The Wraiths move to finally defeat Imperial Warlord Zsinj and call in the big guns! Is General Han Solo enough of a leader to finally end the warlord’s career? Join the Legendary Adventures as we read Solo Command!
Can xenophobia be taught? And can wars be won on an ideological level if not on the battlefield? For both of these questions, the Imperial Remnant hopes that the answer is yes. After losing their former capital Coruscant, Admiral Daala, control over the galaxy’s bacta supply, and after losing gobs of Star Destroyers, the Remnant needs to try a new strategy. This new strategy is dubbed Project Minefield, and it’s the brain child of an Imperial scientist who hopes to inject xenophobia into the New Republic. The plan? To have non-human species execute high profile assassinations, hopefully causing the citizens of the New Republic to turn against non-humans, shutting them out of the government. Presumably, the non-humans would turn instead to the Imperial Remnant.
Unfortunately for the Empire, this plan fails for two reasons. First, Wraith Squadron takes down the facility in which Project Minefield was being developed. Their attack on the facility, Binring Biomedical Product on Staffalore, is part of a trap designed to bait Warlord Zsing into coming out into the open. They used a ship designed to look like Millennium Falcon, which they dubbed the Millennium Falsehood, to pull Zsinj out of hiding. Zsinj is mostly prepared, evading capture, but losing the production facility on Saffalore, where the Wraiths learn about Project Minefield.
The other reason that this plan failed is that, generally, the conditions that allowed for the xenophobia in the Empire wasn’t really similar enough to recreate. Of course, the late Emperor Sheev Palpatine had a few non-human allies, like Sly Moore, Mas Amedda, and secretly, Chiss Admiral Mitth’raw’nuruodo, but other than that, his inner circle was mostly human. This was seen as mostly acceptable on the lines that the Separatist Council was made up of almost entirely non-human species. The Separatists were seen as aggressors in the Clone War, and if the non-humans were the aggressors, it was really easy to use propaganda against them and shut them out of the Empire. But after the Battle of Endor, the galaxy is a lot more friendly to aliens, especially as the New Republic has freed a lot of non-human planets, even waging massive attacks against the Remnant to help non-human species heal from the Krytos virus that was unleashed on them.
A few other pieces are moved around with the goal of unseating Warlord Zsinj. One of the Wraith Squadron members, Lara Notsil, is outed as an Imperial double agent named Gara Petothel, who served with Adimral Tigrit against Rogue Squadron. Lara returns to Zsinj, under the cover of being friendly to him, with the hope of subverting him and sabotaging the Iron Fist. Another Imperial Admiral, Teren Rogriss, contacts Han Solo in an effort to take out Zsinj, even supplying him an Interdictor cruiser in an effort to defeat the warlord.
Han Solo, who has only recently been a smuggler suddenly thrust into the position of being a Rebel General, is now leading an anti-Zsinj taskforce. He heads to fight Zsinj just as Lara’s sabotage works, knocking the Iron Fist out of hyperspace at Selaggis. Lara frees Project Minefield patients just as Solo begins his attack. Unfortunately, Zsinj is crafty, using the debris from another destroyed Star Destroyer in an effort to cloak his escape from the hands of Solo.
So, as it ends, Solo’s command doesn’t capture Zsinj, nor does it destroy the Imperial Remnant. Wraith Squadron is disbanded, being folded into New Republic Intelligence. But Han Solo’s big week is nowhere close to being done. Having just been promoted in the New Republic hierarchy, the smuggler-turned-general is about to figure out what happens when another man courts Her Royal Highness…
Legendary Travel Tips:
-This book is preceded by X-Wing: Iron Fist and followed by a few short stories focusing on Thrawn and Mara Jade, preparing chronological readers for their first appearances in the Thrawn trilogy. The next chronological novel is The Courtship of Princess Leia.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!
New Republic Era: Truce at Bakura | Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor | Rogue Squadron | Wedge’s Gamble | The Krytos Trap | The Bacta War | Wraith Squadron| Iron Fist