AN: Happy New year. I say this fairly often, but I have shenanigans planned for next week, so buckle up for that (if you remember Ep.9, you know when scene is getting real close)

.***.***.***.***.

Hangar bay eight was crawling with rushed technicians, irritated officers, and scrambling stormtroopers. General Hux watched the scene unfold from an observation room, set high on the bay's interior wall. Through the transparisteel wall he could count the arriving transports.

One short of what they had sent out, he idly noted that transport A-29 had been lost. Irritatingly, he had been relegated to writing the intake report for Kylo Ren's mission to Pasaana's surface. He wasn't carefully taking detailed notes, already having decided that the rest of the supreme council were going to get the bare minimum of what he was required to give them.

As the fighters finished their return, Hux was left to note that Ren had predictably destroyed his. Even more predictably, he had failed his mission and wasn't accompanied by the scavenger he and the emperor were both mindlessly obsessed with.

Hux let the other man's misery be some silver lining for him.

Stars know I need it, he harshly thought to himself.

General Pryde had brown nosed his way into Kylo Ren's good graces, even more so than usual, and had secured himself a promotion to allegiant general as a result. Hux tried not to be bitter over the other man's promotion. It seemed like such a small thing in the face of all the other terrible events he had suffered.

But, some part of him couldn't let go of the fact that leading all of the First Order's forces had been his singular goal in life. From the first moment he was capable of his own thoughts, he had wanted power. If being supreme leader wasn't his destiny, then being grand marshal or allegiant general should have been.

Hux ticked away at the computer as he tried to remind himself that this wasn't his First Order any more. That the only thing he had ever known was gone, and that Kylo Ren and his cultists were to blame.

But answering to Pryde still grated at him. Knowing that he was subservient to more than just Kylo Ren's homicidal impulses was another insult, nearly lost in the thousands of other insults he'd suffered.

Hux watched the hangar bay begin to clear. The supreme leader himself stepped out of one of the battered ships. He seemed just as irritated as usual, though he did spare a fraction of a second to glare towards the observation deck.

Yes, I'm up here and I'm irritated. You're scowling at me won't make it any worse. Hux only let himself think so freely because of the distance between him and the supreme leader. And because he was fairly certain that the other man was intent on pouting alone in his quarters.

The general's assumption proved true enough as he was left to watch Ren storm out of the hangar, workers and assorted crew parting to clear his path. Shortly after the supreme leader disappeared from view, Hux's comm chimed. Ignoring the irritating sound, Hux turned back to his report.

Though he was sorely tempted to include Ren's bad mood in his intake report, Hux thought better of it before looking back to the hangar. As he did, he was left to watch a second group leave the transport.

Several stormtroopers formed a circle around a chained alien. Covered in hair and nearly two and a half meters tall, Hux recognized Chewbacca even from half a hangar away. The troopers around the wookiee seemed even more uncomfortable than their prisoner, being noticeably weary of the massive hairy alien. Chewbacca's occasional guttural howls and growls could be heard even through the transparasteel wall.

Hux debated whether or not to include the appearance of the notorious rebel in his report. His deciding was interrupted by another rhythmic chime from his comm. Purposefully ignoring it, he watched the group in the hangar below.

The wookiee was notoriously violent, to the point that Hux was sure that even half a dozen troopers would have trouble containing him. He doubted anything would come of it, but he did enjoy entertaining the possibility that the wookiee might find a way to escape and cause some havoc before he was captured again or shot.

It would be a shame if Chewbacca found a way to get loose on the bridge. Allegiant General Pryde would be so embarrassed by such a thing, Hux dryly thought to himself before his comm chimed yet again.

Grumbling and finally looking towards the irritating sound, Hux pulled the device from his pocket. It was an active call rather than a typed message.

"What?" he answered the thing just as the prisoner group on the floor below stalled.

"Typically, an officer answers when his comm is being pinged." General Pryde's voice came from the little machine.

Because today wasn't already bad enough,

"Yes, allegiant general. My mistake."

"Yes, it was." Pryde didn't resist the chance to focus on the failure, "Now. Supreme Leader Ren contacted the bridge and said I was to report to hangar bay six. That there was important business to attend to there. You're to keep everything as it appears until I arrive."

Being ordered about like a lowly private caused Hux's hairs to stand on edge, but he said nothing for the offence. "Yes, sir."

Despite his apparent need to give a lesson on etiquette, Pryde cut the call on the comm without a word.

Grumbling to himself, Hux turned to the intercom with a series of harsh comments at the tip of his tongue. Instead of voicing any of them, he simply addressed the group of troopers.

"Prisoner transport group, stop there." General Hux's voice cracked over the intercom and echoed around the cavernous hangar, "General Pryde will be in shortly to inspect the creature."

Seeing the troopers stopped in place, Hux decided that he might as well meet Pryde in the hangar. As much as he hated to appear as the attentive aid, he hated the idea of Pryde publicly and embarrassingly commanding him down to the hangar floor.

In the time it took For Hux to navigate his way down a floor, he met Pryde at the doors to the hangar.

"General Hux," Pryde acknowledged him with a barely veiled contempt.

"General Pryde," Hux hoped that the allegiant general heard the same vitriol in his voice, "The mission to Pasaana has concluded. Under the command of the knights of Ren, we suffered losses. A transport was destroyed."

Pryde scoffed, knowing full well that this conversation was beneath him, "Is that all?"

"No, allegiant general." Hux answered with just as much casual disdain, "there was another transport in the desert. It brought back a valuable prisoner."

"A prisoner?" Pryde readied himself to defend against whatever game Hux thought he was playing by withholding detail.

With near perfect timing, a gargling groan echoed through the door. The durasteel dividers slid to the side just in time to let the tail end of the sound into the room at full volume. Hux took a special pleasure in seeing the Pryde's eyes go wide in concern before he was able to reign his featured back under control.

"This beast used to fly with Han Solo." He told Pryde a bit of information that he almost certainly already knew.

Just as Hux was beginning to grow used to the smug sense of superiority he'd been missing for months, an earsplitting roar came from less than a meter behind him. His hair flew forward, and he felt flecks of thick saliva hitting the back of his head.

Half worried that his passing idea of the wookiee attacking might come true, and that he might be at the top of the wookiee's list of targets, Hux was stunned while Pryde issued a fresh order to the troopers.

"Take it to interrogation six."

The troopers, thoroughly confused by the ordeal, shuffled and began to move their prisoner once again. Hux didn't turn to watch them, still trying to hold on to an air of authority despite his disheveled state.

Just as disdainful as he had been a moment ago, he spoke to the younger general, "Is that all, General Hux?"

Dejected, but not surprised, Hux was left to reply, "Yes, sir."

.***.***.***.***.

"Loh!" Ardis reached for the brightly colored flower that Lori held in one hand.

"Flower." Lori moved the blue blossom, "say, flower."

The infant grumbled and impatiently reached for the spindly bloom once again. Lori only half focused on the child, most of her attention set on the sky and the main section of camp.

Lori had been lingering at the edge of camp for half an hour. For a split second there had been a rash of commotion and she had nearly sprung into action then, only to find out that the rebels were just reacting to an update on the hunt for the wayfinder.

Rey and her accomplices had barely survived their journey to Pasaana, with the mission being such an ordeal that Chewbacca hadn't survived. A wave of mourning had crossed over the camp at the news of Chebacca's passing but Lori was less concerned with the wookiee, and more interested in the rebel's next destination.

They were bound for Kijimi, and Lori was sure that the First Order wouldn't be far behind them. If those transports showed up soon, she could probably meet the Finalizer just above the snowy planet.

And then what? Lori had found herself thinking through a series of worst-case scenarios ever since escaping Ajan Kloss had become a possibility.

Lori doubted that life would just go back to normal once she arrived. There had been plenty of chatter about the changes to the First Order, and Lori was sure that Kylo Ren's reign had to have done something to take away Armitage's prestige and power. And if the emperor really was running the order now, there was no telling how unstable things might be. It wasn't unknown for the old man to occasionally purge his detractors from the imperial navy, and Lori imagined that it would only be a matter of time until Hux attracted the emperor's ire.

And, she wouldn't stake her life on it, but Lori was almost convinced that Armitage was the spy. If her suspicions were correct, then he probably wouldn't be left alive for much longer. She had been able to tell it was him simply by reading the occasional report. While she was sure that the others within the First Order didn't know him half as well as she did, Lori feared that -given enough time- anyone might start to recognize his tone.

"Ow!" Ardis shouted, jolting Lori's attention away from the camp and her troubled thoughts.

Looking down and worrying that Ardis might have hurt herself, Lori instead found the infant still reaching for the flower

"Ow!" she shouted at the blue plant.

Exhaling a breath of relief, Lori realized that Ardis was just missing the majority of the word flower. "Flower. Flow-er."

"Ow?"

"Close enough." Lori grumbled to herself before handing Ardis the flower.

She shrieked with delight as she was given the soft blossom. At the same time, a whirring that turned into the rumble of engines came from the sky.

Lori immediately looked up to find five distant dots growing closer. Arranged in a loose circle, it became more clear that they were the small freighters that Lori had been waiting for. Careful not to look too excited, Lori watched as they touched down.

She had chosen the right spot. As the ramps began to lower, the other rebels began to crowd around the opposite end of the landing clearing, towards the center of camp.

Not expecting any thievery or attack, the ships had landed in the same loose circle they had flown in, with each of their ramps lowering in random directions. Lori was intently watching, waiting for their crews and the other rebels to begin unloading so that she could slip onto a ship unseen.

Then a voice came from behind her.

"Lori? What are you doing back here?" Mitaka's confused voice left her to quickly look over her shoulder.

He looked like all of the others in the camp. Finally having found a proper eye patch and with his hair grown out and messily tied back, no one would ever guess that the young man was once an officer in the First Order.

Divided loyalties or not, Lori knew that he wouldn't do anything to alert the others in camp to her plan, "We're getting off this planet."

Mitaka had guessed as much, but now that a chance had finally come to them, he found himself hesitating. They had been with the rebels for nearly a year now. Despite their suspicions, they had treated him, Lori, and Ardis with a reasonable amount of kindness. Far more than the First Order would have done in reversed circumstances. And Finn had saved their lives, Mitaka felt that he did owe the former trooper for that at least.

Lori saw Mitaka be taken aback at her comment. Now wasn't the time to stop and talk him into coming along. She made one quick comment before scooping up Ardis and hurrying towards the nearest lowered ramp.

"Come with me, or don't. Your choice."

The former lieutenant was at a loss for words, even as he watched Lori quickly pick her way behind workers who were preoccupied by their armloads of cargo. She had already managed to step foot on a loading ramp before a thin panic overtook Mitaka and made him hurry along in her footsteps. He wasn't deftly moving just at the edge of the workers' moving blind spots as Lori had, so much as he was quickly sprinting across a crowded field and just hoping not to be seen.

When he did reach the same ship that Lori had just disappeared into, he tried to take in every detail of the thing at once. Searching for Lori, he held onto a thin hope that he could talk her out of doing something brash.

Lori had already hurried to the cockpit, and was sitting in the pilot's seat doing as much of a systems check as she possibly could without actually igniting the engines.

"Lori!" Mitaka shouted in a whisper, despite the fact that no one would be able to hear them from outside the ship.

"We're leaving." She wasn't about to waste time for a debate. Mitaka hadn't done her any wrong so far, but if he decided that he was going to stand between her and Armitage, then she would gladly get rid of him.

Having flown through the systems check, Lori let her hand hover over the ignition. Kaydel and one other person had stepped into the cargo bay, and she was waiting for them to reappear outside before taking off.

"Perhaps we could reconsider?" Mitaka urged.

He was made even more quiet by the sounds coming from the cargo bay. Lori said nothing in return but did spare a glance to Ardis, who was still happily yanking at the colorful petals of her blue flower.

The voices in the cargo hold drifted away after far too long of a time. Lori waited at the edge of the pilot's seat, waiting for the workers to leave the ship.

"Lori, please. I don't think this is a good idea." Mitaka craned his neck to see outside, as if doing so would help him in some way.

"Think what is a good idea?" A third voice came from the hall just behind the cockpit.

Mitaka jumped with a yelp of surprise. Lori twisted around in her seat to find Brixie.

"Uhh… W-we can explain!" Mitaka started with the most suspicious comment possible.

With her plan already coming apart at the seams, Lori took a second quick look outside. Finding Kaydel and the crew member outside and weighed down with cargo, she wordlessly toggled on the ignition and rushed into an unsteady takeoff.

The ship lurched to the side, off balance from its lowered ramp. Brixie and Mitaka both struggled to stay on their feet, while Ardis shrieked in excitement at the unexpected sensation. Quickly raising into the air, Lori didn't mind the surprised and shouting dots that were people in the increasingly distant clearing.

An alarm blared, and Lori reached for the loading ramps remote controls as they gained altitude. Just as the siren stopped and the bay door closed, Brixie regained her footing.

"What's going on!?" she demanded, more confused than angry for now.

"I-it's a long story… we ha-have a good reason." Mitaka sputtered and tried his best to defuse the situation.

Holding Ardis with one hand, Lori yanked upward on the yolk, sending the freighter into the stars at a dangerously steep angle. Already off balance, Brixie and Mitaka tumbled backwards over the severely tilted ground.

Lori spared her grip on the yolk to shut and lock the cockpit door. With that done, she returned to the ship's controls.

Hearing the occasional shout or knock on the door, she didn't relax until they had breached the atmosphere and made a jump to lightspeed.

Finally allowing herself the luxury of a deep breath, Lori deflated in the seat as the distant stars stretched into blue white streaks around her.

Ardis reached up towards the brilliant blue streaks, grasping at them just as she had with her now torn flower, "Ow!"

Trying to ignore the inevitable and delicate conversation she would need to have with Brixie, Lori ran a gentle hand over Ardis' hair, "Hyperspace."

The infant looked over at her mom before gesturing back out of the viewport, "Ow."

Lori reached for Ardis before pulling her close to her chest. Taken off balance, Ardis looked away from the flashing blue-white lights and up at her mother.

"Close enough," Lori said, mostly for her own sake, as she looked back down at her baby.

.***.***.***.***.

General Hux had followed Pryde back to the bridge. While Pryde did outrank him, the very idea of leaving the other man in control of his ship left Hux with an uncomfortable weight in his stomach. Much to Hux's chagrin, Admiral Griss had wandered to the bridge as well.

Just old enough to have served as an officer in the imperial navy, Griss had a respectable record in the First Order. Hux's personal dislike of the man came from his relatively strong relationship with Pryde. Griss seemed to agree with Pryde on every contested topic that the First Order had ever been faced with. Whether that agreement was out of some personal bond, or simply because Griss was looking for an ally with more sway then him, Hux didn't know or care.

Now he was faced with the both of them, issuing orders to his crew on the bridge of his ship. They had been quietly talking, just below what Hux could hear over the hum of the ship's engines. Whenever he drifted closer to listen in, the other two men would grow quiet, or very obviously change topics.

Even the crew seemed to be excluding him from the real goings-on of the ship. A few reports had drifted in and they all went directly to Pryde, who decided that Hux shouldn't concern himself with the new information.

Does he know? Hux had gone back and forth with questioning whether Pryde knew he was the spy, He doesn't. He would have said something if he did.

But what if he's looking for proof? Oh, he doesn't need any proof. The crew answers to him now.

Then again, if he-

The heavy door to the bridge hissed open. At once annoyed and then thankful that the sudden sound had shaken him away from his thoughts, Hux watched as Kylo Ren crossed the room.

"General Pryde, report." The supreme leader demanded.

Pryde immediately abandoned his conversation with Griss, "There's been a report, sir. The knights of Ren have tracked the scavenger."

Before Ren had time to demand more information, Griss added on, "To a settlement called Kijimi."

Hux glanced at a navigational screen. Kijimi was only a sector away, less than two hours off at lightspeed. He didn't even consider alerting the resistance that the First Order had picked up their trail. The Finalizer would arrive just as quickly as the news.

Not one to be left out of the conversation, Hux put his own two cents in, "Shall we destroy the city, supreme-"

Kylo Ren didn't wait for him to finish before hurrying off the bridge, an order to set course for Kijimi being the only thing he left in his wake.

Fuming at the obvious disrespect, Hux bit his tongue as he was left to watch Pryde and Griss ready his ship for the jump to lightspeed.