This post is closed to new prompts!

rules | ask a mod | fills post | discussion/off-topic post | flat view | ao3 collection | delicious account

prompt post one
prompt post two
prompt post three

+ All comments except fills should be posted anonymously.
+ All prompts should focus on TFA characters. You can't post OT or PT-only prompts.
+ One prompt per comment please.
+ You can request both kink and non-kink content
+ Crossovers, characters from the other media are allowed, but must relate to the 2015 movie in some way.
+ All prompt comments should begin with a pairing tag (eg Rey/Finn) or Gen for no pairing.
+ Use 'Any' when prompting for any pairing at all (eg Kylo/Any or Any/Any)
+ Anyone, everyone, no one? Use "Other." (e.g. Poe/Other)
+ Warn for common triggers, please
+ NO PROMPTS FEATURING CHARACTERS UNDER 18 IN SEXUAL SITUATIONS.
+ don't hijack other people's prompts.
+ prompts should not exceed ~250 words.
+ also, while this is not really a rule I can enforce, please try to limit yourselves to fewer than 5 prompts per page.
+ reposting prompts is currently not allowed.
+ no prompts based on real life tragic events. e.g: 9/11 au, concentration camp au, etc
+ PLAY NICE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I had another emergency at work to deal with so I haven't had a lot of time to write lately. Everything here shuts down on Easter though, so I figured I'd write a bit while I had the day off. If you celebrate it, have a good Easter!

Once Hux finished his paperwork, he headed down to the medical bay. He tried to tell himself it was just to check up on Mitaka, but he knew that wasn’t it. Kuyper pox wasn’t fatal, it was just annoying and itchy, (and extremely contagious in the early stages) and he’d never cared before to go check on an officer who had fallen ill. There really wasn’t any way around it- he was worried about Ben.

It didn’t make any sense. Once again, he found himself trying to rationalize his behavior- he’d found a man trapped in the bowels of his ship, in very poor health. Hadn’t the doctors even said that Ben would have died shortly if Hux hadn’t saved him? Wasn’t it just human nature to try to keep someone alive if you had the ability to help them? He was on Hux’s ship, so that made him Hux’s responsibility. And anyway, cleaning up after a suicide was messy and irritating, it would only upset the troops and harm officer morale. That was all there was to it- it wasn’t like Hux intended to marry the man! No, wanting to make sure everything was efficient and clean was all there was to it. Not to mention that Hux still hadn’t managed to get all the information from Ben that he thought the other man had. If he was telling the truth, and hadn’t just gone insane from his prolonged confinement, it seemed that there was more to Snoke than the rest of the First Order knew.

His mother had never trusted Snoke, either, and it certainly wasn’t out of any misplaced sense of sympathy for the New Republic or the Resistance. Moa Hux had gone to her grave hating those organizations so fiercely that sometimes it scared her son. But then again, she had lost most of her family in a Rebellion-led bombing run during the days of the Empire, and then lost her eyesight while she was pregnant with her son when the New Republic ordered a strike on the Imperial refugee camp she and her husband had been living in. If there was anyone who ever had the right to hate, it was his mother, but she’d never trusted Snoke and had often berated Brendol for his decision to ally the First Order with the man.

Of course, Brendol Hux never appreciated Moa second-guessing him, and Tarkin had always thought his mother was being foolish- if Snoke would be able to bring the First Order to the level that the Empire had been, then she had no right to complain about any of his methods. After one particularly nasty argument, Brendol had thrown her blindness back in her face- she was a burden anyway, what did it matter what her thoughts on the Supreme Leader were?

Tarkin Hux had always been terrified of his father, but that day, his mother had frightened him more than his father ever had. Moa had laughed bitterly, her sightless eyes somehow focusing directly on Brendol. “I don’t expect you to understand,” she’d said. “How could I? You are still trapped in your glory days, reliving all the prestige you had at the Academy, but you are no longer a student. We no longer live in the Empire, and there are no greater officials to protect you from yourself. Tell me, if this Snoke ordered you to kill yourself, would you do it? I have no delusions that you’d hesitate if he ordered my death, or Tarkin’s, but you always were far too in love with your own life-“

Brendol had then struck her hard enough that she’d crumpled, the only time Tarkin had ever seen his father physically harm his mother, and snarled in reiteration that she didn’t understand anything and never had, then left the room without looking back. Moa had simply lain in a heap on the ground, laughing that horrible, mirthless laugh, her face twisted in a joyless rictus, before groping around until she found a chair and pulled herself up.

“Someday you will become the leader of millions within the First Order,” she told him, slapping his hand away when he’d tried to help her. “Every day you will need to make difficult decisions, but you must also remember to keep in mind that there’s more at stake than simply ruling the galaxy. People like your father, and the Supreme Leader, they become idiots blindly searching for power. Remember that Darth Vader’s ultimate goal at the beginning was to keep his wife and children alive. There’s more to life than blowing up planets.” Then, she’d just laughed again. “But certainly feel free to blow up plenty of planets, especially if they’re New Republic planets!”

Not too long after that day, Tarkin had gone to the Academy. He only saw his mother a few more times after that, at the holiday breaks. As long as he’d been alive, Moa had never been in very good health, but it seemed like the minute he’d left for the Academy, her health took a drastic downward spiral- she’d contracted a strange disease that none of the doctors had been able to cure.

With a horrible, sick jolt, he remembered the symptoms of the illness that had killed his mother. At the very end, his father had said her eyes had rolled back in her head, she’d coughed once, and a flood of blood had poured from her mouth- much like the lung hemorrhages that Ben had experienced.

Ben had blamed the Supreme Leader for his condition. Hux’s mother had died from a similar condition. Ben claimed that the Supreme Leader was killing him slowly.

If it was the same illness, then Tarkin Hux was only able to reach one conclusion: Snoke had murdered his mother.

Increasing the speed of his steps, Hux hurried down to the medical bay and flung open the door, only to stop dead in his tracks.

There was only one patient in the infirmary, and it was Dopheld Mitaka. The other bed was completely empty, even the bedding having been stripped from it.

Happy Easter! Also oh no mama Hux.

Hux stared blankly at the empty bed. Even the sheets had been stripped, leaving only the plasticine mattress pad behind. He simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing- how was this even possible? He was fairly certain that there was a protocol in the cases where someone died in the medical bay that the scene not be disturbed until an investigation could be completed as to the cause of death. It was just standard procedure, really just a basic protocol to make sure that the doctors weren’t sabotaging the treatment of the individuals under their care. It was the standard operating procedure even when it was obvious how the person in question had died. Hux recalled an incident where a trooper who had been shot by a Resistance member survived long enough to make it into the medical bay just long enough to bleed to death. It was very obvious that the man had died from his wounds- there just hadn’t been any time to treat his wounds, he’d exsanguinated very quickly. But First Order protocol still demanded that the body and the medical equipment be left alone in order to determine that the man had, in fact, died of blood loss from a blaster shot.

So it didn’t make sense that they’d disposed of the body so quickly and cleaned up. What were they trying to hide? Hux’s jaw twitched, he was going to make sure that the medical bay staff faced a tribunal. At the very least.

“Oh? General Hux, sir?” a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Hux turned, and saw that Mitaka was sitting up in his bed, looking at him curiously. “Are you alright?”

“What happened?” he asked.

Mitaka blinked.

“What do you mean, what happened?”

“Why has this bed been stripped? Where is the body? Why isn’t proper protocol being followed?!” Hux fired off questions like blaster bolts, yelling at the poor lieutenant like he’d personally done something to the other man. Mitaka’s eyes just widened.

“Body? What body? He died in surgery?”

Now, it was Hux’s turn to look confused. “Surgery?” Mitaka nodded.

“They did more tests and they found something in his lungs this time- they decided that they needed to take it out. I thought they’d told you.”

Now that he thought about it, Hux did remember his communicator beeping again while he was working on some paperwork, but because it wasn’t coming in on the emergency channel he had assumed it wasn’t that important and that a lower-ranking officer could have handled it. Clearly it seemed that he should have paid more attention.

Mitaka continued. “The nurse thought it would be a good idea to change his sheets while he was in the operating room, since he’s not supposed to get out of bed otherwise.”

“I see,” Hux replied, feeling like an idiot. What was it about Ben that made him behave so strangely? If it had been Mitaka who had disappeared from his bed, Hux wondered if he would have felt that same panic. Most likely he would have been irritated that procedure hadn’t been followed, but would he have felt that same existential terror on seeing the empty bed?

“E-excuse me, Lieutenant. Please have Doctor Arkkriss contact me when the surgery is completed,” he finally choked out, before fleeing the medical bay, leaving a very confused Mitaka behind.

“Was it something I did?” the lieutenant asked himself.

Anon! I just caught up with this fic and I'm really digging it, thanks for continuing to update. And aww, this most recent part, Mitaka never gets a break.

I love Mitaka, but it also amuses me to make him suffer from his boss's behavior. Mainly because I can relate, unfortunately. :|

And I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I don't have any plans to stop updating, I've just had to work every day this week and I've also had the mother of all sinus infections, so I've been tired. I'm still working on it, though! :)

This time, Ben was able to prepare for being unconscious. As soon as the doctor slipped the anesthesia into his IV line, he gritted his teeth. While last time hadn’t been too bad- he’d gotten to meet his grandmother, after all- Ben wanted to be prepared in case he ended up in that strange dream-like world again. The last time he’d almost died, though. This time, he was aware that he was going to lose consciousness. Maybe the whole between-life-and-death thing only worked when he didn’t know when it was going to happen. As he felt his eyelids grow heavy, he couldn’t help but wonder if he would come back this time.

When he opened his eyes, he was back on that strange, ruined planet, but he wasn’t in the bombed-out wreckage of the medical bay like he had been the last time. Instead, he seemed to be standing on the outskirts of what remained of a city. People eyed him warily from the remains of doorways, glared at him from the flaps of makeshift tents, and glared at him as they picked through the rubble. None of them seemed like they intended to attack him, though, which was more than he could say about the last time.

Suddenly, a young boy- he couldn’t have been much older than six or seven years old- ducked out of what seemed like it had once been a storefront and accosted him. Ben tried not to recoil at the boy’s appearance- he was wearing a small military-style uniform not unlike that of the First Order itself, but that wasn’t the disturbing thing. The left side of the boy’s body, including his face, was covered with burn scars and his throat bore ligature marks. If this was still the strange afterlife Ben had found before, and this child was dead, it seemed whoever had killed him had tortured him first.

And it was the strangest thing, but Ben could have sworn he’d seen the child somewhere before. But that was impossible- the boy’s uniform looked like it was from the First Order, but it clearly wasn’t. That meant he must have been attending the Imperial Academy for his early schooling- he would have died before Ben was born. It wasn’t possible for him to have seen the boy before.

But the boy didn’t seem to notice, or care, about the state he was in. He hurried up to Ben, dirty-blond hair bouncing as he ran, revealing a blaster-bolt wound in the boy’s head. “Are you Ben Solo?” he asked.

“Yes…” Ben replied hesitantly.

“Please come with me,” the boy said. “My elder sister wishes to speak with you.”

The boy led Ben through the wreckage, deeper into the city, until they came to a relatively intact house. The boy stepped through the empty doorframe, motioned for Ben to follow him, and then led him deeper into the heart of the structure.

"Sister! I’ve brought him here, like you asked,” he called before stepping into a room and waving his arm lazily in invitation for Ben to follow him.

Sitting in the middle of the room, on a torn sofa, was a woman. She might have been pretty once, Ben thought- but the trail of blood leaking from the side of her mouth, her stringy, graying hair that fell limply in front of milky, damaged eyes, and the disgusted expression that twisted what remained of her face ruined what residual beauty she might have once retained.

As he looked at the woman, Ben realized with a jolt why the boy seemed so familiar. On the woman, it was even more obvious. She might not have had the bright coppery hair that Hux had, but the rest of her features were very similar to the man he knew. With a sinking feeling, Ben realized he must have been looking at Hux’s mother.

“Bring him closer, Nico,” she said quietly. The boy nodded to Ben, who hesitantly took a step forward. “Come on, boy, step closer. I’m not going to bite you.” She laughed bitterly. “You’d taste terrible, what with your contaminated blood and everything.”

Ben bristled, but did as she ordered. The woman reached her hand out, and Ben hesitated before taking it. Was that what she wanted?

“I should hate you, you know,” the woman who looked so much like Hux said, almost conversationally. “You are the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, aren’t you? The proud son of the Rebellion fighters, turned Resistance? I know you met my brother Nico- they killed him. He was seven years old and they killed him like he wasn’t even human. Not your parents, of course, they were too ‘noble’ for that,” she said sarcastically. “But the rest of the Rebellion? They didn’t care who they killed, all they cared about was exterminating the rest of the Empire. I only escaped because I’d already gotten married to that worthless waste of space I called my husband,” she continued. “Not that it did me any good, I was caught in a New Republic bombing run on the refugee camp we lived in when I was pregnant, and it took my eyesight.” At this, she cackled, and pointed a long finger towards her own face. “I can’t even see a few inches in front of me. That one I can definitely place the blame on your mother, she was the one that ordered the run. But I don’t think you were born yet at that point.”

“I’m… sorry for your loss, ma’am,” Ben said, for lack of anything better to say. The woman smirked.

“That’s kind of you. But as I said, you weren’t born yet, and truth be told it wasn’t even your wretched mother who put me here. But ah, I’ve been rude, you must be confused. Allow me to introduce myself. Moa Tarkin-Hux, at your service.”

“You’re… Hux’s mother?” Ben guessed.

“Smart boy, I can see why you fascinated Snoke so much, although that’s not a fate I’d wish on anyone. But enough about me. I know why you’re here. Word gets around when you’re dead, you know. It’s not like we’ve got anything better to do. Your grandmother told you why you needed to stay alive, right? So what are you doing back here? If you’re dead and you’ve left my son on his own I’m going to beat your ass whether I can see you or not.”

“I don’t think I’m dead…” Ben replied. “Unless something went wrong with the surgery….” He let his voice trail off.

“No, you’re alive,” the boy who’d brought him to this place said. “You’re still sort of see-through. You’d be solid if you were dead.”

“Good,” Moa said. “You must live on. Your grandmother would have given you a bunch of pretty words about why you need to survive for the good of the galaxy. Truth be told I don’t care about the galaxy. I called you here because I can sense that you’re a fighter. You have to survive to kill the bastards that killed me, tried to kill you, and will kill my son if given half a chance. You’re a smart boy, you’ve likely figured it out how I died.”

Ben was silent for a moment, taking in the woman’s appearance. From the trail of blood that still leaked from the corner of her mouth and the amount of blood that splattered down the front of her dress, it looked as though she’d died of a lung hemorrhage. And then what she’d just said registered.

“The Supreme Leader killed you.”

Moa let out another grating cackle. “Indeed he did, I advised that bastard husband of mine not to trust him, and he infected me with something. I don’t know the Force works, it’s too much mystical crap for me, but I do know that I felt something physically pushed into my lung one day, and after that, I became ill. It was slow going, but I faded over time, much like you did.” She smiled bitterly. “It’s too late for me. But you survived the hemorrhage that was meant to kill you and discovered the cause of your illness. You can and you must survive, Ben Solo. Not for the sake of the galaxy- the galaxy can go hang for all I care- but for the sake of yourself and my son. You know what you have to do, don’t you?”

It was surprisingly easy once the woman put it that way. “Kill Snoke,” Ben said flatly.

“And if you can manage it, send my worthless husband down here too,” Moa replied, baring her teeth in a feral grin that was made no less disturbing by the fact she aimed it in completely the wrong direction. “I’ve waited a long time to have a chat with him where he can’t use my health against me.”

Ben was not sure how to respond to that. But he was saved from having to come up with an answer by Moa continuing on. “I really shouldn’t approve. After all, you’re the spawn of the scum who killed my family and blinded me, but even so I still hate you less than Snoke and my husband. And my Tarkin seems to care for you. Everyone tells me what he’s up to, and ever since he heard your voice that night from the computer, you’ve given him something productive to focus on. I suppose I approve. My sister-in-law was telling me that when he found your cot empty my poor son panicked. Live on, kill the Supreme Leader and that useless lump I called husband, and look after my son, will you? And if I find you back here before that’s done I swear I’ll figure out how to force a soul to be reincarnated and I’ll send you back to be born on some wretched desert planet or something.”

“Yes ma’am,” Ben replied quickly, not wanting to upset her. He was dubious as to whether or not she would actually be able to hurt him, but he assumed it was probably in his best interest to not annoy the deceased, especially given that the deceased seemed to be watching him all the time. Moa laughed loudly.

“Boy, I’m dead. I’m not a ma’am anymore, if I ever even was. Call me Moa. Or Mama if you’d prefer,” she said with a grin.

“Oh, ah… no, that’s alright ma’am. Uh. Moa,” Ben said uncomfortably. Moa smirked.

“Oh you poor thing, I wish you’d been born to me instead of to Leia Organa! You’re a good boy, Ben Solo. Now it’s time for you to wake.”

“Wha-?” Ben didn’t have a chance to react before he felt himself drift away from the room, fading in and out like a badly malfunctioning holodisk.

Once he was gone, the boy turned to Moa. “Do you think he’ll be able to do it, sister?”

Moa nodded. “We already knew he was strong in the Force. Tarkin is attached to him, and I think Ben is attached to Tarkin as well. I think at the very least, if he survives what’s next he has a very good chance of killing Brendol, at least.”

“And Snoke?”

“He’ll have to kill my bastard husband in order to get close to Snoke. If he can kill him, there’s a good chance he will be able to at least wound Snoke. If he accepts Tarkin’s help, I do think they’ll manage it.”

“Do you really want your son involved?”

“Tarkin has been involved since he went to the Academy, whether I like it or not,” Moa said grimly. “Those two boys are each other’s’ best chance for survival. I just hope that they’ll recognize that before it’s too late and solidify their union, no matter what form that happens to take.”

I love Hux's mother, she's a lot of fun to write. But I feel like I should probably mention- it's important to remember that Moa Tarkin-Hux died carrying a lot of grudges, it's probably not a good idea to take everything she said as 100% true. She believes it's true, but it may or may not actually be what's really going on. Thank you to everyone who has continued to read!

How could we not continue to read this glorious fic?? Also, is Moa Tarkin-Hux named after the giant extinct murder bird? Because that would be awesome.

Aw, thank you so much! :D

Moa is indeed named after the bird. I thought it sounded suitably sci-fi-y to be a name in the SW universe. So Hux's mother got the name.

OH GOD I'M SO RIVETED

Oh wow afterlife family would be super interesting in the future.

Hey guys, sorry this took so long to get up- at one of my jobs my boss hurt her back so everyone else had to pull double duty, and then I had to take an emergency trip to deal with my brother's hospitalization (he's fine now, he just got food poisoning and his roommate decided it was better safe than sorry and took him to the ER) and then got back home right as we had a very severe storm- and I just got electricity back today. Sheesh, it's only April and 2016 has already been one nonstop clusterfuck. Usually I don't get this burnt out until August or so. Hopefully this won't take me so long for the next part.

Despite his rapid departure from that strange not-quite-world, Ben took a while to regain consciousness completely- probably a side effect of the drugs they'd used to knock him out in order to conduct the surgery. He felt himself drifting- sort of there one moment, somewhere else the next. Finally, he was able to focus his vision and keep his eyes open long enough for the monitors to register that he'd regained consciousness, and almost immediately, the doctors were on him like carrion-birds on a corpse.

“It's very strange,” Doctor Arkkriss said, shaking her head once she realized Ben was awake. “When we did the test the first time, there was nothing there! When you asked us to re-run the test, we found a mass in your lung. And you were right- there was something in there. It's not anything I've ever seen before- how did you end up with a metal device in the interior of your lungs? It's not possible that you inhaled it.”

“Mm,” was all Ben managed to say. His head still felt slushy, and his tongue rebelled against forming words. The doctor handed him a cup of ice chips, which he gratefully took.

“You've been out for three days,” the doctor continued. “It wasn't a particularly difficult surgery, and we didn't use anything unusual medication-wise on you, but your body... well, it was almost like your lung did not want to let go of the device we found. I was worried you wouldn't wake up, that we'd accidentally sent you into shock.”

Now that was news to Ben. He'd been out for three days? It seemed like he'd spent maybe twenty minutes at the most talking to Hux's mother. Maybe time worked differently when you were dead. “..three days?” he managed to rasp out. Doctor Arkkriss nodded.

“Don't worry too much,” she replied. “Once that thing was out of you, your vitals were fine and you seemed relatively stable. Your body likely just needed the rest to recover from whatever that thing was. It didn't stop General Hux from panicking, though. He was here whenever he wasn't on duty, and we almost had to ban him from the medbay, since he kept trying to get poor Lieutenant Mitaka to keep an eye on you when he couldn't. As though the lieutenant isn't here for medical treatment too!” The woman snorted, shaking her head. “I'll leave you to it- I'll be back in half an hour to check on you. Suck on those ice chips, though, your mouth must be very dry.”

Hux had been looking out for him while he was out, and he was concerned enough to make the medical bay staff consider barring him from entry? Ben couldn't figure out why. Ever since that night when he'd accidentally transmitted his voice, Hux had been a constant, meddling presence in his life, and even if you held a blaster to his head and demanded an answer as to why, Ben wouldn't have been able to tell you. He was nobody! He was supposed to be dead! Hux actually had duties, a life, and things to live for. Why was he so obsessed with Ben's well-being?

Actually, now that he thought about it, there was something strange about how Moa had reacted to him, too- almost like she was telling him to look after her son... but in a manner that was more than just mere acquaintances. Hadn't she even gone on to say that she shouldn't approve of their relationship because of who his parents were? That almost sounded like what a parent would say to their child's future spouse, or something like that. But that couldn't possibly be right. There wasn't anything there. Hux was probably just alarmed that he'd found a half-dead man on his ship, and Moa had as good as said that being dead was boring- she was probably just seeing things that weren't really there in an unconscious attempt to liven up her afterlife. There wasn't any other logical explanation for it.

With those thoughts taking root in his mind, Ben finished his ice chips and drifted back into an uneasy sleep.

OP here. Sorry for the late comment. Glad to hear your brother is ok. Food poisoning is no joke.

So happy to see another update. And what a relief to see Ben in good health and recovering too! And yes Ben, that's exactly what Moa meant.

Heh. Moa might not be able to see very well, but she's definitely good at reading people. Especially her son, even if he's in a completely different dimension from him. If she'd lived she would have been the sort of mother who's always trying to meddle in her child's love life. Now she has to do everything by proxy, haha.

Of course Ben and Hux are both extremely stubborn and not really all that observant when it comes to their own feelings. Even if everyone else- dead or alive- sees it, they'll just dance around the obvious as long as possible.

Thanks for continuing to read! Things are still a bit bonkers around here, but I hope to have the next part up fairly soon.

Hux's day just seemed to be going from bad to worse.

To start off with, breakfast in the canteen had been Nylaxian oatmeal. Everybody hated Nylaxian oatmeal. Even Nylaxians. But since that damn transport ship had gotten blown up, Starkiller Base was running out of just about everything- building materials, soap, food that wasn't terrible... about the only things that were properly stocked were the medical supplies. Amazingly enough, other than Ben's case, there hadn't been too many complicated illnesses or injuries in the past few months. While it might have sounded terrible to say, it was in some ways a good thing that the construction accidents on the base tended to be immediately fatal- it prevented the injured person from holding on only to remain in great pain, and it prevented running up too much of a cost.

But the more he thought about it in those terms, the more uncomfortable Hux became. Was that how his father had viewed his mother? Even before she had contracted the illness that took her life, she had not been in the best health- likely a result of being caught in the bombing run that had taken her eyesight. Who knew what being caught in the explosion had done to her body, even before she had become fatally ill? Hux remembered his mother as generally being cheerful and lively, at least when it came to him, but she did tend to tire easily. Had Commander Hux seen his wife and the mother of his son as a useless financial burden? The only time Hux ever saw his father strike his mother, he had thrown her to the ground while screaming at her about her weakness, her pathetic fear of the Resistance, and her recklessness in distrusting the Supreme Leader. But he also hadn't seen what went on between his parents when he wasn't around, and his mother did often need help that his father would provide- it was not a stretch of the imagination to realize that possibly his mother had been silently suffering under his father's cold and calculating personality, even if he never did hit her at any other time.

Hux found himself wondering- was that how he came off to his men? Was he a distant, unapproachable figure with a personality colder than the outside temperature? He didn't really mean to be- but it might just have been his nature. While people said he did tend to look a bit like his mother, except for the hair, he had always viewed his father as a powerful authority figure, and had tried to model his own behavior on him. But now that he thought about it- was that really such a good idea? If his suspicions were correct, and Snoke had murdered his mother- how much knowledge did has father have of that? Had he been complicit? The implications were unsettling.

While he was mulling over these disturbing thoughts, his datapad beeped twice in rapid succession. The first was a message from the medical bay- Dopheld Mitaka had recovered enough from his bout with the Kuyper pox and risk of transmission was low enough that he was being discharged in order to finish his recuperation in his own quarters- all he'd have to do was make sure to take the pills the doctors had prepared for him to kill off any remaining pathogens that might have been lurking around in his system. The message also went on to inform him that they had completed surgery on Ben, removed a strange metallic object from his lung, and that they were cautiously optimistic that when he completely regained consciousness he would begin to show marked improvement.

The second message had been sent to all command officers on all major ships within the First Order. A small cargo vessel delivering supplies to an Outer Rim planet stumbled across one of the star destroyers- the Annihilator, floating in space, seemingly dead. Concerned, the crew had docked with the ship and gone aboard to investigate.

Every single person, from the lowest maintenance worker right on up to the general in charge of the ship, was dead. Seemingly from coughing up blood.

Well damn! An update on Star Wars day! Very nice, and an interesting update it is!

OP: ohhh the plot thickens even more!

Horrified, he clicked through the images attached to the message. While it was impossible to tell from the images alone what had caused the carnage, none of the corpses showed any sign of external damage, and Hux couldn’t look away. One image showed a Stormtrooper lying face-up in a puddle of his own congealed blood, the source of which seemed to be his nose and mouth. Another, a glassy-eyed petty officer slumped over her console, which had gotten the brunt of the blood flow from her mouth. Two IT technicians, who seemed to have been trying to comfort each other in their last moments, their death spasms locking them into each other, unable to tell where the blood from one ended and the blood from the other began. A medical officer, collapsed on his side, the surgical mask he’d been wearing dyed completely red. A lieutenant who’d died in the bath still sitting nude in the tub, the water turned red with blood that poured from her mouth.

The image album went on and on, getting more graphic and disturbing as the images wore on. It appeared that whatever had caused this had happened very suddenly- so many pictures showed people who’d been going about their mundane daily lives when they’d met their end unexpectedly, and through such a bizarre mechanism. Death wasn’t exactly unheard of in the line of duty for First Order members, but death from disease, or whatever this was, was fairly unusual. Certainly on a massive scale like this.
Clicking back to the original text of the message, Hux skimmed through, looking for anything that might have made more sense, or at least provided an explanation, but he came up empty.

“…no external trauma was visible on any of the bodies…”

”…no known survivors at this time…”

”…medical officers from both the Exonerator and the Rectifier conducted autopsies on a random sample of victims from across rank, age, and gender. Autopsies did not reveal anything that would serve as a definitive cause of death, although all cases did show extensive damage to the internal organs, especially the lungs and linings of the nasal cavities…”

”…no known pathogens or chemical agents match the damage seen in these bodies…”

”…incident is being recorded as a climate control system malfunction; other ships are advised to monitor their climate control systems closely and evacuate if errors arise.”

Hux stared as he read that last line. A climate control system malfunction? What kind of idiots did they take him for? Climate control was one of the most stable technologies that existed- that had existed for hundreds, probably thousands of years. It just was simply impossible to be a space-faring society without useful climate systems. The idea that one would fail so catastrophically and kill everyone onboard a Star Destroyer, of all things was simply absurd. Clearly something else was going on there.

His first thought was that it must have been an insidious plot by the Resistance. He knew that the organization’s precursor, the Rebellion, did not think twice about murdering children or ordering airstrikes on refugee camps- his Uncle Nico had been in his first year at the Imperial Academy and they’d killed him, hadn’t they? And hadn’t his mother been injured in a New Republic bombing run? But then logic reasserted itself. Despite what had happened before he was born, he logically knew that the Resistance most likely was not likely to resort to biological weapons- there was too much room for error (and the possibility of infecting yourself). And they also did not seem to approve of indiscriminate attacks like that, instead preferring to use precise strikes to remove whatever they deemed to be a threat at that time.

Granted, it was possible that the Resistance had deemed the crew of the Annihilator to be a threat that merited quick removal, but somehow Hux still doubted it was something they had done. It just didn’t seem their style.

But that left even more troubling questions about who or what had caused the deaths. And maybe it was simply the fact he’d met Ben, who claimed to have been tortured through a purposely-induced, protracted illness that had the same symptoms, but somehow Hux couldn’t stop his suspicions from turning bit by bit towards the Supreme Leader.

Still, that made even less sense than an attack by the Resistance. Why would the Supreme Leader attack his own people?

Commandant Brendol Hux sighed as he put down his datapad. Like all officers of the First Order, he’d gotten the message containing the images and official explanation of the death of the crew of the Annihilator. Unlike other officers of the First Order, however, he knew the truth behind the strange deaths.

Truly, it was regrettable. But it had been necessary. Just more in a long line of regrettable but necessary deaths. His cadets, countless Stormtroopers, Moa… everything had been for the good of the Empire or the First Order.

It was regrettable, the case of the Annihilator. Lieutenant General Matthias had been a truly promising young man- perhaps if he hadn’t gone poking his nose into where it didn’t belong he would have gone on to beat the Commandant’s own son as the youngest full general in the Order. Unfortunately, the young man hadn’t had the sense to know when to leave something well enough alone, and his entire crew had paid the price for it. At least it had been a successful test of the Supreme Leader’s plan. Now that they knew it was feasible, they might not even have to bother with completing Starkiller Base.

Of course, if it wasn’t necessary to complete the base, his son’s role would be entirely superfluous, and the First Order didn’t get to where it was by keeping superfluous personnel around… or even alive.

It was regrettable, truly, it was. But sacrifices were necessary for the good of the Order, and Brendol had been rather unhappy with his son as of late. If Tarkin was really worthy of his status, the boy would have finished the weapon more quickly and such drastic measures would not have been necessary. Like Moa, Tarkin had always been a little too cautious when it came to what was necessary. Oh, both Moa and her son had talked a good talk, but when it came down to it, both were hesitant to actually make a final decision, or to make the proper moves. It had cost Moa her life, but Brendol had hoped that Tarkin wouldn’t fall into the same trap. Reaching general rank at his age had been a good sign, but the Starkiller was now behind schedule, and now that the Supreme Leader had perfected his technique of releasing biological contaminants directly into the bloodstream of individuals via the Force, without needing a physical locus, the Starkiller was obsolete.

It was regrettable, but it was how victory was achieved.

So happy to see update. Poor Mitaka catches no breaks!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PROMPT POST #4

This post is closed to new prompts!

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [13/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [13/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [14/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [14/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [14/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [15/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [16/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [16/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [16/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [16/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [16/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [17/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [17/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [17/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [18/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [18/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [18/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [19/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [20/?]

Re: FILL: Ghost in the Machine [14/?]