11/1/35 ABY: The Supremacy

Kylo holds two mockups of his new badge. One, for non-citizens, looks pretty much exactly the way it did before. The rays extend all the way to the center, though if he had to guess he'd say they're emanating out of the center instead of leading into it, but all in all he's pleased. It doesn't put him in mind of a giant mouth about to eat anything in it's path any longer.

The second one has a wide silver band around the white of the circle. The mark of a citizen. He nods at that, still pleased. It's quite visible, but doesn't take away from the complete design.

His Designer, (Captain Frakes, C8 tells him) looks at him, a little nervous, but proud. He's satisfied with the job, and he thinks Kylo will be, too.

Kylo nods. "The helmet?"

"I have sketches. If they look right, we'll get the prototype up." He passes over the sketches. Frakes must have incredible visual memory. Kylo wore the mask, he built it, and he's not sure he could sketch it that well from memory.

"This is good."

"Thank you, My Lord."

"Put the badges into production. How long to have enough of them ready to switch everyone over?"

Frakes thinks about it, and then pulls out a datapad, doing some calculations. "Probably a month. Depends on how many we need with the silver piping, and if I can get enough of the silver thread. If I can't, two months."

"And another two weeks for the helmet."

"Ten days."

"Even better."

Frakes is fiddling with something in his pocket, and Kylo can feel that he's not sure if he should bring it up.

"What?"

He looks away, and if it weren't for the fact that Kylo's danger sense isn't triggering, he'd assume an attack was coming, but… whatever it is, it's not dangerous.

"You… didn't ask for it… and…" He's looking at Kylo's everyday command blacks. "I know you don't wear the First Order uniform, but…" He pulls another badge out. It's the citizen's badge, but the hexagon is in silver as well as the circle. "I thought… maybe… a mark of office for you, too, My Lord."

Kylo looks at it, and nods, seeing how this fits in. He was never part of the First Order, intentionally. He was Snoke's personal enforcer, on his own, special missions. He was given command privilege, and the leeway to use those privileges to do whatever he needed to accomplish his tasks, but no rank. The only ranks that have ever mattered to him, Master of the Knights of Ren, and Supreme Leader are the ones he bestowed upon himself. The ones he's earned with his blade.

But if he is to lead something, it would make sense for him to be a member of it, wouldn't it?

"I like it."

Frakes leans forward, and lightly touches Kylo's left sleeve. "We all wear our badges here, I can start adding them to your tunics, if you like."

Kylo chuckles a little at that. "You could, but the tunic doesn't have sleeves. It's the shirt under it that has the sleeve."

Frakes looks down, blushing, and stammers, "I'm sorry, My Lord…"

"It's nothing to worry about. Yes, a set of shirts with the badge on them would be good."

"Yes, sir. Do you want command stripes?"

"No. I don't need them."

Frakes eyes him, looking at not just the man in front of him, but the image of him as well, and nods, slowly, seeing an image of The Supreme Leader. "No. You don't."

Frakes looks like he's expecting to be dismissed, but Kylo's got another thought in mind. If he's going to have a coronation… He might as well have a coronation. "Did you see General Hux's last speech?"

"Not in person."

Kylo doesn't say, "I daresay not, otherwise you'd be a cinder," he does say, "I'm thinking of a similar rally, and I'm going to need new accoutrements branded with my symbol."

"Flags, banners… things like that?"

"Yes. Can you set something like that up?"

"Yes, my Lord!" His eyes are gleaming. Kylo doesn't know what his grand vision looks like, and then, as he gently brushes against his mind, he does. It's here, inside the Supremacy, all in gleaming black walls and cool white pillars. Long, flowing banners of black with the same symbol that Kylo's holding in his hand now, his personal symbol and colors, draped from ceiling to floor. Every person who can be spared from his duty is standing, in perfect formation, rank after rank of white armor and dark uniforms, all of them staring up at a podium, also draped in Kylo's symbol, waiting for whatever their Supreme Leader is about to say to them.

Kylo nods. "That will be beyond acceptable, Major Frakes."

Frakes eyes go wide. He swallows a huge smile. "Major?"

Kylo nods again. "Major. I have a feeling that I will need someone with an eye for the look of things, likely quite often, in the next few years, and so far, you are proving to be…" Snoke would have said, 'barely adequate' or something like that, "more than I expected. Eventually, we'll put the new symbol on all of our gear. I have the feeling we're going to need a lot of stencils."

"Yes, sir! I will see to it."

"Thank you, Major Frakes."

"You enjoyed that," Rey says, appearing from behind him, and then stepping over to lean against the desk he's sitting at. She looks around. He's in his private office right now, and it's a space she's never set foot in. Like his private chambers, it's black. Black walls, black floor, black desk, black. It's a room that feels like it eats light, never letting a ray of it escape.

The one wall that's entirely window is nice, though. She can see several of his other ships keeping pace with the Supremacy, uncounted stars, and three large planets, one with a wide ring around it.

"You weren't here, were you?" he asks.

"No. I could feel you weren't alone, so I didn't come through. I could feel you enjoying it, though."

"I did." He holds up the badge. "Kill the past, step… Whatever this is."

She takes it from him, looking at it. She personally prefers more swoopy, organic shapes, but this is certainly better than the old version.

"Will you rename it?"

He nods. "Yes. I want to set myself apart from Snoke. I want a clear line between me and him."

"But you still want people to know where you came from?" She puts the badge on his desk. "After all, the shape is similar."

"Perfected?" Though looking at it, he can feel it's not right, not yet. Getting there, but… Not yet.

He pushes his chair back from his desk, and pats his lap. She comes over to sit with him. He kisses her hello, and she kisses back. Her look lets him know she's still interested in where he was going with that idea. He touches the badge. "Even I wasn't angry enough to sign up for a group just to burn the galaxy down. And I wasn't angry enough at my parents to join the First Order just because they stood against it. The First Order was supposed to be about Order. There was supposed to be a great structure, a rise of law, and power wielded intelligently. None of the eternal civil wars, backstabbing, and scrabbling of the New Republic. When Palpatine fell, every member of the Empire who had a rank above Major grabbed everything he could and set up his own little kingdom, and then fought with everyone around him to hold and expand it. Most of the 'newly liberated' planets spun into… anarchy. Some of them… Once the Empire was gone, they had no jobs, no infrastructure, no… anything. They needed a leader, and anyone with a big enough gun who showed up got to be it.

"Some had strong laws and traditions, they slipped out of the Empire right into a Republic and barely even blinked. And as soon as they were part of the New Republic they started jockeying for power and attacking each other."

He shakes his head at that. "Snoke had the biggest gun. And he had it in system after system. And with every system he added, his gun got bigger. Then he turned it on the Senate, and they tried to play each other against him and all the rest of them." He's got a look in his eyes she's never seen before, wry and jaded. "After all, she was General Organa of the Resistance not the New Republic. She couldn't get enough backing in the government she built herself to be a legitimate commander defending the democracy she herself set into motion."

"But he couldn't get enough of them to support him, either."

Kylo shrugs. "Hux wanted them dead. Snoke wanted… Luke dead. He wanted to be the greatest Force wielder in a galaxy on their knees begging him for… I don't know. Hux wanted them calling his name, worshipping him, and anyone who didn't toe their line had to go."

"So the Hosnian system…"

"Hux thought that was a good way to completely destroy what was left of the Republic and the Resistance. He wasn't wrong. He destroyed Hosnian, all of my mother's men went after him, he got the whole Resistance out in one place, tagged their ships, and by the time the fight was done everyone on your side still alive fit in the Falcon."

"I take it he didn't anticipate losing Starkiller and Snoke in the process?" her voice is dry. Talking about Hux makes her feel squirmy on several levels.

Kylo smiles dryly back at her, keeping to her tone. "He certainly appeared to be surprised by that turn of events." He touches the badge again. "One unified system. Moving together toward a better galaxy. One at peace and functional. Snoke had the ideal, but not the follow through."

"And you have the follow through."

He crooks an eyebrow, looking out at the ships and planets. Then he touches the badge again, finger dragging over the silver hexagon. His silver hexagon. "I guess we'll see."

Sometimes rumors are true. When the orders for new badges begin to filter through the manufacturing section of the Supremacy, and when those badges being to show up in the laundry division, rumors spread like fire through the oxygen producers.

Long before the first sewing machine passes a needle through one of the new badges, there's talk of a change coming.