Alright, time for more interesting stuff. First off, we get to see space-combat and a very interesting weapon used in it - a hyperspace lane mine. Then there's also a Jedi vs. Non-Jedi fight that ends up with the Jedi almost losing. In any case, stuff worth reading.
Chapter 12
But Obi-Wan knew that if they’d collided with another ship, or an asteroid, in hyperspace, it would have torn the ship apart. Distantly, Obi-Wan heard the whunk whunk whunk of the ship’s guns firing.
Qui-Gon strode to the window. His hand rested on his lightsaber. “Pirates,†he announced.
This is something that's been known a long time already, but hyperspace collisions are deadly. The more interesting question is – how exactly do they work?
Chapter 13
He thought he knew what had happened. Pirates sometimes mined the shipping lanes. When the ship hit a mine, the hyperdrive blew, and the ship would drop back out of hyperspace.
As it did, the pirates would open fire, destroying the ship’s weapons and engines so swiftly that unwary travelers seldom had time to react.
Then the pirates would send boarding parties out to strip anything they could from their victims.
Apparently an at least somewhat common tactic used by pirates. And it's worth noting that the attack unfolded exactly as described in the above.
One questions occurs to me though, how exactly can a mine affect a ship that’s traveling at faster then light. Basically, if it blew, the vessel in question should pass by the mine before the effects reach it. Or perhaps there was some form of proximity fuse on the mine, having it explode before the vessel ran over it?
Still there's a larger question here, how exactly does normal space interact with stuff in hyperspace? There's clearly some form of interact, but it's doubtful it's anything like that of a normal collision, given that one of the objects travel above lightspeed.
Another interesting thing can be deduced from this. Hyperspace lanes are extremely narrow for pirates to be able to strike this quickly and accurately. They apparently knew exactly where the vessel would pop out of hyperspace.
The floor shuddered under the impact of another explosion. As the ship twisted to its side, Qui-Gon rounded a corner. Ahead was a transparisteel view port. Through it, he could see five Togorian warships, all shaped like red birds of prey. Two screamed past his port. Green bolts of blaster fire erupted from the warships, slamming into the Monument. Metal shrieked in protest. The corridors filled with greasy smoke.
The Monument’s guns had gone silent. Now, Qui-Gon could see why – the gun turrets had been blown away. Buts of burning slag lit up like glowing stars where the turrets had once stood.
Alright, so there are at least five Togorian warships attacking, though no indication of what mass-class these vessels are in. They could basically be anything from fighters to larger capital ships.
Oh, and the fight takes place at visual range, seeing as how Qui-Gon can see the vessels from the view-ports. Might be strange for me to bring that up, but considering I'm at this moment arguing against someone claiming that fighting at near lightspeed and firing lightspeed weapons is the norm in Starwars, I feel perfectly justified. :P
He rounded a corner. A huge Togorian pirate stood directly in his path, his eyes flashing like green embers in the dark fur of his face. The Togorian reached out with his enormous claws to rake Qui-Gon.
But Qui-Gon was a Jedi Master. The Force had already warned him. He twisted under the pirate’s arms, anticipating the move, and grasped the lightsaber attached to his belt. The blade came up cleanly, slicing the Togorian at the knees. The Togorian roared in pain.
Another demonstration of force precognition.
All of the Togorians returned fire with their own blasters. Qui-Gon dodged two bolts, then used his lightsaber to deflect three more.
And another demonstration of being able to fight off multiple enemies firing blasters, via both deflection and dodging.
The door to the bridge was sealed shut, and burning hot. Obi-Wan could feel heat radiating from it as he tried to open it. A fire raged on the other side. Ignoring the pain, he tried to wedge his fingers in the crack and pull it open.
This immediately brought Qui-Gon's feat in TPM to mind. You know the incident where he melts a blastdoor yet doesn't seem to be in any pain due to proximity.
Carefully, Obi-Wan struggled to calm himself, to use the Force. He could sense the latching mechanism, and it would take only a little effort to move it.
But then what? If he opened it, he could get pulled into space. Or toxic smoke could roil into the corridor and suffocate him, or the fire might spread into the halls.
He didn’t have a choice. He focused his attention and the door slid open.
Obi-wan uses telekinesis to manipulate a nearby object that's not in his line of sight. Overall, a rather impressive use of telekinesis.
Togorian warships surrounded the Monument. A heavy cruiser that had been refitted as a gun ship edged nearer. Its shields had to be down for it to be so close.
Alright, so there's at least one refitted heavy cruiser among the attacking vessels. I'm not sure about warship designations in Starwars, but Cruisers are generally rather large vessels, is this the case here as well?
A red light blinked insistently on Obi-Wan’s console. In a daze he realized that the forward proton torpedo tubes were loaded and armed. They were standard defensive gear for transports traveling in such a region. His targeting computer was down, but he aimed for the bridge of the gun ship without it.
Proton torpedoes are standard armament for at least larger civilian transports traveling in dangerous regions.
A Togorian pirate captain lunged down the corridor, bursting through the screen of smoke. He was huge, nearly twice as tall as a man. His black body armor was scarred and pitted from a thousand fights. A Human skull dangled from a chain around his neck. His fur was dark as night, and his green eyes gleamed wickedly.
He carried a huge vibro-ax in one hand, an energy shield in the other. The pirates pointed ears were drawn back flat against his skull. He stepped forward to meet it.
This is the alien that Qui-Gon is about to fight. A rather large critter, 'nearly twice as tall as a man' would imply a height as high as 3.5 meters. He's wielding a vibro-ax and an energy shield.
Clat’Ha rushed forward and fired her blaster. The Togorian raised his shield against it, deflecting it easily. Then he raised his deadly vibro-ax. With only the slightest touch, the weapon could sever a man’s head. Qui-Gon moved forward in one flowing movement, his lightsaber held high.
Some details on the shield and the axe. The axe appears to work much like the shields the Gungans used in TPM, harmlessly deflecting blaster weaponry. And the axe is nasty enough to easily sever a man's head from his shoulders.
A blinding flash as bright as a solar flare lit space as the proton torpedoes struck the Togorian gun ship.
Obi-Wan shielded his eyes from the intense light. Si Treemba cried out.
Half of the gun ship disintegrated, hurtling debris into space. A second blast followed the first, as the gun ship’s arsenal exploded.
Bits of metal riddled the Monument. A huge section of the blown gun ship hurtled into a second Togorian warship.
So the proton torpedoes seem rather overkill against an unshielded target, even if it is cruiser sized.
The floor lurched under Qui-Gon’s feet as he met the pirate captain. The huge Togorian weighed four times as much as a man.
Even under normal circumstances, it would have been all the Qui-Gon could do to fend off the pirate. He tried to catch his footing as he blocked the monster’s blow.
The pirate almost fell, but recovered in time to raise the vibro-ax. The blade bit deep into Qui-Gon’s right shoulder, driving him to the floor.
Qui-Gon gasped from the searing pain. His shoulder burned as if it were on fire. He tried to lift his arm, but it was useless.
The Togorian is said to weigh four times as much as a man, probably meaning something around 300kg. It's clear that Qui-Gon’s up against a strong foe here, with a size and mass like the one stated. But the Togorian is not a force user. I mainly mention this because there are those who say that no force user could ever lose against a non-force user, because of battle precognition. And quite clearly in this case, Qui-Gon is losing.
Heavy blaster fire ripped through the hull of the Monument. To Togorian warship had taken aim at the bridge, but with the sudden thrust of the huge ship, the blaster bolts had struck the ship behind their mark.
Obi-Wan pushed away the thought of who might have died in the attack. He reversed thrusters.
The warship’s next salvo fell short, blasting harmlessly into space. Obi-Wan took half a moment to aim his proton torpedoes, the launched them down the warship’s gullet.
The aiming on the Togorian warships seem rather lacking, since they can't accurately hit the transport, even at this close range.
As he was sucked toward the space vacuum, Qui-Gon called his lightsaber to his left hand. He aimed a blow at the pirate captain’s feet. The Togorian grabbed a handhold and leaped high, evading the cut, then landed directly on Qui-Gon’s left arm with his booted feet.
Fighting the pain, Qui-Gon tried to bring up his lightsaber, but the huge Togorian had him pinned. Qui-Gon twisted desperately, but he couldn’t get away. With his left arm pinned and his right arm badly wounded Qui-Gon could do little to fight the monster.
The pirate captain roared madly in triumph, and the wind seemed to roar with him. It tore down the corridors like a tornado. Qui-Gon could hardly breathe.
Suddenly the pirate’s head disappeared. The huge Togorian hurtled backward, grabbed by the fury of the wind.
Qui-Gon looked up the hall. Clat’Ha crouched on the floor, desperately clinging to the handle of a locker door with one hand, her heavy blaster in the other.
So Qui-Gon ultimately gets lucky and wins the fight. The interesting bit here is in regards to the heavy blaster Clat'Ha uses against the Togorian. It's said to make the head of the pirate 'dissapear', indicating quite a substantial firepower. Now the specifics would of course depend on exactly how the weapon deals it's damage. Does it deal a concussive blast to the target? Or is it pure thermal radiation?
But, in general, you could assume that a 'heavy blaster' could blow body-parts to bits.
