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Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 7: Flashpoint, Part 1

What is it ? : On the mining colony of Vanquo they find a scavenger on the edge of the camp, he begs for food for his family, but one of the guards mocks him telling him there's a aid station for refugees from the Mandalorian wars on the other side of the planet. Another guard is a little kinder, offering him the scraps left over from the guards meals, but a message is received from Jedi Master Q'Anilia, warning of a Mandalorian attack. The guards realise that the message isn't on a official channel, but the refugee mutters that it is, and the guard repeats what he says.
The guards flee, boarding their ship and leaving, only for the Refugee to reveal himself as Zayne Carrick and the Last Resort to set down nearby. Zayne speaks to Jarael, who is disguised as Jedi Master Q'Anilia, and comments that it's twice now she's disguised herself as a Jedi. Gryph is pleased that his plan to steal supplies has succeeded and they begin loading up the Last Resort with supplies from the base. They have to convince Elbee to help, as he isn't very co-operative since he was repaired, and Gryph realises there are a lot of explosive charges they can sell later as well.
But as they're starting to finish, a fleet of ships emerge, and an actual invasion of the planet by the Mandalorian's begins.
The Mandalorian's spot Jarael and mistake her for a Jedi, and swarm her. Camper is frantic in wanting to rescue her, repeating that he promised to protect her, but Zayne convinces him that they need to return to The Last Resort to get weapons. Zayne tells Elbee that Lucien knows that Camper helped repair Elbee, and Elbee agrees to carry Camper back to the ship and protect him.
As they sprint for the ship, a pair of Mandalorian's catch up with them, and Zayne beats them armed only with a tree branch, passing one of their weapons to Gryph who asks what he's supposed to do with it, sell it to them, he's not the muscle, Zayne is.
As they get back towards the ship, a Mandalorian knocks Zayne to the ground, but as he struggles back to his feet he cannot see where the Mandalorian has gone, but Gryph points out, he's boarded The Last Resort and is stealing it . . . .

High Points : A nice start to this storyline, with Jarael taken prisoner and The Last Resort being stolen, there's lots of action and drama. But the set up is wonderful, as the team come up with a scam to steal supplies, planned by Gryph of course, by pretending there's going to be a Mandalorian attack. The reason their scam works so well is that it's completely believable, so much so that an actual Mandalorian invasion begins. This is the kind of mishaps that this group get into, where everything is actually well organised, but then fate throws a spanner into the works and everything goes wrong.
It is almost like the Force has a sense of humor, and Zayne is the butt of it.

Low Points : Zayne is constantly made out to be a failure of a Jedi, he wouldn't have passed his tests and his masters mocked him. But here he beats up two armored Mandalorian warriors with only a tree branch, he may be weak for a Jedi, but he's still pretty darn incredible compared to everyone else. What were the Jedi planning to do with him if he failed his tests, just let a super skilled warrior out onto the streets?

I also felt that this issue, Jarael was acting out of character. Previously she's been stoic and pretty emotionless. But here while everyone else is loading cargo, she's still playing at being a Jedi. Storywise it's so she's still in disguise when the Mandalorian's arrive, but it felt really odd for her to be so irreverent in her behaviour. But perhaps this is just an emergent character trait, as she's not been around people she's trusted before, she's always just been Camper's protector, so was maybe just playing that role.

So what do you really think ? : Another excellent issue, I really liked Gryph's comment when handed a weapon. He knows his limitations, and shooting a gun is one of them. And the entire set of the issue is great, as a little scam to get some supplies has thrown them right into the middle of the Mandalorian Wars already.

Final Words : The chaos that surrounds Zayne does make him a very different hero, while the group are pretty clever and skilled, things just tend to go wrong for them. Leading to them improvising, and doing the totally unexpected, breaking all the rules, and it's a joy to read.

Score : 9/10

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