46. Chapter 46
In the weeks after that first mission, Kylo wishes they had never let him go off-planet. That taste of freedom haunts him as he’s forced back into the excruciating repetition of his old routine. The higher-ups have realized that he’ll literally explode if he’s forced to work for Kess and Thorne for six hours every day and scale him back to three. There are no more missions and no plans for any holovids that require him. He trains in the mornings, eats lunch before working, and tries not to kill Thorne for three hours. Then he’s given a stretch of free time that he spends in the library or asleep before heading to dinner with Finn, Dameron. His evenings are still spent wrapped up in Rey, and that’s the only time he feels really alive, really free.
A few days into his new schedule, Kylo is working through his Niman practice with a training sword when Finn surprises him, coming back to the training room with a gaggle of ‘Troopers. Finn had been absent from their morning workouts in the days following their return, spending his time with the former ‘Troopers instead. Kylo didn’t miss Finn, he tells himself, explaining away the excitement seeing the man brings. He’d missed the intensity of the workouts, the extra challenge brought on by competition and companionship.
He feels the ‘Troopers before he sees them and allows a spinning back pass to turn him so he faces the door, finishing the move with an unnecessary flourish. One of the Exes, the name the ‘Troopers have taken for themselves, blanches when Kylo meets his eyes. Kylo wonders if he’s ever threatened the man before. Nothing stands out about him, but Kylo had threatened so many Stormtroopers that the reaction isn’t a surprise.
Finn steps forward, telling the Exes to wait. “Hey, Kylo!” He speaks in a voice meant to carry and holds his hand out to Kylo. Tossing his practice sword aside, Kylo takes it. Finn uses their clasped hands to pull Kylo to him, wraps his arm around Kylo’s back and embraces him. Stiffening, Kylo resists until Finn hisses, “They’re still terrified of you, man. Be cool.”
Kylo’s not sure he does it right, but he tries, hugging Finn in return, patting his back in what he hopes is an acceptable imitation of amiability. Together, they walk back to the knot of Exes, some of whom step back as he approaches, a familiar response. He doesn’t think smiling will help, so he keeps his face neutral as Finn introduces him to the crowd.
On that first day, he doesn’t bother to remember anyone’s name. There are too many of them, and it’s not as though he’ll be working with them. This is Finn’s project, not his. He’s proven wrong as the days go by. He learns their faces, their names, their stories. They warm to him, and he, to some degree, reciprocates.
There’s a woman named Reef who lost half her squad to friendly fire and their transport crashed on Ryloth. No rescue came for them, and after four days they voted unanimously to defect. A man named Teek abandoned his post in the middle of the night, single-handedly stealing a transport full of provisions destined for the Unknown Regions and flying it straight for Takodana. He bargained with Maz, gave her everything he’d stolen in return for her contacting the Resistance on his behalf. Veeten, a man with hair a more vibrant red than Hux’s, was a medical officer on Finalizer . He talks at length about the care the Resistance takes with its people, how Kalonia and her medics spent more time checking him for injuries when he arrived than he’d spent with the all of the ‘Troopers he tended to under the First Order.
After the first week, Kylo starts daydreaming about better ways to work with the Exes while he’s supposed to be working on stacks of flimsies. Sometimes they spar, seven or eight of the best Exes and Finn against Kylo as the others watch, but more often they all train together, going for runs and working out. Some of the Exes, like Veeten, work in non-combat roles, but the psychologists who had overseen Kylo’s public image shift have encouraged them to stay together as a unit for now. Finn works them all hard. The face he’d put on for the holos wasn’t a show. He really does believe in the Exes, in their abilities and in their futures, and is able to delegate, command, and lead. Kylo respects that, and realizes, with a start, that he respects Finn. He doesn’t know how to handle that, so he pretends it isn’t important.
When he isn’t training or trying not to go insane in the tiny room full of surveillance and intelligence reports, he’s in the library doing research or in the weapons locker. He asks Kess for permission to work on a new weapon for Rey, wants to modify the pike she’d been speared with before they escaped Moraband. Rey doesn’t complain about missing her old staff, but he feels its absence in her thoughts when they train, and he assumes that Skywalker will someday want his lightsaber back, after its use as a prop in holos is fulfilled.
Kess goes with him to one of the weapons lockers, where the pike was placed after its removal from the First Order transport. As she lifts a hand to open the door, she pauses. “Rey was stabbed with this thing, right?”
“Yeah.” He nods.
“And you want to work on it and then give it to her as a surprise… so she can use it?”
He nods again.
“What the hell kind of romantic gesture is this? ‘Happy Life Day! Here’s the thing that almost killed you. I made it pretty!’ What is wrong with you, Ren?”
Kylo shrugs. “She’ll like it.”
Kess looks at him for a moment and then shakes her head. “You are both crazy. Chewbacca will be back in a few days. Ask him to do it. I don't trust you not to blow something up, and that Wookiee can fix anything. The quartermaster needs to okay it before you give it to her. Got it?”
His evenings with Rey are still the best part of his day. She has more energy now, though some days their time together is cut off by a shrill whistle from her comm that sends her running back to the General with her hair undone and her tunic on backwards. Rey shrugs these interruptions off, saying that the General had told her the hours were awful before she took the job so she can’t complain now.
A few days after he starts working with the Exes in earnest, as he stands with Rey in the ‘fresher in her room, she tells him about a plan to send Dameron and his squad out to disrupt some First Order trade routes. His heart leaps. Do they need-
Shaking her head, she purses her lips. No. You’re not a pilot, and no one will be able to see anyone’s faces, so we sit this one out .
Kylo tries not to scowl when he returns to his room to find the pilot packing a bag. Dameron is gone for the next four days, and Finn works the Exes harder than ever in his absence. When he comes back, tired and happy with stories of success, Kylo tries to listen without jealousy, but fails.
Then a plan is floated to send Coyle and a crew in to sabotage one of the First Order’s largest mining operations on Lothal. Kylo puts in an official request to be assigned to the team and is denied. Kess explains to him that, in this instance, his recognizability would be a detriment to the mission.
“That pretty face of yours can’t sneak in unnoticed, Ren. Everyone on that base will know you by sight. Have you checked the view counts on your video recently?” He hasn’t. They released Dameron and Rey’s follow up vids a few days after the originals were uploaded and he’s heard they’ve all been successful, but he’s not going to put himself through the pain of watching any of the holos ever again.
“You and Finn are probably the most recognizable people in the First Order this side of Hux and Phasma.” Kess arranges a packet of flimsies on her desk, squaring their corners. “No, you and Finn are grounded for the time being.” When he groans, she looks up to him. “I know this isn’t easy for you, but you are doing an exceptional job. We’ll find something to get you out there. You have my word.”
When Coyle and his team return from the mission, they are twelve men short and there’s not a smile in sight. The mission was technically a success. The team crippled the mine’s ability to process the crystals, destroyed the main communications arrays, and did enough damage to the computer systems running the mines that rebuilding will take the First Order months, if not years. The fighting was worse and the defenses were stronger than they’d anticipated. When Rey tells him about the losses Kylo’s blood goes cold in his veins.
“I could have helped,” he rages to her, to Kess, to anyone who will listen. “I could have killed the guards before they got to Coyle’s people. I could have done something instead of sitting here like an idiot, twiddling my thumbs as I wait for Thorne to bring me more damned documents. When are you going to give me something useful to do?”
No one has the answers he wants until, one day, they do. There’s a meeting called in the Blue Room and Kylo arrives sulking, sure he’s going to be forced to endure more praises being sung of Dameron and his team, or subjected to the frustration of hearing about the unnecessary losses from Coyle’s mission, but he’s wrong. There’s a new mission for him, Rey, and Finn, and it doesn’t involve cosmetics or cameras.
“There’s a garrison on Oplovis that’s looking to join up. We have intelligence from multiple sources inside and outside the barracks.” The General pulls up a map and zooms in on a small blue planet in the Outer Rim once everyone is settled around the table. “We’re sending you three, plus Kess and some support, to retrieve them tonight.”
“An entire garrison?” Kylo frowns. “That doesn’t sound suspicious to anyone else?”
He glances at Finn, who shrugs. “I don’t know. I was never stationed on-world. I don’t know what happens in garrisons.”
“It’s a very small outpost.” The General pulls up an aerial view of the a town and taps a building by the center. “No more than a dozen men.” The projection spins around the building. “It’s not First Order territory, but they have an understanding with the local warlord.”
Kess leans forward, eyes intent on the map. “Pardon me, General, but what kind of an ‘understanding’? Is this going to affect the extraction?”
“Coyle will deal with bribes and hush money.” The General nods at the frowning man who, for the moment, looks human, before turning to Dameron. “Poe, try to stay out of sight until you hit dirt. There’s a landing site half a click to the north of the town, an open, unmonitored field. The ‘Troopers have been directed to meet you on the northern border of town.” The view of the town sweeps up and zooms in on a small field in the middle of thick forest. “Here’s the pick up point. Quick and easy, just like a supply drop.”
“Except they’re not supplies and we’re picking them up, not dropping them off.” Coyle watches as the projection pans, spinning a stylus through his fingers as he grimaces. “General, whenever you say quick and easy, all I hear is catastrophy. Might as well spit on the gods. I already lost a dozen guys on one of these runs. How many am I going to lose here?”
Admiral Statura frowns. “I’ve assigned a squad of Exes to the team as support, Coyle.” He nods at the fifteen infantry sitting quietly along the wall, watching and keeping quiet. “You three,” he gestures to Finn, Rey, and Kylo, “have worked with them in some capacity and they’ve been familiarized with our operational procedures. We don’t expect any combat in this and we don’t want a large group to attract attention.”
Coyle sits up, tossing the stylus across the room. His skin ripples in agitation, emotions and features flickering across his face as he fumes. “That’s great. We didn’t expect much combat on Lothal, either. Why do we have to go tonight? What’s the big rush? Why can’t I get more of my people on the ground? All I’ve got is the one guy in town, and he’s more focused on getting us in and out than on the intel coming from the barracks.”
The General speaks with restraint and poise, walking over to the spy to put a hand on his tense shoulder. “Our sources both in and outside of the base have indicated a worry that the ‘Troopers will be reassigned. There’s talk of reconditioning. We’re hearing it from everyone we have within the First Order.” Across the table, Finn flinches at the mention of reconditioning. “If we don’t move fast, these guys could be strapped to chairs getting their minds rewired in a few days. We need to get them out, and we need to get them out now.”
The spy’s posture doesn’t relax, but his features settle into one unified face. “Give me two full squads. We’ll do our best. No promises, though.”
The General smiles and nods, looks to Statura, who notes something down on his holopad. “Another squad will be assembled.” The Admiral ticks something on the pad. “Please note, visibility is secondary in this mission. Do not linger in the town. These are First Order sympathizers, but they’re also civilians and we are trying to minimize those casualties.” He looks around the table, waiting for questions to be raised. When none surface, he clicks his pad off. “You’re cleared for lift off in two hours.”
Kess shepherds them to the hangar, pausing only to duck into the weapons locker with the Exes and Finn before boarding the Corellian light freighter waiting for them. Kylo frowns at the ship. It doesn’t look a thing like the Falcon, the shape, the modifications are all wrong, but it still stirs something unpleasant deep in him. For the first time, he’s glad Uncle Chewie isn’t here. Rey looks around the ship with professional interest, cataloging the modifications as Kess leads them back to the seating area, kitted out with long benches, leaving plenty of room left over once everyone’s seated.
The shuttle rumbles through its ascension and Kylo’s heart lifts with the ship. It feels good to be moving, to have a purpose again, even if it’s only for a short time. He listens with half an ear to the Exes clustered around Finn, all murmuring in excitement. It’s their first mission as official members of the Resistance, and they’re happy to share their speculations about the garrison away from the leaders. Teek, one of the Exes he’s trained with, slips into the unoccupied chair to his left and tries to initiate conversation. Kylo doesn’t want to talk about the holos, the First Order, life at the Resistance, any of it, really. Rey comes to the rescue, though Kylo is not sure who she’s rescuing when she chats to the man about the training they’ve been doing in the mornings. That interests Kylo more than anything else Teek had wanted to discuss and he manages to find a few words to add to the conversation.
They’re deep in some debate with three other Exes discussing ship mechanics when the shuttle jolts, dropping out of hyperspace with a distinct lack of grace and that, more than anything else, reminds him of the Falcon .
“Boots on the ground in half an hour,” Coyle announces over the comm. “Stand by.”
Kess steps out of the cockpit as the comm cuts out, taking the vacant seat by the doors. Her presence and their imminent arrival subdue conversation until the ship crunches against dirt. She stands, patting the two blasters holstered by her hips and jerks her chin at Kylo. “Ren, you’re up in front. We don’t want to disappoint your adoring fans.”
Kylo grimaces as he stands, glaring at the brushed durasteel of the ship’s interior. Kess slaps his saber back into his hand and he clips it to his belt, grumbling all the while to Rey through their connection. Can’t we just kill her and run off to Wild Space together? She raises her eyebrows and he piles on the temptation. You wouldn’t have to do any more paperwork for the General. It’s a nice fantasy, even if he doesn’t mean it.
Rey smiles at him, gives the barest shake of her head. Kess is starting to like you. I haven’t seen her snap her teeth at you since the first mission.
Lucky me. Kylo rolls his eyes and takes point.
Be careful . She caresses his consciousness as he moves down the ramp and he returns the gesture before focusing ahead. High grass waves in an evening breeze and trees rise up to blot out the horizon.
Tight on his heels, Kess checks her comm and the surroundings, gestures south with the blaster held on guard in front of her. “Twenty minute walk through those trees to the town.” She gestures to half of the Exes. “I want you to stay here with Coyle in reserve.”
The Exes are consummate professionals, as well trained as any ‘Trooper turned out by the First Order. They do not question their orders, they simply obey. They rip off sharp salutes and station themselves around the shuttle, blasters out, heads pivoting, settling down to wait.
Kess’s nods in approval, then turns to Rey and Finn. “Let’s move.”
Finn tromps through the underbrush, making more noise than Kylo thinks he could muster if he tried. The other Exes aren’t much better. They don’t get far into the woods before the relative quiet is shattered by the sound of blaster bolts and shouting. Kess curses and waves them down as she drops into a crouch. They spread in a half circle, weapons drawn, edging forward. Straining his ears, Kylo hears footfalls, snapping twigs, the crunch of heavy boots drawing nearer. The crew crests a small ridge and looks down to see figures move through the trees, a tight cluster of Stormtroopers in a defensive formation retreating and firing back at something beyond his line of vision. At a nod from Kess, Kylo ignites his saber, stands tall, and steps out of hiding.
The response is immediate.
“It’s him!”
“Kylo Ren!”
“The Resistance!”
A ragged cheer goes up as Rey and Finn join him. “FN-2187!”
The sight of Finn seems to set something off in the Stormtroopers, and they surge forward as one, scrambling up the hill.
Kess steps out of hiding, holding a blaster in each slender hand, as the group is almost on top of them. “Hold it!” The sight of the Captain with teeth bared, wielding miniature cannons, is enough to give them pause. “Identify yourselves.”
There’s a scuffling as a giant Stormtrooper pushes to the front of the crowd. Kylo’s eyebrows shoot up. The ‘Trooper towers over the others and has at least an inch on Kylo. He’s holding up an injured comrade without any difficulty and salutes with his free arm. “I sent the SOS. I’m GN-513.” His voice is gravelly and he wears the pauldron of a lieutenant. “We’ll submit to whatever inspections you require, but there are two squads hot on our tails, and we need to move now if anyone’s going to get out of here alive.”
Kess scowls, holsters one of her blasters, and nods. “Finn, you take the injured. You four,” she waves to a group of ‘Troopers supporting more wounded, “take your injured to our shuttle. It’s a ten minute walk due north. You can make it in seven if you hustle.” The huge man passes his injured companion off to another ‘Trooper who salutes the best they can and sets off as soon as Kess turns from them. “Everyone else, move up to engage. Blasters tight on me, sabers spread out.”
A bolt of energy spears through a tree behind Kylo as he moves ahead of the group, sending splinters flying. Kylo darts forward, batting away attacks that get too close. Rey guards his flank as the first wave of Stormtroopers bursts through the trees, two toting fearsome railguns. Blue light shimmers in front of him as Rey raises a shield, sending the projectiles zinging back, obliterating anything in their way.
“Who are these guys?” Kess shouts to the huge ‘Trooper who had spoken, GN-513. “Our intel was you all wanted out!”
“They’re not with us! They showed up this morning!” GN-513 ducks, returns fire with an overpowered plasma rifle around Rey’s shield as he explains. “Their captain said they were here to relieve us of our duties, and then things got rough when we resisted. You showed up just in time!”
Kess and the remaining unit advances behind him, firing at the ranks of ‘Troopers when Rey pulls back shield to allow their attack. The Exes still fight like Stormtroopers, they know ‘Trooper weaknesses, know how they think, and their onslaught splinters the oncoming formations. The opposing unit divides between Kess’s group and the Force users. Their blaster bolts splash off the shields Rey’s thrown up, but each hit sends ripples of energy out over the surface of the shield, wearing at her strength. Kylo’s opened his power to her before she can finish forming the nascent request, feeding into her defenses as he strides around the shield to close the distance with the ‘Troopers who have pulled out energy sticks.
Rey’s thoughts are quick and concerned in his head, calling him back to the safety of the shield, but he doesn’t need its protection. He’s missed this, the way his power thrums in his blood, the heft of the saber in his hand, and he won’t cheapen the thrill by playing it safe. The enemy ‘Troopers are quick, well trained, and it’s six against one, but they are nothing. It feels amazing to be alive again. The part of him that is in Rey’s mind works defensively, strengthening her shields and keeping her safe. The rest of him howls for blood. Everything comes into sharper focus as he parries, thrusts, maims, kills. The Darkness calls to him, its siren song sweet and seductive, so easy, so close, and the brush of Rey’s mind barely pulls him back as the fifth ‘Trooper falls. She takes down the sixth with a perfectly deflected blaster bolt to the neck.
Movement flickers in his peripheral vision and he gathers the Force to cast it down his hand, scattering a cluster of ‘Troopers trying to advance. They tumble like leaves in the wind, falling in a crunch of armor. He starts to move on them, but Kess and another ‘Trooper, one of the Exes, not an enemy , leap forward to finish the fallen off. He feels cheated, like they’ve stolen something from him, and he’s angry for a second until Rey tugs on his power, diverting his attention as she jerks a rail gun from a ‘Trooper’s grasping hands. The butt of the rifle slams up against the helmeted head and the ‘Trooper goes down with a thump.
The woods are silent for a second and all he hears is the blood pounding in his veins and heavy breathing as adrenaline rush lingers. Rey feels it too, the pull of the Darkness, the power it holds. Her hands are shaking not from fear but from excitement, and there’s a tickle of pleasure running through their bond that isn’t just from him. The sweat on the back of her neck makes his skin prickle, and when they lock eyes, hers are as dark as his.
Kess breaks the silence, glaring around the clearing. “I hate it when Coyle’s right.”
Rey looks away and moves to Teek, who nods and touches Rey’s arm. The predatory part of Kylo’s mind, the part that lives to hunt and kill, roars, but he chains that part down before Rey can notice and turns to Kess. Looping one of the injured defector’s arms over her shoulders, the Captain gestures to the team and begins to move. She takes as much of the hurt woman’s weight as she can, but the Ex still staggers, clutching her thigh. “Is this everyone? Everyone who wants to go?”
GN-513 nods. He’s bleeding from somewhere under his armor, but he doesn’t make any move to stem the flow. “All of us who are left.”
Kess grits her teeth. “Then let's go before any more surprises show up.”
The freighter’s engines are rumbling when they get back to the landing site and Kylo can’t suppress a sinking feeling in his stomach as he covers their retreat. That was it? He could have killed a hundred more ‘Troopers before he even began to tire. Closing his eyes tight, he scrambles up the ramp with the last of the squad, clamping down on the disappointment. Back to the cage. He extinguishes the beam on his saber and passes it to Kess before he can let himself consider trying to keep it.
The seating area has been turned into an impromptu med-bay, and helmets and armor lay loose and rolling on the floor, skidding into corners as the ship lifts off. Finn stands in the middle of the chaos, doing an admirable job of trying to talk to everyone at once. Kylo finds Rey in a corner, crouching to tend to the lieutenant’s wound, hands covered in blood. She glances up as she tucks the end of the bandage in to give him a tight, worried smile.
“Can I help?” The ship jolts as they jump into hyperspace and Kylo sways before he catches a handhold. He doesn’t care about the revolution, barely cares about the Exes he knows, but Rey’s worry diffuses through his thoughts, and it's hard to separate her emotions from his in the confusion. Easier to go with the flow than fight against it now.
Without his helmet, the lieutenant is revealed to be a dark man with craggy features and hair cropped close to his head. He leans to rest his head against the wall. “You’re Kylo Ren.” He looks Kylo up and down without any apparent fear.
Kylo doesn’t know how to interpret the tone or the look. “Yeah.”
Wiping his forehead with the back of his large, bloody hand, the defector snorts. “They don’t talk about how you fight in the holos. Someone ought to do something about that. It’s impressive stuff. The rumors don’t do you justice, sir.” He glances up at Rey and then sticks out his hand to Kylo. “Like I said, I’m GN-513. Thanks for coming to get us.”
Kylo hesitates before a mental nudge from Rey pushes him into action and he takes the man’s hand. “I’m glad to have you.” The words are halting, strange. They aren’t altogether untrue, but they belong to Dameron and Finn, to the psychologists and their scripts, not to him. He sits down as the ship jolts again, a few inches to the side of the lieutenant. “You going to be okay?”
“I’m already okay,” the ‘Trooper shrugs as though his bloody side doesn’t bother him. “ I’d rather get shot in the head than be dragged in for that new reconditioning program. A little blaster bolt is a small price to pay to get out alive.”
“Is that why the other ‘Troopers came?” Rey crouches on GN-513’s other side, asking as she rinses her hands with water from a canteen before taking a greedy gulp.
“Yeah,” a man calls out from across the floor. “I’m AR-959. I was a communications officer. They radioed in this morning, said we’d been out in the field for too long. There are rumors floating around about new procedures, and it looks like they’re true. They’re going to start rotating troops, breaking up squads, and doing mandatory reconditioning every few months. It’s supposed to better ensure compliance.”
A woman near AR-959 calls out in a high, sweet voice that doesn’t match the twice-broken crook to her nose. “That’s what really sold us on leaving. You aren’t going to break us up, are you?”
They all look to Kylo like he’s got the power to do anything, and he shrugs.
Finn answers for him. “No. We’ll make sure you stay together.”
Kess nods as she stands. “We’re not like them. We’re not conscripting you. You get to choose if you want to join up, but you need to make that choice quick. If you enlist, you can stay with your squad.” Grins break out. “We’ve had a few people change their specialties, and we’ll talk about that sort of stuff once we’re safely back on dirt, but we won’t take you away from your people.”
A ragged cheer goes up as Kess walks around, shaking hands and chatting before heading back to the cockpit. Kylo listens to the discussions that spark around him, focused mostly on names and the recruit’s prospects in the Resistance. Kylo speaks when addressed, which happens more frequently as Finn and his Exes walk the recruits through the new behavioral norms they can expect when they land. He seconds Finn’s attestation about the quality of the food in the Resistance cafeteria and that gets an even louder response than Kess’s speech.
Many of the ‘Troopers already have nicknames that they want to keep, given to them by friends in their squads, like the woman with the sweet voice, Sevs. Still, some ask Finn to name them, either choosing to give up their old names out of spite or take on new names in a hopeful bid at rebirth. AR-959 becomes Aren, and he walks away rolling the word around in his mouth like a hard candy. There’s power in names, and Kylo understands that better than most. It’s a responsibility he wouldn’t want, doesn’t deserve, but when GN-513 stands and looks to Kylo for a name, his request is earnest and Rey is so delighted by it that Kylo is overwhelmed by the emotion. He consents, and the first thing that comes into his head tumbles from his mouth before he can stop it.
The man roars with laughter, holding his bandaged side as tears come to his eyes. Kylo isn’t sure he’s ever made anyone laugh that hard before, and Rey’s approval flows through him, hot and sunny. “Gun! I love it!” He pats his massive rifle with his free hand then reaches to clasp Kylo‘s forearm, his fingers still sticky and crimson. Rey’s joy has infected Kylo’s mind and his own copy of the emotion bursts forth from the roots she put down. He laughs, too, returning the grip on the Gun’s arm. “You’re alright, man. Gun! That’s great.”
The ship bounces as they drop back to low space and the Force convulses around them. Rey was laughing, her hand on Kylo’s shoulder, but the sound dies on her lips as a cold crackle of fear slides down hiss back like ice. “What the-”
“Everyone stay calm,” Kess’s voice barks over the comm. “Finn, I need you and one of your guys to man the turrets down below. Choose whomever has the most experience. Everyone else sit down and shut up.”
They can’t see anything, and that makes them all nervous. Even untuned to the Force, the Exes old and new are jumpy. Finn grabs a woman called Pit, who Kylo knows from training to be an exemplary markswoman, and they dash to the turrets, but the sound of the cannons doesn’t come.
The shuttle lands and Kess sprints out of the cockpit with Dameron and Coyle hard on her heels. The Captain punches the release panel hard enough that it echoes. Finn is sweating when he returns, face grim. He shakes his head at Dameron when the pilot gives him a questioning look. “Nothing to shoot at, just-”
The freighter’s ramp whooshes open and smoke pours in. Coyle speaks first, shaking his head. “Like spitting on the gods, I said.”
Kess jogs down the ramp and Kylo follows with Dameron, and Rey, clenching his teeth as he surveys the damage. Finn stays behind to marshal the new Exes.
Two of the hangars have been reduced to rubble and a burnt out X-wing smoulders in the remnants of a hangar. Glass from blown out windows crackles under their feet along the path. The compound is still standing, but it looks like a close run thing.
Kylo can’t, won’t, name the emotion that writhes in his gut when he feels the General’s Force signature still glowing strong. Rey’s relief washes over him and he refuses to be swept away with it.
“The General is alive. This way.” Rey grabs Kylo’s hand and gives it a squeeze before gesturing to the rest of the group. Dameron lingers, staring, pale and grim, at the ruins of the burning craft before falling in with them. They follow Rey’s lead to a different part of the compound, one Kylo’s never seen before. Kess seems to understand, stopping them at a door and tapping in a code. It opens onto a war room dominated by a holo of the Ilenium system. She motions them to keep back and stay quiet.
The General is talking, eyes bright and fixed on the three planets hanging above her, the sleeve of her jacket scorched brown, a pink burn striping her neck. “-Received emergency communication from Sanbra and Rugosa. They’re reporting similar statistics. Several dozen dead, three flybys, and then they hopped back out before a counterattack could be initiated. No warning, nothing.”
“No warning? What good is our intelligence gathering doing if we can’t get word of direct attacks?” A Qarren Major asks and receives a reproachful look from Admiral Ackbar.
Lieutenant Thorne, looking even more harried than usual with soot covering half his face, frowns. Kylo shouldn’t smile, but the the man’s disheveled state sends a wicked thrill of delight through him, so he does.
Admiral Statura shakes his head at the Major who spoke. “Mind your tone, Major. Don’t diminish the gains we’ve made. Not all battles are fought with blasters and bombs. The First Order could have put something like this together overnight.”
“ This was the warning.” Kylo raises his voice to be heard over the murmur, and the eyes of everyone in the room seek him out. He tenses as Statura makes a familiar face, somewhere between amused and disgusted. Kess’s glare burns into the side of his face, but Rey is at his side, strong and even-tempered, and that anchors him. “The First Order has known you were in this area since before you blew up Starkiller. They had bigger, better things to to work on until you started attacking their operations.”
Admiral Statura frowns, “The First Order’s warning shots historically look more like what happened to the Hosnian system.”
“You don’t just slap weapon like Starkiller together in a few months, Admiral. It will take the First Order time, energy, resources to wage a full campaign against the entire system, to locate your base of operations and level it. As you said, they could probably throw a flyby together in a few hours. It saves them a whole lot of effort if they can just frighten you into submission.”
“We will not be-” The Qarren hisses, and Kylo cuts him off with a wave that makes Kess bristle.
“They want to scare you. They want you to move, to go underground. That would make you look weak. In fact, if you do anything other than retaliate in some way, you are weak.”
That stiffens everyone’s spine, and someone across the room cries out, but Kylo speaks over them. “Imagine the cost of moving the Resistance’s major base of operations, not just monetarily but in terms of time, political capital, the goodwill of your supporters. I can’t imagine anyone would see a retreat as a power move.” He shrugs, curves his mouth back into that smile Dameron taught him. “That’s just my opinion as a strategic advisor, of course, but-”
“Thank you for your input,” The General cuts over him, and the handful of officials who raised their voices. “Captain, please escort your crew to the Blue Room, we will join you shortly.”
Kess’s grip is like durasteel as she ushers him out. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, Ren, but we really need to work on your people skills.”