The Imperial royal guards were among the finest soldiers in the empire. In their red-hooded cloaks and armed with their force pikes, they were a force to be reckoned. They stood watch at every major entrance, like great sentinels of the Emperor's will.
But as formidable as they were, they were not the deadliest warriors in the Empire. And they were not very well suited to certain types of missions.
The one that the Emperor had in mind called for more subtlety.
And that required a far different sort of Imperial agent.
On the planet Eridau, dozens of guests were being filed into the personal estate of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, governor of the Outer Rim. An ambitious, ruthless proponent of military power, Wilhuff Tarkin became a favorite of then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and rose rapidly through the Republic and Imperial ranks. He had come from a long line of professional military officers. Shortly after the Empire's creation, he has been put in charge of a grand Imperial project that few outside of the Emperor's inner circle knew about.
That gave him a sizeable amount of power within the Imperial military and government.
Perhaps too much.
That's where the Emperor's agent comes in.
Blending in amongst the other guests, there seemed to be nothing special about her. Apart from her luscious golden-red hair, tied up in an elegant twisted bun, her piercing green eyes, or her glittering sky blue dress - which was held up by one shoulder with an elegant blue flower and sported a pair of long sleeved gloves - which hugged her slender figure and busty frame quite nicely.
She blended in with the crowd, and presented her invitation to the guards.
"You're clear, enjoy the party."
She flashed a smile and walked in, catching the eyes of several male party-goers already.
But she paid them no mind, snagging a glass of champagne from one of the trays being passed around the ballroom.
The agent was pretty young, just barely into adulthood. She looked like she could be an escort or a dancer for almost any occasion and no one would bat an eyelash. But don't let appearances deceive you. Age by itself is irrelevant.
It is ability that matters, and it will be discovered that she possesses a great many abilities.
Darth Vader might be able to pull warships out of the sky and fight off entire armies with merely a wave of his hands, but he couldn't be everywhere, are do anything without raising suspicion.
That's where she came in.
As she sipped her glass, she scanned the party and observed the crowd, subtly, of course. Most of the crowd was gathered around the grand staircase. The host, the great and glorious grand moff Tarkin had finally decided to make his appearance, in a smart blue military dress uniform which appeared to harken back to the pre-empire days.
From the looks of things, he wasn't going anywhere for a while.
This was her chance.
Downing the rest of her glass, she walked off to the side of the ball room and made a b-line for a pair of guards, wearing gray uniforms with golden ribbons and matching caps, who stood at attention
"Excuse me guards, I don't feel well. Where may I go to lie down?" She asked, placing the back of her gloved hand to appear faint.
Without looking at her, still standing at attention, one guard answered directly.
"The server outside will show you to a room, countess."
She winked at him and followed his instructions, eventually being shown to a guest-room in the east wing. Not quite in the spot she had hoped, but close enough. The agent undid the strap of her dress and let it fall to the floor, revealing a form-fitting catsuit which left her shoulder uncovered, before she walked over the window and looked down at the bushes that lined the base of the building.
"There it is." She took a breath and exhaled. "Here it goes..."
The agent outstretched a hand, and for a moment, nothing happened.
But then, one of the bushes began to rustle, and seconds later, a bag was lifted up out of the bush by an invisible force.
She possessed the powers of a Jedi. Not quite a Jedi though. But nor was she a dark Jedi.
She was more of an experiment.
The agent hoisted the bag into her room and shut the window. She placed it on the bag and took all the contents out in neat rows. Clothes, blasters, climbing gear, a scanner, a lookalike blow-up doll to act as a decoy, and most peculiar of all, a lightsaber.
She slipped a short jacket over her shoulders and slipped on a pair of boots. After clipping the arsenal to her combat belt, she placed the doll under the covers and inflated it, making it look like she was really lying down as she said to the guards.
She then opened the window and stepped onto the window sill, before unclipping a canister from her belt and using it to spray some kind of gel on the side of the building, before it hardened and formed a sort of makeshift steps, allowing her to climb the side of the building.
The agent kept going until she found the office to Grand Moff Tarkin. She used her lightsaber to disengage a lock on the window, before using the Force to slowly raise the window. She lightly slipped in and looked around, before she came upon a large piece of artwork, which was made of a cut stone.
Running her hands along the stone, she was soon able to find an imperfection in the design, whereupon she pressed against it, causing a subtle click to resonate through the office. The panel swung open, and revealed a series of wires, which she picked apart very carefully so as to not raise any alarms and open the safe, which she was successful in.
A Thief. Was that really what she was good for? No, this was but one of a multitude of skills she was trained in.
The safe swung open.
But just before she could peruse the contents inside, the door opened, casting a thin light into the dark room.
She spun around with her wrist-mounted pistol already in hand and squeezed off a pair of shots, and the two guards who entered the room fell to the ground, dead.
The agent ducked out of sight behind the open door, using the force to raise a blaster from a fallen guard, and pointed it at the door, pulling the trigger with an invisible finger just as more guards rushed into the door.
Distracted by the floating, self-firing gun, the agent stepped out from behind her cover, igniting her purple lightsaber with a snap-hiss.
She tore into the guards, slashing them apart, deflecting blaster bolts away from herself and/or towards the guards.
One guard charged after her, but she slashed his gun in half, and then delivered a force push that sent him crashing into Tarkin's desk, knocking him out cold.
The remaining guards tried to surround her, but a new voice echoed through the room.
"Hold!"
The guards halted. Then their skin appeared to distort, and disappear, revealing metallic skeletons beneath.
Proxy droids.
The same happened with the guards she had disposed of. All but one, the guard she had force-pushed into a desk, who appeared to be a real man all along. The room seemed to disappear as well, revealing some kind of holo-chamber.
The agent deactivated her lightsaber and stood at attention as she faced Emperor Palpatine sitting in his throne, flanked by Lord Vader.
She kneeled before her masters.
"Tell me child," the Emperor rasped, "why did you not kill him when you sensed he was not one of the practice droids?"
"It was unnecessary," she said, "it seemed to me that a man loyal enough to give his life for a training exercise was too valuable to the empire to be wasted."
"You are right my master," Vader's voice boomed across the chamber, "neither light, nor yet dark. An interesting experiment indeed."
"Master, I have a question for you. Is this just an exercise or do you actually suspect Moff Tarkin of treason? The agent asked, still kneeling on one knee.
The Emperor smiled.
"I suspect him of ambition, child this one can easily grow into the other. But you feel needn't worry about Tarkin. Others will watch over him."
He then gestured to Lord Vader.
"Child meet Lord Vader." Then he gestured back to her. "Lord Vader, meet Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand."
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