Vendetta

Zine
Title:	Vendetta
Publisher:	USS Atlantis Productions/Futura Publications
Editor:
Author(s):	J.J. Adamson
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	December 1978
Medium:	fanzine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Wars
External Links:
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Vendetta is an 69-page Australian Star Wars novel written by J.J. Adamson and published in 1978.

front cover

It was part of Tales From Aagan's Rim Cycle.

Leia and Luke help Han rescue Chewie from the spice mines of Kessel. In one scene: Princess Leia not only comes to Han's aid, but has to fly the Millennium Falcon as well.

Excerpt from Chapter One, Page One

Slowly the cheering died into silence and, dismissed, the ranks of rebel pilots and technicians filed raggedjy from the floor of the great room with a dense background buzz of jubilant chatter and shuffling of boots. General Jan Jodonna looked at the young woman atop the throne dais steps and smiled. The face of the young Princess Leia Organa, senator of the ill fated world of Alderaan, broke into the broad grin Dodonna loved to see, and she turned to beckon to the t.wo young men and the enormous furry figure of their Wookie friend.

Neat and smart, fingering the soft gold of the heavy medals that hung around their necks, they stepped up from their places below the dais, Chewbacca put one mighty arm around the larger of the two men and rumbled something in his gutteral native tongue that sent that one, Han Solo, into a cascade of deep voiced laughter that spoke eloquently for the mood of high spirited merriment of the rest of the group.

The other man, smaller, younger, looked at the Corellian and smiled, Luke Skywalker could not understand the Wookie's joke, but the sound of the chuckling was too much to take without coming out in sympathy.

About

From the author (as printed in Empire Star #1) from the introduction of the related story in that zine, "Still, She's Got a Lot of Spirit":

So begins VENDETTA, a STAR WARS sequel that IS a sequel by the author who wrote this short. As that author is fond of saying, VENDETTA IS STAR WARS - true STAR WARS, written by one deeply in love with the concept and the characters.

VENDETTA is, quite simply, a 50 000 word answer to the obvious question: well, then what happened? I have invented nothing at random, for no reason- and nothing that changes the original format, foundation and scene, and I took delight in probing the original STAR WARS bases, I made only assumptions, projected the story beyond the end title - and even then I stayed on safe ground. Judge for yourself; for the sake of the story I created two key happenings:

1) With the loss of the Senate, the Regional Governor and his ill fated battle station, there is no law in the sector and the rebels are having a field day, hitting everything: that much is common sense. Also sense is that Imperial ships are ordered to stick together for the sake of safety. Rebel Base One MUST be evacuated quickly as its location is now known: Darth Vader lives and must be expected to return with a battle fleet; and even if Vader was killed ( which he was not ) the Empire itself MUST know of the Rebels' location, as it would be transmitted from the Death Star as telemetry; computer-to-computer transmittion is regulation proceedure and taken for granted even today. On Number One Convoy en route from Yavin 4 was Wedge Antilles; the freighter on which he was travelling developed engine trouble, had to drop from hyperspace to effect repairs, retaining one of the escort cruisers as protection, A flock of nine Imperial cruisers hit it, and the Alliance people are captured and taken to the high temperature spice mines on Kessel. The upper levels of the mine at least must be worked by prisoners, as droids are expensive, and condeipied humanity costs nothing.

2) Han Solo and Chewie have gone back about their business, and take a job running guns for a man of the planet Kerig, Pel Sharem, Kerig is sealed from the Universe by a blockade, as that rebel world has chosen to refuse Imperial domination: only a surprize attack can get through the ranks of cruisers wither way. Sharem ran the blockade to get out: Han and Chewie decide that they will take the job. Unbeknown to them, however, Darth Vader has taken charge of a battleship, sworn an oath for vengence against them, and is now at the Kerig blockade, lie sees the Falcon and sends a lander loaded with troopers after her: the hit is made while the pirate freighter is down and Han has taken his leave to arrange his payment, Sharem, a white humanoid male- and there is no way you can hide what you are- and the Wookie remain behind to be taken prisoner, and the Dark Lord decides on an exquisite form of revenge, committing the one he believes to be Han, and his Wookie, to the high temperature mines.

The title, VENDETTA, refers to the logical assumption that Vader will desire to seek revenge on the pair of smugglers who seem to be the person ification of his bad luck: it is their fault that the Death Star is no more, that an Imperial Governor is dead, and that anywhere up to a million lives were snuffed out with him; that Vader's cruiser was vaporised, that his hand picked wingmen were destroyed, and that he was spun out into a sticky situation from which he had to extricate- and then explain himself. Those things are hardly calculated to make the Dark Lord happy: that he can identify the pilots of the Falcon is a foregone conclusion- and so is the will to see revenge done.

So, for the sake of the story, Wedge is in the mines and Chewie is captured. Han is left free, and the Falcon is largely undamaged: he makes his repairs and, after running the blockade single handed to escape, be heads for Base Two- the new Base One - which I have taken the liberty of placing on an ice world, Cherkhar. The mines are sure to kill Chewie swiftly, and Han knows it; with the help of Luke and Princess Leia he plans a strike, a fast running-raid to rescue his friend, blazing in under the big guns of the Imperial battleships which guard Kessel, aided by a newly designed Hebel jammer. Chewie is rescued, but they leave Eessel with terrible news: one of the freighters evacuating Yavin was hit; the mines are full of Rebel prisoners... among whom is Wedge. Luke met him during Chewie's rescue, but his friend from Tatooine could not make it away with them. They were forced to leave him- and all the rest, returning to Cherkhar with the news that there are crowds of Alliance people there, and that to rescue them would require a full scale battle fleet.

Another running raid will not work: there are too many prisoners, and Kessel's defences are now alerted. That world is always heavily guarded, as the spice industry is a major vertibra in the backbone of Imperial economy. With the sector in such a shambles it is only a matter of time before the Rebel forces hit the mines, and so at this point in time Eessel is even more heavily armoured than is usual. What a sneak attack by one small, fast ship can achieve nothing less than a battle fleet can match... and thus it was that the warships and close combat squadrons of Empire and Alliance swung into battle for The Battle Of Kessel. Cruisers, snub fighters, blockade fighters, Millennium Falcon, nothing is missing. But story appart, the important points are all dead right; the characters remain unchanged - and they are ALL there. Nothing is missing, none of that unique mental odour of STAR WARS for which we hunger is altered in any way. The characters we have come to love all talk and act the same: if they do not, it well may be SF, but it isn't SW!

The story you are about to read postdates VENDETTA, and the events of that navel are accepted as history: the Battle Of Eessel, the incredible dogfight between Han Solo's supercharged Millennium Falcon and Darth Vader's deadly, customised TIE that climaxes the battle when the moment of Truth finally comes, the Falcon's fantastic escape from the tractor powered clutches of Vader's Corellian battleship, a monstor named 'Archangel,' Cbewie's imprisonment, the raid that made galactic history, and so on.

For clarification- to help sort out what is pure STAR WARS and what is the author's own creation, full source notes and comments are included at the end of STILL, SHE'S GOT A LOT OF SPIRIT...

If you are interested in VENDETTA, let us know: perhaps we can, in some future magazine, synopsize it fully ( as it lies in shreds here ), we might mutilate it into a novelette (by cutting 75% from the text ) or even make it available as a complete novel. If any one of these things happens, it will be because of YOUR interest and support.

Let us know what you think of this story too; we like it, and we hope you will enjoy it as much! It's strictly for fun, but knowing Han and Chewie, it's just the kind of thing they would have to be into. Read on...

Reactions and Reviews

I really enjoyed VENDETTA! What a fantastic sequel! Is your sequel going to have a sequel? I hope so! The suspense was great, and all your characters were "in character!" Terrific!

I had a chance to read through VENDETTA a little more thoroughly since I last wrote, and enjoyed it even more. Have you noticed that Brian Daley's book, (HAN SOLO AT STAR'S END ), your novel and TESB all have the same basic plot? Interesting. -- Susan Matthews

ED: Fascinating would be a better word... may I yell: I DID IT FIRST! VENDETTA WAS WRITTEN IN FEB '78!!!

Obviously I liked VENDETTA... Loved it- it's the best STAR WARS story I've read, besides George Lucas', and I've read a lot of American SW zines. Partly I think because it's a full length novel and well "fleshed out," but I don't think the other "authors" would know how to do this. It's true to the spirit of SW- a lot of "sequels" I've seen just don't have any credibility. An excellent job -- the Force was with you. VENDETTA is superior (even) to the only professional effort I know of, Alan Dean Foster's SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE. And I mean that as a compliment, although you might not think so if you've ever read SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE.

It was one whale of a story...

Many thanks for VENDETTA. You have written such a good novel that I will have to get your EMPIRE STAR fanzines...

...VENDETTA was enjoyable, art, story, everything. Also, I'm glad you put the tape on the spine, as it will last while I re-read it.

The art your brother did was great, especially the scene with Chewbacca battling the Stormtroopers, which I liked a lot.

... the English major in wants to leap up and down and scream when I see misspellings! Nobody's perfect, I admit, but you, as a writer, are undoubtedly aware of the fragility of the relationship between the writer and the reader, and it seems a shame to spoil the 'suspension of disbelief with something trivial spelling mistakes.

ED: with that we most certainly agree. Typos as you say, nobody's perfect -- apart, the English and American systems of spelling differ so wildly that for at least a good percentage of the time, you are actually looking at the way we spell the word!... , while we do our level best, we don't have the time to correct several times, and we make our apologies here for errors that may still slip in.

The print on the zine trickles down into the trench in the center of the book. I had to spend about seven hours last night holding [Vendetta and two issues of Empire Star] open wide enough to read right across the page. This may have gone far toward developing muscles in my hands and arm but It didn't make me terribly happy. Fortunately, your stories did make me terribly happy!

I don't completely agree with you about certain aspects of your story (VENDETTA). That is not a put down or an insult. As we all know, there are enough parallel universes to satisfy everybody's different appreciation of the STAR WARS characters. We do not feel at all about Leia as you do. She is a weapon, carefully programmed since she was horn, and all she cares about is the Rebellion.

How could she fall in love, or even feel attracted to any man? Of course, if she did, it would certainly be our favourite Corellian, not some ex-farmboy, who has a personality that is so blah I can't describe it.