Mission to Mawan

"Too busy, the Senate has been ... But ignore Mawan, they can no longer. Ripples of evil, open worlds have. Affect the galaxy, they do. Asked the Senate has for a Jedi presence to help establish a provisional government committee. To have the trust of the Mawans, [our most able] diplomat we need."

- Jedi Grand Master Yoda.

In 25 BBY, four members of the Jedi Order embarked on a mission to the planet of Mawan, to put down an insurgency of lawless criminals and to establish a provisional government committee. Conditions there had reached an impasse: the planet had suffered a disastrous civil war a decade earlier, which the natives referred to as the Great Purge, and the Galactic Senate could no longer ignore this Core world. Its degeneracy was producing ripples that negatively affected the whole galaxy.

The once-beautiful world had been utterly decimated by its internal conflict: its government and capital-city infrastructure had vanished, its citizenry had become a jobless and homeless underground mass, its space lanes went unmonitored, while famine and the influx of criminal elements had now made it an "open" and lawless planet.

Grand Master Yoda traveled there in his Republic cruiser, accompanied by Jedi Master Yaddle, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker. Master Yaddle, who spent most of the journey in meditation, was to serve as the warrior-diplomat the planet so desperately needed to convince the criminal factions that it was in their best interest to vacate the planet immediately.

Prelude to a Jedi's death
"It's Anakin. I need to speak to you about something ... I've had a vision ... It's come three times, and I need to make sense of it."

- 16-year-old Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker to his Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Since their mission to Andara, the Master-Padawan team of Kenobi and Skywalker had suffered a mild civil war of their own: it was an emotional-spiritual conflict that had set a debilitating distance between the two, damaging the delicate ties of interpersonal communication and their overall relationship. The memory of how, by his unthinking actions, he'd so deeply hurt his Master felt to Anakin like "a knife in his heart," and it haunted him. He missed Obi-Wan's dedication to him in helping him to be the best Jedi he could be, but now, ever since Anakin had violated that essential core of trust between them, and he'd received a reprimand from the Jedi High Council, the duo seemed to have lost their rhythm, which, until it was no longer there, Anakin had not realized had developed to the degree that it had. His Master seemed, more than anything, cautious towards him. And he couldn't even remember the last time he and Obi-Wan had teased or joked with one another. There were shadows between them now. For Obi-Wan's part, he wanted to give his 16-year-old Padawan room and time to reflect, as his own Master Qui-Gon Jinn had given him, to come to terms with his own feelings and achieve a deeper connection to his core. His apprentice needed to understand that a little distance between them did not mean their relationship's core was threatened. But Kenobi resolved nevertheless to use the mission to Mawan to work out some of their differences.

Since the Andaran mission, young Skywalker, moreover, had had another Force vision. It had come to him just after having surfaced from a cool afternoon swim in the indoor lake at the Jedi Temple, near the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He was sitting underneath the waterfall, enjoying the spray of its mist, when the peaceful scene of rushing water suddenly gave way to a furious rush of air, so severe in its intensity that it hurt his ears, and the unfolding vision's surging images, like pulses of light, overwhelmed him: he saw himself commanding a massive fleet; he witnessed a slave-revolt of hundreds shouting his name; he beheld his mother Shmi in Mos Espa embracing him and heard the sound of her binding cuffs drop to the ground at the touch of his hand upon them. But with one last crescendic explosion of light and sound, he knew he'd somehow lost her forever, and everyone he'd ever loved. The dream ending, he heard the echo of strange words: The One Below remains below.

It was the third time Anakin had experienced this particular vision, which had manifested itself in different forms and intensities. He was left troubled and wearied by the vision, for this time it had seemed to him so real, unfurling in its most intense incarnation yet, its most insistent manifestation. And while he immediately confided the dream to his Master, neither Jedi was clear about its meaning. When they consulted Grand Master Yoda, the ancient Jedi sage gave the meaning of the One Below as being a Koban title, referring to the centuries-long imprisonment by Advozsec warlords of Yaddle, the revered Jedi Master who was of the same species as Yoda. That she was about to leave on a very troubling mission to the planet Mawan was no coincidence: Yoda felt that Anakin's dream was a warning and the answer to the Council's debate about which Jedi team to send with her to address the grave situation that existed there. The visionary Padawan was disappointed at his dream's interpretation, for he had hoped that the time had come at last when he might "step out of his dreams" and return to Tatooine to free the slaves, but most importantly, his own mother. As the diplomatic Jedi team embarked to Mawan, Anakin Skywalker, normally excited at the prospect of new missions, could only feel a dread that he could not understand.

Arrival on Mawan
"What are they buying and selling?" "Weapons. Spice. Illegal medicines they will sell to the unfortunates in the galaxy. Fortunes are being made down there. And those fortunes are built on the ashes of our civilization."

- Euranna Fall briefs Anakin Skywalker about the criminal-trading activity on the planet Mawan.

Arriving in Mawan's formerly thriving capital city of Naatan—an important stop on the Hydian Way, the Core's primary trade route—Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had visited the world before, was dismayed at how much the cosmopolitan center had decayed. The desolation of lives and property was everywhere evident. Except for the criminal gangs—led by three primary crimelords: Striker, Decca the Hutt, and Feeana Tala—all had "gone underground" to live in the infrastructure tunnels, according to Euraana Fall, the city native who came to greet the Jedi and to serve as their liaison with the planet's diverse factions. What had made the city so beautiful before the Great Purge was that all goods had been transported below the city, then airlifted to the surface, with all computer centers and control links remaining below as well, leaving a beautifully landscaped city of parks, cafés, restaurants, schools—full of laughter, music and rich conversation. What remained now was a garish mishmash of rebuilt architecture over the city's half-destroyed buildings, with criminal-element inhabitants selling and making their fortunes from weapons, spice, and illegal medicines being sold to untold numbers of the galaxy's unfortunates.

Landing in a large courtyard in a little-used area of the city, the group made their way to an old abandoned meeting and concert hall, which seemed amazingly untouched by war, where they would set up their center of operations. Here they were introduced by Euraana to their tunnel-worker representative contacts, who served as the go-betweens for the crimelords above and the citizens below—Swanny Mull and Rorq, a pair of short, stocky, pale-complected Mawans. The tunnel workers had set up temporary crimelord-run markets, from which the underground dwellers (living throughout 20 sub-levels across Naatan's breadth) were forced to buy their food and goods. The tunnel workers were paid for their services by both factions, and both parties had come to depend on the tunnel workers, whom they called "subrats," to bring them provisions and keep their generators operational. The citizens further depended on them secretly as scouts, to help protect them from crimelord raids. Because they were enjoying their new-found power, however, the majority of tunnel workers weren't giving the citizens their full support, as they didn't want them to regain control over the city, which would only force them down the food-chain again.

As for the crimelords themselves, of the three, Striker was the most powerful and dangerous. It was he who first managed to seize from Decca the capital city's power grid and a large cache of weapons, while the Hutt was able to hold on to Naatan's main tunnels and transports. Feeana Tala, though not as powerful as the others, controlled most of the goods and services sold to the majority of citizens beneath the capital. Not seen by many, Striker had directed from afar his personal operators on Mawan through the years, and he'd only dropped in on the planet from time to time. But now his presence was felt constantly. With the Jedi now in their ranks, it was the citizens' duty now to work with Yaddle to retake the city and its power grid, while Kenobi and Skywalker would focus on persuading the crimelords to leave the planet, and so avoid repercussions from the Senate of sending galactic security forces to enforce its will.

Strange alliances
"I'm not really a crimelord. Think of me as a thief who does well ... Because of the greedy leadership of my government, I lost my home. I was forced underground. At first, I stole to feed my family. Then I stole to feed other families. Then I needed a cut of what I stole in order to keep stealing. Then I needed a few others to help. Before I knew it I had a gang. I supply the Mawans with what they need to survive. Without me they'd be at the mercy of Decca and Striker. At least I am loyal to Mawan. I am a Mawan first, a criminal second. Amnesty shouldn't be hard to give."

- Crimelord Feeana Tala, to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Soon Swanny and Rorq led Kenobi and Skywalker underground to observe one of Feeana Tala's temporary markets set up there for the mutual benefit of thieves and citizen-dwellers. Almost immediately the crimelord's keen senses locked in and she had the Jedi duo surrounded by her troops. When Kenobi had convinced her that they were indeed Jedi diplomats, she sat them down to negotiate: after hearing about their straightforward aims for her planet and the imminent arrival of the Senate security forces, she requested—when asked her desire if her cooperation was given to the provisional government committee—amnesty and a place in Mawan's new government. This strange alliance of Jedi and Crimelord was set when all were in accord, but Kenobi knew he and Anakin had to move fast to neutralize Decca and Striker if they were to maintain Tala's loyalty.

Next, Rorq and Swanny helped Kenobi and Skywalker to infiltrate Decca's stronghold in perhaps a stranger alliance still. They did this by having the two Jedi perform as part of Swanny's band at one of Decca's celebratory "revels," traditionally held by the Hutt and her cronies after any defeat against Striker. Obi-Wan took the vioflute, and Anakin, the keyboard. At the vast substation party, which the Rooters (both old and new) had crashed, a plethora of swaggering beings from across the galaxy downed "flameouts" as all feasted on meats and pastries. Decca the Hutt arrived to heave her enormous bulk upon her custom-built repulsorlift platform festooned with shimmersilk pillows; her lieutenants, including her two-tailed Kamarian assistant, jockeyed for position around her while some forty gang members milled about. After some time, Decca signaled for Swanny and the Rooters to cease their music, so that she might give a brief declamatory speech against the Jedi, who, rumor had it, had just arrived on the planet to drive them all away. As Decca concluded her words, a huge explosion rocked the substation: a group of Striker's men had attacked Decca's compound. In the commotion, as Kenobi fought to protect Swanny and Rorq while pursuing Decca, Anakin was blown off his feet by a thermal detonator. Although lucky to be alive, he lost his lightsaber (later recovered by Kenobi) and hauled away in a refuse bin and taken before Striker—he'd been captured.

Filling in the Blank
"Look, Master Obi ... The reason Striker is so effective is because nobody knows anything about him. They don't know where he came from. They don't know his name. They don't know where he lives. They don't know when he'll strike again ... He could be anywhere."

- Swanny Mull, to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Finding himself in a much larger substation now, amidst a far sleeker, more professional operation than the shipshod or chaotic ones run by Feeana and Decca, Anakin, to his utter shock, faced again their greatest enemy: Granta Omega.

In the Jedi effort to restore peace to the planet, Striker, who by mission's end was revealed to be Granta Omega, was able to capture Skywalker (once again). But this time it was Omega's wish to kill the meddlesome Padawan, along with all of Mawan, by unleashing a bioweapon. While Anakin was prepared to deal with the dihexalon bomb himself, Yaddle assured him that he must instead pursue his special destiny as the Chosen One. Yaddle thus protected Skywalker by intercepting the bioweapon herself and using the Force to defuse it, but she sacrificed her own life in the process.

Despite this, the mission was a success for the Jedi, even though Omega fled. But in his escape, this elusive nemesis of the Jedi Order finally revealed to Kenobi his true identity: he was the son of Xanatos and grandson of Crion. While Kenobi was utterly astonished by this news, he realized that it all made sense now: Omega had obviously inherited not only his father's fortune from Offworld Mining Corporation, but also his father's intense hatred of the Jedi.

Aftermath
Yoda was able to convince the planet's transitory government leader to establish a base on Mawan. The Jedi then departed back to Coruscant with the body of Yaddle.

Yaddle's body was taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant where it was given a traditional Jedi funeral, but one of particularly high and special honor. Her position on the Jedi High Council was taken by Togruta Jedi Master Shaak Ti.

Appearances

 * Jedi Quest: The Shadow Trap