The story opens with the Rebel fleet being attacked by Imperials. The fleet jumps away to rendezvous at the planet Baraan Fa, where Princess Leia and Mon Mothma discuss finding a more permanent base of operations. Leia proposed the abandoned mining planet Crait based on a lead from one of her father's friends named Trusk Berinato. Mon Mothma agrees to let Leia lead an expedition to Crait and Leia places Luke Skywalker in charge of the mission. On Crait the team, which includes Leia, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Wedge Antilles, and other members of Red Squadron, meet with Trusk who takes them on a tour of the abandoned mining facilities. Afterwards, Luke is task with clearing an area and performing an environmental assessment. Luke and Wedge come across some dead bodies and race back to camp to inform the others. At camp, Leia and Trusk are talking and Leia tells Trusk she knows this is a trap and he is working for the Empire but she wants Trusk to do the right thing. Han is understandably upset that Leia knowingly led them into a trap when Luke arrives at camp to inform them about a salt storm that killed the people he and Wedge came across and another approaching salt storm. As the Rebels depart to their ships, SCAR Squadron appears and a fight ensues. Luke and Red Squadron stays behind to give the Han, Leia, and Chewy a chance to make it to the Millennium Falcon. At the Falcon, Trusk appears holding a blaster and tells Leia he was going to be richly paid if the entire Rebel fleet came but she ruined that. Meanwhile Luke faces off with Sergeant Kreel and he and Red Squadron easily beat SCAR Squadron. Back at the Falcon, Han is shot by Trusk and Leia shoots and disarms Trusk. The Rebels leave the planet and Leia contacts Mon Mothma to inform her the mission was unsuccessful.
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This is a decent story, but there are some problems. When Leia and Mon Mothma are talking on Baraan Fa, Mon Mothma is not interested in expending resources on finding a permanent hidden base. This doesn't make sense as more resources must be spend constantly moving the Rebellion around from planet to planet. Luke is disappointed with being the lead on this mission because he feels he was only picked due to his background as a farmer and makes several snide comments about it during the story. Yet, as he faces off with Kreel he gives an uncharacteristic speech about how tough farmers are. Luke and Wedge discover dune worms, learn there are water deposits that are drying up, and they race off on ski speeders on a hunch before coming across the dead bodies. I've read the scene several times and I do not understand how Luke found these bodies on a whim, knew the people died from a salt storm, or that another storm was coming. It is never explained how Leia knows meeting with Trusk is a trap and why, knowing this, she allows them to setup camp so far from their ships. (It does give the reader an opportunity to see the original trilogy heroes fly the ski speeders that Poe Dameron, Finn, and Rose Tico fly on Crait however. ) Was Trusk a friend of her father's or not? It does not seem like Trusk ever truly liked her father. Another issue is Trusk beats them back to their ships even though the Rebels are in a hurry and Luke and Red Squadron stay behind to handle SCAR Squadron, so Leia, Han, and Chewy were never delayed during the trip. Additionally, what happens to Trusk at the end? Did the Rebels leave him behind on Crait? When I read an issue like this, I really miss the days when a comic had captions that helped the flow of a story. I believe, with a few well placed captions, many of these problems could be fixed.
My final issue with this story is how SCAR Squadron is handled. I like SCAR Squadron, or rather, I like the concept of a squad of elite Stormtroopers like SCAR Squadron. In too many of their appearances, they are too easily defeated and this story is no exception. As soon as these troops land and pursue our heroes, the Stormtrooper with the flight pack is taken out by Chewbacca. Luke faces off with Kreel (whose lightsaber is activated before he even leaves their shuttle) and the dune worms help Luke defeat him easily. Wedge and the rest of Red Squadron triumph without much of a fight as well. We know SCAR Squadron survives the ordeal because toward the end Wedge says "SCAR Squadron managed to limp away with their lives, but we gotta go." By treating them this way, any dread the reader should have when they appear evaporates. Why have them constantly survive encounters with our heroes if they don't pose any threat?
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