Hiraeth

Despair

Special thanks to my beta-reader Chridder (from A03) for helping me out with this.

Special thanks to Darkangel4066 (from AO3) for making this book cover for me.

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Somewhere in the vast space of the Outer Rim, one ship was moving steadily. The Purge was once used to transport prisoners in the Galactic Empire era and this was its only purpose until a deadly virus killed the crew. It wandered unmanned through space until Han Solo stumbled upon it and acquiesced it to the New Republic, who in turn disinfected it and kept it for academic purposes. Their possession of the ship ended with the rise of the First Order, its long arms spreading through the galaxy to take what once belonged to the New Republic.

Now it served as a way of transport for the Knights of Ren... not the original ones that once served under Ren but a new faction that worked independently of the originals.

It was composed of 8 humans and was created by Kylo Ren sometime after he became the leader of the original Knights.

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"Vitus Ren, your turn," a man in his early fifties said with a sly smile.

"My turn? No matter what move I make now, I'd still end up losing, Uthar Ren, so I yield," Vitus Ren replied, a little peeved.

"Good choice, son, good choice. It hasn't been born yet the one who could possibly defeat me at sabacc."

"Sabacc again?" a mechanical voice intruded.

"Instead of honing your fighting skills, you train your sabacc skills, fath... Uthar Ren?!"

"You should ease up, Thannor Ren and allow an old man to indulge in the small pleasures of life. Fighting it's not everything to it, you know?" Uthar Ren added with patience.

"Kylo Ren would probably kill you if he knew how you spend your free time," Thannor Ren added, annoyed.

"That boy needs to relax. He need to be..."

But he never finished the sentence, interrupted by the beep of his comlink.

Only one person could be at the other end, and Uthar felt a headache coming. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anymore children.

"Speak of the wolf and he shall appear," Uthar mumbled under his breath.

Then he got up from the couch and went into a more private room, away from the others. As soon as he got there, he opened his comlink, and the hologram of Kylo Ren came to life.

"Did you find any trace of the Resistance?!" the mechanical voice of Kylo asked without preamble.

"No, we went to Birren, but general Organa made no attempt of communication," Uthar replied with certainty.

"Right now, we are on our way to New Alderaan. Maybe the Resistance asked them for help."

"Good. I will leave everything in your capable hands," Kylo replied in a cold voice.

A few minutes passed by... or maybe seconds that seemed like minutes as Kylo lingered on the open transmission.

By this point, Uthar started to be concerned about Kylo's behavior. Right now he acted so odd... so unlike himself. Usually he went straight to the point, eager to finish the conversation as quick as possible, but right now he seemed to want something he couldn't articulate.