Shale

"I went through the academy with Garoche. We were rivals, but also friends."

- Captain Shale

Shale was a Human male who was serving as a captain in the Imperial Navy around the time when the Old Republic was reorganized into the first Galactic Empire. Aside from his friendship with Admiral Garoche Tarkin, he had also earned the trust and confidence of his friend's father, then-Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. During a mission to locate the missing Admiral Tarkin, Shale showed himself to be both a capable officer and an effective soldier on the battlefield, albeit a ruthless one as well.

The Disappearance of Moff Tarkin's Son
"I know how he thinks, and I'll do everything in my power to find him."

- Captain Shale, regarding his rivalry and friendship with Garoche Tarkin

After enlisting into military service, Shale trained at an Academy to become an officer. During his training, he met a fellow cadet named Garoche Tarkin, the son of Wilhuff Tarkin. Although the two competed against one other as rivals, they also respected each other as friends. Shale's friendship with the young Tarkin not only gave him an insight into his friend's mind, but also acquainted him with Garoche's influential father. By the time he had reached the rank of captain in the Imperial Navy, Shale had earned the respect and trust of the elder Tarkin, by then a Moff at the time.

Not long after the creation of the Galactic Empire, Admiral Tarkin had disappeared along with his Imperial I-class Star Destroyer during a mission to hunt down insurgents in the Ghost Nebula. This unexpected setback caused Moff Tarkin to request the aid of Emperor Palpatine himself. When the Emperor summoned his Sith apprentice Darth Vader to the throne room, Moff Tarkin was present with Captain Shale at his side. Tarkin was displeased that the Emperor had chosen Vader to find Garoche, given the Sith Lord's previous record of losing sight of his mission objectives when ever the opportunity to hunt Jedi fugitives presented itself. Not only did Tarkin openly voice his lack of confidence in Vader, he also presented his contingency plan in the form of Captain Shale, who was to assist Vader in the search for Garoche and to ensure that the mission would still succeed in the event that Vader strayed away from the core of his mission once more.

Although Shale assured the Sith Lord that he would be most useful in finding Admiral Tarkin, Vader merely saw him as a nuisance and blatantly insisted that he did not need a "shadow" to follow him and watch his every move. But the Emperor made it quite clear that Captain Shale would be part of the mission, thus forcing Vader to back down on the matter. Thus, Shale disembarked on his new assignment to find his lost friend with Vader and two battalions of the 501st Legion.

Atoa
"The snipers are blind! Let's go!"

- Captain Shale, during the fighting on Atoa.

After reaching the Atoan System in the Ghost Nebula, the last known location of Admiral Tarkin before his disappearance, Vader and his Imperial force began their search on the planet Atoa. Arriving on the planet's surface in the same gunship as Darth Vader and a contingent of 501st stormtroopers, Shale and the Imperials located a nearby inhabited city protected by armed soldiers.

While Darth Vader wasted no time at all in ordering his stormtroopers to assault the city and slay many of its inhabitants, Captain Shale used the Sith Lord's distraction to covertly infiltrate the city with a squad of dark-armored stormtroopers. When a lone enemy soldier managed to ambush Vader and his troopers by shooting at them from high ground, Shale was able to knock her out with a single deft attack from behind after he and his men entered the city without being detected. Although Shale somewhat egotistically tried to claim credit for his action, Vader ignored the officer and pressed deeper into the city with Shale and the 501st in tow.

Discovering that the last of the city's protectors were holed up in a tower guarded by heavy artillery and snipers, Commander Voca suggested that an AT-TE Walker could destroy the tower without any risk to the Imperials. But Vader, having little concern for Imperial lives or resources, was only interested in capturing the city's leaders alive for interrogation and thus settled on the direct approach of storming the tower head on. Captain Shale, on the other hand, insisted that Vader's objectives could be completed without suffering more casualties than was necessary. To that end, Shale requested that the Dark Lord create a distraction while he and his stormtroopers infiltrated the tower. After a moment's consideration, Vader agreed.

To ensure that Shale's plan succeeded, Vader stepped out from hiding and presented himself in open view to the snipers, much to the surprise of his stormtroopers. But before the snipers could target Vader, the Dark Lord used the Force to create a massive snow storm, hurling it in the direction of the tower and thus blinding the snipers. With the distraction working perfectly, Captain Shale and his men quickly climbed to the top of the tower and easily dispatched the snipers, but only wounded them as per Vader's instructions to take the tower's occupants alive for questioning.

In the aftermath of the battle, Vader had Commander Voca and the 501st stormtroopers transport the remaining enemy soldiers to the bank of a river just outside the city. After a short and unsuccessful interrogation, Captain Shale stood by and nonchalantly watched as Vader ordered Voca to burn the city and drown the prisoners. At that moment, however, a boat loaded with white-robed figures drifted towards the Imperials. Before either Shale or Voca could open fire, Vader commanded them to stand down. A female priestess disembarked from the boat and greeted Vader and his men as "servants of the Empire". Identifying herself as High Priestess Saro of Atoa, she promised to help the Imperials in finding whatever they were looking for.

Appearances

 * Darth Vader and the Lost Command 1