A/N: A day after the kickoff meeting. Wookieepedia tells me, "Although he [Edrison Peavey] regarded his commanding officer [Armitage Hux] as an example of nepotism and incompetence, the Imperial veteran was a professional officer who kept his opinions to himself."

"Captain Peavey." Hux greeted the man as Hux stepped off the shuttle ramp.

"Sir." Peavey said properly enough, although there was no 'welcome' that should have accompanied Hux's first steps onto the ship Snoke had assigned for his use in the megaweapon project. It meant Hux was the commanding officer now, or would be as soon as they finished the administrative details. Maybe that was why there was no welcome. Peavey's eyes were wandering around Hux's face a bit more than usual. Hux was used to people staring at his hair – the rest of him, not so much.

"Is everything in order?"

"Yes sir." Peavey hesitated a moment. Hux raised his brows and tilted his head forward in invitation to speak. Peavey added, "You're just younger than I was expecting, sir."

"Ah." Hux straightened. It smacked of Snoke's reprimand about his team's youth. He was sure this particular aged captain had been chosen to offset this. He gave Peavey a quicker once-over himself. The man was old. In his fifties, perhaps more. "Let me guess – you have children my age?"

Peavey cleared his throat. "I, I do. I have grandchildren, as well."

"Are they my age? The grandchildren?" Hux ribbed him, heading toward the hangar bay exit since Peavey hadn't taken the lead in doing so.

"No, of course not!" Peavey caught up with him in a few strides.

"I don't know. You look old enough …" Hux looked over at him, thinking that was a good joke, but apparently it cut too deep or Hux had delivered it poorly. Sometimes he thought he should just keep his sense of humor to himself. Peavey's face flushed, his lips pressed together, and he said nothing. Hux rolled his eyes at the man having started the age thing and then being oversensitive about it. "Are they aboard ship?"

Peavey huffed. "Yes sir. Most of them."

"You have many children?"

"Six, sir."

"Ah. That's quite a family. Certainly doing your part to increase the ranks of the Order."

"I am. They had breeding bonuses back then, did you know that?"

"I had heard that," Hux said. He wasn't sure what Peavey was getting at by mentioning it. "Congratulations?"

Peavey nodded as though that was the right response. "Do you have any – children, sir?"

"No." He thought of all the thousands of children he'd seen processed into the Order's training programs – usually hungry, confused, and frightened. Kind words, calmness, and a friendly smile warmed most of them up some. Food, shelter, a sense of belonging, and a promise of stability and structure took care of the rest. They were the reason the First Order had to defeat the Republic – depose and destroy the corrupt government, bring order and stability to the galaxy, and bring prosperity such that no children were in such abject poverty that the Order was all they had.

It was certainly more than he'd had when growing up. He would have killed for what the Order's recruits received, and done even more for the life Peavey's children probably had. Peavey's many offspring had been raised right here in the Order, in the sort of privilege Hux had envied, but had no rights to. Brendol had arranged it that way on purpose. Peavey looked like the sort of man who would have used his influence to make things easy and smooth for his people. He was plump. He looked soft. He would have never struck his children.

Well. All Hux needed was for him to fly the ship. The faster they got moving, the faster they'd get to the Order's eventual victory. "We need to get underway for our first mission. Did you read the brief I sent over?"

"Yes sir," Peavey said slowly.

"Am I misreading you, or do I hear a certain hesitation in your voice?"

"It was an unexpected change in subject."

"Our work should never be an unexpected subject."

Peavey blinked at him. "Of course, sir."

Hux sighed. "We're clearly getting off on the wrong foot here. Just – have you read the brief? What are your thoughts on it?"

Peavey cleared his throat and assumed a posture Hux had seen often enough before – an older man preparing to school a younger on how things were to be done. "You are proposing to use my star destroyer as a cargo vessel?"

"Yours?" Hux said, stopping in the hall to face Peavey. If Peavey thought he'd get to condescend to him, then he had another thing coming. If they were going to be starting on the wrong foot, then Hux decided it would be boots and he'd just go ahead and jump in with both of them. "It's been assigned to me."

"It's been assigned to your project, for defense and protection of the project site."

"Until those droids are delivered, there's nothing there to defend and protect. If anything, your very presence there may draw unwanted attention that there's something there worth looking at."

"But … my orders-"

"I'm giving the orders here." His upper lip twitched. "I'm taking the Finalizer to the pickup point where we will transfer cargo and proceed on our own. It shaves a week off the freighter's unnecessarily roundabout route that they take to avoid pirates. We don't need to avoid pirates; they will avoid us. We can go straight through."

"Hauling freight?" he said with disgust. "Why don't we just escort the freighter?"

"Because we move faster than they do at sublight and they won't fit in the hangar bay. I've already checked."

"In all my years, I have not-"

Hux interrupted him again. "If you ever stood in front of Leader Snoke, then you would understand. But you have not. So you don't. Things are no longer as they were in 'all your years'. Now get us underway! You can ask all the inane questions you want once we're moving."

Captain Peavey stiffened at the insult and the order. "You're not even signed on. Sir." What he meant was that Hux wasn't technically in charge of anything until the formalities had been seen to. One didn't just turn over command of a star destroyer without some paperwork.

"We will do it in hyperspace. Give the order to get us underway, now, or I will adjust the chain of command and deal with the consequences." Hux put his hand on his blaster, making it clear what he meant. Under normal conditions, it was a gross and bizarre overreaction to Peavey's desire to stick to proper protocol. It stung because it was the sort of complaint Hux himself might have made in Peavey's place. He didn't like what he was being forced to become.

Peavey eyed him. "You're as much a madman as your father."

Hux knew a capitulation when he saw one, but he didn't take his hand off the grip of his blaster. "You should keep that in mind."

The captain gestured to make sure Hux didn't misinterpret him turning his back and walking away. "Comm unit's there." Peavey walked over to it, contacted the bridge, and gave the necessary commands.