Or Die Trying

Set in 28 ABY, a Jedi Knight named Jaina Solo from the New Jedi Order finds herself on the planet Onadax. Her mission involves entering the headquarters of a corporation known as ODT. She is a member of a delegation from the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances that traveled to Onadax from Bakura after assisting in thwarting an invasion of that world by the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium. This invasion was facilitated by a Human replica droid (HRD) allied with the Ssi-ruuk, and Solo intends to confront the creators of the droid. After using the Force to manipulate the perceptions of the compound's security personnel, she gains entry to the main building using a pilfered security card and follows the Force signature of an HRD to a specific room. The HRD greets her calmly, and Solo accuses him of endangering the inhabitants of Bakura. The HRD retorts that his company cannot be held liable for the actions of its clients after they receive HRD bodies and dismisses Solo's assertion that the HRD procedure allows criminals to perpetually jeopardize the galaxy.

The HRD identifies himself as Stanton Rendar, a formerly deceased Human who was revived in an HRD body, and proceeds to inform Solo about the history and objectives of ODT, also known as Onadax Droid Technologies. Operating under the belief that every sentient being is entitled to life, they create HRDs for affluent clients seeking immortality, utilizing the Ssi-ruuk's entechment process to transfer their souls into the droid bodies. Nevertheless, they operate clandestinely, fearing that the galaxy would not comprehend their endeavors. Rendar offers Solo an HRD of her own, but she envisions an army of invincible dark side users employing HRDs and firmly declines. As she prepares to apprehend him, Rendar, having anticipated her refusal, deploys a group of battle droids against her while he escapes the planet in a waiting shuttle. Solo quickly destroys them with her lightsaber and is then compelled to flee the exploding building, which Rendar has programmed to self-destruct.

Back in 2003, Sean Williams and Shane Dix collaborated on the Force Heretic trilogy, a set of three novels that became the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth installments in the The New Jedi Order book series. Refugee, the second book in the trilogy, is set on Bakura. In this book, Galactic Alliance representatives Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Jaina Solo, and others discover that the planet's Prime Minister, Molierre Cundertol, was promised immortality and underwent the Ssi-Ruuvi entechment process to have his soul transferred into a Human replica droid. After helping stop his plans, the Solo family are told by an ally, the Ryn Goure Conor, to go to Onadax and meet with another member of the information-gathering Ryn Network. The last book in the Force Heretic Trilogy, Reunion, starts with the Solos already on Onadax. In a 2003 interview with TheForce.Net, Williams and Dix said they wanted to write a short story based on a small part of Reunion, but there had been no official talks about it.

The New Jedi Order ended in November of 2003 with James Luceno's novel The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force. Even so, Williams and Dix wrote "Or Die Trying," a short story set in the New Jedi Order era between Refugee and Reunion but not officially part of The New Jedi Order series. The story was published in the seventy-fifth issue of the Lucasfilm Ltd. magazine Star Wars Insider, which was released for subscribers on March 19, 2004 and to newsstands on April 6. "Or Die Trying" is a six-page story with a full-page illustration by Leanne Buckley. It adds another reason for the Solos to have traveled to Onadax: they are following a trail of credits that Cundertol laundered off of Bakura to have his Human replica droid built. Onadax Droid Technologies, the company that built the droid, is only known as "ODT" during the opening pages of the story, an acronym that also applies to "Or Die Trying"'s title. The story was also in Star Wars: The Official Magazine 59, and it was later published online for members of StarWars.com's Hyperspace fan club.

While writing the Force Heretic Trilogy, Sean Williams and Shane Dix wanted to bring back characters and elements from past Star Wars Expanded Universe stories that hadn't been seen in a while and whose fates were unknown. Williams spent time researching dangling story arcs that he thought could be explored further. "Or Die Trying" deals with the fates of Guri and Dash Rendar, major characters from the 1996 Shadows of the Empire multimedia project. The 1998 comic series Shadows of the Empire: Evolution had previously shown a partnership between Dash and Guri, and "Or Die Trying" shows what they did together by resurrecting Stanton Rendar as an HRD. Jaina Solo's parents and uncle had believed Dash to be dead after the events of Shadows of the Empire, and "Or Die Trying" is the first time that a member of their family learns that he survived and later worked on HRD development.

Stanton Rendar had been mentioned in several previous Star Wars works, such as the Shadows of the Empire novelization and the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook. "Or Die Trying" was the first appearance of his Human replica droid, who was later mentioned in works such as 2006's The New Essential Guide to Droids, 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, and 2012's The Essential Reader's Companion, the latter of which briefly summarizes all of "Or Die Trying". The story also mentions Project Decoy, an HRD-related project by the New Republic in the 1993 young reader novels Mission from Mount Yoda and Queen of the Empire.

In Force Heretic II: Refugee, Goure Conor tells the Solos to go to Onadax to meet another member of the Ryn Network. However, "Or Die Trying" says that Jaina Solo chose Onadax as her target by telepathically learning about the world from an associate of Rufarr, Molierre Cundertol's former pilot.