Part 6: Mos Eisley and Begger's Canyon

Mos Eisley: Swoop Gang


Mos Eisley: Luke and Dash




: : :C H A P T E R 1 1: : :

[XIZOR]

At the Emperor's skyhook, Xizor admires the botany. He makes plans to entice the Emperor's gardener to his own skyhook the Fallen's Fist. Xizor gives Vader the location of a secret Rebel Base. In the Baji Sector, out on the Rim. The Lybeya System, hidden on one of the larger Vergesso Asteroids. Vader thanks him, begrudgingly, and Xizor is pleased. Xizor hopes the Emperor will send Vader to check it out, allowing him a chance to kill Skywalker unimpeded.

[LUKE]

Luke arrives at Ben's old home, and resumes work on his lightsaber.

[LEIA]

Leia and co. have travelled to Rodia to meet a Black Sun contact. His name is Avaro and he is a Rodian who owns a casino. Surprise, surprise, his nephew was Greedo. The very same Greedo that was shot and killed by Han. Welp. He's their only lead, so they go.

[VADER]

Vader is upset because the Emperor has decided to send him to take care of the Rebel base.

: : :C H A P T E R 1 2: : :

[LUKE]

Has now reached the stage where he tests his saber. If it works, great. If it doesn't, it will probably explode and kill him.

Of course, it probably comes as no surprise: it works!

[LEIA]

They meet Avaro. He has a lisp.


I don't even know what to think about this. At least he isn't upset about Greedo, I guess. Avaro agrees to put them in contact with Black Sun and bids them enjoy the casino.

[VADER]

Is in the Rim system approaching the base. He is frustrated to be doing this.

[LEIA]

Watches Lando play cards and gamble. Lando has a shite hand. Bluffs. Wins. Good ol'Lando.

: : :C H A P T E R 1 3: : :

[LUKE]

Luke practices deflecting Artoo's beams. People approaching from the distance are calling to Luke. Luke and Artoo take cover. Sure enough, it's a swoop gang. All have blasters. Luke kills a guy who rushes at him and takes his swoop, taking off into Beggar's Canyon. The swoop jockeys follow.

This part gets a lot of nice cross-over in the comic and game.

Anyways, Luke leads them on a chase through the canyon. Some of them crash along the way. Luke leads them through a natural rock formation known as the Eye Of The Needle, killing another jockey who follows. Just then--


Aw yeah, he's back, baby. Of course, Dash Rendar makes an impressive entrance. Of course. Luke questions why he's there and Dash reveals that he was hired as Leia to be a body guard. Luke is annoyed, but Dash informs Luke that he heard the swoopers in Mos Eisly had planned to kill and not capture Luke. He points out their tattoos which identify them as members of Jabba's gang. Given Vader has the live bounty, they wonder who sent these assassins.

Oh, and for posterity, here's the particular "Dash moment" of this chapter:


: : :C H A P T E R 1 4: : :

[VADER]

His ships had arrived at the asteroid the Rebel base was stationed on.

[XIZOR]

Xizor is weaving his webs of treachery or whatever it is anime supervillains do. He is having an audience with the Emperor and inquires as to how Vader's mission is. The Emperor is surprised to hear that the information on the Rebel base came from Xizor and wonders why Vader withheld it.

Ha, just kidding, the Emperor totally knows why Vader withheld that information and he thinks it's hilarious.

However, the Emperor also lets slip to Xizor that his prized horticulturalist who was about to make a shift to Xizor's skyhook recently died in a tragic accident.

Xizor takes the hint: don't fuck with Palpatine.

[VADER]

As the fleet approached the base, the Rebel ships come out to meet them. Vader notes that there are Imperial ships being flown with the X-Wings. This annoys him. He plans to punish the rebels for using Imperial ships personally, so he hops into his own TIE interceptor.

And he has a blast! Vader loves flying and killings! But it's quickly over and he becomes all broody again, as per usual.

When Vader gets back inside, he calls the Emperor to report. The Emperor reveals that Xizor is there with him and makes Vader thank Xizor for giving them the information.


Oh, Palpatine. You smug s.o.b.

[XIZOR]

Xizor enjoys his little victory. Please, the Emperor invites him to visit more. Xizor is excited, but he is well aware that Palpatine knows what has just transpired between Xizor and Vader. He plans to be even more careful around the Emperor.

: : :C H A P T E R 1 5: : :

XIZOR

Xizor finds out Leia Organa wants to meet with him. He finds this interesting. I, well, I, uh-- I'll let this next part speak for himself:


Yep. Xizor refers to women as "females." Sure is a creeper. Anywho, he orders Guri to make contact with Leia. He figures he can use her to get to Luke.

[LEIA]

But contrary to Xizor's guess, Leia is not eating a fine meal or spending money on expensive entertainment. She's just sitting around watching Chewie gamble.

[XIZOR]

One last cut back to Xizor in this chapter. He is watching a video of Guri meeting with Ororo Transportation, Black Sun's competitors. One fellow is reverential, while the other one tells her to stuff it. She kills him because she is a badass assassin. Xizor stops the recording and rewinds it to watch again because he is a weirdo.

: : :C H A P T E R 1 6: : :

[LUKE]

Dash lets slip where Leia went, and Luke is freaked out. While they talk, a messenger droid lands outside the house.

[XIZOR]

Xizor's chair is still broken and still slurring his name. It's also revealed that the hidden Rebel base he had Vader destroy was actually and Ororo asset. Nice one, Xizor. He certainly is a scheming bad guy. Turns out that hidden Rebel base was actually an Ororo asset.

Oh, he plans to seduce Leia too.

[VADER]

Is annoyed by the Emperor and Xizor's political manipulations. He can play the game, as he must to survive on Coruscant, but he feels soiled by it. Prefers combat. He is a warrior. But as he must play the game, he sets about searching for evidence against Xizor.

[LUKE]

The droid is a message from Koth Melan, a Bothan spy, for Princess Leia. Turns out they have vital information for the Alliance. Luke decides to go, as a representative for Leia. Dash and Artoo both express their disapproval, but go with him anyways.

After all, Dash has to earn his pay.



[JIX]

Back to everyone's favourite point of view! Jix arrives on Tatooine and manages to infiltrate Jabba's swoop gang by being a jerk. Lucky for him, the leader of the gang, Big Gizzman, loves jerks!



Jix is taken back to meet Jabba and discovers that there's another, more lucrative, bounty out for Skywalker's death.



Of course, he almost immediately blows his cover, but Gizz's crew aren't too bright. You may notice a familiar set of shoulder pads in these scenes. Yes, that is Dash Rendar shadowing the gang.



They reach Luke, with Dash hot on their heels, and Luke struggles for his life.



What he doesn't realize is that he had a second guardian angel, aside from Dash, within the swoop gang the whole time. Luke will never know the man who saved his life:



Big Gizz is really too trusting.



Dash arrives, on queue.



And Jix even makes a final save that neither Dash nor Luke expected. Poor Gizz. He just wanted to be the baddest of swoop bikers.



Somehow Jix manages to talk his way through Jabba's fury.



[XIZOR]

Meanwhile, Xizor is playing both sides because the guy simply cannot scheme enough.



[BOBA FETT]

Sorry, and now we're back to everyone's favourite point of view. 4-LOM was blasted on Fett's ship, but not entirely destroyed. While Fett continued to ponder a way to get Solo to Tatooine without being blasted by bounty hunters in way, 4-LOM repairs himself and sends a message to Bossk and the others. Here we get to see Bossk's ship, the Hound's Tooth.



Fett is quick to glean onto what's happening and neutralizes 4-LOM. Again. For some reason, Fett is written like a campy action hero, and after shooting off 4-LOM's arm we get this remark:



I really don't mind. Anywho, Bossk and co. disable Slave I and board it. Well, Zuckuss, a new bounty hunter name Furlag, and two red shirts board. Bossk stays in the Hound's Tooth ready to blow up Fett's ship once and for all should Zuckuss and the rest fail to subdue him.



Furlag doesn't last long. Frankly, neither does Zuckuss. Fett kills the two red shirts and coerces Zuckuss into making false reports to Bossk.



This gives Fett enough time to blast Bossk's ship with a bomb. Not a large one, but something to temporarily disable him.



I fucking love Bossk.



Track 3 - Imperial City

I presume this track is to be played whenever the novel, game, or comic shift back to Xizor or Vader and their dealings.


Track 4 - Beggar's Canyon Chase





Owner of "Flip Of The Credit" Casino and Black Sun contact, Avaro Sookcool

Big, fat Rodian casino owner. Launders money, etc. etc. Works for Black Sun vigo, Clezo, but has direct contacts into Black Sun. His nephew was Greedo of the whole "Han shot first" fame. He holds no grudges as he thought Greedo was an idiot. Speaks in a horrible lisp. I don't know what they were thinking with that. For a shady underworld businessperson, Avaro's alright and is basically a straight-shooter.


Leader of Jabba's Swoop Gang, Gizzman, aka Big Gizz.

Gizz here is of mixed human/Moggonite ancestry. He also participated in the Clone Wars, because of course he did. He has worked with Jedis, crossed paths with Cad Bane--he even spent time working on Coruscant. Somehow, his dealings led him to become leader of Jabba's gang. He's perhaps too trusting a fellow, taking in Jix without much of a fuss, and he pays for it.

Or does he? Apparently Gizz survived his wounds, was found and healed, and continued to go on his adventures, actually outliving Jabba The Hutt. I can't speak much to any of these adventures, so if anyone in this thread is a Big Gizz fan, let us know.


Chiss Mercenary and member of Jabba's Swoop gang, Spiker

"Hold on," you're saying, "aren't Chiss those blue-skinned, red-eyed Grand Admiral Thrawn aliens?" Yes, yes they are. Spiker just likes to wear goofy armour. Underneath all that, he does in fact look like Thrawn. Spiker was actually Jabba's own mole within his swoop gang. He had been positioned there to keep an eye on Big Gizz and make sure he was following Jabba's orders loyally. His spiked armour, for which he got his name, was a gift from Jabba.

Although left for dead, Jix also failed to kill Spiker. He was healed along with Gizz and the two left off on adventures unknown. Again, any fans of Gizz or Spiker, let us know what happened to them.


Outer Rim Crime Lord, Jabba Desilijic Tiure, aka as Jabba The Hutt

You all know who he is, so I won't spend too much time here. Jabba gets a better offer to bring in Skywalker dead, so he goes after it. It's all about the money.


Small-time Bounty Hunter, Furlag

Furlag never hit the big times. He basically was famous for hanging out with more famous bounty hunters. He spent his early years hanging out with Skorr, the bounty hunter that chased Han Solo down on Ord Mantell. Later he worked with Bossk, 4-LOM, Zuckuss. That too didn't work out, as Boba Fett ejected him from his ship to die in space.

Poor Furlag.


Kowakian-monkey lizard and Jabba's jester, Salacious B. Crumb

I just know there's got to be some weird stories about Salacious Crumb. I know him as the laughing thing at Jabba's Palace, but there has to be more EU weirdness. There may not be people who know more about Gizzman or Spiker, but there's gotta be more about Salacous Crumb. Share your EU knowledge!

(All I know is he died in Jabba's sail barge explosion).


Courtesy of nine-gear crow.

Swoop Bike

Swoop bikes are, essentially, the motorcycles of the Star Wars universe. Like we mentioned in the video, swoops are basically super-fast engines with a seat and handlebars and, if you’re lucky, some sort of directional mechanism. The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels rather comically points out that swoops with goddamn seatbelts are considered luxury-class among swoop jockeys.

Swoops can accelerate to in excess of 600 mph, speeds at which collisions are deadly for biological and mechanical beings alike, unless you are Dash Rendar. They are also capable of flying at an altitude of several kilometers above a planet’s surface. Swoop bikes are also extremely lightweight, which makes them hard to properly maneuver. Rookie swoop jockeys will often overcompensate for the swoop’s intense speed and limited maneuverability, often to fatal degrees.

The swoop bike is essentially the ultimate expression of badboy badassery in the Star Wars universe. Even Anakin Skywalker temporarily looked really cool when he was riding one in Episode II. COME AT ME SALLY, I DON’T GIVE A FUUUUUUUUU—

Anyway, the EGVV lists the swoop driven by Dash in this level as a Mobquet Flare-S Swoop bike. The Flare-S was notable for having a heavier reinforced chassis compared to other swoop models, which is writer-speak for “I need to explain why Dash can ram like 20 guys into walls and not have his swoop explode out from underneath him.” I love handwaves. They’re so fun to do. The Flare-S is also described as a blatant cross between a swoop and the more traditional speeder bike, particularly the Aratech 74-Z speeder used by the Imperial Army’s Scoutroopers.

Swoop racing is a very popular sport across the galaxy, but in legitimate racing leagues and underground circuits. Underground swoop racing was popular even as far back as the Jedi Civil War era. Records indicate that the man known as Revan, a Jedi Knight, war hero, and reformed Sith Lord once participated in a swoop race on the now-devastated world of Taris in order to save his fellow Jedi and eventual wife, Bastila Shan (although he wasn’t technically a Jedi at the time).

One other minor note: apparently Han Solo also drove swoop bikes in his early youth. I had no idea this was a thing until I actually started doing research for the swoop entry for this post. So, I guess my ‘Dash vs. Han’ point for this level is actually invalid.



Yep.


No one gives a shit about Dengar.


Sentinel-class Landing Craft

Sentinels are larger-scale versions of the Lambda-class shuttles. In addition to their extended chassis design, they also boast an increased armour loadout, stronger grade shielding, and more weapons than standard Lamba-classes. Sentinels come standard with eight retractable forward-facing laser cannons (two sets of four on either side of the cockpit), a concussion missile launcher, and a pair of twin-linked repeating blasters concealed underneath the cockpit.

A joint-venture by Sienar Fleet Systems and Cygnus Spaceworks, the Sentinel-class features the same folding tri-wing design as the Lambda-class shuttle. Sentinels are a relatively new addition to the Imperial Fleet’s craft roster, having been rolled only months before the Battle of Yavin. One was seen in action on the desert world of Tatooine, deployed as part of the search party which scoured the Tatooinii desert in an effort to recover the fugitive astromech droid R2-D2, who had fled from the captured Rebel blockade runner Tantive IV with the design schematics of the Death Star.

Few Sentinels are seen out in deep space, as they are primarily intended to be ship-to-shore transports used for troop insertion or cargo deployment in combat zones. Their large size precludes their docking with anything short of a Victory II-class Star Destroyer, thus rendering them rather useless as a ship-to-ship transport or a space-based assault lander. The Delta-class assault shuttle is better suited to such a role, anyway.

Sentinels are capable of transporting up to 54 Stormtrooper, are crewed by a command staff of five, and have additional storage capacity for up to six speeder bikes. However, the craft’s modular interior can be rearranged on the fly, swapping out passenger seating for additional cargo or embarking vehicle storage.

Sentinels are equipped with a pair of CSW HD7 ion engines, which give it comparable maneuverability to one of Cygnus’s other signature craft, the XG-1 Assault Gunboat, and allow it to reach speeds upwards of 1,000 km/h while in-atmosphere.


Hound’s Tooth

Why the hell am I even posting this one? Nobody gives a shit about Bossk.

The Hound’s Tooth is a heavily modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YV-666 (yeah, real fucking subtle guys) light freighter. I am literally reading the EGVV article on it for the first time ever as I’m writing up this part because in the 10+ years I’ve owned this book, I never cared enough about Bossk or what kind of ship he flew to actually read the write up on it. However, because Bossk turns up at this point in the Shadows of the Empire multimedia project, here it is…

I will admit, though, I am kind of digging the design. It looks like one of those Mobius-inspired designs from the Panzer Dragoon series.

See how little I care about Bossk, I’ve already digressed from this write up to talk about Panzer Dragoon!

I love how the write up to Hound’s Tooth begins though:


Poor Han. He wreck’s Bossk’s shit and still gets second billing.

Hound’s Tooth features a unique control scheme custom modified to suit Bossk’s nature as a Trandoshan. Essentially a set of microsensors built into the armrests of the pilot’s seat allow for Bossk to control the ship without exhorting too much motion. Because, ya know, it’s kind of hard to move when you’re made of rigid rubber.

HAI OOOOOOOOOOO!

Bossk hardwired an X10-D droid brain into Hound’s Tooth’s systems in lieu of an actual co-pilot. The droid can autopilot the ship on its own, or allow Bossk to pilot the ship from his personal cabin deeper inside the ship through a control panel slaved to the ship’s central flight control systems. It also has an embarking scout craft, the Nashtah Pup, which can be deployed off the back of the ship.

Its two maneuvering fins each house one of its two engine modules. The Hound’s Tooth is equipped with a forward-facing concussion missile launcher and a concealed quad laser turret on the underside of the ship.

Can I stop writing about fucking Bossk now, please? Sweet.





Dash Rendar - 8

Han Solo - 5



ART CONTEST!

nine-gear crow and I want to hold an art contest! The winner gets a free SA upgrade of their choice valued at . So, avatar, forums upgrade, whatever.

The artwork can be in any form, be it drawing, MS paint, computer graphics, video, song, doesn't matter. All art is art. However, it must contain one of Steve Perry's original Star Wars characters do not steal (e.g., Dash, Xizor, Guri, Leebo, etc.), and be in one of the following four categories:

A) Shadows of the Anime

Inspired by Xizor and Comrade Questions incredible artwork. The bar is set high.


B) Order 66-bait

This was crow's idea. Inject so much Star Wars prequel nonsense into Shadows Of The Empire that it drives me to want to close the thread out of spite.

C) "Dash's World"

See the world through Dash Rendar's eyes!

D) Emperor Palpatine's Public Safety Design Mandates, continued.

Make the world of Shadows Of The Empire safer with Emperor Cos Palpatine.