Through Imperial Eyes

Chapter 7

"Colonel Yularen's shuttle has just landed, Admiral" said Lieutenant Hammerly.

"Very well. Send him to my office along with Admiral Konstantine. Notify me when Lieutenant Lyste and Agent Kallus arrive onboard with the prisoner" the blue skinned man answered. He then made his way out of the bridge and (Y/N) was left with her crewmates.

"Do you think the rumors are true? That the rebels have Jedi that can control minds?" Hammerly asked her.

"I wouldn't be surprised, honestly. Otherwise how can you explain how easily they manage to slip out of our hands? It can't be natural. Who knows what that Force thing allows them to do." (Y/N) answered.

"Yes, but I've also seen some security footage and it's unbelievable. They use their lightsaber to redirect blaster bolts, to cut through doors... I'm kind of jealous, I wish I could move things with my mind and have a sword like that."

"If I were you, I would rather be normal. Just remember what happened to the Jedi Order. They were exterminated, the survivors live like hermits and are hunted down by those Inquisitors like the others talked about in headquarters."

The young woman continued to converse with her fellow lieutenant for a while when suddenly a bunch of orders came in at the same time. Their prisoner had been let out of his cell and someone was trying to help him escape. They sent some troops to intercept them when they heard another call from Thrawn.

"Assassin droids? Lieutenant Lyste?" she heard Commodore Faro exclaim from the walkway.

The crew looked at each other completely baffled. There really was a traitor in their midst. A murmur of surprise rose on the bridge. Most of her colleagues could not do much except listen at the moment. The Commodore was still receiving calls from across the ship.

"Use torches, blast the door open, whatever it needs! Don't let them escape!" she told one of the stormtroopers down near the landing bay through her comm.

"Seems like the rebels are going to slip out of our hands again." Hammerly whispered to (Y/N) before turning back to her station.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." she answered in a low voice, her thoughts drifting away as she also turned back to her sensors.

It had been a couple of weeks since they left Coruscant and began chasing rebels and the Ghost crew. Admiral Thrawn had already gone to investigate a case of sabotage in one of Lothal's factories, but now they apparently had someone within the imperial ranks helping them and probably feeding them information. (Y/N) was doing her job as usual, but she couldn't shake the growing feeling that the Empire had it coming.

While in the last years they had mostly focused on intercepting rebel ships, pirates and smugglers, being stationed for a long time above an occupied world had given her the opportunity to see with her own eyes what was really going on down there. She already had a pretty good idea beforehand, but it was different than playing an active role in the repression. She had heard and read reports, seen some security footage, and it made her work increasingly difficult.

(Y/N) was conflicted. On one side, she had an allegiance deeply rooted in the training she had received at the Royal Imperial Academy and by the fact that, for the last few years, she and the Chimaera's crew had provided security across the controlled systems. She looked around at her crewmates, an uncomfortable knot forming in her stomach. She had learned so much during her time serving under Admiral Thrawn's command and she was attached to her colleagues after all they had been through together.

On the other side, she was now seeing the real extent of all the destruction caused by occupation. They were transforming pristine natural landscapes into industrial complexes, extracting or stealing valuable resources on various planets, oftentimes against the people's will when they were not simply enslaved or forced to work for the Empire. She remembered some of her older crewmates telling her of the time they had found an imperial ship specially made to accomodate enslaved Wookies. The lieutenant had also recently heard about the relocation of numerous families on Lothal, about farmers forced to go work on the assembly lines and she knew deep down that it was also happening all across the galaxy.