Admiral Zarith Astrum

Lords of the Sith Fleet Command

Affiliation: Imperial

Imperial Army Rank: Colonel

 


Holonet Archives


Fallen From Grace

Having been given approval for her espionage mission to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance, Zarith considered her options carefully. Although it was not unheard of for a pilot to become a traitor, she knew her notoriety was going to make it difficult to simply walk into a Rebel stronghold and offer her skills. To find the information she sought, she would have to establish a new reputation, creating a slide away from the polished ranks of the Imperial Navy and creating an image of someone desperate enough to join the Rebellion.

It began simply enough, with the Inquisition creating a scandal where she was accused and convicted of using unauthorized equipment suppliers to arm and equip members of her unit. Although this accusation did have merit (as the Imperial supply system is notoriously slow), the accusation further stated she had been diverting funds into her private mining business which was completely untrue. Her mining ship was confiscated and she was discharged from the Imperial Navy. The only thing that saved her from execution was her long and stellar service, but her wings were taken away and to her was a fate worse than death.

In seeming desperation, Zarith then went to Naboo and offered her service to the Royal Security Forces. The RSF was eager to sign her on board due to her knowledge of the Imperial Navy and she quickly progressed through the ranks while learning to pilot the inferior craft civilian navies had to fly.

The RSF provided little concrete information, although she heard rumors of an Alliance organization known as “Crimson Phoenix” that seemed to be the rebel version of the Inquisition and was actively opposing Inquisition operations in the Endor system. She realized that this would be a prime target for her information gathering and knew she would have to be careful to keep her true purpose hidden from them in particular.

After completing combat operations with RSF it was not long before her “record” caught up with her. Due to the close ties between the RSF and the Inquisition, Zarith was again given her discharge papers and forced to leave Naboo in disgrace. This began to affect her standing with the Imperial Army and she was often viewed with distrust and almost open loathing. Having climbed so quickly she had made many enemies and now they were beginning to act.

Zarith took leave from the Imperial Army and headed to Corellia, claiming she needed to take a break from the seemingly never-ending galactic civil war. After foiling a pirate attack on a transit freighter using her own private vessel, she was offered a job by Corellian Security. Not sure if the pirate attack was staged or not, Zarith accepted.

It was during her time with Corsec that Zarith first started to wonder exactly what her motivations were for this mission. This was highlighted the first time she had to engage Imperials in battle as part of a routine patrol. Although she had killed Imperials in the past, they were always guilty of a crime…or so she thought. The Inquisition knew her skill and knew that any Imperial pilot she was going to face would most likely die a quick death. Did the Empire not care that her mission was likely to cause the deaths of hundreds or thousands of loyal Imperials as she worked her way to the Rebel leadership? Finally, was it worth the guilt of the deaths she would have to inflict on people she had fought alongside to find out the truth?

The thing that worried her the most was how easy it came. Each Imperial she encountered met the same grim fate and each time it became easier to dispatch her opponent. It was almost as if the frustration she felt regarding the lack of information regarding her parents death was eased with each death. She felt certain that this path, although grim and bloody was the only way ...


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