Welcome to Ghostliness & Nerfherders Presents: Star Wars: The High Republic (Vol. 1), Issue #11 – “Only Fear”! In the previous short storyline, Avar Kriss has the brilliant idea to have Keeve Trennis infiltrate the Nihil by posing as one of them.

It doesn’t work. Lourna Dee found them out quick. And not only that, but Lourna Dee starts unleashing some sort of power that turns Terec into stone. And Ceret feels the pain.

And now the aftermath of such a fucking debacle.

Star Wars: The High Republic (Vol. 1), Issue #11 [January, 2022]
Written by: Cavan Scott
“Only Fear”

Xais in the Outer Rim is where the Nihil are right now, and Keeve cries profusely as she sees Terec getting hella killed or something. Also, the room is swirling, swirling, swirling, and she doesn’t know what’s going on at all. And she’s scared, which is not a very Jedi-like state of mind. She should retire from Jedi duties and flip burgers at the Krusty Krab.

Terec is a swirling mass of nightmarish features, as if he’s being turned inside-out. “I don’t know what it is,” thinks Keeve. “The thing in the box that shouldn’t exist. The thing in the box that got into my brain. What is it? Oh kriff, please someone tell me what it is. Someone make it stop!”

Zeetar approaches behind her in his magic robot suit. “So much for the mighty Jedi…” he says as he readies to kill the girl with a hot blast of fiery blue cum. A fraction of a second before he pulls the trigger on the blast of fiery blue cum, Lourna Dee slashes the gun with Keeve’s lightsaber. “ZEETAR — DON’T!” she screams. “We need the Jedi alive. To see if what happened on Grizal was a fluke… or the beginning of the end.”

Terec calcifies before everyone’s very eyes, which means Ceret is also calcifying before everyone’s very eyes back on the Ataraxia. Avar Kriss can’t sense the Force in him anymore… or even Sskeer for that matter, but I think that’s old news.

Ceret weakly mutters about needing to get to Terec. To do what exactly, I don’t know. Watch Terec’s death? The rest of the crew thinks Ceret should go to sick bay instead, but Ceret says “NO!” and runs around like a jackrabbit in heat. Then he changes the Ataraxia’s course, which is fine because that means he’ll be taking them straight to Terec and Keeve.

As for the Force in general, well… no one can sense it anymore. It’s dead as a doornail, sir. Kaput.

The Ataraxia eventually reaches Xais, but the doctor in sick bay can’t read any life signs in Ceret anymore. Dude is dead a doornail. Kaput. History, see?

Kriss says Ceret, and possibly Terec, have put themselves in a hibernation trance WHICH IS AWFULLY CONVENIENT TIMING, IF YOU ASK ME.

It’s like a Tamagotchi I had back in 1997. Ceret and Terec are probably somewhere in the couch cushions.

A loud “KROOM” rocks the Ataraxia. They’re being shot at by a big, mean ship. A few big, mean ships. Kriss as Sskeer will make short work of them while Nooran and Galdros (?) man the vessel. Aim to disable, not destroy! We’re Jedi, remember? We’re wusses!

Kriss and Sskeer run to a couple of Vectors docked in the docking bay of Vectors. Later, Nooran reports that the fighters are coming from the refinery down on the planet. Must be the Nihil base! I’m glad to see we’re catching up quickly here. They find Keeve’s stormship parked on the refinery parking lot, Section J, so they know she’s here! Capital! But… but why can’t Kriss sense them? Where’s that dang Force when you need it?

Sskeer presses a button on the Vector that blows one of the fighters to kingdom come, much to Kriss’ chagrin. “Jedi! Didn’t you hear me earlier? This is not our way.” Then Sskeer, this asshole, this motherfucker, he leaps out of his Vector with his lightsaber ready and says “Not for you, maybe – but it’s the only way I have left.”

Sskeer lands among a throng of Nihil ready to light ‘em up. “Tell me where ssshe is!” he demands of them while throwing his sword like a boomerang, bisecting a whole slew of Nihil at the stomach.

“I need to get down there Nooran,” Kriss reports back. “I thought Sskeer had turned a corner, but I should’ve known better. It’s as Master Yoda always says, once you walk the dark path – it’s forever in your heart.”

The dark path is fun though! Doritos and video games, buying things on the Internet, that’s what it’s all about!

Sskeer punches a guy in a robot suit so hard his facemask breaks in a torrent of glass. Lourna Dee isn’t going to trifle with this guy, that’s for sure, but Zeetar thinks he can take this guy on.

The initial question, of course, was “Does Sskeer love anime?”

Lourna Dee leaves Zeetar to his fun, which is interrupted by the hammer – the hammer he’s going to use to crack a skull – floating right out of his hand. “What the–?” he manages to eke out before Sskeer splits him in twain. Or at least he chops the robot in half. Zeeter must be small enough to not have been hurt.

Zeetar begs for mercy, which Sskeer finds quite comical indeed. Now’s a good time to ask where Keeve went, that little scamp. And Keeve, already in the vicinity, pokes her crying face around a corner. She tries to talk about the swirling, swirling, swirling, but she can barely speak coherently about it. “Terec!” she remembers, because why not. “Sskeer, we need to help Terec!”

Kriss comes out of her Vector looking quite defeated. “I’m not sure we can,” she says glumly. Terec is supine on the floor like a dingus.

Lourna Dee starts blasting off in her ship, and she’s the only person who would be able to explain what happened to Terec, and Ceret by proxy.

“As the Force is my witness,” Kriss says as Lourna Dee escapes again, “I’m not going to let her escape again!”

Final Thoughts

Hooo-weee! Lourna Dee is going to get her ass dismantled in about four issues. In the meantime, I see a pie cooling on someone’s windowsill. That’s my cue to exit.