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Knights of the Old Republic 43: The Reaping, Part 1

What is it ? : Two slave miners are working on the surface of a comet, when the heating of it's core causes an eruption throwing them into space and killing them. Aboard the control ship, the leader of the mining co-operative, Sariyah Budan, orders more people onto the comet, as it will soon break apart and the valuable minerals within will be scattered and lost. The head slave objects as it is dangerous, but Budan tells him that slaves can be replaced easily.
Jarael and Zayne burst in both with slaver marks on their faces, claiming that the Crucible is putting their prices up, Budan reluctantly agrees, and puts them in quarters to wait for payment. When they are alone, the speak to Gryph, and tell him the scheme to con the miners is going to plan, but when they communication is cut, Zayne says he doesn't like lying to Gryph, but Jarael points out that Gryph lies all the time.
Their plan is to steal a shuttle which can take 10, and free the slaves, but they speak to one of the slaves and discover there are actually 80 slaves aboard.
However, Budan contacts the Crucible, and discovers that Zayne and Jarael aren't members, so is ordered to hold them, they send guards to capture the pair, but they put on space suits and escape to the surface of the comet.
Gryph and Slyssk are monitoring the sensors, and the crystals on the comet they can steal and refine themselves aboard the Hot Prospect for additional profit, but Zayne asks them to come nearer as he has something valuable to load, but as they manoeuvre closer, Gryph sees Zayne using the force to move the slaves onto the hull of the Hot Prospect. Gryph realises the real plan, complaining that they don't take passengers, and about his heart.
As they load the slaves, they come under attack by drones, and Jarael recognises them as those used by the Crucible, and they realise a Crucible cruiser has arrived, and it's captain calls for them to surrender as they are massively outgunned. . . .

High Points : Although the schemes that Zayne has learned from Gryph are always fun, we've seen them often enough to not see every detail again, and this issue skips through that, and gets us straight into the action. They've done their scheme, it's been discovered (as it so often is), and they're dealing with the problems they now find themselves in.
It means this issue doesn't drag, and there's no need for massive infodumps, as the situation is fairly familiar to us.
I'm also amused by the idea that everyone is alright with lying to Gryph, as he's lied to them all so often, that it's just something everyone does. Zayne is still a moral character, and doesn't feel right about lying, but is easily talked into it. And the moment that Gryph, who has been working out extra ways of profiting, realises there's no actual profit to be made here, and they're actually doing "hero stuff".

Low Points : While not a massive point, I really thought more was going to be made of the danger of being on the comet. We'd had the geysers and eruptions told to us, so when Zayne and Jarael escape from the ship down to the comet, I really thought there was going to be more danger there, but it's not something which bothers them. Although I suppose it might be brought back in later issues, as they seem in danger of being captured, so might be sentenced to work on the comets surface.

So what do you really think ? : A nice solid issue, which really gets on with the story. I wonder if they knew that there was only a certain amount of issues left to the series, so had to get on with things to tell the story, as this one doesn't waste as much time on set up as previous stories. Often they'd take 2 issues of set up, across a 3 issue storyline, but this time everything is in motion well before this first issue is over.

Final Words : So, is the Crucible arriving a hinderance to their plan, or part of the plan itself. As they were targeting the Crucible, not setting about freeing slaves. So their mission while similar to things they've done in the past (having worked to help slaves both on Jervos World, and Metellos 3), it does seem to stray from their intended goals as stated last issue. So luring a Crucible vessel here might have been the goal all along.

Score : 8.5/10

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