[Hux]
"There's been an incident, sir," CL-0745 informed him, standing on the ground next to where he was balanced on an engine housing on a chair seat. It was not the most stable, but it gave him access to the sheared wing.
Hux turned carefully. He was cleaning up the attachment points, mainly just keeping himself busy but there was some value to what he was doing. "What happened?"
"Here, sir?"
Lieutenant Connix was helping him, handing him tools, making sure he didn't fall, and keeping her mouth shut for the most part. He'd found her to be a pleasant working companion in that regard. "Here is fine," he said, crouching and then hopping down. The soft ground made that safe enough. "What happened?"
"I don't have a formal report yet, but they reached the wing and found several creatures at the site. They were attacked. One casualty. Injuries being determined."
"Who-?" It was all Connix said before catching herself.
"The casualty?" Hux asked CL-0745, partly to be polite to Connix, but mostly because it might be important. Poe was on that mission. And if it were Finn, that might explain why he was getting this report from the first sergeant instead of the unit commander on scene.
"TN-1017. No known injuries on our side. Finn is hurt."
"Well, he was expendable," Hux said. Connix gave him a dirty look. Hux ignored it, but noted that perhaps he should have been more circumspect. "Do we have the wing?"
"The site is secure for the moment. The corporal believes there will be further interference from the native life after the sun sets."
He glanced to the sky. They'd be hard-pressed to make it back before dark even if they returned now, without their objective. Sleeping in and taking their time in the morning had cost them, but there was nothing to be achieved now in pointing that out. What they could salvage was this: "By then they should have the wing prepped and ready to move. Was any of their equipment damaged?"
"Unknown. I don't believe so. If I may predict a question from Corporal H-482, he will need to know if they should fortify position until dawn, or if they should march through the night."
"March through the night, as long as they're not losing Commanders Tico or Dameron to do it. Or the Wookiee."
"Yes sir." She gave a nod and went inside the shuttle, probably to use the better comm station in the cockpit.
Next to him, Connix said, "None of our people are expendable."
He didn't have to argue with her. He didn't even have to talk with her. But she'd held her tongue while they were working and while he was conversing with CL-0745. "What we need to get off this planet are people who can repair the ship. From the conversation this morning, that list does not include Finn, Threnalli, or any of the stormtroopers. Thus, they are expendable."
"Does it include you?"
"My mechanical talents are light on hands-on application. If it came down to it, I would attempt the repair. I have no certainty I would accomplish it." Desperate times, desperate measures. He figured he'd fail, but it wouldn't be from lack of trying.
"That's not an answer."
He realized she didn't know about the connection with Palpatine. Her pressing the subject made him wonder if she was suspicious about it, as she should be. Why was Poe keeping secrets from his own people? Hux lied, "I am both expendable and replaceable."
She didn't look like she believed him, so he went on, "Since the Siege of Arkanis I have known life is cheap, it can be over in an instant, and I am no more immune to death or danger than anyone else. I do not cling to the degenerate ideals of the New Republic, fixated on pleasure and the over-inflated value of the individual. Duty is foremost!"
"Duty to a group that doesn't value you? Why?"
"The First Order's goals more important than anyone's ego." He began to climb up again, stepping on the seat of the chair. She extended a hand to him for balance. He hesitated before taking it, remembering how Rose had accepted his similar offer. With her help and his other hand on the hull, he was able to get himself back up where he'd started.
Once he was settled, Connix asked, "What goals are those, besides galactic conquest?"
"The reason we have taken over the galaxy, past tense, is to restore peace, justice, and a unified government throughout this galaxy. That is the point of said conquest."
"So what was going on that we flew into? Because those were First Order ships attacking yours."
He sighed and shut his eyes for a moment, then wiped at them. His gloves were dirty. This did not help. "Yes. Yes, they were." He tried wiping with the back of his gloves, which was cleaner, but his eyes were still watering from whatever he'd inadvertently smeared into them in the first place. While gravity would definitely pull him down, he no longer felt safe to jump. "Can you … bring me a damp towel or something?" He blinked furiously, enough to see her cock her head at him and then wordlessly disappear up the ramp.
"Sir?" It was the voice of the trooper assigned to guard him, FL-2216.
"I'll be fine. Keep your position." He closed his eyes and put a hand on the hull to make sure he didn't fall.
Connix returned with a white cloth. Using something long and slender from the repair kit, she lifted it up where he could get it without reaching down too much. He wiped his eyes thoroughly, then his fingers.
"You could take the gloves off," she suggested.
He shook his head. "I have already snagged them several times on burrs and sharp edges. Better them than my skin." He tossed down the cloth. "Thank you." He went back to fishing around in the crevice he was working in, pulling out wires and bundling them for easy access when the wing was returned.
"What was happening?" Kaydel asked, her voice less confrontational than it had been. "In that battle?"
He could lie again. He could sidestep. He could selectively tell enough truth to satisfy her. He wasn't sure what possessed him of the urge, but he decided to do none of these. "Your people have not given you the entire story." Maybe it was Ren giving him a straight answer earlier.
"My people? They know?"
"Yes."
"But you won't tell me?"
"I can't inform you as long as you're part of the Resistance, truce or no truce. That's not how the military works."
"Yes, I know." She looked thoughtful for a bit, then said, "But you are telling me that they're not telling me things. Either you're trying to make me distrustful of my own people, or you're trying to warn me. Which doesn't make much sense."
"Neither. I'm trying to be … honest. I do not know what level of clearance you have. As your Commander Dameron has observed, I am a by-the-book personality."
"Honest." She sounded puzzled and amused by that. "Well, I guess I'll be a little by-the-book myself and go up the chain of command then. When our chain of command gets back."
"Exactly," he nodded approvingly.
She was quiet for a few minutes, before saying, "Is there anything we can do to help them?"
He paused in his work. "You Resistance members are truly enamored of discussing things in committee, aren't you?"
"How else-" She cut herself off. "Yes."
He sighed. "It's amazing you manage to get anything done."
"You said earlier this was just make-work."
He rolled his eyes and humored her. "Very well. I could call them back. They might make it here before dark. Another effort could be launched tomorrow, leaving promptly at first light. But we aren't certain the creatures are nocturnal or even that there are more of them which will find them tonight. I am certain our food supplies are limited enough that losing a day is an important consideration." Also, he wouldn't mention it, but he wasn't sure how many nights he could go like the last one and still be effective.
"You could send out reinforcements. You have an entire extra squad here."
"I could. That squad is currently defending our greatest physical asset – the shuttle. I don't want to leave it undefended or even under-defended. We don't know that there isn't intelligent life here, or a space-faring one with sensors, waiting for us to clear out. Which also argues against having the field unit drop their equipment at the wing site and double-time it back here. If those repulsors go missing or are damaged, we are potentially stranded forever."
"Kylo and Rey could go."
"The Force users are our greatest personnel asset. Sending them is a risk and not one I'm willing to undertake at the moment – Resistance members or no." And Ren had explicitly refused to acknowledge that Hux was in charge, something Hux was not eager to make a public issue of by trying to order the man to do anything. 'Never give a command you can't enforce' was one of his father's axioms.
She didn't say anything for a while. "Okay. Make-work it is."
Dryly, he said, "I am pleased my decision meets with your approval." He glanced down to see Connix had grinned at that.