The "Heir To The Empire" Trilogy's Smugglers Quiz

Answer: Talon Karrde

Talon Karrde had a ship called "The Wild Karrde". He had an cold and calculating sense of humour, a general moral indifference, and lots of style. He was different from most criminal bosses because he actually cared for his employees' and guests' wellbeing, providing they were loyal. I always imagined him being played by Robert De Niro.

Answer: Emperor Palpatine's "Hand"

When Darth Vader killed Palpatine before he could kill Luke (Vader's son), Mara could see the whole thing from across the galaxy. But somehow she misinterpreted it and saw Luke and Vader simultaneously turning on The Emperor and killing him. So she had wanted to kill Luke for years and when he accidentally fell into Karrde's clutches...she tried very hard to restrain herself.

Answer: Booster Terrik

I often thought Al Pacino would make a perfect Booster, if they decide to turn the extended "Star Wars" books into movies.

Answer: Billey

As Karrde once said, Billey hardly got out these days so his goon Dravis basically went everywhere for him.

Dravis met Han Solo and Chewbecca at the same Mos Eisley cantina where they'd first met Luke years ago. But Dravis said Billey wasn't interested in hauling the New Republic's cargo, and just left, commenting that Wedge Antilles was "the worst backup man" he'd ever seen.

He didn't realise Wedge was sitting out in the open in his pilot uniform intentionally. The REAL backup man was Commando Lt Page who was seated close by and considerably more inconspicious...

Answer: Mrkyr

Mrkyr, in the days of the Old Republic, was a planet seldom recorded in any official archives and usually avoided, especially by Jedi, because there was a species called "Ysalamiri" (pronounced Ee - Sah - La - Mee - Ree) which could somehow cut off The Force by producing anti-Force "bubbles" around itself.

Answer: Clyngunn

I said typical George Lucas style, even though Clyngunn was Timothy Zhan's invention, because Zhan expertly copied all the traditional and appealing Star Wars/Lucas styles when he wrote the first "Star Wars" post-movie novels.

Answer: His associate Mara was with them

Karrde decides to leave Mykyr after that. The book says he feels his first ever feelings of genuine fear.

Answer: Niles Ferrier

Ferrier has a pet Defel, nicknamed "Wraiths" because they can absorb light and appear as shadows. Later on Ferrier, the Defel and his whole crew are forced to work for Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Answer: All these reasons

Years ago Karrde was on a ship that accidentally stumbled onto the missing Katana Fleet, a lost group of 200 Dreadnaughts. Thrawn wants to get his hands on them and launch an attack on the fragile New Republic. So when Mara told Thrawn her boss Karrde knew where the Dreadnaughts were, he let her go and tracked her ship back to their new base and captured Karrde, instead of paying Mara's asking price.

Then Thrawn allowed Mara to rejoin The Empire, but Mara felt terrible, knowing Karrde thought she'd betrayed him. So she snuck away to find Luke Skywalker to ask him to help her rescue Karrde. Hoping Luke would forget her earlier promise to kill him...

Answer: True

Karrde frequently says to his New Republic hosts "I'm not part of your war. My group's strictly neutral."

He doesn't see Leia smile at point, remembering when her husband-to-be Han said something similar after rescuing her from the Death Star.

Answer: Grand Admiral Thrawn is producing clones at an alarming rate

When Luke tells Karrde how fast Thrawn is producing clones, Karrde realises that with that many soldiers, and the Katana Fleet, Thrawn could take over the whole galaxy after all. He decides to organise a smuggler's meeting to address this threat.

Answer: Trogan

Karrde meets Gillespie shortly after the latter had been forced to leave his homeworld after clone troops subdued it virtually without a shot. They agree something had to be done.

Answer: Niles Ferrier

In the ensuing firefight the stormtroopers are all killed and their vehicle blown up. But one smuggler is killed and Karrde and the rest are furious. They all agree to help Karrde after all and hurry back to their ships before reinforcements arrive.

But they are all surprised to reach space safely, no pursuit, no sign of imperial ships. They are all puzzled, something is not right here. We soon read that Ferrier had actually *hired* the stormtroopers to launch that attack.

He had hoped to work his way into Karrde's trust to he could pass along information to Grand Admiral Thrawn. But when Thrawn found out he was furious at the loss of imperial troops and equipment. And Ferrier was given one last chance: help Thrawn make the other smugglers think *Karrde* had actually staged that attack, or else.

Answer: Mazzic

Mazzic and Ellor had blown-up a Star Destroyer at the Imperial Shipyards in revenge for Trogan. But Thrawn told Mazzic he had not ordered the attack (which was true) and let Mazzic go, having let him wonder if Karrde was behind it instead.

Thrawn then arranged for Ferrier to place some fabricated evidence on The Wild Karrde to reveal that Karrde had hired the troops after all.

Answer: Ferrier says his imperial contact's name without thinking

I really enjoyed the smugglers' dialouge throughout "The Last Command" but this chapter was definetly the best!

At the next smugglers' meeting Mazzic got onto The Wild Karrde at gunpoint and forced Karrde to get out all his datacards. The other smuggling chiefs were astonished when the fake one was produced (Ferrier's Defel had just smuggled it onto the ship) and proved Karrde had set them all up. (Ferrier of course not was not astonished, he was just smirking.)

In the heated dialouge that followed Karrde tried to convince them that someone had planted that "evidence". He didn't name Ferrier but the latter foolishly got defensive anyway. He shouted "That datacard doesn't say ~I~ hired Kosk and his squad, and it says ~you~ did!"

But then Mazzic said "Just a minute - I never mentioned the lieutenant's name." and Ferrier turned rather pale.

Thanks for playing, hope you enjoyed this quiz!