On 14 October 1998, the third and final volume in the Dark Forces trilogy of novellas written by William C. Dietz was published. It was originally released by Dark Horse Comics and Boulevard. Both the hardcover and trade paperback include twenty-five full-color illustrations by Dave Dorman. This time, the fate of the Valley of the Jedi comes to a conclusion, and only Kyle Katarn can determine its fate. Synopsis: Kyle Katarn, Rebel agent and novice Jedi, has just returned from his covert operation to find the location of the Valley of the Jedi. But he knows that the evil Jerec, a dark Jedi with designs on the Empire's throne, knows where the Valley is too. Upon returning to the Alliance, and with the support of Luke Skywalker himself, Kyle offers to find the Valley and stop the oncoming Imperial invasion—and, at last, fulfill his destiny as a Jedi. Based on the popular Star Wars: DARK FORCES and Star Wars: JEDI KNIGHT interactive games, Jedi Knight is part three of a trilogy written by acclaimed author William C. Dietz (Steelheart) and illustrated by award-winning Star Wars cover artist Dave Dorman.
The novella opens on Ruusan with settler Grif Grawley being ambushed by an Imperial Probe Droid. He manages to escape and gets back to Fort Nowhere and tries to warn Mayor Byron Devo III about the Empire coming, but no one listens. Grif and his wife Carole flee into the badlands. Sariss, Yun, and Boc Aseca arrive and subdues the population after they learn that the settlers and smugglers no nothing of the Valley. During the Second Battle of Milargo, in which General Han Solo and Chewbacca lead Medpac Squadron, Luke Skywalker shows up with Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors in the Moldy Crow. After a short duel between New Hope and a damaged Star Destroyer, the Imperials surrender. On New Hope, Kyle and Luke relate to what they've learned about Ruusan and its location; Kyle proposes going to Ruusan to confront Jerec, but Mon Mothma remains convinced that Kyle will fall--she even voices this out loud--but Jan and Luke reassure Mon Mothma that her fears may not come to pass. Han volunteers to aide Kyle, but Leia Organa talks him out of it. (Possibly because Dietz realized that a Kyle-and-Han team up would be too awesome, or because Han was never in the game, but that doesn't sound as cool, does it?) The plan consists of giving Jerec's Imperials proton torpedoes that they can detonate and destroy Vengeance with. Mon Mothma, reluctantly, agrees to the plan.
On Milagro, Kyle and Jan hire rebel soldier Alfonso Luiz Obota to pretend to be the surviving ranking officer of a badly damaged Imperial Star Destroyer. The plan goes off without a hitch: Obota cons the Imperials into taking it, gets Kyle and Jan permission to land on Ruusan. In the skies, Kyle and Jan note the ruins of Fort Nowhere. The two of them happen upon Grif, Carole, Lasko, Kimber, Luther Pardy, and Portia and Kyle retells Morgan's fate and how he became a Jedi-in-training, and ended up on Ruusan. The survivors suggest Kyle meet with the bouncers. When they go to meet the bouncers, they find Imperials trying to slaughter the helpless creatures. Kyle and the survivors interfere, at the cost of every survivor except Grif. The bouncers agree to help Kyle, Jan, Grif, and WeeGee get to the Valley. Meanwhile, Yun has nightmares of killing Nij Por Ral. Maw wakes Yun up and brings him to Jerec; the Dark Jedi informs Yun that they're going to the surface of Ruusan, to the Valley of the Jedi. In the catacombs, Yun receives training from the Force ghost of Qu Rahn; Yun ends up saving the life of a stormtrooper, something Sariss notes, but doesn't understand. Yun is then sent out to track down Kyle Katarn, but having sensed Kyle in the badlands, decides to repay Kyle for sparing his life and looks the other way. Kyle, Grif, Jan, WeeGee, and Floater the bouncer sneak by and almost arrive at the Valley, when Grif sacrifices himself to kill a probe droid.
Kyle leaves Jan, WeeGee, and the bouncer behind, but Jan gets captured, the bouncer killed, and WeeGee deactivated and the Moldy Crow impounded. Kyle infiltrates the Imperial Base and receives warning from Rahn about Maw. Maw ambushes Kyle and they fight. Kyle defeats the Boltrunian Dark Jedi and Maw taunts Kyle by admitting that he was the one who placed Morgan's head on a spike in Barons Hed; Kyle gives in to his darkness and beheads Maw. Jerec applauds and reveals that he captured Jan and demands the Kyle surrender to the dark side, but Kyle refuses. Jerec uses Destruction to destroy the landing pad and Kyle barely makes it to the Moldy Crow, but he shock wave hits and Kyle crashes in the Valley floor. Kyle's knocked unconscious and witnesses the final moments of the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, becomes Jedi Master Tal who tries to voice his concern about confronting the Brotherhood of Darkness in the Valley, but Lord Hoth ignores this; becomes Sith Lord LaTor who helps Sith Lord Skere Kaan prepare the thought bomb; witnesses Lord Hoth confront Kaan and how Kaan detonated the bomb, and how it backfired and captured the 100 Jedi volunteers of the Army of Light and 100 Sith spirits and imprisoned them in the Valley of the Jedi.
Kyle wakes up and finds Boc, Sariss, and Yun standing over him. Boc destroys Rahn's lightsaber. Sariss orders Boc to leave and tell Jerec that she killed Kyle. Yun, in a moment of pity for Kyle, blocks his mothers strike; Sariss kills her son, and, angered at Kyle, tries her best to kill him, but Kyle picked up a couple of expert sword fighting techniques from Tal and LaTor. He takes Yun's lightsaber and kills Sariss, then heads into the Valley to find Jerec. Kyle frees Jan, but Boc attacks with his two lightsabers. Kyle fights Boc and manages to kill him using a dark side technique called Spear of Midnight Black. Jerec applauds Kyle for once more giving into the dark side, but Kyle remains skeptical that the dark side has any claim on him. He duels Jerec with his new techniques and Force skills, but Jerec retreats when his hold on the Valley weakens. Kyle senses this and cocoons Jerec from the dark side. Jerec collapses as he's confronted with just the light side of the Force. Jerec reminds Kyle that he killed Morgan, but Kyle tosses Jerec's lightsaber back at the fallen Miraluka. Jerec charges Kyle, but the Jedi kills Jerec. The Valley erupts and the spirits go free. Kyle carves a memorial of Rahn and Morgan in a rock, then leaves with Jan and WeeGee.
All in all, the best damn conclusion to the Dark Forces trilogy and an epic way to set up the legend that would later become Kyle Katarn, as every game since (Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy) references the Valley of the Jedi incident. William C. Dietz created one hell of a story in this trilogy and I'm proud to have gotten the entire novella trilogy and read it several times over, amazed each time it ends.
Up next, possibly the most hated game tie-ins to ever grace the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the novelization of the eight hour video game that's generally disliked by everyone: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams, based on a game by Haden Blackman.
The novella opens on Ruusan with settler Grif Grawley being ambushed by an Imperial Probe Droid. He manages to escape and gets back to Fort Nowhere and tries to warn Mayor Byron Devo III about the Empire coming, but no one listens. Grif and his wife Carole flee into the badlands. Sariss, Yun, and Boc Aseca arrive and subdues the population after they learn that the settlers and smugglers no nothing of the Valley. During the Second Battle of Milargo, in which General Han Solo and Chewbacca lead Medpac Squadron, Luke Skywalker shows up with Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors in the Moldy Crow. After a short duel between New Hope and a damaged Star Destroyer, the Imperials surrender. On New Hope, Kyle and Luke relate to what they've learned about Ruusan and its location; Kyle proposes going to Ruusan to confront Jerec, but Mon Mothma remains convinced that Kyle will fall--she even voices this out loud--but Jan and Luke reassure Mon Mothma that her fears may not come to pass. Han volunteers to aide Kyle, but Leia Organa talks him out of it. (Possibly because Dietz realized that a Kyle-and-Han team up would be too awesome, or because Han was never in the game, but that doesn't sound as cool, does it?) The plan consists of giving Jerec's Imperials proton torpedoes that they can detonate and destroy Vengeance with. Mon Mothma, reluctantly, agrees to the plan.
On Milagro, Kyle and Jan hire rebel soldier Alfonso Luiz Obota to pretend to be the surviving ranking officer of a badly damaged Imperial Star Destroyer. The plan goes off without a hitch: Obota cons the Imperials into taking it, gets Kyle and Jan permission to land on Ruusan. In the skies, Kyle and Jan note the ruins of Fort Nowhere. The two of them happen upon Grif, Carole, Lasko, Kimber, Luther Pardy, and Portia and Kyle retells Morgan's fate and how he became a Jedi-in-training, and ended up on Ruusan. The survivors suggest Kyle meet with the bouncers. When they go to meet the bouncers, they find Imperials trying to slaughter the helpless creatures. Kyle and the survivors interfere, at the cost of every survivor except Grif. The bouncers agree to help Kyle, Jan, Grif, and WeeGee get to the Valley. Meanwhile, Yun has nightmares of killing Nij Por Ral. Maw wakes Yun up and brings him to Jerec; the Dark Jedi informs Yun that they're going to the surface of Ruusan, to the Valley of the Jedi. In the catacombs, Yun receives training from the Force ghost of Qu Rahn; Yun ends up saving the life of a stormtrooper, something Sariss notes, but doesn't understand. Yun is then sent out to track down Kyle Katarn, but having sensed Kyle in the badlands, decides to repay Kyle for sparing his life and looks the other way. Kyle, Grif, Jan, WeeGee, and Floater the bouncer sneak by and almost arrive at the Valley, when Grif sacrifices himself to kill a probe droid.
Kyle leaves Jan, WeeGee, and the bouncer behind, but Jan gets captured, the bouncer killed, and WeeGee deactivated and the Moldy Crow impounded. Kyle infiltrates the Imperial Base and receives warning from Rahn about Maw. Maw ambushes Kyle and they fight. Kyle defeats the Boltrunian Dark Jedi and Maw taunts Kyle by admitting that he was the one who placed Morgan's head on a spike in Barons Hed; Kyle gives in to his darkness and beheads Maw. Jerec applauds and reveals that he captured Jan and demands the Kyle surrender to the dark side, but Kyle refuses. Jerec uses Destruction to destroy the landing pad and Kyle barely makes it to the Moldy Crow, but he shock wave hits and Kyle crashes in the Valley floor. Kyle's knocked unconscious and witnesses the final moments of the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, becomes Jedi Master Tal who tries to voice his concern about confronting the Brotherhood of Darkness in the Valley, but Lord Hoth ignores this; becomes Sith Lord LaTor who helps Sith Lord Skere Kaan prepare the thought bomb; witnesses Lord Hoth confront Kaan and how Kaan detonated the bomb, and how it backfired and captured the 100 Jedi volunteers of the Army of Light and 100 Sith spirits and imprisoned them in the Valley of the Jedi.
Kyle wakes up and finds Boc, Sariss, and Yun standing over him. Boc destroys Rahn's lightsaber. Sariss orders Boc to leave and tell Jerec that she killed Kyle. Yun, in a moment of pity for Kyle, blocks his mothers strike; Sariss kills her son, and, angered at Kyle, tries her best to kill him, but Kyle picked up a couple of expert sword fighting techniques from Tal and LaTor. He takes Yun's lightsaber and kills Sariss, then heads into the Valley to find Jerec. Kyle frees Jan, but Boc attacks with his two lightsabers. Kyle fights Boc and manages to kill him using a dark side technique called Spear of Midnight Black. Jerec applauds Kyle for once more giving into the dark side, but Kyle remains skeptical that the dark side has any claim on him. He duels Jerec with his new techniques and Force skills, but Jerec retreats when his hold on the Valley weakens. Kyle senses this and cocoons Jerec from the dark side. Jerec collapses as he's confronted with just the light side of the Force. Jerec reminds Kyle that he killed Morgan, but Kyle tosses Jerec's lightsaber back at the fallen Miraluka. Jerec charges Kyle, but the Jedi kills Jerec. The Valley erupts and the spirits go free. Kyle carves a memorial of Rahn and Morgan in a rock, then leaves with Jan and WeeGee.
All in all, the best damn conclusion to the Dark Forces trilogy and an epic way to set up the legend that would later become Kyle Katarn, as every game since (Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy) references the Valley of the Jedi incident. William C. Dietz created one hell of a story in this trilogy and I'm proud to have gotten the entire novella trilogy and read it several times over, amazed each time it ends.
Up next, possibly the most hated game tie-ins to ever grace the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the novelization of the eight hour video game that's generally disliked by everyone: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams, based on a game by Haden Blackman.
