Rescue speeder

"Padawans, to your rescue speeders!"

―Yoda, to the Star Hopper's Padawans^[1]

Rescue speeders were speeders used by the Jedi Order during the High Republic Era. In 232 BBY, Jedi Padawans Lula Talisola, Farzala Tarabal, Qort, and Bibs rode the vehicles to the Outer Rim planet Trymant IV's surface to help evacuate Bralanak City's residents during an Emergence of the Great Hyperspace Disaster impacted the world. Using a rescue speeder, Talisola and Tarabal shot a flaming piece of debris headed toward several civilians on a rooftop, saving them.

During the Battle of Eriadu in 228 BBY, several Jedi and their allies used rescue speeders to attack the Nihil marauders invading the planet Eriadu. While riding the speeders, they attacked one Nihil gunboat and commandeered another. After the group listened to a speech from Tarabal—now a Jedi Knight—inspiring them to renew their fight against the invaders, the allies rode their speeders back to shore.

Description

A type of speeder used by the Jedi Order, rescue speeders were equipped with engines and blaster cannons. They were operated by two crew members, with its cockpit featuring positions for a forward-facing pilot and a rear-facing gunner. The rescue vehicles had silver-colored plating with darker grey^[1] or red striped accents. The speeders could also partially retract the glass around their cockpit to form a short windshield. Its controls illuminated when activated.^[2]

History

Trymant IV disaster

"The people on that roof are about to get his with some debris!"
"Hop on! We can still take it out in time! Bibs! Qort! Follow us with the hover platform so we can get them out of there!"

―Farzala Tarabal and Lula Talisola, about using a rescue speeder on Trymant IV^[1]

During the High Republic Era, the Padawan Academic Cruiser Star Hopper carried several rescue speeders^[1] to aid in its efforts for outreach and exploration.^[3] In 232 BBY, Eye of the Nihil Marchion Ro orchestrated a collision between the Byne Guild freighter Legacy Run and an obstacle that resulted in the Great Hyperspace Disaster, which spurred Emergences—pieces of hyperspace debris—emerging from space and impacting celestial bodies throughout the galaxy.^[4] One such Emergence threatened the Trymant system, prompting the Starlight Beacon space station to divert the Star Hopper to the planet Trymant IV to help its civilians^[1] while a Republic rescue fleet was assembled.^[5]

As the Padawan Academic Cruiser approached the system, the Jedi Master Yoda ordered the vessel's Padawans—Lula Talisola,^[1] Farzala Tarabal,^[5] Qort, and Bibs—to board their rescue speeders. After landing on Trymant IV, the Padawans flew their speeders through the skies above Bralanak City, intending to break up smaller pieces of flaming debris and help evacuate civilians. Tarabal and Talisola weaved their rescue speeder toward the planet's surface, dodging several pieces of debris falling around them as^[1] the former encouraged his^[3] fellow Padawans to stay close. After the four Padawans safely landed, Tarabal noticed a piece of debris hurtling toward a group of civilians on a nearby rooftop. Talisola indicated they could still take out the threat before it harmed anyone, telling Bibs and Qort to follow^[1] her^[3] and Tarabal with a hover platform to save the citizens.^[1]

Though Tarabal was unsure they would make it in time, once in their rescue speeder, he used their vessel's cannons to disintegrate the fiery debris. Talisola congratulated him on the shot as they zoomed away from the scene, though she wondered how they would manage to evacuate Bralanak City's other residents. Tarabal noticed the nearby^[1] Spider Cruiser^[5] Squall Spider. After musing that it would be big enough for evacuations, the pair landed their rescue speeder to ask the Nihil marauders operating it if they could borrow the cruiser. Though a skirmish ensued,^[1] Trymant IV's residents were eventually successfully rescued.^[5] In 229 BBY,^[6] the Vurk Jedi Master Harli Cogra wrote a book titled Chronicles of the Jedi detailing the Jedi of the High Republic Era. He mentioned the speeders that the Star Hopper kept aboard in its fifth chapter.^[3]

Battle of Eriadu

"When students must disembark for an excursion, the cruiser is equipped with speeders and supplies to aid in both exploration and outreach efforts."

―Harli Cogra about the Star Hopper and its rescue speeders in Chronicles of the Jedi^[3]

In the time afterward, the Jedi and Galactic Republic worked together to wage a galaxy-wide conflict against the Nihil. At some point during the conflict, the Nihil stole the Star Hopper^[7]—which included its complement of rescue speeders^[1]^[3]—from the Jedi.^[7]

During the Battle of Eriadu on the planet Eriadu^[2] in 228 BBY,^[8] numerous Jedi and their allies worked to rebuff the Nihil invading the world. The Nihil, under the command of their leader, "The Warden," opted to strike on Eriadu as part of their wider efforts to eradicate the Jedi remaining in the Occlusion Zone area of space, which was by then cut off from hyperspace travel with the wider galaxy. At one point during the battle, the group fighting the Nihil—led by Tarkin family leader Sevran Tarkin and the now-Jedi Knights Farzala Tarabal and Qort—used several rescue speeders to cross one of Eriadu's bays of water. Using one rescue speeder, Tarabal and Qort traveled close to a Nihil gunboat, intending to sabotage it. As the pilots of their rescue speeders—the black market dealer and ally Argomon and the Jedi Knight Ady Sun'Zee, respectively—steered them next to its hull, they drove their lightsabers into it, destroying the enemy vessel as they fled out of range.^[2]

Afterward, the group steered their rescue speeders to surround another gunboat they had commandeered from the Nihil to listen to a speech from Tarabal, who rallied them to continue fighting for Eriadu's freedom. Then, the group—now resolved in purpose—drove their rescue speeders back toward Eriadu's shore. As they neared land, they steered directly in the path of numerous Nihil waiting to attack them,^[2] though they eventually made it safely ashore.^[9]

Behind the scenes

Rescue speeders debuted in the first issue of the 2021 comic series Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures,^[1] released as part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project's Phase I. The issue was written by Daniel José Older, illustrated by Harvey Tolibao, and published by IDW Publishing on February 3, 2021.^[10]

The panels featuring the speeders were included in an uncolored preview of of The High Republic Adventures 1 released in The High Republic Free Digital Sampler^[11] on December 12, 2020.^[12] The 2022 reference book The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic: Volume I by Kristin Baver included several of Tolibao's sketches and uncolored linework for rescue speeders in the series, including one piece that labeled them as "JEDI SPEEDER" and others depicting several iterations of the rescue speeder on the first issue's cover.^[10]