Those who appeal to a higher power better hope that said power once stood where they are now; otherwise it might not even recognize the need for assistance.
It was a generally shared conviction among the military that if the amount of energy that went into doing paperwork could be harnessed for a more productive purpose, the galaxy would have been pacified ages ago.
This conviction was shared even by the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces. Lord Vader hated paperwork with a passion. Nonetheless, his desk was swamped with it, even if his aides condensed everything into its most concise form.
Working his way through a pile of documents he merely needed to sign off, the Sithlord came across the file of a court-martial, that had taken place somewhere in the sector. The representative of the defendant had filed an appeal – really a routine formality, that almost never changed anything about the original verdict – and as one of the involved parties had answered directly to Grand Moff Trachta, the next higher authority was him. He skimmed trough the datapad, eager to get to the point where he could add his signature and end this charade, when something caught his eye.
Oo oo oo oo oo oO
What happened next was never satisfyingly explained. Lord Vader was not known for being merciful. The most reasonable explanation was a budding rivalry between the Grand Moff and the Supreme Commander, expressed in a petty insult – which did not sit very well with anyone knowing the Sithlord's rather forceful personality.
But what other reason could there be, for the draconian Commander to pardon a young officer who had not only freed a number of valuable slaves, but attacked a superior officer in the process, reducing the sentence from summary execution to dishonorable discharge? Surely the young idiot's pathetic justification, starting with an overly melodramatic "They are not just slaves!" could not have held any more sway with the Sithlord than it had held with the quartet of officers constituting the court-martial?