This is Lieutenant Gregg.
Like most young, ambitious Humans following the formation of the
Galactic Empire, Gregg joined the Imperial Navy, eventually landing himself a modest
position on an Imperial Star Destroyer as a data specialist.
One day, his Star Destroyer was boarded by Darth Vader, who was searching for an assassin
who had breached into the Imperial databanks and later broke into one of the Empire’s
prisons.
While this was the official duty of business Vader was tasked in undertaking, the only
thing on his mind was finding the surviving Jedi Knight
who was believed to have been connected with this assassin.
But Vader had to keep this on the downlow, as he had already been reprimanded numerous
times by Palpatine over his obsession in hunting Jedi, committing his time and resources
hunting down an already defeated enemy rather than acting as a proper enforcer for the Empire
that was trying to establish itself across the galaxy, with the task on the surviving
Jedi being placed on the Inquisitors and other dark siders
Palpatine had as servants.
Hours went by as Vader waited within the communications room while all the data specialists
attempted to link an identity to the assassin that had breached the data banks.
Then finally Gregg spoke up, mentioning he received a report
of another data breach that contained the theft
of after-action reports of Imperial vessels.
Initially the caption overseeing the operation dismissed Gregg’s findings as a waste of
time, seeing no relation to them and the data breach
into an Imperial prison halfway across the galaxy
from these Imperial vessels, but then Vader stepped, suggesting otherwise.
Either through the force itself or just his gut telling him, or maybe Vader simply wanting
a good excuse to leave the tedious data collection
station, the Sith Lord informed the captain that what
Gregg found was good enough and requested the Lieutenant to come with him.
This hutch of Vader’s became correct, as Gregg’s discovery did ultimately lead them
to finding the assassin's location, with the addition
of the possibility of the Jedi Knight as well.
Greatly pleased with this, Vader had Gregg come down
with him as the Sith Lord made his way toward the assassin’s last known location.
The assassin, whose name was Falco Sang, was captured almost immediately of the arrival
of the Sith Lord, with Gregg then being tasked
with interrogating the man on everything he knew
about the Jedi Knight that he was believed to have been hunting.
Impressed with Gregg’s skills from earlier, Vader made the lieutenant his right-hand man,
and go to guy in finding Jedi secretly behind
Palpatine’s back, to fuel the Sith Lord’s need in killing
them all.
In other words, Gregg become Vader’s Jedi dealer.
With this promotion and praise from Vader, Gregg spent countless hours doing just that,
going through numerous reports that could hint of
the location of a surviving Jedi.
As a result, he became one of the few Imperial Officers Vader
liked and gave attention to, with many of Gregg’s
peer’s calling him Vader’s pet out of envy.
Another task the young lieutenant was given was training up the assassin, Falco Sang,
that had been captured earlier.
The Empire valued strength and intelligence, but only when it was used
for its own means.
So Vader had the Falco Sang trained to be later used in the Sith Lord’s
future Jedi hunting missions.
While at first Falco Sang was unruly in his new position of being trained to work for
the Empire, he eventually came to respect Vader, after
the Sith Lord impressed him with his skill in starship
tech after he upgraded Falco Sang’s personal ship for service.
Gregg and the Falco Sang also started their relationship off on the rough foot for obvious
reasons, but the two ultimately became friends, with Falco Sang even defending their new
nicknames as Vader’s pets by standing up against the other Officers that mocked the
two behind their backs.
Now had a whole secret team set up with Gregg finding the Jedi, and Falco Sang being tasked
on the ground of ensuring the Jedi would not escape once Vader came to hunt them.
But secrets like these rarely remained hidden from Palpatine and his network of spies, who
informed the Emperor of what Gregg was doing.
Seeking to punish Vader in a manipulative manner, Palpatine decided to bait his apprentice
by giving him exactly what he wanted: A Jedi
to fight.
But with a catch.
The Jedi knew they were about to be attacked, having caught Palpatine’s
spy that originally informed him of their existence.
As such, a trap was going to be set to any Sith Lord that was going to come after
them.
Palpatine knew this, but wanted Vader to not.
So one late night, one of the many that Gregg was up attempting to find Jedi for his master,
he received a random call.
Initially he dismissed it, assuming it to be one of the other Officers, but
then he heard the caller’s voice.
It was Emperor Palpatine himself.
Shocked to be receiving a random call from the ruler of the Empire, especially so late
at night, Gregg nearly fell out of his chair when he
saw Palpatine’s hologram staring right at him.
At first Palpatine mockingly praised Gregg, for being such a young man who took his work
so seriously and with such diligence that he
stayed up all night to complete it.
He then cut to the chase, demanding what exactly Gregg was doing
for Vader.
Knowing full well it was not wise to lie to the Emperor, Gregg confessed that he had been
secretly searching up data logs for Vader in hopes of locating Jedi for him to hunt.
Knowing for well he was caught red handed in this act,
Gregg slouched down, awaiting his punishment.
But to his surprise, no punishment was given, but rather approval from Palpatine to carry
on with his duties, and that he was not to speak
of this interaction between the two of them with
Vader.
Now having confirmed that Vader was indeed going behind his back in hunting Jedi, Palpatine
decided to leak his findings toward the Jedi laid trap.
After confirming them with his spies and having the exact data of the Jedi’s location, Palpatine
called Gregg back shortly after their first call, surprising the young man once more.
This time he simply gave Gregg the data and told him once again to not speak of their
interaction to Vader.
Once the call ended, Gregg made haste to get his findings to Lord Vader.
Speeding down the Coruscant airways, Gregg stormed into Vader’s primary residence on
the city planet.
Sprinting down the building’s hallways and shouting Vader’s name, Gregg got to his
master a bit too quickly, as when he ran into the Sith Lord’s meditation chamber, the
dark lord had yet to fully put his suit back on, with
them making awkward eye contact as Gregg witnessed what Vader looked like without his mask on.
Also this is one of the rare moments that Vader’s
face is shown as he looked like during the early years of the Empire, with him still
looking like a young man in his twenties.
Nonetheless, the lieutenant quickly told him that he had discovered a Jedi, with him looking
away as Vader completed putting his suit and helmet on.
Beyond pleased with Gregg having done his duty in locating a Jedi for him,
Vader ignored the officer’s unprofessionalism in barging
into the meditation chamber without permission and simply ordered him to get his shuttle
ready for takeoff, for he was finally going to hunt
a Jedi.
Vader arrived at the planet that the Jedi was believed to be on in an entire Star Destroyer.
During the briefing of the upcoming battle, the other Officers quickly realized how suspicious
the whole situation appeared, with it being obvious
to them that the enemy had clearly had time to
prepare for an incoming attack and that the entire place was likely booby trapped.
With this now the case, the officers suggested to simply bomb the enemy location from orbit
with the Star Destroyer, but Vader was too stubborn, wanting to kill the Jedi by his
own hand.
So a ground assault force was readied, with Gregg being put in charge of the commanding
staff, While Vader and his clone stormtroopers moved
through the narrow bridges, the other officers were mocking him behind his back, simply astonished
at how foolish the attack was without air support.
And as they predicted, the bridges exploded right when the bulk of the ground troops moved
through them.
With them starting to lose precious troops, one of the Officers ordered for air
support, but Vader shut it down, later telling Gregg to shoot any of the Officers if they
attempted to interfere with his plans again.
No one was going to get in his way in spilling the blood of Jedi
in his own hands.
As the advance continued, more and more traps were set off, killing countless clone
stormtroopers and destroying numerous vehicles.
Finally, when the Sith Lord arrived at the front
gate, the gate opened up with a flood of fuel spilling through.
Knowing full well what was about to happen, Vader jumped to high ground, watching
his troopers being drenched in the fuel from the distance.
Then the expected happened, with a flame being thrown from the gate’s entrance which ignited
the fuel, exploding all the troopers that were within its area of effect.
But like the Jedi addict that he was, even that didn’t stop Vader, who despite being
on fire as the flames reached him, jumped from his position
right toward the gate’s entrance headfirst.
He burst through, shouting to be faced with the
Jedi he had come for.
And the Jedi he had been looking for this entire time had finally revealed himself.
Or so he thought.
The duel between the two quickly began.
His foe was far more powerful than initially anticipated, with the Jedi Master damaging
the Sith Lord with powerful force attacks as he
launched heavy machinery at the dark lord.
As the fight neared its end, the Jedi Master eventually revealed to Vader a detonator that
was linked to exploding the entire building they
were fighting in.
It quickly became clear that the Jedi the Sith Lord was fighting was not the one
he had originally came for.
The Jedi Knight he had been searching for this entire time was still
in hiding, and that the Jedi he was fighting right now
was just a random one that was protecting his main prey that he had spent so much time
seeking.
The random Jedi attempted to interrogate the Sith Lord on why he was so interested in hunting
down the one that he was protecting, but Vader simply stated that he was in it for all the
Jedi.
After that quick back and forth between the two, the Jedi Master decided to end it and
sacrifice himself by exploding the two of them.
But before he could do that, Vader chucked his lightsaber
and sliced the Jedi’s arm off that was holding the detonator, preventing him from turning
it on.
On his knees now following that attack, Vader demanded to know where the other Jedi was,
but was refused an answer.
A simple strike at the Jedi was then followed, with the Sith Lord’s
craving on killing them all only slightly satisfied.
Vader later discovered Palpatine’s spy that had originally discovered the Jedi, but the
Sith Lord had no idea of who he was or what his purpose
was.
All he knew that he was once a former
Jedi that was now working for Palpatine, so his life was also ended as Vader cut him down.
Possibly out of fear of being replaced, maybe out of anger as he realized how his Sith Master
had set this whole thing up for him, or perhaps out of rage of not being able to fight the
Jedi Knight he had been searching for all this
time.
As the spy’s body fell to the ground, it caused the detonator from before to activate,
which exploded the entire building Vader was still
in.
Vader was barely able to escape, with him hanging onto a metal bar before being rescued
by Falco Sang who flew right in to pick up his
new master.
Despite all this trouble Vader had gone through just to kill a single Jedi, or two in his
mind following the death of the spy, his hatred
for them was only amplified as he realized how far they
would go in protecting one another, with his efforts only being increased as a result of
all that
had transpired.