CHAPTER 2: Under the Helmet

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PTR-416 knew one life. Pain, misery, killing, death. That was the life he'd belonged to since before he could remember. He didn't remember when he came to The First Order, or how he was originally admitted into it. He just remembered the training.

His life before becoming a Stormtrooper couldn't have been much better than life as one, but he didn't know. He had nothing to compare it to. Maybe he did have a name, a family, a life, but now he didn't. The only name he could remember having was the name that The First Order gave him. PTR-416. He had no family, no purpose other than to bring justice to their order. Captain Phasma reminded him of that constantly. His life was devoted to the purpose of The First Order. Nothing more, nothing less.

The PTR unit was a newer one. Their training had only started around two years before. But PTR-416 was so advanced in the technicalities he was provided with, Phasma kept moving him up. At this point, he was with the newest finishers. The ones that had completed their training as Stormtroopers. The FN unit.

PTR-416 couldn't say he had any friends. He had allies, people who he knew he could talk to. There wasn't much to talk to people about, but when it came time for the FN unit, along with the singular PTR, to follow orders and be put on their first assignment, there was a lot to talk about.

There were two FN unit Troopers he particularly talked to a lot, and if he could, PTR-416 would call them his friends, but in The First Order, you don't have friends. You have allies, people you're supposed to work with. And as a Stormtrooper, you only have one job. Follow orders.

FN-2187 and FN-2003 were the two he talked to the most, and frankly, them three were the ones worried about their first assignment the most. It was mostly the killing part they feared most. Although throughout the years of training they had gone through, they'd shot countless amounts of bullets, they'd never once been put to the test of actually killing someone. Actually listening to the order of killing someone, whether they be innocent or guilty of something against the First Order.

But still, they knew what they had to do: Listen to Captain Phasma's orders.

So when their squadron was piled into their Imperial Troop Transport Ship, every Trooper standing shoulder to shoulder to the person next to them, the people behind or in front of them only inches away, and headed to Jakku to try and find what the dreaded Kylo Ren had been searching for, the Map to Luke Skywalker, they were worried.

Multiple other ships full of squadrons followed their main squadron ship, the one that PTR-416 was on. He couldn't see as they followed, nor could he see the sandy dunes he knew Jakku offered the people, but he knew they were there, just by how their head pilots were ordering each other around, speaking of the landing.

He felt his heart drop down to his stomach as Phasma looked to face them and firmly stated, "This is your time. Listen to orders, and don't fail."

He felt his tight grip on his gun slip slightly but he couldn't afford to fail. This was the time PTR-416 could show The First Order what he was made of, what he had to offer. But was it enough? Or was it for the right purpose? Was there any reason behind it other than this was all he'd ever known?

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