BLADES BEYOND THE STARS

Legion Priority Target

While blasters maintain their place as the premier weapons in the Galaxy’s Edge universe, you can always count on a Leej to carry a good blade with him.

With technology on a level far beyond that of when the Great Uplift occurred, you’d expect a mountain of innovations for blades to have occurred since mankind left Earth. Surprisingly, after only a few upgrades to one of humanity’s oldest weapons, the blade has remained pretty stagnant in terms of R&D.

Leejes carry folding knives that are made of environment proof materials, running the gamut from manual opening to auto-deployment. The knives are much the same as they are today, except for what they’re made of. A good legion folder can last several lifetimes before it ever needs to be replaced, or at least, it did until certain government contracts skimped on parts for such a simple tool. 

Also, part of the required legion kit is the N-9 combat survival knife. This chonky blade can be seen on the cover of Prisoners of Darkness as a Leej is about to introduce a Gomarii slaver to a bad day. Made of rigorous materials and sporting a large cleaver like blade, the knife is one part cutter and one part chopper. The Wharncliffe style blade allows for deep penetration to stabs with vicious rending on the way out because of its prolific gut hook at the nose of the knife. The same hook can strip wire, which is something that Leejes often do while boarding ships for interdiction. 

Older, and not as seen anymore, is the ancient legion machete, carried by the bounty hunter Tyrus Rechs. The blade is carbon forged, with a diamond edge fashioned into a monomolecular edge running the length of the cutting surface. Backed by Rechs’s powerful assisted armor, the bounty hunter could take off the limbs of a legionnaire through their armored plates (which were designed for impact against blaster bolts). 

A final innovation to come about for the blade is the addition of Vibro technology. A reciprocating energy field surrounds the blade when activated, vibrating in and out of phase to increase the cutting capacity of the edge by a factor of a thousand. Ancient pirates used this tech to cut through star ship hulls, as well as the bulky armor worn by Repub Marines in the times between the Savage Wars. We see the Vibro-knife make a comeback in Wraiths kit on his mission to the jungle in The Wanted, where he easily cuts a path through the dense growth with the energy-based knife.

While laser and sonic scalpels and plasma torches have claimed the top spots as tools carried by spacers, there’s still room at Galaxy’s Edge for a Leej to deploy a good knife in a bad situation.

Check out the Vibro-blade cutting a path for Wraith to steal the shadows and the victory in The Wanted!