Vader Unleashed 001

Seated upon a throne, a dark figure clad in black armor rhythmically breathed, the Force raged in a maelstrom of power as his emotions swelled to encompass the entire planet.

Across the fiery hellscape of Mustafar, lava surged and erupted everywhere, gasses hissed, and molten rock rained down upon the hapless inhabitants that called this Nexus of darkside energy home. 

Memories of a life not his own poured into the black armored man's head. Of Earth, and Star Wars. Mixed with these intrusions were those thoughts of Anakin Skywalker, of…

Vader. 

A new man had been born at that moment, as their psyches merged due to the Force, yet no merger would ever take away the hatred and vitriol he would have for the Emperor. Nor would Vader ever allow a secondary personality to divert him from his goals. Perhaps he had more mercy in his heart, a new love for studying the Force, and a penchant for attractive women, but he was still Vader. He still craved power, and maligned the weak. 

With knowledge came understanding. With understanding came hate. 

Discovering that he had children-Luke and Leia-drove Vader into a rage so grand, it altered the environment of Mustafar. 

Palpatine had lied to him. Padme had survived, just as he had felt. 

Clenching his fists, Vader took one look at the mechanical monstrosity he had become, and felt his blood boil with venom and rancour. 

Sidious had imprisoned him in this suit, it was time he broke himself free. 

With this knowledge, Vader had become aware of a powerful artifact located on Mustafar. 

In the game Star Wars Galaxies, there was an item known as the Chu-Gon Cube. This item had the potential to transmogrify anything within a certain size. 

With this item, Vader would be able to make himself a suit, new limbs. 

The thought of taking a fresh breath of air calmed Vader from his rage. Cold certainty settled in its place. 

He began to think of how he could best utilize such a tool. 

Firstly, Vader decided he would maintain a suit of power armor. He had grown accustomed to its bulk, and had survived several explosions that he shouldn't have. Additionally, the fear it struck into his enemies served to further enhance his abilities within the Force. The suit and voice modulator were half of what made Vader, Vader. Lastly, his newfound sensibilities told him that the suit looked cool. 

There were three materials Vader considered crafting his suit out of. Quantum-Crystal, Beskar, and Cortosis-Weave. 

Quantum-Crystal was widely regarded as one of, if not the hardest, most durable substance in the galaxy. There had been accounts of Quantum-Crystal surviving the Death Star laser, and it was used to protect the starfighter-and super weapon-the Starcrusher. 

Notoriously heavy, Vader did not envision himself donning a suit made from this material. However, it would be suitable to craft his own personal ship from the rare metal, and perhaps even a few other vehicles and droids. The Emperor was not a simple foe to be bested so easily. To destroy him, Vader would require more than new limbs and a powerful suit. A new army to rule the galaxy would fit nicely in his ploy for revenge. 

Next on the list was Beskar. The notorious Mandalorian metal was everything Vader wanted in a suit of armor. Tough, durable, sturdy, reliable. To the average Star Wars fan, it was perhaps the best choice. Should he have ever chosen to remake his suit and not had this merger, Vader would have agreed. But Vader knew better. He knew of Cortosis. 

Cortosis-Weave was lightweight, and notorious for being able to short out a lightsaber, and resist blaster fire. However, it had one shortcoming, and that was that it wasn't as tough as the other three. That is, of course, with ordinary Cortosis. There was a rare kind of Cortosis developed after the Imperial era. It was during the Fel Empire that Cortosis-Shield was developed, and it was more durable than Beskar. The only known thing strong enough to pierce it, were lightsabers crafted from Mestare kyber crystals, a rare substance that Vader would also be reproducing for his own use. 

Of the three rare resources, Vader decided his suit would be made of this Cortosis-Shield material.  

Pleased with his decision, Vader now had to go about acquiring the Chu-Gon Cube. From what he could recall, it shouldn't be too far from the former CIS headquarters. An old Jedi ruin held this ancient artifact. 

Pulling up a map within his throne room, Vader had identified the location, and was about to leave for the hangar, when suddenly, an explosion rocked the fortress, and alarms began to blare signaling an attack. 

Seconds later, a hologram projection flickered into his room, and his seneschal, Vaneé. The pale bald man took a knee. 

“Pardon the intrusion, Lord Vader, but the Mustafarians have risen in revolt. They outnumber our garrison 10 to 1.”

“Then I shall see to it myself.” Vader cut the comm, then transferred the call to the garrison commander, and space command. 

A pair of holograms appeared in the room. One was a standard looking brown haired Imperial army officer, and the other was a bionic man with an arm and half his face replaced. 

“Lord Vader, I-we are under attack, we don't have the manpower to withstand this assault. Give the order, and we shall begin the evacuation.” 

“I am not interested in excuses, Captain Junus. You have failed to eliminate this threat before it has transpired. Failure is not acceptable. You will defend this castle, to the last man if need be, Captain. For your sake, I suggest you hurry.” 

Janus’ face paled, but he clicked his heels, and saluted all the same. 

“Your will be done, Lord Vader.” Janus said before hanging up. 

“Admiral Karius, scramble all TIE-fighters, and begin orbital bombardment. None shall escape alive.” Vader stated with ominous surety. 

“As you command, Lord Vader.” Karius-the cyborg-nodded his head, then left to complete his task.

As soon as the holograms winked out, Vader stood up from his simple throne. Gears whirling, breathing mechanism set at a predetermined rate, and pain coursing through his nervous system with each aching second, Vader found this invasion into his sanctum to be a nuisance. One that only served to hold him back from his goal. 

His revenge. 

Pulling upon the annoyance he felt at these insects barring his path, Vader drew upon the darkside, and drove away all extraneous thoughts as he focused upon his goal. 

Breathing deeply, he strode with purpose to look out the window behind his throne. 

Blaster-fire constantly rained down from the parapets of his castle, and thousands of stormtroopers accurately shot into a mass of tens of thousands of insects that were attempting to climb the walls. Large, horse-sized creatures known as lavafleas served as the Mustafarian mount of choice, and acted as the vanguard force whilst tens of thousands more aliens marched on the black rocky crag below.

Their numbers were overwhelming, the garrison-a force numbering at about 10,000-could hardly repel such an invasion by themselves. 

Even when a squadron of TIE-fighters roared to the battle, it barely caused a dent in the swarm. 

Unsheathing his lightsaber, he held out a hand towards the glass, and shattered it with a squeeze of his fist. 

Hot pyroclastic air flowed into his chamber, ruffling his cape, yet Vader cared not for the simmering heat. For all he felt was a cold rage. A rage that these insignificant beings had dared rise up, had dared impede his destiny. 

Without another thought, he jumped. 

Lord Vader had joined the battle. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Father Krt, chieftain of the southern Mustafarians had received reports of a dark monolith appearing out of nowhere like a mirage or illusion. 

He had been curious at first, but his soothsayers and witches informed him that this was no trick. That the Great Darkness had brought forth a Champion, that it was their sacred rite to test this foe, and see if he was worthy of uniting Mustafar once and for all. 

Krt didn't care for that interpretation, and instead had seen this intrusion as the threat of an invader, of an interloper! As the foremost warlord within the southern wastes, it would be he, Father Krt who united their planet, not some foreigner! 

Mobilizing his army-which had already been gathering for an offensive against another tribe-Krt redirected their fury towards this pretender. 

Thousands of lavafleas led the vanguard, and over a hundred thousand men marched on the blackened monolith. 

Despite the strange ranged weaponry, Krt was undeterred when over a thousand of his elite mounted units had been wiped out in seconds. Because for every troop lost, two more took their place. The white clad alien beings manning the castle walls were picked up, and feasted upon by his troops once they finally made contact. Their cackling, hooting and hollering drove morale to new heights.

‘Champion of the Great Darkness? Pathetic.’ Krt thought to himself, and spat to the side in derision. 

He was about to direct his flea towards the conflict, and join in the fun when he saw something that made his blood run cold. 

Dropping from the fortress like a meteor, a figure clad in black collapsed upon a lavaflea, bisected its rider, and then commanded the beast to sprint in his direction. 1 vs a hundred thousand? How foolish could one be? 

“Slay the pretender! Tear him limb from limb” Krt commanded, and brandished his staff of leadership, directing his troops. 

The swarm heeded his call, and many men began to toss hundreds of spears, nets, and buckets full of lava at the blackclad enemy. 

This alien creature didn't care for anything that came at him, and with a strange beam of crimson, he cut apart everything that came at him with ease, and was slashing through dozens of lavafleas every minute as he drew closer, and closer.

“Stop him!” Krt said with some desperation. 

His royal guard-ten men who had trained for 20 years-and each were touched by the Great Dark advanced at the enemy. Their spears acted as a focus, and managed to clash with the red power beam, forcing the dark figure to go on the defensive. 

Krt smugly watched on as this ‘Champion’ seemed to falter in place. Yet that smug satisfaction evaporated like a drop of water that met Mustafarian atmosphere. The royal guard he had been so proud of all seized up, and began to crumble underneath the weight of his power.

Darkness all consuming exuded from each of his pours. He was, he was...!

“Monster.” Krt choked out as he watched his royal guard's limbs twist at unnatural angles before they bent into themselves, and resembled nothing more than cubes of blood and flesh. 

“Huagh tshh. Huagh tshhh. Huagh tshh.” Steady, rhythmic breathing met his ears, and Krt's eyes dilated as he met the cold black unblinking visage of his foe. 

Struggling to breath, Krt took a knee, and tremblingly held up his staff in supplication. 

The dark figure flew to his side, and stared down at him. At that moment, Krt felt as if he were at the base of the holy temples, and was staring into the heart of the Great Darkness itself. 

“Master. Champion. I give you command of the southern wastes. What do I call you, my master?” 

The dark figure levitated the staff into his hand, and power rippled throughout the battlefield, forcing all Mustafarians to look up at them. 

One word left this monsters lips, and with it, every creature who had bathed in Mustafar's darkness knew that he was the one. He was: 

“Vader.” 

~~~~~~~

AN: Depending on how popular this is, I'd like to release it every Friday.

I intend to write Vader as a Force of Nature in this story. Just so you're aware, this is set in the SWTOR timeline, Vader just hasn't realized it yet. 

His current forces are: 10k man garrison, and a fully staffed interdictor Star Destroyer.