Chapter Text
“My lord,” a voice said over the speaker. Vader opened his eyes slowly, his pupils adjusting to the lights of his personal quarters as he did so. His legs were crossed, his hands resting on his knees as he felt himself emerge from the depths of the force, like a diver emerging from the sea.
“We will be exiting hyperspace soon,” the voice continued- male, with a standard Coruscant accent.
Vader frowned and then unfolded his legs from where they were crossed, the only sound in the room being the way his uniform ruffled as he did so, and he stood up straight, looking over, beyond at where his helmet lay. Where there was a mask that came down over his face, hiding it from the rest of the galaxy.
He reached his hand out, summoning the helmet to his hand with the Force and put it on, listening to how it clicked into place as he did so. His field of vision was reduced slightly, but that didn’t matter. Not when he had the force on his side. Not when the helmet hid his voice, hid his eyes.
He had fought with his master over wearing his mask, over hiding his identity. He wanted the galaxy to have no reminder of Anakin Skywalker. He wanted for everyone to think what the truth was- that he had killed him.
And so, Vader stood his ground, and Sidious relented, for now at least. He would allow for Vader to continue to hide who he really was but insisted that this would not be a permanent solution.
That at some point, like how he was the face of the war effort for the republic, he would be the face of the war effort for the empire.
No one knew who he was. And if anyone ever asked about Anakin Skywalker, he would tell them what happened.
That he had killed him.
“Very well, captain,” Vader said, the vocoder hiding his real voice, distorting it and making it lower than it actually was.
He stopped and took one last look around his quarters- they were barer than his ones at the temple. Everything was the standard imperial grey and black. Everything was monotonous, colorless, lifeless. Black sheets pulled over a black bedframe, on a grey floor with white lighting.
The ship lurched as it exited hyperspace, and Vader watched as the blue and white streaks of the hyperspace lanes stopped and faded out into stars the twinkled and shone in the distance.
But their beauty did not distract Vader from the planet that was in front of him.
He turned and left his room quickly, a scowl on his face that was hidden by the mask.
“Lord Vader,” Admiral Yularen said with a slight bow of his head as Vader walked onto the bridge of the ship.
But not the resolute, even though Yularen was there with him. This was the executor, his new ship. Larger and faster than the cruiser that he had commanded during the clone wars.
And there were no Jedi. This was an imperial cruiser.
Although, it hadn’t always been that way.
Vader didn’t bother to nod back in return, his eyes too busy being fixed on the planet that was in front of him.
He had sworn that he would never come back here. Never set foot on its surface again.
“Are you sure,” Vader began, not looking away from the surface of Tatooine, “that this is where the rebels have hidden their base?”
“Absolutely, my lord,” Yularen said with a nod and pulled up a list on his datapad to show Vader.
“It appears as though the rebels were attempting to blend in with the other smuggling operations on the planet, in hopes that they wouldn’t attract too much attention.”
“However,” Yularn continued as he scrolled down, revealing large lists of transactions, some of them quite pricy.
“Due to the newly negotiated deal with the Hutts, we were able to have Jabba the Hutt provide information about what had at first appeared to be a new group of smugglers.”
“For a price, of course,” Vader said and grit his teeth. The vocoder didn’t pick up the venom in his voice.
“Yes,” Yularen added on softly after a moment.
“For a price, however we were able to get detailed movements of the rebel’s transactions and movements through the southern hemisphere of the planet.”
At first, Vader didn’t say anything. He knew why they were there. The southern hemisphere held both of the large port cities of the planet, Mos Eisley and Mos Espa. It was the cooler part of the planet, the majority of the northern part of the planet aside from the north pole inhospitable for most forms of life.
But there were rumors of people who lived at the poles- legends from pilots and from the tuskens that he had heard as a child. A people who lived in perpetual twilight.
He didn’t believe in it.
“Glass the planet,” Vader ordered as he turned to face Yularen who lowered his datapad in shock.
“Draw the rebels out of their hiding spots on the surface. Destroy anywhere they could go to run and hide.”
“What about their ships, should they try to escape?” The admiral asked in a hushed tone with wide eyes.
Vader shrugged.
“Shoot them down. I will go to the surface with a group of men, and we will hunt down the rest of the survivors.”
“And what of the other people on the planet? What about the Hutts?” Yularen asked as he began to consider the scale of the operation that Vader was ordering.
“Inform the Hutts of our decision. Allow for… Jabba to have an hour to gather what he wants and then leave his palace.”
A pause.
“And what of the other inhabitants of the planet?”
Vader turned back to look at the large gash than ran through the surface of Tatooine. Beggar’s Canyon.
“There is no one, and nothing of importance on that planet. We will draw the rebels out, and should anyone object, or withhold information, they will pay the price for treason against the empire.”
Vader said, a strange sense of both satisfaction and dread pooling in his stomach.
He hated this planet. He hated this place. And he was going to destroy it, burn it down to the ground with a fire so hot that it would turn the sands of Tatooine into glass.
“Once the Hutts have left,” Vader said as he turned to walk away from the viewport and back down towards the rest of the bridge, soldiers moving left and right to get out of his way.
“You may fire when ready.”