[P15 - KALARBA - PK] Ensign Arsals

CATEGORY A POST (Sigfig Post; Imgur links at the end)

Though young, Yudu Arsals still remembered the horrors of the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo. He could never forget the eviction of his family from their ancestral home, nor could he forgive the razing of their ancestral land. That was the first time the child felt afraid. The first time he felt powerless. To him, he had failed to protect those who he loved. The Trade Federation never could have known they made an enemy of one of the most cunning and ruthless of the Gungan race.

Into his adolescence and early adulthood, Yudu quickly rushed into a career in politics. He believed that the Republic's weakness allowed the Trade Federation, and others like them, from doing as they pleased to whoever stood in their path. His policies (as a structurally minor but locally influential) Gungan representative for Naboo reflected this conviction, and made quick allies with Senator Palpatine in the midst of the early stages of the Separatist Crisis. The Trade Federation's backing of the separatist movement was a badly-kept secret, and Representative Arsals only hardened his vitriol .

Throughout the Clone Wars, Representative Arsals remained a staunch supporter of furthering Palpatine's aims, and was one of the loudest voices of war support in the Senate. The Gungan never ceased kindling his friendship with the Chancellor, who gifted Arsals an adjutant protocol droid, D1MA ('Dima'). This friendship lasted into the Imperial era with the conclusion of the Clone Wars. Though now there had to be considerable distance between the new Emperor and his former ally in the now-Imperial Senate, they did keep sparse contact and Arsals remained in the good graces of Emperor Palpatine. Every Empire Day, Arsals would send Palpatine a message of greetings. Sometimes the Emperor himself would respond. Even in the deeply xenophobic and human-high-culture-centric Galactic Empire, the relationship, though minimal by now, between the Emperor and the Gungan provided Yudu Arsals with political clout, though he remained content in serving his people with dignity in the Empire.

Suddenly the Emperor was dead. The Imperial command structure, both civilian and military, was spinning out of control. Moffs and military brass declared themselves warlords and sliced themselves off pieces of the Empire. Rogue elements of COMPNOR were slaughtering innocent citizens populations en masse. Coruscant was besieged. The Rebellion had gained too much momentum. The Naboo administration evacuated itself to Kalarba as a government in exile, and with them went Representative Arsals and droid D1MA. Unhappy with rotting away in a palace while the Empire that gave his oft-turbulent home the peace it had craved for decades was tumbling into oblivion, Arsals used his influence to secure himself a commission as a deck officer for Kalarba's local navy garrison. Graduating the academy's basic and advanced training courses, Arsals was ready to be assigned a ship and a crew when Imperial battlenet announced their capitulation and surrender. This could only mean that the Rebellion had won. Everyone knew mustering at Jakku for an open battle would break the back of the Imperial war machine, and yet that is exactly how the Empire died. The Gungan cursed at the night sky - his chance at revenge was stolen away.

Though the Empire had died, the ensign's career had only just begun. He would continue on his path from within the Protectorate of Kalarba, the only upholders of Imperial lineage who had not fled nor capitulated in the face of an empowered New Republic. 

IMGUR LINKS:

https://imgur.com/a/kxPW6BR