Disclaimer: I do not claim to hold any rights regarding Star Wars. Star Wars remains the sole intellectual property of George Lucas. Any other sources utilized regarding Star Wars EU belong to their respective creators.
Boots clacked along polished transparisteel floor, lined on either side by pits of men working to pilot the vast ship of the Empire the man was standing on.
His cape swished through the air, an aura of anger and rage seeming to follow, with a tinge of glee following him his ominous wake.
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, Supreme commander of the Imperial Forces had arrived on the bridge.
His ship, resembling a dark grey arrowhead in space, traveled through hyperspace, quickly rushing towards it's destination.
A respirator sounded on the bridge. It was no oddity to these men, these officers, making up the best and brightest of the Imperial Navy.
"Lord Vader," said a man, impeccably dressed in his naval uniform, "Death Squadron will be exiting out of hyperspace momentarily."
"Good," said the Sith, his respirator punctuating his breaths. His armored head, glistening in the light of the warp field surrounding the ship tilted down to look at his admiral.
"Have you located the destination of the Tantis IV yet."
The admiral nodded, and said, "Well, my Lord, it's at Tatooine."
Darth Vader's fists imperceptibly tightened at this.
"I see. Arrange for General Veers to board the ambassador's ship once it is in the hold."
Ozzel nodded, "Of course my lord." He quickly stepped off into the comms station to alert the general
The warp field dropped, revealing they were around a planet, one in a binary system.
The Tantis IV was moving past the planet, quickly as it could in an attempt to slingshot around and take a hyperspace route out of the area.
"Admiral," Vader said, "you have your orders."
The admiral nodded, and straightened his disheveled apparence. A muted klaxon was resounding
"Comms, send this order to the rest of the squadron. At 1500 hours, Coruscant time, we have begun the retrieval operation. This is per Lord Vader's direct order. Executor out."
In a short amount of time, the turbo laser fire and ion cannons had taken out the Tantis IV. It was quickly brought into the bays by tractor beams.
"Lord Vader," begun the comms officer, "General Veers reports that while he and the 501st have successfully taken all aboard the Tantis IV, as well as the ambassador, Princess Leia, the plans are nowhere to be found. Several escape pods, according to the records on the ship were jettisoned."
Vader turned to the gunnery officer, "Were they shot down?"
Gulping the officer replied, "N-no my lord, no l-life signs w-were detec-cted on th-the pods."
Quickly, his hands went to his throat, though he was quickly surprised when he felt no pressure on his trachea.
"Officer," started Vader, an aura of malice flowing around him, "You will begin bombardment of the planet below until there remains no possibility of the plans lying down there. Then we will talk of your punishment."
The officer gulped, and quickly issued the orders out the the five thousand turbo laser crews on the Executor, in addition to spreading the orders to the other gunnery officers in the squadron.
The planet below gently turning in the black was suddenly besieged by bright green fire, starting at the cities and spreading over the entirety.
An old man in a small adobe hut ran out as he felt the deaths in the Force. Seeing the arrows in the sky, and feeling his onetime apprentices Force signature, he begun weeping, knowing all his goals for naught, that the galaxy would have to rely on the Force, and not on him. That his onetime brother-in-arm's son, the last possible hero, would die with him.
Said possible hero was gawking at the Star Destroyers, the white arrowheads laying waste with green arrows, and the one black Super Star Destroyer, dwarfing the others, and rapidly turning the wastelands around him to glass.
He felt no pain when his home, and half a kilometer around it was engulfed in the intense heat of turbo laser fire.
A pair of droids were unaware of what was happening, as they tumbled through the atmosphere. Unable to see their surroundings, they had no warning before their escape capsule was disintegrated in a green flash.
A man and his partner, a Wookie, attempted to flee in their ship when the Imperial chatter came over the comms systems.
"Chewie," Han shouted, fingers flying over a sparking console, "get to one of the turrets. I'm gonna try to get up to-"
He was interrupted at the wookie ripped him out of his seat, crash webbing and all, dashing out of the cockpit of the light freighter.
Just as he pased the bulkhead, Han looked back and saw a lance of green slash through the cockpit, the shields falling like paper to the massive turbo laser fire. Just as he begun to feel the air rush out the bulkhead sealed.
Shaken, he slumped to the ground, as the Chewie shouted at him.
"Yeah, bud, the life debt's even," he said, dumbfounded at how close he came to death. Pulling himself up as the ship spun, the inertial dampeners only barely compensating, he ran to the auxiliary controls.
Quickly manipulating them, he was surprised how quickly he was able to chart a course through the Star Destoryers, and on a multi-stop journey to Corellia.
With a wry chuckle, he said to Chewie, "At least we don't' hafta pay back Jabba now."
The wookie roared his agreement.
A few weeks later, in a dive bar on Corellia, he told his story; no one would have believed him, if he didn't have the black box with him in the bar. Suffice to say it was Corellian luck that saved him from the scourge of Tatooine.
A half hour later, the bombardment had stopped, the planets skies filled with black smoke.
The Dark Lord of the Sith nodded once, and turned on one heel.
"Petty officer, take us to Coruscant. Gunnery officer, for not firing on the empty escape pods, you now have the pleasure of reporting to Emperor Palpatine as to why the planet was glassed."
The officer fell back in dumb shock. His death warrant was effectively signed.
An aura of dark joy followed the black armored man, unnerving his men as he quickly approached the prisoner chambers.
"Princess Leia," he attempted to drone, though a less angry tone invaded his voice, "I take it the plans were sent down to Tatooine."
"Lord Vader, I admit to nothing! We were on a diplomatic mission," she shouted, anger evident in her voice as she attempted to deny the Sith.
"Ambassador, we know you received plans while in flight. As the 501st did not find any onboard your ship, they were sent to the planet." He paused, studying her features.
"So in an effort to destroy what must have been a secret Rebel base, the Executor has reduced the planet to glass. Good day, ambassador."
He quickly turned, enjoying the feel of disbelief falling from the princess. Cloak swishing, he walked out of the prison cell, and made his way back to his quarters.
Vader let out a small, dark chuckle, releasing his iron grip on his emotions to enjoy the feeling at having destroyed the world that caused him so much pain. He would never know of the son he lost there, or of the defeat of his once friend, and longtime enemy.
The news hit the Holonet a few days later. In efforts to stem the drug trade and rebel sympathizers, Tatooine had been reduced to glass by the new Death Squadron, a fleet centered around the newly created Super Star Destroyer, Darth Vader's personal flagship, The Executor.
Author's note: This is the oneshot that led to the story "The Imperial Civil War." At the time of this posting it has not finished the editing process, but the first chapter of it will be released shortly. The author's note there has more detail regarding the creation of this story, and will offer far more detail and polish than this, the original one-shot. Thanks for reading.