Quotes from Paul S. Kemp

Strong emotions serve only to slow effective action.

It is unforgiving of weakness

Elders say that too much technology makes us slaves all over again.

Perhaps he had failed. Perhaps the Order had failed. But both had failed nobly. There was something to that.

Do you think treachery begins in the deed, my friend?

Beings die in war. That is the price that must be paid

Only priests are wise enough to fear, rather than covet, the gifts the gods may give.

Vader made most of the naval officers he encountered uncomfortable

Underlings should always be uncomfortable in the presence of their superiors

Let's do this right here," Belkor said. "What I have to say won't take long." "What I have to say will," Cham said ...

Taa will be dead, Mors will be disgraced, and we'll arrange for you to look the hero somehow. Moff Dray. Sounds good, no?" "I'll still be in your pocket," Belkor said. "But you'll be alive. And a Moff. That's better than the alternative." Belkor said nothing.

Vader made most of the naval officers he encountered uncomfortable. To them, he was a towering dark figure outside their chain of command who had emerged from nowhere and possessed powers they did not understand.

Alert your flight teams," he said to Luitt. "Be ready to scramble your V-wings." "What? Why?" Luitt asked, looking from Vader to the Emperor. "The shields are still up." "Likely not for much longer," Vader said. "Do as Lord Vader commands," said the Emperor, putting just enough power in his tone to quail everyone on the bridge.

Mors sagged back into her seat and swallowed hard. To her knowledge, an Imperial Star Destroyer had never before been destroyed. And now one had, above the planet she was administering, by a rebel movement that she was supposed to suppress.

Vader let them close a bit, then slammed hard on the reverse thrusters, throwing him forward in his seat, and immediately reengaged the engines. The momentary stop had been enough. The escort streaked past and over him. He gave chase instantly, inverting the shuttle as he did.

Pilgrims, petitioners, and priests crowded the stone-flagged avenue, praying, preaching, and proselytizing.

All men did have darkness. Some wore it in the form of horns. Some bore it invisibly as rot in their souls.

Can you trust the crew in the V-wings?" A laugh slipped through Belkor's teeth, and he heard the hysteria in it. "To kill Mors? Yes. I've made her out as the traitor who brought down the Perilous. But to kill Vader and the Emperor? No. To help Twi'lek terrorists? No, I can't trust them to do that, Syndulla. No.

He felt the Emperor's eyes on him, the intensity of the gaze, the weight of his expectations, and Vader knew that the day's events had been only half about depleting a rebel movement before it could grow. They had also, as Vader had suspected, been about testing him, forcing him to face the ghosts of his past and exorcise them forever and fully.

Far down the corridor, she saw Vader leap down from a walkway ten meters above the deck.

Vader was not a man.

The food was bad, the people were angry

Treachery never goes unpunished

He wondered if he'd completely lost his mind, but then figured that people who'd gone insane never wondered if they'd gone insane.