Hux stewed over the rating to assign to the primary oscillator intake. If he made it as robust as the rest of the system, then it was less likely to break down. Venting was a critical function, so this was obviously important. On the other hand, that was why they had redundancies to take over after it failed. If he made it too robust, then something else might fail instead that had fewer redundancies, increasing the chances of a cascade failure. He would be disastrous to underestimate this much energy. He had nothing comparable to relate it to in recent galactic history. Even the Death Stars were poor analogies when it came to the phantom quintessence of a star.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his sore eyes. It felt like he'd been at this for days and that wasn't entirely inaccurate. The joint manager's council had submitted this latest draft of the 'final' plans for Starkiller Base to him, along with options. They reason why they couldn't select the option and move forward without his input was because the option chosen depended on how the weapon would ultimately be used.

If they were to fire it once or twice at full power and then never again (or at least not without doing a full evaluation and refurbishment between firings), then one should make things modular, easily upgraded and altered, and relatively light-duty. This was typical of planetary defense systems, expected to sit idle for decades or even centuries between unplanned use. Some were never used at all outside of drills. But if Snoke intended to take Starkiller into combat on a regular basis, using it as a mobile battle station, then everything needed to be overbuilt. One would not necessarily get time or supplies to do repairs, so the more rugged the better.

A message was delivered to his inbox.

But what was it Snoke intended? He seemed to think the battle with the New Republic would be quick and decisive, if Hux's understanding was correct. Could he rely on that, though? Snoke didn't actually know how the battle was going to. He was just guessing through whatever Force wizardry he had. It would be foolhardy to rely on that. Overdesigning looked to be the way to go. It would take longer to build it that way, though. The First Order's very existence might depend on striking first, before the New Republic recognized the magnitude of the threat they posed. The base was useless if they managed to destroy it before it was finished.

Hux tapped the message open.

He wondered if his desire to have Starkiller Base set up as intermittent, light-duty use was because of his fantasies of using it as the ultimate trooper training station, or building industrial complexes on it similar to what Snoke was having installed in the Supremacy, so there were two of the things? Neither of these had Snoke's blessing or any indication he wanted them for this project. They were just things Hux wanted.

Hux rubbed his eyes again and blinked at the message. Surely he'd misread it, distracted as he was by his ponderings about the base.

From: Chief of Staff Brumos Fuseb

To: Armitage Hux

You are hereby promoted to general. See attached certifications and documents for your records. Please remit your preferences for wording of an official announcement to be made at the end of the next cycle.

Hux had this dreadful, bizarre feeling that someone was playing a prank on him. He'd heard Veska had been retired from Snoke's service and was currently in some manner of evaluation to see if she was fit for continuing duty. Hux had been asked discreetly by his personnel manager if he was interested in adding her to his own staff. He had tentatively agreed. So it meant seeing a new name as Snoke's chief of staff was not surprising. He still didn't know the guy.

And this … this was not how promotions were processed. Certainly not as a general!

He stood up, transferred the message to his datapad, and stalked off down the hallway. Cheskar was in the lounge, alone given the lateness of the hour. They were eating grapes while sitting in front of an engaged holochess board. The pieces were strangely set up, but that wasn't new. Cheskar often did odd things in their time off, making up non-standard simulations for their own amusement. Hux handed the datapad to Cheskar, who read it.

Hux looked at the game board. The override light was on, so yes, Cheskar was doing something other than playing holochess. The pieces were arranged in trios in the corners of the board – one big, one smaller but still major piece, and one pawn. The remaining pieces clustered in the middle of the board, at double occupancy in some of the squares.

Cheskar looked up at him. "Congratulations?"

"I … I don't know. Do you think it's authentic? Or a hoax?"

"A hoax would go to more trouble to make it look like exactly what you'd expect. They wouldn't make it look like a jotted down note – 'oh yeah, by the way, promote that guy and let him know about it; now let's get back to the real business of the evening …'" They handed the datapad back.

Hux felt weak in the knees. "So you think this is real?" Cheskar nodded. Hux went on, "A general? General Hux? I have my father's title. That's going to be even more confusing now. This is really happening?"

"Guess so … General. Want a grape?"

Hux looked. He picked one up. It wasn't an extruded simulacrum, but rather the real thing. "You have actual fruit. Where did you get these?"

Cheskar waggled their brows. "We're getting freight and supplies in here all the time. It's pretty easy to slip in a box or two of extra stuff now that it's not all conduit, struts, droids, and ore."

"You do remember that meeting you went to where someone was killed for following New Republic sports teams, right?" But Hux ate the grape anyway. It was delicious. He looked at the bowl with appreciation and took a second one.

Cheskar grinned to see that. "This is a productivity tool. Like the taurine I've been getting for you. You knew that stuff wasn't regulation, right?"

"I had no idea and I still don't." Hux smiled tightly. "You live dangerously, I see. I can respect that." He sighed as he turned back to the datapad. "I suppose I need to think of some things to say in the announcement."

"Who sees it?"

"The announcement?"

"Yeah."

Hux shook his head. "Only my chain of command and anyone directly effected by it. But for a general that's quite a lot of people." He thought for a moment. "I'm barely thirty. I'll be the youngest general the First Order has ever had. Which isn't saying a lot, as we haven't had scores of them. Peavey will be even more annoyed." Hux smiled briefly at that.

"Does that make you part of the High Command?"

"No, it does not. Not unless Snoke's somehow taken over their appointment power. The thing is," Hux lowered the pad to his side, "a promotion of this level is supposed to be reviewed by a board and authorized well before any announcement. It's not done rashly or on a whim."

"Why don't you ask an attorney?"

"Ask them what? If this is legal?"

"Sure. If you're a general, you should probably have one dedicated, you know? You're going to have an allocation to hire personal staff, right?"

Hux thought about that, nodding. "I suppose you're right. I like that idea. My father never had one. The law didn't matter to him. He did so much that was-" This was not a subject he should elaborate on to Cheskar. "It would reassure me to be certain everything was aboveboard."

"For what my opinion is worth, I don't think it's a whim," Cheskar said. "Our project is halfway done, we're still mostly on schedule, you have three star destroyers at your command, and you meet, like, weekly or more with the leader of the entire First Order. If he decides you're a general, then you're a general."

"I worry about why he might decide that."

"It's above my pay grade," Cheskar said, using a phrase passed down by the older members of the First Order, from back when people were actually paid. "How's the final plan review going? That's more my speed."

Hux stared off to the side for a moment. "I want you to overdesign. The last two Death Stars were shot out of space. We can't expect Starkiller to function without every attempt at retaliation by our enemies. It's a target. We have to build it that way."

"As you say."