Sargent Kreel

Kreel disliked sandy planets. Though he knew few that actually liked desert terrain, there were multiple reasons that planets like Tatooine and Geonosis were the least popular placements in the galaxy. Along with the sand and heat, the back alley thugs and king pins were a constant nuisance to deal with, and the heavy armor offered little respite against the striking suns glare. Plus, the grains got into the nooks and crannies of storm trooper armor, causing a major headache after when it had to be cleaned out. On numerous occasions, Kreel had considered simply throwing the armor out entirely and buying new armor after a trek on desert terrain.

But the importance of this mission far outweighed the minor discomforts of a little sand.

The recruitment center was pitiful in comparison to the Empire, Kreel making a note to file a complaint against the care the center was receiving. The center itself was crumbling in the corners and looked about as old and rundown as Tatooine itself, but even on a planet like Tatooine, the glory of the Empire should be obvious.

Entering, two officers jumped to attention. This was unusual – most often, the officers outranked him and barely spared him a glance.

"I see you recognize me."

"We received word that you would be arriving, Sargent Kreel. I am Lieutenant Commander Hal Grettesen, and this is my aide, Lieutenant Braxson Vayloy."

"What is your mission here?"

"M-mission? Our duty is to act as recruitment agents and encourage the people of Tatooine to join the Empire. We also provide communications to and from Tatooine...though those are few and far between."

Kreel walked around the office, giving everything a good look over. Though the outside of the office was rather shabby, the inside at least seemed well kept. Everything was dusted and in order, the floors well swept even in the corners. Most officers stuck in this position would not care so for their office, Kreel suddenly curious about the Lieutenant Commander.

"I see. Lieutenant Commander, what did you do to receive a posting here?"

Freezing, Hal licked his lips before responding. "Braxson, leave us for a moment."

The aide left without question, though he did give Hal a curious look first.

"You already know what I did, I'm sure, sir. I mistakenly gave my previous commander the wrong orders and was demoted in place of being discharged."

Kreel liked men who were blunt. He also appreciated someone who owned their actions rather than placed blame elsewhere.

"Yes...that is what the report said. But I want to know what you think happened."

Hal swallowed, sizing Kreel up. "I believe what the report said as it is the truth – I mixed up the reports."

"Hmm. As you say. Then onto my business - someone sent me a message recently, and I need to find them."

Hal's eyes lit up. "Oh? I'm surprised you'd come to visit your nephew personally when you've been so busy. He's been checking in every day to receive your reply, but he hasn't been by today."

"Nephew?"

"Yes, blond hair, blue eyes. Fairly polite for such a young age."

Young age? "How old would you say this child is?"

"He told me he was twelve."

Twelve. That was when his Master's wife had perished.

"I must find him immediately – what is his name?"

"Luke, um...hang on." Typing something into his pad, Hal muttered to himself for a moment. "I'm...afraid he isn't in the registry. That...can't be possible."

Hal checked again, and then a third time, but the name wasn't there. "I'm sorry, sir, I'm not sure what happened."

"You don't know who the child's parents are around here?"

Hal shook his head. "I'm afraid not. This is often the case on Tatooine – very few of the registries are kept updated in rural areas like this. Many farmers never report their children to the Imperial records, and on Tatooine the only thing that speaks is currency."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Commander."

"Of course, sir. If there is anything else you need, please stop by or call my comm."

Nodding, Kreel left, picking up the shadow that had waited outside.

"You could have come in with me." Kreel offered.

The shadow tilted his head slightly under his hood, Kreel just catching a glimpse of his brown eyes.

"Hmm. Perhaps not, a shadow's purpose is to not be seen I suppose."

"Where are we going, sir?"

"To the local school – surely they would know of most of the children...if this child went to school."

Kriff, Kreel hoped this child had at least gone to school. It would be agonizing to check every farm and home individually on this planet. Plus, if his lord learned his child had not had the opportunity to be educated, he did not want to see his Lord's reaction to that particular information.

The school was not far from the recruitment center, the teacher paling as Kreel entered the single room school house. All of the kids turned to gawk at him, as if they had never even seen a storm trooper before.

"M-may I help you?"

"My name is Sargent Kreel. I am looking for a child – twelve years old, blue eyes, blonde hair. His first name is Luke." Kreel did not see any child matching that exact description in the room, though many of the kids were light haired.

"Ah, you mean the Lars's nephew? He's been ill recently, I believe that's why he's not here today. Is he...in trouble?"

"No, I am simply looking for him. Do you know which direction his farm is in?"

The teacher shook her head, frowning. "Biggs, you've been to his farm – can you give the Sargent directions?"

A dark haired child grit his teeth. "Ma'am-"

"Biggs." The teacher warned.

Glaring at Kreel, the kid finally nodded. "Head directly West from the town entrance. You'll run into their homestead."

"Thank you."

Leaving, the door didn't quite shut when the child put up his protests.

"Ma'am, we have to warn the Lars's! That Sargent is probably going there to kill them!"

"Biggs, unless we all want to suffer the consequences, we stay silent-"

The door clicked shut, Kreel sighing. The people here seemed very afraid of the Empire. Of course, many of them hadn't seen what it was like before the Empire had come into existence. Rumors tended to get exaggerated this far into the outer rim – the farther one got from Coruscant, the farther one seemed to get from the truth.

The shadow returned. "Sir, I've procured a speeder."

"A speeder?"

The shadow nodded, pointing back towards the recruitment center. It was an Imperial speeder with faded paint. "It wasn't working."

"It wasn't?"

Nodding, the shadow got in, turning the key. The engine turned over after a couple of tries, sounding sticky. Still, it would be better than walking and more convenient than taking their entire ship. Following the child's directions despite the child's blatant mistrust of him, his words were spot on. Heading due west, they found the homestead easily.

Truly, it must have been the will of the Force to be able to find the child so easily. Though, the child was not trying to hide himself either, if the child had been the one to send the message at all.

There were a million questions running through Kreel's mind as they came in on the approach. Had this child run into another claiming to be a Skywalker? How would either child know what the name truly meant? How would he know that Kreel was connected with Lord Vader at all, or even know of Kreel's very existence? This was why Kreel hadn't wanted his Lord to learn about this mission before – there were too many variables.

A man was out tinkering on a machine, pausing to watch as they approached. As they parked the speeder, a woman came rushing out of the house, seeming worried.

"Oh. May I help you?" She seemed genuinely disappointed after seeing it was just the two of them. Looking over, Kreel belated corrected himself. The shadow had disappeared as soon as he had parked, not having said a word.

"Are you ?"

"Yes, I am. I am Beru Lars, and I live her with my husband Owen, and my nephew."

"Is there a child by the name of Luke here?"

"Yes, he's my nephew. His parents are dead; we are all he has left. Has he done something?"

"No, ma'am. I just need to speak with him."

"I'm afraid I don't know where he is. He disappeared yesterday, and hasn't come back. I'm worried he's gotten himself into trouble."

Kreel frowned to himself.

A figure came up from behind the house, a rough and tumble farmer coming to stand beside his wife. Kreel assumed it was Owen Lars. "Who are you?"

"My name is Sargent Kreel. I'm the head of the 501st."

The farmer's eyes widened, Kreel seeing him mutter something to himself. Even being quiet, he could just make out, "...Vader's fist…" spoken like it was a curse. "What do you want with Luke?"

"I'm not at liberty to say. He's not in trouble, but I believe he has information I could use."

"Information?" Beru began to tremble, her husband wrapping an arm around her.

"If his parents died, how did you end up with the child?"

Owen glared at him. "Why does that matter?"

"I am simply curious – this is an odd place for an orphan to end up."

"A man who worked with my stepbrother, Anakin Skywalker, brought him – Ben Kenobi. He lives in the hills now that he's retired, crazy old bastard that he is."

"So your nephew – his name is Luke Skywalker?" Kreel was floored – he'd expected to spend two or three days just trying to collect information, not find the child within hours of landing on Tatooine.

"Yes, we gave him his father's name so he wouldn't forget him. I never learned who his mother was – Ben didn't tell us her name, but he told us she died during the child birth."

"I see. When you see Luke, can you please tell him to report to the recruitment center in town?" Kreel watched the woman pale further.

"Report to the recruitment center? Whatever for?" Owen demanded.

"I'm afraid I cannot say. Thank you for your time."

Heading back to the speeder, Kreel found the shadow waiting for him inside.

"Where did you go?"

Holding up a toy speeder, the shadow was studying it with an odd fascination that Kreel found somewhat strange and endearing all at once.

"You stole the kid's toy?"

Setting the toy down, the shadow lowered his hood and shook his head. "I'll bring it to him."

"So, you went and poked around the house. Did you find anything interesting?"

Again, the shadow shook his head. "They are normal."

Leaving the conversation at that, Kreel wondered how much longer he'd have to keep company with the unsettling soul beside him.

"Let's go back to town – we can touch base with-" Kreel pause when his comm began to ring, going to answer it. "Yes?"

"Sargent, it's Lieutenant Commander Grettesen. I have some bad news – after going through some of the town's minimal security footage, I found footage of the boy being dragged off to the space port by a hooded man."

"Krith." Kreel cursed. "Alright, thank you. Is there a way to access the logs for the port?"

"I've already requested them; I should have them back in the next half hour or so."

"Excellent. We will be back shortly."

Sighing, Kreel wondered how he managed to find himself in this mess – this was going to be fun to explain to his Lord.

Darth Vader

For three days, Vader did not leave his dueling room. Despite missing numerous meetings that had been deemed important by his aides, he refused them all and spent his time slashing at the dueling droids that stood no chance against him. Eventually the Emperor would receive word of his transgressions, but he could not bring himself to care.

A knock came at the door.

"Enter."

The Vice Admiral approached him nervously. "My Lord? I have Kreel on the comm now."

"Excellent. Let us head to my office. And...send out an order for more dueling droids at once."

The Vice Admiral glanced around the room, noticing the complete disarray. After the droids had been unable to duel, Vader had settled for slicing them into splinters.

"At once, my Lord."

Leading the way to his office, Vader found Sargent Kreel on the holovid. It had been a week since the Sargent's sudden departure, and three days since he'd sent word of what he was hunting. Vader's patience was normally thin, but Kreel was now walking on a razor's edge.

"What did you discover?" Vader demanded, unable to keep his usual stoic resolve.

"My lord, I apologize for my disobedience. I wanted to resolve this matter without your knowledge if it turned out to be a trap."

"That does not answer my question! What did you find?"

"The child exists. We have spoken with his Aunt and Uncle, and they were given the boy by a Ben Kenobi who claimed the child was the son of the late Anakin Skywalker and they were all the family he had left. He has been going by the name Luke Skywalker here on Tatooine for the past twelve years."

A Jedi would have meditated in the Force to find the answer he sought, but Vader ripped into the Force, demanding the answer immediately. Though it was painful to manipulate the Force this way, often leaving Vader with enough backlash that he would have to deal with a migraine for several days after, Vader was too impatient to wait. With an unbelievable answer now in his grasp, Vader clenched his hands into fists.

"Kenobi!" Vader cursed his name, several things in the office creaking by his vengeful, uncontrolled use of the Force. Taking a breath, he tried to calm the rage inside. "So where is the child then?"

Kreel hesitated. "Well, um…"

"Well? Bring him to me! I wish to see him myself!" Vader snapped.

"I can't, my lord."

"Why not?!"

"He cannot be found. His Aunt and Uncle are worried sick – he went missing yesterday after being dragged off by a hooded figure. A Lieutenant Commander here on planet contacted all the ships that had departed the day he went missing, but none of them claimed to have a child aboard. One told us to speak with a Draco about it, but Draco also claims to have no idea what child we are speaking of."

Kenobi.

"Your new mission is to find the child Skywalker and bring him to me. Nothing else matters. I will not spell out in detail what should happen should you fail...nor if the child should come to any harm. Take that Lieutenant Commander that has seen him – he will be able to identify him."

"At once, my Lord!"

Kreel bowed, but Vader had already turned away, Piett ending the call.

Though he wanted to deny the truth of the child, the reality was at this point, it was highly likely the boy was truly his son. "Vice Admiral."

"My lord."

"Make sure they have every resource they need to find the child – make sure the new Major understands what he has at his disposal. I do not care what it takes – we must find that child."

Piett bowed quickly, nodding. This is why Vader liked Piett – though the man had no idea what was truly going on, he never questioned or disobeyed an order. Perhaps it was simply that the man valued his life, but that was enough loyalty for Vader.

Sitting back in his chair after Piett was gone, Vader felt overwhelmed as a million thoughts raced through his mind. If the boy was real like the Force was telling him, that could mean that somehow the child had lived. Padme's child had survived the birth.

No, that wasn't right. His child had survived. The child that was supposedly buried still wrapped in the tender womb of his love had not been buried at all.

But that also meant that the woman that had sworn loyalty to him when he'd taken her as his wife, the former Queen of Naboo who died a Senator, had done everything in her power to hide the child from her husband. Not only had she walked away from him, she brought his former Master Obi-wan Kenobi to kill him and somehow managed to hide the fact that his child lived.

The wounds from Mustafar ached as he pondered his past, a subject he usually found best to avoid. Palpatine told him to use the pain to grow stronger, but Vader had no desire for more strength. Already, he was second in command of the entire Empire. What more did he need? Why desire the throne from Palpatine when it meant long days of listening to people complain and making endless decisions for or against power hungry fools when he could simply obey orders like the robot Palpatine had desired him to become?

But this...this changed everything. The son he had mourned for twelve years now was apparently alive, and the galaxy he had promised his wife could now belong to his son. Palpatine would never allow his child to live in peace. More than likely, Palpatine would try and train him in the ways of the dark side to replace Vader as his apprentice. It did not take a fool to see that Palpatine found Vader boring now that he'd been broken.

Therefore, there was only one choice: Vader would have to destroy Palpatine so that he and his son could rule together as father and son.

"Skywalker...Luke Skywalker." Testing the name out on his tongue, Vader found it delightful. Glancing out the view port, Vader wondered where in that moment the child was. An anxiety he had only experienced once before when he found out his wife was to die began to overcome him, Vader having to release it into the Force.

"Soon, my son, we will be reunited. And when we are...nothing and no one will ever keep us apart."

Hal

Hal Grettesen had known for a while that being posted on Tatooine was basically equivalent to a death sentence. There was no way to get promoted on a planet such as this because besides the occasional recruitment, nothing that exciting happened.

There would never be a day he regretted giving up his post aboard the Valiant, but that was neither here nor there.

So how this random child from a poor moisture farm came to be so important, Hal could not figure out, nor how this child suddenly brought about a promotion.

"Lord Vader has promoted you to Major and offered you any resources you need to find the child. After the boy is found, we will discuss a permanent position aboard a ship." Vice Admiral Piett had called to relay the news to both the Sargent and himself.

"I see. I will find him at once." Somehow.

"Your aide will be promoted to Lieutenant Commander and remain on Tatooine – the closet ship in your vicinity is the Devastator. From there, you will be in command of the search. Lord Vader will also provide you with the finest of the 501st. They will be awaiting your arrival, Major."

"Thank you, Vice Admiral."

Nodding, the Vice Admiral hung up, leaving Hal and Kreel alone.

"I suppose I should introduce myself."

Yelping, Hal realized he and Kreel were not alone, another man in a cape appearing seemingly out of no where.

"Introduce yourself? As what? Shadow?" Kreel snorted.

The hooded man bristled before relaxing. "I am one of my Master's shadows. He has ordered me to obey you for the time being."

"All this because I have seen the child?"

Kreel shook his head. "You will come to realize the Force works in mysterious ways, Major. If Lord Vader has chosen you for this mission, it is because he believes you will see it through."

"Yes, because if I don't, my fate will be far worse than remaining on Tatooine." Hal swallowed, reaching up to rub his throat.

Kreel said nothing to this. "Where shall we begin, Major? Now that we've ruled out the ships, perhaps he's still on planet."

Hal felt his instincts begin to kick in. Before becoming a recruitment officer, he had been one of the finest strategists aboard the Valiant. Of course, that wasn't saying much.

"The last camera caught view of the child in the space port. I believe it would be safe to assume he has left the planet with the man that grabbed him. Thankfully, Tatooine is a small port, and only four ships left port that day."

"Yes, and on a planet like Tatooine, how many report anything at all?"

Nodding, Hal pulled up the space port records. "According to records, all ships leaving must state their cargo and their intended destination. Of course, as you said, many create false reports so it would be impossible to track the ships. I doubt any of the four went where they stated they were going."

"Then what is your plan?" It was obvious the Sargent was amused and testing him, and Hal was determined to prove himself.

"Simple: we go based off deductions."

"Deductions?"

"No one on Tatooine would think twice about a blond haired boy – there is no value in lying to us about him unless someone was paying them to. Every ship we spoke to had the same story: they claimed to not have seen the boy at all, except one."

Hal couldn't help but feel proud as the Sargent tapped the chin of his helmet. "Go on."

"Only one ship claimed they had sent the boy to another, therefore admitting they had seen him. How could the boy or the man make it all the way to the reclusive Draco without asking anyone else for directions? Surely if they had wandered through the space port looking for a ride, several more of the ships would have admitted to seeing him."

"Assuming they wouldn't simply lie."

"Yes, of course. Working with only four ships makes it manageable, however. I say we personally go after the ship that told us to look into Draco, but send other men to the locations claimed by the other three ships to cover our bases."

Nodding, the Sargent seemed pleased. "Sounds like a plan. So where are we headed?"

"We need to intercept the Sonfluer. They claimed to have headed to Corellia."

The Sargent hissed. "That planet is impossible – they wouldn't give them up."

"No, they wouldn't willingly. But Corellia also has to keep some records – say the Empire decides to look into their space ports; suddenly giving up one little name doesn't sound so bad."

"And if they aren't on Corellia?"

"Then we send out an announcement we are searching for them, and make them come to us."

Hal could feel the Sargent grinning despite the mask. "I like you, Major."

"Thank you, I'm glad to be of service."

"Come on, we've got some ground to cover."

Leaving the office, Hal grabbed his meager belongings and followed the Sargent and the shadow to the ship, not an ounce of him wishing he could stay behind.