The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic I: Remnant

Force Heretic I: Remnant, the first book in the Force Heretic Trilogy, is a novel by Sean Williams and Shane Dix, published in 2003.

American

 * ISBN 0345428706; February 13, 2003, Del Rey, 413-page paperback

Foreign

 * ISBN 3442244331; November 2006, Blanvalet, 471-page German book (Die Ruinen von Coruscant)

Publisher's summary
As the bloodied and weary galaxy faces battle once more, the Jedi take on the formidable task of bringing the last of the Empire into the light&hellip;

''From the ashes of the New Republic&mdash;torn to shreds by the savage Yuuzhan Vong forces&mdash;the newly formed Galactic Alliance has risen, determined to bring peace to the entire galaxy. But first the Yuuzhan Vong must be contained once and for all. And so Luke Skywalker seeks a world long lost to legend: Zonama Sekot, a sentient planet believed to have repelled an invasion by the Yuuzhan Vong decades ago. Deciphering the enigmatic secrets of Zonama Sekot just might turn the tides of this relentless war.''

Aboard the Jade Shadow'', Luke, his wife Mara, Jacen Solo, and other Jedi head off into the Unknown Regions, where rumors and clues suggest Zonama Sekot might be found. Yet the mission has barely begun when the searchers stumble into a horrific battle. The Imperial Remnant, in retreat from the mighty Yuuzhan Vong, is about to be destroyed. It would seem those aboard the Jade Shadow have little choice but to leave the Empire to its fate. But these are no ordinary space travelers, they are Jedi&hellip;''

Plot Summary
The novel opens up with Saba Sebatyne arriving at Barab I and finds that it has been completely destroyed without a single survivor by the Yuuzhan Vong. Saba duels in a space battle with a group of coralskippers in Barab I's orbit, defeats them and takes out a large, organ-like ship which is also by the Vong, which spills out its contents into six-pointed stars and Saba realizes that the ship had carried her people. And she killed them.

Three months later, Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, Jacen Solo, Tekli and Danni Quee all decide to leave Mon Calamari to search for the lost planet of Zonama Sekot, and Luke decides to take Saba along to deal with the grief of killing her own species. Their first stop: Bastion, capital of the Empire. Meanwhile, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel and the rest of Twins Suns Squadron go on a mission to reestablish contacts in the Unknown Regions, starting with Galantos, home of the Fia. Leia chooses Tahiri Veila to come along after she blacks out on Mon Calamari and no one, not even Tahiri, knows why, although when Tahiri called Jaina before she blacked out, she screamed out insanely that Anakin Solo was trying to kill her.

On Yuuzhan'tar, after his failure to the Yuuzhan Vong with the Battle of Ebaq 9, former Executor Nom Anor is hiding in the underworld of the Vong home planet in order to avoid being killed or captured by the Vong warriors Supreme Overlord Shimrra has hired. Along the way, Nom Anor comes across a Shamed One named Vuurok I'pan who tells Nom Anor about a group of rising Shamed Ones that intends to establish a new Vong religion that will look up to the Jedi as saviours, and Nom Anor is taken to the group. He begins his established trust with them and also plans on how to get his reputation back without getting killed by Shimrra's forces.

Luke, Mara, Jacen, Danni and Saba all arrive at Bastion to find that it is being attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. The Imperial forces that survived the attack flee to Yaga Minor and Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon is presumed deceased after the attack. However, the Chimaera, Pellaeon's flagship Star Destroyer, makes it to Yaga Minor almost completely destroyed and it is revealed Pellaeon is in a coma after the attack. Fortunately, Pallaeon is saved by Tekli who gets him out of the coma in a bacta tank, but Pellaeon will have to remain in the tank for quite some time before he can fully recover from the injuries of the attack. However, Pellaeon still becomes part of the plan to stop the next Vong attack and everyone agrees to lead the next battle between the Empire and Vong to the planet Borosk.

On Galantos, while Han, Leia and Tahiri are living in one of Al'solib'minet'ri City's suites, and Jaina and Jag are in orbit with the rest of Twin Suns Squadron with the Pride of Selonia, Tahiri wanders off and comes to a suite with a totem of the Vong god, Yun-Yammka, the Slayer. A group of Fian guards come for Tahiri and she confronts them with her lightsaber, but before any real violence can brake out, she faints again. Meanwhile, after hearing about this, Jaina takes two of Jagged's Chiss pilots to N'zoth, home of the Yevetha. But when they arrive, they find that it has been destroyed by the Vong, and a surviving Yevethan pilot, who sends a message to the three pilots about how the Vong are the greater species than the Yevetha, self-destructs his own ship, killing one of the Chiss pilots and sending Jaina and the surviving Chiss pilot back to Galantos, where the Vong arrive to attack.

At Borosk, the showdown between the Empire and the Vong begin at the still-bacta-encased Pellaeon's command. Jacen finds out who are the Vong and Peace Brigade infiltrators in the Empire are and gathers them into a meeting in one room. The Vong warriors battle Jacen and die with the help of a group of stormtroopers while the Brigaders are arrested and Saba notices a slaveship, an organ-shaped ship she saw back on Barab I, and decides to send in a Katana fleet Dreadnaught, naming it the Braxant Bonecrusher as bait for the slaveship to take in her and Danni so they can save the people inside the ship. The plan works, and Danni sends in a group of Yuuzhan Vong Hunter mouse droids to poison the two Vong stationed at the console of the slaveship. After a while, the poison works on the Vong, and Saba cuts a hole at the slaveship that frees, her, Danni and the surviving captives with the hardening blorash jelly protecting them from the vacuum of space. The Star Destroyer Widowmaker, with Jacen in command, saves Danni, Saba and the slaves.

Eventually, the Vong invasion at Galantos is repelled by Galactic Alliance forces and it is revealed that the Ryn are now spies secretly looking on Yuuzhan Vong operations after an agent is helped by Tahiri off Galantos. The Ryn agent tells Han, Leia and Tahiri to send the party's accompanying Galactic Alliance forces to the Vong's next possible attack at Bakura.

Back at Borosk, the Empire wins its showdown against the Vong invasion force and repels them away from Imperial space. Pellaeon fully recovers from the bacta tank and declares that the Empire officially join the Galactic Alliance. At first, the Moff Council are extremely disagree with this notion, but after Pellaeon convinces them that it will help repel another future Vong invasion, they all agree. Moff Flennic still doesn't agree with the official truce to be declared, and even pulls a blaster on Pellaeon to emphasize his point when he loses support from the rest of the Council. After Flennic is repelled by stormtroopers, Pellaeon gives him the choice of incarceration for his treason or to be pardoned and agree on the alliance between the Galactic Alliance and the Empire. Flennic chooses the latter and he is pardoned by Pellaeon for his treason, but Pellaeon emphasizes that this event will never be forgotten. With that, Luke, Mara, Jacen, Danni and Saba depart the Empire to head for Chiss space to continue their search for Zonama Sekot.

On Yuuzhan'tar, Nom Anor, disguised as a separate Yuuzhan Vong individual, escapes death from Vong warriors when nearly all the members in the camp he is being sheltered in are killed. The only two surviving members with him are Kunra, a Shamed Yuuzhan Vong warrior, and Shoon-mi Esh, another Shamed One. The three decide to revive the Jedi heresy the Shamed Ones are living by and Anor establishes a new identity known as Yu'shaa, thee Vong prophet.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Force Heretic I: Remnant.

Behind the scenes
On page 212 of the paperback, Coruscant is mentioned as a recent departure point for a mission to Galantos. This is, in fact, a mistake, and was actually Dac.

On pages 87 and 95 of the paperback, Csilla is spelled "Csillia".