Dark Empire
Encyclopedia
Dark Empire is a Star Wars
comic book
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
written by Tom Veitch
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
(Dark Empire I
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
(Empire's End
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
, the official return of Boba Fett
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
in Return of the Jedi
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
's son, Anakin Solo.
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
and 1992
, Dark Empire II
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
to 1995
and Empire's End
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
and became Emperor).
None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
and Lando Calrissian
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Chewbacca
and droid C-3PO
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
or Jedi
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Boba Fett
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
during the events of Return of the Jedi
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
.
Captured by the Emperor
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
and a team of Rebel
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
:
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
Dark Empire is a Star Wars
comic book
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
written by Tom Veitch
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
(Dark Empire I
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
(Empire's End
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
, the official return of Boba Fett
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
in Return of the Jedi
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
's son, Anakin Solo.
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
and 1992
, Dark Empire II
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
to 1995
and Empire's End
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
and became Emperor).
None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
and Lando Calrissian
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Chewbacca
and droid C-3PO
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
or Jedi
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Boba Fett
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
during the events of Return of the Jedi
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
.
Captured by the Emperor
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
and a team of Rebel
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
:
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
Dark Empire is a Star Wars
comic book
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
written by Tom Veitch
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
(Dark Empire I
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
(Empire's End
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
, the official return of Boba Fett
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
in Return of the Jedi
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
's son, Anakin Solo.
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
and 1992
, Dark Empire II
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
to 1995
and Empire's End
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
and became Emperor).
None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
and Lando Calrissian
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Chewbacca
and droid C-3PO
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
or Jedi
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Boba Fett
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
during the events of Return of the Jedi
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
.
Captured by the Emperor
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
and a team of Rebel
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
:
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
written by Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch is an American writer, best known for his contributions to the Dark Horse Comics line of Star Wars comic books, primarily Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. For DC Comics Veitch wrote Animal Man, along with two Elseworlds series featuring Kamandi and an elder Superman...
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
Cam Kennedy
Campbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
(Dark Empire I
Dark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie is a British comics artist, who is best known for his work with Alan Moore on Skizz.-Biography:Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees...
(Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award. He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound...
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
, the official return of Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
's son, Anakin Solo.
Publication history
Dark Empire IDark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
1991 in comics
-January:* Checkmate is canceled by DC Comics with issue #33.* El Diablo vol. 2 is canceled by DC with issue #16.* Count Duckula is canceled by the Marvel Comics imprint Star Comics with issue #15....
and 1992
1992 in comics
-Year overall:* Image Comics explodes onto the scene, releasing eight ongoing and limited series, starting with Youngblood in April; followed by Spawn in May; Savage Dragon in July; and Brigade, Shadowhawk, and WildC.A.T.S. in August....
, Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
1994 in comics
-Year overall:* Huge changes in the marketplace force many retailers and small publishers out of business...
to 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
and Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
Prelude
Before the Thrawn Crisis, ImperialGalactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn is a fictional character and major antagonist from the Star Wars galaxy. He first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, published between 1992 and 1994...
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
Clone Wars (Star Wars)
The Clone Wars are a series of fictional intragalactic battles in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. The conflict is first mentioned in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , but no details are given , and the wars themselves are not featured until the series' fifth and sixth...
and became Emperor).
The Mutiny / The Time of Destruction
After the Emperor's death, the varied factions of the Empire had regained enough territory from the Republic that a "falling out among thieves" occurred. Tragically, this "Imperial Mutiny" occurred right after what would have been Thrawn's greatest success had he lived past the Battle of Bilbringi. The Mutiny was proposed from talks among the former Imperial Advisors to Palpatine such as Ars Dangor, that they simply have a secret election of one of their number in the old Galactic Senate on who would succeed Palpatine. The rest of the Advisors would then constitute a new Senate. The Moffs and Grand Moffs of the Imperial coalition agreed to this proposal, but insisted that they be allowed votes, and vote in proportion to the number of inhabited worlds they control. Unsurprisingly, the Advisors declined. And of course, COMPNOR and the Imperial Inquisitors were upset at being left out completely of the deliberations. They expressed their displeasure in various ways, in demands for ideological litmus tests and a number of purges and show trials, respectively.None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
Dark Empire
During the Mutiny, the Rebel Alliance seeks to weaken the factions as much as possible by surreptitiously entering systems and battles with captured Star Destroyers, broadcasting falsified signals, and provoking attacks by one group against another. On one of these raids to the Coruscant system is the Star Destroyer Liberator (an Imperater-class Star Destroyer captured at the Battle of Endor and, over a five-year period, repaired and beefed-up for covert missions), and its sister ship the Emancipator (originally the Accuser). The Emancipator would have better luck in its later missions, destroying the Allegiance in the Battle of Calamari but then devoured by the World Devastator Silencer-7.The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
and Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Wookiee
Wookiees are a species of bipeds in the Star Wars universe. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca, a companion to Han Solo.-Inspiration:...
Chewbacca
Chewbacca
Chewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and droid C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
Sith
-Sith:The Sith is a name applied to certain characters in the Star Wars universe. In the films they are the central antagonists. They are capable of using the dark side of the Force.-The Invention of the Sith:...
or Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
during the events of Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
Dark side (Star Wars)
The dark side of the Force is a prominent moral, philosophical, and psychic concept in the Star Wars universe. It is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and appears in all subsequent Star Wars fiction...
.
Captured by the Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
Great Jedi Purge
The Great Jedi Purge, or Order 66, is a major event in the Star Wars storyline. It is officially documented as a plot element in the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and is further referenced in the Star Wars Expanded Universe...
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
Dark Empire II
With the defeat and "death" of the Emperor, and with the blunting of the threat of the World Devastators, hammer of Operation Shadow Hand, the Empire retreats and lies quiescent. In this period of relative peace, Luke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi is the name given in the Star Wars universe to fictional characters attuned to the Force and adept in its dark side. They exist by that name only in the Expanded Universe, including video games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Jedi Knight series; the term is never...
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
Tractor beam
A tractor beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Since the 1990s, technology and research has labored to make it a reality, mostly at microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam...
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and a team of Rebel
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
Superweapon
A superweapon is an extremely powerful weapon by the standards of its time and its scale. Examples include the Tsar Bomba , various superguns and other various weapons employed to give a decisive advantage over opposing countries or forces. The given advantage is usually based on intimidation and...
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
Empire's End
After perishing in battle with Luke and Leia Skywalker in Dark Empire I, Emperor Palpatine is forced to occupy an inferior clone body, since it was the last clone body that remained undestroyed. Unbeknownst to him, his personal physician had been suborned by Carnor Jax, backed by a number of other high-ranking Imperial personnel. The physician deliberately inserts genetic material and contaminants into all stored samples of the Emperor's original body, so the resulting bodies are nowhere as resistant to the ravaging effects of the Dark Side as the original.The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
Characters
- Rayf Ysanna
- Jem Ysanna
- Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
- Leia Skywalker
- Anakin Solo
- Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
- ChewbaccaChewbaccaChewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
- PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
- Umak Leth
- R2-D2R2-D2R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
- Vima-da-boda
- Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
- Ashka Boda
- Kam Solusar
- Executor Sedriss
- Ood Bnar
- Empatojayos Brand
- Carnor Jax
Collected editions
The various series have been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
- Dark EmpireDark Empire IDark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
(1993, ISBN 1-56971-073-2) - Dark Empire IIDark Empire IIDark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
(1995, ISBN 1-56971-119-4) - Empire's EndEmpire's EndEmpire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
(1997, ISBN 1-56971-306-5)
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
- Dark Empire Trilogy (352 pages, Dark Horse Comics, September 2010, ISBN 1-59582-612-2, Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, December 2010, ISBN 1848568878)
Audiobooks
In 1994 and 1995 respectively, Time Warner Audio PublishingTime Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
- John CyganJohn CyganJohn Cygan is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.-Career:Cygan is notable for his television work and his voice work .-Filmography:*The Commish ......
- as Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
, Wedge AntillesWedge AntillesWedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is a supporting character portrayed by Denis Lawson in the original Star Wars trilogy. Antilles, also called the "greatest ace" pilot in the Rebel Alliance, also appears in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and is the lead...
, Vill Goir, OkkoOkkoOkko is a comic book published in a series of mini-series, or cycles. Originally published in France by Delcourt, Archaia Studios Press started reprinting the series in English in 2006. This series is intended for Mature Readers; it contains adult content, graphic violence, and nudity.Written and...
and Umak Leth - Joe Hacker - as Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
, Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
and Empatojayos Brand - Ann Patricio - as Princess Leia and Mon Mothma
- Nick JamesonNick JamesonNick Jameson is an American actor and voice actor, as well as a songwriter, composer, musician and producer. He has appeared in the television series The Critic, 24, Lost and, vocally, in Star Wars: Clone Wars as Palpatine , the radio adaption of Dark Empire, and several other productions of Star...
- as Emperor PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
and BeltaneBeltaneBeltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine... - Jim WardJim Ward (voice actor)James Kevin "Jim" Ward is a voice actor who has contributed to a large number of video games and movies. He co-hosts The Stephanie Miller Show, a nationally-syndicated liberal radio talk show which features a number of his impersonations of political figures and other celebrities and newsmakers...
- as C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
, Kam Solusar and Sedriss - Glynnis Talken - as Salla Zend, Vima-Da-Boda and Jem Ysanna
- Andy CowanAndy CowanAndy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He hosts the radio comedy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles...
- as Admiral AckbarAdmiral AckbarAdmiral Ackbar is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction saga. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance who led major combat operations against the Galactic Empire and was later integral in the formation of the...
, Zevulon Veers and Baddon Fass - Billy Dee WilliamsBilly Dee WilliamsWilliam December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
- as Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
Dark Empire is a Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
written by Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch is an American writer, best known for his contributions to the Dark Horse Comics line of Star Wars comic books, primarily Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. For DC Comics Veitch wrote Animal Man, along with two Elseworlds series featuring Kamandi and an elder Superman...
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
Cam Kennedy
Campbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
(Dark Empire I
Dark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie is a British comics artist, who is best known for his work with Alan Moore on Skizz.-Biography:Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees...
(Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award. He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound...
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
, the official return of Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
's son, Anakin Solo.
Publication history
Dark Empire IDark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
1991 in comics
-January:* Checkmate is canceled by DC Comics with issue #33.* El Diablo vol. 2 is canceled by DC with issue #16.* Count Duckula is canceled by the Marvel Comics imprint Star Comics with issue #15....
and 1992
1992 in comics
-Year overall:* Image Comics explodes onto the scene, releasing eight ongoing and limited series, starting with Youngblood in April; followed by Spawn in May; Savage Dragon in July; and Brigade, Shadowhawk, and WildC.A.T.S. in August....
, Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
1994 in comics
-Year overall:* Huge changes in the marketplace force many retailers and small publishers out of business...
to 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
and Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
Prelude
Before the Thrawn Crisis, ImperialGalactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn is a fictional character and major antagonist from the Star Wars galaxy. He first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, published between 1992 and 1994...
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
Clone Wars (Star Wars)
The Clone Wars are a series of fictional intragalactic battles in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. The conflict is first mentioned in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , but no details are given , and the wars themselves are not featured until the series' fifth and sixth...
and became Emperor).
The Mutiny / The Time of Destruction
After the Emperor's death, the varied factions of the Empire had regained enough territory from the Republic that a "falling out among thieves" occurred. Tragically, this "Imperial Mutiny" occurred right after what would have been Thrawn's greatest success had he lived past the Battle of Bilbringi. The Mutiny was proposed from talks among the former Imperial Advisors to Palpatine such as Ars Dangor, that they simply have a secret election of one of their number in the old Galactic Senate on who would succeed Palpatine. The rest of the Advisors would then constitute a new Senate. The Moffs and Grand Moffs of the Imperial coalition agreed to this proposal, but insisted that they be allowed votes, and vote in proportion to the number of inhabited worlds they control. Unsurprisingly, the Advisors declined. And of course, COMPNOR and the Imperial Inquisitors were upset at being left out completely of the deliberations. They expressed their displeasure in various ways, in demands for ideological litmus tests and a number of purges and show trials, respectively.None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
Dark Empire
During the Mutiny, the Rebel Alliance seeks to weaken the factions as much as possible by surreptitiously entering systems and battles with captured Star Destroyers, broadcasting falsified signals, and provoking attacks by one group against another. On one of these raids to the Coruscant system is the Star Destroyer Liberator (an Imperater-class Star Destroyer captured at the Battle of Endor and, over a five-year period, repaired and beefed-up for covert missions), and its sister ship the Emancipator (originally the Accuser). The Emancipator would have better luck in its later missions, destroying the Allegiance in the Battle of Calamari but then devoured by the World Devastator Silencer-7.The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
and Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Wookiee
Wookiees are a species of bipeds in the Star Wars universe. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca, a companion to Han Solo.-Inspiration:...
Chewbacca
Chewbacca
Chewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and droid C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
Sith
-Sith:The Sith is a name applied to certain characters in the Star Wars universe. In the films they are the central antagonists. They are capable of using the dark side of the Force.-The Invention of the Sith:...
or Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
during the events of Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
Dark side (Star Wars)
The dark side of the Force is a prominent moral, philosophical, and psychic concept in the Star Wars universe. It is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and appears in all subsequent Star Wars fiction...
.
Captured by the Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
Great Jedi Purge
The Great Jedi Purge, or Order 66, is a major event in the Star Wars storyline. It is officially documented as a plot element in the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and is further referenced in the Star Wars Expanded Universe...
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
Dark Empire II
With the defeat and "death" of the Emperor, and with the blunting of the threat of the World Devastators, hammer of Operation Shadow Hand, the Empire retreats and lies quiescent. In this period of relative peace, Luke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi is the name given in the Star Wars universe to fictional characters attuned to the Force and adept in its dark side. They exist by that name only in the Expanded Universe, including video games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Jedi Knight series; the term is never...
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
Tractor beam
A tractor beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Since the 1990s, technology and research has labored to make it a reality, mostly at microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam...
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and a team of Rebel
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
Superweapon
A superweapon is an extremely powerful weapon by the standards of its time and its scale. Examples include the Tsar Bomba , various superguns and other various weapons employed to give a decisive advantage over opposing countries or forces. The given advantage is usually based on intimidation and...
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
Empire's End
After perishing in battle with Luke and Leia Skywalker in Dark Empire I, Emperor Palpatine is forced to occupy an inferior clone body, since it was the last clone body that remained undestroyed. Unbeknownst to him, his personal physician had been suborned by Carnor Jax, backed by a number of other high-ranking Imperial personnel. The physician deliberately inserts genetic material and contaminants into all stored samples of the Emperor's original body, so the resulting bodies are nowhere as resistant to the ravaging effects of the Dark Side as the original.The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
Characters
- Rayf Ysanna
- Jem Ysanna
- Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
- Leia Skywalker
- Anakin Solo
- Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
- ChewbaccaChewbaccaChewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
- PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
- Umak Leth
- R2-D2R2-D2R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
- Vima-da-boda
- Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
- Ashka Boda
- Kam Solusar
- Executor Sedriss
- Ood Bnar
- Empatojayos Brand
- Carnor Jax
Collected editions
The various series have been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
- Dark EmpireDark Empire IDark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
(1993, ISBN 1-56971-073-2) - Dark Empire IIDark Empire IIDark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
(1995, ISBN 1-56971-119-4) - Empire's EndEmpire's EndEmpire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
(1997, ISBN 1-56971-306-5)
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
- Dark Empire Trilogy (352 pages, Dark Horse Comics, September 2010, ISBN 1-59582-612-2, Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, December 2010, ISBN 1848568878)
Audiobooks
In 1994 and 1995 respectively, Time Warner Audio PublishingTime Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
- John CyganJohn CyganJohn Cygan is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.-Career:Cygan is notable for his television work and his voice work .-Filmography:*The Commish ......
- as Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
, Wedge AntillesWedge AntillesWedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is a supporting character portrayed by Denis Lawson in the original Star Wars trilogy. Antilles, also called the "greatest ace" pilot in the Rebel Alliance, also appears in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and is the lead...
, Vill Goir, OkkoOkkoOkko is a comic book published in a series of mini-series, or cycles. Originally published in France by Delcourt, Archaia Studios Press started reprinting the series in English in 2006. This series is intended for Mature Readers; it contains adult content, graphic violence, and nudity.Written and...
and Umak Leth - Joe Hacker - as Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
, Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
and Empatojayos Brand - Ann Patricio - as Princess Leia and Mon Mothma
- Nick JamesonNick JamesonNick Jameson is an American actor and voice actor, as well as a songwriter, composer, musician and producer. He has appeared in the television series The Critic, 24, Lost and, vocally, in Star Wars: Clone Wars as Palpatine , the radio adaption of Dark Empire, and several other productions of Star...
- as Emperor PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
and BeltaneBeltaneBeltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine... - Jim WardJim Ward (voice actor)James Kevin "Jim" Ward is a voice actor who has contributed to a large number of video games and movies. He co-hosts The Stephanie Miller Show, a nationally-syndicated liberal radio talk show which features a number of his impersonations of political figures and other celebrities and newsmakers...
- as C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
, Kam Solusar and Sedriss - Glynnis Talken - as Salla Zend, Vima-Da-Boda and Jem Ysanna
- Andy CowanAndy CowanAndy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He hosts the radio comedy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles...
- as Admiral AckbarAdmiral AckbarAdmiral Ackbar is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction saga. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance who led major combat operations against the Galactic Empire and was later integral in the formation of the...
, Zevulon Veers and Baddon Fass - Billy Dee WilliamsBilly Dee WilliamsWilliam December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
- as Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
Dark Empire is a Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
. It consists of a six-issue limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
written by Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch is an American writer, best known for his contributions to the Dark Horse Comics line of Star Wars comic books, primarily Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. For DC Comics Veitch wrote Animal Man, along with two Elseworlds series featuring Kamandi and an elder Superman...
and drawn by Cam Kennedy
Cam Kennedy
Campbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
(Dark Empire I
Dark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
), followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy (Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
) and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn by Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie is a British comics artist, who is best known for his work with Alan Moore on Skizz.-Biography:Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees...
(Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
).
The "Dark Empire Trilogy" follows the post-trilogy adventures of the main characters from the original Star Wars franchise. Dark Empire in particular, is notable for being one of the very first Star Wars comics to be produced by Dark Horse Comics, who had acquired the comic rights to the Star Wars franchise in the early 90s. Dark Empire is also notable as being the first Star Wars comic to spin directly out of the events of Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award. He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound...
's "Grand Admiral Thrawn" trilogy, which officially explored the post-movie fates of the main characters of the Star Wars films.
The story deals with the return of the villainous Palpatine
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
, having successfully cheated death by becoming a spirit entity that is "reincarnated" through cloning technology. Other themes include Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
temporarily succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
, the official return of Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(who had seemingly died after being swallowed by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the first appearance of Princess Leia and Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
's son, Anakin Solo.
Publication history
Dark Empire IDark Empire I
Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
was six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991
1991 in comics
-January:* Checkmate is canceled by DC Comics with issue #33.* El Diablo vol. 2 is canceled by DC with issue #16.* Count Duckula is canceled by the Marvel Comics imprint Star Comics with issue #15....
and 1992
1992 in comics
-Year overall:* Image Comics explodes onto the scene, releasing eight ongoing and limited series, starting with Youngblood in April; followed by Spawn in May; Savage Dragon in July; and Brigade, Shadowhawk, and WildC.A.T.S. in August....
, Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II
Dark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994
1994 in comics
-Year overall:* Huge changes in the marketplace force many retailers and small publishers out of business...
to 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
and Empire's End
Empire's End
Empire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
, two-issue limited series published in 1995.
Prelude
Before the Thrawn Crisis, ImperialGalactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
forces were torn apart by a civil war, and attacked by the Rebel Alliance, who used captured Imperial Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
s to sow further dissension among their ranks, and cherry-picked sectors: some sectors and systems fell peaceably, un-noticed by the Imperials in the chaotic communications and bureaucratic turmoil. Others did not—it was the Imperial forces fighting to the death under Lord Shadowspawn that finally made Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
resign his commission as General for the Rebel Alliance. A possible compromise between the New Republic and the Empire, in which the New Republic would accept Palpatine's last relative, a grandniece named Ederlathh Pallopides, as a constitutional monarch, failed when the broker, Admiral Betl Oxtroe, died at the hands of a Noghri assassin. The Noghri never said who ordered him to kill the admiral.
However, in the chaos lurked a certain perverse order: some Imperials died, or seemed to; still others simply disappeared and never returned. Around the time of Thrawn, the gradual trend had grown to such magnitude that its effects grew noticeable. Also, despite the desperate need for war material and funds and regular capital starships of the line, the Kuat Drive Yards never seemed to halt construction on the successor to the monster Executor-class Star Destroyers, the Eclipse-class, the prototype of which would be dubbed simply Eclipse. Orders were sometimes given, but they were never obeyed, and the issuers never tried a second time.
It was into this chaos that a number of messages came over the HoloNet to the ministers and Moffs bickering over succession to the throne. The codes were genuine, and extremely high-level; there was no question they had originated with a Grand Admiral, who revealed himself to be Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn is a fictional character and major antagonist from the Star Wars galaxy. He first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, published between 1992 and 1994...
. Given his status as a war-hero (having notably defeated, among others, Grand Admiral Zaarin's attempted coup), the Imperials rallied behind him. During the Thrawn Crisis, the New Republic was too busy fighting for its life, and Thrawn apparently too busy prosecuting his campaign, to take any notice of these or many other series of troubling anomalies. Thrawn was a genius, however, and close to Palpatine, before Palpatine dispatched him to conquer and unify the Unknown Regions. So it is unknown whether Thrawn knew he was being used as a red herring by Palpatine, to cover up the evidence of his return and his machinations (similar in scope and complexity to the ones by which he orchestrated the Clone Wars
Clone Wars (Star Wars)
The Clone Wars are a series of fictional intragalactic battles in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. The conflict is first mentioned in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , but no details are given , and the wars themselves are not featured until the series' fifth and sixth...
and became Emperor).
The Mutiny / The Time of Destruction
After the Emperor's death, the varied factions of the Empire had regained enough territory from the Republic that a "falling out among thieves" occurred. Tragically, this "Imperial Mutiny" occurred right after what would have been Thrawn's greatest success had he lived past the Battle of Bilbringi. The Mutiny was proposed from talks among the former Imperial Advisors to Palpatine such as Ars Dangor, that they simply have a secret election of one of their number in the old Galactic Senate on who would succeed Palpatine. The rest of the Advisors would then constitute a new Senate. The Moffs and Grand Moffs of the Imperial coalition agreed to this proposal, but insisted that they be allowed votes, and vote in proportion to the number of inhabited worlds they control. Unsurprisingly, the Advisors declined. And of course, COMPNOR and the Imperial Inquisitors were upset at being left out completely of the deliberations. They expressed their displeasure in various ways, in demands for ideological litmus tests and a number of purges and show trials, respectively.None of this involved the Imperial Starfleet or Army in the process, who proceeded the demand that they be allowed to appoint a new Grand Admiral and finish off the Rebels. Backed up by regional forces and Moff-assigned fleets, as well as the military forces COMPNOR had built up, the Moffs and Advisors and COMPNOR and the Inquisitorius refused to allow the military any say. With all this tension, war exploded among multiple factions, including Imperial Intelligence and its equally large and competent adversary, the Imperial Security Bureau. Coruscant became the focus, ravaged by multiple forces, all fighting each other and ravaging the civilian populace. The multifarious nature of the conflict earned it as many names: "The Mutiny," or "Rebellion" or "The Galactic Civil War", or even most bizarrely, "The War of Purification" (by COMPNOR). Some merely described it as "The Time of Destruction."
The mutual orgies of destruction eventually came to an end when the combatants wore themselves out, and Palpatine began cleaning up the debris with agents like Lord Cronal, testing the survivors for loyalty and eliminating the incapable or disloyal.
Dark Empire
During the Mutiny, the Rebel Alliance seeks to weaken the factions as much as possible by surreptitiously entering systems and battles with captured Star Destroyers, broadcasting falsified signals, and provoking attacks by one group against another. On one of these raids to the Coruscant system is the Star Destroyer Liberator (an Imperater-class Star Destroyer captured at the Battle of Endor and, over a five-year period, repaired and beefed-up for covert missions), and its sister ship the Emancipator (originally the Accuser). The Emancipator would have better luck in its later missions, destroying the Allegiance in the Battle of Calamari but then devoured by the World Devastator Silencer-7.The Rebels emerge into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demand novel and unusual codes for clearance. The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered for with slicers do not work, and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
and Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
are shot down over the former Imperial City. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
, Luke, like his father, manages to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hide and fight Imperial forces.
When the news reaches Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa, they rush to the rescue along with Wookiee
Wookiee
Wookiees are a species of bipeds in the Star Wars universe. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca, a companion to Han Solo.-Inspiration:...
Chewbacca
Chewbacca
Chewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and droid C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
. But while they arrive in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator, they are too late to save Luke, as the Reborn Emperor had initiated Operation Shadow Hand, his master plan to retake the galaxy, destroy the Rebel Alliance, and ensure that another rebellion could never occur again. The first step requires that he find someone to take Anakin Skywalker
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
's place at his side - preferably his son. Palpatine has had several years to continue studying the Dark Side, in a healthy and strong clone body, and he has made considerable progress: uniquely among all Sith
Sith
-Sith:The Sith is a name applied to certain characters in the Star Wars universe. In the films they are the central antagonists. They are capable of using the dark side of the Force.-The Invention of the Sith:...
or Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, he was capable of calling and commanding "Force storms
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
", destructive distortions in the very fabric of space-time.
This is followed by the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand: attacks by fleets of World Devastators, creations of Umak Leth that destroy everything in their path, plunging defeated enemies into vast furnaces, in turn which produce weapons and raw materials capable of repairing or building new World Devastators. The first target Palpatine selects, for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.
The recently rescued Lando and his crew are dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding battle while the main Rebel fleets are assembled. By this time, Luke Skywalker has reached Byss. There he meets face-to-face with the Emperor Reborn
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
; Skywalker's attempt at killing him is thwarted when Palpatine reveals that his vigorous fresh clone body is even more skilled at lightsaber combat than is Luke himself. Faced with an impossible situation and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor, his charismatic presence, his undoubted genius, and his deep knowledge of both sides of the Force, Luke acquiesces to becoming his apprentice.
With Luke gone, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia Organa Solo travel to Nar Shaddaa, pursuing rumors of an old Jedi Master named Vima-da-boda. Betrayed by their friends (Mako Spince) and pursued by the bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
(long thought dead, eaten by the Sarlacc
Sarlacc
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth...
during the events of Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
in combat over the planet Mon Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side
Dark side (Star Wars)
The dark side of the Force is a prominent moral, philosophical, and psychic concept in the Star Wars universe. It is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and appears in all subsequent Star Wars fiction...
.
Captured by the Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
Holocron, which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge
Great Jedi Purge
The Great Jedi Purge, or Order 66, is a major event in the Star Wars storyline. It is officially documented as a plot element in the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and is further referenced in the Star Wars Expanded Universe...
from Ashka Boda after slaying him. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
under his control, the Emperor appears to reign supreme in the Force. Unfortunately, this is only half of the Emperor's plan; great new fleets of the Empire are spreading across the Galactic Core, and soon the entire galaxy will fall under the sway of the dark side.
Luke travels with the Emperor aboard the recently completed and christened flagship, the Eclipse, to capture his sister. Prior to the Eclipses arrival, the Holocron Leia had stolen from the Emperor delivers a thousand-year-old prophecy to Leia, which refers to her battle against the young Emperor. It is Leia who boarded the Emperor's Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
during its assault on the Pinnacle Moon of Da Soocha. She appeals to the goodness inside Luke, redeeming him, and together with him, assaults Palpatine with the Light Side of the Force, cutting him off from the Dark Side and control of the titanic Force storm
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
he had exerted himself to conjure, intending to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet. Luke and Leia escape the doomed Super Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
, and the end result is the complete destruction of the Eclipse and the presumed death of Palpatine.
Dark Empire II
With the defeat and "death" of the Emperor, and with the blunting of the threat of the World Devastators, hammer of Operation Shadow Hand, the Empire retreats and lies quiescent. In this period of relative peace, Luke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
begins the preliminary operations to restore the Jedi Order and returns to Pinnacle Base with the recently redeemed Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi
Dark Jedi is the name given in the Star Wars universe to fictional characters attuned to the Force and adept in its dark side. They exist by that name only in the Expanded Universe, including video games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Jedi Knight series; the term is never...
Kam Solusar. Mon Mothma issues a meeting to discuss Beltane's arrangement for the Alliance to intercept the shipment of his droids en route to Byss, but Wedge has a better plan: let the shipment go to Byss with loads of Rebel troops inside the droids. Luke suggests that the droids be used to liberate worlds so the Alliance can launch an all-out attack, but everyone else votes for Wedge's plan. Mothma tells Luke that they must strike at the heart of the Empire while he tries to restore the Jedi Knights. The Holocron reveals the location Ossus, an ancient Jedi world that was beautiful until it was destroyed by the Dark Side. Knowing there might be some Jedi artifacts lying there, Luke departs for Ossus. Han and Leia depart as well, back to Nar Shaddaa. They hope to track down Vima-Da-Boda, and draw upon her ancient knowledge, then head for seclusion with their children on New Alderaan.
On Byss, the Executor Sedriss returns from his inconclusive battle against Balmorra to discover the Dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di killing the remaining clones of Palpatine. Slaying them for their treason, Sedriss discovers that their killings had been futile: the Emperor
Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
has already been reborn, exceeding everyone's expectations. Upon his return, the Emperor orders Operation Shadow Hand re-commenced.
On Nar Shaddaa, Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
discovers the Solos after they escape the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Blackhole/Imperial stormtoopers led by two of the Dark Side Elite, Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. They had fled to the underworld of the Smuggler's Moon after their initial haven, the hidden repair center ran by Shug Ninx, was taken over by storm troopers. Confronted by an array of bounty hunters, including a clan of Gank killers, and the news that the Hutt clans had doubled the bounty on them, they had little choice but to leave the moon - where Boba Fett had patiently waited for the Millennium Falcon to take off. Their second attempt at penetrating the depths has greater luck; they have just found Vima-Da-Boda when Fett attacks. His assault is defeated when Chewbacca ignited his jet-pack (in a replay of Fett's undoing in Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
), and the Falcon soon takes off again. However, their immediate departure is sabotaged by Mako Spince, who, from his perch in the Traffic Control spire, had forwarded their location to the waiting Dark Siders aboard the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer soon locks a tractor beam
Tractor beam
A tractor beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Since the 1990s, technology and research has labored to make it a reality, mostly at microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam...
on the Millennium Falcon, catching the ship in its firm grip. Taunted by Spince, Han figures out a clever escape: he pilots the Falcon under the spire - the officers do not realize the tractor beam is now locked on the spire - and the beams inexorably rip off the spire and pull it into the Star Destroyer itself, killing Spince and destroying the engines of the ISD. Bereft of impetus and in a decaying orbit, the Destroyer plunges into the surface of Nar Shaddaa, killing millions and all hands aboard.
This is not the only setback for the Empire: Palpatine had dispatched Sedriss and Vill Goir to capture Skywalker and Solusar. Solusar quickly kills Goir, but Sedriss, outmatched by Skywalker, takes one of the Force-sensitive natives hostage and leans against a tree. To all of the combatants' immense surprise, the tree turns out to be a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar. Sedriss and Bnar face off, and the two perish in an explosion of Force energy. But even in his death, Bnar protects his cache of ancient lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
s, a gift to the would-be Jedi and a future Neti in his place. With the aid of the Ysanna, Luke discovers precisely what he had hoped for: an intact Jedi library.
Elsewhere, Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
and a team of Rebel
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
commandos, including Zev Veers, are hiding aboard a shipment of War Droids space-bound for the Emperor's throneworld. The droids prove superior to even the defenses of the Citadel until the Emperor releases an army of monstrous creatures - "chrysalis monsters" - rancors mutated by the dark side and Sith alchemy into crazed and nigh-invulnerable beasts of destruction. Since the creatures use brute force to destroy the droids, the droids' ability to absorb the blasts of laser weapons proves useless. The Rebel force is decimated, but they are rescued at the last moment by a force of smugglers led by Salla Zend and Shug Ninx. The Emperor allows them to escape, but they do not know that the Empire is tracking them and that its new superweapon
Superweapon
A superweapon is an extremely powerful weapon by the standards of its time and its scale. Examples include the Tsar Bomba , various superguns and other various weapons employed to give a decisive advantage over opposing countries or forces. The given advantage is usually based on intimidation and...
, the Galaxy Gun is ready. The Emperor fires the weapon, which reaches the Da Soocha system, and destroys Pinnacle Moon, while Luke's Jedi Explorer (with the other Jedi aboard), which would have landed shortly had its crew not seen its projectile, narrowly escapes destruction.
Meanwhile, on the forgotten and nebula-hidden world of Ganath, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
has to equip his damaged Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
with an antique weapon called the Lightning Gun, hopefully sufficient to defeat Slave I and Boba Fett, who lurks beyond the cloud, waiting for Solo to escape. Defeating Fett yet again, with the former Jedi Knight and ruler of Ganath, Empatojayos Brand, Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Princess Leia take refuge with their infant twins on the planet New Alderaan. There, Luke explains about a great Jedi power known as Battle Meditation. They must regroup with Lando and Wedge if their comrades are still alive, and Han and Chewbacca leave the planet to search for them. During the night, Luke has a terrible nightmare that he and Vader are one, not knowing that robotic bugs are injecting poison into his veins as he sleeps. He wakes up and sees two Darksiders ready to kill him. Jem Ysanna and Leia kill two of the Darksiders, but Jem is killed. Vima sees what has happened and saves Luke. Meanwhile, three other Darksiders kidnap Leia's twins. Luckily, Brand, Kam and Rayf are on the scene and duel them. After the fighting ends, Jem joins the Force as Rayf cries over her lost form. Then, they find an AT-AT attack is destroying the settlement. Thankfully, Han arrives with Salla and Shug, accompanied by an X-wing group based in a nearby system. Once the village's population is rescued and evacuated, the four freighters and three X-wings jump into hyperspace. The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where Luke and Kam had had their initial confrontation, and they find that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Anakin Solo is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.
Empire's End
After perishing in battle with Luke and Leia Skywalker in Dark Empire I, Emperor Palpatine is forced to occupy an inferior clone body, since it was the last clone body that remained undestroyed. Unbeknownst to him, his personal physician had been suborned by Carnor Jax, backed by a number of other high-ranking Imperial personnel. The physician deliberately inserts genetic material and contaminants into all stored samples of the Emperor's original body, so the resulting bodies are nowhere as resistant to the ravaging effects of the Dark Side as the original.The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Leia's youngest child, named Anakin after his deceased grandfather, has the only workable body.
Palpatine follows the Solos to Onderon in order to gain a new body, to ensure the future of his rule. A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body. He desperately tries to force his spirit into the infant Anakin Solo, but he is blocked by the soul of the dying Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
, Empatojayos Brand, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in willingly sending his eternal soul into the "madness beyond death" that is the Dark Side, to ensure Palpatine would go as well and can never return. Luke then vows to revive the Jedi Order. After Palpatine's death, Vima mysteriously disappears. After the death of Palpatine, a projectile from the Galaxy Gun is shot into Byss (since the crew were frightened by the potential collision, and also misfired), utterly destroying Byss, and destroying the second Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, Eclipse II, which was steered into a collision course with the Galaxy Gun by R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
, thus ending Empire's harsh rule.
Characters
- Rayf Ysanna
- Jem Ysanna
- Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
- Leia Skywalker
- Anakin Solo
- Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
- ChewbaccaChewbaccaChewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
- C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
- PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
- Umak Leth
- R2-D2R2-D2R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
- Vima-da-boda
- Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
- Ashka Boda
- Kam Solusar
- Executor Sedriss
- Ood Bnar
- Empatojayos Brand
- Carnor Jax
Collected editions
The various series have been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
- Dark EmpireDark Empire IDark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics in 1991 and 1992 as a 6-issue bi-monthly series, which were later compiled and sold in trade paperback form. The name also covers the trilogy which...
(1993, ISBN 1-56971-073-2) - Dark Empire IIDark Empire IIDark Empire II is the second trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It is preceded by Dark Empire I and followed by Empire's End.-Synopsis:...
(1995, ISBN 1-56971-119-4) - Empire's EndEmpire's EndEmpire's End is a trade paperback collecting a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Jim Baikie, published in 1997...
(1997, ISBN 1-56971-306-5)
The metaseries has been collected into a single hardcover:
- Dark Empire Trilogy (352 pages, Dark Horse Comics, September 2010, ISBN 1-59582-612-2, Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, December 2010, ISBN 1848568878)
Audiobooks
In 1994 and 1995 respectively, Time Warner Audio PublishingTime Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
released audio dramas of the first and second volumes of Dark Empire. The cast was:
- John CyganJohn CyganJohn Cygan is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.-Career:Cygan is notable for his television work and his voice work .-Filmography:*The Commish ......
- as Luke SkywalkerLuke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
, Wedge AntillesWedge AntillesWedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is a supporting character portrayed by Denis Lawson in the original Star Wars trilogy. Antilles, also called the "greatest ace" pilot in the Rebel Alliance, also appears in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and is the lead...
, Vill Goir, OkkoOkkoOkko is a comic book published in a series of mini-series, or cycles. Originally published in France by Delcourt, Archaia Studios Press started reprinting the series in English in 2006. This series is intended for Mature Readers; it contains adult content, graphic violence, and nudity.Written and...
and Umak Leth - Joe Hacker - as Han SoloHan SoloHan Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
, Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
and Empatojayos Brand - Ann Patricio - as Princess Leia and Mon Mothma
- Nick JamesonNick JamesonNick Jameson is an American actor and voice actor, as well as a songwriter, composer, musician and producer. He has appeared in the television series The Critic, 24, Lost and, vocally, in Star Wars: Clone Wars as Palpatine , the radio adaption of Dark Empire, and several other productions of Star...
- as Emperor PalpatinePalpatinePalpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars saga, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the feature films.Palpatine first appeared as the unnamed Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...
and BeltaneBeltaneBeltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine... - Jim WardJim Ward (voice actor)James Kevin "Jim" Ward is a voice actor who has contributed to a large number of video games and movies. He co-hosts The Stephanie Miller Show, a nationally-syndicated liberal radio talk show which features a number of his impersonations of political figures and other celebrities and newsmakers...
- as C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
, Kam Solusar and Sedriss - Glynnis Talken - as Salla Zend, Vima-Da-Boda and Jem Ysanna
- Andy CowanAndy CowanAndy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He hosts the radio comedy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles...
- as Admiral AckbarAdmiral AckbarAdmiral Ackbar is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction saga. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance who led major combat operations against the Galactic Empire and was later integral in the formation of the...
, Zevulon Veers and Baddon Fass - Billy Dee WilliamsBilly Dee WilliamsWilliam December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
- as Lando CalrissianLando CalrissianLando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...