32 BBY: Tales #7: Single Cell

Nym’s slugthrower. 

It was a carbine my bounty hunter used in Star Wars Galaxies.  It was THE weapon for bounty hunters to use because it dealt kinetic damage, a type of damage that Jedi were vulnerable to.

It was also the first time I came across the name of one of Star Wars’ most famous pirates, who also happens to be the protagonist of this bit of Star Wars lore.

From what I remember from SWG, Nym had a base of operations on the planet Lok.  Lok was by far one of my favorite planets to travel to in the game.  I guess it’s not an accident that Haden Blackman is the writer of this tale, as he was also one of the lead developers for SWG.  I’m not sure if Haden is responsible for the creation of Nym, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was.

Nym’s appearance in SWG always made me wonder about his backstory (he was an NPC in the game and you were awarded the his slugthrower once you completed his string of missions) and I’ve been looking forward to a story with Nym the Pirate since I started this project, and Single Cell did not fail to deliver.

Single Cell is a short tale with only two points of discussion I want to focus on: the neat ending, and Nym’s mention of stygium crystals and cloaking devices.

I really haven’t much to say about the ending except that I thought it was neat.  Nym’s crewman, disguised as Merick and Bavo, the “best torturers in the galaxy”, come to rescue Nym from the Trade Federation’s holding cell (Nym was handed over to the Trade Federation by a former business associate named Vana).  I liked Kole’s words to Nym as he and Jinkins came into his cell “We’re trained professionals” he says, smirking to the pirate. 

The real gem in this story for me was Nym’s mention of a cloaking device:

“Vana’s ‘buyers’ offered a trade – stygium crystals for the stolen weapons.  I figured the crystals would be easier to sell.  Or I could use ‘em if a cloaking device ever fell in my lap” (Tales Volume 2 pg. 116).

As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, when I’m done my project I’m going to try and write some Star Wars short stories.  I don’t think I’m much of a fiction writer but I’m going to give it a try.  One of the characters I want to write about is a pirate, inspired by Nym and all those Johnny Depp movies I guess.  I’d like to work in the element of a cloaking device and hitch it to some staple plot device; pirate gets cloaking device, pirate loses cloaking device, pirate gets cloaking device back, that sort of thing.  But what I loved about this line from Single Cell is that Nym believes in the possibility of a cloaking device falling into his lap.  They’re around, that much we know.  Off the top of my head I can think of two mentions of them at this point in chronology.  One is mentioned in Red Harvest, and belonged to the Whiphid bounty hunter in that story, and the second once I can remember was mentioned in the Jedi Apprentice series, where some random spacer transporting droid parts also had a cloaking device.  I think there is another mention of one in another story I covered, but I can’t remember.  For those of you reading this and keeping track, has there been any other mentions of cloaking devices in what I’ve covered so far?  Refresh my memory.

As it is, I’m glad to be back focusing on my project once again.  For my next post I’m going to look at Galactic Battle Grounds Mission 1.  Now to get loading it onto my computer.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.