Episode IX: The Long Night
Rey has accepted Kylo Ren's offer and joined him to command the First Order, the first noticeable change what the abandonment of expensive projects and soon smaller Star Destroyers were spotted across the galaxy, bringing independent systems to heel and extinguishing Resistance holdouts. The public image of Rey and Kylo standing together on the Finalizer had its desired effect and many began to see no reason to oppose them.
The beleaguered Resistance still attempts to hold on, resorting to hit and run attacks with their starfighters, they lacked the support of any system and soon were regarded as nothing more than pirates and terrorists by much of the wider galaxy. Still, they held on in the hope that something would change.
A line of young men and women stood with blasters in hand, the weapons were much like the people holding them, ragged and without any sort of rhyme or reason to them. Behind this line a young man with short, dark hair walked, a blaster pistol on his hip.
"Epsilon Squad, pick your targets and fire," he said they began to shoot, the green and red arcs from the weapons streaking across the room and hitting the steel wall on the far side.
"Cease fire," the young man said as he hung is head a little at the result. "You're not going to be killing stormtroopers with aim like that. Don't flinch when you fire or you'll just end up dead," he said as he looked over at the target area, most of the targets were winged at best, the remainder were untouched.
Walking to the side he took the pistol from one of the recruits and aimed it, firing the weapon he smoothly went to the next target and the target after it. When he finally put down the weapon there was a shot right in the center of mass of each target. "Smooth trigger squeeze, know at what point your weapon discharges and aim your shots. That half a second to line up your weapon will save your life," he said as he looked at them all. "Dying for the cause won't end the First Order, only destroying the enemy will. Questions?"
"No Commander Finn," the recruits said far from unison. This was going to take time.
"Finn," the man looked over to see an old friend of his approach, that being Poe Dameron and gave him a courteous smile but it faded when the smile was not returned.
"It didn't go well, did it?"
"She was waiting for us. Alpha's gone and Bravo's out of the fight for at least a couple of months." Finn was downcast at hearing this, when what was left of the Resistance escaped from the back of the mountain thanks to Chewbacca digging them out with his ridiculous strength, they thought that Rey had been captured or killed by the First Order. Knowing what he knew now, he wished she had been.
He first ran into her on Kuat, along with what she now knew were the Knights of Ren when they attempted to sabotage the star destroyer production line. He almost didn't recognize her in her dark armor and robes, but her lightsaber was a blue in contrast to the red of the others. His squad was wiped out, himself injured and then surprisingly she had allowed him to leave and asked that he lay down his weapons. No hint of remorse, or signaling him to fight. She wasn't working from the inside to bring them down, she was one of them and even worse. She was leading them.
"Buddy, you alright?" Poe said as he put his hand on Finn's shoulder which seemed to break him from his thoughts and nodded to the affirmative.
"I still can't believe what happened, I thought that she was our best shot and not this."
"I know," Poe said as he looked over at the new recruits. "It wasn't a complete loss, we were able to snag a couple of mothballed transports and a couple dozen T-65s."
"Poe, the old X-wing model is older than you are. Hell, they're almost as old as the General." To which Poe stifled a laugh and began to smile a little to which Finn did as well.
"Yeah, they're pretty old. Think of it as a tactical advantage, the First Order will be hesitant to attack as they would never believe that we would fly a museum piece against their advanced TIEs. Come on, I'm pretty sure that the General has a plan to try and get us all killed again." Finn nodded as he followed his friend, knowing that wasn't a dig against the General, just that impossible odds were the only thing they had right now.
"I'm sorry, Ben," Rey looked down at Kylo with a pained expression, her jaw trembling ever so slightly as several stormtroopers approached him where he was kneeling on the floor, cradling his right hand that was badly maimed where Rey's lightsaber had cut through the cross guard section of his lightsaber.
"Ben is dead, I made sure of that. Keep your sympathies, I brought you in and we were going to rule the galaxy together," he said as he looked up at her. "Together," he screamed out again as he sat upright, the stormtroopers behind him raised their weapons ever so slightly as he did so, but the man was beaten and did not rise, but the look of anger and betrayal was in his eyes. The stormtroopers advanced and he felt something cold being wrapped around his neck.
"I understand why you did what you did, you felt betrayed by Master Skywalker and thought this was the only way. Everything you did was motivated by this feeling, but it has blinded you to the reality of the harm that you were doing. I'm not going to kill you, I will see that you are received the best possible care and one day I hope you will see clearly and able to rule by my side. Until then, I will reshape the galaxy into something better, the First Order was a vehicle used to reinforce the old ways but the old ways are gone, I will make this a better place. When the Resistance sees that I command the First Order, they will lay down their weapons and join in my cause."
"You're more clever than I gave you credit for," he said as the stormtroopers forcibly helped him up. "Clever, but you're no better than me," he said as he was being lead out.
Rey turned as she strode towards the viewport of the Finalizer and looked out, in the distance she could see the Supremacy being dismantled. Such a waste, such a symbol of Snoke's hubris and she wanted nothing to do with that accursed ship, she could see her own reflection, the black robes were in contrast to what she trained with but she came to realize the dark side for what it was and not what the Jedi claimed it was. Passion if motivated for unselfish reasons was not bad, she was passionate about peace, passionate about order and passionate about unity. She would make sure that children were never again separated from their families, the strong never again preyed on the weak and the wealthy did not become so on the backs of the poor.
"Send in General Hux, he will explain himself to me," she said without looking back as she knew her commands would never have to be repeated. She was the Grand Empress of the First Order, and her word was law.
The young commander strode into the observation deck of the Finalizer and paused for a second when he saw Kylo Ren being half dragged out and restrained a smile at this, seeing the little shit knocked off his pedestal was far better than he hoped but then he paused as he saw a figure turn around from in front of the large observation window. The woman with her black robe and combat armor combination walked quietly as she approached him, she was both very beautiful and very dangerous. The latter part he was certain about.
"General Hux," Rey said as she strode forward, taking the primary seat that once was occupied by Kylo Ren, she sat there and crossed her legs, looking at him with a neutral expression, she touched a few command codes and brought up some of his pacification ops that did not go according to plan. Both Snoke and Kylo had no problem throwing him around like a rag doll when the mood suited them, but Rey did not. This is why he was terrified of her, she did not give away any emotion, her actions were completely unpredictable.
"I know what you are going to say, but it was Kylo's fault, he didn't give me enough men."
Rey looked at him with a slightly raised brow and a small twitch at the corner of her mouth that was almost feigned amusement, which stopped Hux cold in his track from continuing his planned tirade. "General, you were given three platoons of stormtroopers in each instance to keep the peace among moisture farmers and nerf herders. So, what did you do?"
"I followed my orders and pacified the settlements," he said as Rey rose from her chair and strode to him with a firm confidence as she was inches from his face.
"Is that what you call it? Pacification?" The bitterness in her voice was undeniable and he could see the flecks of yellow in her eyes, given how close she was to him and he expected to get thrown back against the door behind him, the stormtroopers guarding her clearly keeping their distance and yet she did not attack him at all before taking a step back.
"You massacred husbands and fathers and drove the populace into the hands of the insurgents who were happy to provide them with a stockpile of blasters and thermal detonators. My stormtroopers are well trained and disciplined, but when you anger twenty thousand people, you put me in a tough situation. I had to send in a force myself, and we had to end the lives of nearly two thousand civilians."
"In my defense, those men were possibly supporting the Resistance….I mean insurgents from the beginning. Supreme Commander Ren agreed with me."
"Do you see him standing here? Hmmm?" She asked as she nodded to the stormtrooper and the door opened up, an older man walked up beside Hux and stood there at attention. He had weathered facial features and a trimmed grey beard with pale blue eyes.
"Kylo Ren has been relieved of command until such a time that his actions are no longer a danger to those under his command. Snoke was someone who cared only for power and could not see that power channelled only through anger would never achieve what he thought it would. Like him, you too are lead by emotion and quick to allow that anger to blind your actions. Your rash decisions have lead the First Order to near disaster once and have cost us men and material on multiple instances," she said as she turned around and walked back to the throne where she took her seat.
"I have no doubt that you are a skilled officer and under the right circumstances, you may become even better. Admiral Valris will be taking command of the Restitution and you will serve as his XO."
Hux clenched his fist at hearing what she just said and took a step forward. "You've lost your mind, I am General Hux! I don't serve anyone, I command the armed forces of the First Order!"
Rey looked at him with the darkest expression he had ever seen and suddenly he felt very cold and alone, like he had been tossed in deep well and yet she did nothing to him beyond the stare. "Commander Hux," she said as she emphasized the 'commander' part. "You did command the First Order's armed forces until your Grand Empress decided that that responsibility should go to another. As I have just stepped into this role, I will provide you with a gift. This one time, and one time alone I will forget your comments that you just uttered.
"Now, Commander Hux. You are assigned as Executive Officer of the Restitution under command of General Valris, I am granting you one hour to collect your personal affects and report to hangar seven for the transfer."
"Y-yes my Empress," Hux managed to say and salute, his hand trembling and turned to leave.
"You know that boy is going to kill you," the gruff old man said to Rey once Hux had left the room.
"Like you said, he is a boy," Rey said as she looked at the man. "I'm certain that the age and rod of the old will get some foolish notions out of his head. I would really hate to have to kill him over something so petty."
"Of course, my Empress. Your orders?"
"Luminaria Prime, we are starting a new colony there and I need you to keep the citizens safe."
"Yes ma'am," the man saluted and turned to leave.
"Oh and General? Make sure you keep your warships out of sight, make sure that the locals know that it is only a peacekeeping force, we are not here to occupy. The galaxy needs to know that we can govern them without brute force."
The General didn't respond, the Grand Empress had a plan and while he wasn't privy to it, he trusted her. They finally found someone competent enough to command and powerful enough to get rid of the competition. Whatever her vision for the First Order, he could get behind it.