On an epic voyage far beyond the Republic, the Jedi will confront
their most extraordinary enemy--and test the limits of honor and
sacrifice against their most devastating challenge.
The Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth
petitions the Senate for support of a singularly ambitious undertaking:
the dream of Outbound Flight. Six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights, and
fifty thousand men, women, and children will embark--aboard a gargantuan
vessel, equipped for years of travel--on a mission to contact
intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the known
galaxy.
Unknown to the famed Jedi Master, the launch of the mission is secretly
being orchestrated by an unlikely ally: the evil Sith Lord Darth
Sidious, who has his own reasons for wanting Outbound Flight to move
forward.
Yet Darth Sidious is not the mission's most dangerous challenge. Once
underway, the starship crosses paths at the edge of Unknown Space with
the forces of the alien Chiss Ascendancy and a brilliant mastermind
named Thrawn. Even Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, aboard Outbound Flight
with his young Padawan student Anakin Skywalker, cannot help to avert
disaster. What begins as a peaceful Jedi mission is violently
transformed into an all-out war for survival against staggering
odds--and the most diabolical of adversaries.