Kylo Ren

XXIII

Poe Dameron showed his plans to General Organa.

She looked over all of them.  "You wish to add a gold squadron?"

"Yes, General.  We need as many flight teams as possible, and the gold squadron could be primarily new pilots, so they'd be a reserve," he explained.

"No."

"Pardon?"

"No.  Two is enough."

"But--"

"Now, let's see.  You want to place bases with six pilots and one-hundred ground fighters where?"

"Dantooine, at the old base and academy; Endor; and on Cloud City."

She nodded and looked over the plans again.  "Who would we send?"

"A mix of experienced and inexperienced fighters.  I would send more, but we don't have the forces to do so," Poe said.

General Organa moved her finger and looked through the files containing the lists he'd made.  "These are unbiased?"

"For the most part, yes.  I may have placed some people together on purpose," he admitted, rubbing his neck.

"Who?"

"Here," he said, scrolling through.  "Afren Bendal and Jasper Sifrey on Endor, since she knows Endor better than everyone and they work well as a team."

She watched him for a second.  "Not because it will be safer there?"

"Of course not, it's not any safer anywhere."

General Organa turned off the hologram.  "I shall consider it."

He nodded and turned to go, remembering something before he left.  "General?  The sooner we get this into action, the better."

"I'll take that in mind."

Poe opened the door and went out into the control room.

Leia Organa turned back to the hologram generator and switched it on again.  She placed her chin in her hands as she thought.

Then, after much silent consideration, she turned it off and stood.

The control room was packed, with all of the pilots and about a quarter of the ground fighters. They all looked at General Organa when she came out of her council room.

"Captain Dameron has proposed a plan.  Crews of you will go out to various outposts on Endor, Dantooine, and Cloud City.  There will be ten pilots and around one-hundred ground soldiers."  General Organa plugged her hologram generator into one of the larger ones and the lists came up.

Jasper's hand tightened around Afren's as everybody began to look for their names.

They were in the back, and so it took a while to find their way to the front so they could see.

"Jasper, we're on Endor!" Afren said.

"No we aren't."

She elbowed him, harder than she'd intended, and he grabbed his side.  "Look at the list, you doofus."

He did.  "Oh, fancy a holiday?"

This earned him another elbow in the side and an apologetic peck on the lips.

Jess, leaning against the wall, smiled.

Marc shoved past Afren and Jasper, mumbling profanities.  He kicked the table when he saw that he was being sent to Cloud City, but brightened when he saw he was to be second-in-command of the pilots.

The base sprang into action, sending transmissions that they would be transporting troops, and those troops getting ready to leave.

The pilots were to leave first, then the troops would come once the new bases were established.

Afren hugged Poe for a long time before she left, then Jess. Geo asked for his hug, but she waved him off. "You're going with us, after all."

Jasper went to get a hug, which she gladly gave him. Geo scoffed. "She'll give him one and not me?"

"You're not her boyfriend," Jasper told him.

"So that's what we are?" Afren asked seriously, but when he looked, her eyes were dancing with mirth.

He rubbed her head. "Let's just get going."

With a final goodbye, the Endor pilots left.

---

Fun fact: I named Jasper, well, Jasper, because he and Afren's names combined can be Aspen. So their ship name is Aspen, and I named him because it worked. Nice.