Jedi Council: Acts of War 4

Jedi Council: Acts of War 4 is the fourth and final issue of the Star Wars: Jedi Council: Acts of War comic series, released September 20, 2000 by Dark Horse Comics.
==Publisher's summary==
The Jedi Council's quest nears its end as the hiding place of the Yinchorri High Command is at last revealed. But the Yinchorri aren't about to surrender without a fight, and Jedi blood has already been spilled. How many lives -- on both sides -- will Jedi Master Mace Windu risk to bring the warlike aliens to justice? A handful of lightsabers is all that stands between a relatively peaceful Republic and galactic war. Action and heroism in the grand Jedi tradition!
==Plot summary==
In 33 BBY, the Jedi Order dispatched a Jedi mission consisting of three Consular-class space cruisers to the Yinchorri system in an attempt to end the Yinchorri Uprising. Upon arriving in the Yinchorri system, the Jedi cruisers were pursued and attacked by Yinchorri starfighters but managed to evade their pursuers and land in their designated destinations. Their mission was to find and disable the Yinchorri command center. Jedi Master Adi Gallia's team lands on the watery moon of Yitheeth where they captured the Devaronian mercenary Olmar Grahrk, who was part of a Sith conspiracy to pit the Yinchorri species against the Galactic Republic and their Jedi defenders. Meanwhile, Master Micah Giiett's team landed on Yibikkoror only to be trapped by their Yinchorri pursuers but were rescued by Gallia's team. Finally, Master Mace Windu's team on Yinchorr was besieged by a Yinchorri army. However, they were reinforced by Gallia and Giiett's teams who helped fight off the Yinchorri. However, during the fighting, Master Lilit Twoseas and the Padawan Theen Fida were killed.
In the exposition, the remaining Jedi leaders meet at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Since the three Jedi teams had found no trace of the Yinchorri command center on the inhabited worlds of the Yinchorri system, Master Yaddle had consulted the holocron of Tharence Wo and found out that there was a fourth world within the star system known as Uhanayih. It was a lifeless rock that translated from the Yinchorri into Galactic Basic Standard as "Within World" and was associated with Yinchorri beliefs about the afterlife. She also suggested that the name was not only use figuratively but carried a literal meaning as well. Master Depa Billaba concurred and suggested that Uhanayih contained a base or city. Master Oppo Rancisis added that this explain why no trace of the Yinchorri base had been found on the other worlds. At that point, Bayts entered the room to informed the other Jedi that Windu was contacting them via hologram.
After interrogating the captured Devaronian arms dealer Olmar Grahrk, the Jedi mission found out that the Yinchorri command center was indeed located on Uhanayih. Windu also told his Jedi compatriots on Coruscant to relay the planet's coordinates to Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum. Back on Yinchorr, Masters Micah Giiett and Plo Koon's team of Jedi were guarding the battlefield near the Consular-class space cruiser when Giiett was shot in the back by a Yinchorri sniper. The grievously wounded Giiett then told his comrades to move towards one of the Yinchorri tanks. He also reiterated that his comrades should not allow feelings of grief, sentiment, and revenge to distort their judgment. He also urged his Jedi to stop the Yinchorri but warned them against excessive violence. He also prophesied that Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi were somehow destined to be Jedi of some renown. Finally, he told his friend Koon tha he would miss his company.
Master Giiett opted to remain behind to fend off the Yinchorri reinforcements while his comrades continued their mission to find the Yinchorri command center. As soon as his companions had left, Micah was surrounded by a squad of Yinchorri. He told them to come closer on the pretext of revealing "Jedi secrets" to them. When they did, he told them that the Jedi were not afraid to die for a worthy cause before activating his lightsaber, plunging the blade into the tank's fuel cell. The resulting explosion killed Giiett, and many of the Yinchorri. Giiett's death was transmitted by the Force and felt by his Jedi companions all over the galaxy. Even Darth Sidious himself felt it in the Force. The Dark Lord then ordered his apprentice Darth Maul to contact Vilmarh Grahrk, the cousin of Olmar and an arms dealer working for the Sith Order. However, the Devaronian had already fled along with his relatives. However, Sidious was not worried because he was unable to reveal the existence of the Sith since he did not know the identity of Darth Sidious, who was in fact Senator Palpatine of Naboo.
As the Consular cruiser departed Yinchorr for Uhanayih, Qui-Gon tried to comfort Mace Windu by telling him not to blame himself since death was the inevitable outcome of war and the Jedi had known the dangers before embarking on the Yinchorri mission. Windu was warmed by Qui-Gon's words but admitted that he still felt guilty about knowing the Jedi had laid dow their lives. Plo Koon intervened to ask whether it was harder to bear guilt or grief. Back at the Galactic Republic's capital of Coruscant, Chancellor Valorum met Jedi Master Yoda outside the Galactic Senate and informed him that the Senate had agreed to dispatch four Republic Navy attack groups to Uhanayih. While Yoda welcomed these new developments, he sensed that Valorum was troubled because he had to make many concessions in order to convince his supporters in the Senate to support a technological embargo against the Yinchorri. According to Valorum, this situation reflected a growing tendency among the Galactic Republic's citizens to view the Jedi as unwanted intruders rather than as protectors.
Eventually, the Jedi arrived at Uhanayih. However, they were met by a massive Yinchorri fleet and soon under attack. Luckily for the Jedi, help came in the form of a Republic Navy fleet consisting of Republic light assault cruisers and armed Corellian Star Shuttles. Soon, much of the Yinchorri fleet had been destroyed or immobilized, allowing the Jedi to make their way to Uhanayih. Master Windu then ordered Qui-Gon to contact the Admiral in charge of the Republic forces and request for an escort for their trip to the Yinchorri high command. Thus, the Jedi cruiser approached the moon with the escort and entered a huge tunnel which led to the Yinchorri base.
Having arrived and seeing no place to land, the Jedi cruiser crash-landed into the high command's war room before the defending Yinchorri could close its blast shutters. Meanwhile, in the war room, one of the Yinchorri remarked to his companion that the Devaronian Vilmarh Grahrk had assured him that the Republic would not intervene. His friend then replied that Vilmarh and his men had fled and then ordered the blast shutters to be shut. However, it was too late. The cruiser wrecked the war room, causing heavy damage to the Yinchorri. The commander would then beg the victorious Jedi not to kill them. Mace Windu then replied by remarking that those Yinchorri were responsible for the chaos and then asked Adi Gallia about what Master Oppo Rancisis had said about the philosophy of "might makes right". Gallia replied by telling him that that philosophy is "often recanted" upon encountering a more powerful foe.
Following the Yinchorri surrender, Valorum contacted the Jedi Council on Coruscant to inform them that a quarantine had been imposed on the Yinchorri system. The Republic authorities believed that Vilmarh Grahrk had been the main instigator behind the Yinchorri Uprising and vowed to apprehend and bring him to justice. However, Yoda believed that both the Devaronian man and the Yinchorri had been pawns of an unknown party. Valorum also expressed the Republic's gratitude to the Jedi Order and explained that he had dispatched a ship to bring home the Jedi team before departing to attend to other matters. The surviving Jedi team landed in Coruscant on a Corellian Star Shuttle carrying their dead to the Jedi Temple where they were presumably cremated. During a debriefing meeting of the Jedi Council, Mace Windu decided to leave the Yinchorri to the Senate and Vilmarh and his accomplices to the Judicial Department.
Due to the death of Micah Giiett on Yinchorr, the Council had to fill his empty seat. Windu recommended the Cerean Jedi Knight Ki-Adi-Mundi as a candidate since he had previously stood in for Giiett and had demonstrated judgment and valor as a former Padawan of Yoda. Windu was reluctant to consider Master Qui-Gon's application since he found him to be headstrong and willful. Master Yoda agreed to consider Mundi's application but expressed that he was still troubled about finding the identity of Vilmarh's true employer. He reiterated that the Devaronian lacked the motive to incite the Yinchorri to revolt against the Republic and thus concluded that he had been working for an unknown party.
This party turned out to be Darth Sidious, the leader of the underground Sith Order which now adhered to Darth Bane's tenet known as the Rule of Two. Darth Maul was uncomfortable that the Jedi had won. However, his Master Sidious disagreed since the Jedi and the Senate had unwitting helped the Sith cause by eliminating the Yinchorri as a potential impediment to the Sith's plans of galactic domination. Maul then expressed his disappointment that he had not been able to go to Yinchorr and kill more Jedi. However, Sidious advised his apprentice to be patient and reiterated that the time would come when he could fulfill his blood lust. For now, he believed that the Sith should relished the resolution of the Yinchorri Uprising as a small victory that the Jedi Council had delivered unknowingly to their Sith opponents.
==Appearances==
==Collections==
*Star Wars: Jedi Council: Acts of War (TPB)
*Star Wars Omnibus: Rise of the Sith
*Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Rise of the Sith Vol. 1
*Star Wars Legends: Rise of the Sith Omnibus
==Notes and references==
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