"Dark Force Rising" Part 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: A full slave rig

The Katana Fleet was famously linked together using a slave rig, which meant a commander from the helm of the flag ship could remotely control any other ship. The presence of a full slave rig in Bel Iblis' base would confirm that his six Dreadnaughts had originally been part of the fleet. The fleet's crew were driven insane and killed by a hive virus, losing the fleet in deep space for decades.

A beckon call was a device used by ship owners to make their ships fly in a straight line towards them. Luke found one in the previous novel, and Lando's ship had one installed.

Answer: Ask Mon Mothma to let Bel Iblis join the New Republic

Garm Bel Iblis was a founder of the Rebel Alliance, but left early on when he became suspicious of Mon Mothma's ambitions. Mothma turned out to be a noble leader, but Bel Iblis was too proud to ask to rejoin. He was open to rejoining the New Republic, but he wanted to be officially asked to do so.

Bel Iblis would appear in the 2008 video game "The Force Unleashed", which featured the founding of the Rebellion.

Answer: The Emperor's Hand

The Emperor had two primary, Force-using subordinates. The first was Darth Vader, who was the public symbol of the Emperor's power. The other was Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, who handled more subtle missions. Timothy Zahn would go on to write multiple novels and comics about Mara's time as the Emperor's Hand.

Targeter was Winter's code name during the galactic civil war.

Indiana Jones was a different series written by Lucas around the same time the original "Star Wars" trilogy was being released in theatres. "Blue Harvest" was the code name given to "Return of the Jedi" during its development.

Answer: To identify a piece of jewelry

The public event was a dedication to a new wing of the Imperial Palace, and a secret ceremony followed: Thrawn's promotion to Grand Admiral. At the events, Mara's outfit had a shouldersculp. Thrawn had a holographic display of dozens of shoulderscups, and had Mara identify the one she wore.

Answer: Eight days

Eight days was already a very tight schedule to get back to Karrde, and get the information, even if Mara had planned to follow through. She was trying to figure out how she could get out of the situation, but all her options were taken away when Thrawn followed her immediately, anyway.

Answer: Grand Admiral Thrawn's name

Han was the first member of the New Republic to even see the new Grand Admiral, back on Myrkr in "Heir to the Empire". The New Republic leadership was skeptical about an unaccounted Grand Admiral. Just having his name was enough to start digging through the old Imperial records to get an idea of who they were up against.

Ferrier knew Thrawn's name because he was working for him, but had forgotten that it was not common knowledge, and let it slip by accident. Han thanked Ferrier for the free info.

Answer: Ferrier's Wraith placed a second beacon inside the ship.

Ferrier's overtures to work with Han and Lando were all false. He was trying to distract them while his Wraith (a Defel) snuck aboard the Lady Luck to place a second homing beacon on the inside. The one on the outside was meant to be found and removed, hiding the real tracking device.

Han liked the idea of the multisensor airflow analysis system to search for objects on the hull. Unfortunately, the Millennium Falcon had an irregular surface, and would never be able to use such a device.

Answer: Mara used an old private backdoor code.

Mara hoped that the computers had not been wiped since she left the Empire five years ago. They hadn't, and her personal backdoor codes were still intact. At this time, Mara was still reluctant to draw on the Force, and relied on her other training instead.

Answer: Luke entered a Ysalamir field.

While Luke was with C'Baoth, the old Jedi was subtly applying a mental Force pressure on Luke, to break his mind. Luke did not notice it until Mara showed up on Jomark with a Ysalamir, and Luke walked into its Force-dampening field.

C'Baoth had demanded that Luke bring Leia's children to him, but Luke was able to resist and continue his training.

Answer: On a supply shuttle, disguised as pilots

They managed to impersonate shuttle pilots from a supply base, and took their place. Unloading the supply shuttle would be a long and boring process, giving Luke and Mara ample time to slip away and find Karrde. They pretended to stay on the shuttle, but used Luke's lightsaber to cut through the floor and hull to get into the Chimera.

Using Mara's backdoor codes, Luke's Force abilities, and a confident attitude, they managed to make their way through the Chimera without incident.

Answer: Navigating through a garbage compactor

Like the Death Star, the detention centre was attached to a garbage chute. Luke entered the garbage masher while Mara closed the walls enough for him to brace himself and shimmy up. It was an impressive act of trust, considering how Mara had once explicitly told Luke that she was going to kill him.

Answer: A report from a supply base mentioned a Ysalamir.

Everything was quiet, and Thrawn was doing one final round of the ship before returning to his quarters for the night period. Just a few minutes before, a report had been sent from a supply base that mentioned a Skipray Blastboat had crashed nearby. There had been no bodies, but a single Ysalamir.

This was enough for Thrawn to put the pieces together and sound the intruder alarm. He ordered troops to Karrde's cell, the supply shuttles, and to shut down the main computer to remove Mara's access.

Answer: They flew the Millennium Falcon.

After meeting Khabarakh at Endor, Leia left the Falcon in orbit to be picked up later. Thrawn, while on Honoghr, got a report of the Falcon at Endor, and went there immediately, not even taking Khabarakh for interrogation.

Once the empty Falcon had been recovered, it was put in vehicle deep storage on the Chimera. When Luke and Mara were unable to make it back to their shuttle to escape, they went to the deep storage to look for a different ship to take, and Luke spotted Han's ship.

Answer: Leia realized a mistranslation.

Leia was looking at a geneology chart on the morning of her final day on Honoghr. Leia spoke to the maitrakh about her concerns for her unborn children, and the maitrakh sympathized. The maitrakh told Leia how she had lost her four sons. Leia was offering her condolences when she realized something. The maitrakh had called Khabarakh her "third son", and he was still alive. She learned that Khabarakh was not the maitrakh's child, but her great-grandchild.

Leia had also reasoned that the devastation of the planet had happened during the galactic civil war, and that the Rebel Alliance was partially responsible. With the new extended timeline, the devastation went back to the Clone Wars, which meant the Empire was deliberately keeping the Noghri in a state of servitude.

Answer: The decontamination droids' fluids actually killing the local plants

Honoghr had been devastated 44 years earlier, but there was not 44 years of decontamination work from the Imperial decon droids.

The Empire had secretly taken the native kholm-grass, and spliced it with a some new genes to make it secrete a poison that would prevent any other plants or crops from growing. The Empire seeded the entire planet with this new strain, and then provided decontamination droids that could destroy the grass (not clean the soil) for the appearance of making some land arable again. They also worked at a deliberately slow pace.

Leia took the fluid from a decon droid (Thrawn's espionage droid, no less), and applied it to a sample of kholm-grass for the gathered Noghri to witness. The grass immediately shriveled, blackened, and turned to a powder, proving Leia's point.

Answer: A submarine

The Coral Vanda was a luxury submersible casino that meandered the reefs of Pantolomin. Hoffner, who had worked for Jorj Car'das with Karrde, like to spend his time and money there.

Unfortunately for Han and Lando, Niles Ferrier got to Hoffner first, and spirited him away. Then, the Chimera arrived, and started blasting the reefs around the casino until it surrendered and surfaced.

Answer: Karrde wanted the Imperials off his back.

Karrde's reasoned that the Imperials only detained him to get the location of the Katana fleet. If the New Republic already had the fleet, then that information would be useless, and the Imperials would not put any resources into hunting him.

Answer: Karrde got Fey'lya to reveal his true feelings on an open comm.

Fey'lya had staffed his ship and task force with crew loyal to himself. He was trying to have Han arrested until the Imperials showed up. Fey'lya wanted to run to save himself, rather than fight and help Han and the Rogues.

Despite the crew being loyal, Fey'lya viewed the military as just another piece in his political game. He, Karrde, and Leia were in a private room on his flagship, where Fey'lya held them at gunpoint. Karrde signaled Leia to use the Force to discretely open the comm, and then got Fey'lya to reveal his true feelings about the military. With his dim views broadcast to the whole ship, Captain Virgilio detained the Bothan, and committed his forces to fight off the Judicator.

Answer: They fired a turbolaser salvo.

Han had Lando and Chewie, who were in engineering, make sure the power lines were all intact. He had one salvo, which he sent along the clustered, approaching Imperial ships. The Imperials had not expected the turbolasers to be active, and had bunched up for their approach.

The one attack fried all of the Katana's capacitor banks, so Han didn't get a second salvo. He prepared his team to repel boarders.

Answer: C'Baoth wanted to talk to Thrawn.

Thrawn had promised C'Baoth Jedi in exchange for his help. After Luke had been driven away, C'Baoth became even more impatient to get Leia and her twins. He wanted to speak to Thrawn about his lack of progress, so far.

Thrawn did not want to have the conversation while an attack was underway, but C'Baoth was able to freeze the minds and bodies of the Chimera's entire crew. Thrawn was forced to acquiesce, and instead sent the Peremptory to assist the Judicator.

Answer: An AT-PT

All Terrain Personal Transports were three-metre tall, two-legged walkers, like a smaller version of the AT-STs in "Return of the Jedi". Being on the Katana Fleet would make AT-PTs old technology, but they would go on to appear in many "Star Wars" video games as a light Imperial ground unit.

Answer: There had been no official request from the New Republic.

Bel Iblis was a prideful man, and wanted to be formally asked to help the New Republic. Han had passed along the coordinates, but was not able to make a request in an official capacity. Leia was, and immediately made an official request, having Captain Virgilio log it. Bel Iblis was much more enthusiastic after that. He would still seek a request from Mon Mothma personally.

Answer: A Dreadnaught crashed into it.

Because Han was on the flagship of the fleet, he was able to control any other Dreadnaught of the fleet remotely. He found one with engines that still worked, and remotely piloted it straight into the Peremptory. The Imperials had not expected the use of a ship itself as a weapon.

Answer: Thrawn had already taken them.

Thrawn had probably just paid Hoffner an exorbitant sum to get the location of the Katana Fleet quickly, and had moved most of the ships away before the New Republic showed up.

During the fight, the Imperials had lost a Star Destroyer, but the New Republic had let more than 150 ships fall into Thrawn's hands. Princess Leia and the Imperial Captain Brandai had identical thoughts: that they had lost the battle, but not the war.

Answer: The Imperial troops were clones.

So far, Thrawn had been using conscripts to fill out his ranks. They did not have the same discipline, training, or enthusiasm that former Imperial soldiers had.

With clones, instead of taking years to recruit and train new crews for his Dreadnaughts, Thrawn would be able to do it in months.