From the personal journal of one Captain Beverly Livingston, First Entry, dated 0.010 ABY, record saved for posterity and national record to the New Republic.
"I didn't know how my life would change so fast. I didn't expect it to, after one decision. I believe that was why I did it so fast, and without hesitation. Let me explain, for those in the future."
"I was the captain of a star destroyer. One of few females in the role, a part of a massive recruiting drive when the beginning of the rebellion, while publicly called nothing more than a bunch of rag-tag smugglers and groups of backwater militia, spooked high command enough to lift certain barriers on recruits and I was in their first batch. I grew up in the last days of the Clone Wars. I saw the Empire's crackdown, slowly by slowly, but being a simple civilian, I believed it was nothing more than safety measures. Giving up freedoms like they were nothing. I believed it was just what was needed to stop the "Separatists" from reorganizing, which by then were nothing more than boogeymen. You caught a merchant or two selling a battle droid from those times, but it was a rare occurrence, even then."
"Military service was dull, but stable. I rose the ranks, as normal, keeping nose to the grindstone, given I was a pilot surely helped a bit in knowing how to run shuttles. Eventually, I was named captain, as was a couple other females in the service. We were paraded around in front of the Imperial Senate, if I can recall, like shiny trophies. The newest breed of Captain and high ranking officer. However, we were rushed away before the Emperor even took his first step into the Senate chambers, and we were back to our posts, before he even spoke his first word of his first speech that day. He was facing more spoken backlash, public backlash, a rarity during those days, for keeping the Death Star's construction a secret to the senate. It was not like they were going to vote it down, they just wanted to know of it beforehand. I mention this day, mainly for that reference to the Battle Station. We believed it to be the end. The star and symbol of a mighty empire. Some of us captains and higher ranking officers, even if I was squeaky clean, thought it to be a bit too much, but we would never speak of it publicly. How could we have known?"
"The destruction of the Battle Station and the injuring of Lord Vader due to the Rebels led a cascading effect on the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Army, and everything else in-between. Any hopes of a returning Imperial senate were dashed, when the Emperor came out and fully made his word law. Some say he even ordered the destruction of the Imperial Senate building from how furious he got, but his closest advisors had to talk him down, a job I would never envy. Lord Vader became obsessed about a lone pilot of the Rebellion, the one he faced on the Death Star moments before destruction, and forced his way to search for them every chance he could. For the rest of us, we were riled into a witch hunt. The highest officers, all dressed in white uniforms, one by one, had every ship and every battalion searched, and culled of any dissenters or rebellious thinkers. There were even stories of an Imperial Captain who snuck a Twi'lek onboard his ship being found out, and both he, AND his "conquest", were vented out the airlock in sheer anger. They were cleaning up all their bases, all points of failure. Showing their might to the lower ranks, no matter how they could."
"It was the day my ship was to be searched, then, when my life changed forever. We had captured two enemy agents of the Rebellion, or so my second in command kept clamoring and yelling about. I can remember him screaming something about the color of his suit, it still didn't make sense, but being it was the day MY ship was facing a cull, I wanted no trouble. However, curiosity did strike me, and I headed for the brig, merely as a precaution."
"One was a man. Dressed in a green outfit, a red tie, prim and proper. He looked like a former senator or something high ranking, whatever he was. Given his state, it would seem he was heading for an ambassadorship or something. The other was a blue Twi'lek. The guards informed me, during their search of her person, they found a tool of the Jedi with her, a lightsaber. More questions mounted in my head, as I saw them in their cells. The man was merely pacing, silent, thinking to himself, while the Twi'lek meditated. It was like they paid no heed of where they were or what they were facing. I told the guards to leave me alone with them, but keep the weapon out of hand. Just to make sure."
"As soon as they left, the man turned to me. "They don't trust you, do they?" He said. It was as blunt of a question, it almost knocked me back like a punch. I walked up to the cells, fixing myself, steeling my nerve, as the Twi'lek looked to me. "We wouldn't have come if we hadn't had seen what would happen."
"What are you talking about?" I spoke to them, in interest. The man, without any fear of who I was, in almost defiance of it, walked right up to the forcefield blocking the two of us, looking me up and down, before turning away. "Would you believe us, if we said anything?" He said."
"It was like getting interrogated myself. I was getting frustrated. "Look at me." I ordered. "You two are facing-" The Twi'lek turned to me at that moment. "You know what they're planning on doing, so why even bother helping them?" I looked at her, confused. "What are you talking about, SPEAK coherently, will you?!" I ordered again, my face getting redder with anger."
"They're going to use you as a Scapegoat." The man spoke."
"You know they will, even if you've done nothing to prove it." The Twi'lek spoke."
"I looked at them right in the eyes, back and forth. I couldn't explain what I was feeling. It was like an interrogation, but surely not. Could they be undercover agents, I thought? No, that was quickly thrown out, given the Twi'lek. A trick? Their calm demeanor was unique to that fact. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I almost walked away. I am glad I didn't, looking back now, as the man looked to me."
"He will hand you a data pad." The man spoke. "He will ask you of everyone you think are dissenters. You will take it, and you will write down names, any names you can think of, of any soldiers that have crossed you. You will hand it back. Then, he will shoot you with his blaster, after reading the first name on that list."
"You know what you must do." The Twi'lek spoke. "You know how they can twist words, twist actions. Stand up for yourself. Your life will change for the better."
"I almost responded again, when I received a message. Like it was timed, the officer had arrived and was waiting for my appearance on the bridge. I took a look at the two, and head off without another word. That exchange, which lasted less than a minute, would be the last time I ever saw those two. Apparently, according to other members of the Rebellion, I was visited by the mysterious Professor, and his "companion", a Twi'lek Jedi who survived Order 66 by some sheer luck, the two appearing to help those, however possible. This one minute conversation, filled enough doubt in my mind, when I walked up to the bridge, seeing the officer before me."
"He was a child. Younger than me, I knew that for certain, probably inherited his father's position, brainwashed and fanaticized by Imperial Propaganda to the point that if someone cut him, it would bleed loyalty. Without a word to me, he held out a data pad, which had my orders. List down any dissidents or anyone I expected for any rebellious nature. I took it, and looked it, as I looked around the bridge for the moment. For that doubt in my mind, it was like I was seeing them for the first time all over again. What I never saw, until that moment, was just how fearful, and scared, a lot of them looked, as I stood there with this data pad. Even my second in command, at his post, looked at me with fearful eyes, almost terror on his face. My eyes looked down at the pad again, before I looked back to him. My eyes must have said my intentions, right then. With the shortest, the smallest of nods, he almost agreed, with a slight wave, two stormtroopers held their guns at the ready, as I looked to the pad one final time, and entered one name. Just one name. my own."
"I think back to that moment now, as I sit here, heading to who knows where, to face whatever is given to me for what I have done. It was the right thing to do, I know that now. The thing however that makes it worth it, the one thing that made me realize I had my breath back, the chains of Order released from my chest and lungs, was the look on that officer's face when I handed the pad right back to him, and he read just that one name."