Cytat:ACT I
[The Past- Unknown Location].

Luke is training Leia as a Jedi. Lightsabers are involved. Leia reveals to Luke that she is pregnant and Leia makes the decision to end her Jedi training due to the impending birth of her son.

[The Present- The Resistance’s Jungle Base]

Years later, Leia has picked up where her brother left off and has been helping Rey learn the ways of the Jedi. Rey is first seen doing some meditative/ “mental” Force training, but is struggling with it. In frustration, she asks Leia if she can do a physical training course instead. This is what we see Rey doing in the jungle forrest in the D23 First Look.(1, 2) It appears that Rey has more physical fortitude than she has mental strength.

[Forrest planet bathed in red light]

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has been aware of a dark power behind his predecessor and former master, Snoke. Kylo has been spending his time as leader of the First Order with the purpose of locating this power. Generals Hux and Pryde have been following Kylo around on his quest and are beginning to get very frustrated with what they see as a fool’s errand. They see this as a waste of First Order time and resources. When we catch up with the villains of our story, Kylo is leading an assault on this planet with the purpose of finding Darth Vader’s wayfinder device. The device reveals coordinates within the Unknown Regions and Kylo is confident that this will reveal the source of Snoke’s power. Kylo Ren slaughters his way through the natives and is eventually led to "the oracle" who gives him the wayfinder.

[Asteroid Base]

We pick up with Finn and Poe on the Millennium Falcon, accompanied by a hand full of unfamiliar alien characters traveling to an icy asteroid base to meet with a First Order informant. This informant, an alien, is acting as a middle man between a First Order mole and our heroes. The First Order arrives and begins attacking the base. The assault causes forces our heroes to make a hasty exit by what was described to me as “light springing” away. Light springing involves making the jump to light speed without plotting a course or a predetermined destination. As we all remember, making the jump to light speed without precise calculations could have dire consequences such as ‘flying right through a star or bouncing too close to a supernova’. The Falcon makes a hand full of these springs to throw the First Order off their trail, but as a result they are forced to deal with the consequences of such a risky maneuver. After surviving the dangers of light springing, our heroes plot a course to the secret Resistance jungle base.

[The Unknown Regions- Exogol]

After obtaining Vader’s device Kylo travels to the place specified by the wayfinder. It takes him to the Unknown Regions and a dead planet of flat, black rock. I previously reported that the planet where Kylo finds Vader's wayfinder was called Exogol. Since then my understanding has evolved and I've been told that this planet actually bears that name. Kylo lands outside a giant cube, floating just above the ground and begins walking toward it. Kylo walks between the cube and the ground and once he reaches the center he discovers an elevator leading down below the planet's surface. He follows teh lift down and finds an old man, near death and lying in bed and being tended to by cloaked aids. My source believes these aids to be referred to as Sith Loyalists. The old man identifies himself as Darth Sideous. Kylo initially dismisses the old man, knowing that the Emperor had died over 30 years prior over the forest moon of Endor. Feeling that this must be a trick, Kylo claims that there must be some other explanation, such as this man being a clone. My sources specifically tell me that the Palpatine refutes the idea of him being a clone and affirms that he survived his fall. After his defeat at Endor, he left the known galaxy and traveled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild his Empire. Despite his skepticism, Palpatine begins to reel Kylo in and subsequently tells him of something known as a “Force Dyad”. The Force produces two incredibly strong users and when they unite together, both become stronger than either one could be on their own. Palpatine believes Kylo Ren and Rey to be the two halves of this dyad and shares this knowledge with Rey. (Note: I previously wrote that Palpatine wanted them to become “master and apprentice” since then this has been clarified to me as Palpatine seeking the two members of the Dyad) Palpatine claims that he seeks the Dyad because he is weak and dying and he wants the Dyad to rule together once he’s gone. Palpatine orders Kylo to bring Rey to him and turn her so that the Dyad will be a strong, unified force of darkness. Palpatine also reveals that he has been amassing an armada of Star Destroyers equipped with Death Star tech, each one capable of destroying a planet on its own. Generals Hux and Pryde are tasked with rounding up children in large numbers to train and staff his armada.

[The Resistance’s Jungle Base]

Finn and Poe return to the Resistance base bearing the knowledge obtained from their encounter with the First Order informant. The duo brings this knowledge to General Leia and tell her what they know about Kylo’s mission to the Unknown Regions, but without any leads to where he went or how he got there, the Resistance is at a dead end. Leia mentions that she has a contact who was seeking a link to the Unknown Regions long ago and may be willing to help. Leia dispatches the two of them along with Rey, Chewbacca, BB-8 and C-3PO to Passana to meet with her contact and see what help he may be able to provide.

[Passana]

When our heroes arrive on the planet, they discover that a giant festival is going on. What they thought would be an easy mission has now turned into a much more complicated affair. They attempt to lay low and to blend in. Unsurprisingly, Chewbacca struggles with blending in because it’s very difficult to hide a 7 foot tall wookiee from prying eyes. Rey encounters an alien in the crowds who takes a liking to her, presenting her with a handmade necklace as a gift. She is asked her name and she responds “Rey”. When asked her family name, she replies that she does not have one. At this time, Kylo establishes a connection with Rey through their bond. Their conversation ends with Kylo grabbing the necklace from around Rey’s neck. This necklace proves to be the key to the First Order discovering their location. After the connection ends, Rey warns her comrades that the First Order is on their way and that they must hurry to find Leia’s contact. It is at this point that instead of finding their contact, their contact reveals himself to them after having spotted an old wookiee friend of his out of the crowd. It’s Lando Calrissian.

Greetings and introductions are exchanged Lando tells them of a dagger that may help them find what they seek. Many years prior, Lando and Luke went in search of this dagger that was owned by a Sith loyalist named Ochie (spelling not confirmed). They tracked Ochie to Passana when the trail went cold. When met with the question of why he never left the planet after the search for Ochie and his dagger ended, Lando tells the team that he had a young child at the time of his and Luke’s quest. While they were out searching for the dagger, the First Order stole his child. After having failed to protect his child from the First Order, Lando and Luke parted ways and he stayed on Passana ever since. This story strikes a chord with Finn having been stolen from his own family at an incredibly young age as well. Lando points them in the direction of the last known coordinates of Ochie’s ship, where the trail went cold all those years ago, wishes them luck in succeeding where he failed all those years ago but decides to sit this one out.

Our heroes follow the trail that Lando pointed out to them and eventually they happen upon Ochie’s ship. When Rey sees the ship, it triggers some memories. It’s the same ship that we see leaving Jakku in Rey’s vision from TFA. Before the implications of this can sink in, the ground beneath them gives out and the crew gets sucked below the surface of the sand. They find themselves in a series of underground tunnels where they discover the remains of Ochie and the dagger that Lando and Luke sought after. Rey feels a very strong connection to this weapon, but can’t quite articulate it. The dagger has writing on it in a language that nobody can identify. It’s then handed over to 3PO who identifies the writing as a Sith language, but he reveals that he is unable to translate the writing due to restrictions in his programing. At this time, a plan is made to hack into C-3PO’s programming to bypass the restrictions. Poe mentions that he has an old contact that might be able to help them out. Chewbacca takes possession of the dagger and the group’s attention shifts to finding a way out of the caves. During their escape attempt, the team runs into a giant, very aggressive, sand worm (who presumably created the tunnels). A battle with the sand worm ensues and our heroes end up backed into a corner, preparing to meet their fate when Rey notices a detail. The worm is injured. In a display of previously unknown power, Rey is able to heal the worm’s injuries, satiating the worm and providing the heroes the chance they needed to escape.

Once they crew exits the cave system, they see a First Order Star Destroyer in the sky and know that Kylo Ren has found them. Once they realize this they (correctly) reason that the First Order would have already found the Falcon, making that plan of escape impossible. The Falcon is boarded and subsequently taken back to the Star Destroyer. In an act of desperation, the crew boards Ochie’s ship and attempt to get it working. It's on this ship that the crew discovers the new droid D-O. Rey senses that Kylo is coming for her, so she takes off on her own to confront him and buy her friends some time. (This is where the TIE interceptor flip sequence from the first teaser takes place). While Kylo and Rey are engaged, the Knights of Ren and the First Order head for Ochie’s ship and our other heroes. Chewbacca splits off from the crew and attempts to delay the Knights, but it captured. The dagger is taken from him and he boards a First Order prisoner transport. Rey and Kylo both notice Chewbacca being taken captive and being brought to a transport ship during their confrontation. As the ship takes off, Rey shifts her attention from Kylo to her captured friend and begins to use the Force to stop the transport and pull it back to the ground. Kylo attempts to counteract this by pushing the ship away. Control over the ship becomes a battle between Kylo and Rey, much like their battle for Anakin’s lightsaber in TLJ. Kylo begins to gain the upper hand which angers Rey. In her frustration, lightning shoots from her hand, destroying the the transport ship and killing all its passengers. Devastated by what she just did, Rey collapses. While all this is transpiring, Poe, Finn, 3PO and BB-8 get Ochie’s ship in the air just in time to fly over to pick up a distraught Rey. With no Lando, no Falcon, no dagger and no Chewbacca, our heroes limp away from the desert planet.