-Wayland- N-7 Quandrant, Ojoster Sector, the Outer Rim Territories

By the time Phasma's ship started its decent over Wayland several dozen stormtroopers were lined up and standing at attention near the docking port, with more joining ranks by the second. She nodded her head in approval before heading to the back of the ship.

Wasting no time the moment the vessel came into sight of the landing pad, she slammed the butt of her rifle into the button opening the cargo bay doors. Before the landing gear was fully extended, she descended the ramp and dropped down to the ground.

Marching forward, she ignored those attempting to approach her to announce themselves as commanding officers and went straight to the dock supervisor. "Manifests and Passenger Arrival records." she held out her hand. "Now."

Reluctantly the uniformed officer handed over his datapad.

Phasma tapped the screen and began scrolling through the information.

After a few seconds, the man asked "Permission to speak freely, Captain?"

"Permission denied." She replied without looking up.

"Permission to speak?"

Phasma stopped for a moment to look up and stare at the man before returning to her search. Around her, the stormtroopers remained silent, standing at attention. "Commander, it states you currently have one-hundred and twenty-seven vessels currently docked in this vicinity. Is this accurate?"

    The docking supervisor nodded. "That is correct Captain."

"I am issuing an order to put a land lock on every ship you harbor with the exception of my own,"

"What?!" the young man demanded. "We can't just ground everyone Captain! many of these people haven't broken any laws, and fully support the First Order."

"Then they will take no issue with this security exercise. If anyone wishes to depart in spite of this, they will be cleared through me. If any ship other than mine own departs this world without my authorization, it will be destroyed.

"Furthermore, to prevent any unauthorized departures and the overriding of land locks, you will have your mechanics go to each ship and remove an essential part from each vessel allowing them to safely navigate off world. While performing these tasks, you will maintain radio silence when possible." She slipped the pad around, showing the supervisor of a picture of a stormtrooper accompanied by a blue, BB8 unit. "Can you identify this trooper, Commander?"

"No mam. He gained access with a classified security clearance code."

"Meaning?"

"Those with high-level clearance are not questioned by lower ranking officers or civilian personnel."

Phasma angled the screen so she could look at the image better and then turned it back towards the young man. "And what rank would this Trooper be, do you think? Where is the insignia he wears, identifying him as your superior?"

The young officer looked down from the corner of his eyes. "None appear to be visible, Captain. His rank seems to be classified as well."

Without warning, Phasma smashed the data pad over his head, causing him to crumple to the ground. Looking down on him she said, "Just because you are stationed in the Outer Rim does not mean your duties and responsibilities to the First Order are any less important. This is unacceptable work."

The man eventually got back to his feet, despite how unsteady he was. "My apologies Captain. There is no excuse for my actions," after wiping blood from his eye he said, "I will have this error remediated immediately," Before he could offer a solution, his comlink hissed with static.

"Commander?"

The First Order officer swallowed, keeping his eyes on Phasma. "Now isn't a good time, lieutenant."

"An alarm has been triggered at the Imperial Archives sir."

The Commander switched his comlink off. To Phasma he said, "The stormtrooper and astromech in question reported they were transferring intel on the Resistance."

Phasma looked to the gathering platoons of troopers and then to the surrounding streets, walls and forests going through and around the city. Turning to the dock commander she said, "You have your orders. Fail to execute them and your life is forfeit." Throwing her cape behind her, she started toward the Imperial Archive, with a company of stormtroopers in her wake.

Nix sprinted down the various aisles never stopping once to get her bearings as to where she was. She did however slow down so as not to lose her new associates. Finn and BB8 did their best to keep up, but the astromech couldn't roll as fast as two human legs despite his round shape. The former stormtrooper tried to run, but the sudden movements had him grimacing in pain, clutching at his back when he increased his speed.

Nevertheless, every time they looked like they would slow down; the alarm sounded overhead, reminding both how urgent it was they got of the building before the First Order arrived.

Once they reached the only entry to the Archives, Finn stopped Nix before they exited the building. "If we wipe this data and can't get off planet…"

    Ninety-Six waited for him to continue. "What? We're executed anyway?"

Finn paused for a moment, breathing heavily. "Yes." he looked out the door, feeling his unease grow as the streets cleared out. "Perhaps it might be better for us to get back to the shuttle?"  

"Do you honestly think you'll be able to get past security on the ground or in orbit at this point?" she asked.

Finn's eyes narrowed under his helmet. "Well...maybe?"

Nix held up her hand, motioning him to be quiet. "I've been thinking," she wrapped the strap on her long rifle around her forearm and checked the power gauge. "Was Phasma really responsible for Starkiller Base, or was it you and the Resistance?"

"It was Phasma," he looked at BB8, who made a puzzling sound of beeps. "I may have been holding her at blaster point...and a Wookiee may have threatened to tear her arms off if she didn't do as we asked," he took a couple more deep breaths trying to calm down. "…but she's the one who lowered the shields."

Ninety-Six nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. I would have thought she'd sacrifice herself before turning on the First Order."

"What are you thinking?" Finn asked.

"A couple things. I think our Captain—"

"Former Captain."

"Right. I think are former Captain is more interested in self-preservation than the mission of the First Order. This might work to our advantage, though I'm not sure how."

"What's the other thing?"

"Why is she still alive? I can't imagine she just let you walk out after taking down the shields."

Finn shrugged. "We threw her in the trash compactor."

Nix opened her mouth to reply, but surprised even herself finding she had nothing clever to say. She looked out the door and nodded once. "Let's go."

Moving through the streets was difficult the first few blocks; troopers appeared from nowhere heading to the designated coordinates as quickly as they could. It concerned them at first; more than once they nearly ran into a squad turning a corner or rushing out of a building.

It didn't take long for them to realize however, the stormtroopers were more concerned about being on time than where pair of their fellow soldiers were headed. This continued to work in their favor; by the time they reached the South East Command Center the guards usually present were absent.

Nix couldn't restrain the wicked cackle she made upon entering the building. She slung her blaster rifle over her shoulder, removed her helmet and went to work on the first available console. "They spend years training us to follow orders without hesitation, but forget how scared we are of our leaders. There should have been at least two troopers here," she nodded to her right when BB8 rolled up behind her, motioning to the open port next to her. "This might take bit. I'll initiate the wipe after I've wiped Archive surveillance for the last twenty-four hours. Any plan on what we're going to do about a ship?"    

Finn was pacing back and forth. "Working on it." He stopped, spotting two Stormtroopers heading to the entrance. "Uh...Nix? You might want to put your helmet back on."

*************************

Phasma motioned to her left and right at every block, assigning squads to each building she passed with a reminder the trooper they were looking for would be accompanied by a BB8 astromech unit.

By the time she reached the Old Imperial Archive, only a dozen soldiers remained behind her. When she got to the holocommunicator pillar allowing her entry into the building, she almost shot the device having to wait more than a few seconds for a response.

A shimmering image of a Cerean rubbing his elongated skull appeared. Squinting into the holo he said, "I am Metari Bomod, head Librarian of—"

"Open the door." Phasma said through clenched teeth.

The Cerean blinked a few times and then smiled. "Ah! The Maker praise the First Order! Already you answer my distress call! Your speedy response is most appreciated, I assure you. I was attacked by a rogue stormtrooper—"

"Open. The door." Phasma repeated. "We will deal with the traitor immediately."

The Librarian looked confused. "Oh, well they aren't here...uh…"

"Phasma. Captain Phasma."

Even over the holo, the color from the Cerean's face appeared to drain. The sound of the doors being unlocked could be heard from outside. "My apologies for making you wait Captain. I was stunned when transmitting…"

    Phasma was already through the door and halfway down the hall by the time he realized she'd left.

Metari met Phasma at the large doors leading down to the archive. He approached her holding up a datapad. "Your traitor is most impressive. Is he a former elite trooper of some kind?"

Phasma stopped and decided not to completely ignore the man. "Why would you say that?"

"He wiped all the holorecordings from today, the astromech he was with sliced through heavily encrypted data and was able to gain the trust of the trooper stationed here before taking her hostage." he tapped the datapad, deep in thought. "What exactly was he after, Captain? I've read through some of the content his droid scanned through and I honestly don't see what a traitor could do with histories and records from the era of the Old Republic, I'm of a mind—"

"Which trooper was assigned to this location?" she demanded.

"Uh…FN-2096. Very astute and devoted. I can't imagine someone with a mind like hers possible of influence, but they appeared to know each other. Apparently she served with him—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his body freezing up on feeling Phasma's collapsible spear go through his chest. His mouth hung open in astonishment; he tried to speak but no words came out.

"You have failed the Supreme Leader," she said before pulling the weapon free. Picking up the datapad which had fallen from Metari's hand, she handed it to the trooper standing closest to her. "Find the terminal they were using, copy what you can and transmit it to my shuttle. The rest of you, divide into pairs and search for the traitors." She didn't think about what those following her thought, but she didn't care at that particular moment.

FN-2096. Showed great promise in the beginning, later refusing to follow orders in following simple tasks. Former support sniper for 2187's FN unit. Reassigned to Wayland until reprogrammed.

She ground her teeth together.

This is unacceptable behavior. She looked around at the several Stormtroopers under her command and couldn't help feeling they changed com channels to relay her actions to the other soldiers.

I will remediate this.

"Stall them." Nix said without looking up from the console.

"How?" Finn's gaze snapped back and forth from the approaching stormtroopers back to Nix.  

"I don't know. You could always shoot them." part of her mouth formed into a half-smile. "Or blow something up; I hear the success rate is high."

"The thought crossed my mind," Finn grimaced when he backed into the wall by the door. His spine began to throb with all the adrenaline running through it. "How much time do you need? Once we start shooting, everyone is going to know we're here."

"Maybe three minutes," she replied.

"Well...that's not going to work…" Running over to where Nix stood, he raised his blaster rifle and aimed it at her head. Either she didn't notice, didn't care or didn't know exactly what he was doing because she didn't respond.

The moment the Stormtroopers walked in, Finn focused on keeping his voice steady as he said, "Don't move."

The two soldiers didn't move.

"Blasters on the ground," he continued.

When they hesitated, Ninety-Six shouted without looking up, "Do what he says!"

Their weapons clattered to the ground. "What's going on here trooper?" asked the stormtrooper to Finn's left. "All units were to report to coordinates—"

Finn fired, the blaster bolt hitting the wall less than a foot away from the soldier who spoke. "Next one goes through your head," he pointed the gun back to Nix. "Hurry up with those coordinates Cadet, the Resistance is waiting!"

 The two stormtroopers looked at each other before returning their gaze to the end of Finn's blaster. "What are you going to do with us?"

Ninety-Six punched in the last set of commands and held up her hands. "Done," she and BB8 backed away from the console at the same time. To Finn she said, "You better get of here while you can, the entire First Order will swarm this location the moment they see how much information is transmitting off world into deep space."

Finn motioned to her helmet. "You're coming with me!" he jerked the gun in the direction of the door. "Move it!"

Ninety-Six did as ordered and started toward the exit with BB8 in tow.

Finn stunned one of the Stormtroopers before he was able to go for his weapon. He charged the other one and rammed the butt of his blaster into his stomach and followed it up with an uppercut to his face. The guard collapsed just in time for Finn to groan in pain. He grabbed at his back and hissed through his teeth.

"You sure you're okay?" Nix asked. "Did you pull something?"

Finn clenched his jaw and gave a slight shake of his head. "I'll tell you later. Did you wipe the data?"

"It's set to ignite in eight minutes. It should give us the distraction we need to fly out of here." Putting her helmet back on, she exited the building. "Assuming we can get to your ship."

BB8 whirred and beeped before Finn could leave.

"What is it?" he asked as he straightened his back.   

BB8 sputtered and droned for almost ten seconds before pausing.

Finn frowned in irritation. He wanted to punch the wall, but decided against it as everything on his insideds hurt.

    Nix poked her head back in the door. "What's the hold up?"

    "Phasma put a lockdown on all the ships."

The renegade female trooper stepped back inside and kicked one of the downed soldiers. "Kriffing bantha fodder," she swore. "Either way we gotta move. I can't stop that countdown. It's going to cause a fairly big...disruption on the scanners. There'll be so many First Order ships in orbit we won't be leaving for the next hundred cycles."

Finn folded his arms, staring into nothing.

    "Finn, we gotta go."  

He looked to the astromech. "BB, is there a lock on Captain Phasma's vessel? The Assault Shuttle? What was it...the Night Drexyl?"

The droid was quiet for a moment. A second later he said, "beeeoooop."

Finn clapped his hands together and smiled. "You were right about the self-preservation thing. Looks like we have our ship."

Phasma paced back and forth in the massive doorway, frustrated to the point she couldn't think straight. She had to terminate this unit. They'd seen her in a state of weakness when she lost her temper, heard about another turned trooper and would soon discover FN-2187 was not only responsible, but still alive.

Two of them will fall before they've realized I'm firing on them. Three more will die before they realize my armor cannot be penetrated by an F11-D blaster rifle. The final moments—

The sound of switches changing over echoed throughout the long hallways of the Archives. The dark, calming blue lights illuminating the area turned red and a droid's voice blared overhead.

"Data incineration in thirty seconds. Exit the premises. Data incineration in twenty-five seconds. Exit the premises. Data incineration…"

Phasma moved outside the closing doors and turned to face the stormtroopers running her way. She lifted her rifle and started firing. The men shouted in rage and confusion, leaping behind the various databanks for cover. They realized almost immediately what was happening and started firing back, but their target soon disappeared behind the closing vault.

The Captain walked away, her emotions completely unaffected by the sound of the stormtroopers screaming behind her.

A slight tremor shook the city when the Old Imperial Archives self-destructed. At first, Finn and Nix didn't think it was enough to turn the heads of the First Order. Then the alert siren of every scanner and droid within five miles started going off.    

"Two more blocks. We're almost out of here," Finn whispered. He waited for the first break between ranks before stepping out into the open and jogged toward the landing pad. Nix ran at his side with BB8 close behind. He turned with a smile and said, "Better keep up BB or we'll have to leave you—"

    In the time it took Finn to blink, a chromium plated spear impaled the droid, pinning it to the ground.    

"BB!" Finn screamed, sliding to a halt. "BB buddy!" He tried to run back to the little astromech, but Nix grabbed him and pulled him behind the corner of a building just as a blaster bolt sped past where he was standing. The moment he started pulling away, she hissed at him.

"Finn, it's the Captain!"

He peered around the corner long enough to see her walking forward with her blaster aimed at him. He ducked back just as she shot. Finn punched the ground and screamed in frustration. Pulling off his helmet, he threw it around the corner and checked his rifle. "I gotta get what he downloaded. If we leave it behind, all this will have been for nothing. I'll draw her fire. You get to BB—"

"Finn," Nix said in a controlled voice. "We have to get out of here. The droid can't be saved." she grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "NOW Finn. You need to get ready to run."

He glared at her but nodded his head in understanding. "What about you?" Tears were beginning to form in his eyes.

"Your weapon won't do anything against her armor." Unslinging her DLT-19D heavy blaster rifle, she took a step back and wedged the stock of the weapon into her shoulder. "I'll cover you," she tilted her head out just enough to see the silver glint of Phasma's armor. "Go."

Finn took off running toward the dock the same time Nix stepped out.

Phasma aimed at Finn, but the moment she saw the heavy blaster she leapt behind a stone bench; but not before Nix clipped her leg with a blaster bolt. She growled in anger and called out, "You won't get off this planet alive!"

"We'll see about that," Ninety-Six muttered to herself and shot again, this time burning a black mark into one of Phasma's spaulders.

"Traitor!" Phasma screamed. She reached over the bench and fired blindly. "The First Order saved you from a meaningless life; and this is how you repay them?" A few seconds of silence passed and she poked her head up for a quarter second before flattening herself on the ground again. The other trooper—2096—was gone. She leapt to her feet and sprinted in the direction of the dock, ripping her spear out of the ground as she passed by the incapacitated droid.

    It wasn't difficult to locate the vessel Phasma came in on, it was the only one not surrounded by droids having various parts removed. Any other time, it would have been distracting. Today, the renegade stormtroopers only concern was boarding the ship and getting off world.

As they ascended into the atmosphere, Finn couldn't stop his eyes from watering at the loss of his droid-companion and the futility of their mission. He closed his eyes, frustrated of how little he was able to do. Grinding his teeth together, he opened them again and stared ahead at the approaching darkness of space.

"You alright?" Ninety-Six asked, taking off her helmet. "I'm sorry about the droid Finn, I really am."

Finn shook his head, not wanting to talk.

"Finn, look—"

The ship's comlink beeped at them, signaling to them they were being hailed by one of the Star Destroyers. "Assault Shuttle Night Drexyl, turn your vessel around. No one is to leave without the express permission of Captain Phasma," he began.

But Ninety-Six cut him off.

In a thick Imperial accent Nix responded curtly, "And just who do you think this is, Commander?"

The man stuttered. "My apologies Captain. Recent—"

Nix continued in her Phasma accent. "The traitor in custody is to be returned to the Supreme Leader without delay. You have three seconds to comply, what is your answer?"

They could hear the man swallow. "Proceed Captain."

Nix didn't reply.

"Captain, shall I remove the blockade and landlocks?"

In the most irritating voice she could muster, Nix replied "What is your name, Commander?"

The com went silent.

Finn looked impressed. "Neat trick."

"I'm surprised it worked." she replied as they flew past the Star Destroyer. "Do you think it will help me get a job in the Resistance?"

"Probably." Finn said without much feeling. "I wasn't planning on going straight back to them though. Now that I've failed getting what they need, I'm not sure if I'll ever go back again."

    "You didn't leave completely empty handed." She said with a frown.

    Finn looked at her, just then realizing he may have lost BB8, but he saved another stormtrooper from the First Order. "I'm glad you're here, Nix. It's just…I've been through a lot in a short time with that droid. He didn't—

    "No, you're misunderstanding me."

    Finn looked confused.

    She tapped the side of her temple. "It may not be word for word, but I have the information you need on Snoke right here."

    Finn blinked at her.

"Now," she said. "Where were you headed? We can discuss it on the way." she opened a panel, exposing the buttons to punch in the nav-coordinates.

"Umbara," Finn said, still intrigued by what Nix just told him. "There's someone there who's going to help me learn how to fight someone like Phasma...a Whiphid named Onik San."

It was Nix's turn to look puzzled. "What's a Whiphid?"

"I haven't the slightest idea."

She shrugged. "Are you sure we shouldn't contact them first?"

"If it's safe, I'll report to them once planetside. We're too deep in First Order Space right now to be transmitting messages, it might give up our location."

"Smart." she said with a crooked smile. "They didn't put you in charge of sanitation for nothing."

Finn rolled his eyes and turned toward the window.

After flipping a few switches, she pushed a lever forward in the middle of the control panel and made the jump to hyperspace.