A/N: Please enjoy this next chapter, I hope you find it exciting!

It was not easy gearing up an entire battalion of Stormtroopers along with walkers for groundside action. There was a lot of preparation involved to prepare the twelve hundred men for a ground invasion into a particularly hostile zone but damn the person who said it was impossible. Vader stood to the side of the docking bay along with his Death Troopers as the Stormtroopers were being loaded up into heavy lift shuttles, which were massive compared to the Lambda class shuttle that Vader and his men would be taking to the ground.

Along with the infantry and walkers, there would be heavy support from Tie Fighters and Tie Bombers, saturating the enemy positions just before landing. This was to be a plan to completely shock the Mimbanese in order to completely demoralize them prior to the soldiers even putting their boots on the ground. Vader and his men would be the first ones to land, closely followed by the heavy lift transports that would have to make several runs back up to the Devastator for additional men and equipment, but everyone was fresh and rested, able to fight with relative ease.

Would there be casualties amongst his men? Most certainly, but that was merely the price of war. It wasn't that Vader wanted to throw his troops away, he just understood that it was merely a fact of fighting, the ones who fought for their own cause would perish. Shoving back from the wall, Vader signaled his men to get ready to board their shuttle so they could disembark at a moments notice, but he was surprised when Padmé and Dormé came running into the docking bay escorted by an officer.

"Angel, what are you doing down here? We said goodbye an hour ago in our quarters", Vader said confused. Tears were streaming down Padmé's face which nearly caused him to wince.

"I know", she said with a cracked voice. "I just wanted to say that I love you one more time in case something happens."

Vader embraced her fiercely. "I love you too, but everything will be alright, I promise", he swore. Come to hell or high water, he would make it back to her regardless of the outcome of the fight.

"Alright, Ani, just please don't try and be a hero", she whispered.

"I won't, but I'll do my duty once we're on the ground. I need you to have some faith in me, alright?", he whispered back.

He could feel her nod and he gently broke the embrace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dormé saying goodbye to Sergeant Alexander in a similar fashion. Dammit, this was exactly why he didn't want the women to come with them, emotions were running high enough due to the impending battle, they didn't need to be further bogged down by emotional attachments.

Vader took one last look at Padmé and gave her a nod before he turned to his troops. "Let' go", he commanded in an authoritative tone. He saw Sergeant Alexander disengage from Dormé and his men filed into the shuttle, with Vader taking a seat next to the ramp, eager to be the first one to set foot one the battlefield as usual.

He saw the two women staring at them out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his face forward, remaining as stoic as possible. He needed to be thinking of the challenges ahead, not torn up emotionally at what this was doing to the two of them. The ramp closed and Vader blew a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he didn't care for Padmé's feelings, he understood them all too well, he just didn't want to be distracted from what was to be a harrowing mission, one that could potentially cost his life if he wasn't focused. That was how perilous the fight was, it was wretched and unrelenting.

Vader felt the shuttle rise off the deck of the ship and knew that in a few seconds it would plummet out of the docking bay and towards the garrison on Mimban. If his timing was right, the Tie Fighters and Tie Bombers would be beginning their saturation runs in just a few minutes, creating chaos where there was none, havoc where there was confidence. Good, the bastards needed to kriffing suffer for using the gods damned fission bomb to retake their lost ground. What a cowardly way to fight.

The shuttle descended from the ship and Vader looked at his soldiers. They all appeared confident, but relaxed, and he knew that they were mentally in the zone for a pitched battle. Nothing else was better than having some of the most disciplined soldiers in the Empire at his back when push came to shove.

As the shuttle descended into the atmosphere at a high rate of speed, the ride began to get a little bumpier than usual. Vader braced his feet against the deck of the shuttle and cleared his mind of all distractions before landing. His breathing became focused as did his mind, he had only one purpose at the moment and that was to defeat the Mimbanese and break the siege of the garrison.

After a few more minutes, the shuttle began to slow, and Vader knew that they were about to disembark. He rose just as the Death Troopers did and squared himself off to the ramp, waiting for it to begin to lower so he could race out and begin his advancement into the chaos and hell of war.

As the ramp began to lower, he snatched his lightsaber from his belt and crouched down slightly with his left foot forward. Once the ramp was two thirds the way down, he leapt out and began sprinting towards the enemy lines with his elite soldiers behind him. He could smell the ionization in the wake of the Tie Fighter and Bomber attacks in the air and knew that the plan had worked. The Mimbanese had been caught off guard by the air assault and were likely too stunned to have noticed the shuttles beginning to land.

Vader was closing in at a hundred yards to the enemy lines when they finally noticed him and began to fire off barrages of blaster bolts and him and his men. He did what he could to deflect as many bolts as possible as he sprinedt forward to protect his soldiers and kept pushing forward. Behind him, Death Troopers were firing back, with some lobbing grenades from launchers at the entrenched positions in hopes to knock out some of the fire that was coming their way.

Soon, fire began to open up across the line of the Mimbanese, indicating that they were firing into the Stormtroopers that were racing in formation towards the enemy lines as well. If Vader was correct, the walkers would be the next to land, providing some excellent fire support to knock out some of the heavier weaponry employed by the fighters.

Finally, Vader was within mere yards of the enemy lines and leapt into the air, over the barricades and landed amongst dozens of surprised fighters. He quickly began slicing through them, with relative ease while blocking blaster bolts, sending many of them back to the individuals who fired them, killing them instantly. He picked a direction to go west in the trench and heard the boots of his Death Troopers hitting the ground behind him, ready to provide whatever support they could to their commander. Vader could only pray that the Stormtroopers weren't bogged down by the aggressive fire from the line so they could begin clearing the trench as well.

Scores of fighters began charging Vader and his men and the Death Troopers skillfully began laying covering fire into the crowed of soldiers. Vader nearly got singed by a blaster bolt and screamed in rage, lifting up several of the warriors and snapping their necks without a moment of hesitation. He tirelessly began slicing into this group, deflecting blaster bolts, crushing soldiers to death, and sending many flying into the walls of the trench, killing them from the blunt force trauma. His troopers' deadly firepower was also inflicting many casualties amongst the Mimbansese and they easily kept up with their commander, ready to take on additional fighters.

As Vader rounded a corner he cursed when he saw a heavy repeating cannon pointed right at him. He deflected bolts at a rapid pace and threw the gun up into the air before choking the crew that was manning it to death with the Force. Not wanting to be surprised by a close call like that again, he slowed his pace somewhat and continued to push through the trench. An enemy soldier ran up to him with a thermal detonator activated and Vader sliced off the arm, throwing it into the air where it exploded harmlessly above them. He ignored the screaming suicide soldier on the ground and heard one of his troopers kill him from behind. There were tunnels that intersected the main trench, making Vader nervous about additional attacks from their sides and rear.

He whistled to his men and gestured to two of them to come up and throw thermal detonators into the tunnels. They crept up to the corners, activated their detonators and tossed them in, stepping back and at the ready. They blew up causing the tunnels to collapse and Vader could hear soldiers screaming inside, unprepared for the attack that would result in their eventual suffocation under tones of rock and soil.

Continuing forward, another horde of Mimbanese ran towards Vader and he once again slashed through them. One was lucky enough to slash Vader in the side with a wicked looking knife. Vader gritted his teeth in pain and grabbed the soldier by the throat, squeezing as hard as he could to kill him, which didn't take very long at all. So, he could bleed. He wasn't invincible, he already knew this. He bent down and picked up the knife, worried that it may have been poisoned and affixed it under his utility belt. If it was poisoned, he would need it for the medical staff aboard the Devastator to develop an antivenom to prevent his demise, but hopefully none of that would be necessary.

Before he knew it, another wave of soldiers came in fast, this time lobbing grenades and thermal detonators at Vader and his men. With a waive of his hand, he sent the munitions sailing back towards the fighters and turned to his side, avoiding shrapnel from the exploding devices. When he turned back, there were still some soldiers alive and holding weapons. They may have had limbs missing, but they were still threats. The Death Troopers put them down with literal ease, clearing yet another path for Vader to continue down.

This fight was grittier than he had originally thought it was going to be. He knew that the enemy were going to be ready to fight to the last man, but he hadn't anticipated them to be able to mount such an effective and suicidal defense. This would make his work a little more difficult as they continued to clear out parts of the trench. He wondered how his Stormtroopers were holding up, but he didn't hear many cries for assistance over the comms, which was an encouraging sign. As he pressed forward deeper into the trench, a warning went off in his mind and he quickly leapt back as two blades went slicing through the air. Had he not sensed the threat, his legs and head would have been severed from his body. Slashing through the trap so it would be well disabled, he continued down the trench, waiting for another of the slowly curving trench to unveil additional fighters.

Vader wasn't disappointed. Scores of the enemy came rushing out of hiding positions in the walls and began firing blaster rifles at Vader and his men. Vader was doing his best to deflect the fire, but there was so much that some of the shots were making it past him. He heard one of his soldiers cry out in pain and then felt a blaster bolt hit him squarely in his right shoulder. He screamed in rage and pulled the rifles out of the Mimbanese's hands and then took great pleasure in choking them all to death simultaneously. Fuck them for hurting one of his soldiers. He quickly looked back, and it was Corporal Eckard who had taken a hit in the leg. He was stuffing in a sterile bandage into the wound and when he noticed Vader looking down at him, he shot to his feet, but wobbled slightly.

"I'm still fit to fight, Milord", Eckard said.

"Good, we need you. Let's keep pushing ahead but I want grenades to start being thrown in front of us and into the curve of the trench in order to prevent that from happening again. This battle is to be fought and won on our terms, not theirs, understood?", he demanded.

Understood", his troopers replied in unison.

Then, his comms crackled to life. "Lord Vader, this is Colonel Maximillian Veers, reporting that the walker strike force has landed. Where is the most support needed?"

"Understood Colonel, send the majority of your men to defend the Imperial infantry and two of the scout walkers our way to provide overwatch", Vader commanded.

"Understood, Veers out."

"That just takes support away from us while the fucking Stormtroopers get the better guns to support them", a trooper complained.

"We'll have to be our own support for the time being, trooper", Vader replied. "Come on, let's keep moving forward", Vader said. Shit, he wasn't about to let himself become bogged down by bitching and moaning.

As they rounded another corner, two Death Troopers flung grenades which bounced off the opposite wall and further down the corner, exploding. Vader could hear Mimbanese screaming and howling and smirked. Their ambush worked once, but it wouldn't work a second time.

Thinking quickly, Vader turned the corner and began slicing into the fighters that were still standing. Limbs flew in every direction as he moved with a purpose. His men caught up to him and began laying down heavy fire into the hoards of men that were advancing on Vader's position, killing them. This gods damned slaughter was getting better and better by the kriffing second and he was just getting started.

Moving as quickly as he could, he sprinted into the enemy formation, being mindful not to be hit by his men's fire and began snapping necks with the Force and carving into as many soldiers as he could. Blood was beginning to soak his robes from the insanely close quarters combat, leaving him reeking of death and despair, but that only fueled him to keep pushing forward. It wasn't about how much he and his men could take, it was about how many lives they could take.

Had the damned Mimbanese not used a fission bomb when taking back the ground that Vader had won, this wouldn't be necessary, so he wasn't about to feel any guilt for the slaughter. In fact, he took pleasure from it. He could feel the darkness swelling inside of him as he dispatched death as casually as a mother would feed her child, except there was more screaming this way.

A grenade landed at his feet and he kicked it back at the soldier who threw it with it detonating in the soldier's face, decapitating him. That merely heightened Vader's senses even further. That soldier should have never been able to get a grenade out to him like that in the first place, it would have taken his legs had he not moved quickly enough.

Damn, the combat was getting thick, and the air was filled with acidity from the blaster fire making it difficult to breathe, but the Sith Lord and his troopers merely pressed on down the trench line. As they further progressed, a massive artillery shell was sent directly into their position, leaving Vader mere seconds to catch it with the Force and hurl it back to the cannon in which it was fired from, exploding harmlessly two hundred feet away.

More fighters poured out of intersecting trench lines with blasters and melee weapons which made Vader smirk in amusement as they ran up to him, slicing at him with axes or machetes. They were stunned when Vader's lightsaber sliced through the crude metal weapons and recoiled in fear before he continued to mercilessly slaughter each and every one of them, while his Death Troopers blasted the ones fortunate enough to slip past him.

The only fair fight was the one where the enemy lost, and they got to walk away from relatively unharmed. That was the simplicity of it all, they just had to maintain their momentum and it would work out. Vader couldn't believe how much of the siege trench line had been taken by him and his twenty four Death Troopers. They had inflicted a staggering number of casualties against the enemy, but they still weren't done, they had maybe another mile to go before they were able to link up with the Stormtroopers.

Behind them, Vader heard the familiar clanks of two scout walkers as they began providing covering fire for Vader and his men as they continued to assault down the trench line, taking as many of the fighters out with them as possible. The Mimbanese were shocked to see the walkers and there was a slight retreat of some of the soldiers as the walkers continued to advance, stepping over the trenches to keep their advantage up.

Vader stopped for a moment and held up his hand. "We'll have a quick breather and then get back to it while those walkers do a little bit of the work for us", he said. While his adrenaline was still surging close to its peak, he knew that he and his men were becoming more and more exhausted with every hundred meters of trench line that they cleared out. It wasn't like they were on a physical conditioning run; they were in combat for fucks sakes, they needed to rest when afforded the opportunity, especially considering the ground they had taken thus far.

After a minute, Vader twirled a hand over his shoulder and he and the troopers began their advancement again, carefully checking corners, but feeling more comfortable now that they had two scout walkers providing overwatch for them as they advanced. The additional firepower was going to be necessary if they ran into another hoard of enemy personnel, which they most likely wood.

After deflecting several more blaster bolts, Vader slashed the hand off of a fighter and as he fell to the ground, Vader kicked him in the face hard enough to fracture the enemy's skull. There was no mercy for anyone who dared to pick up a weapon against his soldiers, no matter how skewed the perception of right and wrong was on the war. To Vader, this was just a strategic objective, but to the Mimbanese, this was them trying to repel invaders to their world and protect their mineral rights. While he would normally feel respect for the soldiers that he and his men were slaughtering, the tactics that the Mimbanese were using were disgusting. Instead of meeting on the battlefield as men, they had carved out a complex siege trench system that was a pain in the ass to clear, and that was a sign of the need for their doom.

Vader kept pushing his men on, looking back at them every couple of minutes briefly to do a headcount. They were his men gods dammit, and he wasn't about to let one of them get mortally wounded just to bleed out alone on the battlefield. The kriffing Stormtroopers and army regulars may condone such tactics, but his Death Troopers were some of the best that the galaxy had to offer, making them not only terrific troopers, but colleagues. Their lack of skill in the Force was made up by their skilled physical conditioning and intense mental preparation that went into every single training class of the elite troopers, making them some of the most formidable warriors that they galaxy had seen since the Mandalorians invaded Coruscant thousands of years ago.

He could recall the history lessons he had taught himself about Mandalore and the other Mandalorians that were blessed with the ability to respond to violence with intense violence, reminding everyone that read it that they were a branch of humanity, long removed from normal human DNA that had been molded into soldiers since birth.

Well, nearly almost all of them. There were still more than a handful of Death Troopers that would have outclassed a Mandalorian in single combat. This wasn't the time for history lessons however valuable that they were needed, this was a time for complete autonomous direct action against scores, possibly even for thousands of men. It was one truly gruesome combat scenario in which Vader actual was afraid of dying to the point of being terrified but brash and cocky at the same time.

Why was the regiment of Mimbanese not routing? Surely, they had realized that they were being utterly defeated by military maneuver after maneuver, but they just kept coming. Vader looked to his left suddenly down an intersecting trench when he had to dodge a machete wielding Mimbanese who nearly cut his throat. This was getting out of hand and fast.

Vader picked up a rock and hurled it at a scout walker, causing the commander to open the hatch with a blank expression on his face.

"Would you kindly fucking watch our position, so we don't get ambushed?", Vader snapped.

"Yes, milord", the commander stated as he yelled down at his platoon sergeant for not noticing the almost catastrophe failure.

"What's the difference between fucking career soldiers and complete idiots", Vader seethed to himself as he continued his march forward. When he reached the next intersection of tunnels, he felt something oddly disturbing in the Force that made him turn left down it and sprint at an alarming speed, trying to catch up with whatever the hell he was feeling, and it wasn't pleasant. The Force was screaming for him to get to the cause of the disturbance as quickly as possible and he felt his personal guard running at a full sprint in order to reach whatever the fuck it was in time, leaving the Death Troopers in his wake.

There were a cluster of Mimbanese in front of him, definitely guarding something that made the hairs on the back of Vader's neck stand straight up. Using the Force, he lifted the men and snapped their necks before darting behind their bodies as they fell.

"Oh, shit", he whispered in horror. In front of him was a crudely built fission bomb that had enough power to decimate the entire garrison and take whatever Imperial forces that were around it out with it. He quickly studied the detonation device and found three mechanisms. A timer that was winding down with merely five standard minutes left, a pressure plate which would explode if the mine was moved, and a radio frequency detonation device meaning that it could be blown at any time from a distance as long as the operator was in range.

Even if there was time to move it away, and there wasn't, the damned bomb couldn't be moved, and if he did manage to deactivate the other two mechanisms it could still be destroyed with a frequency if it didn't detonate on time or if there was an enemy spotter close by that could end his existence with the mere flick of a switch.

Thinking quickly, Vader began running down the list of options that he had available. He needed to diffuse the radio frequency detonation mechanism before he attempted to diffuse the timer, both of which would require a lengthy process. He wasn't a kriffing ordinance disposal technician, and neither were any of his Death Troopers, they weren't equipped to handle this shit. No wonder why the Mimbanese hadn't routed, they weren't here to breach the garrison, they were here to merely guard the bomb until it was detonated.

Finally, his Death Troopers caught up with him and there was just four minutes to go on the clock.

"Quick, I need whatever fucking fine tools that you all have. I don't care what they are, just dump them in front of me", Vader barked. The troopers saw the bomb and immediately began digging into their vests pulling out pliers, screw drivers, and a number of other tools that may or may not have any significance to what Vader needed to accomplish. He quickly stripped off his leather gloves and threw his hood back, needing to see clearly so he wouldn't fuck the entire thing up.

"Does anyone have a frequency jammer?", Vader asked.

Silence.

Kriffing hell, that would've been all too easy. He would make certain that was in the standard loadout from now on if they survived this ordeal. Vader quickly examined the frequency detonation mechanism and saw a mess of wires connecting it to the detonation device. He didn't have much time to learn the function of each specific wire, so he reached out with the Force to see if he could detect which one would carry the frequency to the detonation device. He found three, but he didn't know if there was an order they needed to be cut or if they needed to be cut all at once.

The Emperor had been right, they should have just reduced the kriffing planet to slag, but that wasn't an option anymore and neither was dying considering the two women were likely watching the battle unfold from his personal floor aboard the Devastator. The explosion from the device would easily be seen from space and they would instantly know that he was dead. That couldn't happen, no matter what.

Grabbing a pair of pliers, he carefully gripped all three of the wires between them and squeezed as hard as he could while closing his eyes. He could feel the wires be snipped and braced himself to die. Nothing happened. Alright, so the remote detonation was likely off the table, now he needed to focus on the timing detonator, which only had three minutes remaining. This mechanism was more complex, with a series of switches that went along with another mass of wiring that needed to be identified before he could do anything.

Reaching out with the Force again, he detected two wires that were actively carrying a current to the detonation device, but he couldn't merely cut the wires, he needed to figure out which switches to flip and in what order.

Two minutes left.

Gods fucking dammit, there wasn't much time left. He used the skill of premonition to quickly meditate on which switches had been used to arm the device, and there were three, but there were also three other switches, each in an opposite direction than the other. Would the arming switches deactivate the timer, or would it send the bomb into a catastrophic mode if they were switched in the incorrect sequence? Hell, he didn't know, he didn't know shit.

One minute left.

The other three switches had to be the ones to flick, but he didn't know which one he should choose first. The top, the middle, or the bottom. The middle switch was the only one pointed down, and that told Vader that it meant something, but a guess was a guess. He'd be dead anyway if he didn't try something, shit, anything. He placed his finger on the middle switch and flicked it up, nothing happened. He then decided on a whim to switch the outside switches down at the same time. The clock still was ticking.

Taking the two wires he had identified; he still sensed an electrical current feeding into the detonation mechanism but hoped that the failsafe switches were deactivated. He gripped the wires between the pliers and again applied as much force as he could, hearing them both snip. He breathed a sigh of relief as the timer blinked off and nothing happened. He couldn't very well leave a fission bomb just sitting on a pressure plate while there was still a pitched battle going on around them, some idiot could knock it over killing them all instantly.

Looking at the pressure plate, he saw yet another mass of wires connected to it, but after reaching out with the Force, none of the wires were feeding a current to the plate or vice versa. That was useless, so how could he disarm the pressure plate?

"Carefully dig for cables around the device, there has to be a switch that can be deactivated or cut", he commanded to his troopers. They all got on their hands and knees and began digging at the ground with their gloved hands as quickly yet delicately as they could to try and find something, anything that would lead from the pressure plate to another source.

"I found something!", Sergeant Alexander said as he continued to unearth a cable. Three other men darted over and began digging on opposite sides of him and sure enough it led to the pressure plate. They began working backwards, seeing if the cable went anywhere. It led them into the primary trench line all the way into a secondary trench line which they carefully cleared before they began digging again.

"Sir, we found a switch", Alexander called out over the comms.

"Fucking deactivate it", Vader said impatiently.

He cringed as he waited for a reply.

"The switch has been deactivated, sir", Alexander said.

Vader sat back on his haunches and wiped sweat from his brow. Explosions and the sound of blaster fire was still echoing around them, meaning the battle was still raging on, but for now it appeared that the fission bomb had been deactivated. At least he hoped.

"I have to test the fucking thing", he told himself. As stupid as it sounded to his own ears, he had to test it. For good measure, he decided to cut the cable that led to the pressure plate just incase the switch was a dummy, designed to throw off an unsuspecting soldier, with the real switch buried in a wall.

Praying that the Force would guide him, his hands shook as he gently grasped the cable with his hands and placed it in between the pliers, and closed his eyes, cutting it. He braced for the worst, but again it never came. He exhaled loudly, but he still had to see if the gods damned bomb could be moved off the plate. That was the last test to see if the damned thing was truly deactivated.

Bracing himself, he carefully placed the bomb in both of his hands and wincing, he carefully lifted the bomb off the plate. Nothing happened. His hands trembled as he set the bomb down on the dirt and sat back on his buttocks, glaring down at the device. Adrenaline dumped from his system and he felt exhausted.

He quickly keyed his comms.

"Piett, this is Vader. I need a gods damned Tie Fighter down here with two hundred feet of cable along with a damned harness down here now, not in ten minutes, right fucking now", he said into the comms.

"At once, Milord", Piett responded. He had to get the damned thing off the planet, and some unlucky bastard would have to tow it as far away from it and the squadron of destroyers before cutting the cable. There was no way in hell he would leave it next to the garrison or even hurl it behind enemy lines for it to be used again.

After waiting a good fifteen gods damned minutes, a Tie Fighter suddenly appeared in the distance, screaming towards his position.

"Incoming Tie Fighter, this is Lord Vader. Lock onto my comms and hover directly above us and drop the cable. There's a bomb that needs to be towed away from the planet and the destroyer squadron. It has been deactivated, but it needs to be removed from this blasted rock as soon as possible, do you copy?", he snarled into the comms.

"Good copy, Milord", the pilot replied coolly. Whatever pilot they selected had balls made of steel.

The Tie Fighter hovered directly over their position and the cable was dropped. Vader quickly took the webbing and tied it around the bomb as securely as he possibly could. The webbing was lined with steel fibers, so the likelihood of it shredding as the pilot ascended through the atmosphere was slim.

"It's all set, make your ascension as quickly but safely as possible, I don't want this thing falling back down on us", Vader said into the comms.

"Copy, Milord. Nice and easy it is", the pilot responded.

The Tie Fighter slowly began to tilt up and propelled at a moderate speed into the sky. Vader and the Death Troopers quickly backed up, not wanting to become ensnared in the cable and the bomb was quickly lifted in the air.

Vader tracked the fighter as long as he could until it disappeared from his field of vision. He was fucking done, and he could sense that his normally calm and collected men were as frazzled as he was. No one had trained them on how to deactivate a gods damned fission bomb, and they had every right to feel on edge from nearly being blown to hell.

"Veers, this is Vader, how goes the fighting?", he asked weakly into his comms.

"It's going well, Milord. We thought we would have run into your group by now, is there a problem?", Veers replied.

"No, no problem. We are out of commission with zero casualties. Encircle any retreating troops now as we are returning to extraction point", Vader replied.

"Affirmative, Milord", Veers replied.

Vader picked up his leather gloves and tugged them back on before he pulled his hood back over his face. "Does anyone have a fucking problem with what I just told Colonel Veers?", he demanded.

Silence.

"Good, let's make our way back to the extraction point. We're getting the fuck off this damned rock", Vader said.

Vader snapped his lightsaber back on, and wearily led his men back through the trenches that they had cleared and was astounded by the number of dead Mimbanese that they had slaughtered. All of them had been ready to give their lives to draw more Imperials into a deathtrap. No wonder why they hadn't just taken the garrison, they wanted to inflict as many casualties as they could.

There was no honor in that type of fighting, there was disgrace. It was one thing to give it your all in ground combat, but it was another thing to spring a trap with a powerful weapon that would wipe out thousands of lives in the blink of an eye.

After about a half an hour, Vader reached the spot where he had leapt into and climbed out of the trench, too damned worn out to leap out of it with the Force. He turned around and began pulling trooper after trooper out until they all stood at the top of the trench panting.

"Take those fucking helmets off, you all have to be sweltering in that shit", Vader commanded. He could hear sighs of relief as his men unsecured their helmets and pulled them off, revealing faces that looked as pale as ghosts.

"Come on, let's catch a shuttle back up top", Vader said as he waived his troopers forward. Luckily a heavy lift transport was finishing up disembarking another series of Stormtroopers and he and his men climbed in just before the transport dusted off.

He went to the internal comms and slapped the button. "This is Lord Vader, take us to the Devastator at once", he commanded.

"Yes, Milord", a shocked pilot responded. Good, he wasn't in the mood to be questioned right now.

Once the heavy lift transport docked and the ramp lowered, the grizzled men strode off, looking like hell. Vader called on all of the strength he had to maintain his image as a calm and collected Sith Lord.

"Go get yourselves some hot chow and rack out, you've deserved it", Vader commanded. "Sergeant Alexander, once you've cleaned yourself off, feel free to join Dormé in her quarters." There was no need to deny love, not after they had nearly died.

Vader wanted to go to Padmé badly, but he had to check in with Piett first. He took the lift to the bridge and strode over to the Captain.

"Piett, report on the status of the fighter", he said, his voice sounding weak even to his own ears.

Piett looked at him with a grimace. "Unfortunately, Milord, the bomb detonated soon after the pilot cleared the squadron. The pilot was killed instantly."

"Gods fucking dammit!", Vader yelled as he punched a bulkhead, denting it. He thought he had disabled the fucking thing, but apparently not. "See to it that the pilot's family receives my personal condolence and have him awarded the Medal of Valor posthumously. I'll make a personal donation to the family as well, just tell me where to send it and I'll send it."

Piett looked surprised as he should. War was a cruel bitch and thousands of Imperials gave their lives every single day in the various wars and skirmishes that were taking place across the galaxy, and it was unusual for him to become so upset at the loss of one pilot that he had never even met.

"Of course, Milord", Piett replied, still stunned.

"I'll be on my personal level. I'm not to be disturbed unless something absolutely catastrophic happens or the Emperor commands that I speak with him. I want you to identify various positions that the enemy may be dug into away from the garrison and begin bombardment immediately", Vader ordered.

"At once, Milord", Piett said.

Vader nodded and stalked back to the lift. He keyed the access code to his personal floor and leaned back against the bulkhead of the lift and swore. That bomb could have gone off in his face, he didn't truly disarm it. There must have been some type of failsafe that he couldn't see or sense. The gravity of how close he came to dying started suffocating him.

Once the hatch to his personal floor opened, he saw the two women bolt up and run to him.

"Ani, are you alright?", Padmé asked after she threw herself into him.

"I'm fine, Padmé. I'm just exhausted", he said, allowing his true fatigue to show in his voice.

He held her tightly for a moment before she stepped back, obviously smelling the dried blood and acidity from the air on him.

Vader turned to Dormé. "Sergeant Alexander is fine as well. He's getting cleaned up and then he'll come and see you, Dormé."

The handmaiden gave him a small smile, but Vader could tell that both women were still immensely worried at how exhausted that he sounded.

"I'm going to take a hot shower and go to sleep", he said simply. He didn't want to get into what happened down on Mimban, he wanted to rest. His body and his mind were both exhausted. Not even all the dark energy he could muster would fill him with a speck of life at this point.

He could feel the two women looking at him as he retreated into his bedchambers, but he didn't care. He went into the fresher and stripped off his attire, tossing them into a corner and stepped under a hot shower. He slowly sank to the floor and watched the filth from the combat drain out of the shower and nearly fell asleep.

With a great groan, he stood up and quickly lathered his body with soap, making certain that every stench of the battle had left him. After he was satisfied that he was thoroughly clean, he grabbed a pair of sleep paints from the shelf and slipped them on before he went to his side of the bed. He thew back the covers and flopped down, pulling them back over him with his hand.

He felt Padmé slip into bed beside him and wrap an arm around him. There was obvious concern from her through their bond, but thankfully she didn't press him. She started humming to him, which he found to be incredibly soothing.

After a few seconds, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

…

Vader woke in the middle of the night and felt Padmé's arm still draped around him. He could tell that she was awake, so he turned over to face her.

"Why aren't you asleep?", he questioned.

She looked into his eyes and he could tell that she had been crying for some time.

"Because I'm worried about you. I've never seen you look so exhausted before", she replied.

Exhausted was putting it mildly. Hell, he was still utterly drained from the combat and the harrowing experience of discovering the bomb that could have killed him and everyone else near the garrison on that Sith forsaken planet.

"That's because I am exhausted, Angel", he replied, the fatigue still obvious in his voice.

Padmé rubbed his arm affectionately. "Do you want to talk about it?", she asked carefully.

"Not particularly, but I don't want to keep anything from you either", he said dutifully.

She nodded and waited for him to continue; her eyes locked onto his. He could still feel her emotions and she was still completely concerned with his fragile state.

Vader swallowed before he began. "We had taken a lot of territory in the enemy trenches around the garrison with no casualties. As you might have seen I have a knife wound and a few minor blaster burns on me that I need to get treated, but I'll do it later. We were about a mile away from linking up with the Stormtroopers when I felt something in the Force that stuck out to me as particularly threatening."

He swallowed again. "I stumbled across a fission bomb, one that had multiple fail safes on it, and I disarmed them, at least I thought I did."

Padmé's eyes widened to the point that Vader thought that they would fall out of their sockets. He had never seen her so startled even amongst the hellish experiences that they had both shared.

"I had a Tie Fighter come and tow the bomb away from us, which was successful, but the bomb detonated as soon as the pilot cleared the squadron of destroyers."

He paused and waited for Padmé's reaction. At first, the shock remained, then the true horror set in.

"I didn't know about the explosion until I got back aboard the ship. I thought that I had done everything that I had needed to in order to disable the damned thing, but I was wrong."

"Ani", she breathed. "That terrifies me, but I'm so thankful you're safe."

Vader nodded. "I'm thankful as well", he replied. His voice trembled slightly, and she quickly gave him a kiss and wrapped her arms around him, pulling his face into her breasts. While he would normally have used the opportunity to fiercely make love to her, he was so kriffing exhausted that the thought didn't even cross his mind.

"Go back to sleep", she whispered. "I'll be here when you wake up."

He didn't have the strength to respond. He merely closed his eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I really wanted to put Vader in a situation where even he would be frazzled without it being the threat of torture from Sidious. Anyway, as usual, if you liked what you've read, consider dropping a review and following!