"Admiral," the lieutenant stood at attention in the transport that was in much need of a service. "We've lost Tatooine."

"As always Lieutenant, your directiveness is greatly appreciated. I never did care for those who danced around our follies," Admiral Daala fiddled with the controls on her console of the imperial transport gliding in the outer rim of the galaxy.

"What now, ma'am—ah sir?" He stammered in a half fast salute, clearly worried.

Natasi looked down from the bridge at the Lieutenant. She smirked with amusement at his blunder and nodded from him to release his salute.

"What else is there to be done? We push on," She casually said, turning back to the console.

She was growing tired of losing. Though she mastered concealing her frustration, she knew this loss would push many to jump ship, apply for amnesty with the New Republic, or look for other imperial hold outs to join. Over the last decade she struggled to pull the imperial remnants into a united front. Although she had been one of the founding members of the shadow council, her high rank as admiral did very little to gather her influence and resources among the other leaders, especially Pellaeon who she detested.

"I suppose we should prepare to lose some of our crew." She said out loud mostly to herself but didn't mind if the Lieutenant heard her. She knew her days were numbers and letting some of her uneasiness seep through the cracks was all but understandable. With this self awareness that always gave her her edge, she was determined to press on until she had no other options. She knew no other way. "Do we have any information on the cause?"

"Yes, the footage should be accessible on your console momentarily," the Lieutenant informed.

Nastasi impatiently tapped on the screen. If she could decipher where the failure was she could at least delay her inevitable surrender to the New Republic a while longer. No one could say she didn't put up a fight or had forsaken her duty to the Empire. Nor could they question her dedication to honoring the memory of her former mentor and lover Wilhuff Tarkin. She had given everything in service to the resistance against the rebel scum who now had unleashed chaos across the galaxy. Everything…even a son.

"Apologies for the delay Admiral. It is up now."

She snapped back to the moment and prepared herself to analyze the recording. A soldier, a pilot to be more correct, approached the base with a mandalorian bounty hunter and an assassin. She was uncertain of the assassin, but from the beskar armor she knew well, though it had been restored and repainted since last she saw it. "Vader's personal bounty hunter? I thought he was dead."

"Fett sir…no…apparently not. He's been in command of Mos Espa since the Hutt's demise. Hasn't been a problem until now? All we can figure is his involvement has something to do with the new republic ranger that extracted the NRI agents we had in the hold. Perhaps he's considering a treaty with the new republic, though we do find this highly unlikely…but these are trying times," The lieutenant briefed her.

Nastasi said nothing as she stroked the keys and fast-forwarded to find the image of a young man entering the base with a familiar stance…imperial tactical approach, one she knew well. Nastasi froze the recording then rewound it and watched the pilot's approach multiple times. "Admiral? Did you find something?"

"A new republic ranger?"

"Yes, sir. It's clear from the emblem on the jacket. We are enhancing the image but we think it might be Adelphi squadron due to the proximity."

"Anything else?"

"I'm sorry sir, that is all we have at the moment," he clarified, sounding defeated.

Natasi sighed at the lieutenant's lack of observation and motioned him to join her. She played the footage once more. "Watch."

"Sir?" the lieutenant was puzzled.

"Watch," she instructed.

"He…advances like a stormtrooper," the lieutenant peered closer and stroked his chin.

Nastasi nodded.

"Is he one of ours?"

"You tell me lieutenant," Natasi smirked. "My guess is most likely not. But someone other than the new republic taught him how to carry a weapon that way. My guess is a veteran or a deserter."

The doors of the bridge opened as another soldier entered. "Admiral, lieutenant…the footage from the prisoner transport …"

"Not now, soldier, we're busy," the lieutenant snapped.

"But sir…I think you ought to take a look," the soldier pressed. Natasi reviewed the footage. Her eyes widened. The footage from five years ago showed the same pilot dressed in an imperial maintenance uniform. She froze the frame and split the screen to compare the head shots.

"Seems we have a fan," the admiral replied as the soldiers exchanged looks. "This ranger is a rogue. The worst kind as well. The noble kind. Probably on thin ice with the New Republic. Perhaps he can be of use to us."

"Admiral? He destroyed the base on Tatooine. I doubt he wants to join the cause to restore Imperial rule."

"I don't think he did," Nastasi continued the footage showing the ranger carrying out the NRI agent. "I think he came for her."

"Admiral Daala ... .That was Senator Noya's daughter… She was one of our prisoners on Tatooine." The soldier stated. "We instructed the ground force to keep her alive since the Senator is still an active contact of ours, despite his dismissal from the senate."

"So the ranger is connected to her," she connected the dots. "Start there. Contact Noya to deliver the pilot's name and background. We may have finally found a life line."

"Yes sir," the soldier and lieutenant answered and saluted her in unison before leaving her alone on the bridge.

Natasi replayed the footage again. Who was this pilot…a boy really. Looked to be in his early twenties. His features were intriguing and somehow familiar. The eyes focused with precision… a glare that reminded her of her old mentor.

She never forgot the day Wilhuff Tarkin had scouted her from her own imperial academy, watching from above posed and decorated. Though he did not move a muscle she could see his gaze follow her as she completed her course.

Such a long time ago…

Why was her mind drifting to the past? There was something about this pilot that was stirring her nostalgia. She enhanced the image further as found herself wondering about her own boy. How old would he be now? Wilhuff's son? He'd be in his early twenties—twenty-three, she calculated.

She closed her eyes and recalled her boy's face, round and full of eagerness. Where his positivity and angelic nature came from she had no clue. She detested it. There was hardly a trace of Wilhuff or herself in him. Only trait he seemed to possess was his inquisitive brow and sharp eyes that shifted each time he looked at her when she told him they were on the move.

It had been the hardest time of her life learning she was with child. She had debated telling Wilhuff about her condition, but ultimately decided against it once she had been assigned to the Maw Installation. It would have been a great inconvenience to him as well as an insult after all he had done for her: taking her under his wing, investing his confidence in her, praising her in rooms she could not yet enter, and the unexpected relations that had ensured between them.

The pregnancy was not planned. She herself hadn't figured how she felt about it. What she did know was she would not give up on her dreams and goals now they were within reach. The disgrace would tarnish Tarkin's impeccable reputation as well as diminish her own. But knowing that Wilhuff's own wife had failed to provide him an heir, the curiosity of the sex had her mapping out a plan to hide her condition until she was certain. If it was a boy, she could at least give him back the greatest gifts of gratitude — a legacy.

Her plans had gone awry after learning of Tarkin's death as well as the emperor's. By the boy's eighth birthday she decided it was best for her to seek out Wilhuff's allies, which were far fewer than she had anticipated.

They had traveled for nearly a year in secret, from system to system. And when she heard the New Republic had discovered Maw, she needed to head back immediately or else her life's work would be lost. But there was no way she could make it back with the boy.

She remembered one night as she laid beside the Grand Moff in bed he was uncharacteristically chatty and had told her of his upbringing. On Eriadu, is where he truly came into his own he confessed. He had told her of his great uncle Jova, and how he joined his uncle on several hunting expeditions in the dangerous Carrion Plateau. Through the experiences, Tarkin learned the importance of triumphing over nature and bringing order to chaos.

She didn't have time to think twice. If the boy was truly half Tarkin, then he might be able to do it. Slavers usually placed children his age in the households of high born crime families where they could earn their freedom eventually. The boy would be humbled, and if he had inherited any of her wits and intuition, he would find a way out. A way to thrive and overcome. And the credits for his sale would just about cover a direct cruiser back to her post in time to save enough research from the New Republic. She had to make it back, whatever it took.

One day the boy would come and find her. She felt it in her bones. He would find her and glare at her with his father's eyes full of betrayal and she would tell him how proud she was to see that he too, like his father before him, had conquered the chaos and overcame danger.

Natasi shook her head and came to. She closed out the footage and stood. She needed to focus now more than ever. The pilot was most likely a nobody from nowhere. A bastard of war, and unimportant to what she had to do to honor her mentor, lover, and vision of Imperial Rule.

"Really the whole forest?" Lenny asked R3. He was dressed in his school uniform as he watched the recording from Ossus. R3 zoomed in on Wyb and Kyla holding hands and Lenny turned to Wyb curiously. "Who's she?"

"What?" Wyb asked half confused and then realized R3 was being cheeky. He frowned and glared at the droid but couldn't help but break into a smile at the sight of Kyla.

"She's beautiful whoever she is," Rillo said entering the room.

"Dad!" Lenny rushed into his father's arms, who effortlessly scooped him up into a hug. Wyb smiled. He was glad to see Harillo enjoying fatherhood and would tell Lenore next time he saw her. "R3 has footage of a mythosaur! And Prisa escaped it with a baby frog!"

Beep beep beep, R3 scolded Lenny who had coaxed him into sharing the images but had promised not to tell.

"I bet that's a sight," Rillo remarked and placed his son down. "But don't show it to Rya, R3. I don't think she wants to see her daughter in danger even if she did evade it."

R3 chirped in agreement and rolled away.

"And you," Rilla greeted. "Making news all over the core. You truly are your mother's son."

"From you that's a big compliment," he smiled, sticking his hand out for a shake. Rillo slapped it away and embraced him.

"Come now I'm practically your uncle," Rillo laughed and took a seat in the living room. "When you head back Ace?"

"Tomorrow," Wyb replied, slightly sad. The idea of Kyla being so far away made his heart ache.

"Well I'm glad you stopped in to say hello. Even if it is brief. You stopping at Lothal before you hit Adelphi?"

"Wasn't planning too but I could squeeze it in. Something you want me to take Prisa?" Wyb raised an eyebrow.

" Ha, no. Just if you were, I'd like you to tell your mother how annoyed I am that she finally decided to get married and I wasn't there," Rillo admitted. "But it was about damn time. Good for Jord."

Wyb smiled and looked at Lenny who was poking R3 and giggling. He wondered what it was like to be so carefree and full of joy. At that age he had no such experience. At seven, he was in the final days of following his birth mother from system to system. He was always scared and wondering if he was about to die. That was until Lenore and Jord had come along.

"He's getting big," Rillo observed. "It goes by so fast."

"Do you like the core?" Wyb asked. "Do you ever miss the farm?"

"I was never much for farm life. Blurgg scare me, but don't tell anyone. I was raised here in the core," Rillo informed. "But it's very different from when I was a boy. I was raised on the North side near the ports, closest to the base. My father was high ranking in the Navy…my brother was part of death squadron. Me…well by the time I was Prisa's age I figured I better make my own way and got into the academy on Lothal. That's where I met your mom."

"What was she like then? I always wondered."

"Ha! A lost lothrat," Wyb smirked, reliving the memory. "Failed so hard the first week, but that final test…well she did so brilliantly that Lord Vader himself gave a single word compliment—impressive."

"Sounds about right?" Wyb tried to imagine his mother in the Imperial academy and then his mind flashed to the recording of her being shoved into the escape pod. "I'm thinking of doing a DNA test…to see if I have any… relatives."

"Really?"

"Do you think she'll be angry?"

"What?" Rillo got up and placed his hands on Wyb's shoulders. "Lenore would be the first to arrange transport for you and bug the labs for the results."

"You think?"

"I know Wyb," He encouraged him. "Lenore loves you as her own, but she knows what it's like to feel lost and not belong. I think that's why she is so stubborn in making sure everyone under the suns finds their way to the answers they desperately seek, down to the last lothcat runt."

"I haven't told her. Just decided yesterday after talking to Kyla in the archives."

"Ah so the beauty has a name," Rillo teased. "Not only is she beautiful but she sounds smart. A deadly combination in women."

"What?!" Rya caught the tail end of the conversation and glared at her husband.

"Nothing my love," Rillo clamored and winked at Wyb. "Just giving some advice to Wyb about the ladies. One lady in particular."

"Kyla Vancil," Rya remarked. The two men looked at her. "There's been a lot of chatter about you two after that recording R3 showed at the senate briefing."

"I—" Wyb was flushed with embarrassment. Rya warmingly smiled and walked over to him and pushed his hair out of his face as though he was a boy.

"She's a marvelous ambassador, and quite nice from what I hear," Rya remarked. "But if I were you I would wait until you're certain about what it is between you two before telling Lenore anything. Mothers have a way of being the harshest judge of people around their children."

"Wyb wants to test his DNA for relatives," Rillo informed. Rya looked at Wyb with excitement and pride.

"I just thought it was time…you know," Wyb said looking down slightly ashamed. "To see if there was anything there…look at the past and then leave it there."

"Lenore would be proud," Rya stated.

"Mom!" Lenny yelled. "Denz is at the door. And with someone else."

In walked Cowin Noya and Denz Loncak. R3 beeped in disapproval of the two men as he saw binders in hand.

"Denz?" Rya asked. "What is—"

"Sorry Ry…Rillo," Denz said lowly. "But it's out of my hands."

Wyb looked perplexed to see his old academy officer and Soni's father. He had met Cowin on a few occasions but really didn't know him. He knew what he had done to Soni and her family, or at least he knew the rumors and what Soni had told him. But as the disgraced senator stood in his aunt's living room, he felt his stomach sink. Something was wrong.

"Good evening, Senator. I am sorry to barge in like this, but I have been given an order by Senator Xiono as well as other concerned members of the Defense council," he explained and stepped toward her and Wyb handed her a paper.

"This doesn't make any sense," Rya shot back. "Because of Wyb's actions your daughter—"

"Because of Ranger Tersu's action as well as ambassador Vancil's, the defense council has discovered ties to the Daimo or more appropriately named Crime boss of Mos Espa—Boba Fett. Ranger Tersu you are under arrest until a hearing can be held."

"What!?" Wyb gasped.

"Your wings are immediately revoked as well as your ship. I am here with Captain Denz to personally escort you to the naval jail which you can thank Captain Denz for arranging."

"Denz how could you?!" Rya yelled.

"Ry please…it's better than the public jail," he tried his best to calm her.

"You can't make this stick," Rya protested. "I will see to it that Leia Organa—"

"Organa is on administrative leave," Noya smirked. "Your friends have played their cards recklessly Senator Rathos….or is it still Tersu? I never heard if you dropped your past husband's name after his dishonorable discharge and death. Rathos was well known in the Imperial realm so I could understand the hesitation to change it…but the name Tersu does carry such a heavy reputation."

Rya stepped closer to meet Noya's eye line. She hated men like him, and had fought far too many of them in her lifetime. "Noya, the power you seek or the respect that you think you are entitled to will not be achieved this way."

"We will see," he challenged and nodded to Denz. Denz stepped closer to Wyb with binders.

"Sorry Tersu," he said regretfully and pulled his arms behind him and fastened them on Wyb's wrists. He whispered in his ear,"We'll get this sorted. I sent word to Carson."

"Wyb!" Lenny shouted near tears. Rillo scooped the boy up and held him. "Dad! Do something! Where are they taking him?"

"Shh don't worry Lenny," Rillo calmed him.

Wyb turned around and saw Rya, Rillo, Lenny, and R3 standing paralyzed by fear as he was taken away.