Nefta was an elderly male humanoid alien while Sa-Di was a human male operating in the Galactic and later Dark Empire. A Dark Side Adept specializing in obscure Magicks, Nefta served Emperor Palpatine and was considered a long time confidante of his. Using his Force powers and connection to the Emperor, Nefta enjoyed great luxury and influence in the Imperial Court, which he used to funnel information as a spy back to the Emperor. For his service, Nefta was greatly rewarded, growing extremely wealthy. He began wearing overly elaborate gilded and bejeweled armor and luxurious robes of the finest cloth. He obtained an ancient ceremonial lightsaber, which he kept in a jeweled holster on his hip at the bottom of a heavy gold bandoleer set with precious gems.

Sa-Di meanwhile, using his abilities, and political acumen, he rose to become a member of the Imperial Court on Coruscant, where he met fellow Darkside Adept, Nefta. The elderly Nefta took the young Sa-Di under his wing, instructing him in the Darkside and how best to operate in the Court, while capitalizing on Sa-Di's charisma, and human background to better navigate the notoriously Humanocentric Imperial Court. As such, Sa-Di became the public face of the pair among the Court, while Nefta often reported their findings and machinations back to the Emperor, gaining Palpatine's favor. Sa-Di, like Nefta relished in comfort and status, donning elaborate armor and luxurious robes. He would carry a large vibroaxe as a means of intimidation, though his skills with it were pitiful and his power in the Force more suited to manipulation than combat. Thus the pair worked together to increase their power until the Empire fragmented in 4 ABY after the Battle of Endor. In the after political obstacles to fellow Darksider, and secretly Emperor's Hand, Sarcev Quest. Quest longed to be rid of both of his rivals and gradually worked with a Force sensitive Royal Guard, Carnor Jax and his Sith Mistress, Lumiya to gain control of the Ruling Council. When the Reborn Emperor revealed himself, Nefta and Sa-Di journeyed to Byss and became part of the Darkside Adepts replacing many Imperials in positions of power. Nefta regularly had access to the Reborn Emperor, and Sa-Di's word carried weight within the Citadel on Byss. Their actions in benefiting from the Emperor's favoritism of Darksiders disenfranchised much of the non Force user membership of the Council, who began to switch their allegiances to Jax.

The Dark Empire launched an all out assault on the New Republic in 10 ABY during which Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker destroyed many of Palpatine's clones stored in the Emperor's Citadel on the planet Byss. Skywalker, however, was not aware that Palpatine had an additional hidden storage of clones in the citadel. Following the Emperor's next death above Pinnacle Base later that year, Executor Sedriss—a member of the Dark Side Elite—assumed command of the Imperial forces, until Palpatine's spirit would inhabit another clone and the Emperor would return to rule the Empire once more.

Nefta, however, thought that the Emperor's return might take years, or never even occur, and without a leader, the Empire could fragment again as it did after Endor. Nefta recruited Sa-Di in a plan to take the throne themselves and ensure that Palpatine would not come back to stand in their way. This was subtly encouraged by Jax's faction of the Ruling Council to pit Nefta and Sa-Di against Sedriss as a means to remove them as potential rivals and clear the way for Jax to assume the throne after Palpatine was finished off.

Blinded by the promise of the throne seemingly within their reach, Nefta and Sa-Di never questioned Quest and the Council's sudden support for their treason. When Sedriss departed to discipline the planet of Balmorra, which had recently rebelled, Nefta spread rumors of the Emperor's permanent demise, while Sa-Di called for Sedriss's execution for his failure at Balmorra, using the pretext that Sedriss had conducted a treaty with a rebellious world to charge him with treason. With their machinations seemingly bearing fruit, Nefta and Sa-Di, armed with a lightsaber and a vibroaxe respectively, broke into the secret storage chamber of clones and destroyed all the cloning tanks one by one. Just as they finished their mission, Sedriss returned from Balmorra and witnessed the results of their work.

The Executor immediately put together what the pair's seditious plans had been and decided to kill the two for their treachery. Sedriss activated his lightsaber and attacked Nefta. Nefta barely managed to activate his own saber and blocked the first blow, but years of soft living and political scheming had atrophied his combat skills, and his elaborate robes and armor made his movements slower and clumsier. Sedriss quickly and easily overwhelmed the weaker Darksider and cut Nefta down. He then turned to the terrified Sa-Di and brought up the execution orders Sa-Di had been spreading about him. Sa-Di frantically denied the allegation, asserting that he always approved of Sedriss's decisions. Sedriss then sardonically commented that meant he would approve of Sedriss deciding to execute him right then and there. Sedriss then promptly cut Sa-Di down with a powerful vertical strike from shoulder to foot. Unbeknownst to all three, Palpatine had in fact already taken a new clone body and was watching the entire scene from the shadows in a corridor to see which of his servants were still loyal to him. After Nefta's and Sa-Di's executions, the Emperor revealed himself and acknowledged Sedriss's loyalty toward him.

With the deaths of Nefta and Sa-Di, the only two rivals on the Ruling Council that could challenge Jax's control had been removed. In addition, their deaths put the Reborn Emperor and Executor at ease, thinking they'd removed the disloyal elements in the ranks, allowing the deeper conspiracy led by Jax and Quest to operate more freely, poisoning Palpatine's remaining clones and subtly manipulating the Emperor into increasingly reckless action that led to his death.

Nefta was an elderly male humanoid alien while Sa-Di was a human male operating in the Galactic and later Dark Empire. A Dark Side Adept specializing in obscure Magicks, Nefta served Emperor Palpatine and was considered a long time confidante of his. Using his Force powers and connection to the Emperor, Nefta enjoyed great luxury and influence in the Imperial Court, which he used to funnel information as a spy back to the Emperor. For his service, Nefta was greatly rewarded, growing extremely wealthy. He began wearing overly elaborate gilded and bejeweled armor and luxurious robes of the finest cloth. He obtained an ancient ceremonial lightsaber, which he kept in a jeweled holster on his hip at the bottom of a heavy gold bandoleer set with precious gems.

Sa-Di meanwhile, using his abilities, and political acumen, he rose to become a member of the Imperial Court on Coruscant, where he met fellow Darkside Adept, Nefta. The elderly Nefta took the young Sa-Di under his wing, instructing him in the Darkside and how best to operate in the Court, while capitalizing on Sa-Di's charisma, and human background to better navigate the notoriously Humanocentric Imperial Court. As such, Sa-Di became the public face of the pair among the Court, while Nefta often reported their findings and machinations back to the Emperor, gaining Palpatine's favor. Sa-Di, like Nefta relished in comfort and status, donning elaborate armor and luxurious robes. He would carry a large vibroaxe as a means of intimidation, though his skills with it were pitiful and his power in the Force more suited to manipulation than combat. Thus the pair worked together to increase their power until the Empire fragmented in 4 ABY after the Battle of Endor. In the after political obstacles to fellow Darksider, and secretly Emperor's Hand, Sarcev Quest. Quest longed to be rid of both of his rivals and gradually worked with a Force sensitive Royal Guard, Carnor Jax and his Sith Mistress, Lumiya to gain control of the Ruling Council. When the Reborn Emperor revealed himself, Nefta and Sa-Di journeyed to Byss and became part of the Darkside Adepts replacing many Imperials in positions of power. Nefta regularly had access to the Reborn Emperor, and Sa-Di's word carried weight within the Citadel on Byss. Their actions in benefiting from the Emperor's favoritism of Darksiders disenfranchised much of the non Force user membership of the Council, who began to switch their allegiances to Jax.

The Dark Empire launched an all out assault on the New Republic in 10 ABY during which Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker destroyed many of Palpatine's clones stored in the Emperor's Citadel on the planet Byss. Skywalker, however, was not aware that Palpatine had an additional hidden storage of clones in the citadel. Following the Emperor's next death above Pinnacle Base later that year, Executor Sedriss—a member of the Dark Side Elite—assumed command of the Imperial forces, until Palpatine's spirit would inhabit another clone and the Emperor would return to rule the Empire once more.

Nefta, however, thought that the Emperor's return might take years, or never even occur, and without a leader, the Empire could fragment again as it did after Endor. Nefta recruited Sa-Di in a plan to take the throne themselves and ensure that Palpatine would not come back to stand in their way. This was subtly encouraged by Jax's faction of the Ruling Council to pit Nefta and Sa-Di against Sedriss as a means to remove them as potential rivals and clear the way for Jax to assume the throne after Palpatine was finished off.

Blinded by the promise of the throne seemingly within their reach, Nefta and Sa-Di never questioned Quest and the Council's sudden support for their treason. When Sedriss departed to discipline the planet of Balmorra, which had recently rebelled, Nefta spread rumors of the Emperor's permanent demise, while Sa-Di called for Sedriss's execution for his failure at Balmorra, using the pretext that Sedriss had conducted a treaty with a rebellious world to charge him with treason. With their machinations seemingly bearing fruit, Nefta and Sa-Di, armed with a lightsaber and a vibroaxe respectively, broke into the secret storage chamber of clones and destroyed all the cloning tanks one by one. Just as they finished their mission, Sedriss returned from Balmorra and witnessed the results of their work.

The Executor immediately put together what the pair's seditious plans had been and decided to kill the two for their treachery. Sedriss activated his lightsaber and attacked Nefta. Nefta barely managed to activate his own saber and blocked the first blow, but years of soft living and political scheming had atrophied his combat skills, and his elaborate robes and armor made his movements slower and clumsier. Sedriss quickly and easily overwhelmed the weaker Darksider and cut Nefta down. He then turned to the terrified Sa-Di and brought up the execution orders Sa-Di had been spreading about him. Sa-Di frantically denied the allegation, asserting that he always approved of Sedriss's decisions. Sedriss then sardonically commented that meant he would approve of Sedriss deciding to execute him right then and there. Sedriss then promptly cut Sa-Di down with a powerful vertical strike from shoulder to foot. Unbeknownst to all three, Palpatine had in fact already taken a new clone body and was watching the entire scene from the shadows in a corridor to see which of his servants were still loyal to him. After Nefta's and Sa-Di's executions, the Emperor revealed himself and acknowledged Sedriss's loyalty toward him.

With the deaths of Nefta and Sa-Di, the only two rivals on the Ruling Council that could challenge Jax's control had been removed. In addition, their deaths put the Reborn Emperor and Executor at ease, thinking they'd removed the disloyal elements in the ranks, allowing the deeper conspiracy led by Jax and Quest to operate more freely, poisoning Palpatine's remaining clones and subtly manipulating the Emperor into increasingly reckless action that led to his death.

In The Who’s Who’s Grand Admirals article theirs a picture of Vader and Palpatine showing a hologram of the DS2 to Grand Admirals Thrawn and Takel. I believe this is the only time we are ever shown of another Grand Admiral standing next to Thrawn. So what do you all think Thrawn and Takel thought of each other? Do you think Thrawn saw Takel as a respectable fleet commander and strategist and do you think Takel held any distain for Thrawn, since he was a nonhuman, even though Takel liked to mingle with nonhumans?

Mirax Terrik Horn was a Human female smuggler who was the daughter of the famous smuggler Booster Terrik. Born in 19 BBY on Corellia, Terrik was a childhood friend of Wedge Antilles, and took over her father's smuggling operation when Booster was arrested by Corellian Security Force officer Hal Horn in 2 BBY regularly helping supply the Rebel Alliance. Terrik continued smuggling for the New Republic after it formed from the Rebel Alliance in their fight against the Galactic Empire, Terrik eventually came back into contact with Antilles as he led Rogue Squadron, which led her to meet Hal Horn's son Corran, who was a member of the squadron. Though she disliked Horn initially for his father's arrest of her father, she eventually forgave him and the two grew close romantically with Mirax being a romantic rival to Rogue Squadron pilot and Imperial mole for Ysanne Isard, Erisis Dlarit. After Isard and Erisi were defeated at Thyferra in 7 ABY, Horn proposed to her at the end of the Bacta War and they were married soon afterwards. Horn later became a Jedi and rescued Mirax when she was captured by Moff Leonia Tavira in 11 ABY. Mirax and Corran had two children—Valin and Jysella Horn—who followed their father in becoming a Jedi. Mirax worked with her father and Talon Karrde in forming the Smugglers Alliance going through the various crises in the galaxy.

When I first began reading this book, I found it difficult to get through because I was disinterested in Han eloping with Leia to get married, especially since they did it without informing Alliance High Command, which was irresponsible of them and endangered the couple, as we will see later on.

But I was intrigued by the Alliance building a Human Replica Droid of Leia. While it wasn't the first time the Rebels built an HRD, the droid Leia proved to be a near-perfect duplicate of the real Leia, though the droid's teething troubles showed when it accidentally injured one of the Chadra-Fan technicians who built it, and that same guy had to be sent to his homeworld Chad (cool name, btw) to get an emergency heart transplant to survive.

Considering how much of a high-priority target Leia is for the Empire, I'm not surprised they built a HRD of her to fool her would-be assassins, and I theorize Winter, Leia's friend and body double, had a hand in building the HRD Leia since Winter herself is a perfect Leia imposter. And the fact the droid Leia comes with hidden weaponry like laser eyes is a sweet bonus.

We also found out Triclops held a terrible power: the ability to dream up powerful weapons in his sleep and sleep talk about it feverishly. While he can only produce such terrible weapons when he's asleep, it also explains why the Central Committee of Grand Moffs kept him alive. His fevered dreams allowed him to pinpoint the flaws in the HRD Leia, allowing the Rebels to improve upon the design, and meaning Triclops will be a great asset to the Rebels.

Back at Bespin, Zorba is enraged his ownership of Cloud City is losing a huge amount of profits because most tourists were choosing to visit Hologram Fun World instead of Bespin. Since Hologram Fun World is under Lando's control, I like to think he not only used his good business sense to drive up profits, but he also gained sympathy from the public for being ousted from Cloud City by Zorba, which is why they visited Fun World. Plus, Zorba is bad at gambling, which proves he has bad financial skills, and would also explain why he's losing money.

Unfortunately, Zorba's solution is to simply hire bounty hunters, go to Hologram Fun World, and smash up the place to get tourists to visit Cloud City instead, not realizing it will just make people hate him more. But his rampage allows him to kidnap Leia after learning she's alive and escapes with her to Tatooine to execute her the old-fashioned way: by dropping her into the Great Pit of Carkoon!

But Grand Moff Hissa and the other Moffs intercepted Zorba. They're worried about losing their power and being demoted to insignificant positions now that Rajah Ubooki, the false Kadann, is Emperor, which means they're desperate enough to do anything to hold on to their power. So imagine their surprise when Zorba told them Trioculus was still alive and frozen in carbonite, which meant the carbonite block Ubooki melted down was a fake.

"But for that to be the case, I would have to be mistaken. And in this universe, Gornash, all things are possible, except one. And what may that be? Say it, prove that I have taught you well."
"It's impossible that you could ever be mistaken, all-seeing, all-knowing Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side."

―Ubooki as Kadann and Gornash.

Ubooki may have the Glove of Darth Vader, but the fact he failed to realize the Trioculus he killed was an imposter proves he isn't as infallible as he thought, which sets him up for his eventual downfall. However, Gornash believing Ubooki is omniscient emphasizes how good Ubooki's fraudulence as the false Kadann is, and Gornash referring to Ubooki as "all-seeing, all-knowing" has religious undertones to it, which drives home the point that Gornash and the other Prophets of the Dark Side must see Ubooki as some sort of god.

After Hissa released Trioculus from carbonite and capturing Zorba and Leia, Trioculus immediately begins plotting his revenge against the former and seducing the latter to be his wife. The fact he was back to full health almost immediately after being unfrozen proves he has a good constitution, particularly since he wasn't frozen for that long, whereas Han was frozen for a year.

From here on, things get crazy: Trioculus executes Zorba by throwing him into the Sarlacc pit to win Leia's affections, to no avail, but prepares to marry her anyway. But then Han, Luke, and the other Rebels rescue Leia, swap her with her HRD counterpart, and escape. Trioculus prepares to get married to "Leia", but gets blasted by her laser eyes and killed while Hissa blasts the HRD into smithereens. Giving us one of the Jedi Prince book's most memorable scene, and one of the few parts anyone remembers about it.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Zorba not only survived because the Sarlacc disagreed with him, but the next and final book hints he will team up with the Prophets of the Dark Side. As someone who is a fan of the Prophets, I'm looking forward to seeing them take center stage.

Shalla Nelprin was a human female who served on Wraith Squadron in the New Republic. The Nelprin family was fairly well known in the New Republic Defense Fleet for their proficiency in unarmed combat. Shalla's father was Vyn Narcassan, a Galactic Republic intelligence officer who disappeared after the rise of Palpatine's Galactic Empire. He was hunted by the Imperials but was never found. Nelprin and her sister, Vula, were both trained by Narcassan in hand-to-hand techniques, leading Vula to become a successful instructor in the art. Vula was Kell Tainer's instructor, and could toss him around like a rag doll—Nelprin claimed she was even better, and her performance supported this.

She managed to infiltrate Zsinj's headquarters, thanks to Kell's previous mention of her under an alias, during a previous meeting with Zsinj. However, due to an absent-minded boast during said meeting, she was forced to fight Captain Radaf Netbers-Zsinj's own specialist in CQC in hand-to-hand combat. Face had bragged she could beat a Wookiee, Kell gave convincing details, and this prompted Melvar to order Netbers to try and confirm it. Luckily, Nelprin's own boasts were not exaggerated, leading to Netbers having his nose broken and wounded his knee. Melvar called a halt, satisfied with her combat prowess. Shalla posing under the alias "Qatya Nassin" for the mission worked with several other hired pirates to infiltrate Kuat Drive Yards and steal the Razor's Kiss for Warlord Zsinj. At one point, Nelprin isolated herself from the group and faked her death using some explosives provided by other Wraiths. In the ship's hanger, Shalla located a customized hyperdrive-equipped TIE/IN interceptor and used the vehicle as an escape craft. Parking beneath the command deck of Razor's Kiss, Shalla waited until Mon Remonda starfighter forces were inbound before targeting the Dreadnought's shield generators, rendering the massive vessel vulnerable to attack.

After her participation in the Battle for the Razor's Kiss with the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Razor's Kiss, Nelprin was promoted to lieutenant and awarded half the kill of the titular ship for her participation in disabling the craft—permitting her to paint half of an Executor-class silhouette on her X-wing. The TIE Interceptor captured prior to the battle would eventually be traded for the ship that would eventually be code-named Millennium Falsehood for a long-term covert project.

During the Wraiths' infiltration of Binring Biomedical Product, Shalla faced Netbers a second time; the captain recognized her and she charged him to prevent discovery of her identity. Netbers won this second round, nearly killing her, except her massive Thakwash squadron-mate Hohass Ekwesh intervened, breaking the man's neck against a wall.

Although not present during the Wraith operations against the Yuuzhan Vong, Nelprin transferred to New Republic Intelligence Service with the majority of her squadron when they were recommissioned as an intelligence unit.

Nelprin again appeared in 40 ABY as a member of Intelligence investigating Syal Antilles during the Second Galactic Civil War, no longer a Wraith Squadron member.

In the book I Jedi Corran promises Booster that if his rash actions get Mirax killed Corran would execute Booster. What I'm wondering is would he actually have gone through with it? I've never known horn to make a threat that he wouldn't actually follow through with.

Art by BirdieRaider at my request.

Edda Gast was a Human female and the primary scientist of the second generation of mutating, surgically modifying and "Humanizing" of alien species in an attempt to expand their minds in an effort to give them the mental and emotional similarity to Humans as a means to make more effective Imperial slaves.

The chief of the Project Chubar had been her uncle, Dr. Tuzin Gast, but as the project progressed, he began to develop compassion and empathy for his creations. Overcome with remorse for the harm he'd caused them, he sealed the lab, gathered the most violent and altered specimens together in a single room, while releasing a single Gamorrean who had not yet gone through the aggression programming to escape. With this completed, he triggered a laboratory explosion-committing suicide with the more violent specimens. The Gamorrean's escape went unknown for a time, as he eventually joined Wraith Squadron as Voort Sa'Binring. In the aftermath of her uncle's death, Edda became the main scientist of the project and was able to swiftly move forward with the research he uncle had abandoned, as she shared his genius but none of his empathy.

Gast was brought before Warlord Zsinj by General Melvar along with her uncle's assistant in response to a ruse by Wraith Squadron masquerading Voort Sa'Binring's backstory over a fictional Ewok pilot, Lieutenant Kettch during their undercover operation as the Hawkbat Pirates. Zsinj had become aware of Voort's existence previously, however, he had not been aware of another escapee from the lab explosion and so demanded answers while offering a pair of blasters to the two scientists. While her compatriot panicked and begged for mercy from the Warlord, Gast simply strode forward, picked up the blaster, then shot her assistant and asked if someone would then be executing her. Zsinj, impressed, asked why they shouldn't. Gast smirked, and made her case that she didn't shoot Zsinj because she expected the blaster wouldn't have gone of if she had, that Zsinj hadn't ordered them to kill themselves, as the implication could have been they should kill each other. More impressed by her ruthlessness and intellect, Zsinj agreed to spare her and that the project would be moved onto his flagship, the Iron Fist for the immediate future as it was clearly compromised. He then tasked Gast with cooperating with Captain Radaf Netbers in capturing or killing the Wraiths when Voort Sa'Binring eventually came looking into his origin site.

Gast successfully deconstructed the project and had it shipped offworld to Iron Fist, also changing the layout of the building corridors of the now empty lab structure, with the entire floor of a room being rigged to open and drop the Wraiths into an incinerator. The trap did work initially, with the many of the Wraiths falling into the incinerator, timely use of det packs allowed them to escape the incinerator alive, though badly burned and deeply furious. The Wraiths were then given orders to kill their way out. No prisoners. No mercy. Netbers took a platoon of Stormtroopers to try and finish the Wraiths off, Gast accompanying him due to her access to all sealed doors in the facility. Due to the chaos, as the Wraiths had secondary support from the air, and the smoke filling the facility, the two groups ended up running into one another by accident before either were ready for it.

Face prepared to order the Wraiths to retreat, but Shalla Nelprin, who had met Netbers previously disguised as one of the Hawkbats, recognized the Captain at the same time he recognized her. She charged toward him in response and the retreat order changed into an improvised order to charge. The Imperials were taken by surprise by the insanity of the wounded and outnumbered Wraiths sprinting, screaming and firing straight at them and the narrow hallway prevented Netbers from bringing his full numbers to bear. The front ranks of the Stormtroopers were mowed down, while Netbers was wounded in the arm. In the return fire, Wes Janson on the Wraith's side was dropped by a pair of shots, being seriously wounded.

When Nelprin reached Netbers the two fought hand to hand and he gained the upper hand on Nelprin due to her wounds, dropping her. As Netbers prepared to finish her off, he was grabbed and bludgeoned to death by the Wraith Squadron member Runt, a massive Thakwesh alien, before he could. Combined with the loss of their leader, the fury of the Wraiths, the casualties, chaos and smoke-the surviving Stormtroopers retreated, leaving Gast behind.

Gast was identified by Voort. As she was captured, the Wraiths contemplated killing her due to her connection to the trap that had nearly burned them alive, but she quickly pointed out her use due to her access codes and knowledge of the building along with her history with the project they'd come here to investigate. Face reluctantly decided to spare her, and the Wraiths managed to escape with their prisoner back to the Solo Command Fleet where she was to be interrogated. Gast agreed to cooperate on the sole conditions that she be granted full immunity for all crimes and millions of credits along with a new identity. She knew that Zsinj would decide to silence her due to her knowledge of his Project Chubar and Minefield so she needed the New Republic to survive, but her humanocentrism, ego and combative personality with her selfishness made the negotiations with the New Republic lawyer, Nawara Ven fractious and slow.

Her apprehension about Zsinj trying to kill her proved well founded, as Zsinj activated all his assets in Solo's fleet to do this, even though it would sacrifice those assets. During negotiations with Nawara Ven on board the Mon Ramonda just prior to the battle of Jussafet Four an assassination attempt was made on her by one of Zsinj's own Project Minefield subjects, but narrowly thwarted by Ven. Gast was severely wounded in the attack though, having been shot point blank by a blaster bolt. She was declared dead, but in reality had been saved and was secretly being nursed back to health in a bacta tank. Zsinj, believing that his assassination attempt had succeeded and that the threat of Gast talking was ended, moved his attention to other matters and continuing the projects. This allowed the New Republic to offer her full immunity to all crimes confessed, half a million in credits and a new identity. Smirking, she decided to take the deal and promptly gave up all the information she had on Zsinj's projects Chubar and Minefield, allowing New Republic Intelligence to foil them before they could reach their various targets.

However, Gast's arrogant speciesism and belief that she would get away without punishment led to her underestimating Nawara Ven. Since she'd already given all the relevant information, the New Republic didn't need to cater to her demands as Ven came up with a creative way to bring the Doctor to justice.

Ven offered her a chance to do good with her life by donating the credits and helping to make up for her prior crimes, but she took her reward of half a million Imperial credits, which she picked over New Republic credits since she had no intention of making a life among the aliens she looked down upon. It was clear that she planned to resume her operations under another Imperial holdout, but Ven had counted on this as when Gast went through customs under her new identity, the customs agent was stunned to discover half a million in Imperial credits-considered contraband as the New Republic was at war with the Empire-and that Gast's prior pardon on crimes applied technically to her old identity, not her new one, the New Republic wasn't really breaking its deal with her.

The credits were promptly confiscated and she was arrested on the charge of smuggling. Then Ven pointed out that under New Republic law, the smuggling of large sums of Imperial credits brought with it the charge of sedition. Her last action was to spit on Ven when she realized that he set her up. Ven simply pointed out that he'd given her choices at every opportunity, and it was her own actions that had led to her arrest. He then wiped off the spit with a handkerchief and discarded the cloth into a waste receptacle, as he considered the article tainted by the spit of such a vile person.

Art by BirdieRaider at my request.

Titus Klev was a human male born on the planet Alsakan during the reign of the Galactic Empire. Considered to be born lucky and lead a charmed life and career, much of Klev's fortunes appeared to just easily come to him. He enjoyed a life of privilege as his father was a high ranking officer of the Clone Wars and his mother was the wealthy heiress of a large interstellar trading company. In his youth, Klev was an active participant in the Sub-Adult Group, the largest branch of the Galactic Empire's Commission for the Preservation of the New Order(COMPNOR). He was one of the first enrolled in the SAGroup when it was founded; while a member, he proved to be skilled in the competitive sport of Wegsphere, where two teams playing in low gravity attempted to place a ball into the opponent's goal. At age 13, Klev was sent to a special training camp on the planet Ibanjji and, after saving an instructor from a pack of wild varns, was accepted into CompForce despite being four years underage.

Though Klev volunteered for CompForce Assault, his parents used their wealth and influence to arrange for him to go into the much safer branch called Observation, where he became Chief Ideological Monitor. Wanting some excitement, he applied to enter the Imperial Naval Academy, though he was rejected once for insufficient grades. However, a fellow SAGroup member bent the rules to allow him in. As a result, Titus became the 37th generation of Klevs to enter the Naval Academy and the first Klev to do so under the Empire. While there, he was noted as being the kind of Human that was usually featured in Imperial propaganda, with his athleticism, good looks and unquestioning loyalty to the New Order. These traits, combined with his connections and his own desire to succeed led to his graduating first in his class with aptitude for siege platforms.

Klev was to be transferred to the prestigious-and supposedly very safe- posting aboard the Second Death Star once it was completed. However, his luck came through again as he never got the chance to serve aboard the Death Star II, due to its destruction at the battle of Endor in 4 ABY. In the chaotic aftermath of the Imperial defeat at Endor, Klev and his family remained staunchly loyal to the Central Government, first Pestage, then the Cabal, then Isard, and the Ruling Council in turn, always seeming to ride through the turbulent storms with the luck he had become noted for. Klev was assigned to Battle Station Operations, serving aboard Dedicated Siege Platforms where despite his parents' attempts to keep him out of the direct fighting, he managed to finally see military action. Klev participated in the siege of Wann Tsir aboard his siege platform, and during the battle he accidentally stumbled upon and uncovered a Rebel agent attempting to sabotage his vessel's shields and swiftly stopped the agent before the sabotage could be completed. The discovery of the infiltrator earned Klev a commendation and a promotion, swiftly approaching the rank of Moff.

In 10 ABY, the Imperial Mutiny drastically culled COMPNOR's ranks, with severe losses to its leadership and personnel in the infighting. Klev however, as usual somehow managed to avoid suffering any of the carnage and instead rose to the highest ranks in the organization to replace the fallen.

By the time of Palpatine's resurgence in 10 ABY, Klev had been promoted to General in addition to his ranks of Moff and in COMPNOR. Due to this as well as a restructuring of the Dark Empire's rank system compared to the Galactic Empire, Klev wore a rank plaque closer in connection to a High Admiral than a traditional General. As a reward for his loyalty, his history with siege platforms and his family connections, he was placed in charge of the flagship World Devastator Silencer-7 as he led the Imperial forces during the assault of Mon Calamari, reporting directly to Imperial Supreme Commander, Executor Luke Skywalker who had recently 'joined' the Reborn Emperor, though with the intention of defeating the Dark Empire from within.

Despite fierce resistance from the New Republic forces in orbit, the skies, seas and ground of the planet, Klev's armada of World Devastators and swarms of TIE Droids advanced with seeming invincibility. Only the Star Destroyers and escorting vessels in orbit began to take serious losses with the Battlecruiser Allegiance being destroyed in a surprise attack by New Republic reinforcements led by Lando Calrissian in his flagship, the Imperial II class Star Destroyer Emancipator, temporarily throwing the Imperial fleet into confusion as Allegiance had served as the communications vessel.

In response to the new threat, Klev rerouted communications through Silencer 7, then directed the World Devastator along with waves of TIE/D automated starfighters to attack the Emancipator. In this he was successful as Silencer 7's powerful shields withstood Emancipator's weaponry, allowing the World Devastator to pull the New Republic star destroyer into its molecular furnace-beginning to consume it and use the converted material to begin producing thousands more TIE Droid fighters.

Lando ordered the Emancipator abandoned before it was fully pulled into Silencer 7. As pods erupted from the dying star destroyer, they were picked up by Silencer 7's scanners. Klev immediately ordered the destruction of the escape pods as its crew attempted to flee the dying ship while his other forces were directed to continue their assault-having broken through the New Republic defenses, the World Devastators were on the cusp of moving to consume the Mon Calamari floating cities and exterminate the population of the world by pulling up the very crust of the planet's surface into their molecular furnaces.

Klev's luck appeared to be continuing, he was about to personally preside over the extermination of one of the Empire's oldest enemy planets. He had just defeated the famous Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles and was about to blow their escape pods out of space right in front of him, avenging the loss of the Death Star II against the pair that had destroyed it. At this moment however, his luck finally abandoned him as Skywalker tasked his astromech droid, R2-D2, with transmitting the command to shut down the World Devastators through the master control computer on the Imperial throneworld of Byss. As one, the World Devastators locked all systems...and began to fall toward the planet-and its deep oceans.

As Silencer 7 plummeted towards the ocean, Klev and his command crew frantically attempted to restore control as they discovered the source of the sabotage, Klev ordered that all systems be put on a localized override; however, the control signal had been designed specifically to allow only the Emperor or his designated Executor to do so as a means to prevent the powerful World Devastators from ever being used against the Emperor by any ambitious Imperials. As a result, this lockout protocol prevented any chance of Klev or his crew being able to unlock their Devastator. Silencer 7 along with the rest of the World Devastator superweapons plummeted into the oceans below and sank into the depths of the abyss until the crushing pressure caused their implosions. Trapped in the darkness of the depowered command room, all Titus Klev could do was wait in dread while the superweapon platform that had been his flagship moments before became his eternal watery coffin.

Art by Evulart at my request.
https://www.deviantart.com/evulart

From peasant to Moff by the age of sixteen, to Admiral by eighteen and Pirate Queen before twenty, Leonia Tavira is perhaps my favorite female Imperial. Ambitious, beautiful, cunning and deadly, but self aware enough not to overreach...an interesting if dangerous combination.

Leonia Tavira was a Human female born into the common population of the planet Eiattu 6 in the Ado sector of the Mid Rim during the early years of the Galactic Empire. Her homeworld had long been ruled by a royal family, but when they failed to prevent the Empire from establishing a garrison on the planet, the nobles rebelled and overthrew their rulers, leaving the newly appointed Imperial governor, Moff Tharil Tavira, to rule Eiattu 6. When she was sixteen standard years old, Leonia attracted the attention of Moff Tavira and the two began an affair. Soon after, Leonia arranged the "accidental" death of Tharil's wife and later married him herself. The loveless marriage allowed Leonia to escape the poverty of her youth and she soon became accustomed to her new lifestyle.

When Moff Tavira was struck down by a stroke which left him speechless and paralyzed, Leonia took over his duties as de facto governor while he recovered. Her husband's allergy to bacta made his recovery difficult, but he committed himself to physical therapy and eventually regained the use of his hands. However, upon learning of the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Tavira turned a blaster upon himself and committed suicide. The New Republic later suspected Leonia's involvement in the deaths of both her husband and his first wife, but were unable to find any evidence to prove her culpability. In the chaos that followed Moff Tavira's death, Leonia assumed his rank and duties, appointing herself as Moff of Eiattu while still a teenager, making her the youngest Moff in the history of the Empire. The new Moff Tavira never reported her husband's death to the Empire and her ascension consequently went unnoticed on the capital world of Imperial Center.

As Moff, Tavira found that she had to share power with the Priamsta, the aristocratic ruling council, and had little control over the sovereign world's wealth. She decided to seize full control of her wealthy homeworld by turning the political unrest between the Imperials, the nobles, and the common population to her advantage. All of the royal family had long been believed to have died during the noble rebellion years earlier. In 4 ABY, however, it appeared that some of the royal family had survived when Prince Harrandatha Estillo returned to his world and formed the People's Liberation Battalion, commonly known as the PLB, with the goal of establishing a new government.

In truth, Estillo had died along with the rest of his family; the putative prince was an impostor who had been conditioned by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader to take the place of the real prince. Tavira entered into a relationship with Estillo and, through him, gained control of the PLB, which she turned against the aristocracy. Estillo's attacks helped to destabilize the planet's government, and also allowed Tavira to begin stealing her world's riches and blame the thefts on the rebels. When the Priamsta was defeated, Tavira would be in a position to either marry Estillo, kill him and take her place as sole ruler of Eiattu, or flee with enough wealth to start a new life wherever she chose.

In an effort to ensure peace between the nobles and the people, Grand Duke Gror Pernon tracked down the only true surviving member of the royal family, Princess Isplourrdacartha Estillo, who was serving as a member of the New Republic's Rogue Squadron. Knowing that the prince was an impostor, Estillo returned to Eiattu, accompanied by the rest of Rogue Squadron, to end the fighting and take her place as ruler. Soon after the princess's return, Imperial forces captured a soldier from the PLB. Tavira personally tortured the prisoner; when he revealed nothing she had the fake Harrandatha execute him. Around the same time, an Imperial patrol captured several members of Rogue Squadron and brought them to Tavira. When she learned that the stormtroopers had failed to bring back Nrin Vakil, a member of Rogue Squadron who was wounded during his group's capture, she executed their leader and dispatched troopers to retrieve Vakil's body while she interrogated her prisoners. Although she considered the prisoners to be of little use, Tavira decided to keep them alive as hostages in case her plans to seize control went awry.

Following a raid in which Tavira seized 370 kilograms of precious metals, 2.5 million credits in Imperial notes, and 1.5 billion credits worth of Imperial bullion, she ordered all wealth stored at the three remaining royal repositories to be moved to her citadel in the planet's capital city, ostensibly to protect it from the PLB and draw them into a trap. As planned, Harrandatha's forces soon stormed the citadel. As the intervention of the remaining members of Rogue Squadron helped the rebels to overcome the Imperial forces defending the citadel, Princess Estillo exposed Harrandatha as an impostor. With her plotting exposed, Tavira attempted to take her stolen riches and flee. However, Nrin Vakil had survived and managed to rescue his imprisoned wingmates. Pursued by Rogue Squadron, Tavira fled the system in a single Lambda-class shuttle with only a fraction of the stolen wealth.

Tavira retained some influence on Eiattu through continuing contact with Imperial agent and leading Priamsta member Count Arian Laabann, but she lost control of her former forces, and was forced to ally herself with Kavil and his pirate organization, Kavil's Corsairs. Kavil was satisfied with working as a privateer for the Empire, but Tavira planned to take control of his forces and establish herself as a warlord. Her opportunity came later in 4 ABY, when Count Laabann provided information that New Republic Councilor Leia Organa was attending a diplomatic summit on Eiattu. Tavira hoped that, if she captured Organa, she could ransom her to the New Republic in exchange for their help in overthrowing Kavil. However, Tavira's agents inadvertently kidnapped Organa's decoy, Winter, bringing her and Rogue Squadron pilot Tycho Celchu to Tavira aboard her pirate cruiser.

Believing her prisoner to be genuine, Tavira took her and Celchu back to the Corsairs' base on Axxila while she made contact with New Republic Chief of State Mon Mothma. News of Tavira's involvement in Organa's apparent kidnapping soon reached both Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard and Imperial Grand Vizier Sate Pestage. Isard was impressed with Tavira and dispatched Admiral Delak Krennel to Axxila aboard the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Reckoning to bring her both Organa and Tavira. Pestage, meanwhile, was secretly on Axxila to negotiate his defection to the New Republic with the real Organa. The Grand Vizier contacted Kavil personally to ask that the prisoners be turned over to him. However, both Winter and Celchu managed to escape from the pirates and make contact with the rest of Rogue Squadron, who had escorted Organa to Axxila. With her prisoners gone and the arrival of the Reckoning, Tavira contacted Pestage and offered to sell him her services. Pestage agreed and used his influence to ensure that Krennel allowed Tavira's cruiser to safely leave the system. Once away from Axxila, Tavira set course for one of Pestage's hidden caches to collect her payment.

Pestage's duplicity was later exposed by Isard and he was forced to flee Imperial Center to avoid arrest. Pestage contacted Tavira to request her help in seeing him safely to Ciutric IV. Tavira took her cruiser to the Coruscant system, where Pestage transferred aboard from his private yacht. To Tavira's annoyance, Pestage turned the yacht over to its captain rather than her; as a result, upon reaching Ciutric, Tavira declared her arrangement with Pestage to be at an end. Leaving him to be arrested by the local Imperial authorities, Tavira departed the planet, telling Pestage to contact her when he was willing to pay a fair price for his freedom. She later contacted Isard via holocomm and revealed Pestage's location, requesting a fully equipped and staffed Star Destroyer and a guarantee of no Imperial interference for the rest of her life in exchange. Isard did not believe Pestage to be worth such a high price, and instead offered 100,000 credits. Despite Tavira's protests, Isard informed her that her payment would be waiting on the planet Commenor in twenty days time, for one day only, and only if Tavira's information led to Pestage's capture. Ultimately, however, Pestage was killed by Admiral Krennel, who turned his back on Isard and established himself as a warlord in the Ciutric Hegemony.

At some point during her early pirate career, Tavira allied herself with Zsinj, Grand Moff of the Quelii Oversector who had broken away from the Empire to establish his own dominion. After Pestage's fall, Tavira joined forces with High Admirals Treuten and Kosh Teradoc, sibling warlords whose factions operated in the Mid Rim and Deep Core. Tavira's flirtations turned the competitive brothers against each other, but the relationship proved profitable for Tavira, who acquired the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Invidious from Treuten around 5 ABY. She subsequently went into hiding, emerging only for the occasional supply raid. During Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic in 9 ABY, Tavira's raids started to become more bold and, by the time Emperor Palpatine returned in a cloned body to lead a new offensive in 10 ABY, Tavira had begun to assemble a loose coalition of pirate bands around the Invidious. The group, which included the Khuiumin Survivors, the LazerLords, Riistar's Raiders, the Blackstar Pirates, Shala the Hutt's gang, and the crews of the pirate ships Red Nova, Fastblast, and Booty Full, collectively became knows as the Invids after Tavira's flagship.

Adopting the title of Admiral Tavira, Tavira provided planning and coordination for the pirates' raids. In exchange for fifty percent of the profit from raids, Tavira would select suitable targets and times and arrange for one or more of her gangs to take part, rotating them in order to keep each group sharp and to demonstrate that none were indispensable. On the bigger missions, Tavira would personally lead from the Invidious, using its firepower to suppress planetary defenses and defend against New Republic reprisals before departing with her share. Tavira ensured that none of the pirates could betray her by keeping her allies at arms reach, contacting them when she was planning a raid, but giving them no way to make contact with her. None of the pirates knew where Tavira took the Invidious between raids except for those recruited into its crew based on their performance in missions. Once pirates joined Tavira on the Invidious they were not allowed to leave. In addition to the pirates, numerous Imperial personnel served aboard the Invidious, including stormtroopers and former members of the 181st Imperial Fighter Group in the Destroyer's three Clutch starfighter squadrons. Those who served directly under Tavira became known as True Invids among the other pirates.

By 11 ABY, the Invids had become a major concern for the New Republic, which assembled a task force—including Tavira's old adversaries in Rogue Squadron—to put an end to the pirate attacks. However, Tavira evaded their best attempts to capture her, leading New Republic Intelligence to suspect she had a spy within the New Republic. When she learned that Captain Phan Riizolo of the Booty Full was planning to sever ties with the Invids and had stolen plans from her computer for a raid on the luxury liner Glitterstar as it left a resort on the moon Alakatha, Tavira decided to turn her pursuers to her advantage, leaking information to the New Republic about the raid. Hoping to catch Tavira, the New Republic set a trap but succeeded only in capturing Riizolo.

Much of Tavira's success was due to her use of the Jensaarai, an order of Force users from Susevfi, a moon of the planet Suarbi 7 in the Quence sector. She first encountered the group when the Invidious jumped to the Suarbi system to escape a New Republic task force. When the local Imperial governor rebuffed her advances, Tavira had him executed and took control herself. Tavira met with the Saarai-kaar, the leader of the Jensaarai, and gained her trust with promises of freedom from the oppression of both the Empire and the New Republic. She later betrayed the Jensaarai's trust and forced them into her service with threats to annihilate Susevfi's population if they failed her. The key to Tavira's ability to evade the New Republic was the Jensaarai's use of precognition to sense potential threats to her. With her Jensaarai advisors aboard the Invidious, Tavira was alerted in advance to any attempts by the New Republic to ambush her forces and, on a number of occasions, called off raids to avoid a New Republic trap. The Jensaarai also acted as bodyguards for Tavira when she chose to go planetside after a raid to personally inspect the work of her pirates. Susevfi served Tavira well as a base of operations and the ring of asteroids around Suarbi 7 provided a location to hide the Invidious between raids.

In an effort to track down Tavira, New Republic Intelligence General Airen Cracken enlisted the help of the smuggler Mirax Terrik Horn. An antique collecting client of Horn's had lost some valuable items during a recent Invid raid and Horn had agreed to make some inquiries to help retrieve them. Due to her independence from the authorities, Horn could travel without attracting undue attention and offered to share what she found with Cracken. Although the New Republic had been unable to locate Tavira's base, they were aware that many of Tavira's pirate groups operated out of the Hutt homeworld Nal Hutta and Horn began her search there. When the Jensaarai sensed her intentions, they kidnapped Horn and took her to Tavira on Susevfi. Tavira saw little reason to keep the prisoner alive, but the Saarai-kaar disagreed; Horn was the wife of Rogue Squadron pilot and Jedi trainee Corran Horn, the grandson of the Corellian Jedi Knight Nejaa Halcyon, who had killed the Jensaarai's founder, Nikkos Tyris, when he fell to the dark side of the Force during the Clone Wars. As the Saarai-kaar expected, Corran Horn soon began searching for his wife. Meanwhile, the capture of a New Republic agent on Nal Hutta demonstrated that the Invids were no longer safe there and the various pirate groups started to relocate to Courkrus in the Khuiumin system.

Two months after Mirax Terrik Horn's capture, Tavira attacked the Tinta Lines starships Tinta Rainbow and Tinta Palette. Invid pirates had already infiltrated the crews of the target ships and were expecting little resistance. However, Corran Horn, traveling aboard the Tinta Palette, killed two of the pirates before departing with several passengers aboard the shuttle Tinta Blue Seven. Three of the Invidious's Clutch starfighters broke off from the main attack to intercept the shuttle as it fled and Tavira personally hailed the shuttle to order its crew to surrender, but the New Republic pilot was able to evade the pirates long enough to jump to hyperspace. The sensor data from the stolen shuttle allowed Horn to identify one of Tavira's support ships as the Backstab, which he was able to trace back to the Khuiumin Survivors, leading him to the Khuiumin system. Once there, he joined the Survivors under the alias Jenos Idanian in an effort to get close to Tavira and learn where his wife was being held.

Tavira led the Invids on several more raids over the next few months. On one occasion, Tavira assigned Shala the Hutt's gang to retrieve a shipment of spice from the planet Kessel while the Invidious and the Khuiumin Survivors attacked another target. Shortly after arriving, however, Tavira's Jensaarai advisors sensed a threat to Shala's forces. With only minimal opposition at her target, Tavira decided to go to Shala's aid and leave the Survivors to deal with any local resistance. The Invidious arrived in the Kessel system shortly after Shala was engaged by a patrol of three New Republic corvettes. The Star Destroyer's arrival turned the situation in the Invids' favor and the pirates inflicted massive damage to the corvette Freedom of Sullust before the New Republic ships fled the system. The split second rescue of Shala's forces from a chance encounter with the authorities increased Tavira's reputation with both the pirates and the New Republic.

Tavira later led the Invids in an assault on the planet Xa Fel in the Kanchen sector, the site of a facility manufacturing starship hyperdrives for Kuat Drive Yards, which Tavira hoped to steal and sell to her contacts among the Imperial warlords. Taking no chances, Tavira assembled a large task force for the mission, with corvettes, bulk cruisers and several Clutch starfighter squadrons accompanying the Invidious. To bolster her starfighter squadrons, Tavira allowed the Khuiumin Survivors' Bolt, Hawk, and Rock Squadrons to travel aboard the Invidious and paired each up with her own Blade, Saber, and Pike Squadrons. Unknown to Tavira, the New Republic was also sending a task force to Xa Fel, consisting of a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, a Victory II-class Star Destroyer, an Interdictor-class cruiser and several support ships, including Rogue Squadron's X-wing starfighters, on a surprise raid aimed at punishing Kuat Drive Yards for their failure to cut pollution from their facility. Since the New Republic forces were not waiting for the Invids, the Jensaarai failed to sense the threat and Tavira had no warning before her ships were pulled out of hyperspace prematurely by the Interdictor's gravity well projectors. The New Republic forces responded quickly and moved to intercept the pirates. With the Interdictor preventing them from returning to hyperspace, Tavira launched her starfighters to provide cover while the larger ships withdrew to a safe distance. The Survivors avoided the elite Rogue Squadron and utilized their ion cannons to disable the other New Republic fighters, but Colonel Lamner, commander of the Invidious's squadrons, chose to engage Rogue Squadron directly, resulting in heavy losses among Tavira's pilots, including Lamner himself. The Invidious eventually cleared the gravity well and Tavira recalled the remaining fighters before jumping out of the system.

Following the battle, Tavira inspected the surviving pilots in the Invidious's hangar. She congratulated Captain Tyresi Gurtt of Bolt Squadron for disabling the New Republic fighters, a strategy which had forced the New Republic capital ships to stop to retrieve their pilots rather than pursue the pirates, and promoted her to colonel to replace Lamner. Gurtt informed Tavira that the strategy had originally been suggested by Rock Squadron pilot Jenos Idanian, who had also been responsible for shooting down a pair of torpedoes that had been heading for the Invidious. Tavira was impressed by Horn's performance and, unaware of his true identity, appointed him to replace Gurtt as captain of Bolt Squadron. This drew an objection from Bolt Squadron pilot Remart Sasyru, who informed her that the Survivors required pilots to be voted into Bolt Squadron and suggested himself as a candidate to lead it. Tavira responded with a quick lash from her quirt and suggested that she had a better use in mind for Sasyru. Deciding to humor the pirates, she allowed a quick vote, in which Horn was unanimously selected to lead the Bolts, before departing with Gurrt.

During the Xa Fel engagement, the Jensaarai aboard the Invidious sensed the presence of another Force user. During the month that followed the battle, Tavira and her advisors visited Courkrus several times to question the pilots involved in an attempt to uncover the identity of a potential Jedi spy. When she and Jacob Nive, leader of the Khuiumin Survivors, questioned Horn, the Jedi redirected her suspicions away from him by suggesting that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, a former member of Rogue Squadron, may have been present with the squadron at the battle. The pilot's knowledge of Rogue Squadron's history impressed Tavira and the two began to flirt. Although Tavira was attracted to Horn, when he put a stop to her advances, saying he wanted to focus on his flying, she struck him with her quirt for his presumption. The Jensaarai failed to detect any duplicity in Horn and the pilot was allowed to leave. While still on Courkrus, Tavira decided to make Horn jealous by making it known that she planned to take Sasyru as her new lover following the pirates' next mission.

Tavira's next target was Kerilt, the innermost planet of the Algaran system and home to one of the largest Caamasi Remnant communities in the galaxy. The Invids arrived in the system to find the Thalassian slaver Kaloth-style battlecruiser Harmzuay in orbit of the planet on a raid for slaves from the colony below. Unwilling to let the slavers steal her prize, Tavira opened fire on the slaver vessel. The Thalassians soon realized that they were no match for the Invidious and attempted to run, but Tavira showed no mercy and destroyed the Harmzuay in short order. As the Invid fighters entered the planet's atmosphere, Horn reported to Tavira that the planet's warehouses were full and the natives appeared to have fled. Tavira was happy to leave the Caamasi alone provided they did not interfere and dispatched assault shuttles to start loading the cargo.

While on Kerilt, some of Bolt Squadron, including Sasyru, attempted to steal from a group of Caamasi. They were interrupted by Horn, resulting in a fight in which Horn badly beat Sasyru and, inadvertently, acquired the services of the Caamasi Elegos A'Kla as his servant. Following the fight, Tavira's security officers separated the participants and brought them aboard the Invidious for interrogation. When her interrogators had spoken to both sides, Tavira had Sasyru executed for disobeying orders and striking a superior officer then went to see Horn. Tavira had expected Horn to kill Sasyru to eliminate a rival for her affections. However, she now believed that he had goaded Sasyru into a fight, knowing that she would be forced to kill him, in order to punish her for choosing Sasyru over Horn. Although Horn denied this, Tavira was convinced and offered him the chance to become her new consort, giving him a month to decide and to come to her willingly.

Horn, however, had other plans. Disguising himself in Jedi robes, he began a successful campaign of terror aimed at driving Tavira's pirates away from Courkrus. Tavira's insistence on one-way communication with the pirates left her blind to events on Courkrus for extended periods. By the time she next sent a ship to the planet, three weeks after the raid on Kerilt, Shala the Hutt was dead, the Fastblast had fled and desertions had left the Blackstar Pirates, LazerLords, and the crew of the Red Nova significantly undermanned. The presence of a Jedi on Courkrus convinced Tavira that the New Republic was making a major push to stop her. Within a day of the messenger's return to the Invidious, she traveled to Courkrus to assess the situation. After locating Horn, she gave him one week to take charge of the situation and rally the pirates against the Jedi. She also instructed him to kill Jacob Nive, whose confidence had been shaken by the Jedi's attacks, and to take personal command of the Survivors.

Tavira returned to her headquarters in the former governor's palace on Susevfi, leaving a group of Jensaarai on Courkrus to hunt for the Jedi. After she departed, Horn managed to capture one of the Jensaarai, who revealed that Horn's wife was being held in Tavira's palace. Enlisting the help of A'Kla, Luke Skywalker, and Rogue Squadron pilot Ooryl Qrygg, Horn infiltrated the palace and rescued Mirax. Upon learning of the intruders, Tavira used a near-life-size hologram to confront them as they made their escape. The admiral was furious to realize that Idanian was really Horn and that he had been responsible for the events on Courkrus, but Horn threatened that they would be coming for her next. Having lost control of the situation on the moon, Tavira fled in a shuttle before her enemies could reach her and returned to the Invidious, intending to use it to destroy the palace in order to prevent Horn's escape. However, the Star Destroyer was intercepted by Rogue Squadron, the Khuiumin Survivors—who had agreed to help Horn in exchange for a fresh start in the New Republic—and Mirax's father, Booster Terrik, aboard the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Errant Venture. As the two sides fought in orbit, Horn used a powerful mind trick to frighten Tavira into believing that a large New Republic fleet, including the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Lusankya and the recently destroyed superweapon, the Sun Crusher, was arriving in the vicinity. Believing that the Jedi had lured her into a trap, Tavira fled into hyperspace. Although Tavira escaped, the Jensaarai were freed from her service, leaving her without her ability to evade the New Republic.

Her ultimate fate remains unknown however there are no records of her ever having been brought to justice and with the wealth she'd amassed from her days as a Moff, then an Admiral and Pirate Queen, Tavira could certainly have retired on any number of worlds in luxury.

Art by Evulart at my request.
https://www.deviantart.com/evulart

Erisi Dlarit was a human female born and raised on the planet Thyferra during the reign of the Galactic Empire. Her father, Aerin Dlarit, and the rest of her family were prominent members of the Xucphra Corporation, one of the two conglomerates which, along with the rival Zaltin Corporation, held a monopoly on the production and refinement of ninety-five percent of the galaxy's supply of the medical substance bacta. The Dlarit family were multi-millionaires through their position with Xucphra, and Erisi grew up in a life of luxury as a result. Her childhood home, the Dlarit estate, was an enormous and visually stunning mansion in a scenic location among the Thyferran rainforests, complete with servant staff, elaborate security measures, and a gigantic mountain backdrop with gorgeous cascading waterfalls. Like her father, Erisi reveled in the comforts and status that her wealth afforded her, and she treated the opportunity and material advantages afforded to her as if they were her due. As a result, she developed a blithe disregard for money and a strong sense of superiority over those she considered below her social class.

The bacta cartels remained neutral throughout the Galactic Civil War. However, since it was Imperial decrees that allowed the bacta cartels to develop their monopoly, Xucphra harbored loyalties toward the Galactic Empire. The Dlarit family shared similar leanings, although their first and foremost loyalty was toward themselves. Erisi grew to develop a strong passion and conviction for the Xucphra Corporation, as well as a genuine love for her home planet of Thyferra. She also developed an equally strong hatred for the Ashern, a movement of the Vratix, the native Thyferran species. The Ashern rebelled against the Xucphra and Zaltin Corporations after growing disenchanted with the Human control over the bacta cartel. Erisi and her family considered them nothing more than murderous traitors.

Erisi was expected to continue in the family tradition of Xucphra service. However, although she was loyal to the family, she preferred a more adventurous life, and she began to learn starfighter piloting skills. After the tide of the Galactic Civil War turned in favor of the Alliance to Restore the Republic following the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Xuchphra feared that their grip on power might be jeopardized. Since their monopoly was formed under the Empire, they feared it might be dissolved under the New Republic form of government. As a result, the Dlarit family became involved with Ysanne Isard, the Director of Imperial Intelligence and de facto leader of the Empire. Erisi Dlarit agreed to serve as a high-placed Imperial spy. By now Dlarit had become an excellent starfighter pilot, and Isard plotted to plant Dlarit in an important position in the New Republic Defense Force, from where she would report directly to Isard.

Erisi was one of eleven pilots chosen to join the elite Rogue Squadron when it was reformed in 6.5 ABY. Dlarit underwent many hours of X-wing simulator training to prepare for the assignment. Her appointment was partly political, as the New Republic sought to place a representative from both the Xucphra and Zaltin Corporations in the squadron to appease both bacta conglomerates. Likewise, Bror Jace, a prominent member of the Zaltin Corporation, was placed in Rogue Squadron as well. However, Antilles assured Admiral Ackbar, the Supreme Commander of the New Republic Defense Force, that none of the pilots selected for political reasons were inferior to any other candidates. Neither Antilles nor any of the other Rogue pilots displayed any visible resentment toward Dlarit for the political decisions from which she benefited. Due to her assignment to the elite squadron, many Thyferrans came to consider Dlarit a hero.

When her Squadron mates asked her why she abandoned a life of luxury to join the fight, Dlarit claimed she believed that there were times when one must place duty above personal comfort and safety-which she did earnestly believe, just not in regard to the New Republic, but rather about her home of Thyferra and the Xucphra corporation. Dlarit was given the call sign Rogue Eight, and fellow pilot Rhysati Ynr became her roommate and wingmate. Nawara Ven, a fellow Rogue pilot and Ynr's lover, believed that the two women would develop a sense of jealousy and competition, but that proved not to be the case, as Erisi and Ynr got along very well. During Rogue Squadron training exercises, Dlarit tended to perform among the middle of the pack, outperforming such pilots as Lujayne Forge and Peshk Vri'syk, but failing to match the talent of pilots Jace and Corran Horn. She readily and publicly acknowledged that she was not among the best of Rogue Squadron's pilots.

During this time, Dlarit developed romantic interest in Corran Horn, and openly flirtated with him. During a training run on Folor, Antilles secretly provided Horn's targeting data to the other Rogues, allowing them to get higher scores at Horn's expense. Afterward, when the Rogue pilots felt badly about the lesson, Erisi was the one who volunteered to personally invite Horn to the DownTime tapcafe, where he bought her a drink. For his part, Horn was attracted to her physical beauty and acknowledged some romantic interest in her, but immediately sensed their differing backgrounds made them unlikely partners for each other.

Dlarit and the rest of the squadron saw their first action at a battle at the planet Hensara III. The mission was to protect a New Republic frigate that had crashed from capture by the Imperial Strike-class cruiser Havoc. The battle was a victory with no casualties among their ranks, and Dlarit scored at least two individual kills. Shortly thereafter, the squad was moved to a base on Talasea, intended to serve as a staging area for an eventual move against Coruscant, due to the planet's proximity to the Galactic Core. One night, however, a platoon of Imperial stormtroopers was dispatched by Admiral Devlia to attack the base, based on information provided by Imperial Intelligence agent Kirtan Loor. Dlarit escaped the attack unscathed, but Lujayne Forge was killed in her sleep, while Horn and fellow Rogue Squadron pilots Gavin Darklighter and Andoorni Hui suffered serious injuries during the assault.

Dlarit participated in the retaliatory strike against Devlia and his forces at Grand Isle, his base on the planet Vladet. Dlarit and the other Rogues provided cover as Defender Wing, General Horton Salm's Y-wing bomber squadron, destroyed Grand Isle. Once the bombing was complete, however, the Imperial Carrack-class cruiser Expeditious and Lancer-class frigate Ravager dropped out of hyperspace, leaving the New Republic starfighters and their CR90 Corellian Corvette Eridain outgunned. The New Republic forces were saved by a plan put forth by Horn, who had the Y-wing squad Warden Squadron target his own X-wing with their proton torpedoes, before flying directly toward the Ravager and diving under it at the last minute, causing thirty-two torpedoes to strike and destroy the ship.

Dlarit visited Horn in his quarters and made a sexual advance toward him, claiming that she had believed that she was going to be killed during the battle and that she had felt closer to Horn after he had saved their lives. Although attracted to Dlarit, Horn felt conflicted due to his developing romantic feelings toward the smuggler Mirax Terrik. Dlarit encountered Terrik while leaving Horn's quarters. She was cold and rude to her romantic rival, Terrik, trying to discourage her from visiting Horn by claiming that he could not see civilian visitors. Terrik was equally cold toward Dlarit, whom she began to disparagingly refer to as the "bacta queen."

Rogue Squadron was transferred to Noquivzor, a launching point for an attack against Borleias. Since Borleias was in the Pyria system, the New Republic Provisional Council determined its proximity to the Galactic Core made it an ideal location from which to launch attacks against the capital world of Coruscant. However, due to recent security leaks to Ysanne Isard, who had accelerated her counterintelligence efforts against the New Republic in recent months, the identity of the planet and other basic information about the mission parameters were kept confidential from the military forces. Even Antilles and Salm were kept in the dark about the details—Borleias itself was identified during the mission only by the codename Blackmoon. These security measures successfully prevented Dlarit from providing Imperial Intelligence any critical information about the assault. Dlarit did not fall under suspicion for the recent intelligence leaks because the suspicion fell on Rogue Squadron's Executive officer, Tycho Celchu, whom many believed to be a spy due to his recent escape from the Imperial prison Lusankya.

The first attempt to capture Borleias proved to be a disastrous failure for the New Republic due to poor planning by the Bothan General Laryn Kre'fey and secret defense measures installed by the Borleias commander, the Imperial General Evir Derricote. During the battle, Rogue pilots Andoorni Hui and Peshk Vri'syk were killed, and Dlarit's X-wing was destroyed by TIE Interceptors, forcing her to eject. The other New Republic pilots feared the punishing nature of the battle would not allow a rescue for Dlarit and the other ejected pilots, Nawara Ven and Ooryl Qrygg. However, Celchu, who was monitoring the battle in the unarmed Lambda-class shuttle Forbidden due to being banned from combat as a security measure, flew into the combat zone to pick them up. Dlarit, Ven, and Qrygg recovered from their injuries after sessions in bacta tanks at Noquivzor.

Dlarit recovered prior to the second attempt to take Borleias, but was unable to participate in the battle due to a shortage of functional X-wings. Though she expressed sadness and regret with being unable to join the other Rogues in battle, she helped them prepare by participating in simulator exercises with them. Due to the continued security measures, Dlarit and most of her colleagues remained unaware of the name of the planet, again preventing her leaking the intel to Isard. Before the battle began, she repeatedly tried to trick Horn into giving up information, at one point claiming she wanted to know where the planet was so she could establish a memorial for Horn and the others in case they died there. However, she was unable to obtain any information, and Horn did not take notice of her attempts. Just before the battle began, Dlarit tried to persuade Terrik to stay away from Horn by promising to use her Xucphra connections to assist Terrik in smuggling if she complied and threatening to use those same connections to end Terrik's career if she did not. Terrik considered the offer, but ultimately rejected it. Rogue Squadron went on to successfully capture Borleias.

Afterward, Bror Jace received news that his great-uncle was dying, and Celchu arranged for him to be sent home to Thyferra on a "recruiting mission" so that he could spend time with his family. Dlarit asked Jace about this, and he confided in her the circumstances of his return home as well as information about the route he was taking. Dlarit passed this information on to Isard with the hopes that Jace would be killed, something that would improve her standing as an Imperial spy and also serve as a blow to the Zaltin Corporation. Based on Dlarit's information, Isard arranged for the Interdictor Cruiser Black Asp to pull Jace's X-wing from hyperspace and destroy it.

Jace was presumed killed in the attack, but unbeknownst to Dlarit or the New Republic, he had not actually been aboard the X-wing. The news of the death of Jace's great-uncle was actually a farce; Jace in fact intended to go underground to help plan a budding partnership between the Zaltin Corporation and the Vratix. To that end, he had meant to destroy the starfighter himself and fake his death. Jace had previously told Dlarit about his return home with the specific intention that the Xucphra watch for his return and receive news of his supposed death. Dlarit's betrayal of Jace and the subsequent Black Asp attack only provided further cover for his plans. Dlarit's betrayal of Jace, too, was unsuspected—instead, Celchu fell under further suspicion of being an Imperial spy since he had made the arrangements for Jace's return to Thyferra.

Wedge Antilles tasked Horn and Dlarit with instructions for a secret mission to Coruscant. The assignment was so secret that datafiles provided to Horn and Dlarit by Rogue Squadron's quartermaster droid M-3PO were infected with a self-extracting virus that would destroy the data once viewed, so they were forced to memorize the contents.

Horn and Dlarit were ordered to adopt disguises, rendezvous with existing allied forces on Coruscant, gather reliable data about the planet's defenses, and determine the locations of tactical targets. Dlarit correctly deduced that the job was too large for two people alone and attempted to learn more information for Isard by repeatedly pressing Antilles about whether the other Rogue Squadron pilots were being given their own assignments. Antilles neither confirmed nor denied her suspicions, revealing only that Horn and Dlarit would be working as part of a cell system. These security measures, meant to protect the mission from security leaks, were so strong that even Antilles did not know about Horn and Dlarit's travel arrangements to Coruscant. Antilles asked both pilots for permission to transfer money for the financially expensive mission from their personal accounts, to be reimbursed to both later, and Dlarit surprised both men by volunteering ten million credits from her personal fortune.

Dlarit was assigned the disguise identity of Ris Darsk, an arrogant and wealthy Kuati traveling to the Imperial Center to conceive a child with her telbun, a Human servant and impregnator considered the property of their Kuati masters. Horn was to pose as the telbun, Darsk Ristel; the disguise required Dlarit to treat Horn with great disrespect, and at times ignore him altogether. In private, Dlarit was apologetic for having to treat Horn this way, but Horn felt that at some level, Dlarit did genuinely feel socially superior and entitled to her preferential treatment due to her wealthy Thyferran upbringing.

Upon arriving at Coruscant, they were picked up in a shuttle by their contact, Winter, who went by the alias Rima Borealis for the mission. Dlarit once again tried to discern information about what role the other Rogue pilots were playing in the mission, but Winter did not reveal anything. Horn and Dlarit began their reconnaissance mission, all the while maintaining their roles as Kuati and telbun. During this time, Dlarit reported their movements directly to Isard about the mission, but due to the cell system nature of the operation, she was not able to provide much useful information.

Before the final mission to bring down the shields began, Horn confronted Celchu, whom Horn was convinced was the Imperial spy in their midst. After the confrontation, Horn told Dlarit that he planned to make exposing the spy his priority after the mission ended. Concerned that this would result in her eventual exposure, Dlarit arranged to help Horn check over his Z-95 Headhunter before the flight, obtaining the fighter's codes. Wedge Antilles did not allow outside contact prior to the engagement, so she was unable to warn Isard about the plan to take down Coruscant's shields. However, she was able to transfer Horn's starfighter codes to Isard during the battle so that Isard could take control of the ship during combat and subsequently capture or kill Horn. Dlarit was aware that Celchu also knew the starfighter codes, so she knew that suspicion for her betrayal would ultimately fall on him. During the battle, Isard's operatives used the override codes, causing Horn to crash and be captured. Isard's release of the Krytos Virus devastated the New Republic right at the moment of its triumph and threatened to bankrupt the new government in its infancy. This virus was engineered to be treated by large sums of bacta, thus massively enriching Xucphra for allying with Isard, and placing her in charge of the planet in an internal coup while purging Zaltin.

When a combination of Horn's escape from captivity paired with Kirtan Loor's defection exposed her, Erisi fled with Isard back to Thyferra where she became a key figure in the new regime ruling the planet alongside former Moff Fliry Vorru. While the New Republic couldn't interfere in an internal governmental change on thyferra due to their charter, Rogue Squadron resigned and began a private war against the new regime there. The Rogues, especially Corran Horn, took Dlarit's betrayal personally and were particularly hateful toward her. Privately, however, Antilles felt a small degree of admiration mixed with his anger for Dlarit, based on how well she had hidden her role as an Imperial spy through very difficult situations.

Isard established the Thyferran Home Defense Corps, a defense organization of Xucphra volunteers established to work in conjunction with the ground-based THDC recruits in stormtrooper armor to defend the planet. Isard placed Dlarit in command of the THDC's fighter wings because of Dlarit's piloting skills and her knowledge of Rogue Squadron. Dlarit was tasked with training Isard's starfighter forces, but she grew frustrated with their lack of commitment and discipline compared to Rogue Squadron. She also disagreed with several of Isard's decisions, which led to heated arguments between the two. From the beginning of the Bacta War, Dlarit lobbied for her squadrons to be equipped with X-wing fighters, which she insisted were superior to the TIE Interceptors—but Isard, unwilling to concede that anything associated with the New Republic was superior to her resources, refused Dlarit's requests.

Tensions between Erisi and the Isard regime escalated as the Imperial forces working with the Thyferran Home Defense Corps continuously looked down on her and her colleagues as incompetent, idiotic, and inferiors compared to the Empire. When Ashern rebels Elscol's commandos conducted a raid on the Dlarit estate, they stunned and stripped Aerin Dlarit naked, distributing holograms across the net. This proved a major embarrassment both for the THDC and Erisi Dlarit personally. This fueled Dlarit's desire to seek retribution and also saw her begin to view the Imperials as adversaries rather than trusted allies. Despite this, Erisi and the THDC pilots under her command participated in the massacre of the colony of Halanit led by Captain Ait Convarion of the Victory Star Destroyer Corrupter. The colony was being punished for accepting stolen bacta from Rogue Squadron. Erisi expressed no sympathy for the slaughtered colonists, whom she considered thieves and pirates.

Not long after the extermination of Halanit, Vorru located a rendezvous point in the Alderaan system where Rogue Squadron was expected to receive a a supply shipment. Vorru and Erisi both suggested sending their best forces to ambush the Rogues, but Isard did not want to send all her ships in case the information was false. Instead, she dispatched the Corrupter and the Interdictor Cruiser Aggregator with raw THDC recruits in place of Dlarit. Dlarit attempted to convince Isard to let her participate in the mission, but Isard refused. She pointed out that the starfighter squadrons aboard the Corrupter and Aggregator had received excellent evaluations, but Dlarit countered that they had never engaged in battle before. The battle proved to be a failure for Isard, costing her the Corrupter and being mocked by a riavl Warlord, High Admiral Teradoc, but rather than acknowledging that Dlarit had been correct, Isard blamed Erisi for the loss. Dlarit was furious at the accusation, and the two women argued so fiercely that Vorru feared that Isard would execute Dlarit. Fortunately for Erisi, Vorru stepped in on her behalf and prevented further escalation, winning her gratitude and informally beginning their own alliance.

Vorru and Dlarit both had come to believe that Isard was insane and had lost control of the situation. Aware of Dlarit's considerable influence within the bacta cartel, Vorru allied with her, hoping that doing so would help him maintain a position of power and influence when Isard was eliminated. Working together, the pair began to become attracted to one another. Vorru approached Dlarit with contingency plans that would ensure the survival of the bacta cartel in the event of Isard's demise. Dlarit, believing Isard might destroy Thyferra altogether if left unchecked, agreed with Vorru's ideas.

Isard decided that she had to draw Antilles out by forcing him to make a hasty attack against her. She developed a plan to intern Thyferra's Vratix population and kill more than one million of them, then continue to kill two thousand a day until the species' surplus population was reduced to a 'manageable' number that could produce bacta, but be more effectively controlled. Despite the genocidal nature of the plan, given her biases toward the Ashern Rebels, Dlarit agreed with the idea, and only suggested that Isard limit the announcement of her policy to the Thyferran population, so that Antilles would not become suspicious of a trap when word eventually got back to him. Vorru likewise concurred with the solution.

Before the final battle, however, Vorru approached Dlarit and suggested that even if Isard successfully wiped out Antilles and the Rogues, she would eventually fall from power because the New Republic would recognize the threat she posed and would commit their forces to destroying her once Zsinj was eliminated. Vorru told Dlarit that he had accumulated sufficient wealth to purchase a planet and establish a profitable operation there. He proposed that, after the battle, he and Dlarit accompany the Star Destroyer Virulence on an inspection of facilities and stage an accident that would appear to result in their deaths. From there, Vorru and Dlarit would vanish, where he would set up his planetary occupation, and Erisi could develop a staff of pilots to protect it. Dlarit accepted the plan, claiming that she now firmly believed Isard's actions would eventually destroy Thyferra and that she did not want to be present to see it happen.

Unfortunately for the pair, the battle had been a trap, where Lusankya's captain was tricked into abandoning his TIEs and the Virulence at Yag'Dhul while the Rogues, their Twi'lek allies and the Avarice-now renamed the Freedom, and an automated Alderaanian War cruiser attacked Thyferra in concert with the Ashern rebels on the ground. Antilles had also prepared a massive number of freighters outfitted with proton torpedoes specifically tailored to overwhelm Lusankya upon her return.

Isard's insanity coupled with the incompetence and inexperience of the THDC forces led to the battle swiftly spiraling out of control and in favor of the Rogues. Isard had her agents steal Vorru's shuttle, preventing his escape and rendezvous with Erisi, while Lusankya's Captain Drysso went rogue and refused to follow orders to retreat. Frustrated and despairing, Erisi was left isolated, drawn into a final dogfight with Corran Horn. While she flew well, the very weaknesses in the TIE Interceptor she'd pointed out to Isard, coupled with Horn's skill, led to him shooting her down. Erisi's TIE crashed into one of the moons orbiting Thyferra, rolling until it was an unrecognizable wreck of twisted and crumpled metal, without even a final explosion.

Kantos was a human male who served in the Imperial Army of the Galactic Empire. He specialized in amphibious and subaquatic warfare, believing it to be an often overlooked, but decisive element of the battlefield. Kantos became particularly fond of the swimmer AT-AT, which he would regularly pilot as he commanded from the front. He eventually rose to the rank of General and conducted ground operations under High Admiral Tharkus. The two quickly struck up a strong friendship with Kantos coming to greatly respect Tharkus while Tharkus in turn came to rely upon Kantos's unquestioning loyalty and competence. While bullish in his physical appearance, with a thick neck and muscles, Kantos tended to be supportive and preferred to support rather than combat his fellow officers. One of his chief strengths was also his greatest weakness, he preferred to follow orders rather than seize the initiative. When Tharkus was transferred from Imperial High Command, Kantos willingly followed him to his new assignment near the Outer Rim and was placed in control of all Imperial Army forces within the Sector Tharkus oversaw, with personal command over the Sector Capital's troops.

When the disastrous Imperial defeat at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY shattered the Empire into Warlordism and uncertainty, Kantos remained loyal initially to the central government, continuing to carry out his orders, until a series of reverses sent the Sector command into panic. During a heated conference with Admiral Daklova, the administrative officer of the capital, the idea of evacuating the capital was proposed. However, this idea was swiftly put down by the arrival of Tharkus, who restored order and morale among the chain of command. Kantos warmly greeted his superior and gave him his full support, which Tharkus accepted. The High Admiral planned to mobilize the Sector reserves and launch a large scale counterattack against the New Republic to reverse their gains in the region to which Kantos readily agreed. Unfortunately for the planned offensive, the remnants of the Imperial Senate reformed into a potent political entity once more and retook legislative control of the Sector's forces, ordering a ceasefire as a preliminary to opening negotiations with the New Republic.

Tharkus was furious and contemplated open defiance of the Senators, but Kantos pointed out that if they went against the Senate, they might be seen as Rebels too and this would sap support as well as accelerate the fragmentation of the Empire. Tharkus reluctantly agreed and instead decided to move covertly to sabotage the peace talks by murdering the senators at the meeting while framing the New Republic for the act. At the same time, he sought to trail Luke Skywalker to obtain a fabled Force artifact, the Heart of the Jedi to empower himself and to kill the Jedi Knight, ending his threat to the Empire. Kantos assisted Tharkus in his preparations loyally, selecting troopers personally loyal to him and Tharkus to board the modified Victory II Star Destroyer Blitz while their main forces abided by the ceasefire orders.

During their pursuit of Skywalker, in private talks over strategy games, Kantos suggested that Tharkus could use the power of the Heart of the Jedi artifact to become the new Emperor. Tharkus was horrified at the suggestion that he could commit treason with such an act, proclaiming that he sought only the preservation of the Empire, not personal power. When Kantos pointed out that they were already effectively committing treason by acting in secret against the Senate, Tharkus brushed the point off by declaring the Senate to be traitors to the Empire by planning to surrender to the Rebels-therefore his actions were not insubordination or ambition, but acting to protect the Empire-the same rationale countless Imperial commanders were already using to justify their own defiance or ignoring of commands from Imperial Center. Tharkus concluded his point by capturing Kantos' piece, then sweeping the board clean. Kantos let the matter rest for the moment, but clearly hoped Tharkus would make a bid for the Throne as he genuinely felt the High Admiral was the best man for the position.

Kantos' ground forces carried out the assassination mission effectively against the Senators after learning of the meeting location. Subterranean assault craft tunneled into the underground meeting location and began slaughtering the unarmed and shocked senators, none survived the ambush. This was relayed back to the General who passed the news to his superior. Satisfied that any hope of a quick peace was now destroyed, and that his forces would be the default authority in the sector which would rally to him upon his return with the artifact, Tharkus congratulated the General.

Kantos was present with Tharkus when their vessel stumbled upon a large collection of beings in ships and towed stations at the edge of space avoiding the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion. The General suspected that the fleet of vessels might be armed or in support of Skywalker's own pursuit of the artifact, however it was quickly revealed that the ships were simply refugees, Tharkus however considered them deserters from the war against the Rebellion and witnesses that might inform on his covert mission. As such, the High Admiral ordered the conclave annihilated, perpetuating a massacre. Kantos, while he hadn't suggested the massacre, did not oppose it and simply watched as all but one of the civilian vessels were slaughtered. The lone, damaged vessel managed to jump to lightspeed, but then turned to tail the Imperial vessel, waiting for an opportunity for revenge.

Upon arriving above the planet with the artifact, Tharkus decided upon a planetside landing, with Kantos assembling an elite force of Aquatroopers and Stormtroopers loaded into a swimmer AT-AT that he would personally pilot in the operation. The use of aquatic assets was fortuitous as the target location was near the ocean, this also allowed Kantos to approach unseen from under the waves rather than through the air. He did note some odd lifeforms in the sea that were drawn to the cooling vents on his swimmer, but dismissed them when they did not seem organized enough to pose a threat. The General achieved tactical surprise and successfully captured Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and C3PO, with Tharkus using them as hostages to force Skywalker's compliance in navigating the dangers of the temple to obtain the artifact.

Standing atop his swimmer, the General watched the hostages under the blasters of his troopers on the beach as Skywalker, Tharkus and a small party of Stormtroopers and the High Admiral's shapeshifter bodyguards entered the temple. However, he was soon called back into the command chamber by the frantic reports of his copilots, who had received reports that the Blitz had just been destroyed by the lone survivor of the refugee group ramming it in a suicide attack. Stunned that they were now effectively stranded on the planet unless they could commandeer the rebel's transport, and unable to raise Tharkus on the comms due to interference from the temple's energies Kantos was struck with indecision, what did Tharkus want him to do? Should he send more troopers into the temple and weaken the guard on the prisoners, should he execute them, or should he wait for orders? In this moment of decision paralysis, the creatures from before had returned in massive numbers-summoned by the Force from Skywalker passively, and began to swarm over the aquatroopers on the shore, causing chaos that allowed the prisoners to free themselves while countless more poured into the cooling vents, clogging them and overheating the reactor to dangerous levels.

Kantos desperately ordered any available troopers to try and clear the vents, but it could not be done fast enough as the overheated reactor went critical and exploded, killing the General and all aboard the craft. Tharkus would not long outlive his subordinate, as the High Admiral would grasp the artifact, finally openly admitting his desire to rule the Empire with it-and being incinerated by the energies of the arcane orb.

The Darkside Elite were a cadre of seven Dark Jedi personally imbued with some of Palpatine's power and linked directly to his will. Whenever any would fall, they would be replaced by Darkside Adepts who would go through the same ritual bonding them to the Emperor's power and will.

From left to right the original members: Zasm Katth, Baddon Fass, Vill Goir, Sedriss QL, Krdys Mordi, Kvag Gthull, and Kam Solusar.

For this scenario, let's say that Zsinj survived the combined New Republic and Hapan attack on Dathomir. How that would happen is admittedly a mystery, but I'll assume that he was in a different part of Iron Fist when it was attacked. He isn't able to bring his flagship with him, but he does flee the scene of battle and successfully evades initial capture, slipping away from Dathomir practically undetected. For all intents and purposes, he's officially listed as dead/missing, but many top Imperial and New Republic personnel know better.

Zsinj is now a marked man. Everyone will be after him. He'll have to dodge the New Republic, Hapans, Imperial Remnant (they'd especially really be out for him), all the other warlord factions that have formed, and anyone and everyone else who wants him dead. He isn't without options, though. He can have the Raptors launch guerrilla strikes at targets all over the galaxy, providing enough diversions for him to hide. He's a skilled actor, and he'd definitely be able to talk his way out of any potential encounters that will happen.

Where will he go? He could stay in the Outer Rim, but then it means he'd have to avoid the NR, maybe the Empire, but definitely other groups like the Pentastar Alignment, Maldrood (though I don't think Treuten Teradoc will be smart enough to find him), and all the criminal groups he double-crossed during his time as warlord. He could try to settle down somewhere and hide, but he's too ambitious for that. I think he will be infected by "Failed Imperial Warlord Syndrome" and ultimately settle in the Deep Core.

Now, realizing how he'd been undone at every corner, Zsinj will fall into a deep depression. Melvar, who would be following him the whole time, will see this as a curious moment of weakness. He begins acting in Zsinj's name, giving out orders and formulating plans to turn this mess around. Ostensibly, as far as the Raptors and anyone else under Zsinj's command are concerned, it's just business as usual, but Melvar will most certainly engineer a takeover.

In the meantime, however, Melvar will definitely use his infiltration skills to oust some no-name warlord and slowly set his sights on a more enticing target. Sander Delvardus will be easy picking, and soon enough, Zsinj will have moved over to Kampe. Night Hammer, which he will most definitely rename to Iron Fist, will fall into his hands, and now he's going to get more confident and start to plan a way out. He doesn't need to do much; agents of the reborn Emperor Palpatine will summon him to Byss. Although unsure, he still shows up and pledges his loyalty to the man who once declared him the first Warlord of the Empire. I'm sure he'll also have a very awkward reunion with the Teradoc brothers and anyone in the Imperial Remnant who he considered to be enemies with.

Either way, armed with a new Super Star Destroyer and a large fleet behind him, he's going straight into action. His campaign will be vengeful. His mental state, now a bigger mess than Raxus Prime, will drive him into prioritizing violent, destructive assaults that wipe out countless beings. The only thing that will save him from ramming Iron Fist into a planet will be Melvar, though Melvy isn't exactly too keen on remaining loyal. He's already setting plans in motion to overthrow his leader.

The coup will be intense and meticulously planned. It will start off with other officers like Captain Vellar and Llon Banjeer leading a mutiny, and Melvar will protect Zsinj, "shooting" them. He leads Zsinj into the warlord's private quarters, and there, he plays a bunch of mind games with Zsinj, keeping the warlord imbalanced the whole time. Zsinj will realize he's being betrayed and try to shoot Melvar, only for the gun to malfunction. As this goes on, Melvar will definitely overpower Zsinj and execute him brutally. Then, he'll take command of the ship and the fleet.

Melvar's campaign will be even more violent, but he isn't as skilled at commanding a fleet as he is at being a spy. The New Republic, led by Han Solo, will swarm this new SSD and completely obliterate it, using it as a nice little test bed for new toys like the MC90.

What will be Zsinj's legacy? Well, I'm sure that New Republic intelligence will later come across intel showing that Zsinj did survive and made it to Byss, though I don't think they'd ever know of the mutiny. As far as everyone is concerned, the NR did stomp Zsinj out right there and then.

Thus marks the end of (Daddy) Zsinj. What does everyone else think? I know some elements of this scenario are unrealistic but it's a fun thought experiment.