STAR WARS
Novel References


X-Wing The Bacta War

PAGE QUOTATION COMMENTS
10

Endor

11

Yag'Dhul

17

The Imperial Royal Guards flanking the doorway to Isard's office did not react to him at all, ... Unlike eeveryone else on the planet, they still wore the uniforms they brought from Imperial Centre. A thick scarlet cloak covered the red armour and though no puddles formed at their feet, Vorru knew they had to be roasting inside it. Even more burdensome to them, though, had to have been the orders to relent and not treat everyone like a potential assassin. The Tyferrans reacted badly to the strict security Isard's Royal Guard imposed initially, so she has ordered her bodyguard to relax — something that will probably require gene therapy before they feel at ease doing it.

At least some of the Imperial Guard remained in the service of the mainstream Imperial factions after the Battle of Endor. Not all of them were lost at Endor or retreated to the secret enclaves of the Deep Core.

18

Ysanne Isard's uniform is described.

19

Vorru nodded. "There are ways to deal with him. Boba Fett could find and kill him, I have no doubt."
"His skills will not be necessary."

Boba Fett is mentioned and known to be alive at this time.

20-21

"I appreciate the contempt you might feel for their effort, but it cannot be discounted. Yes, we have three destroyers, two of the Imperial, one of the Victory-class, and a Super Star Destroyer to defend us, but your confidence in them is as misplaced as the Emperor's misjudgment of the Rebel Alliance."

Thyferra is defended by VSD + 2 ISD + SSD.

24-25

Corellians cremated their dead exiles and used industrial-grade gravity generators to compress the carbon residue into raw synthetic diamonds. This imparted a physical immortality to the dead.

Corellian diamonds; funeral practices.

30-31

Thyferra. It is a fairly normal terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere and two moons, neither of which has atmosphere or is inhabited. thyferra is covered with rain forests and enjoys a day that is roughly twenty-one point three standard hours long. The axial tilt is negligible so there are really no seasons. Because of its proximity to the system's star, a yellow star, and the mildly elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it maintains a tropical climate year round.

location: Thyferra

32

Not much is known about her for certain — rumours abound about her having been one of the Emperor's lovers, for example; but there is no confirmation of that. We do know her father was the Director of Imperial Intelligence before her, but she turned over to the Emperor evidence that her father was going to join the Rebellion, causing his downfall and her elevation to replace him."

History of Ysanne Isard's betrayl of her own father, her predecessor in the Ubiqtorate.

34

Winter changed the holographic image again. "If she loses it's not going to be because she's lacking the equipment she needs to win. Defending Thyferra are four Imperial warships: a Super Star Destroyer, two Imperial Star Destroyers, and one Victory-class Star Destroyer. Lusankya, Avarice, Virulence, and Corrupter, respectively. Lusankya is the ship that blasted its way out of Coruscant. It was previously unaccounted for, causing us to raise our estimates of how many ships the Kuat Drive Yards and the Fondor Yards produced. Oddly enough, both places claim to have produced Vader's flagship, Executor. It appears two ships were manufactured under that name, with one having been turned into Lusankya and buried on Coruscant — probably to serve as the Emperor's get-away ship. The other Executor, the one from Fondor, was destroyed at Endor."

Star destroyer names dissimilar to kind used in most other SW fiction; does this suggest something about Isard's mind-set and preferences?


The New Republic and Rebel Alliance continually suffer from some alarming errors, omissions and misunderstandings with regard to fleet intelligence and tracking of enemy assets. Kuat Drive Yards seems to be leading them on a goose-chase full of half-truths, probably for the sake of protecting commerical interests and discouraging prying by the new government into the company's affairs under Palpatine's reigime. An amazing story is woven about the origin and fate of Kuat Drive Yards' Executor and its sisters.
43

Lightsabres had been all but unknown while the Empire considered them a sign of being a Jedi, but now that Luke Skywalker was a great hero, some folks had developed an affectation for them. It seemed to be the sort of weapon one carried if one was afraid to carry a blaster.

Lightsabres are customarily used in some cultures other than the Jedi Knighthood. Among them are certain of the noble houses of Tapani Sector. Obi-Wan Kenobi mentioned the existence of other lightsabre-using people in the novelisation of A New Hope.

60

The frieghter lost a repulsor-lift coil upon landing. ... Wedge wound his way through a labyrinth of H'kig religious laws that seemed, to him, to prohibit or limit anything that could make life easier.

H'kig religion present on Rishi. H'kig colony on J't'p'tan produced an immense temple, in Tyrant's Test.

61

"Before his capture at Yavin 4, Jan Dodonna designed the A-Wing fighter. The Alliance got it into production and introduced the A-Wing late on in the Rebellion. Most of them were made in locations that weren't so much factories as they were private shops. They all worked from the same design, but were constructed on an individual basis. The one I flew at Endor, for example, had Fijisi wood panels in it — I'm guessing it was built on Cardooine."

Manufacturing of rebel starfighters. History of the A-Wing.
location: Cardooine

63,65

Layout of the space station.

64

Though small and dense, the world took on a curious appearance because of the three moons orbiting it and the tidal forces tidal forces they generated as they orbited in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation. The atmosphere boiled and swirled, with storms sowing lightning through the gray clouds and flashes of red stone visible even from the station.
"Hard to believe life could have arisen in that maelstrom." Wedge folded his arms across his chest and shivered. "No wonder the Givin have an exoskeleton and can exist in a vacuum."

location: Yag'Dhul, homeworld of the Givin

67-68

Wedge looked at Ooryl's white fighter. "You need to include Ooryl's ship on that list."
"No, it's done."
"But, it's so ... plain."
"Apparently not, if you can see in the ultraviolet range." Tycho shrugged. "Zraii says it's a masterpiece."

Gand and Verpine are shown to have vision in at least part of the ultraviolet spectral range.

69

The hulking brute of a man, with a shaved head and a big bushy beard, dwarfed his petite female companion.
...
"Sixtus Quin was a Special Intelligence Operative who was betrayed by his Imperial commander, so he helped us out in a mission on Tatooine."

Sixtus Quin = Special Intelligence Operative. Quin is the most senior of the special forces stormtrooper officers seen in the comic X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Battleground Tatooine.

74

The counter in the upper corner of his screen spun down to zero, then the white tunnel outside his cockpit shattered into pinpoints of light that resolved themselves into stars. Out ahead of him, the yellow sun at the heart of the Chorax system took up a quarter of the sky, while the single large planet in the system stood silhouetted against it like the pupil in some huge yellow eye.

hyperspace reversion


location: Chorax system
77

TIE-Wing pilot ejection

80

X-Wing navicomputer?

84-85

He had been to Alderaan — to its Graveyard — before. He had seen and flown through the stony disk that was all that remained of the world on which he had been born and had grown up.

location: Alderaan

87

While his Imperial indoctrination had left him with no doubts that the Rebels would destroy a planet to gain their ends, he knew it would not be Alderaan.

Tycho Celchu believes the rebels would destroy a planet, under some circumstances.

90

Because of the nature of the Imperial economy, a considerable portion of the wealth of Alderaan had survived the planet's destruction, making the survivors quite prosperous and, therefore, targets of opportunity for criminals.

Nature of Imperial economy. Fate of Alderaan's exiles.

95

Mimban Cloudrider = name of starship.

103

He started to step away toward the refresherstation when its door opened and a stormtrooper with a blaster carbine slung at his right hip came walking out. In that armour, how can they ...? Corran realised that he was staring and then turned away quickly.

Stormtrooper at public comfort station. The armour does not appear to seriously inhibit the use of the amenities. This implies that sections can either be removed conveniently, or else refresher functions are built into the armour, needing only to be emptied when opportunity arises.

114

The Twi'Leks had taken a TIE fighter's ball cockpit and married to it the S-foils of an X-wing fighter. The S-foils were connected to a collar that allowedthem to rotate independently of the cockpit, much in the way the cruciform stabilisers on the B-wing rotated arond its cockpit. The design provided stability for the pilot and had proved very effective with the B-wing.

Twi'Lek composite starfighter: Chir'daki.

119

Corran nodded. "So I was in for, what, a week?"
"Two days."
"What?" Corran frowned at the tech. "I should have been in there much longer than that for those injuries."
The tech lifted his chin and gave Corran an imperious stare. "You are used to dealing with export-quality bacta, and a Xucphran product at that, friend. The bacta here is much more potent."

'Export-quality' bacta? Why do they have 'export-quality' bacta and 'reserve' bacta? Why do Zaltin and Xucphra hoard their more potent bacta? Perhaps this grade of bacta is simply too expensive for most buyers to afford, and the Thyferrans invest some of their enormous wealth back into providing thishigh-grade bacta for their own use.

119

One of the most unnerving things about being in a bacta tank, with its temperature control and neutral buoyancy, was the feeling of floating in a void. If not for the touch of the breathing mask on his face, he would have no connection to the outside world.

Bacta tanks are not comfortable, as shown by Luke, Wedge et al. Aesthetics of bacta tanks.

128

... Rish system ...

location: Rish; a system lying within Ysanne Isard's influence during her rule of Thyferra.

132

The stars elongated, then sucked him into a tunnel of white light, ...

Hyperspace jump.

134

At the base of the gangway, Isard paused and offered her hand to a small, lean man in a black uniform. The rank insignia he wore on his jacket's left breat bore only six colour tabs, but the fact that he also wore two rank cylinders told Vorru he was a Commander, not a mere Captain. Even so, because of his position of command on the ship and Imperial tradition, addressing him as Captain would be proper.

Commander vs captain; black uniform. Serious confusion about order of officers. Has described commander uniform and insignia, but a commander is actually lower than a naval captain. Ought to have described a commodore or some other higher officer instead.

144

Each commando was issued with ... a light armoured vest with armoured plates that covered them from throat to groin, front and back. Illa knew the armour would be almost useless for stopping a blaster bolt, but even deflecting it from the body's midline meant the wound might be survivable.

armour function

145

The SpecNav troops led the way. Though they were as big as stormtroopers, Sixtus' men were deceptively swift and deathly quiet. Illa was more than happy they were on her side. As scary as facing stormtroopers might have been, fighting against these men would have been worse. At one point they had been selected to join the Imperial Navy's most elite fighting unit, and the product of their skills proved that choice had been a wise one.

Sixtus' stormtroopers

152-153

X-Wing astrogation?

156

She brought her Interceptor around and vectored in toward the landing site. With the flick of a switch she cut in her repulsor-lift coils and extended the Interceptor's landing gear, even though she expected them to sink into the snow. Nice to have a ship with the hatch on top.

TIE/I landing gear?
Top hatch?

166

sauriod Trandoshan

167

"... Captain Convarion is very aggressive. Avarice's Captain Sair Yonka is very smart and calculating — the antithesis of us Corellians because he does care what the odds are and does everything he can to maximise his chances of survival. He's spent much of his career on ships in the Outer Rim chasing down pirates and protecting convoys, so he understands very well what Isard has him doing.

"The Virulence's Joak Drysso is a stalwart Imperial. I thin he's working with Isard as much to strike back at the Rebellion as he is for any other reason. I was talking with my father, and it's his guess the aDrysso will move over to take command of the Lusankya — assuming, of course, Isard was in command of it to this point. Drysso's Executive Officer is Captain Lakwii Varrscha, so she'll be moved up in his place. ... Tactics weren't innovative — standard Imp, utterly by the book ..."

Isard's captains profiled.

168

Gand ruetsavii.

183

Melina Carniss, commonly confused with Celina Marniss, Mara Jade.

187

X-Wing vs ISD.

189

Each raid cost the cartel one or two TIE fighters, whch really amounted to insignificant losses, if someone had access to a TIE fighter productin facility. Sienar Fleet Systems had numerous starfighter factories scattered throughout the galaxy, but they neglected to put one here, on Thyferra. As a result, the cartel had to trade for replacements with the likes of Supreme Warlord Harssk and High Admiral Teradoc. They gratefully accepted bacta in return for the fighters, but the scorn that came with each delivery could drive Isard into furious tantrums.

Warlords and the availability of TIEs. Relationships between Imperial warlords (at least involving Isard) were not always hostile.

194

Rubble of Alderaan - ecliptic disk.

195

Interdictor, the Aggregator arrives.

197

damage to ISD?

206

High Admiral Teradoc ... Most of his duty stations were Rimward. He was diligent in his duties and virulently anti-Rebel, but beyond that unremarkable. He was not at Endor and remained nominally loyal to the Empire until Coruscant fell."

As nearly as Corran knew, Teradoc's history was not unique. A few brave individuals declared themselves Warlords as soon as they heard of the Emperor's death, but many of the others — especially those in the military — remained loyal to the Empire. Sate Pestage, an Imperial Advisor, held power for six months until a cabal of Imperial Advisors ousted him from power. Most of the military backed this group because it seemed disposed to take action. It was only after Ysanne Isard supplanted them that members of the military began to grab for power themselves. Even so, a fair number of military leaders and politicians proclaimed their loyalty to the Empire until Coruscant fell.

Warlords, Isard and collapse of the Galactic Empire.
Personal history of High Admiral Teradoc.

222

"I'll loan you any weapon you want to deal with her. I have things from all over, including a recently acquired Sith lanvarok that promises to be truly elegant, if I've figured out correctly how it's supposed to work." Karrde frowned. "But you're not left-handed, so that will complicate things."
Mirax raised an eyebrow. "You really have a lanvarok?"
"Yes, do you have a buyer?"
"A collector."
"Good."
"And he's left-handed."
"Even better."
"If you will give me details on the lanvarok and authenticate its Sith origins ..."

Sith lanvarok. A weapon of the Sith, evidently very rare and valuable. Mechanism is specific to usage with a particular hand. Its effect and power are unstated.

234

"You think real stormies would raid a jungle village wearing white?"
Iella hestated. "But on Endor, in the forest there, reports I heard ..."
"Trust me, Iella, they learned from that mistake. getting drubbed by a Wookiee and a bunch of Ewoks convinced them to institute some reforms."

Stormtrooper armour camouflage was developed after the Endor debacle.

241

The touch of white creeping in at his temples had prompted him to grow a black goatee — something that was strictly against Imperial regulations, but not being in the Imperial service any more, he had no fear of flouting those regulations.

Imperial Navy regulations regarding facial hair.

251

"I have, upon reflection, come to the conclusion that further service to you would be to condone and support an evil that perhaps would seem insignificant when grouped with the Emperor, Darth Vader and Prince Xizor. I sincerely doubt, however, the billions of victims who have suffered because of you would be so sanguine about you. I hereby resign your service and renounce all allegiance to you and what you represent. ..."

Captain Yonka utters a peculiar remark of hyperbolic vilification. He has quickly jumped to a strange extreme of rebel rhetoric; peculiar for a man who was so recently an esteemed and loyal Imperial officer. Perhaps he is particularly anxious to practice the words needed to win the trust of judgemental New Republic officials?

The Emperor and Xizor might fairly be regarded as evil, though their manipulations did not occur on a level which an ordinary star destroyer captain would notice. Prince Xizor was a secretive gangster and might not have been a public figure anyhow. Lord Vader is not known to have ordered any great acts of evil, though his bleak personality and harshly disciplinarian treatment of naval officers would not endear him to the likes of Yonka.

256

"Karrde even has our last shipment of concussion missiles and proton torpedoes ready to go. An hour after I send him a message via the HoloNet, his convoy should be assembled. We can have it here within a day, ..."

Terrik and/or Karrde have subordinated at least one HoloNet transceiver; These expensive devices require huge amounts of energy and usually are only mounted on large Imperial warships or fixed facilities. The fact that at least some of the network has fallen into smuggler hands is indicative of the serious decay of galactic institutions during this chaotic part of history.

267-268

He imagined she'd be disappointed because the first jump was just a short hop to a dead system. From there they'd get another exit vector that would put them on a straight line for the Yag'Dhul system, but the speed and duration data would suggest they were going to another system well beyond Yag'Dhul. She'll be anticipating callling in a strike on Folor in the Commenor system.

Yag'Dhul - Commenor jump. Commenor is at least close enough to Yag'Dhul such that there is an uninterrupted straight-line jump path from one to the other. They must be in neighbouring regions of the galaxy; perhaps even in the same or nearby sectors.

271-272

It oriented itself... but found an obstacle in the way. It did pick up comm frequencies emanating from the obstacle and also saw how many stars it blotted out of the sky, but had no way to identify it as a space station.

Miniature probot; clandestine HoloNet relay. Prepared by Vorru?

The Imperial probe droid-in-a-drink-flask found that the space station was in the way of the HoloNet transmission, but it didn't recognise the station itself... this seems to be a massive oversight on the part of the probe droid's original designers, as a space station represents a significant asset for whoever you're looking for.

277

flirtation

285

Captain Joak Drysso let a low sinister laugh fill the dark hollow of the ready-room on the Lusankya. He recalled with holographic clarity the image of the Executor plunging into the hearr of the half-completed Death Star at Endor. He'd known at that point that the battle was lost, so he'd taken his Virulence and fled from the battle. I always knew I would have another chance to crush Rebels.

Virulence was at Battle of Endor.

285-287

Lusankya; viewing station.

287

"Push the sensor sphere out to two hundred kilometres, Lieutenant Waroen, and keep scanning the fringes of the system for that War Cruiser. ..."

Implied sensor ranges. Suggests that there are at least two different grades of sensor or sensor modes, with different characteristic ranges. The close sensors might extend only so far as hundreds or thousands of kilometres, but there are other scanning modes which can penetrate to the fringes of a planetary system. This should be several light-hours.

294

"Captain Drysso, I fear you've mistaken my Freedom for your Virulence." Captain Sair Yonka smiled at him. "Don't say you're happy to see me — you won't be."

Captain Yonka has renamed Avarice as Freedom, reflecting its defection.

301-302

Captain Drysso watched the holopad's display of the battle. "Helm, Freedom is trying to slash over the top of us. Roll us so we can track her."
"Captain, if you do that, we'll expose our ventral surface to the snubfighters."
"I know that, Helm." Drysso looked over at the beefy man heading up his gunnery command. "Guns, use our ion cannons on Freedom. I want that ship."
...
Drysso's hand rose with his voice. "Understand me, people. This is a Super Star Destroyer. A handful of snubfighters and a ship a tenth of our size cannot hurt us. Do what you are told and victory will be ours!"

Ventral surface of Lusankya is more vulnerable than dorsal surface or flanks.


Captain Drysso refers to an ISD as being less than a tenth the size of Lusakya.
306

"Now I have forty, no eighty. Eight zero."

Drysso's jaw dropped as he saw a nova flare blossum up over the horizon of his starboard bow. The shields held for a second or two, then collapsed. Warning sirens started shrieking on the bridge as multiple torpedo and missile hits exploded six kilometer away on the ship's bow. The brilliant fire gnawed at the clean lines of his ship, shattering armour plates and triggering dozens of secondary and tertiary explosions.

Near-simultaneous impact of eighty torpedoes and missiles were sufficient to overcome the shields of an Executor-class command ship, at least in one section. Damaged sections of the bow are forward of about 6km from the main bridge. This indicates the extent of the failed shield.

309

freighters in battle

318

Drysso shouted at his staff. "Damage reports!"
Waroen was first. "Ventral shields, down; dorsal shields, down; bow shields, down; starboard and port shields, down."
"You mean to tell me I only have aft shields?"
Another explosion shook the ship. "Not any more, sir."

Shield systems appear to be divided in six directional groups, which presumably have some overlap.

321

A-Wings slashed in at the Lusankya. they flitted over the massive ship's surface, shooting concussion missiles at gunnery towers and sensor domes. Fiery craters stippled the Lusankya in their wake.

Correctly refers to the sensor domes; which a few other references mislabel as shield generator devices. An Executor-class ship has at lest two pairs of the domes, and possibly more.

327

"acting-Captain Waroen"

334

"Ah, there you are, Corran." Ooryl filled the entryway. "I thought that I would find you here."
What? Corran stared at the Gand. "Ooryl?"
"Did Ooryl say that right?" The Gand's mounthparts snapped open and shut excitedly. "Ooryl wanted you to be the first to hear."
Corran looked over at Tycho, but the Alderaanian just shrugged. "Yes, Ooryl, you said that correctly, but I thought Gands didn't use personal pronouns unless..."
The Gand's fist clicked off his chest. "I am janwuine. ..."

Ooryl's promotion.

340

"You know the law, Lieutenant. A ship the size of the Virulence, in private ownership, would be allowed to lawfully carry how much in the way of weaponry?"
Corran sat back. "Nothing that size in private ownership, but it would be something on the order of two tractor beams, ten ion cannons, and ten heavy turbolaser batteries."

Firstly, this implies that nothing the size of an ISD is privately owned. Of course, the Mon Calamari cruisers were originally pleasure liners, which means that there must be ships that size in private ownership. Even just bulk cargo haulers.

Economic considerations would suggest that large-scale bulk freighters could be effectively built to dimensions much greater than warships of the same technology. Vast size is more rewarding for a cargo carrier than for a combat ship. Does this novel reference therefore suggest that there are no major bulk transport vessels in private hands? Are they all in the control of galactic, sector or system governments?

Secondly, the weaponry described is equivalent to about a Carrack-light cruiser, in the frame of an ISD2. This makes civilian vessels very lightly armed in comparison to their military brethren.


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