Playlist:

❶ "A Long Ride Ahead"—Rogue One OST

❶ A blanket of stars extended forever. Unexplored planets, hostile aliens, asteroids, black holes, pulsars, supernovas. There was a reason this part of the galaxy was called Wild Space. 

A year after the Battle of Jakku, however, the Kuat-Entralla Engineering Corps took their chances in the depths of this unknown area. If someone didn't want to be found, this was a good place to go. 

A cylindrical space station boasted four arms, comprising star destroyer drydocks of a magnitude never seen before. In one arm, a colossal ship, black in color and triangular in shape, floated—the first Resurgent-class star destroyer.

At three kilometers long, the Resurgent class dwarfed the older Imperial class by two hundred percent. They designed the ship not only to strike fear into the heart of the Republic but also to endure in ship-to-ship combat. The armament included three thousand turbo lasers and laser cannons, as well as the new plasma cannons.

Reinforced with supplementary structural support amidships as well as additional armor plating on the hull, the Resurgent-class star destroyer would not function as a mere ferry for TIE fighters and personnel. These ships required 75,000 personnel to operate and carried an 8,000 stormtrooper complement.

Grand Moff Randd stood before the observation gallery on the space station with the project supervisor, Moff Gareth. The large gallery viewports spanned the entire room, at least a hundred meters wide.

"Status report?" Randd asked as he rubbed his hand through his graying dark hair. The last two years had transformed the once virile governor into a withered husk. His once-vibrant skin had flaked and wrinkled as the stresses of supervising a collapsing Empire took its toll. Now, he even had to grovel to a new pretender to the Imperial throne, a man who fashioned himself as Palpatine's successor—Supreme Leader Snoke. How he hated that man—if he even were a man.

"The Star Destroyer Inducer will be completed on schedule. Dry runs are commencing now," Moff Gareth said, a little uneasy. The supervisor of the Resultant project stood with his hands behind his back, his officer cap nodding as he spoke. At almost two meters tall, one would expect the man to be imposing, but his natural charm relaxed everyone he met, whether superior or inferior in rank. The dark circles under his eyes and his receding hairline betrayed his futile attempts to bury the stress that came with his position.

"Good. Any difficulties?" Randd turned to face the construction project, his dark cape of office swirling behind him.

"A few, but they have all been minor." Gareth shrugged one shoulder.

Randd pivoted to the supervisor, leaning toward him. "Tell me about the sabotage."

Gareth pulled his lips back before answering. "Merely rumors. Caused no delay at all." He averted his eyes. Truth be told, there were many difficulties, from a lack of labor and materials as well as one case of sabotage.

Liar. At least I have loyal men here reporting the truth, even if you don't have the courage to. Labor and material shortages, sabotage, worker riots. I'd remove you myself if it wouldn't set Snoke on my back. Randd forced a smile at the sycophant. "Good. How long will it take to start production on the rest of the fleet?" He turned his attention back to the viewport.

"At least another month, and then one at a time."

"No, you will start production tomorrow. This is no longer the Empire we once knew, Gareth. The First Order does not permit the luxury of delay, for whatever reason." Randd pivoted to the supervisor and pointed at him. "Supreme Leader Snoke has plans for the fleet within the year. If you hope to see that day, I suggest you motivate your crew by whatever method necessary."

Gareth clenched a fist. "Impossible. I need more men, more materials. We are barely functioning as it is with this skeleton crew."

"Perhaps some of the rumors are grounded in truth. If nothing else, I am an understanding man, but the Supreme Leader is not." He paused, building a silent tension between the two. "Very well. On the next test run of the Inducer, I will bring you more men and materials—from Keitum I think. The Republic has left them vulnerable, and it's time we exploited their resources."

Randd leaned over the milk-toast man. "If anything else prevents you from keeping to the schedule, tell me now. After I make my report to the Supreme Leader—" He twisted his hand near the man's neck. "Deviations will not be tolerated, nor excuses."

"Yes, my lord," Gareth said as his lip quivered and his eyes widened.

Did you know . . .

● When I wrote this story, there was no indication of when Snoke actually came to power or how he did it. There were not even a whole bunch of fan theories yet as to who he is.

● I wanted to show in Randd an Imperial officer who was not the embodiment of evil—just a man who thought he was doing right by being loyal to the galactic government. My goal for him was to show that not all Imperials were bad. If I have time, I'll write another book from his POV, including when he finds out what is really going on in the First Order.

● Without a lot of information to base my work upon, I took the visual cues from The Force Awakens and developed a head canon. The assembly meeting with Hux's boring speech about the Starkiller destroying the Republic capital was staged to mimic the Nazi assemblies with Hitler. My goal was to pattern the First Order's rise to power with the Anschluß of Austria in 1938.

Tell me what you think . . .

● Why is the Resurgent-class star destroyer so much bigger?

● What problems will a larger star destroyer create within the hierarchy of the First Order?