Stuff: Star Wars- Invasion

I've been talking a lot about Star Wars: Legacy on this blog, as it is the most exciting part of the franchise where everything is brand new. But that said I think I should maybe give a little time for some of the other series' currently running on Dark Horse's line. The second story arc has started, and for now I'll take you through the first story - 'Refugees'.

Invasion takes place during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion depicted in the epic 'New Jedi Order' book series. This gives us a chance to see visually what took place in the novels. The story focuses one one family - the Galfridians who are separated by the war and take different paths through the conflict.

Caled is head of the Galfridian family and also the ruler of the world of Artorias. He was a humble man and lived happily with his family, never wearing his crown or giving orders unless he had to. While Artorias was a peaceful world, Caled was a veteran of Hoth and built a secret fortress should the world be invaded. He escaped to there as the Yuuzhan Vong invaded and formed a resistance with other survivors.


Nina is Caled's wife, and Kaye is his daughter and both were captured by the Vong. Kaye killed a Yuuzhan Vong warrior who underestimated her and gained the attention of the commander of the slaveship to which they were brought. Kaye organised a resistance, but Nina was too shut down to help. Kaye rallied the prisoners against the Vong and battled their way through the ship, killing the commander. Nina joined them when she saw an explosion on the planet's surface, realizing it was her husband, alive and well. She bonded with the ship, becoming it's pilot, and taking it to rescue others oppressed by the invaders.

Finn, Caled's son is the most interesting of all because he is one of the ...

New Jedi

Finn Galfridian
Finn is rescued by Luke Skywalker when the New Republic arrives to evacuate Artorias. Luke immediately detects the boy's force ability and takes him for training at Yavin 4, where he befriends the Solo children and learns force techniques such as telekinesis. Soon after training he is called to Rychel to help the evacuation effort, he helps rally the troops and exceeds expectations when he spares the life of a defenseless Yuuzhan Vong warrior. Later he accompanies the Solos on a mission to Nar Shaddaa and retrieves a mysterious holocron containing information on Yuuzhan Vong informants, one of whom is a confidant to his father.

Lar Le'Ung
Master Le'Ung is a Pau'an (a species debuting in Episode III) and a Jedi Master first featured in this series. He is elegant like his race, carrying a cane and wielding an ornate orange-bladed lightsaber. He encouraged Finn during the conflict, but was sadly killed because he could not detect a Yuuzhan Vong warrior sneaking up from behind.




New Ships

Well a lot of these aren't new per-se, they just haven't been visually explored before. So a lot of Vong ships make their Debut here, though they were featured in novels and maybe had a picture in a guidebook somewhere.

Slaveship

A vessel designed to carry large amounts of prisoners from a planet, it descended into low orbit then captives were herded through long tubes into the cells on board. One ship, the T'sam Pah was captured by the slaves on board.


Pythea
This was an exploration ship owned by a Wookie and a Chiss. They encountered the Yuuzhan Vong fleet and attempted to warn the planet. They were boarded but fended off the attack and retaliated by ramming the ship into the fleet, severely damaging a number of ships.


The series also features the Yorik-Vec, and the return of some ships featured in classic games used as evacuation ships including the Bulwark cruiser from Star Wars: Supremacy.

New Species

Ok there aren't really many, but there are a few making their visual debut again in this series.

This race look (and may well be) human, but are much larger in stature. Trained only in the art of war this race was still utterly eradicated by the Yuuzhan Vong. Only one survivor is known, Arbeloa, who aided Kaye in the rebellion on the slaveship, taking the head of it's commander as his prize.


The Chazrach are a slave race brought by the Vong to aid them in conquering the Galaxy. They are mentioned often in the books, but this is the first time they have been seen visually. They are shorter and weaker than the Vong, but come in great number and are utterly subservient to them, making them very dangerous.


Tu-Scart and Sgauru are creatures used as siege weapons by the Vong. As well as being huge and powerful they have reflexes quick enough for them
to snatch a starfighter out of the air and can project fear, weakening the resistance of those who might attack them.



New Planets

Artorias is a key world in the story, being the home of the principal characters. It is founded on peaceful principles, similar to Alderaan and enjoyed prosperity because of this. Unfortunately this made them an easy target for the invaders. While most of the population were either enslaved or evacuated, some fighters remained and formed a resistance, sabotaging the terraforming going on on their world.

Rychel is a world we know little about other than it was unfortunate enough to be on the invasion corridor of the Yuuzhan Vong. The planet had already been subjugated when a daring rescue, led by Luke Skywalker, enabled some of the population to escape, the rest were enslaved or killed.

And this brings me to my new thing, an excuse for me to make a new Star Wars Map!!






















And that's a very rushed look at Invasion, the new arc 'Rescues' is currently hitting comic book stands as I write and the graphic novel of 'Refugees' should be on it's way soon - well worth checking out.

Species of the week #1 - Yuuzhan Vong

Well here I am, venturing out on a new weekly article covering the different alien species that inhabit the myriad worlds of Science Fiction, we'll see where it takes us eh? First to answer a question post by a comenter concerning doctor who:

Sam, I'm not exactly sure of the answer since I can't remember the incident exactly, but I'll try my best to answer. In general it seems that seeing yourself, or anyone who you shouldn't really see, doesn't actually mess about with the timeline too much. If you remember Rose was able to see her younger self and family, it was only when she touched them and changed their story that things got messed up. I think that because seeing something only impacts one of you it doesn't distort the timeline - if you see yourself in the past then that doesn't affect you in the past only you in the present, the only thing it changes is that you now know what you looked like in the past. However if you had a conversation with yourself that would really mess things up because it would then mean that you should already know about that conversation because you'd heard it in the past - which would really mess things up. Time travel is generally messy and probably shouldn't be attempted under any circumstances, but a general rule would be "look but don't touch" and that would seem to keep you alive and stop you destroying the universe in most cases. Anyway - back to the matter at hand eh?

Oh by the way if you're a bit behind on Star Wars literature there are major spoilers here!!

Yuuzhan Vong

















Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Yuuzhan'tar
Average Height: 1.9 metres

I guess a sensible thing to do would be to pick a species that appeared in the Star Wars films and that everyone would know about and could relate to - however this is my blog and this blog is about getting downright geeky so if you've never heard of this species prepare to learn!! The Yuuzhan Vong were the main focus of the groundbreaking New Jedi Order book series. With the Empire defeated and now at peace with the New Republic and superweapons, rogue Imperials and dark Jedi becoming old news, something new was needed to shake the Star Wars galaxy up - that something was the Yuuzhan Vong. As a species this race had more impact on the galaxy than any other, with the possible exeption of humans! As worlds fell, along with troops, ships and even Jedi, the galaxy suddenly became a whole lot darker.

Yuuzhan Vong was a strange alien name that soon burned itself permanantly into the minds of all galactic citizens. This terrifying race from another galaxy stormed across the galaxy wiping out everything in it's path. The 'Vong (an abbreviation that was in fact highly offensive to the species) were a species that in general frame were not too different from humans. They were taller and bulkier with sloping foreheads that had bony ridges - they also had sacks under their eyes and were generally terrifying to behold. They also pierced and mutliated themselves as part of a religion of pain and they clothed themselves in armour that was in fact a living creature known as a Vonduun crab. In fact all of their "equipment", from clothing to starships, was living in some way or other. Because of this they despised the artificial technologies that populated the galaxy they sought to conquer - nothing more so than droids, a mockery of life in their eyes.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about them was that they were completely absent from the force all that could be sensed of them was an absence. This coupled with the fact that their armour and weapons were resistant to lightsabers gave them and edge of their most fearome opnonents - what they termed as Jeedai. Many Jedi fell to the Yuuzhan Vong and many of the galaxy's inhabitants turned on the Jedi in the hope that they would be spared. The invasion carried itself all the way to Coruscant, erradicating whole worlds such as Ithor that stood in it's way. They devastated Coruscant and remodeled it after their former homeworld and began to push further outward to secure the galaxy as their own. But, regrouping at Mon Calamari and securing alliances with Hapes and the Empire, the New Republic reformed into the Galactic Alliance and started to strike back. While they did Luke Skywalker led a mission to find an alternative solution to the war - the sentient world of Zonama Sekot who was connected to the Yuuzhan Vong's ancient homeworld, which was also a living world. After defeating the Yuuzhan Vong forces in orbit of Coruscant with a final push the Vong who surrendered were relocated to this mysterious world where they began the slow process of learning to live in peace.

OK, you may have caught up on the NJO, but if you haven't read the Star Wars Legacy comics you'll still find spoilers here.

Even a century after the invasion, the Vong were still not ready for reintergration, though they did make a valiant effort that might eventually have succeeded had it not been for the Sith. They mostly remained in seclusion, but a few were brought to the new Jedi Academy on Ossus, where they were accepted despite the painful memories still harbored by Jedi. They began work on a project to use the biotechnology of the vong to reinvigorate barren worlds. This was eagerly approved by the galaxy, but sabotage produced terrible results, causing the galaxy to despise the Vong once more and ultimately plunged the galaxy again into war, with the Sith and Empire coming out as victors.

Well there we go - more to come I hope, I'm getting quite excited by the new program Heroes (BBC2 Wednesdays @ 9pm) it certainly looks promising though I haven't quite made up my mind yet. Anyhow - enough from me for now i think.