Cover Artist: Unknown

At the Hockaleg spaceport in the Patriim system, a rookie stormtrooper is telling a veteran that Darth Vader is aboard the Tarkin in orbit when it suddenly explodes, sending the veteran scrambling for a shuttle. Meanwhile, Darth Vader is floating adrift in his damaged TIE fighter, waiting for rescue and reflecting on his repeated failures to capture his son. While thinking about the incompetence of his soldiers and betrayals by his officers, he becomes aware of a shuttle piloted by a stormtrooper approaching from Hockaleg. Signaling the trooper, he transfers to the shuttle, where he learns that the trooper was once a pilot serving in the Clone Wars under Anakin Skywalker. At Vader's insistence, the trooper explains that he was demoted for striking a superior officer who had ordered him to kill another wounded pilot. His refusal to do so resulted in solitary confinement and a demotion, but allowed the other pilot to live a little longer. The trooper shows no regret and insists that he would repeat his actions for the same reasons. When they land on Hockaleg, they leave the shuttle and learn that the laborers decided to rebel when they saw the Tarkin destroyed. As they are retreating to the shuttle, the trooper is gunned down by rebels, but before he dies, Vader tells him that he thought he was a good pilot when he was the troopers commander. Rising, he thanks the rebels for helping him to focus on what is important, before he kills them all.