The story begins on Cloud City, Bespin, where the Millennium Falcon has just touched down on a nearby landing platform.
One of Vader’s officers, Sheckil, who you might remember from the Empire Strikes back, alerts the Dark Lord that Princess Leia and Captain Solo, along with Chewbacca, are being led into cloud city by Lando Calrissian. This places the timeline directly concurrent to the group’s arrival at Bespin from which the Empire strikes back. Lieutenant Sheckil happens to also mention that there is a droid accompanying the group, which ignites many memories from Darth Vader’s shadowy past.
The officer also mentions to Vader that “it was lucky the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive was damaged, or we wouldn’t have reached the Bespin System before the Rebels!”.
Vader sharply responds to his lieutenant, telling him that their Journey to Bespin had nothing to do with Luck. Vader then firmly orders Sheckil to remind his men to stay completely out of sight, and only to make a move on the Rebels at his command. Sheckil is of course Rapidly apologizes to Darth Vader, and agrees to his directive. Moments later, he receives troubling communication from his transmitter, which further angers Vader. Sheckil quickly explains to the dark lord that a shiny protocol droid had fallen behind the group and came across the position of Gamma squad, completely by accident, causing them to blast the droid to pieces, which of course we saw in the film. Trying to soften the blow, Sheckil tells Vader that “fortunately, the Princess and the others didn’t hear the shots”.
By this point, Vader is furious at his officer, and tells him that he is very fortunate, before warning him to not fail again, or face severe consequences. Finally, the Sith Lord has had enough and orders Sheckil to bring the droid back to him, under the guise that it may have some valuable information in it’s memory banks. Of course, Vader knows the true identity of the protocol droid and is desperate to see it once more.
As Lieutenant Sheckil leaves the area, Vader commends bounty hunter Boba Fett for his very precise work in luring Luke Skywalker to Bespin. Vader even offers Boba the chance to collect two rewards for his incredible work, instead of the standard fee.
Boba Fett then suggests to Vader that Skywalker would arrive faster if they spread the word that his friends are in severe Danger. Vader brushed the bounty Hunter’s idea off, saying “that won’t be necessary, he already knows.”
Moments later, Sheckil quickly arrives back to the same room that they were speaking in before, flanked by a pair of stormtroopers. In his hands however, is an object that brings a torrent of pain and suffering back to Vader, as memories once again begin to flow through his mind, all the way from his life as a slave on Tatooine. Sheckil informs the dark lord that the model is actually a protocol droid and that it has suffered extensive damage after being blaster to pieces, but Vader remains silent, as he already knows these painful details and is reminiscing about his dark past.
As Vader places his mechanical hands on the golden, metallic head of his former protocol droid, a memory engulfs his vision, filling his mind with his past actions.
The memory takes place just as Anakin Skywalker is a child, roaming the dusty streets of Mos Espa. As young Anakin is trawling through a local junkyard, he comes across the badly damaged head of an old protocol droid. Anakin excitedly calls over to his friend Kister Banai, you will probably remember from the Phantom Menace. Kister wonders what Anakin is holding, to which he quickly explains that it is a droid head. And not one of the Pit droids from the famous Tatooine Pod races. The young Vader is intensely excited at finding such a rare component.
Kister quickly notes however that the droid’s head is badly beat up, asking Anakin if it may have been some kind of war droid from the distant past. Anakin doesn’t believe that it could be because of the extremely thin metal plating. Before we can continue his thought however, his attention is quickly turned further inside of the Junkyard, where he is amazed to find that almost all of the components needed to fully rebuild the droid are laying around.