"What would you have of me?" Darth Vader's secret apprentice asked on bended knee. His codename was Starkiller, and he had more than enough power to destroy Vader and his fleet of ships, but the thought didn't even cross his mind. Raised from childhood to kill, Starkiller's loyalty to the Empire was too strong for such thoughts to enter his mind.

"I have sensed a disturbance in the Force," Vader replied, staring out a large window, before the raspy breathing noise continued. This wasn't exactly news; Vader often sent Starkiller to collect this artifact or that object of immense power. Not expecting anything new, Starkiller continued to wait for Vader to continue, not even lifting his head to look at him.

Just as he expected, Vader continued, "The planet you will seek is more than a galaxy away. PROXY will brief you as you travel." Vader turned to look at him. "Do not fail me."

"Yes, Master," Starkiller replied. Well, this is new, he thought, rising and making his way to his ship. Outside of the galaxy? The look on his face didn't change; he still wore a stony mask of indifference. But the whole way, he couldn't help but ponder what he might encounter.


"Alright PROXY," Starkiller shouted as the doors to the Rogue Shadow opened and he entered, "what're you supposed to tell me?"

There wasn't an immediate response, and after a few seconds of silence, Starkiller readied his lightsaber, just in case anything could've gone amiss. A few seconds later, PROXY's robotic face appeared on a nearby com screen.

"Come to the training room, master," it said.

"PROXY, not now. What are you –" Starkiller managed to say before the screen went black. "Ugh," he grunted in frustration, turning his lightsaber off and putting it back on his belt.

"Calm down," a feminine voice said from nearby. He looked up to see Juno Eclipse, his personal pilot, seated at the front of the ship. "PROXY told me where we're going. I'll get us underway; you go and see what he wants."

"Thanks, Juno," he said, turning to his left to find the droid. He found it, just where it had said it would be.

"Master, it's time for your training," PROXY said as the ship shook from preparing to leave the larger ship.

"PROXY, we don't have time –" he said, before a series of holograms of crates appeared in the room. After a short delay, three men appeared, dressed as clone troopers.

"Defeat them," the droid said, backing away from the center of the room.

"Fine," Starkiller said, turning his lightsaber on with a smirk. He wants to test me? Then let him test me.

As though someone had fired the starting pistol, Starkiller shot into action. He threw his lightsaber at the man to his right, impaling him in the chest. With a flick of his left wrist, a crate jumped from in front of the now-dying man to crush his comrade on the opposite side of the room. Starkiller spun counter-clockwise, stepping forward and blasting the only remaining man with a force push that nearly dented the wall behind him. Starkiller stood and held out his right hand, and his lightsaber returned to it immediately.

"Good," PROXY said. Of course, that wasn't the end of the training session.

Another three men appeared almost immediately, in almost the same places as before. But just as they appeared, the crates in the room disappeared. Once again, Starkiller handled the situation without a problem. With a dash to the man on his left, he brought his saber inches within his face and pointed the man's gun arm across the room. He made him fire two shots, then turned his wrist to bring his lightsaber into his chest. Quick as a flash, he swiped his left hand toward the man to his left, redirecting one of the bolts into his head. All three men collapsed to the floor at the same time.

"It's good to see you haven't weakened, master," PROXY said, stepping out of the shadows. It suddenly stood up straight, and its limbs locked up, and a hologram of a Jedi covered him, complete with a lightsaber. "But have you improved?" it asked with a much more human voice.

Starkiller didn't give an answer, diving at his opponent to end the battle quickly. His first two swipes were blocked, but when PROXY counterattacked, Starkiller ducked and blasted the ground with the force, knocking PROXY off of its feet. He lifted his stunned opponent off of the ground and slammed him back down, then swung it in a full circle before letting go, sending it crashing into the wall.

Somehow unhindered, PROXY brought up its lightsaber in time to block the lighting that Starkiller shot toward it. As soon as he stopped, PROXY leapt to its feet and dashed toward him once more. He merely lifted it off of the ground, planning to finish the battle quickly, but PROXY had other plans. With a minor repulse, PROXY broke Starkiller's grip on it and swung its lightsaber ferociously. Starkiller barely had time to bring his weapon up to block the attack.

The two continued to trade blows, most of PROXY's missing and quite a few of Starkiller's connecting, until PROXY finally slipped up and carelessly lunged. Starkiller parried, not with a saber, but with the force, and impaled the droid, barely breathing heavily from the exertion. After a few seconds of stillness, Starkiller felt the droid leaning heavily on him and just let it drop, turning off his saber.

"Stop being so dramatic," he said, watching as the hologram deactivated. Once it was gone, not a single dent or burn mark marred the droid's body.

"You have improved," PROXY said, getting up slowly. "Now, then, would you like to be briefed?"

"Always straightforward," Starkiller said under his breath. "Of course I would."

"This way, then," it said, walking back into the cockpit where Juno waited. Starkiller followed.

"Alright, PROXY," he said, sitting casually in the nearest seat with his arms crossed, "what are we looking at here?"

Juno turned from facing forward to listen as well, having already gone into hyperspace.

"This is your objective," PROXY said, turning on another hologram. The man, once he appeared, wore strange clothes, without a hint of armor or weaponry. He wore a dark jacket over a brown hoodie over a white T-shirt, with jeans and sneakers on otherwise, but Starkiller didn't know what the clothing was called.

"No lightsaber?" he asked, unsure of whether Vader had been right.

"The planet appears to be far behind, technologically," PROXY explained in the person's voice.

"Oh, then this should be easy," he reasoned.

"We don't know very much about the planet, the people inhabiting it, or the target himself, except for a handful of names. The target calls himself 'Alex Mercer'."

"What about the planet?" Juno asked. "I mean, what is it called?"

"Checking..." PROXY said, stiffening. Starkiller couldn't help rolling his eyes as the droid checked some library somewhere.

"Data found: the planet is called Earth by those who inhabit it."