Four hours after the death of Lor San Tekka- The Supremacy, Unnamed nebula in the Unknown Regions
Casper rubbed his bleary eyes as the shift change alarm sounded throughout the Supremacy. Still half asleep, he got out of bed without acknowledging the other officers in his barracks. With his eyes closed for most of it, he changed into his gray lieutenant uniform, making sure the hat was on straight.
He was still rubbing sleep from his eyes when he reached the mess hall, where he used Malarus' privileges to get a cup of caf with his rations from the service droid. He sat down next to a young ensign he'd seen before but didn't know the name of. Everyone on the Supremacy was either exceptional enough to be assigned to the Supreme Leader's flagship or made enough political blunders to be assigned to the one ship that had never seen battle.
When Casper just started on his morning meal, Wen slid down beside him with her own tray. Although officers had more meal time than stormtroopers, it was still fairly short. Casper hoped that he wouldn't get too caught up in whatever she had to say that he'd be hungry his entire shift.
Wen, unlike Casper, was unnamed. So even if she somehow became an Admiral, she'd still be WN-34758. Almost all stormtroopers were unnamed, and just like in the Empire, anyone in a combat role had to be referred to by their operating number. Unnamed could still be officers, but it was an open secret that their advancement was unlikely. It would be lucky that an unnamed managed to become a Captain.
Wen was a Sergeant, but her situation was unique. She had been Captain Cardinal's top information curator. She'd designed most of the holos and records that trained young stormtroopers, as well as many of the posters that were hung up around the Absolution. After Cardinal's death at the hands of a Resistance spy several years ago, Phasma transferred Wen to the same spare room Casper was later left in. Everyone assumed Wen was stuck there because Phasma didn't want the allies of her old rival still around. But having never done anything to warrant a court-martial, there was nothing Phasma could really do other than keep Wen out of the action.
"How's the Skywalker search going?" Wen asked. She knew Casper still used Malarus' clearance as her aide to access the files. No one had taken it away, despite not acting as her aide for almost three months now, and it being over two weeks since her death.
"Haven't been able to check since last shift. I just woke up." After Casper finished speaking, he went back to the tasteless ration cubes, still listening to what Wen was saying.
"Ah dang. I thought you would have more information. The Finalizer moved to Jakku during the night shift. And you know how Hux and Phasma have taken over the Skywalker search. But I don't have access to anything else."
The Skywalker search was one of Wen's favorite topics of gossip. She often theorized why the First Order would be after him. One of her theories was that he was gathering power in secret to oppose the First Order. The other one was that the Supreme Leader wanted to execute him publicly as a show of strength. To show how their supposed hero was weak. And prove that he was literally dead, so the people who didn't understand he died when he left the galaxy to chaos would get the message.
"Jakku could just be for conquering. There's a lot of chaos and ruin there. And scrap I suppose. Lots of people that need structure." Casper stopped. He didn't want to reveal exactly how much he knew about Jakku.
"Yeah but why send the Finalizer?" she rebutted,"It's an academy ship. We have tons of other free ships in our fleet if it's for conquering reasons."
"No idea. It's not our job to question our superiors, especially without all the information." Casper knew parroting an ultimatum like that would quickly end the conversation. As talkative as Wen was, she was completely loyal to the First Order.
"Good point." Wen picked up her mug of water and held it up to toast. "To Carva Malarus, who died as she lived, serving the forces of good and order in the Empire and the First Order."
The volume of the toast attracted the glares of a few nearby officers, but most of the crew assigned to this mess hall knew Wen by reputation and face, if not by name, for zealous displays like this.
"To Malarus," Casper said, returning the toast, a pit in his stomach. Even as Malarus confided in him less and less over the years, eventually replacing him with Terex, he knew she never served the First Order out of honor or loyalty, but for her own personal gain.
Casper downed the mug of caf in one go after Wen left, probably to bug someone else. As the heat and caffeine burned his veins, he wondered how the young woman ever found time to eat. After that, slightly regretting how quickly he drank the caf, he finished off the rest of his meal quickly to make up for lost time.
Casper stepped into the spare room with a few seconds left, and found that the rest of the crew for this room were already there. Spare rooms were a side effect of how almost all the military might of the First Order was on capital ships. With such little ground to cover, personnel with no assignments couldn't be dropped off in a quiet Mid Rim garrison and left to rot.
Every destroyer had one or two rooms, but the Supremacy had the most. Without too many cadets on ships other than the academy ones or the secretive planetary S base, a lot of the beings assigned to such rooms picked up the slack with cleaning. But this spare room was for information work. There were computer terminals scattered about, while the officers did work like proofreading reports and organizing intelligence.
Most of the crew here rotated around, sometimes for just a day to scare someone. A lot of the times it was to get someone out of the way while the security bureau investigated, but wanted to keep them on their toes yet keeping them out of a cell. The core group for this room consisted of three people, four if you counted the overseer.
The overseer of the room was the only one with a formal assignment. They made sure the spares were actually doing something. The good news was that Tal cared more about efficiency than discipline and let everyone choose their assignments and have some free time. Tal's bluish skin and red irises gave it away that he was half Chiss, but Casper had no idea how the timeline for that would have worked, and never asked. One time when he got a glance at Tal's file (and discovered his name was Chimer'tal'arquen) he saw that he was classified as a "Chimera", but had no idea what that meant. Everyone privately knew that his assignment was because he wasn't a full human.
Unlike ship crews, spares worked 12-hour shifts through the entire day. But their assignments were much less rigorous (although Casper had heard of overseers who created their own strict schedule). So long as they did some work, Tal mostly left them to their own devices. Casper would open an incoming channel and then pull up an old Imperial era cartoon from the First Order entertainment archives. Usually, the production value was terrible, and Casper mainly watched them for that reason, to laugh at the bad acting and repetitive plots.
Other than Casper and Wen, the other core member was Quaynerna. She was the same model of cyborg as Terex, although no one knew what her former role was or how she was sentenced to the implants. And based on Terex's actions, they seemed to have much better control of Quay. A splicer that had been stationed in the room a few months ago had reprogramed Quay to not object to calling Wen by a nickname because of how closely she followed protocol.
Casper, despite still formally being Malarus' aide until her death, was assigned here after Malarus was gifted Terex to her during the Skywalker search. He still managed a few things, but he often wondered if this was a test or punishment from his now dead companion.
Casper sat down at his station and pulled up the folder for the Skywalker search, his code cylinders verifying him without the computer asking for a password. A lieutenant like him normally wouldn't have access to the entire operation database, but as an aide, Casper had access to almost all the files concerning the operation. Although there were a few things that were locked to him, and asking for special permission could result in the loss of all the privileges he had as Malarus' aide.
Speaking of files he didn't have access to, last evening, right as his shift was ending, a mission report was uploaded. The enigmatic dark warrior Kylo Ren had traveled to none other than Phillo when news of an associate of Lor San Tekka had been captured by JSec (the associate's name was above his clearance. Attached was an assessment of the situation on Vardos, also above this clearance). The interrogation, that had no attached recordings, not even one Casper couldn't access, produced the information that Lor had hid a map to Skywalker on Bayora Station years ago. After that, Casper had looked up Bayora Station in the First Order's database and had gotten a good overview of what it even was.
Bayora Station had been referenced in some Old Republic documents, but in 200 BFE, it vanished, only to return five years after the Battle of Jakku. It was a large floating space station, with sections of different architecture cobbled together. It appeared at the debris site of some old Imperial archive named Hivebase One. The caretaker droids affixed the largest parts to the station, before jumping to the same deep space site it inhabited centuries ago. For scholars and archaeologists, the station was a mystery. The massive archive mostly contained documents, not in any known language, and the caretakers ignored organics. Some of the beings became zealots to the archive, earning the protection of the droids but losing their minds in the process. After it was revealed to be a dead end, interest in Bayora slowed to a barely noticeable trickle. But when it came to hiding information, it was as good a place as any. The droids wouldn't move it, but they'd take care of it. So long as you remembered its location and the station didn't decide to leave again, it would be a place your enemies would never check without a lead.
Casper was excited to see that a full after action report on Bayora had been composed as he slept. This one followed protocol and was much more detailed than the Phillo one, including fewer parts below his clearance. Theem Absolution/em docked at Bayora Station, with the resources to comb through the entire archive and hold off any cultists or droids. A cultist, seemingly not aware this was an invading force, acted like a librarian, but with only half of her words in Basic. When an officer said they were looking for Tekka, the cultist informed them that he had left for Jakku, but any other information was in the unknown language.
Suspecting this was a form of misdirection, the Absolution remained, while the Finalizer, along with Phasma and Kylo traveled to Jakku. Previous research into Tekka's past (done by Casper for Malarus) had revealed a connection to the Church of the Force village of Tuanul. Neither of the two had been there personally, but it was disturbing how such a backwater of a planet was suddenly relevant again.
There wasn't a report written yet on what had occurred at Tuanul, other than one saying that the operation had started a few hours ago. Leaving the feed open, so that he would be notified when the report was completed, Casper pulled up a folder of special gear requisition requests he was working on prioritizing at the end of last shift to help the quartermasters who could actually make the calls. A lot of the requests were already processed, but many more had been added, so he got to work.
Casper was broken out of his work-trance by a ping from his headset. Minimizing the window containing the requisition requests, he pulled up the Skywalker search window. There was the report for Tuanull. Expecting minimal resistance, a transport of stormtroopers, consisting of Phasma's best and oldest cadets landed. The religious folk fought back with improvised weapons and refused to surrender. No one of recruiting age was found, so they were all exterminated. A single Resistance pilot and X-wing were on site. The pilot fought to defend the villagers and was captured. The map to Skywalker that was on Bayora Station wasn't found. Kylo Ren confronted, then killed Tekka. The conflict with the villagers had minimal casualties.
Attached to the report were videos and combat statistics for all the stormtroopers involved, as well as a chemical analysis of the X-wing after it was destroyed. Those were the domain of psytechs, tactical analysts, and science officers. Casper hoped that the map wasn't destroyed with the ship, and that all the work had been for nothing.
There was also an incomplete prisoner processing form for the pilot, and the results of an interrogation also lacking any documentation. Casper suspected this was because of Kylo Ren. The masked man was of nebulously high rank. Regardless of his actual place in the First Order hierarchy, he was too high to do his own datawork. But unlike anyone of that rank, Ren had no valued aides and officers to do that work for him. Phasma had her tactical analysts. Hux had his small group of valued officers. Snoke had- well no one knew what the Supreme Leader had. But he never really did anything that needed datawork. And so people like Casper had to fill in the blanks.
There was an order attached after the interrogation. The base one was simplistic, but documents with the details of following out those orders were attached. The pilot had received the map and given it to his astromech droid. The droid had fled the scene and was now somewhere on Jakku. It was a BB-unit, with white and orange markings...
Instantly, Casper knew who the pilot was. It was Malarus' biggest annoyance, Poe Dameron. Of course, the Resistance would let Dameron finish the job. And the BB-unit was reported to have who knows how many aftermarket modifications and the erratic behavior that came with extremely infrequent memory wipes. To confirm this, Casper went and pulled up a random trooper's helmet feed from the battle, skipping around until he found what he was looking for. He didn't need any facial recognition program. Even with low resolution and the smoke of battle, Casper knew it was Dameron.
Using this information, Casper attached the best quality images of the droid from old records and all the information about its capabilities to the order, creating what was practically a wanted poster. Then, piecing together more precise information such as times from what he had, he also finished Dameron's intake form.
Pleased with his work, Casper went to pull up the entertainment archives, when he felt Wen tap on his shoulder. In response, he took his headset off and turned around in his chair to look up at her.
"Hey Cas," Wen said, "I was wondering if we could go to the training room." Wen had been working at getting rated as a riot control specialist ever since she'd been assigned here. Her lack of physical strength had made that a long and arduous process, but Casper didn't mind being her sparring partner. It also helped keep his own physical capabilities in shape. It was also a great way to blow off steam and not think for an hour or so.
"Ah sure." As he said that, he made sure to catch Tal's eye. He was very chill with them making their own schedules on their shifts, but Casper still wanted to make sure. Seeing the half-chiss' barely noticeable nod, he got up and followed Wen, his computer terminal automatically turning off and his session ended when his code cyndiclers got too far away.
On the way to the training room, he filled Wen in on what else had happened. For once, she listened, and nodded along with what he said. At the lockers, they put their uniforms away and donned officer training outfits (a stormtrooper body sleeve with a black chestpiece resembling the one troopers wore but with more electronics in it for things like score keeping). Wen put on the rest of the armor, looking almost identical to a crowd control specialist. Their first exercise was a simple touch-for-point duel. Wen wielded a riot control baton while Casper had a training club modified with electronics for proper score keeping.
After they did that for a while (Wen won in the end, but only by a close point margin), Casper donned a helmet so he could participate in a simulation with her. Together they used batons and shields to hold back endless waves of holographic rioters.
After 15 minutes of high intensity fighting, they were overwhelmed. For only two, their score was really good, but both of them felt ready to collapse. Wen's exhaustion only increased the speed and erraticness of her speech, so as they showered and changed back into their regular uniforms(either newly washed or just brand new uniforms in their size, this was to keep people from storing personal effects them), Casper had to listen to Wen rant about weapon specs and which forms of improvised weapons were most favored by insurgents in specific territories (Mine rioters always used whatever tools they had on hand, but almost never with enough coordination that overseers couldn't deactivate them more quickly than they rose up. An unusual amount of solar crossbows were wielded on some planet he'd never heard of called Attera Bravo).
Exhausted and drinking from provided water canteens, Wen and Casper returned to the spare room with just enough time for the lunch break to begin. Casper was able to separate himself from Wen, and his thoughts gravitated to imagining scenarios of what would happen to the droid on Jakku. He hoped that the droid wasn't completely eaten by the sand, not to be discovered for years. This wasn't out of any kind of wish for the First Order to find Skywalker, but from a sense of- well something that wanted this story to have a satisfying ending
Returning to his terminal after lunch didn't give Casper that ending, but it did add another twist to the story. A resistance spy had infiltrated the Finalizer disguised as a stormtrooper and managed to break Dameron out, eventually escaping towards Jakku in a SpecForces TIE. They also managed to damage a lot of the ship's turbolasers, inflict some casualties in the hanger, and shoot a few TIEs before crashing somewhere on the planet. Casper was shocked that a spy had managed to get onto the Finalizer. He tried searching linked documents for more information, but he couldn't even find the ID number of the trooper the spy impersonated. There was a document linked with an extremely high clearance, only open to Hux, Phasma, and some very high ranking psytechs. Casper was confused, but there seemed to be nothing else he could do. Well, there was probably a lot of cross referencing of records he could do, but that would be sticking his nose where it didn't belong, a very dangerous thing in the First Order. It would be best to let it sort itself out. Phasma was probably just worried about more spies aboard her ship.
Casper spent the rest of the day alternating between compiling dossiers and watching old imperial cartoons, but his thoughts were a million light-years away. Despite that, they just trod the same information and conclusions in circles, never producing anything new. Then it was dinner and bed, only to wake up the next morning. The same stuff, watching the operation he was once part of from a data center, unable to even give suggestions.
The morning brought nothing new, other than the notification that a bounty on the droid had been sent out in the appropriate channels. Casper wondered what criminal connections the First Order could even have on Jakku, but he didn't have to wonder long. A few hours into the shift, the drugedy of Casper's work was broken by the notification of an incoming holocall on the bounty channel.
The image from the holoprojector at Casper's station was extremely low quality, but Casper easily recognized the face of who was calling.
Unkar Plutt.
"I have the droid you're looking for."
Casper trained his face. As Malarus' aide, he often had to answer bounty calls. He knew the protocol. He couldn't let Unkar recognize him. So he followed the script.
"Please show us evidence that you have the droid in custody," Casper said, his imperial accent strong and his voice measured.
"Well, I don't have it with me right now. One of my scrappers brought it in. I thought she'd sell it, but she didn't. I'm sending my thugs to obtain it personally right now. Just thought I should call ahead."
"The credits will not be transferred until you have the droid in custody."
"Yeah, I got that. Just thought you could send someone ahead. I'll have it soon. Real soon. But hypothetically, if I didn't get the droid, will I still be paid?"
"There is a smaller reward for information, if you are requesting that."
"No no. Of course not, just give me a bit of time and I'll have the droid really soon." The call ended abruptly, and Casper let out a deep breath, slumping down in his chair.
After taking a couple seconds to reclaim his bearings, Casper sent the recording of his conversation on to whatever member of Phasma's/Hux's tactical team would see it, but before he pressed sent, Casper hesitantly typed out something in the notes section:
I have had personal dealings with Unkar Plutt before joining the First Order. (I spent about fourteen years on Jakku, my profile will verify this) He is extremely unreliable. It is highly likely that once he has the droid in his custody, he will attempt to extort a higher reward for it. And if whichever scavenger who found the droid was bold enough to deny Plutt something he wanted, she is either a highly skilled combatant or very foolish. And foolish people don't last long on Jakku.
Therefore, it is also probable that Unkar's half-trained thugs will be unable to obtain the droid. I recommend sending First Order operatives to Niima Outpost to apprehend the droid before he does. If you wish to continue a relationship with Unkar Plutt, I recommend you still pay him the information reward money. He is highly motivated by greed, and I suspect simply the information reward is more than he makes in half a year.
As Casper reviewed what he had written for typos, he realized he didn't read it back to himself in his own voice, but Malarus'. He shrugged. That must be what writing reports from Malarus for years did to you. After being sent to the spare room, the most he had written were two sentence requisition rejections, never anything this long.
Well, he pressed send and hoped they would appreciate his work. Heck, he might even get a real post with all the assistance he'd been giving during this stage of the operation. Maybe he'd become Kylo's aide. He handled Malarus' temper (a side effect from her drugs), he could handle Ren's. Satisfied, Casper returned to his work.
Two hours later, the Skywalker Search file was updated. Casper was pleasantly surprised when he found they had taken his suggestion. He was less happy when he saw that it wasn't effective. The stormtroopers had located the droid with a human female dressed in scavenger clothing and a known fugitive (Casper assumed it was the same Resistance spy). The troopers opened fire, only for the fugitives to avoid it. Air support was called in when the two beings reached an open area, only for them to steal a YT-1300 and escape. The ensuing dogfight spilled over into the starship graveyard, where they managed to take down all the TIEs and then jump to hyperspace.
Casper was shocked. He'd spent years hearing about the improved quality of stormtrooper training under the First Order. Skill was more consistent, instead of there being a few good academies and then there mostly being backwater ones. And TIE pilots were less disposable, with more training and actual shields on their ships. And it was in a freighter, something with minimal shielding and low power guns. The Resistance spy must be as good a pilot as the (assumed deceased) Dameron.
So Casper turned to the written up profiles of the two fugitives. Most of the spies' file was above his clearance, but it now had a basic physical description, although Casper was surprised there was no picture from the trooper's helmet records. And he didn't know why the common warning that Resistance members were "compulsive liars who would twist the truth to confuse you and tempt you to treason" was restated in the file. He shrugged, knowing only bad things would happen if he dug further, and pulled up the file for the second fugitive.
Then Casper's world shattered.
The first thing he saw in the fugitive's file was an image of her. It was low quality, from a helmet cam, but he would know those braids anywhere. They were the same as the ones he made fourteen years ago. That was (his daughter ) the girl he left on Jakku, all grown up. She'd survived 15 years on Jakku by herself, no small feat, but now she was challenging the First Order! No amount of skill, tenacity, or luck could keep her alive now.
As he came to such a conclusion, the ice over Casper's heart had begun to melt, and guilt and fear washed over him. But it wasn't because of some sudden realization of what horrors he had been complacent in and abetting. Of the worlds burned in part by him. Of the hope he conspired to tear from the galaxy. Of the innocents slaughtered for cruel designs. He still didn't truly understand what a dark machine he was a cog in, but now he had something to care about. This girl, who he arguably should have no connection to, had awakened something in him.
But this only lasted for a few moments, before being overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. Yes, he cared for something now, but he was paralyzed by the fact he didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't like he was on the front lines. He couldn't beg Malarus or Phasma to spare her. And his primal sense of self-preservation still remained, without a plan to get himself to safety or do it unnoticeably, Casper couldn't bring himself to sabotage the mission.
He tried to quiet now just not his thoughts, but his emotions. He closed out of the Skywalker folder completely and pulled up some busy work, but he couldn't even delegate any amount of focus to even comprehending it. His hands shaking, he turned off his monitor and turned to Wen.
"Hey, you wanna train?" he asked, his words only unsteady in his mind.
Wen didn't look up. Instead, she was staring intently at a datapad hooked up to her computer and she was drawing something with her tablet. Her tongue was out slightly, but her face was locked in a pose of regal serenity. "I'm in the zone, can't stop now," she managed to force out.
Realizing she was probably drawing a poster no one had even requested (Wen had an idea that if she made something good enough, she be let back into information curation, Casper sighed and got up out of his chair.
"Are you okay Cas?" Tal asked, looking up from his work. Casper almost jumped, thinking that Tal had figured out what he'd just discovered, but then he realized it was just because he had never asked Wen to join him for training before, it was always the other way around.
"Uh yeah," Casper lied, "I'm just weirdly restless today. Must have gotten a bad caf serving. I've been trying to wait it out, but it won't go. So I thought might as well use the energy, or try to exercise it out of me."
Tal stared Casper down, considering what he'd just said. Casper hated when Tal did that. He always felt like the half-Chiss was picking him apart in search of something. Then Tal turned back to his terminal. "Very well, just don't be too long.
Casper returned to the training room and fought against waves of holographic enemies armed with a shield and vibro-axe. After each time he was overwhelmed, he started up the simulation again, despite his shaking limbs and gulping breaths. At first, the exercise stimulated his mind and gave him a chance to think, even if any sort of real plan remained out of reach. But eventually he reached the other side, and his thoughts spiraled away from him. He only stopped when the training computer forced him to, detecting dehydration and that he was on the verge of passing out.
But the ice had returned. As he sat at his computer terminal half an hour later, drinking water, his thighs throbbing, he was as listless as he always was. He didn't think of Rae and the terrible danger she was in. It was just mindless work and bad holos, and that was fine.
The next day was normal. Casper's muscles ached from overexertion, but it was almost like the last few days hadn't happened. There were no new Skywalker search updates, and after checking the folder at the start of his shift, Casper left it closed the rest of the day.
However, a few hours after lunch, something odd happened. The voice of the Supremacy Captain Peavey came over the intercom, something normally only ever used for drills or shift change bells.
"We are on the verge of greatness. Soon we will return to the Core worlds and bring order back to a chaotic galaxy. The time we have waited decades for is at hand. To see the beginning of our triumph, all First Order personnel are to assemble in hangers based on their sectors."
There was a short pause before a different junior officer began to read off what sectors of the ship corresponded to each hanger. Casper zoned out until his sector was called, and the entire group used that time to shut off their terminals.
Once it was called, the four officers exited the spare room and headed towards that hanger. Not quite knowing where it was, they trusted Quay and her internal map of the massive ship to lead them there. As the cyborg marched ahead at perfect military attention, the fully organic beings lagged behind to share whispers.
"What do you think that's for?" Wen started.
"This isn't part of any normal evacuation protocol," Tal sounded deep in thought as he threw ideas out there. "Peavey made it sound like a good thing, but even an announcement of something like an Ascendancy alliance or invasion orders would be communicated down the chain of command. I would know about it before you guys."
"Maybe the Supreme Leader is making an address?" Wen offered.
"Something like that would be scheduled. And since we can't fit the all the crew in any one room, there would be a system of assigning everyone briefing rooms. It doesn't make sense to announce it at a moment's notice."
"What if this is a Resistance attack? And they're gonna disable the rey shields and space us!" Wen sounded more excited than scared, but the sudden proclamation caused Casper's eyes to go wide and start listening intently to the conversation, waiting for Tal to disprove Wen's fluff-brained theory.
Instead, Tal thought for a moment, opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it, as if he had just disproved his own point in his head before he had a chance to say it. This repeated many times, until Tal finally shook his head in frustration.
"I have no icon-clad answer to give you. What Wen said remains a possibility. But it's very unlikely. The Resistance would require incredible planning, resources, manpower, and the hardest to get, perfect intelligence of the specific nature of each aspect of the Supremacy's defenses. If the counter-intelligence reports I have access to are accurate, then they aren't even sure the Supremacy exists."
Wen tucked a strand of hair back into her ponytail and sighed. "Let me guess, you had a big debate with yourself in your head before responding. You always think too much in non-serious conversations."
Tal's face became much more serious and his tone much more regulated. "I will remind you that I am your superior office and I will pretend I didn't hear that last statement."
Casper had to chuckle internally. Tal always said that excess formality and command structures were bad for efficiency and effectiveness, but sometimes Wen tested his laid back nature too much. But he knew Tal didn't mind, it was just that this level of familiarity would get him in trouble.
The awkward silence lasted for the next few minutes it took the group to reach their assigned hanger, witch was already half full of rows of techs, officers, and stormtroopers standing at parade attention. The assorted TIEs that dotted the hanger had been placed in their ceiling holders and the rey shield had a large holoprojector under it. It was sloppy, but the secrecy of the event meant that only a few people got slightly more notice than the rest of the ship. A small holo projector at each of the entrances read No assigned positions. Parade attention throughout
The group took their position at the first uneven square. There were a few officers directing people so that each being was an equal distance from each other and that the size was consistent for each of the six squares.
Everyone knew not to speak, so the would be quiet voices of the officers directing newcomers rang throughout the hanger. When they weren't speaking, only the sound of the ship's idling engines and mostly automated factories could be heard. But the awkwardness and anxiety of everyone in the room might have been displayed on the holoprojector for how obvious it was.
But a few moments after the last person filled in and the ushers took their place as well, the projector actually activated. Using the backdrop of the unnamed nebula theem Supremacy /emfloated in, a two dimensional projection appeared. It showed a stage on some snowy planet, with its own neat lines of First Order personnel. The camera zoomed in to show the face of General Hux. Many high ranking officers, including Captain Phasma, stood arranged behind him. He then began to give a speech:
"Today is the end of the Republic! The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder! At this very moment, in a system far from here the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance."
Well, that was pretty much a restatement of what Peavey had said in his announcement and the usual lines about why the New Republic was bad.
"This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand, will bring an end to the Senate! To their cherished fleet! All remaining systems will bow to the First Order!"
But that part was interesting. Since Casper was currently standing on one of the secret First Order projects, that had to be the other one, S Base. He still wasn't sure how a planetary base could manage such a feat.
"And will remember this...AS THE LAST DAY OF THE REPUBLIC!
The intensity of Hux's last line was able to send shivers down Casper, despite his apathy. Although it wasn't enough to bring on another existential crisis. It reminded him of the speech given by Grand Admiral Rax right before the Battle of Jakku, although the later was much longer, and in Casper's completely uninformed opinion, much better.
The projection then cut to another camera, one showing the legions of stormtroopers and officers watching the speech in person. They suddenly raised a fist in the air in salute. Since they weren't briefed in what to do, the beings watching light years away simply remained at attention. Then the soldiers assembled at S Base turned away from the stage, and the camera cut again.
This view showed the side of some slightly raised structure, surrounded by trees. Then the ground began to rumble, as a bright beam, recognizable as red through the blue tint, shot towards the sky, with the force to bend back trees. Snow near the beam melted, as the transparisteel the camera was behind cracked and was blown away. Soon the camera shut off, as whoever was managing the broadcast realized it was in danger of being destroyed, and wanted to avoid the embarrassment of technical difficulties. But Casper had already put it together.
They'd done it again. He'd known about both of the Death Stars, the first after Alderaan and the second when the Eviscerator was assigned to protect it(He hadn't been on the ground at Endor or been at a viewport capable of seeing the second one when it exploded, but the Eviscerator was part of the battle). And now they'd made a new one. One built into a planet and somehow capable of striking from across the galaxy.
As the Hosnian system was reduced to space dust, billions of beings loyal to the First Order also realized this. Some cheered at the death of the villainized New Republic. Others didn't consider the death of billions of faceless beings, and were excited that the wait was over, and that they could now be part of bringing stability and peace back to the galaxy. Others accepted such loses of innocent life as a necessary price. A few saw the terrifying loss of civilian life and couldn't condone it. But those few would be silenced in the upcoming days, either though justification that pushed such thoughts deep down, or the execution of their thinkers (or in many cases, their deaths unrelated to treasonous thoughts).
But for Casper, it was nothing. His brain couldn't comprehend the instant death of countless beings light years away, what that really meant. Without a visual brutal death, or a personal story, he just couldn't. But there was no joy for the First Order. The recent breaking of the ice due to the knowledge of Rae's existence did nothing then. He didn't even realize the upcoming full scale war with the Resistance would increase her chance of death.
Casper was fully complicit in the destruction of the Hosnian system, and he knew it. Apathy reigned.
This chapter was originally supposed to be much longer, covering all of TFA and TLJ from Casper's POV. But I realized this was a good stopping point, and breaking it into three parts (this, the rest of TFA, and then TLJ) would be much more reasonable. I have also decided that there will be another chapter after those of Casper finally meeting Rey as an adult. Bayora Station isn't based on anything from canon or legends, it's just a cool idea I came up with. I decided to use it just because it didn't look like anything being released in canon soon would explain what Del meant when he said the map was with Bayora. It also serves as a good explanation of where the Absolution was during TFA. Also according to legends Chiss naming rules, I know Tal should be called Mertalar, but since he's very big on efficiency, he just goes by his personal name. Tal is the child of a Chiss and one of the random Imperials on the Chimera. When Ezra took the Chimera to who knows where, I headcanon that all the surviving grunts were dropped off at the Chiss Ascendancy. Also, I hope Unkar felt in character. It's really hard to write him when he isn't in a position of power.
And in response to the Guest who commented on chapter 4. I'm glad you enjoyed it! However, I don't think Rey needs a more positive veiw of imperials. Her assuming Ciena was a rebel came from her being so young. Most children under eight have an extremely black and white sense of morality. As she is forced to do more morally questionable things to survive, her veiws become less black and white. And Finn certainly allows her to understand that the Empire/First Order is made up of people. However, she will eventually be able to piece together her origins once she meets Casper. Although knowing who left her on Jakku is more important than knowing her biological parents.
I would also like to thank the guest who commented to tell me that this chapter was displaying with all the HTML tags. Unfornately this happens frequently because I copy my fics right from the AO3 input box as part of my editing system. I had found a fix for that, witch is using copy as plain text, instead of regular old copy. But I had forgotten to do that. It shouldn't happen in the future, or at least it should be caught sooner.