Literature / Voices from H-Prime

"I left my throne a billion light years away..."

Voices from H-Prime is a work of fiction that takes place in the canon Star Wars universe. It takes place ten years before The Force Awakens and features all original characters. The story is told from the perspectives of various characters in linked short stories.

The main cast includes R'ala Vahn, a freelance slicer and mercenary; Glyn na Hionah, a Theelin war-gamer turned strategist (and R'ala's former partner); Kax Grandt, a former death-racer and current junior politician working on a secret project for the New Republic; Antim Waslo, gunnery chief of an elite deep-space combat simulator; and Tevix, a Zabrak pilot with a knack for building and modifying dangerous droids.

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Examples of tropes found in this story include:

• The Ace: Kax was formerly a badass death-racer known as the Radical, and is still an incredibly skilled pilot.
• Achilles' Heel: The Harvester and the Precision can only be shielded one at a time due to sharing an energy source and only being manned by one person. Kax is able to exploit this by essentially making a suicide run.
• Action Girl: Primarily R'ala, Antim, and Tevix among the main cast. Among the supporting cast, you've got Briy Rost, Tan Thotas, Jerrel, Taj, and more. Glyn is even said to be good at sparring (since her mother was a warrior), but never displays these skills.
• Afro Asskicker: Antim.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Most of the deaths of the Coalition end up this way. R'ala eventually lampshades it in a conversation with Glyn on Orbital Station.
  • Mark One is just an old man with an emotional connection to music. He has bodyguards, but probably wasn't planning on harming anyone before getting his throat slashed by Brold Crajus.
  • Mark Two, while being a Smug Snake, lives in solitude and even admits that the Coalition's massacre of the committee was short-sighted. He gets a blaster bolt to the chest for his trouble.
  • Mark Three literally lives on an uncharted world on the fringes of the galaxy, where it would be impossible to harm anyone or get a criminal enterprise going. Her execution by Brold after her Face Death with Dignity speech greatly affects R'ala's outlook on the entire mission.
  • Perhaps the most sobering of all is Mark Four, AKA Paalo, who has clearly turned things around. While the others are mentioned to still have underworld connections, Paalo has a daughter and a home, and begins to consider R'ala a friend even when he knows she's there to take him out. The worst he does is jam the team's communications in order to give himself time to win R'ala over and make her change her mind about executing him. Sadly, Var'desh and his explosives ruin that plan pretty fast.
• Anti-Hero: R'ala is extremely rough around the edges, is not idealistic at all, and has no qualms about "shooting first."
• Arc Words: "Two kids from the frontier."
• Arc Villain: The Sickle/Client 5 for Episode I, the Coalition of the Nudj and Brold/Rost/Var'desh for Episode II, and Tevix, Davi, and Tak Artur for Episode III.
• Asshole Victim: No one's shedding any tears over the deaths of prejudiced bully Brold Crajus, cold and condescending Briy Rost, or apathetic near-child-murderer Var'desh.
  • The ultimate death of the villainous Tak Artur at the hands of those he terrorized is also satisfying.
  • R'ala's calculated killing of Welker, who insulted inter-species relationships and screwed up her entire partnership with Tevix, also comes off as a gift to the galaxy.
  • Tevix's violent assassination of the Sickle after they manipulated her into thinking they wanted to hire her.
• Badass Boast: R'ala, Tevix, and Brold are prone to making these.
• Bad Guy Bar: Tevix spends some time at a cantina decorated with animal bones, where a bunch of bandits are apparently waiting around to steal whatever nice-looking ships dock nearby.
• Bar Full of Aliens: Naturally, quite a few.
• Battle Couple: R'ala and Glyn count, even though Glyn commands the forces rather than fighting.
  • Kax and Jerrel aren't an official couple, but they clearly had some kind of fire-forged love connection in the past.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted when R'ala suffers grievous injuries, including facial ones, due to a betrayal by her squad.
• Berserk Button: Seriously, do not say anything bad about Glyn if R'ala is in the room.
  • For Kax, any mention of the Cadre or Queen Davi will do it.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: While Tevix is the main antagonist who drives events, Tak Artur becomes the biggest physical threat when he mans the demon ship Precision with the Harvester attached to it and attacks Haidoral Prime at the head of a pirate fleet.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The main protagonist, R'ala, has a checkered past that involves theft and working with/for criminals, and she has no qualms about killing people. Beneath all of this, she has a good heart and would prefer to settle and be happy just like anyone else.
• Blade Enthusiast: Tevix's preferred form of violence features blades, and she's never caught without a few stashed somewhere on her.
• Boom, Headshot!!: With snipers like Rost and Slyke around, it's par for the course. Rost gives one to Mark Five, and Slyke lays one each on Gad Tabor, 4-D 0 J, and a member of the Guavian Death Gang.
  • Also how Antim finishes off Fiddach.
  • Also how Shasc meets his end, courtesy of a drone gun.
  • Tak Artur kills F'tudal this way.
• The Cameo: Korr Sella from The Force Awakens and Bloodline appears near the end.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Glyn has a hard time telling R'ala why she doesn't want to live on H-Prime for good.
• Catchphrase: Lizpai is fond of telling people to “Shut it.”
  • R'ala, whenever presented with an alien dish or drink, asks if it's safe for humans to eat.
  • A meta example: The behind-the-scenes podcast takes the form of a fictional radio station, whose catchphrase is actually “Catchphraaaase!”
• Character Development:
  • R'ala goes from a depressive, wandering mercenary with a "pull" that will not allow her to stay put to a married musician settled down in a rural village, and a celebrated (albeit only by the few in the know) hero who helped put down multiple serious threats to galactic stability.
  • Glyn began as a talented-but-sedentary gamer with few serious ambitions, but ends up succeeding as a serious war strategist who now understands her own worth.
  • Kax appears to be the picture of rigid authority, but their background as a death-racer becomes more important than ever as they once again lead Ring Squadron into battle against a nearly insurmountable pirate threat. Afterwards, Kax is contacted by an envoy for Leia Organa, who wants to put their political talents to work rebuilding galactic democracy once the First Order is defeated.
  • Antim is a no-nonsense soldier through and through, holds rhetoric and gamesmanship in disdain, and is set in her own ways of doing things. Eventually, though, she becomes more adaptive, better at improvising, and more willing to let her guard down with people she cares about. She also decides to lift the rigid secrecy of Apex Station, which aids in galactic morale, and inspires more soldiers to train to combat future threats.
  • Tevix is a pilot-for-hire and a ruthless knife expert on almost no one's radar. However, she becomes a prominent underworld boss who plans a serious blitz on the Mid Rim, and goes from that to beginning a promising smuggling career. In the process, she makes an honest attempt to change her impulsive and untrusting ways.
• Chekhov's Gun: More like Chekhov's Armor, really. Tevix begins "Arc Song" by finishing her mysterious "X" project, a set of floating, cloaked droid chestplates that automatically snap onto her chest when someone takes a shot at her. It doesn't play an extremely meaningful role until "Floating Home," in which it truly saves her life against a bunch of lowlifes in a bar.
• Chewing the Scenery: Welker makes an enormous, obnoxious production of raiding a small passenger ship with one person on it.
• Combat Pragmatist: Brold Crajus, who threatens Mark One's bodyguards and then lets Briy Rost snipe them from a distance. Once they're dead, he threatens the survivors as if he's the one who just took the others down.
  • Also Mullus Sayn, who uses a nerve agent to disable a group of bandits rather than fight them head on.
• Cool Helmet:
  • Brold Crajus wears the traditional Mandalorian helmet.
  • Tak Artur wears a customized TIE pilot helmet, which makes him look rather menacing.
• Cool Old Guy: Bain Salvo.
• Cunning Linguist: Lizpai is a translator who can communicate with almost any species in the galaxy. This skill proves invaluable during Project Anthem.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Antim and her Apex troops take care of Gad Tabor and his crew pretty easily, owing to superior positioning and preparation.
  • Similarly, Antim takes out Mark Two with a single move.
• Death or Glory Attack: Glyn spends most of the battle of H-Prime trying to avoid pitting her forces directly against Tak Artur and the Harvester. However, she and Kax both come to the realization that Tak's dirty tricks are going to get everyone picked off one-by-one unless someone attacks the monster ship directly. Cue Ring Squadron's final stand.
• The Determinator: R'ala's survival in the fight against Var'desh, Rost, and Brold is an incredible feat that could only be accomplished by someone who is plainly not ready to die. She endures broken ribs, brutal fists to the jaw, the loss of two fingers, and a blaster blowing up in her face.
• The Dragon: Fiddach to the Sickle (and later to Tevix), Davi to Tak Artur during the battle of H-Prime. Davi has her own dragon, a Quarren incendiary specialist who joins Tevix's ground team.
• The Dreaded: Tak Artur is such a legendarily vicious bounty hunter that one of the most hardcore war games in the galaxy has a trading card featuring his image. Also, everyone at the pirate moot knows who he is.
• Deadpan Snarker: R'ala and Lizpai get most of these moments.
• Demolitions Expert: Var'desh acts as this for the Project Anthem team. A rare case of a more realistic scenario, wherein someone who blows things up for a living is a terrifying presence. Even R'ala wants nothing to do with him.
• Dude, Where's My Respect??: This is very much Tevix's attitude towards Bosch, which leads her to take on the task of delivering the corthium shipment to Client 5 herself.
• Duel to the Death: Zig-zagged. From the beginning, it seems as though the endgame will be R'ala vs. Tevix, but once they begin fighting, they realize that they don't want or need to, and both are willing to let the other go.
  • Played straight with Antim vs. Fiddach.
• Dye Hard: Jerrel has trademark purple braids.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Bain Salvo manages to destroy the Cadre blockade with a well-placed proton torpedo before he is killed by Tak Artur.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Guavian Death Gang appears during the pirate moot, with a negotiator who speaks similarly to Bala-Tik.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: R'ala endures permanent physical injuries and PTSD while trying to find her way back to Glyn, and even after Glyn helps mentally nurture R'ala back to her old self (or as closely as possible, anyway), the duo are still summoned to fight in the battle of Haidoral Prime. When their ordeal ends, they get married and settle on the planet Shili, where R'ala begins a singing career and Glyn starts working in conservation, both far from violent conflict.
• Eldritch Location: UNC-6667 is a perpetually crumbling planet plagued with deadly microbursts, tornadoes, and other natural horrors. Unlike planets in the actual solar system, UNC-6667's storms are actually destroying it little by little. Naturally, the heroes must willingly travel to this place to complete a mission.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Orbital Station.
• Face Death with Dignity: Mark Three accepts her fate when Antim, R'ala, and Brold overcome her.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Governor is a legendary smuggler who is well-known by his moniker only.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sort of. Tevix is never a paragon of any sort, but it's hard (for both R'ala and the reader) to see her status as the Big Bad coming.
  • Crajus, Rost, and Var'desh betray R'ala for some bounty money, and brutally attempt to kill her.
• Failed a Spot Check: Gad Tabor is certain he's about to take down the great Antim Waslo just before Slyke's sniper shot whizzes into the back of his head and kills him instantly.
• Fantastic Racism: Tevix thinks of humans as soft and incapable beings that eat leaves, refers to the Poletec species as “things,” and inexplicably hates Dresellians.
  • Brold Crajus refers to Ishy Tibbs as “Fishy Tibbs,” and calls Glyn (a Theelin) “the tall thing.”
• Final Boss: Tak Artur very much makes himself this, as taking out the Precision and the Harvester is the only thing that can effectively end the battle and foil Tevix's plans.
• Fin Gore: R'ala loses two fingers during a shootout with Briy Rost.
• First-Name Basis: Glyn would rather be called by her first name than "Representative Glyn," which was a made-up title anyway. She doesn't even reveal her surname until the final episode.
• Foregone Conclusion: Several characters express concern about the New Republic's effectiveness, and Korr Sella mentions that Leia Organa fears an imminent threat. Star Wars fans already know that the First Order will soon rise and destroy the New Republic, leading Leia to form the Resistance.
• For the Evulz: Davi seems to get far too much pleasure out of enslaving unsuspecting athletes.
  • Also Tevix's reasoning for killing most of the people she kills.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Played with. Tak Artur has burn scars on his head, likely from a fight with a quarry he was greedily chasing. After Tak's death, Shardi, a heroic character, gets similar burn scars on her head and face from her battle with troops that worked for Tak and Tevix.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The First Order is alluded to a couple of times, as it's about to rise and supplant the Empire in roughly a decade.
• Guile Hero: R'ala, who completes the triangle with Antim as the Action Hero and Glyn as the Science Hero.
• Happily Married: R'ala and Glyn at the end.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The Sickle's labor droid is seared in half by a carbine rifle while trying to murder Tevix.
• Hate Sink: Tak Artur is a Smug Snake who loves to hear himself talk, leaves Glyn to die on Ord Mantell, and kills more heroic characters than anyone. He somehow becomes even more vile after you learn his backstory.
• Heroic BSoD: Kax has a brief one after Henling's death, but it's interrupted by Glyn, who needs Kax to focus.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Played with. Kax fully believes they're going to be killed during their final run on the Precision, but their fighter spins out of the battle zone. They'd have definitely died of starvation or oxygen deprivation if R'ala and Glyn hadn't come to the rescue later.
• Hero Killer: Tak Artur kills a ton of people in the story, including Bain Salvo, Zoss Proot, Merghen, the Locksmith, and Vyrsygyr.
• Hidden Depths: Tevix's frustrating childhood on an orbital colony is responsible for her indecisiveness and impulsiveness.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Rost gives R'ala a hard time about her ancient gear, and gifts her a sniper rifle that she forced R'ala to repair. Since the rifle is in better working order than Rost's, R'ala is able to outgun her when they duel later.
  • In the end, Tak Artur is killed thanks to Glyn, who wouldn't have been commanding H- Prime's forces (nor would she have been involved in the battle at all) if Tak hadn't kidnapped her and released her on Ord Mantell to make a smug point about the cruelties of the galaxy.
• Honest John's Dealership: Argo Bott seems like the quintessential used car dealer. Even his advertisements are a bit murky and designed to confuse/dupe customers ("Our Brand New Ships are guaranteed to have no more than twelve previous owners!").
• Incoming Ham: Argo Bott's used ship advertisement. Also Welker's straightforward, overly formal announcement that he's about to board Tevix's ship and steal her loot.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Kax created Ring Squadron and assigned themselves the designation "Ring Leader." It's either Kax's one attempt at humor in their entire life, or they used to be much more fun in the old days.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Warble speaks in standard astromech bleeps, but most of the cast can understand him.
• Interspecies Romance: Between R'ala (a human) and Glyn (a Theelin).
• It Has Been an Honor: Said by Chal Fith to Kax before the latter launches a suicide run on the Precision.
• I Work Alone: Tak Artur refuses to allow a crew to help operate his ship, since he's rather antisocial and doesn't trust anyone to touch the controls.
• Karma Houdini: Tevix is never punished for her deeds, and even gets the chance to change her ways and begin a lucrative smuggling career.
  • Davi escapes the battle of H-Prime, and Kax lets go of their grudge against her.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Shasc and Mark Three.
• A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: Appears in the opening crawl, of course.
• Love Confessor: Lizpai figures out that R'ala and Glyn used to be a thing, and that R'ala still carries the flame pretty high. She asks R'ala, "How long have you loved her?" without specifying who, and R'ala responds, "Forever."
• Loved I Not Honor More: Kax and Jerrel clearly have a past, but there seems to be an unspoken understanding that nothing can happen as long as Ring Squadron is still a unit with a mission to accomplish. It is revealed that this was Kax's choice.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The story is set during peacetime(between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens) and deals mostly with the personal tribulations of the characters, independent of the overall galactic conflict. As the First Order and the Resistance are slowly coming together in the background, however, the characters get a sense that the galaxy is approaching major change.
• Magnetic Hero: R'ala is an acquired taste, but Kax, Antim, Lizpai, and others she works with eventually come around to considering her The Heart.
• Malicious Misnaming: R'ala refers to Welker as "Whelk" throughout their conversation.
• Mobile Factory: The Harvester.
• Ms. Fanservice: Averted with a vengeance by Glyn, who resents how Theelins are typically depicted and fetishized.
• Mythology Gag:
  • R'ala's dress being referred to as the “Elli Stark” is a reference to the Legends comic "Agent of the Empire" in which the protagonist (Elli Stark) wears the same dress.
  • Tak Artur stole his ship from activists who planned on extracting survivors from the planet Parnassos, where the Phasma novel takes place.
  • Lizpai suggests that Mark Two might be hiding on Batuu, but leadership dismisses the idea. Batuu is the location of the Galaxy's Edge theme park, where the Black Spire novel takes place.
  • R'ala's final song in the book is about "someone who used to live [on Shili]." This is strongly implied to be Ahsoka Tano.
  • In "The Dust Giant," one of Kax's dreams involves walking across the Jundland Wastes on Tatooine. This is where the Lars homestead is located, and thus where Luke Skywalker was raised.
  • "Mad About Me" is named after the famous cantina song by Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Pirate Queen Davi of the Cadre."
  • The Harvester, even when you don't know what it does.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Tevix's attempt to gather the pirates in a cooperative blitz on the Mid Rim ironically results in there never being a viable pirate threat against the Mid Rim.
• Non-Action Guy: Glyn and Lizpai contribute greatly to both major conflicts, but neither are ever armed or fighting.
• No Name Given: The Governor. Also Kax in their racing days, when they went only by “the Radical.”
  • The Locksmith.
  • Another example is the Kid, an H-Sec guard who antagonizes Glyn.
• No-Sell: R'ala's concussion shield and Tevix's invisible floating armor render most traditional blaster shots useless against them.
• Oh, Crap!: Ring Squadron's reaction when they realize the wreckage of the H-Sec outpost is about to rush towards them.
  • Tak gets one when he realizes he's about to be vaporized thanks to Glyn.
• Official Couple: R'ala and Glyn after the mission to UNC-6667.
• Off with His Head!: R'ala hacks off the head of Var'desh with a grafting blade.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Fiddach doesn't really care what his boss is up to. He's just good at smashing people up, and the job pays well.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: R'ala's red to Glyn's blue.
• Saved by Canon: The book goes out of its way to make sure the main characters are not going to be in or near the Hosnian System when it's destroyed by the First Order.
• The Reveal:
  • Rinny is not a real person; she's a hologram designed to take attention off of Kax.
  • Why aren't Brold, Rost, and Var'desh in a hurry to leave Acktundo when the mission is complete? It turns out they're aiming to collect a bounty on R'ala, and killing her is the last act they must perform before going off-world.
  • The Benefactor is Leia Organa, who doesn't appear directly, but sends Korr Sella to communicate with Kax.
  • R'ala's purpose in bringing Glyn to a seemingly random spaceport on an ice planet while wearing an uncharacteristically feminine dress she previously refused to wear was to propose marriage.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Davi and the Cadre cut their losses after the battle of H-Prime takes a turn in favor of the heroes.
• Slashed Throat: Tevix kills the Governor this way, and aims to do the same to the leader of the bandits who attempt to steal her ship, but decides against the latter.
  • Also how Brold Crajus kills Mark One.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Fyffe is just one of Glyn's war-gaming friends, but she's also the surgeon who repairs R'ala's hand, in the process making R'ala and Glyn realize that they both want to live on Shili.
  • Bosch only appears in the first chapter as a lowly merc, but a mission he plans (as well as his decision to have R'ala deliver the shipment) sets R'ala's and Tevix's entire story arcs in motion.
• Trademark Favorite Food: R'ala is fond of drinking "ice blasters," an alcoholic beverage served in most cantinas.
• Undressing the Unconscious: What's done to R'ala when she's put in the bacta tank.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: It's potent between Kax and Jerrel.
• Use Your Head: Tevix kills a member of the Sickle by running headfirst into him and skewering him with her head-spines.
• Warrior Monk: Tan Thotas and Mark Two.
• We Can Rule Together: After all is said and done, R'ala wonders if Tevix would have killed her if they'd originally been able to overthrow the Sickle like they'd planned. Tevix denies it, and says that they would have become the next great pirate queens.
• Wham Line:
  • "Oh, that thing? I forgot I had it running."
  • "Your friend Paalo is Mark Four."
  • "Senator Organa is the Benefactor?"
• World of Action Girls: Most of the main players in the conflict, at least on the heroic side, are women.
• Would Hit a Girl: When his weapons overheat, Brold resorts to repeatedly striking R'ala in the face with his fists.
• Would Hurt a Child: Var'desh blows up a building with a child inside, not caring whether she dies, as long as Mark Four is caught in the blast.
• Wretched Hive: Every Star Wars story needs one. Hope's Node fills the role here.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Ring Squadron's final tactic against the Cadre. It costs them big, but they win.