#Rev Recaps RepComm

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 9)

CW: idk if “emotional abuse” is the right term here, but I can’t think of the more appropriate one.

TL:DR Recap: Etain is having a hard time dealing with her sudden promotion to officer, so Jinart chews her out. Darman, on the other hand, does his best to reassure Etain, and they start to develop a plan together. Eventually, they leave Birhan’s farm. Omega gets nervous when Hokan’s people start burning more fields, but eventually meet up with Jinart. Hokan plays games badly. 

This post is super long, even compared to the other recaps, because I have to deal with Jinart’s bullshit.

Beginning Kal Count: 13 Ending Kal Count: 18

We open with a quote from Ki Adi Mundi that reinforces Traviss’s position about the unfairness of the clones lot, but most of you already agree with that, so we’re not going to waste time with that now.

Darman has pinned Jinart to the wall with a blaster to her head. Etain is horrified and tells him to let up. (Etain’s feelings about Jinart seem to go back and forth. Mine do not.) But Dar doesn’t let Jinart go until Etain mistakenly tells him that Jinart is a Jedi. (Because Jinart has Force-like telepathy abilities but still has refused to give Etain another explanation, if you’ve forgotten.)

Jinart insists she’s not a Jedi again, then asks Dar if he would be willing to shoot an old woman. When he insists that soldiers can look like anybody, Jinart praises him and tells Etain to follow his lead, despite the fact that just last chapter she was chewing Etain out for being too suspicious.

I fully admit that a large part of my dislike of Jinart stems from her treatment of Etain, but she also comes across a lot as an authorial authority in support of ruthless pragmatism, and I find it unsettling. It’s not necessarily that’s she’s wrong in this case, so much as that this viewpoint seems unfairly weighted over time.

Jinart revels that Omega is alive and safe for the moment, which has Darman anxious to rejoin them. As she stares at Darman, we get this weird little aside from Jinart:

Again, there’s not any real reason to think that non-Mandalorians, much less non-Mandalorian shape shifters on a backwater world like Qiilura, ever had much reason to know what Jango Fett looked like before his clones descended on the galaxy. So I genuinely want to know when Jinart might have encountered Fett before. It isn’t a question that will ever be answered, of course.

Jinart finally decides to reveal that she’s a shapeshifter after refusing to tell Etain anything for the last several chapters. Etain is frightened and ready to fight, but Dar is delighted because he’s seen gurlanin before and think’s she’s Valaqil. Even after she explains she’s Valaqil’s “consort” he’s intrigued, and Jinart finally explains to Etain that she’s a telepath, but primarily among her own species. Any time she’s been “transmitting” to Etain or Dar, she’s been shapeshifted as an inconspicuous object nearby. She also starts giving them a tactical update, and explains that she and Valaqil can act as a rudimentary comlink between the Republic and Omega.

Again,  the only reason I can think of for Jinart to reveal any of this now that Darman’s here if she was unwilling to loop Etain in earlier is that Darman already knows about the gurlanin. But Etain is still out of her depth and not sure whether any of this information can be taken at face value now.

“His” in this scene is Hokan. Again, Etain implies that Fulier was kind to her, which is as close as she gets in this book to the kind of emotional reminiscing Omega has for Kal, but believes that she ultimately disappointed him- and that makes her worthless as a Jedi.

After all the status updates and Jinart’s warnings about the locals and Hokan, Darman turns to Etain, expecting the direction that he’s always been taught that the Jedi will effortlessly provide. Except Etain is still caught up in her sense of uselessness, and kind of... implodes instead.

Again, is it a useful or practical reaction? No. But is it one I can relate to? Yeah, by a lot. Especially when it’s called out as the extensive culmination of years worth of dismissal by the Jedi and months of hunger/danger/paranoia. Notice how Etain immediately regrets it though -- and adds it to her list of failures.

Darman is upset, which again, is perfectly reasonable in the situation. He doesn’t call Etain out on it, and he acquiesces to her “order”, but Etain can tell he feels disillusioned/”forlorn”. Jinart kicks him out  so that she can yell at Etain, and we get to the scene that makes me both hurt and rage.

Okay, it feels like Jinart is taking out both the galaxy’s predilection with Jedi and Omega’s social conditioning to obey Jedi out on Etain, but the line “that soldier may think a Jedi’s word is a divine pronouncement, but I don’t.” That would make sense for Jinart to say if Etain was trying to use her newfound authority in an injurious way or was puffed up with self importance, but literally everything objectionable Etain has done so far has been to reject her own worthiness of that authority?

Also:

I’ve seen people before who read RepComm but didn’t care for it scoff at how quickly Etain falls for Kal’s manipulation. But besides the fact that she’ll come to love Dar and Kal is important to Darman, this is why she’s ultimately so easy to manipulate. She desperately wants the purpose that the Jedi raised her with the promise of, but also she’s had literal years of being rejected/feeling worthless. Kal is good at manipulating people’s need for affection/belonging/purpose. He’s just somewhat kinder about it when he does it to Bardan and Besany, at least at a very surface level.

then... then we get to this.

Look, I get that Etain’s personal psychological troubles are not useful to Jinart right now, and that yes, they’re probably an impediment to the mission. I’m not saying that Etain doesn’t need a conversation to shift her focus.

But Jinart literally saying that Etain is so worthless that Jinart would murder her if it woudn’t go against Darman’s social conditioning, a conversation that literally leaves Etain falling to her knees in the middle of a break down... not only is it unfair (yes, whatever “life isn’t fair” saying people. shut up.) it’s also demonstrably counter productive.

Imagine if Jinart had just like... been up front with Etain. Or tried to talk to her rationally about the fact that yes, it’s unfair what she’s been through but they still have the job to do and x, y, and z are the specific ways Etain needs to contribute. Instead Jinart just does her best to verbally destroy Etain, which doesn’t achieve anything, and moves on.

Darman pops back in only seconds later, and I kind of wonder if he was listening to the conversation. If he was, I’m sure it’s unsettling given he was raised to believe the Jedi were infallible. But he also does a remarkable job of showing her the compassion that Jinart won’t in this, scene, and I wonder if anything he might have overheard plays into that.

He’s doing a balancing act, and in all fairness, this has to be awkward as hell, confusing, even painful for Dar. Etain really isn’t the officer he needs right now. But he still opens with “are you okay?”. And when she clearly isn’t ready to have that conversation, he tries to deflect the conversation to something useful. When he eventually gives up and goes silent, it’s Etain signal that she’s gone too far and she’s acting like an ass. So she tries. She apologizes, and she tries to move on, for his sake if not hers.

“He was the only person in many years who had shown any degree of confidence in her, and the first since Master Fulier who had shown her real kindness.”

Etain is desperate for not even real affection or love, though she’s badly starved for those things too, but just simply casual kindness. And the line about confidence gives me all sorts of questions- I am going to have to sit down at some point and figure out how much of that I think is really, truly Kast Fulier not believing in her as his Padawan, and how much is Etain’s own psychology and bias interpreting things in the least favorable manner to herself possible. But for the moment, all that matters is that it shows exactly why what Jinart just did was useless.

Because Etain doesn’t start to respond until Darman tries to treat her, at a bare minimum, with respect and a belief in her potential. And once he does that.... she decides to do the best she can in that moment to be the thing that he needs her to be. First by apologizing for her lack of control/ the way she’s hurt him unfairly, and then by acknowledging her faults and his superior knowledge while still tacitly agreeing to help him on the mission.

Which is the thing that Jinart wanted in the first place, right? 

Dar shows more compassion and understanding towards Etain from the get go than she gets from pretty much any other character in the entire series, if we’re being honest.

We break for a moment from that scene to Niner and Atin discussing dinner, but really there’s nothing super important to recap for most of that page. Omega starts talking about their Sergeants, and Niner is singing Kal’s praises. Kal count raises to 14.

It’s a lot of praise for someone not yet a character. And then --

I’m gonna count that as a separate mention, even though they’re close together, so the Kal Count is now at 15.

Anyway Niner wakes up slightly when Omega realizes the Separatists are burning the fields in an effort to drive out Darman. There’s not much to say about it honest, because it gets little page time as compared to Kal. We do get a nice peek at Atin slowly integrating into the squad -- “he didn’t want to show dissent any longer”-- but it’s fleeting, and then we’re back to Dar and Etain.

Darman and Etain are using her holomap to go over the intel on Separatist positions and using crusts of stale bread and drawing in the dirt to make a map. It’s exposition that’s not too important to characterization, so I won’t bother recapping it, but Darman does mention when Etain asks why they’re drawing in the dirt rather than on the holo that Kal taught him to do it that way because tactile is better or whatever. Which raises the Kal Count to 16.

Jinart inserts herself again to warn them about the fields/farms being burned to flush them out and warns them that they have to run. Darman says he can’t go with out his gear. Jinart throws disguises at them. Dar’s going to have a hard time blending in, but Etain fits in with the “undernourished” locals. Jinart overrides Dar’s objections: no, you can’t go straight to the RV zone, find a safe house off this USB drive I’m giving you instead.

Again, I actually do love that Etain is clearly observing him intensely, but while in another time in place everything she points out might be a sign of attraction, here it’s explicitly her being afraid that he looks too well fed to blend in.

Jinart makes her take out her Padawan braid, which Etain objects to but does, and again, it’s a small but good characterization thing:

She and Dar take off, but Etain is still putting herself down in front of him.

Listen, I’m sure someone somewhere is going to argue that it isn’t Dar’s job to emotionally reassure Etain here, but that’s the situation they’re in, for better or worse, and he does a pretty good job of it, even to the subtlety of calling her “commander” there. 

We very, very briefly jump to Hokan, and honestly the only thing worth noting is how terrible a manager he is:

Underling: *makes a good suggestion*  Hokan: I should punish him for back talking me, even though I admit that he’s right! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Finally, we get to Niner. Jinart has found Omega, and they almost shoot her until they recognize her as a gurlanin. She gets them caught up to speed, and we get this kind of sweet, kind of heartbreaking moment from Niner, whose biggest character strength AND flaw is honestly his loyalty:

Jinart explains they’re headed for the wrong target. Fi is sarcastic but cheerful.

Oh, fuck you, Jinart.

Jinart notes that the commandos have lost a lot of weight, and Fi confirms they’re burning more calories than planned. Jinart offers to hunt them merlies as long as the squad doesn’t shoot any, arranges to deliver new rendezvous coordinates with Darman, and then starts to help Omega with what in future chapters will develop into a plan to use local mining explosives to take out the local airfield. 

This chapter then FINALLY ends, which is good, because this post is huge and I’m still pissed at Jinart

Retroactive Edit: I realized I missed another incident of Skirata-mention from Niner talking about the “mark one earhole” or whatever the fuck, when Jinart shows up and then a second one about how not even Kal would have known how to deal with Gurlanins, so the Kal Count was updated to 18.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps: Hard Contact (Chapter 2)

CW: None except some mentions of series-typical past violence.  LONG ASS POST beneath the cut.

TL;DR Recap:  Darman meets Jedi General Arligan Zey, Jedi Commander Bardan Jusik, and his new squad members. This blogger loves Zey entirely too much. The gurlanin are introduced and exposition happens. Jinart is vague. 

So this is the chapter where we first meet Zey, who is honestly one of my favorite characters, and Jusik... who is not. That said, Jusik is actually pretty likeable in this first introduction, probably because he’s not on screen long enough to be vaguely perfect and lecture people.

We actually hear from Zey before we see him. The quote itself is before he technically takes command of the RCs (they’re still in stasis) but is otherwise pretty standard fare for a Traviss novel. The one thing that got me to highlight it is that the attribution lists Zey not as a General but as “Jedi Master Arligan Zey, intelligence officer.” Raise your hand if you really want to know what Zey was doing before the war. 🙋‍♀️

Anyway, we’re back in Darman’s point of view again. The commandos are being briefed for their mission in a glorified fridge as “Fleet support”. 

Yeah, you kind of understand why the Nulls flipped out about going into stasis if not waking up because you were reconditioned in your sleep is apparently on the table. (I still have questions about how the Kaminoans could AFFORD to deliberately kill as many soldiers as this book seems to imply, but I’ll save it for later.)

I don’t know why this description of Zey tickles me so much, but I enjoy it. Zey, sit down and stop pacing, you’re making the commandos nervous. Also, he was probably actually better suited to taking Etain as a Padawan than people thought...

Anyway, Darman watches Zey’s Gurlanin contact for a while and then.Atin shows up and everyone is very focused on his scarring (which is still fresh at this point.) We know in retrospect that he got the scar when Vau cut him open, but the hell if I know how that timeline works out. It’s three months post Geonosis, the squad has been chilled down and then just woke up on Ord Mantell, and apparently Vau stuck his nose in there somewhere before this meeting.

Zey: “Padawan, stop. You’re embarrassing me.”  I don’t know, I just really love Zey, okay? But also, again, it’s been three months since war broke out, but for all that Darman’s thrown off by the terms of address, Zey feels fairly... comfortable/practiced at this?

Zey gives all the needed exposition on Qiilura, which I never spell right on the first try, and on Ghez Hokan. 

I think “Death Squad” is meant to be “Death Watch” here, especially given Hokan’s characterization and the mention  of being so violent that it’s a surprise this other violent group kicked him out. If it was clarified somewhere else that something else was meant, I’ll accept it, but in the mean time I just need everyone to reflect on how embarrassing and cruel you have to be to be kicked out of Death Watch. Because Hokan lives up to it,

I... I am pretty sure the commandos speak Basic. Just saying. Jusik is awkward as fuck, so I choose to willfully misinterpret this as “Jusik has another emotional outburst which leads Zey to have to pause in embarrassment, again. Dar misinterprets this as emphasis.” Darman already has some really weird, Kaminoan-taught ideas about Jedi so-

Zey briefs them about the military base, which Etain knows about on planet, and also the very specific anti-clone bioweapon being developed there, which she does not, and lets them know Fulier has been out of contact for “some weeks”. (Etain also doesn’t know there IS a war or a clone army, and the weird ass timeline here is a whole rabbit hole so I’m just gonna move on.)

We get to one of my favorite moments in the chapter:

“The situation is Nemoidians.” *is confused when Omega does not immediately understand his pithy comment* Zey also stares at Niner expecting discussion, which Darman finally provides because he’s worried Zey will feel embarrassed otherwise. Nemodian stereotypes baked into the setting aside, it’s a pretty great little piece of characterization.

Seriously, what the hell did Zey and Jusik DO before the war???

I don’t know, again, I just like the characterization here. Anyway, the commandos talk shop a bit, Dar notes that Atin’s wound is still “weeping” and has to hurt “like fire”. :( 

“Darman was embarrassed for him”. Dar then does some tech talk which leads Niner to decide he’s the demolitions guy. He notes that he “was happy to have the demolitions role”. Which I guess makes sense since commandos are cross trained for all the potential roles, but I wonder if he did that with Theta Squad too.

Okay, but again, I have so many questions about back story here. Jusik is a maverick or intended to be one from the get go, but ... why is he so protective of Fulier’s reputation as to become defensive when the Gurlanin starts talking shit? Is it just because he sees Fulier from afar as a kind of kindred spirit? Or have he and Etain and Fulier and Zey run missions before? 

Jusik’s line to Etain in Triple Zero about “I know you well enough now” [to sense her pregnancy] makes me think they probably weren’t close friends, and Zey’s reunion with Etain at the end of the book is “remarkably formal” from Dar’s pov, including calling each other “Master” and “Padawan”, not by names. But she also doesn’t ask who he is, so it’s possible they have worked together, I guess?

Anyway, Jusik breaks the news that they only have eight hours until the hit Qiilura. I’m resisting the urge to check my copy of Essential Atlas on this one, because KT has a history of not thinking about hyperspace travel times and that prior knowledge bugs me. Then we cut to Etain, who is hiding in Birhan’s barn, being vagued at by Jinart.

I’m super biased of course, but I’m interested in Etain’s relationship with Kast Fulier, so this passage just feels like a weirdly... dispassionate description to me, coming from Etain, Kast’s likely orphaned Padawan, who is alone and afraid with out him, and as we’ll later find out regards Kast as the “only person who’d shown her kindness” other than Darman. (Paraphrasing).

From a Watsonian perspective, you can probably make the argument that Etain is, if not in shock, still dealing with a lot of mental trauma and stress in a short time, and responding accordingly. But it bugs me a little that Etain’s thoughts about this person who would have been her whole lifeline in the order are so neutral to even slightly negative, especially when you compare it to Jusik’s slight line the chapter before. 

And  especially when you consider that these faults are also Etain’s exact faults that are also sometimes her strengths. Reckless compassion, a bit of self-righteousness, impatience, and an inability to walk away when she could do something about an injustice.

And especially when you compare it to Niner (and Dar and Fi)’s never ending praise and affection for and memories of Kal Skirata later in the book. And you can’t even make the case that it was purposeful/Etain’s relationship is more strained than theirs, because again, it gets so little development/mention (plus paired with the “kindness” comment.)

You know I’m biased if you’ve been on this blog long at all, but it bugs me.

Again, this is just to say... people give Etain a lot of shit but “ ...or get a data transmission out in her stead. She still had a mission to complete, if only to justify Master Fulier’s sacrifice.”

I still don’t 100% understand how this scene actually played out, practically speaking, especially as everyone addresses Kast Fulier as a Jedi MASTER, not even a Knight with the courtesy title of Master, but a Master in his own right.

We get some more info about Hokan, which still tracks with what you’d expect of a Death Watch drop out, and also again shows that Etain was pretty fucking exhausted/traumatized before Omega even gets there.

Again, people give her some shit about her break down or moments of inner turmoil at various places in the book, but if she’s been there since before the war was declared, she’s been dealing with all of this, largely alone, for at least 3 months now. And this in addition to the attempted assault last chapter.

Anyway, the chapter ends with Jinart vaguing, but it’s just ~foreshadowing~ so it’s not super important to anything.

My big take aways for this chapter are that I love Zey and I really need a prequel to this novel, to be honest. 

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 20)

Final chapter at last!

CW: Violence & blood. Decapitation. 

TL;DR Recap: Darman and Etain make it back to the gunship with the injured Atin and Uthan in tow, but Etain refuses to let Zey leave without Omega. Niner lures Hokan into a trap and Hokan is decapitated. Zey offers Etain a choice, but 12 years later the framework still makes no sense.

Beginning Kal Count: 39 Ending Kal Count: 42

This post includes my favorite scene in the book, and has probably double the expected word count because of that. Long-Ass Post.

We open with a Kal Quote. I am ignoring Kal Quotes this far into the game because I am already very informed on Traviss’s opinions, but that does raise the Kal Count to 40 already.

Instead, we focus on Darman writing poetry to a gunship.

:’) Dar has similes and metaphors down at least. Some unnamed clone troopers (white-armored) and a medic come running out and dismiss Darman when he tries to tell them everything that happened to Atin because he’s already adequately marked Atin’s armor. They’ve also taken Uthan, so with, finally, nothing left for Darman to do, he turns around to watch Zey and Etain.

So Etain doesn’t ask who Zey is at all anywhere in this scene, which even with the Force telling her he’s a Jedi and logical clues telling her she’s outranked, you would think that she’d want his name. She also uses his name in her narration later without being told it on screen at any point. So that makes me think they’ve met before this, at least briefly. 

On the other hand their greeting is “formal”/ “etiquette” , not Etain being relieved that fucking finally, here is an adultier-adult whom she knows and trusts, so I don’t think they know one another well.

I’m sure the formal greeting vs “scene from a nightmare” thing is meant to be pointed, but whatever, we’re moving on. Well, except, I do have to point out:

The ARC, who I am calling Maze until I have evidence he’s not, takes off his helmet, doesn’t say shit to Darman, just stares at him. I don’t know why that makes me laugh.

Valaquil departs off the gunship, Darman praises Jinart, and Dar hopes the Republic will keep their word to the gurlanin because “they deserve it”, but we’ve long passed the point where I gave a shit about the gurlanin.

Zey’s priority --> mostly tactical, get this shit show of a mission over, but does try to reassure Etain

Etain --> where are my people???

I love how Dar expects Etain to “soften” because he knows that she longs to be confirmed as having worth and value, has learned this even after a very short mission, but Etain is also deeply loyal and her priorities have shifted.

Um, Maze, buddy? You want to chill?

OH OUCH MY HEART. 

We as readers know that their helmets were shut down by the EMP, but here’s Darman, assuming that he’s just lost another half a squad and that just like Geonosis, he’ll never know for certain what happened to them. The flashback is heartbreaking.

Etain’s ability to use Force-sense is so weirdly inconsistent and plot-selective in this book, but I love her already being able to tell from a distance that Omega squad is okay, even to tell where they are. This is the precursor to her being able to feel Darman “across star systems”, but on some level she’s formed some version of this bond with all of them.

And you know, no one in this book ever explains why the Republic wants Uthan so bad, but knowing from Order 66 that Palps wanted to use her for his personal goals always pisses me off.

Darman has become familiar enough with Etain and her expressions that this expression immediately sets off his “oh shit” radar, and it’s not even the first time. 

The one boot on the gunship and one on the soil is actually a nice tiny bit of symbolism- caught between what the Jedi expect of her and what she’s learned under fire from Omega- if you chose to interpret it that way. And I can actually sympathize with Zey’s annoyance here because Etain, tactically, is being pretty stupid here. If Uthan dies before they can get her proper care, if they can’t get off the planet, then it’s all for nothing. 

But. I wouldn’t want her to react any other way. This is exactly my favorite moment of hers. (Which is why I have the entire damn thing highlighted before anyone calls me out for that lmao.)

Listen, Zey, you know ilu, but bringing up her dead Master in a less than complimentary way was supposed to... do what exactly for your argument? He also completely ignores Darman’s attempt to keep the peace, but we just upped our Kal Count to 41 with the talk of Etain’s loyalty being a mirror.

Again, tactically pretty dumb I’m sure but oh holy hell do I love it. Especially that underlined bit in red. “Darman thought she had changed her mind, but that wasn’t Etain at all.”

Darman desperately not wanting Etain to be targeted by whatever Jedi mind powers he thinks Zey is about to use on her. Darman thinking about how Zey doesn’t know Etain at all, that Zey is taking 100% the wrong approach, but if Darman was just allowed to talk to her-

That bit in red? That and the response Zey’s about to give are two of my favorite lines in the entire book.

Zey gives in. Darman tries to get Etain to stay anyway, I think because he’s worried about the fallout of this moment landing on her, although it’s kind of too little too late for that. But Zey, as tactically expensive as this could be, as annoyed as he has been, is still proud of Etain.

It’s just one little tiny moment that says so much about Dar and about Etain and even about Zey. That little moment of pride lets me think they were better suited to Master and Padawan that maybe either of them recognized or would later accept.

Unfortunately, we now have to leave my favorite scene ever and return to Hokan’s POV. Hokan is injured and doesn’t know where Fi has gotten to, but as expected, Niner’s screaming has caught his attention.

Hokan has this weird double consciousness, this deeply rooted aversion to mercy or anything he sees as weakness or softness. It’s still a really... delicate little moment?

Listen, I know that Niner’s not wounded and this still is upsetting. 

Kal Count 42.

Hokan still is vacillating between thinking of Niner as an it more than a person, and “abomination” and thinking of him as a Mandalorian man who’s been unfairly used. Again, it’s this weird moment of double think, but it works in Niner’s favor, because nobody wants to know what would have happened if Hokan hadn’t taken the time to talk to him, or had decided to use the lightsaber.

The sheer irony of Hokan avoiding the lightsaber because it was too much like what happened to Jango on Geonosis... and then Etain decapitates him... with a lightsaber.

Niner says he doesn’t like to complain, but. Also, still very fair. And a much needed laugh after that last moment.

“Probably okay” Fi. 

Also This raises SO MANY questions because Mando armor is supposed to hold off Jedi if it’s beskar, but this isn’t, which means Fi spends the rest of the series hoarding and or wearing armor that isn’t beskar.

Etain is trembling, we’ll find out from her POV, because she’s still reacting to hearing Niner scream like that, and it rattles her deeply. Which again, I sympathize with, because it makes me upset.

But I mean, even if Traviss forgets it... there has to be a lot of emotion to being handed Kast Fulier’s lightsaber. He was the only one who was kind to her in the Order, at least from her point of view, she failed him, he was tortured to death with that lightsaber, and now it’s being returned to her. This is the closest she’ll ever get to closure, because as with Omega’s original brothers, there are no bodies left for burial. KT completely ignores the weight of that... but I think about it a lot.

Darman being gentle with her and praying that Fi doesn’t open his mouth makes me feel soft, though. And Niner gives her a tiny bit of the acknowledgement/respect she's wanted.

We go to her POV next:

Same, Etain. Same. Again, as she points out... Niner’s heard that before. And none of the rest of the squad who was there for it even really seems fazed?

She’s also guilty  about not being Jedi enough of course, but that’s nothing new at this point. And I’m sure Fi and Niner can appreciate her not-Jedi instincts. (Or does Zey’s tacit approval mean actually her stunt with the gunship is rooted in some Jedi ideals, even if it’s tactically stupid? idk.)

Maze & Zey take turns doing the pacing, confirmed. It’s just funny because earlier Zey was annoying the shit out of Niner by pacing and breaking up the holos at the briefing.

ZEY BACKSTORY! ZEY BACKSTORY! IDGAF ABOUT KAL; WHERE’S MY ZEY BACK STORY.

Ahem.

Anyway, the conversation turns to what actually happens to Etain now. She is, after all, an orphaned Padawan in the middle of war time.

“Etain could think of nothing worse than staying on Qiilura, with its terrible memories and uncertain future... She was alone again and scared.”

Okay, so we can debate what Etain’s duty is in this scenario. As Zey says, she knows better than anyone what Qiilura is like, and that’s info Zey can’t attempt to replicate, even if he reads Omega’s reports. It wouldn’t be the same as having Etain’s first hand experience.

But that... still leaves Etain “alone”, “scared”, stuck on a planet that is “full of terrible memories” and is associated deeply with at least three months of trauma. And she’s going to accept that, because she’s being guilted with the Jedi values of non-attachment and duty to the Republic. But I don’t know that this is the healthiest way for her to finish out her training. Like. Do the Jedi not have counselors or something, Zey?

It’s just... really sad to me.

a) Note to self about the body language here again. “dug her nails into her palms”, tried to compose herself.

b) oh shut up about what’s expected of soldiers; not everything has to be comparative 

c) I had a conversation with  samwichwilson about this scene that’s probably still in the tags somewhere.

But the framework of this choice makes absolutely ZERO sense to me.

Like, my kingdom for the AU where Etain chooses to go with Omega squad and spends the next nine months learning to blow shit up with them. I have no idea how that would work since she’s a Padawan and still technically needs a Master’s supervision, but I would enjoy it. She would definitely be happier than she’s gonna be on Qiilura.

But... while the narrative is presenting this as serious-ish options... like, there’s no way Zey would have actually go through with that last one, right? Point about working undercover aside, if he’s offering to let one clone stay, he might as well offer all 4, and he specifically narrows it down to one of the squad, not all of Omega.

So while Etain typically seems to believe an even lower opinion of her than KT actually writes (to match her low self-esteem) I have to assume that she’s right and she’s being tested here? But Zey, what the hell were you going to do if she said yes and asked to go with Omega? Much less if, when she accidentally caves here in a moment, Darman had said yes and agreed to stay with her.

She would have failed the test, and you can’t really let them start dating under your supervision... so what are you gonna do about that?

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. As unfair as it is, the choice is not really a choice, and Etain has been guilted into remaining in this place she hates. She’ll probably even end up working with Jinart again. Bleh.

Etain seems to be taking these options as if they’re really, truly serious here, but as a reader, it’s incredibly hard to see them that way. Because again. What’s Zey gonna do if she fails the attachment test.

(Unless you want to argue that the predilection with Jedi non-attachment and rules breaking is 100% in Etain’s head here and her guilt and mental conditioning just won’t let her see that Zey is 100% truthful and kindly letting Etain go off with these people she’s become so desperate to attach herself to. But that doesn’t fit like... any canon about the Jedi Order. Or ANY of Traviss’s writing tbh.)

I mean, at least Etain knows herself pretty well here. Her brain is going “abort abort, abort” but can’t actually stop her from doing the stupid thing.  She’s also trying to communicate to Dar that this isn’t her abandoning him, this is her still caring.

Listen, you can point out Dar’s lack of experience and still miss all the “child” bullshit. And honestly, his response to her saying that she’ll miss him comes off... almost a little cold. “You’ll miss me. I’m going to die in ten years, but don’t worry about me because I’m going the closest I have to home.” Maybe he’s trying to reassure her / also not to admit to someone who is now an Officer again that he’ll miss her too. It just sounds weird, even if we get the line that he was “considering it seriously.”

Or I guess what really annoys me is that in this moment that should be really personal and painful for these two characters, this just sounds... weirdly preachy?

Also...like... again Etain had to know that it wasn’t an actual option, even if the rest of the series will pretend that it was, including when she looks back at it in Triple Zero. But I’m choosing to read it more as a mark of her desperation- being so desperate and lonely, and, yes, a little trapped that her emotion overrides what she knows to be true.

💔💔💔

There’s some lines about how she’s a better Jedi Forever now because of “a soldier faith in her” but I have mixed feelings about those because they’re followed up with a bunch of bullshit about how she should learn from him because he had accepted his fate and had no self pity, and I don’t have time for ANY of that. You are allowed to feel bad when bad things happen to you, even if you are a woman or a Jedi.. Fuck off, Traviss.

Sweetheart.

Listen, you know and I know that she’ll see them again, she and Darman will fall in love, she isn’t trapped on Qiilura, a place of her nightmares, forever.

But it still feels like a real fucking downer of an ending.

Still, we have now officially made it to the end of Hard Contact. I haven’t decided if I’ll make posts for Triple Zero or if they’ll follow this format if they do. (Your thoughts/comments/feedback are welcome, as always.)

Final Kal Count was 42, which is actually impressive for a 20 chapter novel in which he DOES NOT APPEAR.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps: Hard Contact (Chapter 3)

CW: Off-screen torture and death, themes of war, mentions of training that probably qualifies as torture. LONG ASS POST beneath the cut.

TL;DR Recap: Ghez Hokan is introduced and he’s exactly what you’d expect for someone kicked out of Death Watch.  Niner deals with unexpected socialization with Jusik and a transport vessel that Should Not Fly. Etain experiences Kast Fulier’s death. The Commandos are taken down by a bird and crash land on Qiilura.

This is the chapter where Kast Fulier actually dies and Darman begins the first of many crash landings with trees. We open up with Hokan who is... pretty much what you would expect. Except I think he might be protesting a tad too much through out this book. Also I want to know what on Earth KT meant by “headdress”  in his initial description ( “Hokan ran up the hedge-flanked steps... headdress tucked under one arm”) ... but it never comes up again. He doesn’t like the Nemoidian currently in charge, and Ankkit doesn’t like him.

Dude has issues. Also would fit in well in the pre-Kotor era, probably. It’s also comfirmed that at least at the start of the chapter, Kast Fulier is alive and being tortured. Given how Etain’s Force-sense works in all the later books, I’m .. surprised she didn’t know? But you can probably wring a handwaved Watsonian explanation out of it somewhere. 

Does this say more about Fulier or Hokan?

Ankkit needles Hokan by insinuating that the time of the Mandalorians is over and rubbing in the fact that Jango died at the hands of a Jedi, which seems a weird point for Hokan to get stuck on if he’s Death Watch, given the history there. But maybe Hokan decided he wasn’t too picky after he got out and needed a Mando symbol somewhere.

Again... weird for Hokan, weird for the fact that Etain doesn’t know this is going on, based on what we know of Padawan bonds and her specific Force- sense skills...

... unless part of the reason that she’s having as much trouble as she is in chaperone is that she’s actively blocking the Force for this reason without realizing it? I don’t think that’s the narrative intent, to be clear, but it might be the explanation I roll with. Y’all are free to decide otherwise.

Anyway, Hokan compares himself to a g’dan (the little carnivorous poison gizka, near as I can figure) then makes a run for it so that Ankkit can’t argue with him.

Very Death Watch Mando indeed, sir. Also, if Fulier got tortured to death with his own lightsaber, that probably explains why he’s dead before the end of the chapter, AND raises serious questions about Force-Sense again.

But instead of lingering on that, we cut to Niner and his disaster of a spaceship. I love this description of both the ship AND Niner.:

(Niner is carrying about 110 lbs, for those of us who are used to US Customary/mperial System units. And he normally carries about 55 lbs.)

Jusik offers to ask Zey to accompany the squad planetside, and Niner tries not to laugh at him, then inadvertently introduces him to military swearing acronyms. Then Niner reflects on his training, which...

CW: for brutality in training/ series typical death

“when the rounds were live and the terrorists- or whoever the directing staff were being that day- aimed to kill, and frequently did”.

Again, how many clones did the Kaminoans start with if they were killed that casually? Especially when we see Kal that torn up about one single accidental training death? At the same time, I don’t know anything about irl military training, so I’m hesitant to make any judgement except that this is... a lot to read.

Niner is already warming to Jusik. The squad talks weapons (Atin likes Trandoshan weapons, including an LJ-50 Etain will eventually carry around, and Fi has a Geonosian Force-pike.) They talk strategy after take off, and Niner only belatedly realizes that Jusik was trying to wish them luck/express a hope they survive. Niner notes that he’s unused to that.

The we cut to Etain, who’s dealing with the g’dan.

Kast Fulier is apparently more compassionate than strategic. Knowing his Padawan, this checks out. Then we get to the scene where Etain senses his death:

“every fiber in her being leapt at once.... Something in the Force had been altered, and forever.”

My annotations for this scene are pretty much just “ouch”. Again.. I have questions about why she felt his death but not his torture, but that can be headcanoned away or ignored later.

Her immediate reaction is to barrel her way out of the barn that’s protecting her, as if there’s anywhere to go. She’s not the sort who’s immediately paralyzed- instead she wants to leap up and do something. But there’s nothing to be done.

(also as an Etain RPer this is just me making a tiny casual note that Etain has dreams about falling, check)

Cut to Omega, who are reaching their drop point and talking about their upgrades to their katarn updates. I highlighted everything about katarn specs as I read, but there’s nothing really that happens... until they get taken out by a bird.

“That isn’t gliding. That’s crashing.” Very astute, Dar. 😂

Anyway, Atin says something in either Triple Zero or True Colors about Darman “always staying so calm”, but like... his reaction to being in a crashing ship and his sergeant ordering him out without the gear.... is to "shoulder charge” Niner out of the ship. How much you want a bet Niner never, ever lets him forget that?

This is like the third time Darman mentions wanting a bowcaster, by the way. Callback to the RepComm game? (Side note: Darman’s name is actually a cheat code in the RC to skip levels, if you didn’t know,)

KT actually does really well with this little snippet, “He let out a sob of relief... nobody could hear him at this range, and he didn’t care what the droid thought.

“He tried to miss. He failed.”

Darman and his landings eventually become an Omega squad in-joke, but for now the chapter ends here.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 8)

For once, no CWs that I can think of.

TL;DR Recap: Hokan wakes up Uthan by trashing her house in the middle of the night. Darman tries to make sense of Etain, who isn’t what he expects.

Beginning Kal Count: 12.5 Ending Kal Count: 13(.5) 

We open with a Skirata quote. Again.

I have no frame of reference for these statistics, but I am hesistant to trust Kal on anything involving psychology. That said, I think it’s the only time he comes up this chapter, so let’s hurry up and ignore him.

I just. I-

He wakes her up in the middle of the night by ordering a robot to shoot the biohazard containment. He then proceeds to try a lightsaber on the biohazard containment doors. When Uthan rightfully thinks he’s insane, he explains he’s worried about security. Eventually, after some discussion, she agrees to temporarily move her staff while leaving the virus in place. Hokan reflects again on how it can’t be clones he’s facing here because they’d be too docile.

Then we get to the part I care about, which is Darman’s pov with Etain. They’re back in the barn, still hiding, and Darman is exhausted. More than that, he’s exceedingly perplexed by Etain, who isn’t at all the Jedi Officer he was expecting.

I don’t know, I just kind of like this scene. Etain almost, but not quite touching him and worrying when she feels something wrong is in the Force. She’s still a Jedi Officer to Dar, not his crush yet, so he’s extremely polite in the way of someone whose afraid of being an inconvenience. 

Poor Darman, honestly. Etain has reasons for not meeting his expectations, but it’s a really rude awakening/flash of culture shock. Even if I wouldn’t exactly call Jedi “the civilian world”. Not GAR, no, but not civilians either.

Etain shows him the holographic plans she’s been carefully hiding this whole time, and he’s relieved, But he’s also surprised that she doesn’t know the objective, or for that matter about the GAR or the war. He has to explain to her that he’s a clone. But honestly, they’re pretty equally confused by each other:

Etain is probably the character with the most detail description of her physical appearance in this series, honestly. But I’m really glad that for once KT didn’t go for the “is the woman fuckable” route and instead just focused on how alien they both seem to one another.

Also, Etain just chronically puts her foot in her mouth, no matter how hard she tries.

Listen, this timeline still makes no sense, but at the very best this implies that Kast Fulier got a communication through the single Nemodian communications tower that none of the characters can use without being found out at any other point in the story, discovered that the Clone Wars had begun, and just decided his Padawan for whatever reason didn’t need to know that there was war and a bioweapon? 

Also, that they had been sent to Qiilura to investigate before the war broke out but Uthan, who is solely working on the bioweapon, was sent afterward, in which case why would they be there to begin with? You can’t tell me Ankkkit and Hokan posed a galactic military threat on their own, much less one that required Kast and Etain to go under cover for so long. But I will literally never get answers to this.

Etain is upset by the fact that there’s only four members of Omega squad (she’s having trouble wrapping her head around the fact that “four ten year olds [are] going to storm Uthan’s complex” which is understandable from her point of view, but makes Darman feel like shit especially because “she looked absolutely crushed, like he’d disappointed her just by showing up”. As far as first meetings go, this one’s pretty rough.

But despite Etain being in over her head and managing to saying all the wrong things, she looks at Darman and... decides he needs to be fed.

Again. foot. Mouth. She’s incredibly impatient/brusque/disbelieving in this scene, and it hurts from Darman’s pov. But I can’t say I would handle it much better.

How did Omega never once even see Rav Bralor? Or the one Isabet Reau? And if these are Mandalorians, how were the numbers that skewed? I have questions, Karen. Also, man, did the Kaminoans set the clones up for massive disappointment, 

:[

Again, Etain’s brittleness here, all her shortness with Darman, is deeply rooted in her fear that she not only can’t live up to his high expectations, but that she’s not going to be of any use to anyone at all. 

Etain points out that what the squad thinks is Uthan’s facility is actually the Separatist garrison and they need to warn Omega before they run into all the droids. But Jinart closes the chapter by interrupting them, and Darman promptly puts a gun to her head.

(I wish that meant I didn’t have to deal with her next chapter.)

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 6)

CW: Series typical sexist description, I guess. 

TL;DR Recap:  Birhan attempts to chase Etain away but is dissuaded by Jinart. Darman is puzzled by nature and also severely sleep deprived. Hokan is sexist and Uthan is introduced.

Starting Kal Count: 7. Ending Kal Count: 10.

We immediately open the chapter with another Kal quote. And not even an interesting one. But that ups the Kal Count to 8.

The scene we start with though is from Etain’s pov. Birhan our vaguely contemptuous farmer, is throwing clods of dirt at Etain and telling her to “GTFO because this is all your fault” essentially. 

(Etain plays the scape goat a lot. It’s a trend. Realistically though, he’s afraid of what Hokan will do if he’s found sheltering her, given the “militia” burned people and their livelihoods last chapter.)

Etain still has no idea who Jinart is, but Jinart tells Birhan he’s being stupid. Etain tries and fails to mind influence him with yet another quote about Etain’s lack of control over the Force when it’s most needed. Jinart shoves Birhan around a bit and tries again to persuade him by basically telling him he can either get murdered by the Republic or keep Etain as a kind of human MiracleGro:

This quote is one of the big reasons that I headcanon that Etain was never really going to be happy as a mercenary farmer’s wife living in rural Mandalore with Kal, or happy in a rural/agricultural setting, period. Her strongest associations with agricultural life are the AgriCorps and Qiilura- failure and trauma. The narrative flat out tells us “agriculture spelled failure”. 

And while that might be resolved eventually with a character arc (that she doesn’t get) ag life flat out doesn’t provide the sense of purpose that Etain is so desperate for. There’s nothing dishonorable about farming, but Etain sees it as “life on a backwater planet, talking to grain” and through out the series she strives for the opportunity to make a real difference to other people. Misguidedly at times, I’ll admit, but I don’t think she could have ever been content with what was being offered.

Anyway, Jinart steers Etain back in the direction of the barn. Etain is getting understandably paranoid, but there’s some narration in this scene I just don’t get?

I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about this scene. Enough that I’ll probably make a separate post later. I’m trying to keep my posts brief, I really am, but I pull so much from these couple of pages for Etain.

My first thought is that it’s really, really fucking weird to put Etain’s digression about Jedi values of anti-attachment here, relative to this barn...as opposed to like, idk, a reflection on her life versus the clones’ later. 

Of fucking course the barn isn’t home. It’s a place she’s been hiding from people who want to kill, torture, or rape her while behind enemy lines on a military mission and the owner of the barn just directly threatened her, if ineffectively. “No loves, no attachments” well, yeah, you’re surrounded by enemies and your teacher was just tortured to death. “At least it wouldn’t be hard to tear herself away from here.” Well, no shit. Was that ever even a realistic option?

Then we immediately get the highlighted exchange with Jinart, and again, I’m repeatedly struck by how differently Omega’s grief versus Etain’s is frame. I’m not saying that Etain’s statement is wrong, or even out of character necessarily. 

But it’s super detached, again. Granted, the clones don’t spend time weeping on screen. But their grief at losing their respective squads is brought up repeatedly. The prologue and most of the first chapter are either Darman realizing he’ll never see his squad again or Niner and Fi’s heartbreaking conversation about it. It plays into Niner’s repeated fears for Darman and his anger with Atin. It plays in to Atin’s seeming callousness towards Darman. Etain has a scene later where she asks Darman if he misses his brothers, and he goes quiet and hurt and the weight of the scene rightly falls on her like a hammer.

While Etain... I’m not saying it doesn’t affect her actions; it very visibly affects her paranoia. But it’s never handled quite like grief, if that makes sense? At least not after the initial death.

Speaking of paranoia... Jinart really has no call to be offended that Etain is suspicious, given what’s happened to Etain over the last several weeks and the fact that Jinart spends much of the rest of the novel insinuating she’s naive and useless. Etain has every right to be paranoid, all things considered. But then we get this contradictory mess of a conversation:

The soothing bit doesn’t make sense to me. But I’m biased because I dislike Jinart based on the whole scope of the series. And again Etain grieving and feeling alone and hating being alone in grief makes sense, but the framing of this quote is super weird. Especially as the farmers haven’t demonstrated and “home”-like behavior or even family loyalties on screen.

But we’re finally moving on from this huge ass rant about this scene as we open onto Darman crawling through an open field with his kit and generally being overwhelmed by the sheer openness of everything+ the physical strain when he’s already wounded and exhausted. During the course of this, it comes up that Dar is still desperately hungry, so he starts thinking about what wildlife might be edible, and then about Kal and uj cake.

Kal Count is increased to 9.

Darman is exhausted and fatigued, and most of the section, while interesting, can just be boiled down to him trying to motivate himself to keep going because he’s terrified he’ll miss the rendezvous with the rest of Omega Squad. The same kind of bird that brought down his ship in the first place eats the remote he was using to scout ahead, so he swears at it. There’s another mention of Kal teaching them to build defensive fortifications which ups the Kal Count to 10.

But there’s also a fair bit of fascination as he’s experiencing nature for the first time. He takes his helmet off to smell the breeze, soaks in the stream, and is captivated by his first view of the daywings, which makes you think he is kind of a small-details guy. 

...Dar....

anyway, he falls asleep eventually without much more of note happening in this section. We move to Ghez Hokan introducing the reader to Separatist scientist and would-be creator of the anti-clone bio weapon, Qail Ovolot Uthan. 

I appreciate Uthan a lot as a character, despite her later handling in Imperial Commando: 501st, but this particular introduction still makes me cringe.

I legitimately can’t tell if this is how Traviss thinks of this character, or if this is deliberate characterization of Hokan via his descriptions of Uthan, but ugh.

Hokan: She knows I can’t be seduced, but she still wants to seduce me!

Ugh. The man is also way caught up his own ass in terms of what he thinks other people think of him. He doesn’t want to sit in Uthan’s brocaded chair because it’s “too decadent” but does it anyway because otherwise he would be addressing her while standing like a servant. Dude, you need some therapy. What’s the Mando expression? All helmet, no head?

Anyway, I really, really like Uthan here actually. She’s super ruthless, and even if she’s not a great person, ruthless and somewhat ammoral female characters are a fun rarity. I wish that KT could have kept it up throughout the series rather than making her into “bitter lonely career woman”, but look how casually she decides her work is threatened and then which of her associates she needs to cooly dispose of to prevent that happening:

The smartest thought Hokan has had so far is the recognition that if she’ll arrange to dispose of Ankkit, she’ll do the same to him, honestly. But when Uthan sees him hesitate, she goes right for the kill and presses just the right button to utterly manipulate him. He even recognizes it, but is unable to not be convinced.

She tells him that the clones are clones of Jango Fett. And of course he goes all Death Watch and Mandalorian Honor about it.

Honestly, Hokan. And then we finish the chapter with the thing that really makes me question his intelligence:

“To make them proper men again?”

this is the third time I’ve said it.... but how the fuck do you think viruses work, Hokan?

Honestly.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 4)

CW: Main character directly killing someone, some implications of food insecurity, animals destroying a corpse. LONG ASS POST beneath the cut.

TL;DR Recap: Niner regroups with the rest of Omega, and is upset by Atin’s perceived callousness towards Darman’s fate. (Although the callousness is actually heartbreaking if you know the entirety of his backstory.) Etain observes the crash site and realizes Republic forces have landed. Darman has his first negative reaction to killing someone.Also, the blogger begins the Kal Count (tm) in this post. 

Starting Kal Count: 0. Ending Kal Count: 2.

So we start off right after Darman’s crash landing into some trees with Niner’s reaction to Darman literally shoulder charging him off a crashing airplane space ship. Rather than being (rightfully) angry, Niner sees the transport they had been on explode, and his immediate thought is that Darman must be dead. But he’s in sergeant mode, so he hurries to gather up what equipment he can and regroup with the rest of Omega.

The g’dan (which again are supposed to be like a foot tall but I’m still imagining as venemous, furry, sharp-teethed gizka because that’s the imagery my brain decided on) do attempt to eat him in the process which gives me one of my favorite small/throw-away lines:

It is really interesting to me how quickly Omega makes character judgements about each other. Niner decides here that Darman would have found the g’dan fascinating (not knowing of course that the g’dan are trying to eat Dar, too). Later Atin tells Etain that Dar is fussy about the wiring on his explosives, which is likely accurate, but also comes after a very short window of association. You could dismiss Niner’s line as projection, but together I think it just kind of drives home how closely clones are able to read one another and how attuned to very small behavioral clues the have to be, having grown up on Kamino the way they did.

Anyway, Niner is slightly distressed by the fact that he’s just lost another squad member, so in what’s going to become an unfortunate pattern, he flashes back to the Words of Wisdom of Kal Skirata. Hard Contact is the only Republic Commando novel not to have a Dramatis Personae, but if it did, it would have to list Kal Skirata even though he physically is elsewhere and uninvolved in the plot. 

Thus begins my Kal Count. We currently stand at 1 Flasback/Words of Wisdom. The immediately after we get:

I wasn’t sure to count this as a separate entry in the Kal Count. But it is a separate memory and topic, so I went ahead. We currently stand at 2 Flashbacks/Words of Wisdom. Also, incidentally, google says that Niner is carrying “nearly” 165 pounds at the moment. The commandos could pick me up and carry me, I’m just saying.

Anyway, Niner is pissed about the grey armor’s lack of disguisability in a rural setting. He meets up with Fi and Atin, and updates them about Dar.

Notice Niner stressing that he didn’t see Darman jump but he didn’t abandon him either. After his conversation with Fi and given his worries about being abandoned in True Colors and Order 66, I really think this is a major hang up/fear of Niner’s.

But Atin is a good deal less... emotional, I guess? about the situation that either Fi or Niner are comfortable with. It’s all an act, but we’ll find that out later in his arc.

Seriously, Niner has a thing about abandonment.

On the other hand, if you’re someone who’s already read Triple Zero and knows that Atin was raised by Vau and knows what Vau did to Atin immediately before this mission and that Atin lost a squad in training as well... this is kind of heartbreaking.

Because he just lost everything, again, his sergeant cut his face open for not being good enough and “wallowing” about the loss, and he remembers what happened when his squad tried to rescue him. The guilt from both incidents has to be terrible- and this is his attempt to deal with it, because what if Vau was right? But neither Niner nor Fi know that yet, so they’re upset with him and he’s not getting the firm shake on the shoulder he needs to let him know that it’s Vau who’s wrong.

Anyway, after that upsetting realization I just had, we skip to Etain with Birhan investigating the crash site of Omega’s transport. 

Today in worldbuilding things that annoy the shit out of Rev: this is the only time Qiilura having its own language ever comes up, and all the characters speak perfect Basic for the rest of the novel. 

“starved”. I’m just saying, Etain is called “gaunt” and “starved” repeatedly through out this book, so... whatever happened in the three months she was on Qiilura before Omega got there, she probably still needs some therapy for it. But at least it makes some sense here, unlike when she’s back on the planet as a General in True Colors and only weighs 100 lbs while pregnant.

Again with the mention of food. Also I 1000% do not blame her for being paranoid at this point, but I’m just saying, Qiilura is probably the place she goes back to in her nightmares. Also probably not the best place to send her while already anxious/afraid/pregnant, even just looking at it from a mental health stand point rather than a “it’s an active fucking battle field” pov, but what do I know.

She sees the remains of the commando’s R5 droid with its republic markings and knows Birhan was right: it’s the Republic. The scene then cuts to Darman, who is waking up from the first of many unfriendly landings involving trees. :)

He’s survived his hostile arboreal encounter and chased off the g’dan who want to eat him, but is realizing that he tore a muscle or tendon somewhere in the leg above his right knee. I am unduly pleased by this specificity because I headcanoned him having a leg injury later in life and now I can just headcanon it as him re-injuring this same spot. I don’t know why that pleases me.

Minor quibbles here: why is it Kilo and Delta first using the HUD with live ordinance when Darman was Theta squad, and he’s recounting his own experience with learning the system? Also, I’m not sure whether to read this as “they got the HUDs and later were trained with them using live rounds which is when it sunk in” or “they got the HUDs and got shot at with live rounds on the same day”.

Anyway, Darman is trying to hide off the side of the road, but the path made by the g’dans who wanted to eat him gives him away, so injured and disoriented, he’s forced to kill two of Hokan’s Weequay militia. I’m not going to screenshot the actual death, but it is important to know that while he head shots the second one, the first he initially attacks by shoving the vibroblade in the Weequay’s throat. The g’dans start eating the second Weequay’s body, because the g’dans are just a thing at this point. Like the sewer smells KT is so fond of in this book.

But anyway, the chapter ends with this fairly emotional scene:

“And he hadn’t managed a clean kill. It was wrong. They had drilled him to kill, and kill, and kill, but nobody had thought to teach him what he was supposed to feel afterward. He did feel something, and he wasn’t certain what it was. He’d think about it later.”

There’s a lot of really great characterization and thematics in this scene. It’s very quietly heartbreaking, but not in a way that calls attention to itself. It also really mirrors a scene Darman gets in the third novel, True Colors, which kind of drives home that this is an ongoing struggle for him.

What I don’t get is why it also directly contradicts a scene later in the book where Etain is struggling emotionally after sending Guta-Nay to his death. In that scene, Darman asserts that he’s already killed people as part of his training (which... really isn’t consistent with the timber of this scene?) and that he’s never had time to think about it. I guess you can handwave it to yourself as Darman refusing to acknowledge what he felt upon killing the Weequay, even to himself, as a result of fear/the values reinforced on Qiilura.

 But Darman is the viewpoint character in that scene, and even though he’s immediately protective of Etain, he doesn’t empathize with her, and it comes off as the narrative yet again being harsh towards Etain and all her failings.

I don’t know. We’ll see if I have more thoughts when we actually get to that chapter.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 18)

CW: Violence. “Joke” that references inebriation/ date rape (kinda sorta). 

TL;DR Recap: Niner gets worried because Darman and Atin are taking too long and might get blown up. Fi refuses to follow orders. Etain helps. Hokan makes a run for it.

Beginning Kal Count: 35 Ending Kal Count: 37

This chapter opens with a Kal quote. Fog of war and rattling sabers, etc, etc. Whatever, Kal. Kal Count is now at 36.

This chapter is incredibly short: barely 5 pages. We still manage to squeeze in some Jinart and two different Skirata quotes.

Niner calls off Majestic’s orbital bombardment and waits several minutes before moving, because you can’t stake your life on the accuracy of orbital bombardment.  Specifically, he calls off the bombardment with ... the check, check, check order that Etain will get in trouble for using on Ordo..

I already had a discussion with freckledmccree and tiender about this on the dash that you can probably find if you look for their usernames on my blog, but essentially the “check” command being used to halt an orbital bombardment as a legitimate command puts the fiasco of Etain using the same command (having heard Kal use it) in a weird place.

Triple Zero treats check as Kal’s super secret code word to drill into his trainees that they need to stop in an exercise that’s unique to him and that they’ve been trained to automatically obey, which makes it a big deal when Etain uses it on Ordo because it forces him to automatically freeze and she hasn’t earned the right/the trust to completely override him at such an instinctual level.

But that’s ...weird if Omega is using “check” to call off an orbital bombardment. What if Ordo had been on Qiilura and was engaged with the enemy when Niner had to call out a “check” on Majestic, perhaps because the orbital bombardment has gotten too close as the squad engaged targets. Him freezing from Niner’s “check” would be a very bad thing, and also makes that word just... not make sense. Tiender even looked it up and it’s part of brevity code.

So the two options that you’re left with are that Kal was incredibly stupid about his safe code or that Etain picked up on the terminology to call cease-fire as a Jedi officer, used it, and Ordo was upset because he didn’t trust Etain’s judgement and personal control over him.

As freckledmccree points out, from the narrative framing/narrative intent & KT’s long, long history of inconsistencies and plot holes, probably what happened is KT forgot herself that check was more generalized and made it into a specific word for Kal, making this an author failure. And honestly, even Kal isn’t going to do something that dumb. 

So when/if we ever get to that part of Triple Zero... insert a safeword of your choice I guess?

Moving on.

Niner still expects Kal to come out and call for endex (Kal Count 38) and he notes that Fi has a sniper rifle trained for “anything insane enough to walk out” of  Uthan’s complex, and that he doesn’t think Fi would think long enough to hesitate if they came out with raised hands.

Niner talks to Dar and Atin about their expected evac time and location (neither are good) but we get... this really terrible, out of nowhere what the fuck line:

CW: Joke that sounds like a very thinly veiled joke to date rape, or at least consent issues due to inebriation. 

Like. What the fuck.

I don’t know why Atin is setting this “joke” up, much less how Niner, of all people, is answering with ... that line, which reads a LOT like me to either “woman is so drunk she’s biddable and can be dragged out of bar for sex” or “woman has been drugged and is being dragged out of bar for sex”.

As I said earlier on this blog... my Watsonian explanation has to be that Kal is a really shitty teacher who has made a lot of really shitty jokes that Niner internalized as a young clone sergeant trying to imitate the training sergeant. (Though that doesn’t explain Atin.) My Doyalist explanation has to be that Karen Traviss is a terrible human being.

Moving on.

Darman and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day continues.

Niner’s super concerned by the amount of time that it’s going to take Darman and Atin to rendezvous with everyone, so he tries to send Fi and Etain ahead to the evac zone and singlehandedly cover Dar and Atin’s escape.

Niner isn’t going to press it and some part of him is probably glad not to be left alone, but Fi, I really don’t think you’re allowed to do that.

Etain and Jinart show up, Niner explains the situation and asks if Etain can help. Etain offers to try and part the soil with the Force if Jinart will find a shallow point and Niner will explain what’s needed so she can visualize it. 

I really, really think based on the last chapter that KT just forgot that Atin gave Etain an array blaster already, because it’s magically disappeared from the narrative. And I haven’t checked, but I don’t think Etain ever gets to use Fi’s blaster, which I have to assume is his sidearm if it’s going on her belt. The most mention it gets after this is clinking against Dar’s armor when she hugs him.

That said, please imagine tiny little Etain currently kitted out with an exotic shot gun, her lightsaber AND a commando’s pistol. Does the heart good.

We even get to switch to her POV next. 

a) Etain’s Force-sense is already Darman-attuned, which fits with the opening of Triple Zero. That happened fast, though.

b) “Are you following scent?” Etain panted. /”No, I’m listening for echoes.”/ “With your nose?”/ “Where I keep my ears is my own business.” Okay, I hate Jinart, but that line never fails to crack me up.

I don’t really have a comment, I just needed that line here.

We don’t really get detailed descriptions of the Force from Etain’s point of view super often. That I can think of, there’s this scene, there’s her describing how she perceives the troopers around her at the Dinlo extraction. To a much lesser extent, maybe a little tiny bit about the fetus that will become Kad. Otherwise it’s typically really vague- she had a feeling, or she knew, without the sensation behind it. I really love getting descriptions of how using the Force actually FEELs is what I’m saying, I guess.

This is the only time Jinart is complimentary of Etain in the entire series, I think.

Okay, so

a) ewwwwww. Dar was covered in raw sewage two chapters ago, if you’ve forgotten.

b) Still she rushes in to hug him without even noticing. She doesn’t stop because he smells bad; she stops because she’s a Jedi Padawan and an officer, neither of which should be so emotional, so she’s embarrassed. 

c) Darman “all guilt” Skirata is apparently clueless, but Atin isn’t- “are you going to stand there all night posing for the commander?”

They work out a plan to carry Uthan in shifts, Etain worries about the sedatives, and Jinart, finally, finally takes a hike.

Whatever other weirdness happened in this chapter, I feel like I won the lottery with this scene.

We briefly go back to Hokan who is working with Hurati to evacuate Uthan’s remaining staff, and decides to personally help evacuate the only remaining woman, telling her to hold on to him. Unfortunately, his plan is “kill the lights and then run real fast out the door”, which makes that line about Fi earlier ~foreshadowing~.

I, too, would take comfort in protecting my head from projectile weapons.

Anyway, that’s the official end of what’s probably the shortest chapter in the book, excepting the prologue.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 13)

CW: mentions of past attempted sexual assault & dealing with the attacker, mind influence/control

TL:DR Recap: Darman and Etain are finally reunited with the rest of Omega. Unfortunately, Guta-Nay is also there. Etain and the squad develop a plan, but it involves sending Guta-Nay to his death.

Beginning Kal Count: 24 Ending Kal Count: 25

We open with what’s honestly one of my favorite exchanges between Niner and Fi, and I can’t resist screenshotting it right off the bat:

“Hey, Sarge, I’m being positive.”

“Are you on drugs?”

Fi noticing that Niner is on edge and offering to swap and Niner being too stubborn to do it,even though he specifically hates doing that exact job.

They’re still dragging Guta-Nay around with the, which unfortunately means this chapter is whenI have to start dealing with him. But even as Niner tries to press him for more info, Guta-Nay is too stupid to give it. Even when Niner plays charades to get his point across.

Atin sens up a remote to scout ahead of them, and they accidentally end up spying on Darman, who aims a gun at the remote but luckily refrains from shooting it.

I legitimately can’t tell you why I love that scene. I just do. Anyway, within five minutes they finally, finally rendezvous with Darman and Etain. Etain is having a hard time adjusting to actually seeing Niner, Fi, and Atin, even though intellectually she already knew that Darman was clone. Fi makes a joke about Guta-Nay smelling bad. Etain asks for Omega’s names. Someone was about to introduce themselves as a CC (clone commander) rather than an RC (Republic Commando) again, but she cuts them off.

Darman was the first one to break the rule with Jusik, but he’s been embarrassed every time it comes up, and it clearly now embarrasses him to break the taboo around his squad, even if Etain’s been calling him by his name for a while. Social conditioning is intense. However, this time Fi and Niner introduce themselves as well, where as I think last time it was just Atin.

... unfortunately, I now have to deal with Guta-Nay.

Again, Etain’s meant to be Jedi, yes, but 1000% percent not blaming her for the reaction. I just /love/ how seeing Guta-Nay, who she explicitly calls a rapist and who attempted to attack her, gets to be the trigger for her to be ashamed of her emotions, restrained by one of the male characters (even if it is Dar and he doesn’t know the context) and Niner’s comment about Guta-Nay being useful sends her immediately into a self worth spiral as she ... is she supposed to be comparing herself to Guta-Nay here? Or is this just a reaction because the two emotional triggers are intertwined from this whole experience, or..?

Anyway, isn’t it great? /sarcasm

(Hat tip to Dar for being bold enough to grab a Jedi’s arm while they have their lightsaber ignited, I guess, though.)

Can I... can I just mention that on one hand, I can make a Watsonian interpretation for why Etain’s reaction to being told the person who tried to rape her might have useful information might be for her brain to jump to waiting for Darman to tell her how much he despises her... but on the other hand, I don’t care and I hate Traviss intensely for setting this scene up this way?

But, in what’s going to be pretty typical Etain fashion from this point in the series on, that sense of worthlessness drives her pretty much immediately to action. She asks Niner what information they need, and then sits Guta Nay down across from her, and waits until they’ve both calmed down. And then she immediately sets to using Force-persuasion to convince Guta-Nay to talk. This time, unlike when he was chasing her, she doesn’t struggle with it at all.

side note, there is a kind of sweet moment with Atin and Darman that I like, but it’s weirdly placed- breaks up the rest of the moment from Etain’s pov:

Then we switch to Niner’s pov, probably because Etain is busy with the Weequay and no one actually wants to hear him talk, least of all me as a reader, and also KT needs an opportunity for Omega to be doubtful of Etain.

Niner hates scruffy rig. Darman actually does clean his deecee when nervous; it isn’t just a weird innuendo that someone had to point out to me. Darman pulls out the holomaps that Etain... stole? I just realized I have no idea where she got them. But she’s been guarding them this whole time. He proceeds to praise her, unprompted, but Niner has already been told by Jinart that Etain is useless, so he’s skeptical.

Kal Count of 25. Dar just kind of regrets opening his mouth, I think, and wishes his brother would back off. But he does want to try to defend Etain, even if he’s had his own doubts before this point. So first he tries the standard defense, then when Niner isn’t content with that, he does his best. But Niner is freaked out by Jedi Mind Influence, not reassured like Darman was in the escape scene. I’m not really sure what to even make about “human females” and the fact that KT really needs to drive home that, after being behind enemy lines for three months, Etain has no sex appeal.

There’s also that word “emaciated” again.

Finally, Etain finishes her interrogation. She briefly mistakes Niner for Dar, but immediately corrects herself by saying “Of course, you’re Niner.” She reports on what little she can and offers to try to summon Jinart with the Force.

This is actually a scene that will be recounted again- apparently Darman will tell Kal about it at some point between leaving Qiilura and seeing Etain again in Triple Zero. Skipping a bit ahead, but:

Listen, the thought up Darman telling Kal all about the Jedi he absolutely Doesn’t Have a Crush On, maybe enthusiastically, maybe shyly, should make me smile, except given how Kal will treat their relationship in that book and the things he’ll accuse Etain of, it just makes me sad.

Anyway, I’m digressing. This is clearly a big moment for Niner, and he’s surprised that Etain can tell that Atin has been hurt in particular. I don’t entirely get why Traviss goes back and forth on what motivations/emotions Etain can sense to what strength (say like... her not being able to feel Darman’s grief for Theta squad versus immediately feeling Atin’s grief for his TWO former squads plus the Vau abuse we technically don’t know about till next book.) But I’m always going to rule in favor of her being stronger at Force sense because it’s really her signature Force ability, and Traviss has a bad habit of lowering her ability levels out of nowhere so she can be yelled at.

Niner explains what happened to Atin, and Etain expresses sympathy, and promises to see if there’s a way she can help. She specifically mentions Force encouragement, which makes me a little uncomfortable and which she decides by the next novel never to use again without permission. But Niner, despite his worry a few paragraphs ago, is favorably impressed.

We timeskip and go back to Etain’s point of view then. The commandos notice someone approaching, but it’s only Jinart.

Niner is the member of Omega who gets picked on for being straightlaced, but ngl, I relate to him a lot in this book.

Jinart lets them know that while Hokan is trying to bluff them into thinking Uthan is in the villa, she’s actually back in the facility, which makes me wonder what the point of all those Hokan POV scenes were. They start trying to brainstorm how to get into the facility, which has no extra exits or conspicuous vents because it’s meant to secure a bioweapon, and realize that they’ll still have to deal with the droids in the villa anyway, as close as they are. 

So they decide to try and smuggle in a bomb to take out the villa droids pre-preemptively because Hokan has already (for reason I still don’t understand) filled the basement there with explosives, In order to make it worth while, they want Hokan to think they’ve really fallen for his trick and are headed for the villa only, and thus to put most of the droids there.

A) Shut up,Jinart, you don’t get to be bitter.

B) Etain is already falling into that pragmatism thing. And I don’t think she’s wrong here. But she’s going to have more trouble actually doing it than she thinks.

And then it’s finally time to find out the origin of the gurlanin. Jinart reveals that Qiilura is her homeworld and that the settlers have destroyed her habitat without knowing the gurlanin were there, so she wants all of them, but especially the Trade Federation. Etain says she’ll make sure the Republic follows through, and Jinart threatens- “make sure you do” because the gurlanin are good at being everywhere. It’s foreshadowing for the next three books, of course, which all involve plot points with the gurlanin, as much as I wish I could be rid of them.

So they set about convincing Guta-Nay that there’s another squad and they intend to all attack the villa, except he’s so stupid they barely need to act. We get this really, really, really terrible line from Etain’s point of view:

Listen, this is where I’m drawing a line with this whole thing, Traviss. Because making the rapist who attempted to harm your main character from a race “so stupid that they can barely communicate functionally with humans and are all prone to drinking and criminality” wasn’t bad enough, we now get “the rapist is a monstrous child who isn’t able to control himself or understand that other people have feelings” which is the most bullshit thing in a series FULL of bullshit. No. Fuck that.

On the other hand, we do get one of my top five favorite scenes in the whole book, one of the few moments where Atin and Etain get to have a friendship, and something I really, really, really wish had been built on in later books.

Atin: Making my explosives neatly is WORTH the possibility of getting shot in the ass.

Atin walks her through all the squad’s tech, first letting her hold his deecee and look through the scope, then when she asks letting her try on his helmet and talking her through the HUD. He’s skeptical the whole time, but also, it takes some trust and patience to talk the commander who you are dubious knows her stuff through all of your personal kit. But Atin is the tech guy, and this is his wheelhouse and he shows her that patience. He also talks to her about the (perceived, not necessarily accurate) differences between ARCs, commandos, and troopers as he understands it.

I’m still not comfortable with the Force aspect of this, but it’s walked back in the next book. Atin fumbing the wire and pretending to focus hard because he’s embarrassed. And Etain is very touchy feely- I lose track of how many times in this series she grabs or pats or reaches for someone’s arm or hugs them or kisses them on the cheek.

Then we get to the part that’s actually my favorite:

It’s just... really nice? Seeing Etain get a little bit of respect and a little bit of friendship and feeling it in return? I will never be over the fact that it’s thrown away after this book. In fact, I can’t remember if she and Atin ever speak to each other again.

Eventually they finish up and Etain alternates between trying to sleep and trying to see if Guta-Nay has left yet. A couple of watches change. Fi attempts to feed her and is turned down. And Etain realizes she’s going to have to make Guta-Nay run, directly use Force persuasion to make him want to go back to Hokan, when he’s trusting the Republic to keep its word and not kill him.

It’s a good thing the chapter ends here, because honestly there’s gonna be so much bullshit to unpack in the next chapter, and I’m too tired for that.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 11)

CW: combat violence, medical needles, planned bombing

TL:DR Recap: Etain and Dar run from droids and then treat their injuries. Niner and Omega blow up the air field and communications tower at Tekklet using their hacked droid, but also some civilians with it. 

Beginning Kal Count: 19  Ending Kal Count: 21 

Darman is already injured from their encounter at the “safe house” but now he and Etain are cornered by advancing B1 battle droids. And unlike in the cartoon, the B1s don’t talk in humorous voices and are treated as a palpable threat. Looking for an escape plan, Darman finds some wooded terrain that he hopes will hide an escarpment that will be difficult for the droids to traverse. An escarpment, for the record, is “ a long, steep slope, especially one at the edge of a plateau or separating areas of land at different heights.” Just in case, like me, you needed a dictionary for that one. There’s a reason I barely passed geography.

That’s my girl.

This is like the opposite of the scene in TCW where Ahsoka and Anakin throw Rex off a wall. Also, again, this is my girl. Except that she’s way more resilient than I, an out of shape English language nerd, would ever be. Darman is running low on ammo, so he asks Etain to retrieve some explosive from a pack for him.

Listen.  The highlighted bit. Tiny moment. I still like it. Darman goes to blow up the droids, while hopefully not killing himself or Etain in the process.

Darman “I want to watch the explosion” Skirata. I’m gonna be nice to him, though, because he’s clearly having regrets. He did manage not to kill them all, and to take out at least some droids- there’s a severed droid leg sticking out of the ground nearby and a tree sliding slowly down the newly made cliff. Darman goes to look for Etain, who’s in rougher shape from the explosion that he is.

Darman is panicked, because at this point he’s out of options. He starts calculating how long he thinks he has the ammo to hold them off for, and legitimately isn’t sure what to do when voices reveal that the droids are under the command of organic officers.

We finally, finally get to see what happens when Etain is able to use her Force powers in a crisis situation. This is the first time she’s passed her charisma check when rolling for Force-Persuade, I guess, even if I’m really uncertain how she’s doing it with out speaking and from a distance.

I don’t expect everyone to agree me, but the conversation after just feels kind of ...cute to me? Shaky adrenaline relief and bad charades and Etain feeling glad to have finally, finally been of use like a Real Jedi and Darman just happy to be alive. Darman’s little grin and salute.

Obligatory mention that the slight name drop is number 20 on the Kal Count.

Anyway, Darman finally stops to treat himself for having gotten shot in the shoulder previously, and then has to turn to fix Etain’s ear.

Etain is the worst patient. :) She swears in fluent Huttese. :) It’s the little things that really make me happy.

And since Etain definitely didn’t die she definitely survived O66 what are you talking about who are you that is absolutely a conversation that gets repeated again after they’re dating/married.

Anyway, we then switch to Niner, who’s using the excavator droid Atin stole to smuggle bombs into Tekklet to blow it up.

To be fair to Niner, I would 1000% be nervous too. There are some droids retreating from Teklet and headed towards Imbraani, where Uthan and Hokan are located, and Niner is worried they’ll notice him and shoot.

Niner is always skeptical, and I love it, but again, he has good cause. Luckily for him, the droids keep going without seeming to notice him. Niner pulls at a few wires to keep the droid going towards Teklet instead of its normal drop off, don’t ask me how that works, and confirms that Teklet is basically an arial field and a storage silo that also happen to host the Nemoidian communications center, not any proper kind of military base. Its main use is as an airbase for the agriculture to be shipped off world. But it isn’t uninhabited; there are various huts scattered through out the area.

Listen, I understand why that has to be Niner’s point of view as a commando and I don’t envy him his job . All I’m saying is that it’s more complicated than the throw away line would make it Also, this is the obligatory notice that the Kal Count just jumped to 21.

Anyway, Niner keeps the droid going. It’s stuffed with bombs and he’s sitting on it, even as he continues to roll the droid onwards towards the Separatist communications facility, arms it, and rolls it over their fence. Let’s just say, he isn’t entirely unworried. We also get the only usage of “fierfek” as a verb that I can remember,

Again, you can’t even blame him. Although it seems... like a risky plan where your only way to not get blown up is to run like a bat out of hell and hope your armor and adrenaline hold up.

But we find out Niner was successful, because the next scene is Hokan realizing he has no cell signal, so to speak. Although it starts with him being on hold with the Separatists and being rude about it. Apparently Hokan has just realized there is a Republic cruiser in orbit and is mad nothing’s been done about it yet.

For their part, the Separatist representative responds to his poor attitude like they’re dealing with an angry soccer mom at a Wendy’s. Then the conversation is cut off when the sole planetary communications tower goes down.

The battle droids have their own uplink and can talk to each other, apparently, so he contacts one of his lieutenants, who confirms Teklet was destroyed by an explosion. Hokan pulls all droids back to the villa to defend himself and Uthan, and the scene ends.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 10)

CW: murder, death in combat,slightly graphic descriptions of corpses

TL:DR Recap: Etain and Dar go to one of Jinart’s safehouses and are immediately betrayed, which yet again, kind of justifies Etain’s paranoia. Darman kills a man, which perturbs Etain. Omega steals mining equipment and accidentally captures Guta-Nay. Hokan is pissed that Dar and Etain got away, and reveals that Jinart literally murdered the collaborators and tore them to pieces.

unfortunately, after posting the last recap I saw two Kal mentions in Chapter 9 that I missed, so we’re starting at a Kal count of 18.

Beginning Kal Count: 18 Ending Kal Count: 19

I regret to inform you I missed TWO references from Niner about Kal in chapter 9, so we’re starting at a Kal Count of 18.

I won’t screenshot the opening quote, but it’s basically a notice to the farmers on Qiilura that anyone who has Republic soldiers on their land without knowing will be sold into slavery and anyone helping the Republic on purpose will be shot. It does provide some needed framework for the rest of the chapter. Then we open in Darman’s pov, and IDK, I just kind of like the opening line. He still thinks of Kamino as “home” apparently at this point in time.

Etain is still being kind of unfairly snarky, and Darman’s at a loss what to do about it.

“Darman took is as a sensible observation rather than an insult.” Etain isn’t really being great right now, I recognize that, but I still love that line.

Anyway, they stop at the first safehouse and Etain goes to knock. Darman hates feeling obvious and exposed, and compares his lack of ability to blend in to, you guessed it, Skirata.

Kal Count raised to 19, BUT so far I think that’s the only one in this chapter.

Anyway, the house is empty; the family fled in the middle of a meal. Darman is still overly cautious, and walks Etain through house clearing procedure, even though her Force-sense tells her it’s safe. He points out that she can’t sense a tripwire that would murder them, even though Jedi Danger Sense is an established thing in the EU by this point and-

Sorry.

He also redirects her when she’s peering over his shoulder into the pantry instead of standing guard at the door and watching their gear, although he’s gracious enough to admit it had probably never occurred to her with Jedi senses.  While he raids said pantry with the intent to test the food for toxins later, she goes to fill bottles of water from a pump outside, and he asks why she isn’t using a filter. Again, we were just giving Etain shit a few chapters ago for being too paranoid and now she’s asking if he was trained by Nemoidians, but honestly I’m feeling kinder to Dar than Jinart because it really is a culture clash.

Yet again, I wonder how the Kaminoans can afford to kill that many clones out right when each clone is such an investment to rain and train in terms of both input and time. 

Darman doesn’t know what to make of a Jedi who isn’t the perfect demigod he was promised, which is affecting his trust levels. And Etain hasn’t been helping a lot with that. But she does notice something is wrong with him; she just doesn’t know him well yet, so she assumes it has something to do with his physical injury.

They eventually make it to another safe house, when they meet a woman “with a face like a gdan”, several children, and a few other adults. Dar is briefly overwhelmed because it’s the first time he’s seen this many humans who aren’t clones. I guess the commandos never saw their Sergeants group up.

Darman places mines all around the entrance to the building before he goes in, which I’m sure would win him no love even if the farmers weren’t already under threat of execution or slavery. The family at the safehouse says very little, outside of one woman who wants to know how the Republic is better than the Nemoidians, but they do attempt to feed Dar and Etain, which I have to say, is generous for the kind of place they’re living in. Or would be, if the family weren’t planning to sell them out & use the food as a distraction.

Dar, honey, she’s going to be able to read you in the Force better than anyone else in the galaxy by the time this is over and you’ll like it, so you might as well just buckle up. 

Also, clones are able of discerning thoughts/behavior patterns/moods really easily through minute observation and there’s nothing ruling out Etain doing the same her, but I guess it makes sense he jumps to mind reading the way the Kaminoans built up the Jedi.

Lots of little thoughts here. There’s post to be made based on a conversation I had with rey-skywalkin-away about Etain and food that I’ll save for another day, but for now, let me just say as much as KT tries to present Etain as a picky/snobbish eater, lemme just say that I don’t blame Etain in the least for being suspicious when the last stew Jinart tried to serve her included grains literally picked out of the manure on Etain’s cloak. Also, it’s still kind of sweet that Darman notices she isn’t eating enough and immediately offers her his bread, even though he’s in heaven getting “real” food. It’s generous. 

But good things never last, and Etain pretty much immediately is warned by the Force that someone is approaching unexpectedly. Darman flips out and the family immediately flees, which only confirms his suspicion. Dar and Etain brace for combat, while Etain uses Force-sense to pinpoint the incoming enemy forces. It’s actually kind of a great little action scene for the two of them.

“She put her lips so close to his ear he jumped.” Idk, I just giggled at that.

It’s just kind of a great little moment, getting to actually see Etain use her Force skills competently in an action scene. But of course, it immediately devolved. Darman, being raised to be a soldier, kills the one surviving Separatist, who’s injured on the floor. Etain, being raised a Jedi, doesn’t understand. Again, it’s a culture clash, but given the military focus of the books, we know who the narrative thinks is right.

I STILL WANT TO KNOW... who the hell were the clones supposed to be killing on Kamino? I can’t imagine the Kaminoans would let the clones kill even “worthless” Kaminoans, for fear of the armies they were raising getting ideas. I suppose Jango could have snuck back a bounty that was supposed to be dead every now and then, but that wouldn’t be a lot of people for training with 3,000,000 men. 

Also, Darman literally had his freak out over killing people on page 56 of this same, book, so it comes off as a tad hypocritical, even though this isn’t the last time he’ll not understand what Etain is upset about wrt killing.

Anyway, Darman is shot in the shoulder, though it’s a minor wound, they’re now on the run with no “safe houses” to hide in, and at the end of this scene, when Darman asks if Etain can sense droids, we find out she can’t when a droid starts shooting at them.

We then skip to Niner and Atin and Fi raiding a quarry for droids/explosives/equipment. I’m not gonna lie, I could care less about the plot of this section. This is my third time reading it and I’m still fuzzy on it. But it has a few fun little moments:

Atin is tricky. Also, I’m pretty sure that if this wasn’t a Star Wars book,that line would say “pants-shittingly nervous” rather than “drink-spilling”. With the facility seemingly cleared out, Niner and Atin go in to loot it, and we build some more on the “Atin is the tech guy” thing.

Except the guard shack isn’t empty. Guta-Nay (again, the would be rapist) has been hiding there, since Hokan wants him dead. Guta-Nay tries offering various bits of information if Niner will keep him alive, and KT really, really leans in to the whole “to stupid to function” thing, which is still making me uncomfortable, but comes to a head a few chapters from now. Eventually, Niner concedes that they’ll take Guta-Nay prisoner rather than kill him. Atin is displeased, but starts leveraging it to try and find a technical solution to one of their other problems.

Niner, you should absolutely keep thinking mean thoughts about Vau.

Atin hacks some droids, and they’re going to use them to move the mining charges and smuggle them into the places that need to be blown up, including the Nemodian comm relay in Tekklet. Atin still does not like Guta-Nay.

And then one bit that really makes this scene:

Tiny bit of foreshadowing for Triple Zero and True Colors. GREAT moment of Fi’s typical sass. “Don’t stand there being so ugly, man. You’re scaring him.”

We then close the chapter with Hokan being pissed that Darman and Etain escaped. I’m not going to spend too much time on it, because it’s mostly Hokan yelling at his subordinates.

Things that are of note,  with a CW for a graphic description of mutilation of corpses: this is what Jinart went and did to the collaborators.

As negatively as Traviss paints them, I actually feel really bad for the farmers in this book. She’s not much sympathetic to them, and she explicitly goes out of her way to show why you’d be stupid to sympathize with them, but on the one hand you have the Separatists and Hokan torching these people’s land, selling them into slavery, and executing them. On the other... you have Jinart. 

On top of which, they’re literally starving because of the Nemodian’s financial control of their lives. They don’t even have 21st century plumbing, in Star Wars. Whatever point Traviss thinks she’s making about unworthy civilian/local populations, it rings kind of hollow in the face of that information, because I can understand exactly why the NPCs act the way they do, even if they’re technically in opposition to our protagonists.

Anyway, Hokan pulls all droids out of Tekklet, where the comm is, to guard Uthan’s facility. He tells his men he wants either Darman or Etain alive, especially if Etain is a Jedi. Preferably both of them. Again, remember, he tortured Kast Fulier to death with Fulier’s own lightsaber, so remember what we’re working with here.

And that’s where the scene ends.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 7)

CW: mass execution

TL;DR Recap: Niner & Omega watch the Separatists murder Hokan’s old militia. Etain and Darman meet and it’s incredibly awkward. Hokan takes time to gloat. The truth finally comes out about Atin.

Beginning Kal Count: 10 Ending Kal Count: 12 (or 12.5)

THIS RECAP IS THE LONGEST YET. Everything seems to happen in this chapter.

So we open with Niner being bored, Fi being Fi, and Atin being cheerful because he’s up to his elbows in electronic guts. The scene starts pretty quiet before a massive tonal change, but it’s honestly the front half that’s my favorite, just for character reasons.

Niner is bored and grumpy, so logically he’s thinking about how to revise the training manual. Plus his little “if one precaution was good, two were better.” Good old Niner.  Fi being amused that Atin is made content by shredding a computer to pieces. I don’t know, it’s just the little things about their dynamic that makes me happy.

Niner is still upset with Atin, but he’s also curious. He doesn’t have long to think about it though, because the Separatist troops assigned to Uthan along with some of the battle droids assigned to the planet start approaching Hokan’s old Weequay militia. The squad watches as the Separatist officer and the droids proceed to murder every single one of Hokan’s old “associates” in visual range with no warning then retreat back to their base, which Niner finds understandably worrying. 

We switch then to Etain, who is frustrated and paranoid and is building herself an emergency exist by loosening the boards in the back wall of the barn where Jinart has been hiding her. She’s yet again frustrated that she can’t do more with her Force powers, and her lack of self-esteem really comes out in full measure.

“She wondered why Jedi blood had bothered to manifest itself in someone who was so fallible.” Sweetheart...

Jinart arrives to take her somewhere and lets Etain finally feel her presence in the Force. But when Etain mistakes Jinart for a Jedi and asks why Jinart didn’t tell her what she was... Jinart tells Etain to shut up.

“And given your competence, I’m the one who’s most at risk. Now, silence.”

Okay, listen, if you could give her even like three seconds of genuine explanation rather than just attacking her for not trusting you after her teacher was literally sold out and then tortured to death, then you wouldn’t need to tell her to STFU. I’m just saying, Jinart.

Anyway, Jinart tells Etain that there’s a soldier waiting up ahead for her, so Etain heads in that direction, despite Jinart still being extremely shady. She’s about to meet Darman, and while I love them both dearly, while this ship is my OTP, it’s... really fucking awkward.

Listen. This is just weird as hell, okay? I’m gonna admit it. I also pretend it ... wasn’t written like this. Because while Darman is naive and inexperienced, he still has enough neurological development (and enough experiences that go beyond the pale of normal adulthood even) that this weird framing of him as “childlike” just comes off creepy. So I ignore it. That’s really all I have to say about it.

Etain feels Darman’s scope or his attention through the scope or whatever, and decides “well, I’m going to fuck someone up before I die, if I can”, which to be fair, is a very Etain thing to do.

Darman sees her lighstaber is like “oh, finally a Jedi”, and tries to greet her politely. Except this is Etain, who really has no idea what the fuck is going on except that she’s been on this planet for three or more months, the only person she trusted was murdered, and there’s an evil Mandalorian somewhere who wants to hurt her badly.

So naturally when her vision clears (Darman blinded her with some kind of light), she see his helmet, assumes Jinart’s shadiness was in fact the prelude to a betrayal and that this is Hokan...

Darman getting worried now:

And Etain being Etain,she launches herself at him.  (ง'̀-'́)ง(ง'̀-'́)ง(ง'̀-'́)ง

It... doesn’t go well. Darman deflects most of her attacks pretty easily and literally dumps her in the river, continuing to try and calm her down to no avail, but she’s reached her breaking point and is pretty much in a blind rage.

“and when she was frightened and desperate and angry that was very hard indeed. She hadn’t know it until now.”

Listen, it’s a very un-Jedi-like but very Etain thing to do, and also who can really blame her given what she thought was happening and the kind of time she’s had on this planet so far. But Darman is exasperated, and I’m pretty Etain was embarrassed looking back at this for the remainder of her very short life.

Anyway, Darman finally manages to calm her down enough to let him talk, and in the process, he tries to smooth things over by taking the blame. He didn’t identify himself, it’s his fault, etc. He introduces himself (with the wrong designation- KT uses CC 1136, which would make him a Commander, rather than RC 1136) but in doing so, he uses terms of ranks, confusing the hell out of her. She asks when they got a Grand Army and-

We get the iconic “handing her back her lightsaber from the river” scene, except the official art for that picture always neglects to depict the fact that as gentlemanly as he’s trying to be, she’s dripping wet with her hair plastered in her face and desperately trying to politely ask her not to either get herself shot or go after him with a lightsaber again.

Instead of “meet cute” it’s more of a “meet extremely awkward”.

Anyway, this is all coming on the heels of several really bad months for Etain and the utter dismissal she just got from Jinart, so her insecurity really comes out in this conversation. It’s not really pretty.

(Side note, for once I do have to give KT some points on effectively carrying a tiny world building thing: Dar was embarrassed when Jusik asked for his name, he’s embarrassed that Etain is doing it now, and he’s going to be embarrassed again when she asks the rest of his squad.)

“talking army gibberish” lmao.

Again, self-esteem issues. But to be honest, as embarrassed as I am for Etain in this scene (she really doesn’t give her best here) it’s probably because I can relate a hell of a lot to her emotions?

Like, imagine. You’ve already got major issues with your self-worth from a lifetime of not being good enough for the people and the system that raised you, you just got dragged by an old woman after months of struggling behind enemy lines, you failed in your mission to protect the one person who gave a shit about you, and some (to your knowledge) regular human just successfully took you down without too much struggle when Jedi are supposed to be more than human, the best of the best. Then he turns to you with wide-eyed confidence and insists you are now his commanding officer, and you almost feel worse because he’s trying to absolve you of any fault. 

I’d be kind of prickly and asshole-ish, too, if I’m honest.

Again, we start with her having trouble with some wounded pride. But... we end on that bomb shell, and I would not blame Etain for short-circuiting at being told a 10 year old had been “bred to serve [her]. It’s a hell of a lot.

Anyway, I’m aware I copied and pasted almost the entire scene, but there’s a lot there, okay? But next comes more Hokan, and he’s basically just gloating that he’s now more powerful than Ankkit.

*long, exasperated sigh*

Listen, I could write a college essay about characterization just focusing on this man’s use of the word decadent, holy fuck. Also, the gloating is “vulgar” but all he does for pretty much his entire appearance in this chapter is gloat.

You know who Hokan would have gotten on with? Vizsla. Wait- no. Even Vizsla kicked him out. Anyway, Hokan finishes gloating and then goes off to murder a farmer for not divulging important information quickly enough/trying to trade it for booze.

This chapter is long and I know I’ve made this post really long, but we cut back to Niner and Fi again. They’ve made their way to one of the rendezvous points, only to find the trees that should be there aren’t. Fi eventually guesses that they’ve been logging and makes a disparaging comment about intel. Niner gives a little bit more exposition on how terrible the Kaminoans were, including a rumor about clones with impaired eyesight who disappeared and a comment about how Jedi giving orders is different from Kaminoans because Kaminoans are the only things he fears.

Fi is sighing, and eventually Niner prods at him:

And we get our biggest Kal Count yet. Technically this is one continuing remembrance, but it’s also long as hell and includes lots of little memories, so I almost want to include it as 1.5 towards our Kal Count, bringing us to a total of 11 (or 11.5). I’m way more interested in their conversation before Kal is brought up than after, honestly. But the reminiscing gets broken up when Omega is suddenly shot at by a few Separatist officers and a bunch of battle droids:

Please, please imagine this moment with the cartoon B1 battle droid voices from The Clone Wars. Please, I’m begging you.

Atin saves Niner’s life, which is honestly the most positive thing that has happened between the two of them so far and marks a turning point for them in general. It’s also the first time we get to see Fi jump in as squad medic, but he’s super efficient about it. Also, he snarks at Atin as he’s actively trying to decide if Atin is dying or not:

Niner offers to carry Atin’s pack for him until he’s doing better, which means he’s probably carrying something like 300 lbs now, even if Atin did save his life. And I know my screenshots for this post have been ridiculously long, but Niner finally, finally reconciles with Atin enough to figure out why Atin has been an asshole about Darman this whole time (minus the Vau thing):

It’s a pretty nice closing line to the scene, honestly. Also, technically speaking our Kal Count just jumped to 12.

I’ll spare you most of the closing scene because it’s just Hokan being pissed and thinking it’s impossible clones could have done this, but:

a) Mandalorian. Honor. Complex. You’d think Mandalore the Ultimate had been in charge for the last few years instead of Jango.

b) seriously. What is it with the word “decadent”??????

But it’s over quickly with Hokan making the wry observation that if he didn’t know better he would think he was being haunted by Jango’s ghost.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 19)

CW: Violence & blood. 

TL;DR Recap: Niner and Fi kill the scientists as they flee Uthan’s facility and Darman blows it up from underneath. Hokan realizes he now has no scientists and no virus. Etain briefly distracts Atin and he gets shot. Uthan is injured by shrapnel from his armor. Niner and Fi try to take down Hokan, but struggle against his beskar’gam. Niner decides on a trap.

Beginning Kal Count: 37 Ending Kal Count: 39

Last chapter, with the exception of the date rape joke, was actually fairly satisfying, so by the Traviss Law of Plotting, this one has to make me sigh. Here we go.

Darman and Atin are approaching the safety point where they can blow up the science facility from underneath, but Niner is observing it topside and tells them to hold off when he notices something happening.

Somewhere in the middle of that, we get this line”

Which, spoiler for Triple Zero, it absolutely is his new tic.

 Hokan has killed the lights, and when Niner’s night-vision kicks in, he hesitates to shoot at the people coming out of the building because he sees Hokan’s t-shaped visor and Niner associates with clones (and probably Kal, though mercifully that isn’t brought up for once) and his brain jumps to Atin and Dar, despite them being a ways away. After a moment, he opens fire when he realizes it’s Hokan, but it’s too late. After another second, a second group makes a break for it (Hurati and the scientists) and he and Fi successfully gun down 3/4 people. See? Foreshadowing. 

They decide to put more explosives into the facility, just to be on the safe side, so Fi and Niner throw in six anti-armor grenades to take out any remaining droids close to the surface, and also set the E-Web to overload. Then they book it, because Dar’s about to blow up the labs from underneath, and absolutely no one wants to be in that blast radius.

The things that make Fi happy.

Sadly, this is not endex. We switch to Hokan’s pov for the updated casualty report. He’s survived and so has Hurati, but all of the scientists are dead.

Niner apparently hit someone, just not Hokan. Or Hokan’s armor protected him. Or the scientist functionally turned into a shield. Hurati confirms that  he survived because he hit the ground, but that when he yelled drop, none of the scientists dropped. Hokan confirms that civilians tend to do that. Hurati adds more bad news by explaining that, given the color/temperature/position of the explosion, there’s no chance that any samples of the virus left in the facility survived. Which means Hokan has lost Uthan, the science team, and the virus work all in very short order. His only shot is to recapture Uthan, but his staff is down to him and Hurati, so chances aren’t great. He decides to try it anyway, sends Hurati hunting, and settles in to listen for the commandos.

We then switch to Etain’s POV. This is the scene that makes me sigh. But I’m just gonna ignore authorial intent and power through.

I can’t think of a great explanation for Etain being able to sense the larty and not droids/weapons/ *ahem* minefields. I really just don’t know. Best guess is what she’s feeling is less the gunship itself and more the Force rippling with the currents caused with what will happen because of the gunship/ how her life will be changed...

... but again. Triple Zero. The minefield. I don’t know.

a) “its drive chang[ed] pitch, and Darman reacted as if someone were talking to him” 

b)  everyone seems, at best, mildly perturbed the first time they see Atin be even remotely cheerful, and it’s pretty damn funny. If only it wasn’t a set up for disaster.

a) I pity that specific soldier too.

b) okay, so the “clones are appreciative of the little things & look how grateful they are compared to your average civvie” has been a MASSIVE throughline in this book (and series) but “His dreams were modest. She thought that was a fine example to set.” Actually, you know what, no, not when you look at the systemic reasons for the “modesty”. This line is just creepy.

c) (the highlighed line) Etain wants Darman’s respect. That should be your immediate red flag signal that something terrible is about to happen immediately so the narrative can show her why she doesn’t deserve it yet again.

d) (still though... she wants his respect, specifically, she wants to know what he wants to do when they finally escape this miserable place. notably, she isn’t even thinking what she’ll do, though of course having already read the book we know she doesn’t get to escape. but it’s not subtle is all I’m saying.)

Okay, so the set up the narrative is going for is clearly:

Etain wants to be liked/appreciated/respected so she decides to show off with her Force abilities ---> Professional and Competent Soldier is Distracted by Etain at the wrong moment ---> Atin gets shot and it’s Etain’s fault because she distracted herself and him with Force powers but those Force powers weren’t even good enough to see the REAL threat so what use are they actually, she’s worthless.

ahem.

As an Etain RP player... I tend to keep this as exactly how she perceives/remembers this incident. Her fault. A confirmation yet again that she isn’t worth anything to anyone, that she’s useless. The guilt stays with her, unless someone finally manages to corner her to talk about it, which no one has yet.

As someone critiquing the narrative... look, we’ve seen Omega get taken by surprise and be shot at before in this book. What it horrible, terrible timing that Atin is shot while Etain is, admittedly, showing off a bit because all three characters have relaxed after hearing the gunship? Yes. It’s terrible. But I really don’t feel like Etain deserves a much larger percentage of blame for what’s ultimately a matter of bad timing.

As for her not sensing Hurati... listen, Traviss you literally had her sense a gunship, aka machinery, not five minutes ago. Yet she can’t sense one clearly malicious/dangerous shooter nearby? Not only is that inconsistent with every pattern you have written so far, it’s an obvious authorial choice to force this exact situation despite internal coherency. Not unlike the minefield in True Colors.

I wish she’d just make a consistent thread for Etain’s abilities, but they’re always magically heightened when its necessary to resolve a plot, and otherwise diminished at any possible given moment so that we can rag on her some more.

Anyway, Darman downs Hurati and gets a look at him through the scope:

“He is now.” pffff.

Darman field medics Atin, who isn’t doing great, and prepares to carry him to the larty. Atin, per his history, tries to convince Darman to leave him behind, because, again. He’s been in this position before. Even if he weren’t critically injured, this would be pressing all his trauma buttons.

With Dar caring for/carrying Uthan, that leaves Etain to carry the partially sedated Uthan, except Etain realizes that Uthan has also been injured. She has a shard of shrapnel from Atin’s armor embedded in her ribs. This means that, if you view this incident as Etain’s fault, Etain has accidentally just endangered/ruined the entire mission. With Uthan dead, they might as well have blown up the planet from orbit and spared everyone the bleeding and the heartache. Great.

She’s got a point about trauma, but to be entirely fair to Kast, he didn’t teach her lessons that were “learned quicker by almost dying” because that’s an insane way to teach. Additionally, she’s also falling in love for the record, and just doesn’t know it yet, but I’m tired of KT’s pogoing back and forth between “jedi/not jedi” so we’re moving on.

So this is Kal Count 38, but it actually is a fair point about Fi versus Skirata, so I’m okay with this one. Fi and Niner start to talk about where they’d rather be deployed next, urban versus jungle, but it quickly devolves into an admission that Fi is not entirely detached or coping well; he just wants to be.

Fi gets the least amount of development of all of Omega Squad in this book, but it’s moments like these when you step back and remember, he also just watched all three of his original brothers die. Niner trying to reassure him is heartbreaking, as is realizing Fi is “shutting down” and trying to distance himself because it’s all happening again, and so close to the last mission, too.

Hokan cuts off this emotional moment by firing on Niner & Fi. They have difficulty because Hokan is wearing beskar’gam, which is as tough or tougher than their own armor, and he also is armed with a Verpine shattergun, which just made very quick work of Atin’s armor.

Fi and Niner realize that if they don’t hurry it up, Majestic will leave without them because now that Uthan has been captured, they’re unimportant to the mission. (They aren’t even wrong, actually; they just don’t know that Zey will end up staying on planet.) They comm Darman, who offers to leave Atin at the gunship and come back for them, but he’s got 10 minutes until he even gets to the larty, and Niner orders him to stay back. Then Hokan throws an EMP at them, and Niner & Fi lose all systems because apparently when the katarn helmets got upgraded after Geonosis they weren’t stress tested properly.

They try to throw some IEDs after Hokan, complaining about “civvies” who tested the armor the entire time, but that fails so they have to come up with another plan. Niner decides to try and trap him.

Kal Count jumps to 39, with one more chapter to go. But those last two lines never fail to break my heart.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 16)

After last chapter, I had two glasses of moscato, so we’ll see how this goes.

CW: repeated mentions of rotting animal corpses/smell, characters getting covered in sewage (again), claustrophobia, mind influence

TL;DR Recap: Atin and Darman go through the gdan warrens into Uthan’s facility and discover they’re claustrophobic. Niner blows up the villa to cover the explosives Darman is using to enter the facility, and Majestic bombs some droids from orbit. Etain tries her best to be helpful. The blogger makes fun of both Atin and Dar for their explosives use. Atin and Dar find Uthan.

Beginning Kal Count: 30 Ending Kal Count: 32

So we’re gonna open up in Darman’s point of view.

I don’t know shit about guns. I live in Texas, but have never held, much less shot one. Does this mean that Atin has his finger on the trigger or is holding it just above it in the little circle thingy?

Also, Darman, sweetheart. Being the bomb factory does not stop you from blowing up. Just saying.

Kal Count is upped to 31, but mainly I just kinda love this quote. If you’ve read Triple Zero, then you may join me in the delicious irony of them wanting black armor this entire mission for disguise purposes only to finally get it right before a mission to Fest. Thus proving Atin’s point above. Anyway Jinart is sniffing echolocating her way along ahead of them, and eventually comes to a stop and points out the entrance to the gdan tunnels. They need to crawl through the warrens in order to capture Uthan inside the facility... so of course this is the moment that Atin and Dar both find out that they’re claustrophobic:

I’m not even claustrophobic, and it sounds miserable to me, to be quite honest. But, on a more... pointed, note. Izzy has already explained much more fluently than me how much this scene means Kal is an absolute shit planner. Because Kal built a home on Mandalore that was supposed to be a safe haven for any clone deserters who wanted to become Mandalorian in True Colors/Order 66... but Kyrimorut was built  at least partially underground and partially uses underground tunnels both as exits and as connections.

I’m just saying, as we go through this chapter... we’re gonna see why that might be an issue.But first-

Listen, I may hate Jinart, but this scene makes me laugh pretty much every time. Every time. No inspirational metaphors for Atin, and Jinart is 100% scowling at him.

They continue on through the tunnels, and honestly the details get gross. Not just in the typical “fantasy escape through sewers trope” kind of way, but Darman smells something rotten that reminds him of bodies and Geonosis, so on top of his dizziness from the claustrophobia, he now has nausea, as does Atin. They ask Jinart about it and her first reply misses the point: 

Listen, my guy tells me this is some sort of health code violaton, but I know fuck all about plumbing. And no, that is not all they can smell, but Jinart apparently doesn’t notice the smell of decomposition until it’s pointed out to her. Jinart eventually realizes what they’re talking about and assures them that it’s from the gdan’s prey. Darman feels relieved for at least a moment (that stops when he sticks his hands in entrails) but I’d just like to point out that the gdan, while primarily hunting merlies, have tried to eat our human protagonists literally every time they step foot outside. Anyway, Darman puts his hand in entrails, has a flashback of Skirata running next to him in something called the “sickener” which was essentially training in a pit full of nerf entrails, and struggles not to throw up in his sealed helmet. Joyful.

Kal Count is now 32.

Eventually they reach a larger chamber where Dar and Atin start digging out their tunnel to the pipes under the facility and Jinart leaves them to go back to Niner after Dar sends her away. Darman notes that it would only take one or two shots from the rifle to clear, but that would bring the roof AND  a bunch of droids on top of them, so he and Atin keep working and sweating like pigs.Once they dig close enough, Darman uses their battering ram to break into the drain, and is promptly covered in a spray of shit from the pipes. This sends both him and Atin into hysterics, because again, they’re both not doing well in the confined space and are exhausted.

“Darman had never even seen the man smile.” And the first time is when Darman is covered in shit from a sewer pipe. Darman comms Niner to tell him they’re almost through, and the scene switches to Niner’s point of view.

Dar explains that they’re stuck at a filter in the pipe that will have to be blown open with explosives because it’s permacreted in. Darman asks for two minutes to set the charge, and Niner worries the entire time. He, Fi, and Etain don’t have anything to do yet, but he’s worried for Dar and Atin.

Niner is literally counting seconds and dealing with anxiety, Fi is calmly waiting with the cannon... and Etain is pacing. This is her nervous habit. Like, I had already headcanoned that, but it’s nice to be confirmed by canon. Even if Niner wants to chastise her for it and can’t. 

Man, he’s literally counting the seconds. Etain is the queen of asking well-intentioned but awkward as hell questions, and I’m pretty sure the lack of “ma’am” is the closest Niner is every going to get to saying “fuck you”. I could definitely live without yet another mention of mind influence, but as I say, addressed in Triple Zero... and at least Niner’s not nauseated anymore I guess?

They blow the filter on the facility and the bombs in the villa at the same time to disguise Atin and Darman’s entrance. Droids start coming out of the facility, which is disguised with a barn, to investigate, but Niner orders Fi & the E-Web to wait and tries to dismiss Etain/get her out of the way.

Etain is already not content with her Trandoshan shotgun array blaster or Traviss has forgotten she has it, which isn’t unlikely. She wants the concussion rifle instead (looking at it “longingly” already!), and she wants a job to do.

Niner gives Fi the go ahead, so he opens up with the E-Web (which again a literal, actual cannon) and starts firing, with Niner assisting via grenades. The entire time, they’re being rained on with “hot, metal shrapnel”.  But the droids stop advancing. so then Niner asks Majestic to bomb them from orbit if the droids start headed towards them from another direction.

Other than Fi’s comment, I’m not particularly sure why Niner expects Etain to be “in distress”. Or how he missed the fact that he was almost decapitated by shrapnel until Etain deflected it. Ngl it took me several readings of this scene to even parse the exact sequence of events. BUT it is nice for Etain to finally, actually get to be useful to Niner and Fi and do Jedi things without everyone including her beating her up about her weakness.

The scene cuts back to Niner & Dar, who have successfully made it in to Uthan’s facility:

Apparently if you leave Darman and Atin alone together without Niner or some other regulating force, you just get unending sass.

Dar has no idea what’s dangerous and what isn’t, so they decide to just explode everything, to be on the safe side. They make it through the inner chamber and are approaching the front of the complex, but haven’t seen anything yet. Majestic is bombing things outside. Dar is literally sticking high-burning explosives to everything he can.

“Disappointingly small” Darman please.

Darman. Why are you opening the potential virus box, Darman. 

You can’t set in NEXT to the potential virus box? Like the box is somehow gonna withstand that charge?

Yes, Atin, the fridge door is going to withstand the military grade explosives.

Anyway, Atin uses a mini emp to partially unseal a containment door, which is useful and also will later screw them over. It raises just enough for Dar to wedge something under it and the two of them the muscle it open, and then they start the “house clearing” portion of the op, headed into the part of the facility that’s actually inhabited. Droids and Separatists pin them down, so they comm to Fi & Niner. Then things get worse as they’re pinned in place by bulkheads.

So things are not looking great. They’re trapped by bulkheads, surrounded by Seps on the other side of those bulk heads, they no longer have access to their explosives.

Except.

I had to google what “half look different” meant. Like, I was pretty sure it meant “really” but I had to use google to confirm. Provided the British don’t also use a different connotation of “amazing” when using it in slang though... Atin likes Uthan’s hair?

Anyway, they found the mad scientist trying to kill them, and she’s armed and trapped in a confined space with them, so we hit a pretty good cliffhanger here, or would’ve if this were an episode and not a chapter.

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 14)

CW: typical violence, hint of off-screen murder to happen. pretty light in this chapter, comparatively. 

TL;DR Recap: Uthan reveals that, actually, she’s been lying to Hokan about how much danger her virus still poses to non clones, and he expresses the desire to kill her. Omega, Jinart, and Etain strategize. Hokan murders Guta-Nay.

Beginning Kal Count: 25 Ending Kal Count: 26

We open with Uthan and Hokan. Uthan is pissed because she and her staff have been moved back and forth more than once for Hokan’s ruse. Hokan is fretting while he looks at the plans for her facility and its defensive drawbacks, but convinces himself he’s fooled the enemy enough they’ll attack the villa anyway. Uthan wants to evacuate her work, but with no communications and a Republic ship in orbit, Hokan decides they’re digging in. He challenges Uthan, because she was the one who designed the facility in the first place...

which is when she finally admits it was designed to her worry about things getting out.

I mean, I really don’t know what you expect when you’re guarding a scientist who’s still in very early stages of creating a biogenic weapon. If it was more targeted than this, they would have already rolled it out. But we established already that Hokan doesn’t really have a grasp on how viruses work. Still, he doesn’t take it well.

“The fact that he was dealing with a woman was the only thing that made him hesitate” UGH. At this point I have to decide that Traviss is purposefully writing him as a sexist, if only for my own sanity. And to be fair, she has had Omega say multiple times now that they have no problems shooting old women.

I will say Uthan has some guts. She’s shaking because she’s afraid and that’s sensible, but she absolutely doesn’t back down. I like a lot of what this character could have been, had Traviss not later thrown it out a window. 

Also, Hokan is going to have to eventually find a solution to being disappointed that isn’t just shooting the nearest staff member. Manager from hell. Hokan and Uthan continue to spar verbally for a bit about the fact that they’re sitting on a metaphorical bomb and that he wants to keep her separate from her staff and the virus to spread out the chances of losing the project. Then the officer who Hokan had kill the last guy who he disliked comes in, having brought in Guta-Nay as a prisoner. It’s against orders, but Hokan decides to hear him out.

We cut to the next scene, which is from Niner’s point of view, and has lots of little Dar/Etain foreshadowing bits I like. The squad, Jinart, and Etain are planning their next move. At the moment they’re trying to decide what to do with their gear because despite bringing it all with them, it’s become more than they can carry. Atin is very insistent about his Trandoshan weapons.

Atin, love...

Niner is fretting about only having the four commandos to carry all the equipment through tight spaces and accidentally getting stuck. Etain insists she share the burden, but Niner is skeptical and privately asks Darman for an opinion over the squad’s helmet link.

They go on to talk about plans A and B, what’s possible if they can set off an explosion in a villa versus if they have to do a split attack. Etain notes that both plans sound difficult and someone tells her the odds were never good. She also is worried that she won’t be of use against the droids, which is when Atin-

This is the moment that gets us Etain and her LJ-50 (tiny general, massive rifle) for the rest of the series, and honestly, my heart. Admittedly, from what I remember of the Republic Commando game and can confirm from the Wiki, and LJ-50 concussion rifle and the Trandoshan array blaster (technically speaking a  Accelerated Charged Particle Array Gun) aren’t the same. The LJ-50 is, well, a concussion rifle. The array blaster? Is a shot gun.

LJ 50, which honestly looks weird in this picture: 

Array Blaster:

BUT, we also will get this quote in Triple Zero:

So... I think maybe it’s a continuity error? But any which way, I’d forgotten that the “very competent gentleman” in this particular case was actually Atin. And you know what? Fuck it. Next time I have a chance to work a friendship between them into a fic, I’m doing it. Also... I wonder if Darman ever brings this up with Atin later, while he’s watching his girlfriend haul around a rifle that’s almost as big as she is.

Okay, okay, I promise, I’m moving on from Etain and her giant guns armaments rifles & shotguns. 

They keep talking plans, and Fi is pretty dismissive of Etain. But to be fair, he doesn’t have the context Dar does to understand the real scope of what she’s trying to offer. Meanwhile, Niner is just trying to keep him from digging a hole with his mouth. Attempt One:

And attempt two:

Niner is gonna spend the rest of these books being the responsible but aggrieved big brother desperately hoping his squad will stay out of trouble, or at least be polite and well-dressed. In this moment, he just wants Fi not to get them in trouble with the Jedi. I kind of love it.

Jinart agrees to smuggle some explosives in her pouch into the villa, so they all head that way back together up to a certain point to prep. Etain hangs close to Darman the entire way, which worries Niner.

I mean, my shipper goggles for Etain and Dar aside, it’s rational that she stick the closest to Darman and feel the friendliest to him, since they’ve spent a few days together and saved each other a few times and she only just met everyone else the night before? Also, Kal Count just increased to 26, a lot of Niner’s worries about saying the wrong thing to a Jedi are explained, and I wonder how the Kaminoans felt about Kal undermining their Jedi-are-demigods campaign. 

Niner spends most of this chapter worrying about Etain as a complication in some way, shape, or form and talking about her behind her back. I’m prickly on Etain’s behalf because I’m biased, so I don’t like the slight conditional to Dar’s defense here - “Physically, anyway”- but I acknowledge it makes sense plot wise, and that Etain hasn’t had a chance to prove herself to the rest of Omega yet. And I kind of love Dar defending her with “If she drops, it’ll be because she’s dead.” Atin is the designated stubborn one, but Etain is also ori’atin’la.

Jinart heads off with the explosives, Niner starts to break out the food and wants to ask Etain’s permission/opinion on using up all their rations now rather than saving them for a time after the mission when they’ll be too busy or dead to need them, But Darman cuts him off.

Again, Darman and Etain have gotten to know and read one another pretty quickly. Niner is, as always, a skeptic.

We cut back to Hokan.

Hokan: *is about to commit brutal murder*

Also Hokan: *is distracted wondering how lightsabers work*

Guta-Nay proceeds to feed the false intel to Hokan that the squad gave him about having two squads of commandos and a Jedi who are all targeting the villa. The Trandoshan slaver accompanying him volunteers to help so that he can go back to selling off the Qiilurans, and Hokan accepts. Hokan asks if Guta-Nay knows anything else about the commandos and isn’t expecting much, except then Guta-Nay describes the clones armor, which Hokan takes as a description of Mandalorian armor.

Hokan is not thrilled by the revelation about the clones, and starts to question some of the bullshit Uthan has fed him about them being “docile” and generally dependent and mindless. But one of his officers suggests that as there’s a Jedi with the squad, maybe the Jedi is the tactician. More importantly, the squad has just screwed their own plan.

Rather than being convinced they’ll attack the villa, Hokan decides that if they have enough forces, they’ll definitely attack the villa and the facility both. Work just got harder for Omega. Finally, as promised, Hokan kills Guta-Nay with Fulier’s lightsaber, which sets us up for Chapter 15.

I hate Chapter 15. It’s my least favorite in the book.

[thesummerstorms]

Okay I have no idea if this will be legible since I had to do it in pencil (too many numbers for ink) but I mapped the whole damn fucking timeline.

I kinda don't know WHY because my AU is gonna have to radically alter this.... And I normally ignore it and make this op last longer anyway... But hopefully it's legible enough to be useful to someone.

I'm gonna continue to ignore the 14 days thing for Dar & Etain because it was needless.

There are some pretty good gaps in there if you want to insert individual scenes, but I started despairing of day 385 about half of the way through. No one slept that day apparently.