The destruction of the Death Star rocked the galaxy, and the Empire struggles to regain its footing after its most recent, disastrous loss. The loyalty of Imperial and Alliance forces are tested as the Legendary Adventures arrive at Allegiance!
Han Solo is on yet another unpaid job for the Alliance, despite the fact that he has both said that he doesn’t want to work for the Alliance, nor did he make money last time he helped the Alliance out. This time, he is evacuating a team of Rebel commandos from Teardrop, a planet under Imperial military control. Han sneaks past an Imperial blockade with some smooth talking, just as the Star Destroyer Reprisal arrives at the planet with reinforcements. On the ship, we find the Imperial Security Bureau and stormtroopers questioning their role in the Galactic Civil War.
You see, the Galactic Civil War has recently flared up again in the light of the destruction of both the Death Star and Alderaan. While the destruction of Alderaan has made plenty of systems sympathetic to the Alliance, it has also started to turn the minds of people within the Death Star. Some escaped from Imperial custody before the Battle of Yavin, but some were still in the Empire. When ordered to fire upon civilians on Teardrop, a few stormtroopers were overwhelmed with the depth of the ethical dilemma that they have been handed and refuse. One particular stormtrooper, LaRone, refuses to kill civilians, and accidentally kills an ISB officer. They flee the Reprisal, fearing reprisal for their actions.
The stormtroopers, LaRone, Taxtro Grave, Saberan Marcross, Joak Quiller, and Korlo Brightwater, head to Drunrost to resupply and figure out their next steps. On Drunrost, in the Shelsha sector, they encounter a group of swoop bikers, who happen to be working for the Alliance. They fight the swoop bikers and rebrand themselves as the Hand of Judgment, a para-military group that would enact justice where the Empire couldn’t or wouldn’t.
The stormtrooper ssent to Teardrop were not the only Imperial agents given a task of reacting to rebellion within the government. Moff Glovstoak is accused of embezzling Imperial funds and might even be feeding those funds to the Rebellion. Rumors of Imperial governors jumping ship and helping the Alliance attracts the attention of both Mara Jade and the Alliance leadership. Emperor Palpatine sends Mara Jade to Glovstoak’s mansion to uncover his embezzlement, while the Alliance sends Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and the droids to the Shelsha sector to talk with a possible Rebel contact and secure them on their side. Unbeknownst to them, but accidentally revealed to the Hand of Judgment? That the Rebel activity on Drunrost is extremely high, sponsored by an Imperial Administrator named Disra, who is desperately willing to work with Alliance leadership.
Unfortunately, as the Hand of Judgment, Alliance leaders, and Emperor’s Hand Mara Jade (a title unexplored here, but important to remember for future novels) put pressure on Administrator Disra, he turns on Leia for personal gain – and maybe to protect his own life; you know what happens when the Empire is hunting you down. As Leia and the Rebels try to survive on the planet Shelkonwa, a planet near Drunrost with related Rebel activity, (causing Leia to go undercover as a tapcaf waitress!), Mara roots out piracy in the planet. As the Empire suffered their major loss at Yavin, pirates have grown in bravery and act more boldly by working with local governors and the Rebellion. Mara is forced to work alone to take down the pirates when the ISB turns on her (believing her to be part of the desertion party that make up the Hand of Judgment), but she is successful in rooting out their leaders.
Leia, on the other hand, is in a lot of danger as the entirety of the planets’ leadership searches for her. Even worse? The ISB sends agents to root her out as well. This separates her from Luke, Han, and Chewbacca, who are forced to later return to rescue her. It is significant that neither Han, Chewbacca nor Luke Skywalker are known Rebel agents to the Empire, at least not yet. If LaRone was still in the Imperial forces, he might have reported the Jedi he encounters on Shelkonwa to the Empire, but for now, Luke’s identity is a secret.
The three parties (the rebels, Mara Jade, and the Hand of Judgment) put two and two together, realizing that the pirate activity and rebel activity are in fact connected, and all signs point back to Shelkonwa, where a Governor, named Choard, is desperate to turn to the Alliance and be on what he considers to be the winning side of the war. Mara Jade commandeers the Hand of Judgment (whom she realizes deserted the Empire, making them susceptible to her control) to retrieve the Governor and destroy him and his connection to the Rebels. As Mara and the Hand disrupt the governor’s plans, the Rebels escape.
But they are close to encountering each other all again, under much more dangerous, and closer circumstances…
Legendary Travel Tips:
-Luke and Mara could not meet because of the Thrawn trilogy, so this book does everything it can to make sure they do not meet, even when they are feet away from each other at times.
-This book is preceded by Scoundrels, and followed by Choices of One, making an unofficial Zahn trilogy.
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Galactic Civil War Era: A New Hope| Scoundrels
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