Death Troopers
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''Death Troopers'' is a ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' novel written by
Joe Schreiber Joe Schreiber (born 1969) is an American novelist known for his horror and thriller novels. Bibliography * ''Chasing the Dead'' (2006, adapted into comic format in 2012) * ''Eat the Dark'' (2007) * ''No Windows, No Doors'' (2009) * ''Supernatura ...
. Schreiber's idea was to create a
horror story Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...
in the ''Star Wars'' universe that pulled from horror movies he enjoyed such as '' The Shining'' and '' Alien''. The novel is the first ''Star Wars'' horror story since the '' Galaxy of Fear'' series, released in the late 1990s. Released on October 13, 2009, Death Troopers is set just before the events shown in ''
A New Hope ''Star Wars'' (later retitled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'') is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. It is the first film in ...
''. It was heavily featured in the MMORPG ''
Star Wars Galaxies ''Star Wars Galaxies'' (''Galaxies'') is a discontinued '' Star Wars-''themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts. The open worl ...
'' with SOE confirming a full page of information and advertisements of the game in the book. On September 22, 2010, Ballantine Books revealed the cover of the prequel novel, also by Schreiber, called ''Red Harvest''.


Plot

The Imperial prison barge ''Purge'' breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space. Its only hope appears to lie with the
Star Destroyer Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Star Destroyers were produced by Kuat Drive Yards, later Kuat-Entralla Engineering, and serve as "the signature vessel of the fleet" for the Galactic Empire, the First Ord ...
''Vector'', drifting nearby, derelict and seemingly abandoned. When a boarding party from the ''Purge'' is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back, bringing with them a contagion so lethal that within hours, almost all aboard the ''Purge'' are dead – the half-dozen survivors include two teenage brothers, Kale and Trig Longo, the ruthless captain of the guards, Jareth Sartoris, and chief medical officer, Zahara Cody, all of whom seem to possess natural immunity. The ''Purge's'' onboard computer informs Cody that there are also two survivors in isolation, and Cody leaves the medibay to release them and administer an antidote synthesized from her blood by the incumbent 21B medical droid "Waste". The isolated prisoners are
Han Solo Han Solo () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', and later appeared in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''Star Wars: The F ...
and
Chewbacca Chewbacca ( ), nicknamed "Chewie", is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is a Wookiee—a tall, hairy, highly intelligent species originating from the planet Kashyyyk. He is tall, and typically wears only a bandolier an ...
who initially are skeptical of the situation, but allow her to immunize them, and make their way back to medical. Upon returning to medical they find it empty, and Waste destroyed. The dead have become
undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's o ...
and begin to hunt the survivors who are forced to abandon ''Purge'' and take shelter in the ''Vector'', unaware that the Destroyer is not the better place to be. All the survivors are separated: Sartoris faces the few living survivors who have become cannibalistic, and are hiding in an Imperial Assault shuttle previously captured by the ''Vector'' tractor beam. Solo and Chewbacca make their way to the bridge in an attempt to either fly the ''Vector'', or at least turn off the tractor beam. Kale dies from an infected wound, returns to life as a zombie, and is subsequently killed again by Trig. Cody finds herself in the ''Vector'' medbay, and with the aid of the Destroyer's own 21B discovers the cause of the contagion: Codenamed ''Blackwing'', it is an artificially created virus – intended to slow the onset of decay and
rigor mortis Rigor mortis (), or postmortem rigidity, is the fourth stage of death. It is one of the recognizable signs of death, characterized by stiffening of the limbs of the corpse caused by chemical changes in the muscles postmortem (mainly calcium ...
, and increase the healing capacity of the human body prior to death. The ''Vector'' was taking it to an isolated outpost for testing. However, the contagion – characterised by a
grey goo Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass (and perhaps also everything else) on Earth while buil ...
 – leaked from its containers and infected the ship, converting its 8,000 crew into the undead. Cody observes from her vantage point that the remaining ships in the docking bay are being filled with the zombies, who are attempting to leave the ''Vector'' and spread their contagion throughout the galaxy. After escaping from the shuttle, Sartoris meets up with Solo, Chewbacca and Trig, then sacrifices himself to allow them to escape, after revealing he has been bitten by an undead and is himself turning into a zombie. They return to the shuttle and successfully leave the ''Vector'', but discover that a zombie has made it aboard the shuttle and killed the two remaining original survivors. The zombie is shot by Cody – who they had previously thought killed when the shuttle ready room she was hiding in was destroyed by the zombies – and she points out that the rest of the escaped ships are no longer controlled, as they watch two infested
TIE fighter The TIE fighter or Twin Ion Engine fighter is a series of fictional Starfighter (science fiction), starfighters featured in the ''Star Wars'' Universe of Star Wars, universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters p ...
s collide with each other and explode. Cody theorises that Blackwing is only effective when in range of the original contagion source on the Destroyer, and that now removed from the source the zombies have again "died". The four survivors leave the ''Vector'' and the now-derelict ships, and find a planet where they sell the shuttle to a pirate group. Solo and Chewbacca leave to re-buy their impounded ship, while Cody and Trig use their share of the sale to visit a distant planet – home to one of the dead prison guards, and deliver a note he was in the process of writing when Blackwing took him.


Reception

Critical reception has been mixed to positive. The book currently holds a rating of 3.71 out of 5 on
Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...
with 24% of a total 13,238 ratings being 5 stars.


Adaptations

In 2009, an update to ''
Star Wars Galaxies ''Star Wars Galaxies'' (''Galaxies'') is a discontinued '' Star Wars-''themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts. The open worl ...
'' was released called "Death Troopers", based on the novel. In 2012, the Blackwing virus from the novel would be added to the Disney ''Star Wars'' canon when it was added to the game '' Star Wars Commander''. In 2024, Stephano Cagani created a
fan game A fan game is a video game that is created by fans of a certain topic or IP. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fan games attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, game ...
based on the novel and released it on
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.


See also

* '' Galaxy of Fear''


References


External links


Death Troopers Official SiteInterview with Joe Schreiber
o
''BookBanter''


{{DEFAULTSORT:Death Troopers (Novel) 2009 American novels 2000s horror novels 2009 science fiction novels Star Wars Legends novels American zombie novels Del Rey books Novels about cannibalism Science fiction horror novels