How to Take an Empire

Chapter Twenty: Ambush

If Vader were not secretly raising a rebellion and slowing turning the Emperor's own forces against him, he'd sooner be on some planet enforcing the rule of the Empire rather than sitting in this meeting with the Joint Chiefs of the Empire. But as it was, if he was going to earn the loyalties of the Imperial fleet, he could not afford to be too aloof when it came to matters concerning the highest-ranking officials of the Empire. Technically, he had no official rank in the Imperial structure. Thus, the Joint Chiefs had no reason to brief him about Imperial matters, something that bothered Vader little since he took all his orders from the Emperor himself. But even without an official rank, he was the de-facto second in command of the Empire. So they couldn't turn him away if he decided he wanted to sit in on a meeting. Besides, it would be out of character if he weren't sitting in this meeting today considering the subject at hand.

The Fulcrum.

The name had first come up a year ago. Little more than what appeared to be a very skilled, common smuggler that got a thrill out of infiltrating high-security Imperial facilities. Then, just a week ago, a distress beacon came in from a remote Imperial outpost overseeing some sector of little importance to the Empire. By the time anyone got there to aid them, it was too late. The entire outpost had been decimated for reasons that had yet to be figured out by the Empire.

And in that one incident, just the name began to inspire so much unease among the Imperial ranks that soldiers hardly said the name above a whisper. With good reason, if the reports Vader had scanned before attending this meeting about the state the outpost in the aftermath were true. Though what he'd heard from the common storm troopers told him that what had spread among the general populace was greatly exaggerated and full of unsubstantiated rumors that only rivaled what he knew people said about himself.

"I think," Tarkin's holo interrupted the pointless squabbling that had erupted around the table, "we all agree that the Fulcrum is a problem. The real question is how much of a problem is he, and exactly what measures we should take to do something about him."

"If he's a single actor at all. Our intelligence operatives can't even determine that."

"It would help if anyone who saw him survived to tell the tale."

Vader tuned out the conversation out again, both amused and appalled at the apparent xenophobia and sexism of the Empire. The assumption was certainly beneficial to the person who Vader was mostly certain was the real Fulcrum, though. While Vader and Ahsoka's operations sometimes crossed, and he sent her information to steer her in the right direction on a regular occasion, they mostly didn't talk about what the other was up to. The idea was that if either of them had the unfortunate occasion to be discovered by the Emperor, they would genuinely have no clue about the operations of the other.

Still, if Vader had to take his guess, he'd assume that said outpost had discovered some operation or another that Ahsoka was cultivating in the unimportant sector, and she was forced to deal with the threat accordingly. Finally, tired of the squabbling, Vader decided to cut in.

"While I agree that there certainly may be more than meets the eye about the Fulcrum, especially considering this incident, the Emperor doesn't think it warrants significant Imperial attention and believes the local sector authorities can deal with their one rogue smuggler. In the meantime, we should still keep an eye on the situation and continue to gather whatever intelligence on the matter we can," Vader stated.

Part of starting to cement his power in the Empire meant that though he was the mouthpiece of the Emperor, he also had to convince others that he spoke for himself and was more than just someone's fist. Hence the vague implication that he might disagree with how the Emperor was handling this situation. Because if he didn't suspect Ahsoka had something to do with this, he certainly would have pressed the matter with the Emperor later. He still would, of course. But knowing Sidious, so secure in his power that he was, he would wait until the threat revealed itself for what it was before determining it was no threat at all because his foresight was infallible.