Republic General Tal Chan looked up as the communications officer ran in, pale and shaking, “General! The Hosnian system! It’s been destroyed!”
The next few days were a dizzying mess of mobilization and moving of assets to protect them from the First Order. It was only a few days after the destruction of the Hosnian system that he was made the leader of the Republic military forces, those that were left. His first major decision was the choice to not go to Princess Leia’s aid at Crait. There were some who did not like it, but they were loyal soldiers and obeyed.
*
General Chan frowned at the newest reports on his desk, “Leave it well enough alone, Princess. Didn’t Crait teach you anything?” He looked up when his intelligence officer Major Pel Tyr entered his makeshift office. “Major Tyr.”
“My third cousin twice removed is a royal watcher, has been for decades.”
“Oddly enough I remembered that. She has been a great source of information about Princess Leia over these last couple of years.”
Tyr put a small holo projector on top of the stack in front of Chan. “This is from a few years ago of Princess Leia and her son Prince Ben, the last known public appearance of the boy before he went away for Jedi training, supposedly.”
Chan looked at Tyr, “With you so far.”
Tyr added a picture, “This is the latest footage of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. See the resemblance?”
Chan studied the pictures for a long time, then muttered, “Kriff.” He frowned, “There is no way she is going up against her only son.”
“The Resistance is still building its forces and my inside contact says they are as motivated as ever, the main rallying figures are the former stormtrooper and the Jedi girl, supposedly being trained by the Princess.”
Chan looked up, “Has the whole galaxy lost its sanity?” He watched the Princess and her son officiating at some charity function. He had the pose and posture of a typical bored teenager, but the Princess smiled at his back throughout the sequence, obviously a very proud mother. “Tyr, if she gave him leadership lessons?”
“He may be able to accomplish the stated aims of the First Order, possibly better than the non-human Snoke ever could. And the nightmare of him being extremely competent has kept me up a few nights.”
“You waited on this?”
“Had to get the footage from my cousin without telling her what I wanted it for.”
“Hmm.” Chan looked up, “You have a source inside the First Order?”
“Yes.”
“Tyr, what would happen if we captured Leader Ren?”
“And do what with him? The man has a legendary bad temper. He’s also a force user, a really strong one.”
“They have force suppressants, drugs and devices, and you know people who can loosen lips.”
“What are you getting at?”
“We throw the First Order into chaos by taking away their best chance at a competent leader, and we embarrass the Princess and her ragged band of thugs. We find out if they are working together, but even if it turned out otherwise, just bad blood, she does not come away from this looking good.”
“I see and understand what you are getting at, but you are forgetting how well this guy is protected, not just the First Order people, but his own band of thugs.”
“But not impossible?”
Tyr thought over the possibilities, “Let me run some logistics, I will get back to you.”
*
General Chan and Major Tyr looked over the assembled team. “I’m not going to lie, this might be a suicide mission, but if you pull this off we will capture a very valuable prize. The target is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. He will be overseeing the subjugation of the Pymir system. Things are still chaotic so you will have ample opportunities to get in and out, I’m leaving those specifics to you, Commander Garr. The object is live capture, in good enough shape to interrogate. You will bring him back here where a special detail will take custody of the prisoner. I am not concerned about collateral damage. If live capture is not possible then bring his dead body back here.”
*
Rey sighed as her meditation was disturbed as the connection opened. She looked over and met his eyes, then turned away.
He swallowed the mouthful he had in his mouth and said, “I’m sorry for bothering you, but I don’t have any more control over this than you do.”
“Are there no tables on your ship?” she noticed the plate on his lap.
“I am sitting at a desk. But there’s no room for my plate on it.” He looked over at Rey who had to be close enough to smell his dinner as she was barely an arm’s length away. He picked up one of the small meat pies and held it out to her.
Rey hesitated, “I’m not depriving you of dinner, am I?”
He knew that was not sarcasm but the genuine concern only one who had starved on the regular had. “No, this is actually my pre-dinner snack.”
She took the pie, “Thank you, pre-dinner snack?”
He watched her wolf down the pie, then explained, “It’s an official function, fancy food, small portions.” He waved at himself, “Not compatible with being satisfied. My mother and I used to share a pre-dinner snack before such functions. My mother hungry and cranky is a sight best avoided. For future reference.”
Rey finished licking the crumbs off her fingers, “I’ll remember that.” She ducked her head, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Kylo sighed, “You don’t have to apologize, I tried to force your hand, push you into something you weren’t ready for.” He picked up another pie and offered it to her.
“You aren’t trying to buy my affection with food are you?” she said taking the pie.
He actually chuckled, a good look on him, “Not with First Order food! If I were trying to buy your affection with food, it would be with food I personally prepared for you.”
Rey smiled at him around the pie she was finishing. “Who taught you to cook?”
“Chewbacca.”
“So if he offers to cook?”
“Take him up on it.”
Rey smiled at him, “I’ll remember that.”
Kylo was thinking of Rey’s kind smile an hour later while some local governor droned on about how his people would be glad to serve the First Order. He looked out over the room and spotted Ushar, Ap’lek, and Kuruk close but not too close.
His head jerked up and he waved the governor to silence as he listened to what the Force was telling him. He managed to knock everyone down seconds before the explosion occurred. Kylo coughed and wheezed as gas filled the room and his vision went dark.
He woke up strapped to a transport board, the fuzziness in his head told him that there a Force negating collar on. He heard the sound of retching and despite the situation he smiled, “Good work, Sister.” He muttered softly.
One of the men came over and loomed over Kylo. “What did your thug hit Bok with?”
“He’ll be fine.” The sound of retching from the refresher tried to turn Kylo into a liar, “It’s no worse than a bad case of food poisoning.”
The man growled then punched Kylo in the face. As he blacked out, he brought up an image of Rey’s concerned face.
*
Leia had not gotten a lot of sleep over the last couple of nights. Ever since she heard of the incident at the Pymir system she had not been able to feel her son. She was really worried about Rey, the girl had actually been off her food.
“General!” D’Acy called running up to Leia, “We have a ship coming in, they say they want to talk to you personally. About Kylo Ren.”
Leia looked at the ship which screamed Stolen, then realized she and Han had been married for too long. The ramp lowered and a pair of well built, middle aged humans, a man and a woman walked out. The woman surveyed the crowd and her eyes settled on Leia, appraising her. She walked forward, noticing but not seeming to mind the blasters leveled in her direction.
“General Leia, I am Livia. I have a witness to the live capture of Kylo Ren, by what sounds like regular Republic forces.”
Leia for a second was a concerned mother, then put the mask of command back on, “I would like to speak to this witness.”
Livia pointed at the ship behind her, “The witness recuperates in there.”
Poe stepped forward, “You can’t, it has to be a trap.”
“We cannot rescue him by ourselves, and we believe him to still be alive.” Livia said.
“I will speak to this witness.” Leia said.
“I’m coming with you.” Poe said.
Leia shook her head, “Rey will come with me.”
They were shown to a cabin where a mound of blankets took up one of the bunks. A tall muscular young woman stood guard over the bundle and at a nod from Livia knelt to pull back a corner of the blankets, “Sister, his mother and the Jedi girl are here.”
An odd-looking reptilian face poked out, covered in large blue green scabs. Leia knelt and smiled at her. “Hello, I’m General Leia Organa. I understand that you witnessed the incident?”
A scaley hand reached out toward Leia, then she said, “I am Ushar, and I will tell you.”
I entered the room he designated his office to find an overflowing desk and him scribbling away in his book. I noticed an empty plate on the floor and said, “You’ll be the size of a Hutt if you keep eating like that.”
“Well then my mother will know how to do me in then. I just need a moment to finish this sketch.”
“The scavenger girl who broke your heart?”
He looked up from the book to meet my gaze, “We both screwed up.”
I expressed my feelings about that and he smiled, finished his sketch of a girl eating pie and tucked it away on his person. We gathered Ap’lek and Kuruk and attended the event, somewhere between groveling and reception. He detected the explosion seconds before it went off and threw everyone to the floor. The people who burst in after the bomb were definitely soldiers, but not First Order soldiers. They were wearing rebreathers and I realized the room was full of knockout gas. One of the soldiers noticed I was unaffected by the gas and I was stabbed multiple times and he was enraged when his knife became stuck in my prosthetic tail. Master’s book fell out of his pocket as they dragged him away. Knife Wielder came back for one more attempt to retrieve his knife and I jabbed him with a quill, which makes humans very ill, similar to food poisoning, says Master who I stuck by accident once. As I lay bleeding out I snatched up Master’s book.
Ushar produced the book and handed it to Leia. She opened it and leafed through it, skimming the poetry, glancing at the pictures of Rey. She closed it and held onto it. “And the soldiers did not have any identification on their uniforms?”
“Nothing.”
Leia gave the scaley face a gentle touch then stood. “I think I know who would be brazen enough to try something like this and unimaginative enough to go in with blank uniforms.” She turned to Livia, “What do you think the First Order will do now?”
Livia was taken aback by being asked this, “They considered us outsiders, useless thugs. They did not confide in us.”
“And were careless with their thoughts and feelings. An outside perspective can be useful, but yours might be better due to proximity.”
Cardo answered, “They would replace him as soon as they can. They balk at his leadership.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” Livia snorted softly.
Leia looked at the young woman, “And what do you think?”
Trudgen ducked her head, then lifted it, “They will replace him, but not before blaming the Resistance.”
“And why did you come here?”
“He has always had faith in you and your abilities and wisdom.”
“Did you really kill a Hutt?” Trudgen asked.
Leia sighed in exasperation, “Yes, I strangled Jabba the Hutt to death because he enslaved me, used my future husband as a wall decoration and tried to kill my brother and our friends.” She shook her head, “I think I even know where they might be keeping him. I suppose you have already decided who is coming along on the rescue operation.”
“Livia and I will go.” said Cardo. At Leia’s prompting look he introduced himself as “Nikos.”
“Then come, we have a mission to plan.”
Poe held up a hand, “So you want to break into a Republic base, to liberate Kylo Ren of all people?”
Livia frowned at Poe’s tone but found herself astounded by how calm Leia sounded. “We won’t be breaking in, we would be walking in just like any other Republic forces team. I will distract the General I believe behind this…”
“How do you know that? They didn’t have any insignia.” Finn asked.
“General Chan works to a very boring playbook. He has in fact pulled off a live capture like this before, doing the exact same thing he just did.”
Poe frowned, “But why all the sneaking? Why not just ask him for the prisoner?”
Leia paused, “Because prisoners in his custody don’t often survive that long, and his interrogation techniques are inefficient.” She straightened, “This is Livia and Nikos, they will be coming with us, Chewie, please get the Falcon prepared.”
“We do have some official craft.”
“We may need some speed in our departure.”
Nikos and Livia paused as they approached the Falcon, Leia came up next to them. “Something wrong?” She could hear the unspoken comment about the Falcon’s junky appearance.
Livia shook her head, “It is exactly as he described.”
FILL - Re: Ben Solo, Leia, - Mental age regression/traumatic amnesia
The next few days were a dizzying mess of mobilization and moving of assets to protect them from the First Order. It was only a few days after the destruction of the Hosnian system that he was made the leader of the Republic military forces, those that were left. His first major decision was the choice to not go to Princess Leia’s aid at Crait. There were some who did not like it, but they were loyal soldiers and obeyed.
*
General Chan frowned at the newest reports on his desk, “Leave it well enough alone, Princess. Didn’t Crait teach you anything?” He looked up when his intelligence officer Major Pel Tyr entered his makeshift office. “Major Tyr.”
“My third cousin twice removed is a royal watcher, has been for decades.”
“Oddly enough I remembered that. She has been a great source of information about Princess Leia over these last couple of years.”
Tyr put a small holo projector on top of the stack in front of Chan. “This is from a few years ago of Princess Leia and her son Prince Ben, the last known public appearance of the boy before he went away for Jedi training, supposedly.”
Chan looked at Tyr, “With you so far.”
Tyr added a picture, “This is the latest footage of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. See the resemblance?”
Chan studied the pictures for a long time, then muttered, “Kriff.” He frowned, “There is no way she is going up against her only son.”
“The Resistance is still building its forces and my inside contact says they are as motivated as ever, the main rallying figures are the former stormtrooper and the Jedi girl, supposedly being trained by the Princess.”
Chan looked up, “Has the whole galaxy lost its sanity?” He watched the Princess and her son officiating at some charity function. He had the pose and posture of a typical bored teenager, but the Princess smiled at his back throughout the sequence, obviously a very proud mother. “Tyr, if she gave him leadership lessons?”
“He may be able to accomplish the stated aims of the First Order, possibly better than the non-human Snoke ever could. And the nightmare of him being extremely competent has kept me up a few nights.”
“You waited on this?”
“Had to get the footage from my cousin without telling her what I wanted it for.”
“Hmm.” Chan looked up, “You have a source inside the First Order?”
“Yes.”
“Tyr, what would happen if we captured Leader Ren?”
“And do what with him? The man has a legendary bad temper. He’s also a force user, a really strong one.”
“They have force suppressants, drugs and devices, and you know people who can loosen lips.”
“What are you getting at?”
“We throw the First Order into chaos by taking away their best chance at a competent leader, and we embarrass the Princess and her ragged band of thugs. We find out if they are working together, but even if it turned out otherwise, just bad blood, she does not come away from this looking good.”
“I see and understand what you are getting at, but you are forgetting how well this guy is protected, not just the First Order people, but his own band of thugs.”
“But not impossible?”
Tyr thought over the possibilities, “Let me run some logistics, I will get back to you.”
*
General Chan and Major Tyr looked over the assembled team. “I’m not going to lie, this might be a suicide mission, but if you pull this off we will capture a very valuable prize. The target is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. He will be overseeing the subjugation of the Pymir system. Things are still chaotic so you will have ample opportunities to get in and out, I’m leaving those specifics to you, Commander Garr. The object is live capture, in good enough shape to interrogate. You will bring him back here where a special detail will take custody of the prisoner. I am not concerned about collateral damage. If live capture is not possible then bring his dead body back here.”
*
Rey sighed as her meditation was disturbed as the connection opened. She looked over and met his eyes, then turned away.
He swallowed the mouthful he had in his mouth and said, “I’m sorry for bothering you, but I don’t have any more control over this than you do.”
“Are there no tables on your ship?” she noticed the plate on his lap.
“I am sitting at a desk. But there’s no room for my plate on it.” He looked over at Rey who had to be close enough to smell his dinner as she was barely an arm’s length away. He picked up one of the small meat pies and held it out to her.
Rey hesitated, “I’m not depriving you of dinner, am I?”
He knew that was not sarcasm but the genuine concern only one who had starved on the regular had. “No, this is actually my pre-dinner snack.”
She took the pie, “Thank you, pre-dinner snack?”
He watched her wolf down the pie, then explained, “It’s an official function, fancy food, small portions.” He waved at himself, “Not compatible with being satisfied. My mother and I used to share a pre-dinner snack before such functions. My mother hungry and cranky is a sight best avoided. For future reference.”
Rey finished licking the crumbs off her fingers, “I’ll remember that.” She ducked her head, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Kylo sighed, “You don’t have to apologize, I tried to force your hand, push you into something you weren’t ready for.” He picked up another pie and offered it to her.
“You aren’t trying to buy my affection with food are you?” she said taking the pie.
He actually chuckled, a good look on him, “Not with First Order food! If I were trying to buy your affection with food, it would be with food I personally prepared for you.”
Rey smiled at him around the pie she was finishing. “Who taught you to cook?”
“Chewbacca.”
“So if he offers to cook?”
“Take him up on it.”
Rey smiled at him, “I’ll remember that.”
Kylo was thinking of Rey’s kind smile an hour later while some local governor droned on about how his people would be glad to serve the First Order. He looked out over the room and spotted Ushar, Ap’lek, and Kuruk close but not too close.
His head jerked up and he waved the governor to silence as he listened to what the Force was telling him. He managed to knock everyone down seconds before the explosion occurred. Kylo coughed and wheezed as gas filled the room and his vision went dark.
He woke up strapped to a transport board, the fuzziness in his head told him that there a Force negating collar on. He heard the sound of retching and despite the situation he smiled, “Good work, Sister.” He muttered softly.
One of the men came over and loomed over Kylo. “What did your thug hit Bok with?”
“He’ll be fine.” The sound of retching from the refresher tried to turn Kylo into a liar, “It’s no worse than a bad case of food poisoning.”
The man growled then punched Kylo in the face. As he blacked out, he brought up an image of Rey’s concerned face.
*
Leia had not gotten a lot of sleep over the last couple of nights. Ever since she heard of the incident at the Pymir system she had not been able to feel her son. She was really worried about Rey, the girl had actually been off her food.
“General!” D’Acy called running up to Leia, “We have a ship coming in, they say they want to talk to you personally. About Kylo Ren.”
Leia looked at the ship which screamed Stolen, then realized she and Han had been married for too long. The ramp lowered and a pair of well built, middle aged humans, a man and a woman walked out. The woman surveyed the crowd and her eyes settled on Leia, appraising her. She walked forward, noticing but not seeming to mind the blasters leveled in her direction.
“General Leia, I am Livia. I have a witness to the live capture of Kylo Ren, by what sounds like regular Republic forces.”
Leia for a second was a concerned mother, then put the mask of command back on, “I would like to speak to this witness.”
Livia pointed at the ship behind her, “The witness recuperates in there.”
Poe stepped forward, “You can’t, it has to be a trap.”
“We cannot rescue him by ourselves, and we believe him to still be alive.” Livia said.
“I will speak to this witness.” Leia said.
“I’m coming with you.” Poe said.
Leia shook her head, “Rey will come with me.”
They were shown to a cabin where a mound of blankets took up one of the bunks. A tall muscular young woman stood guard over the bundle and at a nod from Livia knelt to pull back a corner of the blankets, “Sister, his mother and the Jedi girl are here.”
An odd-looking reptilian face poked out, covered in large blue green scabs. Leia knelt and smiled at her. “Hello, I’m General Leia Organa. I understand that you witnessed the incident?”
A scaley hand reached out toward Leia, then she said, “I am Ushar, and I will tell you.”
I entered the room he designated his office to find an overflowing desk and him scribbling away in his book. I noticed an empty plate on the floor and said, “You’ll be the size of a Hutt if you keep eating like that.”
“Well then my mother will know how to do me in then. I just need a moment to finish this sketch.”
“The scavenger girl who broke your heart?”
He looked up from the book to meet my gaze, “We both screwed up.”
I expressed my feelings about that and he smiled, finished his sketch of a girl eating pie and tucked it away on his person. We gathered Ap’lek and Kuruk and attended the event, somewhere between groveling and reception. He detected the explosion seconds before it went off and threw everyone to the floor. The people who burst in after the bomb were definitely soldiers, but not First Order soldiers. They were wearing rebreathers and I realized the room was full of knockout gas. One of the soldiers noticed I was unaffected by the gas and I was stabbed multiple times and he was enraged when his knife became stuck in my prosthetic tail. Master’s book fell out of his pocket as they dragged him away. Knife Wielder came back for one more attempt to retrieve his knife and I jabbed him with a quill, which makes humans very ill, similar to food poisoning, says Master who I stuck by accident once. As I lay bleeding out I snatched up Master’s book.
Ushar produced the book and handed it to Leia. She opened it and leafed through it, skimming the poetry, glancing at the pictures of Rey. She closed it and held onto it. “And the soldiers did not have any identification on their uniforms?”
“Nothing.”
Leia gave the scaley face a gentle touch then stood. “I think I know who would be brazen enough to try something like this and unimaginative enough to go in with blank uniforms.” She turned to Livia, “What do you think the First Order will do now?”
Livia was taken aback by being asked this, “They considered us outsiders, useless thugs. They did not confide in us.”
“And were careless with their thoughts and feelings. An outside perspective can be useful, but yours might be better due to proximity.”
Cardo answered, “They would replace him as soon as they can. They balk at his leadership.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” Livia snorted softly.
Leia looked at the young woman, “And what do you think?”
Trudgen ducked her head, then lifted it, “They will replace him, but not before blaming the Resistance.”
“And why did you come here?”
“He has always had faith in you and your abilities and wisdom.”
“Did you really kill a Hutt?” Trudgen asked.
Leia sighed in exasperation, “Yes, I strangled Jabba the Hutt to death because he enslaved me, used my future husband as a wall decoration and tried to kill my brother and our friends.” She shook her head, “I think I even know where they might be keeping him. I suppose you have already decided who is coming along on the rescue operation.”
“Livia and I will go.” said Cardo. At Leia’s prompting look he introduced himself as “Nikos.”
“Then come, we have a mission to plan.”
Poe held up a hand, “So you want to break into a Republic base, to liberate Kylo Ren of all people?”
Livia frowned at Poe’s tone but found herself astounded by how calm Leia sounded. “We won’t be breaking in, we would be walking in just like any other Republic forces team. I will distract the General I believe behind this…”
“How do you know that? They didn’t have any insignia.” Finn asked.
“General Chan works to a very boring playbook. He has in fact pulled off a live capture like this before, doing the exact same thing he just did.”
Poe frowned, “But why all the sneaking? Why not just ask him for the prisoner?”
Leia paused, “Because prisoners in his custody don’t often survive that long, and his interrogation techniques are inefficient.” She straightened, “This is Livia and Nikos, they will be coming with us, Chewie, please get the Falcon prepared.”
“We do have some official craft.”
“We may need some speed in our departure.”
Nikos and Livia paused as they approached the Falcon, Leia came up next to them. “Something wrong?” She could hear the unspoken comment about the Falcon’s junky appearance.
Livia shook her head, “It is exactly as he described.”
Leia chuckled, “Wait until you see the interior.”
*