Combat log. Battlegroup Commander for Battlegroup III, Vice Admiral Locke Setzer reporting. Day #30 of the Battle of Tkon Rift.

The fight is over. We’ve managed to hold off the enemy advancement on three worlds. More than that, by our estimations, we’ve destroyed about sixty percent of their fleet. Our own losses are nowhere near as severe, but we’re in no shape for a fight. Neither side is.

It’s not a victory. Not for us, and not for them. But it very nearly was a defeat.

I look upon the lightsaber I constructed in the heat of this battle, and I am reminded of one, indisputable fact: without the Secret Order and its operations, we unquestionably would have lost this battle.

It was the Secret Order that managed to obtain the intelligence needed for us to fight their ships more effectively, massively increasing our ability to inflict serious damage upon their forces.

It was the Secret Order that made the necessary deals to obtain supplies we needed to repair our ships in a hurry. Without the return of damaged ships to this fight in its final hour, we would never have secured a single world, much less three.

And while it did not bring us help for this battle… it was the Secret Order who secured the services individuals in this sector with known Force sensitivity. Their cooperation should prove fruitful for our future endeavors in this area of space. I suspect there is much the Secret Order can learn from them… and perhaps much we can teach them as well. Time will tell.

None of these accomplishments happened as I had ordered them or as I had expected. Things went wrong. Situations changed. Different goals were achieved than those I had provided. And yet, despite that chaos, I cannot view the results with anything other than awe and appreciation.

Now my focus as a Battlegroup Commander falls to repairs… at least, in the light. In the shadows of my role as Quaestor of House Palpatine, I help train new initiates and plot new schemes. The sort of work that will receive no praise, no recognition… but may make the difference between victory and defeat. Life and death. Just as it did here, in the Tkon Rift.

I have practiced with the saber I created. It’s heavier than I would like, and perhaps isn’t distributing energy as evenly as it should. But I am done tinkering. It is exactly as it should be. I may not have needed to ignite it here in the Rift, but its creation has cemented a lesson in my head.

I am used to order. Take orders, give orders, see those orders followed through as they should. This serves me well here in the TIE Corps.

But the Secret Order cannot function this way.

It is chaos. It is emotion. It is need and desire, actions made manifest by the passion of those who follow it, to achieve what is required. I may give a command, but it may not be performed as I requested or expected. I can provide a goal, but another may be chosen. These things do not matter. Only the results.

It is a shift of perspective. One I will be reminded of, every day, by the saber hanging from my belt.

Let the rule of law reign supreme in the light.

Chaos must rule in the shadows.

End log.