Assault on Kamino

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you returned. Now you will surrender to me, or you will die here where you were created."

- Darth Vader, giving Starkiller an ultimatum

The assault on Kamino was fought in 1 BBY during the Galactic Civil War. In a desperate move to galvanize their fledgling rebellion, the Alliance to Restore the Republic launched a full-scale attack against a key target in the Galactic Empire&mdash;the cloning facilities on the planet Kamino. Aided by Starkiller, a renegade clone of the late Galen Marek, the Alliance forces secured their first major victory under the leadership of Jedi Master Rahm Kota, a Rebel general and one of the few surviving Jedi veterans of the Clone Wars. In the aftermath of the fighting, the Timira City Cloning Facility was destroyed and the Sith Lord Darth Vader was taken prisoner by the Rebels, an accomplishment which Princess Leia Organa regarded as a turning point in the civil war.

After Marek's death aboard the Death Star in 2 BBY, the surviving founders of the Rebel Alliance&mdash;fugitive senators Bail Prestor Organa, Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma&mdash;committed themselves to open rebellion against Emperor Palpatine and intended to fully restore the Old Republic that had been overthrown by the Empire's New Order. However, the Alliance leadership remained deadlocked in circular debates over what courses of action to take. While Bel Iblis advocated for bold but risky strikes against major Imperial targets, Mothma remained hesitant to engage the Empire in open battle due to the Alliance's limited resources. Organa's moderate stance on direct conflict and guerrilla warfare rendered him unable to completely support either side presented by his two colleagues, and so the Alliance remained relegated to small scale hit-and-run attacks.

At the same time, Darth Vader was determined to create a stronger and more obedient version of Marek, who had been secretly apprenticed for years to the Dark Lord of the Sith until his redemption as a Jedi and subsequent demise. As such, Marek's body was moved to Timira City where it was preserved as a source for cloning purposes. Although the creation of a perfect clone, based on the genetic code of a Force-sensitive template, had been considered impossible to achieve at the time, Vader proceeded to create a new acolyte via a new "accelerated cloning process". This refined version of the Kaminoan method enabled clones to complete their growth process in just under a few weeks rather than a full decade. Unfortunately, the procedure was far from flawless, and it resulted in numerous failed subjects&mdash;all of whom were undermined by genetic defects and residual memories that they inherited from their progenitor, and ultimately driven to madness. Though the Dark Lord eventually achieved his goal with the creation of a fully stable clone, who he trained as his new secret apprentice, he was also confronted with the dilemma of hunting down "Starkiller," the rogue clone who had escaped from Kamino shortly after Vader judged him to be another failure.

Due to his inability to overcome the memory imprints, Starkiller became obsessed with locating Captain Juno Eclipse, the Human woman whom Marek developed feeling for toward the end of his life. This soon led him to make contact with General Kota in the hope of finding Eclipse. However, Vader anticipated this and tasked the bounty hunter Boba Fett with abducting the Rebel officer, knowing that the clone would follow Eclipse back to Kamino. Starkiller responded as expected, but brought with him the entire Rebel fleet. The Imperial Star Destroyers were initially able to hold the Rebels at bay until Starkiller crashed the Rebel flagship, Salvation through Kamino's planetary shield, allowing Rebel troopers and commandos to attack Timira City. Huge numbers of casualties resulted on both sides, particularly for the Rebels as Starkiller only killed the Imperial soldiers directly in his way; focused solely on rescuing Eclipse, he ignored Kota's pleas to rejoin the battle proper.

Despite significant losses, Kota's troops held their ground against the Imperials while Starkiller fought Vader in a lightsaber duel at the top of the city spire. Enraged by Vader's attack on Eclipse, the clone managed to trick Vader into lowering his guard and defeated him, but reluctantly spared Vader's life when Kota urged him to consider how valuable the Sith Lord could be to the Rebellion as a prisoner of war. With Vader captured and the Imperial garrison defeated, the Rebels sought to capitalize on their first major victory by transporting Vader to the Alliance hidden base on Dantooine. They also intended to crash a Star Destroyer into Kamino's ocean-covered surface so that the resulting tsunami would destroy Timira City. Soon afterward, the Alliance fleet left the system, unaware that they were being tracked by Vader's mercenary, Boba Fett.

Background
"I'm not Starkiller! I'm&hellip; I'm a clone. I was grown in a vat to take his place."

- Starkiller, accepting his true origin

The Battle of Kamino was an indirect result of Darth Vader's attempts to clone his deceased apprentice, Galen Marek. Through a new cloning process, the Sith Lord was able to accelerate a clone's growth to full maturity in a few short weeks, far quicker than the Kaminoan method and even faster than Spaarti technology. But such an unprecedented level of growth acceleration, combined with the inherent difficulty in cloning from a Force-sensitive template, lead to numerous defects in the first subjects. After the initial attempts produced a wave of aberrant monstrosities, Vader painstakingly endeavored to wipe out the emotional imprints that drove many promising clones to utter madness.

Over the next six months, Vader and the cloning technicians were successful in ironing out many of the process's flaws, and had begun to produce superficially stable clones. These clones, while exhibiting no physical or mental defects, still suffered from the problem of being unable to emotionally compartmentalize the original Marek's memories. However, during this time, Vader managed to produce a new clone of Galen Marek who showed a great deal of promise. Not only was he more stable than the clones who had preceded him, he had also survived the trials that most of his predecessors had failed. However, despite the clone's progress, he ultimately suffered from the same problems that undermined his clone brothers. In order to spare himself the time and effort of training a new apprentice all over again, Vader resorted to the accelerated cloning procedure so that the "new Starkiller" would biologically reach Marek's age&mdash;prior to his death&mdash;in less than a month. To train the clones in such a short period of time, the cloning procedure utilized memory flashes from the original Marek, which essentially served to download the original Marek's memories and behavioral patterns into the clones. This part of the procedure allowed the clones to utilize their genetically-inherited command of the Force. But as a consequence, every clone experienced an identity crisis which eventually drove them insane. The latest clone, though more perfect than those before him, ultimately proved to be afflicted by the same emotional imprints that were passed on by his genetic donor.

Disappointed once again, Vader intended to eliminate his latest failed experiment, but failed to do so when the clone lashed out in a desperate attempt to escape from his creator. After successfully fleeing from his homeworld, the clone embarked on a single-minded quest to find Captain Juno Eclipse. Although the clone did not exhibit any of Marek's other emotional attachments, such as his commitment to the Rebel Alliance, he did develop the same feelings for a woman that he technically never met. As such, his artificial feelings forced him into an obsessive pursuit of Eclipse.

Unwilling to allow a renegade clone of Galen Marek to roam free, Darth Vader hired the bounty hunter Boba Fett and tasked him with locating "Starkiller," as the clone subsequently became known as. Vader instructed Fett to find and capture Eclipse, predicting that Starkiller would come back to Kamino with Eclipse there as bait. Shortly after Fett and his partner Xasha tracked the clone to Cato Neimoidia, the two discovered that they had arrived too late. Starkiller was not only gone, but he had also left a trail of destruction and mayhem that brought about the complete ruin of the city of Tarko-se. Starkiller, after rescuing General Rahm Kota from Imperial captivity, failed to learn any sufficient information from the Jedi fugitive about Eclipse's whereabouts. His journey then took him to worlds such as Dagobah and Mon Calamari, until finally tracking down Eclipse's location to the Itani Nebula.

Traveling with Rahm Kota on Marek's old starship, the Rogue Shadow, the two arrived at the secret location of the Rebel fleet, including Captain Eclipse's Nebulon-B frigate, the Salvation. Unknown to either of them, Vader's bounty hunter also discovered where Juno Eclipse was hiding. Upon the Sith Lord's order to lure Starkiller back to Kamino by capturing Eclipse, Boba Fett and his Imperial strike team launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Rebels. Bypassing all of the other ships and fighters, Fett and his forces infiltrated the Salvation, stormed the bridge and captured Juno Eclipse.

Although Starkiller annihilated most of Fett's Imperial troops, the clone failed to stop the bounty hunter from taking Eclipse to Vader on Slave I. Outraged at having failed to save Eclipse, Starkiller threatened to go to Kamino with or without Kota and the Rebels. With Starkiller willing to fight, the Jedi General saw a golden opportunity to launch a major offensive against the Empire, and complied with Starkillers wishes before warning the clone that Eclipse's abduction was virtually certain to have been part of a trap. Starkiller naively assumed that his creator would not expect the entire Rebel fleet to arrive at Kamino as well; Kota reluctantly agreed. However, both were wrong and Vader had indeed anticipated Starkiller's moves. Far from being caught unprepared, he positioned an entire fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers outside of Kamino's orbit in order to destroy the Rebel starships.

The battle
"We're getting ripped apart up here! Order the retreat!''" "''No! We won't get another chance to take this target! Keep pressing the attack!"

- Wedge Antilles and Rahm Kota, during the assault on Kamino

Immediately after exiting hyperspace, the Battle of Kamino commenced as Rebel ships were attacked by the Imperial fleet that had been awaiting their arrival. The Salvation itself was assaulted by numerous boarding parties. Before he could return to the bridge, Starkiller was forced to eliminate all of the Imperials that had infiltrated the Rebel flagship's hangar and engine sections. Upon arriving at the bridge, Kota informed the clone that the battle was going poorly for the Alliance; Timira City's deflector shield prevented the Rebels from launching any sort of ground assault the facility, and the Rebel fleet was being decimated by Vader's forces in space. In light of the Alliance's grim tactical position, Starkiller devised a desperate plan to destroy the shield generator by crashing the Salvation into Timira City.

As the surviving crew members abandoned the ship at Kota's command, all systems were diverted to the bridge as Starkiller plotted a course straight through Kamino's atmosphere. As the ship plummeted to Timira City on autopilot, Starkiller cleared debris from the battle out of the ship's path, allowing it to smash through the shield. During its descent, the Salvation broke in half; the rear half plowed into the shield generator, while Starkiller directed the front half at the spire where Darth Vader was holed up. Realizing too late that Eclipse was also being held in the spire, Starkiller used the Force to destroy the entire forward section of the Salvation. Managing to survive the fall onto the facility, Starkiller proceeded to infiltrate the same city where he was "created" along with the other clones of the Marek template.

Making his way towards one of the Imperial hangar bays, he killed everything in his path, and dealt with a group of snipers harrying Rahm Kota and his squad. Rendezvousing with Kota, they broke into one of the Imperial command centers, hoping to use it to open the hangar doors, but the controls were destroyed by an Imperial bombing run. While Kota and his men looked for a security hub to prevent any more security lockdowns, Starkiller made his way to an alternate command center only to find the controls locked. Instead, he used telekinesis to wrench the doors open.

Needing a shortcut across the facility's interior towards the base of the cloning spires, Starkiller climbed on top of the hangar doors and leapt onto a passing Y-wing. The pilot, Wedge Antilles, obliged to Starkiller's request for a ride, flew the clone across the dome. Leaping off the craft, Starkiller began his ascent to the top spire of Timira City. Within the vast chambers that contained countless developing clones, he fought with Imperial Saber Guards and Sith Acolytes, and discovered to his horror that most of the cloning tanks within the spire contained more clones of Galen Marek. Wondering if the original Starkiller's corpse was located somewhere in Timira City, the clone was forced to accept that Vader did not lie about the existence of Marek's other imperfect clones as he originally believed. As he ascended higher and higher, he attempted to do so stealthily and with as little bloodshed as possible, but was given away by an unnoticed Terror Trooper, forcing him to kill it and the reinforcements it had alerted.

Around this time in the battle, he approached the cloning tank of Subject 1157 and hit it with a Force push, killing the other Galen Marek clone.

From the time Starkiller had broken off from Kota and his Rebel forces, the Jedi General had become increasingly frustrated with the clone's obsession with Juno Eclipse. Despite the initial successes of the Rebel ground assault, the Imperial forces had managed to regain control of the city's security centers, and had begun a devastating counterattack. With his troops in danger of being completely wiped out, he implored Starkiller to aid the Rebel forces, arguing that one life&mdash;even Eclipse's life&mdash;was not worth letting the entire Rebellion be destroyed. However, as the clone grew ever closer to the woman who had become the sole focus of his existence, he made it clear to Kota that his only priority was to save Eclipse; neither the Rebel Alliance nor was its war against the Empire was of any concern to him. Without Starkiller's aid, PROXY calculated that the Rebels would suffer severe casualties against the Imperial counterattack. PROXY's calculation proved accurate and Kota's troops were barely able to avoid being completely wiped out.

The confrontation with Darth Vader


Though Kota warned Starkiller via comlink against facing Darth Vader alone, the clone had reached the end of his patience in his quest to find Juno Eclipse. He ignored the Jedi's advice and proceeded forward, knowing that a fight with his former master was inevitable at this point. As he wandered through the smoke-shrouded corridors, he was suddenly attacked by what appeared to be Vader. Starkiller managed to fend off the assault, but was struck by a sudden and violent Force vision before he could counter, allowing his attacker to slip away. Tortured by his own mind as he wandered the corridors, Starkiller was attacked twice more before reentering the larger interior spaces of the spire.

As the clone looked around, the figure of Darth Vader appeared on one of the tank platforms, declaring that Starkiller would either surrender to him or die in the very chamber where he was created. Starkiller leapt up to engage Vader, but the armored figure evaded him. Fending off Starkiller's attacks while sending Sith Training Droids in the guise of various figures from Galen Marek's past to fight him, Vader sought to break the clone's resolve with psychological warfare, but Starkiller easily held them off and turned on Vader. However, the Vader he had been fighting turned out to be just another holodroid, and Starkiller leapt further upwards in search of the real Sith Lord.

As he prepared to face the true Darth Vader, Starkiller found himself confronted by many more aberrant clones of Galen Marek, validating Vader's claim that he had created other clones of Marek before Starkiller. As he fought his "brothers," Starkiller could sense that all of the clones were virtually the same as him&mdash;not only because they possessed the same skills as him to varying degrees, but also because they had inherited the same Force potential and identity crisis as Starkiller. Though Starkiller had always professed to knowing that he was a clone of the original Marek, he had secretly harbored hope that this was not the case. However, faced with what were essentially alternate versions of himself and Galen Marek, Starkiller was forced to truly accept the fact that he too was a clone. His aggressive counters against the aberrant clones were reluctant, as he was essentially committing fratricide by killing clones that shared the exact same genetic makeup as himself. Eventually however, Starkiller destroyed all the other clones with a Force Repulse so violent that it reduced his opponents to bloody mist.

His emotions in turmoil after being forced to confront the aberrant clones, Starkiller rushed at Vader in a rage. However, the Sith Lord casually defended himself with his lightsaber and then telekinetically threw Starkiller off his feet as the platform bucked. Starkiller rebounded and continued his attack. Even as they fought across the top level of the tower, Starkiller sensed that Vader was testing him, and attempted to keep a handle on his emotions. When an opening came, Starkiller moved to take it, only to be hit by a vision of an apparently lifeless Juno Eclipse in his arms. Starkiller's momentary confusion allowed Vader to knock him down and quietly withdraw. Starkiller pursued him, and reached the very top of the spire.

The battle continues
"The whole place is under attack."

- Boba Fett, warning a cloning technician

While Vader and Starkiller fought in the main cloning spire, all of Timira City became a battlefield between Imperial and Rebel forces. Boba Fett, who had been ordered to remain at Timira City by the Dark Lord, retreated deep into the cloning facility to escape from the Rebel invaders. As the battle fell further into the Rebel Alliance's favor, Boba Fett found the same cloning technician that he had spoken with during his first visit to Timira City. He demanded that the scientist remain behind and protect the undeveloped clones, which Boba viewed as the legacies of Jango Fett.

However, the frightened scientist revealed that the clones were not created from Jango Fett&mdash;their genetic donor was Boba Fett, their fellow clone. He then explained to the stunned mercenary that Vader hired Xasha to secretly extract DNA samples from Fett, and to also obtain a copy of his brain patterns to create the memory flashes that would be used to train the clones. Outraged by the deception of Vader and Xasha, Fett killed the cloning technician and proceeded to burn all of his clones.

Even though he felt betrayed by Vader's duplicity, Fett chose to remain on Kamino in order to fulfill his contract by terminating Starkiller, who was locked in a lightsaber duel with his creator. Before Fett could get a clear shot at the clone with his sniper rifle, he was intercepted by Rahm Kota, PROXY and a squad of Rebel troopers. Although he killed the troopers with ease and even held the Jedi Kota at bay, the bounty hunter was caught off guard by PROXY when the holodroid used its ability to take on the appearance of the long dead Jango Fett. The distraction worked and Boba was defeated by the faux "Jango." As Kota and PROXY attempted to apprehend him, Fett threw a sonic detonator at their feet and used the distraction to escape to higher ground.

Darth Vader's defeat and capture
"I WILL KILL YOU!"

- Starkiller in a blind rage to Vader, assuming that Juno Eclipse is dead

Starkiller managed to reach the topmost spire without further incident, and found Vader standing silently before an enormous ovular window. When Starkiller demanded Eclipse's location, Vader sidestepped and revealed her standing behind him. Vader took her up in a telekinetic chokehold, demanding that Starkiller surrender to him in exchange for her life. Starkiller agreed, casting aside his lightsabers and dropping to his knees. With the clone in submission, Vader commanded Starkiller to locate and kill Rahm Kota, to embrace the dark side of the Force, and to hunt down and execute the Rebel leaders upon the completion of his training; failure to meet any of the Sith Lord's demands would result in Eclipse's death. However, while both Vader and Starkiller were distracted, Eclipse retrieved one of the clone's lightsabers and attacked the Dark Lord. Vader barely sensed Eclipse's intention in time to dodge the attack, but not without sustaining damage to his armor's chest panel. In retaliation, Vader blasted her through the tower's window with a powerful Force push. She landed on the roof of a power generator a considerable distance away, apparently dead. Starkiller retrieved his weapons fell on Darth Vader in a blind rage, only to be thrown out of the tower as well. He landed on the same power generator that Eclipse had been blasted onto, and immediately rushed towards her to ascertain her condition. Before he could reach her however, he was intercepted by Vader, and the duel began anew.

As they fought across the rain-slicked generator roof, Starkiller realized that this had been Vader's plan all along; to use Juno Eclipse's death to bring about his own fall. With his newfound understanding, Starkiller attempted to reason with Vader, even as their fight increased in intensity. He ultimately went so far as to suggest that his master join the Alliance in order to destroy Emperor Palpatine, but Vader simply redoubled his own attack in response, making it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the Rebellion. At the same time, Starkiller also realized the absurdity of his suggestion; he knew that the Alliance would sooner execute Vader for war crimes before they ever forgive him, much less accept him into their ranks. As they continued to fight, Vader tried to encourage Starkiller to rise above his artificial feelings for Eclipse, stating that she meant nothing and was only holding him back. Starkiller continued to press his attacks in order to get to Eclipse, but Vader stayed firmly between the two and reminded the clone that Eclipse had loved the real Galen Marek&mdash; and for that reason would have never loved Starkiller, a mere clone.

As the duel progressed, Starkiller came to the conclusion that he could not best his former master. Having realized how powerful the original Marek had been, and by extension how powerful Starkiller was, Vader had been determined not to make the mistake of underestimating the clone as he had Marek. As such, Vader had refrained from engaging in the sort of reckless offense that had nearly gotten him killed while dueling Marek. Instead, he had been utilizing a more defensive, controlled set of tactics and swordplay against Starkiller. Unable to penetrate Vader's defenses, Starkiller realized that, despite his memories of defeating Vader as Marek, the best outcome he could hope to achieve against Vader was a stalemate. To make matters worse, Starkiller knew that Vader wanted him alive, and as such was not even fighting to kill. With his newfound understanding, Starkiller formulated a plan to feign defeat at Vader's hands, hoping that Vader's desire to keep him alive would provide him with a decisive opening.

Starkiller was eventually forced onto his back foot and disarmed, his weapons destroyed by a Force Blast from Vader. Vader then gave the clone one final chance to surrender, and Starkiller appeared to capitulate. As Vader dropped his guard, Starkiller seized the opportunity he had been waiting for and suddenly absorbed a lightning bolt from one of the rods surrounding the battleground. Starkiller then channeled the energy of the lightning bolt into a powerful barrage of Force lightning. Vader was taken completely off guard and struck directly in his chest panel by the blast, which had already been damaged by Juno's earlier attack. Vader's life support systems were compromised by the barrage to the point where he could no longer defend himself, and Starkiller used the opportunity to pull the stunned Sith's lightsaber from his hand.



Sweeping Vader's own lightsaber up at his throat, Starkiller prepared to execute Darth Vader even as the apparently unconcerned Sith Lord continued to try turning him. However, he was halted at the last second by Rahm Kota and his squad. Kota wanted to take Vader prisoner in order to interrogate and formally execute him. To this end, he reminded Starkiller that Vader was the only one who knew for sure whether or not he was truly a clone, and that as such, Vader was the only person capable of answering Starkiller's questions. Unknown to Starkiller, Vader had instructed both Boba Fett and a fellow surviving clone of Galen Marek to intervene if Starkiller attempted to kill Vader. Ultimately, Starkiller chose to spare Darth Vader, thus heeding Kota's advice rather than succumbing to Vader's insistence that the clone "fulfill his destiny".

Aftermath
"As long as she lives, I will always control you."

- Darth Vader

With Darth Vader overcome, Starkiller rushed to Eclipse, whom PROXY had been attempting to revive. Unsuccessful, PROXY apologized for his failure but Starkiller was quick to forgive him, stating that the fault was his own for seeking out Eclipse in the first place. Holding her body in his arms, Starkiller began grieving when Eclipse inexplicably awoke and kissed him. As this occurred, Boba Fett, who had been preparing to kill Starkiller with a sniper rifle, relented out of sympathy. The Dark Apprentice stayed his hand as well, presumably basing his decision on Vader's order not to interfere unless Vader himself was in immediate danger.

With the battle won and Vader captured, the Rebel attention was turned to cleanup. Vader would be transported on board the Rogue Shadow to keep his whereabouts secret, with Starkiller supervising his transport. Kota saw to Vader's "accommodations" aboard the Rogue Shadow, telling Starkiller that he hadn't said a word during this process. Starkiller was skeptical that Vader would give in to interrogation, believing that the Sith Lord's own experiences had already pushed him past his breaking point.

As the Rebel Alliance claimed its first significant victory in the Galactic Civil War, Rebel morale soared amongst its members, despite the clear fact that their losses had been great. Vader was heavily restrained in preparation for his transference to a secret base on Dantooine. Shortly before leaving Kamino, Starkiller confronted his creator in an effort to get information about himself, only to receive nothing except Vader's silence.

As Starkiller turned to leave, Vader reminded him that as long as Juno Eclipse was alive, Vader would always control him. Soon after, Starkiller met up with Eclipse in the cockpit of the Rogue Shadow and left Kamino with the rest of the Rebel fleet. Eclipse readied the ship for hyperspace, unaware that Boba Fett's Slave I had emerged from the wreckage orbiting Kamino and followed them into hyperspace.

Alternate ending
"You have faced your final test.''" "What is thy bidding, my Master?" "Take his starfighter. Scour the far reaches of the galaxy. Find the last of the Rebels and destroy them." "''As you wish."

- Darth Vader and the Dark Apprentice

After defeating Darth Vader in combat, Starkiller is presented with the option of striking down his creator in anger, or sparing the Sith Lord's life and giving him up to Alliance custody. In the non-canon dark side ending of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II video game, Starkiller is overcome by his hatred and chooses to kill Vader in cold blood. As he raises his lightsaber to deliver the final blow while General Rahm Kota and the Rebel troopers look on in shock, the clone is suddenly stabbed in the chest by a red-bladed lightsaber. Starkiller, caught completely by surprise, falls to the floor in agony as Vader watches on. A hooded figure, having used a cloaking device to get near the clone without being detected, appears behind the fallen body of Starkiller. Rahm Kota activates his own saber and attacks Starkiller's murderer, only to see his attacks easily deflected. In the short duel, the assassin wounds Kota by slashing him across his armored torso. Lifting the Jedi fugitive with the Force, he throws Kota at PROXY and the remaining Rebel troops. Before any of them can react, he pushes all of them off of Timira City's top cloning spire and into Kamino's vast oceans with a powerful Force push.

In Starkiller's dying moments, he struggles to lift himself up, only to fail due to the fatal wound in the center of his chest. Darth Vader recovers enough to approach Starkiller just before the clone breathes his last breath. As he reveals that the cloning process was finally perfected prior to the Battle of Kamino, the dark-armored warrior walks over to Vader's side and lowers his hood. To Starkiller's shock, he and his killer shares the exact same face&mdash;the face of Galen Marek. Starkiller realizes that he has been mortally wounded by his own clone brother, Darth Vader's Dark Apprentice&mdash;the only perfect clone that the Dark Lord painstakingly endeavored to create after so many failures. With this revelation, Starkiller stares at the dead body of Juno Eclipse, who failed to recover from her own ordeal, succumbs to his fatal injury and dies.

As a group of Terror Troopers secure the area, Darth Vader congratulates his new apprentice for passing the final test in his training. The dark clone, having fully overcome the emotional imprints of his genetic template to prove his loyalty to Vader and his total conversion to the dark side, falls on one knee and loyally awaits his next orders. Vader commands the clone to commandeer the Rogue Shadow in order to search the far reaches of the galaxy. His primary objective is to hunt down and destroy the last remnants of the Rebel Alliance.

The Dark Apprentice obediently obliges his master, rises and turns to leave on his new mission. As he walks away, he takes a moment to stare at Juno Eclipse's body. The expression on his face, which has been altered with a pale skin color and yellow eyes, is filled with hatred and contempt. Pulling his hood back up, the Dark Apprentice prepares to depart from his homeworld as the lone success of Vader's entire project to clone the original Starkiller.

As the Rogue Shadow, piloted by the Dark Apprentice, flies through the debris of Imperial and Rebel starships with an escort of TIE fighters, the Battle of Kamino ends as an Imperial victory; the Rebels fail to destroy the world's cloning facilities, much less capture Darth Vader. The alternate concludes with the Rogue Shadow jumping into hyperspace.

The Battle of Endor: Alternate version
"The Rebels must be stopped before they can destroy the shield generator. Leave no survivors.''" "Understood, my Master." "There will be no one to stop us this time." "''Yes, my Master."

- Darth Vader and the Dark Apprentice

In a DLC attachment that follows the dark side ending, the Dark Apprentice participates in the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY while Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine oversee the construction of the second Death Star. Landing the Rogue Shadow on the forest moon of Endor, not far from the location of the battlestation's shield generator bunker, Vader's now veteran assassin slaughters his way through a combined force of Rebel soldiers and Ewoks. Upon reaching the bunker's secret entrance, the dark clone is confronted by the ex-smuggler Han Solo and the wookiee Chewbacca. Utilizing a commandeered AT-ST, Chewbacca attempts to kill their opponent while Solo utilizes his blaster and several thermal detonators. All of their attempts end in failure and both are killed by the Dark Apprentice, who then enters the bunker to prevent its destruction.

After killing a group of Rebels, the clone fights his way through Rebels and Imperials while both sides are locked in combat. Once all who stood in his way are properly disposed of, he finds Leia Organa in the process of planting a few explosive charges. Using the Force, he detonates the explosive, throwing Leia back. To his surprise, the young woman reveals that she had been trained as a Jedi after her twin brother was killed in the Battle of Hoth. Utilizing their respective lightsabers and Force powers, the dark clone and the Jedi engage in a climactic duel to the death. Despite her promising abilities, which the apprentice acknowledges, Leia is no match for her opponent and tries to retreat. The Dark Apprentice prevents her from leaving, thus forcing Leia to continue the fight. She ultimately fails to overcome the clone's fury, and perishes as he stabs her in the abdomen with one of his sabers. As the Dark Apprentice looks on in victory, the last living offspring of Anakin Skywalker dies.

Meanwhile, in the Emperor's throne room, Palpatine gloats over the Rebels' decisive defeat while Darth Vader stands at his side. He then reveals how he knew all along about Vader's plan to overthrow him by using a clone of the late Galen Marek. With his treachery revealed, Vader activates his lightsaber in a last ditch attempt to finally kill his master. However, Palpatine easily defeats Vader by using Force lightning, forcing his hobbled disciple to his knees. Contacting Captain Sarkli, the Emperor orders his forces to destroy the clone.

On Endor, the Dark Apprentice sits in meditation near the body of Leia Organa. At that point, a group of Star Destroyers converge on his location. Mere moments after the Imperials arrive, he opens his eyes&mdash;at which point the DLC version of the Battle of Endor reaches its conclusion.

Dark side ending: novelized version
In the novelization of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, the dark side ending appears as a Force vision to Starkiller during the Battle near the Itani Nebula. Though confused and unsure of how to interpret the vision of a possible future, Starkiller realizes that he and Juno Eclipse would die if he gave into the dark side once more. As a result, the Dark Apprentice makes a canonical appearance in the novel as well. The novel refers to the dark clone as the reborn Starkiller&mdash;a superior and far more powerful version of Galen Marek, especially in comparison to his imperfect clone brother.

Wii version
In the Wii version, the final battle was depicted differently. When Starkiller attempts to submit to Vader, Vader slams Juno down on the ground, instead of being knocked out of the window, causing Starkiller to feel enraged. Starkiller then fights Vader as well as several aberrant clones that Vader summons. After the battle is two-thirds of the way through, Vader hurls a Marek clone at an energy tower, causing the surface to explode and exposing a massive energy ball. Starkiller then attempts to finish off Vader, but Vader manages to trap him in a force choke, and attempts to hurl him into the energy ball, but Starkiller manages to jump back and then throws Vader into the energy ball, electrocuting and seriously injuring Vader in the process before the Sith Lord collapses.

Similarly, there were numerous differences in the battle itself. One difference was that Starkiller remained onboard the bridge of the Salvation and then detonated it after getting through the shield with a Force repulse. He then used a large chunk of the Salvation's remains as a makeshift "bridge" between the hangar section and the main facility itself. In addition to repelling various Imperial forces, he also had to reactivate communications equipment that were in the process of being fried by Incinerator war droids.

Appearances

 * The Force Unleashed II novelization
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II comic