Great Hyperspace Disaster

The Class A modular freight transport Legacy Run was manufactured by Kaniff Yards significantly more than a century before the year 232 BBY. Throughout its years in operation, ownership of the starship transferred to the Byne Guild, ultimately placing it under the command of captain Hedda Casset, a retired officer from the Malastare-Sullust Joint Task Force. Casset diligently maintained the Run in peak condition across numerous voyages. Nevertheless, the Legacy Run was nearing, or potentially past, its operational lifespan. On what would prove to be its final voyage, the Run was ferrying approximately nine thousand colonists from the Core Worlds and Colonies to the Outer Rim Territories. It also carried various goods, notably a consignment of supercooled liquid tibanna.

At that time, the Galactic Republic was governed by Supreme Chancellor Lina Soh, who championed an ambitious vision for the galaxy that prioritized expanding the Republic's influence and the Jedi Order's presence. To achieve this, the space station known as Starlight Beacon was erected in the Outer Rim's frontier. Following the station's completion, the Republic and Jedi hosted a conclave at the station, attended by numerous prominent figures such as Jedi Master Avar Kriss and Admiral Pevel Kronara of the Republic Defense Coalition. After the conclave's conclusion, the departure of dignitaries, including Kriss and Kronara, along with the admiral's cruiser, Third Horizon, faced delays due to Shai Tennem, the overseer of the station's construction, who insisted on providing her guests with an extensive tour, much to Kronara's annoyance.

The Nihil, a pirate group operating from the Outer Rim, had gained increasing notoriety in recent years. Their mastery of the rare hyperspace Paths allowed them to launch surprise attacks and vanish without a trace using their Path engines. While primarily marauders, Eye of the Nihil Marchion Ro harbored ambitions for the group, intending to strike against the Republic and Jedi, driven by motives rooted in his family's past.

The Legacy Run was navigating hyperspace along a well-established hyperspace route when the unforeseen calamity occurred. Captain Casset had just reassumed control of the bridge from her first officer, Jary Bowman, when Cadet Kalwar, the navigator, alerted her to an obstruction that had materialized suddenly in the hyperlane, leaving them mere seconds before impact. Unbeknownst to the ship's crew, the obstacle was a Nihil Stormship utilizing a hyperspace Path. Although Casset was taken aback, given the lane's heavy traffic making such an occurrence highly improbable, she assumed command of the Legacy Run and attempted to steer it clear of the collision course. She nearly succeeded, but the Legacy Run's age betrayed it, causing the vessel to disintegrate. Casset and her bridge crew managed to seal off various compartments of the ship before they died when the bridge was breached, unaware if they had managed to save any passengers. Fragments of the Legacy Run were propelled through hyperspace and eventually back into realspace, causing widespread chaos.

The Hetzal system, a trinary star system situated in the Outer Rim Territories, faced an acute threat from a vast number of hyperspace anomalies. These anomalies were initially detected entering the system by two scantechs, Merven Getter and Vel Carann, stationed at a monitoring station on the ecliptic in the system's outer reaches. Perplexed by the unfolding events, Getter and Carann transmitted a system-wide alert, but were subsequently killed when their station was obliterated by debris ejected from hyperspace, preventing them from providing further clarification.

The signal generated widespread confusion within the Hetzal system, as the reason for the alert remained unclear. Within the Ministerial Residence on Hetzal Prime, Minister Zeffren Ecka, the system's leader, and his advisors endeavored to decipher the situation. Ultimately, Keven Tarr from the Ministry of Technology managed to compile a map illustrating the debris and the devastation it was already causing within the system, prompting Ecka to issue a system-wide evacuation order. The order incited panic, as there were insufficient starships to evacuate the system's forty billion inhabitants, and most remained unaware of the underlying circumstances. Some residents opted to disregard the order, suspecting it to be a hoax. Ecka and his government also dispatched a distress signal, despite believing that no Republic assistance could arrive in time.

The Hetzalian distress call was intercepted by the Third Horizon, which was transporting the dignitaries whose departure had been delayed by Tennem, prompting the vessel to reroute to the endangered system. Alongside Republic personnel, at least one hundred Jedi participated in the rescue effort. With Master Kriss designated as the mission's coordinator, she dispatched a message to Hetzal Prime en route, informing Minister Ecka that aid was forthcoming. Republic Longbeam cruisers and at least fifty-three Jedi Vectors were mobilized.

The Third Horizon entered the Hetzal system relatively close to its suns, establishing a course for the prime world. The Longbeams and Vectors were deployed, heading to locations where assistance was needed. Kriss, remaining on the Third Horizon's bridge, utilized the Force to coordinate the Jedi's efforts.

As the Jedi and Republic personnel rushed to provide aid, they initially failed to grasp the true nature of the anomalies tearing through the system at such velocity. They dispersed throughout the system to wherever their assistance was required. The Longbeam Aurora IX, commanded by Captain Finial Bright, set course to assist Solar Array 22-X, which had sustained damage from debris before the crew could evacuate. Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm and his Padawan Bell Zettifar located the Ranoraki compound on Hetzal, where the wealthy Ranoraki family's security force was threatening a crowd of terrified civilians seeking to board the family's yacht for escape.

Three Jedi Knights, Te'Ami, Mikkel Sutmani, and Nib Assek, accompanied by a Longbeam piloted by volunteers Joss and Pikka Adren, were preparing to destroy an anomaly hurtling towards Hetzal's Fruited Moon when they were stopped by Assek's Padawan, Burryaga Agaburry, after he sensed lifeforms within it and realized it was starship debris. After Te'Ami relayed this information to Kriss through the Force, she broadened her senses and identified a total of ten anomalies containing lifeforms. She communicated this information to Admiral Kronara and his crew, shifting the objective to rescue not only the Hetzalians but also the individuals trapped within the debris, before relaying this revised goal to the remaining Jedi present.

The Adrens, Te'Ami, Sutmani, Assek, and Burryaga successfully rescued the passenger compartment hurtling towards the Fruited Moon through a maneuver involving the Jedi utilizing telekinesis to create a "lasso" to decelerate the container, whereupon the Adrens deployed the grappling cables of their Longbeam, the Aurora III. They successfully secured the container and brought it to a halt, averting a collision and saving the lives of those inside.

The Byne Guild transport Vessel, tasked with carrying four Jedi to the Beacon, was forcibly removed from hyperspace en route and subsequently stranded in deep space. The ship's captain and copilot, Leox Gyasi and Affie Hollow, recognized the wreckage hurtling through hyperspace as belonging to the Legacy Run and expressed concern, as Guild leader Scover Byne, Hollow's adoptive mother, was known to frequently travel aboard the ship. As the disaster unfolded, transmissions for assistance echoed from across the galaxy. One such transmission originated from a ship stranded within the Bespin system. The Trymant system also suffered repercussions, with several moons, including Korbatal, being destroyed by hyperspace debris.

Despite the salvation of the Hetzal system, fragments of the Legacy Run continued to emerge from hyperspace at seemingly random locations, initiating a series of Emergences. The severity of the situation prompted Chancellor Soh to impose an interdiction on hyperspace travel across vast regions of the Outer Rim while a task force worked to contain the crisis.

Entire civilizations were lost due to the Emergences. The Koboh system was impacted by the disaster when an Emergence obliterated its moon, scattering fragments onto Koboh itself. A research facility on its moon served as shelter for Republic scientists. The entire system was subsequently evacuated by the Jedi Council. The planet Brendok was also affected by an Emergence, rendering it devoid of life.

The Great Hyperspace Disaster is an event conceived for the ongoing Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project. It was initially revealed in the trailer announcing The High Republic initiative on February 24, 2020.

Further details were disclosed on June 23, 2020, with the release of the first excerpt from Charles Soule's The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, the inaugural novel of The High Republic, by IGN. In an interview with IGN, Soule characterized it as a "galaxy-wide disaster." In December 2020, he further elaborated on the creative process surrounding the Great Disaster's role as The High Republic's catalyst: the five writers (Cavan Scott, Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, and Soule himself) and other executives collectively decided to create it to challenge the conventional format of Star Wars' galactic conflicts, and introduce a problem that would test not only martial prowess but also the system's capacity to address it.