Zaarin's Capture of Palpatine

I have a few questions as to how the traitor Grand Admiral Zaarin managed to kidnap a Sith Lord.

When the Emperor was ambushed by Zaarin's forces, he was aboard the ISD Majestic leaving Coruscant. I assume he was alerted by Vader's ISD Garret and was attempting to find a place to hide out while Thrawn's and Vader's forces arrived to lay the smackdown on the Glory. Unfortunately, the Glory managed to knock out the Majestic and take the Emperor hostage and begin to ferry him back to the Glory amongst half a squadron of escort shuttles.

I don't understand how the Emperor was taken in the first place. I assume those six traitor escort shuttles were carrying elite Stormtroopers, but an ISD carries tons of Stormtroopers that should be able to repel such an invasion force. Which leads me to believe that Zaarin had some sleeper agents onboard the Majestic to quickly take the Emperor, clear a path to a hangar being secured by the invading commandos, and then beat it. But surely a man who can shoot lightning from his fingertips would be a match even for highly-trained Stormtroopers.

Something I read somewhere mentioned that Arden Lyn played some hand in the capture. I'm pretty sure she was an Emperor's Hand, but I honestly don't know much about her. Is there a novel or something that mentions her role in Zaarin's plot? What relationship does she have with him? How did she escape Vader's Tie Defender flight group and Thrawn's reinforcement fleet? She was obviously not among the six escort shuttles, because the Tie Defenders made quick work of them, and I'm pretty sure that Lyn survived this engagement.

Was the Empreror unconscious? If he was lucid, I can perhaps imagine that he willingly allowed himself to be taken so that he could kill his traitorous Grand Admiral in person. But if that was his plan, you'd think he'd have told Vader and Stele to back off so that he could finish him off, instead of having to go through a costly campaign to eventually hunt down and destroy Zaarin's fleet.

Does anyone have any thoughts/info on this? It's been bugging me for a while, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that there must be a great story behind this.

 

i'm sure there is a great story behind it, but it just hasn't been fleshed out officially. perhaps arden lyn used some of her dark side ability to control or confuse troops into helping with the kidnap plot or at least keep them from stopping it.

it's been a while since i recalled the exact storyline from TIE Fighter, and am not sure where the Arden Lyn angle was inserted, but perhaps this happened:

the emperor was not seized by force from Vader's SD, rather he was lured onto a shuttle and then realized he had been kidnapped and sent a telepathic message to vader to launch the rescue. perhaps also Palpatine knew it was a trap, but realized that the most effective way to resolve it would be to walk into the trap, get kidnapped and then get rescued and deal with the traitors afterward, and find who the truly loyal minions are.

if it did come down to a fight, i think arden lyn might have been a match for the Imperial Royal Guard, esp if she was backed up by lots of loyal stormies. the emperor might not risk fighting her if there was a chance of him getting beaten because of the hassle of having to float to a new clone body, and not knowing whose side everyone was on (whether Vader would be loyal to rescue him etc.)

 

"it's been a while since i recalled the exact storyline from TIE Fighter, and am not sure where the Arden Lyn angle was inserted, but perhaps this happened: "

It was an article called The Emperor's Pawns, detailing some info about various Emperor's Hands, and retconning more than a few people into that role.

Either way, I'd be highly amused if someone wrote a story about it encompassing all of the retconned info.

 

As stated basically the Emperor was heading over in a shuttle when Arden Lyn managed to sudue the Emperor physically and somehow incapitate him until the time that the Shuttle was captured and she miraculously escaped.

This is not that difficult to believe in my mind.

The Emperor is a brilliant man but he's also incredibly overconfident because even as this time he thinks he's immortal. In this case he underestimated Arden Lyn who was the galaxy's greatest Teras Kasi master and a Dark sider of considerable power.

Also universal energy cages may have been in existence at this time which might have suddenly stripped the Emperor's most powerful tool from him. Zaarin as a grand admiral and technophile would have had access to them. Unless something other comes to light (Zaarin and she were lovers or some such) Zaarin probably simply played on her hatred of Palpatine and enslavement by him to get her to help him, promising a slow death probably for the man.

Lets not forget Palpatine is able to be disabled fairly easily because he's not always aware of the intent of those around him, immersed in galaxy wide conflicts as he is...

Vader threw him down a reactor shaft
Han Solo (!) shot him in the back with a blaster

But suffice to say Palpatine would be rendered helpless by a cage, a ysalamari, or in this case a sufficently advanced Darksider to incapitate him (we know Luke who is greatly powerful can't use the force unconcious or very well when in immense pain)

 

charlemagne- "Han Solo (!) shot him in the back with a blaster

really?! I don't remember that- when/ in what book did that occur? Thanks.

First post in about a month- so good bein home!

 

really?! I don't remember that- when/ in what book did that occur? Thanks.

Empire's End

 

Where is this Emperor's Pawns article? Is it on the Internet, or would I have to buy it? That sounds interesting.

Vader knew about Zaarin's plot before he attacked Palpatine. If you remember, Vader was directing the final attacks against Harkov's defecting fleet aboard the ISD Garret, awaiting reinforcements from Zaarin. Some of his modified corvettes arrived, but they began attacking the Garret instead of Harkov's Protector. That's when Vader knew what Zaarin was up to, he put together a small flight group of TIE Defenders, and headed out for Coruscant. Along the way they were trapped by one of Zaarin's Interdictors, who had found out the location of where the Defenders would board the Secret Orders Nebulon B-2 Frigate Osprey to travel faster. The Osprey arrived at Coruscant just in time to find the Emperor aboard one of the escort shuttles heading toward the Glory.

Sorry if that was lengthy, but I just wanted to clarify the story somewhat.

Speaking of clarification, could someone tell me why Arden Lyn hated Palpatine so much? You'd think he'd be able to find more loyal Hands...

I'm very interested to see whatever meager backstory there is with her and her plots with Zaarin. She must have been close enough to Palpatine at the time for him to request for her to be with him aboard the Majestic as he made his way out of Coruscant. What an in-depth plot that must have been...

This is exactly why TIE Fighter was such a great game. So much plotting and stratiegery.

 

Mostly Palpatine was interested in meeting some one from before the Galactic Republic had been created. Arden Lynn was pre-Sith however and had no respect for Palpatine's ancient religion.

Hence it was a clash of titans as she didn't take well to the way the Emperor used people.

Admiral Zaarin on the other hand was a master of realpolitic. He hated Admiral Harcov but there is little reason to believe he was necessarily an evil man, or at least any more evil than Thrawn. He questioned a great deal the Emperor's role in the universe and may have simply been trying to do the equivalent of the right thing

But then again given the Emperor's choices for Grand Admiral, its more likely Zaarin was just after power

 

I think we're also missing a big piece of the puzzle here--that the whole coup de tat was allowed to take place because Palpatine was beginning to distrust Zaarin, and wanted to appoint Thrawn as his replacement.

 

The empire used extortion to get Arden Lyn to work for Empire. She was promised that the relic she needed to resurrect her lover, Xendor, would be given to her. But the Emperor never kept up his end of the bargain. She resented that.

 

It is possible Palpatine was trying to see how far Zaarin's treason went. Letting himself be captured to see who was loyal to him and who was loyal to Zaarin. Does seem like something he'd do.

 

The CUSWE says that Zaarin's and Arden Lyn's plan was stopped by Inquistor Tremayne. Does anyone have any more knowledge on what his deal was? He sounds like an interesting character, too, and I'm almost embarrassed that I hadn't noticed his role in this earlier.

 

Given it was Maarek Steele with DARTH VADER who stopped the plan then there is in my mind
that the only thing Tremayne could have done was to be the one who was commanding the Secret order of the Emperor's frigate

Which is unusual since he has the Inquisitor ISD II

 

Refresh my memory what official source was the CUSWE refrencing that put tremayne into the plot?

 

"Where is this Emperor's Pawns article? Is it on the Internet, or would I have to buy it? That sounds interesting. "

It was a magazine article, but I don't know what publication. Someone scanned it and sent it to me.

 

Gamer #5.

 

Well, would you happen to still have it on your hard drive?

The only source CUSWE mentions for Tremayne is Galaxy Guide 9.

Sure, the abduction was stopped most directly my Vader and Stele, but perhaps Tremayne found out about the plot even sooner than everyone else. Maybe they'd found some Zaarin spy, had been interrogated, discovered Lyn's deception, and sent out Vice Admiral Thrawn to amass a rescue force. If Thrawn hadn't arrived, Vader's small flight group may not have been able to hold off the Glory's forces long enough for Palpatine to survive.

 

I'm pretty sure that the zaarin plot is not in galaxy guide #9. The only other articles I can think of that might have brought it up would have to be the Grand Admirals article in Insider, and Gamer #5, I'll check later to confirm it.

Other than that while I don't think this one is wrong, and I faintly remember reading it IIRC, be careful with CUSWE, it does have the occasional misinformation.

Edit: I just checked, this seems to be one of those cases where the CUSWE has misinformation. In the gamer #5 article it said that Arden and Zaarin were in on the plot to capture Palpatine. Tremayne wasn't involved with stopping them, it was Maarek Stele that was. But after the plot was foiled(by Maarek Stele), and she fled, Tremayne then chased after her because he was resentful of her (aparently because of her treachery). It continued to say that she was still alive and was searching for the talisman that could resurrect her lover Xendor.

Now in the Grand Admirals article, it says that it was throug the use of Arden Lyn's powers (that would include her skills as a master of Teras Kasi) that Palpatine was captured.

Charlemagne, it's spelled Maarek "Stele",

 

I think Galaxy Guide 9 was out before TIE Fighter presented the Zaarin story. Which would mean that the only thing the CUSWE is using GG9 as a source for is merely just Tremayne.

 

Okay, very cool. Thanks a lot for the information, everybody. This is indeed a pretty interesting plot twist.

 

What?

Don't look at me like that. I didn't abduct anyone. Honest!

 

off topic:does any one know where i can get a set of the X-Men animated series.

 

Which series, the original or Evolution? Not sure if Evolution is out yet on video or DVD, but you might want to try a video store at a mall and see if they have any episodes of the original series. Also check Amazon.

 

I've never played TIE Fighter. But I have this funny mental image of Palpatine being lured onto the shuttle. He's walking down the halls of the Star Destroyer, and finds a trail of goodies and follows it, not suspecting the trap ahead. Kind of like a Yogi bear thing.

Anyhow, carry on.

 

Never... played... TIE... Fighter?

Hethen!