Purge (Star Wars)

Part 1: Pacification of the Western Reaches (~18BBY) : The Experiment

Grand Moff Tarkin sat back in his chair at the head of a long metal conference table that occupied the majority of his briefing room. His chin rested in his hand so that his fingers covered most of his mouth while he listened to a half dozen of his senior officers debate their next move. Shortly after the formation of the Galactic Empire, Tarkin had been dispatched to the Western Reaches to bring the last remnants of the Separatist Alliance under Imperial rule. However, more and more systems in the region grew disgruntled with Emperor Palpatine's new order and joined the Separatist holdouts. With the campaign going badly, Tarkin needed new ideas and called a meeting of his top officers in hopes of devising a new strategy. However, the conference had quickly degraded into bickering and back-biting with officers insulting each other and the only ideas set forth merely the rehashing of the same tried and failed methods.

"That's enough!" Tarkin commanded forcefully and the room instantly went silent. "This meeting is adjourned," he said, tired of the wasted time. He began to rise from his seat but was stopped short as his newest officer, who had sat quietly up to this point, finally spoke up.

"Sir," the young officer said, "If I may make an... unconventional suggestion?"

Tarkin slowly returned to his seat with a wave of his hand, indicating to the young officer that he may proceed.

"Instead of relying solely on Naval battles, I believe we should dispatch a massive military force to subdue the people on the planets themselves. The fighters in the vacuum would lose the will to continue to oppose us if their homes are under direct threat."

"How do you propose we do this, officer Brand?" Tarkin asked. "The cloning operation on Kamino has been discontinued and the Empire does not yet have enough conscripted forces available for large-scale ground assaults."

"There are tales in this sector," Brand continued, "of inhabited planets just beyond the edge of charted space. If they are true, those planets would most likely be primitive and easily conquered. They were not involved in the Clone Wars and thus would not have suffered the population loss other planets in the galaxy have. Their population would serve as an excellent source for harvesting conscripts."

"That's ridiculous," one of the other officers interjected. "Do you really expect the newly conquered population of a planet to actually serve as loyal soldiers?"

"No"" said Brand, not allowing the outburst to ruffle him, "but our scientists have had promising results with some new methods of...recruiting people."

"I know which reports you're referring to," the other officer replied incredulously. "They're a joke! That 'brainwashing' research is experimental at best and even if it does work it would take years to turn an entire army."

"True," Brand answered calmly, "unless we can break them en masse." He handed a datapad to Grand Moff Tarkin who had been quietly watching the exchange. "Our researchers have also been experimenting with a new form of torture as a result of the recent events on Dizon Fray. Because this method utilizes sound, we do not have to be limited to a dedicated piece of equipment for each procedure. We could prepare hundreds, maybe even thousands of people at a time and have a massive invasion force ready to deploy in a matter of weeks."

Tarkin looked up from the datapad he had been reviewing to stare coldly at the young officer for a moment. The other officers smiled and shook their heads at what they believed was a completely ridiculous suggestion but those smiles quickly turned to looks of disbelief as the Tarkin finally spoke, "This could be promising but how do you know you can find a suitable population? Uncharted space is, by definition, unknown."

"Folk tales and..." Brand began to answer when the same officer interjected yet again.

"Folk tales!" he said, raising his voice. "You're basing this all on children's stories?!"