Zerek Besh

"Zerek Besh syndicate has infiltrated the underworld into the farthest reaches of the galaxy. We are on the verge of uncovering the rebel network. This is an unqualified success for the ISB."

―Director Sliro Barsha, to Darth Vader^[1]

Zerek Besh was a criminal syndicate that came into prominence during the Galactic Civil War and had influence into the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Secretly, Zerek Besh was an undercover intelligence gathering division of the Imperial Security Bureau charged with infiltrating the galactic underworld to gather intelligence from various criminal organizations and uncover the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

History[]

"Failure? The ISB has created the most groundbreaking intelligence network the Empire has seen and accomplished more in weeks than the entire Imperial army. An army whose mindless show of force allowed a rebel fleet to escape from Hoth. It is the ISB that will win this war—"

―Director Sliro Barsha, to Darth Vader^[1]

Created by Director Sliro Barsha as covert intelligence gathering network of the Imperial Security Bureau^[1] around 3 ABY,^[3] the undercover^[1] division^[4] quickly became^[1] one of the galaxy's great crime families during the reign of the Galactic Empire.^[5] While Barsha treated Zerek Besh as his own personal criminal domain, he remained firmly loyal to the Empire and was dedicated to hunting the Alliance to Restore the Republic, with Barsha believing his initiative would help win the Galactic Civil War.^[1] From within the underworld, Zerek Besh searched for Alliance agents^[1] and was able to gather intelligence from the syndicates.^[4]

After the Hutt Clan attacked the Executor, the flagship of Darth Vader^[4] between 3 ABY and 4 ABY,^[6] Zerek Besh were approached by Crimson Dawn, who claimed that Emperor Palpatine wanted to end the Empire's partnership with the Hutts as a result of their attack, and that Zerek Besh could win favor of Palpatine and enter a partnership with the Empire.^[4] Believing the offer, Zerek Besh then fought in^[5] the Syndicate War^[4] against the Hutt Clan, Droid Gotra, Pyke Syndicate, and Black Sun.^[5] Sometime later, a contact of Barsha's within Zerek Besh informed the director that Crimson Dawn was behind the claims.^[4]

In the same year, Zerek Besh unknowingly captured a rebel, Asara Deyn, attempting to infiltrate Westhill Palace, though Barsha believed him to be a spy for one of the syndicates, so he invited emissaries from the Hutt Cartel, Crimson Dawn and Pyke Syndicate to dinner to accuse them before executing them all. Subsequently, a rebel cell led by Dennion performed a rescue operation to free Deyn, though they left their hired Cantonican thief, Kay Vess, behind. Barsha assumed she was connected to the Rebel Alliance and attempted to interrogate her but she escaped Westhill Palace in his personal freighter, the Trailblazer, leading him to place a death mark on the thief, which was picked up by the bounty hunter Vail Tormin.^[1]

Zerek Besh was later tipped off by Waka that Vess was on Toshara and pursued her into the wreckage of the Castellan. The initial team were all killed by Vess before she was held at blasterpoint, determined to kill her to claim the Trailblazer, only for Tormin to show up and kill him instead. Vess managed to escape by triggering the reactor of the unstable wreck, and, despite the efforts of other Zerek Besh agents, made it out with the aid of BX-series droid commando ND-5. Vess was subsequently recruited by Barsha's brother Jaylen Vrax to attempt another heist of Westhill Palace to steal an alleged 157 million credits worth of unmarked beskar ingots that would help pay off her death mark, when Vrax' true objective was Sliro's Codex containing blackmail information on his fellow Imperials.^[1]

Jabba Desilijic Tiure later became aware of a Zerek Besh mole within his organization and leveraged both Vess and Tormin to cooperate in infiltrating Fort Sunfire to get the mole's identity. Later on, when the two women separated during the infiltration, Tormin discovered a Zerek Besh agent in the base and confronted him. Unaware of Zerek Besh's true allegiance, Tormin attempt to question why the agent was working with the Empire but was rebuffed, forcing her to kill him. At the same time, Vess managed to extract the mole's identity from the base's computers before she and Tormin made a dramatic escape from Fort Sunfire, after which Tormin chose to give her bounty a head start. Barsha would later meet with Bib Fortuna, revealing that he expected his mole to be found out and offered to aid Fortuna in seizing Jabba's throne in exchange for information on Vess.^[1]

On Akiva, a male Human Zerek Besh bounty hunter would later travel to Akiva to interrogate Temmin Wexley on Vess' whereabouts, only for his death mark, accompanied by ND-5 and Gedeek Obaz, to walk into Temmin's shop. A Zerek Besh would later pursue the group into the droid factory beneath the shop, but all agents were killed by Vess before they could discover the rebel Kivo Base. Vess would later work with the cell's leader, Asara Deyn, to rescue rebel prisoners captured by the Hutts before the Empire could buy them. Zerek Besh sent a squad in the Empire's place but all their agents were killed in the subsequent confrontation, leaving Vess confused over the syndicate's presence in place of the Empire.^[1]

Barsha would later travel to an ISB station to get an update on Tormin's hunt for Vess. After revealing his knowledge of her fortune on Niamos to deter her from abandoning her assignment, Barsha was then confronted by Darth Vader, who conveyed the Emperor's displeasure with Zerek Besh, labeling both the syndicate and its director as failures. Barsha attempted to defend that Zerek Besh had successfully infiltrated the underworld and accomplished more in weeks than the Imperial Army, reminding of their failure to stop the rebel fleet at Hoth, but Vader quickly lost his patience with his posturing and threatened Barsha to capture some rebels to prove his worth. The confrontation was witnessed by Kay Vess, who had infiltrated the station with her mother Riko to steal Barsha's passcodes, causing them to learn Zerek Besh's true nature.^[1]

Despite the thieves copying Barsha's passcodes and covering their tracks, Zerek Besh anticipated another heist on Westhill Palace. However, despite their heightened security measures, Vess' crew managed to make it to the vault and killed off two waves of agents sent after them. Barsha, accompanied by Tormin, confronted Vess and ordered his bounty hunter to finish her off, only for Tormin to turn on him to get a piece of Vess' score, killing his agents and knocking him out. The crew would then escape to the sewers and into the Canto Casino. Zerek Besh cleared the civilians out of the casino and attempted to stop Vess' crew from getting away with Sliro's Codex but were unsuccessful.^[1]

Later, Vrax contacted the Sith Lord Darth Vader, from whom he asked for control of Zerek Besh and the ability to do whatever he wished to his brother. It was Vrax's hope to steal the empire his brother had made after he had cost their family a fortune after the Clone Wars. In return for the syndicate and Barsha, Vrax offered the Empire the location of a rebel base on Akiva and the return of sensitive information Barsha had lost. Vader agreed to Vrax's terms, with Vrax then quickly executing his brother using ND-5, only for his own droid kill him soon after once Vess had removed his restraining bolt.^[1] Nonetheless, the syndicate survived^[5] the deaths of both brothers^[1] and fell under the control of a new leader. Months after the Syndicate War had started, the criminal organizations involved in the war were contacted by Palpatine, who informed them that they had been lied to by Crimson Dawn. He then instructed the groups to stop fighting each other, and instead turn their attention to fighting Crimson Dawn and its leader, Lady Qi'ra. The Emperor then informed them that whichever of the criminal organizations brought him her corpse would rise high in his estimations.^[5]