Darth Vader was in his meditation chamber, but Luke entered nevertheless and stood waiting for his father to acknowledge his presence.

After a long pause, Vader's chair slowly turned around to face Luke. "Yes, Son?"

Luke took a breath. "I know of a Rebel base that your spies haven't told you of."

And indeed Luke did. In fact, he knew of several places that the Rebels were hidden, but this was one that he was sure his sister would not be at. He was determined to make the Alliance pay for what they'd done, but he didn't want Han and his sister to be caught in the crossfire...He could always reach out through the Force and find out where she was, but she'd sense his probe and that would provide even more difficulties.

Vader sensed that the youth wanted something, so he remained silent for Luke to continue. "I'll tell you as long as I get to fly a fighter ship during the battle."

"I'm sure the Emperor would not want to risk—" Vader was cut off by his son.

"It won't be a risk! I can fly ten times as good as those goons with my eyes closed!"

Vader paused in thought. "Is it a large base?"

"Does it matter?" Luke countered. "I know of a good strategy to use against them. It won't be hard to obliterate them all."

"Fine. Perhaps the Emperor will let you fly an Interceptor...And I might even join you. I haven't flown since the first Death Star battle."

Luke nodded quickly, a wicked grin on his face that belied the youthful excitement in his voice, "We can blow them right out of the sky!"

Vader gave an inward chuckle at his son's eagerness. But what he wouldn't admit to himself was that it was to mask his real unease at the thought of Luke's being the ruthless killing machine that he knew the boy could be with a little outside help...Outside help that the Emperor was giving him.

What in space had he gotten his son into?

Two dead bodies, five cups of kaff, and three bruised necks later, Luke had finally gotten the Imperial officers to see that his stategy was best. It wasn't that he was arrogant—it was that they were prejudiced against him from the start and wouldn't admit that they couldn't think of any better options.

The Emperor had easily agreed to let Luke take part in combat, something that disconcerted Vader, who had the feeling that the ruler had several plans for the future that included his son performing a role that even Vader wouldn't want his son to have anything to do with. Vader also had the feeling that not all of Palpatine's plans included Vader's survival.

It was well-known to all—although Palpatine hated the fact with a passion—that Imperial spies weren't that hard for the Rebellion to find, so it was decided that the strike should be made soon and swift.

Rebels couldn't be killed too quickly for the malicious ruler's taste, so Palpatine, Luke, and Vader decided to go ahead and take the Executor and its TIE fighters to the base. It shouldn't be too difficult of a task for the swift fighters and Super-Class Star Destroyer. Palpatine told the two that they would be partners since the rest of the squadrons already had assigned wingmen. Neither argued the point. They knew that they were the two best pilots in what was left of the Imperial Fleet...Together they would be unstoppable.

Luke finished pulling on his black glove, made sure his scopes were still working, fumbled with his helmet, and then hit the communications console button. "Eradicator Two checking in."

They weren't originally called the Eradicators. Instead, that had merely been referred to as "Black Squadron.",Luke had insisted on taking on a more imaginative name, and they had finally decided on "Eradicator Squadron," a name that Luke still didn't like. However, Luke knew better than to push his luck.

He and Vader were the only two with TIE Interceptors in the Erad Squad (a nickname that Luke had privately given it), but a few of the other TIE squadrons' members had an Interceptor or two that they called theirs.

Everyone checked in, and they had only a few minutes to wait before the Executor (which their ships were docked in) shuddered slightly to signify the drop into realspace. Quickly, the hangar bay was opened, and the TIE fighters lifted off and out into space towards the planet where the base was.

Taking potshots at the base and causing some pretty flames to shoot up weren't enough for Luke, who wanted more action, but he knew he wouldn't have long to wait. The Imperial TIE Fighters managed to make some crucial blows before the Rebels sent up a squad of X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings, and a few miscellaneous ships to intercept them.

After a brief check to make sure that the fighter pilots weren't any that he knew, Luke got off a few critical blasts that incapacitated a Y-wing, obliterated an A-wing, and caused an X-wing to tumble into a heavily modified cruiser which exploded on impact with the small fighter.

His focus was concentrated solely in one direction, so Vader's call over the communications unit of "Watch out!" was the only warning he had of the A-wing on his tail.

It made a few good hits, causing Luke's cockpit to flare briefly. He jerked the joystick to the side and managed to get out of its line of fire, then he veered sharply to the other side and managed to pull up behind it. The A-wing tried to juke in various ways to divert his fire, but he took a deep breath, concentrated on his anger and annoyance to touch the Dark Side, then let off a laser blast that managed to hit the A-wing's engine and cause enough damage to make it careen into the Rebel base, blowing up several of the B-wings that had been about to lift off.

He let out a triumphant yell over the speaker, and Vader's metallic-sounding voice came over the comm: "Good job, Eradicator Two."

Just then Vader managed to give a crippling blow that caused a Y-wing and X-wing to collide. "You're not so bad yourself," Luke chuckled.

The base was easily incapacitated, and each time Luke used the Dark Side, his aggressive feelings were more accessible than they had been before. The Emperor was becoming increasingly "proud," while Vader was becoming increasingly worried. Luke told Palpatine of a few more Rebel bases, which he and Vader personally "visited" in order to make sure that no Rebels were left. Things were beginning to look really bad for the Rebel Alliance.