A jarring shudder shook the rapidly crumbling planet. Officer Sera Landal stumbled into the closest wall with a painful thud. Grasping at the chilly metal gave no respite from the anxious heat rushing through her veins.
Sera edged towards the closest window, using the slippery wall for a semblance of support. The planet unraveled on the other side of the cracking glass.
Snowflakes swayed listlessly, falling to the ground like disaster hadn't suddenly struck. Ashy reds and burning oranges coated the skyline as the planet fell in on itself. Two contrasting views laid out before her like heaven and hell collided.
Cursing, Sera spun to watch her fellow officers bolt through the hall. Blood and sweat painted the glistening floor like a grotesque watercolor. Wayward arms flew every which way as officers steadied one another through each violent shake.
Of course this irreparable disaster struck months before her orders were up.
A stone-faced Stormtrooper with a cracked helmet gripped Sera's arm hard and pulled her along with their rushing group. Wind surged from her lungs and she lunged forward to keep pace.
"Officer," the Stormtrooper yelled over the hiss and grumble of impending explosion. "What are you still doing here? Get to the hangars."
Grateful for the soldier's concerned impertinence, Sera followed.
Hurried feet pounded against the scuffed floor. Sera silently tallied the people around her as they twisted and turned through the halls. It was simple finding officers in the pool of white troopers; Specs of vivid blue dotted the snow colored mob.
The floor creaked and Sera threw her arms out in front of her to stabilize. She jerked away from a stumbling trooper and lost her footing in the process. Her leading trooper clutched her by the coat, stopping a painful crash to the cracking floor. She dangled in shock before fumbling for SV-2095's arms to lift herself up.
Her core ached with fatigue and her head pounded with adrenaline. Counting over and over again and coming up short. So she ran faster, bolting past crowds of people, confirming her worst fear.
The multiple story high hangar came into view. Low ranking soldiers herded leaders into every available ship like pigs destined for slaughter. Chairs rolled to and fro, up and down the wavering hangar. Bolts popped loose from their hold and machines of every kind toppled to the floor, unable to sustain their place in the barrage of movement.
A chill wriggled up Sera's spine when she completed her inaccurate count for the fifth time. Somebody was missing. All her fellow Officers stood boarding the departing ship, but something felt amiss.
Who is it, who is it, who is it? Sera shrieked in her head, spinning, trying to match what she saw with her nagging gut feeling.
"Who's missing?" Sera screamed towards Lieutenant Mitaka. "Somebody's missing."
Her Stormtrooper escort caught up and shoved her into the ship grumbling about forgetting it.
"Get off me," Sera gripped her palm to prep and slammed her elbow into the storm trooper's throat between his body armor and helmet. He buckled forward, grasping desperately for his neck from the air knocked out of him.
Mitaka grabbed her around the waist and she struggled hard against him. She thrashed her arms and legs, tears stained her eyes from the effort. Mitaka was no match for her but the adrenaline seemed to afford him unusual strength and will.
A handsomely built ship lay vacant on the dock with Stormtroopers speaking desperately into their coms and running between each other. A sleek black exterior gleamed brightly from the hundreds of swaying lights illuminating the hangar. Sera would recognize that ship anywhere.
"I know who it is," Sera pulled her elbows into herself and spun in Mitaka's arms. He gave her a concerned look as she hooked her foot around his ankle. Pulling hard, she knocked him off balance. "I'm getting him. You can't stop me so don't you dare try."
The hangar leaned forward and rattled. Mitaka lost what little grip remained on Sera and she slipped expertly through his fingers.
Stumbling forward, she rushed from the ship, shoving every white mask out of the way that obstructed her path. Man after man reached for her but she dodged to the slide and slid under legs, maneuvering her way around the people trying to stop her.
The hangar exit came into view. Loose wires spurted electricity and smoke billowed around her sparking fires that sizzled and burst around her.
The whir of engines obstructed Sera's hearing but as she looked back, her entire team motioned for her to return. Mitaka was running the path Sera had tried but a wall of Stormtroopers stonewalled his path, disallowing another Officer evading them.
Sera's oversized coat billowed behind her as she ran faster than her muscles could take. The material's resistance impeded her and she yelled in frustration. She ripped it from herself, heaving it behind her in an ungraceful feat of strength. She watched in fascination as it tumbled down the slight incline forming as the planet's structure failed.
Her muscles strained to sprint through the rapidly deteriorating base. Turning left and right and left again, she swore her memory wasn't failing her; It couldn't fail her or she was dead having achieved nothing.
The shock of strenuous activity hit in as she heaved herself around the final corner. Sera grabbed the doorknob to the office she'd been hunting for. Fingers shaking and head pounding, Sera threw open the door. The building rocked and she slipped and her knee gave out with a painful pop. Sera fell back, landing on her tailbone with a nauseating crack. Her bones rang with the impact.
"Fuck," She nursed her wounded hip as a hand reached towards her. She grabbed it with both of hers. They heaved her forward from the ground with shocking strength and Sera tumbled into General Hux. His usually impeccable image was faltering. Hux appeared like everybody else escaping the imploding planet. He suddenly looked breakable and human.
"What are you doing, Officer?" General Hux dropped his hold and stepped back. "Get to the ships immediately."
"What am I doing?" Sera shrieked over the deafening sounds of the crumbling planet. Something about his austerity and intimidating stance didn't translate in this dire situation. Her reserve and intention to remain unnoticed during her enlistment failed her but that no longer mattered. They weren't necessarily making it off Starkiller alive but that didn't mean she wouldn't try. The First Order wouldn't be half as strong without Hux.
The ever-present wild look in Hux's eyes only shined brighter as he watched her think through her internal dilemma, looking past him all the while.
She saw his faltering demeanor from the corner of her eye. His slicked hair was coming apart and his shaking hands made Sera's heart ached for him and everything he'd just lost.
"You're not leaving! I'm not letting you kill yourself. That's what you're doing, isn't it?" Vision blurry and chest heaving, Sera refused to back down from Hux's calculated stare.
"You're defying a direct order, Officer," Hux warned in a dark tone, ignoring her entire previous comment. He watched her with fascination. She looked familiar but he couldn't place where exactly he'd seen her on the ship before.
His warning's intensity was negated as he gave a strangled growl. The room dipped to the side and he grabbed Sera's shoulders to hold her in place. Instead of steadying them, they slipped and fell to the ground in an undignified heap of tangled limbs and uncomfortable closeness.
Sera looked up at Hux, blinking away the light blinding her eyes from her second bone-rattling fall. His chest heaved and he sat, seemingly waiting for her cue.
Sera dove forward to dig her nails into his chest, crinkling his previously pristine uniform which began collecting dirt and grime from her hands.
They were at eye level on the floor.
"I don't care, sir. You can't stay here," Sera closed her eyes as smoke singed her deep in her lids. She felt no movement and decided to aim for the jugular. "If you stay, you're a disgrace and half the leader I thought you to be."
She cracked her lids open enough to see Hux's face shift from fascination to disgust.
"There's no point, Officer," His voice cracked uncharacteristically. Hux's solemn face faded into an acute hopelessness that constricted Sera's pounding heart. "My life's work is destroyed. Leader Snoke will kill me for this failure, he has already called me to him. I would prefer to do it myself. I command this base and I will go down with it."
Sera shook her head in disbelief. Her shoulders fell forward and she pushed her hand up to Hux's quivering shoulder as if praying at his feet, hanging her head humbly at the hands of fate. She gripped hard for support and covered her dirt-stained face with her other hand. The searing smoke drew wetness from her eyes. Each second they were open and exposed to the elemental parasite, the worse the pain grew.
The building groaned again. Bits of wall cracked open, spidering out across the room. Dust fell on their prone forms as a portion of ceiling crashed down right beside them. Hux clutched Sera's head and shoved it down with his own to keep anything from crushing her skull.
His jagged breathing was hard against her side as they waited for more falling debris. His head rested on hers and she felt his heart ramming into his chest.
"Fine," Sera mumbled, shoving the General away. She scowled at the man she'd revered so desperately. "If this is your choice, I'm staying with you. You're not dying alone, even if it's the cowardly way out. Even though you've proven yourself to be a useless coward."
Poking the beast was a dangerous game but any semblance of proper etiquette and respect for authority vanished the moment the planet ruptured. She'd already ignored proper evacuation protocol, attacked a peer, assaulted a superior officer, and insulted the First Order's golden General to his face. If Sera was dying with him, she would hold nothing back from the final person she'd see in the galaxy.
Hux's hair fell farther out of place as he toppled back from her shove. His mouth slacked and eyes widened as he stared at the woman clouded in dust and smoke. It coated her haggard face and tearing uniform. She was completely blackened by soot but her light hair glistened through the darkness of sweat and grime.
Hux had never seen anything like this woman lying prone on the floor. Her eyes burned with the fire of adrenaline and conviction, inexplicably drawing him in.
She wasn't afraid. Or if she was, she controlled it better than he. Hux swallowed a shallow breath from ash obstructing his airways. It a moment of disaster she feared nothing. What she displayed was fury and disappointment in him.
"If you ever call me useless again, I will kill you," Hux shoved the fallen ceiling away with unwarranted force and grabbed Sera by the arm to pull her up with him. He had her so close, they were nearly nose to nose as he bent down to look at her straight on.
"Little good that will do when we're dead," Sera eyes flicked back and forth between his own and found nothing but rage and fear.
"Your name?" It was a grizzly sound as he struggled to speak.
"Officer Sera Landal," She coughed in his face as smoke filled her lungs. Grime from the air burned her throat with dry intensity. The room grew hotter and Sera put it together. A latent heat tickled her toes as the metal below her warmed beyond comfort. "Sir, decide now. Are we staying or leaving? The building's burning and we'll be caught inside. Decide, Hux. Now!" `
She screamed so loud her throat failed to say anything more. Fog swirled in her mind and she was sure there were suddenly two Generals before her.
General Hux considered her a beat too long. An ornate desk rolled towards them quickly and he pulled Sera out of its flight path, clutching her close to himself, grasping tight at her waist. Sera looked up at the man holding her so close and reveled in the gentle quake of his hands against her skin.
What little she could see of him revealed everything she needed to know about the man. The stoic, furious face didn't match the fear his body portrayed, but it was there, ever so subtly.
"We're leaving," Hux released her but grabbed Sera's wrist and dragged her through the smoked-out halls.
Hell came alive outside Hux's decimated office. Their path was a cacophony of machinery, building, and abandoned personal belongings.
Hux grabbed Sera's wrist so tightly he could feel the pressure of her bones pushing back against her skin.
"Who is still on the base?" Hux kicked a piece of scrap metal to the side and pulled Sera through. She grabbed his uniform to stay in close proximity, terrified her efforts were in vain if she lost him.
"I don't know. Most of my peers were boarding when I ran. I know your ship was still in the hangar when I was there last," Sera coughed again and gripped hard to the material on Hux's arm. Everything was warming but her injuries screamed for her to freeze. "I assume your direct crew and anyone else reckless enough to stay."
"Like yourself?"
"Precisely," Sera pushed Hux forward. "And yourself."
Hux ignored her jab as they rushed them through the burning halls. Heat built behind them with every step. They were racing against a ticking time bomb. But if he measured their pace and estimated steps to the ships correctly, they had a better than fifty percent chance of survival. It was more than enough time if they maintained the back-breaking pace.
Hux was certain they made it through on muscle memory alone. The smoke obstructed their vision ahead to less than a few feet. Every once and awhile they crashed into debris or tripped over the fallen ceiling, but they never slowed.
When the pair made it to the hangar, a single ship remained. Hux's men waited impatiently outside the entrance and jumped into action when the soot-coated pair burst inside.
"Get on the ship, Landal," Hux pushed a hand into her back and shoved her on in front of him, ignoring the confused and relieved comments from his men. He may have been in a dire situation but he heard their whispers about the girl.
Sera's knee shuttered and she heaved herself forward onto the ship. It was sleek and chilly, numbing her skin and bones after the heat from the flames chasing them through the base.
"Track Ren. We're getting him before the planet collapses." Hux grimaced. "If I die, I'm taking him with me." His authoritative voice returned as if it never faltered.
The air filters in the ship began breaking down the smoke that had shrouded them. Sera took a strangled, grasping breath and collapsed on the chilly, metal floor with a cry. Her hands slapped against the flooring and she pushed her head into the cool exterior. It felt like she was drowning in the smoke trapped inside her strained lungs. If it was possible to drown in smoke, it was currently happening.
"Commander Ren is in the forest not far from here, sir," A Stormtrooper yelled from across the room. He looked at his datapad and signaled for the pilot to take off. The pad emitted an eerie red glow on the troopers face.
The ship made a gentle ascent as the building burst into ravenous flames. Their ship jerked with the impact but remained steady in the air.
Sera shook as she flipped onto her back facing the sparkling ceiling. It was nicer than anything she'd flown in the military and she was mucking it up with grime. Her mother would have a coronary if she saw her now.
"Why has nobody seen to Officer Landal's treatment?" Hux stormed past his crew and looked down to confirm Sera was still breathing. "Do it. Immediately!"
Hux coughed and pushed away a medic reaching for him. He blinked away the searing pain in his eyes from the clouds of smoke they'd fought through.
Sera's breath caught looking up at him. She was either drunk on smoke or him; Her feverish mind wasn't sure. He held her eye a few more seconds before sweeping past her to the Stormtrooper with Kylo Ren's location in hand.
The discarded medic rushed to her side. She began systematically poking and prodding every inch of her. No sensation flowed between her nerves. All she could do was tip her head back to watch General Hux upside down as he disappeared.
Question after question about her medical history and current ailments followed but she comprehended none. Strained words dribbled from Sera's mouth but the adrenaline still rang in her ears, blocking any noise besides a violent buzzing.
As Sera weaved in and out of consciousness, she felt her body lift from the floor like she was floating. Everything spun and nausea rose in her stomach.
Hux kicked away the medics with a stretcher crowding the scene.
"Sir," The original medic pleaded, pointing desperately to the offered medical bed. "We can't be jostling her around. She may have fractured her tailbone and torn a tendon in her knee."
Sera lay bridal style in Hux's arms, barely registering the happenings around her. The room felt overpowered with a suffocating fog weaving in and out of her like a needle and thread. Hux's fingers were warm on her side and legs. She was freezing even after outrunning a raging fire. Sera turned her head in towards Hux's uniform and her neck cracked every inch she turned. His clothes smelled of smoke and grime, just like her own.
"I will take her to my quarters," Hux called behind him as he walked, limping slightly. "You will treat her there. She will not be in the main dock when we collect Ren. He could slice her in half if he is having a tantrum. I will not allow it."
The slight panic in Hux's voice made Sera wonder if he was about to lose control. It was like his voice twitched. Or was that her own warbling voice?
"Do not attempt to speak," Hux hurried through the halls, trailed by medics and varying medical equipment. The lead nurse shouted rapid instructions to the personnel behind her. Sera thought it sounded like a completely different language.
"If she dies," Hux whispered to the panting nurse at his side once they reached his quarters. His teeth gritted and his voice could barely be heard over the sound of medical equipment booting. "I'll kill you all."
The nursing staff sputtered and looked between Hux and the nearly unconscious woman in his arms.
"Who is she?" The lead medic asked cautiously. "I've never seen you with this woman before." She ran her fingers through the long hair falling over Hux's arms. He wasn't letting go, even with the girl next to the empty bed. Hux clutched her to himself with a raw intensity she'd never seen from him before like he couldn't let go.
"That is an inappropriate question, Lyra," Hux repositioned Sera to place her down on the bed. He scowled when she hissed at the pain in her side.
Sera's head slowly cleared as she laid in the soft, downy bed. Her arms and legs splayed out in every direction and her matted hair clumped under her neck.
Looking up, Hux had already disappeared.
"That man," Doctor Lyra whispered as she dropped medical supplies on the end table beside the bed. She waved over a few others. They began working as Sera fell into darkness.