Mission to Haariden

The Mission to Haariden took place in 26 BBY.

The Galactic Senate and the Jedi High Council dispatched a team of Jedi Knights to the planet Haariden—a world embroiled in civil war—to rescue and retrieve five Republic scientists who had traveled there on an environmental research mission that emphasized titanite mapping, sponsored by the Galactic Senate.

Caught between the planet's warring sides, the scientists included Fort Turan (mission leader), Tic Verdun (scout, Force Blank Granta Omega in disguise), Joveh D'a Alin, Talie Heathe, and Reug Yucon.

Prelude
Beginning in 37 BBY, when the potential for titanite mines was discovered, the planet was caught up in a civil war over land disputes and future mining rights. It was later discovered that the mineral could, in its synthesized form, produce a key component in bacta—but titanite was extremely rare and hard to mine, usually buried so deep near a planet's core that, traditionally, it always cost more to extract than it was ever worth.

Arrival on Haariden
During this time of conflict, the political climate of Haariden was volatile, and outsiders were not welcome. Each side in the civil war thought the Senate was in league with the other—thus all visitors were vulnerable to attack. Roving militant patrols posed a constant danger and threat. They knew that the new defensive arrivals protecting the scientists were Jedi, but didn't care, as they were out for revenge. Their bravado would later shock Kenobi, who paused to wonder at the state of the galaxy in which a world such as Haariden, even only a short time ago, would have respected the Jedi or at lease feared the Senate enough not to attack a rescue mission.

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were assigned to the Jedi mission, along with Master Soara Antana and her Padawan Darra Thel-Tanis. But as the Jedi team escorted the scientists across Haariden's dangerous, war-pocked terrain, they encountered heavy enemy fire in a violent attack by the Haariden squads, and Thel-Tanis was wounded in the leg with a chemically charged blaster bolt.

A void in the Force
The Jedi, from the moment they arrived on the planet, had also felt a repressive darkness that seemed to hang in the air and dim the strength and power of the Force. The feeling affected 14-year-old Skywalker more so, Kenobi detected, as his Padawan was sensitive to the dark side of the Force, feeling it sooner and deeper than Obi-Wan had at his age. Kenobi could also feel a disturbance in the Living Force within the wounded, unconscious Thel-Tanis, which deeply worried him. It was later determined that this dark, foreboding sensation emanated from Force Blank Granta Omega, masquerading as one of the rescued scientists, "Tic Verdun," who in the Jedi's very presence had somehow been able to hide himself in the Force. Omega had done this the year before, in 27 BBY, on the planet Ragoon VI.

As Thel-Tanis was recuperating in a local village shelter, the Jedi team contacted the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and the High Council committed itself to pressuring the Haaridens for a cease-fire, something, however, that would clearly take some time, as no one on either side of the civil war knew exactly who was in charge. The Temple also promised to send a medic for Darra, but that would still take a couple of days.

Dark thoughts
Meanwhile, as Kenobi and Antana set out to make a preemptive nighttime strike against the unsuspecting Haariden patrols camped at the edge of the besieged village, "Tic Verdun" approached Skywalker, who was guarding Thel-Tanis, to satisfy the curiosity of a "scientist" about the nature of the Force (for Omega was a Force Blank, not a Force-sensitive). Anakin was grateful that the Force "sustained" him, but at the same time, it seemed so vast, complex, and unfathomably deep that he often felt "lonely." Picking up on the boy's thought, Verdun observed, almost as if he understood more than he should: "And you will never truly understand it ... yet you will spend your life trying. And sometimes you ask yourself, is it worth it? Is it foolish of you to devote yourself to trying to know the unknowable?" To which Anakin countered, repeating a Jedi saying: "Wisdom is not what we seek ... Wisdom can only be found." Verdun smiled: "We are lucky to have you with us." Seeming to Anakin both younger and somehow wiser than he'd at first thought, "Tic" had made him feel better, something which the boy hadn't thought anyone was capable of doing. (Anakin, rather downcast, had felt responsible for Darra's injury because of his own overconfidence and lack of trust in the ability of others to protect themselves.)

Peace talks
Having been able to avoid bloodshed while incapacitating the Haariden troops, Kenobi and Antana learned that they'd been paid by "an outlander" to split off from their main unit to attack the Jedi. They then asked the patrols what this wealthy stranger looked like. But, strangely, the troops could not recall his aspect, were oddly unable to remember anything whatsoever about his appearance—which was, Kenobi realized, one of the tell-tale marks of a Force Blank. Even so, the troop captain, Noq Welflet, did know the outlander's name, and gave it freely: Granta Omega. Kenobi, feeling a shiver, had already suspected as much, but he could not understand why Omega continued to hunt him and his Padawan. He knew unequivocally that Omega was not a Sith nor a Force-sensitive being. Omega, did, however, enjoy collecting Sith artifacts and somehow knew how to expertly cloak his presence in the Force. To have such a capability, and to become so neutral in the Living Force as to fade from the memory of the people who met him, was testament to Omega's power. That he was cunning and viewed the Jedi as despicable was abundantly clear, though exactly why was anybody's guess.

Taking leave of the soldiers, who were weary of warfare but who nevertheless would return to their unit, the Jedi backtracked to the village, regrouped with their Padawans and scientists, then trekked safely to their transport, where all boarded with weary relief. Were it not for Darra and the scientists, Kenobi would have stayed on Haariden with Skywalker to hunt Omega down—for twice attempting to murder Jedi—and bring him to justice. But, once again, justice would have to be postponed.

Coruscant conundrums
"That was your last lesson ... Before this, I had been impressed with your gifts," Soara said. "I had thought you had the potential to be one of the great Jedi fighters of all time. I thought I could teach you. Now I have grave doubts about you, Anakin." Anakin could not believe what he was hearing. "What did I do wrong?" "That question is the problem ... That is what is wrong. You don't know what you did. Didn't you feel your anger, Anakin? Didn't you realize it was fueling the battle? ... Ferus did not fight from his emotion ... That is the lesson you must learn ... It is the most important one of all ... You will feel the emotion. You must let it go."

- Master Jedi lightsaber artist Soara Antana counsels Padawan Anakin Skywalker.

Arriving back on Coruscant, Kenobi was yet determined to get to the bottom of the Omega mystery. With the help of Temple archivist Jocasta Nu, he discovered that Omega's business interests, like his homes, extended across the galaxy; he had many acquaintances but no friends. The man hid behind a blank wall that he himself created—virtually invisible. As a speciality, he ferreted out rare minerals, bought out their sources, created shortages, and raised their price: he kept his enormous wealth diversified and hidden in countless secret accounts. Yet with all this, Omega remained an enigma, and it would be extremely difficult to track him down.

Meanwhile, at the suggestion of Master Yoda, Anakin underwent individualized lightsaber training with Soara Antana, a master of the art; Soara was a tough teacher whose stern, unadorned instruction Anakin grew to appreciate. She sought to help him deflate his own exalted ego, for it made him weak, endangering others. Through Antana's intense routines and matchless direction, Anakin reached a point where he felt for the first time that he'd glimpsed a future in which his connection to the Force and his lightsaber skills would be so meshed that, one day, he would truly be the best he could be. But in the final test Soara presented him, Anakin failed. In a surprise attack in the Room of a Thousand Fountains after a long, intense day of training, as Anakin was retiring at last to have a meal, she pitted him against his nemesis at the Temple, Padawan Ferus Olin, and the duel was fueled by Skywalker's anger. Though Anakin won the fight and technically had never fought so well, Antana advised him that, ultimately, he had lost, for he had not learned the most important one of all: to conquer his emotion by letting it go.

Temple revelations
In his further research on Omega, Kenobi discovered what should have been obvious from the start: that Omega could not have been specifically hunting Kenobi and his apprentice on Haariden. In fact, he was already on the planet, absorbed in something else, could not have known the Jedi were there, nor had time enough to plan for his attack. Omega's preoccupation at that time had been with the mineral titanite, about which it was only recently discovered that, in its synthesized form, a substance could be extracted from it that was a key component in bacta. Moreover, one of Omega's vast land holdings was on the planet Thyferra (the only place the alazhi plant grew, to produce alazhi lotion—bacta's main ingredient), thereby opening up the way for Omega to corner the galactic market on bacta. Indeed, one of the Republic scientific expedition's aims was to map the mineral to get a complete picture of where the titanite deposits were, in order to persuade the planet's two warring sides to come to an agreement.

But Omega was a native of Nierport Seven (a small moon orbiting Eeropha in the Colonies, less than a day's travel from Coruscant) and a star student, whose own scientific training had been superb: graduating in 33 BBY from the All Science Research Academy on Yerphonia, to launch straightaway into his planned ventures, he never had made a practice of employing many people. Neither did he himself now require a scientific team, nor wish for the Republic's science team to submit its report to the Senate (that report would stay unfinished and inconclusive as long as the fighting on Haariden continued, and so prevented the scientists from completing their tests).

Skywalker, on his way back to the Temple from an intensive early-morning training session with Antana, noticed a man dressed in deep blue veda cloth sitting on the edge of the Senate fountain. The man waved to him, and Anakin was astonished to realize that it was Tic Verdun, one of the scientists from Haariden. But he looked completely different from the weary and disheveled scientist that he'd remembered. Greeting Anakin warmly, Tic expressed his regret at Haariden's warring tribes that might have been placated, perchance, had his expedition team been able to finish their tests and report to the Senate—for then the titanite deposits, knowing their true extent and where they lay, might have been equitably divided among both groups, to the satisfaction of all. Verdun then informed Skywalker of "another scientist" he'd run into, performing his own tests on the planet. If they could contact him, Tic explained, they might yet find a way to resolve the crisis: his name was Granta Omega. Surprised that Verdun knew of Omega, Anakin disclosed that the Jedi desired to contact him as well. Tic offered to pursue any lead he might find at a small Coruscant reunion he was attending with friends and science and business associates, and then let Anakin know. The boy, as he bid farewell and continued to the Temple, was enthusiastic: he wouldn't tell his Master yet, while he conducted research of his own, for wouldn't it be amazing if he were the one to find Omega?

Moonscape inquiries
Arriving on the cold, desolate satellite of Omega's youth, Obi-Wan Kenobi began his investigation in earnest. Entering the "Food and Drink" café, situated like the rest of the settlement around its refueling station, Kenobi treated the patrons he approached with a round of their native Claing juice. While he found many who had known Granta Omega as a youth, none knew very much about him. Nor had any ever seen a Jedi Knight on the moon. Even so, Kenobi learned that a young Omega, to attend school, had left Nierport—and his mother Tura, who worked at the refueling station and died shortly thereafter. He never returned, not even for his mother's funeral.

One of the café patrons offered to show Obi-Wan the small, rounded-wall house where Omega had lived. It was now the property of a space pilot. From the bleak, single-room structure with only a stove and a bedroll there was nothing to detect or learn—just like Omega himself, a blank. But the patrons did disclose that it was the boy's own brilliance that got him offworld, certainly not by the financial means of his mother, for she had no means, although she did find him an Eeropha sponsor—the Senator Sano Sauro, who sent Omega to "the scientific institute". Kenobi, unsurprisingly, felt a chill, for Sauro was the prosecutor who had grilled him mercilessly a decade earlier in his investigation of Padawan Bruck Chun's death. Though at peace now about the tragic incident, Kenobi wasn't looking forward to meeting Sauro again. Giving the café patron a few credits for his service and time, Obi-Wan departed the frozen wasteland: he could understand a boy wanting to leave it, how poverty might mark him. But he still didn't know why Omega wished to harm the Jedi. But if he could solve that mystery, he was sure he'd find the man.

Senatorial shakedown
Kenobi, upon returning to Coruscant, went directly to the Galactic Senate building to meet with a man who had once attacked the Jedi and mocked the Force, one whose icy, sneering, belittling temperament had unnerved him as a young Padawan. But Kenobi was a Master Jedi Knight now, not easily intimidated. Which was now useful, for he found that Sauro had not changed: he still loathed the Jedi and, unlike his fellow Senators, refused to help them. But what he was able to learn from Sauro's assistant on his way out of his office was that the Senator had headed the committee that oversaw Haariden's mapping expedition. Racing to the Senate archives, Obi-Wan scanned the laborious minutes of the Senatorial committee meetings that had finalized the expedition's details, including its long-debated funding, but also the names and qualifications of the appointed team scientists. Kenobi discovered that the final name, Tick Verdun, had been added at the last minute at the suggestion of Senator Sauro himself. Verdun had been the group's scout, able to break away from the rest of the scientists for hours at a time; moreover, he had graduated from the same scientific institute in the same year as Granta Omega.

Returning again to the Temple, Obi-Wan received confirmation from Jocasta Nu of what was already clear him: the scientist and the Force Blank were one and the same. Indeed, the only bit of information that the Temple archivist could find was that "Tic Verdun" recently served on a Senatorial expedition to Haariden; the name was clearly an alias. She'd told him all he needed to know, which was nothing. Seeking out his Padawan to tell him the news, he learned from Master Antana that Anakin had left that morning after their last training session together for an appointment with one of the scientists they'd protected on Haariden, Tic Verdun.

Appearances

 * Jedi Quest: The Master of Disguise