Cover Artist: Jason Felix

While the remains of the Millennium Falcon limps toward a friendly repair facility and Luke and Mara return their son to the Jedi Temple, Jacen Solo and the Alliance fleet continues to blockade Corellia. A smuggler named Uran Lavint attempts to break the blockade with a small convoy but is unsuccessful. Expecting a reward because she sold out her confederates, she instead has her ship confiscated and her replacement ship is sabotaged so that the hyperdrive will fail in the middle of nowhere. On Corellia, Wedge Antilles is forced to step down as commander of the Corellian fleet after the failure at Hapes and manages to escape just ahead of a hit squad with the help of his family and friends. Han and Leia find Lando who puts his repair dock to work on the Falcon while they all travel back to Corellia to find out who set up Han and Leia. They meet with Denjax Teppler who explains that it was Dur Gejjen's idea to help the Hapans assassinate Tenel Ka, but their meeting is interrupted by Corellian Security. Escaping back to Lando's ship, they accidentally meet up with Wedge and his team and they all escape Corellia together and retreat to Booster Terrik's Errant Venture. On Coruscant, Ben Skywalker receives a secret communication from Jacen, instructing him to go to Almania and retrieve an ancient Sith amulet that is in danger of falling into the wrong hands. He sneaks out of the temple and makes his way to Almania where his credit chip fails and he is forced to steal in order to complete his mission. He makes his way to where the medallion is displayed only to discover that it is already stolen by a Faskus from Ziost. Deciding that he needs to complete his mission at all costs, he injures a mechanic and steals a Y-wing to get to Ziost, the ancient homeworld of the Sith race. Landing on the planet by where Faskus' ship crashed, he follows the sensation of the amulet in the Force but doesn't get very far before his own ship is destroyed by a passing TIE fighter. In the Corellian system, Leia helps to get the Errant Venture approved for leisure time for the Alliance soldiers on their downtime. Thanks to Alema Rar, Uran Lavint managed to overcome her damaged hyperdrive and she is now on the Errant Venture helping Alema find the Solos. They are all present when a combined force from Commenor and Bothawui arrive to break the blockade. Unprepared, the Alliance is forced to retreat for a time, giving the new Corellian Confederation time to elect a new Supreme Commander. Lavint helps Jacen discover where the Confederation meeting is in exchange for a new ship and the chance to get Alema Rar off her back, and the Alliance infiltrates the meeting. Stranded on Ziost, Ben finds Faskus but before he can kill him he sees that Faskus has his daughter with him. Before Faskus dies from injuries he received while saving his daughter, he reveals that something isn't right and tells his daughter that Ben will take care of her. Convinced that the mission is the most important thing, Ben abandons the girl and leaves to find transport off of the abandoned planet. Before he gets too far though, his conscience is pricked and he goes back to rescue the girl. When Lumiya learns that Ben had compassion on the girl, she orders the pirates who are watching him to kill him. Their first attempt ends in failure and then Ben discovers that they are following him using a bugging device. He disables it and they continue their journey. Ben discovers that there may be a way off the planet and so they expend all their energy trying to get there, fighting off the native animals and beginning to starve. When they get to where the ship is hidden, Ben re-enables the tracking device and causes the TIE fighter to crash, giving them much needed food from the dead pilots emergency supplies. Awakening the strange, alien ship they manage to escape the planet and the pirates and Ben heads back to Coruscant to give the Amulet to Jacen. Meanwhile at the secret meeting, the new Confederation commander Turr Phennir reveals that it is really a trap for the Alliance and Jacen, and Jacen's family goes to rescue him. They confront Lumiya and Alema Rar, and while they are fighting Jacen runs off to the fleet, leaving everyone else to make their own escapes. With the Alliance handed several major setbacks, Jacen is told that he must take his Sith name and make his sacrifice if he wants the power necessary to defeat the Confederation.