"The High Republic: Starlight: Go Together, Part Two" by Charles Soule

"The High Republic: Starlight: Go Together, Part Two" by Charles Soule ("Star Wars Insider" Issue #200 Exclusive Fiction)

In this short story, we finally get an idea of where things are going to go from here within the High Republic era and I couldn't be more excited!! The bulk of the story was light on action and heavy on explanation, but that explanation just so happened to involve the Battle of Kur from Light of the Jedi and it was full of intrigue and mystery! Being written by Charles Soule, I shouldn't be surprised that the story flowed super well and was written with aplomb. I certainly enjoyed Part One of the tale from the last issue of the "Star Wars Insider" but this Part Two was simply spectacular and shows just how incredibly bada** Pikka and Joss Adren really are!!

We find the couple as they are attending an unexpected meeting of all the most important people in the Galaxy--I'm talking Chancellor Lina Soh, Jedi Master Avar Kriss, and Admiral Pevel Kronara among others. Although I either forgot this part or it wasn't included in Light of the Jedi explicitly, but the Adrens apparently fought in the Battle of Kur and fought valiantly...and survived at that! They were called to the meeting to discuss just how they were capable of doing what they did. Turns out Pikka's quite the slicer and broke into the security systems on their Longbeam's operational code...something extremely punishable. By doing so, she was able to uncouple the thrusters from each other and operate each one of them manually as independent systems thus allowing the ship to maneuver far beyond its supposed capabilities. The "flunkies" of the Republic Defense Coalition are aghast at this information and want to punish Joss and Pikka. As the two leave the debriefing they wonder what in the world their future holds...

Well, their future actually holds a LOT of promise as Admiral Kronara himself seeks them out and offers them a job in his new task force to hunt down any remaining Nihil!! He tells them, "You're innovative and brilliant. You two improvised strategies to save lives during the Legacy Run disaster, and then you figured out a way, on the fly, to survive completely new enemy tactics during the Battle of Kur." This totally seems like a move Kronara would make and I am so here for it!!

So now we know that a task force is being put together to seek out the Nihil. Who will be involved in this task force? Will Jedi be included? If so, will we meet new Jedi or will some of the ones we've come to recently know and love be on the mission?? And I'm definitely stoked for more Joss and Pikka Adren!! With all the stories up until this point rotating very closely around the events of the Legacy Run Disaster, I am raring to go for moving forward with the overall High Republic plot and this sounds like a solid direction to take!!

Be on the lookout Friday for my review of Claudia Gray's young adult novel Into the Dark--which still rotates around the Legacy Run Disaster albeit loosely. Spoiler alert...it was fabulous!!

-Marie E. Wilson a.k.a @AliaMorgaine