The headaches had returned in full force these past few weeks. A relic of his days at military school, as a child, they had limited him to his bed for hour, sometimes days, at a time. A schoolboy could afford the luxury of time away from his book; such a move from a general could prove disastrous. One of these days, he would make a point of seeing a med droid about them, ask for a preventative solution to be prescribed. For now, a strong cup of caf and a few chewable pain relief tablets would have to be enough. Hux resisted the urge to down the rest of the bottle. He could lie down after he completed the inspections. Tellers was more than capable of managing the monthly supplies paperwork by herself.
"Sir, there's a shuttle requesting permission to board." Under any other circumstances, he would not have considered the officer's voice loud, but right now, it made his head scream in pain. Yes, a medbay visit was most certainly in order.
"Do they have the appropriate clearances?" he replied, doing his best to keep the annoyance out of his voice. At least a dozen shuttles arrived on and departed the Leveler each day. Such mundane matters did not require a general's permission, and his crew knew better than to bother him with trivial matters.
The man glanced back at his terminal screen. "They have clearances, but they are not up to date, sir. They're from before the recent update."
"And when did this update occur?"
"Four days ago, sir."
Hux considered the situation for a moment. "Ask them for a new code. If they cannot provide one, do not allow them to dock on the Finalizer. Divert them to the Ringleader and have them undergo a complete inspection of the shuttle and background checks on the individuals on board."
"Yes, sir." Hux watched as the man relayed his orders. He felt that this was some type of test, and he could only hope that he had just passed. Lieutenant Caia looked up from his terminal. "They've provided a current code, sir."
"Excellent. What docking bay did you direct them to?"
"Hangar 5G."
"Tellers, if anyone has any need for me, I will be available by comlink. Otherwise, you are to deal with any issues that may arise. I want the bridge in nothing less than perfect condition when I return."" With one last glance around the bridge to ensure that everything was as it should be, he left for Hangar 5G. If his suspicions were correct, there was no place for errors now.
An inspection. It had to be. Hux silently seethed. He would kill Ren the next time he saw him. It did not matter that Hux had never personally killed anyone, or that the man would surely beat him in any physical fight. Kylo Ren would die, and it would be Hux who killed him. They did not conduct unannounced inspections of generals' flagships except with warning or under suspicion of gross misconduct. It simply wasn't done. Once one achieved the rank of general, they were largely free to do as they pleased on their own flagships. They had proven to the elites that they possessed the good judgment necessary to run their ships, often with little regard for formal procedures. And as long as no reports of misconduct were filed, Command looked the other way. It was difficult to guess who might have been responsible for such a report.
Worse yet, he had been confined to his office until the inspection was complete. He had protested the move, for he was needed on the bridge in case of an emergency, but First Lieutenant Caplaw, as he had introduced himself, refused to yield. Unable to affect the outcome in any way, Hux could only pace in the cramped space and imagine the worst. The bridge would be in shambles when the inspectors arrived. The security teams would fail to ask for the appropriate clearances before allowing them to access restricted areas. Some piece of equipment Ren had destroyed would be left untouched in the center of a hallway for the inspector to stumble upon. And at each point, he would note the infractions down on that pad of flimsi to take back to Command, to tell them how incompetent, how sub-par the general that had once been their golden child truly was.
He forced himself to stop, to unclench his fists and sit down at his desk. They would not find anything amiss. Hux could be sure of that. He had long run one of, if not the, most organized and best-maintained ship in the fleet. The one true kink in the system could not ruin this for him, for Ren had, conveniently enough, made himself scarce these last few days. Whether he was off on some mission or holed up in his chambers, Hux did not know. Should Ren have been the one who called for this inspection in the first place, he should pray that Hux never found out.
Ren was not worthy of the time he spent thinking about him. He had far more important matters to attend to. The supply forms, of course, then the reading on the other forces that he needed to catch up on, and the personnel files could use some revision as well. He tried to focus, but the words on his datapad swam into a jumbled sea of foreign characters. Hux rubbed at his temples, trying to smother that never-ending headache, and pushed forwards. He would finish his tasks. Ren's little stunt would do nothing to quell his ambitions.
Chirp. He answered his comlink halfway through the first ring. "Hux."
Only on rare occasions had he been so glad to hear Tellers' voice. "The inspector is ready to depart. He said you are allowed leave your office now." Allowed. He was allowed to wander his ship freely now. How very kind of the inspector.
Hux sprang up from his desk and started towards the door. Though it was hardly professional behavior, there was nobody here to see him, and he had been absent from his post for far too long. "Tell me about his visit. I want to know every detail."
"Everything seemed well in order," she began. "He started with the hangars. He was very interested in the security protocols we had in place, and though it was difficult to judge his reactions, I believe he was impressed with the level of security you have implemented in those areas of the ship. We then went to the bridge, where he asked several personnel to step away from their stations for quick interviews with –"
"Did they all request that a neighbor cover their console while they were away?" That had long been a favorite trick of First Order inspectors, and he suspected the practice had gone on long before that. Asking someone whose position required constant vigilance to abandon their posts for just a moment seemed innocent enough on the surface, but it could turn a mission to ruin in seconds.
"Yes, they did. I believe he walked away with a very positive impression."
"Excellent."
He heard nothing for weeks. Had he been a less precise man, more willing to let insults pass, he might have forgotten about the inspection. In hindsight, it had been painless enough: a few hours of time wasted, but his time had long since stopped being his own.
But being who he was, the inspection and its results had never been far from his mind. Surely Command would at some point contact him regarding the matter? They would have to inform him if they were intending on replacing or demoting him. Even if they had no such intentions, one would think they would want to contact him with suggestions. No matter how well-run a ship was, there were always improvements that could be made. Unlike many of the older generals who were too set in their ways for their own good, Hux would happily implement anything to increase efficiency aboard the Leveler.
Once a month had passed, he had largely given up hope that he would ever receive any word on the results. Though the First Order worked hard to avoid the wasteful spending the Republic poured their precious credits into, some amount of inefficiency was inescapable, even in the military. Particularly in the military, if the theories on military expenditures he had read during what little free time he scrounged for himself during his Academy days were to be believed. If enough credits and man-hours came into play, some would be wasted.
And so, nearly six weeks after Lieutenant Caplaw's visit, it came as a surprise to receive a message from Command requesting that he depart for Morcanth immediately. The order had demanded that he come by shuttle and bring only minimal personnel, which Hux took to be a pilot and two stormtroopers. He tried not to think about what that could mean, but, as happened only on rare occasions, he failed miserably. Were they trying to minimize the chances he would put up a fight after they took away his position? He would never do such a thing, but less committed generals in the past had retained less dignity. Did they plan to save themselves the effort of meeting with him and instead fire on his ship the instant it left hyperspace? It would be an elegant strategy, Hux had to admit. None of the nasty business of convincing one of his own snipers to murder their commanding officer, and he would still be neatly disposed of. The only wasted materiel would be a shuttle and a few troops, both far from irreplaceable.
When one had trained for years to examine all possibilities, every potential outcome, not analyzing became very difficult. He did manage to update the personnel files during the three-day journey, but Hux knew he should have accomplished far more. There was nothing he could do about that now, unfortunately. When the pilot commed to announce their exit from hyperspace, he set down his datapad and made his way to the cabin.
From space, Morcanth did not seem an inviting planet. Thick grey clouds, reminders of the heavy industry and manufacturing that dominated the world's economy, blocked most of the planet's surface from view. In the few areas where the surface did peek through, all that changed was the shade of gray. Contaminated rivers and oceans, forests flattened to accommodate another mine, another factory, none of it made for a beautiful world. But beauty was for tourists and sightseers, not the pragmatic individuals of the First Order. Morcanth would serve its purpose and manufacturing and political center until the time came to abandon it and move on to a more promising world.
Everything disappeared as they passed through a cloud of dense, smoky fog. The instant they landed, Hux was separated from his troops and pilot and sent into a small, almost closet-like room. Two men followed him inside, and they proceeded to strip him down and inspect every inch of his body and clothing. They thought he, of all people, would bring in listening or recording devices into Command's central headquarters? They must be stupider than Hux had thought. He had not suffered such an indignity in years, but he stayed silent through the ordeal.
Once they finished, Hux was escorted down a long hallway. Though he could see little gradient in the floor, he sensed that they were headed down. Considering that they had docked on the ground level, they had to have been well underground by the time the security guards stopped in front of a gleaming white door. "You go in, sir."
Hux pressed his palm to the reader, his heart racing. A few seconds later, the light next to it turned green, and the door opened. He swallowed against the lump in his throat as he stepped inside to find three men waiting for him. "General Hux. thank you for your promptness."
"You're welcome, sir." He kept both his voice and face devoid of any emotion.
"Please, sit down." The man gestured towards a chair, and Hux took it, wary. His weapon had been taken away during the security screening, and though he had only used it twice during his time in the military, he would give anything to have it by his side right now. "I have been very impressed with your abilities," the man, who Hux was certain he had never seen before, began once he was seated. "The results of our recent inspection showed that your Leveler is in very capable hands."
"Thank you, sir."
Hux eyed the room's other two occupants. Both human males in their fifties or early sixties, their uniforms marked them as belonging to the engineering corps. They stayed silent, allowing the third man, taller, and with a booming voice that must once have served him well on the drilling fields, to speak for them. "The results were so good, in fact, that we believe you're perfectly suited to oversee a project we have been working on for quite a while."
Hux struggled to keep his features impassive. Demoted to a mere project manager, and all because of Kylo Ren. His father would roll over in his grave.
"We have been working on a weapon for quite some time now, and the engineers –" he nodded towards his two companions – "believe we are at the stage where construction can begin."
"A weapon, sir?" he asked, his interest finally piqued.
He nodded. "Be aware, General, that until you are aboard your new vessel, you are not to speak a word of this to anyone."
Hux had never held First Order secrets in anything but the strictest confidence. "I understand, sir."
"Excellent." His hand passed over a sensor on the table, and a holographic model of a world with what appeared to be a band sliced through it appeared above the table. A wolfish smile spread across his features when he realized what purpose the recess at the very center of the band must serve. "Once it's built, it'll be the most formidable weapon in the history of the galaxy, capable of destroying entire systems at once." The man's voice was hushed, reverent, as if in the presence of a god. And, Hux thought, perhaps, in some ways, they were. Even the Empire had never worked on a project of this magnitude.
Again, the man's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I'll leave it to the engineers to explain the mechanics of the operation. I'm sure you have much to discuss."