AN: Good morning y'all. As always thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoy
.***.***.***.***.
Brixie's hands clamped shut around her face, leaving her to see nothing but darkness. She stalled for a moment, waiting for the perfect time to move once again.
Seconds of absolute silence ticked by before she threw her hands to the side with a gentle shout, "peek-a-boo!"
Ardis giggled, the high pitched noise giving way to a surprised shriek as Brixie covered her face once again.
Lori sat at the edge of the bed, watching the two others play their game.
Brixie had come to her and Ardis' room to check up on the little girl. A short exam found everything to be fine with the infant, though she was slightly smaller than average. The medic's check had been a welcome change in Ardis' monotonous day, and the infant was thrilled when her check for object permanence had turned into playtime.
The infant clung to the bar of her crib with one chubby hand, managing to mostly keep herself in a sitting position. She still teetered back and forth, and was quick to roll to the side out of excitement. Lori had lost track of how long the game of peek-a-boo had been going on for, but she was surprised that the infant had stayed active for so long.
She's growing up fast, Lori tried not to let the clichéd thought sour her mood. When it did, she tried not to let it show in her features.
While Lori intently watched the medic and the infant, a small voice in the back of her head kept reminding her that Armitage should be the one playing with their daughter.
Brixie noticed an odd look on Lori's face. Winding down Ardis' game, the medic took a step away from the crib. The infant wasn't done playing and let out a confused whimper as her entertainment stepped away. Lori recognized the sound as the preamble to an earsplitting shriek, and stepped in to scoop up the infant before she had the chance.
Brixie was left to talk to Lori's back as the new mother was carefully rubbing a hand over a squirming Ardis.
"Is something the matter?" the medic asked with a soft tone.
Lori kept her thoughts to herself as she considered her options. She had mentioned Ardis' supposedly dead father in the past. While the main cause of her troubles did come from missing Armitage, Lori didn't want to begin the delicate dance that would come from mentioning him, even in hypothetical terms. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep telling herself that everything would be okay.
Instead, Lori pushed for a conversation that might prove useful.
"I just…I just feel so useless." She patted her babies back and looked away from Brixie like she was searching for meaning, "We've been here for months, and I haven't done anything."
"You've done plenty," Brixie tried to encourage Lori, "you've taken great care of Ardis."
"You and I both know that's the bare minimum." Lori looked back up to keep the pressure on, "I should be out there doing something, even if it's just manning one of the terminals in the command tent."
Brixie looked away from Lori's intense gaze. While she hadn't seen Lori in action first hand, she had heard her and Dak reminiscing about old jobs. Most of them sounded just as, if not more, wild than the work the mercenaries had done. All of them told Brixie that Lori wasn't suited to standing by for months at a time, and that she would truly be useful in the command tent.
"I know," the medic agreed before looking up, "but the others have it under control. The safest thing we can do right now is make sure that the First Order doesn't find us."
Lori scoffed, "Because hiding worked so well the last time. We're a bunch of sitting ducks here. We should be on the move, or at least more split up so that one turbolaser blast can't get the job done."
The idea that the Resistance should be out there doing more was a popular idea in camp. Those that had left on the ships they had managed to cobble together were proof of as much. Lori was trying to keep the sentiment alive. If not to lessen the number of people she would have to sneak around to get to a communications terminal, then to give herself and Ardis chance to sneak it off planet.
Brixie had heard this from Lori before, and she couldn't help but be sympathetic. But she had already lost Hugo, Ivey, and Anderphan to the First Order, and Lex had demanded that he go on the scouting mission.
Hugo and Ivey never even made it to Crait, their transports being some of the first to be blasted out of the sky. Anderphan had died in the trenches. Rumor had it that Lex had been by his side, but the younger man refused to talk about it. Brixie had found that the blood on Lex's coat wasn't his –he was wounded in the leg, not the chest- but she hadn't pressed him for any details.
She couldn't bear losing Lori and Ardis again. Between them and Dak, that was all she had left.
The young medic was about to voice her thoughts when a sound grew in the distance.
"Do you hear that?" Lori stiffened, also taken off guard.
The sound grew louder.
"…emergency meeting!" A voice distorted by the hum of generators echoed through the hut.
For a second they stood in shock, straining to hear the voice again.
It came through loud and clear the second time, "Emergency meeting in the command tent!"
Brixie looked at Lori, who looked back before rushing for the breathing rigs that hung by the door.
.***.***.***.***.
General Hux stood on the bridge, his hands gently clasped behind his back.
He had been getting updated reports during their journey to Tah'Nuhna. Not only had the Falcon been sighted in the planet's orbit, but it turned out that General Organa herself had visited its surface.
A sour grin twisted at Hux's features.
Kylo Ren was set to arrive later that day. Rumor had it that he was upset that the general had moved the Finalizer without notifying him first, but Hux couldn't find it within himself to care. Two of the knights on board had left several hours ago, taking their first opportunity to leave the ship after it had slipped out of hyperspace.
They had some trouble navigating the rapidly filling space around Tah'Nuhna.
The general glanced at the data readouts on the bridge. The rest of the ships he had requested had arrived. Whether anyone liked it or not, he did still command a sizable portion of the First Order's fleet.
The Tah'Nuhnans had apparently taken it upon themselves to aid the fleeing rebels. General Hux certainly wasn't going to suffer rogue systems giving free support to the criminals. In fact, he decided that Tah'Nuhna would make a prime example of what happened to systems that tried.
"Sir, we've received a transmission from the Tah'Nuhnan capital," a communications officer spoke from her terminal.
"Put them through," Hux was in the mood to toy with his victims.
Tah'Nuhna was a peaceful planet. Cold, with cities housed in intricate spires made of glass. The Tah'Nuhnans were a species renowned for their long contributions to art and science across the galaxy. Their doctors had cured the Iridian plague. Their astronomers had made some of the first and finest maps of the galaxy.
And now their leaders had made a terrible mistake.
A hologram screen appeared before the general. The premier Tah'Nuhnan stood tall, her several rows of insectoid arms folded neatly across her long torso. The high collar of a crimson cape framed her yellow frilled head, which trembled slightly as she spoke.
"Please do not do this, General Hux. The Tah'Nuhna are neutral!" she apparently knew better than to waste time on pleasantries.
Hux smirked, glad that the galaxy at large still feared him.
"Not even the Empire ordered an invasion of our planet." The premier continued trying to make a case for her people.
"A Resistance transmission was traced here." Hux watched and cherished the Tah'Nuhnan's falling expression, "That does not seem very neutral as far as the First Order is concerned."
The alien in the hologram fidgeted, "We… we welcome all travelers in need. It… it has always been our way."
"That always was your way," The general spared a glance at the gunner's station. Part of him expected to see Mitaka looking back at him, but he was instead greeted by a captain signaling an all clear, "and who said anything about an invasion?"
The Tah'Nuhnan's eyes went wide, but before she fully processed the general's meaning, a madly shouted order cracked out of the hologram.
"Open fire!"
The snowy and serine glass surface of Tah'Nuhna errupted in green and scarlet flames. Crystal shattered and rained as glistening shards over the people on the streets below the spires.
A sudden screaming tore through the sky, TIEs shaking centuries old buildings as they rushed past, dropping thermal charges in their wake. From nowhere and everywhere at once, transports blocked the suns from the sky, and white clad troopers began blasting away at the terrified survivors that crowded the streets.
The premier frantically turned away from the destruction to find that the feed to General Hux had been cut. Cursing the blood hungry beast, her several hands keyed the comm to every emergency channel he could think of.
Her home planet had fallen, and her people ruined. Screaming into the comm she hoped that someone would hear her, that someone might avenge her people's doom.
"To all those that can hear my voice, Tah'Nuhna has fallen under attack by the First Order!"
The building shook, and the premier's assistant shouted, "Missiles incoming!"
There was nowhere to flee.
"We are in desperate need of-"
The tower fell.
Glass and cinders and thousands of dead Tah'Nuhna crashed to the melted snow below.
General Hux stood on the bridge, his hands gently clasped behind his back.
The Finalizer had moved to the edge of the atmosphere, her powerful turbolasers cutting broad swaths of destruction into the planet below.
Hux had a clear view of the doom he had brought. Brilliant reds and sparkling greens danced over the Tah'Nuhnan ruins, a sight to behold and one that Hux would have liked to savor. But the conquest felt hollow; the destruction little more than a temper tantrum fueled by heavy artillery.
.***.***.***.***.
The main room of the command tent was filled with frantic voices and startled rebels.
Lori had hurried in, holding her breath from the toxic outdoor air while she kept the mask of the breathing rig firmly against Ardis' face. Brixie followed closely behind, ready to tend to Lori if she had breathed in the toxic air.
They lingered along the side of the room, with Lori intently listening in on the conversation that unfolded.
Kaydel Ko Connix had been stationed at the communications array. A single, terrible message cut short by an explosion had sent her running into the main tent.
"The transmission was from Tah'Nuhna. It was the First Order, they just wiped out the entire planet!" Ko Connix spoke to Leia, who wore a grim look as she read through a data pad.
A gold plated protocol droid lingered behind the princess turned tired general, "That must be a mistake. The species is known across the sector for their neutrality. Why, when they welcomed us-"
Leia held a hand up at the droid.
"They've paid the ultimate price for that kindness." The old woman wore a far off look, and spoke so quietly her voice was nearly lost beneath the hum of generators, "As I watched the destruction of Alderaan, I swore that it wouldn't happen again, but how many worlds have been destroyed by would-be conquerors since?"
A ripple went through the group. Lori played along, as if the destruction of Tah'Nuhna weighed on her. As if she were cursing the Hosnian Cataclysm. As if she were mourning the invasion of Batuu, or the subjugation or Bastion.
The act was an easy one. The grief and fear and loathing that twisted along her features were hauntingly real. Not to be spent on mourning the nameless people of dozens of planets, her sorrow was for a single man.
Destroying an entire planet for a small slight had Armitage's name all over it. There were dozens of others within the First Order that would have liked to turn a civilization into cinders, but he was the only one that made a habit of it.
Lori's hand tightened into a fist before she forced it open and gently patted Ardis on the back.
She had to tell him that they were okay, that they were alive even.
She looked around the room. The Resistance leaders had begun talking once again. Some life flitted through the crowed as people drifted to their stations, a grim determination sat on their worn features. The sounds of the room seemed muted, beyond what she would expect from the dull hum of the generators outside.
Lori suddenly felt as if she was standing behind a wall of glass.
Trapped, silenced. She knew how much pain Armitage was in, in many ways it was her pain too, but she could do nothing for it. No chances to reach a computer. No viable schemes to get off planet and back home. She tried and she tried, and she knew no matter how much she screamed, he would never even have the chance to hear her.
A hand came to rest against Lori's shoulder. She only noticed it after it had lingered for a moment.
"I-I think we should go sit down." The medic saw a far off look in her friend's eyes, and couldn't help but think that she was as wounded and afraid as she had been during the battle of Crait.
Lori felt herself root in place, "No. I have to do something."
Lori wasn't sure if she was thinking clearly.
Neither was Brixie.
Their moment indecision was interrupted by a shout from the center of the room, "The pollution here on Anoat has masked the First Order's long-range sensors, but it may not hide us much longer!"
Leia was quick to respond to the short and worn down man "The Resistance was founded to bring back an old hope of peace and freedom to a new age, General Janto."
"But hope must give way to prudence!" the old man urged, "If the First Order tracked us to Tah'Nuhna, then they will soon turn their attention this way."
Lori was suddenly captured by the new development. She still felt her hair rising on edge, and her adrenaline spiked, but she stood hauntingly still to listen to the final two rebel generals debating their fate in the command room.
Leia's head dipped before she cast a tired eye over those gathered around her. With her home world, her husband, brother, and son gone, the dozen people in the room were all she had left. She had sworn that she wouldn't stand by and watch the galaxy burn, yet that was all that seemed to happen.
"Instead of just waiting around, I think it's time for me to do something I should have done a while ago." Leia spoke with a renewed fire, "Rose!"
The mechanic jumped at her name, and quickly hurried over.
"You're coming with me. The Falcon is going to need you."
Janto startled at this new development, "With all respect general, you can't just leave the outpost."
Leia stood tall and began mentally planning her mission, "You're going to have to pick one, Janto. Either it's too dangerous to stay, or it's suicide to leave."
Janto bit back a harsh comment. Every plan seemed to lead to a dead end. He had watched the remaining resistance dwindle, and as much as he believed that the galaxy needed them, he feared the very possibility of losing the few people that surrounded him.
Leia shared those fears, but she had never let them control her and she wasn't about to start now.
Lori watched Rose jostle her way to Leia's side. She barely heard Leia over the crowed as the older woman laid out her plan. All Lori caught was that they were going to Mon Cala, to ask the mon calamari king for his support.
Besides Leia and Rose, Chewbacca and the golden droid would be going, as well as Rey.
Lori did a quick tally of the remaining resistance. Even if she counted Mitaka and herself among them, there would be less than a dozen people remaining on the planet. She felt some tension drop from her strained muscles.
Whether Brixie liked it or not, they would need extra help manning the control room.
They might even need her to sit in at one of the communications terminals.
Lori pressed Ardis tighter against herself, planting a kiss on the baby's head to hide a dangerous grin. General Organa's plan might very well be Lori's escape.