Random Musings

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"LOTHAL MUST BE PUNISHED.

MY MILITARY ADVISORS DEEM IT A WASTE OF RESOURCES - BUT THEY FAIL TO SEE HOW THIS OTHERWISE INSIGNIFICANT PLANET HELPED TO SPARK THE FLAMES OF REBELLION THAT NOW SPREAD TO EVERY CORNER OF THE GALAXY.

THE JEDI KANAN JARRUS - AND HIS APPRENTICE, THAT FOOLISH EZRA BRIDGER WHO PERSONALLY DEFIED ME . . . THEIR ACTIONS CHANGED THE PLANET'S DESTINY. THRAWN WAS LOST TO THE UNKNOWN REGIONS OF SPACE, SOMEWHERE WHERE EVEN I CANNOT FIND HIM. THE ONLY SOLACE I HAVE IN HIS LOSS IS THAT EZRA BRIDGER WENT WITH HIM - HOPEFULLY, TO HIS DOOM.

WITH THE REBELLION SPREADING ITS ROT ACROSS MY EMPIRE, MY MILITARY IS NOW ENGULFED IN WAR. SO, I CANNOT MOVE THEM TO RAIN HELLFIRE UPON LOTHAL AND ITS PEOPLE.

BUT THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO KILL. TO HURT. TO MAIM. I AM A SITH, AND I KNOW THIS WELL.

LOTHAL - WHERE ONE OF THE SPARKS OF REBELLION FIRST BLOOMED - WILL MEET ITS END. THE DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS WILL SERVE AS ITS PUNISHMENT. I WILL BLEED THE PLANET OF RESOURCES, OF HOPE, OF BELIEF THAT THEIR PRECIOUS JEDI EZRA BRIDGER GAVE THEM A FUTURE.

I WILL ROB THEM OF THAT DELUSION. I WILL BURN THEIR FIELDS, SMASH THEIR MOONS, DROWN THEIR SUN IN A NEVER-ENDING NIGHT.

THIS TIME, THERE WILL BE NO JEDI TO STOP ME."

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The death of a thousand cuts. It sounds laughable, even from someone evil like Palpatine. But, he meant business.

A call went out, through Imperial back channels. Secret meetings organized, with all the criminal heads of every organization that thrived in the seedy underbelly of the galaxy attending.

The Hutt Clans. Black Sun. Crimson Dawn. The Pikes. Slavers, mercenary guilds, assassins, anyone who was adept at hurting, manipulating, killing . . . the list goes on and on. They all got the call.

The dark-sided bastard put forth a bounty to these criminal organizations.

The target: Lothal and its citizens. He wasn't looking for anything specific. No, The Emperor just wanted to make our people hurt. To suffer. To die.

To lose hope. The hope that Ezra sacrificed himself for.

Of course, all of them were skeptical. The Empire hated criminals, almost as much as they hated the Rebellion. They wanted to be the only ones exploiting the galaxy's denizens and the crime lords were parasites that needed to be expunged, no question.

Then the Emperor told them the reward, should they succeed. And here, reluctantly, I must give the devil his due.

One time access to the Emperor's personal treasury. Riches untold - and seemingly unlimited. You could do a lot with that kind of money. Whispers and rumors were endless about what Palpatine hid in his vaults. Not just credits but artifacts, untold wonders, objects of unknown and terrifying power.

Treasures. Even the most jaded, cynical pirate salivated at the thought of exploring the Emperor's secret vaults without fear of being hunted down afterwards. Free to fill their personal coffers to their heart's content.

And so, one by one, they all accepted the bounty.

Lothal came under siege. We had just started rebuilding, barely had a defense force put in place, when the armies of the galaxy's most vile criminal syndicates came to our doorstep.

Capital City burned once more. Our fields burned. Our people wounded, battered, but still rallying to defend our home.

The bravery of a few were what was holding us all together in that dark period. Every day, a new battle for survival - and every night, we buried more heroes.

I could see the light fading from my people's eyes. No attack ever came officially from the Empire, but I knew - I knew this was Palpatine's work. Even the Rebellion couldn't offer much in the way of relief, despite General Hera Syndulla's insistence that they commit more resources to our aid.

Over time, the outcome seemed all but certain: Lothal was dying.

I despaired: if Ezra Bridger ever returned, he would find a husk of a world, barren and lifeless. Perhaps it was better that he died with Thrawn after all - that his last memory of his home was that it was free and alive once more.

And then, one morning . . . she came.

A starbird came to Lothal.

The armies and fleets and soldiers of the galaxy's most wretched scum and villainy threw themselves against a lone Mandalorian - and lost. She beat them back, outplayed them at their own game, went toe to toe with their most ruthless warriors and mercenaries and assassins.

She won. Every single time.

She became a saving light to Lothal - and to our enemies, always multiplying, a burning brand. A warning and a promise: Lothal was defended. The people rallied around her, regaining their drive to fight, to live, to be free.

We would have perished without her. She kept the hope alive - kept the future that Ezra fought for his people alive.

I don't know why she came back. I don't know why she stayed, even when her own home - and her own family - burned and perished. Maybe in the face of so much loss, she wanted to prove that she could still protect something.

Someone. Anyone. Even if it wasn't her family.

Even if it wasn't him.

All I know is that I - and the people of Lothal - are eternally grateful. I know Ezra would be. (I'd like to think he returned some of that gratitude, proposing the way he did to her years later.)

Palpatine said in his own personal memo that Lothal didn't stand a chance because there were no more Jedi to defend it. But Ezra entrusted the fate of everything precious to him in her hands, as we all came to find out. Mandalorians hold everything to their promises - and she promised him.

Sabine Wren would never let Ezra Bridger down. That is a fundamental, unshakable truth of the universe. If Palpatine had understood that then he might have never made to attack Lothal.

I asked her once. Why she came back, why she stayed.

She just smiled and joked, "I might still leave some day, Ryder. Just resting my wings here for a while, until Ezra comes back."

The place she chose to make her new home was a good place for doing just that. She hailed from a world called Krownest, if I recall correctly. A fancy title, befitting a Mandalorian clan that was considered highly by their people.

But the comm-tower once belonging to Ezra Bridger wasn't too shabby a place to lay low for a while. After all, the Jedi himself had made a home of it for quite a while when he was a young boy. The now famous locale has earned another name though: Ezra's Roost. And we all know what kind of animal likes to rest in a roost.

Even starbirds need a place to rest, Sabine always told me.

But that was a lie - according to the myths, starbirds can't rest anywhere because their wings of fire burned everything around them. The only place they slept was far in the sky, near the warmth of a star or sun.

I pointed this out to her one night after she and Ezra invited me over for dinner and just laughed. "Guess that makes this place perfect for me," is all she replied.

I left in a confused manner, pondering her words. I then heard a yell from the comm-tower's balcony; Sabine sending a final farewell.

I turned - and saw Sabine standing next to Ezra, his arm wrapped around her waist comfortably. She waved cheerfully down at me, their figures visible against Lothal's clear night sky thanks to the tower's interior lighting.

It struck me then.

Starbirds rested far up high in the sky, next to the warmth of a star or sun.

I smiled and waved back.