Legendary Adventures: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth

After a hard-won victory at the Battle of Kothlis, the Republic seeks to unravel the latest Separatist plot to knock out their communications. Unfortunately, along the way, our heroes discover an even graver threat… join us in the latest Legendary Adventures as we start the two part Clone Wars Gambit series!

Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the ever-reliable trio of Jedi, find themselves locked in an engagement on Kothlis. During this engagement, the Republic loses its sensors and communications array. Despite being both functionally blind and deaf, the fleet pulls through with a victory, though not a great one. Ahsoka is sent to rest and be rejuvenated at Kaliida Shoals Medical Center while Anakin and Obi-Wan are sent to Coruscant for a five-day furlough from battle. The war started to really drain even the most dynamic and involved Jedi, which should have been a warning sign to both the Order and the individual Jedi Knights. Unfortunately, the message is lost, and the pair, even on furlough, don’t take the necessary time to rest.

While on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine, Yoda, and Bail Organa try to access what went wrong in the engagement over Kothlis. Palpatine, in his subtle I’m-also-the-Sith-commander-of-the-other-army-way, moves the conversation away from the real cause of this victory and the problems that threatened it. Thankfully, Bail discovers a small lead. The Separatists, months prior, gained control of a small system known as Lanteeb. Calling together Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker into his apartment to meet with both him and Padmé Amidala, the quartet struggles to figure out why the Separatists would want control of such an insignificant planet. Obi-Wan and Bail, having recently become friends on a mission to Zigoola, have a much more entertaining rapport here, made only more gratifying by reading the series in chronological order.

They come to a conclusion based on the availability of a certain mineral there, one exclusive to that planet. With this mineral, the four believe that the Separatists intend on making a virus intent on wiping out biological life from the planet. For the record, this joins previous Legends Separatist plots such as Jedi Killer droids, a clone targeting nanovirus, direct assaults on listening posts, and spying on the Republic. This virus is different from Dr. Uthain’s nanovirus: rather than specifically targeting troops, this virus would most likely attack all biological life. Based on their shared conclusions, Anakin and Obi-Wan go undercover to Lanteeb to figure out how to stop the creation of this virus.

One of the more interesting aspects of reading Legends novels is seeing the way in which the Separatists planned on winning the war. Sure, there were traditional warfare tactics, like dogfights, fleet battles, blockades, and infantry battles. Why invest in droids otherwise? But the Separatists tried many different ways to circumvent the need for fighting. Starting with the Jedi Killers, they sought to kill the Generals first. Sort of a kill the head and let the body rot idea, but that was foiled by Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto. The attempt to create an anti-clone virus was foiled by Omega Squadron and General Etain, which would have wiped out the ground forces, making any planet easy to invade. The Separatists, apparently done with creating precise plans, turned to destroy all biological life in general. The book hints at the potential plans for this disease, but its strategic importance is never laid out completely.

This turns into one of the biggest problems with the novel. When the threat is not totally spelled out, raising the stakes, it cheapens the impact of super threats such as these. It would be like discovering a miniature Death Star, but not commenting on it at all. If you remember The Clone Wars season one, the Separatists had already breached the idea of a virus with the Blue Shadow Virus. To do another virus, to me, seems to beg for a new explanation as to why they would try it again. Was it just such a good idea they were reluctant to let it die? Did Durd’s failure with the Lurmen inspire the Separatists to give him another shot? Unfortunately, without exploring these villains or this plot from a new angle than we’ve seen before, I wonder how essential these novels would turn out to be.

On Lanteeb, Dr. Bant’ena Fhernan is held against her will, forced to work on this virus. Her captor is none other than Lok Durd (oh, my!), who created a weapon designed to affect only biological life early in the Clone War. This new virus would not need the support of the tanks that his previous experiment did, making it potentially far more dangerous. To ensure Bant’ena’s support for his designs, Durd has placed droid assassins around the galaxy to watch her family. If she makes a move against the Separatists, her family will be destroyed by the droids. She hates herself for working with him, but between these threats and the abuse, she feels like she has no choice in the matter.

No choice, that is, until Anakin and Obi-Wan, disguised as xenophobic workers returning from Alderaan, discover the headquarters of this latest plot. As they move into the center of the lab, they hear Durd’s plan from Fhernan. She also reveals to them that she is only working with him out of fear, as Durd has watch on her family. The Jedi are able to alert the Council to this, and the Council arranges the safety of her family, minus one member who is killed anyway. Durd learns that the family has escaped, but Bant’ena has not. Using this information, Durd shows her the clip of the one dead family member and suggests that he still has the power to do this to rest of them. When Obi-Wan and Anakin return to retrieve her, she has sold them out, and they barely manage to escape Separatist custody. Since this book is part of duology, we’ll have to leave this plot as the Legendary Adventure’s first to be continued!

A note on a review-ish level: this is actually a really good novel. I say actually because this book completely flew under my radar for a really long time, and that’s really disappointing to know now. The plot moves at a fairly brisk pace, and it captures a bit more of the heart of the TV show that the other tie-ins have so far. I definitely recommend the first novel – which is hard, because as we’ll see in a few weeks, I won’t be able to whole-heartedly recommend the next one.

Legendary Travel Tips:
-This book is preceded by Republic Commando: Triple Zero and is followed by Clone Wars Gambit: Siege.

You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi