Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1

History

Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1 was a modified prototype TIE Advanced x1 constructed to the specifications of the Sith Lord Darth Vader, serving as his personal starfighter during the Galactic Civil War. Produced by Sienar Fleet Systems, it was one of several TIE series prototypes fielded during the Galactic Civil War, and was one of the most successful of these experiments. Parts of its design, including the ship's bent wings and powerful drive system, were later incorporated into the TIE/in interceptor and the TIE/Ad Avenger, with the TIE Advanced x1 being considered too costly by the Imperial Navy to continue producing in large numbers. Many of the prototypes were sent to elite Imperial fighter squadrons for field-testing, but Vader insisted on implementing certain additions to his personal TIE Advanced x1 which made it a devastating fighter in combat. Such changes included straying from standard Imperial military policy and adding a modest Class 4 hyperdrive, a feature lacking on the standard TIE/ln fighters of the TIE series. Another notable addition was that of shield generators. The use of a Sienar Fleet Systems I-S3o solar ionization reactor and paired SFS P-s5.6 Twin Ion Engines made the fighter's drive system incredibly powerful.

Upon the vessel's completion by Sienar Fleet Systems sometime around 19 BBY, Director of Sienar Marketing Relations Taed Augustus presented the TIE Advanced x1 to Darth Vader, wishing to make honor the Dark Lord and hoping the ship would exceed his expectations. However, due to Augustus' constant use of the name "Darth" while addressing Vader, the Sith Lord used the Force to choke him to death.

In approximately 19 BBY, Darth Vader led the TIE/ln fighter squadron Black Squadron in his TIE Advanced x1 during the Subjugation of Mon Calamari, adding notoriety and fear to the squadron's name.

In 3 BBY, shortly before a meeting took place between Darth Vader and the bounty hunter Boba Fett to discuss capturing the Imperial deserter Colonel Aba Karda, the Dark Lord piloted his TIE Advanced x1 into battle against Alliance to Restore the Republic starships. However, upon hearing of the bounty hunter's arrival, Vader returned to his Imperial-I-class Star Destroyer as the Imperial Navy wiped out the rest of their fleet.

Two years later, in 1 BBY, Darth Vader would begin using his TIE Advanced x1 as transportation to and from the water world Kamino and Timira City. He had recently begun cloning his former apprentice, Galen Marek, also known as Starkiller, who had died the prior year. The most recent Marek clone, code-named Subject 1138, began experiencing the memories of the true Starkiller and broke out of containment. Vader, knowing he would try to seek passage off-world, tried to stop him before he made it to his TIE, but it was too late; the clone took off to Cato Neimodia, where he intended on rescuing Jedi Master Rohm Kota, who had been an ally of the real Marek. When he landed on the Imperial-occupied planet, Baron Merillion Tarko and a contingent of stormtroopers went out to meet him, believing Vader was paying a visit. However, when the clone stepped out of the TIE Advanced x1, the Imperials realized he wasn't sent by Vader and a firefight broke out; Subject 1138 made short work of them. Sometime after the debacle with the renegade clone, Vader would retrieve his prized vessel.

In approximately 1 BBY, Darth Vader once again his flew his customized TIE into battle, this time against Black Sun pirates in the Ilum system. The attack on the pirates was launched after Vader discovered an Imperial traitor had warned Rebel Alliance forces on the planet Thyferra of his impending strike, and that pirate insignias matching those of the Black Sun were found on the equipment the traitor had smuggled to the Rebels. Eventually, a coded transmission to the pirates was intercepted, leading Vader's fleet to the Ilum system. Along with the hired help of Boba Fett, the pirate leader was subdued, and more information about the traitor was interrogated out of him.

Immediately after the battle in the Ilum system, Darth Vader would deploy his TIE Advanced x1 against Rebel Alliance forces at Geonosis. He had been contacted by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, who informed him that the Death Star project was running low on labor forces and that slaves will need to be taken out of the Geonosian population to get back on schedule. However, when Vader and his fleet exited hyperspace over the barren world, they discovered that the Geonosians had allied themselves with the Rebel Alliance, and a starfighter defense had been erected. Vader destroyed Rebel starfighters in his custom TIE, eventually taking down an Alliance Space Station and winning the battle in space. After this task was accomplished, Vader disembarked his TIE Advanced x1 to continue the fight on the ground. In the end, the Subjugation of Geonosis was a victory for the Galactic Empire.

Later in the same year, Darth Vader, flying his TIE Advanced x1, once again led Black Squadron, this time assisting in the brutal Subjugation of Ralltiir.

In 0 BBY, during the Battle of Yavin, Darth Vader, in his TIE Advanced x1, led Black Squadron in picking off the meager Rebel Alliance starfighter forces mustered to try and destroy the completed first Death Star. Because the battlestation's turbolasers could not hit the maneuverable T-65 X-wing and BTL Y-wing starfighters of Red and Gold Squadrons respectively, Vader and his hand-picked wingmen, DS-61-2 "Mauler" Mithel and DS-61-3 "Backstabber" formed a Death Star assault squadron, dead-set on preventing the Rebel fighters from trying to launch proton torpedoes into the Death Star's thermal exhaust port. Vader successfully thwarted two attack runs, destroying Rebel pilots Jon "Dutch" Vander, Tiree, Davish "Pops" Krail, Garven Dreis, Theron Nett, Puck Naeco, and Biggs Darklighter in the process. However, on the last attack run, one pilot eluded his fire: the recent recruit, Luke Skywalker, a farmboy from Tatooine who was not only strong in the Force, but was, unbeknownst to both of them, Vader's son. Eventually, Vader got a lock on his X-wing starfighter, and, just before he could destroy it, smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca, piloting their modified YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon, arrived and strafed Vader's squadron. The resulting fire caused Black 2, DS-61-2, to panic and knock Vader's TIE Advanced x1 out of combat, sending it on a spiral into space. With Skywalker free, he fired the fatal shots which destroyed the Death Star once and for all.

As Vader and his custom TIE flew through the space of the Yavin system, they had a freak collision with the Star Tours luxury yacht Tzarina. The yacht, which had just launched on its inaugural flight, had been taken to the system by a droid captain who wanted to show his passengers something "neat." The Tzarina emerged directly out of hyperspace into the midst of the Battle of Yavin, and after striking Vader's TIE, it's hyperdrive was damaged and the Star Tours vessel was launched on uncharted course into hyperspace. When it emerged, it crash-landed on the Outer Rim world of Dathomir, in the Yumaou Risoath region. The crash left only one survivor, and the story of the strange incident slowly spread as they made their way to the Dathomir Trade Outpost.

Darth Vader, regaining control of his TIE Advanced x1 by harnessing his anger with the dark side of the Force, drifts into space. His communications and hyperdrive-capability had been damaged during the battle, so, using the minimal range his hyperdrive could still achieve, he headed for the nearest Imperial installation, Imperial Relay Outpost V-798, on the planet Vaal. However, in Vaal's orbit, Vader encountered various asteroid fields and his fighter's left wing is punctured, forcing him to make an emergency landing some distance from the outpost. After a long and arduous trek, Vader made it to Outpost V-978 and took the Lambda-class shuttle stationed there back to Imperial Center. He ordered an Imperial commander to inform Emperor Palpatine of his arrival, as well as to retrieve his fighter from Vaal. His men are to treat this mission as if it is worth their lives.

In the days after the Battle of Yavin, around the time Vader had landed on Vaal, General Jan Dodonna of the Rebel Alliance forces on Yavin 4 learned that the Empire still believed the Dark Lord and his TIE Advanced x1 to be intact, though they hadn't recovered him yet. Anxious to capture or destroy Vader before he was rescued, Dodonna dispatched patrol teams, including one composed of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, and the reluctant smugglers, Han Solo and Chewbacca, who searched for the damaged TIE in the first month of 0 ABY. However, after two patrols were captured by roving Imperial Star Destroyers, the general called the search off.

For unknown reasons, Vader came aboard the Carrack-class light cruiser that recovered his damaged TIE Advanced x1 from Vaal, returning once again to Imperial Center. After landing in Imperial City, the Dark Lord told Imperial Captain Mordak to not only take him to Emperor Palpatine, but to have a technical crew repair his fighter.

With his prized fighter back in his hands, Darth Vader continued to use it on a variety of campaigns against the Rebels in 0 ABY. One such use was when he flew to the planet Ultaar, where the remains of a Rebel base ravaged by bounty hunter Beilert Valance were pawed over by the Imperials in search of who caused the destruction. Sometime later, Vader, who was on a mad hunt to learn the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, flew his modified TIE to the planet Centares, where he hoped to interrogate the information out of Rebel deserter named Tyler Lucian. This mission would end in failure, however, when Lucian committed suicide to protect Luke Skywalker's name from becoming known to the Dark Lord. Eventually, Vader would learn the name after taking his TIE Advanced x1 down to a Rebel refueling station and slaughtered the encampment there. He would also use the fighter to escape the planet Monastery while he left his enemy, Baron Orman Tagge, to duel Luke Skywalker in disguise as the Dark Lord.

In the months following the Battle of Yavin, Darth Vader is on a constant quest to capture the starship Millennium Falcon and the influential Rebels often known to use the transport. He would run simulations in his TIE Advanced x1, alongside other TIE/ln starfighters, against a mechanized drone resembling the YT-1300. During one simulation, in which Vader takes the ship alone, the drone leads his fighter into a planet's rings, which could pull him apart with the gravitational stress, as well as throwing off his targeting computer. However, neither of these factors stopped him from destroying the ship, since he had the power of the dark side of the Force. Though he destroyed the ship, he decided that he would need to use something bigger and better if he wanted to eliminate the real thing.

One year after the Battle of Yavin, Darth Vader shot down smuggler Nas Ghent over an unidentified planet in his TIE Advanced x1. His goal was not to kill the "thorn in the Empire's side," but to recruit him into his personal TIE/ln fighter squadron, Black Squadron.

During the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, Vader would pilot his TIE Advanced x1 in an effort to destroy Rebel Alliance ships attempting to flee the ice planet. However, one T-65 X-wing starfighter piloted by a member of the Rebel unit Renegade Squadron blasted him and knocked the Dark Lord out of battle, allowing for the surviving vessels to evacuate.

Appearances & Mentions

Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire 1 Star Wars: Empire at War The Force Unleashed II Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (First Appearance) Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker Star Wars: Galaxies: An Empire Divided Empire 14: The Savage Heart Star Wars Missions 17: Darth Vader's Return Scoundrel's Luck (Mentioned) Marvel Star Wars 21: Shadow of a Dark Lord! Marvel Star Wars 23: To the Last Gladiator! (Mentioned) Marvel Star Wars 29: Dark Encounter! Marvel Star Wars 35: Dark Lord's Gambit! Darth Vader Strikes Battlefront: Renegade Squadron