Hyperspace - First Order Flagship Harbinger

The two metal blades clashed at a sharp angle, producing several sparks in the impact as they came at each other again and again. The older warrior gracefully evaded the violent strikes of his opponent, his ever-present smile revealed a distinct lack of effort on his part in the struggle, while the panted breath and the gleaming sweat running down on the younger warrior's face and arms revealed that this experience was not mutual.

"Stop running and fight me!" demanded Kylo Ren, clearly irritated by the obvious differences in skill between them that was not helped by his opponent's carefree attitude.

Dane's grin grew even bigger, "If you don't watch it with the fireworks, you're gonna break that sword."

The black cladded amateur Dark Sider lost his temper at that comment and charged forwards, but in his expectation to meet steel with steel, he was unprepared for the kick that connected with his right leg's kneecap and fell on the floor with a groan.

"Always beware the unexpected strike," said Dane in what approached a sing-along tone as he approached his fallen opponent and offered his hand.

Kylo Ren brushed off his offer and slowly came to his feet with a hiss of pain.

"Again."

Dane sighed, "listen kiddo, I never agreed to train you, but even if I did there are lessons that can't be learned by simply picking up some swords and bashing them together. Your form is wild, and your emotional outbursts make your attacks predictable. If you want to get your ass kicked again, come at me, but don't expect to become better at swordplay for it."

The wannabe predictably didn't listen and came at Dane again, forcing him to intercept the blade with one of his own. The duel wielding warrior quickly alternated between blades as they clashed, evading the strikes when he could and intercepting those he couldn't; electing not to retaliate with attacks of his own. After a few minutes of this exchange, Kylo Ren's worn out blade finally snapped, leaving him defenceless as Dane brought forwards the sharp end of one of his blades to the boy's throat, and briefly contemplated finishing him off.

The distinctive hiss of a lightsabre brought with it a red blade of energy that quickly cut through Dane's unprotected weapons. Knowing he was practically defenceless, Dane paused to gather the Force and projected it onto his opponent, freezing his body in place inside a pink shroud of ancient power.

"Right, I'm calling a penalty; if you want to fight using 'my' lightsabre, the least you could do is provide me with a vibroblade or some other weapon reinforced with cortosis weave that can stand up to it. I said I won't fight you and I stand by that, but we should at least lay some ground rules for these none-duels; no lightsabres and no Force powers, starting…now."

With that said, Dane released the wannabe from the stasis field, causing him to flounder headfirst to the floor, letting slip the lightsabre that quickly rolled away out of the arena; at least until it suddenly stopped, reversed course, and rolled back towards Dane's feet.

"That was no ordinary Stasis Field; I couldn't move my eyes or even a single muscle. How did you do it? Tell me!" He shouted, but Dane kept his silence, busy trying to make the lightsabre get to him without Ren noticing.

A coms device beeped on Ren's belt, "Yes, what is it?!" he barked, clearly still angry at Dane's uncooperativeness, but there was more to it than that. When Dane stretched his powers outwards, he could also feel anger directed at the girl from the shuttle and…himself.

"Get out of my head!" shouted Ren, snapping the Force into motion towards Dane. Over-dependence on emotions in a fight was generally a handicap, but in instances like this, it could also provide a nasty surprise, thought Dane, as he gazed upon the broken pieces of his vizor from his lovely view from the cold metal floor.

"Uh… Supreme Leader, you, you, asked to be informed when we were close to the Hosnian System. Our ETA is two standard hours." said the fearful voice of an orderly as Dane got up.

Ren closed his eyes, somewhat impressing Dane with what seemed to be a genuine attempt to calm himself. "Very well, inform General Pryde and Admiral Peavey to meet me on the bridge and order Backdraft and my new wingmen to report to our ready room."

"You Force push like an Agricorps dropout," muttered Dane as he massaged his jaw, moving his fingers and with them the Force to probe his objective.

Ren turned and faced him down with a glare burning with a cold fury. "When I return, you will teach me," he said with finality and brought up his access card to open the doorway.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked Dane, holding up his lightsabre. The kid paused by the doorway and summoned the weapon out of Dane's hand, its fingers twitching as the weapon was ripped away from them. The 'Supreme Leader' strapped the weapon to his belt and then left the brig, the door automatically sealing and locking itself behind him.

Dane waited for a few moments, and then brought up his left hand, and with it, the access card caught between his fingers.

Note of the Amateur:

A bit on the short end for me, but this scene was both necessary for the next chapter but also too out of place in it from a POV consistency perspective to be included in it. Rather than sit, I've decided to release it as an interlude prior to my next update, which should happen in one or two weeks, along with edits to prior chapters clarifications on what and why has been edited, and my current plans for the story.

The only big plot change is that stupid two-week time travel event introduced in the last chapter that contradicted with Kylo Ren's conversation with his knights in the one before it has been slightly altered to represent a sudden displacement in space rather than time. Time travel will be a thing in this story, but I have a track record of doing it badly when I am not careful, and this is one of those instances.

Other than that, I've overhauled the final HK-50 confrontation from a lazy message log to a real scene considering my violation of the HK self-preservation code preventing HK's from destroying each other. That edit is now present in chapter 7, but it isn't necessary to read it to understand future chapters and is thus purely optional. There may be smaller edits here and there, but they aren't that important to the plot.

The three-part finale plan has fallen in the wayside because some of my plot ideas for the sequel work better here then they do in there. The current plan is to complete the Lehon storyline, but also write the Battle of Corellia, each in three parts alternating with one another. For that reason, most of what I wrote for the next chapter was delayed to the one after that and it's taking me a bit longer to finish this one from scratch.

All that means is that there are still six chapters to this story not including an epilogue. The good news is that you'll be seeing more of Revan, Kylo Ren, as well as cameos for characters that will become more relevant to the sequel. The bad news is that all my concrete plans for that sequel will be realized here, meaning it will take a while to put it together once I finish this instalment.

Hopefully, I'll be done with it by the end of March as I have a fair bit written ahead for some of these chapters, but uni-related stuff is getting in the way.

Answers to Reviews:

Majdnoon: I was rather concerned this chapter felt like it was repeating Crait all over again, but I'm happy with it and I'm glad someone else is too. Knights of Ren are indeed based on Kreia as I wanted to give their order something more interesting to work with than merely a Dark Sider cult or a glorified company of stormtroopers. Mission is one of my favourite characters from Kotor, but I think she was underused; this is how I compensate.

noobie53: If by this sort of idea, you mean a Kotor-Sequel crossover, then I am looking forward to reading what you come up with. The Sequels quietly pinch quite a few ideas off Kotor but lack a distinguishing identity from the OT. A Kotor crossover not only has ground to build on in the ST but can also enrich the overall story with its characters and lore.

The inside joke is how do the traumas of being beaten in all these underhanded ways would influence an imperial officer who was on the receiving end of Rouge 1's Hammerhead? Its probably a theme I will be playing with often, though there is also a point here about the differences in tech (corvette rather than cruiser) and how it is interpreted by this time period.

Lawrence HBain: I will be the first to say that I was royally ticked off about the way Luke was killed in Last Jedi, but I never considered keeping him alive because it was a fait accompli from the point of view of this story premise. Could I have reworked it to include him? Yes, but in hindsight, I am glad I didn't because it would have very easily overloaded the narrative I have in mind with a character that's so much bigger than any role I could possibly find for him.

I killed off Jolee and Juhani for similar reasons in that they, as surviving Jedi, proved too disruptive; but no one's ever truly gone. Luke and others will have cameos, and I can say for sure that he will play a much bigger role as a Force Ghost than in ROS, particularly involving Kylo Ren as the Banquo to his Macbeth. I know it isn't nearly enough to make up for his treatment in Last Jedi, but there is only so much I can do in a story post-TLJ that isn't about him.

Thank you for your patronage,

A Lover of Nature.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. Disney, Lucas Film, and any organization empowered by them to that effect own the Star Wars title and its related products. Moreover, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.