Raid on the Armand Isard Correctional Facility

"Seff, things will be a lot better if you just surrender."

- Tahiri Veila to Seff Hellin

The Raid on the Armand Isard Correctional Facility was a rescue mission attempted by rogue Jedi Seff Hellin&mdash;who was affected by the same illness as Jedi Knight Valin Horn&mdash;in 43.5 ABY. Hellin hoped to free Horn, who had been encased in carbonite and placed in the Armand Isard Correctional Facility, a prison named by Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard after her father, Armand Isard. The Galactic Alliance and Darkmeld&mdash;a covert organization recently formed by Sword of the Jedi Jaina Solo&mdash;both hoped to capture Hellin.

As his raid began, Hellin was attacked by two Darkmeld members: Imperial Remnant Head of State Jagged Fel and bounty hunter Tahiri Veila, but he managed to defeat them. As he neared his goal, however, they attacked again, and he was unable to free Horn before he was forced to escape. During his escape, he knocked out another Darkmeld member, former Intelligence operative Winter Celchu. After escaping from the prison, Hellin was caught by Galactic Alliance bounty hunters Dhidal Nyz and Zilaash Kuh. Jaina, however, freed him from the bounty hunters, knocked him out, and loaded him into a speeder piloted by Darkmeld affiliate Mirax Terrik Horn, Valin's mother. A speeder chase ensued, with the bounty hunters and several security speeders pursuing them, but, with the help of Fel and Veila, Jaina and Mirax managed to shake off all of their pursuers. Hellin was taken to the Jedi Temple, where he was to be studied in secret by Mon Calamari Jedi healer Cilghal.

Prelude
"He has to be evaluating the prison defenses. So he can break Valin out."

- Jaina Solo to Tahiri Veila, after the latter saw Seff Hellin near the Armand Isard Correctional Facility

In 43.5 ABY Jedi Knight Valin Horn came down with Force Psychosis, a disease which made him believe that everyone he knew&mdash;except for other beings suffering from the disease&mdash;had been replaced by imposters. He was caught by his family and placed in the Jedi Temple. He escaped later that night, but after a destructive rampage he was finally caught and placed in the Mon Mothma Memorial Medical Center, a hospital named after the Rebel and New Republic leader Mon Mothma. After Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker's trial and exile Horn was moved back to the Jedi Temple, but he was eventually taken by the Galactic Alliance, frozen in carbonite, and placed in the Armand Isard Correctional Facility, a prison on Coruscant. Rogue Jedi Seff Hellin, who suffered from the same disease, was compelled to free Horn. Hellin was spotted outside the prison by former Jedi Knight and Sith apprentice Tahiri Veila, who&mdash;in the years since the Second Galactic Civil War&mdash;had become a bounty hunter. She was also a member of Darkmeld, a secret organization formed by Sword of the Jedi Jaina Solo to counter Chief of State Natasi Daala's efforts to undermine the Jedi Order. Veila informed Jaina of the sighting, and they realized instantly that Hellin's intention was to break Horn free. They also realized that if they could capture Hellin, they would be able to study the disease, and hopefully come up with a cure for it.

Hellin created an intricate plan for getting in and out of the prison undetected. Meanwhile, as a last minute adition, Jaina and Imperial Remnant Head of State Jagged Fel decided to add Mirax Terrik Horn to their group of conspirators for her contacts, skills, and funds, despite the fact that Mirax would have to keep their existence hidden from her husband, Jedi Master Corran Horn.

First Confrontation
"Tell your comrades to come on in. I want to see who they're impersonating."

- Seff Hellin to Tahiri Veila

A few days later Hellin put his plan to free Horn into motion. He went down a tunnel through a hole he burned the permacrete outside the prison. He was intercepted in the tunnel by Veila and Fel, who were going by the codenames of Sand and Gaunt, respectively. Hellin thought Veila was an imposter, and, because of Fel's Mandalorian armor, Hellin thought he was a Mandalorian. Hellin attacked them, sending Fel flying backwards with the Force. Hellin and Veila began a lightsaber duel. Fel stood and shot a stun bolt at Hellin, who deflected the shot into Veila's leg. Hellin turned and ran for a blast door that led into the prison, and threw a thermal detonator at Veila. Fel picked up Veila and took off running down the tunnel. Hellin Force-pushed the detonator, keeping it rolling after them. When Fel and Veila were far enough away that the blast probably wouldn't kill them, Hellin triggered the detonator. Hellin knew that the blast would make the prison guards think that there had been a fuel explosion outside the prison, or that someone was trying to break free; so his entry would&mdash;at least, temporarily&mdash;remain a secret. Hellin then began melting through the blast door with his lightsaber.

Fel's Mandalorian armor protected him and Veila from the blast, and Darkmeld member and former Intelligence agent Winter Celchu&mdash;codenamed Hoth&mdash;called in to check on them. Fel informed her of the situation, and told her to bring in the rest of Darkmeld.

Escape
As Hellin neared his goal, he was confronted by three security guards in a turbolift. He quickly incapacitated them and moved on, fuzzing holocams as he passed them. He reached the room in which Horn was being kept and began to melt his way through the blast door with his lightsaber. Veila, however, was not far behind. She reached the corridor he was on and began jumping up and down in front of one of the holocams, in an attempt to draw all of the security guards to the area. Hellin quickly made it through the blast door and found the carbonite slab which held Valin Horn. Hellin moved towards it and attempted to release him, but an error code came up, and an alarm went off. Then Fel, who Hellin still believed to be a false Mandalorian, came through the door. Hellin slashed at him with his lightsaber, but Fel caught the blow on his beskar crushgaunts. Hellin continued the attack, but failed to land a blow on anything but the impenetrable armor. Then Veila came into the room as well, and, realizing he wouldn't be able to fight off his combatants and be able to free Horn, Hellin Force-threw the slab of carbonite containing Valin at Fel and Veila. Veila dodged it, but Fel wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way and was knocked aside. Hellin then ran out of the room, leaving the carbonite slab in the doorway to block the exit behind him. He ran down the corridor to the turbolift shaft and jumped blindly in, dropping a few meters. Luckily for Hellin, the lift was above him, and it slowed to a halt at the corridor which he had just left behind. Security guards looking for him took to the corridor, slowing down Fel and Veila's persuit.

Hellin continued his escape route, returning to the tunnel which he had used to enter the prison, when&mdash;as he passed by the place where his thermal detonator had exploded&mdash;he was cut off by more security troopers. He Force-flung the debris created by the detonator blast at the troopers and then charged them, quickly incapacitating them. He then took a blaster rifle from one and a pistol from another. As he made for his escape, Winter attempted to cut him off. He quickly shot her with a stun bolt from the rifle. Sensing the presences of many security guards closing in around him, Hellin made a break for a shaft to the surface.

Capture
Outside the prison, Mirax Terrik Horn, codenamed Credcoin for the operation, arrived in a speeder she had stolen from outside her family's suite. She spotted Hellin escaping and flew towards him, but was sideswiped by a cargo hauler piloted by bounty hunter Zilaash Kuh, who was working for the Galactic Alliance. Kuh's Quarren partner, Dhidal Nyz, fired an electric net at Hellin, who attempted to dodge the shot. The net, however, was too large, and wrapped about Hellin and immobilized him, sending paralyzing electrical surges through his body every few seconds. The connecting cable from the net to the gun went taut and Hellin was yanked into the air behind the moving cargo hauler. Jaina&mdash;codenamed Slicer&mdash;arrived on the scene, having managed to ditch her Jedi supervisor, Dab Hantaq, minutes earlier, and saw the bounty hunters capture Hellin. She contacted Mirax, who was coming back around in her speeder, and told her to go after Hellin, who was being dragged along through the air. The cargo hauler passed over Jaina, who threw her lightsaber at the cable connecting the net to the gun, and severed it. Hellin fell from the sky, still paralyzed by the electric net, and Jaina slowed his fall with the Force, still letting him hit the ground hard enough to incapacitate him. She then knocked Hellin out with a swift blow to his head with her lightsaber hilt. Mirax quickly landed the speeder beside Jaina, who lifted Hellin aboard and climbed in. The bounty hunters came around in pursuit, and four of the prison security's speeders took off after them. Not far behind, Veila and Fel&mdash;carrying with them the unconscious Winter&mdash;quickly stole a speeder and joined the chase as well.

Speeder Chase
"Running out of time. As soon as they get more pursuit on Jaina, this becomes a chase we can't win."

- Tahiri Veila to Jag Fel

Five security speeders&mdash;one piloted by Veila&mdash;and the cargo hauler followed Mirax and Jaina. Mirax flew them into a tunnel used for maintanance and waste haulers. Veila quickly maneuvered past two of the security speeders, passing just above the second one so that their speeder's repulsor wash knocked the security speeder into the wall; and it crashed to the tunnel surface, rolling. Veila then piloted up underneath the bounty hunters' cargo hauler, and Jag&mdash;fighting the hauler's repulsor wash&mdash;slowly stood up and began destroying servos and repulsor nozzles with his crushgaunts. At last he found an auxiliary energy cell, which exploded as he squeezed it, peppering him with shrapnel. Smoke poured from the area, and the cargo hauler slowed, falling behind Veila's speeder.

Meanwhile, in Mirax's speeder, Jaina injected Hellin wih a sedative. Then, turning back to the nearest pursuing security speeder, she Force-pushed it sideways into the tunnel wall, holding it there until the pilot was forced to decelerate and drop to the ground in order to keep control of the vehicle. She repeated this process twice more, until the only speeder remaining was Veila and Fel's. She then guided the group out of the maintanence tunnels to a small niche off of a major thoroughfare, where they parked the speeders.

Aftermath
Winter removed all forensic evidence from the two speeders, so that they could not be traced back to any of them. Fel was returned to the Imperial Remnant embassy. Veila, Mirax, and Winter met up with Tekli&mdash;a Chadra-Fan Jedi healer and Darkmeld affiliate&mdash;back at the speeder hangar of the Jedi Temple, where nearby Jedi Masters would be less likely to sense them. They met up with Jaina, who had had to return to check in with Hantaq, but was free of the supervisor once more. They took a turbolift to the second medical level, where Tekli opened up a special chamber which only she and Master Cilghal were authorized to enter, and strapped Hellin to a bed inside.

The next day the raid was all over the news. Suspicion fell upon the Jedi Order, but there was no hard evidence of their involvement. Galactic Alliance Security forces under the command of Captain Oric Harfard arrived at the temple to take Hellin into custody, but acting Grand Master Kenth Hamner told them truthfully that he did not know where Hellin was. Mirax and the non-Jedi members of Darkmeld also escaped scrutiny, as the only being who had been close enough to them to recognize any of them during the raid was Seff Hellin.

Later, Hantaq revealed to Jaina that he knew what she did, but had no proof, and so planned to do nothing about it. She then returned to the room where Hellin was hidden, and found Cilghal inside. The Mon Calamari Jedi Master decided to help them run tests on Hellin in order to find out more about the disease that he and Valin had suffered.

Behind the Scenes
The Jedi had been robbed of their chance to study the mysterious psychosis that Valin Horn had developed when he was encased in carbonite, but this raid provided them with a new subject to study, so the hope for potentially finding a cure was salvaged.

Appearances

 * Outcast