Star Wars Reveals Connection Between High Republic Villains and Rebel Alliance

Star Wars continues to tighten the ties of its universe across eras of the franchise, with the newest issue of Marvel's Star Wars series. As you can see in some preview pages from the upcoming Star Wars #29, The Rebel Alliance will be looking back to the era of The High Republic to secure technology that could help them turn the tide of the Galactic Civil War against The Empire. 

The official Star Wars website has the full gallery of preview pages for Star Wars #29, which is titled "A Little Break", written by High Republic author Charles Soule with art by Ramon Rosanas (with cover art by E.M Gist).

 The preview shows Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia attending a galactic auction with Amilyn Holdo, hoping to bid on one particular piece: a Nihil Starship. Haldo thinks the Nihil ship can lead them to a lost treasure of Tibanna Coaxium fuel that can sustain the Rebellion's fuel supply needs – unfortunately the Empire has its own bidder at the event, and he has a lot more money to throw around. The preview ends with Luke feeling like an possible Jedi Mind Tricks are being thrown off by some dark side presence – while Lando sets a bigger scheme in motion with a plan to let the Empire win the bid. What happens next we'll need to read the comic to see. 

Who Are The Nihil? 

Star Wars: The High Republic introduced The Nihil as a group of Outer Rim space pirates who became one of the main threats of the High Republic era, two centuries before The Skywalker Saga begins. The Nihil were their own society with an elaborate hierarcy, laws, and leadership – with the top leader (or "Eye") being Marchion Ro, a powerful man who is son of the first great Nihil leader, and part of a mysterious race of beings.

Marchion Ro's family commands the Nihil's greatest edge, which are the Path engines in their ships. These unique engines gave Nihil ships access to the "Paths," lanes of hyperspace that only the Nihil could access and move through, at incredibly fast speeds and even over incredibly short distances. Because of the Path engines, Nihil armadas (or "Tempests") could appear without warning anywhere in the galaxy, strike, and be gone again before The Republic and/or Jedi could respond. It made The Nihil feared raiders and maruaders throughout the Outer Rim, until they grew into a bigger threat... 

The High Republic storyline begins with the decisive "Great Hyperspace Disaster" in which The Nihil use the Path engines to disrupt hyperspace lanes, turning the traffic of traveling ships into wreckages that exploded into a sector of the galaxy like flaming objects of mass destruction. After that, incident, the Jedi and Nihil and went into all-out war, which is still unfolding in the series. 

Star Wars comics have been particularly good at weaving the Galactic Civil War era and High Republic, including these past examples: 

The Empire's Secret Quest for the Path Engine | Luke Skywalker Meets A High Republic Jedi Hero

Star Wars #29 will be on sale on November 2nd, from Marvel Comics.