasers will even try to down you while you fly away right now. I have decided on something better. I am issuing a bounty of 500,000 New Republic credits for each of you. You will have no resistance from us, but you won’t be able to go near a civilized system without multiple people trying to kill you. Good day.”

With that the hologram went dark and the brothers looked at each other.

The story continues here.