AN: I hope everyone is okay out there.
.***.***.***.***.
Something was wrong.
Lori let her stolen freighter drift into hangar bay fourteen. Little more than a turbolift away from the administration area, bay fourteen housed more shuttles than fighters or bombers. As a result, it was less heavily guarded as well. Though, there should have been someone on duty in the seemingly abandoned hangar.
Already on edge from the fact that the impeders were down, Lori felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge as she sat the freighter down in an unoccupied spot.
Was there a systems overload? Are the engines failing? I didn't see any smoke, but something had to have interrupted the impeder systems.
Trying to leave the concern behind, Lori began to debate what to do with the ship. Knowing full well that the unfamiliar thing would be boarded by the first set of stormtroopers to pass the hanger, Lori wondered if she could trust Mitaka enough not to do anything stupid.
Brixie was still napping in the back room. Lori didn't know what fate might meet the medic in the next hour. The strange tension on the Finalizer made her worry for her own wellbeing too.
Ardis was asleep as well, nestled in the co-pilot's seat. After tearing her jungle flower to shreds she had lasted an hour or so before settling down. Trying and failing to find some solace in how relaxed the infant was, Lori cast yet another worried glance out of the view port. There still weren't troopers, and Lori knew that the longer she stalled, the more likely they were to appear.
Hoping that she was making the right decision, Lori silently stepped out of the cockpit. Just a step away from the small room, she found Mitaka waiting for her in the hall.
"Have we landed?" He asked in a hush.
Lori nodded, "and something's not right. Stay in the freighter until I come back."
Mitaka blinked at the unexpected command. He felt an apprehension about returning to the ship he called home, but he hadn't voiced it. To hear Lori acting in a way that was in line with his own concerns set him even more on edge.
Trying not to think too hard about what message Mitaka had taken from her apprehension, Lori picked her way to the cargo hold. The ramp groaned as it lowered, and for a moment Lori strained to listen for the sounds of either Brixie or Ardis waking up.
Upon hearing neither, she slowly made her way down the ramp and hurried across the hanger.
Though she had been away for nearly a year and a half, the halls of the Finalizer were just as familiar as the day she left. Sure as she was that she could navigate the twisting halls without once losing her way, Lori knew that she would be shot on sight by a passing patrol. On a normal day, the First Order didn't take kindly to intruders on their ship, and something in the air made Lori think that the crew might be especially on edge.
Cursing the fact that the detour would only slow her down, Lori took a hard left to one of the many laundry rooms on the ship. Slipping back into a major's uniform would take her no time at all, but Lori feared that just a few seconds might cost her dearly.
.***.***.***.***.
General Hux tried not to twitch as a stinging antiseptic landed against the fresh wound on his leg. He'd been in the med-bay for not but five minutes before Pryde had ordered him to the bridge.
He had half a mind to ignore General Pryde's order, and remain for a full treatment instead. But, Hux suspected that he already looked suspicious, and refusing a direct summons to the bridge would be an easy way of confirming whatever it was that Pryde thought he knew.
Glancing at the working medical droid and then to the cane that had been fished out of a supply closet, Hux bit down an annoyed sigh. He didn't like the idea of hobbling to the bridge like a beaten down servant boy. Cursing the rebels, General Pryde, and any other thing that happened to cross his mind, he reached for the cane.
As he began to move, the medical droid tried to stop him, "Sir, I have yet to administer a bacta treatment to the-"
"Just wrap it. I haven't got all day." Hux cut the droid off.
If the thing could have looked dejected, it would have. Instead, the droid simply did as it was told, its base programming deciding that debating its patient might do more harm than delaying a proper treatment would.
By the time Hux had picked up the cane the droid had finished hastily wrapping a stark white bandage over his leg. A little bit of blood seeped from the wound where the droid had cut away burned sections of skin. From it grew a dull red spot that stood out against the white cloth.
Wishing that he had worn his coat so that he could have something to hide the obvious wound from view, Hux slowly stood. Grimacing with each step, he leaned heavily on his cane as he stiffly walked to the bridge.
.***.***.***.***.
Lori nervously searched for a chrono as she tried not to rush down the halls. Each second that ticked by was nothing more than another opportunity for someone to stumble across the freighter in hangar bay fourteen.
She would have been more than happy to send a contingent of troopers down to secure the ship herself, with strict orders that no one aboard be harmed in the process. The only thing stopping her was the fact that the ship had been set on high alert. The disconnect between the ship's orders -given directly by Kylo Ren, if the chatter in the halls was to be believed- and the reality that it was very easy to sneak aboard, left Lori to wonder just how much had changed since she left.
While it seemed as if everything had changed, Lori was sure that she would find Armitage in one of two places. The bridge was a short way off, and between it and her lie the executive offices. Hoping for a private reunion, and because it was closer besides, Lori quickly made her way to Armitage's office.
As she traveled, the halls began to slowly come to life. Turning from the nearly abandoned things, occasionally traveled by a patrol of stormtroopers, to a quietly bustling area filled with flustered aids hurrying to and fro.
Coming to the familiar location, Lori stalled to see if anyone was watching. Realizing that the gesture was more from force of habit than for any practical reason, Lori quickly stepped into the office.
As the door shut behind her, Lori's first realization was that she was alone.
The second thing she noticed was the state of the office.
Normally pristine to the point where it would be hard to tell that it was in use at all, the room was in a state of ruin. The desk was cluttered with unpowered and obviously abandoned data pads. A mess of bottles sat piled on the ground, some whole and some broken from where they had fallen off the desk. Code cylinders littered the room, dropped and most likely forgotten the second they hit the floor.
Fighting a sinking feeling that tugged heavily at her guts, Lori numbly walked through the room. Hoping that the office had been reassigned, a few of her more closely held fears were shaken loose as she came to a stop at the desk.
Through the assorted clutter, the broken data chips, and a busted blaster, Lori found the holodisk form Bastion. Trying not to let her hand shake, Lori picked the thing up. To a crushing lack of surprise, she found her own heavily blurred features and a bundle of blankets that was Ardis in the hologram.
What did he do to himself? Lori let the pained question roll through her mind as she tucked the disk into an interior pocket. Turning away from the ruined desk, Lori stifled a shuttered breath. The state of the room left her close to accepting a terrible possibility about Armitage's actions towards the First Order.
Armitage's heavy long coat hung by a hook near the door. The planet below was dark and covered in ice. Lori took the coat being here as a promise that Armitage was at least still on the ship.
He must be on the bridge; I have to be getting close. Lori tried to calm herself as she made to leave the room.
But, just as she reached for the control panel, she stalled.
Damn it Armie, this office is leaving me with a bad feeling. I've been hoping I was just being paranoid, but you went and did something you can't take back. Didn't you?
Lori looked back to the room, and then at the heavy coat that Armitage was so fond of. Bogged down by her impossible to ignore suspicions, Lori fished through it's pockets in search of a functioning code cylinder. If she was wrong, she could apologize to Armitage later. But if she was right then they might need a general's code cylinder during their escape.
.***.***.***.***.
The door to the bridge slid to the side with its characteristic whoosh. Hux would have liked to enter with a confident stride, but an awkward and stiff walk was the best he could manage with his unfamiliar cane.
General Pryde faced the viewport, dotted lights from the city below punctuating the otherwise dark horizon. Admiral Griss was nowhere in sight.
Probably sent off to more personally command my crew, Hux bitterly thought as he came to a stop in the center of the officers walk.
"Explain to me what happened." Pryde commanded, without turning to face Hux.
Armitage adjusted his weight on the cane, partially because he wasn't used to needing the support and also to hide the apprehension that came with his next words. He'd thought about what he might need to do in order to save his life, but he had hoped that he would have more time to mentally prepare than the half hour or so that had passed since the rebels fled.
"It was a coordinated incursion, allegiant general." He lied, "They overpowered the guards and forced me to take them to their ship."
Hux watched Pryde shift his stance, as if he were balancing the truthfulness of what he had just been told. Trying not to hold his breath, Hux fought to keep his expression neutral as Pryde dropped some tension from his shoulders.
"I see," the older man spoke towards the viewport before making a tiny turn of his head towards a nearby lieutenant, "Get me the supreme leader."
The younger officer didn't have a clue about the tension that lingered in the air, "Yes, sir."
The lieutenant turned to scurry off the bridge, their small movement catching the attention of the rest of the people in the room. In the fraction of a second where the room wasn't intent on Pryde's back, the older man made a quick movement towards a stormtrooper.
There wasn't enough time for a gasp of surprise to ripple through the bridge. The trooper didn't even think to react as his weapon was pulled from his belt. Though he was dulled with age, Pryde had spent many years behind a blaster, and his aim hadn't deteriorated.
Hux didn't have time to do anything beyond feel his eyes go wide, and his mouth open for a shout before he landed with a heavy thud on the floor of the bridge.
A heavy thud shook the ground, it's echo just audible below those of the blaster. The lieutenant skidded to a stop. All eyes went from the floor to the allegiant general, a slight trickle of smoke wafting up from the barrel of the blaster in his hand.
He spoke a continuation of his order to the lieutenant, though his gaze was locked on Hux's unmoving body, "Tell him that we found our spy."
.***.***.***.***.
The walk from Armitage's office to the bridge felt miles longer than Lori remembered. Debating with herself, desperately trying to think that everything was still okay, she was numb to the other officers in the hall.
He didn't. He wouldn't be so reckless. He doesn't know about Ardis or me, the First Order is the only thing he thinks he has left. He wouldn't.
Lori didn't believe her own thoughts, having already decided that Armitage had been the one leaking information to the Resistance.
You better have covered your tracks. Lori began thinking down the path they would have to take to get out of the situation. You were planning on running? Right? He has to have a backup plan. He always has a backup plan.
She rounded the second to last corner between her and the bridge.
Ok, breathe. Armie's got to be on the bridge. Whatever is going on here is going to have to wait. It's been a year. What do I even say? What can I say?
A slight collision with another person in the hall shook Lori away from her thoughts. A flustered lieutenant mumbled something that could have been "Sorry, ma'am" before hurrying away, their eyes wide and with a far-off stare.
Lori watched them leave, the lack of protocol on Armitage's ship being just another warning sign that something was terribly wrong.
Trying and failing not to read into the strange happenings, she quickened her pace as she rounded the final corner to the bridge. The double doors that would lead to the familiar room were less than forty feet away. Trying and barely succeeding in preventing herself from breaking out into a worried run, Lori approached the doors.
The heavy things whooshed open as she neared them.
The scene that greeted Lori brought her to a sharp and sudden stop.
The bridge seemed shocked into slow movements, barely reacting to the sudden opening of the doors. Lori didn't mind the stunned crew, as a sickening rush of adrenaline and fear distracted her from the rest of the room.
Armitage lay unmoving on the ground.
Hardly able to tear her gaze away from the terrible sight, Lori was only able to look up after she heard a vaguely familiar voice speaking from the center of the room.
General Pryde stood in what was normally Armitage's spot. Dull gray eyes looked down at Lori. Without a hint of recognition or concern he issued Lori a single, callous, command, "You there, dispose of the traitor's body."