Starkiller Base was a loss. A massive loss. Billions upon billions of units wasted. Yes, the Republic was gone but at what cost? The Resistance had rallied against all odds and bombarded the oscillator with everything they had. And it worked. The sophistication and (almost) flawless design of the machine had been no match for the diligence and dedication of the Resistance pilots and a small team of rescuers who had braved the facility to drop the shields and save a friend. They had been successful. Yes, there had been huge casualties and grievous losses on both sides.

Nonetheless, celebrations erupted across the galaxy. The mourning soon followed. But pieces needed to be picked up and lives needed to be resumed. The threat of each other had not yet been extinguished and one could not exist while the other survived. They both lay in wait, both sides plotting, replenishing and waiting for their nemesis to make a move but one was in significantly better condition than the other. It would take units, resources, commitment and loyalty on both sides before they faced each other on an undisclosed battlefield again.

It was borderline career slaughtering for the General involved but he had clawed himself back from the brink in a way that a weaker individual would not be able to do. With his lean frame and …..luminous hair, he needed a thick skin. This thick skin (curtesy of the academy) was of no greater help to him then it was following the explosion. How they had escaped the planet, General Hux still didn't know. He put it down to his own exceptional piloting skills while Ren groaned and whimpered in the background. As much disdain as he had for the dark Jedi, Hux had to admit he was impressed with his survival skills.

Or it could have been that Ren was holding on out of pure spite, it was hard to tell. The medic deduced a blaster wound to the side, several lightsaber burns (nothing more than second degree but still) and marginal frostbite. It seemed that no matter how the medics tried, Ren was insistent that the laceration on his face was allowed to scar. His mask was gone; he needed something else. Something else to inspire fear. What better than proof of dedication to the Dark side than a lasting lightsaber gash covering one side of his face?

"Suits you." Hux had commented bleakly while the on board medic stitched him which earned him a vicious look from his colleague. Ren's physical identity was no longer sacred nor would his General let him forget it. It had all started in the holochamber before Leader Snoke when the scavenger girl was brought on board; the absolute peak of Ren's incompetence. The first time the two men had come bare face to face.

With Kylo Ren retrieved and delivered (and Hux's scolding endured), he had no doubt it wouldn't be too long before he saw the Knight again. It was time to start afresh; where the First Order could quietly establish a new base to start rebuilding. This would take strategy, it would take thought and it would take careful and precise planning. No doubt the Resistance had already sought out Skywalker.

It was only a matter of time before he returned with a new cluster of Jedi waiting in the wings and ready to swoop in on the vulnerability of their Imperial counterparts. The First Order had failed to crush them once; they couldn't afford to do it again. The consequences would be dire. Hux had been blessed with a magnificent mind. Would he have made General before thirty four if he hadn't? His mother had always gently told him (she was so softly spoken, one of the things he missed most about her) that he was the cleverest little boy she had ever met.

He put that mind to use over several sleepless nights; pouring through his holopad, database after database, looking for some clue. He had time. A number of Stormtroopers had been evacuated and were waiting on Arkanis for instruction under his father's watchful eye; he assumed Captain Phasma was among them. When he had a solution, the dispatches would be sent. For now, he combed through possible solutions on the tiny ship where Kylo Ren had staged most of his recovery.

Early one morning (or late in the evening?), he found it. It was almost too perfect. He re-read it several times in case sleep deprivation was crippling his vision. It wasn't. It was perfect. It was ingenious. Ilum. 7G of the Ilum System. Two moons. One sun. Sixty six standard hours in a day, they could break that up with their own routine. It was a small enough planet; not even six thousand kilometres in diameter. Manageable. The atmosphere was breathable but the cold would be a hindrance. Nothing they hadn't faced before. There was no population, no government, no official language. The place was an icy wasteland for the taking. Hux sat up to ensure he was actually awake with what he read next. Crystal caves. He had to blink a few times and give his head a brief shake.

Jedi crystal caves. That would stop the Jedi in their tracks. If the First Order controlled the planet where they sourced the crystals vital for their primary weapon, they might hesitate to venture there. Not only that but depending on the scarcity of these caves on other planets, there would be reluctance to blow up the planet as had been the fate of Starkiller. He found his solution. Ilum. He'd send a com in the morning but now he could rest. He thought about it in blissful excitement as he drifted off. One sun. Two moons. Breathable. A place sacred to the Jedi. No sentient beings. Except for one.

"Thank fuck." Came the relieved breath as the young tauntaun was taken down. It was a miserable sight but necessary. Gods, it was necessary. As humanely as possible, it was dispatched. Nuna snapped its neck and that was that. Make shift snow boots of tauntaun skin crunched their way forward and the alpha's face fell. It had looked like more until she got up close. It was immature, barely adolescent; probably strayed from a herd. It was mostly fluff. It would have to do. They'd been trying for days with nothing to show for it; but it was better than going hungry again.

"Bring it back." Nuna grabbed one end of the carcass and Rok seized the other. The couple always hunted as a pair; it was romantic(?) in a way. It would only take one of them to drag it but Nuna was stubborn and Rok didn't like his mate exerting herself. The constant hissing as the tauntaun was hauled over the snow and icy patches was a welcome sound but deep down, Layna knew it wouldn't be enough.

A pack of thirteen Quohr (including a pregnant female) and herself was going to need more but it just meant trying again tomorrow. A weedy, barely few month old tauntaun wasn't going to cut it. Food was getting scarcer, hunting was getting harder and while the alpha knew it wasn't her fault, she felt responsible for the wellbeing of her pack. Kari especially.

The Quohr were magnificent beasts. Standing six foot to their broad shoulder, their large muscular frame was covered from head to toe in varying shades of thick, shaggy fur from snow white to grey, regardless of age. The hide underneath was damn near impenetrable making them verydifficult to kill. If a bear and a wolf were to have offspring, it would be a Quohr. To someone outside their pack; they were notoriously dangerous. Inside the pack; they were family.

Pack hunters by nature, they mated for life (after a strange courtship process) and the death of a Quohr usually resulted in death for the mate shortly after. They were not native to Ilum. Neither was Layna. They were they only pack on this Godsforsaken rock of a planet; vying for survival on meagre tauntauns against Asharl panthers and Gorgodons. It was a brutal existence but there was little choice. The only other option was to curl up and die and that would mean abandoning the pack which was unthinkable.

They arrived back at the cave camp quicker than she thought; then again maybe she was just so caught up with her own musings that she just didn't feel the time going by. Layna cut a significant portion first and then a little extra sliver which she tucked into her coat. Her hood was kept up and her mask drawn over her mouth and nose (it was essential for preventing frostbite) so only her eyes were visible. Then she made the short trek to see Kari.

Kari was the eldest female. Big and broad like the others, she was grey but her age was nothing to do with her colouring. She had been grey as slate since she was three months old. But this one was different to the others; she was carrying a new member of the pack. Naturally, she had been Layna's priority (and her own mate's) since she started to show signs and every effort for extra food and comfort had been made but under the circumstances, those efforts couldn't really amount to much. With her strength; Kari was fearless, she was strong and she was unstoppable. But like any pregnant female, that was set on the back burner.

"Hey, baby girl." Layna greeted the large Quohr gently as she approached but the worry was obvious in both her voice and her eyes. The Quohr could smell it. Kari didn't lift her head but her sweet brown eyes heightened to the alpha. It was all she could manage. Weak and bordering on starving; she broke Layna's heart.

"Not a great haul today." She broke the bad news and felt her heart sink a little more when she heard the animal sigh. The human sat on the floor, resting against Kari's shoulder for warmth and companionship. The more sizeable portion was laid down for Kari who had it gone in two mouthfuls. Not enough. The other sliver was removed from her coat and handed over; it amounted to another mouthful. Layna would go without.

The pack leader cried again, nuzzled against Kari's shoulder. Not only was she hungry (and Gods she was hungry), that undeniable pricking of failure and defeat was relentless. Her pack was dying in front of her. She was weakening herself by the day. They would be no better off with or without her but she was doing her best. Food was getting rarer; the tauntaun weren't breeding like they should be or maybe they were being overhunted. There was little prey here; mainly predators.

Kari's head inclined subtly (as much as she could) nuzzled Layna in return; a small action of consolation. She had to dry her tears. They could freeze on her face which would result in her having to literally pick them off her skin; she'd bled from it before. Or they would soak into her mask, making it difficult to wear as the moisture froze against her skin; reversing the effect it was supposed to have. Kari gave a small grumble which to anyone else might have sounded like a threat.

"I know." Layna replied quietly with a broken sniffle, lifting a gloved hand to wipe her eyes. "We're trying. But it's not enough. We have to keep looking." Ordinarily when food was short, they would move around and try to exploit other food resources on other pockets on the planet. With Kari's condition, it wasn't fair to move her. Even if she was in her full strength and the rest of the pack were too, Layna doubted the food supplies would be better on any other part of the planet.

A chorus of brutal growls coming from outside the cave ripped her attention from her own sorrow. On her feet in an instant (despite the faintness that starvation brought with it), Layna found herself at the mouth of the cave. The usual suspect was causing trouble.

"OI!" The alpha roared, adding a gruffness to her voice to exert her dominance over the larger male. Her stride picked up and within seconds she was face to face with the greyish white beast that could have killed her without too much struggle.

"WE'RE ALL HUNGRY!" She bawled at him, grabbing his snout and pulling it down to force his eyes on her's. "WE ALL NEED MORE BUT IT'S JUST NOT THERE! WE HAVE TO KEEP TRYING SO GROW UP, TAL! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE!" She released his nose with force and ignored the quiet grumble that followed the scolding. Layna turned to check on the one he'd picked on.

"You alright?" Myr's ear was nicked but otherwise she appeared to be fine. A familiar, heavy weight collided with Layna's back that nearly sent her tumbling into the snow. "And where the fuck have you been?!" She glowered at the snow white Quohr that looked too happy to see her and she knew she couldn't be cross with him for long. He wasn't the biggest by any means but he more than made up for it in personality.

"Bawawaawaaw." The white animal told her (not unlike a Husky), it must have made sense because her frown was curious.

"Where?" Tyg looked in the direction he'd come from, then she noticed the blood on his otherwise pristine chest; it wasn't his, she would have smelled it. "No wonder you're so chirpy, you've just fucking eaten!" Her mind immediately went to Kari. "How far? Your mom needs it but she can't move." His rumble told her about an hour. "We'll bring back as much as we can."

"I don't see what the big deal is." The conversation had focused on one topic since they left and they were almost there. Keema.

"Muuwaaaaw!" Tyg complained to the female on his back.

"I know Tal's an asshole but that shouldn't stop you." Was her reasoning, blinking to keep the snowflakes off her eyelashes. "She's only his sister; she can go with whoever she wants. And why wouldn't she go with you? Look at you, you handsome bastard!" That seemed to be the resolve Tyg needed. He stopped only a few minutes later and if it hadn't been for the crimson clashing with the white where Tyg had eaten his fill; she would have said he brought her to the wrong place.

However, when she dismounted and took a closer look, it wasn't quite what she'd expected. The brilliant white of the helmets and the armour blended them in almost seamlessly to the arctic landscape around them. They were what she barely remembered were called Stormtroopers. Humans. She wouldn't be eating for a while.

"You didn't kill these, did you?" She turned to ask Tyg who told her he hadn't. Simply removing the helmets was enough evidence to suggest they'd been frozen to death. "We need to get as much of this armour off as we can, the lighter they are the more we can bring back…." Tyg wasn't listening; he was fixated on something else. "Tyg?! Hello?!" Still nothing.

Then she heard it. Something she hadn't heard in twenty years. Engines. A ship. Her instinct was to hide but there was nowhere to go in this ice desert. Instead, the pair just stared. It was a small shuttle, maybe big enough for ten people but it brought with it a sense of foreboding. Something wasn't right. This was bad; very, very bad.

The snow beast started to get angsty, shuffling from foot to foot and giving warning growls to the thing in the sky that just got closer and closer. Tyg didn't know what a ship was. He wasn't born until after theirs crashed. It touched down a few hundred meters away. When the ramp dropped and more Troopers, maybe about eight started to descend; Layna found herself.

"Run." She breathed to her companion but it seemed her mounting caught the attention of a chrome trooper. There was no hesitation in this warrior in raising her weapon and the blast caught Layna clean into the chest. The female hit the ground noiselessly as the stun blast worked its way through her system. They would have been caught eventually. There was nowhere to hide in the expanse of tundra nothingness.

Tyg rounded on the approaching shooter; teeth bared, claws out and hackles raised and snarling in a truly monstrous fashion. He was distracted by the fire of the other Troopers though the blasts seemed to only infuriate him further rather than hurt him. He was drawn away from his pack leader to lunge at the ones shooting while Layna was swept up by the chrome Trooper; no doubt it'd be useful.

By the time Phasma (who had hauled herself out of a trash compactor to visit the frozen hellhole) gave the signal to withdraw, another three Troopers joined the dead ones in the snow. Tyg thundered after them but they were sealed away. The animal thrashed violently against the ship before its take off, howling and bawling viciously as he tore at the metal. The engines roared into life and Tyg was thrown backwards into the white powder where he could only watch helplessly as the ship started back towards the sky; taking Layna with it.