Darth Vader stood on the bounds of his castle on the planet Mustafar, gloved hands tensed into fists as the beam of unnatural light emanated from the metal altar he had constructed.
It swerved around the Sith Lord, beckoning him to embrace its eminence, and he desperately reached out towards the source with untold confliction. His breath hitched in his scarred, burnt throat when it reshaped into something familiar.
Vader could see it - a woman. Her eyes a beautiful field of stars that stretched into forever, pale skin a startling contrast to the dark brown hair that spun around her head into a twisted bun. Two locks fell down the sides and pressed against her cheeks.
The Sith Lord found himself kneeling, although he could not recall when, and raised both hands into what could be assumed to be a sign of worship.
"Padme..."
Too lost in his revere was the Dark Lord, that he did not sense the presence of another looming behind. Their stolen lightsaber readied at their side when a second beam of light exploded from the altar.
Darth Vader continued watching Padme with hope and admiration for the elegance she continued to emit despite her slumbering state.
He could almost touch her. The altar was nearing completion, and she would return to him. He felt as if everything he had endured since becoming a slave to the Emperor -the torture, the loneliness, the sleepless nights- had all been leading to this.
However, before the armoured man could finally reach out and hold Padme, feel her soft skin with his admittedly-leathery hands, there was a crash behind him accompanied by a thunderous blast.
Darth Vader was thrown across the room, his back arching against the metal pillar that held the walls up in position and knocking them down.
"Aargh!"
The sensation of pain running through him proved inconsequential to the Sith as he straightened his back and stumbled to his feet, eyeing the chamber with unhidden resentment for the cause.
However, the moment of rage quickly shifted to an unspeakable horror at the scene before him; both the altar and light-beam had bent and twisted into uncertain shapes, leaving behind a distorted form of Padme that slowly began to fade into nothing.
"NO!"
Without thinking, Darth Vader reached out with a metallic hand and tried to reshape the altar using the force. His panicked mind struggled to remain in tune with his abilities, however, and the beams of light continued reshaping in worsening forms.
The man's fears overtook him once more, and he twisted the device within itself.
He watched in utter horror as the light vanished into the centre of the machine, expanding within the battered shell until it exploded with immense power and force.
In desperation, he rushed towards the altar.
"PADME!"
He was too late.
With one final, ferocious roar the machine began to shatter into millions of pieces. The light forced its way out into the world and expanded out, the results being a tremendous wave of energy hitting both Vader and the saber-wielding stranger who had been watching from the back of the chamber.
The two of them crashed into the ground, hurting from the intense impact. He groaned to himself as metal shards fell down from the walls and caught him in the shoulder and arm.
Darth Vader remained motionless, his mind dark and muddied, but the remembrance of his wife's form pulled the Sith Lord back to reality.
He ignored the sudden pain in his side and stood with confliction as he rushed back towards the altar to survey the damage. The scene that met his eyes proved utterly soul-crushing:
The machine had been destroyed beyond repair, and the beam of light was gone. He stood in place for a moment as the implications caught up with him, and he feel upon his knees in utter defeat.
He had lost her again.
Vader clutched the sides of his helmet.
"No..."
He continued mourning in the rubble of what had once been his last hope, his last chance to save his wife Padme, and it had been for nothing.
The sound of coughing pulled the Sith Lord from his mental struggle. He shifted his head to the side and watched as a familiar male in a leather jacket arose from the metal graveyard like a phoenix.
Vader had not expected the man to have survived when he attempted to be rid of him, but it seemed that leaving the natural landscape of Mustafar to deal with the ship captain had not been wise.
He watched him in silence, but the passionate rage burning inside Vader's heart soon became known as he pulled himself from the floor and reached for his crimson lightsaber before storming up to him.
The breathing of his life support pierced through the smog as he activated the blade and raised the weapon to his shoulder. He would have preferred to swing downwards from above his head, but his suit prevented such methods of execution.
He watched in burning rage as the captain used his own lightsaber to block the mindless attack, their blades emanating a beautiful haze of colours such as purple, blue, and red. Vader ignored the sight.
"She was almost within reach!"
Vader swung the blade of his lightsaber down with greater force. The male beneath him grunted from the unnatural force pushed against his limbs.
"Now, she is lost to me again! Because of YOU!"
The two men proceeded to swing their lightsabers at the same time and clashed them together, but it was abundantly clear how much stronger Vader is in the force as his attack pushed the man down to the ground, falling onto his now-cracked knee.
Darth Vader screamed in the man's face before an immense pressure accumulated in his right hand. The Sith reached a hand out towards the captain and expunged the force energy outwards with all his hatred and suffering.
The results proved devastating as the entire south wall crumbled beneath the intense pressure, both the metal remnants and the human captain falling down off the edge towards the rivers of lava.
Breathing heavy, he clutched his damaged side to ease the pain and stumbled towards the wall with the intent of stabilizing himself. He found that his movements were strained and slow, as if he were being pulled backwards-
No, he WAS being pulled backwards!
Vader turned around and gawked at the spectacle that met his gaze - a powerful sea of plasma and light, beckoning him towards it with its immensely powerful force that continued pulling him down.
In desperation, he reached towards a piece of old metal framework and locked his robotic hand into place like a safety device. The intense pressure, in all honesty, had become even stronger in less than a few moments and he was beginning to struggle.
The light expanded across the upper floor, leaving nothing behind to sliver into the shadows, which included the Dark Lord himself as he groaned into his shoulder whilst turning away from the beams.
He was immediately pulled from his senses when the sound of twisting metal reached his auditory sensors. The towering, armoured man looked for another shard of metal to latch himself into, or an uplifted floor panel, but his efforts were pointless.
Within moments, he was enveloped in the light.
The sound of tense grunting echoed through the land as the towering form of Darth Vader shuffled with discomfort, likely a result from the immense force slammed into his skull when he fell into the void, throwing him into a deep slumber.
Now, however, the Sith Lord could sense different surroundings from his familiar castle on Mustafar. The force told him he was no longer where he had once stood, within the safety of his tower, and the intense cold rushing down his body reinforced it.
He caught sight of the shining blue skies, and the whitened clouds that shuffled elegantly beneath the sunlight, and froze in astonishment.
Vader realised that, much like his castle, Mustafar had vanished in place of an admittedly beautiful, serene, snowed landscape. The surface glistened and shimmered as if crafted from diamonds.
Rocks and boulders loomed in the distance with a powerful, all-encumbering presence that mixed in with the layers of crystalline snow.
"What..." Vader looked around, "...is this?"
He pulled himself from the snowfield and looked over the horizon, trepid, before moving down the nearest incline. The bottoms of his customs boots dragged against the rocky earth beneath with his gloved hands reaching out from his sides.
Vader continued wandering the planet with arms tightened and locked in position. His ebony cape remained clamped against his shoulder and down the length of his frame, cloaking the Sith's leather body from the chilling weather.
The planet was unfamiliar to Vader, even despite despite his history with traversing other worlds in service to the Emperor. He travelled often enough.
"Perhaps I have uncovered a hidden star system?"
His thoughts betrayed him and wandered towards the Jedi - the Jedi Council's hidden catalogue of texts and historical documentation about unique planets that Vader had never been privy to before he abandoned his duties as the Chosen One.
However, looking back, such a far-off world had never appeared in the records he stole. The other icy worlds held small, but noticeable, shifts used to distinguish them from each other on the maps.
This planet held no such shifts.
Vader continued, wandering aimlessly towards a bridge in the rocky formations that scattered the lands like an art piece.
"...Someone else is here."
The Sith Lord could feel it in the force - multiple pulls in the same direction, living and breathing, a reminder to him that such a luscious environment could harbour forms of sentient life.
He was unsure of their alignment or intentions as nothing could be sensed about them in the force. The sensation was empty, like he was reaching for something that did not exist.
Standing around in bemusement would not help him uncover the truth, nor would it help to find a way to escape from his icy prison.
With his mind focused, Darth Vader rushed down another incline in the snow and, using the force to enhance his attributes, he ran towards his chosen targets. He was prepared to steal their ship and be rid of this -admittedly beautiful- world forever.
The venture was less than ten minutes.
Vader arrived on the scene, his intimidating frame stood above the chosen sacrifices from the edge of a spiked rock-face. The Sith Lord watched as three unfamiliar alien lifeforms gathered on a platform.
The largest of the three -a thin, bird-like creature with hardened skin- was screaming at the shorter alien whilst stretching his arms outwards. He had the angriest frown capable for one with a layered pair of mandibles against a plated jawline:
"I don't care what your drills have hit or how long it takes to break through! You keep digging until you hit something Prothean."
Vader paused.
The alien seemed to be speaking in a language he could not understand, but through the force there seemed to be an essence of intention and ferocity that, from what Vader could tell, helped translate.
Nevertheless, he stood above the mining site and listened through the force. He noted how the blue male with sunken cheeks and horned skull tried leaning away from his superior with a quiet gulp.
The former ignored his cowering and continued:
"From now on, double duty. And if that's not enough, you're going down in the tunnels with the machines yourself. Are we clear?"
"Y-Yes, sir. Of course."
Vader, believing the information to be useless and unnecessary for his current goal, decided to make his presence known.
With a powerful force jump, the Sith Lord rushed down from the sky and raised his armoured boots to align his footing. The weight of his metal frame slammed into one of the aliens, crushing them.
The rest devolved into utter carnage.
Commander Jacobus was a nefarious Turian who scavenged the Terminus System with his minions, living the life of luxury and power through killing and stealing.
The space pirate thrived off his lifestyle, but this would all come to an abrupt end when he found himself being contacted by an unexpected man:
Saren Arterius, a powerful Spectre.
Commander Jacobus had doubts regarding the inclusion of a well known Council servant within his business endeavours, but the fellow Turian proved to be more useful than he had expected.
The Geth he provided were excellent for mining out minerals from different planets, for one, as they did not require the same sustenance as the people he had previously been sending to mine.
Unfortunately, problems always arose when most of his soldiers were either braindead or lacking a backbone to properly exert themselves and make genuine progress in the mining efforts.
The blue-skinned Salarian he assigned to oversee mining operations involving the Geth forces had proven to be a liability more than a help, and the Turian pirate was beginning to lose patience with his followers. He wanted results. Right now.
Commander Jacobus was in the middle of yelling at the poor, helpless Salarian when the voice of a Batarian soldier immerged from behind:
"Commander Jacobus - one of the Geth soldiers has gone missing."
"What?" He spun around with anger. "Where?"
"My men picked up a strange heat signature not far from here. Over the ridge." The Batarian folded both arms against his chest. "Might've been a ship landing. The Geth noticed it too, and went after it. One of them didn't return."
The Turian commander remained silent for but a moment as he pondered the information. He was about to order the Batarian to show him what he had found on his investigation-
-When the soldier exploded into a pile of blood and guts. His armour crushed between an ebony blur that fell down from above.
Commander Jacobus reeled back in shock as the Batarian's dark blood splatted against his face, a marking being left on the right cheek plate. Both eyes widened at the visceral scene before him.
The display of dismembering gore was forgotten when he noticed the blackened object, the one used to crush the poor soldier, shuddered with a loud hiss before shifting into a brand new shape.
'Holy shit,' Jacobus thought. 'It's...a man.'
Indeed. The large cloak of darkness was revealed to be none other than a tall, black-clad human in mechanical armour with plating on the shoulders, chest, head, and lower legs.
The man seemed to blacken the entire world with his presence, like a vortex, consuming all sources of light and hope that came within reach. A black, fluttering cape swerved behind his figure whilst a leather bodysuit concealed all traces of skin.
No words could encapsulate the sheer terror and awe one felt when standing before the human, or whatever this creature was.
Coming to his senses, Commander Jacobus gave out a thunderous yell. "What the hell are you all waiting for!? Kill the bastard, now!"
Geth from every direction turned with their guns at the ready. The Turian smiled victoriously and then pointed with a clawed finger, a silent declaration for the machines to open fire on the ebony figure.
However, as the Geth prepared to open fire, there was a sudden force that pulled them in and took their plasma weapons in one fell swoop.
"What the- How the fuck did-!?"
"Be silent."
The cloaked man spoke with a cold voice before tightening his fist, crushing the machines with an unforgiving force that rendered each one a mere pile of misshaped alloy and white, oil-like blood.
He moved towards the Turian and reached down towards his leather belt, where he pulled forth an unknown tool with shining plates and a collection of layered wiring in the panels.
Commander Jacobus looked to the Salarian to his right, who had cowered at the presence of the tall figure in shadowed black, and conjured a plan.
He reached out and grabbed the Salarian.
"W-What are you-!?"
"You're hired to serve," Jacobus pushed him with immense force and knocked him to the ground. "I suggest you prove your worth and deal with him"
Without checking to see if the armoured man took the bait, the Turian Commander swung around on his two-clawed feet and rushed towards the docks with the hope of escaping from the figure of death.
He caught the sound of desperate screaming from behind and made the assumption that his plan in question had worked.
The sudden exposure of crimson light escorted by a thunderous *zoom* cascading across the docks left him both curious and terrified, and he decided to quicken his pace and jump into a random cargo ship to ensure he reached a means of escaping.
Hopefully, the man did not follow.
Darth Vader made quick work of the Salarian, his red lightsaber illuminating the surrounding docks as he swung down to the side and cleaved him in half with little effort, watching him slide into two.
The pieces of burnt flesh slammed into the ground beneath him and stained the platform with heaps of blood and opened guts.
The Sith gave little heed to such a horrific scene as his attention shifted to the bird-like alien who had sprung into action and fled from the scene; He did not expect them to make such a smart decision.
Nevertheless, Vader moved towards him with clear intentions, raising his blade and spinning the alloy handle with amazing skill. The defenceless lifeform entered one of the smaller shuttles and began his attempts to escape from the Dark Lord.
He was, surprisingly, successful.
The shuttle boomed to life, engines hissing with an obvious strain due mostly to their cheap parts and long-time usage. It raised itself into the air before turning towards the clouded skies above.
Vader released a satisfied hum from his throat, his gloved hand reaching out with a small device that he proceeded to throw towards the ship.
Using the force, he latched the device onto a back thruster and allowed the shuttle to leave, blasting off into the voice of space within moments. There was a momentary silence as the man watched.
"Excellent." He mused.
Vader reached a hand down, holding his belt, and pulled forth another device that seemed to glow with an amethyst hue.
The front of the device held a holographic screen, a single green blip standing near the centre before slowly growing distant, until it reached the edge of the screen and transformed into a large arrow.
It was a tracking device.
Darth Vader looked towards the ship's position, an unreadable aura emanating from his body, and began walking down the metal platform towards a second, although much larger, shuttle.
He inspected the design. The frame was intact, as one could expect from a used ship designed for a purpose of space travel. "It shall suffice, for now."
The Dark Lord entered through the main doors as lights sprung to life within the cockpit, revealing a wide arrange of buttons, leavers, and switches the likes of which he did not understand.
The main seat had very little in the ways of direct, interactive displays, but instead a virtual piloting UI screen that emanated a powerful orange glow.
Vader remained frozen in place, watching how the interface shimmered with animation, and decided that spending a few hours educating himself on a basic course on how the UI worked may help him.
With an agitated sigh, Vader sat himself down.
In the far reaches of space, moving away from the snow-ridden planet, three alien humanoids could be seen in a small shuttle travelling to the nearest civilised world known as Ilium.
The trio were undoubtedly Quarian, if their rough, but colourful, suits and unnaturally-bending legs were an indication, each one harbouring a unique style reflected in the patterns and colours.
Two Quarians had taken seats in the piloting seats whilst the third remained standing in front of a small, metal table with a basic keypad positioned directly in front of her. She sported a beautiful suit with purple colouring and swirling linework, there had been obvious design tweaks to the armour.
Tali'Zorah was her name, a young Quarian woman who had recently been tasked with completing an important quest - a right of passage into what her own people considered a tight-knit community.
She was venturing on her Pilgrimage.
Her father, Rael'Zorah, explained the significance of the ancient right and why Tali needed to find an especially impressive gift for the Quarian people.
Such a foreboding message proved unhelpful for the young woman as she continued hunting the one asset she could think of that would prove to her people just how important she was, and how she could improve their way of life:
Geth technology.
Despite her previous doubts, things began looking up when she uncovered a Geth squadron on a cold planet in the Terminus System borders. The metal being was dealt with quickly, and any salvageable finds taken for personal use by the Flotilla.
However, as Tali continued decoding the date she had uncovered from the Geth network, she found herself frozen in utter shock:
"There's something else here, encoded in the Geth's data. It's jumbled, but..."
Tali continued pressing the holographic keys on her device, uncovering more useful information about the recent data:
"Eden Prime." She mumbled. "A human colony. Someone ordered the Geth to attack...a Spectre Agent named Saren."
"First Geth, and now the Spectres? That's it - I'm taking you back to the Flotilla. Your father can-"
The male Quarian in blue continued arguing with his comrade, Tali, and tried to make her see the bitter truth - there was nothing they could do in such a terrible situation; the rest of the Galaxy, a majority of its species, despised the Quarians.
Tali, unfortunately, remained steadfast in her own beliefs and convinced him to remain on track to Ilium, where they had planned to recuperate and gather some useful tools before heading down to Citadel Space to speak with the Council.
She did not understand the reason, but there was an unnatural feeling in the woman's gut warning her about foredooming events.
Like the fool she was, Tali'Zorah ignored it.