Chapter Text
The Supreme Leader, Hux calculated, had been absent for over twenty days in the last nine standard weeks.
This was not good enough.
He should have been present for progress meetings on the repairs to the stricken Supremacy. He should have been making himself available and accountable.
Hux had, of course, profited from the Leader’s absence to form more connections with like-minded officers who were loyal to the First Order rather than the Leader personally. The Leader’s continued lackadaisical approach to the nuts and bolts of running their new Empire made a good talking point in Hux’s initial conversations with his allies. His co-conspirators, if he were ever tempted to be honest.
But it was still entirely maddening that Kylo Ren did not work hard enough, and avoided key Council meetings.
It was maddening that he was always flying off at what seemed like a moment’s notice in search of — in search of what? He was not conquering planets single-handedly or even subduing revolts, which he was very good at, with his unparalleled berserker’s rage and his instinct for breathtaking cruelty and violence. He really would have been better off in his original role as fiery tip of the First Order’s spear. A spear wielded by another.
Instead, Ren was on a wild duck hunt for ancient mystical artefacts, things which would be far better placed in a museum and forgotten about. His attachment to the supernatural had always irked Hux, and now irked him more than ever.
Hux was sure that most of these exploratory smash and grab missions could instead be carried out by teams of Stormtroopers, who would of course report back to Hux himself.
Furthermore, Kylo Ren’s new activities were constantly disrupting the Finalizer’s flight plans. Since his Upsilon class shuttle had no hyperdrive, he had to divert the Star Destroyer to the vicinity of his target before descending on his shuttle. And since he treated his missions as top priority, he rarely bothered to inform the rest of the ship’s command about them far enough in advance to book them into the flight plan.
He would have to either curtail his activities, or at least minimise them, delegate them, and include them in advance planning.
It was with the thought of confronting him about all this that Hux took himself down to the Finalizer’s starboard hangar to meet Kylo Ren’s shuttle as it docked from yet another pointless caper.
Kylo Ren disembarked the shuttle, followed by a squad of Stormtroopers. Hux did not know their designations, and felt peeved that he didn’t know. Once upon a time, Kylo could have been encouraged to register his troop deployments with one of the generals in charge of ground forces. But now that he was Supreme Leader, he could take any troops and have them flown anywhere in the Galaxy he chose. He had supreme command.
Hux’s most loyal men did their best to keep tabs on Kylo’s personal missions, finding out when his shuttle was being prepared for a journey, and wherever possible getting feedback from personnel involved. But the cards were stacked against them.
Kylo gave Hux a brief and no doubt resentful glance. He could hardly pretend not to notice him. “General Hux,” he said, flatly. “What do you want?”
“How was your mission? Did you find success?”
“It’s not your business what I find or don’t find.”
“Ah,” said Hux, unable to suppress a small smirk, “so you found nothing.”
Kylo stepped closer and stared at Hux. “I found information of great interest to me,” he said.
“More Sith trinkets? Or the location of the next piece of glory?”
“You are very dismissive of what you don’t understand,” said Kylo. “I would have thought you’d learnt something about the power of the dark side by now.”
Hux fell into step with Kylo as they departed the hangar.
“All right then,” he said. “why not humour me a little. Explain to me the bare bones of what you’re after.”
“You’re right that I’m looking for old Sith artefacts.”
“So it is an antique collecting caper.”
“These artefacts hold great power. Hux. I’m not looking for them because they’re old. I’m looking for them because they are a source of power that will bring me, and the First Order, even greater strength.”
“Not a bad goal in theory, but…”
“You should be more grateful.”
“Do I sound ungrateful?”
“You always sound ungrateful. It’s one of your greatest flaws.”
Hux drew breath, about to make a potentially very foolhardy comment about Kylo Ren’s greatest flaws. Fortunately, he did not get the chance to begin, as Kylo started talking again.
“Sith Lords of old, back in distant days, way before Darth Plagueis, locked some of their power away in sacred holocrons,” Kylo declared.
“Right.”
“The Emperor collected some of them. What he failed to find, I will uncover.”
This all sounded rather misguided to Hux. “Do you really need to be doing all this now?” he asked.
“If not now, when? I know where an important artefact is hidden, and I will soon journey to find it. Expect your crew to be given new navigation orders.”
“We have business to attend to, Supreme Leader! We cannot use this ship, this entire Star Destroyer, as your personal taxi service between planets.”
“We can. A day in hyperspace — you don’t have any pressing engagements.”
“The First Order has business in this sector. Where we are now.”
“It’ll be here when we get back. You should remember, Hux, despite your pathetic fantasies, you are not the First Order. I am.”
“You lead the First Order. Sir.”
“Exactly.”
“And I manage it.”
Kylo shrugged.
“Where are you intending to drag us all?” asked Hux. “Or is the destination of my ship not my business?”
“The Dzenvora system.”
Hux let out an annoyed huff. “I had hoped to persuade you to curtail your activities.”
“Yes. You had.”
“But since you have chosen not to delegate your trips to army personnel, and since you are choosing to not postpone them and take care of the important business of consolidating our control of the Galaxy, could I at least suggest that you allow more supervision of your missions.”
Kylo scoffed. “Supervision? From whom?”
“From me. You should let me attend one of your searching trips.”
“You?”
“We have been on planetside missions before.”
Kylo stared very closely at Hux for several seconds. It was rather off-putting to be under such scrutiny, and now that Kylo no longer wore his mask Hux could almost count the moles on his face. He wasn’t unpleasant to look at: his face was interesting and odd. It was not so pleasant to be looked at by him with quite this level of intensity.
“You’re dismissed now, General. I have plans to make.”
Kylo had gotten his way, of course, and the Finalizer was now in hyperspace on its way to the Dzenvora system. Hux had been left to make sure that operations in the Iridiss sector were rescheduled — postponing troop deployment by two days, coordinating with team leaders and commanding officers, rearranging a call with the sectoral government.
While arranging all this, he received a written communication from Kylo, on his personal channel.
A Sith temple has been located on Dzenvora. Details from intel and historical documents check out. I will make a personal search of the location. You will accompany. You will board my shuttle at 1140h.
Hux was rather taken aback. He hadn’t expected Kylo to go along with his request to be involved in these expeditions; and he wasn’t entirely sure whether he’d meant his request sincerely. It had been more of a rhetorical demand. It was quite another thing for it to be real, with a definite scheduled time-and-place appointment only a few hours away.
Now that it was actually happening, Hux had to decide what to wear and what to take with him. The destination planet was cool temperate, and prone to rainfall. He would probably wear his greatcoat, but in case of heavy rain a waterproof poncho would be more suitable. A waterproof poncho, however, didn’t represent the sort of sleek lines that Hux preferred to display at all times in front of his people. Greatcoat and command cap it would be, then. With a fold up waterproof kit in a side bag.
The door slid open without warning. It could only be one person.
“Hux. You’re coming with me to Dzenvora.”
“Supreme Leader. Yes, I got your message.”
“As you requested.”
Hux tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible and replied with a simple “Yes.”
“We’ll be accompanied by a squad of troopers. I’ve chosen ten from the KW unit, with two mountain specialists.”
“Ah. You’ve already chosen them.” Hux wrinkled his nose in distate. “I’m not sure about the practice of cherrypicking squads for individual missions. I feel it should be the exception rather than the rule.”
“I want the best for each mission. I should have the best.”
“It doesn’t do much for unit cohesion.”
“If they want to be picked, they can aim to be the best. Anyway, I want to designate most of the KW unit as specialist raiders. We should introduce specialist training for the role.”
Hux sighed. “And when am I going to have the time for that?”
“We’ll discuss it when we get back from this trip. When you’ve had first hand experience of the role yourself.”
Kylo sounded rather smug and pleased with himself, and Hux did not like it at all.
Hux, now all packed and ready, bustled along to the bridge.
“Ah, Captain Peavey.”
“Sir?”
“Slight change of plan. You’re on double duty.”
“Really, sir? I mean, obviously I am honoured to serve at your command,” said Peavey, not in the least hiding his mild annoyance.
“Your dedication to the First Order cause is noted,” said Hux. “I may write you a commendation.”
Peavey nodded. “Is there any particular… reason behind the, ah, change to shift scheduling, sir?”
“I am going on a very important mission with the Supreme Leader. Down to the surface of Dzenvora. The Supreme Leader requested me personally.”
It was important to Hux to appear as proud as possible. If you didn’t show off your status to men like Peavey, they could have a tendency to forget it.
“An honour indeed,” said Peavey. “I recall you accompanying the Supreme Leader on a planetside visit before.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm. Have fun,” said Peavey. “And, if I might, sir, watch out for large carnivorous species.”
Hux bristled.
“I shall scratch that commendation,” he shouted, as he stalked off the bridge.