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Star Warsreveals the shocking fate of the satellite known as " Little Coruscant , " in this single selection from Claudia Grey’sInto the Light . There have been countlesssuperweapons in the history ofStar warfare , but one of the most terrific of all has been unleashed in theHigh Republic Era . some 200 age before the Skywalker saga . We do n’t yet know what the Blight is , but it is truly one of the most destructive forces conceivable .
The Blight is some form of orphic affliction that involve matter - organic and non - organic alike - cause it to rot away . Jedi have scatter across the galaxy , using the Force to press the Blight back , while also trying to enter out whether it is connected to monstrousForce predators shout out the Namelessand the space pirates known as the Nihil . The on-going story is told in Claudia Grey’sInto the Light , usable from April 1 , andScreenRantis lofty to present this sole excerption .
Into The Light Chapter One
The satellite Inad hang in the dark of space as a perfect smooth bauble , its specter of blue and greenish hinting at abundant foliage and wildlife . Many generations prior , the Inadi had decided to keep their earthly concern healthily pristine , unpolluted by large - scurf industriousness , their skies free of all but the most needed orbiter , the sound to maintain the peace and concord of their way of life history and the inheritance of their fry .
A few generations after that , the Inadi had adjudicate they would also like to make more money . Money involved industry — but , it was determined , it need not require forfeiture . Inad ’s big moonshine , Inad Komesh , had a breathable atmosphere , ample ore deposits , and gravity within Republic - inhabitable norms but otherwise was almost wholly barren , housing little but microbes . With shuttles , it was potential for the trip between planet and moon to take no more than twenty moment . Why not place new industry on this synodic month , while conserve Inad in all its raw glory ?
And so Inad Komesh became the site of all Inad ’s factories , its refineries , its mines , and its interplanetary trade . Citizens of Inad awoke in lovely homes amid primeval forests or along a coastline with sand white-hot as the star ; they then traveled to spaceports ( carefully camouflage within lifelike careen ) and transpose to Inad Komesh — which , unsurprisingly , became everything Inad was not : hyperdeveloped , grimy , noisy , and so crowd with structures that in some areas the actual ground was hard to see . Some call it a little Coruscant , a soubriquet that would have fit well had Coruscant been built with no intellection of beauty , elegance , grandeur , or even ease . In accuracy , most of the Inadi like the dividing line , as it made each homecoming sugared at the oddment of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
Yet one peril of Inad Komesh had gone overlooked : On a world so overbuilt , so dull , certain threats could take solution and distribute for a very long time before anyone noticed .
scourge such as the blight .
As the Inadi act upon happily on , the blight distribute so slowly that at first it was not discern . Then , within a few terrible days , the lunar month changed dramatically . One construction collapsed , then another , and another again ; lives were lost , and ability shortages flick for scads of km around each cataclysm site .
The stilted waterway system suddenly drained , precious water seemingly sop up down into the synodic month ’s core . hoi polloi began to debate that all activity on Inad Komesh should be suspended until a thorough survey was done , began to blame contractors and developers , called for inquiries . All this would have occurred in short order had the next building to break not been the Orbital Operations Tower — the one in control of aura and space traffic , communicating , and all orbiter function .
In other words , as shortly as the tower decrease , the Inadi on the Sun Myung Moon were trapped . The blight was finally describe . Panic spread , and no one could flee to safety — not without help .
“ Everyone remain calm ! ” Jedi Knight Reath Silas called to a crowd that had thronged one of the larger Republic haulcraft that had recently landed at one of the central spaceports . Hundreds of beings , perhaps more than a thousand , had gather together in mutual desperation to escape . The air seemed to crackle with fear . “ We have ship enough to get everybody to safety , but it will take time . The more disorganised we are , the longer it will take — so stay unagitated , avoid striking with anything showing signs of the blight , and listen . ”
His word were projected by amplifier twist ; those who could hear them settled down somewhat . Unfortunately , most citizenry could n’t hear — do it only that some Important Instructions had been issued and that they did n’t have them , which only increased their terror .
Reath swan a despairing look toward his friends and fellow Jedi Bell Zettifar and Burryaga , who were each working at the edge of the crowd and get no more luck restore order . Even Jedi Master Adampo , their team leader , had become so catch up in attempt to aid the injured that he could not use his calming influence to help . So far this was only a mess , but within minutes the next transport would land , and at this rate , Reath revere it would be encounter by a stampede as dangerous as any construction crash .
He look up toward Inad Komesh ’s pale sky and go through the point above that marked the tape drive ’s descent . As others saw it , too , the murmuring of the crowd became louder and more frenzied .
Custom image by Yailin Chacon
Suddenly , a loud cracking rang out amid a brilliant flash of purple Light Within . secretiveness fall as everyone , including Reath , turned to see his fellow Knight Vernestra Rwoh striding into the middle of the throng , her lightsaber whiplash aglow in her hand . “ hear uuuu - uup ! ” Vernestra shouted . The crowd die completely still , which allowed her next wrangle to ring out far and wide-eyed : “ The next transport is come ! The only hazard you have of being on that transportation is by give attention to what Reath says and following his instructions ! set out it ? ” A few nods and low heart murmur indicate that it had , indeed , been got . Vern nodded with atonement . “ Okay , then . lease ’s get this done ! ”
By the time the shape of the transport had fully formed in the sky above , the Inadi had been guided into foresighted lines , with child and others of special want at the front . Reath made sure his track cross Vernestra ’s long enough that he could say , “ I hope I learn how to do that someday . ”
Vernestra laughed . “ Sometimes a little sternness is n’t a spoiled thing . ” Reath ’s doubtfulness must have shown on his face , because she put one manus on his berm as she add , “ It ’s not the same as giving in to anger . It ’s about blow out of the water multitude out of their fear , into a state of creative thinker that allows them to do what they necessitate to do . ”
“ Of course . ” Reath should have look at this himself , and no doubt he would have , had the prior two days not been such utter mayhem . He had not slumber five whole hours since the arriver of the Jedi squad on Inad Komesh , and somehow it seemed as though every exaltation they managed to launch contribute to the number of masses they had to facilitate , rather than take off . The gritty dust in the lunar month ’s dry air had gray his robe and , to judge by his fellow Jedi , probably his hair , too . ( Burryaga looked as though he had been powdered like a buttersweet puff . ) Reath had to trust that it was merely dust — not infect with particulates of the blight — mostly because there would be no other way of life to go on . They ’d witness out the trueness after the evacuation was thoroughgoing and until then had to seek to ignore the horrific terror of the blight . Meanwhile , the Inadi became tenser and more heroic by the 60 minutes .
Who could fault them?Reath thought as he continued setting the crowd to order . In the aloofness , Bell ’s charhound , Ember , barked happily while in reality herding a few more Inadi into position , exactly as she would have urged muunyaks toward their shearing ; he welcomed the sound , the only current evidence that lifespan still contained joyousness . On the periphery of the gang , Jedi Master Adampo struggled to establish ordering , hampered not only by the general terror but also by his evident bass fatigue after three years of conflict and loss . The blight somehow run unnoticed for so long here that they did n’t even bonk any risk of exposure existed until the very second their lives were in danger . alarm as the blight was , it was a creeping menace , one that go through universe slowly but unrelentingly . On Inad Komesh , its late uncovering imply that the entire moon seemed to be fall aside within a matter of days .
Perhaps overgrown twist and weighed down bedrock were a particularly speculative combination when it come to exposure to the mordant power of the blight . Reath felt a moment ’s gratitude that the blight on Coruscant was , thus far , still contained to the Jedi Temple . But for how long ?
Swiftly he place his dubiousness aside . That was for a belated clip ; the Inadi needed assist now . He tick off on a few of the more gravely hurt , who were being assist to by Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo and medic Dorian Innes . “ The ship ’s come in , ” he said to an previous woman , who shivered with pain on her capstone . “ Do n’t worry . It wo n’t be long now . ”
“ I ’m hallucinate , ” she said , her voice wavering . With a shaky bridge player , she pointed toward a nearby tower . “ It looks like that one ’s dancing . ”
Reath opened his rima oris to secernate her she should n’t be worried — but then he overhear his own glimpse of the tower , which persuade in the confidential information . Anyone raised on Coruscant had construe magniloquent buildings sway before , but to Reath ’s do eye , the movement seemed enlarged . perilously so .
He grab his comlink just as Indeera Stokes ’s voice come in through : “ Transport here — don’t worry , we ’re put down in less than two minute . ”
“ I need you to take as many people on control panel as you could without crash , ” Reath said . “ People do n’t need to model . Everyone still able to stand should stand . And we have to call for more conveyance , as many more as we can get here , as tight as we can . We ’re looking at an impendent building flop that could jell off a mountain chain chemical reaction throughout this region . ”
Indeera responded , “ Understood , and I have a few surplus Jedi with me , but — you know we already have almost as many on hand as possible . ”
“ I know , ” he said . The Jedi Order had been stretch thin for months — years , now — due to the Nihil insurgence and the intrigue of Marchion Ro ; Reath could just recall how it had feel to go on missions with a full accompaniment of his fellow Jedi , to love that they were adequately staffed and prepared for anything that might come . “ But Inad Komesh may already be on the brink of collapse . ”
Indeera Stokes trust under her breathing space . “ Calling Coruscant now . ”
The rapture by this item had let down to within a few stories off the ground , displacing air in great gusts that scattered more blanched dust everywhere ; Reath sneeze , then wished he ’d keep his mouth come together as the grit grind between his teeth . His gut clenched as he imagine particles of the blight — invisible and fatal — in all that junk . Still , there was nothing for it but to keep going . He spat once on the ground before call out via amplifier machine , “ We ’ll begin loading as soon as the ramp lowers , so everyone — ”
He ceased speak as the squeal and crunch of whirl metal drowned him out . Even as the transport landed behind him , Reath turn over and saw — too late to playact — a distant building , not even a quarter klick away , collapse . scream of horror rang out through the bunch as the ground shook , and a thick wafture of rubble roll through the streets until it overtook them — a waving so thick that Reath could not see . He managed to kneel before he fall , but the cries of botheration and dismay all around him intend not everyone had escaped injury .
Reath began guiding people toward that blue light , his cognizance once again focus on the task at hand . As he come nearer to the lightsaber , a smile spread across his face — grit in his tooth be damned . He say , “ I cerebrate I acknowledge that voice . ”
“ Nice to know you have n’t forgotten all the times I quetch your ass in the sparring ring , ” said Dez Rydan . Through the dust he could make out Dez ’s answering grinning . His one-time friend and wise man looked like himself again , at least so far as Reath ’s limited view indicate . He knew only that Dez ’s time away after taking the Barash Vow must have done him good , restoring a formidable Jedi to the Order when they need him most .
But the exultation of the moment was immediately drowned out by the screech of deplume metal . Reath look upward to see the hazy abstract of the largest nearby tower — the dancing one — tumble toward the transport , the crowd , and Reath himself , menace to crush them all .
Preorder Star Wars : Into The Light By Claudia Gray
publish by one of the original High Republic story architects and the # 1New York Timesbest - betray author ofStar warfare : The High Republic : Into the Dark , Star warfare : Lost Stars , and the coming original 10 - Files novel , Perihelion . This sci - fi closed book is , at its nerve , about the grandness of found families and overcoming nifty betting odds .
As several crises all hurtle toward their thrilling and lurid ending , fan - favorite Jedi Knights and Padawans must band together to save the galaxy from the Nihil , the Nameless , and perhaps worst of all , a mysterious blight that turns everything in its path to detritus and is on the face of it insufferable to hold on .
