Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 32, 2012/1

In the year 1 BBY, a battle was fought on the planet Kamino. After the death of Galen Marek, former apprentice to the Imperial Dark Lord Darth Vader, on the first Death Star battlestation, Vader sought to recreate his apprentice, collecting Marek's corpse and using genetic samples from the body to create a series of clones intended as replacement apprentices. Most of the clones were deformed and insane, though progress was gradually made, and a new generation of increasingly stable clones was created. Vader proceeded to train the clones, though many of these subjects would eventually succumb to the madness that had claimed so many of their predecessors. After one would go insane, Vader simply moved on to train the next clone. One of the clones, called Starkiller, was only the latest in a long line of failures, though he was one of the most promising subjects.

During a training match with a number of Sith Training Droids, Starkiller proved unable to strike down one of the droids when it assumed the shape of Juno Eclipse, Marek's former lover. The inability to overcome the genetic memories of Starkiller's template marked him as a failure, and Vader prepared to execute the clone. However, Starkiller refused to submit and lashed out at Vader with Force lightning, using the Dark Lord's momentary distraction to escape the training complex. Going through the Imperial forces&mdash;which included Imperial riot troopers, Jumptroopers, carbonite war droids, and others&mdash;garrisoned in Timira City, where he was cloned, Starkiller fought his way to a landing pad. While on his way, he gained some help from stormtroopers on whom he used mind tricks. Once on the landing pad, Starkiller escaped Vader and hijacked the Sith Lord's personal fighter, escaping from the planet.