CHAPTER 1 The Star Destroyer was silent as it glided through the blackness of space But for stormtrooper FN-2187 the chatter around him was almost deafening as he nervously adjusted and readjusted his formfitting white armor FN-2187 had prepared long and hard for that day but he couldn’t stop sweating Other stormtroopers were laughing and joking among themselves as they noisily prepared for their assignment But FN-2187 couldn’t bring himself to join in He was too worried about what was going to happen during his first real assignment Even though they were all wearing identical
armor FN-2187 could easily spot in the crowd his three friends who made up the FN Corps with him Each stormtrooper had an assigned First Order designator but when they were alone the four of them used the nicknames they’d given each other and themselves FN-2199 was Nines because he thought it sounded cool Their sniper FN-2000 called himself Zeroes because of the pure simplicity of his designator The three zeroes made him feel special and he didn’t care about the whispers that someone who called himself a zero wasn’t going to have much expected of him Zeroes liked it and he stuck with it FN-2003 didn’t get to pick his own nickname He got stuck with Slip because he was always sliding in behind everyone else Slip was a bit slower a tad clumsier and a little less studious than the rest of their fire team He tried hard but he was never quite at the same level as the rest of the group And the rest of the group was never quite at 2
the same level as FN-2187 Everyone knew that he was one of the best stormtrooper cadets ever to have come through training and next to him especially in one-on-one training most of the other cadets looked and sometimes felt more like Slip FN-2187 was strong loyal brave smart and willing to follow orders but able to make correct decisions on his own when he needed to He was clear officer material for the First Order so he had never been given a nickname and had never chosen one for himself After years of training FN-2187 had itched for some real action Like other stormtrooper cadets he’d rotated through several lower-level lower-level duties including a janitorial assignment but he hadn’t seen any real live-fire action yet Then one day their trainer and leader Captain Phasma told him that they would be deployed So FN-2187 gathered his men double-checked their gear and headed to their transport 3
