Lieutenant Grand Moff Vader
ME: I was wondering if I should include these OCs of mine. A/N: They make my headcanon somewhat AU, but given Jar Jar Binks I'm thinking you guys won't be annoyed. Also, I have it that Vader's legally named "Lord Darth Vader." Namely because he was referred to as "LDV" in a Legends book and *slight spoilers ahead* he's referred to mentally as "Darth Vader" by Tarkin in the eponymous novel released under Disney.
Lord Darth Vader.
That was the official name of the Emperor's Executor. Of course, most Imperials simply knew him and addressed him as "Lord Vader," just as most avoided using His Imperial Majesty's given name of "Sheev."
One of the only things certain about Lord Vader was that he had a brother named Chad. Unknown to the vast majority of the galaxy, he was once a Jedi Knight like his twin brother (formerly known as Anakin Skywalker) and was born as Chad Skywalker. However, he and his Padawan, Raana Tano (Ahsoka Tano's cousin), aided rogue Jedi Knight Barriss Offee in her bombing of the Jedi Temple and framing of Ahsoka, Anakin's Padawan. In the end, all three were expelled from the Jedi Order and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, terrorism, and murder.
Ironically, despite the fact they had nearly killed Ahsoka Tano and only received life sentences due to their confessions, the actions of the treacherous trio had spared their lives and Tano's. Order 66 exterminated the vast majority of the Jedi, leaving few survivors. In light of their expulsion from the Order, Barriss Offee, Chad Skywalker, and Raana Tano were all spared before being recruited into the Empire's war machine.
How ironic, Chad Vader reflected, that the lowly prisoners of the Republic have risen so far in its superior successor. He was now a Lieutenant Grand Moff, second-in-command to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim. His former Padawan, Raana, was now a Chief Inquisitor and his right-hand woman. Barriss Offee was now a High Inquisitor and his brother's chief lieutenant.
Currently Chad's assignment was to oversee the Death Star, still under construction, while Tarkin dealt with some rebels on Lothal. It was boring, and Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, in charge of naval operations aboard the Death Star, was an insufferable ass.
If not for Tarkin, I'd have dragged Motti to an airlock and jettisoned him personally. While I would prefer beating him to death with my bare hands, it'd be too hard to get the blood off my tunic.
Suddenly an Ensign knocked on his door. "Lieutenant Governor Vader, sir?"
"What is it, Ensign?" he replied.
"Sir, the Emperor wishes to speak with you and Lady Tano. She is being informed as well."
If His Imperial Majesty was bothering to contact Chad rather than simply read the status reports he regularly sent regarding construction progress, it was definitely important.
"Thank you, Ensign. I will attend to this matter immediately, dismissed."
The Lieutenant Grand Moff headed for the secure HoloNet booth aboard the Death Star. Just outside the room, he met Raana.
"Good morning, Master," she said.
She was only thirteen (one year younger than her cousin) when Chad met her, and had changed like him over the course of nearly two decades. Her eyes, rather than their original light blue, now were yellow (similar to his own green irises turning yellow). Raana's montrals had grown to their full height, while the Togruta's head-tails had grown longer. Rather than the traditional brown Jedi robes she once wore (in contrast to the tube top, mini skirt, and leggings initially worn by her cousin) or the olive gray Imperial officer's uniform he had, Raana now dressed in a black cloak, a white tank top, and gray pants tucked into black boots. She was only a few centimeters shorter than him now.
Black, white, and gray; our most patriotic colors. The Imperial Royal and Senate Guards are colorful by comparison to regular troops, and all they get is red and blue to go with their black. Thought at least their robes cover all but the visors up.
"Good morning, Raana," Chad replied. "Let's not keep the Emperor waiting, shall we?"
They both entered the room and knelt before the Lieutenant Regional Governor pushed the button, causing the holoprojector to display Emperor Sheev Palpatine's image.
"What is thy bidding, my Emperor?"
"Lieutenant Grand Moff Vader," Palpatine began, "your superior, Governor Tarkin, has recently proven himself to be quite less competent than I originally thought he was."
"How unfortunate, my Emperor," Chad responded. In truth, he actually liked that his boss had erred to the Emperor's displeasure. He did not like Tarkin as a person, and found his Death Star-did the Empire really need a moon-sized space station instead of simply a cylindrical one built around the superlaser, which would be much more practical as a weapon of war-to be an immensely inefficient pet project that only served to satisfy the Grand Moff's ego. If the Dark Side Adept's promotion did not coincide with Tarkin voluntarily retiring, he would not shed any tears.
"Indeed, my good and faithful servant. You and Lady Tano are to proceed to Lothal with the One Hundred and Fifth and help your brother, among others, succeed where Tarkin has failed. Oh, and how are those TIE Interceptor prototypes?"
The brother of Lord Vader did a rare thing; he smiled. "Wonderful, Your Majesty. Even without the shields and hyperdrive that will, thanks to the so-called strategists in the Joint Chiefs, not be standard in order to give the Navy an excuse to order more capital ships, the Interceptor is far superior to the standard TIE/LN and is still practical for mass production. I recommend that you order some for your Royal Guard pilots immediately."
"Very good, Lieutenant Governor Vader. You know your orders, now carry them out. That is my command." With that, Palpatine ended the transmission.
Chad rose with Raana. He pulled out his comlink before telling his former apprentice, "Alert General II-Raz, get him to move his troops to Steel Talon."
She groaned. "I hate him and the One-Oh-Fifth Division, Master."
Chad nodded in assent. II-Raz only got his job because of being the third cousin of the Deputy Director of COMPNOR, and with few exceptions his troops were average for CompForce-average in that they proved utterly incompetent, even when compared to a good percentage of the modern Stormtrooper Corps. He was also a humanocentric bigot and disliked being subordinate to a Togruta. "Indeed, Raana. How I miss the One-Eighty-Second."
Their former command, the 182nd Legion had been wiped out to the last man during the Battle of Felucia over fifteen years ago. The only advanced the 105th CompForce Division had over the 182nd was that the fanatical soldiers of the 105th were cheap and disposable recruits, only beaten by CIS droids.
"LGM-Zero-One to Integrity Actual, over," he said. A Carrack-class light cruiser, Integrity was his personal transport. She was as fast as a decent starfighter, reasonably armored and compartmentalized, and had quite the arsenal for a ship her size.
The response was virtually immediate. "Sir, Integrity Actual here. Go ahead, over."
"Prepare for an immediate jump to Lothal, orders straight from the Emperor."
"Right away, Lieutenant Grand Moff Vader." Commander Astraal Soot was captain of Integrity, and was a rare case of a Twi'lek becoming an officer in the Imperial Navy. While Grand Vizier Mas Amedda, a Chagrian, proved that legally the Empire was not speciesist, there was institutional discrimination in the officer corps (likely to divide and conquer, keeping the Imperial Military from being cohesive enough to challenge Palpatine).
As the two walked to the hangar bay storing their TIE Interceptors, Motti ran in front of them.
"Lieutenant Governor Vader!" He yelled. "I just recently received word that my flagship, Steel Talon, has been commandeered by you! What is the meaning of this?"
Chad simply waved his hand, and Raana delivered a well-deserved kick to the groin.
Motti lay whimpering on the deck while two modified TIE Interceptor prototypes lifted off and flew into space.
ME: A/N: II-Raz is a reference to one of Palpatine's Grand Admirals and a leading COMPNOR member, while the 182nd is a reference to Battlefront II. The TIE Interceptors being prototypes being considered for mass production as of 4 BBY is a reference to the EU, where it was standard for an ISD to have one squadron of Interceptors by 0 BBY. Odds are they had been in mass production for some time by that point.
The real question is whether this fic should be a standalone AU one or integrated into my headcanon (therefore making things a bit AU but otherwise largely canon compliant). If the latter, this takes place around the time of "A New Partnership."
You decide, readers!
Also, Raana is a reference to a certain EU Togruta Jedi and 6'0. Chad Vader is 6'2 like Hayden Christensen but has black hair, hence the "only a few centimeters shorter." The only reason I used centimeters was because SW operates off the metric system, otherwise I'd stick to imperial (ha) because I'm American.
And yeah, Chad's musing over the design of the Death Star is a reference to the Darksaber "novel" by KJA; that eponymous superweapon design was about the only useful thing he contributed to the SW universe in my honest opinion, everything else is garbage compared to the rest of the Expanded Universe. Thank God his "books," along with the hated Holiday Special (which I never watched as of this writing), are now non-canon according to Disney.