Star Wars Missions 17: Darth Vader's Return

Star Wars Missions 17: Darth Vader's Return is the seventeenth adventure book in the Star Wars Missions young-reader series and roleplaying game. It was published by Scholastic on January 1, 1999.

Blurb

Darth Vader has returned to Coruscant after the destruction of the first Death Star. There, he discovers his next mission. In the days before Grand Moff Tarkin's death, Tarkin recorded a top secret holotape... complete with information that would enable the Empire to dominate hyperspace. Your mission: to retrieve the missing holotape and bring glory to the Emperor.

Good luck.

Synopsis

Darth Vader arrives on Imperial Center in a Carrack-class light cruiser following the Battle of Yavin. He orders that Captain Mordak have his ship. Meanwhile, in deep space, Admiral Termo and Communications officer Tix have spent weeks in an escape pod, and are about to make planetfall on an uncharted planet.

Vader meets with his master, Emperor Palpatine, who stipulates that he not move against Yavin IV. Back in deep space, Termo and Tix crash on the planet, and locate a transmission relay tower.

Tix and Termo are able to contact Imperial Center, and Palpatine dispatches Vader, Mordak, a Royal Guard and several TIE pilots to the uncharted planet. There, they are to retrieve Tarkin's secret holotape from Termo.

Upon reaching the planet, the Imperials are attacked by a droid ship. One of the group manages to get to his TIE craft, and land on the planet below, but the Carrack is ensnared in the droid ship's grasp. Encountering Termo's escape pod, the Imperial ventures further through the planet, searching for the elusive Admiral. Spotting the relay tower, the Imperial journeys towards it, and investigates the interior. While at the tower, the Imperial is able to free the Carrack from the tractor beam, and then rescues Termo and Tix, before meeting with the Carrack.

Vader, displeased, executes Termo, and retrieves the holotape. He orders three TIE pilots to remain at the planet, and destroy the relay tower, to prevent it falling into Rebel hands. The floating droid inhabitants of the planet, in a panic, contact their "brethren", Q-7N, who has joined the Rebels on Yavin 4.