With the unexpected addition of their new ally, the Mynock Crew and Imperial Knights put their daring heist into action: using their Imperial Clearance codes, Antarres Draco and his Knights are able to sneak down to the base of their traitorous countrymen on Had Abbadon that have sold their alliance to the Sith, boarding TIES and sending the whole place into high alert as they “chase” Shado under the premise of being TIE pilots.
Then, just as the Sith-allied Imperials gullibly race to their own fighter craft, the Knights turn their laserfire down onto their own Imperial brothers:
Cade and his friends leverage the moment to smash into the control tower, and face off against the Sith commanding the Imperial forces. Rather than deal with his forces individually, Celeste—in a stunt of both cunning and brutality—uses her Talisman to warp the roomful of Stormtroopers into Rakghouls, and turn them against their master.
The Sith flees in terror, with Cade preparing to give chase—when Celeste opts to stop him. Cade angrily demands why they’re letting their enemy escape, to which Celeste tells him that the Sith will act as the lure that will bait Krayt into seeking them out, here on Had Abaddon. There’s a barb of disagreement, as both have conflicting experience with the Sith—Celeste from eons ago, and Cade in the present.
Once night falls and our heroes lie in wait for the arrival of Krayt, Draco sneaks off to make a private report to Emperor Fel. He reveals to him the nature of Celeste Morne’s Murr Talisman, with him and his Emperor already plotting to use it as an Imperial asset behind the backs of Cade and the others.
In addition, Ganner Krieg uses their newfound privacy to have an intimate one-on-one talk with Azlyn, having been denied the chance to speak with her for years, and evidently harboring unrequited love for her…which, to be honest, kind of comes out of nowhere. This is like twenty-something issues after this character has been introduced.
It’s just as well, because Azlyn blue-balls him almost instantly. Poor sap.
Regardless, Draco walks in and informs the other two about the Emperor’s new directive for him—which, he slyly implies, will act as the key he needs to win Roan Fel’s favor, and the hand of his daughter. Azlyn, on the other hand, is outraged at the Emperor’s plan—utterly galled at the fact that someone who understands the Force as well as he does would turn to Dark Side perversions like the Talisman.
This outburst prompts the other two to question Azlyn’s loyalty, prompting Draco in particular to out her as a potential hazard that they might have to deal with. When Ganner snaps that he won’t allow any harm to come to her, Draco warns him not to let his personal feelings interfere with his duty (which is EXTREMELY hypocritical on Draco’s part, considering how he’s using his Imperial Knight duties solely to get frisky with Roan Fel’s daughter).
Ganner angrily tells him that he agrees with a Azlyn about the Emperor—and how he doesn’t deserve the loyalty when he fails to embody the principles of the Empire, and the Light of the Force. In fact, the Imperial Knights were apparently founded on the contingency plan to take out the Emperor should he ever fall to the Dark Side.
I wonder if Jaina Solo instituted that contingency plan when the Knights were founded. That sounds eerily like the kind of cold-blooded measures she was expected to take as Sword of the Jedi back in her day.
I must say, I like all of these narrative developments between the Imperial Knights, and the dissent being sewed between them. It’s about fucking time the writers did something with them—I didn’t expected to happen during a literal crossover event, but they’ve been gathering dust as passive observers in the foreground for so much of the story, that I’ll take what I can get.
Now, if you thought this comic had traces of anime DNA before, cling to your armrests because this story is about to sprinkle in another well-worn trope of that medium…a
love triangle. Yes, really.
For while tempers are brewing inside the base, turbulent jealousy is brewing within the holds of the docked
Mynock. Syn finds our sassy girl Deliah locked in a pout, stung by how cozy Cade is getting with his old Padawan friend from childhood, Azlyn. She makes a point about how a swinger species like hers don’t typically get hung up on this kind of thing, but as we see, her attachment and loyalty to Cade goes far beyond a simple fling…which is actually cute.
Deliah knows that however many years of tight scrapes and daring heists she’s shared with Cade is nothing compared to the long, intimate bond that he and Azlyn have likely harbored since childhood…a bond poor Deliah can’t hope to match.
Elsewhere aboard the
Mynock, we find Azlyn herself sneaking her way to Celeste Morne’s quarters…blaster drawn, hoping to destroy Morne and the Talisman along with her, in order to make sure her misguided Emperor can never make use of either.
Cade sneaks up behind her and confronts her, in a series of rather odd panels that have a Rob Liefeld-like fixation on the characters’ teeth.
The two of them argue to the point of coming to blows, clashing both sabers and principles in a rain of sparks. Azlyn tries to make Cade see the kind of danger that the Talisman poses, the nightmarish power that threatens the galaxy just as much as Krayt and his Sith do.
Cade manages to shake her out of her raging paranoia, telling her to trust his judgment on letting Morne live…as well as trusting the other feelings she’s bottling up. In seconds, we see that Deliah’s fears about these two are quiet valid:
So, like the complete man-whore that he is, and literal days after confessing his love to Deliah, Cade spends the night with his childhood friend…with the panels and the posing clearly implying sex. We find them engaging in a little pillow talk, reminiscing about their days as Padawans.
Meanwhile, I’m reading this wondering who’s going to be more pissed off about what’s going, Deliah or Ganner, considering both of them just got cucked to orbit.
The couple’s cutesy talk is cut short when Azlyn feels a surge of Dark Side energy crackling in the Force, one that Cade feels, too…and that he’s been feeling consistently since they let Celeste Morne aboard the
Mynock.
Cade suits up and confronts Morne inside of her quarters, where he tells her that he can feel the presence of the Sith Spirit in her talisman, itching to escape and attempting to worm his way into the minds of the other crewmen aboard the
Mynock in order to escape to one of them as a new host. Cade warns her to keep her relic under control, otherwise he’ll have to give into Azlyn’s insistence to kill them both.
Morne wryly states the person who should be most afraid of being possessed is Cade himself, considering is warped alignment and consistent basking in the Dark Side make him a prime specimen to tantalize the spirit inside the Muur Talisman. Cade laughs this off, telling her to watch herself.
While all of this is going on, we finally catch up to the Sith Commander that our protagonists spooked, having fled all the way back to Darth Krayt, licking his wounds and recounting a frenzied report of Skywalker’s appearance and his accomplice that turned their troops into Rakghouls.
Krayt, accompanied by the disgraced Nihil’s vicious and elite replacement, Darth Stryfe, listen to the commander’s tale, before his infested wounds transform him into a Rakghoul right there in the throne room.
After new arrival Stryfe beheads the creature, resident alchemist Darth Maladi examines its body and identifies it as some form of ancient Sith Alchemy…far older than anything she’s ever seen. She recognizes it from ancient records relating to an outbreak on Taris, bewildered how it could’ve survived centuries later.
That’s when a communications officer informs Krayt that an emergency transmission from Had Abaddon is being signaled to him, revealed to be a Jedi woman he doesn’t recognize…under the sway and voice of a Sith Lord:
Karness Muur demands an audience with Darth Krayt, to barter power and control of the galaxy between them. The Sith Emperor scoffs as to why he should entertain the Spirit, to which Muur responds with a most alarming form of blackmail…the shackled and prostrated body of Cade Skywalker.
Desperate to keep Cade alive as his last hope for survival, Krayt agrees to come. Muur cackles triumphantly, stating that he will make their meeting worth the trouble…boasting that he’s learned about Krayt’s cancerous condition, and is in possession of ancient Dark Side secrets that can potentially heal him, with a greater success rate than even Cade’s powers.
Darth Wyrlokk, loremaster and keeper of ancient Sith history, is all too aware of who Karness Muur is, having learned about him via ancient scrolls on Korriban…and he warns his master that Muur’s treacherous history suggests that they shouldn’t trust him to benefit anyone but himself.
Krayt decides to venture into the trap anyway, knowing that regardless of whatever lies Muur spews out, Skywalker must be kept alive at all costs.
Thus, the One Sith entourage of Krayt, Talon, Stryfe and Maladi touch down on the treacherous canyons of Had Abaddon, finding the Sith-possessed Celeste Morne waiting for them with Cade in captivity.
The two Sith finally confront each other, with Krayt demanding to know what the other desires in return for his ancient Dark Side Secrets. Muur’s price is simple: for Krayt to murder the female host body that he currently inhabits, and allow the parasitic talisman to latch onto
him. And with Muur needing to take good care of his new host body, he intends to heal Krayt once they’re “joined”.
Now, remember that holding onto his individuality and not becoming a mindless slave to a parasite growing inside him is Krayt’s entire motivation to heal himself. So naturally, he isn’t keen about becoming a slave to a
new parasite in the form of this Talisman.
Muur decides to tempt Krayt with a sample of his power, and decides to heal him—but just a little. Krayt is instantly taken aback by the strength of the healing power, so much so that both he and all of his Hands are distracted…just long enough for Cade to escape his shackles, and spring the trap.
The rest of Cade’s allies leap into action, catching the Sith acolytes unprepared. Celeste Morne, having willingly given control to Muur’s spirit inside of her to make the trap all the more convincing, regains control and fights Krayt. The Dark Lord, tantalized by the brief healing he experienced, decides to take Muur on his offer in the heat of mad impulse.
Cade meanwhile has a frenzied and hostile reunion with his old adversary, Darth Talon. Between lightsaber blows, she minces vile words about her and Cade’s time together, and how the latter secretly desires to come back…sending a spike of fury into Cade’s blood.
In the confusion of the battle, Draco decides to play his cards and go after the Talisman. Azlyn tries to warn him yet again about the absurdity of what he’s trying to do, but Draco—being the complete idiot that he is—pushes her aside. The two almost kill each other when Ganner intervenes, more out of protectiveness for Azlyn than anything else.
Celeste already feels Draco’s intentions through the Force before he even reaches her, and mockingly fends him off. Amidst their duel, Karness Muur’s spirit emerges through Morne’s voice to admonish Draco, writing him off as too weak in the Force to be a suitable host—an unworthy replacement.
Especially not when Krayt is right there to be a far greater asset.
Krayt himself, meanwhile, is swarmed by Rakghouls, seemingly only surviving their lashings thanks to his Vong Armor. Stryfe attempts to rescue his master, but Krayt liberates himself—creating a literal cocoon of Force Lightning around himself, and intent on seizing his last chance for survival.
Cade, meanwhile, comes face-to-face with Stryfe, whom he provokes like an angry bull. When the Sith acolyte breaks into a berserker rage, Cade leverages the moment to get Syn to litter the ground with some thermal detonators.
He then Force kicks Stryfe, and the grenades, against the wall in one single explosive movement—which instantly reminded me of that
hilarious “grenade kick” kill from Rambo III:
Celeste Morne briefly regains her consciousness from Muur’s control as she battles Krayt, succumbing to her exhaustion as she trades blows with him. Suddenly, Darth Maladi slinks in, lending her Force Lightning to the fight, and allowing both Sith to gang up on Morne.
She struggles against the downpour of lightning from both sides, Muur’s spirit taunting her to give in to the onslaught of pain.
When it looks like Morne is going to buckle under the strain of battling two Sith at once, Azlyn decides to dive in to the fray. Both Cade—and Ganner—look on as she pushes her way into the battle, and for a moment, it looks like she’s going to fulfill her earlier plan: kill Morne, and destroy the Talisman.
Instead, to the utter shock of both Cade and the audience (and the glee of Karness Muur), Azlyn dives after
Krayt instead, plunging her saber into his back.
Muur sees his chance to finish his adversary off, unleashing a literal storm of Force Lightning onto Krayt, while flaying Azlyn to bits as well. Cade can only stand by and watch in horror, as Azlyn falls to the ground—a charred corpse—while Krayt’s seemingly dead body crumples and plummets off the edge of a cliff.
Not gonna lie, I didn’t see any of this coming.
Cade is, ah…
understandably upset with Celeste Morne, heartbroken over the death of his childhood friend. Morne attempts a callous, uncaring exterior, but her guilt over yanking yet another innocent life into her struggle to control the Talisman is too much to bear—with this new death happening directly from
her fingers, rather than the claws of another Rakghoul.
Morne realizes that her control over the Talisman is slipping faster than she’d like to admit, and that she can’t carry on this task for another four millennia. She turns beseechingly to Cade, comparing him to the Jedi Zayne Carrick she once knew eons ago…while Cade hauntingly utters the words of his father: “We take what is given.”
Which are effective in describing Morne’s long, difficult burden that she’s had to carry throughout the
Vector series. Nice touch there, writers.
Morne finally falls to rest, and the Talisman—and Sith Spirit—latch onto Cade almost instantly. It seems like Karness Muur has exactly what he wants: a dark and exceedingly powerful host, one that he can dominate the galaxy with. But as Morne said just before she died, Cade is a remarkable specimen in that he has zero temptation in using the Talisman’s unimaginable power…
…and therefore, is strong enough to sever his connection with it, and vanquish Muur’s spirit for good; and by doing so, bringing Celeste Morne’s tireless, millennia-spanning mission to a close.
That’s when Cade’s allies examine the charred body of Azlyn and realize that,
somehow, the woman is still alive…just barely clinging to life, the same way I imagine Palpatine was after he was torched alive by his own lightning during his fight with Mace Windu. Cade naturally tries to restore her with his Force Healing…but this time, it isn’t working. Or at least, not well enough to save the dying woman in his arms.
In a panic, Cade tries pumping her with Force Energy, siphoning Dark Side Power into Azlyn’s frail body until they can get help at a medical facility.
Now, I actually appreciated this happening, because by this point I had been consistently rolling my eyes at the way the plot seemed to routinely bail the characters out thanks to Cade’s “insta-resurrection” powers, which seem to ONLY ever work without any hangups or compromises. Here, though, it seems to imply that the Force-inflicted damage is too much for even Cade to reverse, implying that his powers have less effect on unnatural, Force-related injuries.
This would make some sense, since with his past instances of healing—Wolf Sazen, Syn and Deliah, and Marsiah Fel—he was healing lightsaber wounds or flesh-eating diseases. Tangible, biological damage. But with Force Lightning being a form of unnatural life-drainage (at least from what I recall from the
Jedi vs Sith: Essential Guide To the Force…yes, I’m one of the autists who read that, don’t laugh at me), it makes sense that he has a harder time making his healing factor work.
Nevertheless, he scoops up Azlyn and makes off with her, much to the protest of the Imperial Knights. But Cade, having witnessed their treachery with the Talisman with his own eyes, has lost all trust in them….and remember, he
started this arc with a wary sense of distrust for them. Ganner tries to retrieve Azlyn, but he’s blue-balled yet again, this time by
a literal blue alien in the form of Shado Vao.
The
Mynock limps away from the battle…with Morne finally at rest and Darth Krayt finally dead, at an exhausting and terrible price.
Or
is he dead?
We pan down to see that a broken and twisted Darth Krayt still clings to ragged breath on the blasted wasteland, found by his lorekeeper, Darth Wyyrlok, who has taken it upon himself to retrieve the other Sith disciples and place them in bacta tubes, and is left stunned that his master still lives. Krayt weakly croaks that he must be restored to health, that his crusade to bring order to the galaxy is still left undone.
And then in a bold and jaw-dropping stunt of treachery, Wyyrlok determines that the quest does indeed need fulfilling…just not by Krayt himself.
That’s right, I didn’t believe it either, but it’s true: Wyyrlok, who has been arguably the most loyal and unshakeable disciple of Krayt’s Order, backstabs and murders his master on the spot. Keep in mind that up until now, Wyyrlok has been tirelessly looking for a cure for Krayt’s illness, even venturing to the hazardous depths of Korriban (in a sidestory I opted to omit for time) to battle with ancient Sith Spirits to discover one. He’s the third of his lineage, the third “Darth Wyyrlok” in his family to serve Krayt, and has shown unwavering loyalty to him where other hands like Maladi and Nihil have secretly shown brewing contempt for how the Dark Lord shuns them.
So believe me when I say that this sudden heelturn comes completely out of left field—and I’m deathly curious as to what Wyyrlok’s motive and reasoning behind this is. Ultimately, the lorekeeper Force levitates his master’s corpse into the shuttle with him, seemingly to use for a future plot as he returns back to Coruscant…intending to seize the empty throne left behind by his master.
Cade and his friends may have achieved their mission in destroying Krayt, but the galaxy still remains in the clutches of a new dark master, having snatched it up mere moments after the last breath of his predecessor.
Cutting ahead a few months, we delve deep into what the writer describes as the “dark womb of the Korriban” temples (nice verbiage there, Ostrander), where Wyyrlok keeps the preserved corpse of his former master floating in a bacta tube…and no, not because he’s a sick fuck, but because it helps aide in a clever deception he’s allowed to spread across the Sith ranks.
You see, Wyyrlok’s cunning plan is to operate under the false pretense that Krayt has entered stasis following the previous battle—just as Krayt already did to leapfrog through time over the centuries he’s been alive. Exploiting that precedent, Wyyrlok is now operating as the “voice and will” of the Dark Lord, assuming command of his vast empire until the day he awakens…which is a responsibility the previous “Darth Wyyrloks” in his family have undertaken in the past.
The catch this time? Our generation’s Wyyrlok intends to keep that status quo permanent, to his own advantage.
This is a really interesting turn of events, because it now requires Wyyrlok to exhaustively maintain the masquerade that Darth Krayt is still alive, continuously having to fool the other Sith disciples. It’s a really neat premise…very much akin to Jacen’s personal ruse he had to continue throughout
Legacy of the Force, and the narrative trajectory of which I’m eagerly anticipating.
Mostly to see what maneuvers Wyyrlok, and the writers, use to keep this masquerade going.
