The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force

The Unifying Force is the final novel of the New Jedi Order series. Its hardcover version was released on November 4, 2003. A CD-ROM was included with the hardcover release, which contained the eBook version of Vector Prime. The paperback included the Star Wars: New Jedi Order Round-Robin Interview.

Editions

 * ISBN 0345428528; November 4, 2003, Del Rey, 529-page hardcover
 * ISBN 0553713701; November 4, 2003, Random House Audio, Abridged CD
 * ISBN 0345428536; August 3, 2004, Del Rey, 576-page paperback
 * ISBN 8324124276; Amber, 596-page Polish paperback
 * ISBN 0099410524; 2004, Arrow Books Ltd., 576-page UK paperback

Back cover
'''Triumph or obliteration? For the New Jedi Order and the unrelenting Yuuzhan Vong, it will be the last, epic battle&mdash;the ultimate fight that will decide the fate of the universe...'''

Internal flap
''The Galactic Alliance's hard-won success in combating the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong has proven all too brief&mdash;and the tide has turned again to the invader's advantage. The Yuuzhan Vong, having overcome the strategies of the Jedi and their allies, have pushed deeper into the galaxy and conquered more worlds. Coruscant has been remade into the capital of the extragalactic aliens and renamed Yuuzhan'tar. The remaining defenders of the galaxy are struggling to form a united front. Luke, Mara and Jacen are missing in action. Clearly the stage is set for endgame.''

''While Han and Leia receive the horrifying news that hundreds of high-ranking Alliance prisoners face death in a sacrifice to the alien invader's bloodthirsty gods, Luke and his team try to persuade Zonama Sekot to help in the war effort. Yet as they speak, the Alliance capital world Mon Calamari is under attack.''

''At the same time, the Jedi's alliances throughout the galaxy are being tested and the chances of an Alliance victory are being jeopardized by rogue factions determined to deploy the lethal Alpha Red that will exterminate the entire Yuuzhan Vong species. Also among the Yuuzhan Vong, there is a threat of revolt by the oppressed lower classes of their society. Oppressed Shamed Ones and high-ranking officials alike fear that their Supreme Overlord Shimrra's actions will provoke the wrath of their gods. Ultimately, for both opposing forces, too much has been sacrificed and too much is at stake. And now, the final battle between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Galactic Alliance.''

Paperback
In the spectacular finale of the New Jedi Order series, Luke, Han, and Leia rally for their last stand against the enemy that threatens not only the galaxy but the Force itself.

''The Galactic Alliance's hard-won success in countering the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong onslaught has proven all too brief&mdash;and the tide has turned more to the invaders' advantage. The marauding aliens have pushed deeper into the galaxy in their ruthless quest for domination. The remnants of the resistance are struggling to form a united front. Clearly the stage is set for endgame.''

''Now, as Luke and his team try desperately to convince the living world of Zonama Sekot to join the Jedi's final campaign against the Yuuzhan Vong, a lone space station is all that stands between Alliance headquarters and ferocious enemy forces, which are poised to wage their most decisive assault. For both sides, too much has been sacrificed&mdash;and too much is at stake&mdash;to ever turn back. And now nothing can stand in the way of seizing victory...or facing annihilation.''

Plot summary
Prior to the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar that occurs in the novel, a series of events and other battles - such as the Battle of Selvaris, the Battle of Caluula, the Battle of Corulag and the Battle of Dac - lead up to the downfall of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire. Elsewhere, the living planet of Zonama Sekot is still traveling via hyperspace for the Coruscant system since the events of the previous novel, The Final Prophecy. The characters taking refuge in the planet's caves and other safety features (see the plot summaries of Force Heretic III: Reunion and The Final Prophecy to find out who the characters on Zonama are, though the Imperial Remnant xenobiologist Soron Hegerty is absent in this novel) recover the Yuuzhan Vong Priest Harrar, who was thought to be dead in his previous confrontation with the treacherous Nom Anor. Harrar and the characters who saved him would later come to realize during their travel to Yuuzhan'tar that Zonama Sekot is actually the seed of the Yuuzhan Vong home planet, the original Yuuzhan'tar, which was destroyed during the ancient Cremlevian War back in the Vong's home galaxy. From the destruction of their home planet, the Vong were stripped of their Force-sensitivity and experienced great pain, as they had lived in symbiosis with the original Yuuzhan'tar, rendering them unable to contact the Force or be detected in it ever again from that point on. This was among one of the reasons that they hold pain and death in such high worship to their religion, because, when they were cut off from the Force, they realized that pain and death were the only other forms of symbiosis that they could achieve. Thus, the Vong had cemented this new way of life into their religion by creating gods who look for such positive regard to embracing what all living beings must suffer in life and more. And when the Cremlevian War had devastated the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy as a whole, it forced them to journey into the Intergalactic Void in search of another galaxy for them to conquer and live in, thus leading into the eventual invasion of this galaxy. Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo experiences the return of the voice that told him to "stand firm" at Duro three years earlier, along with the vision of failing to catch the lightsaber tossed to him by his uncle Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, and he begins to wonder if he will make the right decisions in the coming showdown with the Yuuzhan Vong. Elsewhere, on Vong-shaped Yuuzhan'tar, Nom Anor is accepted back into his species' society and is promoted by Shimrra to the rank of Prefect, which is one step closer to his ultimate goal in life of being High Prefect, under the mistaken belief that Nom Anor had killed Zonama Sekot. But unfortunately for him, he still has to bare the existence of the current High Prefect Drathul, who is also secretly a Quorealist, a member of the forbidden party who believes that Shimrra's late predecessor, Quoreal, was killed dishonorably by Shimrra, and that Quoreal was right about refusing to conquer the galaxy while the current Supreme Overlord was wrong in doing so. Drathul is vaguely aware of Nom Anor's lack of faith in the Vong religion and in Shimrra's competency as the Supreme Overlord. So the High Prefect tries to use this as leverage in order to coerce Nom Anor into being a Quorealist. However, the latter declines the offer, even at the threat of his own life. And what is even worse for Nom Anor's return to Yuuzhan Vong society is that his own Jedi heresy, which he conducted as Yu'shaa, Prophet of the Shamed Ones, continues to stand strong by the will of the Shamed and worker castes even without his leadership, thanks to his once-trusted aide, the Shamed warrior Kunra. And within the Galactic Alliance, Admiral Ackbar dies of old age, something that saddens the military of the Alliance before their showdown with the Yuuzhan Vong.

Eventually, Zonama Sekot arrives in the Coruscant system, coinciding with Nom Anor's false prophecy to the Shamed Ones and workers' Jedi heresy as it appears in the Yuuzhan Vong capital's skies. This distorts the mainstream Vong social hierarchy and causes great joy in the Shamed Ones and workers for bringing their oppressive rulers down. It also causes Shimrra to go insane, as Nom Anor sees from the demands that the Supreme Overlord makes to the highly placed officials at his command. Shimrra even telepathically orders the World Brain to begin destroying Yuuzhan'tar so that it cannot be inhabited by anyone else in case the Vong lose the coming battle with the Galactic Alliance. Realizing that the Supreme Overlord and his order will be brought down, Nom Anor returns to his guise as Yu'shaa and fights alongside the Shamed Ones and workers against those who are still loyal to Shimrra as the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar begins. And while the Galactic Alliance forces battle the Yuuzhan Vong in space, on Yuuzhan'tar and at Zonama, Captain Han Solo, his wife and copilot Leia, and Harrar lead a mission aboard the Millennium Falcon to either convince the World Brain to cease its efforts of trying to destroy Yuuzhan'tar or kill it. But they are then captured by High Prefect Drathul and his forces, and Han, Leia, Harrar, C-3PO, R2-D2, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh are taken by them to be executed at the Well of the World Brain as a sacrifice. Meanwhile, Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker, Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila, and Master Kenth Hamner fight alongside the Shamed Ones and workers against Shimrra's forces, and Tahiri comes into contact with Nom Anor. She captures him and holds him for Mara to come over so that the latter can see it her way as to how he should be punished for all of the wrong he has done throughout the war. However, Nom Anor evades Tahiri's grasp and tries to escape, but Mara chases him down into an abandoned building. After a brief fight between Mara and Nom Anor, Mara defeats and nearly kills him for giving her the coomb spore virus years earlier and for all the other misdeeds which he has given the Jedi and the late New Republic during the invasion. But Nom Anor pleads for mercy, telling Mara that killing him would be an act of vengeance, of the dark side of the Force, which would greatly break her son Ben's heart. Even though Mara does not believe his claims that he has changed since he became Yu'shaa, which was part of his pleas, she spares him for other people to decide his fate after the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, assuming that the Galactic Alliance will win. He also tells her that Shimrra has ordered an Alpha Red-infected Vong ship, transferred from Caluula, to Zonama Sekot, because since Zonama's biology is closely related to the Yuuzhan Vong and their creations' own biology, it can kill the living planet. So the Jedi, Shamed Ones, and workers ally to save Han, Leia, Harrar, and the others from being executed and subsequently try to warn Galactic Alliance forces about the Vong's attempts at destroying Zonama Sekot. The latter situation is all for naught as the Alpha Red-infected ship successfully evades the Alliance's defensive forces to arrive at the living planet. Despite this, Drathul's forces are overwhelmed, even by traditional warriors who have seen the error of Shimrra's ways, while the High Prefect himself is strangled to death by Nom Anor, being that they were personal enemies. Meanwhile, Jacen is on his way, with Luke and sister/fellow Knight Jaina, to kill Shimrra and bring the war to an end with his death on the Galactic Alliance's victory, and they travel via the Sacred Precinct. During this time, Jacen, thanks to the mental connection that he made with the World Brain, breaks Shimrra's own telepathic connection over it and convinces it to cease its destruction of the planet. And while Luke, Jacen, and Jaina are battling and killing their way through Vong warriors, Luke manages to achieve oneness with the Force, letting it engulf him so that he is an unstoppable force of nature which no Vong can counter, and which neither Jacen nor Jaina can comprehend visually or through the Force as their uncle.

While the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar still rages, Luke, Jacen, and Jaina arrive at Shimrra's Citadel and proceed to kill him. But the Supreme Overlord is joined with several genetically modified warriors called Slayers, who were created for the sole purpose of killing Jedi, to duel Luke, Jacen and Jaina. Then the Citadel begins to sway and tip in all directions, making the characters think that the World Brain is doing it to help the Jedi combat the Slayers, but the battle becomes all the more difficult for both parties because of the swaying and tipping itself. In the end, though, the Slayers are all killed in combat against the three Jedi despite the former's efforts. However, after forcing his Citadel to stay put in its regular placement because of the mental connection that he has with it, Shimrra, after knocking Jacen unconscious when the latter tried to attack him, attacks Luke, poisons him with his special amphistaff, the Scepter of Power, and begins to suffocate the leader of all the Jedi by wrapping the Scepter around him. The Supreme Overlord then tries to finish Luke off with the lightsaber of the late Anakin Solo, which was collected by the Yuuzhan Vong after Anakin died at the Mission to Myrkr two years earlier and which was brought to Shimrra after the late Ganner Rhysode used it against the Vong prior to his death. Disregarding the Vong's hatred of mechanical technology to show Luke how it feels like to be fighting something that is part of, or at least similar to, their society, Shimrra reflects on the his species' battle against Zonama Sekot, the living planet that they feel should be sacred to them. Meanwhile, Jaina follows the Supreme Overlord's Shamed familiar Onimi into the Supreme Overlord's personal yorik-trema {evacuation ship), which results in the familiar knocking her unconscious via poison in his fang and chains her up in between statues of Vong deities on the ship's bridge. Back with the confrontation between Luke and Shimrra, Luke manages to cut the Scepter of Power into pieces with his lightsaber, preventing the Scepter from cutting off his air supply any further, retrieves his late nephew's lightsaber out of the Supreme Overlord's grasp and uses both lightsabers to decapitate Shimrra. Luke then collapses from the poison injected into his system by the Scepter of Power, and throws Anakin's lightsaber to Jacen, who woke up from being knocked out shortly after the event. But the latter misses the lightsaber, reflecting the vision that returned to him at Zonama Sekot of failing to catch the weapon. Despite this failure, Jacen is sent by the faltering Luke to retrieve Jaina.

On the bridge of Shimrra's yorik-trema, Jaina wakes up to Onimi, who reveals that he was actually the real Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong for all of this time. He believes that the Jedi are the avatars of the Vong gods, with Jaina being Yun-Harla the Trickster goddess, which she used as a persona in the latter half of the invasion as psychological warfare against the invaders. This supports Onimi's motivations as he explains that he was once a Shaper who fused his brain with yammosk tissue to gain knowledge for what he discovered, early on, to be the empty eighth cortex of Shaper science, which was meant to find a way to save the Yuuzhan Vong from the decades of violence against each other as they crossed the Intergalactic Void in order to find a new home. From the yammosk tissue fusion to his brain, Onimi became a Shamed One, blaming Yun'o (the Vong gods), especially Yun-Harla, for his afflictions in retaliation for trying to pass their divine knowledge. However, he found that he had regained the Yuuzhan Vong's lost connection to the Force, and then used it to manipulate Shimrra via hypnotism into invading the galaxy. Behind the scenes at Shimrra's throne, Onimi was the one who really led his species into the invasion, as he previously confirmed, and as the war began, he thought that Yun'o were just testing him and his species to see if they were worthy of the planets that the galaxy provided. But as the conflict dragged on with it worsening on the Vong's side, he then thought that the gods wanted to destroy him and his rule with Shimrra acting as his puppet. He asserts that Yun'o would not want one with such power to be stronger than they were if this was the reason that their creations were losing the war, especially with the living planet of Zonama Sekot among those battling the Vong. Since these events have transpired, Onimi had lost his mental hold on Shimrra, which was what brought upon the false Supreme Overlord's "insanity," as Nom Anor observed before the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar begun. It is also revealed by the real Supreme Overlord that he was responsible for controlling the World Brain in the failed attempt to destroy Yuuzhan'tar and that he was also responsible for the swaying and tipping of the Citadel. Onimi did the latter by using the mental connection that he had with it, which was obviously greater than Shimrra's, in order to increase whatever minuscule chances that the Slayers had in winning the battle.

Before the yorik-trema controlled by Onimi launches, the Jedi, the Shamed Ones, the Yuuzhan Vong workers, their traditional Vong allies and captives, and the Galactic Alliance commandos involved in the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar all arrive at Shimrra's Citadel where they find his decapitated form and Luke dying. Mara takes Luke aboard the Millennium Falcon for medical healing, while Harrar announces to the Shamed Ones, the workers and their traditional Vong allies and captives that Shimrra is dead, which enhances the joy of those against Shimrra over toppling his order, while those still loyal to the false Supreme Overlord are either in a state of defeat or disbelief. Meanwhile, Nom Anor leads Han and Leia aboard the yorik-trema to search for Jacen and Jaina, and then the evacuation ship launches. And as the ship reaches for space above Yuuzhan'tar, Jacen arrives on the bridge of the yorik-trema and confronts Onimi, who senses in him the "divine glow" of Yun-Shuno the Pardoner goddess of the Shamed Ones and workers, the downfall of everything that the invasion was set up for. After experiencing the return of the voice that told him to "stand firm" and realizing that it was that of his late grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, telling him to use the Force wisely against Onimi, Jacen does just that as he launches into a fight with the Supreme Overlord. And the young Jedi Knight who started out in the war as a doubtful and hesitant apprentice of Luke Skywalker manages to "fight without fighting," countering and throwing off Onimi's actions at every turn without making a single misstep or mistake in the combat himself. This confrontation also makes Jacen realize that he could not catch the lightsaber in either his vision or in real life because he is the (figurative) lightsaber who will defeat Onimi, the true Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong, the darkness that represents everything that the species stands for. As a result, Jacen achieves oneness with the Force, becomes too powerful for Onimi to fight off, and uses Force Light to pin the Supreme Overlord to the bulkhead behind him, effectively defeating him. Then Han, Leia, and Nom Anor come aboard the bridge to see Jacen's victory, and they find that he has aged much older by five years, erasing any trace of his childhood, an event, coupled with the backdrop of stars and fighting space forces shown from the yorik-trema's transparent hull, that burns into Leia's memory and will remain with her until the end of her life. Meanwhile, Onimi has been shapen properly again, but he then dies off from the combat with Jacen and disappears as a puddle of foul hydrocarbons. This was the result of the young Jedi Knight curing the Supreme Overlord of being Shamed in his defeat, and this left him unable to handle the toxic poisons inside his own body that he tried to use as weapons against Jacen, which the latter easily repelled as part of countering his opposite's actions in the fight. After Onimi's death, which marks the end of the true Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong, the yorik coral deck of the ship simply absorbs his liquid remnants into itself, and then the entire yorik-trema starts to die off because of the connection that it had with him. In Onimi's passing, the connection was severed, thus beginning the process of the ship's own death just as Shimrra's Citadel on Yuuzhan'tar explodes because of the same lost connection. Jacen then saves Jaina, and Nom Anor tries to kill the Solos for the misdeeds that they have given him by nearly tricking them into going into a garbage chute, making them think that it was an escape vessel. But because of Jacen's Vongsense, he detects Nom Anor's treachery and prevents the deaths of his family and of himself by providing this information to all those present. Nom Anor desperately tries one last attempt to escape them by using his plaeryin bol to shoot poison out at Jacen and use a device, disguised as a finger on his hand, to depart. But Jacen uses a Force technique taught to him by the late Vergere on rendering Nom Anor's poison barren in terms of its intended effects to transform it into water, thereby saving himself. Leia also stops Nom Anor from escaping by cutting off the hand from which he pulled the device with her lightsaber, immobilizing him. After Jacen tells him that it did not have to be this with way, Nom Anor proclaims that it did, because he fit in neither the native galactic society for his manipulation and treachery or the Yuuzhan Vong for his cowardice and selfishness. Regardless, he is offered by Han to escape the dying yorik-trema when they all reach the real escape vessel. But Nom Anor finds that the Yuuzhan Vong have lost the war and that he does not want to have any part of what is to come, considering what he just said that he did not fit in with either the galaxy or the Vong, and that he and Onimi were similar because they were both heretics. So he pushes Han aboard the escape vessel with his family, then leaves himself aboard the dying yorik-trema as it explodes above Yuuzhan'tar, displacing nearby Yuuzhan Vong battleships in its wake. This ends the life of Nom Anor, the Vong agent responsible for approximately half of the war as the Solos survive in the escape vessel, shooting back towards the Millennium Falcon that already has Mara and the dying Luke aboard. Jacen uses his tears to heal Luke and he recovers from Shimrra's amphistaff poison. The Solos and Skywalkers then reunite in a bittersweet embrace, glad that the war is finally over while C-3PO and R2-D2 watch on, with Threepio telling Artoo that he envies over what joy humans must feel in times like this.

Following the destruction of Shimrra's yorik-trema, with Warmaster Nas Choka witnessing this event, he knew that the Supreme Overlord died with it (which is technically true, since Onimi was the one who really led the Yuuzhan Vong into the war). Seeing that the Vong have lost, under the belief that they have lost Shimrra as the species' conduit to their gods and that their deities have turned against them, Choka ordered all of his forces in the galaxy to either surrender to the Galactic Alliance or commit suicide, officially heralding the war's end. As for the Alpha Red-infected ship, Zonama Sekot managed to destroy it before it could even touch the surface of the living world, similar to the fate of the rest of Alpha Red as the Galactic Alliance destroys all remaining samples, considering that it is no longer needed. Sekot also brought down all battleworthy vessels - its own, the Alliance's and the Vong's - down to Zonama's surface, getting rid of the invaders' weapons and halting the entire battle around it. And after the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, the Peace Brigade is disbanded and Choka makes a deal with the Galactic Alliance at the Sekot Accords; they will be spared, despite the invasion that they caused which resulted in 365 trillion native galactic deaths, and they will be brought to Zonama Sekot, the seed of the original Yuuzhan'tar. After Choka and his remaining obedient forces collect, as part of the deal, all other remaining Vong forces in the galaxy for Zonama, especially those who haven't heeded Choka's announcement that the war has ended, the living planet takes the remaining Vong in the galaxy and travels into hyperspace. From this hyperspace jump, Zonama Sekot disappears back into the Unknown Regions so that the Yuuzhan Vong will be safe from the vengeful Bothans, who still have their ar'krai declared against them. On the planet Zonama, and by the intelligence Sekot, the once-violent species will learn the meaning of peace and regain their connection to the Force. Joining Zonama Sekot and the Vong are the likes of Danni Quee and Tahiri. The Galactic Alliance also automatically reclaims Yuuzhan'tar as Coruscant as part of their victory, rebuilding what the Vong have destroyed and keeping some of what they introduced to the planet, including the World Brain, a sign of compromise that even Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey appreciates. Luke, along with meeting with his late Master Obi-Wan Kenobi via Force ghost for one last time, also announces that coinciding with the war's end is the beginning of the New Jedi Order's newfound belief of the Unifying Force, where the best way to serve the Force is to act accordingly to their consciences and stay out of the affairs of the Galactic Alliance in the postwar galaxy. Their new Temple will be located on Ossus to prove that point. Jacen, in the aftermath of achieving oneness with the Force in his fight with Onimi, decides to go off on a sojourn throughout the galaxy to study numerous beliefs and theories about the Force, train under them and find out which Force belief will be the most appropriate for him to follow now that the war is over. Imperial Remnant Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, as a token of his gratitude for the Galactic Alliance helping the Remnant defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, gives Han and Leia Ob Khaddor's Alderaanian moss painting known as the Killik Twilight, which Han and Leia lost to Grand Admiral Thrawn 21 years earlier when they were on a mission to Tatooine. Jaina is forced to finish her relationship with Colonel Jagged Fel because of Jag's duties to the Chiss Ascendancy and Jaina's duties to the rest of the galaxy, though Jag promises that whenever he can, he will visit Jaina. The book, and the series, finishes with many of the characters, including Jacen before he leaves for his sojourn, going back to Kashyyyk to honor the sacrifices of many who died in the war. Those such as Chewbacca and Anakin Solo are all paid respects for their losses. And on Chewbacca's grave, Han embeds Anakin's lightsaber so that if a threat as similar or as powerful as the Yuuzhan Vong were to ever strike terror in the galaxy ever again, someone as brave as Anakin will put out his lightsaber and use it to conquer that threat. The characters then have a feast and celebration afterward, laughing with humour and relief that once again, the galaxy is at peace.

Behind the scenes
Nom Anor was identified as an executor in Dramatis Personae, despite the fact that he was already a prefect at the beginning of the book.

Pash Cracken was identified as a Major, while in The Final Prophecy, mere months earlier, he was identified as a General.

Harrar was identified as a High Priest, while he always held the rank Priest in previous books.

Commander Czulkang Lah was retconned as a Supreme Commander.

The Jedi Masters were referred to as members of the Galactic Alliance Advisory Council, while they should be the members of the High Council.

Boba Fett returned and fought side by side with Han Solo for the first time.

Gilad Pellaeon mentioned that the Bastion Accords were signed five years earlier, while in fact the event had been ten years earlier.

Leia's Killik Twilight made its first real-world appearance since Tatooine Ghost.

There are several references to Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Two notable references are when Shimrra refers to three women as "black midnight hags" and when Onimi asks Nom Anor if he thought "we three would meet again."

A reference is made to one of Mark Twain's famous quotes near the end of chapter 13 when Nom Anor is on his way to speak to the heretics. He reassures the Shamed Ones that, "The rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated."

Ebaq 9 is sometimes referred to as "Ebaq Nine"

There is a reference to Dewlannamapia being at Chewbacca's funeral, but she had died over 30 years before.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of The Unifying Force.