Episode 3 - Revenge Of The Sith (Matthew Stover), Star Wars - Books And Short Stories
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This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It isalready over. Nothing can be done to change it.It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage andsacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred line betweenour best and our worst.It is the story of the end of an age.A strange thing about stories-Though this all happened so long ago and so far away that words cannotdescribe the time or the distance, it is also happening right now. Righthere.It is happening as you read these words.This is how twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption andtreachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not just the endof a republic; night is falling on civilization itself.This is the twilight of the Jedi.The end starts now.=Introduction=The Age of HeroesThe skies of Coruscant blaze with war.The artificial daylight spread by the capital's orbital mirrors issliced by intersecting flames of ion drives and punctuated by starburstexplosions; contrails of debris raining into the atmosphere become tangledribbons of cloud. The nightside sky is an infinite lattice of shininghairlines that interlock planetoids and track erratic spirals of glowinggnats. Beings watching from rooftops of Coruscant's endless cityscape canfind it beautiful.From the inside, it's different.The gnats are drive-glows of starfighters. The shining hairlines arelight-scatter from turbolaser bolts powerful enough to vaporize a smalltown. The planetoids are capital ships.The battle from the inside is a storm of confusion and panic, ofgalvened particle beams flashing past your starfighter so close that yourcockpit rings like a broken annunciator, of the boot-sole shock ofconcussion missiles that blast into your cruiser, killing beings you havetrained with and eaten with and played and laughed and bickered with. Fromthe inside, the battle is desperation and terror and the stomach-churningcertainty that the whole galaxy is trying to kill you.Across the remnants of the Republic, stunned beings watch in horror asthe battle unfolds live on the HoloNet. Everyone knows the war has beengoing badly. Everyone knows that more Jedi are killed or captured every day,that the Grand Army of the Republic has been pushed out of system aftersystem, but this-A strike at the very heart of the Republic?An invasion of Coruscant itself?How can this happen?It's a nightmare, and no one can wake up.Live via HoloNet, beings watch the Separatist droid army flood thegovernment district. The coverage is filled with images of overmatched clonetroopers cut down by remorselessly powerful destroyer droids in the halls ofthe Galactic Senate itself.A gasp of relief: the troopers seem to beat back the attack. There arehugs and even some quiet cheers in living rooms across the galaxy as theSeparatist forces retreat to their landers and streak for orbit-We won! beings tell each other. We held them off!But then new reports trickle in-only rumors at first-that the attackwasn't an invasion at all. That the Separatists weren't trying to take theplanet. That this was a lightning raid on the Senate itself.The nightmare gets worse: the Supreme Chancellor is missing.Palpatine of Naboo, the most admired man in the galaxy, whose unmatchedpolitical skills have held the Republic together. Whose personal integrityand courage prove that the Separatist propaganda of corruption in the Senateis nothing but lies. Whose charismatic leadership gives the whole Republicthe will to fight on.Palpatine is more than respected. He is loved.Even the rumor of his disappearance strikes a dagger to the heart ofevery friend of the Republic. Every one of them knows it in her heart, inhis gut, in its very bones-Without Palpatine, the Republic will fall.And now confirmation comes through, and the news is worse than anyonecould have imagined. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has been captured by theSeparatists-and not just the Separatists.He's in the hands of General Grievous.Grievous is not like other leaders of the Separatists. Nute Gunray istreacherous and venal, but he's Neimoidian: venality and treachery areexpected, and in the Chancellor of the Trade Federation they're evenvirtues. Poggle the Lesser is Archduke of the weapon masters of Geonosis,where the war began: he is analytical and pitiless, but also pragmatic.Reasonable. The political heart of the Separatist Confederacy, Count Dooku,is known for his integrity, his principled stand against what he sees ascorruption in the Senate. Though they believe he's wrong, many respect himfor the courage of his mistaken convictions.These are hard beings. Dangerous beings. Ruthless and aggressive.General Grievous, though-Grievous is a monster.The Separatist Supreme Commander is an abomination of nature, a fusionof flesh and droid-and his droid parts have more compassion than whatremains of his alien flesh. This half-living creature is a slaughterer ofbillions. Whole planets have burned at his command. He is the evil genius ofthe Confederacy. The architect of their victories.The author of their atrocities.And his durasteel grip has closed upon Palpatine. He confirms thecapture personally in a wideband transmission from his command cruiser inthe midst of the orbital battle. Beings across the galaxy watch, andshudder, and pray that they might wake up from this awful dream.Because they know that what they're watching, live on the HoloNet, isthe death of the Republic.Many among these beings break into tears; many more reach out tocomfort their husbands or wives, their creche-mates or kin-triads, and theiryounglings of all descriptions, from children to cubs to spawn-fry.But here is a strange thing: few of the younglings need comfort. It isinstead the younglings who offer comfort to their elders. Across theRepublic-in words or pheromones, in magnetic pulses, tentacle-braids, ormental telepathy-the message from the younglings is the same: Don't worry.It'll be all right.Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute.They say this as though these names can conjure miracles.Anakin and Obi-Wan. Kenobi and Skywalker. From the beginning of theClone Wars, the phrase Kenobi and Skywalker has become a single word. Theyare everywhere. HoloNet features of their operations against the Separatistenemy have made them the most famous Jedi in the galaxy.Younglings across the galaxy know their names, know everything aboutthem, follow their exploits as though they are sports heroes instead ofwarriors in a desperate battle to save civilization. Even grown-ups are notimmune; it's not uncommon for an exasperated parent to ask, when faced withoffspring who have just tried to pull off one of the spectacularly dangerousbits of foolishness that are the stock-in-trade of high-spirited younglingseverywhere, So which were you supposed to be, Kenobi or Skywalker?Kenobi would rather talk than fight, but when there is fighting to bedone, few can match him. Skywalker is the master of audacity; his intensity,boldness, and sheer jaw-dropping luck are the perfect complement to Kenobi'sdeliberate, balanced steadiness. Together, they are a Jedi hammer that hascrushed Separatist infestations on scores of worlds.All the younglings watching the battle in Coruscant's sky know it: whenAnakin and Obi-Wan get there, those dirty Seppers are going to wish they'dstayed in bed today.The adults know better, of course. That's part of what being a grown-upis: understanding that heroes are created by the HoloNet, and that thereal-life Kenobi and Skywalker are only human beings, after all.Even if they really are everything the legends say they are, who's tosay they'll show up in time? Who knows where they are right now? They mightbe trapped on some Separatist backwater. They might be captured, or wounded.Even dead.Some of the adults even whisper to themselves, They might have fallen.Because the stories are out there. Not on the HoloNet, of course-theHoloNet news is under the control of the Office of the Supreme Chancellor,and not even Palpatine's renowned candor would allow tales like these to betold-but people hear whispers. Whispers of names that the Jedi would like topretend never existed.Sora Bulq. Depa Billaba. Jedi who have fallen to the dark. Who havejoined the Separatists, or worse: who have massacred civilians, or evenmurdered their comrades. The adults have a sickening suspicion that Jedicannot be trusted. Not anymore. That even the greatest of them can suddenlyjust . . . snap.The adults know that legendary heroes are merely legends, and notheroes at all.These adults can take no comfort from their younglings. Palpatine iscaptured. Grievous will escape. The Republic will fall. No mere human beingscan turn this tide. No mere human beings would even try. Not even Kenobi andSkywalker.And so it is that these adults across the galaxy watch the HoloNet withashes where their hearts should be.Ashes because they can't see two prismatic bursts of realspacereversion, far out beyond the planet's gravity well; because they can't seea pair of starfighters crisply jettison hyperdrive rings and streak into thestorm of Separatist vulture fighters with ... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It isalready over. Nothing can be done to change it.It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage andsacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred line betweenour best and our worst.It is the story of the end of an age.A strange thing about stories-Though this all happened so long ago and so far away that words cannotdescribe the time or the distance, it is also happening right now. Righthere.It is happening as you read these words.This is how twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption andtreachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not just the endof a republic; night is falling on civilization itself.This is the twilight of the Jedi.The end starts now.=Introduction=The Age of HeroesThe skies of Coruscant blaze with war.The artificial daylight spread by the capital's orbital mirrors issliced by intersecting flames of ion drives and punctuated by starburstexplosions; contrails of debris raining into the atmosphere become tangledribbons of cloud. The nightside sky is an infinite lattice of shininghairlines that interlock planetoids and track erratic spirals of glowinggnats. Beings watching from rooftops of Coruscant's endless cityscape canfind it beautiful.From the inside, it's different.The gnats are drive-glows of starfighters. The shining hairlines arelight-scatter from turbolaser bolts powerful enough to vaporize a smalltown. The planetoids are capital ships.The battle from the inside is a storm of confusion and panic, ofgalvened particle beams flashing past your starfighter so close that yourcockpit rings like a broken annunciator, of the boot-sole shock ofconcussion missiles that blast into your cruiser, killing beings you havetrained with and eaten with and played and laughed and bickered with. Fromthe inside, the battle is desperation and terror and the stomach-churningcertainty that the whole galaxy is trying to kill you.Across the remnants of the Republic, stunned beings watch in horror asthe battle unfolds live on the HoloNet. Everyone knows the war has beengoing badly. Everyone knows that more Jedi are killed or captured every day,that the Grand Army of the Republic has been pushed out of system aftersystem, but this-A strike at the very heart of the Republic?An invasion of Coruscant itself?How can this happen?It's a nightmare, and no one can wake up.Live via HoloNet, beings watch the Separatist droid army flood thegovernment district. The coverage is filled with images of overmatched clonetroopers cut down by remorselessly powerful destroyer droids in the halls ofthe Galactic Senate itself.A gasp of relief: the troopers seem to beat back the attack. There arehugs and even some quiet cheers in living rooms across the galaxy as theSeparatist forces retreat to their landers and streak for orbit-We won! beings tell each other. We held them off!But then new reports trickle in-only rumors at first-that the attackwasn't an invasion at all. That the Separatists weren't trying to take theplanet. That this was a lightning raid on the Senate itself.The nightmare gets worse: the Supreme Chancellor is missing.Palpatine of Naboo, the most admired man in the galaxy, whose unmatchedpolitical skills have held the Republic together. Whose personal integrityand courage prove that the Separatist propaganda of corruption in the Senateis nothing but lies. Whose charismatic leadership gives the whole Republicthe will to fight on.Palpatine is more than respected. He is loved.Even the rumor of his disappearance strikes a dagger to the heart ofevery friend of the Republic. Every one of them knows it in her heart, inhis gut, in its very bones-Without Palpatine, the Republic will fall.And now confirmation comes through, and the news is worse than anyonecould have imagined. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has been captured by theSeparatists-and not just the Separatists.He's in the hands of General Grievous.Grievous is not like other leaders of the Separatists. Nute Gunray istreacherous and venal, but he's Neimoidian: venality and treachery areexpected, and in the Chancellor of the Trade Federation they're evenvirtues. Poggle the Lesser is Archduke of the weapon masters of Geonosis,where the war began: he is analytical and pitiless, but also pragmatic.Reasonable. The political heart of the Separatist Confederacy, Count Dooku,is known for his integrity, his principled stand against what he sees ascorruption in the Senate. Though they believe he's wrong, many respect himfor the courage of his mistaken convictions.These are hard beings. Dangerous beings. Ruthless and aggressive.General Grievous, though-Grievous is a monster.The Separatist Supreme Commander is an abomination of nature, a fusionof flesh and droid-and his droid parts have more compassion than whatremains of his alien flesh. This half-living creature is a slaughterer ofbillions. Whole planets have burned at his command. He is the evil genius ofthe Confederacy. The architect of their victories.The author of their atrocities.And his durasteel grip has closed upon Palpatine. He confirms thecapture personally in a wideband transmission from his command cruiser inthe midst of the orbital battle. Beings across the galaxy watch, andshudder, and pray that they might wake up from this awful dream.Because they know that what they're watching, live on the HoloNet, isthe death of the Republic.Many among these beings break into tears; many more reach out tocomfort their husbands or wives, their creche-mates or kin-triads, and theiryounglings of all descriptions, from children to cubs to spawn-fry.But here is a strange thing: few of the younglings need comfort. It isinstead the younglings who offer comfort to their elders. Across theRepublic-in words or pheromones, in magnetic pulses, tentacle-braids, ormental telepathy-the message from the younglings is the same: Don't worry.It'll be all right.Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute.They say this as though these names can conjure miracles.Anakin and Obi-Wan. Kenobi and Skywalker. From the beginning of theClone Wars, the phrase Kenobi and Skywalker has become a single word. Theyare everywhere. HoloNet features of their operations against the Separatistenemy have made them the most famous Jedi in the galaxy.Younglings across the galaxy know their names, know everything aboutthem, follow their exploits as though they are sports heroes instead ofwarriors in a desperate battle to save civilization. Even grown-ups are notimmune; it's not uncommon for an exasperated parent to ask, when faced withoffspring who have just tried to pull off one of the spectacularly dangerousbits of foolishness that are the stock-in-trade of high-spirited younglingseverywhere, So which were you supposed to be, Kenobi or Skywalker?Kenobi would rather talk than fight, but when there is fighting to bedone, few can match him. Skywalker is the master of audacity; his intensity,boldness, and sheer jaw-dropping luck are the perfect complement to Kenobi'sdeliberate, balanced steadiness. Together, they are a Jedi hammer that hascrushed Separatist infestations on scores of worlds.All the younglings watching the battle in Coruscant's sky know it: whenAnakin and Obi-Wan get there, those dirty Seppers are going to wish they'dstayed in bed today.The adults know better, of course. That's part of what being a grown-upis: understanding that heroes are created by the HoloNet, and that thereal-life Kenobi and Skywalker are only human beings, after all.Even if they really are everything the legends say they are, who's tosay they'll show up in time? Who knows where they are right now? They mightbe trapped on some Separatist backwater. They might be captured, or wounded.Even dead.Some of the adults even whisper to themselves, They might have fallen.Because the stories are out there. Not on the HoloNet, of course-theHoloNet news is under the control of the Office of the Supreme Chancellor,and not even Palpatine's renowned candor would allow tales like these to betold-but people hear whispers. Whispers of names that the Jedi would like topretend never existed.Sora Bulq. Depa Billaba. Jedi who have fallen to the dark. Who havejoined the Separatists, or worse: who have massacred civilians, or evenmurdered their comrades. The adults have a sickening suspicion that Jedicannot be trusted. Not anymore. That even the greatest of them can suddenlyjust . . . snap.The adults know that legendary heroes are merely legends, and notheroes at all.These adults can take no comfort from their younglings. Palpatine iscaptured. Grievous will escape. The Republic will fall. No mere human beingscan turn this tide. No mere human beings would even try. Not even Kenobi andSkywalker.And so it is that these adults across the galaxy watch the HoloNet withashes where their hearts should be.Ashes because they can't see two prismatic bursts of realspacereversion, far out beyond the planet's gravity well; because they can't seea pair of starfighters crisply jettison hyperdrive rings and streak into thestorm of Separatist vulture fighters with ... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]