Pencils: Facundo Percio
Inks: Dan Parsons
Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
Letters: Michael Heisler
Cover Artist: Hugh Fleming

In the aftermath of his humiliation at the hands of Kell Bircher, Darth Vader took a small team of elite stormtroopers and an Imperial Ensign named Nanda and went in search of answers. Their first stop was Coruscant to find out how Bircher's cover could have been good, and with a list of slicers, they went to Bothawui, where they killed their targets. Their next stop was Kuat, where the Devastator was shored up for repairs. While there, seven people on the command staff died before Vader was satisfied that the taint of failure was removed. They leave Kuat and while Vader spends time alone, he is taunted by the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Later he joins Ensign Nanda on the bridge and orders her to follow up on a lead and they set course for the Alderaan system. While there, the retrieve a scientist named Tag Rogaren from a ship floating derelict in the debris. When Vader asks for privacy so he can interrogate the prisoner, his troopers turn on him, wishing to take the prisoner to Coruscant. Vader kills the troopers and then interrogates Rogaren about a Rebel pilot who came to visit him. Rogaren insists that she was simply a pilgrim, and when he refuses to dislose any further information, Vader kills him and learns that it was Senator Leia Organa who visited him. He then orders Nanda to set course for the Chandrila system where they learn that Bircher was a relative of Mon Mothma. Vader destroys the Mothma homestead and they return to Coruscant where Vader returns to the Emperor's service, but Nanda lives in fear that Vader will change his mind and silence her as well.