Dramatis Personae

Bandit Squadron

Captain Kea Varik (human female from Nar Shadaa) Bandit Leader

Flight Officer John Velos (human male from Corcuscant) Bandit Two

Flight Officer Morge Denfarr (human female from Chandrilla)Bandit Three

Flight Officer Jaku Loms (Twi'Lek female from Ryloth) Bandit Four

Lieutenant Renn Tharen (human male from Alderaan) Bandit Five

Flight Officer Cutter Buir (human male from Naboo) Bandit Six

Flight Officer Jayest Neepaik (human female from Aegen )Bandit Seven

Flight Officer Steken Enbir (human male from Onderon) Bandit Eight

Lieutenant Asu Batayu (Bothan male from Bothawui) Bandit Nine

Flight Officer Kin Hipvit (human female from Corcuscunt) Bandit Ten

Flight Officer Kirlia Gravir (human female from Corcuscant) Bandit Eleven

Flight Officer Owen Streng (human male from Corellia) Bandit Twelve

The New Republic

General Quienna Sienna (human male from Chandrilla) Alliance Starfighter Command

Rath Zane (human male from Corellia) Alliance Intelligence Special Operations

Colonel Hapon Dustwalker (human male from Coruscant) Commander 5th Fighter Group

Imperial Remnant

Agatio Lan (human male from Fondor) Warlord in the Imperial Remnant

Cal Dreng (human male from Commenor) Captain of the Anthem

The Republic of Aegen

Apolon Neepaik (human male from Aegen) Deputy Prime minister of Aegen

Tashara Task (human male from Aegen) Chief of Staff Aegen armed forces

Sair Korror (human male Aegen) Aegen Foreign Minister

Gilarsar Maral (human male from Aegen) Marshall of the Moons

Rotnovan Planetary Republic

Varex (human male from Rotnova) Rotnovan President

Rotnovan People's Movement

Prologue

The Empire was predicated on aesthetics and acts of grandiose performative loyalty, but interiors of its Starships were just as dull and drab as any other. It was always hard for Admiral Agatio Lan to believe that. The same Empire that was able to convey pomp, victory, and grandeur on monuments and festivals across the Galaxy could only manage the same monochromatic monotony that every military throughout history used in the living quarters and command decks of their Navy. He supposed that a tragedy such as this is just the byproduct of what happens when you trust someone as practical as an engineer with something as aesthetic as design.

Not that his small fleet's flagship, Anthem, was guilty of that same sin. Vivid crimson banners and striking carpet the color of fresh blood contrasted with the polished obsidian of the ship's interior walkways and bulkheads. The emblem of the now disintegrating Empire had been painted onto the floor of the bridge, but after exiting the orbit of Ysanne Isard and what was left of the main Imperial fleet it had been replaced with a new emblem of Lan's own design. A symbol of how he was now writing for his own role on the stage of galactic politics. Admiral Lan's command chair situated in the center of the of the new Coat of Arms, not that the Admiral was particularly fond of idling about in the chair.

Yet here I am.

In the year or so since 'declaring independence' from what was left of the ostensibly legitimate Empire, Lan had mostly dillied about preying on New Republic supply lines and the pirates that haunted the area of the mid-rim his fleet made their own with practical indifference. It gave the greener the crews of the ships in his fleet a sense of experience and helped Lan keep them fed as well, but not much more. Base survival and desperation were not the best motivators, at least not in Lan's approximation.

He drummed his frail fingers restlessly on the command chair. He needed a plan, a goal to keep what was left of his fleet together lest they begin to gravitate towards one of the more powerful regional warlords. A story that people could tell that gave meaning to the Coat of Arm, blood red banners, and void-black hallways.

"Captain Dreng, may I ask an inquiry of you?" Admiral Lan asked his second in command.

"Yes, sir." Replied Dreng, a tall, handsome blonde man, around thirty years Lan's junior. He supervised most of the day to day operations in the fleet with utter competence, but Lan could never see a rival in Dreng. He was too small minded, a trait that made him an almost irreplaceable second-in-command.

"Why did you join the Empire?" Lan shifted his gaze to meet Dreng's eyes and forced a smile, "I mean, originally of course."

Dreng blinked away a brief glimmer of surprise. Lan found it quaintly whole how Dreng was still so poorly acclimated to Lan's off-topic questions that hinted at broader points. After a moment to gather his thoughts Dreng responded, "Because, I love the Galaxy and the people in it, and didn't want to see it fall into the chaos that the Rebels, the Jedis, non-humans, and their anarchic democracy bred."

"Is that why you're still part of the Empire?" Lan asked, daring the younger man to show his disloyalty and say they were no longer the legitimate Empire anymore. Not that Lan thought that there even was a true Empire any longer, that didn't mean it wasn't useful to demand his men affirm his legitimacy. It wasn't much, but Lan always made sure to be gauging his subordinates loyalty as subtly as possible.

"No sir."

Lan gave Dreng a nod, an encouragement to continue. He liked to let his underlings remind themselves why they were loyal to him.

"Right now, I'm here because," he paused and looked around the bridge, "because I feel obligated to my crew, sir."

My crew. Lan noted internally.

"So all that's happened in this war, Alderaan, both Death Stars, and the Emperor dying, as well as our nobly autocratic institutions fraying and descending into petty power struggles between regional governors, myself included. All of that has happened, and all you feel is that the scope of your loyalty has shifted?" Lan said, trying to contain the glee that Dreng's earnest confusion that the remarks would inevitably bring.

Dreng, never one to disappoint, furrowed his brow and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Sir." Lan corrected with his first sincere smile in at least a week.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I mean that as opposed to feeling a dutiful obligation to the integrity of an institution that has bound the galaxy tighter together and kept it safer to any other, you now feel a similar obligation to the crew of my starships?"

Lan let a smirk dance freely across his face. He couldn't help but love propaganda, the Empire had wantonly destroyed an economically valuable and peaceful planet just for the deluded ambitions of one man and had been waging bloody war of internal suppression since its inception. Yet any of its more loyal servants would claim that it served the exact opposite function in the galaxy, a bastion of peace, prosperity, and progress.

Not everyone could handle the truth of how violent and chaotic the galaxy could be, and it was the duty of the intelligent and cunning of the galaxy to create a beautiful story to the masses to help them make sense of it all. It was a duty that Lan couldn't help himself but to oblige.

The best lie you can tell, is the one the people will tell themselves.

"This is the only place everyone on this ship has left, sir." Dreng looked vexed by the question, "We have to stick together if we ever want to make it."

Lan nodded. Camaraderie between brothers in arms. The last adhesive holding the Empire's cadaver together. Hell, holding his own life together at this point. A silly but useful sort of social obligation, something a savvy Admiral could use to keep his dwindling power base together but not much of anything he could grow his influence with. No new planets would come under his sway thanks to theoretical loyalty to theoretical brothers-in-arms that you had never met, no new recruits would flock to his banner to replace casualties to out of obligation to die alongside men they had never met.

The idea of using a gentle touch, of soft power, to inspire had long been Lan's preference in expanding his power base and garnering loyalty. The way he saw it the man who feared you would betray you out of spite at the first chance he got, but a man who you filled you with a sense of obligation, a sense of something greater would die to please your whim. Besides, you could use fear too, it just tended to be best to stoke a fear of the other, to bring them around to your cause.

The way the sabacc chips were stacking up now, it didn't seem like any amount of propagandizing or calls to duty could bring back what the Empire had lost in the skies above Endor. If Lan was going to survive the den of vipers that the Imperial Remnant had become he was going to need power, and power wasn't going to come without blood.

"You're from this sector of space, aren't you Captain?"

"Yes sir."

"Is there an agrarian hub in the sector?"

"I believe the Aegen system has a couple moons heavily dedicated towards food production."

"Have they joined the Republic yet?"

"No sir, last I checked they had never even been part of the Empire."

Lan nodded and turned away from Dreng. He began drumming his fingers again.

If you can't conquer a man's heart or mind, conquer his stomach.