Spectacular. An impressive trick to turn a quality control investigation performed within the EMPIRE into such a compelling narrative with such relatable characters!

So... the most common form of FTL comm is a simple digital text message? This kind falls in line with a story telling device on Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance. A lot of the story unfold via the in-game ship2ship transmissions, or off-duty emails.

this was great. star wars needs more small-scale stories like this.

I read the entirety of Vader's dialogue with the voice of James Earl Jones in my head.

Great story, satisfying to read and with solid writing!

Good one.

I had wondered at the source of the inspiration for this story, until you mentioned the melamine scandal.
When I had occasion to mention the issues in involved and the 'grey' market in western baby formula to a co worker with a young child, she had no idea what i was talking about.
I could say history repeats itself when we don't learn from it, but she was a child herself when it happened.
Enjoyed your story, btw.

a nice story

This story of yours would probably go down in (my) history of being introduced by the "Reality Ensues/Surprisingly Realistic Outcome" trope (and in this story, it ensues multiple times) — not that it’s a bad thing. Rather, it goes to show that in a galaxy far, far away, that doesn't mean it's immune to reality, either…

1. When a mid-level scientific officer finds out about the bad provisions, both her immediate superior and the people in provisions blow her off because the tampered container is already scheduled for use, and not using it would cause an enormous bureaucratic nightmare for them. Plus, the food is going to the Stormtroopers…

2. Said officers in turn end up dead when the scientific officer who found out goes above them and, in trying to get the report to the captain of the ship, the EXECUTOR, ends up passing it to DARTH VADER, who quickly realises they neglected their duty and characteristically doesn't take it well… ("You Have Failed Me")

(The officer, realising what is going to happen, tries to cover for at least her superior. She quickly learns to never lie to Vader again.)

3. Being the direct (if accidental) cause of the death of their previous superior, and all for the good of some Stormtroopers, the officer quickly ends up in a social ice age thanks to the surviving favourites of the dead officer. In turn, they end up in the infirmary because Veers takes her under his wing and tells the Stormtroopers just who prevented their poisoning, and a few science officers can't continue harassing someone protected by 40,000 INFANTRYMEN.

4. Once the tampering is known, the scammers are quickly tracked down due the Imperial military keeping very accurate notes of its suppliers.

5. When the ringleader is identified, the scientific officer goads him into an "Engineered Public Confession" in which he admits he did it partly out of hate to the Stormtroopers. She then gets nearly killed when he reacts badly at being incriminated, and only survives because Veers had her wearing high-level body armour. (She still gets heavily injured.)

6. After those severe injuries, the officer is on forced medical leave when she's summoned by Vader for the final debriefing. Being someone who earned a job on the Executor, the chief medical officer grudgingly releases her for as long as Darth Vader wants her, as she's not yet fit for duty but knows well what would happen should he try and keep her in the infirmary… ("You Have Failed Me")

7. The scammers have tried to cheat the Empire and poison lots of people for money, and there is plenty of evidence proving what they did. The trial ends with their public executions, with the civilians cheering at the executions and the Rebels doing nothing to save them.

Very interesting story and gives the feel of bringing attention to and memorializing those poor young souls whose lives were stolen or damaged by ruthless criminals who had no thoughts of anything but money.

Loved this. Will be reading more of your works, this was brilliant.

Pretty good look at the other side of star wars divide. Thanks for writing.

this is a beautiful quick read. Thank you for this!

Me gustó. Felicidades

This was a really fun read. An original premise creatively written out.