We get an opening crawl.

It sets the scene in a good way. No talk of taxes instead it

mentions greed and piracy.

After the opening crawl we pan down to a trade federation

ship in orbit over a planet.

Dorvalla

We get a description of the TFship as a great beast feeding on

cargo. The description of the ore, ore carriers and droid piloted
star fighters is interesting. Particularly in context of having
seen TPM where the TF has fully droid fighters. Tech
advancements.

We then meet the captain and his crew. A mix of non humans.
The captain is a Neimoidian and he dislikes “aliens” on his
ship. I do like that, shows how similar the different races are.

It turns out the TF has under payed the planet, again.

Someone from the planet calls the ship and complains, the
captain ignores her since the TF has a monopoly.

We then get a rundown and pov of a droid commander. As a

cargo pod is revealed to have hostile people inside it. Then
shoot their way out and “kill” the droid.

I find it interesting how Luceno uses the TF droids in this book.

Since we know they are useless in a fight against Jedi, they
don’t fight the Jedi at all in this book.

On the bridge the captain is informed of fighters coming in and

attacking, flying the colours of the nebula front and lead by the
hawkbat, ship of Captain Cole. They panic and try to launch
their own fighters, call for help and then they learn that there is
an attack inside the ship. The captain orders the cargo hold
sealed.

After the firefight we meet captain Cole. He is Miriallen, but

described as human. He has the tattoos and Luminara knows
him from her home world.

Moving on, they take off their masks but Cole tells ‘t’bac
addicts’ to keep them close. We then meet some more of the
crew, Boiny, the Rodian Chewie to Coles Han. Rella, Coles
lover, who comments you could hide an invasion force in one
of these ships. Then some comments about Neimoidians and
how they all grow up starving to explain their unwillingness to
spend money. Those three go one way and the rest of the
crew go another.

On the bridge the situation is not good. The terrorist fighters

are running rings around the TF craft. We get a quick rundown
on what is happening galacticly. TF has full trade rights but
limited arms rights. The TF put guns around the ship to protect
the cargo.

The captain is told how bad things are, losing shields, 6 guns
down and orders forces prepared to repel boarders.

Speaking of boarders, Cole and co are fighting their way

through the ship, when they come to the bridge door. The
locked bridge door, Boiny is really to slice it when Coke tells
him to just blow it.

The bridge door blows and Cole steps in with his team. They
secure the bridge and Cole says he would shoot an unarmed
Neimoidian and feel fine. Racist. Though no one is shot.

Instead Cole and the captain talk cargo. The captain says it is
lomite ore for Sluis Van. Cole isn’t after ore he wants
Aurodium, space gold, hard currency. They go back and forth
on insults, Captain calls Cole a thief, Cole says the TF are just
licensed thieves. Cole agreed to spare the lives for the crew
for the money. Boiny puts a bomb on the ships fuel line when
another TF ship shows up and Cole needs to step up the time
frame.

Something I like is that even they talk about the stereotype of

Neimoidians as greedy or cheap. The captain of the ship isn’t
shown as a coward. He traded barbs with Cole and is more
dignified than I was expecting.

Now we focus on another fake cargo pod (is there any actual
ore on this ship?). This one containing two Jedi a master and
apprentice. The master is Jinn and the apprentice is Obi.

Obi says Cole left an easy trail to follow. Jinn retorts that he
might leave a different way ( Jinn is more dressed up way).
They talk about the plan Obi wants to catch them now Jinn
says they need to find the hidden rebel base.

They leave the pod and while Jinn distracts the guards Obi
sneaks into the pod.

On the bridge Cole gets the money and sets up the ship
computer to order abandon ship and sets the cargo to be
launched as well, to create a target rich environment.

Obi and Jinn get back in there pod and wait. Just after Cole
and co arrive with the money. Cole gets his people on his ship
when the captain asks what will become of his own crew one
of Coles people tells him to go and die but Cole says if they
move fast they can get to an escape pod.

Next time stuff blows up.