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Synopsis:
Attempting to strike back for the loss of the Death
Star, the Empire continually seeks new means to
undermine the Rebel Alliance. Their latest success is
the turning of Rebel spy Wyl Tarson into a double agent.
However the Empire seeks a weapon with which to crush
the rebels and Darth Vader, ever aware of his failings
at Yavin, recalls his encounter with Celeste Morne some
twenty years previous. On Coruscant he monitors the
landing of a taskforce sent to ascertain the likelihood
of Celeste Morne and the Muur Talisman's continued
survival. As they approach the moon for landing, the
taskforce's shuttle commander notices the figure of a
solitary female on the moon's surface. But before they
can land, the effects of the Talisman change every
member of the taskforce into Rakghouls. Vader is
convinced that if the Rebel Alliance obtain the Talisman
and its power, it will destroy them and so instructs
double-agent Wyl Tarson to communicate the Talisman's
whereabouts to the Rebels.
The Rebel Alliance forms its own taskforce, commanded by
Luke Skywalker and including Deena, Basso and Able, and
dispatches it to discover the truth of the "secret
Imperial weapon abandoned on a moon".
Accompanying Luke and his taskforce is Leia, with Han
and Chewie flying shotgun in the Millennium Falcon.
Unlike the Imperial taskforce, the Rebel's landing is
unopposed but no sooner have they discovered the crashed
shuttles of the failed Imperial taskforce, when Able
finds the Rakghoul army. Very quickly the Rebels witness
the effects of the Rakghoul plague when several of their
comrades are bitten and are transformed into Rakghouls.
In the midst of the ensuing fighting, Luke hears a voice
in the Force, but it is not that of Obi-Wan. It is a
voice that senses Luke's Jedi abilities and reaches out
for him to follow it.
Meanwhile Han, Leia, Chewie, Deena and Basso are
desperately fighting a retreating action back towards to
the safety of the Falcon. But just as the Falcon's
loading ramp is closing to seal the Rakghouls outside,
Leia is suddenly captured by the Rakghoul army.
Four thousand years ago, Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick
promised Celeste Morne that he would take her to the
Sanctum of the Exalted on Odryn, the place Celeste was
instructed to take the Muur Talisman. Zayne failed to
keep that promise. For four thousand years Celeste lay
trapped in Lord Dreypa's Oubliette along with the
Force ghost of the ancient Sith Lord, Karness Muur,
mentally torturing her with visions of power and
greatness - only Celeste's Jedi training has kept her
emotions in control. But now, twenty years after
confronting and resisting the power of the Sith and
Darth Vader, Celeste has at last met a Jedi. It was the
Jedi who betrayed her four thousand years ago - Celeste
releases all of her anger against the untrained Luke
Skywalker.
Meanwhile Leia survives the Rakghoul battle and somehow
sensing that Luke is in mortal danger heads towards the
cave where Celeste and Luke are fighting. Able has also
survived the battle and although alone, his clone
training kicks in and he is searching for the
whereabouts of Leia.
Luke is no match for a real Jedi Knight like Celeste,
especially one now consumed by hate, and although he
gallantly defends himself, it isn't long before Celeste
has bettered him. Leia attempts to kill Celeste just as
she is about to kill Luke, but Celeste detects Leia's
presence and believes that both Luke and Leia are
assassins sent to kill her. Her anger and hate explode
when she turns Able, who rushes into the fray to protect
Leia, into a Rakghoul. Karness Muur notices that Luke
and Leia are unaffected by the transformation, and
wonders why. Through Celeste, he senses a destiny in
Luke that is more powerful than Celeste's and the
Talisman releases itself from around her neck and tries
to attach itself to Luke. But it attaches itself to Leia
as she tries to defend Luke from the Talisman.
After four thousand years Celeste is finally free and
utterly alone in the galaxy. Muur's constant whispers
are now a deathly silence that threaten to crush her.
For four thousand years she has been a victim but now,
free of the Talisman, Celeste knows for certain where
her destiny lies. With a sweeping arc of her lightsaber
she cuts the Talisman free of Leia's neck and places it
around her own, proclaiming that she will now imprison
Muur and he will have to listen to her.
As Celeste makes to leave the cave with her gathering
Rakghoul army, Luke asks her to train him but Celeste
walks away saying that there is darkness in Luke - it's
in his blood, his past and his future. Celeste leads her
Rakghoul army to the abandoned Rebel shuttle and leaves
the planet that has been her prison for twenty years.
Back on Coruscant, Vader is displeased to learn that his
plan to infect the Rebels with the Rakghoul plague has
failed and orders the Star Destroyer orbiting the planet
to destroy Celeste's shuttle. However, through his
comlink with the Star Destroyer, Vader witnesses its
crew transform into Rakghouls and its eventual
self-destruction into the planet. |