Lit The Following Takes Place Between 35:3:8 and 39:3:7 of the GCW. Events Occur in Real Time.

In Scoundrels case, it'd be the bounty hunter they ran into *after* Ord Mantell.

 

Had a busy week but I should have at least another mini- Scoundrels update tonight. The fills-ins are running behind but I should catch up mon or tues.

 

Sorry for the delay- schedules got changed around. Anyways, I still have about 120 pages to go on Scoundrels, but here's the next chunk of an update (not going to fill in the other stories we talked about until the Scoundrels framework is done).

I figured today would be a good day for an update as we are now already at the 1 Month ABY point. Looks like this month is going to be pretty packed given that we haven't even hit an entire post-ANH Marvel issue yet, heh. That 2 weeks comment in Rebel Force really was a time waster, but I digress- onwards!

Further Scoundels spoilers:

35:4:15: Chapter 9-10, Festival Day 1 (Rock)
35:4:16: Festival Day 2 (breakdown/reset between honorings)
35:4:17: Chapters 11-13, Festival Day 3 (Air). Lando meets with Villachor at 5PM and inserts the fake datacard into the vault. Is subsequently kidnapped until Han's team rescues him. At night the group analyses the vault layout readings from the datacard.
35:4:18: Chapter 14, Festival Day 4 (breakdown/reset between honorings). Qazadi interrogates Sheqoa at night.

1 MONTH, 2 WEEKS ABY
35:4:19: Chapter 15, Festival Day 5 (Water). Han meets with Villachor.
35:4:20: Chapter 16, Festival Day 6 (breakdown/reset between honorings). Villachor opens up initial conversations with d'Ashewl. The Dominator returns to Wukkar by night.


Other notes:
-Kell joined Mazzic 6 months ago, Winter 8 months.


I plan to do the rest of Scoundrels all in the next update, with the Pizzazz and Science Adventures (which I've just acquired) filled in after that, giving us a final first month picture. Then we get to move onto more Marvel and the other Missions (which I've also acquired the rest of, save one). ANd, more or less, back to the more regular updates (at least until we hit the next novel ).

 

Yeah, I quite enjoyed Bevel's dry sense of humor, even to the end.

On another side note to Scoundrels- did anyone else find the random reference to Revan and Malak pretty odd, especially given who was saying it and who they were saying it to?

 

However, the implication is its a reference Han would understand as well.

 

Yeah, but we aren't really talking about it being delivered to Han out of his element. It's not some high Imperial court phrase where he'd just have to infer the meaning of it. It's a bunch of scoundrels.

Moving on, I've topped off the book (really fun read, BTW- works completely as a stand alone while still following up on some threads from the HST. It even has what I have to assume is a Jack Purvis reference too. I am, however, surprised Zahn didn't take that decoy YT-1300 to it's logical conclusion somehow...).

I'm going to dispense with the spoiler warnings from this point on, BTW- we're well beyond the spoiler period now. Not that there is too much to add at this point.

35:4:21: Chapters 17-24, Festival Day 7 (Fire). Heist mayhem. Han's debt to Jabba increased to half a million credits. Winter finds out Leia survived Alderaan.

So the conclusion of Scoundrels takes us to 1 month, 5 days ABY. Over the next few days I should hopefully have the concurrent sources filled into that framework and we can jump back into the Marvel material which should allow us to come back up to speed to real-time quickly enough.

However, I am surprised that I happened to unintentionally finish Scoundrels on the actual day it ended (albeit very early in that day)- a pleasant coincidence. I guess this project won't let me fall too far behind afterall.

(Either that or I should fear that it already has a mind of it's own... )

 

Tomorrow ill have the Pizzazz and Real Scuence books retroactively applied and start catching us up on Marvel. By midweek we should hopefully be up to date again.

 

Ok, so I'm jumping around a bit to fill in those first few weeks. Though there'll be some more to come, no doubt, I'm starting off with the two Pizzazz arcs, the 2 Science Adventure books and To the Last Man.



35:3:13

On Maridun, Imperial Lt. Sunber's company reaches an outpost that has been wiped out by the native Amanin. No pacifist lemurs can be seen, thankfully. The company sets a defensive perimeter. (Empire #16: To the Last Man, part 1)

35:3:14

At dawn, the first Amanin attack occurs. A second assault occurs later that day, following a failed scouting attempt, revealing the Amanin's superior numbers. The Imperials spend the rest of the day and evening preparing what they believe to be their last stand. (Empire #16: To the Last Man, part 1 & Empire #17: To the Last Man, part 2)

35:3:15
(ONE WEEK ABY)

The Imperials manage to barely survive the final Amanin assault, thanks to Sunber's plans and leadership. The Amanin offer the Imperials a peace. (Empire #17: To the Last Man, part 2 & Empire #18: To the Last Man, part 3)

35:3:16

Artoo & Threepio join science instructional droid Forbee-X (basically a GFFA version of Pee-Wee's Magic Screen) on a mission to assist Rebel Governor Trux Zissu and his son, Stuart, to Romm in the Delantine system. They depart Yavin 4 in an old transport, the Timespan, whose escape pods have been tweaked by Han Solo for performance.

Upon arrival in the Delantine system, the Timespan is ambushed by Imperial forces, apparently due to information provided by an Imperial spy amongst the Rebels on Yavin 4. The Governor is captured, but Stuart and the droids manage to reach Escape Pod Four. Unfortunately, after gaining control of the pod, the pod encounters an asteroid field and is damaged, forcing them to crash land on an unknown planet.

"Listen to me, you scrap of metal. I'm under nobody's charge, get it?"​

"There's no need to be nasty. And you are under our charge, I'm afraid."​

"Am not!"​

"Are too!"​

(Beep chirp)​

"I said 'are too' not 'Artoo'. I wasn't calling you!" - Stuart, Threepio & Artoo.​

Upon landing, the droids manage to contact Princess Leia and are instructed to make contact with the Rebel faction on the planet within 48 hours or else the Rebels will be evacuating without them. They make camp, planning to set out at daylight to cross the wilderness between them and where they hope the Rebels will be.

35:3:17

Salvaging material from the pod (including some hull plates), they set out at dawn. However, they are hampered by both predatory wildlife and the odd environmental conditions of the planet: it cycles through all 4 seasons every day (but not at night). By nightfall they reach a desert.

35:3:18

The group manages to fashion a hot air balloon to expedite their travels towards a city on the distant horizon. They remain airborne all night.

35:3:19

That morning they spot a storm approaching.

"So we get a little wet. We've been through worse."​

(4B-X points out a a funnel-shaped cloud forming nearby)​

"Welcome to worse." -Stuart and 4B-X.​

A tornado takes the balloon down, where they encounter cave dwelling locals that turn out to be the Rebel faction: the city has been overtaken by the Empire. Revealing the planet to be Da'Nor, the Rebels are unable to facilitate transport back to Yavin 4 for Stuart and the droids, but they can get them to a port in the system on Romm, where the Rebels are plotting to overthrow the Imperials in the system. Stuart hopes they can rescue his dad in the process.

"Oh, all right , we'll go with Granit. But don't blame me if we get into another dreadful adventure!" -See-Threepio.​

35:3:20

Artoo and Threepio arrive on Romm and manage to return to Yavin 4 (and possibly help overthrow the Imperials in the Delantine system, identify the Imperial spy in the Rebels' midst and save Stuart's father- but don't blame Threepio!)

35:3:21-35:4:2

(see previous entry on Rebel Force #1, Rebel Force #2 & Marvel #7)

35:4:3

Departing from Yavin 4, Luke and Leia head to Akuria but ae forced to land on the Keeper's World.

Pizzazz: The Keeper's World summary from Wookieepedia:

Spoiler

Some time after the Battle of Yavin, Luke and Leia traveled toward the Rebel base in the Akuria system to insure against a sudden Imperial counter-attack on Yavin 4. En route to the planet, a mistake by R2-D2 (not properly repaired after the Battle of Yavin) caused the ship to fly wildly off-course. After a near-miss with an Imperial fleet, Luke and Leia encountered four android children capable of controlling the elements and a computerized "Keeper" on a formerly war-torn world who enabled them to escape the Imperials.

35:4:4

The next day, they arrive on Akuria.

"Hands off, you imitation snowball!"- Leia.​

Pizzazz: Kingdom of Ice summary from Wookieepedia:

Spoiler

Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, R2-D2 and C-3PO have come to the ice world of Akuria II. As they approach the planet they are attacked by a group of TIE Fighters. Luke and Leia's ship is shot and it crash lands on the planet and suddenly the TIE Fighters are shot and destroyed.

Akurians arrive at the crash site and fight with Luke and Leia. The War Sled piloted by Colonel Odan arrives to provide aid and picks up Luke and Leia, but leaves behind the droids.

The droids are taken to a fortress by the Akurians, while Luke argues with Odan about going back to get them. In the fortress the droids are taken to is the real Odan, who was attacked by imperials and had his War Sled taken over. Odan explains that they were tricked and that the TIE Fighters were remote controlled. He notes that they need to be saved or they will be executed by the imperials.

The Odan imposter is trying to get details of the rebellion from Luke and Leia when Luke distracts the false Odan. He goes to the bridge of the ship and Luke shows Leia scorch marks all over the place, implying that a battle was fought here recently. After they make the discovery of what really happened, they are captured by the imperials and the false Odan reveals himself to be an imperial commander. Meanwhile Odan and the droids are trying to get a small ship operational again. R2-D2 replaces a broken T-3 unit in the ship and they get flying.The imperial commander leaves Luke on the War Sled and sends it hurtling towards the Geyser Sea to its destruction.

An imperial officer tries to get information out of Leia by telling her they will save Luke if she talks. Leia refuses and the ships keeps speeding away. Odan intercepts the ship, boards, unties Luke and then escape from the War Sled all before it crashes. As the ship smashes into a cliff, Luke, Odan and their group land and try to find safety in the wind storm.

R2-D2 suggests heating the ground and creating a trench to lay in to be safe from the wind, but as they heat the ground a hole opens up and they all fall into it. The hole is the tunnel of an Ice Worm who are supposed to be nearly extinct. As they travel down the tunnel towards the imperials, an Ice Worm starts to follow them.
R2-D2 senses that they are below the imperials, and also that a very large creature is coming towards them. Luke, Odan and Fafnir shoot at the Ice Worm and then hit it with the exaust of their Snow Flyers, causing it to change direction and burrow upwards into the imperials.

The worm is killed by the imperials, but not before it takes out many of them. The imperial commander and Leia fly away. Luke and Odan pursue them when Leia kicks the controls and sends the missiles the ship was shooting away from Luke. Luke gets close and boards the ship, shooting off the canopy. The ship comes to a stop and the commander is captured. He explains that the rest of the imperials have been notified of the situation.

Luke has the imperial commander take them directly to their base on the planet. They destroy the gate and many Akurians start to attack the base. The cannons were set to shoot at aerial targets, so they are not prepared for the ground attack. Luke gets into a TIE fighter and flies off and destroys the fortress. After the battle Odan pledges that he and his group of rebels will join the alliance.

35:4:12

4 weeks after his battle on Maridun, Sunber reports before a review board on Carida, where his field promotion is taken from him, returning him back to his rank of Lt, with a special commendation added to his file.

Ok, so, some notes:

There's nothing definitive about the placements of the Pizzazz stories, but since there's no Han, I'm going with the suggestion of TC and other's that they happen while Han is doing his Scoundrels stuff. They could happen "later into Scoundrels" if need be, but, for now, I'm frontloading them into that era to hopefully make it easier to slot in other stuff that might happen at this time (maybe Tatooine Sojourn? Don't have a copy of that to check unfortunately if it's Han-free. Might be cute to have Luke feel compelled to go back to his home desert world after dealing with an ice planet).

Unfortunately, the Science Adventures cant do the same because Han is still on Yavin at the start. So I've used them to fill in that blank week we had, with space for the minimum "Science Adventures #3" events that could potentially take place that will get them back on Yavin for Rebel Force, even if SA3 was never made. Regardles,s better here in some empty space than later on after Han is back on Yavin.

For To the Last Man, I'm going with the placement because it opens mentioning most Imperial rank and file officers don't know about the Death Star's destruction yet. We saw in Missions that that info was only just starting to leak out to the higher ups, so I figure the earlier the better for that.

Keeper's World seems to be a one day story. Kingdom of Ice spans an entire day and night 9daytime when they arrive, night by time the storm hits/by time they attack the base). I figure give them some down time between the two Pizzazz stories, so I split them onto separate days, however they could conceivably take place on the same day.

Pizzazz comments and quotes:

They mention Artoo hasn't been fully fixed from his damage at the Battle of Yavin. I think we can attribute that to the bumps and damage he took in the Science Adventures escape pod if we want to.

At one point, Threepio instructs Artoo to take some soil samples. I personally want to attribute the sudden scientific curiosity to their recent experiences wit Forebee-X, heh.

Luke: "It's some kind of ruin, Threepio- right in the middle of the jungle!"
Leia (or Luke?):"It looks like some sort of temple. But from the looks of things, nobody's held rites here in a long, long timne."

Yes, that would be what "ruins" would imply. But I'll cut you some slack- Afterall, it's not like you've seen ancient, abandoned ruins and temples in the middle of a jungle before. Oh, wait...

Upon entering the lower caverns of the Keeper's World, I didn not expect them to encounter The Planeteers. Dont have quite the same catchiness to them without the theme song. Also, "heart" was missing, but you can't really blame them on that one.

The Keeper speaks of an ancient war that engulfed the entire galaxy (which forced her creators to leave). I can't help but think that this could be tied to the Rakata, Kwa or even Abeloth...

Artoo says "he knew all along that no machine would ever harm another". coughDueloftheDroidsEV-9D9BattleDroidsandVariousArtooCarnagecough...

"After the main Rebel Base on the fourth moon of Yavin has beaten off Darth Vader's Imperial forces..."

Sounds exhausting.

In Kingdom of Ice, Luke threads the needle in a canyon on that planet- with a reference back to Beggar's Canyon by the narrator. Given when these came out (summer of 1978)- that's some surprising continuity (in fact, I'm trying to figure out how in the hell it's possible at all- wasn't threading the needle in Beggar's Canyon first introduced in the SW Radio Drama? Which came out in 1981?).


As for the Science Adventures...

​

"Only Science Can Save Them!" - Backcover Blurb.​

One should note that pages 45-46 are missing from #1, instead reprinting 55-56.

There's also a somewhat retrospectively ominous line at the end of the book 9in it's supplemntal science section) about how heat tiles protect astronauts in the space shuttle upon re-entry. Not exactly inaccurate, but does make one do a double-tale after Columbia and how those tiles/foam effectively accelerated the decomissioning of the shuttle fleet...

It's also odd that they use the same scientific names for concept si the GFFA as we do here- obviously this is to facilitate the learning prupose of these books, but still, hearing about "the first law of motion" a couple times makes one wonder when E.T. had time to give Newton a lift over to the GFFA....

As much as I hate having dangling plotlines, I'm glad I dont have to read any more of these, heh. That said, I played with the idea of fitting these in later on, so that maybe we could tie the spy plotline into X-7's work in Rebel Force somehow, but I think the current solution is probably best and the least convoluted, even if its not as complete.

Book 1 introduces the term "Space Poker" as something Stuart managed to clean the Rebel pilots out in, which is the first time I think I've seen that instead of sabacc.

But then Book 2 swings back around surprisingly to Stuart and the droids having to beat the locals at a game of chance to get out of a situation. And what game do they suggest? Space Poker, of course! Oh, Watson, you clever devil...

Chapter 11 of Book 2 is titled "Twist & Shout".

My favorite moment in the book is when, after learning about what are effectively cacti in the desert, Stuart is suddenly moved into action to defend a damaged cactus from an "attack" by otherwise harmless insects. That's right. He's trying to protect a cactus.

There's also a drinking game you can do for these two books. Take a shot every time Stuart says "hypergalactic". I have to assume this was the reason they never made a 3rd book: not due to poor sales or quality but rather as a public health concern.

"Did you see that? Hypergalactic!"
"Hypergalactic."
"We are in hypergalactic trouble." (Ut! Forbee said it that time! Gotcha.)
"What a hypergalactic idea, Artoo!"
"This is some hyper-wacky planet." (ooh, so close!)
"That was a hypergalactic save!"
"Hypergalactic!"

Mind you, these came out several months before TPM, so as far as excuses go, that is so not wizard.



Empire #16 was reprinted in Empire Vol 3: The Imperial Perspective and in Omnibus The Other Sons of Tatooine.
Empire #17 was reprinted in Empire Vol 3: The Imperial Perspective and in Omnibus The Other Sons of Tatooine.
Empire #18 was reprinted in Empire Vol 3: The Imperial Perspective and in Omnibus The Other Sons of Tatooine.
Science Adventures #1: Emergency in Escape Pod Four has not been reprinted outside it's original availability, but can often be found second hand on ebay or Amazon, etc.
Science Adventures #2: Journey Across Planet X has not been reprinted outside it's original availability, but can often be found second hand on ebay or Amazon, etc.
Pizzazz: The Keeper's World was reprinted in Star Wars #0 and will be in Omnibus Wild Space Volume 1. It's also online in Time Tales's Arcana Historica.
Pizzazz: Kingdom of Ice will be reprinted in Omnibus Wild Space Volume 1. It's also online in Time Tales's Arcana Historica.

 

I think there's been a couple mentions of Luke being involved in the search for a new base already (though not necessarily on his own). I guess there could be worry of him on his own with the whole "hunting for the pilot who destroyed the Death Star" subplot from Rebel Force.

Still, it would seem to me that if it could fit into that Scoundrels period, it'd be a good idea to take advantage of it (especially with us already pushing into the next month before even finishing Marvel #7, what with even the remaining Missions to go as well)- unless maybe you want to work it into being even more concurrent to Aduba and a direct prelude to Doomworld, but then thats not much different than working it into the Soundrels period.

Makes sense to me- he took a shot from a TIE Fighter at Yavin. Crashed back into Yavin in DAFTDS (albeit in Luke's lap...) and was clearly offline during much of the escape pod four ordeal until they crash landed (which only served to jostle his components enough to get him back online).

Only the novelization makes any sense to me (perhaps during the Biggs scenes?). This event happens early on in the story, which would have been in the issues published in 1979 (the end of the story is what was published later on).

Looking back at the actual story, there's no mention of threading the needle, but he does basically do the same maneuver, name checks both Beggar's canyon and doing that trick with his Skyhopper. It seems too much of a huge coincidence for it to not be referencing something.