Padme Amidala has returned to Tatooine, the home planet of her husband in order to hide her children from the clutches of Darth Vader. With the existence of his children unknown to him, the evil Lord Vader is obsessed with tracking down and eliminating the last of the Jedi.

Since the end of the Clone Wars, the Jedi who escaped the Purge have been on the run from Vader and the forces of the Empire. A few who are left are seeking out Obi-Wan Kenobi, the last member of the Jedi Council left alive, who they have heard has established a sanctuary for the Jedi.

Pursued by the sinister agents of the newly formed Empire, a small group of Jedi races to the sanctuary, hoping they can find a way to rebuild their fallen order.

...

A medium-sized transport streaks through space, heading directly for the planet of Mandalore. Trailing behind it is a small fighter, circling around the transport as it fires one shot after another at it. The transport is trying to fire back, but the pilot of the fighter is maneuvering so deftly it isn't giving the transport a stable target to hit. While the fighter pilot scores several direct hits on the transport, he is careful with his attacks. He doesn't want to destroy the ship, he just wants to damage it enough to force it to land instead of escaping into hyperspace. After getting in several hits to destroy its shields, he gets in a few more that nearly breach the hull. Realizing they need to seek safety, the transport full of Jedi flies towards the surface of Mandalore.

With its engines still intact, the pilot of the transport believes it can evade its pursuer and make a safe, but hidden, landing. The fighter pilot understands what they are trying to do, and severely damages its engines with a couple of well-placed blasts. The damage doesn't cause it to fall from the sky, but it is severe enough to force the ship to land before it can evade the fighter.

Making a rough landing in a grassy valley, the transport skids to a stop right before it is torn apart by a rocky outcropping. The collision is so violent it tears the cockpit from the cargo hold containing the Jedi. Knowing almost all the Jedi are in the cargo hold, the fighter pilot lands his ship behind it in order to cover one of the avenues of their escape. Wanting to corner them before they have a chance to escape, he leaps high into the air and lands right on the top of the cargo hold. As he does so, he sees the Jedi in the cockpit running away with the aid of the Force. He can't make out too many features of the Jedi, as their robes do much to conceal them. He curses to himself as he realizes at least one Jedi is going to get away.

Inside the transport, the Jedi take their battle positions. The atmosphere is intense as they wait for the coming attack.

"It's definitely Vader," says one of the elder Jedi. He is breathing heavily as he stares at the ceiling, trying to follow the sound of the footsteps.

"The fact the fighter pilot was Vader was evident from the flying ability he was showing." Shaak Ti was the Jedi Master leading this small group of survivors. Over the past two years, she had lost almost everyone she had even known to the Jedi Purge. She was determined not to let this last group suffer the same fate.

"Can you sense if Ahsoka survived the crash? How is she doing?"

Shaak Ti closed her eyes as she reached out to sense her fellow Twi'lek. "She made it through the crash just fine and is heading towards the capital."

"Why would she abandon us like that?" The elder Jedi was screaming in anger. "If she attacked Vader, she could have kept him occupied for us to attack with numbers."

"She is doing the right thing, she is going to find reinforcements," Shaak Ti send in defense of the young Knight. "If Obi-Wan is here, then he will be in the capital, which is just beyond the nearest city. Ahsoka attacking Vader would have meant she would have had to fight him in the open field, which would have been to his advantage. In the open, he would have the advantage. He could make us chase him. He could practice a divide and conquer strategy against us. If we make him come in here against us, the enclosed space will greatly restrict his movement. We can more easily gang up against him in here, keep him from escaping. If we can corner him, we can hold him until the other Jedi arrive."

"Hold him?" the elder Jedi screamed. "Why don't we just kill him the first chance we get."

"Because we need to learn what he knows. He is the second most powerful man in the Empire, and if we are going to overthrow the regime, we need to learn its weaknesses from him."

"Overthrow the Empire?" the elder Jedi screamed. "We are all but eliminated from the galaxy. We need to think about our own survival, not saving the galaxy from itself."

"We are Jedi, and our primary duty is to defend the citizens of this nation. Our own survival is secondary."

"If we don't worry about our own survival, we are not going to be able to do anything to help anyone."

"Listen, can we just concentrate on not getting killed by Vader." One of the young padawans felt the need to speak up and end the argument. In doing so, he proved himself to be very insightful. It was remarkable, as he had only been a padawan for a year. He had been born Force-sensitive but went undiscovered by the Jedi. When they came across him on Gamorr they recruited him out of desperation. He hated the Empire and was enthusiastic to fight it. He proved himself to be a quick study and in no time became a skilled fighter with a lightsaber. Up to that moment, however, he had only fought the lowly soldiers of the Empire. Fighting Darth Vadar was an entirely different animal, and he had no idea what he was going to do.

...

Vader removed his hand from where it had been pressed against the ship as he stood. He had been using a Sith technique to listen to the Jedi as they discussed what they were going to do against him. He gleamed little about their attack plan, other than they were going to stay inside and wait for him. The more interesting news was the revelation Obi-Wan was potentially on the planet. Vader was skeptical that was true, he believed he would have been able to feel the presence of his former master if he was in the capital nearby. It was possible this group of Jedi were simply following old information. Obi-Wan had been here at one point but left recently. If that was true, then there had to be somebody around who knew where he was. Once he dispatched this group of Jedi, he would have to hunt down who Obi-Wan had been staying with.

After looking around to make sure he was alone, Vader carefully removed the mask he had been wearing to conceal his identity. He had been wearing it during his time in Thrawn's fleet, as he didn't want anyone to recognize him as the Jedi he had once been. He was trying to build a reputation as a Sith, and the less people were reminded he was a Jedi, the better. With the Jedi he was confronting, there was no need to hide his identity. Because of Obi-Wan, they knew he had once been Anakin Skywalker. Besides the pointlessness of trying to hide his identity, he took off the mask because he wanted a clear view of the faces of the Jedi as he killed them.

...

The Jedi in the transport listened intently as they heard the footsteps of Vader walking along the top of the ship. They were all thinking of the reputation he had, how he had single-handedly slain groups of Jedi much larger than theirs. Doubts were beginning to creep into their minds, making them believe they would be no different from the rest.

They could hear the singe of a lightsaber as it cut through the metal roof. It was coming from the room directly behind the one they were huddled in. A couple of the younger Jedi moved to enter that room.

"Don't do that," Shaak Ti yelled. "Let him come to us. He will think he has the initiative, but he will be mistaken." They heard the sound of Vader's boots hit the ground in the adjacent room.

Every Jedi in the cargo hold tensed up again as they saw a hole in the blast door start to melt. Once enough of it had burnt off, a red lightsaber appeared through it. One of the young Jedi wanted to charge at the door and stick their lightsaber through it and impale the Sith Lord on the other side. Shaak Ti realized what he wanted to do when he started walking towards the blast door.

"Stay where you are," she said with emphasis. "We are going to make him come to us."

Slowly, the red lightsaber started cutting a circle in the blast door. The emotions of the Jedi were all over the place as many of them couldn't stand just having to wait for the Sith Lord to slowly cut through the door and come after them. The young padawan who had spoken up earlier had an idea.

"Why don't we surprise him and open the door on him. He will be taken off guard and his lightsaber may even get caught in the opening door. We can use the moment of surprise to charge and defeat him."

"No," Shaak Ti answered. The hole he is cutting will not be easy for him to attack through. Our best bet for defeating him is to attack him the moment he tries to come through that hole. He will be off balance and vulnerable."

The rest of the Jedi didn't like Shaak Ti's plan but felt obliged to follow it. They didn't like having to just stand there and wait for Vader to come after them. The intensity of the matter was too much for many of them, and they let their guard down for a moment. The Sith Lord still had a way to go to cut through the door, they could relax for a moment.

Vader never had any intention of cutting through the door all the way. He had figured out what they had planned. When there was just a foot of door left to cut through, he used the Force to push the entire door off the wall and send it flying to the back of the cargo hold. The Jedi had not been expecting it and were completely taken aback. They were all stunned for a moment.

That moment was all Vader needed to run through the wide-open door. Shaak Ti had placed herself right next to the door. She had been expecting to attack him when he jumped through the narrow hole. She was the most shocked by Vader's actions and ended up being completely frozen. He was able to slice her in two the second he stepped into the cargo hold. She had been unable to make a single move to defend herself.

Many of the other Jedi were stunned into inaction by Vader's actions and the death of their commander. The Jedi who were not stunned tried to charge at Vadar but had to move around their frozen compatriots to do so. It greatly restricted their movement, allowing Vadar to seize the initiative and charge at them as he pleased. He sliced through the Jedi like they were battle droids.

In a matter of seconds, there were just two Jedi left. The young padawn who had only been with the Jedi for a year had been too frozen to make a move against Vadar, even as the others died. The other Jedi left the was elder one, who Vader had Force pushed to the back of the cargo hold.

The young padawan regained himself just enough to run backwards and join the elder Jedi against the back wall. The two Jedi stood with their backs touching the wall, as if they could save themselves by phasing through it. They were too stunned by the slaughter they had witnessed to say or do anything. The younger Jedi looked as if he was going to break down sobbing. The older Jedi, however, held up his lightsaber as he readied himself for the attack he knew was coming.

Attacking, Vader charged right at the younger and more fearful Jedi. He swung his lightsaber wide to put a large amount of force into it. The lengthy swing gave the young padawan more than enough time to bring up his lightsaber to block Vader's, and that was exactly what he was counting on. There lightsabers hit each other, but Vadar's swing had so much momentum behind it that it pushed the padawan's lightsaber right into the throat of the older Jedi.

The young padawan screamed in anguish when he saw it was his lightsaber that had killed his companion. He was so shocked and guilty over what happened he could do nothing but stare at the dead body of the old Jedi as he collapsed to the floor.

While Vader could have immediately swung his lightsaber back and killed the young Jedi, he took a moment to savor the look of horror on his face. He could feel the sense of failure the Jedi was experiencing.

When Vader believed the padawn had enough time to digest what had happened, he went ahead and finished him. He smiled over the knowledge the padawan's last thoughts were that he was dying a failure. The smile stayed on Vader's face as he surveyed the rest of his handiwork.

...

Admiral Palleon took the final check-in call from the fleet. They had come to the Mandalore system with Darth Vader, who had been following a Jedi transport. He chased them to the surface, and they were waiting to hear from him. While he was dealing with the Jedi, they were encircling the planet to blockade it. Vadar wanted to make sure whoever the Jedi were there to find did not try and flee. After Palleon radioed the last ship that needed to get in position, his console indicated he had an incoming transmission from the surface.

"We have an incoming transmission from Darth Vader, Grand Admiral Thrawn," Palleon said.

"Let me see it," Thrawn commanded.

A large holographic image of Vader's face appeared before the two. As he knew he was just talking to Thrawn and Palleon, he was able to communicate without wearing his mask. "I have eliminated all the Jedi save one. I believe she is making her way to the capital to try and find Obi-Wan Kenobi, although I sense he has already left the planet. I will be trying to follow her and will require a platoon of clone troopers. Send then down to me, then take your flagship back to Coruscant, but leave the rest of your fleet behind. I will be commanding them personally."

Palleon was surprised Darth Vader would have the gumption to just commandeer the fleet like that, but there was nothing Thrawn could do. Vader was the second most powerful man in the galaxy, he outranked Thrawn, and could command him to do whatever he wanted. While Vader had the power to do whatever he wanted, Palleon was confused why the man would want control over the entire fleet. Over the past year and a half, Thrawn and Vadar had worked very well together. This was the first time they had encountered Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Palleon guessed Vader wanted direct command of the fleet for capturing the Jedi. If he succeeded in killing or capturing him, he could claim all the credit for himself instead of having to split it with Thrawn.

Thrawn bowed gracefully to the holo-image of Vader's face. Palleon understood his superior welcomed the command to return to Coruscant. Thrawn quickly explained to Vadar why he was more than happy to be sent away.

"I would like to inform you I have no hard feelings about being sent away, as leaving for Coruscant is to my benefit. I did not bring this up with you earlier, but this was always set to be my last mission for the Empire. With the establishment of the Empire and the near elimination of the Jedi, order has been restored to this area of the galaxy, a situation I was sent here to aid. With that mission now complete, I will soon be returning home."

"And you just couldn't leave without saying good-bye?" With the super-sized image of Vader before them, the smirk that appeared was readily apparent to Thrawn and Palleon.

"In a way yes, as I want to give you some advice. Despite the fact I am leaving, I would like to see order maintained in this region of the galaxy so that my nation does not suffer the same problems that caused me to come here in the first place. Going along with that, I would like to see this Empire ruled by a strong leader that can maintain that order. I have come to believe you are more qualified to wield power than Palpatine. His ability to manipulate people and events served him well for seizing power, but a completely different set of abilities is going to be required to hold on to power and retain order. It was been plain to me that you are more qualified to hold the Empire together. I would suggest finding a way to overthrow Palpatine and seize power for yourself. You are going to have to be careful about the way you go about it. Palpatine is under no illusions about you and will be expecting it. It would not surprise me that despite his recent reliance on you, he will be looking to replace you one day himself. He is very adept at stabbing close allies in the back. Be wary. I just wanted to tell you this before I left."

Vader shut down the communicator without replying to Thrawn. Thrawn thought nothing of the apparent slight. He turned to Palleon to give some orders.

"Send the message that we discussed earlier to shuttle 1138. Then, radio the ship's captain to set a course for Coruscant. I will be in my chambers."

"Yes, admiral." Palleon bowed to the man as he took his leave. He sent out the pre-recorded message Thrawn referred to. It was a message for Secretary Amidala, who Thrawn had allowed to escape in shuttle 1138 a year and half ago. He sent it out first, as he wanted to make sure it went out before they jumped to hyperspace. Once the message was out, he radioed the ship's captain and told him they were returning to Coruscant.