Star Wars: Dark Empire #5

Captured by the Emperor, Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi Holocron. With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker under his control, there's no limit to what the Emperor can do! Written by Tom Veitch, with painted art by Cam Kennedy and painted cover by Dave Dorman. Don't miss out on the hottest series this side of Tatooine!

Even as the Imperial World Devastators continue to savage the Rebel Alliance fleet, Leia and Han Solo succeed in freeing Luke Skywalker and his droid, R2D2 from the clutches of the evil Emperor Palpatine. In the course of the rescue operation on Byss, Leia manages to capture one of the Emperor’s most prized possessions, a Jedi Holocron. That particular holocron is believed to have been lost for over 600 years. She knows that it will be highly resourceful to the Alliance. The Emperor sends guards after her, but fails to capture her. They meet with Shug Ninx and Salla Zend, who take them into the Millennium Falcon, and the team takes to the skies.

As the small band manages to escape from Byss, and into hyperspace, Luke explains to Leia that the control codes of the World Devastators are safely hidden in R2D2’s memory circuits. Then, he vanishes. Leia realizes too late that Luke has employed his newly acquired Dark Side powers to create a living doppelganger, and trick them into leaving Byss.

At that exact moment, Luke is busy in the Emperor’s clone laboratory, smashing and hacking at the clone vats, to destroy every one of them, and thus force Palpatine’s death. However, he is unsuccessful, because the Emperor finds an undamaged body to transfer his consciousness. This is a 15 year old body, meaning that the Emperor now has a physical strength comparable to Luke.

Palpatine engages Luke in a lightsaber duel, and wins. Triumphant over his greatest adversary, Palpatine vows to find Leia and her children, and to crush the Rebellion once and for all.

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