AN: Happy Monday! There's not a whole lot to say, other than that I look forward to Thursday
.***.***.***.***.
General Hux stood on the bridge of the Finalizer. Before him was the ominous shadow of the Fulminatrix. Dwarfing the general's star destroyer, Captain Canady's dreadnaught stretched on for over seven kilometers into the distance.
Anyone with an untrained eye wouldn't see the faded scorches of turbolaser fire against the Fulminatrix's side. They wouldn't see the clouding in the transparasteel windows that came with a direct hit. They wouldn't see the warping at the edge of the orbital bombardment cannons that came with hours or days of continual use.
But the general saw all of it as he gazed down at the larger ship, and in the small wounds he saw proof that the New Republic, and all of the other imperial remnants combined, couldn't hope to stand against his marvelous machines. The remains of the imperial navy had been no match for a single dreadnaught, and the Republic's navy hadn't even tried to challenge her.
Hux was sure that the fleeing resistance could never hope to damage his dreadnaught. Even if she was scarred and tired from a campaign across half the galaxy.
Beyond the Fulminatrix floated a green planet. Dotted with lakes and no central sea, Hux could make out the occasional silvery dot breaching the planet's atmosphere and fleeing into the stars.
They knew we were coming, he realized, Hunting them down one by one will be a pain.
As the pair First Order ships drifted closer, the stream of Resistance vermin slowed to nothing more than a few limping transports.
Still, General Hux found some pleasure in catching the stragglers.
"We've caught them in the middle of their evacuation," Captain Peavey informed General Hux of the obvious.
Biting down a bitter retort, Hux instead played the part of an unaffected commander simply following orders from on high, "I have my orders from Supreme Leader Snoke himself. This is where we snuff out the resistance once and for all. Tell Captain Canady to prime his dreadnaught. Incinerate their base, destroy their transports, and obliterate their fleet."
The captain nodded, a bead of sweat threatening to roll down his temple. He had always held a disdain for the much younger general, being half convinced that the man had only gotten his position by exploiting his family name. However, seeing that Hux had somehow held onto his title after the Starkiller disaster, Peavey was quickly realizing how dangerously pragmatic the younger Hux could be.
Besides, it hadn't gone amiss on the rest of the crew that Lieutenant Mitaka had gone missing since the destruction of Starkiller Base. It seemed cruel –even for Hux- to have left the young man to die on the base. But, after hearing the nonchalance the general held for firing on unarmed and retreating forces, Captain Peavey didn't doubt the rumors.
Fearing that he might be just as expendable, Captain Peavey acknowledged the order and began a transmission to the Fulminatrix.
.***.***.***.***.
Several thousand personnel transports, gunboats, TIEs, and freighters swarmed around the Supremacy. Lori's shuttle had been left to wait in orbit around the imposing ship. Even with it's hundreds of hangar bays, the unbridled chaos that came from Starkiller's destruction was taking a toll on the Mega-class star dreadnaught.
Lori herself hadn't said a word since fleeing Starkiller base. Not for lack of something to say, but because she had been thinking to herself what she was going to do next, and how exactly she would go about doing it.
The New Republic was gone. She had gleaned as much from the occasional chatter that bubbled up between the other passengers aboard the ship. The First Order was in a similar state of disarray from the attack on Starkiller base, but their leadership was still intact and they hadn't lost their capital. Those few facts combined made it clear that the galaxy was the First Order's for the taking, and the only unknown was how quickly the fragments of the New Republic would fall in line.
Of course, she was more interested in personal revenge than in retaliation against the galaxy at large. The First Order would be fine without her help, and she wanted to watch the Resistance crumble from up close.
Unfortunately, revenge would have to wait.
She settled in her seat, adjusting her hold on Ardis.
The Supremacy was the official home of the First Order. Even though she had learned the information years ago, Lori hadn't forgotten a single detail about the massive ship. Over sixty kilometers in width, and thirteen in length, the Supremacy was permanently crewed by over two million people. Within the ship were forty separate city districts, all of which were connected via a craft spanning public transportation system. Two on board military academies trained the entirety of the First Order's officer core, and at the tip of each massive wing was a specialized laboratory, each of them home to dozens of dangerous or secret projects.
Besides the living spaces and labs were thirty-two sub-light engines, six isolated fusion reactors, eight durasteel foundries, an asteroid mining complex, ten military staging areas, eight droid factories, four vehicle factories, two star destroyer ship yards, several hundred smaller hangers, and eight star destroyer docking stations six of which were internal.
On several occasions, Lori had listened to Armitage enthusiastically rambling on about the Supremacy's self-contained supply chain, and how it's manufacturing capacity rivaled that of most industrial planets.
What should have been a warm snippet of a memory felt bitter and cold as Lori pushed it from her mind.
The massive ship was home to everything a galaxy spanning empire could possibly need. Lori knew that she would be able to stay here mostly undisturbed, but she wasn't interested in a quiet life. Especially not when she had a job to do.
While Lori sat with an expression that teetered between blank and enraged, Lieutenant Mitaka had been nervously peering at her from a safe distance.
The major had been pleasant enough. At the very least, she hadn't been nearly as terrible to talk to as General Hux had been.
The lieutenant's gaze dropped to the ground.
Mitaka had never been friendly with Hux, but casually thinking of the general as a relic of the past felt callous, cold, or even downright cruel when staring at the man's widow.
Unsure of what to say, but knowing that he couldn't just leave Lori alone, Mitaka cautiously crossed the passenger compartment. Lori didn't stir as Mitaka took a seat next to her, being too lost in her thoughts.
"Ma'am…" Mitaka began, "are… are you alright?"
A word caught in Lori's throat. Determined to not let anyone too close she took a moment to breathe. Rolling her shoulders back, Lori straightened and shifted her hold on her sleeping daughter.
"How long until we land?"
Mitaka didn't miss that she hadn't answer the question, "Half an hour, ma'am."
The annoyance that came with the news wasn't the welcome distraction that Lori was hoping it would be, "Have there been any other status updates?"
"No, ma'am."
Lori barely managed not to scowl. In effort to hide her bitter mood, she shifted in her seat. The movement proved just enough to wake Ardis, who began to squirm from beneath her blanket.
Mitaka looked down to the infant. She seemed to be such a fragile little thing, with wide blue eyes set into a pudgy face. Though her features were still those of a newborn, rounded an overly soft, the lieutenant was left with a persistent thought.
She very much looks like the general.
Unsure of whether sharing his thought would help or hurt, the lieutenant left it as a comment unsaid.
The little girl brought a chubby hand up to her face and uncoordinatedly swept it across her chin. Worried about the infant, Mitaka was about to reach over or to let Lori know about the odd little movement.
Before he did, Lori abruptly stood, offering a muttered explanation as she went, "She's hungry."
Slow to react, Mitaka hadn't the chance to say anything before Lori had disappeared into the fresher.
.***.***.***.***.
General Hux stifled a cough and tried his best to ignore the dull throbbing pain in his ribs.
Much to his ire, he'd been made a fool of on the bridge. Being outsmarted by a single Resistance pilot hadn't been good for his image, and even worse was the fact that it had led to the loss of the Fulminatrix. And if that weren't enough, Hux also had to contend with Snokes displeasure.
Hux tried not to wince from a twist of pain in his chest as he took a seat at his desk.
Turning on his computer, the general took solace in one fact. The Resistance might have fled the system, but they wouldn't be able to escape the First Order. Their light speed tracking technology was only just out of the experimental stages, but it was more than equipped to follow a fleet though an otherwise empty corner of space.
Satisfied that something might go right for once, the general turned his focus away from work for a moment.
He hadn't heard from Lieutenant Mitaka since before the destruction of Starkiller base. A twinge of worry blocked out a lingering physical pain. Not wanting to dwell on his fears, Hux searched for the Supremacy's ship registry.
The list was massive, with thousands of flights having been redirected from his ruined base. Despite being a visceral example of his failure, Hux did feel some of the tension drop from his shoulders as he skimmed the registry.
Mitaka's upsilon shuttle had landed in hangar 347, nearly twenty minutes ago. Records showed minimal damage to the ship and a full crew list. One pilot, four storm troopers, Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka, recently recovered Major Lori Gallus, and one previously unrecorded infant.
Soon.
Soon Lori and Ardis would be back by his side. Soon the last remains of the Resistance would be a remnant of the past. Soon, everything would be better.
General Hux checked through a few other updates. The Supremacy was set to arrive at the Resistance fleet's coordinates at the same time as the Finalizer. From there he and Ren were to transfer and meet with Supreme Leader Snoke. There was no doubt in his mind that the meeting would be terrible for several reasons, but he did have one thing to look forward to.
Letting himself hope for a moment, Hux began drafting a message to Lieutenant Mitaka.
"Alert Major Gallus that she is to report to meeting room 15-G, in city block 18, for a mission debrief."
He wished that he could be more specific, that he could ask a hundred little questions about how she was, and how Ardis had fared on the trip. He wanted nothing more than to settle down on his stiff couch after a warm meal, an arm wrapped around Lori as they skimmed the holonet. He longed for a quiet night with her by his side, to reach out and feel her tired weight against his as she slept.
A small, fragile part of him even wanted to be awoken in the night with a cry, to sleepily stumble from bed, and to rummage through the kitchen for a bottle and formula.
A few smaller tasks nagged at him, he would have to secure supplies, to get Ardis registered into the First Order's systems. He couldn't hide having a family forever, but the very idea of taking the safety of anonymity away from them sent a shiver down his spine.
Breathing deeply, the general sent his message.
Soon.
Soon, he echoed to himself, desperate to latch onto the promise held in the small word.