Hux stood with his tray, evaluating the options in the cafeteria line of the Resistance ship, Restitution.

Finn stood behind him, because no matter how long he'd been out of the program, rank went first. It piqued a little sympathy in him to watch the grand marshal dither over something so mundane. "It's not just 'grab and go' like it is in the Order. You have to actually think about it."

"My food choice is not something I even want to think about." Hux turned to Finn. "What do you recommend?"

Finn's brows rose at being asked for his opinion. "You want to eat First Order style, or do you want to be adventurous?"

"I'll stick with what I'm used to if I can."

Finn nodded and started pointing helpfully at things as he spoke. "Then you want that protein loaf and you'll need to scrape off the sauce. Get that white stuff over there and leave off the oil. Then the leaves down there, but the sauce for it is called dressing and you don't want any."

"Is the bread safe?"

"Yeah, that stuff is, but most of the breakfast ones are so sweet I can't handle them. I don't know about you." Finn chuckled. When Hux glanced at him for it, he shrugged. "You ought to hear the people here talk about being forced to eat First Order food." He shook his head. "They think we eat prison slop or something. They hate it."

"Hm. Poe has not complained to me. Has he to you?"

Finn snorted. "Poe has so many good things to say about First Order stuff, it bothers me."

Hux gave him an amused glance and went about filling his tray per the recommendation. "It's not like he's housed in the barracks when he visits. He's getting a biased view."

Finn tilted his head at Hux and said, "Thank you. I'm glad someone realizes that! Now if you could just convince Rey and Poe and Steel, it would make me a lot happier. I listen to them and it's like I defected for no reason." He huffed and took a slice of the same meatloaf, but chose other things for the rest of his selection.

Hux didn't answer, so they took a seat with the rest. Hux's staff were along one side of the table and he joined them there. Finn sat in the empty seat that had been left next to Poe, which meant he was across from Hux. Poe was across from Eddiva Birnham, who had been the ranking member of the entourage until Hux arrived. Those in the First Order group, who had been halfway through their meal, stopped eating. Hux took a small bite of bread immediately and they resumed. Then he set about removing his gloves, sorting his cutlery and putting his napkin in his lap, then moving plates around to his liking.

Poe gave that synchronized pause and resumption a perplexed look but no one explained it. Finn asked Hux, "Did you ever serve field duty?"

"Yes. On Lothal." He scraped away the sauce from the loaf as suggested.

"How did that go?"

"Badly. Roughly two-thirds the deployment did not survive. The rest … had injuries."

"Ew." Finn made a face. "You, too?"

"None made it out untouched, but I got off lightly. Luck. Not any special skill on my part. I was fresh out of the academy and didn't know my posterior from a hole in the ground. It was a bad mission from the start."

Finn chuckled. "Was that the only one? The only deployment you had?"

Hux raised a brow at him. "It was. My father had a fit about the whole thing and I was shuffled off to Lanson Down for a much safer assignment." Hux rolled his eyes. "I was so out of my mind bored that I began corresponding with people about weapon design, which eventually led to Starkiller Base."

"Oh." Finn's tone was flat.

"Oh?" Hux copied him.

Finn shrugged. "Even I heard … rumors, you know. About your dad and your career."

"Ah." Hux gave him a sour look. "Yes, favoritism. The rumors are true as far as that goes. But it is not true that I asked for it, preferred it, or benefited from it. My objections were behind closed doors, however. My father had to take the gloves off for that one and I ended up teaching children. Again. It was not the career path I would have chosen for myself. He passed away not long after that."

Finn frowned at him. "You know, I would have appreciated having a father who cared if I lived or died."

Hux's face creased with sincere, if chilly, amusement. "Then you should also know that I am my father's son in many ways. Some people are better off without their parents' care as a factor in their lives."

"How can that be to be better off alone in the world?" Finn asked. Hux stared at him with an odd expression, at once calculating, unguarded, penetrating, and avid. It was unblinking and cold in a reptilian way. Finn pulled his head back, having no idea what he just walked into. "Uh …" He gestured at Hux's plate, changing the subject. "Food good?"

"Yes." Hux shifted to something more human. "Thank you for the advice."

"I was surprised you took it," Finn said, shaking off the unsettled feeling. Poe beamed at the two of them. Finn asked, "What?"

"Well, look at that," Poe said cheerfully, having seen their interaction. "You two getting along even when you're talking about touchy stuff. I'm glad to see it."

"You told me to try," Finn said. "You haven't been wrong yet about people I needed to get to know."

Hux's eyes flitted between the two of them. Very quietly, he said, "I like to think he has exceptional judgment about people. I am constantly amazed by it."

Poe's happy smile warmed further. He tried to catch Hux's eye, but the man kept his head down. So Poe grinned at the small woman who sat next to Hux. She smiled back at him in a friendly way. Poe asked, "What's the name of your department, Eddiva?"

"The Interplanetary Diplomatic Corps."

Poe's smile turned mischievous. "What's the name of the espionage department?"

Hux's head came up then. He answered for her. "It's called the Espionage Department. Why?"

"You have one?" Poe's brows drew together a little. "Kylo said she was in charge of the spies and secret agents."

Hux scoffed. "What? Are you seriously going to tell me you'd rather believe a former supreme leader who was in a position to know and has nothing to lose by telling you everything, over me, who is honor-bound to lie to you about First Order secrets?"

Initially responding to Hux's offended tone, Poe opened his mouth before his brain caught up with what Hux had actually said. His mouth snapped shut. He cocked his head. "Honor-bound to lie to me?"

"My oath to the Order comes first," Hux said. "I will not foreswear myself, for reasons we discussed last night."

Poe stared off into the distance over Hux's head, thinking. Finn said, "He told you. You heard him, right?"

"Yeah, I heard him," Poe said, shaking his head and loading his fork. "I get it. Kylo was right."

Hux grunted. "Eddiva, make a note to dock Ren's pay. We can't have this go without consequence."

"Yes sir." Eddiva was utterly straight-faced about it, just as Hux was. But Poe snorted. Finn rolled his eyes.

Seated next to Poe, Kaydel said, "Wait – Kylo Ren is still on the First Order payroll?"

"He's lying," Poe tried to explain.

"I am not," Hux said crossly. "How dare you accuse me! He's being paid the same as he always was. But I'll see to that!"

Finn choked on the pasta dish he was eating.

Poe stared at Hux with wide eyes, then shook his head. "It's the tone that's getting me. Wow. If I did not know better, I would not be able to tell."

"Tell what? That I'm telling the truth? It is the truth!" He turned to Finn. "Finn. Poe trusts you. More than me, obviously, if he insists on calling me a liar in front of everyone. Is Kylo Ren drawing the same salary now that he was as the supreme leader?"

Finn was still coughing. He grinned and nodded because he couldn't speak yet.

"There." Hux gestured at Finn. "My point is proven." To Poe he said, "Your accusation is reprehensible."

Poe grinned. "You flirt in the funniest ways. I love it." Hux colored slightly, but the quick glance he shot Poe was not unappreciative.

Kaydel looked over at Finn and asked, "How would Finn know anything about Kylo's salary?"

"No one gets paid anything in the First Order," Poe tried to explain to her.

Kaydel gave him a doubting look. "That doesn't make sense."

Finn started making a choked noise again. Poe turned to him. "Are you alright? Seriously, buddy?" Finn nodded and covered his face. He was trying not to laugh out loud.

Hux said to Kaydel, "I know. A person would have to be mad to do such a difficult and thankless job if it wasn't well-rewarded. You know what I'm talking about, in the Resistance. There's no way to be disciplined without money involved."

Kaydel blinked at him. "We're volunteers." Her voice was uncertain, because Finn was still laughing and Poe had both hands up trying to interrupt. "We're not doing this for money."

"Volunteers!" Hux said. "That doesn't make sense. You can't tell me you believe in your cause enough to fight and die without even the promise of remuneration?"

Kaydel stared at him unhappily, knowing he was mocking her and not appreciating being the butt of it. It gave Poe the opportunity to say, "Okay, he's not exactly lying."

"Not exactly?" Hux objected.

Poe ignored him. "The First Order doesn't pay anyone a salary, not him, not even the supreme leader when they had one. That means Kylo is currently paid as much as he ever was - nothing. It's a joke."

"Our pay is a joke," Finn said quietly, having finally gotten himself under control.

Hux's lips quirked. "It's a very common one. Anyone in the Order would be familiar with it."

"You're all volunteers, also?" Kaydel asked.

"There's a little more nuance to it than that," Hux allowed, "but yes."

"Brainwashed slaves, more like," Finn said with distaste.

Hux shrugged off-handedly. "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Finn frowned. "Where there's a way, there's a will. Yeah, I remember." For the sake of the Resistance members at the table, he translated it: "If it can be done, someone is going to make you do it."

"And if someone wants it done," Hux said, copying the answering call-and-response into the vernacular Finn was using, "you'll find a way to do it."

Finn grimaced. "I'd rather not get into things that were programmed into my head subliminally by your psyops project. So tell me about Lothal. What happened?"

Hux was still in a good mood from the banter. He snorted softly. "You want a war story or an after action review?"

Finn put his elbows on the table and fists on his cheeks. "A war story."

"A war story?" Hux repeated, regarding Finn with amusement. He looked to Poe, who was listening, and at the others, who were similarly waiting to see what this request would produce. He sighed. "Very well. This particular story happened around fifteen years ago. As I said, I'd only just graduated. It was supposed to be very simple – three shuttles, three squads, some officers all newly commissioned – some of the first graduates from the new academy. Our mission was to guard a set of ore crawlers for the Mining Guild. They were extracting doonium on behalf of the First Order."

Hux folded his forearms over one another on the table in front of him, primarily directing his story to Finn. "Lothal had been the site of severe unrest between the Empire and the Rebellion, with the point of contention having been the extraction of resources similar to what the ore crawlers were doing. But that had been another fifteen years prior at the very end of the Empire. Ancient history by my standards at the time.

"I assumed – incorrectly as it turned out – that my superiors had researched the situation sufficiently, with an eye to any remaining Rebellion sympathizers. They had not. They instead accepted the reassurances of the Mining Guild that an agreement had been reached with the planetary government to allow their presence per the old Imperial contract. The governor affirmed this. That significant Rebellion elements with military-grade equipment were unwilling to abide by this was not discovered until it was too late.

"Our first five-day rotation was exactly the sort of boring operation we'd all been told to expect. We used the area around the crawlers as a practice ground, doing maneuvers, target practice, setting up campsites and debating the best use of the terrain. We even discussed survival scenarios or simulating guerilla activity just to stay sharp over the next few months of our assignment, but it never came to that. By the second rotation, the Avenger, which was functioning as our mother ship, had departed according to plan. Our presence was virtually ceremonial and at that point, entirely unsupported.

"They struck an hour or so before dawn. It was still entirely dark. If the night watch saw them coming, it wasn't soon enough to warn anyone. I woke when the shuttle that was in the air – because there was always one, that was protocol – was shot down and crashed near where I lay in my tent. All hands aboard were immediately lost, as were those less fortunate than I in sleeping location. We had not expected our enemies to have x-wings. We hadn't expected enemies at all beyond the odd vandal or protesting farmer."

Finn was listening raptly. The others were paying attention as well and eating quietly.

Hux continued, "As the wave of ships circled – and as you know, they're very maneuverable, this takes little time – we were throwing off our sleeping bags, grabbing our weapons, and getting upright. No time for armor, gear, or even much in the way of clothing if we'd been unwise enough to sleep in other than full outfit. We had a few guards in emplacements, but our best bet for retaliation was the shuttle armament. Of course, our enemies were aware of this as well. As they came back through, they tried to focus their fire on the two shuttles still on the ground, having less luck in that they destroyed neither outright. As I recall, the emplacement gunners managed to shoot down a single x-wing, which crashed unhelpfully into the ore crawler operating nearest our camp, disabling it.

"The shuttle I mustered to managed to take off, but it kept listing. It described a wide, spiraling arc while airborne, which meant it had difficulty in bringing its guns to bear. The other shuttle fared better. The third pass of the x-wings saw the both of us, as well as the ground emplacements, manage to thin out their number, but my shuttle took several hits. For whatever reason, the shields were not up. Have you ever been in a ship that had no shields?"

Finn shook his head. "Well, on Crait. But not like what I think you're talking about. I mean, nothing big enough to have holes shot through it."

"Yes," Hux nodded. "That's it exactly. Holes. One of the people I graduated with was in one of those holes. Or they were. Afterward, we had legs and a few other parts that give me nightmares to this day. The ship fell. Our pilot," Hux glanced over Poe, "Draxis, who I've mentioned to you before, did a superhuman job of managing the process. We would have all died if she had not. As it was, some of the remaining crew did not survive the crash and the ship was wrecked. Obviously, I was not among the fatalities. Corporal Draxis died shortly after … landing.

"At that point, the last few x-wings concentrated fire on the remaining shuttle for a single pass, and then fled when they were unable to similarly knock it from the sky. They probably did not know it, but they did enough damage that it was never going to fly again. It landed in good order with all crew alive, but it was grounded.

"So there we were. There was not a functioning communication system between the remains of three shuttles and the ore crawler we could get to. We had no vehicles that might allow us to quickly reach the other crawlers or a population center. Our medical resources were limited. Our supplies damaged. And our enemies knew our location. They would return. As the sun rose, we did our best to salvage what we could and retreated to the little cover afforded by the brushy trees in the area.

"In the evening, another wave of x-wings came through and destroyed the grounded shuttle. They also strafed the other ore crawlers further afield that we were obviously unable to protect now. Then they spotted our camp and decided on it as a more entertaining target. We had not been so bold as to fire upon them and draw attention, but that didn't matter. We suffered more losses before darkness closed in and they moved on. We, likewise, relocated. In the dark. After a full day of battle and exertion. Carrying the wounded and dragging our ground guns.

"It began to rain early the following day and to this we credited our survival. The x-wings did several flyovers, but they didn't see us through the gloom. We were miserably cold and what shelters we still had were not enough to protect all of us from the elements. We had water, but not much in the way of food. We discussed whether we should send a party to the downed shuttles to see what else we could scavenge, or to cobble together communications from the other ore crawlers. Given that was the obvious place our enemies would be waiting for us, we ultimately did neither."

"It was … several days," Hux swallowed uneasily, paling a little at the memory of that time, "before we were extracted. First we had to be noted as late for our rotation. Then determined to be unresponsive to attempted communication. Then efforts were made to find us, but we'd moved well clear of the ore crawler and concealed ourselves as much as possible. Once we were discovered, we were removed from the planet." He swallowed again. "And that … is the story of my first and last field deployment."

"That sounds horrific," Finn said after the silence indicated Hux was done.

"It was."

"What do you do after an assignment like that?" Finn asked. "I've never had one go sideways that much."

"You study how to wipe out entire planets, because obviously brokering deals with the legitimate government is insufficient. Assuming you have the free time, which I did once I was Downworld." Hux lifted his glass and took a sip. "You also harbor very long-term resentment against the Rebellion and any movements that look similar, and distrust the competency of those higher ranked than one's self." He raised his brows at Finn, who grimaced.

"I've never heard you tell that story," Eddiva said from next to him.

Hux looked to Eddiva. "Because I have never told it until now. Not in full, at least. So many in the Order insist my experience of warfare is entirely theoretical that speaking of it would sound like I was trying to aggrandize myself. As though talking about such an abject failure of a mission would do that! Days spent cowering in shrubbery without supplies was harder to take than the engagement itself, but watching people die of sepsis makes for a less interesting story than explosions and screaming."

Poe asked, "How many of you guys survived that? You said, what, two-thirds didn't make it?"

"We started with sixty people," Hux said. "Twenty-three left the planet alive. One died in transit. About a dozen of us were reasonably able-bodied at the end, myself among them."

Finn shook his head. "Makes me look back on my assignments and realize I had it good."

"Enough about it," Hux said with an annoyed wave. "What happened with you, though, after you left the Finalizer? How did you end up on Takodana with General Solo?"

Finn looked upwards, thinking that over. "Okay … um, yeah, I can tell that. It's kind of a funny story, so maybe you'll enjoy it." He told about the escape with Poe, playing up their cockpit banter, then the grossness of the happabore beast he'd been forced to share water with once he made it to Niima Outpost. He glossed over his escape with Rey, but went back into detail when they were captured by Han's heavy freighter. In his version, the rathtars ate twice as many people as they had in reality and the hijinks were just as ridiculous. He wrapped up with them leaving on the Falcon. "We ended up on Takodana after that," he said. "You know the story from there."

"Ah, yes, we do," Hux nodded.

Eddiva said, "We spent a lot of effort and credits tracking him and that droid. To think what it all would have amounted to had he been eaten by a space monster and the droid wiped."

Poe chuckled. "Yeah, because that's totally what interplanetary diplomacy does – track people and spy on them." She gave him an amused smile. Poe leaned forward. "Tell me. What did Fuseb do?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," she told him.

Poe looked from her to everyone else, all of whom knew she was full of it. "Yeah, okay. Who do I believe, huh? You or my own lying eyes when you were sitting right next to each other for days on Naboo. Come on. Give me a better story than that!"

"He worked for Snoke," Hux said apologetically. "We hardly know the man."

Poe shook his head. "I'm not buying that either."

"Alright." Hux sighed dramatically. "Then I'll tell you. He was Snoke's other apprentice."

Poe's attention sharpened on him, as did Finn and Kaydel's. Poe said, "Snoke's …?"

"Ah." Hux gestured to direct Eddiva's attention to the three and said sotto voce, "See, they believe that one."

Poe shook his head again. "No, I don't. I just don't. Kylo would have mentioned something."

"He had to think about it," Eddiva said quietly. "And come up with a reason why it's not right."

"It always helps to have something a little outlandish in it." Hux had a pleased expression. "It makes them feel like they've been let in on a secret."

Poe sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright. Fine. Kylo wouldn't tell me either."

"He wouldn't?" Hux said in a normal tone. "Eddiva, I was mistaken earlier. Restore that man's pay!"

"Yes sir."


Notes:

I had intended to tell Hux's deployment story as a stand-alone from his point of view as a younger man, but I struggled with how to frame it. I was disheartened to find a note from some canon source that Kylo Ren dismissed Hux in TFA because Hux's knowledge of warfare was entirely theoretical. I'm not sure if this was true or just a point of view thing for Kylo, so I fudged it here. Plus there was the extensive cast of original characters I would need to fabricate (and then kill off) in the course of the story. But I decided to have Hux tell about the major events here, glossing over the interpersonal struggles.

This is the same mission Hux references in the Pacification chapter General Hugs, where he held the hand of Corporal Draxis until she died. She'd been in command of the shuttle he was shot down in. He stayed in the wreckage until she passed away.

This is all somewhat at odds with the 'canon' as revealed in the book, Phasma, but that might be due to an unreliable narrator in that book. As much as possible, I have stuck with Wookieepedia and filled in the blanks from there.