-9-

Vader was defeated once more and again, the choice to end his life had been resisted. Starkiller was no more as Galen Marek felt his old self returning. Plummeting through the shaft, falling down faster and faster and using the Force to accelerate faster still, Marek dodged the sides of the shaft until at last he grabbed at the air and stopped his descent, to land in an elegant somersault. Marek found himself in a superstructure built into what must be a huge asteroid. A monitor near the lift shaft displayed a structural readout and on it, he could see a diagram of a massive arm that extended from the cylindrical docking tube and embedded into the asteroid. The purpose of the room he had fought Vader in became clear, as Galen realised that the phantom TIE's would be shipped up around the turbo lift shaft and into the room above for onward transmission further up into the belly of the Terror, directly to the docking bays.

Below him Galen could see part of the factory floor, as completed phantom TIE's rolled past, ready for transport to the Terror.

Galen Marek spread his feet and began to concentrate. His Force fury remained cracking about his fingertips and it was no easy task to calm himself so soon after his battle with Darth Vader. Calling upon all his discipline and knowledge of the Force, Galen focused his intent and his attempt to bring total destruction to the factory.

Far above the meditating Jedi, upon the bridge of the Terror, Vader's anger smouldered, for once again his apprentice had escaped him. A moment later Admiral Sarn approached and stood nervously in front of Vader. "We cannot control the damage, Lord Vader, the reactor core could go critical at any time."

"Disengage from space dock, "Vader instructed.

"We cannot my Lord. Docking controls are inoperative."

Vader had hoped to be taking the defeated Starkiller back with him, but that plan was now impossible. "Then I must leave here on my own." The Sith lord raised his right hand and gripped Sarn's throat with the Force. "You have failed me for the last time. You will not have an opportunity to do so again," Vader said before turning and leaving Sarn's corpse where it fell. Admiral Sarn had indeed failed, but it seemed he paid the price for Vader's failure to defeat Starkiller as well as his own.

A short while later, Vader departed the doomed Super Star Destroyer just before the damage to the ship turned catastrophic and the entire vessel exploded. The detonation caused a tremor in the structure of the factory and at once the previously cloaked construction shimmered into sight.

In the area of space above Galen Marek, Commander Ru Murleen's heart skipped a beat as she laid eyes on the massive structure. "That's where they're making the TIE's!" she exclaimed to Rookie One at the blaster controls of the phantom fighter they had succeeded in stealing. "There must be thousands of them in there! If we don't do something about them it doesn't matter if we get this thing home or not."

"Uh, what do you have in mind?" Rookie One tentatively asked.

"Maybe it's better if you don't know." Ru answered as she swung their stolen vessel towards the factory seated upon the massive asteroid. Little did she know that as she flew the ship into the factory with the intention of destroying it from within, that someone else was already instigating his own plan to do just that.

In his heightened state of awareness Marek could feel the station, the construction of the ships around him and beyond. He felt the Rebels as they flew into the factory and further outwards still, he sensed the anger that emanated from his former master. Suddenly, that anger turned to surprise and then anticipation. Stretching out yet further with his feelings, Galen sensed the source of Vader's excitement; the Rouge Shadow. Vader had discovered Marek's ship and was even now moving into attack position. Marek saw the vision of the present as clearly as if he still wandered in the Force, drifting just outside the factory. Vader's TIE closed in and then with a lethal spray of fire, scorched the hull of the Shadow.

Juno had told him that while the Shadow had been in Kota's possession he had used it to run missions against the Empire and that the ship had been beat-up. Its experimental stygium crystal cloaking device was damaged so that the cloak could not always be maintained. Built by Sienar Fleet Systems Kota had gone to them to try to get the ship repaired, but Sienar had no record of the ship in their databanks, since the craft was originally built in total secrecy and all workers, organic or mechanic, had since been eliminated.

The ship was essentially unrepairable, with work on an entirely new ship being an easier and cheaper option. Even if the ship could have been repaired, the fact that the stygium cloaking device allowed the Rogue Shadow to become cloaked for only short periods of time anyway would not make it practical for a long term flights. Kota had not been as interested in the ship's ability to cloak indefinitely and had accepted that cloaking for long enough to gain the element of surprise was all he had needed.

Vader kept up his attack and with each successful hit the Rogue Shadow shuddered, until abruptly the wing panels on the right side of the ship were blown off. The ship gave one last shudder before Vader's constant rain of fire completely overloaded what remained of the shields and the vessel was destroyed.

Starkiller smiled as he sensed Vader's delight and pored his own satisfaction into one final burst of Force energy. At that moment Rookie One and Ru Murleen blasted the core of the factory and the entire asteroid felt a tremor.

Galen opened his eyes and leapt away from the shelf above the factory floor. Within moments he had boarded one of the new fighters and was manoeuvring off of the runway and away from the other ships. Then, just as the factory began to detonate and explode Marek launched his fighter away from the destruction. As he escaped, he could feel the elation of his comrades, whom still remained ignorant to his presence. As the Rebels escaped in one direction and Vader launched his fighter to light speed in another, Galen set his return course for Imdaar.