A Lesson in Consequence

5 years after the rise of the Empire….
The Devaronian surveyed the scene as he stepped down the shuttle ramp, accompanied by a shuffling protocol droid. Fires burned, lighting the armour of his Stormtroopers in hellish red and orange. Desert winds whipped across his face, specks of sand scratched at his skin. He strode through the carnage, cloak billowing behind him. The light of the setting sun cast him into the shadow of the burning sandcrawler. He sniffed. By the Force, these creatures smelled bad.

“Inquisitor Pentance.” A Stormtrooper captain approached and saluted.

“You’ve found the right tribe, this time?” Pentance said. They had gone through three, already. The Inquisitor mused that they should be charging the planet’s governor an extermination fee. But they’d left enough alive for the things to repopulate like the vermin they were.

“Yes, Sir,” the trooper said. “The name given by the previous survivors has been confirmed.”

Pentance walked past the trooper to the huddled mass diminutive beings. He spoke aloud. “Bring me the one you call Tau Shet.”

The protocol droid translated for him. There was a flurry of whispers and mutters, and Pentance was certain the smell grew worse.

Pentance ignited his lightsaber. “One of your kind stole one of these from me. Give him to me, and your tribe will be spared the fate of others.”

The droid translated.

Finally, one of the robed creatures approached and… spoke, if it could be called that.

“He says the one named Tau Shet has been cast out for the disgrace he had brought, and is no longer a part of this tribe,” the droid said, translating.

Pentance snarled. “Hand him over. I will not ask again.”

The creature babbled and waved its hands. Its glowing eyes blinked and flitted in the fading sunlight.

“He asks for mercy, and assures you that Tau Shet is gone from here,” the droid said.

“Are they offering to tell me where?”

The droid spoke with the creature again, before turning back to Pentance.

“He says he does not know where the exile has gone.”

Pentance grunted, his patience spent. “I’m done with these things.” He turned his back and strode to his shuttle. As he passed the Stormtrooper captain, he growled. “Kill them all.”

The sound of blaster fire and screams called out into the night as Inquisitor Pentance boarded his shuttle and left the pitiful world behind.