A Finn & Poe Adventure

by Cavan Scott

  © & TM 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Lucasfilm Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

  For information address Disney • Lucasfilm Press, 1200 Grand Central Avenue, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-368-05108-8

  Designed by Leigh Zieske

  Visit the official Star Wars website at: www.starwars.com.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Attention, Reader

  About the Authors

  Finn, Poe, and BB-8 are three of the Resistance’s greatest heroes—but they need your help!

  This book is full of choices—choices that lead to different adventures, choices that you must make to help Finn, Poe, and BB-8.

  Do not read the following pages straight through from start to finish! When you are asked to make a choice, follow the instructions to see where that choice will lead Finn, Poe, and BB-8 next.

  CHOOSE CAREFULLY.

  AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

  “POE—WHAT’S HAPPENED?”

  Finn raced into the StarRover’s cockpit as the tiny freighter dropped out of hyperspace without warning. A wedge-shaped cruiser filled the viewport, its many cannons slowly turning to face them.

  “That’s the First Order!”

  “I noticed,” Poe replied, wiggling the flight yoke. The Rover didn’t respond. The Resistance pilot glanced over his shoulder at the orange-and-white astromech that was rolling back and forth trying to reboot consoles that remained stubbornly quiet. “Any luck, Beebee-Ate?”

  The droid responded with a frantic series of beeps. The StarRover was completely dead.

  None of this made sense. One second they had been zooming through hyperspace, and the next they were marooned in front of an enemy ship.

  “Is it the hyperdrive?” Finn asked, dropping into the copilot seat.

  “No,” Poe said, checking a readout above his head. “The First Order has mined the hyper route with gravity-well generators powerful enough to snare a Dreadnought.”

  Finn glanced through the viewport. Poe was right. The space in front of them was scattered with debris from a dozen ships.

  “Can’t we turn around?” Finn asked.

  “We can’t do anything,” Poe admitted, jumping up to check a nearby terminal. “The sudden stop shorted out the StarRover’s systems. Navigation. Shields. Propulsion. They’re all gone.”

  “But we still have life support?”

  “We’re breathing, aren’t we? But we won’t be for long. The environmental regulator is hanging on by a thread, and the gravity generator…well, let’s just say it’s a miracle we’re not floating.”

  Finn swallowed hard as he spotted a flashing light on the comlink. That would be the cruiser’s commander, ordering their surrender.

  “Please tell me the weapons are still operational.”

  Poe flashed him a grin as he slipped back behind the flight controls. “This ship came from Maz Kanata. What do you expect?”

  So it wasn’t all bad. The notorious pirate queen had supplied the StarRover so Finn and Poe could travel to Tevel, home to one of the New Republic’s last remaining bacta plants. According to C-3PO, the First Order had annexed the planet, and the Tevellans had appealed to what was left of the Resistance for help. In return, they had promised General Organa a supply of much-needed bacta. The gelatinous substance could cure just about any injury, from cuts and grazes to broken bones, a necessity when waging war against an enemy as brutal as the First Order.

  The light on the dashboard continued to blink.

  “Should we answer that?”

  Poe shook his head. “I think we have bigger problems.”

  Finn followed his gaze to see a huge First Order space station in the distance. A trio of TIE fighters were shrieking toward them, cannons already running hot.

  WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?

  ATTACK THE TIE FIGHTERS—TURN TO PAGE 16.

  BUY THEMSELVES TIME BY FAKING A COMPLETE

  SYSTEM FAILURE—GO TO PAGE 8.

  “THIS WAY,” Poe said, leading Finn and BB-8 toward what appeared to be a perfectly normal panel in the wall until it slid open to reveal a secret compartment. It was hardly larger than a maintenance closet, but it was just about big enough for all three of them to squeeze into it.

  Now what? Finn mouthed as they heard stormtroopers enter the cockpit.

  ATTACK THE STORMTROOPERS—GO TO PAGE 20.

  SNEAK OUT WHEN THE STORMTROOPERS

  AREN’T LOOKING—TURN TO PAGE 7.

  “CAN’T WE DO SOMETHING?” Finn asked.

  “Sure we can,” Poe said, slapping him on the shoulder. “We can escape.”

  He swiveled around to face BB-8.

  “We need those engines working, pal.”

  BB-8 bleeped a reply and went to work. Poe shouted out excitedly when propulsion came back online.

  “Hold on,” he said, gripping the flight controls. “This is going to be rough.”

  “How rough?” Finn asked.

  Poe’s only answer was to gun the engines in an attempt to escape the tractor beam’s hold. The power core whined, and sparks flew from every console. Poe gritted his teeth as if he was trying to pull them free himself.

  BB-8 squealed as power lines ruptured, fires breaking out across the ship.

  GO TO PAGE 54.

  POE INDICATED for them to wait until the troopers had finished examining the cockpit. Then, when they were sure the coast was clear, they slipped out of their hidey-hole and crept through the ship.

  The stormtroopers had cleared out, but the ship was still docked in a First Order space station. Where exactly were they supposed to go?

  Poe smiled. “Don’t worry, pal. There’s more than one way off this ship.”

  He led them to the rear of the freighter and pressed a control on a bulkhead, causing another secret panel to slide open.

  “How many panic rooms did Maz install on this thing?” Finn asked, peering down the ladder Poe had revealed.

  “More than you’ll ever know,” Poe said, already clambering down to a hatch in the belly of the ship.

  WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?

  TRY TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE

  RESISTANCE—GO TO PAGE 11.

  STEAL A SHIP AND ESCAPE—TURN TO PAGE 52.

  “BEEBEE-ATE,” Poe said, “fire up the concussion missiles.”

  “No,” Finn cut in before the astromech could respond. “You said we had no thrusters or shields. We won’t stand a chance against TIE fighters. Shut everything down.”

  Poe’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

  “Think about it,” Finn reasoned. “Why fire on a ship with total system failure?”

  A grin spread across Poe’s face.

  “You heard the man, buddy. Shut everything down. Environmental systems. Lights. Everything.”

  The droid let out a worried bloop but did as he was told as Poe threw a portable breathing mask toward Finn.

  Finn caught the mask, strapped it over his nose and mouth, and then had to grab the arms of his chair to stop himself from floating up as the antigrav generator powered down.

  The cockpit was plunged into darkness, the StarRover eerily quiet.

  The TIE fighters streaked closer by the second, and Finn hoped he’d been right.

  They wouldn’t fire on a critically damaged ship…would they?

  “Use the time to repair the systems,” Poe whispered to BB-8, as if the fighter pilots could somehow hear
him over the empty void of space.

  Finn’s grip on his chair tightened as they closed in. The fighters were still in attack formation.

  Why weren’t they peeling off?

  “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea,” Poe said, resting his hands on the weapon controls. “Beebee-Ate, it looks like we’re gonna need those missiles after all.”

  “No, wait,” Finn said, placing a hand on Poe’s arm. The TIE fighters changed course, breaking formation to fly straight past the StarRover.

  “They bought it!” Poe exclaimed, punching Finn in the arm. “We’re still in the game!”

  The Rover started moving steadily toward the space station.

  Finn frowned.

  “Is that you, Beebee-Ate? Are the thrusters back online?”

  He didn’t need a computer to translate the droid’s mournful reply.

  “It’s a tractor beam,” Poe reported. “They’re reeling us in.”

  WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?

  TRY TO BREAK FREE OF THE TRACTOR

  BEAM—TURN TO PAGE 6.

  FIGHT BACK—GO TO PAGE 26.

  LET THEMSELVES BE HAULED IN—TURN TO PAGE 18.

  “WE NEED TO WARN LEIA that this place exists,” Poe said, glancing around the hangar. “Those gravity mines could bring down half the fleet.”

  “Then we need a comm station,” Finn said, leading them to a computer terminal hidden behind a TIE cradle. BB-8 inserted a connector and piggybacked the message on official First Order transmissions, squealing excitedly before disconnecting.

  “Keep it down, pal,” Poe said, his eyes going wide as the droid showed him what he’d found. The First Order was keeping a group of prisoners in the station, former senators who had escaped Starkiller Base’s destruction of Hosnian Prime.

  “Just imagine if we rescued them,” Poe said. “They could raise support for the Resistance on countless worlds. What do you think?”

  SHOULD THEY RESCUE THE SENATORS?

  YES—TURN TO PAGE 30.

  NO—TURN TO PAGE 27.

  POE’S HAND WENT FOR his blaster, but Finn stopped him.

  “Easy there, pal,” Finn whispered. “I have an idea. Wait here.”

  Finn disappeared into a nearby maintenance closet.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Poe said when he reemerged carrying two sonic mops.

  “Don’t knock it,” Finn said. “Janitors can go almost anywhere.”

  Poe reluctantly took one of the mops. Finn always trusted Poe when he had a crazy idea. It was time for Poe to do the same.

  Proving Finn’s point, the officer barely looked up as the whine of the mops filled the detention block, only taking notice when Poe’s mop head bumped the computer desk.

  “Hey, watch it, will you?” the lieutenant barked, looking up from his work.

  When the officer saw Poe’s jacket, he jumped to his feet.

  “Hey! That’s not regulation uniform!”

  “No,” Finn said, swinging his sonic mop with purpose, “it’s not.”

  The officer grunted as Finn took his legs out from under him, knocking him out on the highly polished floor.

  “He won’t be down for long,” Finn warned.

  HOW DO THEY GET THE PRISONERS OUT OF THEIR CELLS?

  TRY TO ENTER A CODE—GO TO PAGE 29.

  HAVE BB-8 OVERRIDE THE LOCKS—HEAD TO PAGE 55.

  “WHAT DO WE DO?” Finn said, spinning around at the sound of the approaching boots.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Poe said, gripping his blaster in both hands and waiting for the first trooper to come barreling around the corner. “We fight.”

  Maybe that wasn’t the best course of action, Finn thought as he woke later, his head muggy with the effects of a stun beam. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. The cell was barren and completely escape-proof. Now he was the one in need of a rescue.

  THE END

  CAN YOU GO BACK AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS?

  “GET ME AS MANY WEAPONS as you can, buddy!” Poe shouted to BB-8, rerouting defensive controls to the cockpit’s forward station.

  “Finn, you take the primary laser cannon, and I’ll handle the missiles.”

  Finn grabbed the controls, his eyes darting across the lights that had blinked on in front of him.

  “Are you sure this is going to be enough, Poe? You said we had no thrusters.”

  “We don’t.”

  “Then how are we supposed to outmaneuver starfighters?”

  It was a good question and one Poe couldn’t answer as laser fire streamed from the nearest TIE.

  Poe locked on to the fighter’s signal and sent missiles screaming across the void.

  They found their target, the TIE dissolving in a storm of light and supercharged metal, but the remaining fighters continued on an attack vector.

  Finn swung in his chair, thumbing the laser controls, but he couldn’t find either of the darting ships.

  The two TIE pilots fired as one, lasers slamming into Maz’s ship.

  The deck lurched as a series of explosions shook the small craft.

  TURN TO PAGE 54.

  “WHAT’RE WE GONNA DO?” Finn asked as the space station grew larger by the second in their viewport.

  “Hold our nerve,” Poe said.

  “And let ourselves be captured?”

  “They don’t know we’re even in here.”

  “They would have scanned for life signs,” Finn told him.

  “And they wouldn’t have found any. Maz installed scramblers before we left. The First Order won’t know we’re here unless they board us.”

  “And what happens if they do?”

  Poe checked the charge on his blaster. “We improvise.”

  Finn tried to breathe normally as the Rover was hauled into the station’s vast hangar bay. Poe was so composed, so sure of himself, even as he saw a squadron of stormtroopers waiting for them, blasters in hand.

  Not long before, Finn would have been among them, standing in gleaming armor, waiting for the enemies of the First Order to be brought to justice. But he was done with that life. Finn tried to be brave, but the truth was that he was still scared.

  Scared that he wouldn’t be good enough.

  Scared that he would let everyone down.

  Poe and Leia had been born into this fight, their lives defined by the struggles against the First Order and the Empire before it. Finn, on the other, had stumbled into the Resistance. He believed in what they stood for, of course, but even after everything they’d been through, he still struggled to believe in himself.

  But this wasn’t the time for doubts. Finn settled back into his chair as the space station’s artificial gravity took hold of them. With a thud, the StarRover touched down, the tractor beam depositing them with typical First Order efficiency.

  The stormtroopers were already marching toward the freighter. The Rover would be boarded in minutes.

  WHAT SHOULD FINN AND POE DO?

  HIDE THEMSELVES ON THE SHIP—TURN TO PAGE 5.

  TRY TO ESCAPE WITHOUT BEING SEEN—GO TO PAGE 22.

  “THIS!” POE SHOUTED, drawing his blaster and reopening the secret door to fire on the unsuspecting First Order stormtroopers.

  Finn was in awe of Poe’s bravery. The pilot was skilled with a blaster and quickly managed to take down the nearest trooper, but he soon lost the element of surprise and was firing out of what amounted to a cupboard. And there was nothing that Finn or BB-8 could do to help.

  With nowhere to retreat, Poe was outgunned as the remaining stormtroopers filled the secret compartment with stun fire.

  Finn awoke to find himself in a harness. He tried to pull free, but the restraints were locked tight.

  He looked around, realizing that he was on a First Order shuttle, the pilots sitting with their back to him at the controls. He went instinctively for his blaster, but it was gone.

  “There’s no point trying to escape, traitor,” one of the pilots said, swiveling in her chair to face him.

  �
��We’re taking you to the Supreme Leader for questioning,” the other pilot added. “He’s looking forward to talking to you.”

  I bet he is, Finn thought, hoping that Poe and BB-8 had gotten away.

  It was unlikely, but hope was all he had left.

  THE END

  CAN YOU GO BACK AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS?

  FINN YANKED his breathing mask from his face and drew his blaster. The whine of a fusioncutter echoed through the cruiser as the stormtroopers sliced through the Rover’s hatch. Beside him, BB-8 flicked out an arc welder, the closest thing to a weapon the tiny droid possessed.

  Poe smiled at his friends. “Stand down, boys. We’re not going to fight them.”

  “We’re not?” Finn said as Poe hurried them from the cockpit.

  “No. We’re going to be sneaky.”

  He pressed a control on the wall, and a panel in the ship’s corridor slid open.

  Finn grinned as he peered down the ladder it had revealed. “I like sneaky. Where does this lead?”

  “To the ventral hatch.”

  “There’s another way out?”

  “In the belly of the ship.” Poe placed a boot on the ladder. “You coming?”

  Before Finn could follow, BB-8 barged past, extending telescopic arms to clatter down behind the pilot.

  “After you…” Finn grumbled before climbing down himself.

  “What are we going to do when we get outside?” he whispered as the hidden panel slid back into place, sealing them in the secret shaft.

  Poe raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

  Finn laughed. “Right, we improvise. What else is new?”

  WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?

  SEND A MESSAGE TO THE RESISTANCE—GO TO PAGE 11.

  STEAL A SHIP TO ESCAPE—TURN TO PAGE 52.

  “WE’RE GONNA NEED all the help we can get,” Poe said, instructing BB-8 to free everyone. It was a good call. Most of the senators were struggling to walk, although the pirates and smugglers were more able.