Victory's Price is a Star Wars Expanded Universe novel written by by Alexander Freed (Battlefront: Twilight Company) and the final installment in the Alphabet Squadron trilogy.
It was released on March 2nd, 2021.
Tropes in this novel include:
- Asteroid Thicket: The New Republic forces engaged Shadow Wing in an asteroid field in the G'Tep'Noi system.
- Befriending the Enemy: During the lulls between the fighting in the Chadawa system, the New Republic and Imperial pilots chat on the radio. After Wyl's escape pod crashlands on Jakku, an Imperial pilot rescues the injured Wyl from the wreck after recognizing Wyl from the radio call.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Shadow Wing refits several Clone Wars era hyperdrive docking rings to work with their TIE fighters.
- Call-Back: Nakadia from Battlefront: Twilight Company is current seat of the New Republic government as per Aftermath: Life Debt, due to the assassination attempt on Mon Mothma and other New Republic officials on Chandrila in the latter novel.
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Cargo Ship: Hera describes her relationship with her freighter Ghost as a decade-long marriage. - The Cameo:
- Jacen is finally mentioned (with this being his first mention in expanded material), with Hera constantly thinking about him and wanting to make the Galaxy a safe place for him. It's also mentioned that he's being raised elsewhere, since obviously a battlefield is no place for a young child, and that Hera hopes Jacen grows up to be a noble man like Kanan.
- Hera tries not to think about Jacen, her absent friends (i.e. the Ghost crew), and her father Cham, lest she get distracted from her work.
- Hera briefly pilots the Ghost. It's mentioned that she hadn't used it in a while, though her skills are still up to grade.
- Vanguard Squadron is mentioned.
- Chekhov's Gun: The contents of Wyl Lark's second call to Polyneus before the Battle of Jakku are not revealed until several chapters later where Polyneans riding sur-avkas come to Jakku to aid in search and rescue after the battle.
- Continuity Nod:
- Vanguard Squadron and their attack on Pandem Nai are brought up. Hera mentions when she was briefly assigned with Vanguard.
- Bansu Ro is an Imperial pilot from Lothal, trained at its local academy, and became estranged with his family when they joined the rebels.
- The Panaka is one of Star Destroyers defending Coruscant, named for the Imperial Moff from Naboo. Colonel Keize wryly notes that Moff Panaka once broke the blockade of his homeworld instead of enforcing one.
- Hera recalls training cadets aboard the Lucrehulk Prime.
- Destroy the Evidence: Colonel Keize plans to destroy the Emperor's database of Imperial personnel on Coruscant used to select personal for Operation Cinder so that former Imperials can disappear after the war and escape New Republic persecution.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": When Palal Seedia reveals her true identity to Wyl Lark, she refers to the nickname the New Republic pilots gave her "Blink." Later she says "I'm not Blink. I'm Palal Seedia."
- Duel to the Death: In Chadawa, Wyl challenges Colonel Keize to a fighter duel, with the conditions that the loser's side must withdraw from the system. While Wyl follows through and fights Keize, the duel is actually a distraction so the bombers of Hail Squadron can attack the Imperial Raider-class corvettes.
- Foil: One that ironically dramatizes a common thread in Star Wars discourse, that of whether Luke was right to mourn Darth Vader after all the evil he had committed. Where Luke found Anakin worth saving, Wyl finds the idea of mourning Vader grotesque.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Jacen Syndulla, Hera and Kanan's son from the ending of Star Wars Rebels, is mentioned a few times.
- Loving a Shadow: "Love" is too strong a word, but Wyl Lark's mental image of "Blink" as a decent Imperial pilot who warned him about Shadow Wing's attack in the Cerberon system and was willing to defect to the New Republic does not match the real woman, Palal Seedia. When Wyl finally encounters Seedia, she attacks him and he learns that she is a fanatically loyal soldier whose "warning" at Cerberon was a distraction, and she is willing to die to sabotage the Deliverance.
- One-Steve Limit: Bansu Ro shares his surname with Marchion Ro and the Ro clan from The High Republic series, though as Bansu Ro is a human, this is likely a coincidence.
- Not Actually the Ultimate Question: When Wyl Lark discovers Palal Seedia aboard the Deliverance, he asks her "how are you here?" meaning how did she get onboard that ship. She responds that her parents were intimate and they didn't kill her and her twin sister shortly after birth.
- Playing Possum: While fleeing from the droids of Netalych, Kairos shuts down power on her U-wing to make it seem like they knocked out her power.
- Scam Religion: Nath Tensent reveals to Chass na Chadic that the founder of the cult she infiltrated in Shadow Fall is a known criminal operating under an assumed name.
- Space Is an Ocean: The Chadawa system has waves of radioactive particles referred to as tides, which limit both the New Republic and Imperial ships from flying around the system during "high tide."
- Simultaneous Arcs: The final act takes place during the Battle of Jakku.
- So Last Season: Palal Seedia unleashes a swarm of Buzz Droids in a attempt to destroy the New Republic Star Destroyer Deliverance, though unlike their time in the Clone Wars, they only managed to kill an engineer and the captain.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Wyl Lark and the other survivors of the 120 feel this way when they return to Polyneus.
- Stealth in Space: The ship Quell found on the asteroid in the Cerberon system has a cloaking device. Also, Shadow Wing figured out how to harvest/replicate the radioactive particles from the Chadawa system and uses them to jam sensors during the Battle of Jakku, allowing Shadow Wing to ambush several New Republic ships. Colonel Keize uses a mine filled with these particles to slip through the Imperial blockade above Coruscant.
- Suicide Attack: A Shadow Wing pilot dies ramming her fighter into the Deliverance's tractor beam projector, allowing the rest of the Shadow Wing to escape. Also, Palal Seedia blows her self up to sabotage the Deliverance after Wyl Lark discovers her before she can set a timer on her bomb and escape in a shuttle.
- Swiss-Army Appendage: The droid known as The Surgeon had multiple arms, each with different functions.
- That Man Is Dead: Kairos, twice. First she buries her old outfit on her home planet when she accepts that she can no longer return to her people. On Coruscant she begins sheds her chitinous exoskeleton and tells Quell she is becoming a new person before leaving.
- The Dead Have Names: During the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic pilots from the Deliverance and Shadow Wing recite the names of their dead comrades over the radio. Also during the fight between Wyl Lark and Palal Seedia aboard the Deliverance, Seedia recites the names of her dead comrades, and is offended at the nicknames the New Republic pilots had given them. In the epilogue during their reunion six years after the Battle of Jakku, Yrica, Wyl, and Chass recite the names of their dead comrades while reminiscing about the war.
- Title Drop: The title is derived from the first book's tagline, "Victory has a price."
- Turned Against Their Masters: The droids of the Imperial outpost on Netalych rose up against their organic masters shortly after the Battle of Endor. The droids formed their own society and forced the organics to work for the droids.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Colonel Madrighast and the Star Destroyer Unyielding attack the New Republic forces even after they stop Shadow Wing from irradiating Chadawa, the planet serving as his base. General Syndulla blows up the Unyielding when they attempt to ram the Deliverance.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Kairos tells Yrica and Chass that cannot return to her people after New Republic doctors operated on her to save her life in Shadow Fall. Her people believe that exposure to anything off world contaminates their soul.
