The Dark Side has a will of its own, not merely moving pieces in its eternal war against the Light, but molding them as well, re-shaping them to its own purposes. In this way, the essence of a promising sentient can be altered, submerging those traits which the Dark Side deems not useful, and bringing to the surface those which will further it's design. Thus are Jedi transformed into Sith, and the shroud of the Dark Side draped across the galaxy...
The eight Venator Class Star Destroyers dropped out of light speed in the Ablus system within sight of Ablus I, a planet known for it's heavy industrial resources. Orbiting the planet, as expected was a fleet of ships, four Trade Federation Battleships and six Commerce Guild Destroyers. It was one of the last remaining pockets of resistance among the former Confederacy of Independent States, forces that had refused to shut down their droid units when ordered to do so and which had intended to carry on the fight despite the losses of Count Dooku and General Grievous.
It was two weeks after the events on Mustafar, and a task force under Lord Vader had been dispatched by the Emperor after clone intelligence had reported it, and now they were about to experience the might of the new Galactic Empire.
"Lord Vader?"
"Yes, Admiral."
"We are moving to engage the enemy fleet and are launching fighters."
"Very well. Ready my ship and inform the squadron commanders I will be joining the attack," the figure in black said.
"Yes, My Lord, as you wish." The admiral spun on his heels and began to bark commands down to the crew in the pit.
Darth Vader turned his gaze from out the view screen and began to walk down the length of the bridge toward the turbolift. It was the one thing he had in common with Anakin, he was never truly in his environment unless he was in the cockpit of a starfighter. But as he made his way to the hangar, his mind was elsewhere.
Vader's mind, of course, not Anakin Skywalker's. Anakin was gone, having vanished somewhere in that surgical room high above Coruscant where he'd been fitted with the black armor that Vader now wore permanently. But he'd begun vanishing long before that as if had been his destiny to do so. It had started with that moment when his mother had died in his arms on Tatooine, when the Dark side had overcome him, offered the power to get revenge. But it had taken control completely and had not relinquished its control until the deed was done. Until the entire village was slain. That was the way of the Dark side, he discovered even as a Jedi padawan. It brought power beyond what the Jedi way could offer, but also a touch of madness. Madness was the usual term people used, particularly when they wanted to separate themselves from their actions. The question was did he want to separate himself from his actions?
Certainly not when he'd killed Count Dooku. Oh, he'd felt guilty about that afterward, just as he had about the Sandpeople, but it was in the moment when all things truly counted. Five minutes after was a safe spot, but in the moment, that was when decisions were made, action taken and consequences brought about. Things in that desert village and onboard the Invisible Hand had went as he had intended them to.
But the incident in Palpatine's Office, the killing of Mace Windu was where he felt Anakin leave almost completely. Anakin hadn't really intended to cut off Mace's hand. As that purple blade came slicing down at Palpatine, for the briefest of moments, he could visualize Padme lying there, screaming, "Help me, Anakin" just like she had in the dream. Just long enough to spur him into action, and that action lasted only long enough for Palpatine to kill him. Then there'd been a rush of emotions with Anakin, stronger than he could contain. Fear and despair mingled until Palpatine called Vader forth. Until then, he'd had no name, had simply been there to do what must be done when Anakin could not. Anakin retreated somewhere then, and Vader took charge once again handling the threat that the Jedi Temple represented. It was Vader who'd entered the Temple at the head of the columns of clonetroopers, Vader who'd handled the problem of the younglings in the Jedi Council chambers, and Anakin submerged himself deeper as things were far beyond simply out of control. Whereas the Dark side had briefly filled him at various times in the past, now it refused to let go. All the killings in the Temple fed it so that it would not relinquish its hold as it had in the past. Vader had found his purpose, and the Dark side was strong with him. And Anakin submerged himself deeper still. The Separatist leaders on Mustafar became the problem, but Lord Vader dispatched that problem with ease. It seemed then that Anakin might disappear for good never to return.
But, inexplicably, Padme showed up, and that's where the madness came in. Or at least, where he thought it came in. Anakin had made one of his last appearances, reasserting control. He'd wanted Padme to follow on the path that he and Vader were on, but she refused. She'd attempted to deceive him, and had brought Obi Wan to kill him. His deepest, darkest fears were realized when he saw that she had conspired with Obi Wan against him. His whole purpose for existence became empty as she retreated from him as if he'd become some sort of monster. She'd looked at him with fear in her eyes. He'd killed Padme there, and that hadn't been the plan. Quite the opposite actually. The Force choke he administered to her in a fit of rage had squeezed the life out of her, when up until that point, he'd been trying to save her. All the killing, embracing the Dark side, turning against the Jedi Knights had all been to save her. But he'd failed, and that's why Anakin had went away. Because there was no further purpose to be there without Padme. Maybe he'd gone to join her wherever she was. His last moments were in front of the Emperor as he struggled to adjust to the new set of armor that covered him, to the pain from his burns and the chill of the Dark side which had become so much a part of him. Palpatine had informed Anakin of Padme's fate, and that's when despair came crashing down on him powerful enough to drive whatever was left of Anakin away until now there was only Vader.
There'd been a great emptiness, and Darth Vader had filled it with only a memory of what Anakin had been like. Almost as if he'd been waiting to come out long before the Emperor had given him his name. And whereas people would often look at Anakin Skywalker with disdain or even disapproval, when they looked at Vader, the fear was evident in their eyes. They would turn to face him as he approached, having been alerted by the sound of his respirator. Then their gaze would shift towards him and upward as he towered over them, their eyes would widen ever so much, and he could sense the shiver of fear run through them. It was merely the side effect of much more important fact, that the Empire needed a warrior and a Dark Lord of the Sith to defend it, make it secure. To make it strong so that none would ever be able to challenge it again, and to destroy all opposition without mercy. Yes, Vader had found a purpose, a purpose that Anakin was not strong enough to fulfill, if he even existed anymore. That fear was a part of the greater purpose, and it would help ensure that the Senate and the member systems of the Empire would not forget their place or where their loyalties lie.
Vader saw it now as he entered the hangar. The flight crews immediately looked up at him as he entered, momentarily freezing in their duties, but being careful not to make eye contact, simply bowing their heads as he passed. Only because he had to, did the Flight Deck Officer approach him nervously to report that his heavily modified V Wing had been prepped and had passed the flight check. He could feel the man's immense relief as he was able to turn away and make his way back to the flight control center. It was not quite the same as genuine respect, but it would certainly do.
He climbed into the V-Wing, engine humming and performed his own quick check, not ready to trust the flight crew entirely in that regard. Pulling down the canopy, he gripped the controls, let the Force flow between him and them until they became one.
"Lord Vader, you are cleared to launch," the voice of the flight controller came over the comm.
He brought the ship up and off the flight deck through the open doors into space above the Star Destroyer. Already turbolaser fire began to be exchanged between the two fleets, but it was the large swarm of approaching Vulture Droids that drew his attention.
"Velon Squadron stands ready to assist, Lord Vader," came the voice of a clone squadron commander over the comm.
"Commander, form up on me," Vader said into the comm.
"Yes, Lord Vader," came a familiar clone voice in response.
A nearby squadron of ARC-170s moved up behind him. The vulture droids were almost on them, and his consciousness seemed almost to fade away as he felt his senses and reflexes magnified by the Force. His hands guided the controls as he fired bursts from the laser cannons and made course corrections blasting a large enough hole in the oncoming swarm for his squadron to pass through. All around them, the two groups of starfighters met in a torrent of laser cannon fire and explosions. Even as he heard the screams of clone pilots, Vader led his squadron through center of the mass of enemy fighters. Then he and his squadron had moved beyond the vulture droids and were coming around in a tight turn, his V-Wing quickly outdistancing the ARCs as they struggled to match his maneuver. It brought him up behind some of the vulture droids who were attempting to turn themselves lest they come into range of the fleet of Star Destroyers moving toward them. Vader's quick maneuver had caught a pack of them off guard which he proceeded to destroy one by one, their programming not geared to adjust to a starfighter pilot of this caliber.
The central computer that guided the droids aboard the Droid Control Ship attempted to compensate by diverting more and more of the droids to the target it had designated as R-1, but R-1 refused to be contained by the swarms of Vulture Droids sent after it, slipping out of each attempt to contain it. The enemy target performed one maneuver after another that defied what it had been programmed to accept as possible for a human pilot and which rendered its database on Republic starfighter tactics all but useless. And even as the Vulture Droids made one course correction after another in a vain attempt to entrap R-1, the other enemy starfighters began to inflict heavy casualties on the droids forces. Computations in the Droid Central Computer guiding the Vultures began to suffer errors as missing variables began to appear thus throwing off more complex adjustments to rapidly shrinking group of droid starfighters. The Neimodian techs struggled to make manual adjustments to the computer, even as blue friendly forces disappeared one by one of their computer monitors. That's when matters suddenly started to look ominous.
The Star Destroyers had closed the gap with the Separatist capital ships and began to open fire with their medium and heavy turbolasers, delivering a pounding to the Commerce Guild destroyers which had been spread out to protect the Trade Federation ships. The destroyers returned fire with their own turbolasers, badly overmatched against the Republic capital ships.. Clearly recognizing that fact, one of the destroyers broke ranks with the others and began to turn away from the battle, slipping past a pair of Trade Federation ships in the direction of the planet.
But even as the opposing capital ships began to fire at each at close range with the starfighters dodging between them and blasting one another to bits, the comm sounded inside Vader's cockpit. "Lord Vader, we are beginning are assault on the Droid Control Ship now. Four squads of Clone Commandos are moving into position."
"Good work, Commander. I will join you there." Vader broke off from the battle, leaving the remainder of the Vulture Droids to the clone pilots, and guiding the V-Wing just above the hull of Commerce Guild ship which attempted in vain to catch him in the sights of their laser cannons. But he ignored stream of fire coming from it, brought the ship into a dive underneath a Trade Federation battleship and then came into view of the Droid Control Ship. Already he could see four Theta class shuttles moving in on it, dodging a storm of laser cannon fire directed at them. The shields covering the landing bay went down as a sliced code was sent to the Droid Control Ship by the ARC troopers aboard the shuttles. As he cleared the battleship, Vader could see that their entrance into the landing bay was met by the flashes of droid blasters. He increased the throttle on the starfighter bringing it up and into the landing bay where the ARC troopers had already engaged the battle droids and were currently pinned down by a pair of droidekas positioned near an exit.
Quickly he slipped the harness off, opened the canopy and jumped out the starfighter, lightsaber activated. For the briefest of instants he caught himself turning and looking back to tell R-2 to stay with the ship, but of course the astromech was not there. In its place was a bland model lacking any personality and to which he had no connection. Odd that he should be thinking of R-2, but of course, Obi Wan had taken even that from him. Turning his attention back to the battle, he found that he had drawn the attention of several battle droids who were now firing in his direction, their shots hitting the V-Wing behind him. So raising his blade, he charged them, swiftly closing the gap between them. Once he was amongst them, droid parts began to fly in all directions as his blade cut sliced cleanly through one droid after another, until he was standing amongst a pile of them. How useful Force lightning would have been against the destroyer droids which had by then cut down half the ARC troopers, he thought to himself. It was denied to him on account of his mechanical arms. But a strong Force push served just as well, driving the two droidekas into a power conduit nearby, shorting out their ray shields first then the droids themselves.
One of the troopers approached him, "Lord Vader, what is your command?"
"Wait here, Commander," he told them. "Have your men secure the hangar so what we have an exit when I return."
"You do not want us to accompany you then, My Lord?" The puzzlement was obvious in the trooper's tone.
"You will remain here. I will handle these traitors personally." And with that, the large figure's black cape swirled about him as he turned and walked toward the exit to the hangar.
"Of course, My Lord. It will be done," the trooper replied to Vader's back and then began issuing orders to his remaining troopers.
Vader entered a long corridor, which as he glanced around him at semi-familiar surroundings, brought back flashes from recent memory of his not so distant visit aboard a ship called the Invisible Hand. The interior of the Droid Control Ship bore a resemblance to that of General Grievous' flagship, though he could not sense the presence of Count Dooku as he had there. But nor could he sense the presence of Obi Wan which, with great irritation, he found himself attempting to do from time to time. It was a sensation that would not leave. Again and again he found himself expecting to see his old master appearing from around a corner and having to remind himself that Obi Wan was the enemy now. That he'd twisted Padme's mind against him and then left him to die next to a river of fire. He reminded himself that Palpatine had been right about the Jedi all along, that they had been using him, and when he refused to be their pawn, they'd turned on him. They'd expected Anakin to simply allow Padme to die, and failing at that, had brought about her death through their machinations.
The Dark Side had taken a tragic victim of the Jedi and transformed him into something much greater. Vader came forth in Anakin's great time of need, driven by a new purpose and possessing a power greater than that which he could have conceived of. A power he had only begun to tap under Palpatine's guidance. The Force flowed through him like never before, guiding his lightsaber in combat and responding to his will with a new urgency. Most importantly, the Dark Side demanded only that one give in to their passions and not practice the denial that the Jedi Order dictated. Such denial of their emotions had weakened them until now they were no more. Like the purge at the Jedi Temple and on Mustafar, this task would serve to increase his power which and was something he needed to do alone.
Which was why, the Neimodian Commander, Tol Manos, watched the monitors with increasing apprehension quickly transforming into a panic that rippled down his spine in waves as the figure in black swept down the corridors, destroying super battle droids and droidekas alike with an almost ridiculous lack of effort. Closer and closer to the bridge the figure drew, and no amount of droids sent at it seemed to stop it, only slowing it when a large enough concentration was present. But time and time again that red blade cut them to pieces or an invisible power smashed them into the bulkheads. The ray shields they erected around him seemed to fizzle out shortly afterward as pieces of conduit and even entire sections of wall ripped free, as if that dark figure could sense where the power lines ran behind sheets of metal that made up the corridor walls and ceilings. But then, most alarmingly, it struck a vital point in the network, and the security cams went dead, as did communications in that section. And that section was very close to the main bridge.
"I want to know what's going on there," Manos commanded one of his senior officer. But even as he spoke the words, he felt a lump in his throat, and wasn't entirely sure he did want to know. He'd heard of the massacre on Mustafar, and now he found his breathing became labored.
"Sir, communications have been cut in that section," a Neimodian sitting at a console replied.
"I want droidekas up here at once," he ordered, "Prepare my shuttle for immediate departure," he yelled at the officer.
"But Sir," the officer protested, "the blast doors have been sealed. In order to reach the hangar, we will have to open the blast doors. If we open them, it will leave us vulnerable to...the intruder."
Manos began to formulate a reply intended to remind his junior officer of how the chain of command worked, when a strange noise could be heard behind the doors leading to the bridge. All hands froze what they were doing to turn their attention in that direction, and all eyes came to rest squarely on the doors. After a moment, the center of the doors could be seen beginning to glow orange under the apparent application of extreme heat to it. In the next instant, the middle section turned molten and fell to the floor. And the doors opened to reveal the tall figure in black armor and helmet, lightsaber activated.
In the general panic that ensued next, Darth Vader felt the Force swirling about him, while the doors that the Neimodian officers and techs opened from the bridge to escape, closed just as quickly under his will. He almost didn't hear their protests and screams as they fell under his blade one by one, the Force moving more easily for him with each successful strike. As the last Neimodian fell to the floor lifeless, it was almost numbing the sheer magnitude of the Force flowing through him. A gift of the Dark side which not only approved of such ruthlessness, but demanded it. It was a moment he savored in silence, only vaguely aware of the battle still raging outside the view screen where the last of the Trade Federation battleships withered under the combined assault of the Republic Star Destroyers until it was shattered in a series of explosions along the circumference of its ring.
"Lord Vader?" the voice of the ARC trooper commander came over his comlink. "Do you require assistance?"
Keying it, he spoke into it absent-mindedly. "No, Commander. Prepare for departure. The Trade Federation commanders have been dealt with. I will be there shortly."
"Yes, my Lord."
He returned the comlink to his belt and, with a final glance around the bridge, turned and began his walk back to the hangar...