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)

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

"Shit, nigga, I don't give a shit."

- Mace Windu

''Mace Windu is off the mothafuckin' chain: Jedi Master, black member of the Jedi Council, skilled ass foot massagist, one devastating mothafucka. 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.

On the surface, Windu used the gunships to blast apart the droid starfighters that pursued them onto the surface, then ordered the clones to take out a nearby droid command facility. Lorz Geptun was forced into surrendering to the forces of the Galactic Republic, and Billaba remained in a coma. All clone troopers on the surface were neutralized. A Republic unit stayed on Haruun Kal to manage the native Harunkalian tribes.

Immediately after his arrival on Haruun Kal, Windu met a few people such as Planetary Security Chief Lorz Geptun, smart-aleck korun soldier Nick Rostu, and untrained Force master Kar Vastor. Mace first met Geptun when the Jedi Master was arrested on the planet since his Jedi nature was discovered that lead to his guide, Flor Tenk's, death when a bunch of rogue Korunnai shot her in a gunfight, but Mace bribed Geptun, a friend of Tenk's, who Mace asked him if capturing him was worth his friend's life and Geptun replies that depends on Mace's capture, with money for him to get out and continue his journey to look for Depa. Geptun had first threatened Mace that he could very well turn him over to the Separatists if he could for pay. But near the end of the book, Mace realizes that Geptun is only pretending to be a dirty cop so he can protect his family from any harm, and Geptun helps Mace stop the Battle of Haruun Kal in the climax. Kar Vastor used dual-edged vibroshields made of superconductive material harvested from Jedi spaceships that crashed centuries before. The vibroshields were so well made that they are resistant to lightsabers but not to other vibro-shields. If held in contact with a lightsaber for a long time, the blade will melt the shields. Kar trained several people, usually referred to as the Akk guards, and Windu himself said that Kar has power on the level of a Jedi Knight. During the course of the book, Windu ended the Summertime War, a war that has raged between the immigrant Balawai and the native Korunnai for centuries, in a matter of hours, and took Kar Vastor into custody after wounding him with his vibroshield by using it with the Force to strike it near his heart and almost kill him, thus making sure he was stunned long enough to be apprehended by the Republic. Windu nearly fell to the dark side himself in order to defeat Billaba, who is possibly vegetative at the end of the book. Along with Nick Rostu, Mace first met Nick and his three friends, Chalk, Besh and Lesh in an alley when Mace was first attacked by Separatist forces in an alley. With the defeat of that force, Nick and his friends looted them for extra weapons and supplies and the foursome brought Mace into Haruun Kal's jungle to help him find Depa. Nick even reveals to Mace that Tenk was just luring him into a trap because she worked for the Separatists, and that they were the rogue Korunnai who saved Mace's life by killing Tenk. As it turns out, Nick is cocky with a touch of cowardice, but he cares for his people and hides his true feelings through kidding around, and when it comes down to it, Nick is a formidable warrior able to fight himself out of tough situations and has strong feelings for Chalk. Chalk is a typical Korunnai who is strong and a great warrior, and who also cares for his people. Besh and Lesh are both brothers, and Besh had his tongue cut out during the Summertime War with an opposing tribe, thus making him mute. Lesh dies of poisoning from eating a cooked bark that contained worms that ate in his skull some time during Mace's battle with three Sienar gunships that nearly took out the five Korunnai. Mace manages to burn the worms out with his and Depa's lightsaber (Nick gave Mace her lightsaber after the confrontation in the alley) and Besh was butchered to death by a Balawai teen named Terrel Nakay, who almost butchered Chalk to death at the same time in a cabin the four Korunnai (Lesh was already dead at this time) took over. As for the battle between Mace and the gunships, he destroyed only one of them and the other two got away, but not by fear of Mace, but by orders, as Mace would later figure out. Terrel was killed by Kar Vastor when Vastor slashed his vibroshield into him, and the Balawai teen, whom Mace first met when he saved him and his three younger sisters from a volcano on one rainy night. After Mace saved Terrel and his siblings from the volcano, he called Terrel's Balawai family to come and collect them and maybe gain the Balawai's trust in the matter, but the truce was over before it could begin when Vastor's forces attacked the cabin in a raging battle since they knew about the Korunnais' location. After the battle, Vastor decided to release the Balawai out in the jungle where they might die, known as "jungle justice" on Haruun Kal, and Vastor is the only one to have survived the "justice" but the time he spent in the jungle had drastically changed his voice up to the point that he sounds like an animal. But only the people that Vastor is speaking directly to can fully understand what he says. Mace had saved the surviving Balawai from the justice and released them back to civilization, a decision that angered Vastor extremely, leading up to a Force-powered fistfight betwween the two Mace knew he couldn't win, which was exactly what happened. By coercion of Depa, Vastor agreed to keep Mace's lightsaber for punishment for freeing the Balawai, but the two Jedi knew that that was a way to find out where Vastor was since the Korunnai can shield his Force presence at will. Sometime later, Mace managed to reclaim his lightsaber from Vastor and use it to duel Depa in the climax of the novel.

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 that work for the Trade Federation while Mace himself lightsaber dueled Depa and Nick Rostu and a group of clone troopers and Geptun's men battle Kar Vastor and his Akk guards, a fight in which many clone troopers and men are killed, as well as all the Akk guards, and Nick is left critically wounded after an Akk guard sliced him in the gut with his vibroshield. 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 just 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.

The natives of Haruun Kal, the Korun, including Nick, Kar, and Windu himself, are all able to touch the Force, some more than others. This is also one of the few Star Wars publications to offer much philosophy on the nature of the Jedi. It is also revealed that, during the book, after the Battle of Geonosis, Depa asked Mace why he couldn't drop a bomb on the arena that would have killed twenty five thousand of the Separatists, even though it would have killed Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padmé Amidala in the process, and thus never start the Clone Wars. At the end of the book, Mace reveals that he never dropped a bomb on the arena because he believes Anakin Skywalker is the true Chosen One of the Jedi and he will destroy the dark side of the Force.

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.