Colonel Kaplan escorted him down to the deck of the hangar bay. Four pilots waited for them. Three were fully suited in the black flight suits of the TIE program, but with red stripes along the helmet. To signify their greater proficiency than the average pilot. The last had her helmet off and was tinkering with one of the connectors. The one closest to her nudged her. She glanced up, saw they were near, and put the helmet on as protocol dictated.

The colonel drew up before them and double-checked the tiny insignias. "Lord Ren. These will be your wingmen on today's mission: TN-4331, TN-8232, XR-1743, and TY-9878. They are among our highest scoring pilots in simulations. TN-4331 and XR-1743 have seen substantial flight time and active combat service."

"Good. Where?"

Kylo was looking at TN-4331, but it was Kaplan who answered. "Ryloth, sir."

"Ah." Kylo remembered being in a meeting when that particular action had been revealed to Snoke. The leader had not been pleased. "Vice Admiral Pabril was commanding, wasn't he?"

"Yes sir." Kaplan answered again. He moved forward a step to put himself in Kylo's line of sight, since Kylo was still facing the pilot he'd intended to speak to. The pilots themselves were silent and still. Despite them being higher ranked than mere stormtroopers, they were no more allowed to take part in the conversations of their betters than anyone else in the First Order. As long as the colonel was there, they would speak only to answer direct questions, unless specifically given liberty to do otherwise.

Kylo gave in to the local culture and turned his helmet toward Kaplan. "Show me the ship."

"Over here." He turned to lead the way. Kylo gestured to the pilots to follow. Kaplan glanced back when he heard the combined tread of many boots – he hadn't given the order. Until they took to the air, they were technically his soldiers, not Kylo's. His eyes flitted to Kylo, then back forward. Wisely, he didn't argue. He opened a side bay to reveal the new starfighter, hanging from overhead supports.

"Here it is," Kaplan said. "The TIE/vn space superiority fighter – the Silencer." He turned to Kylo. "You know its capabilities?"

"I don't need the sales pitch," Kylo said. He ran a hand along the inside of one angular wing, then turned to examine the bottom of the cockpit. He picked at a strip of tape, peeling it back. It was so new, they hadn't finished taking off the packaging. "No one has flown this?"

"No. It was just delivered to the shipyards for testing a few days ago. We were still … discussing options for pilots."

"I'll fly it."

"I was told it was a bit … highly calibrated."

"Good. This is all I need from you." He peeled off a matching strip of tape from the opposite side of the little vessel, looking around for more. If Kaplan scowled at him for the rudeness, Kylo didn't see it. Or care. The man left without any parting formality. When he was out of earshot, Kylo wadded up the tape and came out to face the four pilots. "Do you have callsigns?" They hesitated. "You can speak freely."

One at a time, they identified themselves: "Zip." "Torfa." "Dally." "Zinger."

"What are you flying?"

Zip answered. "TIE/sf's."

"Standard issue?"

"Hm … we've customized a little," Dally said.

"Yourselves?"

"Yes," she answered. She hesitated before adding, "Sir?"

Kylo shrugged. "Call me what you want."

"Sir," she said promptly. The others nodded.

Kylo accepted it. "That's good to hear – that you've customized. Creating a bond is important." He ran his hand over the missile ports below the red-hued cockpit. "Objects gain resonances from the lives they touch. A standard, mass-produced item may never have been touched by living hands. It's empty. But not this." He patted the ship. "Custom-built by engineers and technicians, torn down and reassembled. Test flights in air and deep space. We may not have flown this, but the ones who built it did."

He turned to them, suspecting he was losing them with the Force talk. It was, unfortunately, all he'd known for the previous decade and he hadn't had much in the way of 'normal' socialization before that. "The loss rate among TIEs yesterday was unacceptable. We won't be able to land heavy ground units tomorrow if the enemy still controls the air. You four and myself will thin their ranks."

"Against how many?" Zinger asked.

Kylo shrugged. "The number doesn't matter. Their speed does. If we get overwhelmed, we retreat up. General Hux will be bringing three star destroyers into high atmosphere. Based on the data from yesterday's assault, they should be too high for most ground defenses and yet low enough to give us cover. Finding the tiny step built into the side of the ship, Kylo sprang up to it gracefully, balancing on it with one foot and finding the step above it with his other. He searched the top of the vessel for more sealant or packing material. Finding none, he opened the cockpit.

Speaking to them, he said, "To your ships. I'll take a few practice turns around the hangar to get a feel for the controls, then we'll go out."

He did as he said, getting the ship running, releasing the supports, and letting it drift into the hangar at the lowest of speeds. Mostly, he was just coasting on the repulsors, but it gave him a chance to figure out exactly what 'highly calibrated' meant. What it meant was that the ship needed a steady hand. Small twitches of the controls translated into sharp changes of heading.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that, as his ability to manipulate the ship's vector using the Force was smoother than anything he could do physically with the controls. It wasn't that his hand was unsteady, but the Force was only influenced by his focus and not by g-forces, momentum, concussive blasts, or anything else that might effect his grip on the flight stick.

A voice came over Kylo's comm. "Lord Ren, bay door one is ready."

"I'm not."

"Um, he said he's not ready, sir. What does that mean? I mean, what do I say?"

Kylo opened his mouth to respond, but fell silent as he realized the petty officer had merely forgotten to mute his side of the conversation. He heard Kaplan answer in the background, "It means he's not ready. Let him be. The planet's not going anywhere."

"Yes sir." And still, the comm channel stayed open. Kylo smirked. First day on the job, he supposed. He recalled Peavey's disgust at how young and inexperienced everyone was. Kylo had not missed how two of the 'best' pilots Kaplan had, had no combat experience whatsoever. No wonder TIEs had been shot from the sky so profligately the day before. He kept his ears open as he continued turning, pivoting, and dipping the little craft.

The four pilots hung mostly stationary in their ships. It was an unusual enough thing to have happen that most of the hangar ground crew stopped their work to observe. It was also the first time they'd seen the silencer under power. True to its name, it was quiet, engines making a subtle hum and the adjustment jets surrounded with baffles to cut the sound.

After a little while, there was a beep and a click over the open comm channel, then Hux's voice asking, "Kaplan, report."

"Yes sir. They are … staging for take-off, sir."

"Staging? It's past time they were to depart. Is there a problem?"

"No sir."

"What are they doing? Is it Ren, or is there an equipment issue?"

"It's, um, he's doing a familiarization checklist. It's standard, sir."

It was not, but he had to admit it sounded like something that would be. Kylo stared at the comm, wondering why Kaplan was lying for him. Maybe it wasn't a lie, but Kaplan hadn't asked what he was doing out there. Which meant he was just making something up for Hux, who said, "A familiarization checklist? What's that?"

"It's a new ship. I'm sure he hasn't flown one of this style before. He's just being conservative."

"Conservative seems an unlikely thing to say about him. How long will this take?"

"Just a few minutes more, sir." Another ass-pull for Kylo's benefit. It made Kylo feel bad about disrespecting him earlier. Kylo did that as default toward the upper ranks. Not all of them deserved it. He suspected he needed to cut that out.

"We're burning a lot of fuel at this altitude," Hux said after a pause. "Fine. We'll remain on standby."

"Yes sir." A click.

Then the voice of the petty officer, "Should I comm the lord?"

"What for?"

"So … um … if it takes longer than a few minutes …?"

"Then the general will call back and I'll tell him it will take a few minutes more. The man's about to fly into combat. Let him choose his own time."

Kylo supposed his prolonged hesitation might look like cowardice, though he wasn't sure that was what Kaplan thought. He didn't hear any disgust in his tone. In any case, he was done testing the controls. He switched the comm channel to his pilots. "Form up. We're heading out. Bay door one."