Star Wars reveals the shocking fate of the planet known as “Little Coruscant,” in this exclusive excerpt from Claudia Grey’s Into the Light. There have been countless superweapons in the history of Star Wars, but one of the most terrifying of all has been unleashed in the High Republic Era. some 200 years before the Skywalker saga. We don’t yet know what the Blight is, but it is truly one of the most destructive forces imaginable.

The Blight is some sort of mysterious affliction that affects matter – organic and non-organic alike – causing it to rot away. Jedi have scattered across the galaxy, using the Force to push the Blight back, while also trying to figure out whether it is connected to monstrous Force predators called the Nameless and the space pirates known as the Nihil. The ongoing story is told in Claudia Grey’s Into the Light, available from April 1, and ScreenRant is proud to present this exclusive excerpt.

Into The Light Chapter One

The planet Inad hung in the darkness of space as a perfect shining bauble, its shades of blue and green hinting at abundant foliage and wildlife. Many generations prior, the Inadi had decided to keep their world healthily pristine, unpolluted by large-scale industry, their skies free of all but the most needful satellites, the better to maintain the peace and harmony of their way of life and the inheritance of their children.

A few generations after that, the Inadi had decided they would also like to make more money. Money involved industry—but, it was determined, it need not require sacrifice. Inad’s larger moon, Inad Komesh, had a breathable atmosphere, ample ore deposits, and gravity within Republic-habitable norms but otherwise was almost entirely barren, housing little but microbes. With shuttles, it was possible for the trip between planet and moon to take no more than twenty minutes. Why not place new industry on this moon, while preserving Inad in all its natural glory?

And so Inad Komesh became the site of all Inad’s factories, its refineries, its mines, and its interplanetary trade. Citizens of Inad awoke in lovely homes amid primeval forests or along a coastline with sand white as the stars; they then traveled to spaceports (carefully camouflaged within natural rock) and commuted to Inad Komesh—which, unsurprisingly, became everything Inad was not: hyperdeveloped, grimy, noisy, and so crowded with structures that in some areas the actual ground was hard to see. Some called it a little Coruscant, a nickname that would have fit well had Coruscant been built with no thought of beauty, elegance, grandeur, or even comfort. In truth, most of the Inadi liked the contrast, as it made each homecoming sweeter at the end of the day.

Yet one danger of Inad Komesh had gone overlooked: On a world so overbuilt, so dense, certain threats could take root and spread for a very long time before anyone noticed.

Threats such as the blight.

As the Inadi worked happily on, the blight spread so slowly that at first it was not recognized. Then, within a few terrible days, the moon changed dramatically. One building collapsed, then another, and another again; lives were lost, and power shortages flickered for dozens of klicks around each disaster site.

The artificial waterway system suddenly drained, precious water seemingly sucked down into the moon’s core. People began to argue that all activity on Inad Komesh should be suspended until a thorough survey was done, began to blame contractors and developers, called for inquiries. All this would have occurred in short order had the next building to collapse not been the Orbital Operations Tower—the one in control of air and space traffic, communications, and all satellite functions.

In other words, as soon as the tower fell, the Inadi on the moon were trapped. The blight was finally identified. Panic spread, and no one could flee to safety—not without help.

“Everyone remain calm!” Jedi Knight Reath Silas called to a crowd that had thronged one of the larger Republic haulcraft that had recently landed at one of the central spaceports. Hundreds of beings, perhaps more than a thousand, had gathered together in mutual desperation to escape. The air seemed to crackle with fear. “We have ships enough to get everybody to safety, but it will take time. The more disorganized we are, the longer it will take—so stay calm, avoid contact with anything showing signs of the blight, and listen.”

His words were projected by amplifier device; those who could hear them settled down somewhat. Unfortunately, most people couldn’t hear—knew only that some Important Instructions had been issued and that they didn’t have them, which only increased their panic.

Reath cast a despairing look toward his friends and fellow Jedi Bell Zettifar and Burryaga, who were each working at the edges of the crowd and having no more luck restoring order. Even Jedi Master Adampo, their team leader, had become so caught up in trying to ᴀssist the injured that he could not use his calming influence to help. So far this was only a mess, but within minutes the next transport would land, and at this rate, Reath feared it would be met by a stampede as dangerous as any building collapse.

He looked up toward Inad Komesh’s pale sky and saw the dot above that marked the transport’s descent. As others saw it, too, the murmuring of the crowd became louder and more frenzied.

Suddenly, a loud crack rang out amid a brilliant flash of purple light. Silence fell as everyone, including Reath, turned to see his fellow Knight Vernestra Rwoh striding into the middle of the throng, her lightsaber whip aglow in her hand. “Listen uuuu-uup!” Vernestra shouted. The crowd went completely still, which allowed her next words to ring out far and wide: “The next transport is coming! The only chance you have of being on that transport is by paying attention to what Reath says and following his instructions! Got it?” A few nods and low murmurs indicated that it had, indeed, been got. Vern nodded with satisfaction. “Okay, then. Let’s get this done!”

By the time the shape of the transport had fully formed in the sky above, the Inadi had been guided into long lines, with children and others of special need at the front. Reath made sure his path crossed Vernestra’s long enough that he could say, “I hope I learn how to do that someday.”

Vernestra laughed. “Sometimes a little sternness isn’t a bad thing.” Reath’s doubt must have shown on his face, because she put one hand on his shoulder as she added, “It’s not the same as giving in to anger. It’s about shocking people out of their fear, into a state of mind that allows them to do what they need to do.”

“Of course.” Reath should have considered this himself, and no doubt he would have, had the prior two days not been such utter mayhem. He had not slept five whole hours since the arrival of the Jedi team on Inad Komesh, and somehow it seemed as though every transport they managed to launch added to the number of people they had to help, rather than subtracting. The gritty dust in the moon’s dry air had grayed his robe and, to judge by his fellow Jedi, probably his hair, too. (Burryaga looked as though he had been powdered like a ʙuттersweet puff.) Reath had to believe that it was merely dust—not infected with particulates of the blight—mostly because there would be no other way to go on. They’d find out the truth after the evacuation was complete and until then had to try to ignore the horrific threat of the blight. Meanwhile, the Inadi became tenser and more desperate by the hour.

Who could blame them? Reath thought as he continued setting the crowd to order. In the distance, Bell’s charhound, Ember, barked happily while actually herding a few more Inadi into position, exactly as she would have urged muunyaks toward their shearing; he welcomed the sound, the only current evidence that life still contained joy. On the periphery of the crowd, Jedi Master Adampo struggled to establish order, hampered not only by the general terror but also by his evident deep weariness after three years of conflict and loss. The blight somehow went unnoticed for so long here that they didn’t even know any risk existed until the very moment their lives were in danger. Horrifying as the blight was, it was a creeping menace, one that devoured worlds slowly but relentlessly. On Inad Komesh, its late discovery meant that the entire moon seemed to be falling apart within a matter of days.

Perhaps overgrown construction and overburdened bedrock were a particularly bad combination when it came to vulnerability to the corrosive power of the blight. Reath felt a moment’s graтιтude that the blight on Coruscant was, thus far, still contained to the Jedi Temple. But for how long?

Swiftly he set his doubt aside. That was for a later time; the Inadi needed help now. He checked on a few of the more seriously injured, who were being attended to by Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo and medic Dorian Innes. “The ship’s coming in,” he said to an older woman, who shivered with pain on her stretcher. “Don’t worry. It won’t be long now.”

“I’m hallucinating,” she said, her voice wavering. With a shaky hand, she pointed toward a nearby tower. “It looks like that one’s dancing.”

Reath opened his mouth to tell her she shouldn’t be worried—but then he caught his own glimpse of the tower, which swayed in the wind. Anyone raised on Coruscant had seen tall buildings sway before, but to Reath’s practiced eyes, the movement seemed exaggerated. Dangerously so.

He grabbed his comlink just as Indeera Stokes’s voice came through: “Transport here—don’t worry, we’re landing in less than two minutes.”

“I need you to take as many people on board as you can without crashing,” Reath said. “People don’t need to sit. Everyone still able to stand should stand. And we have to call for more transports, as many more as we can get here, as fast as we can. We’re looking at an imminent building collapse that could set off a chain reaction throughout this area.”

Indeera responded, “Understood, and I have a few extra Jedi with me, but—you know we already have almost as many on hand as possible.”

“I know,” he said. The Jedi Order had been stretched thin for months—years, now—due to the Nihil insurgency and the machinations of Marchion Ro; Reath could hardly recall how it had felt to go on missions with a full complement of his fellow Jedi, to know that they were adequately staffed and prepared for anything that might come. “But Inad Komesh may already be on the brink of collapse.”

Indeera Stokes swore under her breath. “Calling Coruscant now.”

The transport by this point had lowered to within a few stories off the ground, displacing air in great gusts that scattered more ashen dust everywhere; Reath sneezed, then wished he’d kept his mouth closed as the grit crunched between his teeth. His gut clenched as he imagined particles of the blight—invisible and fatal—in all that dust. Still, there was nothing for it but to keep going. He spat once on the ground before calling out via amplifier device, “We’ll begin loading as soon as the ramp lowers, so everyone—”

He ceased speaking as the squeal and crunch of twisting metal drowned him out. Even as the transport landed behind him, Reath turned and saw—too late to act—a distant building, not even a quarter klick away, collapse. Screams of horror rang out through the crowd as the ground shook, and a thick wave of dust rolled through the streets until it overtook them—a wave so thick that Reath could not see. He managed to kneel before he fell, but the cries of pain and alarm all around him meant not everyone had escaped injury.

“Come on!” a familiar male voice shouted through the swirling dust. “Follow the light!” With that, the brilliant blue glow of a lightsaber cut through some of the murk, providing just enough illumination to reveal the indistinct lines of the transport entrance.

Reath began guiding people toward that blue light, his consciousness once again focused on the task at hand. As he came closer to the lightsaber, a smile spread across his face—grit in his teeth be damned. He said, “I thought I recognized that voice.”

“Nice to know you haven’t forgotten all the times I kicked your ᴀss in the sparring ring,” said Dez Rydan. Through the dust he could make out Dez’s answering grin. His old friend and mentor looked like himself again, at least so far as Reath’s limited view showed. He knew only that Dez’s time away after taking the Barash Vow must have done him good, restoring a formidable Jedi to the Order when they needed him most.

But the jubilation of the moment was immediately drowned out by the screech of tearing metal. Reath looked upward to see the hazy outline of the largest nearby tower—the dancing one—toppling toward the transport, the crowd, and Reath himself, threatening to crush them all.

Preorder Star Wars: Into The Light By Claudia Gray

Written by one of the original High Republic story architects and the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark, Star Wars: Lost Stars, and the upcoming original X-Files novel, Perihelion. This sci-fi mystery is, at its heart, about the importance of found families and overcoming great odds.

As several crises all hurtle toward their thrilling and shocking conclusions, fan-favorite Jedi Knights and Padawans must band together to save the galaxy from the Nihil, the Nameless, and perhaps worst of all, a mysterious blight that turns everything in its path to dust and is seemingly impossible to stop.