"Should any of us be captured by the First Order, the ensuing torture would demonstrate unequivocally that death is sometimes preferable to continued life," I said, watching the color drain away from Seastriker's face as he recognized my comment was not some simple attempt to instill fear but an candid reflection of what I had seen.

Dameron swallowed, but his spirited nature quickly resurfaced. "No… not really looking forward to being a First Order prisoner again." He turned to look directly at me. "Not that I didn't have a charming host last time. But you normally don't get that lucky twice."

"I have certain abilities they lack," I replied with no emotion. "Thus, their approach is often more… crude."

Dameron nodded in understanding, then motioned towards one of the prefabricated buildings nearby. "Command center is in there, we need to get things moving if we want to stay ahead of the game on this."

I followed the two pilots. The building had originally been developed to serve as the operational and administrative center of a deployed garrison. The entire structure could be erected in a matter of hours, providing office space and a command room. I took note that much of the equipment had not been updated since the fall of the Galactic Empire; while perfectly capable of supporting a humanitarian operation it would put the Resistance at a severe disadvantage in a military engagement with the First Order.

Leia was one of several individuals huddled over a display in the center of the command room. She immediately sensed my presence and turned to face me as I entered. "We all owe you a debt of gratitude," she said.

"But that is going to have to wait," Dameron interjected. "We might have a bigger problem." He nodded to me.

"If our presence here is reported to the First Order, it is likely that they will commence a second attack," I explained.

"According to Kylo, First Order Special Ops normally uses a narrow beam, low power transmitter. It is hard to detect or intercept, but it means it needs a line of sight link-up to some kind of relay," Dameron added. "Probably one not very far away."

"So they will not be able to send their report until planetary alignment is correct," Leia surmised.

"Yes, Ma'am." Dameron motioned towards the central display. "If I may General?"

Leia nodded, and Dameron proceeded to enter several instructions into the system. The display changed from a close-up of Myard City to a view of the entire quadrant, with Ultan IV at its center. Two other systems lit up as well. "Assuming the First Order hasn't come up with some revolutionary new portable transmitter, these are the only relay stations that are in range." He looked at me. "At least we think that is all of them."

Their eyes turned to me. "There is a facility under construction on Primaxa II," I offered, "I do not know if it's current status." I pointed at one of the illuminated systems. "Dvorkask was abandoned several months ago."

"Really? Why would the they do that?" one of Leia's aides asked.

I turned my gaze to her and frowned. Not only was the First Order's rational irrelevant, her inquiry was distracting from the situation at hand. "It no longer served a purpose," I replied, my tone suggesting any additional questions would be unwise.

"So no Dvorkask, and to be safe let's put Primaxa into the mix." Dameron keyed in several more commands. "So if the Special Operations team wants to transmit something to their commander, at least one of these two relays needs to be visible in the sky." He looked intently at a readout on the display. "At the rate of planetary rotation, the first relay will rise above the horizon in just under six hours."

"So assuming they stay put, we have six hours to find them before it doesn't really matter," Seastriker noted.

"And if they move to another location?" Leia asked. "One where a relay station will come into view sooner?"

"They'd need a speeder or spacecraft in order to move fast enough to make a difference," Dameron said. "So we need to ground all of them."

Leia hid her surprise well, only the slightest twitch of her eyebrows evident to the others. To me, her emotions were far more pronounced. "Speeders and spacecraft are instrumental to the relief effort."

"Should the First Order return," I said, "there will be no further need for a relief effort."

Leia let out her breath slowly. "You really believe they would attack again to capture or eliminate me?"

"Any First Order Commander who can slay the head of the Resistance would be rewarded immensely," I said. "It would be ill-advised to underestimate the ambition of men like Varral and Hux." I paused for a moment. "It is also possible that the Special Operations personnel either identified me, or their superiors will suspect my presence upon receipt of their report."

"And I'm guessing that's an even bigger prize," Seastriker said. "Bringing your head to Snoke would be a real career boost." His smirk slowly waned as he saw Leia's dark expression. Despite all that had transpired, my torture or execution at the hands of Snoke or his agents was a source of grave concern for her.

Leia turned to one of her aides. "Is Councilor Hahmes still here?"

"Yes, General," the woman answered. "I'll get him immediately."

Leia returned her attention to the plots in myself. "Councilor Hahmes is a member of the Myard City Council and has been our government contact here," she explained. I did not attempt to feign interest.

Moments later, the aide returned with slender man of average height, the fatigue in his eyes suggesting he had not slept in quite some time. "You asked for me General?" His eyes flicked across the assembled people and came to a stop on me. Standing taller than any other human in the room and dressed in black, it was not surprising I attracted his attention. "You are the one that stopped the attack?"

I looked down at the shorter man, his amicable expression wavering slightly as our eyes met. "I am"

"That was most impressive," Hahmes said. His words seemed warm, but it was the hollow politeness of a politician. Below the surface he was uneasy, his mind uncomfortable with what had transpired and intimidated by both my power and appearance. "How did you do that?"

It took a great deal of effort to hide my antipathy for useless small talk. "My capabilities with the Force are quite extensive," I replied.

For a moment Hahmes seemed to take the comment at face value, then somewhere deep in his mind he made a startling connection. The warmth wavered, and then disappeared, a look of apprehension settling over his face. "Since General Organa arrived there have been rumors she was accompanied by Kylo Ren. I had assumed they were an exaggeration. The idea that…"

Leia lowered her gaze slightly. "I apologize; I should have told you Councilor," she said in a conciliatory tone.

"I'm sure you had no intention to mislead me, General," Hahmes replied, his tone not as forgiving as his words. His thoughts were even less so, but he knew better than to alienate Leia. "You did indeed say you had a First Order defector with you, and I never explicitly asked… but… a First Order officer is one thing, Kylo Ren…." He turned back to me. "The terror we experienced, the suffering we are now enduring, it has happened many times before; and often on your personal orders."

"That is correct," I said. Despite a conscious effort to keep any hint of pride or satisfaction out of my voice I could still feel the chill running down Hahmes's spine.

"Councilor, I understand your discomfort," Leia said, "but we have certain matters to discuss that are time sensitive."

"Of course, General," Hahmes said, his eyes still on me.

"We have reason to believe that the attack on our assembly was perpetrated by a First Order Special Operations team that landed unnoticed during the attack."

The councilor finally turned to her. "That does not seem to be surprising."

"The problem is," Dameron explained, "If they get a message off to the First Order—something saying General Organa and Kylo Ren are here—we are at risk of a second attack."

Hahmes face darkened perceptibly. "So his presence puts my people at risk?" he asked, a tinge of anger in his voice.

"As does the presence of any Resistance force," Leia reminded him.

"Of course your generosity is appreciated, even if it presents certain… challenges," Hahmes offered diplomatically. "But the fact remains we must face this new threat."

"We need to find the First Order troops before any message is sent," Leia explained.

"How do we do that… how do we know it hasn't been sent already?"

Dameron answered: "According to Kylo, they have only a narrow-beam medium range transmitter. So a nearby system with a First Order relay station must be visible in the sky for them to send a message. That hasn't happened yet from this part of the planet."

The Councilor flashed a modest smile, using self-deprecation to soften his ignorance. "I'm sorry, I'm a farmer and a councilman."

Dameron entered several commands into the display panel, and the system map was replaced by a close up showing the curvature of the planet's surface. "They need a small, portable transmitter that cannot be intercepted easily," he explained. "Thus it is not going to have much range, so only the nearest First Order outposts could pick it up and relay it. In fact, only two are in range, one in the Kapor sector, and the other on Primaxa II. Right now, both of those are below the horizon."

He input several keystrokes, and the view zoomed out. Two dots illuminated to represent the First Order outposts, along with a third dot showing our approximate location on the planet's surface. "As you can see, the receivers they need to broadcast to are on the other side of the planet right now. So they need to wait until the planet rotates enough"—the display of Ultan began to spin—"until they come into view in the sky."

"But couldn't they just take a shuttle and go to the other side of the planet?" Hahmes asked.

Leia nodded. "That is why I need your help. We need to ground all speeders and spacecraft. Immediately."

Hahmes looked confused, then his face gradually grew red. "Ground… do you realize what damage that will do to the relief efforts?"

"Far less than another attack," Seastriker said.

"And these assumptions… this intelligence your acting on… is from him?" Hahmes scoffed. "You want to derail our entire relief effort on the word of Kylo Ren?"

"I have no reason to deceive you," I said acridly, my conscious effort to hide my contempt for the man failing. "I gain nothing by impairing your relief efforts."

"You get to prolong the suffering and misery of my people. Don't you Dark Siders take pleasure in that?"

"If I wanted to cause suffering I need not resort to such elaborate deceptions," I replied firmly. With no apparent motion on my part I reached out through the Force gently wrapping a tendril around the man's throat. He reached up as if brushing away an invisible cobweb, seeming not to realize the veiled threat of my actions.

I turned to Leia. "Why are we even discussing this with a lowly Councilor?"

Hahmes nostrils flared, and his anger barely contained within the polished politician's exterior. "Because my colleagues—my friends—are dead."

"All of them?" Seastriker asked. "An entire government wiped out?

The councilor inhaled sharply, his years of political experience helping him to regain a sense of calm. "Our procedures call for all of the Councilors, as well as the City Overseer and Planetary Governor, to assemble in the council chambers to deal with emergency situations. I was delayed by debris along my path. The chambers were destroyed before I arrived... with all my counterparts inside."

"It is a poor strategy to centralize your leadership in such a way," I offered, eliciting sharp stares from my companions. The Councilor himself seemed a bit taken aback; I had no intention of faking compassion in the face of such an egregious tactical error.

"We are a farming community," Hahmes explained. "Our emergencies are generally limited to foul weather or industrial accidents. We had no reason to think the chambers would be targeted in such a way."

"Lack of perceived threats is not a suitable excuse for failing to make adequate preparations." Certainly, anyone under my command claiming they failed to defend their territory because the danger was unlikely would not live long enough to remediate their mistake.

"Not all cultures spend their time preparing for war," Dameron pointed out.

Hahmes pursed his lips, carefully considering his response in the way politicians often do. It is likely he chose his words carefully for Leia's benefit rather than mine; I doubted the man cared what I thought of him. "We are a people of hope, Mr. Ren. We do not spend our time working to better ourselves, not imaging the worst horrors that can befall us."

"You have not begun to see the terror that can be unleashed by the forces of the First Order," I replied. "You should consider yourselves lucky."

"Lucky?" Hahmes scoffed incredulously, the polished political veneer rapidly coming off. "Thousands dead, families torn apart. You've walked through the ruins, how can you possibly not be moved by such destruction? How can you not despise yourself for what you have done?"

"My actions have always been in pursuit of a greater purpose. I do not have the luxury of concerning myself with individual lives."

"Those are the words of a murder, not a defector," Hahmes observed.

"Call me what you will," I hissed, "But I have purpose in the Galaxy."

"The persecution of the innocent is not a purpose!" Hahmes roared. His face was contorted by emotion. "It is a sickness."

A/N: As always, thank you for all the follows, views, faves, and especially reviews and PMs!

I know the talk about transmitters and such can slow things down a bit, but I needed to set up for the next section of the story which I think will be pretty interesting.

Thanks again!