Reading Heir to the Empire

[Douglas]

I think by "last" pendell meant "previous". C'baoth met and manipulated Luke already, in Dark Force Rising, so that's not a spoiler.

[Fyraltari]

I think by "last" pendell meant "previous". C'baoth met and manipulated Luke already, in Dark Force Rising, so that's not a spoiler.

Oh right. It has been a while.

[Gnoman]

Doesn't have to be, though. Remember that he did a pretty fair job of manipulating Luke in the last book, and Luke is by no means weak-minded. It's possible that C'baoth is simply much better at the mental aspects of the Force than Obi-Wan was, and so can mind-trick people other Jedi can't.

I suspect that it was supposed to be a Dark Side thing. One of C'baoth's defining traits is the will to dominate others, and Zahn clearly uses this to suggest that he is a servant of the Dark Side. Presumably, Obi-Wan and Luke were handicapped in the use of the Mind Trick because it requires a fairly Dark frame of mind to use it well, and a Jedi doesn't (or shouldn't) have the will to conquer that it needs.

There's some ideas along those lines in I, Jedi, and I think they fit here.

[GrayDeath]

I dont want to spoil outbound/the rest of the book and simply wills ay the above is a good theory.

And I, Jedi is a great book if one is open to a very ... shallw e say atypical Jedi and likes Fighter Pilots ^^

[Sapphire Guard]

One of the other things about Thrawn is the use he makes of existing technology in Star Wars without reference to superweapons. I think that's part of what makes him such a threat.

Eh...sort of. There's no unique weapons, but he does have access to a lot of exclusive toys that no one else has. Cloaking, ysalamiri, cloning, Noghri bodyguards...

CH2:

Luke is incognito in Imperial space, looking for clones due to Republic Intelligence sources. He can sense them with the Force, and the immediate downside that occurs to me is that he can be sensed too. He detects a mind watching him, but nothing happens. He ambushes the mind, and it turns out it's Karrde. Karrde enquires after Mara, who is recovering in Republic space. They discuss the clones, which Karrde feels aren't a huge threat yet as they take years to grow with reasonable stability. Luke points to reports suggesting a twenty day cycle. They conclude that that is why they took Ukio, to feed those clones.

Luke senses some, so they try to scout them out. They fail, but Luke is sure anyway. They split up, Luke tracking the clones destination, Karrde going after the origin point.

In the governor's office, the Governor is watching with binoculars. He orders Luke to be left alone unhindered as directed by Thrawn, who has planned this whole thing. Lucky that the Governor happened to be looking out this window at the specific transport at the exact moment Luke was present and identifiable (I'm sure there were other watchers, but still.)

The Governor has a business arrangement with Karrde, so doesn't want him caught...yet.

ch3:

Mara wakes up in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, disoriented but alert, and attempts to sneak up on Ghent, who is very casual about her recovery from brain damage after weeks ("Oh, hi Mara.") The Emperor's ghost chimes in with 'YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER' to celebrate her recovery, which is made awkward by Luke having just saved her life.

A medic and a medical droid (Heh. 'Emdee' medical droid. MD.) walk in. Mara gets up to date on the state of the galaxy, inasmuch as Ghent knows. Akbar is back in command thanks to Ghent proving fraud re his banking, so now he's tracking Thrawn's mystery 'Delta Souce,' to pass the time.

Winter shows up to take Mara to her room, and gives an actual update re the state of the galaxy, as well as clothes etc. A ship will take some time, though as the war effort is all hands right now. Mara gets dressed and goes down to the library to get herself a blaster, thanks to Palpatine's policy of random gun stashes.

Thrawn refuses to launch a frontal assault on Coruscant on the grounds that it makes no sense, C'Baoth resists the notion, and Thrawn notes that he would speak like that to the Emperor himself when C'Baoth tries to call him on it. Sigh.

Anyway they discuss their next target, and Thrawn to placate C'Baoth says he'll arrange Leia's kidnapping. C'Baoth is sick of Thrawn's commando teams failing, but this time he's not using Noghri. He knows something is wrong with them, but isn't sure what. (Rukh is in the room during this conversation, by the way).

Militarily, they need to secure their clones, and there is a chance Mara knows about Mount Tantiss, so while the commandos are in the Imperial Palace anyway, they might as well deal with her in passing. So it looks like she'll be putting that hidden blaster to use.

They also get that report from the Governor that spotted Luke, as well as one from his aide that identifies Karrde. Thrawn sets course for that system, and implies that he will have C'Baoth killed if he's too troublesome. Pellaeon makes plans to be on the other side of the galaxy when it happens.

Uh...probably shouldn't tell that to the person in constant contact with a telepath.

Really hoping that confrontation amounts to something substantial, so far C'Baoth is been very easily misdirected when necessary. But we'll see.

[Sapphire Guard]

CH4:

Luke has immediately picked up the Intelligence agent following him through the Force, and is trying to lose him. Luke notices someone in the street with a similar robe to his, but when he reaches out to plan it he senses blank spaces in the Force, meaning Imperials equipped with Ysalamiri. He temporarily loses his tail and jumps to a building just before the stormtroopers arrive to seal the street. But the problem is that he's on the edge of the town with a sheer drop the other side of the building.

Needing a diversion, he pulls the blaster from his tail into the hand of the man dressed like him and fires it in the air. The stormtroopers all converge on his double, so Luke slides down the edge of the in a lightsabre cut groove and cuts his way back in, hopefully outside the net.

On the bridge of the Chimaera, Thrawn hears the report and isn't happy. He demotes the stalker (a bit unfairly, how can he possibly know Luke's mindreading range?). They haven't been able to find his ship, so they plan to let him launch and catch him in orbit.

Luke gets into the air, aware that there's going to be an ISD on his ail momentarily. It manages to sneak up, but this time he's got a trick prepared -his X wing is built into the freighter he arrived in, so he detaches it and flies away while the tractor beam is holding onto it.

On the bridge, Pellaeon is having flashbacks to the last time this happened in book 1. They go looking for the ensign responsible, and Thrawn quizzes him on what he did. There was no way to stop Skywalker from escaping, so the Ensign gets a promotion for a valiant attempt. Pellaeon feels that Thrawn's 'New
Empire' has been born.

In empty space, Luke wonders where to go next. He considers a couple of options, but then decides to go visit the Noghri.

Never that much to say about actiony chapters. Everyone is impressive throughout. Thrawn is a little less composed than usual. Thrawn bridge scenes continue to keep on track with their 'one-upping the empire' quota. That's the thing that's coming closest to killing this book. One or two of those moments are fine, but not every scene.

Thrawn feels his broad objectives are achieved depending on whether Luke buys that this is the Cloning hub or not. I don't think we know whether that works or not yet.

Did that Ensign win a competition too?

[Blackhawk748]

Did that Ensign win a competition too?

Sort of. Thranw likes it when people own up to their mistakes and try new things. The Ensign honestly stated what happened and what he tried to do, and Thrawn likes that. Carrot and Stick as it were.

[DataNinja]

Sort of. Thranw likes it when people own up to their mistakes and try new things. The Ensign honestly stated what happened and what he tried to do, and Thrawn likes that. Carrot and Stick as it were.

I believe that was in regards to the last time that something like this showed up, with the other tractor beam operator and his supervisor. The first place person got to appear in the book, the second place one whether he lived or died. And, well... we see how that ended up getting worked in.

[Velaryon]

Thrawn comes up on comms and asks C'Baoth, which he does while griping. The Chimaera fires on the Planetary Shield, is deflected...and the cloaked ships fire, pretending that the orbital shots penetrated. Neat trick.

This is my second favorite tactic that Thrawn employs in this whole trilogy.

Spoiler: I can't remember whether the other one has happened yet, so spoilers just in case

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My favorite being the cloaked asteroids used in the attack on Coruscant.

[AliceLost]

This is my second favorite tactic that Thrawn employs in this whole trilogy.

Spoiler: I can't remember whether the other one has happened yet, so spoilers just in case

Show

My favorite being the cloaked asteroids used in the attack on Coruscant.

Yeah, not quite yet.

[Keltest]

This is my second favorite tactic that Thrawn employs in this whole trilogy.

Spoiler: I can't remember whether the other one has happened yet, so spoilers just in case

Show

My favorite being the cloaked asteroids used in the attack on Coruscant.

Spoiler

Show

I was kind of skeptical of the cloaked asteroids one. If cloaking was so insurmountable, you'd think he could think of better things to do with it than blockade a planet. Or at least more things. What could they do about a squadron of cloaked bombers, for example? Or cloaked transports?

[hamishspence]

The point of this cloak is that it's double-blind - the enemy cannot see in - but you cannot see out.

Thus, to fire accurately, requires help from the outside - a Jedi master who is able to reach in, and use you to fire your guns, being able to see the targets even though you can't.

[Peelee]

Spoiler

Show

I was kind of skeptical of the cloaked asteroids one. If cloaking was so insurmountable, you'd think he could think of better things to do with it than blockade a planet. Or at least more things. What could they do about a squadron of cloaked bombers, for example? Or cloaked transports?

The point of this cloak is that it's double-blind - the enemy cannot see in - but you cannot see out.

Thus, to fire accurately, requires help from the outside - a Jedi master who is able to reach in, and use you to fire your guns, being able to see the targets even though you can't.

Spoiler: Specter of the Past

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In fact, a whole decade after this, the Empire is still not able to get around this. The Predictor that the Pellaeon is testing in the opening scene of the book is explicitly all about trying to make use of the cloaking technology through the cloaked ship's blindness.

[hamishspence]

While other cloaks exist besides the double-blind one, there's reasons for those being unavailable in the Thrawn era.

I think the Rebel Assault II game has the answer - the Empire used them all for the TIE phantom project (as well as their cloaked Super Star Destroyer) and when it was destroyed, that was most of the "Stygium crystals" in the Empire lost.

Plus those ships couldn't stay cloaked and fire - they were like Star Trek Klingon and Romulan ships.

We see a similar ship (a corvette) in the TCW episode Cat and Mouse.

[Manga Shoggoth]

On the bridge, Pellaeon is having flashbacks to the last time this happened in book 1. They go looking for the ensign responsible, and Thrawn quizzes him on what he did. There was no way to stop Skywalker from escaping, so the Ensign gets a promotion for a valiant attempt. Pellaeon feels that Thrawn's 'New Empire' has been born.

This is possibly one of my favourite scenes in the story. First of all there is the call back to the last time this happened, and then there is Thrawn's whole attitude: The situation had no known solution, so promote the guy who not only "at least tried", but came up with an imaginative solution under pressure, then give him the job of finding a solution.

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: The Hand of Thrawn

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And it paid off! The next time we see the good guys (Lando?) pull that trick, the Empire has a counter-measure!

[Sapphire Guard]

H5:

In Coruscant, the High Command is trying to work out the trick of the Empire apparently shooting through shields. Prevailing opinion is that it's a trick, but they haven't figured out how yet.

Fey'lya is being quiet in atonement for his false accusation against Ackbar, which isn't very useful at the moment.

Ackbar is wondering why Bel Ibliss isn't here, people are still not certain whether the bad blood between him and Mon Mothma and his abilities as a commander are keeping him at the front.

With impeccable timing, Leia goes into labour during the command meeting.

She goes down to medical, and her 'Force painkilling' and 'force calming' abilities come in handy. One of the twins actually connects with her mind and sends an image, and then they both link mind to mind. Awww.

Across the galaxy Wedge is in combat, wondering how the Imperials pulled off such a precise jump. He's about to help a stricken ship when orders come in from Bel Ibliss to abort it. He does with reluctance, and a second wing of fighters comes into the gap and gets through to the Star Cruiser. But they're still losing the overall battle.

Wedge realises the trick just before they leave... the ISDs just head towards the Interdictor and allow it to pull them out of hyperspace.

CH6:

The Wild Karrde arrives in the Chazwa system, tracking Clones. Aves argues about the sanity of doing this, but Karrde doesn'tthink the Republic is up to the challenge. A ship moving in on them turns out to be an old friend of Karrde's named Samuel Tomas Gillespee. He retired from the trade -to Ukio, and was forced back into it by the Imperial occupation. Karrde thinks the Republic would be interested in first hand data.

While they're negotiating, two Imperial ships start moving towards them. Karrde initially assumes they're here for him, but they keep going towards his friend. He decides to help out.

It initially looks bad, but it turns out both Karrde and his friend brought private armies. They arrange to meet later.

Bridge of Chimaera: Thrawn is briefing his assault team for Coruscant. Pellaeon expresses surprise about his undisclosed plan. They discuss strategy for a while, an upcoming attack on Ord Mantell, plus a potential attack on Mrisst to acquire a base for a subsequent move on Coruscant.

Supply troubles are to solverd by attacking Lando's mines again.

I don't really have too much to say, commentary wise, Leia's labour is adorable and sad as they note that Han will be locked out of Force sensitive based bonding. Everything else is just buildup for upcoming chapters that I can't say much about until the payoff. I like spending time with Karrde and his associates in general.

[Peelee]

The Coruscant attack is probably my favorite of Thrawn's tactics. At least, after the "pick the best people in each battle and have them cloned, so we have a very diverse yet incredibly competent military" plan.

[Cikomyr]

The Coruscant attack is probably my favorite of Thrawn's tactics. At least, after the "pick the best people in each battle and have them cloned, so we have a very diverse yet incredibly competent military" plan.

I always thought it was probably better to clone all members of an elite squadron to form a diverae cohesive group than to clone the same super pilot.

[Keltest]

I always thought it was probably better to clone all members of an elite squadron to form a diverae cohesive group than to clone the same super pilot.

Theyre clones. Theres nothing stopping you from doing both.

[Peelee]

Especially since Thrawn clones several super pilots. He builds in non-unifornity to clones, which is clever

[Sapphire Guard]

CH7: Luke arrives at Honoghr, and is instantly spotted by a patrol ship. On questioning, he explains that his power cells are damaged. Air traffic control is horrified that he's here, but willing to help, even after he offers to leave.

He's brought to a spot over between mountains, and a river valley where the Noghri are secretly growing things thanks to Leia. They confirm his identity, and squabble a bit over which of them is in the other's debt.

The Noghri are highly respectful, given that Leia basically saved their world, refusing to accept payment and the like. Luke is wary of this, not wanting to exploit their gratitude if possible.

An Imperial ship arrives for minor repairs, forcing Luke to stay undercover for two days. Hmm... I'd have thought the Planet of the Noghri would be more secret than that.

Khabarakh asks if their new garden will be enough, and Luke admits he doesn't think Honoghr can be saved. I'd have thought the poisoned grass would be easy enough to deal with, the problem is preventing the Empire from flattening the planet once they find out.

He settles in to relax and has a vision of Leia et al, probably during Thrawn's upcoming commando attack. The Noghri offer to destroy the Imperial ship so he can get back quicker, but he turns down this incredibly generous offer immediately, remembering the last time he followed a vision blindly. Khabarakh is pretty sure that any attack will have trouble getting through Chewbacca regardless, which is a nice, sweet touch.

In his mining town, Lando is upset in the aftermath of the Empire attack. The city can't move, so they have very limited time before they rotate out of the shadow of the planet and get burned alive. He sees a shieldship coming and gets hailed by General Bel Ibliss. There's one shieldship up and running, enough to get the injured out, but he needs help from Coruscant to save the remnants of his mining colony. He decides to go to Coruscant to expedite the move.

"On Coruscant at least he wouldn't have to worry about Imperial attacks."

Everything to do with the Noghri is extraordinarily well handled. This kind of plotline is tricky to pull off sensitively, but so far it's being done very well. And Lando's on route to Coruscant in time to be attacked by Imperials, after they stole impressive quantities of ore. The logistical planning is on point, all the setup makes sense. First ships and crews, then food, and now ore. Good touch.






x

[pendell]

Khabarakh asks if their new garden will be enough, and Luke admits he doesn't think Honoghr can be saved. I'd have thought the poisoned grass would be easy enough to deal with, the problem is preventing the Empire from flattening the planet once they find out.

The problem at this point is that the poisoned grass has supplanted the entire original ecology. You'd probably have to eliminate the poisoned grass then seed a new biosphere.

It would probably be the work of generations, even if the Republic put all its resources into the effort. Cheaper and easier to relocate to a new planet.

In his mining town, Lando is upset in the aftermath of the Empire attack. The city can't move, so they have very limited time before they rotate out of the shadow of the planet and get burned alive. He sees a shieldship coming and gets hailed by General Bel Ibliss. There's one shieldship up and running, enough to get the injured out, but he needs help from Coruscant to save the remnants of his mining colony. He decides to go to Coruscant to expedite the move.

"On Coruscant at least he wouldn't have to worry about Imperial attacks."

Lando has the worst luck. I'd be careful crossing the street lest a meteor fall on me, if I were him.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Peelee]

Lando has the worst luck. I'd be careful crossing the street lest a meteor fall on me, if I were him.

I dunno, Lando tends to do pretty well for himself. A meteor may fall near him, but he'd make a killing selling bottle Meteor Water.

[Blackhawk748]

Spoiler

Show

I was kind of skeptical of the cloaked asteroids one. If cloaking was so insurmountable, you'd think he could think of better things to do with it than blockade a planet. Or at least more things. What could they do about a squadron of cloaked bombers, for example? Or cloaked transports?

Spoiler

Show

The reason that cloaks are only on bug stuff is because it's basically impossible to put it on smaller stuff, with TIE Phantoms being a massive exemption.

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler

Show

I was kind of skeptical of the cloaked asteroids one. If cloaking was so insurmountable, you'd think he could think of better things to do with it than blockade a planet. Or at least more things. What could they do about a squadron of cloaked bombers, for example? Or cloaked transports?

Spoiler

Show

Cloaked transports? That sounds like something from a bad fanfic, theyd never include something like that in SW canon.

[Peelee]

Spoiler

Show

Cloaked transports? That sounds like something from a bad fanfic, theyd never include something like that in SW canon.

OK, I laughed.

[DataNinja]

I dunno, Lando tends to do pretty well for himself. A meteor may fall near him, but he'd make a killing selling bottle Meteor Water.

He's both the luckiest man in the galaxy, and the unluckiest. He does well for himself, is a keen businessman, has successful venture after successful venture... but then usually ends up losing it all, primarily via no fault of his own.

[Cikomyr]

He's both the luckiest man in the galaxy, and the unluckiest. He does well for himself, is a keen businessman, has successful venture after successful venture... but then usually ends up losing it all, primarily via no fault of his own.

Londo is the man all Interesting Times happen to

[Peelee]

Londo

I don't know why, but I find this typo hilarious.