#fn2187

Finn

Tr8or

Blake Belladonna

FN-2187 worked in sanitation.

Just like every Stormtrooper in the last twenty five years he was taken as a child from his family. No memory of any of them. He was left without an inkling of an idea of where he came from.

He was put through induct camp, processed into batch eight, and somehow despite being marked a literal soldier and member of the FN Corps he'd been funnelled down to work in sanitation. Part time soldier, part time janitor.

Amazing.

FN-2187 did his job. He very rarely had personal free time. The First Order didn't exactly allow much time for anything else. He would spend a day as a soldier just occupying space. Then he would spent a day going floor by floor. He enjoyed sanitation days more than the alternative. He still never quite understood how they were helping the galaxy. Their presence on planets seemed to just be intimidation. That they were only there to beat people into their space and make them fall into line. The only violence he ever saw was in training simulations. He spent half his days contemplating and feeling guilty. The other half he spent happily parading around Star Killer base. Nothing made him more excited than the one time a week he got to pass through Precinct 9904.

Unless there was an foreseen circumstance, he was guaranteed to get a glimpse of her. He looked forward to this day every week. His chest would grow tight and he would swear he could feel his heartbeat in his throat. Despite being hid behind a uniform and a helmet, he could see her every time.

Last week he'd seen her leave the training room, tired and angry and pulsing with energy. He'd been in the middle of opening up a wall panel when he heard the thunder of her footsteps. He had heard the angry huff in her breath and he had seen her tight grip she held on her saber.

She looked absolutely pissed. And he hadn't cared. All he cared to realize that she wasn't wearing her helmet and she'd gotten her hair cut.

FN-2187 wondered what she'd be doing this week. Maybe she'd walk passed him like she had last month. Or maybe she would be walking with General Hux? There even was a chance she'd be in the training room again.

Except as soon as he scanned through the precinct, a blaring alarm sounded.

He looked through the visor of his helmet. He heard them before he saw them. A large group of stormtroopers, six elite troopers and six execution troopers came marching down the hall. FN-2187's heart began to pick up as he saw who led them. Standing fierce and tall and powerful.

Phaedra Taraay carried herself highly as she marched down the hall. FN-2187 stared in awe as she approached. It was as she took each step closer he realized that he had never actually been this close to her. He felt like he was going to throw up in his helmet.

He failed to actually acknowledge her as his superior. He didn't salute, he didn't say anything, he just stood there. She held her hilt in one hand and her helmet was held tightly in the other. She looked too preoccupied to even care.

Because as soon as she reached FN-2187 and his partner in the hall, her voice reverberated inside their skulls.

"You two with me." She had stated, not slowing down in the slightest. The two Stormtroopers fell into line far behind the other troopers. They marched in line, following blindly to the nearest hangar. The group had managed to pick up another four troopers on the way. The soldiers piled into her ship. It was state of the art Upsilon-class shuttle, it fit the soldiers as well as Phaedra comfortably.

Two soldiers took control of the piloting and another took care of the calculations necessary for them to jump to light speed. The rest stood at arms. A total of eighteen soldiers in total. They were on their way to a battle happening outside the atmosphere of Dantooine.

A resistance safe house was found only a few short hours ago. Phaedra was called in as reinforcements, she had grabbed her usual squad of random Troopers she had never really cared to learn the names of and any one of them she could get her hands on after.

Phaedra stood tall in the center of her ship. Her held tight on her lightsaber hilt as she tapped the barrel end anxiously against her palm. She took a few deep breaths, like she was mentally preparing herself for a bloodbath.

Meanwhile FN-2187 was certain he was shaking. This was her shuttle. He was standing inside her shuttle. Forget that, she was standing right there. He looked at her from this new angle. So close and so present. He could see the crease in her brow from her furious and hard expression.

He thought it was rather cute. Granted he shouldn't have, but he couldn't help but find the pout she wore endearing. He watched her take a deep breath and stare out the large windshield and stare at the hyperspace streaks just outside the window.

They exited hyperspace after a few short minutes. As soon as they exited the jump, it was a firefight. Phaedras breath caught in her throat as she looked at the sky surrounding them. By now the entire sky was streaking with hyperdrive rings. Lasers from battleships were firing from every direction. It was a whirlwind battle. As far as the eye could see it was confusion and mayhem in all directions.

FN-2187 stared in horror. He watch as Phaedra Taraay stepped towards the front of the ship. She stood before the pilots seats and she pointed into the distance.

"Get me to the surface. I need to get into that base." She had said. Her gaze fixated on the land down on the planets surface. Phaedra had her own objective here. The Boogeyman had her orders and her kill list. All that was left was to sit back and let her off of her leash.

The last thing anyone should ever do in that situation was question her or disagree...

"With all due respect, ma'am, we can't maneuver around. They're in the process of an air strike... I don't know if it'll be safe or even possible to land." The one Elite Trooper told her from the pilots seat. He flipped a switch and looked up behind him. Looking at his superior and waiting for her instruction.

"I dont repeat myself. Land." She ordered.

FN-2187 took a shaking breath and held onto his blaster. So were they just storming this place with no actual clue what was going on? He wondered for a moment if the other Troopers were actually briefed on this.

The entire ship shook, much to the surprise of everyone. It seemed like all eyes looked around the vessel, to its ceilings, to its floorboards, to its doors. And then it shook again.

"What's going on?" Phaedra asked. The ship sputtered, falling a few feet lower to the ground.

"They're shooting at us ma'am." The co-pilot stated.

Phaedras eye twitched. "I know that." She grumbled. "Why aren't the shields up? They shouldn't be able to get through." She said grabbing ahold of the seat and leaning forward to look at the screens of the console.

"They are. Shields are at fifty percent ma'am."

She didn't have time to grapple with the fact of how that was even possible. Phaedra walked to stand between the two pilots, she squinted trying to ignore the particle beams and explosions outside the window. The light was moments blinding as she stared at the screen in the cockpit. The readings didn't make any sense.

The ship shook again. This time Phaedra didn't waste a second. "Get me down to the surface."

"Ma'am our fuel supply... I think.. I think it's draining."

"What?" She asked. Her eyes went wide as she turned to a separate screen and watched the numbers slowly decline. She wanted to break something. Kick something. Snap a bone or hear the sound of her saber melting solid metal till it pooled and solidified to something even slightly more helpful. Instead she took a deep breath and tried to curb the searing anger inside her chest.

"What are our orders?"

"Ma'am!"

"Get us out of here." She barked the order. The entire ship shook violently. Sending everyone aboard lurching a few steps forward. An insistent and constant rain of fire was 'blocked' by their shields, they were barely held together now. Phaedra held tightly onto the back of the pilots chair as she tried to keep her footing. She had called upon the force just to keep herself upright.

"The nav system is shot" the copilot said. His terror was evident in his tone.

Phaedra wanted to scream into the void of interstellar. "Make the jump!" She had told him anyway. "We need to get out of here. Make the karking jump!"

"But the computer!"

"Put it for the coordinates we just came from!" She said quickly. They'd been here less than five minutes for karks sake! Besides if they stayed here a minute longer the ship was more than likely going to explode.

The exterior hull of the ship was degrading from the onslaught of attacks and their physical shields carried a whopping integrity of 8%. They were quite literally sitting ducks. They were running out of fuel at an accelerated rate and they couldn't even protect themselves from oncoming fire.

Her voice came out loud and angry. A yell so deep, so forceful, her own will was imposed on the pilots. "Make the karking jump!" She influenced their motions without even trying to. Within seconds the cockpit windows showed the slow jump to hyperspace.

It was a second of peace before a chorus of loud bangs rattled the ship. The entire thing gave out and a blinding light came from the window. Within seconds the ship had begun free fall. Fighting with gravity the entire ship rattled and threw every soldier to their left.

They had been thrown out of hyperspace.

FN-2187 scrambled along with the rest of the soldiers to make it into the crash seats. The ship was hitting turbulence as the crew panicked and tried to make it around. Another violent tilt of the ship sent Phaedra stumbling, once again calling upon the force to lessen the blow she had only fallen onto her knee.

As she looked up, a hand was outstretched right before her. Immediately she wrapped her hand around the troopers and hoisted herself back to her feet. FN-2187 might of actually felt his heart stop beating. He actually touched her, he had helped her, he had felt that infamous iron grip.

Kylo Ren fought to keep his fighter upright. His hands were grappling at the controls and using all his sheer strength to pull it each which way. He seriously hadn't expected the afternoon he'd had.

He watched it happen. From where he sat it looked like an ambush. He watched the shields deteriorate and finally give way, he saw the way her ship began to fall.

He was watching it with his own eyes. Smoke billowed and began to pour out from the dispersion vents at the rear of the ship. Kylo was watching it happen. He had seen the dead hit that he knew was going to ground the shuttle.

Phaedras shuttle had taken a hit that had blown one of the repulsar lifts clean off from the underside carriage. Even if they managed to land, it was a guaranteed crash landing. Kylo had tried to call her over his own ships communication. His voice had been nothing short of concerned.

"Rhidlu." He stated quickly. The headset he wore had a direct link to her ship. She should have been able to hear him. "Rhidlu, come in." He said watching the ship descent into the open space. It hit debris and knocked around.

Phaedra didn't answer

Kylo reached out to her with the only other way he knew how. He attempted to contact her, the same way he had many times before. Within the force he tried to make contact with his apprentice.

They had forged their force bond ages ago, kept intact and used it nearly every day. On any given day he could practically read her mind, see through her eyes and she could see through his. And yet in that moment, as he watched her ship get nearly shot down, he couldn't see a thing. His vision was black and all he could feel was panic intensive enough to leave him dizzy. To make his head ring and his stomach turn Kylo had only experienced something like that once a long time ago.

He couldn't reach her, her emotions and mind were too scrambled. So undisciplined, he couldn't get through. The male took heavy breathes as he watched the back lights on the ship shut down. The air was nearly pulled from his lungs as he watched. Did they just lose power?

He practically watched it in slow motion. Those milliseconds felt like an eternity and burned into his mind. He saw those lights turn off and then he blinked. He opened his eyes and saw the marks as the ship jumped to light speed. His mouth went dry and his heart pounded. As the ship disappeared he swore he could hear her voice echoing into the dark recesses of his mind.

"Make the karking jump."

Darkness surrounded her. It stirred inside her and all around her. She could feel it. A presence she'd felt before only in spurts. An evil force, an echo of Siths past.

There were a thousand voices overlapped. Yelling obscenities and inquiring about their new acolyte. One voice spoke and eased the squabble of the others.

It sounded intrigued. "Oh..." it had drawled. "They haven't made one like you yet... have they?" It chuckled. A dark and haunting noise that reverberated inside her head before the yelling resumed.

The volume felt like motion. Like racing wind. And then it was a blinding light. 

When Phaedra woke up from the crash she was being forcibly removed from her ejected seat. Hands were unbuckling her harness and pulling her from the smoking wreckage. An Execution Trooper had yanked her from her seat to drag her back to the others.

She was definitely concussed. Her head rung with a pain that was nearly unbearable as the sun shone overhead. Her body was barely conscious but, in her mind, she was screaming. Tearing at the floors of her brain to try and awaken. Instinct took over, knowing she was in danger and unable to fully get up.

It felt like vultures were picking her apart. Screaming whilst clawing and taking her for all she was worth in their eyes.

Her body was hauled towards the others, she could barely open her eyes. She caught wild glimpses of the barren planet from within the visor of her helmet. Ruins of what was left of an ancient civilization.

She was propped up against a rock beside the others. Two hands came to hold the sides of her helmet, searching for the release mechanism. The Elite Trooper struggled to find the button, white gloved hands slapped the troopers hands aside. Coming to rest on one knee, FN-2187 reached to the back of her helmet, unlocking it the same way he'd watched her do it. The helmet hissed as it released, opening and allowing the man to slowly take it off of her.

There was blood trailing from a cut on her forehead. Sweat stuck parts of her hair to her brow and she grimaced in pain.

"Rhidlu?" FN-2187 asked trying to wake her.

Although she did not know it. The Sith Lords of old, who'd spirits haunted the desolate planet left her mind, and in turn left her one piece of advice.

"Beware, Sith'ari. You will not live. You will survive."

In the most horrifying display, he watched her eyes shoot open. Panic and fear and anger swirled inside those eyes before she lunged to her feet. Faster than he could process or think, invisible hands pulled him off and pushed him back from her.

He stumbled back, noticing that the other trooper had been shoved by the force push as well. FN-2187 had no way to describe how it felt. It felt so personal, not in the way he viewed most of their interactions. It was much like a tugging in the back of his mind, he knew it was her. Her presence had a certain feel, the same that carried into her pull. With bated breath he watched her strut closer to the crashed pile of scrap that was once their ship.

She held her palm out into the open air. With blinding speed, quicker than any of them could see, a strip of metal came hurtling from the far-off wreckage. Despite the speed and force in which it flew, she caught it cooly in an open palm.

Despite the searing headache and the blurred lines around the corners of her visions, she turned around and looked to the surviving few that sat there. "Where are the others." She yelled loudly.

The air around her felt eerie. The sands and red dust sucked at her feet and tried to sink her boots down. Its aura was heavy, weighted with thousands of years' worth of the darkest and most treacherous atrocities.

Despite the feeling, Phaedra doubled down on herself and stared at the others expectantly. If she could handle it, why couldn't they?

The troopers looked amongst each other; nobody spoke. Phaedra closed her eyes momentarily and held her side, she was quickly feeling the dull ache of a wound she had yet to find.

She didn't wait for them to speak. Instead, she raced towards the wreckage. The smoke billowed from the crash which gave clear direction as to where she was heading. She reached out into the force, searching for any life forms inside the ship. She couldn't register a single karking one. She started this mission with nineteen soldiers, including herself. Out of the eighteen troopers she took with her she feared that only nine of them remained. She checked the wreckage and her suspicions were correct. She had started with nineteen soldiers in her unit. It seemed she had blinked and then there were ten.

Dividers are by @firefly-graphics!

Taglist: @clonethirstingisreal @feral-ferrule

Thank you so much for reading! I don't get much activity on my sequels verse Fics so it means a lot!

Another authors note: if you noticed the precinct is Crosshairs trooper number you're absolutely correct! It's a subtle/not so subtle reference to the fact that in the Taraay bloodline Crosshair is actually Phaedras grandfather!