LotF #1: Betrayal / Trahison

SPOIIIIIIIIIIIIIILEEEERS ! Surligner pour lire ce qu'il y a écrit:Alright, so first chapter starts off with Luke waking up in bed saying "It doesn't exist." He doesn't quite understand what he's actually talking about, but feels some remnants of a nightmare, that might possibly be about his father. He tells Mara this, then falls back asleep.

Cut over to Jacen and Ben on Adumar, walking along the observation dealies that Wedge and gang walked along during their visit. Jacen is putting on an intimidation show to the Adumari guide, hastily walking along to make his cloak flow behind him and the sort. He makes Ben translate everything the Adumar guide says back to Jacen, pretending to not understand what the Adumari is saying because of their weird, stressed-A's accents (Aaron Allston now writes their accents fully in their speech rather than translate them automatically as in Starfighters of Adumar, so deliberately placed A's where they shouldn't be abound). Jacen and Ben quickly discover a secret manufacturing facility that the Adumari tried to hide, but the Adumari don't like that so they start firing on them, so the Jedi escape through a turbolift tunnel to the top of a tower. They slide down the tower, but a Adumari fighter stops them (not a Blade, different craft). Jacen and Ben make short work of the fighter (and the pilot, quite gruesomely, I might add), and then leave Adumar.

Back to Coruscant. The whole gang meets (Luke, Mara, Han, Leia, Jacen, Ben, Jaina, Zekk, R2, C-3PO) to have dinner. Han gets infuriated because he doesn't trust the GA or the Jedi Order (well... he trusts Luke, Mara and his kids, but you know what I mean) over the handling of the new Corellian independence situation and excuses himself. Jacen and Luke take a walk outside, where Luke tells Jacen a few eye-opening things. Corellia is building a fleet beyond the eyes of the GA (but Intel found out through accountanting forms). They also think they may plan on using Centerpoint again by somehow gaining access to some of Anakin's biometrics (retinals, handprints, brainwaves) to bypass the imprinting (I am so glad I finished the Corellian Trilogy two weeks ago). This notion that they're using Anakin infuriates Jacen, obviously (and he's got over his old "Let's-not-fire-Centerpoint-and-endanger-lives" self now, since he's crazy) and he and Ben go to do the job, undercover. As Luke returns to the Solo apartment, he feels someone watching him, and turns to see a cloaked... someone watching him back in the shadows. The cloaked one walks off, and Luke doesn't chase the person.

Han, in the morning, tries to contact an old smuggling friend who seems to be able to seemlessly pass through identities (can't remember the name, will post tomorrow). All attempts to contact her fail, so he tries to contact Wedge. The message to Wedge quite obviously gets screened by the GA first before going on.

Facts:

Jacen: So much more like Vergere. Much, much more. He teaches Ben... oddly. It's effective, but I still don't agree with him. And he obviously hasn't told anybody about Allana yet.

Ben: Definitely red hair. Blue lightsaber, if you care about that. He's thirteen, normally obedient, loyal, normal Jedi Padawan. Calls Jacen Sir... ok... He can also be a little bit of a comedian, sometimes, and downright prococious.

Han: Somewhat different. He's like a rebel again, living within a government. His allegiance to the Corellian sector just jumped up several notches in the past few years. It's almost like a different Han, to me.

Everybody else is pretty much the same as they were at the end of DN.

And that's all I've read. I'll read lots more before I go to bed tonight and I'll have a big post tomorrow, hopefully.

Spoileeeeeeeeer ! a écrit:Jacen has just sacrificed the life of an innocent hostage to kill a crazy man with a bomb.

"Jacen, you have a good argument for everything you do. But my gut tells me that you're doing wrong."
"Your gut, or the Force?"
"My gut."
"What does the Force tell you?"
"Nothing. The Force tells me nothing about what just happened."
"Then it wasn't the wrong choice."

Spoileeeeeeeeeeeeeers ! a écrit:Jaina and Zekk are... more or less, together. They don't do any of the stuff Jaina and Jag did, but Zekk's closer to Jaina than anybody else in there, maybe as a result of that Joining. Or maybe not. Anyway, Han HATES it. Almost as much as Jaina Solo on our forum here does.

I can't contain my hate for Jacen though... I CAN'T! ARHBGHGIASH! HE'S AN IDIOT! ...Sorry.

Han and Leia too. What are they doing? They're HELPING the Corellians, going against the GA (and the Jedi, for that matter). Betrayal... betrayal.

The final betrayal isn't Han and Leia. More like JACEN THE IDIOT.

Alright, Brisha Syo is Lumiya. I might as well just let that go. Lumiya takes Jacen, Ben and Nelani Dinn (new Jedi that has a crush on Jacen) to an asteroid (before she reveals herself). She explains that the mine inside the asteroid had an administrator that became a Sith thanks to the potent dark side energy in the rocks and... stuff. Darth Vectivus was this Sith's name. Vectivus, fortunately, never tried to take over the galaxy or anything stupid like Sidious did. He thought the galaxy was all right, because, as Brisha/Lumiya puts it: "He developed a strong ethical code before he felt any pull from the dark side. He was an adult, a hardheaded business man with a keenly balanced sense of profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it easily... The Sith who were famous for being bad, Jacen, were the way they were because they were badly damaged men or women to start with. Not because they were Sith. Usually, they were weak, or deluded, or greedy to begin with. Like your grandfather."

She says there is a Sith Lord in the caverns below the mine and she can't face it alone. They go down there but, along the way, Brisha Force pushes Ben and Nelani out of the mine car taking them. She and Jacen continue on to the end. Ben and Nelani land (all low gravity-like) on a rock face and look to see dozens of dark side mynocks (they resonate with the dark side, apparently) that attack them.

Jacen and Brisha walk out, where, around a corner, walks out the Sith Lord (walking on Coruscanti-like gravity, whereas Brisha and Jacen float, somewhat). The Sith Lord is very vague, but says that Jacen has to go through his "subordinates" before he can fight him. The Sith Lord vanishes.

Out walks Luke. Not exactly, however. This Luke soothes malice and, the dark side, basically. He's also bearded with a red lightsaber blade. "Not nice." Jacen says.

At this same moment, Luke wakes up, on Coruscant. He doesn't disturb Mara as he takes his lightsaber to the living room of his home and meditates. He then opens his eyes to see a dark side version of Jacen, seething of dark side power and grinning scornfully. "Not nice." says the not-Jacen.

Elsewhere, Ben and Nelani fight mynocks. Suddenly, Nelani falls as if hit in the gut. She diseapears, replaced with a dark side Mara.

"You're not my mother." says Ben.
"Good, then it won't be a family crime to cut you down." Not-Mara says, igniting her red lightsaber.

...

Mara wakes up to see a twisted version of Ben (with blond hair like Anakin Skywalker, unlike Ben's red), also with dark side energy.

"You're not my mother." says not-Ben.
"Good, then it won't be a family crime to cut you down." Mara says, igniting her blue lightsaber.

And the battles go on. I was shocked Mara and Ben had to fight each other, SHOCKED. Jacen and Ben, both their real selves and their phantom selves, have to fight in low-gravity. So, they literally bounce around Luke and Mara's quarters fighting them. After a bit, the phantom versions of all of them diseapear (after Mara kicks Ben in the gut). Brisha leads Jacen to a control panel, activating the normal Coruscant gravity setting and they enter a mansion, of all things. Apparently it was Vectivus'.

Here, Brisha reveals herself as Shira Brie, which Jacen says, "Lumiya." She explains her all whole story (getting shot down by Luke, blah blah blah) and that, she's like Mara, but she took longer to straighten out her life than Mara did. Jacen continues to listen to this... Lumiya can never become a full Sith because she's more than half cybernetic, same way Vader was a crappy Sith Lord, as she says. She explains that Jacen can, however. Apparently, Jacen hasn't been twisted to the light side of the Force. Which is why Lumiya brought him (rather than... Luke?). Jacen explains she hasn't proved that Vectivus wasn't corrupt, just by showing him a nicely decorated mansion. Lumiya says she can prove a Sith that wasn't corrupt. She questioned herself on why she should, because after all... (quote)

"Everything I tell you is a lie."

Jacen just stares. "Vergere, she said that? When she was training you to be a Sith?"

"She was training me to survive."

"Yes. To survive. Survival is a Sith trait. Jedi train themselves for self-sacrifice, for union with the Force, and they can afford to be suicidal, because there are so many of them. Sith train to survive."

She explains Vergere was a rogue student of the Force, studying other rogue students like say... Dooku? Her trail leads her to Sidious, who accepts Vergere as a candidate. Vergere, ever observant, learns that Sidious is much too greedy, so she decides to kill him. She fails, and Sidious places killers on her trail. Vergere takes the Zonoma Sekot mission to get away from him, then leaves with the Yuuzhan Vong to get away from him forever.

Lumiya goes on to say a Jedi and Sith both like to impose their rule on the galaxy, except the Jedi's code makes them establish a set of guidelines to govern themselves, until the inevitable day the government falls short of the Jedi's ideals, so they change the government to save them. The Sith see they can impose themselves on the Jedi from the beginning, but they won't if the galaxy suits them, which apparently Vectivus liked the way the galaxy worked, so he didn't do anything.

Lumiya: "The galaxy is dissolving into chaos. Its leadership can't save it; they're the leftovers of what failed fifteen years ago during the Yuuzhan Vong war. The Jedi can't step in to fix things - you know their methods, the way they think. What has Luke Skywalker told you? Have his tactics, his recommendations fixed anything? No. As good a man he is, he and his order are just tools of the Galactic Alliance."

"Vergere sacrificed herself so you could assume the Sith mantle she wanted for you. That's the kind of self-sacrifice no Jedi would admit is possible for the Sith, but it's the truth. Take what I have to teach you, Jacen. Take this place and the dark power it contains... use them against the forces that are trying to tear this galaxy apart. Restore order. Give your cousin, give the children in your family and your life the chance to grow up in a galaxy without war."

The man that doesn't exist (you know, from the book summary "Luke is plagued with visions of an approaching darkness.") is a vision of the Sith that Jacen will become. Luke can't accept Jacen's face through the Force so he can't see who it is.

Nelani arrests Lumiya here, which Lumiya surrenders herself. Jacen looks through the Force and gets another vision. Lumiya gets locked up and dies. The Galactic Alliance crumbles. Detanators destroy the asteroid. And, at the end, Jacen and Luke end up fighting each other. And Jacen wins, killing Luke.

So Jacen stops Nelani. He doesn't let her take Lumiya. Jacen sees in the vision that in every possible future where Nelani dies, Luke lives. Nelani runs away from Jacen, but he catches her. Their fight lasts about five seconds. He apoligizes to Nelani before stabbing her in the middle of her chest, severing her spine.

So... Jacen becomes a Sith, pretty much. In his head, he rationalizes that Palpatine and Vader were not true Sith. They were Sith whose greed took over them. He lets himself know he will not let that happen. Lumiya says Jacen will need to find an apprentice to train in the ways of the Sith (not Ben, Ben is too Jedi-like already...). Jacen, with Ben, leaves the asteroid.

Lumiya returns to the mansion and faces the first phantom that Jacen saw (the Sith Master). It's Jacen, twisted and evil. He says that he will soon become reality as Jacen becomes who he is. Lumiya affirms. And the phantom fades away...

Elsewhere, during all this, Han and Wedge fight against the GA on Tralus, trying to drive the GA from their emplacement there. Leia, onboard a GA Star Destroyer, helps them. Syal Antilles is on the GA's side, along with Jaina and Zekk. Syal, Jaina and Zekk never know Han and Wedge are fighting against them. The GA lose the Battle of Tralus.

And the book ends there.

Jacen Solo a écrit:
En tous cas, tu voulais des Sith et un Dark Jacen, te voilà servi !

Leris a écrit:Oui... Vergere adepte de Sidious qui essaye de le tuer, je n'y crois pas tellement

On a confirmation que c'est pas un spoiler invente?

Leris a écrit:On a confirmation que c'est pas un spoiler invente?

Leris a écrit:
D'ailleurs, si vous aviez remarque sur le blog de Joe Corroney, il met justement les 10 noms de Dark Lord qui n'ont jamais ete retenu dans l'UE

dont, si je me rappele bien, un certain Darth Vectivus (a verifier)

Leris a écrit:Arf, j'suis con, c'est sur le blog d'Abel G Pena,

et y a pas Vectivus, mea culpa

Leris a écrit:On dirait que ça ressemble a du latin...

Leris a écrit:Je crois aussi que le vectivus, c'est l'impot sur la terre

Spoileeeeeeeers ! a écrit:LEIA AND HAN ARE NOT HELPING THRACKAN.

The politics of the Corellian system have changed. The Five Brothers each have their own Head of State now (Thrackan being the Head of State of Corellia) and the entire system itself has a Prime Minister of the System (Aidel Saxon, until she dies midway through). Saxon is killed by mysterious assassins during a peace conference between Corellia and the GA midway through. Most assume the assassins were hired by Thrackan, since he is the only one to benefit from Saxon's death (Pellaeon was targeted as well, but lived. Viva Pellaeon!). A new Prime Minister is ushered in after Saxon's death, and, since Han would like an independent Corellia (thanks to Han's new hatred of the GA... that mysteriously comes in this book), and Leia blindly supports him, they help the PM do this. Saxon earlier hired Wedge to be her Minister of War, although Wedge explains that he's only in this position to keep Thrackan from going crazy with his military. Wedge keeps this position after Saxon's death (and excellently stands up to Thrackan in a brilliant scene, in true Aaron Allston-style). So... yes, Han and Leia are against the GA (and the GA doesn't know it, either), but against Thrackan as well.

Spoilers a écrit:Cal Omas isn't crazy anymore, as he was in DN. He's more like his DW self.

Lysa Dunton, who you might have seen in the Dramatis Personae, is Syal Antilles. She changed her name (legally, in a Tralus courtroom) to avoid the fame of her father so she could progress fairly. The GA finds out though... In one scene, Syal nearly shoots Wedge as he's coming back from Coruscant to Corellia in the opening battle. She realizes it's him from the moves he pulls off (a classic Top Gun pull-on-the-brakes-so-I-shoot-behind-you move, in atmosphere, luckily). They then go cockpit-to-cockpit (Wedge inverted) to look at each other and talk before Syal returns to the fight and Wedge goes home.

The notion that Vectivus is Jacen is never implied. It's a cool theory though, but not that implied. If Vectivus is a future Jacen, however, I've been fooled...

Jaina and Zekk are not lovey-dovey. They never get lovey-dovey, nor even close to it. Like I said earlier, their relationship is not like Jaina-Jag. They're more like really close companions, and both deny they're in a relationship. Leia just suspects it, and Han hates it. There's one scene where Zekk is lying on Jaina's lap, but he WAS hurt. They were acting like a couple, kind of...

Leris a écrit:C'est vrai que ces spoilers partent dans tous les sens... j'attends un resume complet pour vraiment comprendre