Mission to Danuta

"This is too easy."

- Kyle Katarn

The Mission to Danuta was an early operation of the Galactic Civil War and the second phase of Operation Skyhook.

The mission
Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial-turned Rebel agent, was sent into an Imperial facility to take a supplemental set of the Death Star plans. He infiltrated the complex with the assistance of Meck Odom, an Imperial officer and longtime friend who gave Katarn information on when to pass through the south perimeter gate, how to enter through an air shaft, and what kind of security to expect inside the facility. Odom was further able to override the south perimeter gate's collateral security systems, which were his duty to watch.

Simultaneously, Jan Ors secured an escape route with the Moldy Crow by destroying the Imperial TIE Fighters at Trid's spaceport; all but one were destroyed on the ground. Guaranteed that no fighters would pursue them, Ors then staged a diversion at the Trid facility by detonating a small bomb near the north perimeter, forty-five minutes after Katarn was to enter the base, and then flying by in the Crow fifteen minutes later to fire upon any personnel who were sent to investigate. It was during this run that she destroyed the base's AT-ST and killed Major Horst, the facility's officer-of-the-day, who had decided to investigate the perimeter disturbance personally.

During this diversion, Katarn cut through the station's reduced defenses, reached its control room, and located the plans. Despite his skill and adrenaline, Katarn was on a few occasions saved by dumb luck, and in the most intense moments of fighting he found himself beginning to draw on the Force to sense things before seeing them&mdash;a reliance he did not yet fully understand.

Aiming to preserve his accomplice's anonymity, Katarn wounded Odom with a careful shot that incapacitated without killing him. After retrieving the memory matrix, Katarn then met Ors and the Moldy Crow at the rendezvous point on the roof, escaping with the plans that ensured the obtainment of a complete layout of the Death Star.

Behind the scenes
The mission is the demo, as well as the introduction of the game ''Star Wars: Dark Forces.

A secret of that mission concerns the discovery of a secret area near the facility. It contains a room decorated with busts of Palpatine and hosts several bonuses, like an extra life.

The briefing states that the mission belongs to the "second phase" of Operation Skyhook. It tells us nothing about which was the first phase and what missions comprised the phases of the whole operation.

In the original game, this mission is one of the few that Kyle undertakes completely alone (without the help or input of Jan Ors), and it is portrayed as relatively simple to the extent that Kyle even calls it "easy." The novella Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire expands on the background and mission itself, adding the contributions of Meck Odom and Jan, and it describes the Trid facility as much more heavily guarded than the gameplayer (who is only seeing a portion of the mission) might have believed.

Appearances

 * Dark Forces
 * Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire
 * Star Wars: Lethal Alliance