Darth Vader: Issue 44: Soldiers for the Schism
What is it ? : We flashback to the Droid Scourge, Agent Fabarian is fighting the droids to protect civilians, when there is a massive explosion killing them all and destroying the attacking droids, Fabarian looks up and sees Vader watching and curses "hell".
Later he has been demoted for investigating the explosion, and is now a traffic violation processing clerk, he is contacted by his supervisor scolding him for allowing a ticket to be raised for a noble, telling him that he has been ordered to visit the noble in question. Fabarian says he must have missed it, as he already cleared 4 tickets for the same guy, but that doesn't matter.
He attends the nobles house, Baron Slandarv, where the Baron tells him that he has looked into Fabarians record, how he used to be sector 35's best investigator demoted because he poked around in Vaders business. He objects, saying he was just doing his job, but is silenced by the Baron who tells him he hasn't learned a thing, and because of that he is dismissed from Imperial Service.
A droid tears the id badge from his suit, and orders him to hand over his datapad and commlink, but he objects, telling it that he bought the commlink himself.
The Baron smirks, saying that little people like this try to hold onto some dignity, so he'll allow him to leave with the commlink, and maybe even his trousers. And we see Fabarian thrown into the street, and his supervisor is there, who tells him he's done in this sector and should probably get off the entire planet.
Later Fabarian approaches a vessel aboard an Imperial Shuttle, he's come to report to Lord Vader. Sly Moore warns him to not lie to Vader, so when he approaches he describes his past, how he was in the explosion, how innocents died.
Vader states that Fabarian thinks that he was responsible, but Fabarian responds that no, his investigations showed that it was Mas Almeda who issued the order. But he had heard that the same scourge had infected Vaders systems.
Vader understands, saying that Fabarian must be worried as to how he will act, and tells him that he tested the Scourge and found it lacking. He strides into a chamber where the MARS Corps are being worked on, and Fabarian recognises them, remarking that Vader has managed to capture them.
He is told by Moore that no, they have been reprogrammed with imperial processors and now serve Vader, He also notices Tauntaza once again in her suit, and she explains that they have regained control of her experiments and her armor is being powered by that energy now, and she has more power than any Rebel or Imperial Soldier, so she's earning her keep in the hope of not being given her own control processor.
Fabarian questions why they're working for Vader, he thought they were serving the Schism, but Moore tells him they're serving both, and Vader wants to know if he has completed his task.
He tells them that he got into Baron Slandarvs office with his commlink, which Moore had provided which sliced into the Barons computers. The Baron has been working on new battle droids, the most advanced design yet.
Fabarian leads an assault on the Barons manufacturing facility to gain control of the droids, and Slandarv spots him and wants ot know who he's working for, until Vader walks in. The Baron instantly becomes compliant, explaining that the droids are designed to be obedient to the Emperor, but ZED-67 tells him that now they'll be obedient to Vader.
Baron Slandarv declares that he is loyal to the Emperor, so begins resisting and a fight breaks out, with Slandarv fleeing to a control room, when cornered by Fabarian, he tells him that with the press of a button he can destroy the facility and kill everyone outside the room. Fabarian asks if that's the housing facilities too where the workers and their families live, to which Slandarv shrugs, saying "needs must". So Fabarian shoots him, telling him that he should've just paid the ticket.
As they burst into the room, Vader winces with pain, and the same moment Sly Moore collapses with pain.
When she awakens, Moore explains that she felt the Cyborgs screaming in her head, and ZED tells her that her powers must have allowed her to feel their pain, but Vader who is more sensitive must have felt it far more acutely, but being Vader he doesn't care.
Later in the Imperial Palace, Sly Moore is reporting to Palpatine, who tells her to allow Vader to keep gathering power to bring to him. As she leaves she is approached by Enric Pryde who wants to serve Vader, so she lets him accompany her back as Vader awaits. . . .
High Points : Wow a lot happens in this one, with us getting a lot of backstory on Fabarian and his task for the Schism, then the raid on Slandarv's facility with a nice wrap up of how he treated Fabarian, and then the twist at the end that Moore is a triple agent (working for the Empire, but working for Vader/the Schism, but working for Palpatine).
I really enjoyed the Fabarian storyline, we even get a flashback, the signature of this series, to fill in his background. But seeing how he is treated, how the Empire treats loyal officers, really helps us understand the formation of the Schism. Which makes it all the more sad that they're all just being manipulated as part of a tiff between Palpatine and Vader.
Low Points : This really feels like we've seen it before, Sly Moore pretending to be part of a faction rebelling against the Empire, only to turn out to be working for Palpatine all along, wasn't this just part of the Crimson Dawn storyline, which never really got resolved, just faded away among the many forgotten storylines of the Vader comic series.
The Schism even has the same concept behind it, that they're officers who feel that Vader and Palpatine are too corrupt, and want to bring order to the Empire. Is the Schism just the Crimson Dawn renamed? Or have there actually been two Fifth Columns within the Empire all along.
So what do you really think ? : For my complaints, I liked this one, Fabarian made a solid protagonist, a good man working for the Empire trying to do his best. It'll be sad when he is destroyed, as men like that cannot survive within the Empire.
Final Words : While this is continuing to reprocess ideas from older storylines, I really liked the way they took the storyline and put it around Fabarian, a character only introduced last issue, but kept the tropes of the story more faithful to the format of the Vader series than most other issues have managed later, even though they were all about Vader.
And there's a whole load going on, so it felt so much longer than recent issues too, great stuff.
Score : 9/10
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