Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy

Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy by Jason Fry is the fourth and final junior novel in the Servants of the Empire series. It was released on October 6, 2015 and comprises 160 pages.

Publisher's summary
''What if you uncovered a conspiracy that reached to every corner of the Galactic Empire&mdash;and you were the only one who knew about it? This action-packed conclusion to the Servants of the Empire tells an original story of intrigue, espionage, and coming of age, all set in the world of Star Wars Rebels.''

Plot summary
Zare Leonis, an Imperial cadet who is secretly seeking to free his kidnapped sister, the Force-sensitive Dhara Leonis, from Imperial custody, has achieved his goal of entering the Arkanis Academy, having received a transfer from Lothal. He knows that somewhere here, the Empire is holding his sister. However, he remains in great danger, as the Grand Inquisitor, the powerful being who kidnapped his sister, suspects him of being a traitor to the Empire. As Leonis begins his training at the Arkanis Academy, he learns that failure to perform academically can have real and deadly consequences for students there. Shortly after his arrival, he learns from Lieutenant Chiron, who has also been transferred from Lothal's Academy for Young Imperials, that the Inquisitor is dead, killed by a group of rebels. Chiron wants Leonis to investigate a secretive group at the Arkanis Academy known as the Commandant's Cadets, created by the academy's leader, Commandant Brendol Hux. Doing so turns out to be key in getting the access he needs to get to his sister. But just when finally gets in, an old friend who has been captured by the Empire reveals him as a traitor.

Meanwhile, Leonis's girlfriend on Lothal, Merei Spanjaf, is feeling the tightening grip of the Empire. Having escaped the influence of the Gray Syndicate, whose leader was killed in an Imperial assault, she still wants to rescue the poet Holshef. She decides that the only way to save him is to get him off-world and seeks the help of Old Jho, a shop merchant with anti-Imperial sympathies that she's come to know through her activities with the Gray Syndicate. He agrees to help, but Spanjaf soon learns that the situation is much more dire. The Empire is coming closer to discovering her illegal activities by the minute and she also learns that on Arkanis, Leonis has been scheduled for execution. Evading a bounty hunter and Imperial forces, she, Holshef, Jho, her parents and Leonis's parents flee the planet.

On Arkanis, Leonis is condemned to death by firing squad and offered a last meal, delivered by the individual of his choice. He chooses the old friend who betrayed him, Beck Ollet, certain that he can break through the Empire's conditioning inflicting on him via its Project Unity operation. When Ollet smells the jogan fruits that Leonis chose as his last meal, he recalls how the Empire destroyed his family's orchards and called those who resisted them traitors. He and Leonis escape and set out to rescue Dhara. They are soon joined by Spanjaf and a group of rebels known to them as "the Spectres." Together, the group infiltrates the secret Area Null and frees Dhara Leonis, escaping thanks in part to Dhara's own Force powers. The group then escapes to Garel, where Dhara wraps her parents in an embrace, asking them to never let go.