Käyttäjä:Dionne Jinn/Keskeneräiset käännökset

Jedipediasta, vapaasta Tähtien sota-tietosanakirjasta tänään, 28. maaliskuuta 2024
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Biography[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Trials of a Jedi[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Becoming a Jedi[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Seeking to avoid it becoming public knowledge that he was training as a Jedi, Horn grew a goatee and dyed his hair blond. He would attend Skywalker's newly-established Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 as Keiran Halcyon, a name Skywalker had unearthed as belonging to a distant ancestor. It was about two weeks before either he or Skywalker was ready, but he avoided speaking to Wessiri, one of his best friends on Coruscant, because he did not want to have her risk her job to get him information about Mirax nor resent it if she would not do so. It was only after some time that he spoke with her, and she mentioned that intelligence reports had suggested that Tavira was traveling with enforcers that were possibly Force-sensitive. He asked her about the possibility of getting onto Corellia to see his grandfather. While he was able to communicate with Rostek Horn, the messages were heavily censored by the Imperialist Diktat's regime. Wessiri suggested she might be able to get him a secure connection.[1]

Leaving Whistler behind, Horn finally set out for Yavin 4 with Skywalker, the fellow Jedi students Kam Solusar and Brakiss, and Qrygg, who would pilot the shuttle back. Upon landing, Skywalker explained that he wanted Horn—now operating under the alias Halcyon—Solusar, and Brakiss there before the other nine students because they already had some experience with the Force and would serve as the senior core of his student body; Horn's police experience would also prove valuable. Skywalker allowed them to choose their own quarters in the Great Temple, and many of Horn's assumptions about the nature of his training, based on his time in the CorSec Academy, were shattered by Skywalker's laid-back attitude and emphasis on individual preferences and trust in the Force. When Horn brought up the topic of combat training beyond lightsaber instruction, Skywalker tasked him and Solusar with coming up with a training regimen. Looking for his quarters, Horn was led to a room on the bottom floor, which Skywalker informed him had been that of Antilles, Biggs Darklighter, and Jek Porkins before the Battle of Yavin. Skywalker also urged Horn to be less suspicious, to break down barriers between himself and others rather than erect them.[1]

In short order the other trainees arrived, and training began.[1] Horn struck up a friendship with Kyle Katarn, another student with New Republic military experience.[2] Horn built himself a personal routine of early-morning runs through the jungle, as he was unwilling to give up his pre-academy notion that physical conditioning would be a part of the instruction; he also found them to be relaxing time for himself. He and Solusar began combat instruction with the others, guiding them through unarmed fighting techniques. Solusar, a former Dark Jedi, began lightsaber training as well using padded wooden swords. Horn developed the ability to anticipate his opponent's moves, but never fully trusted the Force sensations. While he fought defensively and was generally victorious, he was not always so, and fellow student Gantoris was able to defeat Horn soundly at times. Gantoris had been a leader in his former community, and felt something of a rivalry with Horn; the man rubbed Horn the wrong way as well. It was only in one sparring session against Gantoris, in which Horn was being roundly beaten, that his self-image as a superior student collapsed and, freed of his need to play a role, he became more in tune with the Force, receiving precognitive warnings of Gantoris's attacks that allowed him to fight well. He realized that by simply being himself, he was better able to channel the Force; he also realized that arrogance and self-confidence hindered his connection to it. He had to be calm and centered as a Jedi.[1]

Tiedosto:CorranHorn3.jpg
Horn, with Whistler, disguised as Keiran Halcyon.

Combat was not the only training Horn received; Skywalker also taught the students to control and enhance their senses. During one such exercise, Horn was shocked when Skywalker confessed that he was the son of the galactic symbol of evil, Darth Vader, and had in fact redeemed him before his death. During the exercise, Horn also realized that he feared vulnerability, opening himself to others emotionally; he also decided that it was standing in the way of his reaching his full potential. That same sensory exercise became their first attempt at active use of the Force, as Skywalker urged the students to use telekinesis to move the pebbles they were using. Horn was frustrated to find that he could not move it no matter how hard he tried. That night, Horn felt overwhelmed by the demands of becoming a Jedi. He felt that he was not really tapping into the Force, and to be a good Jedi, to tap into the Force fully, he would have to sacrifice so much of what he was—his ways of thinking, central aspects of his personality. He was not sure he was ready to do so. He went to the roof of the temple to think, where he met Streen. He discussed the Force and the dark side with the older, shy student.[1]

Over the next days, Horn consistently failed to utilize telekinesis. He came to believe that while he was capable of using the Force flowing through himself for passive techniques like precognition, he lacked the connection necessary to tap into the Force as a whole and put it to work. In one exercise, Horn volunteered to be the first to move a massive plinth which was mostly buried in the ground. He concentrated on succeeding and finally made himself fully receptive to the Force. He focused on moving the rock, envisioning it rising from the earth. He succeeded beautifully, until he opened his eyes and saw the rock still embedded. He noticed, however, that every other person in the circle was looking at where Horn had thought the plinth floated in the air. Skywalker was the first to see through the illusion.[1]

The next day, Skywalker brought the Tedryn Holocron, through which he had searched for information about Horn's feat, to Horn. The holocron's gatekeeper, Bodo Baas, explained the Jedi ability to project illusions and perform mind tricks. Skywalker suggested that this might be a special talent of Horn's, and Horn connected it with his earlier success in evading the stormtroopers searching for him during his escape from Lusankya. Skywalker urged him to be cautious in the use of that talent, as altering another's perceptions could bring him close to the dark side. He counseled Horn to explore the power safely with another student. Skywalker also told Horn to avoid developing a rivalry with Gantoris and to try to help the other man, rather than continue having each measuring himself against the other.[1]

Horn continued training, becoming more comfortable with the Force, though he found he did not channel it as well merely practicing as when he was put in a situation in which he genuinely had to use it. One night, Skywalker took all the students down to a hot spring underneath the Great Temple. There, they slipped into the water and contemplated the cosmos meditatively. Skywalker guided them on a Force-vision of the galaxy, during which Horn felt Mirax, but he was unable to find her precise location. The meditation was interrupted by the sensation of danger as hot gases began bubbling up from the bottom of the pool, threatening to roast the students alive. Horn tapped into the Force to protect himself and Tionne, who was floundering near the edge of the pool. He absorbed the heat and converted it to energy, easily using telekinesis to lift Tionne to safety.[1]

Horn fell asleep to nightmares about Mirax, and the next day returned from his run to find Gantoris dueling Skywalker. Horn was shocked, but, unarmed, could make no difference in the fight. Skywalker eventually won the hard-fought duel, disarming Gantoris. He returned the apprentice's lightsaber and told him to beware his anger, baffling Horn. While the other students left, Horn stayed to speak with Skywalker. Skywalker seemed convinced that Gantoris would now see the error of his ways, but Horn urged him to discipline the other man and make sure the lesson was learned. He reluctantly accepted Skywalker's argument that punishment would not serve any purpose. Skywalker also mentioned that Gantoris had claimed to have gotten the knowledge to build his lightsaber from another teacher, immediately making Horn suspicious; there were no other likely teachers on Yavin 4.[1]

Murder at the Jedi Praxeum[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Dialogue2 The next morning, Horn sensed the distress of the other students and rushed to Gantoris's room. There, the other student's body had been found, burnt. Horn remained there last, investigating the body and asking questions of Skywalker. He found that Gantoris had burned, strangely, from the inside out. Skywalker was convinced that Gantoris had unleashed dark side power beyond his control and been consumed. With Skywalker's sense of the students all being innocent and reports of Gantoris having mentioned a "dark man" to him, Horn became convinced that the mysterious dark man was the killer and the one who had taught Gantoris to make his lightsaber. Not even Skywalker could sense his presence, suggesting he was a powerful darksider. Horn began a police-style investigation of the murder, seeking evidence, building a profile on the dark man, and having Tionne research possible clues in the holocron. Meanwhile, he suggested that Skywalker help the other students resist the temptation of the dark side if the dark man should appeal to them. His first step was to find Tionne, who was studying from the holocron. She was extremely distraught by Gantoris's death, and Horn comforted her. She began researching the Massassi and Yavin 4's past.[1]

Gantoris's death helped bring the students together. Tionne's researches uncovered information that an inability to perform telekinesis was a hallmark of the Halcyon line of Jedi, somewhat reassuring Horn about his failure to do so. Meanwhile, Horn organized scouting expeditions to survey the area around the Great Temple. On one, he, Solusar, and Brakiss investigated the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster, which had been sealed by the Rebels when they occupied the planet; it housed a blue stone of some malevolence. The survey team entered the temple and found the blue crystal column, from which Horn felt negative emotions radiating. In it, he saw dead faces, including that of Gantoris. Unsettled, the three left the temple quickly, having seen no sign that Gantoris had ever been there. On the way back, however, Brakiss seemed intrigued by the crystal and suggested that the dark side could be used to good ends. Horn rebuked him, and Brakiss seemed to back away from the idea.[1]

Soon afterward, Antilles arrived on Yavin 4, bringing supplies and a new trainee, Kyp Durron. Horn visited with Antilles, who had brought Qwi Xux with him. Antilles was serving as the bodyguard to the naïve former Imperial superweapon scientist, whom Horn did not care for. Horn could see that Antilles was falling for her and warned him against it. As the days passed, Skywalker devoted much of his time to training the incredibly powerful and fast-developing Durron, while Solusar led the other trainees. As Horn was the only other student with a lightsaber, Solusar began actual lightsaber training with Horn, pitting him against a remote. Horn worked to block its shots. Solusar also had Horn expand his situational awareness to be mindful of a wider area around him via the Force during combat. Eventually, he was able to expand his Force senses long distances.[1]

One evening, listening to one of Tionne's ballads about Nomi Sunrider, who had battled Exar Kun, the Sith Lord who had built the temples on Yavin 4, Durron objected to the story, offering a pro-Kun version of the history. Horn immediately suspected that Durron had been in contact with the dark man, who Horn was beginning to suspect might be Kun's spirit. The scene was interrupted by the arrival of Mara Jade. Skywalker assigned Horn to help the new student, a former assassin for Palpatine, find quarters. Horn resented her involvement in the Empire, but she confronted him about it, and he realized he should not hold her past against her. As a sign of trust, he told her of his true identity, and shared Mirax's predicament. He then went to prepare dinner for the evening, during which Durron angrily stormed through the kitchen. Horn followed him, asking what was wrong, and Durron attacked him with the Force. Horn told him that he was making a mistake but sensed Durron's presence joined by that of the dark man, who attacked with enough strength to overwhelm Horn and knock him out. Horn was now sure it was the spirit of Exar Kun. Skywalker urged him to leave Durron alone and, rather than antagonizing him with confrontation, simply allow him to sort out his issues. That night, however, Durron stole Jade's Z-95 Headhunter and flew off.[1]

Horn began sharing his morning runs with Jade, with whom Skywalker was now spending most of his time. He also participated in lightsaber training with her, becoming better and better at deflecting shots from the remotes. Solusar continued to deal with the other students, who now included the Mon Calamari Cilghal. One day, Horn was summoned to see Skywalker. The holocron had been destroyed by Kun's spirit while Skywalker had sought out information about Kun. Horn suggested that they analyze the survey logs to see where Durron, who traveled with Dorsk 81, had not reported going and Dorsk had. That might make identification of a headquarters or training area for the spirit possible.[1]

Within a week Jade left, dissatisfied with Skywalker's instruction. As dissatisfied with Skywalker's leadership as Jade was, Horn challenged Skywalker to a duel that day. He hoped to help Skywalker concentrate on the students he had, rather than his failures with Gantoris, Durron, and Jade. He also wanted lightsaber training against a living opponent, and only Skywalker had the control to keep both of them safe in a duel with live lightsabers. Horn made the fight brutally physical, forcing Skywalker to invest himself in it and work his hardest. In a conversation after the duel, he urged Skywalker to treat the students less like children, to entrust them with more responsibility and work to build their character as well as their skills.[1]

Facing Exar Kun[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote The next morning, he awoke feeling disoriented and groggy. Going outside, he found Jade's Headhunter returned, with the controls destroyed. Realizing Durron had returned, he followed the younger man's trace through the Force to the top of the Great Temple. There he found the other students gathered around Skywalker's body, which was breathing but held no trace of his Force presence. They were able to determine that Durron had likely drawn the Sun Crusher superweapon from the heart of the gas giant Yavin Prime, where it had been sunk to prevent its use. Horn began taking charge, urging the others to take Skywalker in and watch over him. Horn contacted Coruscant, getting hold of Celchu. He asked for a medical team and explosives in order to destroy the temple that, through his research of the survey logs, he thought was the nexus of Kun's power. Celchu then put him through to Cracken, whom Horn warned of the threat posed by Durron and the Sun Crusher. He also asked Cracken about Mirax, but the general had no leads.[1]

When Celchu arrived, Horn declined his offer to lead a proton torpedo run on Kun's temple, as he was worried about putting others in danger and only planned to destroy it in an emergency. He did, however, give Celchu its coordinates in case of emergency. The medics found nothing physically wrong with Skywalker, leaving the students adrift. Horn was disturbed that there was no further sign of Kun, as he anticipated a sociopath, which he considered Kun to be, to accelerate his schedule of attacks as he had previously. After a week, the Solo family arrived to see Skywalker, which helped revive the students' spirits. During a meal with them, Horn and all the Force-sensitives present were struck by a wave of anguish. He stumbled away, realizing that Durron had used the Sun Crusher to destroy an inhabited star system, which he was able to determine through the Force was Carida. He spoke with Han Solo, revealing his true identity and offering to go along as Solo made it clear he intended to track down Durron and try to talk him down. Before Solo left, he lent Horn some tools to repair the Headhunter's controls.[1]

The night after Solo left, Horn was awoken to the distress of the others. He quickly realized that Streen, who had been guarding Skywalker's body, was being influenced by Kun. Rushing to the Grand Audience Chamber, he projected an image into Streen's mind in which the chamber was empty and there was no danger. Streen ended the windstorm with which he was sweeping Skywalker's body away and, upon coming to his senses, said that he had been under the impression he was fighting the dark man. Horn returned to his quarters, where the spirit of Exar Kun appeared. Horn was defiant, but Kun offered him the ability to destroy the Invids and showed him a vision of Mirax, promising he could tell Horn where she was. When Horn still rejected Kun's invitations, the spirit left angrily.[1]

When Organa Solo was planning to leave, having been contacted by the former traitor Terpfen about a kidnap attempt on her son Anakin, Horn spoke to her, telling her that because of Kun's attempts to get inside Horn's mind, he was now familiar enough with Kun to be able to fool him with illusions. However, he could not genuinely trust any of the other students not to be under Kun's influence. While he could not dissuade Organa Solo from leaving, she expressed her faith in his ability to hold Kun off long enough. Believing that Kun would still be attempting to influence Streen, he had the other student work with him on the Headhunter, giving Kun a possible weapon in the ship. What he did not tell Streen was that a code was needed to use its weapons. However, Kun declined the opportunity, instead attacking at night through flying beasts he influenced. Horn took the Headhunter up and was able to triangulate the location where he felt Kun's influence to be emanating from. When the initial attacking beasts were dealt with by the other students, four more began approaching the Great Temple. Horn killed all of them, and when he returned, Solusar told him that the Solo twins had been able to hear Skywalker's spirit through the Force. Skywalker had identified Kun as the dark man, and Solusar planned a war council for the students. Horn urged him to put it off until the next day, as they needed sleep and Kun had been too exhausted by the attack to strike soon.[1]

Tiedosto:ScreenShot0153.JPG
Exar Kun's temple, the site of Horn's showdown with Kun's spirit.

During the planning session, Horn monitored the area through the Force. He managed to detect that Kun was spying on them through Streen and used his mental powers to tweak the information flowing to Kun, though the war council already seemed hopeless enough. As they floated a series of unlikely plans, Kun lost interest, dismissed them, and withdrew his connection to Streen. With that done, Horn proposed his plan: Streen would guard Skywalker's body, and Horn would provoke Kun to attack. The other students would repel Kun using the light side. Horn would not tell the others how he planned to force Kun's hand, and set off for Kun's temple in the Headhunter. He closed his mind with the Force, trying to prevent Kun from detecting him, and landed near the small temple serving as the focus for Kun's power. He placed several Nergon-14 charges to bring down the temple, then revealed his presence. Kun appeared, and Horn mocked him, believing that Kun's spirit could not directly affect the material world. Kun proved him wrong, destroying the detonators and slamming Horn back and forth into the stones of the temple, breaking multiple bones. He then presented Horn with an illusion of Mirax and his father rebuking him, devastating Horn and nearly driving him to use his despair, rage, and self-doubt against Kun. He resisted, however, and Jade arrived, antagonizing Kun. Annoyed by their confidence, Kun left for the Great Temple, convinced he could overcome the students. There, he was finally defeated, and Skywalker awoke.[1]

Charting a new course[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Dialogue3 Horn spent much of the next days in a bacta tank, as Durron, freed of Kun's influence, returned to the academy and received Skywalker's forgiveness. Jade had left a datacard with a lead on Mirax, an appointment she had made on Nal Hutta. As many Invid pirates were based on Nal Hutta and had been leaving since Mirax was captured, Horn saw a firm link to them in the information. When Horn was once again hale, he spoke with Skywalker. He had decided to leave the academy and told Skywalker why: he felt insufficiently challenged by Skywalker's training regimen and could not stay with Durron, whom he regarded as a criminal in need of punishment. Their discussion became an argument, as Horn accused Skywalker of exercising poor judgment and claimed that he saw the dark side too broadly, ignoring minor evils and day-to-day temptations. Eventually, they were able to part amicably, Horn pointing out that Skywalker's methods of instruction simply weren't working for him but he still respected the Jedi Master, and Skywalker accepting that there were elements he could change.[1]

Horn left on the Errant Venture, which he had already summoned. There, Booster Terrik was furious that Horn had not informed him of Mirax's capture and pushed Horn about the issue. Horn quickly realized that Terrik had known from the beginning and was testing Horn's character. He got Terrik to agree to help him, finding as much information on the Invids as he could. He also used Terrik's network to enter Corellia in order to see his grandfather. He was smuggled onto the world, where he was disappointed to see it Imperialized and somewhat decrepit.[1]

He traveled to Rostek Horn's home, which he was surprised to see had become an impressive estate. A servant escorted him to the garden, where he hugged his grandfather for the first time since leaving Corellia six years before. Touring the garden, Rostek explained that his massive private files, full of potentially damaging information, kept him protected from—and indeed by—the Diktat. He kept these files, and his vast stores of information on the Jedi, encoded in the genetic sequences of the flowers he grew. Rostek expressed his pride in Horn and joy in being able to turn over to him information about his Jedi heritage, as well as Nejaa's effects, brought back after his death by his Jedi friend Ylenic It'kla. Struck by the weight of a past he had never known of, he took Nejaa's Jedi robes and spent the rest of the day with his adoptive grandfather, basking in his approval as a peer.[1]

That night, he had a dream in which he was Nejaa Halcyon, experiencing the mission on which Halcyon died. Waking, he came to realize he had made a mistake in his Jedi training; he had tried to become his grandfather rather than being himself. He made up his mind to tackle the Invids as he would have done in CorSec: infiltrate and investigate them. Leaving Nejaa's lightsaber with Rostek, he left Corellia under the false identity of Jenos Idanian, with documents obtained by Rostek. His grandfather also secured him passage on the Tinta Lines liner Tinta Palette. While Horn was waiting aboard a shuttle to transfer from the Tinta Palette to the Tinta Rainbow, he was mildly annoyed by the man sitting next to him, a young and highly enthusiastic navigator named Keevy Spart with a fanatic passion for Rogue Squadron and piloting. However, he soon had larger concerns as the Invidious appeared, and a pair of pirates boarded the shuttle. He planned to let them take what they wanted and leave rather than endangering the other passengers, but when he noticed Spart preparing to attack one of the pirates, he took them on himself, using an illusion to cause one to shoot himself in the leg and outfighting the other. Knowing more pirates would be on the way, he piloted the shuttle away himself, using Spart as his navigator. They escaped and made their way to Elshandruu Pica, where the Errant Venture was docked.[1]

Terrik was able to analyze the sensor records of Horn's escape and found that one of the ships present was the corvette Backstab, belonging to the Khuiumin Survivors pirate gang, which was a major part of the Invid organization. The Survivors had recently returned to Courkrus in the Khuiumin system, and it was there that Horn headed in the shuttle, Tinta Blue Seven. He landed in the city of Vlarnya, where he was seized by several wary Survivors. He was brought before Jacob Nive, their leader, and still posing as Idanian, he explained that he had been in a hurry to flee others when the shuttle had originally been boarded and so had to leave. He was impressed by their operation, however, and having safely escaped, he wished to join them. During the interview, he made an enemy of Remart Sasyru, a pilot in Bolt Squadron who acted hostile towards Horn and in return was mercilessly heckled. Nive agreed to place Horn in Rock Squadron, one of the Survivors' less-impressive units.[1]

Undercover[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Rock Leader, Nakk Kech, began training Horn on the Tri-fighter. Almost immediately, he was put on a mission, flying as Rock Nine with Caet Shrovl, a Shistavanen, as his wingmate. Horn's flight flew cover as the other Rocks raided the Galaxy Chance, capturing Zlece Oonaar, the captain of one of the Star Destroyers that had originally ravaged the Eyttyrmin Batiiv pirate gang, the remnants of which became the Survivors. However, a private yacht appeared during the raid, and its Headhunter escort engaged Horn's flight. Horn drove them off using his ion cannon, which attracted Nive's attention. Horn explained to him that while he was not squeamish, he had no desire to kill if not necessary, and felt that letting enemies live was a way to engender less resistance in the future.[1]

During the battle, Horn had ordered Shrovl to keep from killing a pilot whose fighter was already disabled. When they returned, she angrily attacked him for denying her what she saw as her right to a kill, but Horn was able to talk her down. She moved into One Flight, and Horn was voted leader of Three Flight by the other Rocks. In that position, he had to recruit three new pilots to fill out the flight. The new pilots were generally overconfident in their own skills and hostile to Horn's attempts to improve them, but Timmser proved the best of the group.[1]

During the month he spent training them, Horn gained a feel for Vlarnya, which was inhabited by seven different pirate crews. The Survivors tended to prefer the Crash cantina as a hangout, and it was there that Horn had a run-in with Sasyru. The other pilot entered and began insulting Shrovl, and rather than have her start a fight, Horn began making fun of Sasyru, culminating in the Bolt pilot attacking. Horn was able to dodge him and punch back, incapacitating the larger man. He then ordered Sasyru to avoid bothering any Rock pilots in the future. Afterward, Shrovl confided in him that Sasyru had once befriended and abused her. When she perceived that Horn was separated from the one he loved, he told her a false tale about desiring to use the Invids to destroy the one standing between himself and his love. She replied that he would have to become a True Invid, part of the ship's crew, and to do so must become a Bolt.[1]

While he and Shrovl put a plan in place to have him promoted to Bolt Squadron, there were few missions assigned to the Rocks on which he could stand out. During one mission, Kech was killed and Horn elected captain of the Rocks in his place. He put Shrovl and Timmser in command of Two and Three Flights, respectively. He worked hard to build the unit's competence and largely succeeded; he also urged them to use their ion cannons, avoiding needless killing, reducing future resistance, and preserving salvage. When he found Sasyru attacking civilian speeders for sheer pleasure on one raid, he disabled his ship and ordered him recalled, then sent his portion of the booty to the families of the dead. Eventually, the Rocks were picked to fly with Invidious in a massive raid on the industrial world of Xa Fel. However, they ran into a New Republic fleet there, raiding the world themselves. Rogue Squadron and several Y-wings were sent against them, and Horn advocated concentrating on disabling the Y-wings and leaving the Rogues alone. He used the Force to project an image of his ship becoming an X-wing into Celchu's mind, but it was not enough, as Horn was sought out by several Rogues. He was able to evade Darklighter, then Qrygg. It was then that Celchu dropped onto Horn's tail, and Horn had to push himself to his limits to evade the colonel and return to the Invidious, which fled.[1]

Aboard the Invidious, Tavira arrived and commended Tyresi Gurtt, captain of the Bolts, on the battle strategy and promoted her to command of the Invidious's fighters. Gurtt confessed that the strategy had been Horn's and she merely relayed it; Tavira responded by putting Horn in command of the Bolts. Sasyru was furious. Three other pilots joined him in disliking Horn's command, and in response Horn assigned them to Three Flight on their own. He was interviewed about the Battle of Xa Fel by Tavira and Nive, who asked him about the fact that her advisors, the mysterious Force-users, had detected a Force presence in the battle. He knew it was his, but suggested that Skywalker had been flying with the Rogues, shunting away a mind probe performed by one of the advisors from nearby. Tavira was impressed by his answer and seemed to imply the possibility of a romantic relationship; she was known for taking many lovers from among her subordinates. Horn preemptively answered that he was only interested in "challenges" that dealt with his piloting ability, which infuriated the admiral. In response, she took Sasyru as her lover.[1]

Their next mission was to Kerilt, home to a minor Caamasi refugee colony they planned to rob. Upon arriving, they found the Thalassian slavers already raiding the colony. They drove the slavers off, then Horn had Three Flight land and secure the spaceport while he surveyed the area. When Three Flight did not answer his comm inquiries, however, he put down to find them. He found them harassing the local Caamasi, beating one for trying to prevent them from taking his goods and raping his daughter. Sasyru was hostile and insubordinate, and Horn rebuked him for trying to take plunder for himself rather than sharing it with the others. When Sasyru asserted a right to shoot the Caamasi for resisting him, Horn declared that he was taking the alien as his personal servant. The other pilot threatened to shoot Horn, but instead Horn goaded him into a fistfight, in which he beat Sasyru badly. The Caamasi, who introduced himself as Elegos A'Kla, a local leader, stunned the other three pilots, who were about to open fire, and offered himself as Horn's servant in order to provide backing to his story; only by doing so did he feel he could protect his people. Horn gave the jewelry his pilots had tried to steal back to the Caamasi as well.[1]

Horn was taken back aboard the Invidious and interrogated, where his story satisfied the investigators. Tavira arrived after the investigation was done, informing him she had had Sasyru executed for insubordination and striking a superior officer. She suggested that he had truly wanted her to have to kill Sasyru, and told him that he would now become her lover. She would give him a month to decide to come to her willingly. Horn knew that he was extremely attracted to Tavira physically but had no desire to cheat on Mirax. He was troubled by his attraction and did not want to give in to the idea that sleeping with her would help him find Mirax—he realized that it was no more than a justification to allow him to do what he wanted to do but knew was wrong. He was also worried by Tavira's assessment of his motivations in fighting Sasyru and realized that he had given in to anger and a desire to harm Sasyru, and that his time with the Invids had brought out many of his flaws. A'Kla, who was tending to the hand Horn had broken in beating Sasyru, helped him find his place with the help of the renowned philosophy of the Caamasi.[1]

Horn realized that, while he had made a mistake in trying to be someone else in his Jedi training, he had made an equal mistake in ignoring what he had learned there; he had to integrate both parts of his heritage, both approaches into something that worked for him and made him a whole person. Upon returning to Courkrus, Horn found his hotel suite filled with extravagant gifts from Tavira, which he dismissed. He had decided to trust A'Kla in his plan to bring down Tavira and was shocked when A'Kla confessed that he already knew Horn—as Nejaa Halcyon's grandson. Caamasi had the ability to share memnis, an intense and complete memory, and A'Kla had done so with his uncle, Ylenic It'kla—Halcyon's close friend. A'Kla was completely trustworthy and eager to cooperate with Horn to bring down Tavira and the Invids.[1]

Reign of terror[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:JediTraineeCorranHorn.jpg
Horn constructing his lightsaber.

While Horn recovered from the injuries to his hands, he began touring Vlarnya and getting a better sense of the other pirate gangs operating there; he intended to disrupt Tavira's operations by driving the pirates off the world. After a week of planning his campaign to terrorize the pirates, he began building his own lightsaber based on the notes Rostek Horn had given him. Using scavenged parts, such as a speeder bike handlebar for the hilt and gemstones from Tavira's gifts for the focusing crystals, he was able to build it in two days of intense meditation. It was a dual-phase model, capable of doubling in length when twisted to bring a different set of crystals into alignment. When he was done, he began posing as affably but constantly drunk, getting people to largely treat him as harmless. He finally began his reign of terror one night as he spoke with Nive in The Crash. After Nive had had a bit to drink, Horn began projecting to him a mental illusion of the dead Oonaar coming up to their table and warning Nive that "Doom is coming to Courkrus." The rumor of the ghostly visitation soon spread through Vlarnya, causing widespread worry.[1]

Not long thereafter, Horn put on a set of green Jedi robes A'Kla had made him to match Halcyon's and went prowling through the streets, looking for a wrong to right. He found two members of the LazerLords pirate gang attempting to rape a woman and fought them off. In extremely short order, word had spread across Vlarnya that a lightsaber-equipped Jedi was on the loose. The next several nights he performed similar feats, incapacitating small groups of pirates. One night, he warned some Fastblasters that he would kill the next member of that gang he saw. Three days later, the Fastblast left Courkrus. Another night, he struck at the Blackstar Pirates, who spent their time in a secret stronghold in the back of the Mynock Hole cantina. Entering the rear area, he found a spice den, brothel, bar, and gambling house in operation. He lit his lightsaber, stalked through the facility, damaging the bar and jubilee wheel, and warned the pirates that doom was coming before leaving.[1]

While Horn had cracked the pirates' sense of invincibility, they had caught on to the fact that he had not yet killed any and were feeling bolder again. Shala, the Hutt leader of one of the gangs, fortified his warehouse base and began having his minions terrorize the local population, challenging the mysterious Jedi to attack him. Horn was convinced he had to do something and went to face Shala against A'Kla's protestations that he should not give up the element of surprise. Horn entered the warehouse den and faced Shala on his dais, who revealed that he held the trigger to a set of laser-flechette mines surrounding Horn, and if Horn did not surrender, he would trigger them. Horn tried to cut the trigger apart with the longer blade of his dual-phase lightsaber, but the blade failed. Shala dropped the dead-man trigger in surprise, however, setting off the series of mines. Horn channeled the Force to protect him, absorbing the massive input of laser energy and flame, using its power to channel the explosive power upward through the ceiling to protect neighboring areas. He burnt off the last of his absorbed energy in a massive illusion of the column of flame becoming a Jedi with a lightsaber of fire which he projected for all Vlarnya to see.[1]

With the rush of power gone, he realized he had taken many minor wounds, and his clothing had been burnt away. Exhausted by his heavy use of the Force, he had to slink back to his home, but on his way back, he was seen by a pair of women leaving their workplace. He lacked the energy to project an illusion protecting himself, but A'Kla arrived on the scene and began chastising him for being drunk and having crashed his speeder bike, thereby explaining the lightsaber hilt. Relieved, Horn allowed A'Kla to take him home. There, he removed the crystal that had failed—not a diamond, but a cheap substitute—and was able to get his lightsaber functioning again, though with only a single length setting. A'Kla was able to learn that the Invids were terrified that Shala—the one gang leader who had promised to resist the Jedi and rallied morale—had been so utterly defeated, some groups of Vlarnya's citizens had risen and attacked small groups of pirates, and Timmser and Shrovl had fled in the hyperdrive-equipped Tri-fighters Horn had trained them on, hoping they would take the opportunity to leave. He had supplemented that hope by planting rumors that he was sleeping with them, making them realize Tavira would take vengeance on them.[1]

The next night, Horn drove off the last of Shala's group and let the populace loot the storehouse they had been using a headquarters. The Fastblasters and Shala's gang were completely gone, and the LazerLords, Blackstar Pirates, and Red Nova pirates had suffered from extreme desertion. When one of Tavira's courier ships showed up, the admiral was anything but pleased. She found Horn and told him that she believed Skywalker was the "ghost Jedi" that had the pirates running scared. She demanded that he take charge of the situation and rally the others against the Jedi, not spend his days in dissipation. She also demanded that he kill Nive and take control of the Survivors, as Nive was terrified and broken. Horn immediately began making the rounds of the other groups, boosting morale, issuing security orders, and relaying the fact that Tavira was promising a successful trap for the Jedi, though he did not kill Nive.[1]

Rescue[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote He planned to fake his own death at the hands of the Jedi, utterly shattering morale. To that end, he appeared as the Jedi inside the Crash, using illusions to hide his face and challenging Idanian. On leaving, a group of five beings followed him from across the street into an alley. Horn planned to deal with them, but soon realized they were Force-users armed with lightsabers. One more arrived, but he proved to be Skywalker himself. With his aid, he disabled all the attackers and revealed that he had arrived with Qrygg as well. Qrygg brought Force-nullifying ysalamiri to keep the prisoners, which they had brought back to Horn's hotel room, restrained, and began interrogating them. Skywalker acted as the angry, impatient master as Horn played the good cop, pretending to receive messages from Skywalker through the Force. He learned that they belonged to a Force-using sect calling themselves the Jensaarai, located on Susevfi. Tavira had found them and, threatening the population of the world if they did not cooperate, forced them to serve as her advisors. They had detected and captured Mirax, and she was being kept on Susevfi.[1]

Horn, Skywalker, A'Kla, and Qrygg departed for Susevfi after entrusting Nive with the secret of Horn's identity and offering him a pardon and a chance for the Survivors to start over, if they kept the captured Jensaarai guarded with an ysalamir. The other ysalamir kept the Jensaarai from sensing the Jedi's presence when they landed on Susevfi. On the way, Horn apologized for having placed too many expectations on Skywalker's training, and Skywalker acknowledged that they did not have to do things the same way to be great Jedi. On landing, the four proceeded to the governor's palace, where they knew Mirax was being held. They attacked it, powering through the stormtrooper guards, and Horn was able to use the Force to locate Mirax's cell. Skywalker pulled her out of the Force-induced trance she had been put in, and Horn was overjoyed to be reunited with his wife.[1]

As there were too many stormtroopers alerted for them to fight their way back to the spaceport, the group decided to fight their way up the tallest tower of the palace to the landing pad and try to find a ship to flee in. Tavira fled from the top of the tower, but on their way up, Horn's group encountered the Jensaarai, led by their Saarai-kaar. The Saarai-kaar seemed convinced that she was meant to confront Horn, and the two dueled. Horn's lightsaber failed on contact with her cortosis armor, and as she stood over him, he projected into her head the image of Nikkos Tyris, the Anzat whom he had seen kill his grandfather in his earlier dream and whose distinctive lightsaber style the Saarai-kaar shared. Mirax was able to stun her, and with Skywalker having defeated the other Jensaarai, the last threat remaining was Tavira. She planned to bombard the world with the Invidious, but Horn was able to use the Force to stoke her paranoia and project an image of Lusankya coming for her. She fled.[1]

The Errant Venture, Rogue Squadron, and the Survivors helped secure Susevfi and an agreement was reached that allowed the Survivors to become the word's security force. Horn and the others confronted the gathered Jensaarai prisoners and learned their history; they had been the students of a Sith cult led by Tyris and some others, but when Halcyon and the other Jedi defeated their leadership, they fled. They had not learned enough of the Sith ways to become devotees of the dark side and believed themselves to be heirs to the true Jedi tradition. They had stayed hidden before Tavira found them. A'Kla shared the memnis of Halcyon's death and the deaths of the Jensaarai leaders near the end of the Clone Wars with Horn, who projected it to Skywalker and the Jensaarai. With it, Horn and Skywalker were able to get through to the Saarai-kaar and convince her that the Jensaarai were not wholly correct in their outlook on the Force. Skywalker invited them to train with him.[1]

Relative peace[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Jedi, pilot, father[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:Corran Horn JATM.jpg
Corran Horn, Jedi Knight.

Horn, however, decided not to become a full-time Jedi. He felt that he could do the most good using his Jedi abilities as part of Rogue Squadron. Skywalker accepted this, feeling that Horn was making the right decision. While Tavira had fled, her pirate network was broken and she lacked the Jensaarai to warn her of ambushes. Horn planned to rejoin Rogue Squadron and help them end her career. First, however, he took his X-wing and torpedoed Kun's temple on Yavin 4, demolishing it and keeping it's dark side aura from ever corrupting another student.[1] While A'Kla turned to the task of aiding his Caamasi community, Horn kept in touch with him, and the pair remained good friends.[3] Horn also eventually wrote an account of his training as a Jedi and his rescue of his wife, which would later be quoted by Tionne Solusar in her scholarly work.[4]

In 12 ABY, the Rogues, contacted by Skywalker, helped drive Desann, a fallen Jedi, from the powerful Force nexus known as the Valley of the Jedi. Desann then proceeded to attack the Praxeum at Yavin 4 with the troop ship Doomgiver and ground forces that included the Reborn Dark Jedi. Summoned by Horn's friend Kyle Katarn, the Rogues destroyed Doomgiver and provided cover for New Republic ground troops as they fought off Desann's assault.[5] In 13 ABY, Horn and his wife finally had their first child, Valin, named for Horn's father.[3] In the same year, Horn's friend Wessiri finally married Antilles; Horn had long urged the two to get together.[3][1]

Around 13 ABY, Horn returned to the Jedi Praxeum; he had indicated to Skywalker that he would be available when called upon.[1][6] In 14 ABY, he was assigned a Jedi apprentice of his own, Raltharan. He began training him in the midst of the Disciples of Ragnos crisis, which resulted in Skywalker sending Horn to Wayland, where he attempted to make sure that the Disciples of Ragnos, a Sith cult, had not used the scepter of Ragnos to tap into the Force energy present at Mount Tantiss. Horn likely participated in the Battle of Korriban, which saw much of the New Jedi Order mobilized to defeat the cultists on the Sith tomb world of Korriban before they could revive the long-dead Sith Lord Marka Ragnos.[7] Horn went on to successfully complete Raltharan's training after the crisis concluded.[8] in 16 ABY, he and Mirax welcomed a daughter, Jysella, into their life.[9]

Despite those adventures with the Jedi, Horn devoted most of his time to the squadron; he also kept his status as a Jedi secret to all but his closest friends among the Rogues.[3][10] In 18 ABY, the Rogues helped evacuate Thanta Zilbra ahead of Centerpoint Station's use of the starbuster superweapon against that system's sun, a crisis that was resolved without further destruction of worlds.[11] Around that year, Antilles returned to the squadron, taking command.[10]

The Caamas Document Crisis[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote In 19 ABY, Horn—by then promoted to the rank of commander—and the rest of the Rogues were attached to General Bel Iblis. They were on Morishim when an Imperial corvette, followed by an Imperial Star Destroyer, entered the system. The Rogues were scrambled, but the Star Destroyer captured the corvette and departed before they could get near. The odd incident was chalked up as an attempted defection, and audio records of the fragmentary transmission that came through the Star Destroyer's jamming were forwarded for analysis. At around that same time, news broke that a partial copy of the Caamas Document had been discovered, implicating several Bothans in the sabotage that allowed the Empire to destroy Caamas. Without a full copy, the names of the culprits were not known, but that revelation stirred up animosity against the Bothans as a people and created a public outcry. The crisis was exacerbated by the actions of a shadowy group calling itself Vengeance, which was rumored to be behind various acts of mob violence.[10]

Horn was sent to the Errant Venture to see if Terrik's intelligence network could turn up any information on the group, as well as asking him about the "Hand of Thrawn," a term that had been found on a datacard in the ruins of Palpatine's storehouse at Mount Tantiss. He took Mirax and Valin with him, and while speaking with Terrik, Talon Karrde arrived. Horn was suspicious of Karrde and did not want to trust him with details of his mission, but when Karrde produced a gift for Valin, who had developed a love for music, Horn realized that Karrde's information sources were incredibly good. Very few New Republic officials, and only at the highest levels, had known of the mission, so for Karrde's knowing that Valin would be aboard convinced Horn there was no point in trying to keep the purpose of his visit from Karrde. Karrde promised to look into Vengeance and see if it had any connections with Imperial Intelligence. Karrde in turn mentioned that he had heard of clone soldiers being found aboard ships used by the Cavrilhu Pirates, and he wished to know if they had their own cloning technology or were using soldiers left over from Thrawn's campaign. While on the bridge, their conversation was interrupted by a small ship buzzing them. It jumped to hyperspace after transmitting a message, in which Jade detected Thrawn's full name, Mitth'raw'nuruodo. Horn considered the ship a possible link to the Hand of Thrawn, whatever or whoever that might be. Jade departed to track the ship to the Nirauan system, as the New Republic had its hands full with the Caamas Document Crisis.[10]

Tiedosto:Corran-Han.jpg
Corran Horn in 19 ABY.

Having returned to the Rogues, Horn scrambled one day during dessert to respond to a panicked call from Sif'kric. Bel Iblis took his task force to the world, where the annual pommwomm shipment, central to the Sif'kries' economy and highly time-sensitive, was being held up by a Frezhlix force blockading the system. The Sif'kries' traditional rivals, the Frezhlix clearly desired to destroy Sif'kric's economy, but had not made any actual hostile moves. As the call had not come from anyone actually in the Sif'krie government, Bel Iblis had no legal basis for interceding. Bel Iblis was too creative to let that stop him, contacting Horn and asking him if he recognized any of the pommwomm-shipping freighters present as belonging to Terrik. Horn searched, found one, and Bel Iblis decided to investigate it for suspicion of smuggling. The Rogues cut through the Frezhlix fleet to reach it, causing the Frezhlix to believe they were under attack. When they opened fire, the New Republic task force easily defeated the Frezhlix and allowed the pommwomm shipment to continue.[10]

When the Mengjini comm relay went down nearby due to capture by dissident elements, Bel Iblis took his force to investigate and retake the relay. They did so, and then moved on to Di'tai'ni by request. There, Bel Iblis anticipated trouble and had the pilots sleep in their cockpits. He was proven right when a call came from Bothawui in the middle of the night requesting assistance. The Leresai had sent an attack force. The Rogues were sent ahead of the rest of the fleet, and arrived to find a major Leresen force. When Antilles contacted them, they explained that they wished to take vengeance for the death of two Leresai in a riot on Bothawui earlier. Leresen concepts of justice demanded the lives of the guilty in return, or ten innocent for each victim. They intended to destroy a space station with a crew of twenty, and so the Rogues moved to oppose them. Horn's danger sense, however, kept them from deploying their S-foils in attack position, and visual examination showed that their fighters had been sabotaged so that their weapons would fail. They could do nothing and looked on in anger as the space station was destroyed, killing twenty-one innocent Bothans.[10]

Shortly afterward, Ackbar assigned Bel Iblis to prepare for an attack at the Imperial Remnant's Ubiqtorate base at Yaga Minor in order to seek a complete copy of the Caamas Document, the one thing that could end the crisis. Bel Iblis believed that someone had to be present to ensure Bothawui's security, however, as twelve separate fleets had arrived in orbit to show their support for or opposition of the Bothan government. It was a flashpoint that could erupt into violence at any time, and Bel Iblis worried that Vengeance might attempt sabotage of the shields over the capital of Drev'starn. Due to a technicality concerning the composition of his task force, the general was able to leave Antilles and Horn on Drev'starn to protect the shield generator and attempt to ferret out any Vengeance activity.[12]

In Drev'starn, the pair began surveilling the shield facility, which was reputedly impregnable. While doing so, their pockets were picked by a pair of passersby who disappeared before the pilots realized they had been robbed. However, they were quickly returned by an older woman named Moranda Savich. A pickpocket herself, she worked for Karrde and had seen the theft; she stole their wallets back and went to speak to Horn and Antilles. She introduced herself and explained that she was doing the same job as they were, for Karrde. They agreed to work together, and their brainstorming determined that the most likely route for an attack was the power conduits coming into the building. When a check on incoming craft to see if they could spot any Vengeance links proved fruitless, they tried pulling the list of outgoing messages from Drev'starn and searching them for possible Vengeance transmissions. That proved a dead end, as all the suspicious transmissions were directed to relay stations. Instead, they turned to finding if any businesses had been set up near the shield generator recently, reasoning that Vengeance would need somewhere to work out of that could provide sufficient cover for their activities.[12]

They found several suspicious shops and investigated them. While inside the Exoticalia Pet Emporium, the owner got a call from someplace they could tell was highly secure about a possible metalmite infestation and was asked to help exterminate them. Horn concluded it was likely the Drev'starn shield generator. They were left more suspicious of that stop than any other, though Horn also had a bad feeling about one restaurant directly on top of the shield generator's incoming power conduit that had recently hired new help. However, they got no further in their investigation before Bel Iblis recalled them to prepare for the Yaga Minor attack. Savich promised to stay on the case, however.[12]

At Yaga Minor, the Rogues were part of the New Republic task force that pretended to chase the Errant Venture, disguised as the Tyrannic, into the base and then engaged the perimeter defenses. They kept up the distraction, but the Errant Venture was captured, pinned by tractor beams within the base's perimeter by Grand Admiral Thrawn himself, who had returned in the last weeks to much New Republic consternation. The New Republic fleet plunged into the perimeter, hoping to free Bel Iblis. As the Rogues prepared to attack, they were contacted by Talon Karrde, who claimed he could resolve the situation if they escorted him to the base. Horn felt through the Force that Karrde really did have a chance to end the battle, and the Rogues escorted him in. Karrde delivered Imperial Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon to the station, where he exposed "Thrawn" as a con man involved in a power play by Moff Vilim Disra. Pellaeon ended the battle and announced his intention to open peace negotiations with the New Republic, resulting in the end of the Galactic Civil War.[12]

Meanwhile, Savich failed to keep the Imperial Intelligence agents behind "Vengeance" from destroying the shield generator, which began a massive space battle over Bothawui. That threat was ended when the cloaked Imperial Star Destroyers waiting to finish off the survivors of the battle were revealed, uniting the fleets against them. Skywalker and Jade returned from Nirauan with a copy of the Caamas Document, putting the Caamas Document Crisis to a final end.[12]

Peacetime[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:Corran Kam duel.jpg
Horn and Kam Solusar practice dueling while discussing the Skywalker wedding.

With the peace between the New Republic and Imperial Remnant, Horn retired from Rogue Squadron, though not before gaining a promotion to the rank of colonel.[3] Deciding it was time to dedicate himself to the Jedi full-time, he traveled to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. It was there that he heard that Skywalker and Jade had gotten engaged while on Nirauan. He traveled to Coruscant with Mirax and the Solusars—Kam and Tionne—to be part of the wedding party. There, he and Kam Solusar talked with Skywalker about the possibility of a Jedi wedding. Horn suggested having a private Jedi ceremony first; he felt that having the public event as a Jedi one would confuse the public and make them feel excluded from what was supposed to be a uniting event. Skywalker agreed.[13]

Solusar conducted the Jedi ceremony, which Horn attended. That evening, Solo and Antilles arranged a bachelor party for Skywalker at the Red Rancor cantina, which was attended by a plethora of old Rogues and smugglers. The celebration was quickly broken up by a belligerent swoop gang, but they were just as quickly defeated by the bachelor party. The next day, they were fitted for suits, and in short order it was time for the wedding. Horn served as an usher but was called away when Banner Sumptor approached Karrde and alerted him that a small group of Imperials under Moff Derran Takkar were planning an attack on the wedding. Horn and Solusar defended the wedding hall from a diversionary attack by the same swoop gang from the Red Rancor. They held off the first pass before Horn projected an illusion to them that they were being sucked into a black hole. Gunning their engines, all the riders crashed their swoops. While Takkar still made it inside to the ceremony, Skywalker was able to talk him down, and the wedding went on peacefully.[13]

Horn spent the next several years as an instructor at the Jedi Praxeum, teaching the students skills with illusions as well as providing lightsaber and piloting training. Both Valin and Jysella were Force-sensitive, and so spent their time at the academy as well.[3] During these years there began to arise a divide between Skywalker and Durron, as Durron urged a more proactive role for the Jedi, one which aggressively pursued criminals, sought respect for the Jedi, and saw the Force as a tool to be used to the Jedi's advantage. Skywalker saw this philosophy as too aggressive and prideful and urged more circumspection and humility in the Jedi. Horn sided solidly with Skywalker as Durron drew some of the brasher young Jedi to his side, beginning a minor split in the Jedi Order.[14] He despised Durron and disliked his faction, finding their manner arrogant and their methods questionable.[15][16] When Mara Jade Skywalker fell ill in 25 ABY, Horn stepped up his time at the academy.[15]

The Yuuzhan Vong War[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Encounter on Bimmiel[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy later in 25 ABY, using biologically-based weapons and ships and unable to be sensed in the Force, Skywalker was called away to battle them, leaving Horn temporarily in charge of the Praxeum.[17] Afterward, Skywalker called a convocation of the Jedi on Yavin 4. Horn opposed Durron's suggestion that they take the fight to the Yuuzhan Vong, pointing out that they did not know enough about the threat and the New Republic, under Borsk Fey'lya's administration, was hostile towards the Jedi. Skywalker decided that the Jedi would gather information about their strange new enemies before taking action against them. Skywalker assigned Horn to travel to Bimmiel, where a xenoarchaeological team from the University of Agamar had fallen out of contact. The world was in the Yuuzhan Vong invasion corridor, and Skywalker felt it necessary to make sure it had not been conquered. Much to Horn's displeasure, he was partnered with Ganner Rhysode, a younger, showy Jedi Knight who was one of Durron's stronger supporters. Skywalker insisted that Horn would be needed to control Rhysode's impulsiveness, and he hoped that Horn could provide an example for Rhysode that might lead him away from Durron's philosophy. Before leaving, Horn went to see Valin outside, where he found him practicing his Force skills. Rhysode approached and told Horn that he intended to do whatever he felt necessary on the mission, ignoring Horn's role as mission leader. Horn criticized him for putting his philosophy above the mission and urged him to adopt a style of dealing with others that would set them at ease rather than seeming harsh and critical.[15]

Arriving over Bimmiel in the freighter Dalliance, Horn saw that the comm relay satellite in orbit had been damaged, explaining why no messages had left the planet. They landed near the students' camp, but on investigating, they found it abandoned. The pair of Jedi guessed the team had holed up in the nearby caves, and made for them. While walking, they were attacked by slashrats, native predators that tunneled through the sand and leaped to attack. They fled, making it safely to the caves, where they were met by Doctor Anki Pace, the expedition leader. She was suspicious of them, as recent Jedi-related archaeological finds had begun to go missing, and she suspected the Jedi of stealing them. Horn knew nothing of this and was able to gain Pace's trust. She showed him their find: a mummified nonhuman corpse, approximately fifty years dead, that Horn was able to identify as that of a Yuuzhan Vong, presumably an advance scout.[15]

They spent the next week trapped in the caves by sandstorms. Horn and Rhysode took the night watch for slashrat attacks, and during the day he examined the corpse and confirmed it was one of the extragalactic aliens. When the storms died down, he and Rhysode began scouting the area to see if the Yuuzhan Vong might be present. Following the Force, they found a Yuuzhan Vong camp, where they sensed inhabitants with something wrong about them; their sense in the Force was fuzzy, as if they were slowly dying. They moved to the edge of the encampment, where they took samples of the sand, which was repelling the slashrats from the site. There, they watched as one of the slaves, covered in coral growths, tried to escape and was beaten to death by two Yuuzhan Vong. Rhysode wanted to free the slave, but Horn stopped him, not knowing if there might be more Yuuzhan Vong and not wanting to risk everyone else. The pair retreated, and Rhysode expressed his anger with Horn, but the older Jedi explained his reasoning.[15]

Back at the students' camp, analysis showed that Yuuzhan Vong beetles in the soil were producing synthetic stink, the compound dead slashrats gave off which drove other slashrats away. Horn suggested that the students engineer a virus that would have the beetles produce killscent instead, which slashrats exuded while making a kill, attracting others into a feeding frenzy. Pace objected on the grounds that the virus could have unanticipated effects, destroying Bimmiel's ecosystem. Rhysode urged that the Jedi simply battle the Yuuzhan Vong. While discussing, however, the Jedi realized that two people were missing from the caves. They had left to repair a meteorological station, but when contacted by comm, they did not respond. It was assumed they were in the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong.[15]

Horn and Rhysode checked the meteorological station, and found four tracks leading back to the Yuuzhan Vong camp. They began loading equipment and the remains onto the Dalliance and prepared to evacuate the team while scouting the Yuuzhan Vong camp daily, where they found that the two Yuuzhan Vong were using the slaves to search for something, presumably the body the archaeologists had found. Horn decided that he and Rhysode would free the two captured students, then escape as the students aboard the Dalliance sprayed the site with the virus and synthetic killscent; Horn and Rhysode felt that the slaves were irreversibly dying and could not be saved.[15]

Tiedosto:CorranHornGannerRhysode.jpg
Horn and Ganner Rhysode on Bimmiel.

When they were ready, one of the students buzzed the Yuuzhan Vong camp with a remote probe, drawing off the two aliens. The two Jedi entered the grashal building where the two prisoners were kept and found them suspended from the Embrace of Pain, a Yuuzhan Vong torture device. When Rhysode made to free them, Horn noted that the device kept the two in a constant state of pain. Incompletely freeing them could result in compensation by the device that could maim the prisoners. He decided that he would have to project pain into them in order to loosen the restraints. To that end, he had Rhysode hold his lightsaber against his outstretched arm. Horn fed the pain of his burn to the students, slackening the restraints enough to cut them free. However, as they were freed and the Dalliance began dropping the killscent, the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors returned. Horn told Rhysode to cut his way out of the back and levitate the two students away while he stayed and held off the two warriors, sacrificing himself. Horn dueled the younger warrior first and was able to use the surprise of his dual-phase blade to kill his opponent with the lengthening of the blade. Battling the older alien, Horn received a wound to the leg before cutting off the other's leg. While doing so, however, he was bitten by the Yuuzhan Vong's amphistaff weapon. Its venom numbed Horn and left him helpless on the floor. Horn cut out the floor of the grashal, then used the Force to convince the nearby slashrats to attack the warrior. With his opponent dead, Horn prepared to die himself and was briefly convinced that he had done so before Rhysode returned, levitated him from the grashal, and brought him aboard the Dalliance, where bacta saved his life.[15]

Discovery on Garqi[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote After some time of bacta therapy, Horn was healthy in time to participate in another Jedi gathering to determine their role in the war. Skywalker decided that they would not strike aggressively, only responding defensively to known threats. He also announced that the New Republic had decided not to support any Jedi operations in the war zone; however, as Horn was still in the military reserve, he was reactivated by Admiral Traest Kre'fey, who was operating with Antilles and Rogue Squadron, which was now commanded by Darklighter. As an officer, Horn was assigned to lead a commando team onto Garqi, a conquered world, and see if he could support a resistance movement and evacuate civilians. He had six Noghri commandos under his command and was allowed two civilian observers; he chose Rhysode and young Jacen Solo.[16]

They prepared for the mission aboard Kre'fey's flagship. Ralroost. Horn advised Solo, who had a habit of impulsive action, to follow orders, and spoke with his sister Jaina about her new position in Rogue Squadron. When the time came for the insertion, the Ralroost arrived in the system and deployed the freighter Lost Hope. It was merely a shell for the true vehicle in which Horn's team was deployed, Best Chance. With all but Kre'fey believing the destruction genuine, the Lost Hope experienced an engine failure over Garqi and broke apart. Masquerading as part of the debris, Horn was able to bring the Best Chance to a safe landing undetected.[16]

Tiedosto:Corran-Ruin.jpg
Horn preparing to battle the Yuuzhan Vong.

On the planet, Horn kept the commando team secret, scouting the terrain and living off the land. They found that the technophobic Yuuzhan Vong had destroyed much of the local machinery and saw few people. Eventually they received a comm message from the local resistance suggesting a meeting time. He met the resistance leader, Rade Dromath—the son of the New Republic officer who had recommended Horn join Rogue Squadron—and Dynba Tesc, the student he had freed at the end of his first stay on Garqi. The next day, Dromath showed them the Yuuzhan Vong activity in the city of Pesktda: they were building an army of slaves. Using the same surge coral implants Horn had seen at Bimmiel, they controlled the slave army and took the slaves on training exercises through the city. Horn decided to capture a few slave soldiers so that the New Republic could test the implants and hopefully find a way to counter them, and to do so without the Yuuzhan Vong knowing they had even been there. To that end, he decided to make the capture during one of the war games.[16]

They waited under the street in utility conduits while the resistance fighters provided sniper cover from above. When the fighting above them was at its worst, they erupted from the conduits. When Rhysode killed the first of the three Yuuzhan Vong overseeing the battle between the human thralls and the Chazrach soldiers against which they trained the slaves, the exercise ended and both groups turned on the Jedi and Noghri. Horn killed the Yuuzhan Vong leader, and the third was killed by snipers. Some of the resistance fighters dragged away a few captive slaves, but the arrival of a coralskipper—a Yuuzhan Vong fighter—made him realize that they would be pursued, and the Ralroost was not returning to pick them up for another two hours. He ordered the others to create a distraction while the prisoners were taken away and stayed behind himself to hold off the coralskipper. Against his orders, Solo stayed and used telekinesis to block the fighter's plasma cannon with a hatch cover, destroying it when the weapon misfired and likely saving Horn's life.[16]

Horn and Solo provided a rearguard as the main body of fighters retreated to the Pesktda Xenobotanical Garden. Constantly harried by Yuuzhan Vong warriors, they made a stand in the bafforr tree grove, where Horn hoped they could use the semi-sentient trees to gain a sense of where the Yuuzhan Vong harassing them were. They planned to make a last stand, sacrificing themselves, in order to allow the Best Chance to escape. Seven Yuuzhan Vong warriors entered the grove, and their leader, Krag Val, challenged the Jedi to combat. They charged, but Rhysode was badly wounded by Val. Solo killed the leader while Horn protected Rhysode. He held off a few warriors before noticing that their vonduun crab armor had swollen up, suffocating the warriors inside. As they died, Horn realized the vonduun crabs were allergic to the bafforr pollen coating the grove.[16]

Realizing this knowledge could be crucial to winning the war, Horn had pollen samples taken and ordered the grove burned down in order to conceal the evidence and keep the Yuuzhan Vong from realizing their weakness. In order to make it less obvious that the grove was important, he had the resistance fighters burn down the whole Garden. It pained Horn to kill the semi-sentient bafforrs, but he felt it necessary for the greater good of the war effort. They did so before escaping to the Best Chance. Dromath and his people declined Horn's offer to flee with them, preferring to continue the fight on their homeworld. Horn piloted the shuttle out, but the extraction was opposed by a large Yuuzhan Vong fleet. However, Imperial Remnant reinforcements under Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon arrived and were sufficient to allow Horn to escape.[16]

Showdown at Ithor[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Kre'fey and Pellaeon took their fleets to Ithor, homeworld of the bafforr tree, to protect this vital asset. Horn, Skywalker, Pellaeon, and Kre'fey participated in a council of war to plan the world's defense. They accepted that there would be political limitations on their actions, but set out to do the best job they could of holding Ithor. One bright spot for Horn was that, due to his injuries on Garqi, Rhysode had decided he had been too arrogant previously, and joined Horn's and Skywalker's school of thought. In order to be allowed to operate on the surface of Ithor, which was traditionally forbidden ground, the Jedi and troops had to undergo a ritual blessing. The Jedi summoned for the world's defense were gathered together for one ceremony in which they were asked to reject some part of themselves that was holding them back from personal peace. Horn denounced his fear of failure.[16]

Horn saw Mirax off, as she was transporting Ithorians and biological samples away from the world. Evacuation was ongoing as the New Republic and Remnant waited for the Yuuzhan Vong to strike. When the first enemy ship did arrive, it deployed Elegos A'Kla's shuttle. A'Kla, by then a senator, had gone to the Yuuzhan Vong and spent time among them, hoping to learn their ways and find a peaceful solution. The New Republic recovered the shuttle, which was broadcasting a message to Horn. He and Antilles went to investigate the ship. He allowed the Yuuzhan Vong growths on the hull to take a sample of his blood, and entering found a message from A'Kla telling him briefly of his time with Commander Shedao Shai and of the fact that the two warriors Horn had killed on Bimmiel were Shai's relatives. Opening the case which came with the message, he found A'Kla's gilded bones and a message from Shai. The bones taken from Bimmiel belonged to Shai's ancestor, and Shai demanded them back.[16]

Horn was devastated by the loss of his peaceful friend and devised a plan to use Shai's fixation on the remains to his advantage. In order to buy more time to complete the evacuation, he suggested they offer Shai a deal: a truce which would end in a duel between himself and Shai. If he won, Ithor would be left unmolested. If Shai won, the bones of his ancestor would be returned to him. Reluctantly, Skywalker and the admirals agreed. Skywalker and Jacen Solo both felt that Horn was skirting the dark side and out for revenge, but Horn maintained that he did not seek vengeance, merely to manipulate Shai and protect the Ithorian refugees.[16]

When Shai's forces attacked Ithor, Horn was waiting with the ground troops, leading a squad of Jedi. When the Yuuzhan Vong forces landed and began engaging the false command center the New Republic had set up as a trap, Horn led his speeder-bike-mounted Jedi to the landing craft the Yuuzhan Vong had been using as a command center. It was lightly defended, and Horn was able to take it with ease. There, he contacted Shai by villip and offered him the deal; if Shai did not agree, he would destroy the remains. Shai agreed, and allowed a week's truce before they would duel.[16]

Shai withdrew his forces and the evacuation of the Ithorians continued unimpeded for another week. Chief of State Fey'lya objected strenuously to Horn's bargain, but Horn resigned once more from the military in order to end Fey'lya's influence over him and insisted on going ahead with the duel, supported by Skywalker.[16]

Tiedosto:CorranHornVersusShedaoShai.JPG
Horn battles Shedao Shai.

After a week, Horn traveled to a tabletop mountain on Ithor with Skywalker as his second. There he met Shai and began a fierce duel. Horn was stabbed through the abdomen, but continued fighting, taunting Shai on. Horn turned his lightsaber off when Shai attacked, overbalancing the warrior when he met no resistance and allowing Horn to press the hilt of his lightsaber against Shai's torso and activate it. Shai was dead, and Horn had won. However, upon returning to his ship, Shai's second-in-command, Deign Lian, unleashed a plague on Ithor that completely destroyed all organic matter on the world. Horn was floating in a bacta tank as he felt the world die.[16]

Scapegoat[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote The deal had not been respected, and that failure caused Horn to be vilified in the media as the man who lost Ithor. Horn himself was agonized by the fact that, in the moment he had killed Shai, he had enjoyed it, had indulged his desire for revenge. He felt that he had touched the dark side. To sort his feelings out and to keep the Jedi from being any further entangled in the bad publicity surrounding him, he left the Jedi Order and urged Skywalker to denounce his actions as taken independently. He would take the blame himself and keep it from landing on the Jedi. Reluctantly, Skywalker agreed.[16]

Horn and Mirax traveled to Corellia, where Rostek Horn's political pull was able to gain them asylum. There, he urged the Corellian government to take action to help the refugees displaced by the Yuuzhan Vong.[16][18] After Thrackan Sal-Solo became the Corellian governor-general, he left that system and began shipping aboard the Errant Venture.[19] During that time, a tenuous truce developed between the Yuuzhan Vong and New Republic, as Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah issued a declaration that he would cease prosecution of the war if the Jedi were handed over. Collaborators in the Peace Brigade began attacking the Jedi, and Fey'lya allowed it in order to gain time for the military to recover.[18][19]

Tiedosto:Errant Venture.jpg
The Errant Venture comes to the rescue over Yavin 4.

In 26 ABY, while Horn was aboard the Venture, which was helping arm the Hutt resistance against the Yuuzhan Vong, the Peace Brigade quietly attacked the academy at Yavin 4. Fey'lya refused to allow the Jedi New Republic support, fearing an end to the truce, and forbade the Jedi to take action themselves to defend the children at the Praxeum, Horn's children among them. Skywalker sent Karrde to evacuate the students, which he did with the exception of Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, Sannah, and Valin Horn. Karrde and the Solusars, who had been minding the academy, remained at Yavin 4, facing a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and sent the rest of the students and a request for aid. In response, Skywalker sent the Solo twins to find the Errant Venture. As soon as they did, Terrik barreled into the Yavin system to rescue his grandchild. Horn and the Solos flew cover, peeling the coralskipper pursuit off the ship the young Jedi were escaping Yavin in. The Yuuzhan Vong were defeated, and after the battle, Horn was able to use his Force abilities to find Shada D'ukal, Karrde's beloved second-in-command, aboard an escape pod. Karrde had thought her dead, and returning her helped lessen the debt Horn felt towards Karrde for rescuing his children.[19]

Supply run gone wrong[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Terrik kept the students aboard the Errant Venture, keeping them safe by constantly jumping.[19] Horn stayed aboard with his children, helping guard the youths. When the ship began to run low on supplies again, he selected Anakin Solo to make a supply run with him; the young man had become restless aboard the ship and was looking for a chance to get out. Tahiri Veila, Solo's friend, appealed to him to let her have a chance to step out as well. She had been imprisoned and experimented on by the Yuuzhan Vong on Yavin 4, planting a Yuuzhan Vong identity in her mind. Solo had been able to bring her back, but few others were comfortable with her. Horn agreed to take her along, and the three set out for Eriadu in the transport Lucre.[20]

Upon arriving at Eriadu, Horn left the two young Jedi to guard the ship while he obtained what they needed. When he returned, he found the pair flying a stolen police speeder into the cargo bay under hot pursuit. Furious, he managed to get the Lucre into space, escape the authorities, and flee into hyperspace. There, Solo explained that he and Veila had felt a Jedi in distress and left to help him. Finding Kelbis Nu under attack by the Peace Brigade, they had unsuccessfully tried to save his life. They were arrested by the local authorities, who were collaborating with the Peace Brigade, and had to break out. He chastised the pair for their impulsiveness and made them swear to actually follow his orders.[20]

Before dying, Nu had conveyed that Yag'Dhul was in danger, and Solo's hyperspace jump placed them not far from the system. When they reverted to realspace, they were in the midst of a Yuuzhan Vong invasion fleet. Realizing they could not escape, the three Jedi put on vacuum suits and abandoned the ship, which was set off on a pre-programmed course and quickly destroyed. They landed on what appeared to be an asteroid and resolved to wait until the fleet left. Meanwhile, Horn again lectured Solo for his impulsiveness, predicting that his reckless behavior would eventually push his luck too far. After about a day, their hiding place began to accelerate; it was not an asteroid, but a Yuuzhan Vong ship covered in stone for camouflage. They cut their way into the ship and, when a group of Yuuzhan Vong came to investigate the hull breach, they battled them. Horn was endangered when his vacuum suit helmet was cracked in the fight, but he moved through an airlock into the pressurized part of the ship quickly enough to avoid death. Within an hour, they had killed the other five warriors on the ship and captured the crew.[20]

They were in control of the ship when it decanted from hyperspace in the Yag'Dhul system. Veila, who understood the Yuuzhan Vong language and so was able to interact with it, piloted the living ship and was able to determine that the ship had been sent to scout the system ahead of the invasion fleet. Horn interrogated their prisoners and found a member of the Shamed Ones caste who was willing to work with them due to legends circulating among the Shamed Ones that the Jedi would redeem them from their low social status. He had the Shamed One, Taan, communicate back to the fleet and claim a failure in its artificial gravity had killed all the crew members but her, allaying the fleet's suspicion. Solo was able to rig up communications with Yag'Dhul, but the Givin who answered proved to be a Yuuzhan Vong collaborator. Posing as a Yuuzhan Vong commander, Horn was able to learn from him that the Given collaborators planned a failure in the defense grid in fifteen hours that would allow the fleet to take the planet.[20]

Realizing that they did not know who to trust among the Givin government, they decided to buzz the Givin and deal with whatever defense officer was willing to take action against them. As soon as they approached the space station from which Horn had once fought against Isard, they came under attack by Givin starfighters. Hailed by military commander Dodecian Illiet, Horn surrendered and was taken to the station. He warned Illiet of the plot, and Illiet found and repaired the sabotage to the defenses. The three Jedi were kept under house arrest while the Givin decided on a course of action.[20]

When the station came under attack, Illiet had them brought to the command center. He explained that the defense would almost certainly fail and offered them vacuum suits and the use of a craft to escape. On their way there, they were attacked by several Yuuzhan Vong warriors and their guide, who turned out to be a disguised Yuuzhan Vong spy, Nom Anor. They were surrounded, and Horn challenged Anor to single combat. However, the commander of the warriors accepted the challenge instead, and Solo insisted on filling Horn's spot. Solo killed the warrior, and as he did so, Horn finished the hole Solo's supposedly wild parries had begun cutting in the wall, and the three fled though it.[20]

They found that the station was depressurizing as the vacuum-resistant Givin prepared to battle the Yuuzhan Vong aboard it. Searching a storage room, Horn found only one vacuum suit. He donned it himself and put the younger Jedi in a locker with an air pack while he searched the next room for vacuum suits. He found a pair, and remembered the existence of a backup system that he used to pressurize the room. They were able to sneak to the ship, a fast Givin craft. Horn outflew the pursuit but found it unnecessary to flee as the fleet itself was recalled due to an attack on the Yuuzhan Vong's Sernpidal shipyards. The three Jedi were able to safely return to the Errant Venture, though without the supplies they had set out for.[20]

Return to the Jedi[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Dialogue2

Horn in his traditional Corellian robes.

Horn spent the next several months aboard the Errant Venture as he had, though one diversion to a refugee ship which became attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong led to Horn's confronting voxyn, fierce Yuuzhan Vong Jedi-hunting beasts.[14][21] Horn made a narrow getaway to one of the ship's escape pods, but only the fortuitous intervention of Mara Jade Skywalker and Jaina Solo, nearby in the Jade Shadow, recovered the escape pod and prevented the escape pod from being crushed in the gravity of a neighboring gas giant.[14] In early 27 ABY Horn was again attacked by voxyn, this time with Mirax, while on a supply run on Corellia for the Errant Venture. They managed to escape using a hovertaxi and returned to the Star Destroyer. The Errant Venture was recalled to Eclipse Station, the hidden Jedi base in the Deep Core. The Yuuzhan Vong had gathered many captives over Talfaglio and threatened to kill them all if they were not given Eclipse's location. There, he watched Fey'lya receive Anor in the Senate to discuss Talfaglio and make a strong stand for the Jedi. Anor revealed that the Yuuzhan Vong had captured seventeen Jedi, including all three Solo children. Horn was shocked, but Skywalker quickly revealed to him that it was a ploy to get them behind enemy lines so they could destroy the voxyn queen. Moreover, the Jedi were preparing a strike to free the Talfaglio hostages. Skywalker asked Horn to rejoin the Jedi in their time of need and help him train their fighter pilots. He agreed.[21]

The Jedi maintained four squadrons consisting of both Jedi and non-Jedi pilots: Durron's Kyp's Dozen, Jedi Saba Sebatyne's Wild Knights, Skywalker's Saber Squadron, and Shocker Squadron under non-Jedi veteran Rigard Matl. During their training, Horn had to hold Durron back from going after the captured Jedi, as he had not been let in on the plan. When they were ready, the Jedi struck at Talfaglio. Horn served as flight control for the operation, based on the freighter Jolly Man. They received unexpected support when Generals Antilles and Bel Iblis arrived in brand-new Star Destroyers. With their aid, the Jedi wing savaged the enemy fleet and set the Talfaglio hostages free.[21]

After Borleias and Reecee fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, the Errant Venture, which had been at Reecee, returned to Eclipse pursued by a Yuuzhan Vong task force. Sensing his children were in danger, Horn fired up his X-wing to fly to their rescue but was held back by Skywalker. After calming down, Horn realized that Terrik had some trick to play, and was shown right when the Errant Venture launched escape pods with the students aboard, disguised as battle debris, at Eclipse as his ship and the task force moved past. Horn helped recover the escape pods as Terrik used his shields to superheat several asteroids, blowing them apart and ripping though the enemy fleet. The Jedi fighters cleaned up the survivors with help from the remnant of Reecee's fighter force, carried aboard the Venture.[21]

In the Battle of the Black Bantha, the Jedi and New Republic were called in to ambush a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, which they did, capturing one of the Yuuzhan Vong's yammosk war coordinators. When the Yuuzhan Vong began to stage from Borleias and unrecorded asteroids were found far out in the Yuuzhan Vong system, Horn was among the Jedi analysts who found it likely that the enemy was finally moving on Coruscant itself. He was studying tactical displays when Skywalker felt Anakin Solo die. Still grieving, the Jedi departed to defend the galactic capital. Horn once more served aboard Jolly Man as battle control for the Jedi squadrons as they penetrated the advancing enemy fleet, targeting ships that they were able to detect as carrying yammosks. They made multiple runs, resupplying and going out again as they hunted down the various yammosks in the massive fleet. The New Republic's defense was crippled by Supreme Commander Sien Sovv's refusal to fire through the shield of refugee ships the Yuuzhan Vong sent before their own fleet. While Fey'lya later countermanded those orders and Bel Iblis ignored them from the beginning, the New Republic was unable to prevent the Yuuzhan Vong's suicidal tactics from overwhelming Coruscant's shields. The world fell.[21]

Horn and the Jedi retreated with Antilles's forces. Skywalker reorganized the Jedi squadron survivors into Twin Suns Squadron. Flying in a shield trio with Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, he helped retake Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong, blasting through its fighter defenses and flying cover as ground troops retook its surface. Antilles planned to briefly use the world as a fortified post securing an exit from Coruscant for refugees. They moved into the former Alderaan Biotics facility, and Horn requested to transfer to Rogue Squadron, which had been plagued by losses. Antilles, however, needed Horn to take command of base security and so he did.[22]

The next day, Horn was summoned to a meeting of Antilles and his general staff with the remnants of the New Republic Advisory Council. Senator Pwoe had declared himself chief of state after Fey'lya's death on Coruscant, a move of dubious legality at best. He ordered Antilles to hold Borleias as a staging post for a reconquest of Coruscant, but it was obvious that Pwoe simply wanted to buy time with their lives to allow him to build up his position. Antilles only accepted the orders after extracting significant guarantees of supplies and forces, including Lusankya. After the Advisory Council reluctantly accepted Antilles's terms and departed, Horn remained behind with Antilles's other closest advisors. None of them held any confidence in the New Republic's leadership any longer, and together they formed the Insiders, a cell of trusted leaders who could form the core of a resistance to the Yuuzhan Vong outside the New Republic hierarchy and carry on a guerrilla war against the Yuuzhan Vong.[22]

When a Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrived to contest their hold on Borleias, Horn and the other Twin Suns scrambled, with new pilot Zindra Daine replacing Jade Skywalker in their shield trio. They held off the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, but Antilles intended the battle to be a minor loss to draw the enemy commander into a false sense of confidence. Instead, Lusankya arrived in the middle of the enemy fleet, savaging it. The Twin Suns were among the forces summoned to protect Lusankya and escort it from the middle of the fleet.[22]

Rogue Leader[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote When discussing the problem of refugee ships being preyed upon by the Yuuzhan Vong, Horn suggested they send out a ship of their own as bait and use one of scientist Danni Quee's gravitic sensors to determine if the Yuuzhan Vong were using tracking creatures. Rigged as a trap, it could also discourage attacks on refugee convoys by fighting back. Lando Calrissian volunteered to direct that operation.[22] Shortly thereafter, Horn transferred back to Rogue Squadron, flying as Rogue Nine once more. The Rogues and other elite squadrons were assigned to guard the pipefighters engaged in the Starlancer Project. The four pipefighters focused energy into a large turbolaser blast, which Antilles set up so that Yuuzhan Vong spies would believe it to be a superweapon in the making. In fact, it was a fraud, designed to give Antilles something with which to force the newly arrived enemy commander's hand.[22][23]

Corran Horn during the Yuuzhan Vong War

When Han and Leia Solo evacuated the children on Borleias, Valin and Jysella among them, to Shelter, the Jedi base in the Maw, Horn and Rogue Two, Captain Kral Nevil, were assigned to fly cover for the Millennium Falcon. They returned, and several days later the enemy commander, Czulkang Lah, made his first major assault on the New Republic position. The Rogues defended the southern approach to the base from the oncoming Yuuzhan Vong ground forces. However, they continually fell back as part of Antilles's plan, until they were flying in the cleared area near the base itself. At that point, Lusankya opened fire from orbit, annihilating the enemy troops.[22]

The Yuuzhan Vong maintained continual harassing attacks on the Borleias garrison, wearing down the defenders. The Rogues were reduced to nine pilots, with Horn flying a shield trio with Dakorse Teep and Leth Liav, two under-qualified pilots. Defending against one enemy probe, Teep went down, much to Horn's disgust; he had been only a teenager, and Horn was weary of the losses caused by the war. After that, the enemy raiding only increased, until the base was under constant attack.[23]

Finally, Antilles revealed that he was ready for the final battle. Calling a conference of his top officers, he revealed the true nature of the Starlancer project and ordered an evacuation of the base. He was sending up the pipefighters, believed by the Yuuzhan Vong to be a fully operational superweapon, to provoke one last all-out battle. The Rogues guarded one of the pipefighters, as they customarily did, then helped escort Lusankya as the massive ship, worn down by constant attacks, rammed the enemy flagship in Antilles's final trick. When Blackmoon Squadron detected one of their own fighting over Borleias, the Rogues went with them to save the pilot, who turned out to be Antilles, escaping the base and escorting one last evacuation craft out.[23]

After the evacuation, the New Republic began recovering, establishing headquarters on Mon Calamari. The Rogues joined General Keyan Farlander's task force, and Horn continued flying, becoming Rogue Leader himself when the Rogues became involved in experiments with Jedi battle coordination. With Horn at the head of the Rogues, Jaina Solo commanding the captured enemy frigate Trickster, and Durron leading his Dozen, coordinated by Madurrin on the bridge with Farlander, the technique was used over Obroa-skai to strike at what was believed to be Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane's arriving flagship. Farlander's task force ambushed the fleet, but found their yammosk jammer to be useless, with the enemy responding with full battle coordination. Realizing there were two enemy yammosks, the second was jammed as well, and the battle quickly turned in favor of the New Republic. The arrival of Hapan reinforcements sealed the victory, though it was later learned that it had not been the Supreme Overlord at all, but merely a high-ranking fleet commander.[24]

Farlander's fleet shifted its base of operations to Kashyyyk, where they reunited with Kre'fey, Farlander's commanding officer. Meanwhile, the New Republic elected a new chief of state, Cal Omas, and put into place Ackbar's plan to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, seasoning the troops with attacks on Yuuzhan Vong weak spots for the next three months.[24] Horn and the Rogues flew cover for Kre'fey's strike at the Peace Brigade's headquarters on Ylesia, then flew in another raid on Duro.[24][25] Further work with battle coordination only enhanced their abilities, which were supplemented by the arrival of more Jedi in Kre'fey's forces. After three months, Horn and the others participated in the Battle of Ebaq 9, Ackbar's great trap for the Yuuzhan Vong. Their fleet was savaged, and Warmaster Tsavong Lah was killed. In the aftermath, Omas reorganized the government into the new Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.[24]

Discovering Zonama Sekot[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Later in 28 ABY, Horn was summoned by Jedi Master Kenth Hamner to a meeting. Hamner was the acting head of the Jedi Order, as Skywalker had gone on a mission to the Unknown Regions to find Zonama Sekot, a living planet that he hoped could aid the war effort, which was already strengthening. Hamner showed Horn a message from a Yuuzhan Vong known as Yu'shaa, the Prophet. The leader of a sect of Shamed One heretics who revered Jedi, he requested that the Jedi take him to Zonama Sekot, which he held to be a promised land for the Shamed Ones. Horn was detached by the military for the mission, on which he hoped to be advised by Veila, who had recently undergone the full fusion of her personality and the Yuuzhan Vong personality implanted within her during her time on Yavin 4. When Veila was brought in, however, she insisted on going along and putting her knowledge to use. Horn was willing to risk his own life, but adamantly opposed bringing the young girl along on the extremely dangerous mission to infiltrate the enemy capital and extract Yu'shaa. Not only was she young, but Horn was not sure he could trust her new, integrated personality. However, when Hamner and the Solos agreed that she should come along, he backed down.[26]

Taking a captured enemy vessel, Horn and Veila traveled to Coruscant, where they slipped through weak points in the defense network provided by Yu'shaa's message. They landed in the Great Western Sea, barely avoiding detection, and proceeded underwater on Horn's recommendation, hoping they would be less likely to be detected that way. However, once they entered one of the tubes leading out of the sea, they discovered that it had been replaced with a type of Yuuzhan Vong digestive creature. They came under attack, and fired the plasma cannon to fight off the creature. Doing so, however, boiled the water and disabled their dovin basal, the creature that provided propulsion to the craft. They were sucked into the drain system, and tumbled through it, barely under control, until they were able to stop and surface. While they traveled through the crumbling underlevels of Coruscant on foot, Horn tested Veila, probing her about the nature of her new personality; he remained unconvinced that she was trustworthy.[26]

They met with the heretics, where Horn learned that he figured into their mythology as the slayer of Shedao Shai. Yu'shaa also revealed that they had another member to add to their party, a Master Shaper named Nen Yim. She had a ship with which they could escape. Veila detected that the Prophet was wearing a masquer, a disguise. Neither Veila nor Horn trusted him, but they did not believe that they were walking into a trap and agreed to the plan. They entered the Supreme Overlord's palace by a secret tunnel, then raided Yim's damutek to free her while several of Yu'shaa's cultists provided a distraction; an additional element, devised by Horn, of dressing up some of the heretics as mock Jedi and having them flee to draw off the guards worked well. The Jedi battled through the damutek until they found Yim, whom Veila recognized as one of the shapers who had experimented on her on Yavin 4. She overcame her anger, however, but took an amphistaff wound holding off several warriors while Horn cut an exit for Yim's escape ship. Horn rescued her and the three escaped, picking up Yu'shaa and Harrar, a Yuuzhan Vong priest. Horn was furious at the unannounced addition to their party, and even more furious when he realized that Yim, flying the ship, was a completely inexperienced and incompetent pilot. She told him that the ship had normal controls, however, not just the Yuuzhan Vong interface she used. Sending Yim back to heal Veila, Horn took them and was able to outfly the planet's defenses using an old orbital training drone to distract the pursuit, and they escaped.[26]

Tiedosto:Corran-Tahiri-Harrar.jpg
Horn with Tahiri Veila and Harrar.

The ship was in fact one of those built by Zonama Sekot, a living ship fused with standard technology. Horn laid in a course for Zonama Sekot, having gotten its location through previous communication with Skywalker. However, returning to the three Yuuzhan Vong, none of whom he trusted, he told them that he was taking them to Mon Calamari instead, unwilling to deal with so many unknown factors. He wanted to see their reactions. Seeing nothing to make him mistrust them over the next four days, he was ready to reveal the truth when they were pulled from hyperspace by an Imperial Interdictor. Believing their organic craft to be a Yuuzhan Vong ship, it opened fire. Yim activated a new Yuuzhan Vong technology she had added to the ship, which allowed them to break the Interdictor's gravity well and flee into hyperspace again. However, the dovin basals with which Yim had replaced the engines were damaged, and the series of hyperspace jumps through the Unknown Regions put a great strain on them. Upon consulting with Yim, Horn decided to try one last jump to Sekot's position before the hyperdrive gave out. They emerged from hyperspace out of control, and it took all the dying dovin basals could muster to escape the pull of the gas giant Zonama Sekot orbited and make a crash landing on the living, sentient world.[26]

Yim, Yu'shaa, and Veila went out to collect samples of the local life while Horn and Harrar searched for shelter. They found a cave, and the pair discussed the war and the differences between their peoples, wondering if they could ever make peace. While exploring the area around their cave, Horn saw three massive hyperdrive field guides rising from the landscape on the other side of the hill, part of the hyperdrive built into Zonama Sekot. He did not divulge what the vanes were, fearing it could cause the Yuuzhan Vong to abhor the world's use of technology. Over the next several days, Horn went on expeditions to find any of the colonists living on the world, but found no trace of civilization. Finally, after a week, he decided to check the field guides. When he told his plan to Veila, she objected; bored, she wished to go along. Annoyed at her petulance, Horn urged her to follow orders for once, and she confessed that she was still sorting out her issues with her new personality, but that she looked up to Horn greatly and needed his help. She wanted him to be her Jedi Master. Taken aback by her tears and the feelings he had had no idea she was struggling with, he agreed on a provisional basis, if she would promise to cease being so headstrong.[26]

He set off for the vanes and took Harrar with him, as the priest was intensely curious about the structures. Arriving there, he explained the truth to Harrar, who took the revelation well. They entered a maintenance access to the engine system, and there Horn found equipment which he believed he could rig to transmit a signal across the world. On leaving, the pair found Veila, who warned them that Yim had discovered the secret of Zonama Sekot, but was killed by Yu'shaa, who was in truth none other than the infamous Yuuzhan Vong spy Nom Anor. Anor was planning to kill Sekot. Reentering the maintenance access, they found the lifts jammed; Anor was below. Leaving Veila to guard the lifts, Horn slid down the vast distance on a cable running along the wall, landing safely through use of the Force and pursuing Anor. The Yuuzhan Vong spy heard him coming and fled up a turbolift; Horn followed in another lift. On the way up, Anor cut the lift's power, delaying Horn until he realized how to work the backup system. At the top, he found that Veila had been knocked over the edge and Anor escaped, with Harrar pursuing him. Horn pulled Veila up and ran after Anor, caching up with him as the spy reached his extraction craft. They captured him, and he told them that Harrar was dead and he had already poisoned Sekot irreversibly. A groundquake knocked them off their feet and allowed Anor to escape to the ship, which debarked warriors who surrounded the two Jedi. They were saved by the Jade Shadow, carrying the Skywalkers, Jacen Solo, and Saba Sebatyne.[26] Anor escaped aboard the ship, but Zonama Sekot itself jumped into hyperspace involuntarily as a result of Anor's sabotage.[26][27] The planet healed itself of Anor's poisons, but the hyperspace jump itself strained the planet.[26]

Victory[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote The planet spent days lurching in and out of hyperspace, causing widespread devastation followed by torrential rain lasting for days. Solo and Sebatyne went to reconnoiter the southern hemisphere, which was far more devastated. When they returned, Danni Quee reported that Tekli and Veila had found Harrar alive. Horn and the others went to visit him, where they found that he had survived Anor's attack and wished to promote peace between their species. Shortly, the planet regained control of itself and began to recover, at which point Horn helped bring the Ferroan natives out of hiding. After a series of test jumps, Zonama Sekot emerged into the Coruscant system itself. The Yuuzhan Vong were shocked but, fearing the world, held off from attacking it.[27]

A delegation of most of the Jedi and the members of the Smugglers' Alliance, among them Horn's wife, aboard the Millennium Falcon and Errant Venture, traveled to the world to meet with Skywalker and come to understand the living world. Skywalker and many of the others returned to the Galactic Alliance to share what they had learned and help plan the final stages of the war, but Horn stayed on Zonama Sekot with several other Jedi. The planet grew for them its famed living starships, with Horn bonding with four seed-partners. After a ceremony that left Horn awed, the four seed-partners were manufactured into his craft. When Skywalker returned, he shared the news that the Galactic Alliance High Command was preparing to retake Coruscant.[27]

Their Sekotan ships were ready just in time to fly against the Yuuzhan Vong force that sneaked past the Galactic Alliance's assault and attacked Zonama Sekot. Horn flew in defense of the world, preventing most of the enemy coralskippers from threatening the planet; what few made it through, Sekot itself repulsed. However, his ship generally avoided landing killing shots; Horn felt that the planet and its living ships were still getting a feel for the pilots before they allowed them to abandon the world's pacifistic philosophy. Eventually, they became able to fire, but in the midst of the battle, Horn's ship suddenly became completely unresponsive, as did the others'. They put down, and the Jedi gathered, fearing that Zonama Sekot had been struck by Alpha Red, a plague that had been engineered to destroy the Yuuzhan Vong but could be fatal to Zonama Sekot as well, similar as it was to the ancient homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong. It had not, and when the sky filled with coralskippers, Sekotan drone ships began launching, grappling the enemy fighters and bringing them to the surface, where the Yuuzhan Vong creatures reunited with the facsimile of their homeworld, turning from war. The warriors themselves, helpless and bewildered, surrendered.[27]

Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo killed the Supreme Overlord, and Warmaster Nas Choka surrendered. The war was over. In the next weeks, a settlement was reached, and rebuilding began. Skywalker called a Conclave on Zonama Sekot which all the Jedi attended. Horn listened as Skywalker announced the reestablishment of the Jedi Academy on Ossus, and propounded a new theory of the Force based on the teachings Vergere had given to Jacen Solo. The Yuuzhan Vong were settled on Zonama Sekot, which disappeared to the Unknown Regions, there to rebuild their society as one of peace. With peace, Horn retired from the military for the fourth time and took his family to Corellia for vacation and recuperation.[27]

Horn enjoying himself with Mara Jade Skywalker and Talon Karrde.

The Order devoted itself to helping rebuild the galaxy, causing it to verge on overstretch as its membership attempted to deal with lawlessness across the Galactic Alliance.[28] Horn led the way in breaking up several pirate rings, helping calm the turbulent times. Based on that performance and his prior deeds, Horn was elevated to the rank of Jedi Master.[8] As a Jedi Master, Horn served on the Masters' Council, which Skywalker had created as a new Jedi Council.[28] While he was technically the most junior member on the Council, Horn took a leading role on it, commanding respect and arguing forcefully for his positions.[8][28] Horn was among those who argued for the Masters' Council to exercise more control over the Order's Jedi Knights, ordering rather than advising, but that was not Skywalker's policy. In that, he agreed with fellow Master Kyp Durron, but the two led opposing factions on another issue, that of cooperation with the Galactic Alliance. While Durron had reconciled with Skywalker during the Yuuzhan Vong War, he remained an agitator for the Jedi Order to follow its own conscience and be beholden to no government. Horn, however, argued that the Jedi served peace, stability, and the greater galaxy best as supporters of the Galactic Alliance, and needed to be accountable to an outside authority.[28]

Jedi Master[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Killik conflict[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote In 35 ABY, several young Jedi disappeared from their assignments, all of them veterans of the Myrkr strike team, creating a problem in a Jedi Order already suffering from overwork. Horn was directing a presentation to the rest of the Council on the issue when Chief of State Omas and a Chiss dignitary entered the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Chiss emissary, Aristocra Mitt'swe'kleoni, demanded an explanation for the missing Jedi's operations in the Unknown Regions near Chiss territory. Upon learning that the Council had not sanctioned the activity and did not even know what the seven missing Jedi were doing, Mitt'swe'kleoni departed, and Omas stayed to fill the Jedi in on his complaint: the Jedi were involved in a border dispute with the Chiss. Omas wanted a swift resolution to the issue and calm relations with the Chiss Ascendancy, and so the Skywalkers and Sebatyne set out to speak with the rogue Jedi. In their absence, Horn was left in charge of Jedi operations, and was persuaded by the Solos to tell them where the other Jedi had gone, as the Solo twins were among the Jedi in the Unknown Regions.[28]

The Skywalkers and Solos returned from their mission with four of the rogue Jedi. They had joined the Killik Colony, a collection of Killik hives operating under a series of hive minds controlled by Raynar Thul, a former Jedi who had gone missing during the Yuuzhan Vong War. The Chiss considered their rapidly expanding nests, which absorbed outsiders into the group mind, to be a major threat and were attempting to starve out the Killik colonies on their borders. The Masters studied the returning Jedi at the Jedi Academy on Ossus to determine how the Killiks had begun absorbing them into the hive mind, and found that the melding operated through pheromones and auras. Horn was greatly displeased when the rogue Jedi Knights argued that the Jedi should go to war supporting the Killiks, and would not obey the Council if it suggested otherwise. The Masters turned to a debate on the issue, with Horn urging the others to support the Galactic Alliance's line on the issue, and Durron suggesting they keep their own counsel.[28]

When Tenel Ka Djo, the Jedi Queen Mother of Hapes, sent a Hapan fleet to safeguard the Killiks at the urging of Jacen Solo, Omas was outraged, and came to the Jedi Council to demand an explanation. An argument about Jedi compliance with the Galactic Alliance again emerged, with Horn arguing that the Jedi needed an authority outside themselves to check their power. Thoroughly annoyed, Omas threatened to cut off Galactic Alliance funding to the Jedi if they did not comply. Thanks to the Solos, they were able to reach a compromise in which the Killiks would be moved to uninhabited worlds the Solos had discovered in the Utegetu Nebula. However, the Gorog nest of Killiks, nicknamed the Dark Nest by the Jedi, still had to be dealt with. The Gorog nest was unknown to the other Killiks, unconsciously exercising its will over the others, and likely led by Welk or Lomi Plo, two Dark Jedi who had abducted Thul during the war and disappeared. The Skywalkers and several other Masters proceeded to follow Alema Rar, the Jedi who had become a Gorog Joiner, to Kr, from which they uprooted the Gorog nest, killing Welk. They then persuaded Thul to accept the move to the Utegetu Nebula.[28]

Tiedosto:Njo Corran.png
Horn as a Jedi.

Plo and Rar escaped, however, and within a year the Galactic Alliance was beset by smugglers operating from the Utegetu Nebula and black membrosia produced by the Dark Nest that intoxicated sentients across the Alliance. When a ship piloted by a membrosia-drunk Vratix collided with Supreme Commander Sovv's transport, killing the Galactic Alliance's military commander, Horn was assigned to lead an investigation. He strongly suspected that the collision was a Killik assassination, but could find no evidence to support that conclusion. Meanwhile, the Skywalkers and Solos traveled to Woteba, the new Killik capital, to speak with Thul. While they were away, the Killiks began landing on worlds along the Chiss border, reigniting the conflict and putting Omas in a panic. Horn was at Ossus when Leia Organa Solo and Saba Sebatyne returned, and they explained to him that the Woteban colony was being devoured by a corrosive plague known as the Fizz. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo remained behind as a guarantee to the Killiks, who feared that the Galactic Alliance and Jedi had known of the Fizz before moving the Killiks there. Horn, realizing that the pair could be used as hostages in the unfolding diplomatic crisis, wished to report that fact to Omas, but Organa Solo persuaded him that Omas would use it to push more aggressively, possibly worsening the situation.[8]

Instead, the Jedi held a council, determining that Gorog was pushing the Killiks into war and needed to be neutralized once and for all. Horn objected to simply assassinating Plo and Thul, but a consensus was reached to extract Skywalker and Solo and take out the Dark Nest; if Thul could not be reasoned with, he would have to be stopped with force if necessary. Meanwhile, Cilghal, the most scientifically-minded of the Masters, was able to confirm that the Fizz was a nanotechnology-based ecological defense system for the worlds, attempting to keep their environments in balance. Mara Jade Skywalker, Organa Solo, and Sebatyne left at the head of a Jedi team to accomplish that task. However, they were captured by the Galactic Alliance fleet blockading the Utegetu Nebula.[8]

When Omas learned of this and realized that Skywalker was incommunicado, he called a session with the Jedi of the advisory High Council; as Skywalker and Sebatyne were out of contact, he substituted Horn and Kyle Katarn in their place. They presented a united front, however, bluntly telling Omas they would not allow him to take control of the Jedi Order. Omas simply suggested that the Jedi needed some sort of leadership with Skywalker out of contact, someone to take the lead in resolving the situation and dealing with the Chiss ultimatum to stop the Killik migration to the frontier within ten days. Durron and Cilghal objected and left, and the remainder elected Horn their leader, at Omas's suggestion, in order to work with the Galactic Alliance.[8]

That election proved highly controversial. Horn did not really consider himself the Jedi leader, and knew that Omas had selected him because of the controversy it would engender, splitting the Jedi. Durron was enraged, and attempted to lead a force to rescue the captured Jedi without any authorization. Horn came to the hangar to speak with him, but Durron refused to listen. Horn had to physically disable Durron's StealthX to keep the other Master from leaving, and a heated argument broke out when Horn argued that the Jedi had to cooperate with the Galactic Alliance rather than antagonize it. The rescue mission did go forward, stumbling into a brawl between the Killiks and the Galactic Alliance as the insectoid nests tried to run the blockade. The Jedi escaped, but the engagement was only the beginning of a renewed war between the Chiss and Killiks.[8]

Disappointed with the disunity in the Order, Skywalker summoned all Jedi to Ossus for a conclave. In his address, he rebuked the Jedi for allowing themselves to be divided, and held that the dissension must end. The Jedi must know harmony to be effective as an Order. If anyone could not put the good of the Jedi Order above all else, he would be asked to leave it. Profoundly chastened by Skywalker's admonition and his own leading role in the crisis, Horn came to the conclusion that, for the good of the Order, he would have to leave it, ending his divisive role. He announced this to the rest of the Jedi before speaking to Skywalker. Skywalker, however, refused his resignation, telling Horn that he was not responsible and his presence was needed to heal the schism among the Jedi. The Masters went on to discuss the Killik situation, considering attempting to remove Thul, Plo, and Rar from the Killiks, who would then revert to their natural, relatively harmless state without any of those personalities to guide them. Horn objected once more to the possibility of assassination, and another argument erupted. Sick of the infighting, Skywalker took sole personal control of the Order, declaring himself Grand Master.[29]

After the Solos went on a spy mission into the Killik colony, they sent the Jedi a message warning that the Killiks were preparing coups within several of the Galactic Alliance's insect societies. Jedi were assigned to each world to attempt to prevent the attacks, with Horn leading a Jedi team to Thyferra. However, the Galactic Alliance garrison there intercepted and detained him. While he explained his mission, the delay was too late; the Vratix and Killiks successfully pulled off their coup, taking control of Thyferra and the galaxy's bacta supply with it.[29]

In response, Skywalker moved to strike at the head of the problem. He took a wing of Jedi StealthX fighters to Sarm, where the Killik nest ships were recovering from their failed challenge of the Fifth Fleet's blockade. Horn led a squadron of fighters in the attack on the Gorog nest ship's bow while the others targeted different areas. Skywalker penetrated the ship and dueled Plo as the other Jedi held off Gorog reinforcements, but after taking a wound, Plo disappeared. The Jedi were able to destroy the nest ship, but Plo escaped it. Skywalker decided to go on with the next phase of the mission anyway, assigning Horn and the other master to collect samples of the nanotechnology that produced the Fizz and seed the colony worlds with them to keep the Killiks in check throughout the future. Skywalker succeeded in killing Plo and capturing Thul while Organa Solo defeated Rar, ending the threat.[29]

While committed to cooperation with the Galactic Alliance, Skywalker pulled the Jedi out of government entirely, forming a new Jedi Council, on which Horn served.[29][30] The tension between conscience and stability eased after the Swarm War, with the Jedi coming to support the Galactic Alliance more firmly, and the rift between Horn and Durron healed. Horn established a teaching center in Coronet, where classes of young Jedi from the Corellian area were trained under Horn's supervision.[31] Mirax retired, living peacefully in Coronet with Horn.[32]

Corellian crisis[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote In 40 ABY, a new crisis emerged. The Corellian government was resisting Galactic Alliance demands to pay full taxes and contribute military forces, while also secretly building up an assault fleet and working to reactivate the Centerpoint Station superweapon. The Galactic Alliance decided this situation could not be allowed to continue and made a show of force in the Corellian system. Elements of the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet arrived in orbit while Jedi strike teams attempted to kidnap high-level Corellian government figures and force negotiations. However, that only served to distract attention from the most vital part of the mission—the sabotage of Centerpoint Station, carried out by Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker. Despite being Corellian, Horn fully supported the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance. He commanded Team Slashrat, consisting of himself and a partner, which observed Coronet's spaceport for starfighter launches while the other teams acted. It so happened that the Corellians had already pulled most of their starfighters offworld, which they used to ambush the Galactic Alliance fleet, while the Jedi teams were betrayed and ambushed. The younger Skywalker was successful in disabling Centerpoint, but all the other teams failed in their objectives, while the fleet, under the command of the increasingly unstable Admiral Matric Klauskin, retreated and instead occupied Tralus before Klauskin suffered a complete mental breakdown.[31]

Due to Jedi involvement in the attacks, public backlash on Corellia was fierce. Mirax was put under house arrest by the government, but Horn moved the five young Jedi students to safety; Valin and Jysella were already active as Jedi offworld. Horn stayed in hiding living in a secret chamber in the Jedi enclave and guarding the apparently-abandoned facility from looters. The other Corellian Jedi Horn had trained remained in hiding with the students. Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker arrived on an intelligence-gathering mission after the assassination of Five World Prime Minister Aidel Saxan during negotiations, and Luke Skywalker spoke with Horn. Horn asked the Grand Master to evacuate the students, to which he agreed.[31]

The Second Fleet was driven off Tralus, and the situation remained a tense standoff.[31][30] Jacen Solo accepted a position in the Galactic Alliance military, taking command of the newly-created Galactic Alliance Guard to combat terrorism on Coruscant sparked by Corellian nationals, causing Pellaeon's resignation and the promotion of Admiral Cha Niathal to Supreme Commander to replace him. While the Jedi Council urged caution, Solo began rounding up and interning Corellians on Coruscant. This outraged the Council members, Horn foremost among them. With the other Jedi safely offworld, he had departed Corellia and was serving safely on Coruscant. When the Council began debating Niathal's proposal to blockade Corellia to bring it into line, Horn objected, feeling it would only serve to rally support for the contrarian world. The conversation quickly turned to the GAG, however, and the participation of Solo and Ben Skywalker in it. The Masters urged Skywalker to withdraw the two Jedi from the group, though he ultimately did not; as Solo was not formally a Jedi, he lacked authority over him, and he wanted to let his son make his own decisions. The Council decided to go ahead and support the blockade, feeling it would be a better step than waging war. As the blockade took hold and Dur Gejjen became the new Five Worlds Prime Minister, the Council urged negotiations, which Omas attempted to initiate; he was, however, rebuffed.[30]

The Council was additionally disturbed by the revelation that the Sith Lady Lumiya, Darth Vader's former apprentice, had reemerged after a thirty-year absence from the galactic scene, killing Council member Tresina Lobi and seemingly targeting Skywalker's family. Alema Rar, too, thought dead on Tenupe, had returned with a vendetta against Leia Organa Solo.[33] As the Corellian government grew more ruthless, Antilles, who had accepted a position as Supreme Commander of the system's forces, retired due to differences with Gejjen's administration. A public ceremony celebrated his retirement, but it was clear to him that he would be a possible target for assassination. Iella Wessiri Antilles contacted the Horn family and Horn was able to aid Antilles's escape just in time. Horn and Antilles' intelligence-trained daughter Myri shadowed him, and immediately after the ceremony, Antilles did indeed come under attack by assassins disguised as Jedi. Horn eliminated them and helped Antilles escape. They took refuge in a hangar at Elmas Spaceport, laying low and performing maintenance on their fighters and the Pulsar Skate in preparation for eventually fleeing the world.[32]

That night, Horn sensed Leia Organa Solo at the spaceport. While surveilling her arrival and waiting to make contact, he and the others noticed the approach of Corellian Security forces. They raided the hangar in which the Solos and Calrissian, opponents of Gejjen, were berthed, but the Horn-Antilles party launched. Horn shot the TIE Crawler menacing the others' yacht from his X-wing. Horn and Antilles shot down the corvette blocking their escape vector, clearing the way for the Pulsar Skate and Calrissian's Love Commander to escape to orbit with them, using Calrissian's codes to evade the Galactic Alliance blockade.[32]

They traveled to the Kuat system, where they docked aboard the Errant Venture. In order to gather information, the Solos suggested Terrik move the flying casino to the Corellian system, and got the ship approved to operate in the exclusion zone of the blockade, where it proved a popular form of recreation for the Galactic Alliance military members. While most of the others gathered information at the tables, Horn, Antilles, and Organa Solo remained sequestered, working on analyzing the data the others brought in. They looked for information suggesting that someone was pulling the strings of the growing war, with several manipulations seeming to indicate it. However, they could find no evidence that the war was manufactured; only that certain events were influenced. During a group session, Myri Antilles suggested that the events had split up the Skywalker-Solo clan, seriously harming their effectiveness. Horn commended the analysis, and the Solos decided to attempt to address that point. In short order, the Skywalkers arrived on a mission to contact Jacen Solo, and brought with them knowledge of techniques useful against Rar's memory-manipulating abilities, which they shared.[32]

Immediately thereafter, the Galactic Alliance forces came under attack by a fleet made up of supporters of Corellia's stance, members of the freshly-formed Confederation. Horn and Antilles scrambled to defend the Star Destroyer and were quickly joined by Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker in their StealthXs. Forming the impromptu Ganner Squadron—named for Horn's old partner, who had died during the Yuuzhan Vong war holding back an incredible amount of warriors—they flew to protect the Errant Venture until it could withdraw. Horn flew as Antilles's wingman, engaging a full squadron of I-7 Howlrunners as they came at the Venture, drawing attention as the Skywalkers used their stealth fighters to sneak astern of the frigate advancing on the Venture and cripple it. Horn and Antilles shot down seven of the opposing fighters before they withdrew to protect the frigate. While Antilles continued to protect the Star Destroyer, Horn peeled off with the Skywalkers to help make a difference in the main battle. The battle, however, was a loss, and the blockading forces had to retreat.[32]

War with the Confederation[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Dialogue3 Horn returned to Coruscant with the Skywalkers, where a Jedi Council session was held. They discussed issues related to Ben Skywalker, who had gone missing, information which had emerged about Lumiya suggesting that Ben Skywalker had killed her daughter in a duel at the very beginning of the war, and the fact that the Galactic Alliance was pressuring the Jedi to expel Leia Organa Solo, who was suspected of cooperating with the Corellians. Horn argued against expelling her, and his position was supported by the rest. Meanwhile, Fondor, Bespin, and Adumar joined Commenor, Bothawui, and Corellia in the Confederation, increasing the threat it posed.[32]

Horn continued to cooperate with the Solo-Antilles group, now with Jagged Fel, Jaina Solo, and Zekk, all tasked with eliminating Rar, added. Still based on the Errant Venture, which had moved to the Coruscant system, they shared information the Solos had come across stating that the Confederation planned a major conference at Gilatter VIII to elect a supreme commander. They also had information that Rar was aboard the Errant Venture, tracking the Solos. They set up a trap for Rar, with Zekk distracting Rar while Horn moved into position to capture her. She shot a poisonous dart at him when he revealed himself, but he caught it and saved it for analysis before engaging her in a lightsaber duel. Rar quickly pulled down a chandelier and fled, and Horn stayed behind to pull passengers to safety; Rar had been flushed into the next stage of the trap. The Twi'lek, however, escaped due to a Galactic Alliance military program that kept the hangar from being able to be sealed with military personnel aboard.[32]

With the Gilatter VIII data falling into the hands of the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi were requested to provide a StealthX presence for the ambush they planned. Horn was one of the pilots who scouted the system and helped position ships for the ambush. However, the situation proved to be an elaborate trap. They received warning from Jacen Solo just before it was sprung, allowing the Galactic Alliance fleet to battle its way out with minimal losses.[32] As the war accelerated, Horn and the Jedi Council increasingly felt that the Skywalkers should act to reign in Jacen Solo. When Dur Gejjen was assassinated, the Council held an emergency session, debating the ramifications of that and of Mandalore's rearmament. Only a few days later, Omas was arrested by Solo and Niathal on charges of conspiring with the enemy, and using a newly-introduced provision in the law, the two succeeded him as interim co-chiefs of state. Another emergency session was called for. The Council debated just what they could do in the situation; they decided to speak with Niathal and continue trying to remove Lumiya, whom they suspected of influencing the issues.[34]

When Jade Skywalker, who was tracking Lumiya, went missing, there was concern; when Luke Skywalker sensed her death in the Force, there was an outpouring of grief. Skywalker was in the Hapes Cluster tracking her; distraught, he handed over control of the Council to Horn. Horn contacted Skywalker, expressing his sympathies at the loss of a woman who was his friend as well, and offered his and the other Jedi's aid in tracking down the culprit. Skywalker, however, assured him that he would handle it, and that he was closing in on Lumiya. Horn was concerned that it was a trap, but Skywalker pressed on, and succeeded in killing Lumiya. On later information from Ben Skywalker, however, it was determined that Lumiya could not have been Jade Skywalker's killer.[34]

Tiedosto:Mara-funeral.jpg
Horn, far left, attends the funeral of Mara Jade Skywalker.

Skywalker was shaken by having killed the wrong person and became withdrawn and morose, worrying Horn and the other Jedi Masters. Just before the funeral, Horn and the other Masters sensed a disturbance nearby, which Horn, receiving a security feed through an earpiece, was able to confirm was the result of a GAG squad's attempt to arrest the Solos on their way to the funeral. Organa Solo had been intended to deliver the eulogy, and Horn and the others asked Sebatyne to do so instead. The eulogy was interrupted by the late arrival of Jacen Solo and by Jade Skywalker's body dissipating, becoming one with the Force. Afterward, Skywalker, realizing he had been neglecting his duties in his grief, spoke with the other Masters, was told what had occurred, and stepped back to a full leadership role.[35]

Skywalker took a wing of Jedi StealthXs to Balmorra, where the Confederation was preparing an attack and Jacen Solo was leading the defense. Skywalker allowed the battle to begin before contacting Solo, offering his assistance; the ploy was designed to make an impression on the increasingly dark Solo while still trying to show Solo that cooperation would be better than competition. Horn was one of the pilots who targeted the ships of the Commenorian fleet, crippling the enemy vessels. Solo was performing some intimidation himself, having had his GAG troops take control of the academy on Ossus, ostensibly to provide security but clearly holding the children as hostages to compel Jedi cooperation. From that battle, the Jedi proceeded to Kuat, its vital shipyards the target of a Confederation offensive. They planned to cut through the Confederation fleet, disabling its ships for the multiple Galactic Alliance fleets gathered for the defense. Horn did not like supporting the Galactic Alliance with Solo at the head, but the Jedi leadership decided that it was better than allowing the Confederation to win. However, when news came that Omas had been assassinated while under house arrest and Ben Skywalker was present, Grand Master Skywalker was outraged and withdrew Jedi cooperation from the Galactic Alliance, convinced Solo had gotten his son involved and was betraying the trust the Jedi had tried to extend to him.[35]

Jedi resistance[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote The Jedi departed Kuat, moving on to Kashyyyk, where, declared enemies of the state by Solo, they sought refuge with the Wookiees. They had decided it was time to begin resisting Solo's regime. Solo, however, learned of this and brought the Fifth Fleet to attack. When the Wookiees would not surrender the Jedi, he began bombarding the world. The Jedi prepared a counterattack on the fleet, with their StealthXs providing openings for the Wookiee fleet to drive off the Fifth. It also served as a diversion to allow Skywalker to infiltrate the Anakin Solo, Solo's flagship, and disable the long-range turbolasers he was using to bombard Kashyyyk. The Jedi believed that Skywalker had perished in the attack, but this was the result of a powerful trick played by the Grand Master to allow him to infiltrate the Star Destroyer, and within a day he emerged triumphant, having disabled the turbolasers, dueled and wounded Solo, and rescued his son from Solo's clutches. With the aid of a Confederation fleet and a Hapan one under Tenel Ka Djo, formerly one of Solo's greatest supporters, the Fifth was driven away and action began to put out the massive forest fires started by Solo's bombardment.[35]

The Jedi moved to hiding on Endor, setting up a secret base at the abandoned Imperial base there. At Skywalker's orders, Durron put together a plan to target Solo, and the Council members on Endor discussed it over one of their customary melee sessions, in which the Jedi Masters practiced combat in a free-for-all brawl that kept them all sharp. Seha Dorvald, a Jedi trainee, was to be the mission's guide. A former denizen of the Coruscant undercity, she had until recently been a secret agent for Solo, who had taken her from the undercity and brought her to the Jedi. Horn, not quite trusting her, tested her in an interview until he was satisfied with her loyalty. Horn volunteered to lead the team, but Katarn was selected instead. While Horn did not participate, his son Valin was a member of the team that confronted Solo, escaping safely after planting a tracking device on him.[36]

Skywalker brought Antilles, Terrik, and Karrde into the resistance movement, and with their resources was able to plant a more powerful tracking device on the Anakin Solo and raid its computer for information. In a complementary attack at the same time, Horn flew in the Jedi Red Sword Flight to cover an attempt by Skywalker and Durron to attack Solo. However, Solo proved to be out in a fighter himself, and Skywalker targeted him, with Horn helping herd him away from the Anakin Solo. However, when additional Galactic Alliance fighters arrived, Horn had to help hold them off, and when Skywalker sensed a young girl in the cockpit with Solo, he broke off the attack. They had attacked in the midst of a battle between the Galactic Alliance and Confederation, but that engagement was cut short by a blast from Centerpoint Station, reactivated and used in an ambush.[36]

They returned to Endor, where Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo of Hapes arrived seeking Jedi help. Solo had kidnapped her daughter, Allana, in order to pressure the Hapans into supporting him, and Skywalker volunteered to retrieve her. Meanwhile, Fel, Zekk, and Jaina Solo succeeded in killing Rar. When Celchu, who remained a general with the Galactic Alliance, arrived, Horn was part of the summit Skywalker held, declaring that he planned a simultaneous strike to disable Centerpoint Station and rescue Allana as Solo made an attack on the station. To cover the strike team's insertion aboard Celchu's shuttle, Horn flew in Rakehell Squadron, a mixed squadron under Antilles's command that would chase the shuttle aboard Anakin Solo. Horn flew as Rakehell Five, leading the second flight with the Jedi Twool as his wingmate. As the battle began, the Rakehells began harassing the Reveille, following it to the Anakin Solo before peeling away. They then moved on to harassing the troop shuttle on which the Jedi strike team for Centerpoint, disguised as GAG troopers, traveled to Centerpoint and docked, after which they were pounced on by Rogue Squadron. Horn was able to handle battling his own unit, but his wingmate Twool was killed. When the Anakin Solo strike team had seized Allana and was ready for extraction, the Rakehells flew cover for the Millennium Falcon as they escaped and Centerpoint was destroyed.[36]

The Jedi continued battling Solo, who had taken Horn's own former student, Tahiri Veila, as his Sith apprentice. Finding his co-chief of state, Niathal, more sympathetic, they aided her at the Battle of Fondor, in which she finally separated herself from Solo—who the Jedi learned was a Sith Lord and the killer of Jade Skywalker—forming a Galactic Alliance government-in-exile at Fondor.[37] The Jedi established their new secret base on Shedu Maad, deep in the Transitory Mists of the Hapes Cluster. There they came to the conclusion that the Jedi needed to strike at Darth Caedus, as Solo was now calling himself. In the midst of a war council on the Imperial Remnant's attack on the independent Verpine, in which Horn argued that the Imperial Remnant may have been acting on its own, not yet fully under the control of Caedus, Jaina Solo returned from her training at the hands of Boba Fett. After the Jedi agreed to target the Galactic Alliance supply convoys out of the Roche system, Solo argued that she ought to be the one to go after Caedus, which Horn felt was too risky, preferring that Skywalker be the one to confront the Sith. When Skywalker revealed that he would not go after his nephew due to his visions of the future suggesting that such a course would end in darkness, Solo was chosen to target her brother instead.[38]

When Skywalker learned that Caedus was on Nickel One in the Roche system, he prepared a plan of attack. He had Horn stand down the Wookiee forces that would have escorted the Jedi strike, instead relying on the Mandalorians, allies of the Verpine, to provide fighter cover. The Jedi attacked the Roche system, with Jedi blastboats escorted by Mandalorian Bes'uliik fighters making runs against the Imperial fleet in the system while Jedi StealthXs used the distraction to attack the command post. In the midst of the assault, Solo would be inserted onto Nickel One to engage Caedus. The plan went off smoothly, but Solo was only able to wound Caedus before being forced to withdraw.[38]

Caedus, however, was able to trace Solo through a Nightsister blood trail technique and thereby discover the base's rough location. The Jedi arranged an ambush in the narrow safe approach through the Transitory Mists to Shedu Maad, and Horn served as the battle controller for the Jedi force, which was working with the Queen Mother's Hapan fleet. Working from Uroro Station, Horn saw to the launch of the Jedi fighters against the Anakin Solo and the Super Star Destroyer Megador. Solo boarded the Anakin Solo and killed Caedus while Skywalker led the Jedi in torpedo attacks on the Star Destroyer. Horn and the other Jedi Masters led fifty Jedi in boarding the Anakin Solo and taking control of it, at which point they were able to dictate peace terms to the Moff Council aboard the ship. With Ben Skywalker having redeemed Veila, the Sith threat was over. The Jedi then were able to bring all parties into negotiations and bring about a resolution to the war.[38]

Family crisis[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:CorranHornTCG.jpg
Corran Horn, seated

In 43 ABY, Horn was scheduled to make a presentation at a major reunification summit involving the Galactic Alliance, Imperial Remnant, and Confederation, as was Mirax. Taking the rare opportunity to gather the family together, all the Horns booked a suite at the Kallad's Dream Vacation Hostel on Coruscant. The morning before the summit commenced, Horn returned from a briefing by the other Jedi for his deposition later that day on government relations to find his son threatening Mirax in the kitchen, convinced she had been replaced with an impostor. When Horn ordered Valin to put his lightsaber down, Valin instead attacked, equally sure that Horn was another impostor. Horn was able to defend himself, and when Valin fled through another room, off a balcony, and onto a docked speeder. The elder Horn followed him and again had to defend himself, until Mirax arrived and stunned Valin.[39]

The Horns covertly rushed Valin to the Jedi Temple to attempt to figure out the source of his sudden mental condition. They missed the opening ceremonies of the Unification Summit, after which Grand Master Skywalker was arrested on charges of dereliction of duty in failing to prevent Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side, all as part of Chief of State Daala's political ploy to exercise control over the Jedi. Jysella arrived to be with her family, who waited in anguish as Cilghal examined Valin. Skywalker arrived after being released on his recognizance, and recognized Valin's manipulation of the electroencelphaloscan to prevent a brain scan as a demonstration of a Force technique Jacen Solo had used.[39]

That night, Valin escaped the Jedi Temple, though Skywalker did not have the Horns alerted until after he was recaptured. With the Galactic Alliance now alerted to his condition, a compromise was worked out in which Valin was kept in the neutral Mon Mothma Memorial Medical Center under a mixed guard. The Horns were constantly at his bedside, but doctors remained clueless as to the nature of his condition. Meanwhile, Skywalker accepted a plea bargain for his charges, seeking to set an example that the Jedi were not above the law. He was stripped of his position in the Order and exiled for ten years, commutable or pardonable if he could find the cause of Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side and present a way to avoid its recurrence. Horn was among many tearful friends who saw Skywalker off from Coruscant. In Skywalker's absence, Kenth Hamner was made the Master of the Order.[39]

With the political situation somewhat defused, Valin was returned to Jedi custody. Meanwhile, as Hamner attempted to improve the Jedi's image, Horn and all the other Jedi were assigned individual observers, to whom they had to report at random intervals and who would follow them whenever they left the Jedi Temple. When Horn's former student Tahiri Veila, having left the Jedi Order after the Second Galactic Civil War, won her legal battle to avoid having an observer, Daala retaliated by having Galactic Alliance Security seize Valin. Horn was aghast when the Galactic Alliance sentenced Valin Horn to imprisonment in carbonite until he could be treated. He immediately began calling in favors from old friends, many of whom held senior ranks in the Galactic Alliance armed forces, but they could do little to advance Horn's case. The burden on the Jedi lightened when the Galactic Alliance High Court struck down most of Daala's restrictions on them, including the observers, on the appeal of Horn's old friend Nawara Ven.[39]

Not long afterward, Jysella Horn succumbed to the same madness while in the Jedi Temple. Escaping outside, she was seized by Galactic Alliance forces and immediately committed to imprisonment in carbonite. The familial connection led to implications from the press and Chief of State Daala that the Horns' parenting was to blame, or that a genetic abnormality was present. Horn, devastated by the loss of his second child to the inexplicable insanity, considered the possibility that there might actually be a genetic element in play, and was willing to give DNA samples to Cilghal for analysis. First he tried to see his daughter, but the Galactic Alliance denied access to the Horns. He was swiftly summoned to a Council meeting, in which he vented his frustrations and offered his cooperation with Cilghal—but rejected Hamner's request to report immediately for an examination, instead insisting on continuing his efforts to see Jysella.[9]

When Natua Wan also exhibited the same madness and was captured by the Jedi, journalist Javis Tyrr released a sensational report on the incident she caused, and exposed the fact that Seff Hellin, another mad Jedi, was being held secretly within the Temple and studied, with only Cilghal and a handful of other Jedi knowing of it. At an emergency meeting of the High Council, Horn supported keeping Hellin and Wan under observation, even though it would lead to a clash with Daala, who was increasingly determined to control the Jedi. Horn's faction, determined to stand up against Daala's power plays, lost the debate. While the Jedi were allowed to retain Hellin and Wan, they were publicly humiliated and forced to admit wrongdoing.[9]

When Jedi Knights Bazel Warv and Yaqeel Saav'etu exhibited the same psychosis and were quickly captured by the Jedi, the Galactic Alliance obtained a warrant for the pair and demanded that they be surrendered into government custody. The Council had to convene to discuss whether or not to accept the validity of the warrant. After much debate, they came to the conclusion that all the insane Jedi should be covertly transferred to the Jedi training facility still on Shedu Maad, outside of Daala's jurisdiction. They then turned to the issue of Tahiri Veila's arrest by the Galactic Alliance on charges of assassinating Gilad Pellaeon during the Second Galactic Civil War. Horn supported their conclusion of hiring Nawara Ven to represent her and beginning a public opposition of the arrest as politically motivated, pointing out the unequal treatment given to other facilitators of Caedus's rise. During the meeting, Han and Leia Solo arrived and warned the Council that they had learned Daala was preparing to hire Mandalorians for use against the Jedi.[40]

When Jaina Solo proposed a plan to strike back against Daala in the battle over public opinion, Horn agreed to participate even though his grief would be made public. He and his wife, along with several senior Jedi, gained a writ from Judge Arabelle Lorteli, Daala's appointed judge for the Court of Jedi Affairs, granting them visitation rights for Valin and Jysella, then arrived at Daala's secret prison, a Galactic Alliance Security blockhouse near Palem Graser Office Tower, with the media in tow. They demanded that they be granted the right to see the two carbonite-frozen Jedi, exposing the secret prison. They were taken not to cells but the executive offices, where Horn's children had been put on display as trophies. Outraged and saddened, Horn and his wife were subjected to the press's questioning until the prison commandant, Colonel Wruq Retk, arrived. Mirax punched the large Yaka, knocking him unconscious and leading the other security personnel to insist on arresting her. Horn and the other Masters protected her, but the standoff was only ended when the media made the threat of arrest seem ridiculous and Daala, newly arrived, agreed that there would be no prosecution. She questioned the competency of the judge who had issues the writ, implying he or she had been a weak-minded fool under Jedi mental influence, completing the Jedi public relations coup when it was revealed that her handpicked appointee, Lorteli, had been the judge in question. The display of his children was ended, much to Horn's relief.[40]

Personality and traits[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:Corrancrop.jpg
Horn in 41 ABY.

Though he strongly believed in his instincts, Horn believed in using his brain and thinking through problems rather than working by feelings; this analytic tendency remained even as a Jedi.[1] Horn was an extremely tenacious and relentless individual.[41] He was extremely competitive, and strongly disliked being beaten in anything. A hard worker, he always strove to be the best at anything he attempted.[1] Part of the reason he drove himself so hard was that he feared failing others.[16] Horn was able to admit to himself that he had a strong ego, and did not like being wrong. He had to put this aside during his Jedi training, simply being himself and avoiding arrogance in order to channel the Force effectively.[1] In his time as a Jedi, Horn was able to do so, moving beyond his former pridefulness to accept the Jedi philosophies of humility and self-control.[15]

While Horn was proud of his Jedi heritage, he was initially wary of taking it up, feeling unready to sacrifice his normal life for the way of the Jedi. He avoided playing his father's message in order to keep from feeling even more conflicted.[42] When Mirax was kidnapped, he played the message and realized that he had to train as a Jedi, not only because it was his father's wish but because he knew it was the right thing to do with his gifts. When Horn made his own lightsaber, he went through a crucible of his own, realizing that he could no longer act without thinking things through, he had to accept responsibility for doing as much good as possible, and always strive to be a better person and protector of the innocent. He made a complete commitment, a dedication of his life to the Jedi way.[1]

While Horn was determined to protect civilians during his time in Corellian Security and the New Republic, he was more interested in looking out for himself during the dangerous period when he was on the run from the Empire. He felt it too risky to put himself in danger to aid others unless they were in extremely serious or if he had brought their predicaments upon them.[43][44][45] Outside that difficult period, however, Horn was extremely willing to give his life to protect others as a security officer, a soldier, and a Jedi, and when facing lethal situations he was able to comfort himself with the idea that his death would save others, leaving him calm and focused.[43][1]

Horn had a tendency to blame himself for any negative situation he was in, though he was willing to reconsider his initial instincts to blame himself when confronted by another person or by new information.[1] Skywalker urged him to end this practice, considering it a manifestation of Horn's ego that he took responsibility for situations that frequently were not of his making.[29]

After his time on Garqi, Horn was left something of a loner, distant from others and with difficulty trusting them. It took Lujayne Forge to help him integrate into the squadron.[43] However, he remained wary of being vulnerable and opened himself only to a few friends. By nature and his time with CorSec, Horn was highly suspicious of others, a tendency Luke Skywalker urged him to reduce.[1] While he did become more trusting of his allies, he was constantly wary and cautious in dangerous situations.[26]

Horn remained extremely defiant in the face of capture, mocking Ysanne Isard even during his time in Lusankya.[46][41] He was also flippant, dismissive, and confident toward the spirit of Exar Kun when it spoke to him, though this was based on a mistaken assumption that Kun's spirit could not act to harm him in the material world.[1]

While he had many romances as a young man, Horn believed in having stable relationships and not basing his romantic encounters on simple lust.[41] Horn also believed in strong family relationships, and he himself had an extremely positive relationship with his father, whom he considered a friend as much as a parent.[47] He looked up to him and felt that he could share his problems with Hal, to whom he looked for moral guidance. They made an excellent team, and were drawn even closer by the death of Horn's mother. The death of Hal Horn left the younger Horn feeling lost, without his mentor.[43] He felt emotionally adrift and without his moral compass. Leaving Bastra and Wessiri when he escaped from Corellia made him feel even more alone. Only with his joining Rogue Squadron did he find companionship again, and Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu provided role models to fill the roles Hal Horn and Gil Bastra could no longer fill. However, Horn's uncertainty over whether he could trust Celchu led him to feel betrayed and angry with him, though he acknowledged that this was not a logical feeling.[41]

On Corellia, Horn regarded the Empire as an intrusive, unneeded presence, and wanted to limit its interference as much as possible. In general, he felt that the Empire was evil and oppressive, yet he regarded the Rebellion as a criminal group and had no problem imprisoning its members, especially as a Rebel presence gave the Empire more justification to intervene in Corellian affairs.[48] However, he was willing to work alongside Rebels and against the interests of the Empire if he felt that he was achieving a greater good.[44] He eventually joined the New Republic in order to protect galactic citizens against what he saw as Imperial tyranny, though he was still not entirely comfortable with the New Republic's criminal roots and accepted association with smugglers in its early days.[43]

Horn believed that the Jedi Order best served the Force through serving the New Republic and then the Galactic Alliance. That, in his opinion, was the best path to a stable, peaceful galaxy, and he also believed it was vital that the Jedi answer to some outside authority so they could not abuse their power.[28] He also believed that the Jedi should serve the greater good foremost, not succumbing to sectional or personal attachments. He believed strongly in love and in family, but knew they had to be put second, behind a Jedi's commitment to the Order.[31]

Horn loved to fly, and was irritable when he was unable to. Even when operating with his cover identities between leaving Corellian Security and joining the New Republic, Horn managed to fly at least once a week.[43] Another enjoyment, less significant, was art. Horn's mother volunteered with the Coronet City Museum of Fine Art, giving Horn a chance to take in a great deal of art as a young man, and he developed a taste for art and ability to analyze it.[48]

Powers and abilities[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Horn was able to enter a state in which he was calm and centered, giving him better reflexes and helping him avoid being shot even before he realized he was Force-sensitive.[43] Sometimes in combat, he was able to enter an even more advanced state in which time seemed to slow, giving him incredible reflexes and foreknowledge of others actions.[42] This ability was further developed by his Jedi training under Skywalker.[1] Another ability he had while still untrained was the capacity to implant thoughts in individuals, though he did not even realize he was doing so, an artifact of his strong talent with the mind trick power.[48][46]

Tiedosto:Corran-illusion.jpg
Horn uses his abilities to project an illusion while defending the Skywalker wedding.

Horn learned many basic Force abilities at Skywalker's Praxeum. His precognition was refined, and he learned to sense through the Force, expanding his senses and using the Force as a new sense entirely. He also gained the capacity to erect a shield through the Force, and the ability to protect his mind from mental probes by other Force users, as well as masking his Force presence almost entirely.[1] Healing was another of the skills he mastered, as was speeding his movements through the Force.[1][39] During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Horn participated in Jedi Battle melds, linking several Jedi mentally for greater battle coordination.[24]

Like all Halcyon Jedi, Horn lacked significant telekinetic abilities, and it took great strain to make a stone so much as wobble. He made up for them with a powerful affinity for mind tricks, implanting thoughts, sensations, and images in others, and a great skill in the absorption of energy, also Halcyon traits. When absorbing energy—electric, heat, Force, and otherwise—Horn was able to redirect it into telekinetic feats, but it took such an infusion of power to do so.[1]

Horn was quite skilled with a lightsaber, and many Jedi students regarded him as an elite combatant.[49] His Force abilities also aided his already considerable talent as a pilot.[1]

Relationships[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Chertyl Ruluwoor[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Around six months after his father's death, the Annual CorSec Awards Ball took place. Usually, each male CorSec officer bought into a pool, the winner of which was originally given the right to take the Director's daughter to the ball. Over the years, it became a tradition in which a female officer offered herself as the prize, and the proceeds from the lottery system went to the Survivors and Orphans Fund. That year, however, the prize was, unknown to her, Chertyl Ruluwoor. A female Selonian, Ruluwoor was part of a transfer program with CorSec. No one wanted to have to take her to the ball, but Horn, miserable from his father's death, decided that there was no point in making anyone else be separated from loved ones.[41]

He persuaded the significant others of all the other officers in the pool that the pool was rigged to cause that officer's ticket to win the pool. He let them sell him their tickets, eventually gaining every single ticket in the pool. He gave all the proceeds to the Survivors and Orphans Fund and went all-out to make Ruluwoor's night special, flying across the planet to pick up the proper flowers and renting a repulsorlimo. Ruluwoor made a stunning impression at the ball, and later she and Horn, who had hit it off, made love. While Horn enjoyed the experience immensely, he proved allergic to her fur and her skin was irritated by his sweat, resulting in an uncomfortable experience for both afterward. Knowing their relationship would not work out, they parted amicably.[41]

Iella Wessiri[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Tiedosto:Iella.jpg
Iella Wessiri.

Horn had a close friendship with Iella Wessiri, his Corellian Security Force partner. They were merely friends until one incident in which Wessiri saved his life in a battle at a glitterstim dealer's warehouse. Horn felt extremely grateful, and began to feel that he was in love with Wessiri, a married woman. She responded similarly, but before they could do anything, they were separated and debriefed. Horn did not see her for another two days, at which point he had realized his attraction had been the result of the emotional comedown from combat.[43] Neither ever again considered a physical or romantic relationship, and Horn was glad that they had not taken a step he felt would have ruined Wessiri's marriage and their friendship.[43][41]

Siolle Tinta[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote At some point during his partnership with Wessiri, Horn was assigned to protect heiress Siolle Tinta. They got along very well due to their similar views on art, and during the three days they spent together in a safehouse, they had a brief but fiery romance. In short order, however, Wessiri caught the potential kidnapper threatening Tinta and she no longer needed protection. Horn quickly realized that their time together had merely been an infatuation that would not have worked long-term. They parted as friends.[1]

Erisi Dlarit[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Dialogue2

Horn and Erisi Dlarit were both pilots in Rogue Squadron during its rebuilding. While they socialized, Horn was first approached romantically by Dlarit in the aftermath of the Battle of Vladet. She told him that she had feared for her life when the Lancer-class frigate arrived, and suggested that she was feeling physically grateful. Horn told her that what she was feeling was merely the aftereffect of combat, citing his experience with Wessiri. He let her down gently, as even though he was physically attracted to her, he was uncomfortable with her attentions. Horn did entertain some ideas of a relationship with her, however, and found her extremely appealing. Yet, he declined a fairly direct invitation to sleep with her before the Second Battle of Borleias due to his need to sleep, though even he considered himself a fool for doing so.[43]

During their mission to Coruscant, Horn and Dlarit posed as a telbun and his mistress, sexual partners. However, Horn held back from becoming intimate with her, justifying his decision as for mission security and confused by his feelings for Mirax Terrik. He ultimately realized that she came from an entirely different society—she was accustomed to wealth and opulence and Horn simply was not. He did not feel he could be a part of her world, as it did not fit him. When she attempted to seduce him in their hotel room, however, Horn nearly gave in to his desire to be with her before he decided that it would be a mistake to begin a physical relationship when he knew their emotional one would not work out. He stopped their encounter and explained his feelings to Dlarit, who accepted them. With separation from her during the later stages of their mission planning, Horn decided that any possible relationship between the two would be a disaster. They simply were not compatible.[41]

Horn ultimately decided to pursue a relationship with Mirax Terrik, and his realization that Dlarit was a traitor to the New Republic destroyed any remaining interest he might have had in her.[46][41] They found themselves on opposite sides of the Bacta War, and Horn ended up killing her in the Battle of Thyferra.[47]

Mirax Terrik Horn[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote Horn first met Mirax Terrik when she ferried him from the Chorax system to Talasea when his fighter was disabled. They originally did not get along well, each blaming the other for his or her father's activities; Hal Horn had tracked down the notorious smuggler Booster Terrik and had him imprisoned on Kessel. However, Wedge Antilles quickly intervened to tell each of them that the other deserved respect. When Horn was restricted to quarters after the Battle of Vladet, Terrik brought him a care package, and they talked, sharing a ryshcate and whiskey, during which time Horn realized that he greatly enjoyed her company. The night before the Second Battle of Borleias, Terrik was sleeping in Horn's quarters due to Qrygg offering her his bunk. She and Horn spoke, with Horn feeling cut by her denial of feelings for him when she acted jealous of Dlarit's attentions to Horn. She subtly invited Horn to sleep with her that night, looking for cause to hate him in the morning, but Horn, feeling that he would be using her to avoid his own feelings of loneliness and nervousness, declined.[43]

Tiedosto:Mirax1.JPG
Horn's wife, Mirax.

Horn enjoyed spending time with Mirax and enjoyed their shared Corellian heritage. While he considered her merely a good friend, he was willing to admit that he could fall in love with her if he let himself. After working alongside her during their infiltration of Coruscant, Horn realized that he wanted a romantic relationship with her, and asked her out just before he flew to bring down the shields. She agreed, but their courtship was disrupted by the fact that he was shot down and captured.[41] Horn's escape from Lusankya allowed them to reunite, and their relationship swiftly turned serious. They began cohabiting almost immediately. When Horn met her father, he and Booster Terrik did not get along, but that did not deter him from his relationship with Mirax. Before the Battle of Thyferra, he decided to propose to her. He was overjoyed when she accepted. They were married quietly by Wedge Antilles aboard the Lusankya when news of the engagement broke, but followed it up with a more formal ceremony on Coruscant.[47]

They enjoyed a comfortable married life on Coruscant, though first Zsinj, then Thrawn, and then Palpatine kept them from spending too much time together as Horn was called away to fight. They had some thoughts of having children, but were kept from seriously discussing the issue until after the reborn Palpatine's defeat.[1][42] At that point, Mirax brought up the issue, and Horn, who disliked children, was resistant. However, continued thinking on the subject resulted in his looking forward to becoming a father. Mirax's kidnapping by Tavira's forces interrupted any plans and forced him to take up his Jedi heritage when he rescued her. After that ordeal, Horn was ready to have children.[1] He and Mirax did so two years later, naming their son Valin, after Horn's father.[3] Valin was followed three years later by a daughter, Jysella.[9] Horn's love for Mirax stayed strong throughout their marriage even though their careers forced them to spend much time apart, and with the passage of time, he and her father even managed to get along.[32]

Leonia Tavira[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]

Malline:Quote

Leonia Tavira.

When Horn infiltrated Leonia Tavira's Invid pirate gang, he learned that she had an extremely strong taste for men, frequently taking sexual partners from among her subordinates. When Tavira began flirting with him during his debriefing after the Battle of Xa Fel, Horn moved preemptively to cut off any thoughts of a relationship, outraging the warlord. In response, she took as her lover Remart Sasyru, Horn's rival among the Survivor pilots. Horn himself acted to cut off the possibility of a sexual liaison precisely because he knew that, despite his love for Mirax and belief in remaining faithful to her, he was physically very attracted to Tavira and did not trust himself not to give in.[1]

After Horn beat Sasyru senseless during an incident in which Horn protected several Caamasi, Tavira executed Sasyru, Horn's subordinate, for his behavior in provoking the fight and refusing orders. She then came to Horn and strongly attempted to seduce him, telling him that he would become her lover willingly. She kissed him, exciting Horn against his better judgment, and ordered him to make his decision regarding becoming her partner in a month. Horn felt guilty about his attraction to her, and did not want to consider the tempting logic that said sleeping with Tavira would help him find Mirax more quickly. Horn was able to reject that idea, and instead devoted himself to destroying the pirate sanctuary on Courkrus. He rescued Mirax and forced Tavira to flee without the Jensaarai that made her so formidable, breaking her power.[1]







Tästä jakuu Mos Eisley -käännös, joskus, kun jaksan...

Paikat[muokkaa | muokkaa wikitekstiä]


  1. 1,00 1,01 1,02 1,03 1,04 1,05 1,06 1,07 1,08 1,09 1,10 1,11 1,12 1,13 1,14 1,15 1,16 1,17 1,18 1,19 1,20 1,21 1,22 1,23 1,24 1,25 1,26 1,27 1,28 1,29 1,30 1,31 1,32 1,33 1,34 1,35 1,36 1,37 1,38 1,39 1,40 1,41 1,42 1,43 1,44 1,45 1,46 1,47 1,48 1,49 1,50 1,51 1,52 1,53 1,54 1,55 1,56 1,57 1,58 1,59 1,60 1,61 1,62 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä I, Jedi ei löytynyt
  2. Wizards of the Coast logo.svg "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 1" Wizards.comissa (alkuperäinen artikkeli, linkit varmuuskopioihin)
  3. 3,0 3,1 3,2 3,3 3,4 3,5 3,6 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä The New Essential Guide to Characters ei löytynyt
  4. Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
  5. Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
  6. Wizards of the Coast logo.svg "Rebel Jedi" Wizards.comissa (alkuperäinen artikkeli, linkit varmuuskopioihin)
  7. Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Jedi Academy ei löytynyt
  8. 8,0 8,1 8,2 8,3 8,4 8,5 8,6 Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen
  9. 9,0 9,1 9,2 9,3 Omen
  10. 10,0 10,1 10,2 10,3 10,4 10,5 Specter of the Past
  11. Assault at Selonia
  12. 12,0 12,1 12,2 12,3 12,4 Vision of the Future
  13. 13,0 13,1 Star Wars: Union
  14. 14,0 14,1 14,2 The New Jedi Order Sourcebook
  15. 15,0 15,1 15,2 15,3 15,4 15,5 15,6 15,7 15,8 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Onslaught ei löytynyt
  16. 16,00 16,01 16,02 16,03 16,04 16,05 16,06 16,07 16,08 16,09 16,10 16,11 16,12 16,13 16,14 16,15 Dark Tide II: Ruin
  17. The Official Star Wars Fact File 90
  18. 18,0 18,1 Balance Point
  19. 19,0 19,1 19,2 19,3 Edge of Victory I: Conquest
  20. 20,0 20,1 20,2 20,3 20,4 20,5 20,6 Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
  21. 21,0 21,1 21,2 21,3 21,4 Star by Star
  22. 22,0 22,1 22,2 22,3 22,4 22,5 Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
  23. 23,0 23,1 23,2 Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
  24. 24,0 24,1 24,2 24,3 24,4 Destiny's Way
  25. Ylesia
  26. 26,0 26,1 26,2 26,3 26,4 26,5 26,6 26,7 26,8 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä The Final Prophecy ei löytynyt
  27. 27,0 27,1 27,2 27,3 27,4 The Unifying Force
  28. 28,0 28,1 28,2 28,3 28,4 28,5 28,6 28,7 Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
  29. 29,0 29,1 29,2 29,3 29,4 Dark Nest III: The Swarm War
  30. 30,0 30,1 30,2 Bloodlines
  31. 31,0 31,1 31,2 31,3 31,4 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Betrayal ei löytynyt
  32. 32,0 32,1 32,2 32,3 32,4 32,5 32,6 32,7 32,8 Exile
  33. Tempest
  34. 34,0 34,1 Sacrifice
  35. 35,0 35,1 35,2 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Inferno ei löytynyt
  36. 36,0 36,1 36,2 Fury
  37. Revelation
  38. 38,0 38,1 38,2 Invincible
  39. 39,0 39,1 39,2 39,3 39,4 Outcast
  40. 40,0 40,1 Abyss
  41. 41,0 41,1 41,2 41,3 41,4 41,5 41,6 41,7 41,8 41,9 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Wedge's Gamble ei löytynyt
  42. 42,0 42,1 42,2 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Isard's Revenge ei löytynyt
  43. 43,00 43,01 43,02 43,03 43,04 43,05 43,06 43,07 43,08 43,09 43,10 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Rogue Squadron ei löytynyt
  44. 44,0 44,1 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Family Ties ei löytynyt
  45. Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Missed Chance ei löytynyt
  46. 46,0 46,1 46,2 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä The Krytos Trap ei löytynyt
  47. 47,0 47,1 47,2 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä The Bacta War ei löytynyt
  48. 48,0 48,1 48,2 Viittausvirhe: Virheellinen <ref>-elementti;viitettä Side Trip ei löytynyt
  49. Emissary of the Void
  50. 50,0 50,1 50,2 50,3 50,4 50,5 50,6 Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley
  51. 51,0 51,1 51,2 51,3 Secrets of Mos Eisley
  52. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
  53. Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy
  54. 54,0 54,1 54,2 Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide