Chapter 1
Anakin Skywalker was right. Piloting was fun! As long as you know what you were doing, it should be a breeze. It took me time to remember all of the buttons, but I had plenty time to learn (was really given no choice), especially since I was quickly shrugged off as a renegade Jedi that had to be haunt down and brought to the Empire to face trial.
This was a weird experience at first. I didn't even knew what happened. Maybe I smoked too much and my lungs in my original body gave up on me. Okay! You got me! I was swimming with friends, and I couldn't pull myself up before my world went black!
And I just woke up in a black room I originally thought was my room that my parents may have done some work with. That was until Darth fucking Vader himself (yeah that Darth Vader! Like favorite Star Wars character and all, but a fucking nightmare in person!) barged into them, which quite literally scared the shit out of me! Just my luck at the time! He was not happy about me being an hour late for an assignment!
To put it short, the petty bastard hadn't been pleased waiting so long for me, so I earned myself several scars, but this body's pain tolerance must have been high as it didn't hurt as much as it would have in my original body. Still was a pain to my arm for a week though!
Imagine my surprise when I realized I have been hijacked into the body as Galen Marek, aka Starkiller, and now the Force was playing an active role in my life. Turned out I was transported... worse to the Expanded Universe. While far more entertaining than Disney's take on the franchise while reading, it had left me feeling anything but enthusiasm. The bad thing aside from barely knowing anything about the Empire era was how weird this whole experience was!
I did some research-as much as possible. I know "some things" about the current material as a contrast to the Prequels which I knew almost everything about. After I stopped bitching about which era I have been transported to, I have been left ultimately no choice than just go with the flow.
At first, I played the role as dutiful pupil to Vader, doing his bidding. But then the day came for me to kill children. That was just a line I couldn't cross. A part of me always understood where Anakin Skywalker was coming from during Operation Knightfall, but when it came to me as a person, I just couldn't do it.
So instead of reporting to Vader about my failure and falsifying an escape, I just simply helped the children run and desert the Empire. The problem was not knowing where to send them, but they couldn't stay with me because I couldn't have people who would slow me down from Vader's wrath.
Fortunately, their parents had places to go, and that was the last I heard about them. Because of my kriffing damn conscience, Vader had to be petty enough to consider me a threat and have been chasing me for years now. It took me time to weaken the bond and cloud myself from it. Constantly, I felt the bastard nipping away at me, attempting to convert me back to his side just for days on end of torture.
What kept me going was I don't even want to think twice about what would happened if Vader and the Emperor successfully captured me. Albeit I can't recall if Starkiller had originally been known by the latter or not, it was a risk that I wasn't going to take.
I didn't packed any punches when it came with risking to change the timeline. Although I lacked Wikipedia when I came into the universe, it didn't took much to get a basic knowledge on things I do remember.
This helped me greatly in my operations.
Quickly, I became known as the Stalker. I couldn't even fault whoever came up with the title! Black armor, pants, and an X-skull mask had been intimidating for all of my foes. The Marek's symbol had been an add on.
Instead, I made a mental note to use my knowledge to make the Emperor's life a living nightmare.
First thing of business I did after, I went to Alderaan to speak with Bail Organa and told him I would help him in his Rebellion. He was more reasonable than Mon Mothma who believed that pacifism was the root to solving the problems until after Return of the Jedi at least, and that had been because what happened to Alderaan. Unfortunately for Mothma, I wasn't going to allow Organa to die this time.
I went to Kashyyyk and removed the Imperial occupation there with great ease instead of the little Princess who would have gotten herself captured. The Wookiees obviously wasn't happy about their planets being invaded nor wanted it to happen again. It took some convincing for them to leave as the Empire would return in greater numbers, but they eventually joined Organa's Rebellion.
At last, there were the slaves that the Empire brought. I dismantled those rings with no small amount of pleasure and sent them for Organa to dealt with. The man of course didn't mind, but he did increase his attempts to enforce me into his Fulcrum program or lead Rebel soldiers, something I turned down every time. I may help the Rebellion but their limitations were also notable flaws.
By now, I have fought multiple of the Emperor's Inquisitors, and quite frankly with Darth Vader's teachings of the Force embedded within me, I was just a powerhouse. Sure, the Dark Side may be a bitch, but I'm not going to seek Obi-Wan and Yoda out since those two were just as flawed as the old Jedi. Shaak Ti and Rahm Kota wouldn't be much of an improvement either.
Additionally, I couldn't say with absolute guarantee that I would have been able to survived if I refused to remove the "taint" of the Dark Side away from me completely. They stuck with their hubris until the very end.
Besides, Starkiller was fairly sane for a Sith in the EU. Easily, he could have been so much more if Vader hadn't pushed him into the Light Side and had him remain that way. Given I did the favor for him and left earlier, I now intended to give Palps a headache, before Luke managed to get Vader's head out of his ass.
Living in the Expanded Universe was terrifying, especially since Sidious had more allies than his Disney counterpart, who he didn't think about recruiting or used differently (if they existed). In the Expanded Universe, he was more involved with his Empire, even though he kept his intent hidden.
I have been tracking this space station for a while, easily infiltrating the ranks of the Imperials on board without so much as suspicion from Tarkin and his allies and let up on my frequent attacks beforehand. Today was the final day.
It had been surprisingly easy to enter the Patriim's system with the Imperial codes that I have managed to get out of a wimpy Moff. Accessing proof that the Empire was crafting the Death Star was interesting, but now it was time to make a major change...
I had to be more careful of the patrols. Tarkin was competent enough to understand that someone who was not supposed to be here would pass by, but what the man arrogantly presumed was that it would be a known threat that could easily be dealt with by them.
A battle.
That oversight would be something he would come to regret. It was just a small Imperial Starfighter I "borrowed". With mere firing of the proton torpedo, shot precisely into a small exhaust port, I pulled safely away, looking behind me to see the space station explode. Quickly, they began firing at me and attempted to surround me, but it had been too late as I already jumped into lightspeed.
I almost felt bad for the poor bastard that had to explain that blunder to Palps. He was not going to be happy about it, that much was for damned sure.
When I was safely at Dantooine and away from any bastards who would have blown me out of the sky, I waited.
The Rogue Shadow picked me up as expected, and I exited my Starfighter, walking to the cockpit.
"You are aware that you are going to be given more attention now?" My autopilot, Juno Eclipse, pointed out when I entered.
It hadn't took much finding her as I wasn't going to allow her to stay Imperial, even though it risked a close capture by Vader. Of course she had been eager to put a blaster bolt between my eyes at first, but I had subdued her without much difficulty. Suffice to say, the woman had been more eager to leave the Empire when I broke her out of her indoctrination and shown her the truth.
Despite this, we kept a respectable friendship. I sense there was a slight attraction around her centered to me, but that had been it. I didn't have time for romantic feelings with Vader and Sidious risking to used that against me.
Outwardly, I shrugged. I may have stolen Luke's heroic moment, but I have no regrets.
"They would have to come and get me," I said, producing a datapad and checking off that objective. There was the second Death Star problem I would have to deal with soon, but given this one was behind production and hadn't been finished, Palps may not want to risk production and years of resources wasted yet again.
Given Tarkin wasn't on board on the unfinished Death Star, Palps would want to "have words" with him. I actually wanted to see how such an encounter would go, but I'm pretty sure the Imperials doesn't agree with that settlement.
Even Vader was the lesser evil compared to Sidious.
Arthur's note: Before, I made a SI Starkiller fanfiction, but I honestly didn't know where I was going with it so I deleted it. I'm going to take a second shot at this fic and hope it would be better than the last. Recently, I have been less reluctant to just change the timeline and do my own shit. Unlike the last one, in this, the SI happened earlier which allows me to have more fun.
This would obviously consist mainly of the EU, but there would be a few things from Disney.
May the Force be with you all always.