Deceived

Paul S. Kemp

Chapters (24)

Cover

Other Books by This Author

BY PAUL S. KEMP
Star Wars: Crosscurrent

THE EREVIS CALE TRILOEY
Twilight Falling
Dawn of Night
Midnight’s Mask

THE TWILIGHT WAR
Shadowbred
Shadowstorm
Shadowrealm

Title Page

Copyright

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast by Aaron Allston copyright © 2009 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or TM where indicated. All Rights Reserved.
Used Under Authorization.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This work contains an excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast by Aaron Allston, originally published in hardcover by Del Rey, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2009.

Jacket design and illustration by ATTIK

eISBN: 978-0-345-52988-6

v3.1

Dedication

For Jen, and Riordan, and Roarke

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Shelly, Sue, Leland, and David, for all their help and encouragement.

The Star Wars Novels Timeline

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Adraas; Sith Lord (human male)

Angral; Sith Lord (human male)

Arra Yooms; child (human female)

Aryn Leneer; Jedi Knight (human female)

Eleena; servant (Twi’lek female)

Malgus; Sith Lord (human male)

Ven Zallow; Jedi Master (male, species unknown)

Vrath Xizor; mercenary (human male)

Zeerid Korr; smuggler (human male)

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.…

Day One

FATMAN SHIVERED, her metal groaning, as Zeerid pushed her through Ord Mantell’s atmosphere. Friction turned the air to fire, and Zeerid watched the orange glow of the flames through the transparisteel of the freighter’s cockpit.

He was gripping the stick too tightly, he realized, and relaxed.

He hated atmosphere entries, always had, the long forty-count when heat, speed, and ionized particles caused a temporary sensor blackout. He never knew what kind of sky he’d encounter when he came out of the dark. Back when he’d carted Havoc Squadron commandos in a Republic gully jumper, he and his fellow pilots had likened the blackout to diving blind off a seaside cliff.

You always hope to hit deep water, they’d say. But sooner or later the tide goes out and you go hard into rock.

Or hard into a blistering crossfire. Didn’t matter, really. The effect would be the same.

“Coming out of the dark,” he said as the flame diminished and the sky opened below.

No one acknowledged the words. He flew Fatman alone, worked alone. The only things he carted anymore were weapons for The Exchange. He had his reasons, but he tried hard not to think too hard about what he was doing.