The hunger was the first thing that assaulted her when she gained consciousness, it was a feeling she had never grown used to, a terrible feeling that weakened her and made her unable to do anything.
That soon was followed by more suffering, such was life for a poor orphan, one she had experienced before. But that didn't matter, as she had long since learned that survival was the only coin that mattered in the underbelly of Coruscant, anything goes, all to gain enough money to buy herself into a good life.
Human trafficking, organ trafficking, smuggling weapons, selling key information to the Droid army about the defenses of Coruscant, killing for money, assaulting the Coruscant Treasury.
There, beneath the brilliant spires and lights of the galaxy’s jewel, she carved out a kingdom of filth in those sewage-soaked streets. A droid she’d rebuilt with her own hands became her envoy, her mask. The profits funded her body’s survival and her mind’s education—everything else was a reinvestment into deeper, darker crimes to keep up the strength of her gang. Smuggling, assassinations, stripping Coruscant’s Treasury like vultures on a carcass.
For a time, she ruled. Her forces outgunned and out-trained every rival. The underworld bent the knee or broke under her heel. She was the unspoken queen of the criminal slums.
But everything good had to end, as she finished her university career in a double-grade of Politics and Economy science her operations began to be hunted down by a threat impossible to face.
The Empire sent its new Supreme Commander, and he picked her empire apart piece by piece, hideout by hideout, until all that remained was the smoke and stench of burned-out safehouses. In the end, she left her people to die, severed the threads of loyalty, and vanished into the very streets she once ruled.
Penniless, alone—but alive. Always alive. But now with the possibility of a political and economical career.
She capitalized from her degree, soon enough her career, joining the Palpatine’s Youth she rose through the ranks, eliminating enemies inside the Palpatine’s Youth until she gained the attention of the ISB. Her actions had secretly been spied on by the Political Party; COMPNOR.
She believed this was the end of her career. She had used all types of actions, illegal and legal, moral and a-moral to gain power. But instead they called her a prodigy, someone to be raised through the ranks because that was what they needed.
Through her career in the ISB she went into many different branches, interrogation, enforcement, re-education and surveillance. Being considered a perfect agent, but that was all, for fifteen years she had been nothing but just “a useful agent”, never rising through the ranks because everyone she was facing was like her or worse.
They tried to kill her, ruined her reputation thousands of times, destroyed her efforts in order to make her not ascend. If she had been the most immoral person in Palpatine’s Youth here she was nothing but the average agent.
She was not willing to accept such a thing, she, Tanya von Degurechaff, the person that defied a self-named God, she who fought ten years of war until she became a General. She learned from her new environment, adapted and discovered that she could not win in their own terms, so she did the only possible thing.
Gained the interest of a woman; Andrea Hoxha, the General Secretary of COMPNOR in the Core. She needed friends in COMPNOR in order to ascend, and so she targeted the known womanizer to gain her favour.
She helped Andrea to kill all her enemies inside COMPNOR, not an uncommon thing. She even offered herself to satisfy her, something she appreciated.
Her rank from there on rose and rose, her salary increased, her deployments now were in the rear, she invested all her money in stocks of the biggest companies of the Galaxy, she became something near rich. She got married to Andrea too in order to obtain even more privileges.
Nepotism? Corruption?
It did not matter, the Empire was no meritocracy, it was a succescracy and no one would care about how she got her job unless she failed at her tasks, which is something she never did.
She was good at it, she was damn good at it, she tamed the underworld, she killed her once criminal allies and enemies. She managed to do something considered impossible, to clean the underground and ensure that the Empire took control of the Ecumonopolis, something that was long thought outright impossible.
But Tanya’s life was never one of good luck, all she had received was something she gained herself through her hard work.
The first Death Star was destroyed, what followed was the biggest economic crisis ever recorded in history, all her money invested in stocks… became useless, she had become poor again and she found herself in the worst position she could be, poor she lost the connection with the elites that now depreciated her because she was no longer at their level, the operations she had done so far backed by her own wealth were now impossible to repeat or continue, the debts she had taken based on her net worth instead of the money she had were now being called in.
Her wife gave her an option, a job that would give her the means to pay all her debts back. Sadly it would no longer mean being in the rear, she would be on the frontlines. In the Rims. She nonetheless accepted, because she refused to accept Andrea’s offer to just bail her out. She might come from the gutter and be her creature from head to toe, but she still had her pride.
She became an ISB director, deployed with the First Fleet of the Empire in order to support the Supreme Commander operations.
Lord Vader used her abilities to the fullest, she was forced to work sixteen hours a day in order to ensure Lord Vader the information he needed, took a personal hand in torturing rebel terrorists, destroy cities, ferret out where the rebel bases where, what the rebel fleets were composed of, when and where they would attack.
The most successful campaign against the Rebels in the Empire that forced them to a last desperate battle in Endor.
From there on… everything went downhill, the Emperor died, Lord Vader died, the only thing she was able to do was to save most of the First Imperial Fleet and the 501st from Endor, and return to Coruscant.
Two years had passed since the battle of Endor…
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“This the last report of the Coruscant Armed Forces Holonet, in the financial sector the 1th, 2th, 3rd, 4th, and 6th Stormtrooper Legions maintain their ground against the relentless and tireless assault of the New Republic armed forces that out-number our stormtroopers twenty to one. Stormtrooper Field Marshal Arthur Hall has been honored for his incredible tactical and strategic abilities with the award of Hero of the Empire. In the Industrial Sector the Fifth and the Second Imperial Army continue the fight under the orders of Field Marshal of the Imperial Army Ita Turnik. The First Imperial Army and the Third Imperial Army that protected the Imperial Palace together with ten thousand Death-Troopers and ten Stormtrooper Legions have surrendered after losing 80% of their forces during the six-month long battle for the Imperial Center…”
Tanya von Degurechaff Hoxha barely listened to the holonet, her attention fixed on the half-empty glass in her hand. Tari. Sweet, fragrant, an alcohol considered a luxury and her favourite in the Galaxy.
Her golden hair was a mess, her eyes were tired and dark colours were under her eyes, showing the sleepless night she had for the last eight years since the first Death Star was destroyed. She was short for the average woman, but physically stronger.
She tried to fill a new cup but the alcohol spilled as she missed it, tiredness and alcohol did not help her ability to control her body. Her wife, Andrea Hoxha von Degurechaff helped her to fill the cup and then filled another for herself.
It was a dark time for both of them, they knew what was coming but they refused to believe it.
“Ysanne Isard, head of Imperial Intelligence, has tried to evacuate Coruscant on a SuperStar Destroyer that was built near the Imperial Palace in order to evacuate the government in this type of situation. Reports are confusing but the war-criminal Luke Skywalker is supposed to have killed her. The Super Star Destroyer crew was able to heroically push the war-criminal out the spaceship before jumping into hyperspace, with the hope of reuniting with forces loyal to the Empire to continue the fight…”
The reports continued, Armies and Legions equally were either destroyed, surrendering or giving the last resistance fights.
“By orders of the Grand Vizier Sate Pestage… a ceasefire will take place immediately in all Imperial Center, declaring the capital as an Open-planet, all Imperial Forces in Coruscant have to surrender, ending the heroic struggle of six months that had taken place on this planet. The fall of Coruscant does not mean the fall of the Empire, loyal forces still control around eighty percent of the Outer Rim and a sixty percent of the Mid Rim, without counting the overwhelming control of the Empire in the core. This lost battle does not mean the end of the war against the terrorist, the rebel and the war-criminals. We, the Coruscant Armed Forces Holonet had brought the last Armed Forces report of the battle of Coruscant, a Holonet silence will take place for the next hours until the New Republic takes control of this station. Long Live the Empire!”
The transmission was lost and the silence reigned in the room where both Tanya and Andrea were. Tanya looked at the liquid of the glass on her hand and drank it like it was water. All for nothing It had always been like that all her life, how could she not feel despair in this situation?
Everytime she raised up she falled to the floor with great strength, as if Being X allowed her to rise up enough only to smash her head again against the floor. This was no longer a fight, this was a torture where she never was able to enjoy for too long the intense and incredible flavor of victory.
She had always liked Nietzche as a philosopher, his arguments were great, arguments that predicted the future of humanity far before anyone could understand it. His philosophy was misunderstood by most and ignored by many others. She sometimes felt like she was the only one that understood his teachings, the idea of accepting God’s death in order to generate your own individualist values based on your own decision and morality instead of the “laws of God”, the idea that struggle made you stronger.
But she knew how he ended, and she felt like she would end like him soon. There was a moment where a human would simply break down after so much suffering and struggle, that was the reality that such a great philosopher as him had to face, a reality she had to face too.
Would going crazy save her from the suffering she had?
She continued to drink, the liquid falling from the glass as she erratically tried to drown herself in alcohol. There was no hope left for her : forty years old, considered an academic genius, one of the best agents of the Empire … and here she was.
She wished to ignore every feeling, to lack any type of knowledge of how to feel, but she could not. She could not simply turn off her feelings and emotions, she could not simply make herself a person incapable of having such a thing.
All the accumulated power was now non-existent, all her money would now give her nothing, all she has worked up for has been destroyed time and time again.
The Empire in her second life, her business in the underworld of Coruscant, her stocks, the Galactic Empire now.
“I think you should go to sleep.” Said Andrea, trying to stand up but she could not, falling back to the sofa, she wasn't in a good condition either. She was the General Secretary of the COMPNOR in the Core, she had all the right to be worried and destroyed like Tanya, but for her this was the first time things really turned up against her.
She had looked at the abyss once. Tanya no longer knew how many times she did.
“I wonder,” Said Tanya, slowly as the tears accumulated in her eyes, “If I should just give up…”
Andrea stood up again, this time succeeding, she looked at the luxurious table and the alcohol and glasses on it, then to Tanya who was laying down on the sofa.
“Fuck giving up!” She said, as she helped Tanya to stand up, it was a hard task but it did not take long to raise the defeated woman to her feets and help her to move to bed.
“Giving up and then what? Killing yourself? Stop saying stupid things, the end is worse than any type of suffering this fucking Galaxy has to throw at us!”
Slowly they walked, or rather Andrea walked : Tanya did not have any strength anymore to do it on her own. They bumped constantly against the walls. It was a struggling walk, one where they had to stop many times before continuing walking. That was just it, a struggling walk into bed, one where they could surrender at any time and sleep on the harsh durasteel floor, but instead Andrea kept walking no matter the physical struggle in order to bring Tanya to bed.
“You can't understand… all that I suffered.”
Andrea did not answer, she just continued walking until they finally arrived at the bed, the only place where she wanted to be in this moment of historical relevance. She did a last push, a last effort to fall into the bed together with Tanya.
With a slow and tired movement she took off her clothes and Tanya’s too, accommodating herself with Tanya into the bed, hugging her.
Tanya began to cry like she had never done before.
“I am tired, I'm tired.”
She repeated it slowly and desperately. Andrea could not answer, there was probably no right answer at this moment.
“I'm tired, I'm tired”
Andrea lost the count of how many times Tanya repeated those words, she falled asleep and then woke up suddenly and she was still repeating that, her voice wearing down slowly like the rock that would stand in front of a river, a good metaphor of what Tanya was, a rock in a river that was being forced to change and even, to dwindle and disintegrate until she became sand.
“I'm tired, I'm tired…”
After hours, Tanya finally fell asleep, giving Andrea the mercy of falling asleep too.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A week and a half have passed since the fall of Coruscant. If hope was already lost with its fall, then what followed made every loyalist imperial feel like this was a nightmare, one where no matter what they tried, they could not wake up.
Planet after planet in the Core surrendered, the local governments betrayed the Empire with the hope to avoid the months-long battle of Coruscant to repeat on their own planets. Any military strategist knew that the only reason the New Republic won the battle of Coruscant is because they used up to eighty percent of their army into the battle, and that such a battle could never be repeated in years by the New Republic.
The Empire could have won the war, the Empire could have reconquered Coruscant.
But the local governments surrendered. The garrisons in the planets were forced to go into hiding or surrender too, and in a matter of five days the Empire lost control of all the planets governments in the Core.
The greed and fear took place, billions of soldiers surrendering awaiting for New Republic officers to come and accept their surrender. Morale was non-existent and only the Navy kept themselves loyal in the Core, reuniting in the secret military base of Cova, a planet whose entire purpose is to be a HQ for the Armed Forces equipment and troops in case of emergency.
Inspector General Tanya von Degurechaff Hoxha was sent into a mission during this desperate evacuation of loyal military assets, the objective was to recover the Lushyanka Super Star Destroyer who had been captured one day after escaping Coruscant, currently under New Republic control she had to recover it without doing any irreparable damage to the spaceship.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanya von Degurechaff Hoxha took a white pill into her mouth, immediately drinking a glass of water so the pill could pass through, her personal medic had said her to take one antidepressant pill every day at the same hour and she just followed that as an instruction, it gave her the strength to continue living even if she no longer wanted. The strength to continue moving even if she was too tired to do it.
“I heard those pills are very strong” Commented Stormtrooper Field Marshal code name “Appo”, commander of the 501st Stormtrooper Legion.
Being a field marshal and being given only one stormtrooper legion was considered usually a way of humiliation, but under Lord Vader his Stormtrooper Legions became heroes of the Empire, the ranks of his soldiers kept increasing and increasing but he refused to allow his troops to be moved to other positions of powers, meaning that their official ranks in the Empire had no real meaning inside his Stormtrooper Legions.
Vader was a competent military man in the eyes of Tanya, someone she would gladly work with if failure did not mean being choked to death, although the only reason she accepted back then working with him before learning of Vader’s treatment of “failure” was that her salary would be in six figures.
“Fuck if I know, the medic recommended that I take them” Tanya answered, she had lost all patience, no longer was she able to put up the facade of her being the best behaved and professional officer of the ISB, she learned that apparently no one cared about what attitude she had a long time ago and she now was able to behave more and more freely than she had ever been in her life.
The freedom of power was that no one could say nothing to her for her behaviour.
It took out a little bit of the pressure in her heart and off her shoulders, but nothing more.
She looked at the table. She was sitting on a comfortable chair made for officers and in front of her was a hologram of the Super Destroyer captured by the New Republic. The only one with her was the Field Marshal.
She felt tempted to take a glass of alcohol to improve her own morale, but she decided not to, because while she was not going to be in the frontlines she was the officer in charge of this operation, if it failed she would probably be executed by the remaining imperial army or die under enemy fire in battle or behind a barn.
“Are you sure the 501st will be able to do a… space boarding operation?” Asked Tanya as she took another sip of the glass of water, the dots of a holographic map showed that between her Star Destroyer and the Super Star Destroyer there were many moving objects, special trooper carriers were used for this operation, undetectable on the radar they would “move” by a initial thrust to the objective, each of those was capable of deploying 10 Stormtroopers, the surprise factor was the most important in the operation, but she doubted that they would have such a thing, she did not even trusted this “special” Star Destroyer, modified to have cloaking devices, invisible at simple view because of its camouflage painting that made it mimetic with the space and electronic devices that made it invisible to any type of radar.
But she had to trust, the Star Destroyer laid undetected and so far the Super Star Destroyer did not show any sign of resistance. It was like seeing a bird slowly and stupidly wait for the trap to fall over and capture it.
“It is the first operation of such nature in the history of the 501st, but I can assure you that victory will be ours.”
“You failed at Endor” Tanya answered, angrily.
“Endor failed because the other troops were deployed there, we never had the chance to interfere in the battle.”
“Still you failed, and the Emperor and Lord Vader are dead because of it.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“They were killed by Luke Skywalker Ma’am, not by the destruction of the Death Star.”
Tanya growled in disapproval and frowned, she was forty years old, while usually a normal human of her age would start to become “old” here she still looked like she was in her twenties, Andrea had an obsession with beauty and had ensured that herself and she remained preserved in a good condition, one hundred and fifty years was the standard of living of normal humans in this galaxy and she argued that it was a shame to be “beautiful” only for twenty years of those one-hundred and fifty years.
“Luke Skywalker… that fucking bastard that ruined the Empire.”
Silence reigned between the both of them as the time passed, the boarding vehicles had the problem of being very slow because they only worked based on a first “thrust” and later just “glide” to their objective.
“Do you think we will capture the Super Star Destroyer ?” Asked Tanya.
“All depends if the New Republic outnumbers my troops fifty to one, or if they have Luke Skywalker in there. If those factors do not become true then I would argue that yes, victory is assured.”
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Stormtroopers squad moved on the interior of the Super Star Destroyer, the alarms were on, warning all the New Republic crew of their presence. But it did not matter, they had a mission and they would win.
“Squad 134, entering in the Bridge” Said the Sergeant of the squadron before taking cover on the sides of the door, the rest of the squad did the same except for one stormtrooper that moved into the door, putting breaching charges on it.
The Star Destroyer was never designed to be a fortress against boarding parties, because it was assumed no one would be crazy enough to do such an operation, the 501st, both in the Republic and Imperial era had the fame of destroying the expectations of the enemy and improvising in impossible ways.
The stormtrooper took cover and the explosion destroyed the doors, the squad threw countless smoke grenades into the bridge and then once the room was filled with a deep smoke they entered, the New Republic soldiers and officers were incapable of seeing anything or fighting back, on the contrary the Stormtrooper could breath under such a condition thanks to their helmets and they could see through the smoke the enemies.
The Stormtrooper Corp had the most advanced technology of the Empire, a tradition from the Republic era and the Clone Armies.
“Kill the soldiers.”
The briefing before the mission was clear, all officers had to be captured alive if possible, all soldiers should be killed no matter if they surrendered.
Red blaster beams moved through the smoke, effectively killing all resistance and capturing the officers, putting them outside the room to avoid them dying of asphyxiation.
“Mission completed, we control the Bridge, proceeding to do hyperspace jump to the meeting point X-1-TY” The Sergeant reported directly to the Field Marshall Appo.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanya looked at the New Republic Admiral with tired eyes. He was a relevant asset for the New Republic but not irreplaceable. Human, average height and old, he had grey hair and a mustache that made him look even older. His wrinkles on the face showed that he had been prone to frowning a lot, something not very uncommon in military officers.
For the first time of her life she ignited an electronic cigarette. It was a long and fine stick with a liquid inside, light enough to hold in her mouth without the need of her hands. She never before considered smoking but she had heard the advice of Andrea who argued that it was a good way to relieve stress among other activities. She only agreed because the flavor was sweet enough to remember her sweets, which per se tranquilized her in a situation that felt very difficult.
She knew that this was going to be probably the worst day of her life only after the Emperor’s and Vader’s death. What she wanted to do here took her an entire week of thoughts and debates, it was like she for the first time of her life was risking all into one basket and she was never a gambler, but when the other option was dying after suffering an unending war for the Empire she felt that the only option was to do this.
She looked at the cameras of the room, they were off. She and him were alone in this room.
The small talk felt forced, but Tanya pushed through it. “Admiral, trying to recover the Super Star Destroyer was… foolish. You knew we’d stop at nothing to take it back.”
The admiral looked her over with that same exhausted disgust she’d seen a hundred times before. “I expected Vader’s interrogator to be more menacing—not a girl playing soldier.” The insult didn’t sting. Tanya had heard worse. They had little relevance to her own self-esteem.
“I am trying to have a civilized talk here.” Tanya advanced into the chair where the admiral was sitting, she puffed for the first time of her life and almost coughed openly, but she hid it and expelled the smoke from the side of her mouth, as she looked at the prisoner.
“I can understand, it has to be difficult to be in this situation but you see, I hate torturing people for information, I never liked my job.”
She was trying to be sympathetic to him, not that he could understand what she really was trying to be.The Admiral cleared his throat and then spat on the floor.
“I don't know what you want from me but I will never speak”
Tanya puffed many times in silence, the smoke left her mouth like it was an industrial chimney. She thought for a moment if this would be very perjudicial to her life but she had the money to pay any type of transplant or medical help she would need. And she had to admit that it helped her to keep herself more calm in a moment of her life where she believed stress alone could kill her.
“I want a Deal Admiral”
The old man raised his eyebrows.
“A deal?”
“Yes, I want to be pardoned for all the crimes the New Republic accused me of, to keep all my properties and to be granted exile on a planet of my own choice together with protection against any Imperial retaliation. Of course, I understand that the New Republic would not accept such a deal, in the end you are ruled by irrationality instead of rationality. So I am not only willing to give access to all Imperial codification and communication but also give you a map with all the secret bases of the Empire that I know together with all the information I have access of the Empire, including the location of where all the remaining Grand Admirals are, military plans, spies of the Empire inside of the New Republic and giving as a prisoner the COMPNOR Secretary General of the Core and being able to destroy the 501st together with recovering the SSD Lushyanka. It is a good deal, probably the best the New Republic will ever receive from any Imperial loyalist. All the idiots you capture are too stubborn to give up that information, we have trained them to be that way, and those that are not idiots are simply too scared for the retaliations. I am the New Republic's opportunity to destroy all the remaining pieces of the Empire in the Core.”
As she talked she smoked and moved in circles, explaining her thoughts and ideas like she was trying to convince herself that this actually would work out. Her hands were used to give more emphasis to what she was saying. Should I be betraying Andrea? Offering her to be executed to the New Republic in order to save herself? These were the questions that loomed around her head. She was betraying someone that had offered her so much, she felt somehow attached to her after this many years. But she cared about herself before anyone else. How could she live knowing that on the other side an irrational ex-wife would be trying to kill her for betraying her and the Empire? No, this was the best outcome, a quick death for her wife by the New Republic and she living a good life. It was the best result for both of them.
“This is a great deal I am offering you Admiral, and I believe you can come back to the New Republic as a hero, not only you survived but you convinced a infamous and very relevant Imperial Asset of surrendering for some minor, even unnoticeable demands. All the information of the Empire in my hand, for you to claim as yours and to announce as your personal gain. Imagine what you could become, who knows, maybe you would sit right next to Ackbar in the next meeting for such an heroic and incredible action. Really, this is the deal among deals, I should be asking so much more but I understand that you are very sensible and you need your fair amount of propaganda…”
“You fucking bitch !”
She was cut from her monologue by the rough voice of the admiral, he looked angry but she could not understand why, she was offering him glory and information, she was offering all the things she had in exchange for almost nothing. Why would he reject this opportunity? Fucking irrational.
She stopped going in circles, looking at the Admiral's face. Her own face showed confusion at such a rejection. Was he trying to get more from this deal ?
“I joined the rebellion after the Empire bombed my planet, we rebelled, yes, but you bombed our cities into submission. Hundreds of millions of civilians died under the Empire bombing campaigns. And do you know who bombed them ?”
Her eyes could not believe her own bad luck.
“O yes, you know who gave that order, it was your master you fucking whore, Lord Vader gave the fucking order, my mother, my wife, all dead under the fire of your fleet. Do you believe I will accept the surrendering of any of Vader’s whores? Oh I am fucking not, I will prefer to die tortured here than fucking allowing any of you to have a pathway to a life without the consequences of your actions”
Fuck, fuck me, fuck this shit, fuck all this. Inside her head she was panicking but the admiral’s only possible source to know that was the amount of smoke leaving her mouth as her modest breasts moved up and down, announcing her panicking to the attentive eye.
“I am offering all I have, is it worth it to die for a personal vendetta you have against Lord Vader ?”
She could not understand it. Why? She was offering to sell off her own fucking wife, why was he not able to get over her for a crime she didnt do ? Also it is not like he was in any option of rejecting her offer. It was accepting her deal or dying ! He could at least try to gaslight her !
“Yes.”
Tanya punched the Admiral in the face. She was fucked, this was her opportunity to have a good deal and this irrational bastard just ruined it. Any attempt of long-range communication with the New Republic would be intercepted by the ISB, any attempt of changing sides without an actual agreement would end up with her executed. She was dead. Her head began to hurt, the pressure and the near non-existence of her patience did not help her.
She punched the man's face again, throwing the chair into the floor. The admiral was smiling, he was ruining her life by dying in the process, if he wanted to do it that way she could very much concede him the death he wanted.
“I am offering you!” She punched him again, and again, left and right. The old man's face was moved to one side and another like it was a punching ball, he recovered rapidly to look at her again with a smile that showed his irrationality.
“The fucking deal of the decade!”
She punched him harder and harder, her hands were hurting her from how hard she was punching him, blood was falling from his broken nose and lips.
“And you fucking reject it! You dumb fucking Republican, this is why your fucking planet was bombed into submission ! Because you fucking idiots cannot see a failed war when you see it. And I am to suffer your fucking blindness?!”
She punched him again, and again, and again. The Admiral lost any capacity to keep control of his body, his head simply moved by the sheer strength of every punch. But she was far beyond the point where she was able to recognize what she was doing. Three lifes, decades of war, she was no longer Salaryman, compared to her past self, she was now a broken person.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Field Marshal Appo advanced into the interrogation room, two Stormtroopers saluted him as he entered, the blood in the floor was thick and the image in front of him was threatening. Inspector Tanya von Degurechaff Hoxha had blood all over her clothes, she looked cathartic, better than the last time he saw her.
Her brutality, as usual, was frightening, but he could never deny her effectiveness. He actually had a liking for her, she was the type of bureaucratic officer that could understand the troops and many times her ways were similar to those of the army.
“Did the Admiral give any useful information?” He asked, seeing her pick from the blood her electronic cigarette and cleaning it in her clothes.
“Bastard was a radical, the type of person that would prefer to die without giving any information. I just granted him his wish.”
“I thought he would be valuable for a future prisoner exchange”
Tanya raised her shoulders, the post-murder clarity gave her hours of relief, which were well needed after so many years of suffering. Also, she couldn’t afford loose lips about the state of her loyalty.
“Any of our troops taken prisoner clearly are traitors, why would we exchange a valuable asset for the New Republic for traitors? It would be a bad deal.”
Also, she couldn’t admit to having killed him to silence him, even though they could have exchanged him for credits or military hardware. Hopefully the deception stood. Field Marshall Appo nodded in agreement. Since she joined Vader's inner circle he had seen in her a loyal Imperial to the core, he respected her a lot. How could he not? The Empire is falling around them and she stood proud with them, willing to take matters into her own hands. She many times even would go to the frontlines directly, with the troops, in order to do her mission.
A woman that would take matters into her own hands. That was something he could get behind.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanya poured a little bit of a brown-like liquid into her black caff and sighed at the monstrosity she created, but it was a necessity by this point. She took an antidepressant pill and then helped it to get down with the coffee. The alcohol and the caff hit her like the train that killed her in the first life, waking her up from her half-asleep status.
Her lips showed discomfort and sadness and she constantly sighed at every action. She was alone in her personal office and it was the worst feeling. To fill up an endless amount of reports and documents for her wife and other members of the Empire and reading a bunch of reports from her subordinates while feeling like she was slowly dying.
She could only be thankful that she did not have to care about her calligraphy. She very much felt like if she had to write the reports on paper her reports would be unreadable. It was a benefit that in this society being able to write in good calligraphy was considered more of some sort of art than any practical thing, writing in paper or any other surface became outdated thousands of years ago.
Yawning, she ran her hand over her face, looking at the same document for several minutes, rereading the paragraphs ten times because she was unable to understand what they meant. She felt more stupid than she had been in her first life, she didn't know if it was because of tiredness or something else but she felt that she had lost control of her life, although a small but noticeable voice told her that she had never had control over her life.
Slave of her parents, slave of the private company, slave of the orphanage, slave of the army, slave of poverty and now slave of the Galactic Empire. True freedom did not exist and in her life she never had any real freedom either.
Freedom to choose the path she wanted, to do what she liked and avoid what she did not like. Had she been able to do anything of that in any moment of her life? No, the answer was no.
There was no retirement, no rest, no final end. Just continuing forward with the amount of bullshit she has on her shoulders…
She sighed, there would be more opportunities to defect from the Empire, this idiot of an admiral was an anomaly, surely future prisoners would be more willing to cooperate with her.
That helped her a little bit, and as she recovered a little bit of energy she began to be able to understand what she was reading, this monstrosity she called a “wake” would give her a energy boost when she could no longer humanly function, which happened twice a day.
She thought for a moment about her wife. One week away in hyperspace and she could not wait to reunite with her again. It gave her a little bit of comfort that when she was “at home” she no longer had to be a boss, the reports and the documents would be handled by trustworthy subordinates and she would be able to rest peacefully and enjoy her company. It was probably the moment when she had the most freedom in her third life. Maybe for that reason she felt a little bit uneasy about possibly betraying her, but what else is she supposed to do? She has the equivalent of Martin Bornman as her wife, there is no chance in this galaxy for them to allow her to retire peacefully in New Republic controlled territory.
And trusting in the Empire's victory after the fall of Coruscant was… foolish at best. If the control of the Empire over Galaxy falled to crumbles after the battle of Endor… now it was a nightmare. Thousands of previously “loyal” Imperials raised, creating their own Empires, some Grand Admirals called themselves Emperors trying to topple the government in Coruscant. It was a spring of warlords. It all seemed lost until a secret son of the Emperor took the role as the second Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Sadly even if his actions were good and he was willing to listen to those that knew better than him, he was killed by Luke Skywalker at the start of the Coruscant battle.
The Empire was again without an Emperor and the territories still loyal to the central government were now smaller than ever. The fact that her wife wanted to fight a terrorist campaign against the New Republic was nothing else but the testimony of how an Empire that once ruled the Galaxy was now nothing else than a dying and collapsing Empire, trying to take the rebels with it in its fall.
She was in the same situation that many nazi soldiers were in after the fall of Berlin, to keep fighting or to surrender. In her first life they surrendered because that was the only reasonable option but here the Empire still controlled too many planets to even consider surrender. The Outer Rim and the Mid Rim still had powerful strongholds controlled by those still loyal and competent enough.
While there could be a chance that somehow the Empire revived like a phoenix with these strongholds similar to how the New Republic rose from the ashes of the failed revolution post the battle of Yavin, this chance was so small that she felt that keeping the fight was stupid.
Someone knocked on her door, she raised her eyes from the current report she was reading, a report from ISB agents infiltrated in Kuat - who had changed sides a mere month ago - informing her that the Empire still was widely popular in Kuat and that the change of sides had generated a lot of problems among the blue and white collars. They were ready to disturb the Kuat spaceship production with massive strikes.
She was an ISB director but her wife had put on her the task of coordinating the guerrilla warfare against the New Republic in the Core, this type of activities were in some sort of form inefficient individually but if done in pivotal moments, for long enough time or coordinated with massive amount of other activities of similar style it could cause true harm.
“You can pass” She said, she heard her own voice and thought that it sounded too tired but it's not like she could change that.
The doors slid and one of her many assistants appeared from the door, he was bald and fat, his name was Hune Mante. Despite how bad his appearances were he looked charismatic and he was a good assistant. His reports were impeccable and his efficiency when she delegated tasks on him were by far one of the greatest. He was one of her best assets.
“Director von Degurechaff, I believe you might want to see the news.”
Tanya raised her eyebrows.
“Is the Imperial Core News showing anything interesting in the holonet? Maybe the whore of Leia Organa or Luke Skywalker died? An assassination attempt on Mon Mothma? I need some good news.”
“Not ours, their news” Answered Hune, he looked a little bit concerned as he was looking at her manipulating the holo-projector until it showed the frequency of the New Republic News. NRN, a stupid brand name if someone asked her. Even in a minute, she could come up with something better.
As soon as she put on the frequency the hologram of a woman appeared in her face, she was good looking and had a considerably big tits, probably to keep the audience entertained in the hours long of unimportant news. The media in her three lives had always understood that appearances mattered, and having someone beautiful on the screen was a good way to get even more attention from the people.
She raised the volume and accommodated herself on the chair as the woman reported the New Republic list of Imperial War Criminals, their black list of people they wanted dead no matter what, with monetary compensation for anyone who killed them.
Her eyes widened when she saw her name on top of the list, as the first war criminal with the biggest bounty of one billion credits.
The woman spoke.
“This morning the Office of Galactic Reconciliation received a relevant piece of information from an anonymous former Imperial. It included the entire known Imperial Record of Tanya von Degurechaff, Vader’s personal ISB attache. She had been an unknown figure for the past six years, but with the new information acquired, the OGR has declared that she has taken part in several genocides, as well as tortures, deportations and many more crimes previously associated only with the deceased Supreme Commander Darth Vader. Today, in the NRN, we invited a representative of the OGR to come and give us a report of this war criminal.”
The alien by her side coughed a little bit, he was a twi'lek and wore office clothes, his skin color was orange and he looked old.
“Yes, before Tanya von Degurechaff Hoxa was an unknown figure to the New Republic, only public information from her being that she was married to Andre Hoxa and had been ISB’s attache to Vader. What we believed before nothing else to be a fruit of the Empire’s well-known and studied nepotism has been discovered to actually be the enforcing hand of Vader in the planets he personally invaded.”
“You claim that she is not a product of nepotism, why?” Asked the News reporter.
“Well, nepotism by our definition means putting unfit individuals in charge of positions of power, but by no means can we call her unfit. She is, according to what we believe so far as we keep researching her record, a functional sociopath, and she had done her job “well”, according to the Empire’s definition of “well”. She pacified the planets after Vader’s legions had conquered them, using methods like genocide for political reasons, giving chemical weapons to the Imperial’s Military police to disperse manifestations, torturing, many times personally, any individual that she believed that had information about our sacred fight to restore democracy in the Galaxy. Several photos of her posing -with a smile, I have to add- had been in the files we had access too, in many she seemed to enjoy torturing men with psychological tortures more than physical tortures, executing them no matter if they gave her the information she wanted or not”
“The Empire had created several monsters through its horrible twenty-year rule over the Galaxy, what makes her worse than the rest of the known War Criminals that the OGR wants executed?”
“Well, her association alone with Vader is problematic, working five years under him was apparently something only three officers had archived, he had a tendency to kill anyone he saw unfit, making ironically his personal forces the most efficient and meritocratic of the Empire, although that word is misused, in the OGR we prefer to call it succescracy. And she had succeeded a lot during her five years under his command. More than five thousand death camps were created under her direct control, where she sent prisoners to and I quote her order directly “work them to death”. Of course that alone does not make her the worst imperial we have fought. If we saw every singular action she had done she does not deserve to be so high in our list. But it is the combined crimes that she had done that made us make her a number one priority. The estimated total death toll is one trillion intelligent species as far as we are counting.”
The news reporter looked horrified at the number, it was a number far bigger than the destruction of Aldeeran, insignificant considering the galactic population but massive considering she was a single individual.
“How can a single sentient reach such a high number of… murders ?”
“Planets we previously believed to be bombarded by Star Destroyers until all life in them went extinct were never signed by Lord Vader, who we accused of those crimes, but by Tanya von Degurechaff. In total she had been part of the destruction of thirty planets, the creation of thousands of death camps, genocides, using military grade weapons against civilians, tortures and many other crimes. The OGR has facilitated the NRN a image of such a war criminal so any bounty hunter or proud fighter for democracy, or Imperials who might want to redeem myself can gain the bounty on her head”
An image was displayed, occupying half of the projection, showing the image after her first battle fighting with Vader.
Tanya felt how she was suffocating, she raised from her chair as her head hurt, but she rapidly falled to the floor, she was having a panic attack, the last word she heard was Hune Mante screaming for a medic as the news reporter of the NRN repeated the amount of credits that any one that would kill her would receive.
One billion credits, the biggest bounty the New Republic has ever set.
This was the end of her, there was no chance of changing sides now, there was no chance of hope, like always her life had been ruined, again, and again and again.
All she wanted in her life… was to rest, to have a peaceful life. And the only thing she could do now was win or die.
She began to lose consciousness as she hyperventilated, she was suffering so much, it hurted so much, and then everything turned black.
Thank to anyone who reads me, comments or give likes!
Thank to my editors!
And thank to those that support me!
