The FIRST ORDER reigns Having decimated the peaceful Republic Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the galaxy Only General Leia Organa's small band of RESISTANCE fighters stand against the rising tyranny certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight But the Resistance has been exposed As the First Order speeds toward the rebel base the brave heroes mount a desperate escape
PROLOGUE ONCE there was a boy who grew up to become a Jedi Knight Not just any Jedi but one of the greatest in their history history a valiant hero who toppled an evil empire He was also the last of their kind For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights had been the guardians of peace and justice throughout the galaxy galaxy With their connection to the Force they could perform astonishing feats influence minds and perceive glimpses of what was and what might be Yet for all their foresight the Jedi failed to foresee their own future One of their order turned against them hunting down the other Jedi until their numbers were few and their light was all but extinguished The boy knew none of this growing up What he did know was the barren desert of his home where water was more valuable than gold He had a happy childhood His aunt and uncle raised him on their moisture farm and he was their son in all but name His uncle could be cranky but taught him everything from fixing vaporators to flying airspeeders and his aunt was warm spoiling him when she could Like many boys his age he was impatient curious and a bit brash He had a talent talent for tinkering and a passion for speed
He also had dreams On evenings after he'd finished his chores he would go out and watch the binary sunset The twin suns would descend below the dunes one blazing white hot the other orange red Cast in the amber light the boy would wonder wonder about himself who he was where he would go what he would become He dreamed of getting off his dull and dusty homeworld and training to be a pilot so he could sail through the depths of space so he could see the stars He dreamed of being like his father What little the boy knew of his father he had learned from his uncle in snatches and grumbles Supposedly his father had been a navigator on a spice freighter yet something something tragic had happened His uncle had never elaborated insisting the boy quit daydreaming and accept life on the homestead There was no shame in being a moisture farmer No shame at all Years passed and this boy was now an old man He stood on a cliff overlooking a great sea He wore sackcloth robes under a woolen cloak A hood protected his face from the wind The water before him stretched to the horizon like the dune seas of his home broken only by mountainous islands He had come to this forgotten world to retire in solitude All his dreams he had fulfilled long before He had flown the depths of space seen the stars and all the light and dark between He had nothing more to give and desired nothing in return He just wanted to be left alone in peace But after many years he had been found
He turned slowly from the sea A girl stood on the other side of the plateau She approached but stopped within a few paces of him He hesitated before he reached up with his hands one of flesh and blood the other of metal and wire and pulled down his hood For a long moment he and the girl beheld each other quiet with their own thoughts She had dark brown hair braided in triple buns Her vest and tunic were the color of sand Gauze was wrapped around her arms and her trousers were short exposing fair skin above leather boots She carried a quarterstaff that appeared salvaged from a gear axle A worn canvas satchel dangled from her hip Freckles dotted her face She slung the strap of her staff over her shoulder and opened her satchel From that she removed a chrome cylinder cylinder about half the length of her arm It was the hilt of a lightsaber She held it out to him He inhaled deeply and trembled This lightsaber had once belonged to him and to his father before him He had lost the weapon when he had lost his hand during a fateful duel in a city among the clouds He had thought it gone forever yet somehow it had been found as had he He clenched his jaw and frowned He did not take the lightsaber from her Her grip on the device wavered She blinked Her confusion confusion gave way to distress Yet still she held the hilt out to him She wanted him to have it She pleaded with her gaze
