Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

'The Rebellion may have heroes like Jyn Erso and Luke Skywalker. But the Empire has Inferno Squad.'

After the humiliating theft of the Death Star plans and the resulting destruction of the battle station, the Empire is on the defensive. In response to this stunning defeat, the Imperial Navy has authorized the formation of an elite team of soldiers, known as Inferno Squad. Their mission: infiltrate and eliminate the remnants of Saw Gerreras Partisans. Following the death of their leader, the Partisans have carried on his extremist legacy, determined to thwart the Empire—no matter what the cost. Now, Inferno Squad must prove their status as the best of the best and take down the Partisans from within. But as the danger intensifies and the threat of discovery grows, how far will Inferno Squad go to ensure the safety of the Empire?

Senior Lieutenant Iden Versio, the daughter of Imperial Security Bureau Inspector General Garrick Versio, is a TIE fighter pilot stationed at the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin. Iden participates in the defense of the Death Star under the leadership of Commander Kela Neerik. Despite their efforts, the Rebel Alliance X-wing starfighter pilot Luke Skywalker succeeds in destroying the Death Star. Iden is one of the few Imperials to survive the destruction of the Death Star and ends up crashing on Yavin 4.

Several days later, Iden's friend Lieutenant Junior Grade Gideon Hask meets with Iden's father Garrick, who has been promoted to the rank of Admiral. He informs Gideon that Iden had escaped the jungle moon by stealing a rebel vessel after eliminating the drunken rebel guards. While Gideon is heartened to know that his childhood friend is alive, Garrick is dismissive of his daughter's escape. Garrick informs Gideon that he has summoned Lieutenant Versio and two others for a special meeting at his office the following morning. Gideon meets Iden at the luxurious Diplomat Hotel where they discuss the theft of the Death Star plans from Scarif. In private, Iden regrets not killing the "traitor" Princess Leia Organa but Gideon reassures her that her job was to get out alive and not execute every rebel in the place.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Del Meeko travels on a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle towards Coruscant where he learns that he has been reassigned for a special meeting with Admiral Versio. The fourth recruit is Naval Intelligence Lieutenant Seyn Marana, a small-built woman with eidetic memory who speaks 29 languages. The four young officers meet inside at the Imperial Security Bureau headquarters on Coruscant. In response to the humiliating Imperial defeat at the Battle of Yavin, Admiral Versio decides to form an elite four-member unit called Inferno Squad that would take part in sensitive missions against the Rebellion.

To test their mettle, Admiral Versio tasks each of the recruits with designing a plan in response to their first assignment. While Iden's comrades are relaxed about their assignment, Iden is determined to gain the favor of her demanding father. During their time together, Iden begins taking a liking to Meeko for his friendly demeanor. In the end, Admiral Versio selects Iden's plan, which involves infiltrating Moff Jaccun Pereez's mansion on the planet Arvaka Prime for an espionage mission. Iden is made the leader of Inferno Squad.

At Moff Pereez's mansion, Inferno Squad takes up Del and Seyn's idea of planting recording devices throughout the building. For the mission, Gideon and Seyn are disguised as wedding guests Lady "Dezara Monay" and "Brixx Gavan" while Iden and Del are disguised as private shuttle pilots. Moff Pereez has organized a wedding celebration to marry his daughter Famma to Commander Yendiv Bensek, a young rising star in the Empire. While they use a GG-class serving droid to serve Moff Pereez with liquor laced with the drug deraformine which can simulate a fake death, Seyn and Gideon steal a datachip containing blackmail documents from Pereez's safe. When the Moff is rendered comatose by the laced liquor, Inferno Squad takes the chance to escape with Seyn knocking out one of the Moff's bodyguards.

Following their successful first mission, Versio and her comrades are promoted with Versio being given the rank of Captain. Inferno Squad is also given a new starship, the modified Raider-class corvette Corvus, which is crewed by the pilot Adiana Caton and co-pilot Weston Morro. Besides, the squad is allocated an ID10 seeker droid named Dio. Inferno Squad uses the Corvus for several missions.

Later, Iden and her squad are assigned by Admiral Versio to eliminate the remnant of the late Saw Gerrera's Partisans, a rebel faction considered as extremists even by the Rebel Alliance. The surviving Partisans have reorganized themselves as a terrorist cell called the Dreamers. Admiral Versio's plan is to recover any Imperial information that has fallen into the hands of the Dreamers. For their next mission, Inferno Squad is tasked with extracting the Imperial informant Bokk Naarg from Tellik Four Station.

However, the mission goes awry when Bokk is accompanied by five Dreamers wearing explosives disguised as jewelry. Gideon meets with Bokk at a cantina under the pretext of buying two Bespin Breezes. Bokk claims that his Pantoran companion Sharima, one of the Dreamer operatives, wants to escape with him and offers Gideon a tiny datachip. Seyn thinks they should abort but Gideon is determined to obtain the datachip. When stormtroopers enter the cantina, Gideon activates Dio, and the droid snaps through the Dreamers' "gem bombs." While escaping, Gideon flings the gem bombs at the partisans and Bokk, killing them.

After escaping into hyperspace, Iden angrily confronts Gideon for disobeying their orders to retrieve Bokk safely. A defensive Gideon counters that he managed to kill five partisans. When Seyn responds that Bokk's death would deny them information, Del reveals that the ID10 droid Dio has recovered an encrypted datachip from the fallen Sharima. Though Captain Iden chastises Gideon and Del for insubordination, she praises them for recovering the datachip.

Though Admiral Versio is displeased that the mission went awry, he concedes that it was his intention to eliminate Bokk once he had revealed his information. Pleased with Inferno Squad's performance despite their mission on Tellik Four going awry, the Admiral decides to expand Inferno Squad's responsibilities to eliminating the Dreamers. Inferno Squad's next mission is to infiltrate the Dreamers and destroy them from within. From the datachip, Admiral Versio has learnt that the Dreamers are led by a man known only as Staven and that the Dreamers are planning an attack in the next two weeks on Otor's Hub, a way station in the Outer Rim's Ojostor sector.

For their next mission, Admiral Versio assigns Seyn Marana to pose as the Dug merchant Rudaga's slave. Meanwhile, Gideon and Del are assigned to work undercover disguised as siblings. Their plan involves getting picked up by Lassa Rhayme, the Captain of the Blood Bone Order, who supplies food and weapons to the Dreamers. Meanwhile, Iden is assigned to the new Star Destroyer Determination. Admiral Versio tells them that Inferno Squad will be taking different paths to get to the Dreamers but will rendezvous. In private, Versio tells his daughter that the Dreamers are looking for a new public face following the death of Saw Gerrera; a role that would suit Iden.

Disguised as "Del Farren" and "Gid Farren", Del Meeko and Gideon Hask along with the droid Dio take up a job on the Devaronian smuggler Kurjak's ship Fast Friend, which is transporting a large, force-field-protected container. During their voyage, the Fast Friend is attacked by Lassa Rhayme's Blood Bone Order. To win the favor of Captain Rhayme, Del and Gideon turn on their fellow and help the pirates take over the ship. They claim they are partisans who wanted to join the Dreamers at Tellik Four. Lassa buys their story and delivers them to the Dreamers.

Aboard the Determination, Iden "confides" with a fellow Imperial officer named Tarvyn Lareka about her alleged disillusionment with the Empire for destroying the planet Alderaan. While recognizing that the planet's leadership was colluding with the Rebellion, she objects to the killing of children, destruction of the planet's environment, and the persecution of Alderaanian survivors. Iden also says that she does not want to be complicit in mass murder. Under the pretext of helping her, Tarvyn alerts Commander Udrai who sends stormtroopers to arrest Iden for sedition.

Later, news of Iden's arrest for "sedition" and trial is reported by the holojournalist Alton Kastle. Lieutenant Jha Eka, Admiral Versio's assistant, informs the Admiral that his daughter has been arrested but the elder Versio remains stoic. When alone again, Versio smiles that his plan is working.

Meanwhile, Seyn pretends to work as Rudaga's slave forging coins. As part of her cover, Seyn wears a slave collar rigged to explode should she escape Otor's Hub. Rudaga works for the Empire and is aware of Seyn's true identity. To reinforce the idea that Rudaga is an Imperial collaborator, Versio sends several "fake spies" to collect information from Rudaga. Later, several Dreamers attack Otor's Hub and execute Rudaga and his Trandoshan bodyguards for their collaboration with the Empire. Posing as Rudaga's slave, Seyn begs the Twi'lek Dreamer Dahna to rescue her. Seyn also meets several other Dreamers including the Kage Sadori Vushan, the human Kaev, and the Chadra-Fan Piikow. Taking pity on Seyn, the Dreamers take her aboard their ship and remove her slave collar. Out of gratitude, Seyn joins the Dreamers.

Due to her father's connections, Iden Versio is sentenced to hard labor at her former school, the Future Imperial Leaders Military Preparatory School, on her homeworld of Vardos. Upon landing, Iden is taken into custody by the school's Aqualish Headmaster Gleb. Under the full glare of HoloNet cameras, Iden is marched by two Jinata Security officers, one Zabrak and a Duros, to Gleb's house. Gleb is one of the few individuals privy to Iden's secret mission and hopes that news of her imprisonment would lead the Dreamers to "rescue" her.

In her room, Iden receives a recorded hologram message from her father Versio telling her that their plan is proceeding well and that the others have successfully infiltrated the Dreamers. Iden also receives a recorded hologram message from her mother Zeehay Versio, who works as an artist and propagandist for the Coalition for Progress. Unaware of her daughter's mission, Zeehay expresses disappointment that her daughter has abandoned faith in the Empire but tells her that she still loves her. Iden is troubled by her mother's suffering but resolves to persevere with the mission.

For the next ten days, Iden remains a "prisoner" at Gleb's house. Iden is also allowed to fly a TIE fighter under the watchful eye of Semma Waskor. However, Waskor is badly hurt in a train accident and replaced by a man named Lieutenant Azen Novaren. Novaren "kidnaps" her and the two escape Vardos in a stolen . After leaving the Jinata system, Novaren informs Iden that he is a Dreamer and flies them to the Dreamer home base known as the Shadow Side on the planet Jeosyn. Dazen also tells Iden that the mysterious "Mentor" ordered her extraction.

At Shadow Side, Iden reunites with her fellow Inferno Squad members Del, Gideon, and Seyn. She also meets several Dreamers including their leader Staven, the Chadra-Fan Piikow, the Kage Warriors Ru, Halia, their son Sadori Vushan, Kaev, the bomb expert Nadrine, and the mysterious "Mentor." The Mentor is a tall, clean-shaven man with thick, shaggy dark hair. While having a meal of tikktikk stew, Iden takes offense upon learning that Azen searched her while she was unconscious. Before trouble can break out, the Mentor intervenes and forces Azen to apologize. Iden understands their security precautions but warns that she will punch the next person who touches her without permission. Posing as a disillusioned Imperial dissident, Iden joins the Dreamers.

Since many of the Dreamers distrust the former TIE pilot, Iden is not allowed to leave the camp. While working on stolen and bloodied stormtrooper armor, Iden chats with Del, who has not yet found any intelligence. As time passes, Iden learns more about the dynamics of the Dreamers. Staven is the leader of the group while the Twi'lek Dahna is his second-in-command. The Mentor is merely an adviser to the group. Later, the Mentor takes her on a ride into the forest where he recruits her as the new public face of the Dreamers. Since the death of Saw, the partisans have been left without a public voice. The Mentor schools Iden in the arts of propaganda.

As Inferno Squad gains the trust of the Dreamers, Del befriends the Chadra-Fan Piikow while working as a mechanic. Meanwhile, Seyn is taken under the wing of Dahna, a former slave who has an affinity for other slaves. Seyn puts her expertise with computers and forgery to good use. Seyn and Del find a way to communicate secretly by using their ID10 droid to ferry their comlinks. Gideon also tries to sell himself and his piloting skills to Staven. From the Mentor, Iden learns that Staven's ruthless and violent streak stems from having lost loved ones.

Later, Staven attempts to get Iden to do a propaganda holovid with a dying and bruised stormtrooper. However, the Mentor points out that showing Iden kill the stormtrooper would damage the Dreamer's message. Fortunately for Iden, the stormtrooper dies and Staven listens to the Mentor. Posing as a seasoned rebel fighter, Gideon manages to convince Staven to let him fly a two-seater A-wing starfighter with Staven as his instructor.

After disposing of the remains of the stormtrooper by feeding them to rodents called Crunchers, Dahna takes Iden to practise with their blasters at a secluded area with boulders. Iden practises her marksmanship under Dahna's tutelage. Upon returning to the rebel encampment, Iden and her fellow Inferno Squad members discuss their findings. Seyn reveals that Azen Novaren is an ISB agent named Lar Kantayan, who had previously tried to infiltrate the Partisans. The Imperial agents think that Lars is trying to infiltrate the Dreamers in order to win back the favor of his ISB employers. Inferno Squad decides to investigate whether Lars is their leak and to recover the information they were sent to find.

As the Imperial operatives gain the trust of the Dreamers, Seyn befriends the Kage Sadori. Del also befriends Piikow, who discusses his findings about the planet Jeosyn's flora and fauna, which have evolved to accommodate the planet's long dawns and twilights. The rebel base is also shielded by a unique combination of minerals on the planet's surface that deflects scanners. He also tells Del that the planet was previously home to an extinct sapient species that left no remains, buildings, technology, writing or art behind. The extinct near-human aliens left behind statues which Piikow identify as machines but is unable to ascertain their purpose.

While watching Dahna and the other Dreamers dancing, the Mentor reminds Iden that she is fighting to bring back freedom to the galaxy. The following day, Staven briefs Iden and the other rebels about the Dreamers' mission to the planet Affadar, which is home to the indigenous amphibian T'Laeem species and a small population of human settlers. The local human government led by Ephor Emoch Akagarti is conducting mining operations that support the Imperial war machine but would endanger both the T'Laeem and human settlers. Staven's plan is to expose Emoch's pollution of the planet's water supply.

In the three days leading up to the mission, Del and Piikow are tasked with sprucing up Azen's Jinata Security ship to make it look more "Imperial." When Del confides that he likes Piikow as a friend, Seyn reminds him that he is the enemy. Del replies that Piikow did not deserve what happened to his family. Sadori takes Seyn to a secluded crystal cave where he shows a priceless family heirloom, a crystal bowl from his homeworld of Quarzite. The two begin developing romantic feelings for each other.

Meanwhile, Iden spends time with the Mentor and learns about his adolescent years during the Clone Wars and friendship with Saw and Steela Gerrera. While the Mentor does not approve of the level of partisan violence, he does not seek to overthrow Staven. Iden realizes that Staven does not lead a unified band and decides to pursue a strategy of "divide and conquer."

For the mission, Iden dons a stolen stormtrooper armor. She, Staven, Kaev, and Nadrine travel to Akagarti's residence in the stolen J-Sec shuttle. Iden uses a DEMP to force their way inside the Akagarti residence. Iden captures Emoch's seven year old daughter while Staven captures Emoch's three year old son Taryai. The insurgents also storm Emoch and his wife's bedroom, capturing the couple. Staven forces Emoch to accompany Iden and Nadrine to the water purification plant while Kaev guards Emoch's family.

At the water purification plant, Iden and Staven force Emoch to confess that the water filtration systems are for show and not actually decontaminating the water. Tricking Emoch into believing that his son will be forced to drink the water, Iden and Staven force Emoch to drink the contaminated water before throwing him into a pool. Back at the J-Sec shuttle, Azen and Gideon are impressed with Iden's performance. Having completed their mission, the Dreamers prepare to evacuate on their J-Sec shuttle. However, the Dreamers are pursued by Imperial forces with Kaev and Nadrine being lost during the escape from Affadar.

While escaping Affadar, Gideon "discovers" a homing beacon aboard their shuttle and pins the blame on Azen. Not trusting the newbies, Staven orders that Iden, Gideon, and Azen be bound in stuncuffs. Back at the Dreamer's base, Staven has Del and Piikow search the shuttle and the ship's computer while Ru stands guard over Iden, Gideon, and Azen. Piikow and Del find "evidence" purporting that Azen is an Imperial Intelligence double agent. In fact, Del and Seyn under Iden's orders had fabricated the evidence from bits and pieces of the logs Azen had recorded over the months he was at J-Sec.

Azen tries to pin the blame onto Iden but she counters that she has provided Staven with useful intelligence. Though Staven is suspicious, Iden provides a solid alibi when she points out that she was under house arrest when she flew the ship. Piikow finds more incriminating evidence against Azen in the ship's databanks. Azen realizes that he has been outwitted and asks Iden what she did. Still maintaining her cover as an Imperial defector, Iden tells Azen that he has doomed himself.

Even the moderate "Mentor" is convinced of Azen's treachery and condemns Azen for choosing the Empire and causing Kaev and Nadrine to die. Believing that Azen is the traitor, Staven demands that Azen submit to questioning. A defiant Azen is then tortured to death by the Dreamers for the next seven hours.

With Staven grieving over the loss of Nadrine, Iden instructs Gideon to exploit his "friendship" with Staven as a means of sowing discord between him and the Mentor. Iden also tells Del to convince Piikow not to trust Staven. Iden also instructs Seyn to continue ingratiating herself with the Vushans. Iden resolves to get more information from the Mentor.

In private, Iden confronts Seyn about the latter's romantic feelings for Sadori. Seyn reassures Iden that she has worked undercover with hundreds of agents and that she is unlikely to fall in love with Sadori. Later, Iden chats with Del, who confides that he struggles with the imminent prospect of having to kill the enemy whom they have befriended over the course of their deep cover work. Del also informs her that Staven wept over the death of Nadrine. Iden and Del try to rationalize their mission by telling themselves that the Dreamers are not people but enemies whom they have to kill.

Later, the Dreamers dispatched Seyn Marana and Sadori on a mission to blow up the Imperial munitions factory on Anukara. The factory was being visited by Moff Rys Deksha and General Ivel Toshan. For the mission, Seyn and Sadori would infiltrate the factory disguised as students from a nearby school. Despite the objections of Dahna, Piikow, and the Mentor, the Dreamers' leader Staven insisted that the factory be bombed with the children inside. However, Staven overruled them and argued that the children had been robbed of their innocence because they were children of the Empire. Staven's remarks led Iden to recall her father's words that the child of a rebel may be a child but would grow up to be an enemy and thus had to be destroyed. Iden feigned loyalty to Staven by supporting his plan.

Since the school only admitted humans, Sadori donned cosmetics and contact lenses that hid his pale-gray skin and pink eyes in order to hide his Kage identity. Seyn managed to convince her teachers to let her bring their ID10 droid Dio along by claiming that it was a medical droid. Using fake ID cards, Seyn and Sadori managed to blend in with the 400 students. Seyn briefly chatted with a female student named Anice, leading her to reconsider Staven's orders to blow up the factory with everyone inside. After retrieving the bombs and associated material from Dio, Seyn delayed the bomb by fifteen minutes instead of the planned five minutes. This gave the students enough time to return to their shuttle.

Believing the bomb was a dud, Sadori returned to the factory to check. Before leaving, the two kissed passionately. Seyn tried to follow Sadori into the building. Seyn was evacuated by Staven and Del, with the former demanding to know where Sadori was. The Dreamers escaped on a shuttle before the factory approached, killing Moff Deksha and General Toshan but sparing the children.

For the next few days, Ru and Halia mourned the death of their son Sadori. Seyn managed to avoid raising suspicion by telling them that she had instructed the droid Dio to set the timer for five minutes. She also claimed that she had not noticed anything wrong with the timer or the bomb. Del and Piikow, who had prepared the bomb, were grilled but asserted they had done everything right. After investigating the matter, Staven thought that Sadori's death had been down to luck. In private, Seyn confided in Iden that she had delayed the bomb by fifteen minutes in order to save 400 children. She also confessed that she had kissed Sadori.

Since Seyn had gained the trust of Sadori's family, the Vushans invited him to share the shun-rai, a funeral meal where the Kages ate their loved one's favorite food and set a place for their spirit to join in. In private, Iden told the Mentor that he admired her. When Iden asked if he had a goddaughter, the Mentor mentioned that he once had a wife and a stepdaughter whom he loved. However, he added that the Dreamers were now his family.

In private, Gideon uses his "friendship" with Staven to sow mistrust against the Mentor, Iden, Dahna, Del, and Piikow in accordance with Iden's "divide and conquer" strategy. Meanwhile, Del and Piikow research how they can use crystals to reactivate several statues at a nearby cavern. Having come to regard Piikow as a friend and taking pity on him for his medical condition, Del thinks about how he can bring him into the Empire's service.

A week after Sadori's death, Seyn eavesdrops on Dahna conversing with Piikow in the Chadra-Fan language. While Seyn claims to know only Galactic Basic Standard and Huttese, she knows 29 languages including Chadra-Fan. When Dahna criticizes the Vushans for raising Sadori as a fanatic willing to sacrifice his life, Seyn shouts angrily that Ru and Halia loved him and raised him the way they thought was right. However, this arouses Dahna's suspicion and she accuses Seyn of being an Imperial spy.

Seyn is brought before the other Dreamers. With Seyn's loyalty in question, Piikow believes that Seyn sabotaged their factory bombing operation on Anukara and that she engineered Sadori's death. Torn by Seyn's apparent "betrayal", Halia demands the right to kill Seyn with her vibroblade. Having lost loved ones including his wife and goddaughter, the Mentor urges caution and believes this could be a misunderstanding. In her defense, Seyn tells them truthfully that she delayed the timer because she could not participate in the murder of 400 students but denies being an Imperial agent.

Meanwhile, a horrified Iden watches the proceedings but is unable to intervene since she does not want to expose Inferno Squad. To "kill two birds with one stone", Staven decides to test Iden's loyalty by having her question Seyn and hands her Halia's vibroblade. Iden considers attacking the Dreamers but decides to "question" Seyn. However, Seyn commits suicide by throwing herself onto Iden's blade while shouting "for the Empire", confirming her identity as an Imperial deep-cover agent.

To maintain her cover, Iden denounces Seyn as a lying traitor in the presence of Staven. In private, Staven questions Iden on her loyalty in the light of Azen and Seyn's exposure. Iden protests that she had nothing to do with Kaev and Nadrine's deaths and claims that she joined the partisans because she hates her father and wanted to hurt him. Iden also dares Staven to kill her but warns him never to doubt her again. Convinced of Iden's loyalty, Staven confides that he disagrees with the Mentor's view that rebellions are built on hope and instead asserts that rebellions are built on hatred.

Later, Iden privately meets with Gideon and Del. Not wanting Seyn's sacrifice to be in vain, Iden takes responsibility for Seyn's death and says they should have watched out for one another more. They resolve to work as a team to find the source of the partisans' information and eliminate the threat posed by the Dreamers to the Empire.

The morning after Seyn's execution, Del convinces Piikow to share his secret statue project with the Mentor. The two discover that the statues were telepathically controlled by the brain waves of their creators. While Del, Piikow and the Mentor meet in the main gathering cavern, Iden takes advantage of Dahna and the Kages' absence to read through the Mentor's journal. After finding little usable information, Iden contacts her team and tells them to proceed with plan B, which involves escaping offworld in a stolen Dreamer ship.

Later, the Mentor returns, having visited an underground cavern filled with pink crystals after hearing Del and Piikow's hypothesis on their connection with the statues. When the Mentor returns to record his journal, he believes that Staven has been reading through his property and angrily chastises the Dreamers' leader. Staven storms out and goes for a walk with Gideon. Iden goes to keep an eye on the Mentor.

In private, Staven asks Gideon to kill the Mentor and steal the information that he had been keeping from them. Staven also reveals that the Mentor has been the main source of information on their targets. Staven regards the journal incident as the last straw. Gideon contacts Iden and tells her that the Mentor has been concealing important information from Staven. He tells her to eliminate the Mentor and to then rendezvous with Del so that they can leave Jeosyn.

Iden confronts the Mentor at the amphitheater and reveals that he knows that she found her journal. Based on his education and political knowledge, Iden deduces that he is Lux Bonteri, the son of Mina Bonteri, the former senator of Onderon. When pressed, the Mentor reveals that he sourced the Dreamers' information from his stepdaughter, who is working for the Galactic Empire but loves him. Following the death of Saw Gerrera, Lux had contacted his stepdaughter and offered to turn himself in in return for an amnesty.

In return for offering to give his stepdaughter information on Rebel Alliance operations, Lux manipulated her into supplying information on the Empire under the pretext of offering to surrender to the Empire. Lux also tells Iden that he did not turn himself in because he did not want to betray his stepdaughter. Instead, he offered his services to Staven, telling the partisan leader that he had a onetime source of information. Iden demands that Lux hand over the chip containing the data and points out that the Dreamers are not better than their Imperial foes since they kill civilians and children.

A remorseful Lux says he would not have told Staven about the school tour had he known they would target the children. Iden then reveals that Staven had ordered Gideon to kill him and get the information. When Lux demands to know why she is here when Gideon was sent to kill him, Iden tells Lux that he trusted her which means he would be more willing to impart the information to her. Lux then tells Iden that hope exists, citing the theft of the Death Star plans and the destruction of the Death Star as an example. Iden tells him that if hope is all that he has he is nothing before firing her blaster.

Returning to the camp after her confrontation with Lux, Iden discovers that Gideon has gunned down the other Dreamers, eliminating the cell. While Gideon is pleased, Iden is outraged and shoves him against the ship's bulkhead. Gideon is unperturbed but Iden points out that they are not murderers and that they disobeyed her orders. Before they can dispose of the bodies, several of the statues approach them and carry the bodies of the fallen away.

Del deduces that the statues respond to sentient brain activity but only when it stops. The Imperials realize that the statues are droids that have been programmed to dispose of the remains of the deceased, explaining the disappearances of the fallen stormtrooper, Azen, and Seyn's bodies.

After returning, Captain Iden, Gideon, and Del are debriefed by Admiral Versio. Captain Iden takes responsibility for the loss of Seyn and defends her crew. She points out that Gideon and Del stopped a potentially dangerous leak before its final target was attacked and turned the Dreamers against each other. Iden claims that Gideon eliminated the Dreamers as part of the mission's larger goal of eliminating the entire partisan movement. Though Admiral Versio is disappointed that they were not able to interrogate the Dreamers, he issues commendations for Commander Del, Lieutenant Gideon, and Captain Iden.

Iden is distraught to learn that her mother is dead but is comforted by her father's reassurance that Zeehay subsequently found out that her daughter was no traitor. Admiral Versio provides them with lodgings at the Diplomat hotel to rest. While alone in her room, Iden grieves for her mother and is haunted by the memories of Azen's torture, the fallen Dreamers, and Lux Bonteri.

The following day, Inferno Squad are assigned on a mission to neutralize blackmailers harrying a moff on a distant world. While traveling aboard the Corvus, Iden confides with Del that she did not kill the Mentor. Del also admits feeling pity for the late Piikow. A jubilant Gideon enters their quarters and proposes that they drink Tevraki whiskey to celebrate the elimination of the Dreamers and Seyn Marana's sacrifice. Inferno Squad toast Seyn as well as themselves.

• ISBN 9781524797539;July 19, 2017; Del Rey; San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Limited Convention Edition
• ISBN 9781524796808; July 25, 2017; Del Rey; US hardcover
• ISBN 9781524797348; July 25, 2017; Del Rey; Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition
• ISBN 9781524797324; July 25, 2017; Del Rey; Signed edition
• ISBN 9781524796815; July 25, 2017; Del Rey; US ebook
• ISBN 9780525486442;November 14, 2017; Del Rey; Target Exclusive Edition
• ISBN 9781524796822; March 27, 2018; Del Rey; US paperback
• ISBN 9781784752941; March 27; Arrow Books Ltd.; UK paperback