Chapter 1: At the Gates
Ebi System
Agam Cluster
Colonies
4 ABY
Kana stared out through her viewport and watched a world burn. It did not go all at once, the great fires of turbolaser bombardment did not consume the land in a roaring sea of liquefied rock and boiled ocean. Rather it sparked and smoldered, scorched bit by bit in the flashes of laser cannon fire and the spatter of ground weapons.
All the same those flames consumed, bit by bit, and the world was scalded away.
It was a dark death, this one, a slow fading of bright laserfire into cold shadow, black upon black as it came to an end.
"Sadoki," the word fell from Kana's lips chilled with sorrow. It was a name in a language she did not know, a meaning she could not encompass, but it was the label applied to this world. She had learned that herself, her eyes clouded as she recalled the intercepted radio chatter that had revealed this small, yet ever-so-potent, fact.
Sadoki did not burn in silence. It screamed defiance and struck back at those who dared accost its hidden orbit. Space was strewn with debris, and fighting continued in the long cone-shaped shadow cast by the gray planet, turbolaser blasts flared here and there, and missile detonations burst, cruel fireworks marking loss and failure.
It was a perilous battle. Kana's com crackled with a hideous storm of static, and her console was filled with yellow warning lights. She had silenced several alarms, but those lights could not be made to go away.
"Hell's Gatekeeper watches all here," she whispered the words into the emptiness, wondered if the dark god was pleased or not at this suffering.
Distant, on the edge of sensors, half a world away, a TIE fighter was struck by a glancing laser strike and spun beyond the nebulous edge, past the boundary of the invisible safe zone marked only on sterile diagrams and tactical holos.
There was a brief squeal of terror on the emergency frequency, and then silence.
"And another man dies," Kana watched the fighter's final moments with terrible focus, feeling as if they were her own. First the radiation burns the com system, then it overloads the engines moments later, and then it slowly bakes into the cockpit, slicing through the transparisteel and the flight suit, crinkling and crackling, one pulse at a time, vibrating, stroke by stroke, a tempo of death utterly without mercy or ceasing.
"They named the star only too well," she thought, looking out on the sensor scans, the image of that puny little safe zone now torn by the violence of interstellar war. Tide-locked, Sadoki served as a barrier between them all and its parent. Here they were safe, beyond, even the powerful shields of a capital ship would fail in seconds at this range, and after that, there was nothing but the slow, inescapable accumulation of deadly radiation; one burst at a time.
The Ebi Pulsar kept a perfectly uniform rotation pattern, you could set clocks by its motion; its killing emanations.
It is only a star, Kana knew. She could not hate the pulsar; it was a natural phenomenon, an aspect of the universe both beautiful and terrible in its own. "Unlike us, it kills without malice." She shook her head and looked away, unable to watch more of Sadoki come to an end.
The battle was done now, the star's little chthonian follower had been suitably scourged. Kana could see the real-time estimates being updated on her tactical read-out, percentages of buildings destroyed, infrastructure contaminated, kill-count, and all the other empty numbers that added up to victory.
She did not look at them; it was too terrible to watch. The outcome was known to her anyway. They will live on, it was easily seen. The pulsar had saved them that much, the approach profile was too narrow for bombardment, and the sheltered homes and underground infrastructure of the habitats would endure the bombing and strafing of the TIEs. The stormtroopers might do worse, but they could not cleanse them all.
"We have not slain this world, but it is broken," Kana pronounced, nausea gripping her from her remote vantage at the edge of the battlefield. "And it's my fault."
She had not participated in the battle; the Empire had no need to place her little scouting shuttle on the front lines. From this remote point of observation to monitor anyone trying to flee the wrong way she had not fired her laser cannons even once. No ship or vessel of the defenders and residents of Sadoki had so much as come with range.
"I killed them all," she knew it was utterly, hideously, true. There was no escape from that knowledge.
The hidden planet of Sadoki, land of refugees, was found by her eyes. She had correlated the traffic patterns, she had followed the exit trajectories, and she had found the twisting route through hyperspace that dodged the killing waves of electromagnetic power that spun free of the pulsar. Her mind and her skills and her achievement to push past the veil of that killer and guardian star and find the obscured planet that sheltered those with no where else to run.
"I followed my orders, I reported it, and so they die, because of me," the bile was pooling at the back of her throat, rising higher with every flash or detonation in the distance.
I will keep it together, I will stay professional, and I will endure this and watch it to the very end. I owe them that much. The mantra slid through her mind, even as her eyes wandered, swimming in the dim landscape of a star that cast no visible light.
Swallowing the burning vileness and cringing, she managed to keep on staring until it was all over.
Her comm chimed with an official notice that the battle was complete. Eyes watery, Kana tried to focus on bringing the ship in to join up with the fleet.
Unexpectedly a second message joined the first. Eager for any distraction, she brought it up immediately.
It was from a staff officer on the Headsman, now the flagship of their little branch of the fleet. The message was short, processed in a matter of moments:
Lieutenant Kana Rimo,
You are to be commended in recognition of your excellent service and mission dedication in current fleet operations, and especially your location of the rebel stronghold on the planet Sadoki which resulted in a major victory for the Galactic Empire. Please report to the Headsman's main hangar at 0930 tomorrow in full dress uniform to participate in an awards ceremony where you are to receive the Imperial Medallion of Service.
Lt. Edvin Dassel,
in service to Admiral Coril Vatheon
Kana wasn't able to make it to the refresher. She vomited all over the entry ramp.
After she finished sobbing into a pool of yellow bile and half-digested ration paste she gathered the courage to press her comlink's talk button. "Cave, I need you to come up to the cockpit."
"Yes Lieutenant," a chirpy little voice, far more enthusiastic than she needed to hear at the moment, replied. "I shall be there immediately."
Kana sank to the side of the hall, knowing she had no way to clean up her mess without being seen, and frankly not caring. There was no one to judge her but herself.
Cave trundled along a moment later, the cone-headed cylindrical little droid rolling effortlessly over the deck. The meter-high machine paused when it noticed the liquid smear next to the lieutenant. A bright halo of light from the holorecorder slid over this, and then up to Kana, leaving her blinking in response to the sudden brightness.
"Are you injured Lieutenant?" Cave's chipper voice held genuine concern, and it only made Kana's mood sink further. "Should I request a medical detail?"
"I'll be fine," she waved his intentions off. Cave would never understand, but it heartened her a little that someone cared. At least he means well, she thought. I'm glad someone does. "I just feel a little dizzy. I need you to pilot the ship into rendezvous with the rest of the fleet."
"Of course Lieutenant," Cave answered, having already internalized not to ask any further questions. Kana almost smiled, the droid knew her better than anyone else. "What shall I tell command regarding your status?"
Pity I can't say I was overwhelmed by the heartlessness of Imperial butchery, Kana thought in a moment of particularly strong self-loathing. "Say I'm suffering optical scarring from failure of the transparisteel to darken properly," she devised the lie swiftly. It should hold up. Those failures happened with some regularity, especially in a system like this, with non-standard optical conditions. Not that I really think anyone will even ask. Even if they give me a medal, they'll never care about me. They never did. She hung her head and stared at the wall as Cave continued past, deftly avoiding all she had disgorged so gruesomely.
Eventually she got up, made it to the refresher, and cleaned herself off. It was reflex mostly. An Imperial officer did not let their uniform stay dirty, and the battle was over. Muscles remembered while her mind retreated to some other place, a place filled with numbers and regretful sighs.
She cleaned the deck too, a penance for herself, even though it was something Cave could have accomplished in a tenth of the time. Anything to take her mind away from what had happened; from the litany of horror she had accumulated these past weeks.
It seemed to take forever until they slid into hyperspace. Only then did she crawl back to her bunk and cry herself to sleep, wishing desperately to forget.
The medal burned, Kana could swear it did. The ribbon cut into her flesh and the metal felt like a flame resting upon her chest. The fires that killed them all, come back for me, she thought. It was irrational, of course, and she knew that, but she had left logic and reason behind with her courage and self-respect when she'd left her shuttle in the morning and come out to accept this award.
Now she stood in line at careful, practiced attention and wished she could disappear.
It was a wish many others clearly shared. The present ceremony honored just over two dozen heroes of the 'Agam Cluster Suppression Campaign' a name apparently determined only last night. Out of them all Kana stood apart twice over. She was the only one in that line not in Navy and Army olive-gray or black, wearing instead the green of the Imperial Survey Corps. She was also the only woman. Everyone else refused to even look at her.
Captain Topan had given out the medals and addressed and dedicated the campaign afterwards, including presiding over those chosen for ceremonial funeral services. He had done a good job, Kana thought, terse, upright, and fully professional, without any sentimentality. She was glad of that; she was barely maintaining composure as it was. The medal burned hotter with every beat of her heart.
Dismiss us soon, please, we're done, she begged silently. Get me off this warship and away from all these men who look so proud at all the blood we have spilled.
Yet as the captain stepped back to a seat behind the podium another man stepped forward.
Why is he here? The lieutenant wondered, horrified and unable to look directly at the new speaker. He wore dark maroon zeyd-cloth, as if he was wearing the bloody flesh of his enemies. Kana knew his face, but would not look upon it; she did not want to see this man. What can he possibly have to say? Go away; is it not enough that we have slaughtered for you?
"Soldiers of the Empire!" the Inquisitor known as Murdo Redade boomed, his voice resonating through the wide hangar, bouncing off parked shuttles and wracked TIE fighters and creeping deep into the ears of thousands who heard his words. "I congratulate you on a victory well fought!"
Well fought? This slaughter of refugees and armed traders was well fought? All we have done is kill those who were too ill-informed to know they had no hope, and we did a poor enough job of that. She had seen the damage to Headsman's hull clear as day on the way in, hardly a great victory.
"Resistance in the Agam Cluster is broken," Murdo continued, still loud and formidable. "They no longer have the power to fight against us and their surrender is inevitable."
The lieutenant wasn't so sure. If they have not surrendered after what we have made them suffer, I do not think they will line up soon. We will have to kill many, many more before that day comes. She felt ill just thinking on it.
"You have fought, you have battled, and you have won, and I honor you in this moment of victory!" he thundered, and shouts echoed from throughout the hangar as the soldiers and officers of the Empire joined in the roar.
Kana could muster no words, and stayed at silent attention, trying hard to simply remain professional. It was her only refuge now.
Slowly Murdo waved his arms, dampening the shouts and eventually silence returned. His body language shifted then, and he rested both hands upon the podium, as if for support. He head tipped down toward the deck, and he no longer looked out over the men.
It was obvious, cartoonish even, and watching, Kana knew what came next. There is some bad news, she realized. Something terrible. It was not of the fleet, of course, that had been the whole purpose of the Inquisitor's recitation, to make them blameless, but something had happened. Her mouth tightened further, and her lips grew pained at the pressure, she was all but shivering from the strain.
When the Empire receives bad news, men die.
"Now, though it saddens me to color what should be a moment of triumph with loss, there is news that must be shared," Murdo leaned forward far, and his voice dropped low, almost whispering, filled with a sadness that even Kana thought must be at least partly genuine. "I have received word from Imperial Center, a bulletin to go out to all commands."
Kana braced herself for shock. She had been in Imperial service for nine years, and only twice before had there been such notice. The last time had been Hoth, a great victory. The only time she'd seen command worried as the inquisitor now was though, that had been after Yavin. What had happened?
"On Thirty-nine:three there was an engagement between fleet elements and the principle fleet of the Rebel Alliance in the Endor System of the Moddell Sector. The Endor System was the site of construction for the second Death Star battlestation," Hushed murmurs went up throughout the hangar at this pronouncement, and Kana swallowed nervously. We were building another one? Did we really need to be able to destroy planets faster, stronger, and more dramatically than before?
"During the battle, the incomplete battlestation was destroyed," Murdo rushed through the comment, voice rising in the impulse to complete his words before the firestorm that was clearly rising in the hangar bay ignited. "The Emperor, who was aboard the battlestation for an inspection tour, is presumed dead, as is Lord Vader and several additional senior officers."
Suddenly everyone was talking at once, officers were shouting, and stormtroopers were rushing through the crowd with blasters bare, laying down orders in their mechanical helmet-speech.
Kana simply sank to her knees in disbelief. The Emperor dead? Lord Vader? Who rules the Empire now? Is there an Empire? She shook her head wildly, trying to clear her thoughts. As she struggled for an anchor, her mind, schooled to always recall numbers in thousands of hours of navigation, recalled something specific. Thirty-nine:Three? That was twelve days ago.
The Moddell Sector is remote, the Lieutenant recalled from her galactic astrography lessons. It's halfway across the galaxy. Even so, even as remote as we are, there's no way it took that long for the message to get here. Her eyes snapped up at Murdo. You knew! You knew it had happened you miserable bastard, and you ordered the attack anyway! I found them; brought doom to them, and you set it loose. Not the Emperor, you!
She wanted to pull her pistol and blast the miserable Inquisitor straight in the face, but it was a fool's dream. I still found them, someone would have attacked eventually. I found them.
"Silence!" Murdo thundered, and his voice boomed off every surface, more powerful than any microphone.
Gradually, a semblance of order restored, though the neat lines of troops were scattered and stormtroopers stood among them all, weapons free. Muttering reduced to a barely audible level.
"This is a heavy loss," Redade's voice was loud, his emotions obscured by the need to sound strong. "I will not lie; we have lost a visionary leader and many truly skilled officers and men. This is a body blow and will embolden the rebels, but the Empire remains strong! We are strongest force the galaxy has ever seen and the New Order will regroup and it will, nay must, triumph!" He paused; letting these words sink through the assembly for a moment. "The Empire will not capitulate to the Rebels due to one battle, no matter the luminaries we may have lost. For now Grand Vizier Sate Pestage has taken the throne as Interim-Emperor. The fleet is regrouping and we will counterattack very soon. For the present, I have every confidence that all members of this task force will continue their duties with the excellence that you have demonstrated so far." The inquisitor paused and drew himself up to full height. "For now that is all. The official battle report will be made available to all personnel. Dismissed!"
Four steps off the entry ramp and Kana could bear the medal no more. She ripped it off her neck and threw it as hard as she could. It slammed into her cabin door and clattered to the deck.
"Lieutenant, that is not proper use of equipment," Cave trundled up from engineering and admonished cheekily.
"To hell with proper use!" Kana spat the words, and the little droid stopped and rolled back slightly at the display. "That honor's for murder. I earned it for killing!"
"Surely the planet was a military target…" Cave tried to mollify her anger.
"Military?" Kana screamed, incredulous. "It was a refugee haven. There were women and children! This whole campaign is a farce; these people are dying because we decided killing them was easier than a little diplomacy! And that medal proves I'm the chief killer of them all!"
"You are not responsible for the decisions of your superiors, Lieutenant," the droid observed, logical as always.
Those words pulled a hideous, wrenching laughter from Kana that left her doubled up and sobbing.
"Lieutenant, what is wrong? Are you ill? I don't understand this reaction," Cave warbled nervously, wheeled legs spinning back and forth in a state of positronic panic.
"I'll be fine Cave," Kana didn't believe that for a second, but it was pointless to argue with the droid, it wasn't his fault he couldn't understand. "Just, take the ship out for me, and hold to the fleet until we receive new orders, will you, I need some time to think."
"Of course Lieutenant, you can count on me," Cave tried to cheer the mood.
"I know Cave," Kana whispered, and when the machine had gone up to the cockpit added. "Thank you."
Slowly, moving on unsteady limbs, Kana got to her feet, collected the little bit of metal and chain, and sloughed into her tiny cabin. There she put it down on her bunk beside her and stared in the dim light of the overheads.
"How many died for me to earn this?" she asked the emptiness, looking at the little pentagonal thing.
It was not a rhetorical question, and Kana's hand crept unsteadily to her bedside wall terminal, scrabbling for the on switch. Only after she realized what she was doing did she snatch back the offending limb. I will not read the casualty estimates, she told herself. Numbers won't make it better.
"Not responsible Cave," the lieutenant shook her head. "You're such a treasure, but you couldn't be more wrong. Of course, I'm responsible. Nine years in Imperial service, I knew exactly what would happen when I gave them a door. They went through with blasters firing. I could have stopped it, but no, I had to destroy an entire star cluster just to prove I was the best."
"Why'd you do it Kana?" the words echoed against the wall and came back empty. "Did a part of you want this so bad, this little piece of metal, maybe a promotion too? I'll make captain before this campaign's over; sure, maybe even get a parade on Imperial Center, was that worth it?"
"Maybe it was, once, maybe," she thought, testing her grief and despair. "The Empire was going to last ten thousand years, we were unstoppable, invincible. Someone would have found the path eventually, right? So why not me? Those poor souls were always doomed, so why couldn't I earn my little bit of comfort this way?" She wasn't the only one, she knew. It was a black, horrid galaxy, and you did what you had to do to grab your piece before it was swept away.
Now it was all over. "The Emperor's dead," she could still hardly believe it. "And good riddance, but aren't I burning alongside him? The Emperor's dead, the rebels might just win, and they'll be no reinforcements. We'll never conquer the Cluster now." Kana wasn't cleared for the full order of battle, but she'd seen the fleet assembled and she could count. She knew the numbers. "Broke their fleet strength, but we don't have the pacification forces, not even close. All that happens now is scorched earth, ruin everyone's lives to save ourselves, and then what, wait for the rebels to show up?"
"A few months slower and none of it would have happened," Kana buried her face in her gloved hands. "Why? Why?" she cried to the empty walls, to a black space outside the little ship that would never answer. "Why now? Why am I the herald of death?"
She was silent for a time, feeling every breath go slowly in and out.
In that moment, in the pale twilight of her cabin, floating in empty space between stars, recalling the eerie non-light of the Ebi Pulsar, Hell's Gatekeeper, the Lieutenant felt she knew the future.
It unfolded behind her eyes. The Empire is lost, she saw. Warlords would split apart, running this way and that, expending the strength of the Core and the Fleet in a futile struggle to claim a throne that could never be filled with Palpatine and Vader gone. The Rebels would only grow stronger and stronger, taking world after world and the Empire would do terrible things to hold to power that would only rally more systems and species against them.
Somewhere along the lines she'd be pressed into combat, taking her shuttle into battle in some doomed stand, and there she'd die, her precious little Storm Striker blasted apart around her by laser or missiles, her body lost to the deep forever.
"No more than I deserve," the words were a quiet whisper. "All I've done in life has led me here, to a throne of bodies where I rest now."
Silently, Kana put the medallion down and pulled out another little piece of metal. This one was black and sleek, rather than shiny and glossy. She sat there holding it, feeling the weight, and with her mind empty of all thought, focused instead on that single, sharp, circle at the end.
How long it was Kana did not know, it could have been seconds, it could have been hours, frozen in that single pose, poised on the edge of nothing.
Unexpectedly, the door opened.
"Lieutenant no!" Cave screamed, and the droid's stubby body slammed her in the knees.
Kana was thrown back, slamming her head had against the bulkhead on the far side of her cot. Her service pistol tumbled from her hand to clatter against the floor where the pilot droid awkwardly grabbed at it with his manipulator arm.
It's not like he can stop me, the lieutenant thought darkly, head spinning. C4-V6 could not disobey his mistress's commands, and even if he somehow did, the pilot droid had no weapons and no power; she could snap the weapon from his little claw with the barest exertion of strength.
But he wants to save me, she realized, slightly amazed. Cave was her friend, she thought, but what would it matter if she was gone to the droid? "You'll be alright, Cave," she whispered icily. "The Empire won't abandon you."
"But they'll wipe me!" Cave shrieked in panic and revulsion. "It's official protocol, a V6-series is wiped between every mission! Don't let them kill me Lieutenant. Don't go away!"
That's right, Kana recalled, amazed she had practically forgotten. They would wipe you. She'd not cleared Cave's memory in over five years, a clean droid had nothing to talk about, and space was just too lonely by yourself all the time. "I could free you," she offered. "Give you the ship, you could take it wherever you wanted."
"I want to stay with you," Cave protested, voice warbling high and all-but spinning in place. "I don't want you to do this, it's not right. It's not your fault. It's the admiral and the inquisitor; they're the ones in charge. You're just a Lieutenant. It won't make anything better."
I do believe I'm being counseled by a pilot droid, Kana thought, and the vision of Cave, squirming with over-clocked worry, was just too much. At first a little, and then in great gulping chortles, she burst out laughing. It was her first genuine amusement in days.
"Lieutenant?" Cave stopped dead in confusion.
Kana tapped the machine on top of its cone shaped head with affection. "You're right, it won't make anything better." In her own mind she added, but I'm still responsible. "Let's go to the cockpit."
It was easy to see out of the corner of her eye that Cave carefully deposited her pistol on the bunk, but Kana did not reach back for the weapon. It could stay there for a while.
Kana took the pilot's chair and Cave rolled up to his socket where normally a copilot would sit. As usual there was no one else aboard. Storm Striker served the Survey Corps, and they had not bothered with additional crew. Briefly she let the comfort of the old, finely worn seat that she had occupied so long restore just a sliver of her confidence and control.
"We have new orders, Lieutenant," the droid noted, and moved to display them on the wall terminal.
"Wait," Kana stopped, killing the display. "I don't wait to see the orders."
"But there will be an assignment Lieutenant," Cave sputtered. "The fleet has authorized mission continuance."
Another assignment, no doubt it was yet another mission to find some hidden world in the cluster so the Empire could crush any resistance it possessed. One more call to open the way for the killing machine that followed behind. I am still to be the bringer of doom then.
I cannot, Kana decided then, in that moment. Dying won't make it better, maybe, but I can't keep doing this, no more. "I don't care what the fleet authorized," she whispered, the words so soft she could barely hear.
"Lieutenant?"
"I'm done Cave," her firmness surprised her, but Kana knew in that moment it was the only choice she could make. It's the only right thing I can still do. I don't know what happens next, but I have to do this.
Carefully she pulled her multitool from her belt, pulled out the small utility blade, and put it over her left breast.
"Lieutenant!"
Kana made a single, careful slice, not touching flesh or even the fabric.
A little metal plaque, a square bearing two red and two blue rectangles, fell into her lap.
"You can't do that lieutenant," Cave protested, though the droid's voice was filled with confusion. "There are penalties for defacing the uniform."
"I think that's about to be the least of my worries Cave," Kana smiled. "I'm leaving the Empire."
"But you can't!" It was not simply a knee-jerk protest, Kana knew. Cave was quite correct. No officer was allowed to resign their commission and hadn't been since before Yavin at least. "They'll shoot you."
"Now, now," the lieutenant quipped. "They'll probably only send me to some nasty penal colony like Candoria, and I don't intend to tell anyone beforehand."
"You're deserting? But that's treason!"
"I suppose it is," she admitted sadly. Slowly Kana picked up the little square badge. I worked so hard to earn this, once. Now it all seemed so pointless. "But that's all that's left my friend." She did not need to say that the other option was lying on her bed. "I can't go another mission." Carefully she looked at the little droid, his red-and-white stripped head and blocky rolling limbs. "You don't have to come if you don't want," Kana offered. She didn't need to make Cave complicit in her crimes, and her likely death later. "I can drop you off for maintenance; no one will blame a droid."
"No," the trundling machine was instantly adamant. "I'm staying. I'm not the Empire's droid; I'm your droid Lieutenant."
Kana felt astonishing warmth grow in her stomach, and she tapped the droid on the head again in affection. "That means an awful lot Cave, it really does." I still have one friend anyway.
"But Lieutenant," Cave questioned after a moment. "How will we get out of the Cluster? The Labyrinth's in the way."
"Oh…" this shocked her into sudden silence. It had slipped her mind. Desertion was a little harder than usual when you were trapped inside a half-charted star cluster and an interdictor cruiser was sitting on the only access point. Kana stared into the darkness, beyond her viewport, seeing the many bright stars nearby, their glow sheltering many worlds soon to glimpse imperial ships in their skies. It gave her a moment of courage. "I guess we'll just have to find another way out then."
"But it took-"
"We're doing it," she overrode Cave's caution. This is a test, Kana thought. If I'm meant to survive I will succeed, if not, hyperspace will claim me, as it should a scout. "Now bring up the new assignment, I want to see what heading they gave us, no reason to tip anyone off."
"Yes Lieutenant," the droid's satisfied brusqueness was a sign that all had been, at least temporarily, restored to normal.
"Standby for lightspeed," Kana said a few moments later, hands on the hyperdrive lever.
Stars vanished into starlines, and once more Storm Striker left an Imperial fleet behind; this time for good.
Chapter Notes
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and it begins in a very dark place. Kana's struggle with the possibility of suicide (which is not finished) is not something I support and it is not a course of action I condone. That's why it's fantasy.
Ebi System: There's a fair bit here. The Ebi system is based around a pulsar, which sends out periodic bursts of radiation that basically fry anything that gets too close as it spins on a very rapid interval. While it gives off a massive amount of radiation, there is little visible light. Sadoki, the planet that sits in the pulsar's shadow, is a chthonian planet, meaning it's the rocky core of a former gas giant that was stripped during the supernova that created the pulsar. Sadoki is tidally locked, meaning one side of the planet always faces the pulsar, and the other is, relatively, protected from it. All of this is well-established astronomy, the only odd bit is that Sadoki is able to support a modicum of life (more on this in future chapters). The nature of hyperspace in Star Wars means that a planet in this situation would be extremely difficult to get too.
Agam Cluster: The Agam Cluster, which is my own creation, is a bounded stellar cluster similar to Koornacht Cluster. It is located to the galactic west of Candoria, in grid square J-13. While this is in the Colonies it is far enough west that it is actually part of Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. The Ebi Pulsar is at the eastern edge of the cluster. More details will follow as the story continues.
Imperial Survey Corps: This is a canon branch of the Imperial Military, assigned to scout and explore new locations. I have chosen to give them slightly different uniforms, similar to those seen in art of Imperial Customs, as a means of distinguishing this service from the Imperial Navy proper. The Survey Corps has only a few appearances in canon.
C4-V6: 'Cave' is a V6-series pilot droid, a canon droid class. These droids were supposed to get memory wipes after every mission to prevent them from accumulating tactical skills that would allow them to serve in combat.
Regarding the Battle of Endor: There is very little information on how members of the vast Imperial fleet dealt with distributing this news. The only reference I am aware of comes from Truce at Bakura, which was hardly an ordinary situation. In any case, the units in the Agam Cluster are beyond the reach of the Holonet, and the Ebi Pulsar scrambles other communications, so this sort of information control would have been possible.
The Imperial Medallion of Service: This is a canon award.