Heinsnake plot

For generations there was a cult of dark side sorcerers wielding magic that rivaled that of even a Sith Lord's. They had been believed by the Sith to have died out by the time of the Clone Wars years later.

After the Declaration of a New Order and the creation of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, Darth Vader had killed the son of a wealthy industrialist, which led to the industrialist to arrange a hit on Darth Vader as revenge, sending nine assassins to kill Vader, with all but one being killed by Vader.

The plot started when Darth Vader narrowly foiled an assassination attempt on Emperor Palpatine. When summoned by the Emperor, the Sith commander unexpectedly Force pushed Palpatine away and then Force pushed his throne out of the window, due to the throne having a bomb planted underneath. The explosion was great enough to severely damage most of the office, even from a distance.

Vader then proceeded to kill the two Royal Guards standing near the throne for failing to protect the Emperor by throwing them out of the window, as well, although not before making clear that they deserved to die slowly and he only shoved them out of the window because he couldn't afford the time to do that approach. He then berated the rest of the guards when they subsequently entered the room. After the guards accepted responsibility for their failure to protect the Emperor, Vader, after beheading two of the guards for failing to kneel, then proceeded to assign two to stand guard over Palpatine, two to accompany himself, and one to cover up the assassination attempt from the public.

Afterwards, the group discovered the party responsible to be the Heinsnake cult, after encountering a member on a tavern off-world that blew himself up to prevent any intel being revealed about their motives. This action also prevented the ninth assassin from moving in close to attack Vader. Palpatine, realizing the threat the cult posed to both his reign and the survival of the Sith Order, ordered Vader to locate and vanquish the cult. Vader was then sent out with two Royal Guards on a Theta-class shuttle to locate the cult near a moon. Meanwhile, a cultist saboteur with a homing beacon infiltrated an Imperial Venator-class Star Destroyer in orbit of an unknown moon and used a very powerful energy beam from the moon to destroy the Star Destroyer.

Upon arrival at the coordinates, the Royal Guards and Vader were shocked to discover the destroyed Venator-class Star Destroyer in orbit. Vader then requested to bring him in close to the doomed Star Destroyer, but the Royal Guards protested that it was unsafe to land the shuttle on the wreck. Undeterred, Vader exited the ship via the airlock, using his magnetic boots to traverse the ship. Upon inspecting the ship, he deduced that the ship was taken out by a gigantic blast, although despite this the ship had surprisingly few bodies accounted for, indicating that most of the crew had evacuated from the vessel.

Upon more searching through the vessel's wreck, he eventually found the datalog terminal and patched the logs through to the Royal Guards, also requesting he be picked up "where he was dropped off." Upon reviewing the logs, the Royal Guards were shocked at the magnitude of the blast that destroyed the Star Destroyer, noting that it had far more power output than any of the Imperial Army's functional weapons. They traced the point of origin of the blast to the moon from the logs, also learning that the Heinsnake cult was responsible as well from the Captain's entry. Vader and the Royal Guards then sought out the evacuation landing point, hoping to find the crew alive so they could find out more about the Heinsnake Cult's plot against the Emperor. However, by the time they arrived at the landing point, all they could find were abandoned vessels, with Vader suspecting that the crew had been eaten by the native wildlife.

Suddenly, Vader and the Royal guards were ambushed by a giant beast. One of the guards ended up squished by the creature, although Vader threw his lightsaber at it, killing it. Vader and the remaining Royal guard then arrived at the that was suspected to be the origin of the blast. However, they were tailed by the ninth assassin, with the guard being silently killed by the assassin. Vader then entered the temple, but deduced that he was being followed.

Darth Vader eventually encountered the Heinsnake cultists on the moon, and learned their history and motives. The elder cultist then lured Vader over to the basis, and mentioned it was only enough for him to peer into the basis. Vader then had vines cover him, and he then envisions himself defeating Obi Wan Kenobi and Palpatine with ease, as well as his bearing the Heinsnake cult's logo in place of his chest box computer of his life-support armor. The elder told to Vader their history and beliefs, among this the prophesied coming of a black-armored leader that would guide the cult to glory; the elder explained that they believed that Vader was this warrior, and all the plot was instrumental to lured Vader in their temple, and offered their allegiance in killing Palpatine and destroying the Empire. Vader however refused and slaughtered all the cultists, ending the cult.

Later, as Vader was exiting the temple, he met and finally dueled the assassin, who was defeated, and some time later made a "visit" to the assassin's associate, as well as delivered the crystal to Grand Moff Tarkin for the Death Star project and visited the industrialist as well. In the end Palpatine revealed to Vader that he knew all that transpired and had arranged everything as a test of loyalty for Vader, even permitting the tentative assassination of himself.