Balance ~ Kylo Ren / Ben Solo

Chapter 43

"Hoth." Poe said barging into the room. Us generals were all sitting in the meeting room awaiting Poe to come back with his discovery. We all snapped our heads towards him as he came into the room. He was holding the disk up and almost out of breath as if he'd been running.

"Hoth? That's a dead planet?" Ben said. "There's not even intelligent life there."

"I don't know, that's where it is and it's an active signal." He said walking into the room as he handed Ben the disk. "I'm almost certain it's Apollo."

"What part of Hoth?" I asked knowing how extreme that planets weather could get.

"The coldest point. The Southern Hemisphere is under 30 feet of snow and ice and it looks like he's just about in the thick of it. I can't tell if he's underground or on land, but either way we have a problem." Poe explained.

"We can handle the weather." I said. "When can we be ready to leave?"

"The troops are ready at your command." Phasma said.

"The ships will be ready by tonight." Hux said and General Sloane nodded in agreement.

"We leave first light tomorrow." Ben said. "We need to be precautious, we don't know what security he has. We will surround the planet, but hold fire until absolutely necessary."

"What ground orders do we have when we land?" Hux asked.

"I don't think we'll know until we size up what is there." Kylo said.

"So we don't know what we're walking into?" Sloane asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." He said and we were all quiet. "We don't have a choice. Last we know, none of their numbers were deployed to follow him, most if not all were on Ajan Kloss. If he has back up they are either in small numbers or unprepared or both."

"The longer we wait the more prepared they are." I said backing him up knowing it was true.

"We can easily take out any army they have, I assure you our fleets will have a victory. Our numbers beat theirs by a land slide, the real fight is with Athena and I. We need to take on Apollo alone." He said.

"Will you win?" Poe asked. The room grew quiet and I could feel Leia look away from all of us.

"Don't worry about us." I said. "Stick to your orders."

"We have much to prepare for, let's all get our rest. We will meet at the command center first thing and make the jump." Ben said and the whole room went dead silent.

"We're jumping the whole base through hyperspace?" Hux asked appalled.

"Yes, the Star killer is 10 times larger than any planet in that system. Well send out recruitment ships to scout out the area now as they are ready. As long as the reports come back clear we go tomorrow." He said firmly. "Dismissed."

He turned to leave the room in a huff. I gave everyone a look as I left the room. I saw him heading away from the room and down towards the other end of the hall. I followed after him and he went into his secret study. The last time I'd seen this place I exploded and made a mess. He walked through the door and it shut just as I came up to it but I opened it again and he immediately turned around to face me.

"Are we really going tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yes, we must." He said holding out his hand to me and I walked into the room completely. "We need to finish this."

He turned away from me and stepped further into the room. His back was towards me and I hugged myself. I was worried and I hated to admit it. I didn't know what was going to happen or what would come of this battle. It took a moment to think of the words to say.