Sapphire Guard Reads Star Wars Aftermath...

[Sapphire Guard]

Chapter 32

Jom Barell disarms a stormtrooper, then kills him with the blaster. Killing stormtroopers with a broken arms easy enough, climbing a ladder one handed is trickier. As he gets to the top, he's held up by a young officer that is obviously nervous.

Jom Barell monologues about how young the officer is and how the Empire's days are numbered. Young officer actually briefly backs down, but then remembers what the Empire does to traitors and turns back, but Jom is able to charge him and lock him in a footlocker.

Barell sits at a console and takes aim at Crassus' yacht, but it doesn't fire, must have been damaged in the fight.

The book does a great job of humanising the Imperials. Stormtroopers are a bit more fragile than I prefer, though. And Sloane's security has yet another slip, she got very very lucky to still have a ship.

[Sapphire Guard]

Chapter 33

The leads are hiding under the palace, waiting for Sinjir to return with the Imperials. Norra very validly isn't sure the three of them can .take them all, but Jas is fairly confident. Temmin seem uncomfortable, but there's no time to find out why, as they hear stormtroopers approaching. From behind them, not the palace. They fall back to the seal, just as it is breached from the other side. Trap. They briefly fight, but are called upon to surrender by 'a woman', probably Sloan doing everything in person again. They get taken captive.

Elsewhere, Jom Barell is still trying to get the cannon to work. He thinks he gets it to work, and the yacht is clear target, but when he tries to take the shot it conks out again.

The captives are forced to their knees on the palace, where Sinjir is revealed...beaten up. Mr Bones is nervous, jumpy. They're cuffed, and Temmin reveals that he sold them out for a quiet life, because he doesn't want to leave the planet, he sold them out for his mother's life...and his droid? That's got to smart for Sinjir and Jas. Unfortunately, he made the deal with Surat, and Sloane doesn't feel bound to it.

Sinjir and Jas compliment him on his treachery, this being a useful skill among both bounty hunters and Imperials.

Not wanting to leave his Mom behind, he shouts to Bones to save them, only for the droid to be instantly riddled with blaster bolts. Sloane says that he will now be escorted out of the palace 'by way of the roof'. She's really having a bad day.

I have to admit, I did not see this coming. It's in character, it makes perfect sense, and it's appropriately foreshadowed, but I mistook Temmin's nerves for being about the monsters in the droid factory. While I'm struggling to stay interested in Wexley family drama, this was an appropriate payoff, well drawn.

[Peelee]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really like Sloane. Even if it's sometimes overdone, I like how she's very hands on and a lead-from-the-front character. A great heir to the Empire, or at least what's left of it.

[hamishspence]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really like Sloane. Even if it's sometimes overdone, I like how she's very hands on and a lead-from-the-front character. A great heir to the Empire, or at least what's left of it.

Not for nothing is she often compared to Pellaeon in terms of her niche in the newcanon.

[Fyraltari]

If Pellaeon proper shows up in post-ROTJ era, it'd be nice to see these two meet.

[Sapphire Guard]

Chapter 34

Temmin is rethinking his life choices as he's being carried to be thrown off the roof. He tries to kick, and actually hurts a stormtrooper despite hitting them on the chestplate. But they don't let him go, and end up throwing him off the roof onto the onrushing mob.

Stones are thrown from the mob, and stormtroopers return fire until Sloane stops them. Norra and the other captives are marched onboard and she says hi to Wedge.

Jas doesn't particularly hold a grudge against Norra. Sinjir, aware of their probable grisly fate, is less forgiving.

Below, the mob actually caught Temmin, and sets him down unharmed. Well, that's an inefficient way to kill someone. He starts trying to climb back up.

The satrap catches up as they are leaving, and begs to be taken aboard, due to his imminent dismembering at the hands of an angry mob otherwise. Sloane thanks him for his service, and has Stormtroopers throw him off the ship.

She's really getting short-tempered these days. Temmin continues to climb.

Aboard, Sloane's pilot is fond of the chairs aboard the Yacht, having locked up Crassus' pilot. The ISDs have arrived to cover their escape.

Temmin pole vaults onto the ship using a discarded vibro-pike, barely making it, and once again rethinks his life choices up to this point.

Inside, Sloane is also reflecting on her choices. She realises the whole trip has been a failure, but takes no personal responsibility. Her takeaways:

1: Consensus? Not easy.

2. Empire is fractured, and some are less interested in healing it than taking advantage of this fact.

3. If the Empire is to survive, then they must- oh, something landed on the hull. Send troops to investigate.

The Imperials are in the same room as the prisoners, and Pandion appears to take a particular dislike to Sinjir.

A stormtrooper opens a window, and Temmin pulls him out. He climbs in, and then a stormtrooper with comic timing and apparently no attachment to the comrade pulled to his death taps him on the shoulder.

Temmin attempts banter. The stormtroopers and the two imperial guards appear unimpressed. He bolts.

Planetside, Jom Barell screams in rage and pounds the console. This appeals to the consoles' sense of humour and the turret fires.

In the cockpit of the yacht, Sloane is told that the Rebel fleet is arriving, then they take fire from Jom's turret.

Temmin is about to be shot when his pursuers are blasted away by the turret. He scrambles back inside as pressure doors close.

Sloane gets back into her chair. Seatbelts are important,kids, never know when you might take AA fire.

Morna is too busy trying not to die to update her, so Sloane calls up a status report. A big chunk of the middle of the ship is gone, effectively sealing off the cockpit from the passenger areas.

In the back half of the ship, they don't know what's going on. Tashu is praying, Shale is being sick, and Jas is waiting for an opportunity.

Pandion quite calmly asks Sloane if they're all going to die via his communicator. She says no.

The action is heating up, and I'm engaged again. Lost interest for a few chapters.

The pressure seems to be getting to Sloane a bit. Abandoning the satrap is not clever, however much she dislikes him, now no-one else has any reason to expect loyalty to be rewarded. He could easily have fired that turret at her, for instance, assuming no rebel takeover.

Interlude: Bespin Cloud City

Yes, there is an interlude to the other side of the galaxy in the middle of our climactic action scene. This seems poorly placed. Also, I always thought Bespin was the system name, not the name of the city.

Borgin Kaa picks up an antique vase and prepares to fend off a home invasion. He was due in town for a new heart, which was put on hold due to rebel attacks.

The intruders break in, he misses with the vase, and they pin him down. He recognises one outlaw, and one personal friend, or so he thought. They go looking for an 'access panel', while his friend Jintar points out that they're being lied to, Palpatine is dead and Imperial control is slipping. Kaa calls this lies, and despite entreaties, doesn't give up the access code to the panel, so they tie him up after he attacks Jintar.

They could torture him, but that's against NR policy, so they have to do things the hardway. The intruder outlaw waives his fee in exchange for a future favour from the NR.

I mean, that was an interesting scene, but not right in the middle of your climactic dogfight.

Completely unrelated random question, because y'all usually know these things: Do we know when Obi Wan became a Jedi Master?

[Fyraltari]

Phantom Menace. Being a Master is a requisite for having a Padawan.
Well, it was until The Clone Wars, a statement that I think is true both in and out of universe.

[Rakaydos]

Phantom Menace. Being a Master is a requisite for having a Padawan.
Well, it was until The Clone Wars, a statement that I think is true both in and out of universe.

At some point there became a distinction between the Rank of Jedi Master, and the Position of a student's master. Obi-wan didnt skip the Knight rank when he went from padawon to Anakin's master. Just as Anakin got his padawon Asoka at the start of the Clone Wars, despite not getting the Rank of master until Revenge of the Sith.

[Sapphire Guard]

I thought that bringing a Padawan to Knight status was a possible prerequisite to being a Master? Can't remember where I heard that, though?

Otherwise OBI gets a rank by default immediately after his Trial, and Anakin could just go grab a Padawan to attain the rank of Master.

[hamishspence]

In The Jedi Path it states that training a Padawan up to Knighthood is one way of gaining the rank of Master.

Another is performing an extraordinary service to the Republic, thereby having the High Council grant special dispensation.

A third is undergoing a modified, more challenging version of the Trials of Knighthood.

[Sapphire Guard]

Thanks everyone. Now, back to my (somewhat) regularly scheduled ramblings...

Chapter 35

Normally, Sloane finds the void of space comforting. This time, however, due to the giant space battle in progress at the moment, she's finding it difficult to be at peace. She asks her pilot how they're doing and is updated as 'limping along' Good to know.

Commander Agate is shaking with tension. Once upon a time, she tried to hide it, then she realised showing her nerves was a sign of strength. Very nice touch, I have to say. I like this lady already, and she hasn't really done anything yet.

She notices the yacht struggling towards orbit and realises its potentially a high level Imperial craft. She contemplates shooting it down, but decides it may have valuable intelligence onboard and elects to target the ISD it's heading towards instead.

A strange man is choking Temmin. Temmin punches him, and is shown the secret door to the cabin, which he opens with his multitool.

Pandion and Sinjir exchange barbs, after which Sinjir takes the opportunity to headbutt him in the face. Pandion decides to execute him in response, and Jas volunteers to be the executioner. Pandion pretends to buy it to mess with her, but as he tries a pistolwhip her hands turn out to be free and she takes it away from him. At gunpoint, Pandion is more willing to negotiate, meanwhile Temmin is sneakily freeing the prisoners' hands.

The Viligance is taking heavy fire, and the current CO (Tothwin) is killed mid conversation with Sloane. They have no choice but to land on it anyway.

Once the prisoners are free, Pandion wonders what their plan is. This being the Empire, eventually they'll meet someone that will just shoot through him if necessary, so his hostage value is only in the short term.

Sloane straps in as they make a headlong dash for a crashlanding on the Viligance. There is no attempt to make any kind of announcement to her passengers, at least on the page. They crashland hard in the ISD's bay.

I can't really say much in the middle of a scene like this, it's too conditional on what happens next. I'm kind of interested in the alternate universe where Agate took the shot at the yacht, killing most of our leads and all of Imperial High Command.

Chapter 36

The leads pick themselves up, having weathered the landing better than the Imperials. Jas has secured Shale and Tashu, Crassus is dead, and Pandion is escaped.

They crawl out of the wreckage and into the ISD bay, where there's a nice view of the battle. Norra wants in.

There are several shuttles in the bay, one of which is moving. Jas is going to take her hostages out in it, Temmin is to go after Wedge...and Norra's going to get in a TIE and chase down the escaping shuttle.

The shuttle is probably Sloane, and possibly Pandion, leaving her ISD crew to die. Imperials, eh?

[Sapphire Guard]

Chapter 37

Aboard the TIE, chasing Sloane's shuttle, Norra is feeling good, with the caveat that a TIE is a suicide machine and she's registering as a hostile to the Rebel fleet, and scrambles to the comms to correct the record so they don't kill her.

Commander Agate registers that she's winning the battle, and reminds herself not to be complacent, and wonders what happens once victory is achieved. She's informed about Norra's transmission and decides to believe it.

In the shuttle cockpit, Sloane is regretting the deaths when Pandion steps in from behind, blaster in hand, and says hello. Pandion has had enough of her leadership (he actually has a point, to be fair) and now plans to take it at blasterpoint. Sloane calls him foolish, because the Ravager isn't under her command. "There is another."

Pandion initially disbelieves, then believes she lured them all into a trap and is a traitor. Sloane prepares to die, but they're interrupted by enemy fire, and she invites him to buckle up.

Norra is taking shots at the shuttle, but is briefly interrupted by TIEs. She gets back on course. "Stay on target."

Pandion has chosen not to take a seatbelt, which is all part of the plan. She tells him she's going to take over his ISD.

"I think you overestimate your-"

Sloane spins the ship, knocks him off balance, then shoots him in the stomach with his own gun, sealing him out of the cockpit, and then tells Morna to self destruct the ship.

The shuttle suddenly explodes under fire, and Norra tries to steer free of the wreckage. Her train of thought cuts off mid sentence.

I could speculate on who 'there is another' is, but unfortunately I've read the sequel. At this point, it's set up to look like Palpatine's return.

A lot of memes in this chapter, something I don't care for.

Interlude: Jakku.

Another interlude in the middle of a chase sequence.

Corrin Ballast gets off his junky speeder and goes looking for a bar. A potential mugger gets as far as "What have we her-" but Corrin flashes his blaster at them and they back off. He finds the bar and knocks back the only thing on offer, which is 'Knockback Nectar', of unknown origin. He drinks it anyway, and asks for news. This being Jakku, there ain't much.

Barman asks how the hell he ended up here. He came on purpose after losing him family to the war, to find somewhere the war couldn't find him. The bartender reassures him that 'you don't get more nowhere than here.'

This is a genuinely great interlude, collectively a lot of them do a good job of setting the scene of how damaged and broken the galaxy is. It's even plot relevant. Placement could be better, alas.

[Sapphire Guard]

Chapter 38

Firstly, I have to rescind the last things I said, as the final chase sequence appears to be over. Norra wakes up in some kind of medical facility. She briefly sees Temmin alive, then fades back into unconsciousness.

Days later, she is sitting with Admiral Ackbar and equally battered looking Wedge in a medical facility, in Hanna City (Chandrila?). Ackbar hands her a medal, a new one for actions on Akiva. She saved Wedge, captured Tashu and Shale, and confirmed the deaths of Pandion and Crassus. Sloane escaped alive, detaching the shuttle cockpit, and her ISD escaped into space.

Ackbar then offers her a job, she hesitates but eventually accepts.

Cut to Temmin and Norra on Akiva, looking at the NR flag flying over Akiva -after the angry mob, they decided to turn over their rule.

Surat's gang went down, but the man himself escaped, because he's still one of the most capable people in this book. Temmin no longer thinks of this place as home, but they can't be guaranteed to find his father on their adventures.

An SS-54 Assault ship flies overhead, with a drawing of a doll holding a knife under the caption 'PLAY NICE'. Heh.

The rest of the crew is on board, including Jom Barell the special forces survivor. Norra is pleased to see him. Before they leave, Temmin calls Bones which they rebuilt from scrap as a family project.

So the party is assembled, contracted to hunt down Imperial targets. Can't possibly be exciting, right?

Interlude: Chandrila

Olia is asking an officer leading a parade of prisoners essentially what he's doing.He explains that they're Imperial holdouts, and she complains that prisoner parades are what the Empire would do...which is why she put it on camera.

There is another parade nearby, one of Senators heading to work. There's possibly a hundred of them, which seems small for a Galactic republic, but its the beginning of something wonderful.

Next, the epilogue and final review. Thanks for reading.

[Sapphire Guard]

Epilogue

Rae stands on the bridge of the Ravager. The fleet admiral is looking out the window and says she can always speak frankly with him, but not interrupt his humming of classical music.

Sloane asks if the summit on Akiva was designed to be the disaster it turned out to be, if our mystery man was eliminating his competition. She found encrypted transmissions from the ship to a rebel frequency after her return.

He calls it a test. The weak must be purged and so forth. Pandion failed, but Sloane proved herself better by surviving.

Mightily convenient, that.

The galaxy is no longer theirs. He means to break it down, build something new and better in it's place.

Sloane isn't quite convinced, but not instantly dismissive either. He takes her shoulder warmly...and uses his grip to send her on her way.



Review

And that was Star Wars: Aftermath, everyone. Thanks for reading.

Overall, it's...okay. There's nothing terrible or brilliant about it. There are things that don't especially appeal to me, but not much I can call bad.

There was a lot of scenes where I had no real commentary to make, either because I already knew what happened.

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ie, I know who the admiral is, even though the book tries to imply it might be Palpatine or Thrawn on occasion

or because there wasn't much that needed elaboration, which makes for a pretty dull Let's read. My schedule slipped a bit, partly because I'm busier now than I was, but also partly because I wasn't as interested.

Pandion was fun, Sloane is worthwhile enough, the other Imperials are pretty one note. The Wexley family in general are hard for me to be interested in. Bones I could do without.

Sinjir and Jas are my favourite leads. The idea of a repentant loyalty officer is an out and out fantastic idea, but not much happens with it, and Sinjir's repentance being because he broke a beautiful person's face undermines it a bit. Pandion could have done more with that, but being gutshot in an exploding ship makes me feel he's probably dead.

Humanising the Imperials is very well done, as are quite a few of the Interludes. The underlying ideas are often great, but the book can't quite make them work.

So that's that, thanks for reading etc. I can fairly easily find the sequels, but given how often I had little to say about chapters I'm not sure if I'll go through them.

[Peelee]

And that was Star Wars: Aftermath, everyone. Thanks for reading.

Overall, it's...okay. There's nothing terrible or brilliant about it.

Objection! It's in present tense. That alone is terrible.

[Fyraltari]

You know, reading your posts it hit me how much I don't remember that book. At all. I mean, most books, even bad ones, I could remember most of the plot and who the characters are once I'm given a name and a bit of outline. But here beyond Sloane, Bones and Sinjir, I got nothing.

[Peelee]

Bytheway, Sapphire Guard, if you're interested in more (aside from the Thrawn Duology, obviously), I wholly recommend Lost Stars. It's a YA novel, so should be a fairly quick and easy read, but is still IMO one of the best books the new canon has put out.

[Sapphire Guard]

Objection! It's in present tense. That alone is terrible.

Compelling point, but I just stopped noticing eventually.

If I come across the book I'll pick it up, but I'm not inclined to exert effort into finding it at this point.

Here is what I remember about Life Debt

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The plot has very little to do with a Life Debt.

The villain has some kind of crazy plan requiring the leads to escape from a prison no one has escaped from before for it to work.

Gallius Rax kills his own people for no reason even more than Imperials usually do.

Jas climbs a fortress at some point.

Sloane is inevitably betrayed by Rax and either her pilot or her aide.