Anyone who has read my other stories knows that occasionally I'll get random ideas and write them up to get them out of my head. I'll probably write three chapters of this story, see how fun it is to write and how much people enjoy. If I like it, I will continue it. This story is a mixture of both Canon and Legends, and the Star Wars timeline will be messed with slightly. Before people ask the Vong are still a thing in this story. Anyway enjoy.

"Cadet Skywalker!" shouted the instructor.

"Yes sir!" replied Luke in a worried tone, snapping a salute.

"Stop being so jumpy, you're a pilot of the Galactic Empire, start acting like it!" growled out the Academy instructor as he gestured to the black TIE pilot uniform Luke now wore.

"Yes sir," answered the Cadet in a slightly more confident tone.

The instructor frowned but otherwise nodded as he turned to face the surrounding Cadets in the room, all wearing the signature black TIE pilot flight suit. "Now I want everyone here to perform their best today understand? We have a high ranking officer arriving sometime today in order to evaluate our Academy. Any mistakes from you reflect poorly on us, so there will be no mistakes or misbehavior for the rest of the day, do I make myself clear!?" growled out their instructor.

"Sir, yes sir!" they chorused in unison before being dismissed by the instructor.

"Hey Skywalker, we're going to hit the simulators. Want to join?" asked one of his Squadmates.

Luke just shook his head, "Not right now, I needed to get something from the city, I'll catch up with you all later."

With that said the rest of Shadow Squadron departed as Luke headed towards the city, and as he waked through the halls of the Imperial Academy his mind thought back to how he had arrived at the Academy.

"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" roared Uncle Owen, his face red with rage.

"But why not? Biggs already left to join the Imperial Academy so why can't I?" replied Luke in a sad voice

"BECAUSE I SAID SO! I WIL NOT HAVE MY NEPHEW WORKING FOR THE EMPIRE!" shouted the still furious uncle Owen.

"What he means, honey, is that it's too dangerous," soothed aunt Beru as she gently rested her hand on Luke's shoulder.

"But think of all the money that could be made, I could make it so you both wouldn't have to work on this Force-forsaken dust ball anymore. We could move to the Core Worlds!" replied Luke, only to freeze as he heard a soft whisper at the back of his head.

After another two minutes of shouting Luke eventually gave up and walked up to his room, before growling out in anger as he collapsed on his bed. In his angered state Luke once again heard the dark seductive whispers and suddenly an idea came to him. He could run away, join the local Academy and once he got into the military he could start sending money back to them. Sure they would be angry at first but after they'd moved off this desert rock then they'll be thanking him, who knows he might even become high ranking in the Empire.

With his decision made Luke quietly crept along his home and headed towards his old landspeeder before leaving his old moisture farm far behind him, never seeing numerous objects around his room quietly levitating in the dark. As he drove his landspeeder Luke kept trying to figure out what the whisper he'd heard earlier was before eventually dismissing it as just his imagination.

Suddenly Luke was thrown out of his thoughts as he bumped into a patrol of Stormtroopers, "Watch it Flyboy."

"Sorry," apologized the Cadet before freezing as he heard the soft dark whisper coming from the corridor beside him. "What's down there?"

One of the Stormtroopers heard his soft mutter and shrugged, "Some piece of trash that we picked up from a nearby encampment of Tusken Raiders. We were going to smash the thing but apparently someone high up on the food chain wants it. So we're keeping it here until they come pick it up."

"Can I see it?" asked Luke, hearing the whispers beckoning him closer.

The Stormtroopers just glanced at each other before the lead one shrugged, "Sure, Flyboy, I don't see why not. Just don't break it, or it'll be our heads on the chopping block."

Luke nodded as he made his way down the corridor towards the whispers and suddenly the Cadet found himself facing a massive painting. He examined the picture and frowned as he saw the outer edges of the painting depicted Sand people attacking and slaughtering innocents. Luke grimaced as the seductive whispers turned into howls of pain, cries of anger, and screams of fear and terror, shutting his eyes as he tried to drown out the near overwhelming sense of pain, fear and anger radiating from the artwork.

Eventually the horrible feeling died down and Luke opened his eyes to see himself facing a different section of the painting. It was a section showing a female Tusken Raider and her child sleeping near an Oasis as one of their massifs curled up around them. In contrast to the previous scene, there was no pain or anger, just a relaxing calm that briefly washed over Luke for a single moment.

Finally, Luke turned his gaze to the symbol in the centre of the painting and gasped as he saw the detail in it, it was beautiful. The way the deep obsidian black contrasted the twin setting suns in the background.

"Sand People made this?" he wondered, slightly in awe at what he was seeing from the usually barbaric and violent creatures.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" questioned a calm male voice from behind him.

Luke instantly spun around from the painting to see a blue skinned male alien walking up to him before the alien turned to admire the art work beside the Imperial cadet. "It's something alright…I never would have guessed Sand people could have such an artist streak to them," agreed Luke as he joined the alien in taking in the painting.

"So why are you here then? Most Cadets wouldn't give this piece of art a second glance, some would even destroy it simply to spite its creators," asked the alien, still maintaining his calm voice.

For a moment Luke froze, why did he come here? All he really remembered was a dark seductive whisper drawing him here, and then feeling an odd sensation coming from the painting. As if it was radiating the swirl of emotions that its creators must have endured to make it, the passion, the anger, the pride, the joy. It was all there, just waiting at the edges of his perception.

The Cadet then looked at the painting with new eyes and he swore that, for a brief second, he could hear the distinctive cry of a Tusken Raider, he could feel the massive Bantha mount beneath him, he could see a camp of women and children playing around him even as the males dragged a shouting and screaming victim into one of their tents.

As the sensation died down Luke once again heard the seductive whispers of something just beyond his conscious as he replied, "Because of what it can tell us about them."

For the first time since the conversation started, the alien turned away from the painting and looked at Luke with his blood red eyes. "Interesting, and what do you mean by that Cadet?" asked the blue man, a hint of curiosity entering his normally calm voice.

Luke was silent under the baleful stare of the alien, getting the distinct impression that, for better or worse, he had unknowingly entered into some sort of test from the alien. The Cadet thought very carefully about his response as he turned back to look at the painting with a frown, once again feeling the odd sensation coming from it.

"Look at this icon," answered Luke, pointing at a very specific part of the painting, the symbol in the middle of the artwork. "It is painted in much more detail than the rest of the picture."

The Cadet felt the intensity of the red eyes watching him fade slightly as the blue skinned alien blinked and began examining Luke with an odd look. "Ohh? And why is that important?" he tested, and was surprised when Luke answered it instantly.

"You might not know it since we're in the city, but the components to make the ink and brushes of the quality used to make something like this are incredibly hard to find out in the sand dunes. Doubly so for Tusken Raiders. And yet they wasted so much of it solely on that part of the painting and nowhere else. Why would they do that?" replied Luke, his face furrowed in concentration as he moved closer to the painting.

"Indeed why would they…" prompted the alien in an approving tone.

The Cadet continued on after this and this time pointed towards the kneeling figures around the symbol, "Next look at the images of the Sand people around it."

"What about them?" asked his new companion, the slightest hint of a smile creeping along his blue skinned face.

Oblivious to this Luke just frowned as he replied, "They are bowing, you can see they clearly worship what this symbol represents, maybe it is a symbol of power or office among them, similar to the rank insignias of uniforms."

"Which means…" encouraged the alien, this time reminding Luke of a teacher as the Cadet smiled.

"Which means that if our troops ever encounter them in the field, they should target anyone or anything with this symbol, at best it will rob them of their leader and at worst it will demoralize them and discourage them from attacking Imperial forces again," answered Luke proudly, getting a soft applause from his new alien friend.

"Very impressive Cadet, not many can appreciate art like we do," congratulated the alien.

"We, sir?" replied Luke, subconsciously adding the sir as he felt an aura of command surround the alien.

"Tell me Cadet…why are you not enrolled in the Officer's Academy instead of the Pilot's Academy? You clearly have the intelligence to go far but instead you waste your potential in Flight school," reprimanded the blue skinned alien after taking a quick glance at Luke's TIE pilot uniform.

"I wouldn't say that…after all since when does being able to appreciate art lead to a good Officer potential," laughed Luke, waving away his friend's reprimand with a light hearted chuckle.

"You surprise me Cadet, do you really not understand?" replied the alien in an even tone, causing Luke's laughter to instantly cease as the red eyes once again focused their burning gaze on him.

Indeed, despite not raising his voice, or even showing a hint of anger or displeasure, Luke found himself tongue tied as he stared into the intimidating eyes of the alien before him. Seeing he now had the Cadet's attention, the alien walked up to the painting with a blank expression on his face, "To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, art."

Luke watched as the blue skinned man then reached his hand out to the painting, stopping just short of touching it as he continued, "I study the art of war, work to perfect it. But tell me Cadet, do you?"

"Does it matter? Either way the Imperial Officer Academy isn't an option for me regardless of my skill or potential," shrugged Luke, getting raised eyebrows from the alien.

"And why is that?" questioned his blue skinned companion.

"Because I'm a simple farmer boy, the higher ups refused to accept me in because I'm too 'low class' for the Officer Academy," replied Luke, shrugging his shoulders in acceptance before continuing. "Plus it didn't help that I wasn't Xenophobic enough for them."

"Indeed, most Imperials would have spat in my direction and walked off long before now," agreed the alien, nodding his head.

Luke just shrugged again, "I don't care about what race you are, all I care about is the person themselves and their abilities. If they're good at their job then they should be rewarded, regardless of their race."

"I can see why that attitude would get you barred from the Imperial Academy, it's not a very popular one within the Empire," pointed out the alien with another nod.

Luke didn't say anything to this as he watched the alien examine the painting and frowned, what was he? He had never seen this species of alien before, and considering the number of them that called Tatooine their home that was saying something. And now that he thought of it, why was this alien here? Wasn't this place meant to be for Imperials only?

"What was your name Cadet?" asked the alien, snapping Luke out of his thoughts as he replied.

"My name's Luke Skywalker, Cadet of Shadow Squadron," replied Luke, snapping off an unprofessional two fingered salute.

"Skywalker…well isn't that a coincidence," muttered the alien before turning to face the Cadet. "Well Cadet Skywalker I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again very soon. Someone of your…caliber is far too useful to be wasting away in the academies."

Luke was about to ask what his new friend meant when he saw an Imperial approaching them and snapped a salute. The Imperial Officer just shot Luke a suspicious glare before turning to the blue skinned alien next to the Cadet with a questioning look on his face.

"Ah Commander Voss, the Cadet and I were just enjoying a riveting conversation on the finer points of this fascinating art piece. Truly an unexpected find within this world wouldn't you agree?" replied the alien, causing Luke to shoot him a horrified look at this blatant disrespect for an Imperial Officer.

"He didn't mean it sir, he's from off world!" shouted Luke, trying to shield his new friend from the Imperial's wrath.

The Commander just raised an eyebrow as he stared at Luke before turning back to face the alien whom gave him a knowing look as he replied, "Like I said…quite the find."

"Indeed, Niriz wanted to speak to you. He seemed very insistent," informed the Officer in a professional and yet respectful tone.

"Well we'd best be off then mustn't we? Make sure that this piece of art is brought to my ship," ordered the alien, getting a nod from the Commander as Luke just stood back and watched with a stunned expression…just who was this person that he could order around an Imperial Officer like that?

As the pair walked off Luke frowned as he realised something…he had never got the name of the alien…

"Commander, see to it that that Cadet is immediately transferred to my ship," ordered Thrawn, getting a frown from his subordinate.

"Admiral, he hasn't even finished his teaching at the Flight Academy, let alone Officer's Academy. Regulations state that he must finish his learning before enrolling in the Imperial Navy," reminded Voss.

"And so he shall, did you forget my past experience teaching at the Academy? I shall take him on as my personal student, that should silence any protestors," replied the Chiss.

"And create entirely new ones, people won't be happy that some nobody from this dust ball got private tuition," pointed out the Commander as they headed towards the spaceport.

"Then we'll craft him a new identity, one worthy of that honour, it will be needed if he is related to whom I believe," frowned the Chiss.

"Very well Admiral, I'll see what I can do about forging him some identification documents," sighed Voss, realising the work he now had ahead of him.

"Make them perfect Commander, I want them to be unquestionable, even to the Emperor himself," commanded the Admiral, getting a surprised expression from his Commander.

Voss then gained a determine scowl before nodding, "I know a few people who owe me some favours, I'll get it done."

There we go, enjoy.