This was originally part of the actual Chapter 30, but it was kind of out of place as a large segment there so I'm electing to split it into its own chapter. It functions as an interlude introducing Hans Zettour, a character from the Yojou Senki series who is the first of several characters from that work appearing in this crossover. I could've put this after the next chapter, now Chapter 31, but today is Trump's second inauguration so the idea of a man juggling his sense of obligation to society with life in an authoritarian regime is on my mind.

Colonel Hans Zettour was a proud son of Anaxes. The military tradition of his family went back a little over fifty generations-as a young boy his grandmother had instilled into him respect for their distant progenitor Giax Tz Zettour, a young officer in the Republic Navy whose actions led to the decisive defeat of the evil Sith Lord Bahr Haua at Abhean ages ago (a good timeframe would be 262 years before the Ruusan Reformations, or about 1262 years before the Battle of Yavin) and founded their dynasty by earning them a coveted place among the other notable military families in Anaxes' Sirpar Hills. The Zettour family went in to provide many more notable officers in the Galactic Republic's military tradition, such as Commodore Claire Zettour who fought bravely at the Ruusan campaign at the close of the New Sith Wars, and Brigadier General Osvald Zettour who served with distinction alongside the Jedi Knights during the Mandalorian Excision seven centuries before the Clone Wars.

This impressive family history, placing the Zettours alongside the likes of the Holt, Yularen, Dodonna, and Teshik families, had been drilled into a young Hans as something not only to be proud of, but humbled by.

"Do not think you can be lazy!" his grandmother had instructed. "Do not think yourself as one who can rest on the laurels of his ancestors! We are not the Tagges, the Prajis, the Valorums, the Safsios! We are the Zettours! "

Hans' grandmother had been a scarred woman, her appearance a permanent reminder of a costly victory over pirates threatening trade routes near Celanon. The fact that she had received an honourable discharge from the Judicial Department had somehow escaped her-until the day she died she still rose at 0630 hours to a recording of a bugler playing "All Stars Burn as One", changed into her Judicial Department uniform, and set about making sure the rest of the family was up as well.

From the day they turned six, Hans and his cousins had been expected to rise with the rest of the family for the morning roll call conducted by his grandmother and her adjunct, a Duros military officer named Juba who had resigned his commission to loyally follow her out of the Judicials when she was discharged. Hans had once, on a morning exactly two weeks after his sixth birthday, overslept by thirty minutes only to be awoken by Juba literally pulling him out of his bed and onto the floor.

"You can sleep all you like, boy." Juba said sternly. "But the galaxy's enemies won't. Terrorists and pirates and syndicate goons and insurgents get up right on time in their mission to fight against peace and law. So, we get up earlier to stop them. We get up earlier so the people of the galaxy can sleep in late, safe in the knowledge that people like us stand between them and the evil designs of criminal beings like Marchion Ro and Vaid Aaor and Darth Malak."

To young Hans' horror, when Juba took him downstairs, he learned that his grandmother had made the whole household continue to stand at roll call while she glared at them for the entirety of the half hour he'd overslept. His cousin Sal, his best friend inside the family and eventually one of countless Republic casualties at Hypori at the beginning of the Clone Wars, refused to speak to him for nearly a week after that.

Hans would be an early riser almost every single morning for the rest of his life.

After roll call was breakfast, and then the children between the ages of six and ten were sent to the classroom. The Zettour family employed a few private tutors: Klap from Sullust taught the older children mathematics; Jahde from Corellia instructed them all in classical literature; and Ajau, from Dais City right there on Anaxes, gave lessons in basic science. However, most of the education was done by Hans' grandmother or, should she be busy with other family affairs, Juba in her stead.

When Hans first began attending classes under his grandmother's direction, the classroom was fairly full. In addition to him and Sal, there was another cousin at age six: Lana, whose parents did not reside with the family on Anaxes but had still sent their daughter there to be educated per the family tradition. The seven year olds' class numbered four, including Hans' older sister Heidi. There were no eight year olds at that time, and the sole nine year old, Hans' nephew (the only son of Hans' much older brother Franz), was old enough to have always been taught alongside that crop of ten year olds, who numbered three.

The lessons of his grandmother varied from survivalist skills-Hans still remembered with great embarrassment failing to understand Juba's instruction in firebuilding while Lana got hers lit on her first try-to droid mechanics-one of his fonder memories was his grandmother working with him and Sal to repair one of the cherished astromechs that kept the estate running-to general history to military history to-most importantly-the family history.

He had to study countless Zettours with illustrious careers in the Republic Navy, the Judicial Forces, the Planetary Defense Forces, the Senate Guard, the political realm, and even the arts. The autobiography of Lieutenant Colonel Firmus Zettour IV, hero of the Battles of the Black Delve, was required reading. Dispatches from Commodore Claire Zettour to her flag officers at Ruusan had to be memorised with complete accuracy. He, Sal, and Lana were required to recite speeches given by Senator Also Zettour.

"What this family-what we have done and what we will continue to do….it matters." his grandmother repeated often. "I love the Republic. I love the galaxy. I love knowing that I come from a long line of people who have defended the Republic and the galaxy, and I love knowing that my line will continue to defend the Republic and the galaxy long after I'm a decaying corpse sealed away in a tomb."

If it ever occurred to her that the image of their dead grandmother's body rotting away in a sealed grave would be distressing to three six year olds, Hans' grandmother never seemed to care.

Upon reaching age eleven, the Zettour children were free to live normal childhoods. Lana returned to her parents on Wukkar. Sal attended the local junior high and then the local high school, where he became captain of the grav-ball team.

Hans wanted to stay and learn more from his grandmother.

"No." was her blunt reply.

He pressed the issue.

"I don't have the time." she said. "And there is only so much I alone can teach you."

Hans' father attempted to interject but was shushed by his grandmother.

"Let my grandson speak!"

"Yes, mother." was the subdued reply.

"Hans." she said.

His back stiffened. "Yes, ma'am."

"Do you really intend to eschew the remainder of your childhood?"

He swallowed. "Yes, ma'am."

"You prefer to work hard?"

"Yes, ma'am. If it allows me to continue learning."

"Juba!" she barked.

"Ma'am!" her adjunct, who had been standing silently behind her, saluted.

"Does Instructor Yularen still owe me a favour?"

Thull Yularen, whose son Wullf would eventually lead the Imperial Security Bureau under Palpatine's Empire, was by that time a retired Judicial Forces naval officer serving as a prominent naval instructor at the Anaxes Citadel.

"For Selonia, yes."

Hans' grandmother smirked. "Selonia…heh."

Hans knew better than to ask for context.

"You intend to call in a favour with Thull?" Hans' father asked, incredulous. "Whatever for?"

Hans' grandmother ignored her son and instead addressed her grandson again.

"Hans," she said. Her tone was gentle now, and she even used his given name. "I ask you again, do you really intend to eschew the remainder of your childhood?"

He swallowed. "Y-Yes…?"

He winced. He didn't mean to stutter his response. That indicated doubt and a lack of conviction.

"Hm. Thou stuttered." his grandmother said.

He winced again, expecting to receive a dressing-down for his indecisiveness.

(Lieutenant Firmus Zettour V had been indecisive in combat, once. The resulting loss of his entire platoon had made him a shamed member of the family tree.)

Hans' grandmother smiled. "That means there's still hope for you yet."

Hans was confused.

"Ma'am?"

"If you'd instantly answered yes, with no hesitation, well…" she said. "I would take that to mean you haven't thought about this at all or understand what you're asking to give up." Confused, Hans looked to his father, then to Juba, then back to his grandmother. "Regardless of the choice you make, the earliest one may enter the Anaxes Citadel as a cadet is age twelve-and that is in the most rare of cases. You will still have one year to live an ordinary childhood. If your resolve is truly strong and your intention firmly set a year down the line, I will use my pull with Yularen to get you enrolled as a cadet." She paused to let it sink in. "Do you understand, Hans?"

He swallowed. "Yes, ma'am."

Fourteen months after that day he was the youngest cadet of the new class who entered the Citadel to study at the prestigious Anaxes War College. In those days it primarily served as a training centre for the various Planetary Security Forces. Prospective Judicials like Hans tended to study at the academies on Prefsbelt, Raithal, or Carida.

As an old man four decades later, Colonel Hans Zettour wondered how much of his marginalisation in the Imperial Army tracked back to his childhood on Anaxes. He had been promoted into the General Staff, but never advanced beyond the rank of Colonel and remained a tactical advisor despite the fact that a strategist of his skill and experience would typically be either a favoured frontline commander or someone with a seat at the table in Imperial High Command.

His stalled career could be explained by the fact that Anaxes' extreme attachment to tradition had made it harder to subvert and politicise than Carida and the other military worlds. The military nobility with strong ties to Anaxes, such as the Zettour family, were viewed with suspicion by the Galactic Empire's modern, political-minded officers as too loyal to the traditions of the Old Republic and all the alleged decay and corruption that came with. The defection to the Rebel Alliance of retired Fleet Admiral Arhul Holt, who came from an Anaxes lineage as impressive as the Zettours, certainly hadn't helped matters.

It could also have been Hans Zettour's criticism of how the Empire ran things-he had authored several reports condemning the liquidation of Burtali City, spearheaded investigation into the handling of the war on Mimban, and presented himself before the Imperial Senate to testify in favour of outlawing T-7 ion disruptors following the genocidal conclusion of the Siege of Lasan.

The fact that he had retained his position in the General Staff at all likely owed less to the innate skill which had initially earned him promotion to there and more to the influence of fellow Citadel alumni like Grand Admiral Teshik and the late Colonel Wullf Yularen countering the COMPNOR officials tasked with removing those military commanders suspected of disloyalty.

And, of course, General Jylia Shale, who had just now summoned him to her office.

Her office was located at the General Staff's HQ facility in Coruscant's Federal District, the same building Zettour typically worked out of when on Coruscant. Officers and guards of the Imperial Army Military Police, supported and observed by the Emperor's loyal Stormtrooper forces, secured the facility.

"How was your trip offworld?" was the first thing she asked when he reached her office.

"I just got back last night," Colonel Zettour replied. "A few weeks isn't long enough for the capital to change much, I suppose?"

She shrugged. "I spend most days at work."

"An admirable use of thine own time."

"You're only a Colonel, Hans. I don't need your approval." General Shale said, smiling.

"Indeed, General."

"How was your sojourn to the front lines on Vicondor?"

Colonel Zettour snorted. "Hardly the front lines."

"It's in the Mid Rim."

"Most of the fighting is three sectors away."

"So Vicondor is only three sectors away from most of the fighting."

"Still hardly qualifies the front lines."

"I could order you to agree with me, you know."

"Fair point."

"You haven't answered my question."

"Hm?"

"How was your trip?"

"To Vicondor?" Colonel Zettour said. "Oh, fine. I spoke to General Soadu, like you requested."

"And?"

"He understood the logic of the troop repositionings the General Staff suggested, for-as he himself noted-we're all just waiting for Fleet Admiral Zsinj to make his move."

"Zsinj. Gagh." General Shale scoffed. "But continue, please."

Colonel Zettour shrugged. "There's not much else to tell-well, except…"

"Except…?"

"Except, well, funny thing really, that Inspectorate fellow you mentioned I might want to speak to? He and an investigator from the local Moff's office he'd called down to Vicondor went and arrested General Soadu the night before I left."

"Really now?"

"Funny story, yeah." Colonel Zettor said. "Apparently it was because of that-that, uh, thing you mentioned–"

"About Soadu's habit of manipulating and coercing underaged girls into being his unwilling mistresses."

The room suddenly felt much quieter and much more tense.

"Yes, that. It seems that while I was on Vicondor certain evidence regarding Soadu's predations made its way to our mutual friend in the Inspectorate."

"While you were on Vicondor to speak with the good General?"

"Yes, quite a funny coincidence really."

"Well, if certain evidence proving those allegations to be true made its way to the Inspectorate, then I trust that the Inspectorate has acted to remove a man guilty of such foul deeds from a position of power."

"Oh, of course." said Colonel Zettour. "I'm just surprised his political allies on Imperial Center haven't intervened in his defense."

"Advisor Janus Greejatus sent a lawyer to speak to the Moff of the Vorc sector, but the evidence is too damning for it to be plausibly contested. The gentlemen in COMPNOR are likely going to concoct a fabrication that he was a traitor to the Emperor so there will be an explanation for his sudden disappearance that isn't embarrassing to the Empire, but regardless–he's facing a full military tribunal. I'm told the prosecution is seeking chemical castration and at least thirty-five years sentenced to mining on Kessel."

"Good." Zettour growled. At Sodau's age, three decades and change was more or less a life sentence.

"To think, though, it took this…this absolute…horror…being discovered for a man like Pierre Soadu to receive formal admonition and harsh justice, his grooming of child concubines, rather than the numbers of civilian casualties his campaigns created."

"The people of Asrat, or Jabiim, or Virkoi, may take some small comfort in knowing that he's removed from command, at least." Colonel Zettour said.

"Perhaps," said General Shale. "One can not help but wish though that they be considered among the lives he destroyed alongside the children he molested though."

"Either way, justice was served." Colonel Zettour said.

"Indeed." General Shale said firmly. "Justice."

It's been a while since I updated this, over a year, but I haven't abandoned it. The next chapter will be out soon, and then I think one more after that until the Zoraster Sector Arc is concluded.

Regarding Anaxes: in Legends, Anaxes was an ancient military planet in the Core Worlds. NuCanon has messed that up a little by making it into a shipyard at the Coreward edge of the northern Outer Rim. I'm adhering to the superior version, the Legends depiction. Much of the lore on Republic military families and galactic military history is pulled from Jason Fry's Essential Guide to Warfare.

General Jylia Shale is a character originating in Wendig's Aftermath books.

Originally published 1/20/2025