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Michael Reaves2001 – Del Rey32.5 Years Before The Battle of YavinSite Rating =
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SPOILER ALERT: This Will Spoil The Plot of the Book!
In remote space on the starship Saak’ak,the Neimodian leaders of the Trade Federation speak with Darth Sidious about his plan to hide battle droids inside their vessels. One of their top lieutenants, Hath Monchar, is missing, however, and it peaks the curiosity of the Sith Master. Viceroy Nute Gunray tells him that he is sick, but he knows that actually the lieutenant has gone missing.
After finishing a rigorous training exercise, Darth Maul is contacted by his master and is given the the mission of tracking down the missing Neimodian. He has vital information about the Sith plan and he must be killed along with anyone else who has spoken with about it.
In the dark underbelly of Coruscant, Lorn Pavan and his droid partner I-Five visit a local fence and end up having to fight their way out. After killing his bodyguard, they capture the fence and attempt to recover the Jedi Holocron he had been trying to sell them. The deal went sour after Lorn lost his temper when someone referred to him as a Jedi. He tells I-Five that the holocron was actually a Sith holocron that was worth a lot more and they’ll need a lot more money to get it.
Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant stands before the Jedi Council along with her master, Anoon Bondara to receive her final mission before becoming a Knight. The assignment is to retrieve Oolth, a member of the Black Sun crime syndicate, and protect him until they can get information out of him. Bondara believes the mission may be too difficult as it is in the Crimson Corridor and filled with all sorts of miscreants.
While Darth Maul lands and begins his search for Monchar on Coruscant, Gunray suggests to Rune Haako that they hire the bounty hunter Mahwi Lihnn to go after Monchar before Sidious contacts them again.
After binge drinking, Lorn returns to their apartment to look for something to sell quickly since they are out of money. Lorn goes through the story of his hatred for the Jedi and their way of life.
As he waits to hear from Maul, Sidious ponders the history of the Sith and all the plans that will soon culminate in their return to power and the demise of the Jedi.
Darsha reaches the safe house house and picks up Oolth, but upon returning to her ship she finds that several members of the Raptor gang are already ransacking it. After a failed attempt at mind control, she prepares to fight.
Elsewhere on the planet, Monchar is looking for an intermediary to help him sell the information he has about a certain Sith Lord’s plans to blockade a planet. Nearby, Mahwi Lihnn investigates Monchar’s apartment looking for any remnants of where he might be.
Inside a tavern, Maul gets information that Monchar is going to be looking for Lorn Pavan to sell his information.
Darsha is able to fight off the Raptors, but her ship is disabled. She takes Oolth to higher levels in a nearby building but they are attacked by hawk bats and Oolth falls several stories, presumably to his death. She cuts through a blacked out window and hides inside, devastated that her mission is a failure.
Monchar, Lorn, and Maul converge on the Dewback Inn with Lihnn not far behind. Monchar tells Lorn he wants half a million credits. It’s a deal Lorn can’t pass up, but one he can’t afford. I-Five suggests a bank fraud and Lorn agrees to the scam. As they leave the Inn, Lihnn spots them and follows.
Lorn and I-Five know they will have just over two hours before the bank discovers the deception.
Maul easily finds Monchar’s hiding space and kills him, however, he is unable to retrieve the holocron as Lihnn interrupts his search. She opens fire on him and Maul jumps to safety as an explosion rocks the apartment. Lorn arrives seconds later and finds the holocron.
Maul contacts Sidious and tells him he knows where to find Lorn and the holocron, but admits his initial attempts have ended in failure.
As he recounts the events to I-Five, he recalls that all the wounds were cauterized and since Jedi weren’t known for executions, it was possibly a Sith. He wants to ditch the holocron, but I-Five convinces him to sell it to a notable Hutt so they can escape with credits in their pockets.
Darsha is able to return safely to the Jedi Temple, but after giving her account to Bondara, the master says since she didn’t actually see Oolff die they should return before information the Council. Upon their return, however, they find only a blood stain where the body should have been.
Lorn arrives at Yanth the Hutt’s office and after running a quick test agrees to the million credit price tag. Back at Lorn’s cubicle, Maul learns of the meeting with the Hutt and sets off to intercede.
As Lorn prepares to get his credits, Maul enters begins laying waste to anyone in his way including the Hutt. Lorn and I-Five are able to escape, but Maul is still hot on their trail. As he moves to pounce on them, Darsha and Bondara intervene and help them escape, albeit with a damaged vehicle. Lorn is amused that he is being chased by a Sith and rescued by the Jedi he hates so much. I-Five tells the Jedi the information about the impeding blockade of the planet Naboo.
Bondara orders Darsha to take the passengers back to the Temple and leaps from the sky car back to attack Maul. Darsha disobeys however and returns to fight. Before she makes it back, Bondara realizes he cannot defeat the Sith and creates a suicidal blast, but it fails to kill Maul but does knock him out cold. Darsha’s car feels the blast and they make their way into a stairwell that is also collapsing from the explosion.
Rune Haako informs Gunray that Monchar and their bounty hunter are both dead and they know soon enough they will have to explain their actions to Sidious.
Yoda, Mace windu, and Qui-Gon Jinn meet to discuss the mysterious disappearance of the padawan and her master. Unsure of the circumstances, Qui-Gon suggests sending his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in to investigate.
After being pulled from the blast by I-Five, Lorn and Darsha find themselves again in the dark underbelly where they come across as decrepit looking tunnel. I-Five’s locator points them towards the Jedi Temple. Once inside, it doesn’t take long for trouble to find them as they are covered by an electrically charged net that knocked them unconscious.
Maul awakens from the blast and knows that his prey has escaped.
As Lorn wakes up, he sees he is surrounded by Cthons, creatures that had spent so long underground they no longer needed, or had, eyes are known for their cannibalistic nature.
Obi-Wan finds the crash site of Darsha’s first sky car where he learns about another recent explosion and heads off to investigate the crash site. The more he learns the more uneasy he gets especially when learns of the recent deaths of a bounty hunter and a Hutt that could possibly be related.
Darsha uses the Force to save Lorn and I-Five helps them make their escape. Lorn remembers a favor that is owed to him by Tuden Sal and hopes that instead of going to the Jedi Temple, Tuden Sal will be able to help he I-Five get off the planet. They enter an enormous room with a bottomless pit and a rather suspect looking bridge as the only way across.
As the group talks, Darsha learns that Lorn once worked in the Jedi Temple and his soon was taken from him there to study and thus Lorn was fired. I-Five and Lorn stop short when Darsha tells them Maul is coming up behind them, but they are actually focused on gigantic creature that is rising from the pit. Neither Darsha nor Maul can sense the monster known as a taozin. They are trapped between the taozin, the sith, and a bottomless pit!
I-Five flings the three of them over the side and holds on to them and Darsha cuts the support strand and they swing over to the side of the room. Maul follows their lead, but is now stuck on the opposite side of the cavern.
Obi-Wan heads into a tavern where he is jumped by several people. He fights them off, and meets a man named Dal Perhi who says the two can help each other out. He takes Kenobi to the Hutt’s office and he says the wounds do appear to be from a lightsaber.
Darsha and the others make it out of the tunnels where they run into the Raptors again, but this time they easily defeat the gang. They search the bodies for anything they can scavenge. I-Five finds a com link, but hides it from Darsha to help aid their escape later on. Lorn almost begins to feel bad about ditching her, as he has begun to grow fond of the padawan.
Maul also makes it outside and hijacks a Republic police vehicle and uses the holocams on it to help locate Lorn.
Just as Darsha, Lorn, and I-Five are about to reach the upper levels, Maul corners them. Lorn and I-Five are separated from them and the Sith and Jedi begin their duel. Maul is impressed by her skill, but both know the outcome is inevitable. As I-Five explains that Darsha is buying time with her life, he sets up the carbonite freezing chamber they are in to hopefully prolong their life (despite protests from Lorn). With thoughts of Darsha on this mind, the two enter the chamber and activate it. Darsha knows she is outmatched and as she is cut down she throws her lightsaber at some nearby canisters that cause a huge explosion. Maul escapes and sense no remaining life forms inside. His mission is complete.
Obi-Wan arrives at the hijacked police cruiser and decides this matter is far beyond the reach of just one Jedi padawan. He tells the officers he’ll be reporting the matter to the Council.
Maul contacts Sidious who says he is already aware the the plan has been successful and that stealth is of utmost importance as their plan is nearly ready to begin.
Obi-Wan follows the trail of another explosion where he finds Darsha’s melted lightsaber and knows her fate has been sealed.
Lorn awakes from the carbonite and I-Five fills him in on the details. They are picked up by Tuden Sal, but as they leave they spot Maul and decide to follow him. He arrives at his ship and Lorn says he plans to follow Maul. I-Five gives Lorn a blob of taozin flesh in hopes that it will mask Lorn from the Sith. The droid plans on going along, but Lorn switches him off and tells Tuden Sal to take him to the Jedi to give them his information. Lorn follows Maul to a station orbiting the planet where Maul expects to meet with Sidious and hand over the holocron.
Tuden Sal looks over I-Five and makes plans to wipe his memory and keep the droid for himself.
Inside the station, Lorn is able to sneak up behind Maul with his presence masked and stun him and grab the holocron. Maul wakes up and cuts off his hand. Lorn gets through the door and seals himself off from the Sith. He reaches an upper level and finds several Republic guards and Senators. He recognizes one of the Senators and hands over the the holocron to him and Senator Palpatine promises to give it to the Jedi.
Obi-Wan returns to the Temple and finds it in an uproar. Qui-Gon tells him that Naboo has just been blockaded by the Trade Federation and the two of them are being sent to negotiate. His report will have to wait.
Lorn is in a hotel room recovering from his ordeal and has been told that he’ll be set up with a stipend. When he goes to leave, however, Darth Maul is waiting for him and kills him.
Comments
Darth Maul is sort of a cross between Jason Vorhees and Boba Fett. He stalking his prey like Jason and set on a bounty like Fett (only his payment is a bit different).
Major Characters |
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Darth Maul
Darth Sidious Lorn Pavan I-Five Darsha Assant |
Anoon Bondara
Obi-Wan Kenobi Nute Gunray Hath Monchar |
Why Should You Read This Book? |
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| Darth Maul’s screen life was short lived, and here’s a chance to see him involved in another mission. | |
Good Moments |
Bad Moment |
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Maul thinking about Sidious taking him to the Jedi Temple as a child and the two, in disguise, spy on their enemies. |
Nothing stands out.
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