One rebel task force protects PRINCESS LEIA, bearing her in secrecy from star to star. As the last survivor of Alderaan's House of Organa, Leia is a symbol of freedom, hunted by the Empire she has opposed for so long.
The struggle against Imperial tyranny has claimed many rebel lives. As the Empire closes in, Leia resolves to make a sacrifice of her own, lest the cause of freedom be extinguished from the galaxy...
Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure is a junior novel set in the Star Wars universe, written by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry with illustrations from Phil Noto. It was released on September 4, 2015 as part of the "Journey to the Force Awakens" series.
Set in between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (with a prologue and an epilogue set in the timeframe of The Force Awakens), Moving Target follows Princess Leia as she and a team of Alliance operatives embark on a risky mission to divert the Empire's attention away from the gathering Rebel fleet at Sullust as the Alliance prepares to strike at the second Death Star. Accompanying Leia are: Nien Nunb, a Sullustan ex-smuggler turned Alliance pilot; Major Lokmarcha, a Dressellian resistance fighter turned Alliance commando; Kidi Aleri, a Cerean communications specialist; and Antrot, a Abednedo technician and demolitions expert.
This novel contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Disorder: In addition to having claustrophobia and agoraphobia, Antrot seems oddly calm in certain situations that he should have more of a reaction to, misses several social cues, and exhibits some other odd behavior. Notably the fact that he actually closes the handcuffs Leia puts on him when the team is trying to escape the Shieldmadien because he thinks she actually forgot to do so indicates that he has a disorder that causes his thinking to be a little off.
- Arc Villain: Captain Khione, the command of the Star Destroyer Shieldmaiden, pursues Leia and her team throughout the novel.
- Canon Immigrant: Several Rebel officers from the Legends EU make their first canon appearance in this novel, including Admirals Nantz and Massa, and Generals Cracken, Veertag, and Tantor.
- The Chains of Command: Leia is uncomfortable with the fact an entire Rebel task force is devoted to protecting her while she is not allowed to go on any missions, particularly after it takes casualties.
- Demolitions Expert: Antrot, the Abednedo technician on Leia's team.
- Discontinuity Nod: Crix Madine suggests sending in an infiltration team to destroy the second Death Star, which was something attempted in the Legends continuity to disable the superlaser.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The epilogue contains the first canonical mention of Poe Dameron, who goes on to become one of the main protagonists of The Force Awakens.
- Good with Numbers: Kidi, which is unsurprising for a Cerean comms specialist. Her skills also allows her to memorize all of the Alliances codes, which could be a bad thing when Lok points out that makes her a massive security risk if she ever gets captured by the Empire.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Two of them:
- The first is by Lokmarcha: after the team is captured by the Shieldmaiden, he activates a EMP device hidden in his chest to knock out power to most of the Star Destroyer and disable all the nearby stormtroopers. Unfortunately, the activation process kills him.
- The second is by Antrot, who boards the Mellcrawler instead of the shuttle Leia, Nien, and Kidi steal in order to place it in a certain area of the Shieldmadien's docking bay so he can blow it, and the thousands of pounds of explosive fertilizer onboard, up and destroy the Star Destroyer.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lokmarcha
- Majorly Awesome: Lokmarcha is one of the Alliance's top commandos and he kicks plenty of ass throughout the novel.
- Non-Action Guy: Antrot has no weapons training or experience in combat situation, forcing the group to try and protect him in dangerous situations.
- Noodle Incident: Nien mentions that Wedge Antilles owes him a drink for saving him at Hagar Secundus, but never elaborates on what happened there.
- Oh, Crap!: The entire Alliance command pretty much panic when Mon Mothma, Ackbar, and Cracken reveal that the Empire is constructing another Death Star.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kidi is not pleased with Leia or the Alliance when she learns that Operation: Yellow Moon is not actually about recruiting more ships and soldiers to the Alliance, but rather setting up a false trail for the Empire to follow to throw them off of the gathering Alliance fleet at Sullust while putting everyone who responds to the operations message in danger.
