Station Red-Nine hung between uninhabited star-systems in the middle of nowhere. The relays made up most of the communication station, leaving the habitation section just large enough for the staff required to man it, the soldiers required to defend it, the storage space required to keep them all alive for six months at a time, and the single hanger required to access it.

"I don't have armor," muttered LN, carefully steering her stolen fighter into the hanger according to the station's instructions. "Should have grabbed my armor. We have an acolyte code, but no robes, no disguises. You're right, this was a bad idea..."

"Relax," said Ar'tak calmly from the back of the ship. "Looking nervous will only reveal our deception. Commit to it and don't back down, whatever they say to try and trip you up."

"As if I need lessons in undercover infiltration from a Jedi..."

"You would be surprised."

Raey had been silent ever since raising the question about Squad D-19. LN almost wished he'd speak up again, break up the constant Jedi-meditation talk Ar'tak had been spouting for the last half hour, but now his silence felt more apprehensive then uncomfortable. Ar'tak, oddly, now seemed to be the least concerned about their chances, and the most convinced that this mission was worth attempting.

"It feels right," was the only answer he had for her when LN asked if he was sure about joining them in this. That had been before she transmitted the fighter code to the station, and he had stuck with that sentiment ever since.

Nothing betrayed an ambush as the fighter settled with a thump on the hanger floor. There weren't even many troopers visible out the window, but LN had a feeling the station officer would be hurrying down with as many troopers as he could come up with to welcome the acolytes he thought were arriving. It was time to hurry.

"Ar'tak, open the hatch," she ordered. "There will be a ventilation shaft on each side of the hanger – either one will do, but we have to get out of sight as quickly as possible."

"Crawling through air ducts?" Raey said, finally breaking his silence as the hatch hissed open. "It will be just like home."

Ar'tak grabbed the lip of the hatch and pulled himself up, his tight black boots and baggy tan pants lingering for a moment before his legs followed the rest of him out of view. Raey climbed out of his seat and after the Jedi, leaving LN to make one more scan of the still-empty hanger before turning away herself.

We left perfectly good disguises on that planet, she thought, running through the situation yet again. Dress uniforms in the shuttle, my armor... nothing to fit Ar'tak – those horns were never fit in a helmet – but we could at least have pulled an escorting-the-alien-prisoner routine.

But now here they all were, wearing clothes that at best looked like backwater peasants, and at worst looked downright Jedi.

No one is going to buy this. We just have to vanish. Get into the system, and get out before they sound the alarm and lock-down the station...

She slid off the side of the ship and onto the ground next to Raey, still standing where he had landed. "Mo-" she began, then cut herself off. She had missed someone in the blindspot created by the fighter's wing. A single stormtrooper was walking up to them, his blaster in hand.

LN froze. Ar'tak was in front, and there were no other troopers visible in the hanger. The solution was obvious. That white armor meant nothing to a lightsaber.

A protest, a warning, caught on her tongue. Ar'tak took a step forward to meet the other trooper, and LN, not even thinking about it, lunged to intercept him.

Raey grabbed her arm.

Ar'tak raised his hand, trailing his fingers gently through the air as though petting some invisible animal.

"We are scary acolytes of the Knights of Ren," he said conversationally. "You don't want to interact with us more then is absolutely necessary, right?"

The stormtrooper stopped a couple yards away from Ar'tak to consider. "I certainly don't want to cause any trouble," he replied slowly, his flat tone unimproved by the air filters of his helmet. "But I was ordered to come down here to ask some questions, so here I am."

"Very admirable," said Ar'tak. "We, the murderous and intimidating acolytes of the Knights of Ren, appreciate your welcome. Now be about your business."

"I would love to," replied the stormtrooper, his voice now pained. "But I am having serious doubts about you actually being associated with the Knights of Ren, or the First Order. I feel like I should call you three in for being intruders."

Ar'tak gestured over his shoulder at LN. "My friend here is a stormtrooper, too, you know, and she really would rather this visit not end in a bloodbath. We, the dark and sinister acolytes of the Knights of Ren (you might recall), are well known for causing bloodbaths. I bathe in the blood of innocents on a near-daily basis. Perhaps wasting my time is something you should consider not doing again?"

Buy it, thought LN desperately. Just buy it and go away.

"Are you sure you're really with the Knights?" the stormtrooper asked hesitantly. "You... you really look like vagabonds."

"I do have a lightsaber," Ar'tak suggested, drawing his silver lightsaber out of his belt and showed it to the stormtrooper as evidence. "I don't want to ignite it, so just consider us welcomed and go on with your day, alright? Everything is fine, I'm just an acolyte with a couple stormtrooper friends, and we're going to look at something real quick before getting out of your hair. Or helmets. Whatever you prefer."

Just walk away. Listen to him and walk away now, while you can.

The stormtrooper hesitated, then slowly nodded. "I'll just... leave, then. Everything is in order. Have a pleasant inspection, sir."

He turned and wandered away, almost like he wasn't sure what to do with himself now. LN let out a pent-up breath and sagged slightly in relief, and Raey let go of her arm. She hadn't even noticed he had kept a grip on her the whole time.

"Well, that worked," said Ar'tak, and the surprise in his tone made LN tense up again.

"You didn't expect it to?" she asked harshly, and he looked back at her and Raey with a somewhat embarrassed smile.

"I am notoriously bad at lying to people face-to-face. Using the Force to trick people into believing you... not my strong suit. Your confirmation code and my lightsaber probably did the heavy-lifting. Having evidence to support the lie makes it easier to buy." He paused, then chuckled to himself at the rhyme.

"Our Jedi is a child," LN muttered under her breath, but Ar'tak didn't hear and Raey just snorted quietly.

"Are we still going to climb in the vents?" Ar'tak asked as they crossed the hanger. LN glanced around, saw the stormtrooper who had greeted them idly running checks on some fuel lines across the bay.

"Yes."

The ventilation shaft was just as cramped as LN remembered, but one of her first duties had been to clean these things and, somehow, both of the men she found herself working with turned out to be remarkably slim. Raey scrambled into the duct as easily as a rat, his years of low rations and ruin-diving on Jakku leaving him quite capable of maneuvering tight spaces. Ar'tak had a harder time getting through the vent opening - his horns kept scrapping against the top - but he quickly learned to keep his head down and his narrow alien shoulders hunched close.

It had been years since LN had been forced to crawl through vents, years of muscle-building combat that made it much harder then she had remembered it being. Halfway through the snake-crawl necessary to reach her target room, LN found herself wishing she had just let Ar'tak use Jedi tricks to talk their way down the halls.

Then Raey, in the lead, found the room she had told them about. He stopped, forcing the others to stop behind him, and looked around carefully before unscrewing the vent and lowering it to the floor.

One after another, they slipped out of the air duct and into the storage room. LN straightened with a relieved sigh before double-checking Raey's work.

It could be hard, telling one storage room from the next, but they were at least in the right part of the station. This was equipment storage, not rations, which meant they were closer to quarters and the secondary control room.

"Now we just sneak into that control room and hack into the system?" Ar'tak asked hopefully, and LN nodded.

"But first," she added, pulling out one of the equipment crates, "Raey and I have to change."

As it turned out, blue aliens blushed purple. LN wasn't sure what Ar'tak was so worked up over – Raey clearly considered turning around while she put on a lowly officer uniform enough for privacy – but it was somewhat amusing regardless. Unfortunately the station had no handy black cloaks in stock, but LN felt more comfortable with Raey and herself, at least, in uniform. Ar'tak would just have to rely on his Jedi powers to convince anyone who questioned him that he was, in fact, one of the black acolytes.

"Straight shoulders, stern expression," she instructed quietly, giving Raey a sideways glance as they proceeded down the hall. "Pretend there are constant eyes on you, judging you, looking for any lack of confidence to use as an excuse to report you."

Raey tried valiantly to mimic her posture, though he couldn't completely eliminate a certain hint of discomfort with the grey officer's uniform she had given him. "I hate this..." he muttered, scowling. LN didn't let her lips twitch, but she smiled inwardly.

"Keep that scowl. It's perfect."

Two stormtroopers in uniform, not armor, appeared around the corner ahead of them. Relax, LN thought, hoping her companions remembered to look confident. We are officers, and acolytes.

Ar'tak drew in a breath, ready to say something. LN jabbed an elbow into his ribs, then scowled at the stormtroopers until they passed one another.

"Don't talk unless it is absolutely required," she hissed between clenched teeth. "You are dreadful at acting."

"Sorry."

"And don't apologize to your underlings! You are above it all, acolyte. So act like it."

They reached the door to the control room. It was, of course, locked and LN had never possessed the credentials to get inside, but Ar'tak did. He looked both ways to make sure no one was watching, then ignited his pale blue lightsaber and cut the lock out of the door.

"Ta da."

"Now we have to hurry," LN declared. "You two, keep watch. Keep anyone from looking too close, Ar'tak. I'll be back."

The control room was empty, unneeded unless there was some problem with the main one. LN turned on one of the consoles... and her plan stalled. The computer required an authorization code to access any incoming files.

She knew how to navigate these systems in general, but not this specific one. The First Order layout (a slight variation on the Old Imperial) was familiar, but the actual records were locked behind a password gate. After a couple minutes trying to find a work-around, LN gave vent to one of those curses Raey kept using. They sounded ridiculous, but that almost made it better. Stormtroopers never said silly things that sounded like alien sneezes. It was forbidden, which is what made it a good exclamative.

The sound of someone clearing their throat right behind her made her stiffen. She looked to find Raey standing there, looking unusually dashing in the stern grey uniform.

Focus.

"I've had a few opportunities to fiddle around inside uncooperative computers," he said suggestively. "Let me take a crack at it."

LN spun around and stood up from the desk chair. "Do what you have to."

He didn't even sit down. He dove straight underneath the console, and there were standard-size screws littering the floor before LN had time to wonder how pulling wires out of the wall would help break into a digital barrier.

She didn't ask and Raey did not answer the unspoken question. Not at first. He pulled components and started messing around with the door controls, and LN just watched in bemusement, hoping that no one would walk past while the scavenger worked. This in no way looked like official business.

After making the console throw a dozen error messages up onto the screen and forced two different kinds of restart, Raey got on the keyboard and pulled open the records before turning it back over to LN. How he did it, LN would never know, but she didn't care. Every click took a second or more to register and the console kept flickering as if it was about to have a serious breakdown, but she finally got it to open the files she wanted to see.

Fleet movement records. The Resurrection. The last three days.

From Jakku, there was only one recorded location that had been transmitted to the stations. That meant, hopefully, the Knights' flagship would still be there. LN didn't recognize the coordinates, but she committed them to memory and then shut down the console.

"I've got it. Let's go."

They didn't take the vent this time. LN strode down the hall, her new uniform giving her refreshed confidence. Raey had chosen to wear the uniform over his desert robes, which created a few unsightly wrinkles, but LN's New Alderaan clothes were gone, tucked away out of sight in the air vent behind the storage room. It wouldn't make sense to the men, she knew, but the loose softness that made the Alderaanian clothes so comfortable was precisely what made it uncomfortable for her.

A technician hurried past them, barely glancing up from his datapad. LN knew the look. Eyes down, bring no attention to yourself.

Ar'tak fidgeted next to her. "I don't like this," he whispered.

Up ahead, two stormtroopers stood guard at the entrance of the hanger bay. LN drew in a breath, ready to bluff their way back out. In uniform, they might not even need Ar'tak's Force powers.

The stormtroopers did not say a word. They stood stiff and unmoving, almost at attention, and let the three pass unhindered. That behavior, too, LN knew all too well. It was the reaction she would have expected if Ar'tak was any good at acting.

A second black fighter sat in the hanger, right next to her's. In between the hanger door and the fighters, only a dozen yards from the hanger bay door, stood two figures, dressed all in black.

Acolytes.

Then, the one on the right twitched, igniting the hum and glow of a red lightsaber.