Seventeen hours after the Hosnian Cataclysm- The Supremacy, Unnamed nebula in the Unknown Regions

Casper closed the holoshow he was watching and almost didn't realize that there was another update in the Skywalker search database. He'd pushed out what he'd witnessed yesterday out of his mind, but the entire ship was filled with a nervous energy.

The First Order's return to the galaxy was imminent, but no one had received any orders. There were rumors of battle with the Resistance on some outlaw planet, simultaneous with the destruction of Hosnian Prime. But that wasn't relevant to anyone other than the brass and tacticians.

Oh well, turns out that battle did happen. A bounty hunter named Bazine Netal had reported seeing the droid on a planet called Takodana. The gist of the battle was that when the First Order appeared to apprehend the droid, the Resistance was somehow also aware of the droid's location and had scrambled squadrons in defense. Surprisingly, the many pirate and smuggler ships chose to flee rather than defend Takodana, a planet that had remained independent and neutral for so long specifically because many criminal elements were dedicated to making sure the planet remained neutral ground.

Casper didn't dig into any of the tactical reports, again, it wasn't his job. Instead, he read the status update for how the battle affected the Skywalker search. And it was...surprising. The droid and Rae had fled into the woods, only to be followed by Kylo Ren. He was unable to obtain the droid, but he told the commanders of the battle that it didn't matter. A retreat commenced and the Resistance easily routed the slower soldiers. Ren claimed that interrogating the girl was sufficient to discover the location of Skywalker.

Casper's heart sank while it felt like this stomach had migrated to his throat. The torture and interrogation methods the First Order had access to were gruesome. He knew this first hand, having been ordered by Malarus to observe her many times. And that was ignoring the unknown dark magics Ren could wield. Casper knew, that if he was on site at Starkiller, he would do anything to allow Rae to escape, before she would be subjected to such things, regardless of the personal risk to himself. But with no outlet for such determination, it quickly faded, as Casper forced himself to be lost in data pushing.

It was a barely an hour before the results of Rae's capture and interrogation were added. Casper didn't want to open them. But like a ship crash or stormtrooper caught at the edge of a blast radius, morbid curiosity kept him from just closing the folder. He wasn't sure that if there was a recording of the interrogation if he could keep himself from watching it.

Thankfully there wasn't. Instead, there was your typical form, linking Rae to the scavenger turned fugitive before. Some other officer had pieced together the proper information, since Casper assumed Ren didn't do it himself. The better quality picture of her showed her unconscious, but just like the rest of the information about her interrogation, the standard protocol of identifying how she was rendered unconscious was excluded. But he recognized the gaunt face of a humanoid forced to live off of Unkar's rations, skipping many meals. But there were no scars and she did seem excessively malnourished. Her hair was still tied in the buns Casper had left her in. He wondered how Rae preserved them. Did a friendly scavenger show her how? Did that scavenger understand the cultural significance of the three buns, or did they just think it was an easy way to keep one's hair out of their eyes?

Casper had to shut his eyes tight and take a deep breath to keep himself from being lost speculating on what kind of situation she had been left in. Once he broke out of that, he scrolled down, grateful that there was no transcription or recording of the interrogation, just like with Phillo.

Instead, the results of the interrogation were simply listed as inconclusive and that Rae was to remain in the interrogation room under guard instead of being placed in a cell. But there was a file attached with a clearance level he had never even seen before. It was higher than even the information on S base and other projects. In fact, Casper assumed this was an error, and the file wasn't even supposed to be attached. Kriff, even the filename was redacted, he couldn't even get a number. He could only assume that whatever information was in that file, it was on the same level as information like who Kylo Ren was under his mask or the details of Grand Admiral Sloane's death. Which made him think.

Then Casper had an idea. An idea that could still get him quietly executed or interrogated, but acted on it before really considering what could happen.

"Quaynara," he said, waiting to continue until the cyborg broke her attention away from the information she was feeding directly into her brain. "Can you list all the imperial facilities on Jakku directly before the battle?"

Quay thought for a moment, searching the First Order database way more quickly than he could. She started naming villages and mining facilities that the Empire had occupied, with a few quickly built factories and garrisons in there as well. Casper listened intently, but then he released a way he could speed up the process. What he didn't realize what that everyone in the group was watching, confused why he was asking Quay when he could access the database with the computer right in front of him.

"Can you narrow that down to imperial facilities location of or near the Plaintive Hand plateau?"

Quay paused for a moment, before saying in her modulated voice. "There are no imperial facilities in the area around the Plaintive Hand plateau."

That didn't make sense. Even if Rae's presence in the stronghold was a secret, there should at least be official records of the place existing. And if Casper didn't have the clearance to view such information, he should at least be allowed to find out if it exists, or have Quay tell him that it was classified. And the old imperial records surrounding Jakku were the best kept, since the ships they were on were the ones that fled into the Unknown Regions.

There was something Casper didn't know. He had a few pieces of a puzzle, but certainly not enough to even have an idea of what the final picture was. Or even be able to connect the few scraps of information he knew.

It was Wen speaking up that broke him out of his mental freefall.

"Cas, you wanna train?"

On the edges of Casper's perception, Tal shot a puzzled look towards the younger humanoid. Then he realized what Wen was planning, and nodded.

"Uh sure," Casper replied, unaware of the silent exchange, still lost in thought.

Casper followed Wen to the training room, his mind still focused on forcing the pieces he had together than where he was headed. But he made it there without incident, as the path from the spare room to the training room one he'd walked many times.

As he and Wen changed into their training clothes, he wasn't aware that the young woman was also occupied with thoughts of her own.

When Wen set-up the simulation (a simple touch score counter), she handed Casper a training vibrosword and took one for herself. These weren't part of any stormtrooper's training regime, even melee specialist. It was just there to get someone used to fighting against the weapon of choice for many criminals. Casper noticed how this was unusual, but didn't say anything.

Casper blocked Wen's horizontal strike vertically, but they became locked in a brute force parry as Wen started to speak.

"Why were you asking Quay about Jakku? You could have looked it up on your computer- unless you wanted it to be harder to track."

The question caused Casper to falter and Wen to get a hit. His score vest flashed and Wen disengaged and stepped back, still waiting for an answer.

"Listen, I'm from Jakku," Casper replied, his blade in a ready position. "Well not originally, but I spent over a decade there. We- me and Malarus- we fought for the old Empire on Jakku. That's where we met. We were stranded after the battle."

For a moment, Wen almost dropped her blade entirely in response, but then she brought it up and kept swinging and advancing as she talked, each sentence an attack, requiring Casper to parry and retreat, but it wasn't challenging to keep up physically.

"I'm from Jakku. But before the battle. I was born there. I don't even remember what happened to my parents. I barely remember the orphanage. But I remember enough to understand the difference. Going from always being at near-starvation to always having a full belly. Searing heat and deadly cold to the perfectly controlled climate of a ship. All the comforts, no- necessities the First Order provided."

Casper had just blocked a strike to his leg, when Wen continued, but they remain locked, focusing more on the conversation than training.

"I wasn't part of the first group that was trained. But a day before the battle, stormtroopers came in. I don't remember what happened to the anchorites, but they took all the orphans. The older ones who could walk had to carry those who couldn't. It was scary. I don't remember much beyond the transport and all the pressed in bodies."

Both Wen and Casper's blade had separated now, although they weren't aware of it. Both weapons hung limply in their hands, the combatants more focused on the conversation.

"But after the battle, we were on a different ship. And we were all lined up. I didn't understand, but we were going to the Unknown Regions, to create the First Order. The older Hux was there, as was Admiral Sloane. Hux had a group of orphans who'd he already trained. They were all older and capable of fighting. One of them was Cardinal. I don't know what happened to the rest. But it was explained what was happening, in a simple way children could understand. Everyone six or older was assigned to one of the older children, Hux called them sergeants. Most groups were divided by similar ages. I was in Cardinal's group. We were given numbers instead of names. It seemed a small price to pay for what food and water they'd already given us. I don't-oh stars."

Wen paused, suddenly concerned as something dawned on her. This was enough to break Casper out of his trance. And now he felt awkward. They were standing in a training room and Wen was spilling her entire life story.

"I don't remember my birth name," Wen said this plainly, but under her steady words, she was terrified. "And it's not like I was saved before I was able to form memories. I remember Jakku, but I don't remember my name."

Casper struggled to know what to say. He was named. Even if he'd trained as a stormtrooper, he'd had sixteen years of being called only by his given name. But he tried anyway. "I mean, you're Wen, aren't you? I can barely remember all your numbers. That's what we call you. It might not be the name an algorithm or your parents gave you, but that's what you are."

Wen gave a half smile. "You're right. And that's not just what Tal stuck me with, my old squad, they didn't call me Wen. We all had WN in our ids. I was Scit, short for scitter mouse, cause how I was so physically weak. But, that was what Cardinal called me once we both found our purpose."

"Oh yeah," Casper said, feeling that this new conversational vibe better allowed responding.

The two of them had ended up sitting cross-legged on the slightly padded floor, their weapons on the side. "I've always wondered, how did you end up as an information curator? Since you've mentioned before you trained as a trooper. And I always thought that they used olds to fill non-combat roles early on."

"You're right. But no matter what Hux tried, I was always too weak. But Cardinal saw my skill with writing and images. And then Hux tested me and saw how good I was at understanding how to present information to get people to understand what was really true. So by the time there was a second generation of troopers to train, and Cardinal was captain, I worked in information."

There was a sense of longing in her voice for those days.

"Do you miss it?"

Wen closed her eyes and gave an ironic laugh, before opening them and continuing. "Of course I miss it. I loved working on the Absolution. And not just because I had more of a purpose. I didn't spend my entire time cooped up in a computer room. I went out and saw Cardinal teaching. I loved being around the kids. Knowing that they'd grow up to bring order and peace to the galaxy, so no one else has to live like the people of Jakku."

Casper felt a twinge of guilt. He had remained numb to the ideological reasons he fought, even though the cracking of the ice. To him, the First Order did their thing, and he'd never thought much about the consequences of their actions. Although he wasn't considering those effects right then either. It's just when seeing the strength of Wen's commitment and belief, he felt like he should be doing more. He wasn't really living for anything, but life wasn't too bad for him.

But such feelings and self-examination didn't last for much longer.

Wen got up. "Well that was weird," she said, embarrassed. "We just spilled our entire life stories instead of training." She reached out her hand to help Casper up off from the floor.

"Yeah," Casper replied as he picked up his vibroblade from the ground. "I mean we should still have some time to train. Although us both using vibroblades aren't really gonna help you get rated."

"Good point." Even as she was talking, Wen was putting her blade away and choosing a different weapon. "I was just so rattled when you asked Quay about Jakku. I was suspicious..I thought you might be searching for information for bad reasons. But I wanted to confront you alone. I'm not worried about that now."

Casper didn't want to point out how he hadn't even answered anything about why he wanted a list of all known imperial installations on Jakku. He hadn't even told Wen a version of his story that excluded Rae. But if she was satisfied, he didn't really want to. She'd opened up so much, but even then he didn't really feel obligated to return the favor unprompted.

So instead, he dueled Wen with his vibroblade against a batton. And the slight clarity of mind Casper had been able to achieve these past several days, was gone. Even the worry about Rae or the great mystery he stood at the edge of was pushed away, so that he could survive.

At first the commanders tried to keep the news from spreading. It took almost an entire standard day for their to be conformination at all levels that Starkiller base had been destroyed. Wen was shocked and horrified. The Resistance had slaughtered countless loyal First Order members, many of them sub-adults! The project that had been worked on for almost three decades, the countless amounts of resources and manpower used were gone in an instant. Not even the news of Phasma being assumed dead brought Wen some smug satisfaction. And now there would be a war, time spent fighting and dying that would delay ultimate order being brought back to the galaxy.

Tal remembered what his human father had said about Thrawn, the Chiss Admiral he served under in the Empire. Thrawn's pet project was the TIE Defenders, TIEs with shielding and hyperdrives that could stand up one-on-one against a rebel X-wing. Those traits, to a lesser extent had been added to First Order ties, and the project still lived on, but during the Empire its funding was continuously cut. Only after Tal's father had joined the First Order did he learn what those credits were being used for, the Death Star. From what his father could tell, Thrawn disapproved of it, seeing it as the embodiment of the expression sending all your children to the same mine. And such as thing was evident once again, as a third planet destroying super weapon was destroyed in less than a week after full operation. But it was not Tal's place to disagree with such orders. Even if he spent his day at a computer terminal, he was still a soldier.

But there was only one thing Casper cared about. Rae. Although a notice had been sent out, saying she had escaped her cell, there was no guarantee she has escaped Starkiller before its destruction. The part of Malarus that still lived in Casper reminded him that an untrained scavenger was an easy trade for destroying a weapon that could wipe them out instantly. Even the Resistance's best soldiers would be worth it. But this didn't cause him to rise up in anger against the Resistance or the First Order, just resign himself to what he knew was next.

The First Order still knew where the Resistance base was located, and the full strength of the fleet would be brought down on them. But it would take several days for the invasion to begin. Traveling from nebula, space stations, and conquered planets across the Unknown Regions, the fleet converged at the staging area. But hyperlanes through the Unknown Regions were notoriously fickle. But everyone, on both sides, knew this was the calm before the storm.

The Cold War was over.

This was the Second Galactic Civil War.