Omega Squad is tasked to train rebels who want to overthrow the Republic while a Kaminoan goes traitorous. Being in the Republic is a deal that gets worse all the time, especially now that loyalties are tested when dangerous games are played with troopers’ lives. Join the Commandos as they see the Republic’s “true colors” in today’s Legendary Adventures!
“Where do I belong? Where do I call home? It sure as shab was not Tipoca City. Most days he didn’t even think it was Coruscant.”
After leaving the Republic, Walon Vau leads Delta Squad on a mission to Mygeeto. Under Mygeeto’s glaciers lay secret bank vaults, home to treasures beyond the imagination of most. Vau can imagine quite a bit though, so he and the Squad take to the vaults to steal millions in credits. The escape does not goes as smoothly as the entry, though, and Vau is lost under tons of ice. As he slowly freezes to death, Delta Squad is forced to evac without him. In a series so concerned with family, one might imagine how big of a deal it was to leave him behind.
While Delta Squad is busy robbing banks, Omega Squad has been busy sort of kind of trying to liberate the citizens of the planet Gaftikar. The lizardlike natives are trying their hardest to uproot the Separatist invaders, but can’t do so on their own. Null ARC Trooper A’den had already begun their training, but was quickly overwhelmed by the size of his mission. The Republic, stretched thin, can’t really afford to help liberate every planet. Their thought is, apparently, if the people are willing to fight for their own freedom, why would they need to spend too many resources in order to outfit them?
Two concurrent stories start after Delta Squad’s initial battle on Gaftikar. In one story, Darman and Atin infiltrate a city while under the disguise of a citizen. While in the city, they come across a clone trooper named Sull, who was believed dead and classified as MIA. Sull had deserted when he had learned a bit of Palpatine’s plan for the clones and wanted to live his life without fear or war – or fighting in a losing battle. Unlike Rex, when meeting Cut on Saleucami in The Clone Wars Season 2 episode “The Deserter”, these troopers drag their formerly-MIA brother back to camp and interrogate him. Sull gives up information about his armor, which he left behind, and about the capital in exchange to run away and enjoy the rest of his life on his own. As the clones retrieve the left behind armor, they are ambushed by two Covert Ops clone troopers. The troopers are there to kill Sull, but Darmin and Atin get the turn on them and kill them instead.
Meanwhile, Skirata searches for Republic deserter Ko Sai. The Kaminoan geneticist has decided to leave the Republic for the Separatists. Skirata knows that Sai has the ability to help the clones, especially with their rapid aging process, so he makes it his mission to track down Ko Sai. Mereel, Ordo, and the Null ARCs travel back to Mygeeto in an effort to save Vau, which is eventually successful. In his best Steve Rogers impression, Vau has been kept in some sort of cryogenic freezing, and is found alive inside of a clone-sicle. Vau then donates almost all of the money that he and the Deltas stole for the future well-being of the clones.
The clones and rebels wage an attack on the capital city of Gaftikar. The battle goes poorly, and clone trooper Fi is rendered with a massive brain injury. Bessany, a former intelligence agent, who was wrapped up in Republic Commando shennagins earlier in the series, learns that the Republic treats its clone troopers like horses: if they have an injury that hurts performance, its probably better to just let them die. (An interesting position, considering the next step in the Legendary Adventures is the Medstar duology, wherein doctors help and heal clone troopers). They launch a rescue mission and rescue him from his eventual destruction.
In the end, the troopers get ahold of Ko Sai. They send a faked head to convince a Jedi General named Zey and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine that the traitor has been captured. Because, well, the troopers never really make mistakes, do they? Another perfectly orchestrated plan by the perfectly orchestrated clone trooper squads. I don’t say this to be glib, I just never have felt a pang of concern for these troopers. They are neither likeable nor do they ever feel like they’re in real danger. Above all else, we’ve never really seen them fail in tangible ways. That Vau and Skirata are working together now to elongate the lives of these troopers is admirable, but the writing always presented this as something that was going to happen, the rest of the plot is window dressing.
At the risk of repeating myself constantly, I will point out a new aspect of Traviss’s work here. For the first time, I think Traviss had something new to say (even if it sounds somewhat similar to what has been said before). Clone troopers are expendable (well, she uses the term “slave army”), but we may have never expected how expendable they were. The Republic wants to put them down now, something we had seen in early The Clone Wars Season 3. It’ll be interesting to see how this is reconciled with the Medstar novels, following this one closely in the chronology.
If you have made it this far, I welcome you to the negative zone. I try to be as positive and well-wishing to every book I can, but honestly, Traviss is making this pretty hard. She doesn’t have a lot of new ideas to present, minus the one above, and she keeps presenting the same ideas. Hard to not summarize the books as: Jedi are evil, clones are brainwashed but good, oh, and the Republic is Very Bad (and the Empire is basically more of the same). They are also almost straight-forward military novels, not much of a hint of what makes a novel feel like a Star Wars novel. This is not unlike Jedi Trial earlier: fans of military fiction will find something to enjoy, which just happens to also be a Star Wars novel. It makes these books laborious to read as she doesn’t seem to want to present you with anything new to explore, sadly. Because of this, it is hard for me to recommend that too many people read them.
It seems to me, on an entirely personal level, that Traviss wants to tell a story that no one else wants to tell. This is evidenced first by, simply, the number of contradictions that come up between her novels and other mediums. Second, which contradictions are made are telling. It is not that she places the clones’ training on Horox III while everyone else says Kamino. No, it is more that her more “edgy” ideas are constantly overwritten and undone. Republic clone funding is not in the air or a secret, nor is anyone else writing about the termination of hurt clones. In the end, no one else is as committed to showing the Jedi as villains as Traviss is. Nor do they want to show the Republic as instrinsically bad. Traviss would have a point in showing some of these shadier sides of both, but it mostly feels like she takes them as givens. If you don’t support her theses (“Jedi and Republic are essentially slave drivers”), you’ll never connect to these stories. Given more time and argumentation, I feel like more readers would be on board.
Legendary Travel Tips:
-This novel is preceded by Star Wars Insider short story Odds and is followed by the young reader novel The Wrath of Darth Maul.
-The book presents the future of the clone army’s funding as up in the air. This is contrary to The Clone Wars, where many arcs showcase the public debate over clone funding, debt ceilings, and interest crises.
-Pablo Hildago, in the Essential Readers Companion, reminds us that we see frequent clone medical stations in The Clone Wars, such as the Kaliida Shoals center.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!
Essential Legends Collection: Revan | The Old Republic: Deceived | The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance | The Old Republic: Annihilation | Darth Bane: Path of Destruction | | Darth Bane: Rule of Two | Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil | Darth Plagueis | Shatterpoint | Kenobi | Rogue Squadron | Rogue Squadron: Wedge’s Gamble | Rogue Squadron: The Bacta War | Rogue Squadron: The Krytos Trap | Heir to the Empire | Dark Force Rising | The Last Command | Yoda: Dark Rendezvous | Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void | Republic Commando: Hard Contact | Republic Commando: Triple Zero | Republic Commando: True Colors | Outbound Flight | | Survivor’s Quest | Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter | The Courtship of Princess Leia | I, Jedi
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