A Week With Kylo and Hux
Day One: First Time
"All units, await your mark. Ren, that includes you."
"General, I am leading this assault-"
"And I am coordinating," Hux reminded the Knight. "You take command on my mark. I trust you will be exemplary, but await my signal." He turned to one of his Lieutenants. "Mitaka, anything on the intercepted communications?"
"Patrols running as projected, sir," Mitaka replied. "No new developments."
Hux returned to his screens. The fortress about to be assaulted was shown from the fixed-orbit spy satellite, with markers for every soldier located and marked by scouts during recon, and lines for their patrols. Ren had a squad of scout troopers and snipers who'd be sneaking around to secure the target while Phasma led three squads of standard Stormtroopers in a frontal assault as a distraction. But there was a slight complication.
"Ren, mark," Hux barked.
The crimson markers for Ren and his troops moved. Led by the black-rimmed marker, they slipped around the outer defences, avoided three patrols and took refuge on the edge of the inner keep.
"Phasma, mark," Hux snapped.
Several squads of white markers advanced on the main gates. Hux watched them swarm and overcome the front guards.
"Sir, alarms for assault," Mitaka reported. "Front gates only."
"Ren, hold position," Hux instructed. There were markers moving towards the gates from behind where the Knight and his troops hid. But the red-and-black mark moved regardless. "No- Ren!"
"Just killing a few extra troops, General," the Knight retorted.
"And if they got an alarm out-" Hux bit out.
"Sir?" Mitaka interrupted. "No new alerts."
Hux sighed roughly. "Fine. Proceed to main target."
Ren's squad advanced and entered the inner keep. Another screen showing the layout of the keep took over tracking them. At the gates, the battle raged on.
"Hux, there's an extra battalion in here," Ren reported. "Are you going to protest if I finish them off?"
"A whole battalion, or just a few men?"
"A full battalion. Roughly."
"The main target has priority. Take cover. Phasma, fall back. Aerial squadron one, prepare for assault on gates."
"Aye, sir."
"Aye, sir."
"Yeah, whatever. Plan B, right."
Hux restrained himself from rolling his eyes.
Phasma's troops fell back, and Hux gave the order. Three flights of TIE fighter swarmed down and opened fire. Then they pealed back, and prepared for another run.
"Sir, approximately five percent opposing force standing," reported Phasma.
"Aerial squadron fall back. Phasma, mop up," Hux ordered.
"Sir, order to commit the reserves," Mitaka reported.
"Ren, your battalion should be moving out now. Phasma, prepare for incoming."
"Sir. Request cut-and-run strategy three when Ren's path is clear."
"Granted. Ren, alert me when the battalion's all left."
A few minutes passed as various troops moved around.
"Hux, our way is clear. Proceeding to target."
"Acknowledged. Phasma, aerial squadron one, prepare for cut-and-run strategy three on my mark…mark."
Once again Phasma's troops retreated, apparently fleeing the reinforcements, just before the TIE fighters began their second run. Meanwhile, Ren advanced through the keep.
"Target secured. The planetary president is giving the surrender order now. I suppose you want to negotiate personally."
"Naturally. Good work Ren."
The private airstrip in the Presidential compound was under guard as Kylo Ren strode out to meet Hux. The general had borrowed Kylo's Upsilon class command shuttle as it hadn't been used in the run-up to the assault for stealth reasons, and the black craft was a welcome familiarity, even if the figure emerging from it wasn't.
"General."
"Ren. I believe you did not lose a single scout trooper?"
"No, but Phasma lost a fair number of her squads. I must say, though, that last strategy of yours was rather effective."
"It was designed to be." Hux waved off their escort and took Kylo aside for a private discussion. "I am…grateful you followed my direction. You perform admirably in a straight battle and I was concerned you may let your…proclivities for fighting distract you. I am pleased that I was wrong."
"Your strategies make sense," Kylo admitted. "I would have preferred to lead the frontal assault, but I can understand why you asked me to lead the stealth unit." He paused. "I could have taken the battalion."
"Probably," Hux agreed. "But if the President had an emergency evacuation plan we couldn't quickly deduce and counter we'd have lost the assault. If you'd started scrapping inside the keep, you'd have tipped our hand. I hope you understand that I'm not casting doubt on your fighting ability."
"Then don't try reprimanding me for a little light ambushing," Kylo retorted.
"I apologise, but again, you risked tipping our hand. I suppose there were few enough that you were able to dispatch them quickly enough to avoid raising the alarm. In future I shall trust you more in covertly eliminating small numbers of targets, but please understand that if there'd been a platoon around the corner you'd have gone in blind."
"Ah." Kylo thought about it. "Very well, I see your point. In the future, please alert me to any small scale threats , and I shall avoid any skirmish you do not approve on stealth missions."
"That sounds very reasonable, Ren."
"But I have free reign on simple assaults," Kylo added hurriedly.
"I think adopting a more case-by-case approach may be more beneficial, at least for now," Hux suggested. "I agree about simple assaults, but we may have different opinions about what constitutes a ʻsimple assaultʼ."
"Understood. I think it went fairly well, though. Just a few details to work on."
"Agreed. Not bad for our first time conquering a planet."