SPOILER Star Wars Insider Short Story : "Orientation"

Hello all, my name is ZebroGodilla, a member of the Cantina’s 1030th Garrison. I’ve shuffled around helping with Instagram and the Cantina forums before, but I will now focus on a piece of Star Wars canon that has not been fully detailed or described – the Star Wars Insider Short Stories. Let’s get to it!

In Star Wars Insider #157, our short story for May/June is “Orientation”, written by John Jackson Miller, well known for his Legends novel, Kenobi, and the first Canon novel, A New Dawn, and art by Brian Rood. “Orientation” is a story set just before the upcoming novel, Lords of the Sith, and a little bit before A New Dawn, and it has some very interesting characters and near-results that make this another solid piece in the Star Wars Canon.


“Orientation” is described as taking place on the Imperial Cruiser Defiance.


Set 21 years after The Phantom Menace, there are four major characters –



Darth Sidious and Darth Vader



Commandant Pell Baylo



Rae Sloane, a character first introduced in A New Dawn

Summary: On a trip to Ryloth, Sidious orders a stop at the Denon system, where he confers with his naval chiefs on how to streamline all of the old Republic military academies into one assembly for the Empire. He leaves Vader with Baylo, and old man near his 80’s with a sever back pain, who spews aphorisms regarding how to run a ship, and is loved by his students, yet Vader understands the only reason the meeting takes place on Baylo’s ship is that he wants to keep his school intact. Sloane, a little bit before A New Dawn takes places, is the first to set the route to Christophsis out of all the trainees, but is then reprimanded by Baylo, who makes a few changes to the course. While everyone agrees with the decision, Vader remains wary. As Baylo leaves after being called by the Emperor, Vader halts the jump at the last minute, and forces Sloane to speak her mind and reveal the truth. After meeting with Baylo outside the Emperor’s office, they both enter, and the story visibly turns more emotional and shocking. Vader reveals he stopped Baylo from sending them straight into the sun of Christophsis, surprising Baylo and the Emperor, as the ship safely drops out of hyperspace near a Star Destroyer. When questioned, Baylo then begins to reveal that he would’ve sacrificed himself and the ship to bring an end to the Emperor, and that he was a proud man of the true Republic trying to stop the Emperor from changing the people of the galaxy into mindless drones. Vader at this point chokes and destroys Baylo’s windpipe, and is scolded by Sidious, who wished to slowly torture Baylo by destroying his school piece by piece. Sloane enters the office and is shocked to see a dead Baylo, and the story ends with Sidious ordering to Sloane that the ship name would be changed from the Defiance to Obedience.


Overall, this story revealed and expanded on some interesting points. We have Baylo, a man of the military, but also a lover of the Republic, who nearly kills the Emperor and Vader through a hyperspace jump, giving a small sense of vulnerability to the Emperor. Sloane is expanded from her first introduction in A New Dawn, before her promotion to a Star Destroyer interim commander and her service with Count Vidian, with more emphasis on her skills and intelligence described. More interesting however, is the continuing connections between Anakin Skywalker and Vader, and Vader’s relationship with Sidious. We see Anakin’s quick thinking and judgement skills show through Vader’s decision to halt the certain-death jump into Christophsis’s sun. Christophsis is also where a major battle occurred in the Clone Wars, where Anakin and Ahsoka first met, and the first planet shown in The Clone Wars movie. Vader also makes a nice remark regarding Baylo’s back pain that students whisper he struggles through, stating that Baylo “knows nothing of true pain”. Vader’s relationship with Sidious is also well done, as he is both subservient yet proud, and he feels with Sidious that he gets to carry out what his master wishes in return for secrets of the Dark Side, and nothing is hidden or kept away from his like when he was a Jedi. Vader is blinded that he is just a special and abused tool for Sidious to use at this point, which also ties in nicely with his change in action post-ANH in the new Marvel Comics, Star Wars and Vader.


That’s all for now, I hope you guys enjoyed learning a bit about the smallest and sometimes most interesting piece of new Star Wars canon!

 

They are not, Insider exclusive. But they are good connective tissue with the novels and comics.

 

Totally agree. I think there are PT connections, but actually jumping back into the PT will take a while. We still have the 10 year period between TPM and AOTC to cover, which has barely ever been covered, so focus on OT leading to ST, and then jumping to PT again is what I believe is the plan.

 

I agree and disagree. I want Plagueis to be canon very much so, but some things are still contradictory. I think we will see it be reference and pulled from, like the Kanan comic book series has done with Shatterpoint regarding Master Bilaba.

 

Not really, unless you have an online subscription or something, but nothing other than this - legally.

 

I read it, but I think this is a rare occasion. Profit wise, it would hurt Titan if they released a new short story a month, then that story was released online in a few short weeks after. It would have to be a long delay, like 6 months. Blade Squadron came out a while back, and the ending will somewhat be online I suppose It;s a more narrative style of short stories, which I really like!

 

Oh, my bad then! There's a chance, but Blade Squadron Part 1 is 10 issues old, so maybe 10 issues later?