Hello hello everyone. Here we are for the first regular update.

Secrets of the Outer Rim II.

Act I.

The Edge of the Galaxy.

Chapter III.

The Galactic Empire.


The two stormtroopers flanking me had not left my side since I was detained on Talcher-595, but they had deliberately separated me from the Grand Moff. We had arrived on the Grand Moff's personal fortress - a heavily modified Lucrehulk-class battleship flanked by Imperial star destroyers in orbit over Imperius Prime, the capital of Empire's New Territories - but then I was taken away for a medical and a processing check. Only now am I being escorted to Velessius Kordoth's office. The first set of blast doors opened, and the troopers marched me down a long, straight hallway before the second blast doors opened to reveal the actual office - the Imperials certainly had a flair for the dramatic. Said Imperial drama continued when I found the Grand Moff sitting at his desk, looking at a large computer monitor showing four separate images. The first was the Mining Guild ID image of me, taken at the beginning of my contract, the second was a camera shot of Schweva and I outside of the chop shop, with a positive facial match for me, but no match for Schweva - which hopefully means she has continued to evade Imperial capture. The third picture was a correlation scan between my mining guild DNA data and the data they just took from me during my medical, confirming Kordoth's accusations, while the final picture was a scrolling manifest of people that had been on the Taaszon station. My name was the only green one, every other one was gray, meaning their status could not be confirmed. That meant that our suspicions were true: Schweva and I had been the only ones to escape Taaszon.

"Well, well, Zaverra Ashtso, I find myself in somewhat of a predicament. You see, when the Empire incorporated this part of the galaxy five years ago, I was appointed as Grand Moff, entrusting me with the safety and the security of the regime. I set about staffing the regime with trusted confidants and competent officers. My dear friend, Director Amstrun, was one of them. I placed him in charge of all Imperial activities on Taaszon, reporting directly to me, one of the few people in the Empire entrusted with a direct line to the Emperor himself. That is an immense amount of responsibility entrusted in me, but you see, I have stopped receiving reports from Amstrun, in fact, I've lost contact with the station in general, and every probe I've sent to investigate has failed to return. This is not a good look for me, so naturally, I immediately throw myself into a search for survivors. Then you come in, appearing at some backwater installation barely under Imperial control, and I finally have a chance of getting some answers. So, as a loyal citizen of the Empire, you are doing to do your patriotic duty and tell me exactly what happened on Taaszon and who was involved. Failure to do so will be seen as treason and punished accordingly. Are we understood?" Kordoth spelled out, beginning with an affable routine, detailing his rise to power and why all of this is important, before finally finishing off with a clear demand followed by a very clear, very direct threat.

"With all due respect, Grand Moff, what are you expecting me to say? We were attacked by an alien force we couldn't identify, we were getting overwhelmed, and I realized the only way I was going to survive is if I fled. I lost some good friends that day, part of me feels like I should have died with them, but the rest of me wonders what the point of that would have been. All that would have happened is that I would be just another unreported casualty." I responded, leaving out a whole lot of details, but also telling the complete truth. I really don't know that much more than Kordoth does - and what I do know comes from Schweva, rather than anything I experienced on the space station itself - and I did pretty much flee immediately. I feel guilty about it, of course I do, since my friends - and a whole lot of other people - died while I survived, but what would have been the point of trying to say? Where is the glory of getting shot to pieces by an enemy you don't even understand on a space station that isn't yours? Not much, I don't think, and I don't think that all of this is about that. I think Kordoth hopes to use me as some sort of intelligence, as some sort of key to fighting the Shahak'Tur, so that he has something to present before the Imperial War Council, but if that's the case, I really, honestly, cannot help him.

"Leave us," he told his troopers after a moment. The stormtroopers hesitated only for a moment before leaving. Now that the two of us were alone, Kordoth walked over to the viewport in his office, looking down on the planet of Imperius Prime itself. There, standing at the window with his hands crossed behind his back, appearing as casual and in-control as he could, he spoke again "Take a seat."

"Okay..." I accepted, taking the seat at the guest side of his desk, facing his back, unsure of where he was going with this.

"There is something bothering me, Zaverra Ashtso, and that is the fact that your story is completely believable. You are a contractor, you have no loyalty to the Empire or respect for the Mining Guild's property, you are merely concerned with earning money and maintaining your own existence. The problem with your story, however, is that a thousand other people on Taaszon probably had the same idea, but none of them made it out. Why did you?" the Grand Moff asked, having changed tactics, and also seemingly contradicting himself. Earlier he said it was my patriotic duty to share what I know with the Empire, now he is going on about how I have no loyalty to them, and he shouldn't have expected otherwise. So, which is it? I don't know if it's either. I see two possibilities here, one: that the Grand Moff has my file, my name, my biometrics, my history, and all of that, but he doesn't actually know anything about me, so he is adjusting his approach on the fly, trying to find whatever tactic will work on me. The other possibility is that the patriotic duty thing was nothing more than an implied threat and, in typically xenophobic Imperial human fashion, he didn't expect me to have any sort of loyalty to the Empire to begin with.

"I had help." I decided to admit, figuring that if he hadn't found Schweva yet and he didn't have a match for her face anywhere in the Empire's databases, she's probably managed to disappear right now and there is no trail for Kordoth to follow, even if he did mobilize every resource at his disposal.

"That is more like it, from whom?"

"A blue-skinned alien woman with red eyes. I uncovered her destroyed ship while returning back to base before a thermostatic storm, bringing her in with me. The next thing I knew, weird stuff started happening around the station. A heavy mining drone went rogue, there was an explosion in the Imperial labs, a shuttle escaped to the surface and managed to return without anyone getting caught, and then the invasion happened. I found myself in the hangar with one ship left and she was already in it. For whatever reason, she let me come along with her before dumping me at the first waystation she could find." I answered, again, filling my answer with plenty of truth so that he would have a hard time picking up on the lie.

"The one for Amstrun's reports. So, she is real." he mused.

"What do you mean?" i asked.

"Amstrun's last few reports were scattered, panicky, and full of paranoia. He started to get sloppy, and he started to talk about this blue woman who was terrorizing his station from within. I found the story preposterous at first, but now? Perhaps there is truth to it. Go on."

"Well, she dropped me off on Talcher-595, switched ships, and then left. I have no idea where she has gone now." I answered, this part essentially completely and utterly true, as the only think I knew about where she is going is that, in a very vivid dream, I heard that woman call it New Taaszon. I wasn't going to share that part of the story if I can help it, but even if Kordoth managed to get that information out of me, it's about as useful to him as it is to me.

"Oh, but I think you know more than that." Kordoth challenged.

"I really don't. I heard something about a New Taaszon but that's not a planet I've ever heard of." I shared, hoping that there really was no planet called New Taaszon, or place called that - really, how could there be? If the Empire knew of a world called New Taaszon, wouldn't they have gone there already? It's either a planet outside of Imperial place, a hidden place on a planet, or a codename for a planet or a place that the Empire haven't cracked yet.

"That is all you can give me? You flew all the way from Taaszon to Talcher-595 with this woman and all you know is that the woman from Taaszon has relocated to a place she calls New Taaszon?" he challenged, turning back to me, getting a bit upset at this stage, even if he was still trying to hide it behind an affable facade.

"What did you expect me to do? I was an ordinary person sharing a cockpit with some sorceress I didn't even know the name of! I couldn't exactly interrogate her, could I?" I got a little bit upset as well. I was locked in Imperial custody over a strange world face-to-face with one of the highest-ranking men in the Galactic Empire, getting asked questions about a chain of events I barely survived, that I barely knew about.

"A sorceress?" Kordoth asked, picking up on something I slipped out that I didn't necessary want to share.

"...I...I didn't mean - " I tried to take it back but it was too late, and the Grand Moff figured it out already.

"So...a Jedi. That explains everything, Amstrun was right about everything he said about her. You, Zaverra Ashtso, have stumbled upon some information that would be very useful to some very powerful people. I'm talking about the Emperor's personal enforcer, a Dark Jedi by the name of Darth Vader. I'm talking about a group of powerful Jedi killers called the Inquisitors. I'm talking about the largest accumulation of Force users since the Jedi Order of your childhood. These people will rip your mind apart to extract the information, with little concern for patience or what happens to you. Now, I can inform the Inquisitorius and leave you to this fate, or I can help you, but I can only help you if you tell me what I want to know. So, start talking." the Grand Moff threatened. Now, thanks to my experiences with Schweva, I knew that he wasn't lying about the ripping my mind apart thing, and apparently there is a whole group of people working for the Emperor that do this on behalf of the Empire. I was also, once again, told that I was in deep, deep over my head. I showed some resistance to that idea when Schweva pointed it out, but now, having been kidnapped by a Grand Moff and getting interrogated by him, I am starting to think that I am, indeed, over my head.

"Well...I know she's powerful and I know she caused chaos on the space station, but I'm pretty sure her mission was just scouting. The destruction she caused was just about causing diversions when her initial plan to scout the surface with a stealth ship failed. She caused chaos and she made it out, yes, but she didn't have anything to do with the alien invasion. In fact, she seemed to be more scared of them than the Empire." I explained, now willing to share information considering everything that was at risk here, especially because, like I said, the real threat seemed to be these aliens, which I had no connection to.

"So, she knows more about them than we do." Grand Moff Kordoth deduced, taking this into the wrong direction for me, he then changed tactics "Very good Ashtso, you've shared some information with me, now let me share some information with you. I believe the Empire has encountered these same aliens on the planet of Zletino. Zletino has become somewhat of a disaster for us, with countless troops, star destroyers, and resources devoted to trying to plug this drain before these creatures can overwhelm the galaxy, but we don't know how to fight them. A woman like her, with knowledge of this enemy, when combined with the Empire's resources, can finally lead to us defeating them once and for all. You were on the Mining Guild station, you've seen for yourself what they can do, and you know as well as i do that those aliens are a threat to everything, not just the Empire." Kordoth reasoned, pointing out just how dangerous the Shahak'Tur were and that these two opposing factions are somewhat mix-matched when it comes to fighting them.

The Empire has the resources to fight them, if they can mass their resources in the right place and be prepared for an extreme threat - which is no guarantee for the Empire, which is accustomed to asymmetrical warfare, to fighting enemies which aren't on the same level as the Empire - whereas Schweva's people seem to know more about the Shahak'Tur and evidently spent some time fighting them on their second world before having to flee to this unknown third world. Theoretically, yes, a combination of resources would be the best way to fight them, and, at the same time, as the person who encountered Schweva, I'm the natural bridge to her, but again, reality is an awful lot more complicated than that. Schweva has no love for the Empire and seems to view them as a major threat as well, and the fact of the matter is that an alliance between factions to fight the Shahak'Tur wouldn't be an arrangement of equals. In fact, it's more likely that this alliance would be a race to see who could betray the other first and seek to come out the best from the Shahak'Tur crisis. Schweva's faction will want to recover planets from all this, while the Empire naturally will want to incorporate any and all recovered worlds into their borders. These aren't friends, they're enemies, and a common enemy isn't going to change that. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, sure, but that adage places the common foe as a prerequisite for friendship.

"Let's say I agree with you, what do you expect me to do? I still don't know where she went." I pointed out.

"No, you do not, but we can find her, and you will provide us with a foot in the door." he smirked. So that was the game here: the Empire knew about the Shahak'Tur but still didn't know how to fight them, Schweva had some experience fighting the Shahak'Tur but the losses were too great for her faction to sustain, and the Empire figured that her knowledge was the key to driving them back. Unfortunately, they needed to get to her first, and they were fully prepared to track her down and find where she was hiding, they just needed me because she knew me, she is a lot more likely to trust me than any Imperial, so I might actually get the chance to try and convince her without getting thrown across the room with the Force.

"Who exactly is we?" I asked, realizing I was effectively getting drafted into the Empire, but also doubting that the Grand Moff trusted me to act alone.

"Send her in." the Grand Moff spoke into a communicator in his desk. A moment later the blast doors opened again, allowing for a human woman in a gray Imperial top, gray cap, and white trousers to enter the room "This is Agent Arrya Cerses, she will be your handler, and she will report directly to me. You will be providing daily reports to her, as well as calling in whenever you find something relevant to the search for this blue-skinned sorceress. Are we clear?"

"Yes," I answered, somewhat reluctantly.

"Understood, sir." Agent Cerses saluted, standing prim and proper as she accepted orders, the good little Imperial girl she was.

"Where do we even start?" I asked, legitimately having no clue where to start looking for her.

"We can presume that she left Talcher-595 to this Grand Duchy's capital world, the presumed New Taaszon. So it stands to reason that the best way to find her is the Grand Duchy. The Imperial Security Bureau believes they were behind a recent hit-and-run attack on an outpost on Felucia. It is currently the most well preserved evidence of their attack. Start there, look for links to other planets, to known entities, and work from there." the Grand Moff explained. So we really didn't know where this Grand Duchy of Taaszon was hiding or where Schweva could have gone to, but the Empire now tasked me with trying to find them regardless. I only had the remnants of a battle to work off of and suddenly I was expected to try and turn that into a verifiable location, all with an Imperial officer breathing down my neck. Wonderful.


"This is the Saboteur, a Kuat Systems Theta-10 Nimbus-class Assault Craft. Effectively the big brother of the V-wing starfighter, it should have more than enough room for our purposes." Agent Cerses explained, presenting her ship to me. Climbing up the boarding ramp at the back of the ship, between the engines, it opened up for a mixed-use bay, containing room for cargo, passengers, or anything else this ship might be moving, beds cut into the wall on either side, and then a steep set of stairs leading up to the pilot and co-pilot ships sitting in an elevated position. The exterior may be similar, but the interior really didn't have that much in common with the V-wing, and just as well too, considering that this offered a lot more room than a single-seat starfighter, despite not being that big of a ship.

"So, you're going to be part of the investigation as well?" I asked her as she climbed up to the cockpit and began preparations for take-off.

"Yes. With all due respect, I don't think anyone expects you to be a seasoned detective, no, your job will be to go under deep cover once we do find them. Until then, you'll be at my side." she explained.

"So I don't even need to be here?" I asked, shoulders sinking.

"Look I don't like it either, but the Grand Moff has made his decision. He wants you to be a part of this and I'm not going to contradict him, so please, don't make me have to get difficult with you." Cerses explained, surprising me for two reasons. One: she seemed to legitimately have concern for my situation here, implying that she would have handled things in a different way if it were up to her. Two: in spite oof this, she seemed devoted to the Empire and to Kordoth in particular.

"I don't want to get difficult. I just feel like my life has been turned upside down in the last few days and now I have to serve the Empire on this mission." I explained as I sat down on the edge of one of the beds, leaning forward to avoid the top of the alcove above.

"It's not as bad as you think, and the Grand Moff is a good man. He will reward you handsomely for your help at the end of this if it all pays off." she explained, trying to make me see the bright side in this, and also promising some type of reward or at least compensation for me at the end of all of this.

"What does he want anyway? To fight the aliens? To capture the blue-skinned woman for the Empire? Or to regain Taaszon?" I asked, unsure of which is his ultimate goal with all of this.

"I think all of those are connected. He needs to fight the aliens to regain control of his sector of the galaxy, and the best way of doing that is to enlist the support of this blue-skinned woman that you encountered." she answered, so, all of the above. I could see there was a certain logic to Kordoth's scheme, and I could see how his goals flow together in the way that Arrya is saying, but my problem with all of this is the lack of choice. I have no choice in being involved in this, effectively forced into this scheme because Kordoth thinks I'll have some sort of leverage over a woman I knew for just a few days, and even if I do, even if I can get the Empire to Schweva, then that brings up the problem of choice yet again. She doesn't like the Empire, she'll never want to work with them, so Kordoth is likely going to find a way to leave her without a choice, likely finding a way to threaten her people with full on Imperial invasion if she doesn't help. Is that the overall strategy here? Does Kordoth intend to use me to find this Grand Duchy of Taaszon so that he can dangle the threat of revealing them to the Empire at large over them? Perhaps that will be his ultimate trump card, to be known as a hero of the Empire for turning back the Shahak'Tur while also having the Grand Duchy of Taaszon permanently in his pocket? Maybe that is his endgame, giving him power over two of the galaxy's factions, and promoting him from one of the most powerful men in the Empire, to one of the most powerful men in the whole galaxy.

"What are you thinking about?" Arrya asked. I snapped out of my thoughts to see the blue glow of hyperspace coming from the cockpit while she stood here in the cabin, cap off and letting her deep brown hair down from its bun. She sat down opposite of me, still in her gray long-sleeved Imperial top, white leggings, and black knee-high boots, but now, sat on a bed, legs crossed, hands flat on the bed on either side of her, she looked a lot less threatening than the strict, hyper-loyal by-the-book Imperial I've been seeing up until now.

"It's just...a few days ago I was coming up on the end of a Mining Guild contract, I was looking forward to having a few farewell drinks with my friends, and I would be going home with a good paycheck. I thought I'd be able to take a few months off even. Instead, I got no credits, my friends are dead, and I've been turned into a secret agent for the Empire. This isn't exactly an easy time for me." I shared, figuring if I was going to be able to share this with anyone at this point, it was going to be her. I very much doubted that Grand Moff Kordoth cared at all about my emotional well-being, but I've already managed to secure some sympathy from the human woman, and maybe there is more to come.

"I'm sorry this has happened to you, but like I said, Grand Moff Kordoth is good to his allies. He's been like a father to me, and he can be a lot more generous to you than any Bounty Hunters' Guild fixer. By doing this, you're not just helping save the galaxy, but you're making yourself a valuable asset to one of the most important people in the galaxy." Arrya explained, giving an insight into why she's so loyal to this man. So, they had some sort of history, and she seems to think that working for him is one of the best and most rewarding jobs in the Empire, but there are a number of problems I have with this. First of all, I don't want to work for the Empire. I'll pay my taxes, sure, and I'll do my best to avoid getting in trouble, but I don't want to become one of their soldiers. Second of all, I don't think I'm cut out for this anyway. I'm reasonably athletic and I'm competent with a blaster, but this is the realm of super spies and sorcerers, I am completely and utterly outgunned and outmatched here. Finally, even if I was capable of these sorts of things, I don't want any part in them.

"I don't aspire to be an asset of somebody else." I responded, somewhat bitterly.

"With all due respect, you're a mercenary, you make a living out of being an asset for somebody else." Arrya responded, respectfully but firmly pointing out the hypocrisy in my actions. I didn't really have a response for that, so instead, I just laid back in my bed - then adjusting the position of the pillow to account for my montrals given this bed was clearly designed with humans in mind - and hoped to sleep away the time until we get to Felucia.


Once again, I found myself in the form of Schweva in my dream. The blue-skinned woman looked quite a bit different now though, having changed into a set of purple and black robes, belted at the waist, and hooded. On her tall, ornamented belt which covered much of her abdomen, there were two black and silver weapon hilts - lightsabers - albeit one had a wide, rectangular emitter rather than the standard circular one. I wouldn't get the chance to find out what the secondary weapon did because Schweva was comfortable here, in her element. That seemed somewhat strange, given that she was walking through a tall, narrow gallery on her way to the grand doorway at the other end. The walls were black, with purple banners decorating them, depicting a white stylized star in the center with equally stylized rays - almost looking like a two-pronged sword - above and below - and the room was lit by a single row of lights alone the narrow ceiling. It didn't seem like a very welcoming place, but that didn't seem to bother her in the slightest, perhaps because, with her power and her dark robes, she fits right in here.

The door slid open for Schweva, revealing an equally tall, hexagonal room with three windows, four more purple banners, and the one entrance. This seemed to be a protruding chamber from a larger building, perched at the end of a cliff face, with the windows revealing a snowy, mountainous landscape. I couldn't tell much more because Schweva wasn't focusing on that, rather she was focusing on the woman standing at the center of the room, at the center of the purple star emblazoned on the floor of this room. It was the Nautolan woman, same as in the holocall from the last vision, and here, she was dressed in a similar set of robes, with a curved-hilt lightsaber at her hip, her hood down, and her head-tails falling behind it, all except for four, which fell down her shoulders in a pair on either side of her face. These head-tails were covered in black, angular tattoos continuing all the way from the tips of her head-tails to framing her face. The big, glassy eyes of her species turned to Schweva, who bowed before her, causing the dangerous looking woman to ease her appearance with a small smile.

"My mistress, I have returned," Schweva reported, lowering her head as a sign of respect.

"So I see," the Nautolan responded with a hint of levity in her voice before walking over to the throne at the base of a window, sitting down before saying "You may rise."

Schweva did as instructed, rising to her feet, lowering her hood, and finally looking her master in the eyes, featureless red eyes against large, glassy alien ones. They were both alien to be fair, and both humanoid, but the Nautolan's physiology was more distinct...and more distinctive. Red eyes are distinctive too I suppose, but there are a lot more ways to disguise eye color than it is to disguise, well, being a Nautolan. I wouldn't have an easy time hiding the fact that I was a Togruta either. Anyway, once the blue-skinned woman was done diminishing herself, the red-skinned Nautolan spoke again.

"Taaszon has fallen yet again. I cannot say I have much sympathy for the Imperials that took our home, but they were at least a known quantity. I cannot possibly begin to know what the Shahak'Tur will do to that planet." the Nautolan sighed "The Imperials crumpled quickly too, according to the spies I have in the so-called New Territories, the Empire has already lost contact with Taaszon and don't have any plans to retake it. They don't know what they are up against, and they don't know how to mobilize their resources accordingly. It is a bad situation my apprentice, but one which may yet yield opportunities."

"Opportunities?" Schweva asked.

"Yes. We've been waiting for the Empire to divide their forces. We've tried to incite rebellions, we've tried to pose as rebels where such rebellions already existed, and we tried to create the illusion of multiple threats to the Empire, but all our attempts have failed thus far. We've been doing nothing but causing minor inconveniences and maybe some confusion across the galaxy, but now...now the Empire has a real opponent. Nobody knows the Shahak'Tri numbers or where they're coming from, this could tie up Imperial resources for years, and it may create weaknesses for us to exploit, openings for attacks, and maybe even stretch the Empire thin enough that we can face them in open conflict yet again." the Nautolan explained.

"But...I...ugh." Schweva impulsively reacted with a complaint before trying to stifle it. The Nautolan seemed to raise a brow at this.

"What is it Schweva?" she asked.

"I saw my home while I was on Taaszon. The ruins of it anyway. I saw the place where I grew up, the ruins of the castle, the Citadel, everything, neglected by the Empire and now fallen into the hands of the Shahak'Tur. The Empire forced us off of one world and the Shahak'Tur forced us off another, now we're on our third world in five years and the best we can hope to accomplish is taking advantage of our enemies fighting?" Schweva voiced her complaints, voicing a trauma deep within herself, and a feeling of being unfulfilled with all this. I took note of this, because, while I thought it was unlikely, this might be a path that I could use to convince Schweva if we ever actually got to that point in all this. I still didn't think I could convince her to turn away from her people, but maybe, just maybe, the temptation of finally getting her revenge on the Shahak'Tur, who now control both worlds she once called home, could make a difference.

"I know Schweva, I know. I urge you to be patient though, plans are under way across the galaxy. We are rebuilding, we are learning more about both of our enemies, and, in the meantime, we are scoring small victories against the Empire across multiple worlds. A war between the Empire and the Shahak'Tur would not only lessen the pressure on us but give us the chance to do far more damage on both of them. I know you want revenge; I want revenge too, even Zaliza wants revenge at this point, but we cannot take any more losses. Every movement we make is meticulously plotted out to advance our position at the expense of our enemies, and the stronger we grow, the faster results will come." the Nautolan woman reassured her apprentice, rising from her throne and putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. I have to admit, I found that speech convincing and I don't even have a fraction of the context necessary here. That being said, I did learn a number of things from this exchange: the Grand Duchy has relocated to a world with a snowy, mountainous biome, they are attacking the Empire on multiple asymmetrical fronts - the Felucia scene we're heading to investigate no doubt being one of them - and they have their own schemes when it comes to coming out on top at the end of all of this.

"Of course, Phanza." Schweva quietly, giving me a name as well "What shall you have me do next?"

"I'm glad you asked..." the vision faded out there, not giving me the chance to know what Schweva was doing next. Would she remain on New Taaszon, would she go somewhere else entirely? I didn't know. All I knew is that I'm connected to her on some level, beyond even what Grand Moff Kordoth knew, and that connection is slowly beginning to show me more. What was I going to do with this information? Well, that's the difficult question. I'm beginning to develop more sympathy for this faction than the Empire, but I obviously don't have the full context. Furthermore, while I may have sympathy, they're not the ones threatening me right now. Self-preservation dictates that I have to serve the Empire, but that doesn't mean I have to serve them effectively. I'll keep what I learned here to myself, along with the fact that this Phanza woman evidently has spies in Kordoth's part of the galaxy. These spies were close enough to the situation to know about the Imperial reaction to Taaszon, but their effectiveness was limited, given that they couldn't look at Taaszon itself for them. Perhaps that is because of how restricted Taaszon is and these spies weren't able to get a transfer there, or perhaps Phanza's spy network is far from complete. I don't know, but while I can, I will try to learn more about these spies, maybe even finding a way to use them to get out of this situation. It was a pipe dream at the moment, but we'll see how things develop.


"Zaverra...wake up. We're near Felucia." Arrya told me, lightly jostling me awake. I quickly got up, leaving my berth and climbing up to the co-pilot's seat, helping Arrya Cerses pilot the ship down to the overgrown, exotic planet that was so torn apart in the final days of the Clone Wars. Felucia was dotted with exotic planets, some are even rumored to have sentience, and the planet isn't known for having very much in terms of significant settlements. There are a handful of villages, mostly belonging to the Felucian species itself, with the Gossam species, who controlled the world leading into the Separatist Crisis, have largely been driven off of the planet due to the harsh fighting during the Clone Wars and Imperial suppression of separatists since. So, that meant that Felucia was rather remote and low in population, which is perhaps the reason why the Empire has maintained some of its bases dating to the Clone Wars era, one of these bases being the alleged subject of a Grand Ducal attack. Arrya and I would investigate, hopefully finding something that got us on a trail, but not too good of a trail either. Basically, I needed to be doing well enough to keep Kordoth from realizing what I was doing, while also doing poorly enough to not actually discover Schweva. I fully admit that I didn't know all that much about Schweva, but I know that she didn't deserve to be kidnapped by the Empire and turned into an asset. Speaking from recent experience, nobody deserves that.

"So what exactly is this outpost they attacked?" I asked, figuring there must be some significant reason why they attacked this place of all the various Imperial outposts on Felucia.

"It's a standard testing and experimentation facility. Various Imperial designs and experiments are trialed on an insignificant and remote world, nothing particularly special or unique. The thing with the Grand Duchy is that they try and vary their attacks. They resist patterns or clear reason, that's what makes it hard to study them and even harder to find them." Arrya Cerses explained, removing that line of thought as we descended into Felucia's atmosphere. So, this seemed to be the small victories that the Phanza woman was talking about in the vision: the Grand Duchy really wasn't a major threat to the Empire in the way that the Shahak'Tur were, they didn't have the resources to fight the Empire on even footing, so instead, they fought them with subterfuge, disguises, surprise, and randomness. There were likely big strategic targets which they could hit to inflict maximal damage, but the Empire was also expecting them there. They would avoid a potentially more important target if it meant greater losses, instead seeking to cause chaos in as many small places as possible. In any case, Agent Cerses brought the ship down on a landing pad within the smoking, charred ruins of the base, all while the various Imperial officers and stormtroopers patrolled the grounds.

"Let me take the lead." Cerses told me before climbing down from the cockpit and out the boarding ramp, me following just behind. We were stopped by a human male Imperial officer though, coming to meet us.

"Halt. This is a restricted area, identify yourself or leave immediately." he barked out, clearly having no patience for our presence.

"Calm down Lieutenant. My name is Agent Arrya Cerses, ISB Attache to Grand Moff Kordoth of the New Territories. Operating Number 9884. This is ISB Special Person 11207, she is in my custody." Cerses explained while handing over her code cylinder, all the information checking out when the Lieutenant scanned it. I learned two things from this: first of all, that Arrya is technically an ISB agent first and a servant of Kordoth second. Second of all, I've been given the same treatment, sort of drafted into the ISB as a Special Person, which I assumed was the euphemistic term for anyone that the Imperial Security Bureau was using for their own purposes, but wasn't actually a formal member of the organization.

"Ah, very well Agent. My apologies for the directness, but we are currently recovering from a vicious attack on this installation. Those of us walking around the base right now? They're all that's left." he responded, spelling out the aftermath of the attack.

"We know Lieutenant, that's why we're here. Tell me what happened." Arrya requested, trying to get information before beginning our investigation.

"Well, the attacker knew the base well. We suspect they may have been watching this facility for some time, because when much of our forces left the base for a demonstration of our new walkers in the jungle, they descended on the base. It began with stealth, taking down the remaining troopers, planting explosives, and we believe they were after something as well. We do think they were uncovered at some point, because we heard blaster fire and that caused the rest of us to return. We attacked them and managed to drive them off, but not before they detonated their charges." he explained. So, the majority of the garrison left to do a test in the jungle - the purpose of their facility - and that is when the Grand Duchy struck. Initially, everything had been going well for them, but at one point, they were discovered, and a firefight ensured, drawing the attention of the rest of the garrison. Now overwhelmed, the Grand Duchy forces had no choice but to flee, prematurely detonating their explosives so as to do as much damage as possible.

"Did they leave anything behind?" Arrya asked.

"We're combing through the evidence now and we haven't found much so far. We had shot one of them down and thought we had hit the jackpot in terms of acquiring information, but the others swept down and recovered their comrade, then escaping via jetpack." the Lieutenant responded. So, that seemed to imply that, whenever possible, the Grand Duchy does not like to leave behind evidence or witnesses, but obviously, when this entire Imperial garrison and their walkers are storming their position, removing all the witnesses isn't exactly possible, but they can at least do everything in their power to avoid leaving behind evidence. A dead body from one of them would be a massive boon for the Empire, since it would provide influence on their gear, their technology, who they are, and maybe even where they are. Now, obviously, the Empire must have recovered some bodies before, simply because of the numbers involved here, but the Grand Duchy makes it a point to limit that, and that puts a limit on how much the Empire knows about them. Hence, here we are, trying to figure out this faction.

"So they had jetpacks?" I asked, picking up on the fact that jetpacks seemed to be key to this attack.

"Yes, they seemed to be their strategy for getting in and out of the base. We weren't able to figure out where they landed once they got airborne and they escaped our grasp." the Imperial answered, not quite looking me in the eye, even if he was responding to my question.

"Alright, thank you for your help, Lieutenant. We will continue our investigation independently." Agent Cerses responded, essentially finding a polite way to tell the Imperials that we were going to have a look around and to stay out of our way. We walked past the smoking wreckage of blown-up AT-TE chassis, armed with various different weapon attachments with varying purposes and functions, behind supply crates, and even a command center. The Grand Duchy's attack on this place seemed to rather thorough, and they didn't leave very much behind. There was scorching from the explosions, obviously, and blaster scarring as well, but the blaster marks didn't exactly tell us much, it was just a black mark on a gray wall.

Arrya had little interest in blast marks though, instead, she walked over to the most intact walker of the bunch. It still had an explosive placed on a critical, lightly protected area, cracking the chassis in half and blowing a significant chunk out of it, but for whatever reason, this explosion hadn't been quite as devastating as the others. leaving more evidence behind. Of course, the explosive itself was long gone, and any shards of it were too small with which to draw conclusions, so it seemed like Agent Cerses was just looking at the wrecked interior of an Imperial walker. I, meanwhile, walked over to a nearby spot where a stormtrooper had fallen. His body had been removed already, but the outline of his body remained, a blank spot on the ground of a base otherwise caught in the ash of battle. These were the realities of warfare I suppose: the Grand Duchy was fighting the Empire and they were killing Imperials. The Imperials were also killing the Grand Duchy's people. I suppose that's been pretty clear from what I've heard so far, but here is proof of it. I wanted to avoid action and avoid the Empire after what happened on Taaszon, yet here I am, investigation a battlefield on behalf of a Grand Moff of the Empire.

That's when I saw something though, a twinkle from the light hitting a shiny piece of metal in this otherwise barren landscape. I went over to it, barely even thinking, and found a slightly rounded slab of chrome metal...a piece of armor.

"Zaverra! I think I found something!" I was looking at this piece of metal when Arrya called me over, having found something of her own, in the very walker I dismissed, no less. I put the slab of armor in my pocket for now and walked back to the walker, entering it and finding Arrya Cerses crouched down, looking up at the bottom of the dashboard of the walker, having found something under the control panel. Arrya explained what it was "I knew there was a reason this walker was better preserved than the rest. The Grand Duchy left something in here for us to find. The question is...what?"

"A listening device perhaps?" I wondered.

"I doubt it, they wouldn't have wanted us to find it then. Besides, with the average Imperial garrison being what it is, there's no guarantee the grunts out there would have even checked in here before scrapping the whole walker. A listening device in here wouldn't do them any good." Arrya dismissed that idea before producing a prying tool from her belt "Here, I'm going to gently try and rem - "

Arrya stopped when her tampering with the device triggered something, causing a mine of some sort to shoot up off the ground from the middle of the base. I grabbed Agent Cerses and threw the both of us to the floor of the walker as the mine detonated in mid-air like a seismic charge, shaking the walker but not doing any more damage. Thankfully, the window of this thing was blown outward in the first explosion, meaning it couldn't be blown inward in this one. Just as I thought we had survived the Grand Duchy's trap I heard an unholy shriek from the jungle. I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the soundwaves still shaking my montrals - and walked to the cockpit of the walker to see a wild Jungle Rancor rushing into the base on a rampage, desperately trying to stop the horrible sound that's been ringing in its ears since the seismic charge detonated. So, this had been the second element of their plan, to have the Felucian wildlife finish off the base. I'm not sure if they would have had an even grander scheme in play if they hadn't been stopped, or if they felt that one rabid Rancor was sufficient, but right now, Arrya and I were looking at a gigantic, blue monster terrorizing the Imperial base. To add insult to injury, it was also between us and our ship, so we couldn't just flee either.

"What the hell are we going to do?" I muttered to myself, totally in over my head.

"Check the back of the walker. The Imperials have a protected compartment for their shells. I think this walker might just be intact enough for it to have survived." Arrya commanded, giving me something to do. Considering that I didn't exactly have any better ideas, I obliged, looking around the back of the compartment before finally finding the compartment with the shells, sliding it open to see a set of nine heavy duty artillery shells that were meant to be fired out of this thing's cannon, but...she didn't really think that she could get this cannon working, did she? I turned to her, about to ask, but she kept talking instead "Good, run to the south wall and get as clear from this walker as you can, I'm going to get its attention. Go!"

Arrya ordered and I obliged, exiting the walker via the hole the Grand Duchy blew into the side of it, then making a diagonal run to the south wall, the very wall that the Jungle Rancor had come from, but that also meant that it was the wall behind it. I got to the wall then looked back, finding that Agent Cerses had climbed onto the top of the walker and produced her blaster pistol. She aimed it at the Rancor, hesitated just a moment, then let loose a shot, hitting the Rancor just above the eye. The beast roared out in pain before turning its head at her, finding its target and then growling. Arrya jumped back and forth a little bit, like a boxer droid, announcing her presence, and getting the rancor to charge her. This was exactly what she wanted though, because Arrya turned, ran down the length of the walker, and then leaped over the wall, blasting behind her as she did so. Her blaster hit her mark and the so did the Rancor, charging into the wrecked walker just in time for Agent Cerses to detonate the shells. The walker exploded, taking the Rancor with it, while Arrya tumbled down into the growth below, the wall of the base tanking the blow for her.

I watched for a few moments, wondering if she was okay, only for her to saunter into the base through the south gate on my left. Her uniform was stained, her hair was ruffled, and she lost her cap, but other than that and a bit of dirt on her face, she was fine. I looked back on the base, seeing some flipped over wreckage, some scattered and rattled but alive Imperials, and a very uncomposed lieutenant, but the Imperials were also mostly fine as well.

"Well, I guess that walker isn't going to be recoverable after all." Arrya joked, referring to the burning wreckage of the walker we had both been inside of a few moments ago, now with a dead rancor laying on top of it "The Grand Duchy had been in a hurry to get out of here, but they still managed to be careful. The only evidence they left behind was an absolute death trap."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. I found this." I said, producing the slab of shaped armor.

"Hmm...is that...Beskar maybe? I don't know for sure, but if it is, that's a definite lead. Come on, let's get back to Fortress Imperius, we can have it tested there." Arrya decided after taking a look at the slab, possibly connecting it to the Mandalorians, but she couldn't be sure without a positive ID of the metal here. Given that neither of us were exactly experts on the topic, and her ship was more equipped for speed than science, that meant we were taking a trip back to Kordoth's personal fortress in orbit over Imperius Prime.


"Well, there are some properties to this metal which I do find strange, but it's definitely Beskar, and the level of craftsmanship implies either a Mandalorian or someone well versed enough in Mandalorian culture to be a master faker." an Imperial scientist informed Kordoth, Cerses, and I as we gathered in a lab within Fortress Imperius. Fortress Imperius was the name Grand Moff Kordoth gave to his heavily modified Lucrehulk-class battleship. The ship was a Trade Federation design at heart, with its central globe and surrounding ring, but Kordoth has turned it into practically something else entirely. Almost none of the surrounding ring is made up of standard part, and perhaps the best example of that is the station's palisade defenses. There is a track surrounding the entire outer ring of the fortress and there are ten of these tall, protruding objects on them that the Moff calls the palisades. The idea is that, if the station ever comes under attack, the palisades can ride the track to the direction of fire and absorb any fire directed at it. Of course, all these modifications come at a price, and that price is that this former battleship is now a mere space station, having lost the ability to move independently. Not that it's much of a problem from Grand Moff Kordoth, who is perfectly happy with his personal fortress parked directly above the world that serves as his capital, surrounded by his fleet of Imperial-class star destroyers. It was all a bit extreme I thought, but I suppose his rank awards him such privileges, and he certainly seems comfortable on this fortress, so much so that, from what I've seen, he doesn't spend much time on the actual planet.

"So, we are to assume it is Mandalorian?" Kordoth asked, lacking patience for the scientist.

"I would say that is generally a safe assumption, yes." the scientist still avoided giving a conclusion answer, but gave one that played into what Kordoth wanted, which I also suspected was a relatively common occurrence here.

"Well, we have our next lead then. The Grand Duchy of Taaszon has some source of Beskar to use for their disguises, and the most likely choice are the Death Watch remnants on Concordia." Kordoth announced.

"Death Watch remnants?" I asked, not having the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

"A terrorist cell called Death Watch waged war against neutral Mandalore during the Clone Wars, eventually being drawn into conflict with the Republic as well. Now the remains of Death Watch call themselves freedom fighters, wishing to undermine our allies on Mandalore and take control for themselves. They are nothing more than a troublesome little group of malcontents and Concordia, a moon of Mandalore, is their troublesome little home." Kordoth explained. So, I guess Death Watch were one of the factions in the Mandalorian Civil Wars that occurred towards the end of the Clone Wars, eventually culminating in a Republic intervention. This Republic intervention coincided with the proclamation of the Empire, meaning that Mandalore, which had resisted Republic rule for so long, would be among the first wave of planets incorporated into the Galactic Empire. This has evidently caused issue with the Death Watch remnants, who have risen up to preserve Mandalorian independence. Since the Empire counts this Death Watch among its enemies, perhaps they are providing Taaszon with their Mandalorian iron.

"So, what will you have us do?" Agent Cerses asked, awaiting an order.

"Go to Concordia and confront this Death Watch, do whatever you see fit to extract anything and everything they know about the Grand Du-" Kordoth was presenting our next mission when the door to the laboratory slid open, revealing two individuals in form-fitting black armor, strange, ring-shaped lightsabers at their hips, and masks concealing their identity.

"Belay that order, Grand Moff Kordoth. Lord Vader has taken an interest in this one." the male of the pair began, cutting off the Moff before pointing directly at me. My situation just went from bad to worse. The two figures were a man and a woman, both armored, both humanoid, but the male was clearly a Chagrian, as marked by the horns on top of his head and the horned tentacles coming off of his head like Lekku, draped over the front of his shoulders. They were covered in armor too though, descending into exaggerated points, looking like they could cut through durasteel, and they just might be able too. The woman's features were harder to identify, she could be human, but she could also be any number of near-human species.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kordoth demanded, the human male Imperial not taking kindly to being intruded upon in his own seat of power.

"We received the bloodwork for Special Person 11207, including her Midichlorian count." the female added.

"As of now, she is the property of the Inquisitorius. She will be coming with us." the male announced, walking in front of the Grand Moff while his female counterpart circled behind him, eventually ending up on my left.

"She is an Imperial asset in the midst of a very delicate investigation involving the Invasion Crisis. The Emperor has entrusted me to use any asset necessary to that end, and I deem her a necessary asset." Kordoth challenged, not being intimidated by the Chagrian, even if the armored alien was taller than him, and that's before the horns are taken into account.

"And we are entrusted with carrying out the Emperor's most important mission. Do you really want to see whose authority goes further?" the Chagrian threatened in response, both men now leveraging the Emperor's name for their cause.

"He will be hearing about this, every word of it...Eleventh Brother." Kordoth narrowed his eyes, managing to identify the Chagrian in the process.

"Will he now?" the so-called Eleventh Brother took another step closer to Kordoth, clearly willing to harm the Grand Moff if he felt it was necessary.

"Enough of this," the armored female interjected, calming both men down "She will continue the investigation, for now, and she will also be reporting to us. Zaverra Ashtso, is it?"

"Yes," I answered with a nervous gulp as the armored woman finally turned her attention to me.

"I am the Twelfth Sister, this is the Eleventh Brother. We are Inquisitors. A group of uniquely talented and well-trained individuals tasked with carrying out the Emperor's most sacred mission: hunting down and eliminating the last of the treacherous Jedi. Your medical records indicate that you are fit for membership, and the Empire does not take no for an answer. We are going to humor the Grand Moff and allow you to continue this investigation, on the condition that we receive daily reports and that you fulfill every task we ask of you immediately and without question. Failure to do so will result in us bringing you in ourselves, taking you to Fortress Inquisitorius without even a shadow of the leeway that is being rewarded to you now. Are we clear?" she spelled out clearly, shattering any illusion that I would be able to return to my regular life after this, and also making it clear that this investigation was somewhat of a lifeline for me. This is the only thing preserving my freedom right now, and it is the only thing that can provide me with a way out if I play my cards right.

"I understand." I accepted. That was good enough for the Twelfth Sister to leave, and the Eleventh Brother followed not long after, both of them leaving the Fortress, and leaving me looking down at the holoprojector she gave me.


Ciao everyone!