Eyes of the Empire

"Eyes of the Empire" is a short story in the anthology From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. The story is written by Kiersten White and focuses on the point of view of Maela.
==Plot summary==
Maela is part of a team on Project Swarm, searching for the Rebel Alliance using probe droids in the swarm processing center. Lorem asks which of the locations her comrades would enjoy visiting. Dirjo Harch, the team supervisor, demands she get back to work. When Lorem protests, Azier points out the team directly reports to a man serving on the Executor and Darth Vader himself. The team continues to bicker as Maela focuses on her work.
Maela, a native of the planet Vulpter, reminisces about the circumstances leading to her specifically requesting this assignment. In the past, Maela's mother worked at a droid-manufacturing facility. Her mother had difficulty finding work after the Clone Wars but was able to provide for the family by building droids for the Galactic Empire. Maela hoped to instead work for the Empire directly and could not understand her mother's insistence she not do so. She retained a droid's eye as a memory of this time.
Back in the present, Maela wonders at the locations she is able to see on her assignment. Her feed gives her views of deserts, oceans, and jungles. She then notices manmade structures on the planet Hoth before her droid self-destructs. Realizing the droid must have been attacked and that the location was likely the rebel base, she reports the finding to Harch, who passes it to Admiral Firmus Piett on the Executor.
The team quickly receives word the base is confirmed and the team leaves the processing center to celebrate their success.
Several days later, with her teammates asleep, Maela returned to her screen to view Hoth once more. She hopes to locate a herd of tauntauns. Instead, she finds the ruins of an attack on the rebel base. She uses the droid to move inside the ruined complex and is overwhelmed by the toll of her discovery. The ground is littered with corpses of both Imperial snowtroopers and members of the Rebel Alliance.
An undisclosed time later, Dirjo continues to speak of their victory as Maela scans hundreds of feeds. She discovers a swamp planet with no signs of life. On a second glance, Maela realizes there an X-Wing lies half-submerged in a swamp. She deletes the footage and prevents the Empire from finding the location.
==Appearances==
==Notes and references==
==External links==
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Category:From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back