Darth Vader's meditation chamber

"What I mean to say is that I think this belongs to Vader, and that Vader was able to follow us to Fial, then Galidraan, by tracking his property."

- Artoz

Darth Vader's meditation chamber was a life support pod that allowed the Sith Lord to survive for extended periods without the helmet and mask of his suit. The injuries Vader sustained during his duel against Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar normally made this impossible.

Description
Some three meters in diameter, the meditation chamber was flattened on the bottom, designed to nestle in a hexagonal dais. It lacked a proper hatch nor a control panel; and had two longitudinal seams which indicated that the device was capable of parting in two hemispheres.

History
Approximately five years after the Proclamation of the New Order, Darth Vader was in possession of a mobile meditation chamber which he ordered to be transferred from a Victory-class Star Destroyer to Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Carrion Spike for their mission to Murkhana. During the transferral, Vader selected a dozen Stormtroopers to accompany him and had them load the chamber onto Tarkin's corvette; during the maneuver, the sphere collided briefly with the edge of the ship's cargo hold hatch, for which Vader grew angry at Sergeant Crest, the one controlling the repulsorlift crane.

When the Carrion Spike was stolen by Berch Teller's rebel cell on Murkhana, Vader used the meditation chamber as homing beacon of sorts, allowing him to track and pinpoint the rebels' exact location despite the corvette's stealth system. Thanks to it, the Sith Lord and Tarkin pursuing the ship from Murkhana to the Fial system and Galidraan. It was during their attack on Galidraan Station, where they engaged in battle, and Teller and Artoz decided to jettison the device just as they made their escape to Lucazec.

Vader would acquire a new one by the time three years had passed after the Battle of Yavin, which he kept on his flagship, the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor. In the prelude to the Battle of Hoth, Vader was using the chamber when General Maximillian Veers informed him that Admiral Kendel Ozzel had emerged from lightspeed too close to Hoth, alerting the Alliance's Echo Base, for which Vader Force choked Ozzel to death for his incompetence, and then appointed Captain Piett as the new Admiral on the spot, while sitting on the open chamber.

Later on, Piett entered before Vader can finish putting on his mask, and informed him that the Millennium Falcon had entered a asteroid field. Vader ordered then the entirety of the Imperial Death Squadron to begin sweeping the field so as to find Solo's freighter.

Behind the scenes
Vader's meditation chamber scenes for The Empire Strikes Back were filmed at Elstree Studios outside of London. An unused take from Empire was going to be used for a scene early on in Return of the Jedi, where Vader telepathically attempts to communicate with Luke Skywalker, though this sequence was cut from the film prior to release. It lasted long enough in the cut to be fully scored by John Williams.

Appearances

 * Tarkin
 * Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi