A/N: The Eclipse, armament, and features – canon (or EU). Named admirals are OC.
Day 10
They came out of hyperspace so smoothly that Rey barely noticed it. It would have been amazing for any lesser ship. The Finalizer was a top-of-the-line ship of the First Order. She marveled anyway about it, setting down her spoon and smiling to herself as she thought about how perfect the ship's calibration had to be to achieve that. Someone, somewhere in the Order, should be very proud, she thought to herself.
Kylo glanced at her and opened his mouth to say something, then his expression went vacant. He went to attention in his seat – spine straight, hands next to his plate, face still blank.
"Kylo?" Rey asked him. Brumos, across the table from Kylo, peered at him with narrowed eyes.
"Something's wrong." Kylo spoke no louder than a whisper, so she barely heard him in the crowded mess hall. "Hux? What's-" He tilted his head to the side. Brumos raised a clenched fist into the air – a fairly universal signal to stop or hold. Claxons sounded a second later.
Rey winced at the sound and shrank somewhat in her seat. The hall erupted into even more noise, although everyone in beige either sat unmoving, or sat back down as soon as they saw the fist. All the rest, in black or grey, began streaming out as quickly as possible, food abandoned as they answered what was obviously a call to battle stations.
Brumos waited, fist aloft. Rey put her hand over Kylo's. It was bare, as he hadn't finished his meal and put his gloves back on yet. She needed to know what was happening. She extended her senses along his, following the tendrils of the Force like she'd done before.
His attention was on Hux. It wasn't the same as when they'd located Gracynn, when all they saw was his face. This time, she could see most of the bridge, or at least all of it that Hux was paying attention to. The precise locus of Hux's attention was evident as well. They were inside his mind, she realized, not looking down on him from above. It was like being there, but she had a sense of Hux's thoughts as well.
"All shields are up, sir." She couldn't see who had said that.
"Weapons should be charged within sixty seconds." That was from the person whose shoulder Hux was looking over, reviewing the same information. Then he moved on.
Hux said, "It's the Thrawn gambit, but it won't do them any good. Scramble the fighters for a perimeter line. No engagement until I give the order." He turned to someone else. "Lt. Mitaka, signal the fleet at Ganeez to get here immediately."
"Should we inform the supreme leader, sir?" She wasn't sure who that was, either. He was an older man with a lot of insignia on his uniform, but Hux didn't look at the outfit enough for her to work out his rank.
"He knows," Hux said curtly. "I-"
"Sir, long range communications are being jammed!" the one he'd called Lt. Mitaka cut in to say. He seemed to be the communications officer.
"Fine. Plot a hyperspace jump to take us to the Ganeez fleet instead, then send it out short range to all our ships."
"They'll intercept it," the older man said.
"That's my intention," Hux replied. "If we go, I intend for them to follow. If we go. Let them spin up their hyperdrives just in case. It delays the charging of their weapons."
"We can't jump with the Eclipse here," the older man insisted. "That flagship has gravity well projectors."
"I know, Captain. I have been running scenarios for this sort of conflict all week. They have a range and they can be disabled. Maybe they'll waste their time charging them up as well – anything to delay that laser. Commander Adar, run a decloaking scan as long as no one is shooting at us yet."
"They should have been charged and oriented as soon as we came out of lightspeed," the older man said.
"They weren't expecting us." Hux jerked his head in the direction of the viewports. "At least not at this precise moment. Obviously they came here looking for us. But it means none of the Supremacy screening force saw fit to leak our schedule to them. It's a good sign."
Kylo asked, Can you show me what we're up against?
"We have a communication from the Eclipse, sir. High Command," said Mitaka.
In a moment, Supreme Leader. Let me work. "No doubt," Hux answered. "Let them hold. How are the canons, Lieutenant?"
"Armed in ten seconds."
"Good enough." Hux moved to the front of the bridge, looking out the viewport. Here. You see, Ren? he asked mentally. Hux looked across a star field that was littered with ships, all in graceful motion, no two moving the same direction or speed. He looked from one to another in quick succession, mentally adding names to the ones he recognized, clearly for Kylo's benefit. Rey didn't think he was aware she was there. The broken hulk of the Supremacy lay between them and below. Lights twinkled on it.
I see it, Ren thought to him. That must be every ship they have.
I believe so, Hux answered. They've pulled out all the stops. This sort of all-or-nothing stand means they're likely to fight to the bitter end.
"Sir, the Eclipse requests-"
"Yes, put them on," Hux said. A moment later, Mitaka gave him a nod. "Hux here."
A woman's voice came through the speaker. "General Hux. The High Command orders you to immediately stand down and deliver to us the usurper and the assassin of Supreme Leader Snoke."
'General'. Hmpf. Hux said archly, "I will not. Although I must say I appreciate you coming out from behind your planetary emplacements. That makes things much easier for us. To what do I owe the honor?"
"We will not stand by idly while you sell the Order to the New Republic! Should you choose to resist, you will not prevail."
To Ren, he thought, Ah, they know about Naboo. It undercuts them and takes away their leverage if we get other supply lines – they know it as well as we do. At the current engagement scenario, we'll lose whatever they hit with the superlaser, but we'll win the battle, even with us only having a fragment of our fleet here. To the voice on the comm, he said, "My take on the situation is different. You are outgunned."
"You assume your ships will accept your order to fire on us? That would be folly. Does Captain Peavey still command the Finalizer?"
If we lose any ships or worse, they turn against us, the odds shift dramatically. Hux turned and looked at the older man, who walked up next to him with slow, reserved paces. "He does," Hux said.
"Is he present?"
"He is."
"Captain Peavey, I order you to arrest General Hux."
Hux turned and looked at Peavey with raised brows. He moved his hands as though clasping them behind his back and touched the handle of his knife. This is a bad place for a fight. He won't be acting alone if he goes for me. Hux sized up Peavey's body language. He's stupidly close to me. Hands empty. He's not going to make this physical. Not with a man twenty years his junior. He kept his hand on the knife anyway.
Peavey blanched and looked away, in the direction of the enemy ships parked outside. "I have convened an officer's panel as you, er," he glanced apologetically at Hux, "requested, Admiral Nayta." Ordered, he means, Hux thought. They've been in communication with our captains as I suspected. Peavey went on, "We do not find grounds to remove the grand marshal from his position."
A slow grin spread across Hux's features as he settled the knife back in its scabbard. Oh, that's delightful. 'Grand marshal.' By the way, you really missed the exchange this morning after the staff meeting. I'll have to tell you about that later. Hux looked out at the stars. "Well, Admiral Nayta. That must be embarrassing for you. I certainly hope your entire strategy did not depend on instigating a mutiny." Would be nice if it did.
"You should be embarrassed that it has even come to this," she fumed. "If you turn over the fugitives, it will go well for you. If not, we will settle the issue by concentrating all fire on the Finalizer until there are no survivors."
Oh. That's a problem. We won't survive that even if they miss with that monster of a blaster they have, Hux thought. The fleet will win, but we'll be dead. Not optimal. "Fugitives, plural?"
"Yes, both of them," the admiral said. "The usurper Kylo Ren and the assassin, Rey."
I'm an assassin? But you- Rey's thought was interrupted.
The grand marshal shuddered at the realization someone other than Ren was in his head. Get out! Get out! Get out! With every 'get out' she had the feeling of being mentally battered, like a boot slamming into her, fueled by a blinding surge of terror and rage fused into one. The mental contact ended with a snap after the third 'strike', faster than Rey could end it herself as she reeled from the unexpected attack.
"Um, sorry?" she said to no one in particular, her awareness back in the mess hall.
Kylo had a pained, then perplexed expression on his face. "He can do that? He's never done that before."
"Never what?"
"Kicked me out." He looked at Brumos, then up at the man's fist, then down the table at the two dozen or so of his waiting staff. They answered to him, not Hux. "Go to battle stations," Kylo directed. They scrambled away. Kylo got to his feet more sedately. "Hux?" He winced a moment later. "Okay …"
"He kicked you out again?"
Kylo nodded to her. "I could overwhelm him, but I need him uncompromised. Not distracted fighting with me."
"What was that anyway? What you were doing, what I was watching? We were seeing things through his eyes. We were … inside him."
"You have to know the person to do it. Snoke called it surveillance."
"Snoke could do that?"
"He's the one who taught me. He did it all the time."
Rey felt something physically, a faint, intermittent vibration, but more importantly there was something shifting in the Force. It was like the static electricity that preceded a dust storm on Jakku. "Oh. We're under attack, aren't we?"
"Yes," Kylo said grimly. "It's started. The shields should hold for a while." And yet Kylo stood there, looking thoughtful and doing nothing. "He's fighting for me." Kylo looked humbled by that. "He could have given us up, especially after kicking us out of his head and blocking me."
"He trusts you," she said, trying to snap him back to attention on the moment. "There must be something we can do to help. Take down this Admiral Nayta and whichever others are commanding their ships. Do you know them well enough for us to do that?"
"Yes. I've met most of the High Command. They're close. This should be simple. Let's start with her." He offered his hand. They sank to the floor on the mess hall, joining both hands and opening minds to one another. It was easier this time because there were no lightyears of distance to traverse. Nayta was on the Eclipse.
The only issue was getting through the mess of distracting activity in local space. Canons from multiple warships were bombarding the Finalizer, Hux's dreadnoughts were moving to shield them, star destroyers moving in on the High Command ships, TIE fighters zooming to engage other small craft, and so many other maneuvers going on that Rey couldn't keep track. It was chaos. The occasional stray shot struck the Supremacy.
Kylo didn't wait for the admiral to recognize him. Turn, Kylo ordered her, pulling on Rey's power as well as his own to fuel the command. A Jedi mind trick usually failed outright against those of strong will, and none rose to power within the First Order without a level of personal resolve and determination that even the Resistance found uncommon. Under normal circumstances, there was no way this would have worked. But Kylo Ren's power in the Force was such that one as venerable and learned as Snoke had noticed him from across the galaxy when he was but a potential. Rey matched him for power and melded seamlessly with him, doubling it.
It was more than a human mind could bear. Plus, perhaps Hux was right and Kylo was clumsy. In any case, Admiral Nayta choked out, "Cease fire!", gasped, and collapsed.
Did I kill her? Um … Well, I'll check later. Next … Prok. Kylo cast about for him, once again navigating the dizzying awareness going on between where they were and where he was seeking.
The Eclipse is still firing, Rey pointed out, unable to take her attention from it. The ship was distinctive in solid black and a different hull design. As a product of the Empire, it was only two-thirds the length of the Finalizer, but it packed more punch even at the reduced size. It was made for ship-to-ship engagements. While the Finalizer was no slouch, it was not the superior ship in a head-to-head shoot-out. Plus, the Finalizer was running and hiding, letting the other ships dish out damage while all fire from the High Command vessels poured into her.
They might not have had time to process the command yet, Kylo thought. The admiral collapsing on the bridge might have confused things.
Look! Rey thought to him, directing his attention to the swelling light at the end of the Eclipse's prow.
That's the superlaser.
Like the Death Star?
Yes. Whatever it hits is destroyed. Including us.
Then let's make it miss.
He nodded and they put their combined focus on it. The limits to the Force weren't known to her, but if she could lift boulders with her will, then the laws of physics were no barrier. The Force operated on a level beyond her conscious understanding. It didn't have to conform to her idea of reality – reality would conform to it.
She opened herself to it, let it flow through her, feeling the space between the ships and the fractional degrees of orientation as they maneuvered. The laser was an absolutely straight line and this was critical to aiming. The Finalizer was already presenting the narrowest possible profile – Hux wasn't an idiot – and moving as evasively as a nineteen hundred meter long star destroyer could, weaving its way through their own ships, even though allowing the laser to strike one of them instead wasn't much of an improvement.
She could feel the dark side energy that wrapped the Eclipse like it was a shrine. It reminded her of the cave on Ach-To. This wasn't the enemy, she realized. It was a part of them. This was not one ship against another, but both of them in a dance. The dark side was an energy of pain, suffering, and betrayal. A civil war primed it; or perhaps it caused the strife to start with. There was a pattern here that lingered at the edge of her ability to understand.
The Eclipse was an instrument of focusing that power onto others, but it melted away in the purest Light of acceptance. This was no fight, she saw. It was healing. She gently took control from Kylo and directed their combined energy through the black vessel rather than against it. One engine overcompensated by the smallest margin, shifting the laser's aim. The next second, the beam erupted and scalding, purifying energy split space – the space directly below the Finalizer's keel – and streaked off harmlessly into the void. It struck nothing, not even a TIE fighter.
There was a rumble through the Finalizer as the shields buckled, briefly overloaded by the peripheral back blast of the laser, but then they stabilized. It was the nearest clean miss possible.