Poe Dameron stepped off the shuttle ramp looking like he'd just escaped from a torture chamber. Both of his eyes were blackened, his bottom lip was swelled to twice it's size on one side, and he had a lump on his forehead the size of a fist that was decorated in a variety of painful looking colors.

Finn stepped off behind him looking fresh as a spring morning in comparison with only a slight limp and one eye swollen shut. Chewbacca followed Finn with no visible injuries.

"What happened to you two?" Rey asked incredulously.

"We got the datadiscs." Poe grimaced.

"Were they inside a hungry rapthar?" Her eyes were bulging.

"Close," Poe replied, holding his lip. "A bar full of angry pirates… several of who apparently understood Wookiee, and weren't thrilled to be compared to the smell of a Kashyyki latrine." He glared at Chewie, who shrugged, and then handed two tiny discs to Ben. "It better be worth it."

"Lets find out." Ben said and turned to leave.

BB-8 twittered from the ramp.

"Yeah, come on." Poe waved him over.

"You guys go ahead, me and Chewie have some talking to do." Rey waved them off. "We'll catch the short version later." To Ben she thought, 'Don't say anything about the baby.'

Chewie purred questioningly.

'Hadn't planned to until we're together again.' He thought back smugly.

"No," Rey smiled brightly. "Nothing like that!" She threaded her arm through his and started leading him away. "It's good news actually."

'Maybe not even then, let see what's on those discs first.' She replied.

In the large conference room Ben inserted one datadisc into the holoprojector and tapped a few buttons on it's control display. A five foot tall projection of what appeared to be a TIE fighter appeared.

Poe leaned in close to look at it's surface. "Can you enlarge this portion here?" He pointed to an area below the midline of the 'cockpit' area. Ben tapped the screen then flicked his fingers apart and the desired section grew to fill the whole viewing area. "Oh, bummer." Poe sounded depressed. "It's bristling with turbo lazers."

Ben frowned, tapped the screen a few times and the image was replaced with a list of weaponry. "So, this thing has it all. As I suspected, that dimple is a planet killer." He brought up another page. "The belt is a fleet killer." And another page. "And it has turbolazers with overlapping fields of fire."

He glanced around the room. "Any suggestions?"

"Is surrender an option?" Poe grimaced.

Ben ignored the morbid joke and swapped out the discs. A few taps later the propulsion schematic appeared over the table. "Ok, these bits that look like solar arrays are the sublight engines." A few more taps "This bit here is the hyperdrive." He pointed to a place on the back of the 'cockpit' section.

"Oh great! This thing has all the bells and whistles." Finn complained.

A few more taps and a page of information floated before them. "The thrust to mass ratio of this thing is insane. Whoever designed this must have been involved in the death star projects, it corrects every flaw of both." Ben said grimly. "It's fast, nimble, and deadly at all levels." He tapped the control screen one more time and schmatic cover page appeared. "Project - Soul Reaper."

BB-8 was the first to react. He let out a squeal and hid under the table.

"Well," Poe said dryly, "At least they didn't give it a terrifying name or anything."

Ben let out a chuff of laughter and gave Poe an amused look. "Were you expecting it to be named 'Sweet Dreams'?"

"Hoped, maybe." Poe said ruefully.

Ben ejected the disc and handed both back to Poe. "I took the liberty of copying these to the Redemption's memory bank. I'll get my people looking for a weakness, you do the same." He instructed.

"Will do." Poe agreed and slipped the discs into his pocket. "It might be time to warn the galaxy that there is a certifiable nightmare on the loose. We could use all the help we can get."

"See if you can get ahold of a blueprint for the entire thing, first." Ben instructed. "We need more information."

"Alright." By his tone it was clear that Poe wasn't happy about sitting on the news of such a deadly foe.

Ben laid his hand on Poe's shoulder and said gravely. "As long as it sticks to just killing ships, it's best not to bring attention to it, doing so might cause whoever's in charge to start killing planets. None of us wants that. Get as much intel as you can, We need to know who's in charge, what they intend, where they come from, what locations they frequent… Anything could prove to be the key to victory."

Poe searched Ben's face then nodded, "I'll get started right away."

"Good." Ben said, straightening to his full towering height. "I'll go locate Rey and Chewie and meet you in the hangar."

"I don't understand why we couldn't at least tell our friends." Ben pouted quietly, snuggling up behind Rey and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"They have enough to worry about right now." Rey snuggled closer as they watched their friends depart. "I like that you think of them as 'our friends', though." She smiled softly.

"But a baby is great news." He said mildly. "I'm sure they could use some after what we saw on those discs."

"Yeah," She said snarkily then mocked a fake announcement. "Hey guys, you look like you've gone a few rounds with a hungry rancor. Whats that? An unkillable super weapon is haunting the area? No worries! We're having a baby!" She giggled. "I'm sure they'd have been in the mood to celebrate."

He chuckled on a sigh, "Ok, next time then."

"Sometime when we can all celebrate the news." She insisted.

He teased, "I'm pretty sure they'll notice for themselves once you start showing."

"Hopefully this business will be far behind us by then." She said then changed the subject. "At least we did get to brighten Chewie's day a little bit."

"Yeah," Ben said, gazing at his wife lovingly as they watched the Falcon pass through the maglock in bay 94, fade into a tiny dot then disappear. "It was his home for longer than I've been alive, it's only right he should have it." He kissed her crown. "Miss it yet?"

"Yeah," She said in a tight voice. "Of course I do, it was the ship that carried me from Jakku to you with a dozen adventures in between."

"Adventures, eh?" He smiled and wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin lightly on the top of her head. "Well, you don't need an old freighter for those."

"No, I suppose not." She snuggled into his chest. "Still, I really wanted to try out the Kessel run in her."

He chuckled. "Is it any wonder that I adore you?"

She made a low purring sound like a hum, "It's wonderful that you do, does that count?"

"That you think so is all that matters to me." He turned her around and kissed her tenderly.

"Come on," He released her and stepped back. "I've got just the thing to brighten your day."

"Oh?" She was genuinely curious.

"This way." He took her hand and lead her back through the side entrance to the main forward fighter bay, which contained both his TIE Silencer and the elevator to the bridge area, through that bay to the bay next to it, a mechanical repair bay. "The color wasn't quite right when it arrived…" He said grinning. "So, I had it repainted. What do you think? Close enough to the color of your ocean?"

Rey's whole face brightened as she stared through bulging eyes at her brand new TIE Silencer.

Stunned, she drifted forward, rubbed a hand lightly across the ocean blue inner wing, "It's perfect!" She gushed, turned and threw herself at him with a happy squeal.

"Wanna try her out?" He asked as she peppered happy kisses all over his face.

Rey stopped noisily kissing his face and beamed at him. "Absolutely!"

"Get suited up then." He grinned and set her back on her feet with a peck on the lips.

"Now remember, this isnt a simcap." Ben warned ten minutes later as they started their preflight check list. "Respect that fact and you'll do great."

"Yes, dear." She said with the verbal equivalent of an eye roll.

"Make sure you configure your inertial compensater before you try anything fancy." He reminded her as he flipped the switch to turn his engines on. "There are some things about a maiden flight that you just can't simulate and that's the most important one."

"Hmm, the inertial compensater," she asked, mockingly, "is that the blue knob or the red leaver?"

He chuckled, her humor might be out of place, but he enjoyed it anyway. "Fine, I'm shutting up. Just… be careful."

She giggled to herself and smoothly glided through the maglock as if this weren't her first time in a real fighter. "I made it outside alive!" She teased as he exited the maglock in from the next bay over. "I get to stop being careful now, right?" She teased then shot forward in a straight line at full speed. The inertia slammed her back in her seat so she let off the throttle and adjusted the compensater before doing the same straight line test again.

"Hey! Calm down over there!" Ben pulled up beside her as she adjusted the setting again.

"Just doing as ordered, Sir!" She mocked then hit the throttle again. This time she didn't feel even a slight tug toward her seat so she jerked both sticks back until she completed one quick back flip. Slowed down again to adjust the false gravity generator to hold her to her seat more then hit the throttle and tried it again.

"Alright, I think I'm ready for some fancy stuff now." She reported, happy with her adjustments.

"Join with me, let's break her in right."