Shatterpoint (novel)

Shatterpoint is a novel written by Matthew Stover. The first novel in the Clone Wars novel series, it was originally published as a hardcover by Del Rey in June 2003. The paperback edition was published in April 2004, with a prologue by George Lucas and the short story Equipment, also by Matthew Stover. The eBook format of Shatterpoint was released in December 2005. The book is part of the Clone Wars multimedia project.

The story centers around Jedi Master Mace Windu as he attempts to rescue his former Padawan, Depa Billaba, from his homeworld of Haruun Kal. Caught up in the Summertime War, Mace found himself dealing with, among other things, the religious consequences of war and the toll it takes on people. However, he was too late to save the one person who was like a daughter to him. Lured to the dark side of the Force by Kar Vastor (the last of Gösh Windu, aside from Mace), Depa attacked and was defeated by her former master. Upon being returned to Coruscant, Billaba remained floating in bacta in an insane status. Though her physical wounds would heal, she would remain in a comatose state until her end.

American

 * ISBN 978-0-345-45573-4 and ISBN 0-345-45573-8; Del Rey, June 3, 2003, 406-page hardcover
 * ISBN 978-0-553-71367-1 and ISBN 0-553-71367-1, Del Rey, June 3, 2003, Abridged CD
 * ISBN 978-0-345-45574-1 and ISBN 0-345-45574-6; Del Rey, April 27, 2004, 432-page paperback
 * ISBN 978-0-345-46423-1 and ISBN 0-345-46423-0; Del Rey, December 6, 2005, eBook

Foreign

 * ISBN 3-442-36009-9; 2004, Blantvalet, 471-page German paperback (Mace Windu und die Armee der Klone)
 * ISBN 80-252-0255-0; 2005, EGMONT ČR, 318-page Czech paperback (Štěpný bod)
 * ISBN 5-699-11221-9; 2005, Eksmo Publishing, 544-page Russian hardcover (Уязвимая точка)
 * ISBN 84-95070-40-5; 2004, Alberto Santos Editor, 346-page Spanish paperback (Punto de Ruptura)

Hardcover
"I know you will come for me, Mace. You should never have sent me here&hellip;. I know you think I've gone mad. But I haven't. What's happened to me is much worse&hellip;."

- Back cover summary

"The Jedi are keepers of the peace. We are not soldiers."

- Mace Windu

''Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, senior member of the Jedi Council, skilled diplomat, devastating fighter. Some say he is the deadliest man alive. But he is a man of peace—and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war.''

Now, following the momentous events climaxing in the Battle of Geonosis, Master Mace Windu must undertake a perilous homecoming to his native world—to defuse a potentially catastrophic crisis for the Republic&hellip;and to confront a terrifying mystery with dire personal consequences.

''The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground in the increasing hostilities between the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba—Mace's former Padawan and fellow Council member—to Haruun Kal to train the local tribesmen as a guerilla resistance force, to fight against the Separatists who control the planet and its strategic star system with their droid armies. But now the Separatists have pulled back, and Depa has not returned. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording left at the scene of a brutal massacre: a recording that hints of madness and murder, and the darkness in the jungle&hellip;a recording in Depa's own voice.''

''Mace Windu trained her. Only he can find her. Only he can learn what has changed her. Only he can stop her.''

''Jedi were never intended to be soldiers. But now they have no choice. Mace must journey alone into the most treacherous jungle in the galaxy—and into his own heritage. He will leave behind the Republic he serves, the civilization he believes in, everything but his passion for peace and his devotion to his former Padawan. And he will learn the terrible price that must be paid, when keepers of the peace are forced to make war&hellip;.''

Paperback
'''Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, skilled diplomat, and devastating fighter. But he is also a man of peace—and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war.'''

'The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground for the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba—Mace's former Padawan—to the planet to train the local tribesmen as a guerrilla resistance force to fight against the Separatists. But Depa has vanished. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording that hints of madness and murder&hellip;a recording in Depa's own voice.''

''Mace Windu trained her. Only he can find her. Now Mace must journey alone into one of the most treacherous jungles in the galaxy—and into his own heritage. He will leave behind the Republic he serves, the civilization he believes in, everything but his passion for peace and his devotion to his former Padawan. And he will learn the terrible price that must be paid when keepers of the peace are forced to make war.''

Plot summary
In 22 BBY Mace Windu's former Padawan and fellow Jedi Master Depa Billaba has been sent to Haruun Kal to start a revolution against the Separatist-allied government two months after the Battle of Geonosis, which started the Clone Wars, back in Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones; however, all contact has been lost with her. Four months after Depa is shipped to Haruun Kal, a message is found on a voice chip inside a dead woman's mouth that indicates that Depa has fallen to the dark side of the Force or even gone insane. Since Windu taught her Vaapad, the seventh form of lightsaber combat which makes it look like a Jedi and his/her lightsaber is in all directions at once since it was named after a creature that could move that fast, he knows he is the only one who knows how to stop her, and so he is sent by the Jedi Council by himself to his birth world. He knows that Vaapad brings one dangerously close to the dark side of the Force.

While Haruun Kal was not much of a military target, the majority of the population had a relatively large amount of Force-sensitive beings known as Korunnai, which the Republic wanted to keep away from the Separatists. Billaba was sent to train the people of the world to be allied against the Separatists. This was mostly successful already, but after a hologram was found with recorded data of Billaba killing an innocent civilian, Windu went to remove his former apprentice from the planet. Eventually, after a fight, he was forced to arrest his former apprentice. He later contacted the nearby Republic cruiser, the Halleck. At this time, tribes on the planet started battling amongst each other.

Halleck arrived in-system, and was quickly attacked by Vulture droids. It started deploying Republic gunships, which came under attack by the droid starfighters. Clone troopers with repulsorpacks started spilling out of the Halleck, and put themselves in front of the droid starfighters to destroy them. Some of the landing craft made it to the surface, but many were picked off. CT-6/774, a bubble-gun turreter on a LAAT, was blown off his gunship in space. Their DC-15 blasters did little to ward off the attacking Vulture droids. With the help of an RP trooper, he was saved, and destroyed the last droid starfighter. Windu then ordered the clones to take out a nearby droid command facility.

Upon reaching the surface of Haruun Kal, Windu is met by opportunistic bureaucrat and Planetary Security Chief Lorz Geptun, tasked with defending the city dwelling population against attacks from the Korunnai. He also meets up with an allegedly Republic-allied operative called Phloremirrla Tenk, who is shot by a gang led by Nick Rostu, a Korunnai, and his associates: Besh, Lesh, and Chalk. Nick reveals to Mace that Tenk was a Separatist agent, and that they had saved Mace's life by killing her.

Nick promises to take Mace to meet up with Depa, and the group head into the harsh jungles of Haruun Kal on grassers, a sort of herd animal native to the planet. During the excursion, Mace learns of the Summertime War, a conflict on the planet that has been raging for thirty years between the native Korunnai, or 'Koruns', and the immigrated population, called 'Balawai' by the Korunnai, over differences in priorites: the Korunnai mold the jungle to their needs, while the Balawai, who essentially possess corporate concerns, want the jungle intact for various commodities. The Balawai are also now involved with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. A militia-operated gunship attack on the group is repelled, but Lesh falls victim to fever-wasps, incubating in his brain from chewing contaminated thyssel bark, and Mace euthanizes him. Besh is also infected with fever-wasps, but Mace identifies him as having a chance to live, and the group moves on, taking refuge in a Balawai shelter. However, Mace is drawn to a crashed steamcrawler full of civilian children, and rescues the survivors.

The pursuant events give rise to Mace's first encounter with the Lor Pelek Kar Vastor, a Korun Dark Jedi with a cadre of elite henchmen called Akk Guards, as Vastor and the Akk Guards massacre a crowd of Balawai. Following the incident, Kar reveals that he is of Mace's clan, and that he will allow Mace to see Depa. Mace meets up with a bedraggled Depa, and sees that she has been taken over by the darkness inherent in the jungle. Mace later duels Vastor and is beaten, and Vastor lays claim to the master's lightsaber. Despite the conflict, Vastor allies with Mace, and the alliance, including newly-anointed 'Major' Nick Rostu, fights off a CIS/Balawai militia force with grassers and akk dogs.

The Acclamator I-class assault ship Halleck, which Mace has had standing off in a nearby system for cover and evacuation, arrives on the Master's order, but is attacked by Vulture droid starfighters. Badly damaged, the ship deploys Jadthu-class landers and retreats.

Pulling a tricky stunt, the Mace Windu-led party takes control of a [Turbostorm-class gunship]

During his search into the jungles of Haruun Kal, Master Windu encountered the powerful but untrained Force master Kar Vastor, a local Lor pelek armed with vibroshields made of a superconductive material harvested from Jedi spaceships that had crashed on the planet during the Great Sith War. With these weapons, and a primitive - but quite potent - use of the Force, Kar trained several Korunnai to become a cadre of elite Force-users, known locally as the Akk guards. In short order, Master Windu guided the offworld immigrants and the natives into a ending the war that had raged between them for generations. In the process, he also succeeded in subduing Kar Vastor, seriously wounding him with his own vibroshield. Once incapacitated, the Lor pelek was apprehended by Republic forces. This encounter is one of many that pushed Mace dangerously close to the dark side.

Later, during a battle with three Sienar gunships, Lesh succumbs to parasitic wasp larvae contracted from eating thyssel bark contaminated with their eggs. Mace uses a lightsaber to burn the same parasites out of Besh, only to later see him butchered by a young Balawai named Terrel Nakay, who attacked the cabin that the four Korunnai occupied. This betrayal occured even after Mace had saved Terrel and his siblings from a nearby volcano eruption. After the battle, and against the advice of Windu, Vastor abandoned the violent Balawi youths out in the jungle where they were sure to die, a fate known as "jungle justice". Although Vastor himself had once survived the same death sentence, but only after the time he spent in the jungle had drastically changed his voice to sound more animal than human. Due to this scarring, and his strong presence in the Force, only those to whom Vastor spoke directly could fully understand his meaning. Mace saved the Balawai from their sentence and returned them back to civilization. This action angered the already dominating and animalistic Kar Vastor extremely, so an epic fistfight between the two Force users ensued. In the condition that recent events had left him, Mace knew he couldn't win, but battled Vastor into a near stalemate. At the urging of Depa, Vastor agreed to let Windu live, while keeping Mace's lightsaber as punishment. This effectively provided the two Jedi with a homing beacon for the Lor pelek, since the Korunnai could shield his Force presence at will. Mace later managed to reclaim his lightsaber from Vastor and used it to duel the Depa, who had become almost completely lost to the dark side. This battle was another in Windu's light-side status became imperiled, though Depa narrowly came away with her life, while possibly losing her own sentience in the fight.

At first in the Battle of Haruun Kal, Kar Vastor and Depa Billaba are on Mace, Nick and Chalk's side, but after Mace leaves Vastor and Depa with a group of clone commanders at a communications bunker, Vastor kills the clone commander and takes charge and blows up the ship Mace, Nick and Chalk are on. Fortunately, the three Korunnai managed to escape since Vastor hinted at what would happen to them through the comm call on the ship that told them about how he took charge at the bunker. After Chalk is put to a medical facility due to her wounds in battle, Lorz Geptun helps Mace stop the Battle of Haruun Kal by going into a communications bunker and then keying in a code that shut down all droid starfighters while Mace himself dueled Depa and Nick Rostu, while a group of clone troopers and Geptun's men battle Kar Vastor and his Akk guards, a fight in which many are killed, including the Akk guards, with Nick left critically wounded from a vibroshield slash to the gut. However, Geptun was unable to gain access to the code because it was locked, but it was Mace's duel with Depa that severed that lock as the elder Jedi Master simply dropped to the floor from exhaustion from the duel and Depa accidentally slashed her saber through the lock, giving Geptun access to the code and Depa went comatose. Afterwards, Mace managed to subdue Vastor to Republic authorities and all the Korunnai were arrested and the Balawai become the good and honest police officers they were meant to be while Mace returned to Coruscant, locked up Vastor in the Jedi Temple and Nick became an official soldier in the Clone Wars after his wound was healed while Chalk would die six months later.

Behind the scenes
Shatterpoint was the first book released in the Clone Wars multimedia campaign.

The plot of Shatterpoint was highly influenced by both Joseph Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness, and the movie based on it, Apocalypse Now. This was chosen to give a grittier feel to the story, and Matthew Stover describes the concept as arising in a brainstorming session, encapsulated in a single sentence "Apocalypse Now with Jedi".

The events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the events of the New Jedi Order series book, Star by Star are foreshadowed in this book. After defeating Depa Billaba and Kar Vastor, Mace experiences a moment of disorientation, where he does not remember where he is. He thinks "He could have even been in the Jedi Temple. But the Temple would never smell like this. Would it?" This moment foreshadows the execution of Order 66 and the subsequent slaughter in the Temple halls. Earlier in the novel, Mace has a nightmare, where he envisions "Coruscant shattered by immense ships of impossible design&hellip;the center of galactic civilization has become a jungle more alien than Haruun Kal's," foreshadowing the bombardment and Vongforming of Coruscant.

On one page, akk is misspelled as aak.

Stover heavily references Shatterpoint, along with Labyrinth of Evil and numerous graphic novels, in his novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Shatterpoint.