A/N: Summa-verminoth are the vacu-breathers from the movie Solo which inhabit the Akkadese Maelstrom outside of Kessel.
For those watching the march of time through these chapters, Hux's first meeting with Snoke occurred a little more than five and a half years before TFA/TLJ (more like five years and 9ish months). The Starkiller Base project had its official kickoff about six months after that first meeting, so around five years before TFA/TLJ. The chapter 'Promotion' mentions that the Starkiller project is half done – two and a half years have passed. 'Promotion' is set about two and a half years before TFA/TLJ.
The Supremacy was a four year project while Starkiller was a five year project, both starting at the same time. Thus, the Supremacy has a year and a half to go until 'done'. Note that by this point in time, Hux has probably heard Kylo Ren's name in passing, but they haven't been introduced and frankly, the Knights of Ren haven't been all that important to Hux's life. That will change soon.
Warning: Oblique reference to cutting and self-harm.
Alone, Hux walked to the forward viewport on the ship that would eventually be called the Supremacy. People called it that already, just as they called his project Starkiller Base even though it was still a construction site. They had to call it something. 'The weapon' or 'the mega-cruiser' was too vague even though there was only one of each.
Outside he could see the shipyards that Kuat Entralla had built decades ago at the order of Emperor Palpatine, whose foresight, guided by the Force, had told him this would be necessary for the fulfillment of his goals. Or maybe he was just seeing what was going to happen, even if it had nothing to do with his goals. Hux didn't know. Neither had Thrawn, although the two of them had speculated endlessly about it, not too many years ago. He missed Thrawn. Instead, Snoke was here. Hux moved his thoughts along to focusing on what he could see.
At the moment, they had only two ships docked for repairs – one for engine failure and one for hull damage, both having occurred during a spat with a summa-verminoth in the Kessel sector. These were a pair of Imperial destroyers. Hux had to hope the Resurgent-class ships would fare better against the beasts, because they needed the coaxium from Kessel. At least these ships had been able to limp back with minimal casualties and full cargo holds, so there was that.
He was learning a thing or two about ship fabrication, despite how nerve-wracking the day had been. He'd never inspected a ship under construction and hardly knew what to look for. The Supremacy was progressing well as far as he could tell. The superstructure was complete. The hull was sealed. The containment fields were in synchronous operation. From the outside, it might look complete, but it was a massive empty shell inside.
At this point, the atmosphere was intentionally thin through most of the ship, containing only enough oxygen to prevent immediate death. More was being added every day. The few partial decks that had been dressed out were pressurized with a regular atmosphere. Gravity was stable. Things were basically where they were supposed to be according to the schedule. She should be ready for her maiden flight in a year, although internal construction of critical, closed-circuit life support systems would be ongoing for some months thereafter.
Director Drewmill resented his presence as well as the fact that Snoke had sent him to audit her project instead of showing up himself. She made it clear she didn't like reporting to Hux, even if he was a general now. Which one of them was higher ranked, when standing in the middle of her project, was arguable, and they had, of course, argued. Snoke trumped both of them and he said Hux would do the inspection, so that was that. But the hardest thing for Hux to deal with was Snoke's presence in his mind.
It was a constant pressure. Hux had divined that Snoke could not physically possess him. Maybe it was the distance or some other reason, but if he could have done it, Hux was fairly sure he would have. Instead, he gave directions, mentally projecting his wishes into Hux's mind as complex ideas, dictated questions verbatim to him in the times when Hux couldn't figure out what he meant, and frequently upbraided him for being stupid when Hux knew perfectly well that he was brilliant by human standards and this just happened to be an area he was relatively ignorant of. It was exhausting.
He never told Drewmill what was going on. He didn't want her to know. It wasn't her business. Snoke didn't suggest he tell her. It left him acting distracted and disjointed at moments, then snappish when she had little patience for his lapses.
For now, Snoke's attention had gone elsewhere without explanation, allowing Hux some time to himself. His brain felt bruised. He didn't know how else to describe it. He wanted to be alone, but he suspected he would never truly be alone again. Staring out the viewport like this was the best he could manage. It got him away from the other people, at least. He couldn't get away from Snoke, who might return at any time or not at all.
Hux stared out at the cold, distant stars. They had calmed him in the past. They helped now. They were out there, far away. Destinations. Other worlds where other lives happened. Lives different from his own present one. He was desperately unhappy with his life. He swallowed and blinked, taking several deep, shaky breaths as he tried to steady himself. It would not do to have Snoke find him like this, on the verge of a breakdown due to no more than considering his present state.
He recalled going to his father with an injury, a cut over his wrist that he worried was deep enough to threaten the tendons. His father's response: "Good! It will make you stronger." To his worry about losing his hand (which was a child's worry, Hux knew now he might have been in danger only of losing functionality, but not the whole hand): "Then maybe you'll think twice about letting someone cut you!" To his objection that he hadn't allowed the cut, his father had laughed: "Yes, you did. No one hurts you without your permission. You need to develop a taste for blood. Hurt them back. Then they won't touch you."
His father's words stuck firmly in his memory. Whatever Armitage might have said in response was vague and unimportant.
He'd started licking his blood around that time. He had an equally childish idea that it might make him less effected by getting the blood of others on himself if he could 'develop a taste' for it. It had not. The blood of others (and their bodily fluids) continued to disgust him. But the taste of his own blood had become a twisted self-soothing method. The monomolecular blade had many uses.
'No one hurts you without your permission.' He supposed he had granted that permission to Snoke by not fighting him to the death. There had never been a reason to fight him, from Hux's point of view. (Brendol's extensive conditioning meant Hux did not see his own health and mental integrity as a valid reason to resist lawful authority.) Snoke was the accepted leader of the First Order. That meant … permission was ongoing … unless, somehow, Snoke's leadership wasn't accepted.
Even with his nose stuck firmly to the grindstone of his project, Hux had heard rumblings of such treason. He'd heard of the Knights of Ren visiting people for welfare checks and of high ranked persons being removed without notice. As Snoke had promised, he would crush the conspiracy one individual at a time. Hux was now emulating that, though it hadn't been his initial intention with Opan – but he could see, it was the same pattern.
Hux was not a traitor, nor a coward. He would not join forces with those who were. Until such time Snoke was no longer leader, he would follow his orders and his example. As such, he shepherded his thoughts away from the troublesome subject and refocused on his mission, straightening to attention as he did.
The goal of the First Order was to restore order, rule of law, and thereby peace and prosperity to the galaxy. They would provide a home and a purpose for the lost children of the New Republic – outcasts that not even slave traders valued too highly, refugees from war and desolation, from the environmental collapse on two score of worlds forgotten or abandoned by the New Republic as insignificant.
This ship was key to doing that. Starkiller was another key. It seemed that Snoke, too, was a critical component, because without him there would have been neither. Their day of victory was coming, when the First Order would establish a new regime, a new government, and the emperor's Contingency Plan – the last valid orders of the Old Republic - would finally be fulfilled. Any sacrifice was appropriate if it brought them success – his dignity, his autonomy, his sanity, his being.
Hux set aside his unhappiness. It was a selfish, egocentric distraction that he couldn't afford when the refugees from Lebeka were only now attending their first classes, when the purchased slave-spawn from Tatooine were still getting their basic education, when the survivors of Geonosis were only now becoming subadults, when the last children they'd bought from Jakku were a year from graduation. These people, and more, needed him. They needed a galaxy they could live in as citizens and not as slaves, either as slaves to the war effort or literal ones to their previous masters. The only way to avoid that was to win.
One last thought from his father: "Discipline yourself and I won't need to." Back straight, head up, Hux turned and walked over to Director Drewmill. He had a few questions of his own to ask to make sure this ship was what the Order truly needed.