Karen Traviss - Revelation

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original

Copyright 2008 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & or TM where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used under authorization.

Excerpt from Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible copyright 2008 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & or TM where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

D EL R EY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible by Troy Denning. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the published book.

eISBN: 978-0-345-51055-6

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v3.1

Baltan Carid; Mandalorian warrior (male human)

Ben Skywalker; Jedi apprentice (male human)

Boba Fett; Mandalorian bounty hunter, Mandalor (male human)

Cha Niathal; joint Chief of State, Galactic Alliance (female Mon Calamari)

Ghes Orade; Mandalorian warrior (male human)

Gilad Pellaeon; Imperial Remnant admiral (male human)

Goran Beviin; Mandalorian warrior and farmer (male human)

Gotab; Mandalorian warrior and healer (male human)

Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (male human)

Jacen Solo; joint Chief of State, Galactic Alliance, and Sith Lord (male human)

Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)

Kral Deuce Nevil; Galactic Alliance captain (male Quarren)

Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight and copilot, Millennium Falcon (female human)

Lon Shevu; captain, Galactic Alliance Guard 967 Commando (male human)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (male human)

Medrit Vasur; Mandalorian warrior and farmer (male human)

Mirta Gev; Mandalorian bounty hunter (female human)

Ram Zerimar; Mandalorian warrior (male human)

Sintas Vel; former bounty hunter (female Kiffar)

Tahiri Veila; Galactic Alliance lieutenant, Jedi Knight (female human)

Venku, also known as Kadika; Mandalorian warrior and political thinker (male human)

My brother died in the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Not Anakin: Jacen.

Its taken me years to work that out, but I should have seen it from the start. Jacen, the brother I loved, my twin, never came home. It just looked as if he did.

I think the core of Jacen probably died in the Embrace of Pain, at the hands of Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong. Whatever came back was another person; a total stranger.

Its the only explanation for what hes become.

So thats why Ive reached the point of doing something utterly unthinkable, because the unthinkable is the last card we have left to play, the only way I can stop Jacen and his war from swallowing the whole galaxy. It was the Mandalorian crushgaunts that made up my mind. As Jag has proven, they certainly work. Theyre nasty weapons. Mandalorian ironbeskaris pretty well nearly lightsaber-proof.

I almost expected the things to detonate when Dad opened the package. Since when did Boba Fett ever send my father gifts?

Since his daughter was tortured to death by my brother, actually. Weve been waiting for Fetts revenge ever since, but so far nothing. Just the gift of crushgaunts and armor plate, all made from Mandalorian iron.

So Im packing for a journey I didnt think Id ever make. Ill give Jag this much: he never said I told you so. Hes the one who said I needed to learn from someone who had a track record in bringing down Jedi.

If anyone can stop Jacen, then, its me. Im his equal, and Im the Sword of the Jedi. But I just dont have his training. Ive no idea what he learned from Lumiya, let alone what he picked up on his travels during those five years. But hell make a mistake sooner or later. Hes way too cocky not to overestimate himself.

I just hope its sooner. And if being a Sith made Jacen invincible, hed have taken over the galaxy by now.

I have a chance, and Fetts going to help me make the most of it.

It cant be that hard to find him. Hes a bounty hunter, so Ill hire him like any other client, except Im not just any other clientIm Han Solos daughter, and Im a Jedi, and Fett has spent a lifetime hunting us.

And now Im asking him to train me to hunt and capture my own brother.

For all I know, hell laugh in my faceif he ever laughs, that isand tell me to get lost. But I have to ask him. Swallow pride, eat humble pie, and beg if need be. Dad seems to have thawed a little toward him; I still despise him.

But if he says yesI swear Ill be the best pupil hes ever had. Come on, Fett: show me how its done.

When the nation is in its darkest peril, the great warrior-sailor Darakaer shall be summoned from his eternal sleep by a rhythm beaten on his ancient drum. For his final pledge was that he would come to our aid when the drum sounded, and that we should call him when we sailed to meet the foe.

Irmenu folk legend

Ben Skywalker had thought it would be a simple matter of thumbing his lightsaber into lifescreaming vengeance or choked into silent grief, he didnt care whichand slicing Jacen Solos head from his body.

He sat flicking the blade on and off, staring down the shaft of blue energy and watching it vanish only to snap back into vivid life over and over again. He saw his mother, who couldnt be summoned back again at the flick of a switch, although he would have given the rest of his life for one more chance to tell her how much he loved her.

But the image that he wanted to erase yet couldnt was Jacen Solos face. So many people said Jacen was a stranger now, but a stranger was someone you never loved or looked up to, and so their brutality or careless cruelty was just repellent detail, the distant stuff of holonews bulletins. Family, though family could hurt you like nobody else, and they didnt even have to torture you like Jacen did to leave scars.

The face of Jacen that Ben would recall until the day he died was the one he saw on Kavan while he sat with his mothers body, the face that promised Ben theyd get whoever did that to her. And that was why it simply would not go away; there was something wrong about that face, something missing, or something there that shouldnt have been. Ben picked away at the memory, checking his chrono every few minutes, convinced that hed been waiting for Aunt Leia for hours.

I had the chance to kill him. Dad stopped me. Maybe maybe I could have killed Jacen without turning dark. Will I ever get another chance?

Jedi had killed Sith before. They said Kenobi killed a Sith on Naboo, but nobody thought it was an instant passport to the dark side; some dirty jobs had to be done. Ben had thought his absolute, all-consuming need to destroy Jacen had passed; but it hadnt, and neither had his grief. It had simply shifted position. It ebbed and flowed, some days worse than others. He would