Cover Artist: Dean Williams

Kyle Katarn has gone to the Imperial Academy for a higher education while his father Morgan remained on Sulon, managing the family farm. The Dark Jedi Jerec sends a force of commandoes to capture Morgan, but when they are unsuccessful, he orders them to attack and capture the power production capability of the settlers on Sulon. Morgan and his fellow rebels attempt to protect it but they are eventually overrun and Morgan is captured. Jerec questions him unsuccessfully and then kills him. Nearing graduation, Kyle leads a group of cadet stormtroopers into a Rebel stronghold where their forces are decimated, though he and a few others survive. A short time later, at his graduation, Kyle has a strange encounter with Jerec, and afterwards receives a message that his father had been killed in a Rebel attack. Later, as he is traveling home, he sees a young woman whose life he spared in his mission, and follows her with the intent to talk to her. He is captured by a group of Rebels on the ship and she spares his life, introduces herself as Jan Ors, and agrees to talk to him in public later. They talk briefly about each other, and in anger, Kyle brings up the matter of his father's death. Jan, surprised, tells him that she has someone he needs to meet. In her quarters, she introduces him to a recording droid who was present on Sulon for the battle. As he watches the recording, he comes to realize the truth of what happened on Sulon, and resolves to leave the Empire's forces. Later, Kyle assists Jan with repairs on her ship and tells her that he would like to defect. She tells him that she doesn't handle that, but she can take him to some one who does. Unnoticed, their conversation is recorded by a bounty hunter who takes it to the Imperial governor on board the cruise ship. The son of the governor, a graduate with Kyle, warns him to keep away from the Rebels, but Kyle instead warns them. Jan and the recording droid attempt to flee and the droid is shot down, but Jan makes it to the ship with just enough time as the Rebels and Kyle escape, followed by the Governor and the captured droid. The Imperials activate the droid, who upon seeing them around him promptly explodes rather than fall into the wrong hands, and the escape is complete. Jan takes Kyle to meet Mon Mothma, who asks him to take on a dangerous mission to steal the plans for the Death Star from Danuta, and he agrees because of what happened to his father. Afterwards, Mon Mothma asks Jan to keep an eye on Kyle and kill him if he turns against them. Jan reluctantly agrees. Arriving on Danuta, Kyle eventually sets up a meeting with an academy friend named Meck Odom who is stationed there. Jan eavesdrops on the meeting, and convinced that Kyle is betraying them, follows to complete her mission. Unable to kill each other, he explains that he wanted to keep Meck out of this, but the only way in is through his friend and so brought him into the plot. Later, with the help of Meck, Kyle infiltrates the base and then fights his way through until he finds the plans. He shootsand injures Meck to take suspicion off of him and Jan comes to his rescue at the last minute, cementing a victory for his first mission for the Empire.