In the penultimate issue of the Star Wars: The High Republic – The Nameless Terror miniseries from Dark Horse Comics (released last week ahead of May the 4th), the Jedi continue their quest to protect the survivors in the crashed ships from the wrath of the Leveler that stalks them outside.
The Nameless Terror #3 begins with Jedi Master Rok Buran and Jedi Knight Coron Solstus doing their best to break back into the wrecked ship. Then writer George Mann immediately cuts back to the “present-day” bookends of the story (set during the Phase I era of The High Republic), where monster hunter Ty Yorrick is telling this story to her droid KL-O3.
KLO, as he’s called for short, has directed Yorrick’s unnamed YT-750 freighter toward a planet evidently occupied by a rogue Acklay (see the Geonosian arena sequence in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones for the first depiction of that fearsome creature), though Ty suspects there’s another clandestine reason why they’re heading there. Regardless, KLO convinces Yorrick to continue with the story, and we flash back to the Jedi who have entered the hull of the ship, with the Leveler pursuing them nearby. They block off the hole and soon find themselves confronted by members of the Path. The Force-worshiping cultists famously dislike Jedi, but are forced to form an uneasy alliance with them in order to get help for their injured companion named Geth. Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, the Bith Jedi Master Tarl slowly recovers from his injuries while Sula and Ambar look after him, waiting for the others to return to the cargo bay. Soon the Republic Pathfinder called Pako makes his way back, having briefly scared off the Leveler by using the ship’s power to electrocute the monster. But the creature isn’t warded off for long– it begins thudding around the top of the ship again, frightening just about everyone inside as The Nameless Terror continues to borrow horror-movie tropes.
Eventually these two groups are reunited and the Jedi, Pathfinders, and Path members combine their knowledge and expertise to formulate a plan: they will lure the Leveler into the other section of the ship and then blow it up using the engines. But first, the Jedi must determine whether the Path followers are telling the truth about not knowing anything about the creature. After a two-page detour back to Ty Yorrick and KLO traveling toward their destination, we return to the survivors being at each other’s throats, until finally they are able to put their differences aside in order to enact their strategy. The Rodian Wole, a Path member, agrees to disable the ship’s safety parameters, while the Jedi Rok and Coron go back outside to lure the beast into the ship. But things go awry pretty quickly and soon both teams of Jedi find themselves preparing to face the deadly Leveler head-on. And little do they know that the “rare gemstones” collected by the Path in the cargo bay are actually Leveler eggs that are just about ready to hatch any minute. That’s this chapter’s cliffhanger ending, in fact, and with only one issue left to go I can’t help but wonder how this group is going to get out of this one, or even if they do get out of this one, considering nobody in the future seems to know about the titular Nameless Terror and its effects on Jedi and the Force. Either way, Mann and his artist collaborators Eduardo Mello and Ornella Savarese have delivered another tense, nail-biting installment that has me anxious to find out what happens next.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.