Piers Roddance

"I am the law here. Your complaint is denied. Disperse at once."

- Roddance tells a group of farmers to disperse

Piers Roddance was a lieutenant and later a captain in the Imperial military on the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. His duties included the inspection of newly-built Sienar Fleet Systems facilities on Lothal.

Imperial service
The male human Piers Roddance served the Galactic Empire as a Lieutenant on the planet Lothal. His duties on the world included inspection of the facilities belonging to Sienar Fleet Systems, which received three squadrons of TIE/LN starfighters with new P-s4 ion engines while he worked there. His duties also led to him observing a All Terrain Defense Pod's Maad-38 heavy laser cannon shoot through medium vehicle plating. Following a raid by the Empire's 291st Legion against Thalassian slavers on the planet Galpos II, Roddance spent time extensively studying reports on the battle.

Around six years before the Battle of Yavin, Roddance was in his mid-twenties and attended a summer party thrown by the Leonis family to celebrate their daughter Dhara Leonis being accepted into Lothal's Academy for Young Imperials. At the party, the Lieutenant found Dhara's brother Zare Leonis and his neighbor Ames Bunkle discussing a patrol of TIE fighters passing the Leonis family apartment where the celebration was being held. Roddance and the boys discussed the vehicles, and then AT-DPs before Zare spotted Arihnda Pryce, Governor of Lothal, and dragged Bunkle away to speak to her.

Trouble on Lothal
Later that year in fall, Roddance returned to the Leonis household after Zare and his friends Beck Ollet and Merei Spanjaf discovered detonators placed by dissidents on Imperial surveyor droids while out on a late night walk. Roddance was invited into the appartment and offered tea by Zare's parents, Leo and Tepha Leonis, before Zare was brought out of his room by the nanny droid Auntie Nags. The Lieutenant reassured the boy that he was not in trouble, and then took him to the Security Ministry and questioned him about the incident. Zare told Roddance everything he had seen, but left out some of the actions of Ollet, who had misdirected Imperial stormtroopers when they arrived at the surveyor droid's location.

In winter of that same year, Roddance was sent as an Imperial representative to meet with a group of disgruntled farmers who had been displaced from their land by Imperial mining operations. The farmers had put together a petition for Governor Pryce, and hoped to speak peacefully with Roddance, but the Lieutenant arrived at their meeting place with two AT-DPs and an Imperial Troop Transport full of stormtroopers. Emerging from the transport, he then spoke through the vehicle's speakers using a comlink and informed the farmers their gathering was illegal and that they would have to disperse. When the group refused to comply and sat on the ground in protest, Roddance ordered his stormtroopers forward to break up the crowd. The troopers then began stunning some of the farmers, before opening fire with the lethal energy weapons.

Later that year, Dhara disappeared during a training exercise in Lothal's Easthills. While the Imperial authorities claimed that she had run away, her mother Tepha and her brother Zare suspected that the Empire was lying about the circumstances behind her disappearance. The following summer, Zare enrolled at the Imperial Academy and was accepted. Roddance once again returned to the Leonis family apartment for the boy's acceptance party, where he stood by a railing and smiled at Zare. The young Leonis, who had witnessed Roddance's involvement in the attack on the farmers, forced himself to smile back. Unknown to Roddance, Zare was planning to infiltrate the Academy to discover his sister's whereabouts.

Enforcing Imperial justice
The following year, Roddance was later promoted to the rank of captain. Following the execution of Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko and Taskmaster Myles Grint by the Inquisitor, he was made temporary head of the Academy for Young Imperials.

Personality and traits
"Proper terminology is a rule of the Academy, Bunkle."

- Roddance scolds Bunkle for referring to AT-DPs as just two-man walkers

Roddance spoke with a Core Worlds accent and had pale skin and dark hair, which he wore close-cropped. Upon meeting Zare Leonis for the first time he gave the boy a handshake strong enough to make Zare wonder if the Lieutenant was trying to crush his hand. Roddance was far more interested in the future progress of Dhara and Zare at the Academy than that of the poorer and less intelligent Bunkle.

When Roddance spoke with Leonis and Bunkle concerning Imperial vehicles, he scolded Bunkle for not using the proper terminology when referring to AT-DPs. The Lieutenant became embarrassed however, when Bunkle assumed he had taken part in the raid on Galpos II when in fact the Imperial had only read about it. Roddance spoke with great pride about the Galactic Emperor and the justice he brought to the galaxy, and refused to listen to the arguments of the displaced farmers he was sent to deal with, ordering violence against them when they began to peacefully protest.

Behind the scenes
Piers Roddance was created for Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy, a novel written by Jason Fry and published in 2014.

Appearances

 * Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy
 * Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice
 * Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy