"FORTRESS VADER" BEGINS! A JEDI makes a desperate deal. THE INQUISITORS' mission evolves. DARTH VADER discovers a theft.
The former Jedi Master Eeth Koth's wife Mira gives birth to a baby girl. Before Koth can hold his daughter, Darth Vader forces his way into the room. Eeth Koth pleads with the Sith Lord to spare his life, saying that he is no longer a threat. Koth tells Lord Vader that he is a priest of the Church of the Ganthic Enlightenment, who ministers to his congregation and officiates weddings and funerals.
Koth claims he has no loyalty to the Jedi Order due to his exclusion from the Jedi Council. Meanwhile, Mira asks the medical droid to give her the baby. He offers to trade information about the Jedi to Lord Vader but the Sith Lord is unmoved. Koth uses the Force to hurl the medical droid through a wall, allowing Mira and their daughter to flee. Lord Vader and Koth engage in a lightsaber duel.
Vader senses the fear, anger and resentment within Koth, taunting him that he has abandoned his Jedi. Koth replies that it is the Zabrak in him. Having nothing to lose, Koth fights Vader fiercely. Lord Vader orders his Inquisitors the Fifth Brother, Tualon Yaluna, and Thirteenth Sister to bring him the child. When the Fifth Brother asks about Mira, Lord Vader says she is irrelevant. Koth refuses to let Vader and the Inquisitors take his wife and child. As a father, he vows to protect the ones that he loves.
The Fifth Brother convinces his comrades to split up in order to cover more ground. Akaris agrees, believing that the pregnant Mira could not have gotten far. She uses her Force powers to track down the child's ripples. Meanwhile, Lord Vader gains the upper hand over Koth by Force choking him. The red Inquisitor corners Mira before she and her daughter can board a Star Commuter 2000 with her father. Appealing to a fellow woman, Mira pleads for the red Inquisitor not to take her child.
Akaris allows the mother to leave with her child, much to the shock and anger of her comrades. Aboard the ship, Mira tells her father they have to go back for Koth. In response, the father says that Koth wanted them to escape. However, the red Inquisitor uses her Force powers to levitate the child through a hatch in the shuttle. The mother screams in horror while the red Inquisitor gloats over her acquisition. The black Inquisitor says that he should never have doubted her.
The gleeful Akaris says that Mira was mistake to appeal to her as a woman to woman. She remarks that Mira will never trust another woman or another person again. By taking her baby, she took her soul. A distraught Mira pleads with her father to go back for her daughter. Mira's father says that they are no match for the Inquisitors. He reassures his daughter that they spared her baby and hopes they can reunite with his granddaughter someday. Mira wonders why the Inquisitors took her daughter.
Meanwhile, Koth vows to save his family but Lord Vader unnerves him by revealing that his Inquisitors have captured his daughter. While Koth reacts in horror and despair, Lord Vader takes the opportunity to impale him from behind, killing him. After the red Inquisitor passes the baby to him, Lord Vader uses the dark side to intimidate the wailing child into silence.
At The Works, Lord Vader and the Inquisitors arrive back with Mira's daughter in tow. They are greeted by the Grand Inquisitor and two masked figures in red dresses. After exchanging pleasantries, the Grand Inquisitor congratulates Lord Vader for capturing a child but opines that the "Seekers" could have done it themselves. Vader boasts that he was successful on every level because he eliminated Eeth Koth. He adds that the Inquisitors have done their roles well. While the masked red figures tend to Mira's daughter, the Grand Inquisitor leads Vader away for a private discussion.
The Grand Inquisitor shows Lord Vader a list of surviving Jedi including Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Coleman Kcaj, Oppo Rancisis, Selrahc Eluos, and Ka-Moon Kholi on a holoprojector. The Grand Inquisitor tells Lord Vader that these Jedi fugitives have proven elusive to track. When Vader asks what he proposes, the Grand Inquisitor proposes continuing Project Harvester and hopes that the fugitives slip into their grasp. He tells Vader they just have to wait.
Later, Vader meditates inside a bacta tank. After repairing his damaged panel, he duels with a training droid. Later, several Inquisitors including the black Twi-lek, the red humanoid woman, the Grand Inquisitor, the Eighth Brother, the Second Sister, the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother socialize in a cantina. Toasting their recent kill, Yaluna and Akaris drink dust juice, which they had obtained from the planet they killed Koth. The Thirteenth Sister has made it a habit to drink something local after killing a Jedi.
Yaluna hopes that the next Jedi they kill is on Corellia or Alderaan, which offer better beverages. Akaris remarks that it won't be long before there is no Jedi and asks what Vader will do without having to hunt Jedi. Yaluna remarks that Vader runs a busy schedule and will always find someone to kill. Just then, Lord Vader overshadows the Inquisitors and ignites his lightsaber.
The main cover art for the comic book is a variation of Tom Jung's style A poster of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope .
In Darth Vader 19, a panel features a list of Jedi survivors. Two of the names are "Selrahc Eluos" and "Ka-Moon Kholi," which are tuckerisms of author Charles Soule and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli, respectively.
- UPC 759606086665; August 8, 2018; Marvel Comics
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