General Hux glared down at the unconscious lump that was Kylo Ren.
The damned fool had been out in the woods fighting against two Resistance agents. Even more pathetic was the fact that he had lost! He had failed at defending the thermocouples. He hadn't even taken to a TIE fighter, to defend against the aerial assault. No, the brash and short sighted man had gone on foot to search for his lost scavenger girl.
Hux bit his tongue, knowing better than to say anything or act on his anger. A handful of other officers and troopers had rushed onto the transport as it evacuated Starkiller base, and he wasn't about to let them think that there were any flaws in the First Order's leadership. Starkiller base had been destroyed, and it was more critical than ever that Hux appear the consummate general. They could talk all they wanted about Ren and his shortcomings, but Hux held himself to higher standards.
A ripple of commotion surged through the crowded passenger compartment. Ren shuddered, twisting in his stupor and muttering against something that sounded like a nightmare.
Hux hoped that he was suffering in that demented little mind of his.
Swallowing an acidic remark, the general pushed through the crowd to take a seat on one of the benches.
He hadn't wanted for reality to set in, but it seemed that the general very rarely got anything he wanted.
Starkiller was gone. Firmly due to Kylo Ren's incompetence, in Hux's opinion. A decade of his hard work, the symbol of the First Order's utter dominance over the galaxy, blown to dust in an instant. It was unfair. Unthinkable! And it had been completely avoidable.
Hux grit his teeth and sat with a ramrod straight back. This was a disgrace, a grievous blow to the First Order, and a personal insult. Fleeing from the destruction of his crowning achievement on an overcrowded transport, Hux seethed and let his anger run freely through him.
The Resistance would burn for this. Forget precise strikes and being coldly effective, he wanted them to suffer, to slowly wither on the vine and to watch as the galaxy slowly crumbled beneath his heel.
The lingering remains of the New Republic wouldn't see a quick and painless downfall like Hosnian Prime. They wouldn't be spared the rod. Anyone who so much as dared whisper a longing to be rid of the First Order's rule would be made an example of.
Hux stifled a hissing breath.
Venting or looking to another for support was something he had only managed with Lori, and she wasn't here. The general knew better than to try and contact her now, it was far too crowded and he had lost his comm besides.
The last message he'd received did say that Lori and Ardis were en route. Mitaka never said that they had landed, and Hux doubted that they would have arrived before the base was destroyed.
But the possibility did nag at him.
Forcefully ignoring the baseless fear, Hux returned to thoughts of revenge. If he couldn't blast D'Qar out of the heavens, he could at least turn the planet's surface into ash and glass.
.***.***.***.***.
Lieutenant Mitaka stood in the doorway with a thousand thoughts and no words that could do them justice.
Beyond the cockpit sat the empty void of space, once filled with Starkiller base. The lieutenant heard the pilot furiously typing away and hurriedly toggling switches, desperately searching for an open communications channel.
Mitaka didn't pay the frantic cockpit any mind as he took a numb step into the passenger's compartment.
Major Gallus sat on a bench, loosely clutching a gray bundle of cloth that held the general's daughter. The infant cried for something. The lieutenant's sight drifted to the ground. There seemed something inappropriate in wondering if the infant might be crying for the same reason as her mother.
A horrible moment lingered on the ship where the only sounds were the frantic pilot and the half controlled sobs of a widow and her fatherless child.
Eyes stinging and throat raw, Lori bit down her mournful cries and forced herself to lock away the tears.
Her guts churned and felt as if they had turned to mud. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not again. Lori thought she had watched Armitage die once when the Bastion palace fell. She couldn't be left to live in that horrifying reality once more.
She lifted her sightless gaze from the floor and turned it to the nearly blocked viewport. Beyond Mitaka's wide eyed face, Lori found nothing besides the nightmare she expected.
The lieutenant watched something haunting cross over Lori's features.
Her face was tinged red with grief. Despite it, the despair clouding her eyes drifted away, replaced by anguish and smoldering rage.
Surrounded, but alone in the Upsilon shuttle, Lori made a decision.
Revenge was an ugly desire. It wasn't profitable, and it rarely lead to results. But, it was brutally satisfying. She hungered for it. For any little thing she could do to strike back at the galaxy that seemed so cruel and so cold. For any way to lash out and pull the heavens down to her level, even if it went kicking and screaming.
Lori glanced away from the empty space beyond the viewport, on the way she caught Mitaka's eye and watched him wither.
All these years later, and some things never really changed.
No matter where she went or what she did, there would always be someone bigger and stronger than her. Destruction and death would be around every corner, and would strike out with the most horrifying kind of disregard.
Lori though back to all those years ago, standing in the inferno that her childhood home had become. Life was cruel and horrible, and the only way to survive in this galaxy was to it hit harder and faster than anyone else.
Ardis shook in the blanket that her father had given to her. Lori untucked an arm and gently traced a hand around the infant's face.
In times like this, hoping hurt too much so Lori settled on anger instead.
Suddenly released from the soul piercing hold that the major's gaze had placed him under, Mitaka was able to breathe again. Barely aware of anything that wasn't his own thundering pulse, Mitaka heard a voice crackling over the ship's communication system.
"All unbound flights. Repeating, all unbound flights. Reroute to the Supremacy. Repeat, reroute to the Supremacy. Transmitting coordinates."
The words seemed hallow and heavy all at once. Without waiting for any of the officer's commands, the pilot set about keying the ships nav computer. The jump to light speed seemed to happen in an instant, and in that time Mitaka was only able to find one coherent thought in his roiling mind.
What happens now?
.***.***.***.***.
Calm on the outside, General Hux was impatiently waiting for Snoke's hologram to appear.
When it finally did, Hux managed not to react to the murderous glint in the supreme leader's eyes.
"General." Snoke croaked the word like it tasted vile.
"Supreme Leader." Hux spoke back with a voice devoid of emotion, knowing full well that his choices were complete neutrality or incoherent shouting, "Starkiller base is a total loss. Kylo Ren is unconscious and in the med-bay. I'm going to D'Qar to turn the rebel base into glass."
Snoke snarled, only to grow deathly quiet before asking, "And what of that scavenger girl?"
You can't be-!
Hux stopped the indignant thought short, "Location unknown. Sir."
The general's words held a poison on them. It chafed at Snoke, but he had grander concerns than the general's feelings, "Go then. Destroy the rebel base," he paused for a moment before adding, "and then rendezvous with the Supremacy. I must speak with my apprentice in person."
With stilted movements, Hux bowed slightly at the waist. Not waiting a moment longer for the general to go on, Snoke's hologram blinked away.
Left alone in the darkened room once more, Hux let his still-fresh anger be his driving force. He had only had fitful bouts of restless sleep since the fall of Bastion, and he hadn't slept at all since the destruction of Hosnian Prime. This new pressing list of tasks wouldn't allow him a moment's rest any time soon.
A short walk found the general in an activity-laden war room. Holographic maps, colored with overlays and crowded with scrolling reports floated above the table computers that dominated the center of the room.
The general scoffed as he saw that Captain Canady had finally finished his mission across the Pentastar Alignment.
Where are Lori and Ardis? Hux found the thought rolling around the back of his head. Mitaka hadn't reported back to him. Unsurprisingly so, given the dangerous fog of war that the Resistance had managed to create.
The general checked his comm for a message. Finding it empty left a shadow to cross over his features.
A captain standing opposite the table of the general winced as he watched Hux. The entire room had gone on edge, and everyone was sure that he was about to make their day several times worse than it already was.
Braced as they all were, no one was surprised when Hux uttered an order.
"Contact Canady. He's to rendezvous with us at D'Qar."
The captain looked at the floating map, noting that Canady and his dreadnaught were to the far north of the galaxy. In order for him to reach D'Qar he would have to cut straight across New Republic territory. The captain was about to say as much, but a venomous look from the general cowed him into obedience.
Simply muttering a, "yes, sir," the captain set about drafting a communique.
Hux was no fool, he saw the map as clearly as everyone else in the room. His order was meant to be a message as much as it was an effective way to bring a dreadnaught to D'Qar. The New Republic was in shambles, and there wasn't a single system that could stand up against Canady's ship. The heavily armed vessel was defiant of the New Republic's laws, and having it cut through the heart of their territory was a symbol clear as any that they were no longer in power.
That their space belonged to the First Order, and that Hux would do whatever he pleased with it.