Skirmish over an unidentified green planet

"I repeat: Imperial shuttle designation CZ-246 needs urgent assistance. Under attack from pirates, I repeat..." "The engines are dead." "Us too. Looks like they're only after the cargo..."

- The pilot and copilot of the shuttle, just before their deaths.

Not long after the Battle of Yavin, an Imperial Lambda-class shuttle carrying resources from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt was attacked by a robotic CR90 corvette. The corvette belonged to pirates who had sent it out to procure Imperial weapons for their own gain.

The robotic ship was after the shuttle's cargo of Imperial weapons. Darth Vader came to destroy the pirates and save the shuttle&mdash;but the shuttle self-destructed just as he arrived; the crew killed themselves rather than let the pirates take the Empire's property. Vader soon succeeded in disabling the robotic pirate ship, and took it captive; in order to find the larger organization behind the attacks.

Prelude
"Now, we no longer have the Senate to hold order. We do not have the Death Star to force it."

- Sidious to Vader, on the unacceptable state Vader had let the Empire fall in to.

Nineteen years after the Proclamation of the New Order, in which the Galactic Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine&mdash;who was secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious &mdash;the Battle of Yavin took place. During the battle, Luke Skywalker of the Alliance to Restore the Republic destroyed the Death Star, the Empire's deep-space mobile battle station; and their greatest weapon. The Sith Lord Darth Vader was the only survivor of the disaster. Darth Sidious, Vader's Sith Master chose to hold Vader responsible for the Empire's greatest defeat in its nearly two decade history.

The Empire's resources were running very low with the Death Star's destruction; so the Imperials were forced to deal with the Outer Rim crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Jabba and the Hutt Clan controlled much of the Outer Rim and Palpatine believed it was necessary to both gain the weapons the Hutt would provide, and to continue the Empire's conquest of the lawless Outer Rim.

As punishment for letting the Death Star be destroyed, and for failing to save Weapons Factory Alpha from also being destroyed by the Rebel Alliance, Darth Vader was demoted by his Sith Master and ordered to take a "sentimental" trip to his homeworld of Tatooine to continue the negotiations with the Hutt. The negotiations were ultimately successful, and Jabba became a supplier for the Empire.

Following the Death Star's death, pirates, raiders, and other lawless beings took advantage of the Empire's disarray, with neither the Senate nor the Death Star holding order they attacked Imperial ships and other installations at a much higher rate than what was classified as normal. One such group of pirates utilized a robotic CR90 corvette&mdash;that was supplied to them by the Crymorah syndicate&mdash;to enact several raids upon Imperial property&mdash;including stealing weapons Jabba had just recently supplied the Empire with. This angered Grand General Cassio Tagge and Darth Vader, were working to stop the raids aboard the former's Super Star Destroyer, the Annihilator. At that time, the pirates sent the corvette out from their base of operations to engage in more illicit pirating.

The skirmish
"Torpedo destroyed. Have faith. Black 2 and 3 with me. Target is trying to escape."

- Darth Vader, as he enters the skirmish.

Shortly thereafter, a Lambda-class shuttle under the Imperial designation CZ-246, was attacked by the CR90 corvette and was forced to take evasive maneuvers to try and save their shipment of weapons. The pilot of the shuttle sent out a distress call, advertising themselves to the nearby Imperials that they were in need of assistance. The raiders soon disabled the shuttle's engines. This caused the crew of the shuttle to realize the raiders were only after their cargo of weapons. Vader answered the call and was en route to their position aboard his TIE Advances starfighter with a pair of TIE fighters in tail. The pilot shouted out over the ship's comlink, announcing they were trapped with no way out. He then blew the shuttle up, killing himself and his copilot, rather than have their shipment of Imperial weapons fall into the hands of the pirates; or be spaced when the droid ship shot the shuttle open to quickly grab the contraband and retreat.

Vader arrived just as the shuttle self-destructed, prompting him to change his priorities and to try and prevent the pirate ship from escaping. He ordered Black 2 and Black 3&mdash;the two other TIEs&mdash;to follow his lead. Vader thought it impressive that the robotic ship was smart enough to flee&mdash;and smart enough to shoot down both Black 2 and 3 as the corvette's laser cannons efficiently did. Vader was saved from a similar fate by the grace of his legendary piloting skills, and the power of the dark side of the Force. Vader was soon able to move in to an aggressive position and fired on the fleeing corvette's engine core, causing the engines to explode; and putting an end to the violence. He contacted the Annihilator and informed them of the successful mission.

Aftermath
"Whoever is behind this will sacrifice a finger to avoid the Empire's wrath descending on their whole body." "...Which is why I am sending our greatest warrior to head the mission."

- Vader and Tagge conceive a plan to stop the raiders. The corvette was captured by Tagge's Super Star Destroyer, and put into its hangar; where it was kept until Tagge decided it would be repaired well enough to pass a cursory exam. Vader reported to Tagge on the bridge of the Annihilator, where he expressed concern over the corvette's high quality robotics; and how the raiders were no fools, judging from their tactics. Tagge agreed, thinking it would be illogical to let the raids continue after Vader had successfully secured Jabba as a weapons supplier.

Vader suspected with the overabundance of attacks, that a spy was leaking important information. Although, the Grand General disagreed, noting that the quantity of raids was not unusual in the wake of the Death Star's destruction according to his graphs. Tagge admitted that his plans were not as grand as Vader's or the late Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's, (Tarkin had been in command of the Death Star's construction, and was killed during the Battle of Yavin) but they were still very much effective. So he invented a plan to attack the base. He revealed that the corvette would be repaired well enough to fool the pirates into thinking it hadn't taken major damage, and Vader would take the corvette its home-base to enact the assault. Tagge went on to say that with what the Empire's had learned at Yavin, was that the Empire could not be base around a single asset like the Death Star; or even Vader. Although, Tagge did not fully trust Vader, and as such assigned to him an Adjutant to report back to the Grand General. Vader was unsure if Lieutenant Oon-ai would pose a problem.

After a brief argument with the Adjutant, Vader went to prepare for the upcoming mission and oversee the repairs on the corvette. Oon-ai followed and looked into Vader;s communication logs. The Dark Lord ordered a black astromech droid to follow. Vader then planted treasonable evidence into the astromech droid that would incriminate Oon-ai as the spy leaking information.

Soon thereafter, Vader, Oon-ai and a squad of six stormtroopers set out aboard the appropriated corvette and arrived at its base, a space station on the extreme edge of the Outer Rim. The pirates were relieved when they saw the corvette returning on their scanners, and went to unload the goods and begin the repairs. Although they were horrified when they realized that the ship had been hijacked by Imperials. The Vader-led strike team quickly secured a portion of the station before being attacked by its inhabitants and a pair of customized droideka security droids. Vader easily defeated the pirates and droids, and went deeper into the now self-destructing station to retrieve the "evidence" the droid had planted during the fighting. He, Oon-ai and the surviving troopers then triumphantly left the exploding station.

Once back on the Annihilator, Vader turned Oon-ai in to the Grand General, claiming that he was the traitor who had been leaking information to the pirates. The Dark Lord cleverly used the attacks to remove Tagge's spy from him, and send a message of who was really in control to the Grand General. Vader then went and ensured the astromech droid had deleted all evidence of its data upload into the station and ejected it into space&mdash;where it exploded.

Behind the scenes
"It is a period of insurgence. The Empire's ultimate peacekeeping force, The Death Star was destroyed due to an unforseen design flaw. Without this deterrent, the rule of law is in danger. Chaos looms!"

- The first paragraph of Star Wars: Darth Vader 2: Vader, Part II's opening crawl.

The Skirmish over unidentified green planet first appeared in the Marvel comic book series second issue of their Darth Vader series; it was released on February 25, 2015. It was written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Salvador Larroca. Gillen has been working alongside the Lucasfilm Story Group to develop the story and events of the ongoing comic series.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 2: Vader, Part II