Resistance Reborn (Star Wars) Read online

  Star Wars: Resistance Reborn is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  DEL REY and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  ISBN 9780593128428

  International edition ISBN 9780593157916

  Ebook ISBN 9780593128435

  randomhousebooks.com

  Book design by Elizabeth A. D. Eno, adapted for ebook

  Cover art: Scott Woolston

  Cover design: Scott Biel

  v5.4

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  The Del Rey Star Wars Timeline

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  By Rebecca Roanhorse

  About the Author

  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

  THE TIE FIGHTER STREAKED across the Corellian sky, flames licking the sides of the ship and thick smoke billowing from its burning hull. The ship screamed loudly as it threatened to come apart midair, the dying cries of a metal bird. Below, the citizens of Coronet City paused in their evening commute to stare at the doomed ship. These days it was not so unusual to see a First Order fighter speeding above the city. The First Order had commandeered the shipyards of the capital to build its war machines, and sometimes those machines failed in a fiery mess. But this ship was different; it was being pursued by one of its own.

  If the denizens of the capital city had looked more closely at the dying TIE, some of them might have noticed that the distressed ship was of an older model than its attackers, which meant it couldn’t have been a prototype out on a test run. What they could not have seen was that the pilot of the doomed TIE fighter was a native daughter, a Corellian who grew up in the mountain town of Doaba Guerfel, not so far from the capital. A pilot who had dreamed under a New Republic flag as a child and when the First Order had arrived—and most of Corellia had balked but eventually bent to First Order occupation—the pilot had fought back. Only now her fighting days were quickly ending.

  “Mayday, mayday, can you hear me?” the pilot cried into her comm. She blinked frustrated tears from her eyes, tasted blood in her mouth. Her head throbbed from where she had taken an earlier blow on the head in the firefight.

  “Can anyone hear me?” she cried, again.

  The pilot cycled desperately through the secured channels that the Resistance had provided her when she’d taken the mission, but no one answered. She tried the Raddus again, certain someone there would hear her, but nothing. Either the attack on her ship had severed the communications module, or the channels were being blocked.

  She let out a small sob as the stolen TIE shuddered and rocked beneath her. She could feel the heat at her back, smell the acrid scent of the engine smoke as it filled the cockpit. She knew she had only seconds left to live, and she didn’t want her mission to have failed.

  Her assignment after the Hosnian cataclysm had been to help make sure the construction of a planet killer never happened in secret again, and the pilot was certain she had found something that would help defeat the First Order in the stolen encryption key she now had in her possession. But the precious code breaker would die with her if she couldn’t pass it along. With a shaking hand, she quickly shoved the small datachip into the port just below her ruined holo display and held her breath until the console acknowledged it had read and uploaded the file.

  She smiled, small and grim. She would not fail. If she couldn’t get through to her Resistance contacts, perhaps there was another way. Another way from her past. She briefly clutched the small snake pendant she always wore around her neck, muttered a plea to her gods, and then, from memory, she punched in the illegal radio signal that would call the only person she still trusted on her homeworld.

  She held her breath and waited.

  But no one answered, and it was too late. She couldn’t wait to confirm the connection. She would just have to hope.

  She hit the command to transmit, knowing that sending the key put her friend in danger. If anyone found out, they would have a First Order target on their backs. But she had no choice.

  A bright blinking green light told her that the transfer was complete just as a blinding brightness surrounded her. She opened her mouth, but she didn’t have time to scream before her world disintegrated around her.

  The citizens of Coronet City watched the TIE explode into nothingness. Some curious, most apathetic. And then they continued on home to waiting families and household pets, or to the cantina to meet with friends, or to a thousand other places under the setting sun. The exploding TIE didn’t even make the evening newsfeeds, and by the next morning, it was all but forgotten.

  LEIA JERKED AWAKE, HER head snapping back against the rough fabric of the headrest. Her hands grasped for purchase in the armless chair as she tried to keep herself from falling. She cried out, a small startled breath in the otherwise empty room, as her fingers clasped around the edge of the console table. It took her a moment for her senses to come back to her and for her to remember where she was. The low hum of machinery and the distant clank of someone doing repairs, even at this odd hour, told her she was on the Millennium Falcon. Not on the Raddus, during the First Order’s attack, when she had felt the presence of her son nearby. Not in the cold darkness of space into which she had been flung immediately after.

  She had been dreaming just now. The same dream that had plagued her since it happened. She was alone, cold, her body failing, her spirit lost, surrounded by the vast emptiness of space. In real life she had woken, and the Force had flared hot and alive in her. And it had brought her back, guided her to safety. But in the dream, she stayed suspended in the void. Failing her friends, her family, and the people she had vowed to lead. Failing her son most of all. Everyone she loved, dead.

  “When did I get so morbid?” she muttered to herself, pushing her aching body upright in her chair. She knew when. Since she had died. W
ell, almost died. She’d had plenty of close calls in her life. The bombing during her senatorial days back on Hosnian Prime. The torture session with Vader that even now, decades later, spiked her adrenaline and set her on edge when even the barest hint of that memory surfaced. A million narrow escapes with Han back in the days of the Rebellion. But nothing quite like being blasted out of that ship, drifting through space alone.

  She rubbed a tired hand over her face, looking around. It had been a long few days since Chewie and Rey had shown up on Crait to rescue them from the First Order. Since she had seen her brother again and lost him just as quickly. She wondered how much she was supposed to suffer in a single lifetime, how much exactly one person could take. But then she put that indulgent self-pitying moment away. She had work to do.

  The communications console of the Millennium Falcon was laid out before her, silent as space itself. When she had called for aid on Crait, sending out her distress signal to her allies, she was sure someone would respond. But they had not, and that fact still shook her. Were they alive? Was her signal being blocked? Or—the answer she least wanted to contemplate—did they just not care?

  No, she wouldn’t believe that. Couldn’t. Something had happened that prevented her calls from reaching friendly ears. That made more sense than believing she and the Resistance had been so thoroughly abandoned. She would figure out what went wrong, and until then, she would keep trying.

  She reached for the communications rig just as the speaker in her headphones buzzed to life and a green light blinked, signaling that a transmission was waiting. Her heart ticked up in anticipation. Someone was trying to reach the Millennium Falcon. She slid the headphones on, adjusting the mike as static rained through the connection. Without the sensor dish, the Falcon’s subspace radio signal was scratchy at best.

  She punched in the encryption code, opening the channel to whoever was on the other end and had known the code as well.

  “Hello?” she whispered anxiously into the mike. “Who is this?”

  At first, all she got was more static, but then the voice resolved, faint but getting stronger. “…Zay with Shriv…mission…remember me?”

  A small flutter of defeat flickered in Leia’s stomach. She had hoped it would be one of the Resistance allies, a powerful government offering refuge or ships or other aid. But it was the girl she had met directly after the destruction of Starkiller Base, the daughter of Iden Versio and Del Meeko. She remembered Zay well. Her parents had both been Imperials-turned-rebels, her grandfather the notorious Admiral Garrick Versio. The girl had lost both parents, had already been through so much at so young an age. Well, hadn’t they all? Leia certainly had. It was the nature of war, to put its children through hell, to murder their parents.

  “Stop!” she told herself loudly, her voice echoing around the room.

  “What?” Zay asked, through the static.

  “Not you,” Leia said hastily. “I didn’t mean you.” How embarrassing. Leia shook off her malaise and pressed the headphone to her ear, leaning into the mike. “Say it again, Zay. I’m having trouble hearing you. You’re breaking up.”

  “Oh.” And then louder and slower. “SHRIV AND I…HAVE GOTTEN…SOME PROMISING LEADS…?”

  Leia smiled good-naturedly at the girl’s exaggerated overcorrection. “I can hear you fine now. Speak normally.”

  “Oh yeah? So, we tracked down some old friends of my mother who were Imperials but have renounced and have no love for the First Order. We’re going to pay them a visit, if that’s okay with you. It will take another three or four standard days, at least.”

  “What happened to the Resistance allies I asked you to find?”

  “That’s the distressing thing,” Zay said. “They’re all gone.”

  “Gone?”

  “Or at least they’re not where they should be. We’ve hit over half the names you gave us and found nothing. In some cases, whole homes just abandoned.”

  “Maybe they’ve gone into hiding.” Or worse.

  “Whatever it is, General, something bad is happening.”

  Leia rubbed her neck, feeling the tension locked in her muscles. More allies out of reach. Zay was right. Something was happening, and it scared Leia, too.

  “Zay, I want you to keep looking. Find out what you can.”

  “Copy. And the ex-Imperials?”

  Leia hadn’t imagined ex-Imperials would be the allies she needed, but it looked like their options were thinning. And who knew? Zay’s mother proved that some of the fiercest rebel fighters out there had once been on the other side. People were complicated, and if there was one thing the Empire had been good at it was offering people what they thought they needed—only for them to find out that the peace and order they desired came at too high a price. Leia would never hold someone’s past against them. She had enough demons in her family tree to guarantee she was not one to judge.

  On the other end, Leia heard muttering and muffled arguing, as if someone had placed their hand over the mike. After a moment, Zay came back.

  “Shriv says you should trust us. After all, what could go wrong?”

  What, indeed? “All right, if Shriv agrees that the ex-Imperial leads are solid, go ahead and extend your mission. But be careful. There’s…it’s not safe to go up against the First Order.” Like the girl with the dead mother didn’t know that.

  “Not a problem, General. We’ll use caution.”

  More muffled muttering. “Oh, and Shriv says ‘Careful’ is his middle name. Plus, he’s not dead yet, so somebody or something out there must be looking out for us.”

  “Yes,” Leia said quietly to herself, and then into the mike, “May the Force be with you, Inferno Squad.”

  “Same to you. Over and out!”

  Leia pressed the button to end her connection and leaned back. She hoped she hadn’t given the girl too much responsibility too soon. Zay couldn’t be many years older than sixteen, but at sixteen Leia was already fomenting the Rebellion. If anyone knew that youth could be underestimated, it was her. No, Zay was strong, smart. Capable. And with Shriv as a steadying force, she trusted they’d complete the mission.

  A sharp pain in her temple brought Leia’s thoughts up short. She squeezed her eyes shut in sudden agony. These headaches were a side effect of the healing process, the medical droid had said. She was to expect them to last for a few weeks, but between the headaches, the nightmares of being lost in space, and the grief of losing her friends and family, Leia was exhausted. What she wouldn’t give for just a moment of relaxation, of safety; a few days or even a handful of hours of knowing everything would be all right.

  “General Organa?”

  The voice came from behind her and Leia turned to find Rey standing in the doorway. The girl wore a version of the same scavenger garb style Leia had first seen her in the previous day, only now Leia recognized touches of Jedi influence in her ensemble. She’s changing, Leia thought, but there’s still some Jakku there that she hasn’t let go. But perhaps that wasn’t fair. Perhaps Rey simply clung to the simple things she knew in a sea of chaos, the way they all did. Speaking of simple, Rey held a steaming cup of something in her hands and when she saw Leia notice, she proffered it forward.

  “I brought you a cup of Gatalentan tea,” Rey said.

  Leia smiled. “Do you read minds?”

  “What, like a Jedi? I…I’m not—”

  “I was just thinking about how much I would love a cup of tea,” Leia said, saving Rey from her awkward scramble. “Nothing Jedi about it. Just”—she motioned Rey forward—“a welcome surprise. Thank you. And please, call me Leia.”

  Rey nodded, looking relieved, and hurried forward. Leia took the tea from her. The fragrance immediately filled her nose, and she could feel the muscles in her shoulders loosen.

  “I could get you something stronger if you like,” Rey said, pointing back
toward the galley from which she’d obviously come. “I think Chewbacca keeps some caf in there.”

  Leia blew across the hot beverage, sending small tendrils of steam floating through the air. “I’m surprised he had this.” Ah, but it probably wasn’t Chewbacca that kept a stash of Gatalentan tea on the Millennium Falcon, but Han. Oh, Han. Gone, too.

  “And I’ve made you sad,” Rey said, noticing the look on Leia’s face.

  “Not you,” Leia corrected her. “Life. This war. You are a light in the darkness.” She gestured to the seat across from her.

  “I didn’t mean to stay. I just heard your voice in here and thought you might need the tea.”

  “Well, you were right, and I insist you stay. I could use the company, and you’re making me nervous standing there. Please.” She gestured toward the seat again and this time Rey sat, sliding her hands under her thighs and smiling awkwardly. “There,” Leia said, patiently, hoping to put the girl at ease, “isn’t that better?”

  Rey nodded. The two sat in silence as Leia sipped her tea and Rey made a show of looking around the room, gaze floating across the communications board. Leia followed her wandering regard.

  “Why aren’t you asleep like everyone else?” Leia asked.

  “Oh, me? I haven’t slept much these past few days,” Rey said quietly. “Too much on my mind.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  Rey shifted in her seat, eyes on everything but Leia. My, but this girl was nervous. She hadn’t seemed this nervous when they’d met earlier. But so much had happened since then, or maybe she just had something on her mind.