The shuttles made planetfall on Crait's surfaces. A large building had been constructed above them as well as an opening to the outside. Vast white plains streaked with red and shot across the entire planet. Boarded also by high mountain ranges in the distance.

"We're not equipped for cold weather...." Wexley began only to be halted by D'acy's observation.

"We don't need to be commander. It's salt." D'Acy concluded for them heading into the new base. 

"It was a mining colony once. Abandoned because a labor dispute ate into the profit system. The mining company built a shelter with blast doors to guard against crystal storms. That was what caught my fathers eye, back when he was putting the Rebellion together. His techs added a shield orbital bombardment, but the real work had been done here." Leia told Poe.

Poe kept a close watch on Leia, since she leaned hard on the cane. But every word she said caught his eye. Every story his parents had told of the old Rebellion days and out in the war. Though Leia doubted he felt the same way as his parents had.

"So there was a rebel base here?" He asked Leia.

"No. The alliance didn't exist at the time. By the time it did though, the Empire had changed its patrols, and my father worried that ship traffic in the area would be detected. We considered Crait as a new principal base after Yavin,did a survey and even brought some equipment. But there were...complications." Leia said.

Poe raised an eyebrow inquiringly. He knew as much as her, that it wasn't the time for stories or telling tales.

"The coordinates went in my files after the peace with the empire. The files I kept just in case." Leia concluded for Poe. He nodded knowing that if the Resistance had been without her and Ackbar's guidance, they would've ceased to exist against the First Order.

"Well, I suppose now this qualifies as 'just in case,' Poe agreed.

"I suppose it does." Leia said gravely, extracting her comlink. "Now let's hope the codes still work. Or we're going to seem quite silly camped out here on the doorstep when the First Order arrives."

(Time Skip: Outside)

Thankfully, Leia's codes had worked and they were waiting for a response from anyone out there. She watched the last shuttles hit the planets plains in the base. The last soldiers came down the ramp of the seventh final transport. Leia stood outside keeping her eye out for anything that was a ship-craft of the First Order.

Her eyes watched a dot appear in the blue skies of Crait. It was a ship descending from above where the skies ended. It appeared into a bigger dot as she pulled her comlink into her hand without the cane.

"They're coming. Shut the door." She ordered into the Com. "Poe!" Shewqlked quickly out of the way of the blast doors. She made it through and went towards where Poe was leading the crew.

"Poe. I need you to....."

"Have a gun. And fire at anyone in that ship." Poe guessed.

"Exactly." Leia nodded and Poe picked up a blaster on top of one of the crates. He signaled to Wexley, Syline, and a couple of other people to grab some blasters. They followed after him and took cover behind the crates.

"Shut the doors." Leia ordered to D'Acy.

"I'm trying." D'Acy said, as she vigorously flicked dozens of buttons and switches. A slight jolt and thundering noise erupted from the blast doors. It started closing slowly, but not fats enough for the ship coming into the base at full speed. Poe lifted his head above his crate to see the ship.

A bat-winged shuttle was racing across the plains, barreling directly into the bases blast doors. Poe expected the shuttle to veer off but saw at the last minute that the pilot was too desperate to do so. Poe backpedaled frantically back behind his crate, scrambling his hands onto the trigger of the gun.

An ear splitting screeching noise came as the shuttle burst in through the doors. The wings were sheared away and scattered across the floors. The crates that the others didn't hide behind were shot across the room by the shuttle. Skidding to a halt, shooting sparks as it stopped.

Poe picked up his blaster and started raking the front of the shuttle with the firing of his blaster. Leia and several other soldiers joined him, and the shuttles viewpoint blew up into an explosion.

Then out of the smoky blasting fire from the guns, there came a frantic yelling. A familiar pair of hands shoot out from the shattered glass,

"Don't shoot!" A familiar voice cried. "It's us."

Leia called off the firing with a wave of her arm. Suddenly, Poe caught the eyes of his friend by the black shaved hair.

"Finn!" Poe exclaimed excitedly, but it turned to a small confusion at the sound of no beeping. "Where's my droid?" 

The ramp descended and B-88 rolled out. The droids rolling ball speed fastly towards a smiling Poe. The droid beeped wildly in happiness at seeing his owner.

"Buddy!" Poe said, patting the droids head and trying to understand what the droid was trying to tell him what had happened. "Really? That sounds intense. Look, we're a little busy but you'll have to tell me all about it later."

Rose inspected the room, looking at every person in the room. The six transports, and a hundred people or so were in the base grounds. Fin came out of the ship looking shocked and a bit shaken.

"Is that all that's left?" Rose asked Finn. He didn't find any comfort or any words to offer Rose. No one did because no one could.

"You know which end of a hydrosphere is." Poe told Rose. "That makes you our department of engineering. Follow me, we need you."

(Time skip)

Rose, Finn, and Poe all sat in the base's control room. Poe clicked open a few channels that he knew how to open, but he turned back to Leia. Leia had remembered the foxlike crystal creatures and every part of the base. She nodded at Poe, and he nodded back, turning back to them.

"All right." Poe began the meeting for the Resistance. "Shields are up so the First Order can't hit us from orbit. Use all our power to broadcast a signal to the Outer Rim."

"Using my signature codes." Leia said. "This base has seat derelict for thirty years. We meant this place to be a hideout, not a fortress. Any allies of the Resistance, it's now or never."

"Is Amilyn here yet?" Finn asked. Poe's memory felt as if it jolted him back as he reached into his pocket for her tracker. He stared at the small beeping red lights howling her location, a small smile inched across his face.

"She will be. Soon." Poe assured them, and Rose finished her checking on the rooms equipment. "What've we got?"

""Rotted munitions, rusted out artillery, some half-gutted ski speeders." Rose told them, a sound of helplessness in her voice. Finn nodded. There was nothing he could say or do to change that. They just needed a Jedi, it didn't matter if it wasn't Luke. 

"Let's pray that big-ass door holds long enough for help to come." Wexley said. A rattle suddenly shook the doors, sending nervous glances all across the room. Poe looked to Leia, knowing what he had to do. A plan was made in his mind in the seconds they had.

"I have a plan."