[SD.net EU Database] Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

[Balrog]

Mini-Review: Like the last one, this book also was a pretty good read. Less on the political intrigue and more on the action and fighting and "zomg run away!" but the writing was good and the characterizations, especially fleshing out Maul, were done well. As such, I'll try and avoid spoilers so that people can enjoy it themselves.

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (Hardcover)
Part I: Mean Streets

The Neimoidian freighter Saak’ak cruised ponderously in the uncharted deeps of Wild Space. It displayed its colors proudly, its cloaking device disabled, with no fear of detection.

Cloaks: Cloaking devices are powerful enough and common enough to be placed on TF freighters, at least the important ones.

The holographic image of Darth Sidious flickered slightly, then regained its none-too-stable resolution. A glitch, most likely caused by some solar flare on a star between here and whatever mysterious world the signal was originating from.

Communications: Part of the interference common to HoloNet transmissions are stellar in nature.

Sidious stood motionless and silent on the transmission grid, his fingers steepled, his mind meditating on the eddies and currents of the Force. Those of lesser sensitivity were oblivious to it, but to him it was like an omnipresent mist, invisible but nonetheless tangible, that swirled and drifted constantly about him. No words, no descriptions could begin to convey what it was like; the only way to understand it was to experience it.

He had learned over long years of study and meditation how to interpret each and every vagary of its restless flow, no matter how slight. Even without that ability, however, he would have known that Nute Gunray was lying about Hath Monchar’s whereabouts.

The Force: Superior sensitivity of the Force naturally leads to greater understanding of it. As well, it can be used even while talking with someone via HoloNet lightyears away.

The dueling droids were programmed to kill
There were four of them, top-of-the-line Duelist Elites from Trang Robotics, all armed in different ways: one with a steel rapier, one with a heavy cudgel, the third with a short length of chain, and the last with a pair of double-edged hatchet fighting blades as long and wide as a human’s forearm. They had been programmed with the skills of a dozen martial arts masters, and their reflexes were calibrated just a hair faster than human optimum. Their durasteel chassis were blaster-resistant. They had come factory-equipped with behavioral inhibitors that prevented them from delivering a death blow once their opponent had been beaten, but these inhibitors had been nullified by their new owner. A mistake against one would be fatal.

Computers and Androids: Maul's training buddies.

Two of the droids – Rapier and Chain, he silently named them – were within his field of vision. The other two – Cudgel and Hachette – were not, being behind him. It did not matter; through his awareness of the Force he could sense their movements as plainly as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

The Force: The unseen can be easily seen, giving considerable advantage in a fight obviously.

Rapier lunged at full extension, its metal knee joint bent almost to the floor. The needle point flickered toward Maul’s heart, almost too fast to see.

The dark side blossomed in Darth Maul, the power of it resonating in him like black lightning, augmenting his years of training, guiding his reactions. Time seemed to slow, to stretch.

The Force: Vague, but potentially signifies Maul fighting with Force Speed, what with time slowing.

Without looking, guided by the vibrations of the Force, he thrust backwards with the right blade, than forward with the left – one, two! – skewering both Cudgel and Rapier in their abdominal compartments.

The Force: Again, sensing through the Force allows Maul to fight even without seeing his opponents.

Maul dropped, hooked his left foot around the back of the droid’s ankle, and pulled as he kicked hard at the droid’s thigh with the other foot.

The droid fell backwards, unable to maintain its balance, and hit the floor. Maul sprang up, did a front flip, and came down with both boot heels driving into the droid’s head. The metal hull crunched and collapsed inward.
...
Darth Maul exhaled, relaxed his stance, and nodded. His heart rate had accelerated perhaps five beats above normal at most.

The Force: An example of the superior strength available to a powerful Force user. And he's just so damn leet he barely strained himself during the fight.

Coruscant.

The name evoked the same image in the mind of nearly every civilized being in the galaxy. Coruscant: Bright center of the universe, cynosure of all inhabited worlds, crown jewel of the Core systems. Coruscant, seat of government for the myriad worlds of an entire galaxy. Coruscant, the epitome of culture and learning, synthesis of a million different civilizations.

Coruscant.

Seeing the planet from orbit was the only way to fully appreciate the enormity of the construction. Practically all of Coruscant’s landmass – which comprised almost all of its surface area, its oceans and seas having been drained or rerouted through huge subterranean caverns more than a thousand generations ago – was covered with a multitiered metropolis composed of towers, monads, ziggurats, palazzo, domes, and minarets. By day the many crosshatched levels of skycar traffic and the thousands of spaceships that entered and left its atmosphere almost blotted out views of the endless cityscape, but at night Coruscant revealed its full splendor, outshining at close range even the spectacular nebulae and globular clusters of the nearby Galactic Core. The planet radiated so much heat energy that, were it not for thousands of strategically placed CO2 reactive dampeners in the upper atmosphere, it would long ago have been transformed into a lifeless rock by a rampant atmospheric degeneration.

Size and Scope: Coruscant is the culmination of a "million different civilizations."
Misc.: The obvious problem of a city-planet heating itself to death is rectified, thanks to thousands of CO2 dampeners.

“Disgraceful,” the droid agreed. “It just makes me want to…scream.”

Lorn still had his hands raised, and now he quickly jammed his two index fingers into his ears as deeply as he could as a deafening high-pitched screech came from I-Five’s vocabulator. Even with his ears plugged, the volume was excruciatingly painful. Bilk, caught with no defense, reacted exactly as they had hoped he would: he howled in pain and reflexively clapped both hands over his ears, dropping the blaster in the process.

I-Five stopped the scream, caught the weapon before it could hit the floor, and in another second was aiming it at Bilk. The Gamorrean either didn’t notice this fact or was too enraged to care. Snarling, he lunged at Lord and the droid.

The particle beam punched through Bilk’s armored chest plate, seared its way through various internal organs, and exited between the shoulder blades. The beam’s intense heat instantly cauterized the wound, stopping any visible bleeding – not that that mattered much to Bilk. He dropped to the floor like a sack of meat, which was essentially what he had become.

Ground Combat: The effects of sonic and blaster weaponry.

She was not going into danger alone; she had the Force with her. It would not make her invulnerable, but it certainly gave her an advantage few others had. With the Force she could accomplish things most people viewed as nigh unto miraculous: She could leap twice her own height in a one-gravity field, she could slow her rate of descent in a fall, she could even telekinetically move items a dozen meters and more away. And she could also cloak herself in its essence, hiding in plain sight, so to speak.

The Force: The ability of a Jedi Padawan before her final test, in this case Darsha Assant. Obviously no two Jedi are alike, but it gives some indication of the basic abilities other Jedi at her level should be capable of.

The Infiltrator emerged from hyperspace well inside the Coruscant system and continued sublight toward the capital world. Darth Maul kept the ship cloaked, though he would drop that as he neared his destination – extended cloaking took too much power. His coordinated and entry code had been given to him by his lord and master, and would clear him through the orbital security grid to land at any spaceport on the planet. Still, the less noticeable he was, the better. Even a single raised eyebrow at the sight of the Infiltrator resting on a landing pad was too much.

The ship had been provided for him by Lord Sidiosu only recently, and he was still getting used to it. It handled well and easily, however. He approached Coruscant over the south pole. He was not concerned about being spotted, even though Coruscant had the most sophisticated and far-reaching system of detection arrays of any world in the galaxy. The Infiltrator boasted a state-of-the-art stygium crystal cloaking device and thrust trace dampers capable of confounding even Coruscant’s warning grids.

Cloaks: The Infiltrator's cloaking device is different enough from the 'double-blind' variety that Maul can easily pilot it through Coruscant's crowded airspace.

Several times he noticed people looking at him; his appearance was capable of turning heads even on so cosmopolitan a planet as Coruscant. It would take considerable concentration to blind these crowds to his presence by using the Force, though it could be done. But it did not matter who saw him at this point.

The Force: Obviously, the larger the number of minds to fool, the greater the effort required.

Maul entered the imposing structure of the Customs Bureau and moved quickly to a data bank terminal. Using a password provided by Lord Sidious, he instituted a HoloNet search that turned up a record of a recently arrived Neimoidian. The image matched the one of Hath Monchar given to him by his master. The name was different, but that was not surprising.

Maul ordered a new search parameter, trying to track Monchar through debit card use. There was no record of any transactions – again, not surprising. The Neimoidian would be too canny to be caught that way. No doubt he used only cash while on Coruscant.
…
He hacked into the planetwide security grid that monitored the spaceports and surrounding environs, calling up the last twenty-four hours of a constant collage of images taken by stationary and roving holocams. He ordered the system to search its files for Neimoidians.

He found several images, one of which was promising. It wasn’t much to go on- a blurred image of a Neimoidian entering a tavern not far from there, a few hours earlier – but it was better than nothing.

Computers and Androids: Coruscant's computer surveillance systems are pervasive and quick enough to pick out Neimoidians among the planet's trillion-plus inhabitants.

The few pedants and scholars who even knew the name thought the Sith were the “dark side” of the Jedi Knights. This was, of course, far too simplistic an evaluation. It was true that they had embraced the teachings of a group of rogue Jedi thousands of years ago, but they had taken that knowledge and philosophy far beyond the insular didacticism they had been given to start with. It was easy and convenient, as well, to demarcate the concept of the Force into light and dark; indeed, even Sidious had used such notions of duality in the training of his disciple. But the reality was that there was only the Force. It was above such petty concepts as positive and negative, black and white, good and evil. The only difference worthy of note was this: The Jedi saw the Force as an end in itself; the Sith knew that it was a means to an end.

And that end was Power.

For all their humble posturing and protestations of abdication, the Jedi craved power as much as anyone. Sidious knew this to be true. They claimed to be the servants of the people, but over the centuries they had increasingly removed themselves from contact with the very citizens they ostensibly served. Now they prowled the cloistered hallways and chambers of their Temple, mouthing their empty ideologies while practicing hubristic machinations designed to bring them more secular power.

The Force: Clearly from a biased perspective, but Palpatine certainly numbers among those who do not see a distinction between Light and Dark Side.
Misc.: Again biased perspective, but the increasing aloofness of the Jedi could have played a part in turning people's opinions against them, enough at least to support Palpatine's war against them.

As soon as Darsha disembarked from her vehicle she was set upon by beggars supplicating for food and money. At first she tried the ancient Jedi technique of clouding their minds, but there were too many of them, and most of them had brains too addled by privation and various illegal chemicals to respond to the suggestion. She gritted her teeth and pushed her way through the forest of filthy waving arms, tentacles, and various other appendages.

The mingled revulsion and sympathy she felt was almost overwhelming. For nearly as long as she could remember, Darsha had been coddled and cozened in the Jedi Temple, protected from direct contact with the dregs of society – an ironic situation, since the Jedi were supposed to be the protectors of all levels of civilization, even those considered untouchable by most of the upper classes. True, elements of her training had taken her to various rough neighborhoods, but nowhere else had she seen anything that even remotely compared with this. It horrified her that such poverty could exist anywhere, let alone on Coruscant.

The Force: Unstable minds, for an advanced Padawan at least, are much harder to influence through mind tricks.
Misc.: We see an echo of Palpatine's criticism of the Jedi Order in Darsha's reactions to the poor and her own reflections on her cloistering of in the Temple.

The security cam quickly ran a laser scan over her face. “Identity confirmed. Please hold your breath.”

Darsha did so – whereupon hidden nozzles surrounding the door sprayed a pink mist at the crowd of mendicants. A chorus of indignant shouts, sqeals, bleats, and other protests rose from them as the airborne irritant drove them momentarily back. The door slid quickly open, and a metallic arm grabbed Darsha and puller her inside.

Computers and Androids: An example of a basic security systems in the slums of Coruscant.

But there were alternatives to fighting. The mind trick she had tried earlier on the beggars hadn’t been completely successful, but it had turned away a few of them. It might serve now to confuse the Raptors long enough to allow her to reach the vehicle. Of course, she still had to get Oolth in the craft with her, but one problem at a time.

She raised her right hand, fanning the fingers in a gesture designed to focus their attention while she reached out mentally for the Force. “You’re not interested in me,” she said, using the soft but compelling tone she had been taught, “or my vehicle.” She could see by their confused and uncertain expression that it was working, could feel their wills beginning to vibrate in resonance with hers.

Green Hair was either the leader or something close to it, because when he nodded and said slowly, “We’re not interested in her, or her vehicle,” the rest of the gang mumbled the words in ragged unison.

Darsha took a few steps forward, making the hypnotic gesture again. “You might as well go now,” she told Green Hair. “There’s nothing interesting going on here.”

“We might as well go now. There’s nothing interesting going on here.” The rest of the gang again echoed him.

Darsha kept moving slowly but steadily forward. She stepped past Green Hair and was now in the midst of them, only a step or two away from her craft. She had them now; she could feel their minds, some struggling feebly, others willingly surrendering to her suggestive power amplified by the Force. Another moment and she would be in the skyhopper.

A scream echoed down the dark street.

Startled, Darsha whipped around, starring back toward the source of the cry. It was Oolth the Fondorian, staggering out into the middle of the narrow thoroughfare, shaking and kicking his leg frantically to dislodge a large armored rate that had clamped its jaws onto his shin. Even as she realized who it was, she realized, as well, that her tenuous mind-lock on the Raptors had been shattered by the unexpected sound.

The Force: For Padawans like Darsha, constant uninterrupted concentration is required for a mind trick acting on a dozen individuals to work. As with all Jedi powers, disrupting that concentration can lead to dangerous circumstances.

[Monchar] had seriously considered buying a holographic image disguiser that could change his appearance to that of another species, as well.

Misc.: These are apparently common enough for a (wealthy) Neimoidian on the run to consider buying.

Her garb looked like no more than a simple utilitarian tunic and pants, but they were made of densely woven shell spider silk, a material capable of resisting even a vibroblade’s thrust, as well as reflecting low-power particle beams and lasers. It was armor that did not look like armor – to the uninitiated. Experts would spot it, of course, but she didn’t expect to run into any opposition. She wore twin DL-44 blasters on each hip, and a small disruptor pistol in a concealed ankle holster. Strapped to each wrist was an MM9 wrist rocket, and in her right hand she wore a palm flechette shooter. On her utility belt she carried, among other things, a set of stun cuffs, a stun baton, and three glop grenades.

Mahwi Lihnn believed in being prepared.

Ground Combat: The existence of cloth armor powerful enough to turn aside blades and blaster bolts is available for people like bounty hunters to purchase. Also, it seems like whenever a bounty hunter is depicted in SW, they're always touting around mini-arsenals like they're Boba Fett or something.

The droid checked a monitor screen, then informed her that Monchar was not in; indeed, was not even on Coruscant. Lihnn nodded pleasantly and clapped the circuit disruptor she had pulled from her belt onto the droid’s chassis. The droid stuttered for an instant before its photoreceptors went dark.
…
At last she left, going back down to the lobby and pulling the circuit disruptor off the security droid. Before it could reaccess its memory banks sufficiently to realize what had happened, Mahwi Lihnn had left…

Computers and Androids: Circuit disruptors can easily disable droids without having to mess around with wiring or access ports.

Maul entered, stepping immediately to the shadows near the door while he looked about. His vision adjusted far more quickly to extremes of light and darkness than did most species; he was able almost at once to see the tavern’s dim interior and its customers.

Alien Species: Zabraks have superior eyesight

Maul nodded, then raised his right hand in a focusing gesture as he mentally reached for the Force. He had to make sure that this next question was answered truthfully, because the answer would determine whether or not he had to kill the Baragwin.

“Did the Neimoidian speak at all to you about the nature of the information he wished to sell?”

The dewlaps quickly undulated downward. “He did not. I have told you all that I know.”

Maul sensed no negative vibration in the Force as the Baragwin spoke. He turned away without another word and exited the tavern.

The Force: The ability to distinguish between lies and the truth demonstrated.

Half-blinded by pain, Darsha reached for the Force as the Raptors closed in, felt its power enfold her, cloak her like an invisible shield. She stood, thrusting out one arm in a warding gesture, and felt the reverberating ripples flowing outward, hurling back her surprised attackers.

The Force: A very basic "Force Wave" in action.

She jumped to the pavement, pulling her ascension gun from her utility belt. She fired the grappling hook straight up at maximum length, hoping to strike a ledge or projection above the fog layer.
…
The liquid cable reservoir was good for a maximum of two hundred meters, and the tensile strength of the monofilament line would easily support them both.

Misc.: Further properties of the ascension gun seen in "Cloak of Deception"

Distracted, Darsha buried her head in her shoulder as best she could to protect her eyes. She tried to summon the Force, to use it as a shield against the creatures, but the fierce buffeting of their wings made holding on to the ascension gun the best she could manage.

The Force: Again, disrupted concentration prevents the effective use of Force powers.

[Maul] followed them at a safe distance, making use of shadows and concealment when it was available and trusting to the cloaking power of the Force when it was not. The human and his droid had no idea they were being followed.

The Force: Maul too is able to hide himself through Force cloaking abilities.

As Darth Maul slipped into the rathole called the Dewback Inn, he kept his cowl up and moved to the darkest corner. When one of the weak minds surrounding him caused its owner to idly cast a glance in his direction, he used the Force to squelch or redirect that interest. As always when he wished it in such dens of mental weakness, he was effectively invisible.

The Force: In comparison to earlier with Darsha, Maul has no trouble mentally effecting the minds of people who are, in this case, drunk on alcohol and drugs.

Slaying three people, even in a pit such as this, would not go unnoticed. Calling attention to one’s self in a public place would be bad; his master had impressed that upon Maul at an early age. The Sith were powerful, but there were only two of them. Stealth was therefore one of their greatest strengths. Even as weak-minded and chemically besotted as most of the patrons of this place were, there were simply too many to control completely. He could not wipe the memories of a cold-blooded assassination from several dozen heads, nor could he be sure of destroying all of them. And here and there burned an intellect too strong to be swayed by simple mind-control techniques. These he could feel; they stood out like photonic lamps on a darkling plain.

And besides all that, he had to question the Neimoidian thoroughly to find any others the traitor might have tainted in his flight.

The Force: The limits of employing 'simple mind-control techniques.' The implications, obviously, is that he could erase such a memory from a smaller number of people, or employing more advanced techniques on stronger intellects. Also an example of how people, especially strong-minded individuals, are perceived through the Force.

The continued to walk while I-Five elaborated. They wouldn’t really be able to steal the money, but the droid was confident eh could jack into the data flow of one of Coruscant’s many banking firms and manage a phantom transfer of funds into their personal account. The auditor droids would catch it almost immediately, so timing would be critical. But if all went well, Lorn would be able to show Hath Monchar an unencumbered credit tab worth half a million. Much more than that, the droid explained, would kick in automatic inquiries, and if they tried to transfer the funds after the audit, the bank would catch that, too. The real trick would be to have the Neimoidian accept the credit tab as payment and make the transfer to his account before time ran out.

Androids and Computers: Automated safeguards, such as auditor droids, monitor Coruscant's banking system.

As he surveilled the Neimoidian and his guard, however, Maul felt a small prickling of something – not real danger, but a kind of disquiet – touch his awareness. He looked about and listened carefully, but did not see any cause for this. He expanded his consciousness, let the dark currents of the Force extend outward from him – and became aware of another presence behind him, hidden from normal sight and hearing.

Probably just another of the many predators in this dreary place, looking for prey. Now that he was aware of the presence, Maul dismissed it. He felt no real concentrations of the Force emanating from the hidden watcher, and thus whoever he was and whatever his reasons for being here, he did not pose a threat.

The Force: Further example of using Force senses to detect hidden individuals. You can never have too many examples...

“For the seventh time, yes, it went all right. We have precisely one hour and twenty-six minutes before it’s discovered and rectified by the auditor droids. Perhaps another four minutes before they are able to pinpoint the location of the credit tab and, depending on how busy the local police are, anywhere from six to fourteen minutes before they arrive to take the bearer of the tab into custody for attempted grand theft and illegal use of communication protocols THX-one-one-three–”

Androids and Computers: Again, example of Coruscant banking systems and the response times of its systems. Plus a little easter egg for those who spot it.

Finding the Neimoidian was child’s play for Maul. Walls could not stop the dark questing fingers of the Force. When he arrived at the correct domicile, he sensed that there were four beings behind the door. Monchar, of course, and the bodyguard he had seen accompanying him. The dull ripples of the other two rumbled with suppressed violence. More guards, no doubt.

No matter. Be there three guards or thirty, the result would be the same. It was time for Hath Monchar to pay the penalty for attempting to double-cross Lord Sidious.

Darth Maul pulled his double lightsaber from his belt and held his thumb upon the ignition button. He took a deep breath and centered himself in the swirls and eddies of the dark side. Then, his power and concentration thus augmented, he thrust forward his free hand as though hurling an invisible ball.

The door shattered inwards.

The Force: Maul is able to track his target through the Force to pick his room out from hundreds of other rooms in the building, and can see what's going on inside before blasting the door down.

Maul spun the lightsaber and angled it slightly. Stopping the blasterfire was easy. Redirecting it properly was a bit more difficult, but certainly not impossible. The bolt bounced from the potent energy lance and ricocheted into the nearest Squid Head, striking him on the thorax. The Quarren collapsed.

Maul allowed himself a slight frown. The deflected beam was two centimeters lower than he had aimed. Poor control on his part.

A second blaster bolt from the Trandoshan seared its way at him, and another quick shift, guided by the dark side, caught that bolt and returned it to the sender. The Trandoshan took the deflected beam in the face. He went down, twitching in his death throes, his face a blackened ruin of flesh and scales, at the horrified Neimoidian’s feet.

Better.

The Force: Maul's accuracy is such that he measures his deflections in centimeters.

Caught in the power of the dark side, the Neimoidian struggled to breath. Maul’s left hand, raised before him, tightened into a fist, and the Neimoidian’s throat constricted even more.

“Ready to talk?” Maul asked.

The Neimoidian could not speak, but he managed a nod. The crimson sclera of his eyes had darkened several shades due to blood congestion.
…
But Monchar was too palsied with terror to comply. Maul felt a wave of disgust for the cringing creature. With his free hand he made a sharp upward gesture, and the Neimoidian was lifted like a puppet on strings. He hung, helpless, in the Force’s grasp.

“Nooo-”

Darth Maul lit one blade of the lightsaber and swung it laterally, cutting of the Neimoidian’s final wail, along with his head.

The Force: Because there are still people who think "Force Chokes" merely constrict the target's windpipe. Or that a target can't be held in the air for abuse at the Force-user's pleasure.

He extinguished his lightsaber, hung it on his belt, and bent to pick up the holocron. Before his fingers touched it, however, he sensed that he was not alone.

“Don’t move!” came a voice from the door even as he realized this. “You so much as breathe deep and I’ll fry you where you stand!”

Maul glanced at the doorway. A tall human female in shell spider silk armor stood there, aiming a pair of blasters at him.

Maul realized that this was the same being he had sensed following him earlier. His lips switched in annoyance. He tried a quick mental probe, but the bounty hunter – for surely that was what she was – was too sharp, her attention too focused, to fall for mind tricks.
Maul considered his options. He would never reach his lightsaber fast enough, even as quick as he was. He might be able to dodge a single blast, maybe even two, but hemmed in as he was in this small cubicle against a woman who could likely put a dozen bolts into the air from two semiautomatic blasters in half a second, he would have to have a distraction.

Near his feet lay the Trandoshan’s blaster. It would serve nicely.

Using his control of the Force, Darth Maul gripped the weapon in a dark tentacle of energy and hurled it at the bounty hunter’s face, hard.

The woman was fast. She dodged the blaster, firing a bolt at it. She missed and recovered, but the distraction has served its purpose. Before the weapon had bounced off the wall and landed on the floor, Maul had the lightsaber in his grip. He thumbed on both blades as the next blaster bolt and half a dozen more came his way in rapid succession. The Sith apprentice’s hands were a blur as he let the dark side take him over completely, giving in to its power and allowing it to control and manipulate him.

Blaster bolts struck the lightsaber’s spinning blades and were deflected into the walls, the ceiling, the floor. No time to aim, though a bolt or two did hit the bounty hunter without apparent effect. Her armor was apparently state-of-the-art.

The bounty hunter dropped her useless blasters and reached for one wrist, where she wore a rocket launcher. The fool! Maul thought grimly. If a rocket exploded in here, it would kill them both!

There was no time to try to stop her. Maul slipped along the lines of the Force, moving at unnatural speed as he spun toward the nearest wall, a cheap plastic panel, twirling the lightsaber in a cutting pattern. The plastic shredded easily before the blades’ superhot plasmatic edges, and Maul ran through the wall…and stabbed downward with one blade of his lightsaber shearing a ragged oval in the floor. He dropped through the ceiling of the cubicle below just as the rocket struck the wall of the Neimoidian’s room and exploded.
…
Desperate, [Lihnn] reached for her wrist launcher. Her only chance was to hit the horned one squarely and hope that the explosion would be contained enough by the other’s body to allow Lihnn to survive. But as she triggered the launcher the tattooed man seemed to disappear in a blur. All of a sudden there was a hole in the wall where an instant ago it had been solid.

Too late, Lihnn tried to stop the rocket from firing, but the reactionless motor flared and the missile leapt from her wrist.

The Force: Long, but with many details. First, Maul can use telekinesis without moving his hands, as evidence by flinging the blaster at her. Also, potentially he blocks her shots using "Force Speed" as his hands become a 'blur' while deflecting, and such a rate of fire precludes his earlier accuracy. More definitive is the speed at which he is able to escape the rocket's blast.
Ground Combat: Two DL-44s, assuming Maul was right about its rate of fire, can combined put out 1400+ rounds per minutes. Also wrist rockets, at least the MM9 variety, use reactionless motors.

The building Darsha had entered was a monad – a kilometer-high, totally self-contained habitat. More than just an apartment complex, the huge structure, like countless others sprouting from the surface of Coruscant, contained virtually everything its tenants needed: living quarters, shops, hydroponic gardens, and even indoor parks. Many people, she knew, literally lived their entire lives in buildings like these, in some cases holo-commuting to offices halfway around the planet without ever venturing outside.

Misc.: The kind of seclusion attributed to the Jedi goes equally well to many of Coruscant's inhabitants.

Darth Maul had made an error.

The enormity of that knowledge weighed upon him like a giant planetoid. He had underestimated the bounty hunter because the woman had not been strong in the Force. Such a mistake had almost cost him his life – and how ignominious would that have been, to die at the hands of a common bounty hunter, he who had been trained to fight and slay Jedi!

He could not make such dangerous assumption.

He would not make them again.

Misc.: Arrogance, a character flaw of Maul's. A shame none of this showed up in the actual movie (or anything else that would characterize him).

“Whoever did Monchar cut off his head. One of the Quarren bodyguards got the same treatment. But there was no blood to speak of. You understand? No blood. That means–”

“Cauterization. Fusion of the tissues by sudden intense heat.” I-Five paused, and Lorn knew the droid had reached the same conclusion he had. “Perhaps a quick lateral movement of a blaster on continuous fire– ”

“The particle beam from a hand blaster – even a DL-44 – isn’t that hot, and you know it. On a straight line, yeah, it can seal as it burns, but to cauterize something the size of a neck would take several seconds.”

Ground Combat: Implications about the limits of hand blaster firepower.

“The Jedi have kept the details of lightsaber manufacture a secret for millennia. To create and use one, you have to be adept in the Force.”

The Force: This implication, that you have to be a Force user to build a lightsaber, has been used before, though I can't recall offhand where.

In many ways Darth Maul was an exemplary acolyte. His loyalty was unquestionable and unshakeable; Sidious knew that, if he were to command it, Maul would sacrifice his life without a second’s hesitation. And his skills as a warrior were nonpareil.

Nevertheless, Maul had his flaws, and by far the largest of these was hubris. Though he had said nothing when given the assignment, Sidious knew Maul felt that such a job was beneath his skills. There were times – many times – when Sidious could see Maul’s aura pulsing with the dark stain of impatience. He wondered sometimes if he had inculcated too much hatred of the Jedi and their ways in his apprentice. Maul did tend to focus on their destruction at the expense of the larger picture.

Misc.: Palpatine, like Maul, also recognizes his apprentice's character flaws.

Maul kept his cowl up and his lightsaber clipped as he reentered the building. Fortunately there was a human officer at the checkpoint, asking those coming and going to state their business. It was ridiculously easy for Maul to cloak himself in the Force and thus slip by the dim-witted fellow.

The forensics droids were laser-scanning the cubicle when he arrived. There were a couple of criminologists, one Mrlssi and one Sullustan, as well. He stayed in the hallway and listened to what scraps of conversation he could. He heard no mention of a holocron being found. Carefully he probed and prodded first the Mrlssi’s mind, then the Sullustan’s, and detected nothing about the crystal in their thoughts. Still cloaked in the dark side, he stole past the entrance of the cubicle, glancing at the open safe as he did so. The holocron was not there.

The Force: Maul is able to read surface thoughts without require line-of-sight to his targets.

Yanth simply smiled and slid several facets of the crystal aside at various angles, manipulating it much as one might a child’s geometric puzzle. After a moment a beam projected from the holocron’s uppermost surface, resolving into a midair display of glowing words and images that slowly curtained up the length of the holographic frame before vanishing. Lorn was too far away to see the text – not only that, but he was behind the display, so that the words and alphanumerics appeared reversed to him. The text seemed to be in Basic, however, and the images looked like schematics for Naboo N-1 starfighters and Trade Federation ships.

Yanth rotated a facet, and the images cut off. “Opening one of these holocrons can be somewhat tricky,” he said. “Neimoidians as a species are not overly clever.”

Androids and Computers: A Neimoidian version of a holocron, obviously you do not need to be a Force user to build and use one, but it seems odd that such a storage device would be copied for use by non-Force users.

Maul saw his quarry slip past him, but could do nothing to stop their flight while his attention was occupied by the two Gamorreans. Using one hand to spin the lightsaber in a blazing pattern that blocked the particle beam bursts, he gestured with his free hand, plucking the invisible lines of the Force and sending reverberations that caused the blasters to fly from the surprised guards’ grips.

The Force: Simultaneous use of deflection and telekinesis by Maul.

He sought the dark side once more, bade it illuminate the path his quarry had taken. Then he began to move, shoving his way through the hapless press of street people.

Though his appearance alone was enough to cause most of the hard cases on the street to give him a wide berth, his progress was still too slow. Enough of this! Maul thought. He unleashed the dark side, using the Force like a battering ram against those who got in his way.

Maul angled to the middle of the narrow avenue…But there was an even quicker way to overtake them. He called upon the Force, moving easily five times faster than a human could travel at a dead run.

The Force: More use of the Force for tracking individuals, and the kinds of speed Maul is capable off. Considering ~6mph is the average speed for a marathon runner (see here), Maul is capable of speeds over 30mph.

And then an invisible hammer struck him in midleap, pounding him to the ground. What was this? Who dared to interfere? Maul looked up, saw a skycar settling to the ground alongside Pavan and the droid. The repulsor beams from its undercarriage had struck him down when the vehicle passed directly over him. The skycar was less than five meters away; he could see the driver and passenger clearly.

They were Jedi.

Propulsion: Repulsors are powerful enough to knock down people; obvious given the forces they work against, but it's always helpful to have an example.

Darsha had sensed the disturbance in the Force at the same time as Master Bondara. They had almost reached the cloud level when they felt the dark vibrations from below…

Neither spoke; Darsha wasn’t sure how the blast of hatred and destruction reverberating from below had affected her mentor, but she had been left shaken and nauseated by the intensity of the empathic burst. Someone down there was well-versed in the use of the Force and powerful to boot. There had been several deaths already, and more intended, no question about it. She didn’t know who had died or who was in danger, but they could not ignore such a strong and savage use of the Force.

The Force: People who use the Force, especially those strong in it, stand out easily to each other. Especially when they go around killing folk.

The skycar passed right over the robed figure at a height carefully calculated to deliver a force from the repulsors sufficient to stun but not kill.

Propulsion: Repulsors of sufficient strength can be quite fatal.

He must have used the Force to help him jump, [Darsha] thought, as the skycar was already a good ten meters off the ground. Even as the thought went through her mind, she thrust out both hands in a pushing gesture, hurling an invisible but nonetheless powerful blow concentrated at that hand. It lost its grip, and the craft jerked again as the dark one fell to the street.
…
[Maul] landed lightly, the Force cushioning his fall.

The Force: Maul is able to jump at least ten meters into the air and survive the fall down.

The Jedi and his quarry gleamed like twin beacons in his mind; he could feel them in the skycar ahead of him.

The Force: Once more, Force perception allows its users to easily see each other and people they're looking for.

The Jedi was obviously a master of the teräs käsi fighting arts, as well, judging by the smooth way he parried and counterattacked. Still, within the first few moments of the engagement, Darth Maul knew that he himself was the superior fighter. He could tell the Jedi knew it, too, but Maul also knew that it didn’t matter. The Jedi was committed to stopping the Sith, or at the very least slowing him down enough to let the others get away, even if it meant giving his own life to do so.
…
Then he heard something: the distinctive sound of the skycar’s damaged engine. He let his awareness expand on the ripples of the Force, and what he sensed brought a dark smile of satisfaction.

The skycar – with his prey – was returning.

The Force: Maul is able to fight and concentrate on sensing his surroundings simultaneously. He's also a better fighter than Master Bondara, who is suppose to be one of the best Jedi fencers.

[Balrog]

Been busy as of late, this is to finish the book up and hopefully get onto other projects.
Part 2: Labyrinth

The three stopped. I-Five probed the darkness in various directions with his eye beams, which revealed nothing more than ancient, moss-covered walls. "My audioreceptors are set at maximum. I hear nothing that might indicate danger. In addition, my radar detects no movement in the vicinity."

"Maybe you've got radar," Assant said, "but I've got the Force, and right now it's telling me that we're not alone."
...
Darsha jerked her lightsaber from its clip and activated it. She had no idea what sort of threat was impending, but whatever it was, it was all around them."

The Force: Darsha's Force sensitivity is superior to I-Five's sensors (though admittedly Lorn had bought the cheap crappy ones), but is not enough to tell her what exactly she's facing.

Discipline is what allowed Darth Maul to survive a thirty-meter fall into a pile of ruble and debris: the discipline of his teräs käsi fighting skills, which gave him complete control over his body, allowing him to utilize midair acrobatics to direct his fall and so avoid striking ornamental projections, ledges, and other potentially lethal obstructions; the discipline of the dark side, which let him manipulate gravity itself, slowing his descent enough to hit the ground without becoming a lifeless bag of broken bones and ruptured organs. Even half stunned by the unexpected explosion of the speeder bike, Maul was able to aim his falling body in such a way as to survive.

But even someone in as superb shape as Maul could not come out of such an explosion and a fall completely unscathed. After the impact he lay, semiconscious, in the debris…

The Force: A near hundred foot drop is the high end for what Maul can survive.

Maul's entire existence had consisted of training, of exercise and instruction. Early in his life, before his voice had deepened, Maul had learned the intricate movements and forms of the teräs käsi fighting style, the patterns of movements based on the hunting characteristics of various beasts throughout the galaxy: Charging Wampa, Rancor Rising, Dancing Dragonsnake, and many more. He had practiced gymnastics in environments ranging from zero-g to gravity fields twice that of Coruscant's. He had mastered the intricate and dangerous use of the double-bladed lightsaber. And all for one purpose: to be the best possible tool of his master's will.

But he had not learned just how to fight. His master's teaching had encompassed far more than that. He had also learned stealth, subterfuge, intrigue.

What is done in secret has great power.

One of his earliest memories was that of being taken to the Jedi Temple. Both he and Sidious had been disguised as tourists. His master's command of the dark side had been sufficient to cloak them from being sensed by their enemies, so long as they did not enter the building. That had been unlikely anyway - the Jedi Temple was not open for tourism. They had stood there for the better part of the day, Darth Sidious pointing out to him the various faces of their foes as the latter came and went. It had been thrilling to Maul to realize that he could stand in the presence of the Jedi, could listen to his master whisper to him of their ultimate downfall, without them having any inkling of the fate that ultimately awaited them.

The Force: The ability to cloak oneself from the Force can be extended to encompass other people, at least those close enough.
Misc.: More background on Maul's training.

He was fairly certain he knew what they were now, although the knowledge gave him little comfort. Quite the opposite, in fact. Occasionally, since his fall from grace had landed him on the mean streets of Coruscant, he had heard rumors of devolved humanoid creatures called Cthons, lurking deep within the underground labyrinths of the planetary city. Dwelling in darkness for thousands of generations had robbed them of their eyes, so the story went. Supposedly they retained some rudimentary working knowledge of technology, which would explain the electroshock net they had used to capture Lorn and his comrades.

Supposedly they were also cannibals.

Alien Biology: The Cthons. There's certainly potential for setting up a good horror story within the SW universe, at least within the bowls of giant city-worlds like Coruscant.

Obi-Wan Kenobi reached out for the Force. It was there for him, as it always was. He let his awareness expand outward along its invisible corrugations, a psychic radar that searched and probed the darkness. If danger existed, the Force would find it.

His mind touched that of another: a will that felt weak and serpentine, more used to striking furtively from the shadows than in direct confrontation. A human mind.

Before the lurker was fully aware that he was being probed, Obi-Wan seized his will. The Force, Master Qui-Gon had told him more than once, can have a strong influence on the weak-minded. Though Obi-Wan was by no means anywhere near as accomplished as his tutor, it didn't take much more than the skill of a novice to influence a mind as weak as this one.

"Come here," he said, his tone quite and authoritative.

From out of the dusk emerged a young human male - probably around sixteen or seventeen standard years old, Obi-Wan estimated.

The Force: Obi-Wan is able to employ Jedi mind tricks at this stage in his career, though obviously limited in ability.

The Force did not seem to indicate that a Jedi had died here, but it had been several hours since the occurrence, and what perturbation remained in the energy field was subtle and hard to read. Possibly Master Qui-Gon Jinn could read it, but Obi-Wan was not that skilled yet.

Still, he sensed something disturbing here. The sense of a powerful evil, a corruption.

The Force: An echo of earlier excerpts, the more powerful and trained a Force user, the better you are at picking up subtle clues; in this case, Obi-Wan is at the scene of a murder.

Darsha gathered the Force to her. Still on her knees, she thrust out both arms, fingers splayed wide, hurling twin waves of invisible power toward them. The unexpected surges struck them, causing them to stagger back. They howled in mingled fear and anger, an eerie ululation that reverberated in the chamber.
...
Fear gave her new strength and focus, and once again she drove them back by throwing Force waves at them. But they were stronger than they looked, and extremely tenacious; though battered off their feet by her power, they picked themselves up and came back for more, moaning and howling.

The Force: Darsha employs telekinetic attacks, but they are not powerful enough to put down her attackers permanently. Potentially a sign of her inexperience, lack of Force "strength" and/or being negatively affected by her wounds, given that Obi-Wan had no problem putting battle droids down permanently in EpI.

Could she reactivate him? She wasn't sure. There was no way she could reach him physically, and she wasn't at all confident in her control of the Force, particularly under these circumstances. It was one thing to use it like a bludgeon against an enemy, but quite another to flip a small switch several meters away.

She pushed the doubts away. She had to do it - or she and Pavan were quite literally dead meat.

She focused her mind on the droid, felt the tenuous, intangible connection between her thoughts and the cool metal of the control switch. She pushed against it with her mind, feeling the resistance.

The Force: Using the Force in "broad strokes" is easier than for delicate work in combat, in part because of the concentration required, at least for low-end Jedi.

As if reading her mind, the droid began making another sound: a low trilling that was as unlike the discordant noise of before as it was possible to be. It seemed to somehow penetrate her bones and muscles - indeed, her very cells - and subtly vibrate them, flushing away the toxins and pains that had filled them. After a few minutes the sound ceased, leaving her feeling, if not in top shape, at least markedly better.

Medical Technology: Sonic treatment for aches and pains. Not sure if there is any basis for this in the real world, but sounds like it works great (pun intended).

"For those of you who are interested, the cavern we have just entered is roughly seven hundred standard meters wide, two hundred meters across, and festooned with stalactites starting forty or fifty meters above our heads. The ledge we are on, unfortunately, ends within seven meters, culminating in a drop that is-" The droid paused. "-currently not measurable with my modest sensory capabilities."

Computers and Droids: The limits of I-Five's cheap sensor suite.

She glared at Pavan. "It just so happens that even Jedi Masters - which I am not - can be taken by surprise by things that are not Force-sensitive. Creatures who make very little ripples in the psychic flow are sometimes as good as invisible."

The Force: Pretty apparent, things that make little impact in the Force are harder to find through it. Probably a reason why droids are often used against Jedi.

The dank and miasmal air was still, and even the disturbance he sensed in the Force was of the most subtle nature. Still, he had no doubt that he was being watched. The almost nonexistent light told him that he was standing in a wide part of the tunnel, with several side passages opening into it. It was from these that he suspected the attack would come.
...
He did not expect the assault to come from above, but he was not taken by surprise when it did. He sensed the electroshock net dropping down from overhead, and knew that if he tried to slash it with his energy blade, the power surge would reverberate back down his arm and through him with devastating effect.

The Force: In contrast to Darsha earlier, in the same situation Maul is able to sense not only that there is danger, but just what that danger is and how to avoid it.

Seeking out life-forms around her with the Force was a task with varying degrees of difficulty. Intelligent, Force-sensitive beings were usually easy to spot, of course, while lower-level forms - insects and animals, for example - did not broadcast nearly much of a blip on her mental radar. It was true that her mastery of the Force was nowhere near perfect, but that was no excuse for not doing the best she could. Her Twi'lek Master had once explained to her that sensitivity and fine-tuning came with time. "As a Padawan," he had said, "I could push boulders around with ease, but seeds were next to impossible."

The Force: Besides reiterating the earlier passage, the bit about sensitivity is interesting. Since a plant seed would, presumably, weigh a lot less than a boulder, it can't be that her Master would have problems exerting enough force to move it. Most likely it would be applying too much force; crushing the seed, or sending it flying away violently, as opposed to gently lifting and carrying it around.

Darsha had never seen anything like the creature that faced them on the bridge. It was huge, a great long body that stretched back at least as far as a hoverbus. As she watched, segment after segment wound over the side of the bridge, which shuddered in response as the motion brought the creature up from underneath and onto the structure with them. Its skin was composed of segmented overlapping plates, dotted here and there with small nodules that were perhaps two centimeters in diameter. Its head was capped by two great black eyes and a pair of curved mandibles, each easily as long as her leg. Below them were an array of small, clawed arms, and below that a series of short, thick legs.

The most amazing thing about it, however, was that its chitinous exoskeleton and internal organs seemed to be completely transparent. Apparently it had no internal skeletal structure, though how a creature that size could exist without the support of bones in a one-gravity field was beyond her understanding.

Alien Biology: General anatomy of a taozin, a beast with some fearsome qualities.

The big question as far as she was concerned was why the Force hadn't warned her of this thing's presence. While it was true that sentient beings were on the whole easier to sense than nonsentient beings, a living creature this size and this close would have made a noticeable dent in the energy field even if it had a brain the size of a jakka seed.

As she retreated, Darsha sent a questing mental beam toward the creature - and felt it disappear. There was no psychic reverberation at all.

Alien Biology: Reason one for a Jedi to fear a taozin, its invisibility to the Force.
The Force: Sheer size of a living creature can make up for any lack of sentience in the area of detection.

She watched in disbelieving shock as the yellow glow of her blade diffused as she sank it into the creature, losing its coherency and radiating in all directions. Darsha dodged back, narrowly avoiding the backsplash of her own weapon. The blade regained its congruency as she withdrew it from the creature's abdomen. The beast spasmed and roared angrily, its translucent flesh rippling in reaction; the strike had evidently hurt it, though not nearly as much as she had anticipated.

Darsha was so astonished by the result of her attack that she almost let the beast seize her with those sharp mandibles and pull her into the mouth that gaped overhead. At the last moment she scrambled back, waving the lightsaber to evaporate the gout of wet silk that it vomited toward her. At least the energy blade was good against that. She noted that the silk expellant became opaque only after it left the thing's mouth.

Alien Bilogy: And reason two. The fact that its silk becomes opaque and easily vaporized after leaving the body suggests that the taozin might be producing some sort of self-contained energy field to negate the Force, similar a Ysalamiri.

Obi-Wan reached out with his mind and felt what could not be seen. The bartender was close to activating a blaster under the bar, which was pointed straight at the Padawan’s abdomen. The two Rodians had split up and were flanking him now, just out of lightsaber range. He could sense their weapons being readied, as well.
…
Events slowed and perception stretched then, as Obi-Wan Kenobi reached for the Force and his lightsaber simultaneously. He dropped flat to the floor as the bartender fired its weapon, sending pieces of the beautiful wooden bar exploding outward to shower the apprentice with splinters. He ignited his lightsaber and swung it up in a shallow arc, the superhot blade slicing almost without resistance through the bar and the blaster it concealed without touching the bartender’s prehensile limbs. He rose to his feet quickly, almost levitating with the aid of the Force, and continued the arc, twisting to face the Rodians, who had raised their weapons. He gestured, and one of the blasters leapt out of its surprised owner’s hand and seemingly flung itself across the room. His partner fired, a particle beam burst that was deflected by the cobalt-hued energy blade, sending its trajectory off into the ceiling somewhere. Obi-Wan gestured again, and the second Rodian’s blaster flew over to land at his feet.

The Force: Again, possible use of Force Speed, depending on how one interprets "events slowed and perception stretched" as in earlier passages.

Darsha reached out with her senses and felt familiar signatures. She was sure she had come across them before recently.

"It's not the Sith," she said, and saw the broker relax. And then she recognized the vibration in the Force.

The Force: Individuals create their own personal vibrations in the Force, enough so that a Padawan can sense the difference.

The specialized furnace, which he had created from plans taken from his master’s Sith Holocron, had radiated an intense heat as it shaped the synthetic crystals needed for his lightsaber. But rather than leaving the kiln chamber and allowing them to form on their own, he had remained near the device, concentrating on the metamorphosing gems, using the Force to purify and refine the lattice of the molecular matrices.

Most Jedi used natural crystals in their lightsabers; Adegan crystals were the gems of choice. Most of the other components of a lightsaber were easily obtained - power cells, field energizers, stabilizing rings, flux apertures - but not the crystals themselves. They had to be mined in the Adega System, deep within the Outer Rim Territories. The difficulty of using natural materials meant that the alignment process could take a long time - and the calibration had to be perfect, because mismatched crystals could destroy not only the lightsaber, but its creator. Finding and aligning the crystals was a Jedi test, but it was not the way of the Sith. The dark masters of the Force preferred to create their own synthetic crystals, to match the harmonies in the searing heat of a crucible and thus take their creation of the weapon to a deeper level.

Maul had sat by the furnace, focusing his hatred of the Jedi to a fiery peak and expanding his control of the Force, which he used to manipulate the molecular structures of the four gems required for his double-bladed weapon. The choice to make two blades instead of one had been an easy one. Only an expert would even think of trying to handle a double-bladed weapon, and he would be no less than an expert. The glory of the Sith required it, as did his master.

Not even the compressed ferrocrete walls of the pressurized chamber could entirely contain the intense temperature required to form the crystals. Hour after hour had passed, the searing heat washing over the apprentice. But his control had not wavered; the pain had not sways his focus. Layer after countless layer of the crystals had been laid down, aligned, and perfected. It had taken days, days without food or water or sleep, but eventually he sensed their readiness.

The Force: The difference between Sith and Jedi lightsaber construction, and the manipulation of matter at the molecular level through the Force, at least in special situations.

A few minutes after he'd entered the data into the security net, two police speeder bikes came roaring in from uplevels, strobe lights flashing. From the shadows in which he crouched, Darth Maul prepared to move.

Abruptly he halted. At the edge of his perceptions was something else. He reached for it, projecting jagged tendrils of the Force to discover what lay unseen. And then, as his probe reached it, it swung lower into view, hovering above the crash site.

It was a PCBU - a droid-piloted police cruiser backup unit. The Crimson Corridor had been the site of a number of officer murders over the years, which was why the PCBU had been developed. It carried two state-of-the-art swivel laser cannons mounted on the top and bottom of the unit, as well as a variety of sensors, scanners, and disruptors.

Ground Combat: Droid gunships accompany police units in the less-than-reputable areas of Coruscant's Underhive- err, lower levels.

One speeder bike was ahead of the other. Maul deactivated one of his lightsaber’s blades and hurled it toward the first of the oncoming speeders like a spear. It pierced the officer’s armored chest while the Sith, again assisted by the Force, jumped from the descending PCBU toward the other officer.

By the time he had landed on the speeder his lightsaber had rejoined him, snatched back to him by a feathery runner of the Force. Within moments the second police officer was dead, and Darth Maul had his transportation.

The Force: Because some fools actually think "Throw Lightsaber" is a special skill and demand evidence of it being used. But this does show that a telekinetic grip can be maintained while jumping around and murdering people.

She'd rarely had the opportunity to develop that kind of bond. The Jedi didn't discourage freindships, of course, but the intensity of her studies and the time they demanded made it difficult to cultivate anything more than casual friendships with the other Padawans. Probably the closet she had to a friend at the Temple - aside from her Master, of course - was Obi-Wan Kenobi, and if she had the opportunity to speak with him more than once a week, she counted herself lucky.

Realism: The inability to form and maintain meaningful relationships with others can't be all that good to a developing mind. One wonders that there aren't more emotionally damaged Jedi running around.

Green Hair hit the ground first, however, tearing into the trash. His palm slammed toward a large yellow activation reader. Lorn had seen readers like these before; they were capable of being utilized only when someone with the right identification pattern touched them. That pattern could be the user's DNA, a subcutaneous chip, or sometimes a skin decoration, like a tattoo...

Lorn glanced at I-Five, who said, "I traced the circuit to an energy source high in the alley wall - about there." The droid pointed up at a rusty vent about three meters above the group...

The vent cover fell off and hit the ground below with a clang, and he could see the harsh end of a tripod-mounted blaster just inside the hole. Motorized, no doubt, and cued to zap anyone not near the activation switch.

Androids and Computers: An example of the type of technology available to the equivalent of a street gang. Certainly don't see Bloods setting up elaborate traps with motion sensors and identity chip readers to pop a cap in some Crips.

Darsha couldn’t believe she’d missed the relays. She’d been so focused on the idea of living enemies that it hadn’t occurred to her to check for mechanical ones. She had to make sure that it didn’t happen again.

She sent her senses questing out ahead of them, feeling for living and nonliving eyes. Just around the corner was a security cam. Lorn stepped around the bend before she could call out, but it didn’t matter – she had it handled. It took a little more concentration to defeat a mechanical device, but it certainly wasn’t beyond her abilities. She simply jammed the lens aperture control shut.

The Force: Contrast with earlier, where Darsha has trouble flipping a switch, and it is apparent that concentration plays a big role in using the Force in more sensitive ways. Also an example of non-LOS telekinesis.

All the while he had acted with just the barest awareness of the Force, cloaking himself from its embrace. He had lived within the powerful boundaries of the dark side for so long that to not do so had left him feeling naked and blind at first, but it was necessary in order to not provide any warning to the Jedi apprentice who had sided with his quarry….

Still further removed from the Force than he had been in years, he had extended the tiniest tendril of awareness to the edge of the door leading into the building. There he had stood, waiting for confirmation that his prey was at its final destination.

After a time, it had come, and he had stepped back into the Force, enjoying the sensation as the dark side enfolded him. Immediately he had felt the Padawan react, and then he had opened the door.

The Force: One can be cloaked from the Force and still be able to manipulate it, at least in the most minimal of ways.

“Better than training, the Force is. More than experience or speed it gives.”

And he had given a demonstration. Three members of the council – Plo Koon, Saesee Tiin, and Depa Billaba, excellent fighters all – had come forward and attacked him. Master Yoda had not been armed, and had not seemed to move more than a meter or so, his tread slow and measured. Nevertheless, none of the three had been able to lay a finger on him. The lesson had struck powerfully home: Knowledge of the Force was infinitely better than technique.

Now Darsha let herself sink into the Force, not trying to maintain any control over it, letting it take over as she had when facing the Tauzin and the Raptors. How many times had Master Bondara told her to simply relax, to let go? She did so now, feeling herself reach a deeper place in the Force than she had ever been before. How she knew this she could not say – it simply was. She felt her senses heighten to diamond sharpness, and every feature of the abandoned power station came into focus, both the visible and the invisible. She knew every wall, door, and piece of machinery, each particle of dust.

And she knew what she had to do.

All this, in less than a second’s time.

The Force: Effects of "submerging" oneself in the Force. And Yoda being awesome is always nice.

She deflected, forcing her mind to disengage from following his technique, to relax and maintain her deep connection to the Force. Thoughts were a hazard.

He did not share that weakness; she could feel the truth of that. He had more conscious control of the power at his command, and that gave him the edge. If she tried to increase her control of the Force, she would reduce her ability to simply react – but if she did not, she could only defend.

The Force: A further example of the difference between master and apprentice as Darsha and Maul duel.

[nightmare]

Pg128 wrote:
The skycar passed right over the robed figure at a height carefully calculated to deliver a force from the repulsors sufficient to stun but not kill.

This part is actually very interesting. Apparently the height at which the car flew modified the strength of its knockdown effect. This suggests that repulsorcraft when going high are pushing against the atmosphere to keep their altitude, rather than anti-gravity floating. It would explain why there's an altitude limit to repulsorcraft, and why low altitude vehicles appear much more stable than high flying ones. In the first case, they would push against the ground, in the other, support itself on air.

Of course, I don't think such a knockdown or pushing effect actually exists in the movies, although I recall it has been mentioned in the EU before. For example, not even the grass was touched when the MTTs passed over it in TPM, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan showed no strain as one passed over them, and the B-1 droids weren't knocked down when they approached under one of the landing craft.