On The Run

A Forgotten Officer

Beep Beep Beep! My alarm goes off at 5 in the morning. My eyes are barely open. I slam my alarm and get out of my bed. I first have to get changed into my officer gear. My room is pretty small with no decorations or anything—just a plain black and white room. I guess I shouldn't be expecting much. Even though Starkiller base is huge, millions of other people like me live here. The highest-ranked people like Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren are treated with the most respect. While we officers and stormtroopers exist. How it goes around here is if you're a respected officer everyone respects you very well. Captains like Cardinal and Phasma are what the Stormtroopers fear. The regular First Order officer helps train the troopers or operate the controls. I have a job training the troopers. I haven't been called to train for a while, they probably don't even remember I exist. I feel like I'm just forgotten.

Anyway, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Hana Lavarone. You could also call me Officer Lavarone. Nobody calls me that because nobody even talks to me anymore. Well, enough of my sob story. As you can tell, I am an officer for the First Order. The biggest military station in the galaxy. Located on the planet Ilum. The First Order takes you from your families in childhood to train you. I was taken very young and never really knew my parents. I do know that they were killed, so while all of the officers have been training stormtroopers. I've been sitting in my room all day trying to figure out who killed them, which is what I'll probably do again today. I'm 23 years old and haven't been asked to train troopers in almost a year. I could just escape if I wanted to. Maybe no one will notice. Even though Starkiller base has billions of cameras. They have 4 in my room alone. They would notice if a Tie Fighter went missing.

Escaping would not be smart because of how cruel the First Order is. Not as cruel as the Empire but if only you'd heard my stories. In my opinion, the First Order is just a big copy of the Empire. They are only more intimidating because they have more credits. How else do you think they pay for all of this gear, weapons, and huge base? The only person in the entire First Order I'm even afraid of is the Supreme Leader. With his Force powers, he could kill me in seconds. I've completely lost hope in ever talking to anyone. Stormtroopers are more known than me at this point.

"Good morning Starkiller base, and everyone living here. A very special good morning as always to our Supreme Leader. The lunch special for today is a Colo Claw fish. Stormtroopers shall train from 6 in the morning until lunch, and keep training again until 8. Only the ones who aren't on patrol of course. Officers who shall train the troopers today are 3494, 3942, 1119, 5032, and 2084 for this morning only. Thank you and have a mediocre day."

See how friendly the Starkiller base sounds but they are not. Here I'm back to another day of lounging around and doing nothing. After the first little bit, I enjoyed doing nothing but now I'm just straight-up bored. My operating number is 2084. After about a few months I completely stopped listening to these daily announcements. All I do every day is write in my journal, which I'm doing right now, sleep or do nothing. I'm about to lie down for a little nap because of how early it is until I hear I knock at my door. That's strange. I think to myself. No one ever knocks on my door. I stand up and open the door, you won't believe who was standing there.

"Officer 2084, shouldn't you be out training the troopers?" A very intimidating voice says. I can't believe who is standing right here in front of me, and even talking to me. I stare down at the hard metal boots, as I look up, her chrome stormtrooper armor with a big black cape makes me shiver. Her six-foot-seven body towers over me by a whole foot. She wears a chrome stormtrooper mask. It is the one and only Captain Phasma. "Are you going to answer me or not?" Phasma says angrily slamming her quicksilver baton on the smooth hard ground.

"Yes, sorry, Captain. It's just that I haven't trained in a year, so I wasn't expecting my number to be called. I am also very rusty because of this," I answer.