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Star by Star is the eleventh installment of the New Jedi Order series set in the Star Wars universe. It is a science fiction novel written by Troy Denning and published in 2001.
Publisher's Description
It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign of terror and destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding--and killing--Jedi Knights. And now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum from the mighty alien foe determined to conquer the galaxy. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion.
As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia's son Anakin lays out a daring plan. A Jedi strike force will allow itself to be "captured" by the Yuuzhan Vong and taken to their stronghold in the realm of darkness, where the Jedi will sabotage the evil empire's deadliest weapons. The leaders of the force are the three Solo siblings. The risks are tremendous. Can the Jedi fight a ruthless enemy without becoming ruthless themselves and falling victim to the dark side?
Summary
In this dark and dangerous time for the New Republic, the cruel Yuuzhan Vong continue their mission: galactic conquest. The Yuuzhan Vong have began cloning voxyn, creatures capable of hunting Jedi through the Force and killing them. Former Chief of State Leia Organa Solo faces a difficult crisis: The Yuuzhan Vong want to know the location of the secret Jedi base, and if the New Republic does not provide this information within one week, they will violently destroy millions of refugee ships.
As the Jedi Knights mourn the victims of the voxyn, Anakin Solo prepares a dangerous plan. He will lead a strike force made of his Force-adept friends into the core of an enemy worldship over Myrkr in attempt to kill the original voxyn. There he will come into contact with evil, sorrow, and the destiny of the New Republic ... and himself. The book also saw the creation of the deadly YVH 1 Droids that were built as a response to the Yuuzhan Vong invasion and the Fall of Coruscant.
The Fall of Coruscant
The Yuuzhan Vong warfleet attacked Coruscant from the OboRin Comet Cluster, having assembled at Borleias. They used refugee ships containing prisoners from earlier battles to shield the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. Even with the efforts of legendary leaders such as General Garm Bel Iblis (commanding Fleet Group Two), Admiral Traest Kre'fey (commanding Fleet Group One), General Wedge Antilles (commanding Fleet Group Three), Supreme Commander Sien Sovv, and Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, the Yuuzhan Vong were too plentiful to be stopped. It was said that the Vong fleet numbered "tens of thousands", and that half of the New Republic Space Navy was present. Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya made Admiral Sovv command the battle in front of a full session of the Senate. As a result, the New Republic forces had no effective overall strategy, and discipline broke down. When Sovv ordered that the fleet hold their fire in order to not hit the refugee ships, Iblis flat out ignored him, and his Fleet Group operated solely under his command for the rest of the battle attacking the Yuuzhan Vong head on and suffering enormous casualties. The refugee ships, which were piloted by Yuuzhan Vong, were deliberately smashed into Coruscant's shields to weaken them. This tactic worked, as eventually whole shield-grids failed, and the surface shield-generators exploded. Coruscant did have extensive mine fields, but these didn't have quite as large an impact as desired—the defenders at Coruscant disabled the mines to avoid slaughtering the refugees. The Yuuzhan Vong also used the refugee ships to batter the city planet's surface causing terrible damage below. Even the orbital defense platforms could not stop the advance of the Yuuzhan Vong. Soon Coruscant's skyline was burning with crashing vessels and plasma fire from the battle above. Even Orbital Defence Headquarters was crippled, and fell out of orbit to the surface. During the battle, Luke Skywalker and other Jedi from the Eclipse base targeted the enemy war co-ordinating yammosks, and managed to destroy four of them.Meanwhile Han Solo and Leia on board the Millennium Falcon attempted to rescue Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya but were tasked with rescuing Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker. The second assault wave were thousands of Yorik-trema dropships, Tsik-Seru airskimmers, swarms of Yorik-Vec assault cruisers and Coralskippers, Rakamat and Fire Breather walkers, legions of Yuuzhan Vong warriors and Chazrach support troops. In desperation, the New Republic military fired on the hostage refugee ships but to no avail. At the Imperial Palace, Tsavong Lah's aide Romm Zqar tried to force Borsk Fey'lya to surrender. When he refused, he was killed. But before the Chief of State died he had planted a bomb in the Imperial Palace triggered by his heartbeat. This resulted in the deaths of the Chief of State, 25,000 Yuuzhan Vong warriors, the destruction of a portion of the Imperial Palace, many surrounding buildings and several Yuuzhan Vong vessels. Prior to his death, Fey'lya had ordered the data towers to be destroyed to prevent valuable information getting into the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong.
The battle lasted for several days with heavy casualties on both sides. Many of its citizens were forced to flee the former capital world of the New Republic while those who did not manage to escape were forced to flee into the city-planet's lower levels. Many Senators, fearing for their lives, commandeered bits of the fleet and escaped to their sectors as the battle progressed. The New Republic Navy was somewhat diminished as a result. Some think that if this had not happened, then the New Republic might have won the battle. The third wave was a biotoxin in the form of green algae released by the Yuuzhan Vong which devoured many of the buildings including dead bodies and left behind black spots. Coralskipper and Yorik-Vec squadrons bombed the devastated city world causing damage to the defenders. The Yuuzhan Vong eventually captured Coruscant and had it terraformed and renamed Yuuzhan'tar after their homeworld. Overall, the Yuzhaan Vong won because of their utter ruthlessness.
Exact casualties are unknown, but Supreme Overlord Shimmra would soon comment that following the costly losses of "Battle Plan Coruscant" a full third of the warriors of the Yuuzhan Vong race had died during the course of their invasion of the galaxy. Although the battle was a smashing victory for the Yuuzhan Vong and the death knell of the New Republic, these losses were so steep that after the battle Shimmra ordered Warmaster Tsavong Lah to halt the advance of the invasion into other parts of the galaxy, instead focusing on holding the territory they had already captured (about half of the galaxy) to wait for more young Yuuzhan Vong warriors to come of age to shore up their numbers.
Character Deaths
Aside from the death of Chewbacca in Vector Prime, there is only one other death in the series that affects the characters as deeply as his did. Anakin Solo dies during the assault at Myrkr, and it is presumed that Jacen is dead. He was fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, who were coming on in hordes. Also, he was trying to activate a bomb that would cripple the Yuuzhan Vong institute there. As he was fighting the Vong, he managed to activate the detonator and throw it in the cargo pod. Anakin died before the explosion went off, and his body was kept intact.
External links
"Star by Star"