Author's Note: This chapter is going to be a long one. There are chapters in the novel like this that are longer than some, so if you want me to separate future chapters into multiple parts, please let me know, but hopefully you'll still enjoy these longer chapters whenever they come. Anyway, please enjoy, and I let me know what you think of the chapter!

The Rogue Shadow's sublight engines surged with smooth acceleration as its new pilot deftly manipulated the controls. The apprentice watched her closely as she worked, assessing her qualifications as well as her other qualities. Of the pilots he had worked with so far, none had been women. She was barely his age and very beautiful with it, but in the pilot's seat she was a consummate professional. Confident and precise, she moved as though she had been born in a cockpit.

Once he was certain that he and PROXY were in safe hands, he turned his attention to the details of his mission.

"PROXY, give me the target."

The droid who had been his sole continuous companion for most of his life was sitting in a jump seat at the rear of the cockpit, strapped carefully in place. Familiar distortions played across his metal skin and features as he activated the holoprojectors that made him unique.

The appearance of a hardened human warrior took form in the droid's seat. Dressed in familiar browns of the hated Jedi, he possessed high cheekbones and a strong, broken nose. His eyes deeply recessed and revealed none of his thoughts.

"According to official Imperial records," PROXY said in a deep, commanding voice that was nothing like his own, "Jedi Master Rahm Kota was a respected general in the Clone Wars."

"The Clone Wars?" Chloe half-turned at the controls as she prepared the ship for its jump through hyperspace. Her expression was grave as that of the man sitting where PROXY had been. "You're hunting Jedi?"

Starkiller hadn't realized that she was paying attention. "I bring Darth Vader's enemies to justice..." he told her, "And now so do you." Before could initiate a full-on discussion about it, the apprentice said, "Go on, PROXY."

"Of course. Master Kota was a military genius, but did not believe that the clone soldiers were fit for battle. Instead he relied on a small squad of his own personally trained troops. It's the only thing that kept him from being executed when the Emperor discovered the Jedi's plot against the Republic."

[Note: Me not making the "Of course." response by PROXY bold was intentional, for those confused, because in my mind I always imagine PROXY saying that in his own voice, before then continuing in Kota's voice. I hope that mindset of mine makes some kind of sense to you].

Chloe nodded. "So there were no clones in his squad to bring him to justice."

"Exactly, Captain Moretz. After Order 66, he vanished. Official Imperial records actually claim he's dead." The hologram of Kota faded, and PROXY returned to normal. Chloe, though, still appeared more interested in the mission than plotting the hyperspace jump. "So why come out and attack the Empire now?"

Starkiller had been considering that very question himself. "He wants to be found..."

"Then we're walking into a trap..." She looked from the apprentice to PROXY and back again. "How many pilots have you lost before me?"

"Seven."

"Oh, excellent..." she flipped a switch on the Rogue Shadow's complicated console. "Coordinates for Nar Shaddaa are locked. Prepare for lightspeed."

The apprentice braced himself as the stars ahead turned into streaks, and the familiar unreal tunnel opened up around the ship. With a well-tuned whine, the Rogue Shadow and its passengers rocketed into hyperspace.

Nar Shaddaa, aka The Smuggler's Moon, the Vertical City, or even Little Coruscant: the apprentice had never been there before, but he had learned as much as he could from history and other educational holos. Its criminal classes and extensive underworld networks were famous across the galaxy, with lowlifes by the tens of thousands flocking there in search of ill-gotten fortunes.

Although dwarfed by noisome Nal Hutta, the large planet it orbited, it outshone every world in the Y'Toub system in every conceivable spectrum. Dozens of different species called it home.

The apprentice couldn't hide a contemptuous sneer as the Rogue Shadow approached. Notorious for changing allegiances, the criminal capital was currently courting Imperial favour by inviting - or at least tolerating - the presence of a new TIE Fighter manufactuing facility in its upper atmosphere.

He could imagine the reasoning behind it: more money and resources flowing into the system; a new source of "legitimate" jobs for those who required them; an influx of potentially corrupt officials to bribe. Sad for the locals, then, that the facility was staffed entirely by humans, with security maintained by a full legion of Imperial Stormtroopers.

The sneer soon became a frown as the apprentice remembered Lord Vader's words: Leave no witnesses. He was more uncertain about that than he was about facing his first fugitive Jedi.

Although his Master spoke of confronting the Emperor and taking over in his stead, Starkiller felt no disloyalty to the many troopers and officers working steadfastly in Imperial service. If they broke no laws or hatched no plots against his Master, he had no gripe with them. But now, for the first time, he would have to act against whose only error would be to cross his path.

Was this a test, he wondered, to see how far he would go in pursuit of his destiny? If so, he swore not to disappoint his Master! He would obey orders and follow his instincts. He would not fail...!

Sometimes he despaired of ever attaining full mastery of the Force and thereby earning his Master's respect - but he knew well how to turn despair into his service, by using it to fuel his anger, and thereby stoke the desire for power.

In time, he would succeed There was nothing he could not do, in this matter or any other, if he tried hard enough.

Yet his frown deepened as he watched Chloe pilot the ship closer to the facility. What did he know about her? Nothing, really. In almost every respect, she seemed the perfect Imperial officer: neat, efficient, and human. 

That she wasn't afraid to speak her mind couldn't have bothered his Master overmuch, so he shouldn't let it bother him. He would trust her with the Rogue Shadow while he went about his duties, and the Emperor help her if she failed him....

The starfighter facility was much larger than it had seemed from a distance, looking like a stake of round plates hanging high above the Vertical City. What he had assumed were lights flashing across its irregular surface resolved into explosions when he viewed from a nearer perspective. Vast balls of yellow-hot gas erupted at irregular intervals from shattered viewports, weakened bulkheads, and burst access tubes.

"The shipyard's sustained heavy damage," Chloe said matter-of-factly as she looked for a place to dock.

"I can see that..." The apprentice peered with her. Former General Rahm Kota had obviously been busy. "Get us closer."

The Rogue Shadow wove gracefully between gouts of flame. Starkiller was forced to admire Chloe's deft hand at the controls. The only tension she showed as the ship rocked and slewed was in her jaw. It was clenched tight!

He rode out the turbulence with a calm, confident center, enjoying the sharp eddies and currents of the Force. Some craved peace and quiet in order to detach from the cares of the galaxy. He, however, had learned to find himself in any environment - the noisier, in fact, the better. In conflict it was easier to become one with the dark side. Violence was the ultimate meditation.

"Over there," he said, pointing. "That looks like an open hanger." She nodded tightly in acknowledgement. "It is defended." 

"We don't have the time to talk to security." Or to explain that he was forbidden to let anyone know who they were. "Come in hot. Let me handle the defenses." 

With well-practised moves of his own, he activated the ship's weapon systems and took a bead on the cannon emplacements protecting the open hanger. He waited until the automated targeting had registered their presence and they had swiveled to take aim at the Rogue Shadow. Then, with two precise shots, he destroyed the emplacements and thus cleared the way for a landing.

Chloe didn't waste any time. The starfighter streaked into the hanger and settled onto a flat space clear of debris. As thrusters brought the Rogue Shadow to a halt, the apprentice was already out of his seat.

"I will slice into the mainframe and guide you through the infrastructure." Chloe said, slipping on a commset over her right ear. "Your friend here can help me."

Starkiller didn't dissuade her, although he knew her efforts would be mostly unnecessary. He could already feel the presence of the Jedi radiating through the facility like a bright light after a snowstorm. Kota wanted to be found, all right!

"Just keep the ship safe," he told her, "and be ready to leave when I get back. We need to move quickly."

"That is my speciality." she said through the comlink on his wrist as he glided through the ship to the exit ramp, which was fully extended before he arrived. He smelled smoke and spilled blood in the air! That and the faint stench of Jedi made his heart quicken!

His eyes narrowed...and he took a running jump off of the ship!

His lightsaber was lit before he hit the deck, ready to deflect the shots fired his way by the contingent of troopers sent to investigate their landing. The Force guided his arm - no, the Force was his arm. That was how it felt to him. During moments such as these, he was purely a vessel of the Dark Side. It rushed through him like wine down the neck of a bottle, joyous with release and a promise of more to come.

His blade drew glowing lines through the air, casting energy bolts back at the troopers who fired them, sending them sprawling in a shower of sparks.

A dozen open-helmeted men and women in brown combat uniforms - Kota's insurgents, Starkiller presumed - came down the hanger's primary access corridor, sealing the blast door behind them. 

Baring his teeth, he ran to meet them, eager to take the offensive. Their weapons were no match for the power of the Force! A single, powerful push that scattered them like dolls! One he blasted with lighting. A second he choked until all consciousness fled. A third he swept up and pounded against the nearest bulkhead. The rest he dismembered with graceful aggression, ignoring their cries of fears and pain. 

The blast doors opened, and both insurgents and Imperials retreated through it.

"All Imperial squads maintain offensive stance!" blared a voice over the intercom. "All squads maintain offensive stance!" The apprentice grinned and followed his welcoming committee up the corridor.

"Can you hear me?" Chloe asked through the comlink.

"Yes."

"Reports are showing that Kota's forces have stormed the command bridge."

"Then that's where I'm heading." He stepped over the bodies and followed her directions to the letter.

Her calm voiced guided him level-by-level up a huge chasm leading to the top of the facility. Once he was out of her sight, he didn't have to worry about her asking questions about his harsh treatment of their supposed comrades. Lord Vader could fill her in on that point later, if he thought it necessary. For now, Kota was the most important thing.

"The intruders may try using the TIE fighter assembly lines as cover." she said. "And I am picking up explosives on my scanners. Be careful."

He assured her he would, even as he dodged a trap set by Kota's insurgents at the top of the turbolift shaft. The voice over the station's intercom become progressively more alarmed.

"Threat status upgraded! Eliminate all unauthorized personnel!" "Unnecessary force is authorized!" "All K-Level squads report in!" "Reinforce local security stations immediately!"

The walls shook from an explosion so close, it must have buckled every bulkhead on that level. Always he kept in mind Chloe's echoing of his own observation: We are walking into a trap. Except he was doing the walking while she sat in the ship, safe from BlasTech E-11 rifles and the insurgents' ragtag weapons.

"Another Stormtrooper squadron has reached Hanger Twelve," Chloe informed him. "It looks like we will have help some help in retaking the facility." 

"The station is not our concern."

"But Imperial High Command will be quite upset if the TIE assembly lines are damaged - "

"I don't answer to High Command. Now cut the chatter. I'm trying to concentrate."

On the floor of a massive starfighter assembly rig, he stopped with his head raised and his lightsaber cocked. A prickling in the back of his neck warned him of a new threat as a railgun charge exploded to his right, sending bits of TIE Fighter in all directions! He deflected the main force of the explosion, but was still stung by tiny pieces of shrapnel down the back of his right hand!

"Give up!" The insurgents shouted. "We have the factory!"

"What is he?" called another to one of his fellows. "Some kind of shadow trooper?"

"Doesn't matter. Blast him!"

Anger rose up in him, pure and clean, sweeping all other concerns aside. He vaulted a stack of detached solar gather panels and sent a stream of machine parts raining down on the source of the weapons fire. 

Screams sounded over the crashing of metal! Kota's insurgents scattered from behind the TIE cockpits they had been using as shelter. Some fired shots at him, employing a range of weaponry that displayed either a lack of organization or restricted resources, or both.

He deflected every shot with controlled fury and poured his rage into retaliation. He felt no need to hold back. Those disloyal to the Empire deserved everything they got.

Only when the last was buried under a small mountain of titanium alloy hull plates and reactor shielding did he examine in more detail the equipment they had been carrying. As well as their motley weapons and mismatched armor, the fighters had brought explosion timer packs and had clearly been setting up such charges elsewhere on the ship! 

He'd best hurry, he told himself, before the whole facility went up in flames!

No sooner was this thought complete than another shock wave rolled through the structure, much stronger than the last! He barely kept his footing on the heavy deck as TIE fighter and body parts tumbled around him. Chloe was shouting something at him, but it was a moment before he could hear her over the blaring of the intercom. 

"- the stabilizers or the repulsor engines - can't tell which - not good at all."

"What's that?" he said. "Repeat!"

"Kota's accomplices have hit the facility where it hurts," she summarised. "Finish up soon, or we're going down into the skylines with it!"

"Right." The deck was still moving underfoot as he made his way out of the assembly area, blocking the path behind him with a pile of ejector seats and unmounted ion engines. "Where did you see this control center was?"

Chloe guided him through the quaking facility. Anyone unlucky enough to get in his way was unceremoniously pushed aside by telekinesis. Doors buckled shut and weapons mysteriously jammed. He didn't have time to play games anymore!

"Any available squadrons," blared the intercom, "defend the security stations at once!" Then: "They're breaching the security stations!" And finally: "Command bridge to all squadrons, we need your assista-"

The final broadcast ended with a rasp of blasterfire. Then relative peace fell.

Ambient gravity was noticeably lighter by the time he reached the doors that Chloe assured him led to the control center. That meant the entire facility was falling apart at a faster rate than he cared to think about.

Taking a moment to gather himself, to wrap his will like a cloak around the fiery heart of his anger, he prepared himself to face the Jedi whose presence he could feel through several centimeters of durasteel.

Then he gestured with one finger, and the heavy blast door slide open. Beyond lay a room identical to hundreds in the galaxy: cold and metallic, with red display screens keeping staff updated on the facility's status. A long, elevated walkway led to a command post where General Rahm Kota stood with his back to the door, in a gesture deliberate in its commingled confidence and contempt.

He hadn't even drawn his lightsaber, which hung diagonally across his shoulder blades in a custom-made sheath. A brown cloak hung from two metal shoulder pads that only added to the physical presence of the man. He was a warrior with every breath and wore his battle scars with pride.

The apprentice had been ready to attack, but now he felt a brief moment of hesitation. This wasn't what he expected. Jedi were soft from a life of privilege, outdated, spent. He hadn't expected a soldier.

Kota's voice, when he spoke, was deep and commanding, as it had been during PROXY's impersonation of him. "So I've finally drawn you out of hiding." He turned at last. "I ordered my men to lower the containment field on your approach and-" On seeing Starkiller he stopped mid-sentence and looked visibly surprised.

"A boy?" With one blindingly fast movement, the lightsaber was in his hand and lit. "After all these months of attacking Imperial targets, Vader sends a boy to fight me!?"

Grim and silent, the apprentice adopted a fighting crouch. So the trap had been directed not at him, but at his Master. If Kota was disappointed, the apprentice swore that this would be the last emotion Kota ever felt!

He raised his left hand and, with the power of the dark side, unleashed a bolt of Sith Lightning at the renegade Jedi!

Kota only laughed. Raising his left hand in a mirror image of the apprentice's own, he sent the lightning arcing back to its source! The energy struck both of them, hurling them apart.

Starkiller broke off the attempt, blinking smoke away from his eyes. His anger intensified! He was the first to his feet and running as soon as his boots touched the deck. He felt completely weightless, and yet full of momentum, like a hurled spear. His red blade cut a blur through the air, aiming for Kota's throat!

The Jedi General ducked and swept his green lightsaber up and down in a lazy attempt to catch him as he went by. That was a move that the apprentice had long ago listened to avoid by tucking his head down closer to his center of gravity and rolling in midair, then kicking himself back at his opponent off the nearest wall. This time he pushed telekinetically as he came, attempting to knock Kota's feet out from under him before bringing his blade to bear!

Again, however, Kota deflected his Force energies back at him. Again they were pushed apart.

More cautiously the apprentice circled him, slicing chairs to pieces as he walked, and sending the glowing fragments at his enemy's head. Anger made him eager to attack, but he knew better than to give in to it. 

He hadn't been humiliated. He had successfully tested Kota's defenses. Now that he knew a direct attack would probably fail, he had to find another way to get closer to the man. Or to make the Jedi come to him.

Suddenly Kota was moving, charging with astonishing speed behind a furious diversity of strokes. Starkiller retreated with lips pulled back over his teeth. This is more like it! 

Green and red energies clashed as he blocked blow after blow and still Kota kept coming, attempting to overwhelm him with sheer determination and speed! The apprentice went back four steps, then stopped...

He drew his blade close around him, forming a tight defense in deliberate imitation of the Soresu style that Obi-Wan Kenobi favored. Realizing he couldn't prevent it, Kota backed off and tried a different style - slow, deliberate, with sudden and devastating quick strikes! These, too, the apprentice parried, and when the old man's guard looking to be slipping, he offered strikes of his own.

The duel raged across the control center, which shook and rattled as the facility around it broke apart! The apprentice ignored everything else - Chloe's voice, the wildly fluctuating gravity, the never-ending explosions, the rising temperature of the floor beneath him - in order to concentrate solely on this one vital battle!

Kota wouldn't beat him, but could he beat Kota? He had to. He would rather go down with the ship than break off and admit failure! Darth Vader's secret apprentice knew which fate would await him if he did....

The general was wily and strong, and possessed some moves that Starkiller had never seen before. But he was older and willfully ignorant to the Dark Side of the Force. He attempted his charge attack again two more times, obviously hoping to force a mistake or wear out his opponent, but it was he who started to show the effects of the duel, he who took hits. Soon his cloak was a smoking rag, and one of his shoulder pads was glowing red hot!

The apprentice pressed harder, feeling victory and the attainment of his full power approaching. Soon the Jedi's lightsaber - and head - would be his. This he truly would be worthy of his Master's praise!

He caught the general in a Force Choke hold and maintained his grip, even though it turned partially back on him. He had been ready for this: his lungs full. The general, however, clutched at his throat with one hand while barely managing to parry with the other. The apprentice let the fire in his lungs fuel his lust for triumph. Even as darkness crowded around the edges of his vision, he sent objects hurling at Kota's legs and face, battling him on all fronts.

Finally a fragment of smoking debris struck the general's knees from behind. With a cry of frustration, the flailing Jedi went down, his face purple and eyes bulging. The apprentice relented slightly, letting them both have a little air, but before Kota could scramble to his feet he was on him, pressing down on their locked lightsabers, which sizzled just millimeters from their faces!

Kota strained, but couldn't force the red blade away. In his blue eyes the apprentice saw not cleansing hatred, but regret. Even at the end, Kota clung to his weak Jedi ways.

"Vader thinks" - the old man gasped - "he's turned you. But I can sense your future! And Vader isn't part of it!"

Starkiller urged the lightsabers even closer to Kota's face.

Sweat beaded on Jedi Master's forehead. "I sense...I sense only..." A look of shock and confusion passed over his face. "Me?"

Starkiller forced Kota's lightsaber down into his eyes!

And suddenly - as though in a vision from out of time, exactly the sort of vision the apprentice sought in the fire of his red blade - Kota's face became that of another man, a man with dark hair and strong features, features not dissimilar to the apprentice's own.

The general cried out in pain - and in that cry the apprentice thought he heard a man shouting, "Run!"

He flinched away, blinking furiously, wondering if Kota in his desperate extremity had concocted some new and insidious Jedi mind trick. But his head seemed clear of intrusion, and the general seemed to be thinking of anything but attack.

Blinded and agonized, he scrabbled backward, his lightsaber slipping from his fingers and dropping with a dead thud on the deck. A blast of telekinesis erupted from him, shattering every viewport in the command center and sending Starkiller flying!

A raging wind swept past them, sucking out the smoke and shrapnel of their duel. Kota, too, was sucked out and fell with a fading cry into the atmosphere below! Or had he leapt?

The apprentice let the gale drag him closer to the hole where the viewport had once been. Catching a bent stanchion with one hand, he carefully leaned out and looked down, lightsaber at the ready for any final deception.

Kota's body was already far below, spread-eagled and dwindled among the skylanes of the Vertical City. A large transport intersected his path; thenceforth his body was invisible. The apprentice imagined it being swatted like a bug on a transparisteel windscreen and told himself to feel the satisfaction of a task completed.

It didn't come.

General Rahm Kota was blinded and gravely wounded. He couldn't possibly be a problem any longer! But the apprentice couldn't assume he was dead until he had the old man's body in front of him - and there was no chance of finding that body now.

He was profoundly disinclined to report failure to Darth Vader.

What to do?

"This place is going to tear itself apart at any moment!" came Chloe's voice over the comlink. "Are you almost done here?"

"On my way..." With a vehement look on his face and no triumph in his heart, he retreated from the viewport and headed for the door, pausing only to scoop up the fallen Jedi Master's lightsaber on the way....

Author's Note (Final one for this chapter, I swear!): And that's it for Chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter, and I hope you give me your thoughts on the chapter and Starkiller's first Jedi hunting mission. 

Thank you all so much for your feedback on the first 2 chapters, and your patience, and please give me your thoughts on this chapter and how you think it will go for Starkiller when they get back to Vader. I hope you all enjoy your day/evening, and I will see you in the next chapter!

Also, just in case anybody wants to see the game version of Starkiller vs. Kota battle, I've included a Youtube link of the games version of this fight as well:

https://youtu.be/SOyjgB7Z524