Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice
Zare found himself grinning as he flew along the road It was a crisp cool morning Autumn would soon yield to winter on Lothal with the grasslands fading to pale green and then yellow He was in the best shape of his life and he'd earned the respect of his instructors instructors and his fellow cadets well except for Oleg But then Oleg's dislike could be considered another badge of honor The cadets reached the top of the hill that marked the highest point in the Easthills and they hooted happily happily from then on they'd be running downhill Chiron grinned at Zare who touched his knuckles to his forehead forehead as the cadets began to sing the final verse A salute to you from these cadets Assembled here to serve In many a fight we'll show our might And never lose our nerve Oh we'll lay them low from Old Lettow To distant Gardaji Our every story told for the glory Of our Empire's Army Cadets Sound off Currahee bellowed Huzzah Zare yelled back with the others I can't hear you 6
Zare started to yell but the sound died in his throat as he rounded the bend He should have been looking out over the Lothal plains toward the spires of Capital City the grasses below him undulating like the surface of a great ocean broken by scattered hillocks resembling islands But that familiar view was gone For nearly a kilometer the grasses had been burned away and the land ripped open Massive construction droids clawed at the dirt with metal pillars rising into the air behind them Welding droids zipped back and forth on repulsorlifts their torches brilliant sparks of light Zare stopped short and Oleg nearly collided with him squawking in protest What you're seeing is a new BlasTech weapons lab Chiron said gliding around Zare with his usual annoying grace It'll open by spring The Emperor has chosen Lothal for another key defense facility which means more jobs and industry for the planet Chiron smiled and ran off Smoke drifted over the cadets It was acrid and Zare coughed his eyes watering Is this nap time Leonis demanded Currahee Ma'am no ma'am muttered Zare running to catch up with the others And to think a moment earlier he'd been happy The 7
Empire hadn't changed it would despoil and destroy the grasslands in the same way it had ruined the orchards where his friend Beck Ollet had once lived the same Beck Ollet whose failed rebellion had ended with his vanishing into Imperial custody And Zare remembered with a shudder the Easthills was where his sister Dhara had disappeared the previous previous spring The Empire insisted she'd run away from the Academy but Zare and his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf had discovered otherwise The truth was that Imperial agents had kidnapped Dhara because she was Force-sensitive Force-sensitive They had taken her to the planet Arkanis as part of a secret program called Project Harvester Zare had enrolled at the Academy to discover what had happened to Dhara posing as a model Imperial cadet even while he worked to assist the Emperor's enemies He'd helped his fellow cadets Jai Kell and Dev Morgan escape after the Empire identified them as Force sensitive Zare had pretended to try to stop Dev and Jai and his efforts had been convincing enough to win an Imperial commendation Only Oleg seemed to have suspicions about what had really happened that day But then Oleg was suspicious of everybody Zare had nightmares all too often and usually the bad dreams involved a fellow cadet discovering he 8
was a traitor the Empire's dreaded Inquisitor arriving to interrogate him or a communiqué arriving to say his sister was dead But there was another fate he had to guard against what if he played the role of perfect Imperial cadet so well that he forgot it was an act The construction site below them was just the latest wound inflicted on Lothal by an Empire that intended to use the planet up and abandon it Cadets Kabak and Rykoff were replacements for Force sensitive boys who'd barely escaped the fate of Dhara Leonis And the hills around Zare were where the Empire had stolen his sister from her family Zare would be the best cadet on Lothal get promoted promoted to the officer training program on Arkanis and find Dhara And then once his sister had been rescued he'd help the enemies of the Empire bring it crashing down around the evil men and women who had built it Those were the important things not patriotic songs or the good regard of Chiron and Currahee or making friends with the next generation of Imperial officers Zare shook his head and picked up the pace giving Kabak and Rykoff a grim nod as he ran past them He wouldn't forget again He couldn't forget again 9
