Star Wars: The High Republic 1
Charles Soule
PROLOGUE
It is a peaceful time in the High Republic. The Outter Rim worlds are still dangerous, but Senator … plans to bring them into the Republic’s care. The Jedi agree to establish outpost to those in need.
PART ONE: THE GREAT DISASTER
1. Captain Hedda Casset used to be a fighter pilot, but now runs a century old freight ship, the Legacy Run, back and forth transporting people to the Outer Rim Territories to try to make their dreams come true. She makes her rounds and checks that the shipment of Tibanna (volitile liquid) is secure. When something pops up on her screen saying something is going to collide with their light speed path, she quickly sounds the alarm and pulls the Legacy Run out of light speed and switches to manual controls. She is able to avoid the object in their path, but the ship cannot handle the quick movement. She pushes a button to shield each individual cargo hold and hopes the children that were playing in the common area had run back to their families when they heard the alarm. The ship rips apart. Hedda and her crew are sucked into space.
2. Scantech Merven Getter is working an outpost in the Hetzel system dreaming about asking out the bartender at the local watering hole when he gets back to his little moon. His screen shows hundreds of small objects heading their way. He tells his supervisor, Scantech Vel, and says they are in the strike zone. They use their codes to send out an alarm and decide they will send along a message explaining why when they are in the ship flying away from danger. One of the objects shoots into the outpost and kills them both.
3. Minister Ecka (leader of a small farming planet) gets the alert, but the hinders why there isn’t a message to go with it. Monitors are checked and they see the storm of debris hurtling towards their system. They sound inform the people and try to get as many people to safety as possible.
4. The ship the Third Horizon arrives in the Hetzel system and start release by Jedi Vector ships to try to minimize the damage to the system. The operation is headed by a Jedi Master, Avar Kriss, is in charge of the operation. She lets the force tell her what she must do.
5. Apprentice Bell Zettifar and his Master Loden Greatstorm fly in their vector ship to help. The Jedi were told to go where they are needed at their own discretion, Loden has Bell take the controls of the ship and sense where in the planet they are needed. The ships are mostly manual and rely on the use of the force to fly. Loden is a very hands-on teacher and Val has been improving since his apprenticeship started. Bell navigates to where they are needed while Loden takes over flying the ship. They arrive at a compound. Armed guards are posted and not letting people in. Loden jumps out of the ship to see what is going on leaving Bell to put the ship down.
6. Tenticled Captain Bright of a ship has his crew fire all six of their missiles at the anomaly, but they all miss. He can see there is a ship stranded that needs their help. He tells his young crew they are going to try to rescue them, but it is possible the anomaly will take them out too if they stay. He knows they are scared and they know it is their duty as part of the Republic
7. There are four Jedi on Hetzel trying to prevent the anamaly from destroying the entire moon that has 4 billion inhabitants. When the Wookiee Jedi apprentice starts yelling over the communication system, his master explains he feels the emotions of the people on the anomaly because it is actually a ship.
8. Elzar is a Jedi that likes to experiment with the force. His friend Avar feels the Jedi all around working on trying to solve the current issue of the anomqlies appear out of nowhere and scattering all over the system. She sees something and comes to a realization. She tells everyone there are people aboard certain anomalies. She isnmt sure what to do and tells the crew to come up with ideas while she connects with the force for advice.
9. Bell is in free fall and tries to use the force to slow his decent to the ground. He isn’t able, and Loden has to help him down. They make their way to a ship and find there are many people wanting to get on and leave the moon for safety, but the guards have their orders to keep the people from boarding the ship. Loden suggests the guard retire early, but marauders show up ready to take the ship for themselves.
10. Jose flies a Longbeam ship he wasn’t used to. He works with his crew to come up with an idea to have the Jedi slow down the anomalies. He says they don’t see anything projecting it, so he thinks if they can clamp into it and try to stop it by pulling. The Jedi agree to try and do their best to assist them best they can
11. The projectiles start to enter atmosphere and burn up. She can feel the souls burning up. She senses something in the force and tries to let the force inform her. A projectile hits in the farms. Hundreds die. Avar knows she is missing something and opens herself up to the force more to figure out what it is.
12. A space station was hit and is spinning in space. Captain Bright knows it will take an extreme skill to land, dock, or even fly. They are able to get to the station and can barely see because of all the smoke. Bright finds a woman and she tells them she is not sure where everyone else is. He calls out that he has found two survivors. The ship is damaged and will blow up any second. Bright asks him to stabilize the reactor to give the time to save the survivors. He says he’ll try. The station tremors and he tells his crew to hurry.
13. Loden and Bell try to fight off the marauders while protecting the people around them. The people start to attack the Jedi as well. They see this as their opportunity to get into the ship. Bell protects Loden while he uses the force to lift the marauders into the air and take away their guns. He tells points out the situation to the guards, who put down their riffles and start to allow people to the ship. An ominous cloud in the distance tells them they need to hurry. The Jedi get a message from Avar Kris’s.
14. Avar asks about the projectile that the force had brought her attention to. At first, they Donny think it will be an issue because it is unoccupied and heading straight for a star. But upon further inspection, they find it was a full of Tibanna and if it hits the star, the explosion will be catastrophic
15. Joss gets as close to the projectile as he can in his ship as Tayami’s Jedi team works to slow it down and keep it together. The effort is successful. Before the team can celebrate, they feel the communication from Avar calling for all their immediate help.
16. Ideman tells Bright he can’t stop putting in the sequence or else the station will blow. Bright brings him Android to show it the sequence it needs to press. He sends Ideman ahead and makes sure the droid knows what it needs to do. Once he is satisfied, he starts to leave. He finds an unconscious man and tries to lift him. He goes back to the droid and to rescue the man. He calls Ideman and tells him about the change in plans. He orders Ideman to get the ship out of there as soon as the droid arrives. Ideman follow orders and Bright keeps putting the sequence in until it explodes.
17. The Third Horizon drops Avar onto Hetzel Prime and she tells them to take off. She sends out a one way broadcast to the Jedi telling them they are going to need to all push on the projectile in the same way at the same time. She tells anyone who doesn’t want to risk it to dock on the retreating Third Horizon. She feels all the Jedi around her stay on course. They all concentrate on the projectile they need to. For a moment, Avar looses her concentration and has to ask for help in finding the proper projectile again. The first attempt at moving its trajectory fails and they lose a few Jedi to death due to vector crashes and some to passing out from the effort. They have to try again with less Jedi this time. They are successful. Keven Tarr broadcasts the events across the universe so his home wouldn’t be destroyed and forgotten. Most of the universe celebrates and a joint republic.
18. Seven anomalies appear in a different system that doesn’t have a team of Jedi nearby to help. Six of them pass through without incident, but the seventh hits a very populated, swampy planet and kills 20 million people. Things the first emergence.
Lawrence Garello decided to live his business operations off Ab Dalis. Captain Odabba leads the fleet of ships moving away from the planet when the Nihil (appear out of no where, take what they want and destroy the rest) ships appear out of nowhere and start attacking. They don’t have time to out their shields up before they are hit. On if the ships blows up and takes down a Nihil ship with it. Odabba is glad to see one of their ships will go down with them.
PART TWO: THE PATHS
19. On Coruscant, Lina Soh, Chancellor of the Great Republic is on a mountain peak looking over the planet’s topography. She ground herself before meeting with the other powerful individuals. She thanks Avar Jriss for her efforts in the Hetzel system. None of them know what happened and therefore how to prevent it. They have closed the hyperspace lanes until more is known. They all know there can only be temporary because the lanes are used to transport food and supplies to Outer Rim planets. The Starlight Tower has been in the process of being built and construction is finally complete. Luna doesn’t want to delay the opening date of the Tower because it would make it seem like the Republic can’t keep their people safe. They all agree to do whatever they can to make sure they meat their deadline in 30 days.
20. Elzar is on the Third Horizon; they have gotten about a third of it. They have been collecting pieces of the Legacy Run and he has been using the force to help. Aver is with them. Senator Noah is concerned about the economic impact and why the Jedi aren’t looking for the cause of the destruction. He believes it was an attack. Elzar believes Avar chose him to partner with him on the project to help him make master rank. Avar points out they need to prevent any more emergencies and find where the disaster came from. There is a lot of data stored on the freight ships and ,.. has an idea of how to find out where the emergences were and the flight recorder from the Legacy Run and where the rest of the parts of the ship are He says he would need 20-100k of droids to make his idea work. Elzar tells him to start with what they have even. They know the Republic doesn’t have enough droids, but they might be able to speak to manufacturers directly. … also suggests they get in contact with the … (who consider themself adventurers) for help.
21. Nihil have a place called No Space only they know how to get to. Marshion, the Eye of the Nihil, is with them while they celebrate their victory. … asks why one of the freighters was missed. Ziger, the leader of the crew that missed the sixth freighter takes responsibility for the shooter that missed the shot. He has to choose who would pay the price for the mistake. Each Nihil was only out for themselves. One is chosen and sent out into the void to die, cutting out the week. The celebration starts. Marshion says he needs to talk to the three tempest runners. They meet in private and he takes off his mask. It unnerves those around him. He is worried about the completion of the Starlight Beacon and the Jedi investigation that has begun because of it. He thinks they will be wiped out if the Jedi come after them. They vote on it and 1/3 Storms agree with taking a break and one keeps quiet. Kassav and s not happy with the decision. Lorna wants to do a small operation that would bring more people into their fold. The planet she wants to go to has a Jedi outpost on it. The Paths the Nihil use allow them to be wherever they want at any time. He agrees the plan has potential and asks for a formal plan and tells her she has to stay away from drawing the attention of the Jedi. Kassav stays behind to complain. Marshion tells him he can try to take over, but there is a price and points to the void.
22. Loren tries to teach Bell how to slow his decent using the force by shoving him off a cliff. He tries but has trouble with it. Indeera Stokes catches him with the force at the bottom and then tells him it is time for lunch. Erika points out a cloud that looks like an oncoming storm (odd for their planet) to her husband Ottoh. They gather their family and rush into their house for safety. Ottoh uses a viewfinder to see the where the Nihil are with ocular heat. Their son tries to communicate to anyone that might help them. Four of them are trying to break in the front door. Ottoh has his wife set off the droids and quickly programs them to attack the Nihil. Their son, Ronn gets someone on the comlink while his sister Bee stays close to him. It isn’t long before they lose all their droids, but Erika had gotten several of the Nihil, but not enough. Their son says he got a hold of someone, but they wouldn’t be able to get to them in time. He sounded to scared to even try. Bell is eating the soup Porter Engle (the left Jedi that wanted to stay active instead of retirrering) made with the other members of his Jedi outpost and their dog-like companion creature. They make their separate plans for the afternoon, but they are all put on hold when the transmission comes through they the man was contacted by the family being attacked by the Nihil.
23. Avar and Elzar go to Naboo to talk to Marlowe (Scion of the San Tekkss empire and comes from a family of hyperspace prospectors) and Vellis about the incident and future emergences. The husbands deny the issue is possible in hyperspace because each jump to light speed puts the ship into its own plane of existence. The Elzar suspects they are lying. They agree to look at the data, but they think it is a one time event. The Jedi leave to continue their investigation elsewhere knowing the men are hiding something, but not if the information is anything relevant. Marlowe and Vellis wonder if “she” is still alive and thinks of how their fortune was amassed.
24. Marchion uses Mari San Tekka flies the ship to find the paths he needs. When she loses herself in the flight, he shocks her until she goes into a seizure. When she comes out of it, she apologizes. She had developed the ability to see things others couldn’t and that was why the Nihil had stolen her. She has lived in the Gaze Electric since. He thanks her for finding the new path. She asks how his plans are going. He has used her as a sounding board. He plans redemption and revenge, passed down from his father. He knows the Nihil will have to change to survive the coming Jedi and Republic control in the Outer Rims. She asks for a nap before continuing to look for more paths saying her father never worked her that hard. He agrees to give her dinner and shows her data of the pieces of the Legacy Run. He wants to make sure the ship’s navigation system isn’t found by the Jedi. Mari says she can find it quickly after rest. The doctor calls in yelling at Marchion for Mari’s seizure and not letting her rest. He hangs up in the doctor and tells Mari to work on the problem while she eats. Marchion uses his communication screens to call his three Storms to tell them to go over the recent emergences and loot them without the Republic finding out.
25. Bell and the others speed to the family’s home to try to save them. Indeera jumps out of their Vanguard to reach out to the Veil. Bell, Loden, Porter, and Ember arrive at the Bythe homestead. They find the place smoking and no survivors. Mike mines cause more explosions. There are a few animals they decide Porter can convince to take them to try to catch up with the family. While he saddles them, Loden has Bell help him take a ruined vehicle’s power module they might need later. The mount the steelees and head in the direction of the Nihil.
26. Burryaga (Jedi Wookie) and his master, Jedi Knight Nib Assek, are sent to see if anyone from the Legacy One could remember anything about the emergence. Burryaga goes over to comfort a young boy with a hug and wonders why no one else had thought of it. He introduces himself and Serg tells him his own name. Serg feels guilty because he hacked into the screens for the legacy one and ended up safe while his parents were on another part of the ship. Burryaga tells him he didn’t do anything wrong, but takes him to speak to Nib saying she will want to hear what he has to say because he saw the display screen just before the emergence hit the Legacy One. Serg tells her the strikes looked like lightning.
27. The Nihil are riding steelee poorly and making bad time with the additional cart they needed to haul the Blythe family. Ron notices they are being followed. He tries to alert his family without tipping off the Nihil, but one of them ends up seeing. Ottoh does whatever he can to slow them down to allow the Jedi to catch up, but the Nihil end up knocking him out. The Nihil argue about killing them, but the Cliud ranked one says they are already in the red for losing a spear and can’t kill them.
28. Kassav and his men use bulbs of drugs. He shows his crew and pull and then takes it. He looks out the window and sees tunnels, but doesn’t know how to navigate them. He knows the Nihil system was designed to keep Marchion from being overtaken. Kassav takes his crew to the Eriadu system and contacts, Mural Veen, the planetary governor of Eriadu. He tells her three emergences are heading for the planet and he will stop them for 50k credits. The first one shows up and he has his crew blow it up. When the second one comes, the planet’s ships try to take it out, but they loose several in the process. They pay the 50k credits, but when Kassav gets to the third one, the calculations are wrong and they miss. the emergence hits the planet killing 1.2 billion people. The governor swears they will get revenge. She has recorded the message and sent it out to the Republic. Kassav cuts her off and tells his crew to get them out of there. He has a bad feeling.
29. The Republic has been able to get 57k navdriods together for his project to find the rest of the Legacy One. Keven Tarr is suprised at how many were able to be pulled together for his project as well as the help he was given to set up the entire system. He doesn’t expect all of the droid to be able to handle their mission, but doesn’t mention it to the Republic members. He fires up the system. Senator Izzet Noor is upset they are going through all this when someone already knew how to predict the emergences. Keven worries about all the droids running at their maximum capacities and their abilities to prevent overheating. The array starts to heat up and there is still has many of the emergences left to simulate. There are pilldroids zooming around cooling where they need to. Avar and Elzar use the force to help keep the array from failing by cooling it. It starts to rain to cool the array since a bit of water wouldn’t hurt the droids. There were 33 emergences so far and when the array brings back the 34th, Keven realizes it is able to predict the rest of the emergences.
30. The Jedi chasing the Nihil split up so Porter can take on the ones trying to ambush them. He is upset when one of them shoot the steelee out from under him. He also finds out headshots don’t necessarily kill them. Ember comes to his rescue and sets the Nihil on fire until it is dead. Loden and Bell continue to chase the other Nihil. Loden is able to split one of their ships in half. The Nihil throw Erika from the wagon and keep moving. Loden and Bell stop to help her. Indeera comes around with two vector ships. Porter catches up to them and tells them he will help Erika back to the outpost while they go after the Nihil. Indeera lands the empty vector for Loden and Bell and they take off after the Nihil ship.
31. Joss and his crew are sent with two Jedi, Te’Ami and Mikkel Sutmani, to retrieve where the array predicted the flight recorder would be Joss’ wife realizes it is an important mission, but longs for the vacation they were supposed to be having right then. Lorna Dee watches them and decides she won’t do anything unless they find the flight recorder they are searching for. It isn’t long before Joss is able to confirm this emergence has the flight recorder. Lorna Dee attacks before they can even see her. She keeps moving to prevent being seen. Te’Ami focuses on destroying the missiles before they can take out the flight recorder and ends up getting hit herself. Mikkel (was hoping Te’Ami would join him on his next mission since they worked well together) knows he has to keep going to make sure Joss gets the flight recorder and they get out of there. Mikkel attacks Lorna Dee and takes out a few of the smaller Nihil ships. They fire what they can at them, but then they know they have lost and have to leave.
32. Dent is the cloud leading the kidnapping mission and is now trying to figure out how to get out of the mess they are in. She thinks about how she brought this plan to Lourna and then it went to Marchion. She tells Make to throw the little girl out of the airlock to give them a chance to escape.
33. As the Republican and Jedi leaders meet over com screens, they are all able to see that the incident with the Legacy One looks like it was an accident that the Nihil seem to be taking advantage of. Chancellor intends to make an example of them to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
34. The Nihil leaders meet. Marchion tells them the Jedi and Republic know what they have don. Kassav suggests they take off before the Jedi get to them. Marchion hits him. He pulls out his sword and starts slicing Kassav. Marchion tells them he has a plan to fix their mistakes. He tells Kassav he can go after the flight recorder that is being taken to a new location to have more data extracted. He can stop the carrying ship to prevent them from being found. He sends Lourna to help her crew finish their kidnapping mission that has gone wrong. Pan asks if there is anything he can do and it proves their dynamic is changing. Marchion tells him not yet. He dismisses them and tells Kassav not to forget to take his hand.
35. Loden tells Bell to save Bee so Loden can keep going after the Nihil. Bell focuses on the force. He catches up to her and holds her while trying to calm her down. He is able to connect to the force this time and land softly. He tells her everything will be alright but isnmt sure he believes it.
INTERLUDE: COUNCIL
Jora attends the Jedi council meeting where they vote to decide that the Nihil must be brought to justice and it is part of the Jedi’s job to do so.
PART THREE: THE STORM
36. Kassac decides to lead his own ship and let the republic find Marchion and the others. Before he can give the order, they run into an entire battle fleet with the third horizon. The tells his crew to consider running, but timsrely, he decides they have to stay and fight.
37. Loren tells Bell he will put in his rec to make him a knight as soon as they get back to the outpost. He and Indeera catch up to the Nihil ship with the intention of rescuing the remaining Blythe using the airlock. he is surprised to see the Nihil pilot with her mask off and that she is just a normal young girl. Lourna Dee’s fleet shows up before he can accomplish the rescue.
38. The battle goes baddly for the Nihil until Marchion sends them paths to use to jump around unpredictably around the battlefield. A Jedi n his vector is taken by surprise and looses an arm.
39. Loden and Indeera do what they can to fight off Lourna’s entire fleet. Indeera is able to get the boy out and to safety. Loden takes his ship to continue going after the father. He is hit and his leg is broken, but he is able to get to the hold where Ottoh was. The chamber is quickly starts to fill up and its poisonous gas and both men pass out.
40. Avar tries to use the force to track the Nihil ships. Marchion decides he believes that Kassav killed his father and is going to sacrifice him to save the Nihil. The Republic forces watch as the Nihil ships change strategies to use suicide attacks. Kassav decides he will make a deal to save himself and tell them everything about Marchion and the Nihil, but Mural Veen is the one that comes for him and kills him on his own ship.
41. Lourna being Marchion Loren’s light saber and he plays with it while telling her he purposefully sent Kassav to die so the Republic would think they defeated them and would stop looking. He tells her the Replic tries to take over everything and that is why he and his father escaped. He intends to replace her. She asks about their captives and why he wanted the miner family. He uses the lightsaber to kill Ottoh while Loden watches. He says he didn’t care about the family, he sent them there because he wanted a Jedi to get a lightsaber.
42. Chancellor Lina Soh believes the Nihil are gone, but the others aren’t so sure and warn her against becoming complacent. They plan to look into how their ships moved. She plans to open the Starlight Beacon on time and give people hope and unity.
43. The Nihil gather and are shown Kassav’s battle. Marchion uses it as propaganda to unify his people against the Republic and give them faith in him as their leader. He removes his mask and the others slowly start to do the same. He looks to Lourna and Pan and they take off their masks. He announces they are going to spread across the galaxy and take what they want. He sends them off to collect more Nihil. In his ship, Marchion tells Mari to rest. He has been saving all the paths she found in a database. He treks across his empty ship to the prisoners’ torture cells. Loden tries to tell Marchion to let them go, but he has been taught how to protect himself from the Jedi mind control. He tells Loden he was fine as the Eye and leader of the Nihil until the Republic started to come into his territory. Marchion was the one that called to the Jedi outpost to get them to go after the family. His family had trusted the Jedi and paid dearly for it. He is ready for them to come after the Nihil.
44. The Starlight Beacon is complete and ready to serve the surrounding area in so many different ways and open to all citizens. Bell knows his master is still alive as he and Indeera are at the Starlight Beacon for its opening. Many Jedi have come out for the event, including Yoda and a group of younglings. Chancellor Lina acknowledges all those that were sacrificed to bring safety to the Outer Rim. She believes it is a symbol of hope for the entire Republic. The Jedi all light up their lightsabers.
EPILOGUE: THE ENEMY
Elzar and Avar walk in a courtyard garden. Elzar has finally been told he is being promoted to master rank. Avar has been asked to be in charge of the Starlight Beacon. They won’t be able to see each other as much and promise to stay in touch. Avar suggests they join the party, but Elzar stays in the quiet for a little while longer. The force shows him a vision of Jedi fleeing, dying, and unable to stop it. Every Jedi face he saw had fear on it: the Jedi’s greatest enemy.