This one involves one Legends character that thankfully was never made canon even back then. He shall remain unnamed, but if you recognize him you'll realize why I did that.
by lord Martiya
Year 8 of the Empire: Tarkin and the efficiency expert
Tarkin was in an ornery mood. Being ordered away from the Tatooine relief effort to inspect a factory of Stormtrooper armor wasn't a problem, everyone, even the new planetary governor Tour Aryon (a non-Prophet member of the Secret Order of the Empire), got miffed at the Emperor for it. It wasn't even that the inspections were on Gilvaanen in the Inner Rim, the Emperor's usual tactic of playing his subordinates against each other were actually working for him-even if one of his collaborators didn't have a hand in it. It wasn't even finding out his Star Destroyer's XO had been promoted and was going to be posted somewhere else, he had made sure that, at the right moment, Rae Sloane would side with him out of sense of duty (she wasn't one to ask for favors. The Navy could use more people like her) and that promotion would help him on the long run, especially as she was high admiral material. No, it was that the Emperor was making him work with count Denetrius Vidian, an efficiency expert. Even if the available information made it seem he was actually efficient (a "miracle worker", according to Sloane), he would see it for himself-and hopefully find an excuse to do the galaxy a favor and see if he could make some Hutt choke on him.
Still, he had a job to do, and even if he had made a habit of sharing his subordinates' bland meals unless it was on his own money (it had been a matter of efficiency when he got the habit as a lieutenant, if he shared the crew's meal they wouldn't waste energy and space for dedicated officer meals. He hadn't found out the rank and file loved him for that until Even Piell pointed it out during the Clone Wars) he shouldn't ruin his own digestion with that.
"I need your opinion." the count said (his voice surprisingly normal for a cyborg with modifications more extensive than even Vader) as he sat down next to him in the mess hall. "The crew seems to hate me for some reason, and I have no idea why."
"That is easily explained, count." Tarkin said, grabbing the chance for a little venting. "Tell me, what is a flak cannon, and what does it do?"
"It's a type of mass driver weapon of Urthhan origin, optimized to fire flak shells, that is a type of proton or concussion warhead with a peculiar fragmentable casing. The primary purpose of this weapon, obtained by setting the shells to detonate at a predeterminate distance, is to harass enemy sub-corvette combat aircrafts and spacecrafts with the threat of destruction, forcing them to manouver in such ways their mission will be hindered and the vehicles themselves will be more vulnerable to attack from allied vehicles and cannons. A secondary function for heavy flak weapons is to directly strike at enemy ships of cruiser rating and heavier, shooting them down or at least causing shield damage, while lighter ones can do the same with enemy corvettes and frigates. Light ones, being found exclusively in Army service, are also sometime used against enemy ground forces, assuming the rarer concussion flak shells are available. Finally they can sometime actually shoot down enemy sub-corvettes, though such results are nothing but a side benefit resulting from incompetence on the target's part."
"Impressive. Everything you said was correct."
"Uh?"
"So far, you're the first efficiency expert affiliated to the military who actually knows what they're talking about. The Imperial-class was originally designed with an estensive high-efficiency mass driver suite capable of firing both flak shells and heavy high-acceleration concussion missiles, with those weapons being directly responsible for the Imperator's ability to decimate Separatist fighters and shoot down a Subjugator at close range before falling during the Battle of Coruscant, yet efficiency experts assumed that shooting down enemy fighters was the primary purpose, saw the abismal round-to-kill ratio, and ordered said suite removed without increasing the amount of point defense laser cannons, thus leading to numerous Star Destroyer losses at the hands of enemy fighters armed with proton weapons. On the ground side, efficiency experts saw the rate of fire of blaster rifles and carbines and ordered the removal of light repeating blasters from the line squads, causing countless deaths among both infantry and Stormtroopers, and are resisting their much needed reintroduction. I don't know if you're involved in the latter decision, and I know for certain you weren't involved with the former by the fact you're here," After all, the "experts" responsible for the ISD's weakness had "disappeared". Coincidentally Lira Wessex had found out just a few days before their disappearance, and the ISD's head designer's mood had been fouler than Vader's on PMS until then. "but you're still an efficiency expert. Thus, suspect." Tarkin gave the count a reluctant smile before pulling out his comlink. "Still, it's time to give you your due." With that he activated the comlink for a ship-wide announcement, and spoke: "To all crew, this is the Grand Moff. I have just determined that count Denetrius Vidian, the efficiency expert, actually makes sure to know what he's supposed to improve before doing his job."
Before the cyborg could process the fact Tarkin had felt necessary make a ship-wide announcement, a sailor grabbed his tray and brought it away before coming back with a new one with the same exact rations.
"I take you had stomach issues in the previous days?" Tarkin asked with an unsettling smile.
Behind that smile, however, Tarkin was seething. Yes, the efficiency expert knew his job-but that only meant he was endangering his. He really, really hoped his agent on Gilvaanen had done everything as usual-Quelton Fabrication, the Stormtrooper armor contractor they were to inspect, was crucial to the success of the future uprising.
Quelton had been inspected, and the owner, the armor enthusiast Thetis Quelton, had pleasantly surprised Tarkin by having a pre-made excuse for her inefficiency, the strikes at the subcontractor Cladtech. An Ithorian-owned and Ithorian-employiing company, ready to divert suspicions from most Imperials-but not Vidian. At Cladtech Vidian had quickly identified the owner, Mawdo Larrth, as the strikers' ringleader on Quelton's behest, but before dealing with him he had found the calling card of Tarkin's agent-a disk with two smaller disks attached in a sort of open triangle, and asked the Grand Moff to summon both Larrth and Quelton to a meeting at the latter's manor. And there they were, with Tarkin looking at the two saboteurs, Larrth looking nervous, Quelton playing with the helmet of a Pikaati armor from her collection, and Vidian producing both the disk and the filtration system of a Stormtrooper helmet, device that bore the same symbol.
"This system contains bottleneck spores, fatal to humans." Vidian announced. "Combined with the recordings we found at Cladtech it would be obvious that you slowed down production so that you could put infected filtration systems in more helmets, killing thousands of Stormtroopers and costing more credits to the Empire as we track the saboteur down-if we hadn't found this crest."
"Wait, what crest?" Quelton asked.
"This little triple disk is the personal crest of a Hyperionian Jedi Master." Tarkin explained. "One that could have been on the High Council had it not been for his tendency for attachments and penchant for making money, especially in the entertainment business-at one point he somehow acquired Kailio Entertainments just to kill off their Baby Ludi holovid, on a whim. He is known for putting his crest on everything, including modifying his astromech with two disks just to mimic it, and for having escaped termination when Order 66 was issued."
"It's clear the Jedi manipulated you." Vidian continued. "Given the circumstances, you won't be punished, just go back and meet your quotas."
After the two Imperial officials left, Quelton turned to her confederate and asked: "Did you see any Jedi?"
"No... But I'm not complaining." Larrth replied. "We dodged a bolt here..."
"A thank you would be appreciated."
The voice, almost childish, came from the ventilation system, too small for everyone. Everyone but the pint-sized individual whose head resembled that Jedi's crest that just came out of it.
"Hi, I'm the Jedi who just covered for you-don't worry, I have a reputation and I'm willing to use it." the now identified Jedi said. "I'm part of a network of organizations opposing the Empire, and you, Thetis Quelton, got our attention. Tell me, could you design an improved Stormtrooper armor for the day of the uprising?"
"YES!" Quelton replied, Life Day having just come early for her.
note
The bit about the Imperial inefficiency experts screwing over the Imperial military is my deduction: during the Clone Wars we saw just how formidable flak weapons were both on the ground (see Ryloth and Second Geonosis. In the latter, Ki-Adi-Mundi identified it by name) and in space (see again Ryloth-and even the Battle of Coruscant, when the Invisible Hand managed to fend off the Guarlara precisely thanks to the flak cannons used at short range, though it didn't prevent the Star Destroyer from wrecking it), yet it's absent from the Imperial Navy, and during the same conflict we saw the Clonetroopers using two different kinds of light repeating blasters the same way modern armies use their real world equivalent, the squad automatic weapon, with excellent results, yet Legends describes the basic unit of the Imperial Army, the line squad, as armed with blaster rifles and carbines only until repeated losses against Rebel troops prompted their reintroduction, and a rather slow one. Someone had to have screwed the Imperial military over, and I found a combination of incompetent efficiency experts being given free hands so the Emperor can find the funds for his many superweapons would explain it. Though I wonder how much was the efficiency experts and how much was Palpatine, considering that he'll eventually work Vidian into insanity...