Star Wars : The High Republic : Mission to Disaster

8 MB·English

by  Justina Ireland

© & TM 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Lucasfilm Press, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc. No
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ISBN 978-1-368-07940-2
Design by Soyoung Kim and Scott Piehl
Visit the official Star Wars website at: www.starwars.com
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Star Wars Timeline
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
About the Author
About the Illustrator
STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC
The tragic events of the Republic Fair have galvanized the galaxy.
The Jedi and the Republic have gone on the offensive to stop the
marauding NIHIL. With these vicious raiders all but defeated, Jedi
Master AVAR KRISS has set her sights on LOURNA DEE, the
supposed Eye of the Nihil, and has undertaken a mission to capture
her once and for all.
But unbeknownst to the Jedi, the true leader of the Nihil, the
insidious MARCHION RO, is about to launch an attack on the Jedi
and the Republic on a scale not seen in centuries. If he succeeds,
the Nihil will be triumphant and the light of the Jedi will go dark.
Only the brave Jedi Knights of STARLIGHT BEACON stand in his
way, but even they may not be enough against Ro and the ancient
enemy that’s about to be unleashed….

A
von Starros did not bounce. The only daughter of Senator Ghirra
Starros and youngest member of the illustrious Starros Clan of Hosnian
Prime did not jump for joy or leap in excitement. She was, in a word, a
scientist.
But Avon found herself bouncing down the hallway all the same.
“Really? Today? I can finally try synthesizing a Starros crystal today?”
Avon said, following her mentor, Professor Glenna Kip, toward the lab in
Port Haileap. The outpost wasn’t much more than a rest stop for the ships
going to and returning from the farthest edges of the galaxy, but it was also
home to the research lab of Professor Kip, a well-known scientist.
“Yes, today,” Professor Kip said, a smile splitting the silver-lined green
of her face. “You can prepare your samples, and we’ll get to it after the
midday meal.”
“Yes! Thank you, Professor Kip. I’m going to go get everything ready
now, and I’ll see you after lunch.”
Avon hustled down the hallway toward the lab. After months spent
memorizing the basic structure of kyber crystal molecules, analyzing the
atoms, and testing energy refraction and the like, Avon was finally about to
do the one thing she had wanted to do from the first moment she had stolen
Padawan Imri Cantaros’s broken lightsaber: make a reproduction of a kyber
crystal.
The construction of the lightsaber seemed relatively straightforward,
and Avon couldn’t help wondering if it was possible that maybe the kyber
crystals could be used for different applications. After all, she had no use
for a laser sword—she was a scientist, not a Jedi—but it would be nice if
perhaps there was some way to use a kyber’s focusing abilities to harness
the ambient energy of space. With so much random radiation and the like
just floating around, could they somehow duplicate the kyber’s structure to
direct that energy to power entire planets?
Avon thought so, even if no one else did.
It had taken months to convince her mentor that a project such as a
simulated kyber crystal could be useful and worthwhile, and although
Professor Kip had tried over and over again to get Avon to turn her attention
to the natural sciences, such as the crop yield project she was currently
pursuing, Avon didn’t really care about making plants grow faster or
making herds produce more offspring. She wanted to understand power,
and how things like tibanna could be stretched further and more efficiently,
or even replaced altogether. After all, the galaxy was expanding, and fuel
would be necessary to keep supplies running to the frontier. Avon knew that
because it was something her mother talked about regularly on their weekly
calls.
So, after months of diagramming the crystal’s structure, making copious
notes, and gathering all the relevant research available on kyber—most of it
requested from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant with the help of Professor Kip
—Avon was finally ready to test out her theory.
Professor Kip would not return for another hour or so, but once Avon
got to the lab, she very quickly prepared it for her experiment. The kyber
was nestled in its holder, and the Lonnigan duplicating apparatus was all set
up. The only thing missing was Professor Kip. So Avon began skipping
circles in the lab, waiting for her mentor to return.
Skipping was not bouncing, but it was very close.
Avon checked the time once more. Her stomach grumbled at her, and
she was half considering going to grab some lunch from the noodle cart.
That was when the explosions started.
Avon ran to the door of the lab and opened it, peeking out into the rest
of the Port Haileap complex. The Jedi and every Republic official lived in
the compound, and there were a few rooms for transient guests, as well. But
there was no good reason for any of the noise that Avon heard.
The sounds of blaster fire and far-off explosions were growing louder,
with shouting and screaming providing a background to the echoes of
battle. A young Togruta ran toward Avon, the other girl’s striped head tails
swinging as she moved.