Armand Isard

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**Armand Isard** was an Human male and a high ranking official within the hierarchy in the Galactic Empire known for his work of Intelligence divisions of government and for his place as an member of Emperor Palpatine's inner-circle. His reputation as a Intelligence operative dated back to the Era of the Republic, in this period Armand Isard served along an Senate Bureau of Intelligence, Republic Intelligence, and an Commission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR). After this Old Republic had fallen and the Empire rose to take its place, Armand Isard went on to serve the Republic's successor regime within such organizations as COMPNOR as well as of Military Intelligence. Armand believed someone strong and ruthless was needed to lead the Republic and Isard was staunchly loyal to Palpatine's rule both as Supreme Chancellor and as Galactic emperor. He came from a humble-beginning as he worked the way through ranks and all while he'd performed sterling work for Palpatine.

During the Clone War, he had aided the Republic's war efforts as a member of a council made up of Sheev Palpatine's most trusted Advisors. After the rise of this Empire, Isard was made an Director of COMPNOR, and not long after his appointment, Isard had begun working closely with an Sith Darth Vader and the Inquisitors by both spreading the Imperial view of the Jedi as traitors, and supplying intel that led to the locations of Jedi Knights in hiding. On numerous occasions Armand's men had been able to pinpoint Jedi locations for the benefit of Vader or the Grand Inquisitor. Simultaneously he'd began grooming his daughter Ysanne Isard, for her career as an Imperial operative dedicated to Controlling then Maintaining their ideals. Armand Isard didn't display instability nor had he'd then displayed any sort of callous indifference towards the sentients of the galaxy until his daughter began to upstage him. Eventually, Armand's daughter took Isard's place after she had orchestrated his fall.

## Biography

### Republic Service

#### Early Career

**Armand Isard** was a male Human who was born in the time of the Galactic Republic, and Isard went on to work for the republic office of analysis, in which he rose through ranks. He became an associate of Naboo Senator Sheev Palpatine, and shortly prior to Sheev's election as an Supreme Chancellor, he then worked alongside some of this Senator's aides such as Janus Greejatus, Sate Pestage and others behind scenes to plant evidence against Senator Sheev Palpatine's political-rivals. Circa thirty years before an Galactic civil War, Armand Isard became an father to female Human Ysanne Isard. By the Separatists crisis, Isard had reached a head rank of Director within Intelligence groups such as the senate Bureau of Intelligence, an Republic Military Intelligence, and also COMPOR positions Armand Isard would hold until the dissolution of this Republic. Shortly before Clone Wars had started, Armand had a emergency division made for the SBI which caused the reform that had resulted in the firing of numerous SBI subdirectors Armand claimed had been corrupt.

Isard's detractors claimed that these reforms were only giving more power to their Supreme Chancellor, an assumption that would later prove to be correct. To further an suppression of a Anti-Republic feeling, he had the HoloNet node shut down in certain sectors in response to the rallies in support of an Separatist Alliance, an coalition of planets that sought to secede from the republic. Armand had to work overtime to deal with the constant menaces that endangered Galactic Republic. Due to the impending threat of war, fear was rife throughout the populace of Coruscant, causing panic. There was also the threat of lone operators not affiliated with the Confederacy, but still capitalizing on the crisis to do personal damage to the Republic. Count Dooku, an Confederate head of state quickly became one of the SBI's top priorities, but concerns were directed back home when protests were held outside the senate building. Despite claims to the contrary, he handled the situation with non-violence, and was able to disperse crowds effectively, with the aid from senate Guard.

#### Clone Wars Service

After the battle on Geonosis, the Clone War broke out between the Republic and the Confederacy, and Isard became a member in a war council made up of Chancellor Palpatine's most trusted advisors. When the Separatist Alliance began transmitting unauthorized holofeeds to spread propaganda in favor of the Confederacy or against the galactic Republic, Isard decided it was time to take extreme measures by forming an committee dedicated to protecting Republic HoloNet channels. This committee would dissuade CIS propaganda and viruses, thereby hopefully keeping Republic media free from enemy taint. Isard resorted to unusual recruiting techniques for the new committee: while the heads in department would be drawn from existing SBI ranks slicers would be enlisted from the populace. Many of these Shadowfeeds were shut down quickly by Republic Intelligence, which eventually led to this creation of the Commission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR), a organization responsible for the promoting of wartime propaganda to support their Republic.

Armand Isard would oversee COMPOR as a Director who, in addition to serving as head of COMPOR, was also part of the Strategic Advisory Cell. As this conflict escalated, the group lobbied the Republic to give more authority to Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, asserting that a stronger executive office would lead to total victory over the Confederates. As the Clone Wars went on, Isard devised the Shadow Trooper, an new type of clone Commando that would be used in covert operations during this War. These Troopers, fitted with state-of-the-art Phase II armor, would operate in a solitary manner, and would be the precursor to the Storm Commandos and Shadow stormtroopers in later years. To combat the technological advantage held by Count Dooku due to the alliance with the Techno Union, Isard had established ties with the head of TaggeCo and had assigned him an place in Intelligence, in a bid to compete with the union in the arms race. Director Armand Isard was an mainstay at Chancellor conferences even at those with the Jedi Council of the Jedi Order.

### Imperial Service

#### Dawn of the Empire

Chancellor Sheev Palpatine had Armand on hand to provide critical info to others in a room, although Isard was always under an strict orders from Palpatine not to reveal *everything*. His loyalty earned him some degree of respect from their Chancellor Palpatine, and served him well in the coming Imperialization in the galaxy. Armand became wary of the Jedi Order toward the final months of the Clone Wars, and began to resent and view the Order in a suspicious light. Several days following a uprising by the Jedi that resulted in the issuing of Order 66, their Chancellor declared this Old Galactic Republic obsolete and the Galactic Empire its successor, with himself at its head as a Galactic Emperor. In the wake of the changes, Armand Isard was appointed Director of COMPOR's successor, a Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR), an organization responsible for the promotion in New Order ideology as a political tool for the dissemination of State sponsored propaganda. As part of Imperialization, Isard arrested Senators suspected of treason.

Shortly after Palpatine had established the Empire, Palpatine and his Sith-Apprentice, Darth Vader, had founded a dark group called the Inquisitorius, which would be an Force-sensitive branch of the Intelligence branch of the Empire. A few years into the reign of the Emperor, Isard, alongside such Imperial Officials as Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and Imperial Advisors like Janus Greejatus, were present in meetings to discuss events surrounding terrorists that caused destruction through Empire territory, a campaign which was at the time one of the biggest military disasters this Empire had known. Armand became particularly adept in hunting down Palpatine's enemies and bringing them to justice. The Director Armand Isard would then constantly ferret out cells of alleged Rebellion sympathizers, even if they had no ties to the Rebel movement whatsoever. During this time, he trained his daughter Ysanne to be a field Agent much as he had been in his youth. She was allowed to sit in on a Empire Intelligence, COMPNOR Imperial Security Bureau, and even Inquisitorius conferences.

#### Fall of Director Armand Isard

Despite the pride that he felt towards Ysanne, Armand feared that she would become a rival for his place in the Empire hierarchy. Fearing that she would attempt to overthrow Isard as director, Armand Isard decided to rid himself of Ysanne and her threat, and in order to do so Isard sent Ysanne on an mission to recover stolen Imperial secrets as a means of getting rid of her, convinced Ysanne would be unsuccessful and would be executed for disastrous failure. As Isard then hoped Ysanne was unable to recover the intel. However, she deduced why her father had sent her on her mission, and she plotted revenge. Isard implicated her father as having been involved in this original theft of that intel and concocted the story whereby Armand had sought to have her killed then to use her death as a justification to enable him to join an Rebel Alliance. She then had claimed that Armand planned to reveal secret Imperial information to the Alliance to allow them to overthrow their Emperor Palpatine and to put Director Armand Isard in a position to claim the throne for himself.

Ysanne revealed her "findings" to Palpatine, while Armand also spoke with him, to request that Ysanne's life be spared for her failure on the mission. Armand subsequently met with Ysanne to debrief her on the results of her mission, she'd revealed to him the aspersions against him that she had made to their Emperor Palpatine. Several of Palpatine's Royal Guardsmen then escorted Armand Isard away for an audience with the Emperor regarding the elder Isard's fate and he was subsequently arrested by Imperial Security and executed. According to the unverified rumor, it was Ysanne herself who fired the shot that killed him. His heart at the end heart swelled with a twisted sense of pride knowing he raised the child right, knowing that if she had the will to have her own father executed, she would most surely make a proud and a outstanding Imperial leader. Isard was eventually replaced as the Director of COMPNOR by his daughter Ysanne Isard, going on to have a successful career, eventually becoming a leader of this Empire after the death of Palpatine at Endor.