Legendary Adventures: The Cestus Deception

Begun, the Clone Wars have – and the Legendary Adventures moves into open war! The Separatists have developed a powerful, Force sensitive battle droid, and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto are tasked to destroy it in this weeks’ Adventure!

“Obi-Wan bared his teeth. As Master Yoda had often said these days, The dark side has clouded the Galaxy. Difficult to see, the future is.”

Buckle up for a bumpy ride, fellow Adventurers! When the Clone Wars rage, everything is in chaos: the Republic, independent star systems’ governments, and chronology. In 2002, LFL, alongside Hasbro, Del Rey and others, opted to create a massive Clone Wars tie-in push. New Clone Wars figures were developed by Hasbro as a follow up to the 2002 Saga Collection while Del Rey was working on a “Clone Wars Novel” brand. These stayed consistent with each other, but the timeline was shifted with 2008’s The Clone Wars theatrical release and subsequent TV series. This TV series, developed by Dave Filoni and George Lucas, was given free reign over EU continuity, and every discrepancy was granted to the TV series. Why do I say this? The Cestus Deception says that it takes place about a year into the war, but Anakin is still a Padawan. Anakin is granted Knighthood about months into the War, so this novel has to be made to fit that timeline.

This shift in the timeline is actually pretty significant for the novel. The Republic learns of a dangerous new battle droid being developed, one with Force sensitivity. These Jedi Killers are produced by the Cestus Corporation, imbued with Force sensitivity from Dastha eels. These eels are generally benevolent and sentient, but they have been giving the Cestus Corporation non-sentient offspring as a trade for their own well being. The Jedi Killers are being weaponized and ready to distribute to different Separatist outposts. The Separatists, now from the outset of the war rather than one year in, are already developing anti-Jedi super weapons. This leaves the Jedi with few options. They would rather not escalate the war (now only a few weeks in, rather than a year in), so they send Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan Kenobi as ambassadors. The Jedi hope to secure the Cestus Corporation’s allegiance to the Republic, stopping them from supplying the Separatists with these droids. If they can’t secure this trade, the Republic plans to bombard the planet into submission, even if it means total death for the X’Ting, the native insectoid species to the planet, and everyone else on the planet.

The Republic, at this stage in the war, shows how extravagant it is. Obviously, there are still almost three years to go before Palpatine pulls his trump card, so the Republic is in full support of the Jedi. When they are in danger, they are willing to risk an entire force to bombard a factory producing anti-Jedi droids. This is a huge juxtaposition against the later Republic, spread thin throughout the war fronts, unable to bring support to many failing missions.

It is interesting to see the Jedi still try and adopt a more ambassadorial approach. Obi-Wan and barrister Doolb Snoil try to negotiate with the world’s regent, G’Mai Duris. G’Mai’s hands are more or less tied by the Five Families, or the X’Ting leaders of the Cestus Corporation. We start to see a little bit of the way that the war starts to destabilize individual planets. War is profitable, and the Cestus Corporation is willing to take full advantage of their neutrality to sell their dangerous weapons to both sides. These families are not native to Ord Cestus, and have taken the throne from the native X’Tings. Profits, in war, override heredity, so the X’Tings have been displaced.

In an effort to secure the Five Families’ loyalty to the Republic, Kit Fisto creates a wild plan. He mobilizes a small rebel militia known as the Desert Wind to raid a Five Family train, cluing Obi-Wan into the ruse so he can stop them. Their hope was that the Five Families would be so thankful to Obi-Wan for being saved that they would turn to the Republic in thanks. In a sense, this action shows a bit of the Jedi’s moral decline. While still trying to prevent violence (the Jedi didn’t come with an army, just a handful of clones and ARC Trooper Nate), they do work with rebels to deceive the ruling class. They are hesitant, at this point, to engage in much violence, but they are not behind using immoral tactics to win a diplomatic victory instead.

Unfortunately for the Jedi, Asajj Ventress has proof that Kit Fisto manufactured the crisis. I found that this was an interesting use of Ventress for her first appearance. She is an assassin, trained for stealth strikes and reconnaissance. Rather than whipping into battle to fight the Jedi, she uses her cunning to undermine their entire operation. In doing so, she is able to throw off their plan and launch a surprise attack on the Desert Wind operation. This was an interesting, new role for Ventress, before she became more of a generic commander of Battle Droids in future novels.

In this surprise attack, ARC Trooper Nate is injured. He is cared for by a local pilot named Sheeka Tull. Sheeka is the former lover of Jango Fett (now only recently killed in Geonosis). The ARC Trooper and Sheeka develop feelings for each other. Nate, because he has been alone with clones for so long, can’t help but fall for her, and Sheeka, because he bears such a strong resemblance to the recently deceased bounty hunter. This relationship scratches the surface of the humanity of the clones, asking whether or not they were capable of relationships or a normal life after the war. On the accelerated timeline, this means that the clone troopers were developing individual personalities, even lives, extremely early into the war! He changes his name to Jangotat, which means “brother of Jango”, and emulates Jango in that he becomes a father.

As the alliance between the Five Families and the Jedi crumble, Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto are frantic to stop the impending orbital bombardment. As they race to restore diplomatic ties, they are forced to face Asajj Ventress in a duel. Jangotat, in the meantime, carries out a precision airstrike on the factory producing the Jedi Killer droids. Sheeka is left alone, pregnant with Jangotat’s child. This precision airstrike takes out the Five Families, letting the X’Ting retake the throne and holding off a larger attack by the Republic.

As an aside, at the end of the novel, Obi-Wan reveals to Sheeka that he knows about her relationship with Jangotat. He also reveals that he knows that Sheeka and Jangotat were going to have a son. Rather than berate her, he congratulates her. He eases some of her fears about being a single mother by reminding her that this son would have a name, rather than a number. At this point in the war, this would be a big deal! This also hints toward Obi-Wan later figuring out that Padme and Anakin are pregnant without his explicit commentary on their relationship.

On a purely review basis, this book was long, dense, and honestly, hard to get through. Not that it wasn’t well-written, because it was! So much was happening at once that it was hard to follow at times, and it felt bloated by fitting so much into a single novel. Consider that five stories were being told at once: Obi-Wan and Doolb, Kit Fisto and the Desert Wind, Ventress, Jangotat, and, every once in a while, G’Mai would have her own story. That’s a lot for a single novel, so I was struggling to keep up at times. I would recommend this title as part of the generally solid “Clone Wars Novel” line, but as it is now the opening salvo of the Clone Wars, I was stuck by how many stories it tried to tell and how slowly the plot moved in relation to that. I generally enjoyed every character, and the main plot was excellent, so it wasn’t a waste of time at all! I just found it to have a bit too much going on for my tastes. I imagine clone fans will have a field day with this novel.

Legendary Travel Tips:
-This novel is preceded by The Legacy of the Jedi and followed by Changing Seasons, an Insider short story written by Timothy Zahn.
-Obi-Wan mentions that a clone trooper has never disobeyed orders, which contradicts the entire premise of The Hidden Enemy from The Clone Wars.
–The Legends banner paperback includes a short story The Hive, wherein Obi-Wan finds records that help the X’Ting claim their inheritance of the throne of Ord Cestus.

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

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi