Hetzal system monitoring station

Hetzal system monitoring station
Production information
Type	Space station
Technical specifications
Complement	A shuttle
Crew	2
Other systems	Computers
Location information
Region	Outer Rim Territories The Slice
System	Hetzal system
Grid square	Q-16
Usage
Role(s)	Monitoring station
Affiliation	Galactic Republic
Destroyed	232 BBY
Crewmembers	Vel Carann Merven Getter

"The alert originated from a monitoring station at the far edge of the system. It came in at the highest priority level, and it hit system-wide. Every computer linked to the main processing core is sounding the same alarm."
"But what's causing it? There was no message attached?"
"No. We've repeatedly asked for clarification, but there's been no response. We believe… the monitoring station was destroyed."

―Counselor Daan and Minister Zeffren Ecka

A monitoring station was located far out in the Hetzal system of the Outer Rim Territories by 232 BBY. It was crewed by two Galactic Republic scantechs, Vel Carann and Merven Getter, who monitored incoming and departing starships in the star system. The scantechs could also use the station's computers to send out a high-priority system-wide alert in case of an emergency.

In 232 BBY, debris from the destroyed freighter Legacy Run began emerging in the Hetzal system. Carann and Getter, unaware of the nature of the unidentified near-lightspeed objects, tracked their trajectories and briefly speculated on their identity before realizing they had to send out a system-wide alert and evacuate the station aboard its shuttle. After the scantechs sent out the alert, however, they both perished when one of the anomalies materialized in the station's vicinity and explosively collided with it.

Description

A monitoring station was located far out on the ecliptic of the Hetzal system, situated in grid square Q-16 of the Standard Galactic Grid as part of the Outer Rim Territories and the Slice. The station was at the far edge of its star system from the system's primary planet, Hetzal Prime.

The monitoring station had an operations deck that featured workstations for two scantechs. The workstations included computers with holoscreen monitors and keypads, with the computers' subroutines allowing to track and analyze the trajectories of space objects arriving or departing the system and also to run analysis of those objects' properties. The station's two crewmembers could also use their computers—with authorization codes being inputted from both of them—to send a system-wide high-priority alert, at which point an alarm would be sounded on the operations deck, as well. In addition, the monitoring station's complement included a shuttle that could be used for commuting to the inner system.

History

Scantechs and subroutines

"Run an analysis. See if you can figure out what they are."
"I… don't know how. After the latest upgrade, I never bothered to learn the systems. You seemed to have it all under control, and I'm really here to supervise, you know, and—"

―Merven Getter and Vel Carann

By 232 BBY, the station was used to monitor the arrivals and departures of starships in the Hetzal system—the flight plans of which had usually been logged ahead of time. The facility had a crew of two Galactic Republic scantechs, the Mirialan Scantech (third-class) Merven Getter and Scantech (second-class) Vel Carann—who supervised Getter's work and also tended to read Jedi romances on a datapad while at her workstation. After the end of his shift, Getter, who lived on Hetzal Prime's Rooted Moon, would use the station's shuttle to travel to the spaceport there. He would afterward visit a local cantina and entertain the bartender Sella with stories about life on the far edge of the Hetzal system.

After the monitoring station's systems were once again upgraded at some point, Carann did not put in the effort to learn how to run the computer subroutines for analyzing the properties of the objects tracked by the facility. The subroutine for tracking the objects' trajectories, in contrast, had remained unchanged for around two years by 232 BBY.

An alert sounded

Unexpected discovery

"What the—?"
"Problem, Getter?"
"I'm not sure. Got a bunch of unscheduled entries to the system, and they're not decelerating."
"Wait… what? Oh, that is odd. Is this… do you think it's… asteroids, maybe?"
"At that velocity? From hyperspace? I dunno."

―Merven Getter and Vel Carann

The monitoring station detected debris (pictured) of the destroyed Legacy Run heading toward the inhabited worlds of the Hetzal system.

At one point that year, not long before the end of Getter's shift aboard the monitoring station, he noticed on his screens the appearance in the system of a multitude of unidentified objects that were moving sunward at near-lightspeed—unbeknownst to either of the station's scantechs, the anomalies that reverted to realspace in the Hetzal system were debris from the freighter Legacy Run, which had been destroyed during hyperspace transit.

Getter's surprise at the unexpected appearances was noticed by Carann, and both scantechs then proceeded to speculate on the possible identity of the anomalies. After Carann admitted that she did not know how to run an analysis on the objects, Getter suggested that she track their trajectories instead.

Time to go

"We have to get out of here. We're right in the target zone, and more of these things are appearing every second. We have to get to the shuttle."
"I agree. But we need to send a system-wide alert first. We have to."

―Merven Getter and Vel Carann

The alert sent out by the monitoring station reached the office of the Hetzal system's Minister Zeffren Ecka.

Eventually, both Carann and Getter noticed that many of the anomalies were on an intercept course with the system's inhabited worlds, with upcoming collisions projected to cause a high number of casualties. Getter, realizing that the station was in the objects' target zone, suggested that they evacuate via using the facility's shuttle. Carann agreed, though she also brought up their imperative of sending out a system-wide alert first. After the scantechs sent out the signal, they both moved to evacuate, with Getter noting that they could send an accompanying explanatory message on the way. At that moment, however, an anomaly materialized in the station's vicinity and collided with it, causing it to explode and both Carann and Getter to perish.

Later, while an alarm triggered by the alert was being sounded at the office of the Hetzal system's Minister Zeffren Ecka at the Ministerial Residence of Aguirre City, the minister's counselor Daan explained to him that the alert had originated from the monitoring station. The counselor further noted that, due to the lack of response to the inquiries as to the cause of the alert, it was believed that the station had been destroyed.

Behind the scenes

"Located on the Outer Rim, the story unfolds on a monitoring station where average aliens in a galaxy far, far away spend their largely unremarkable days. But not this day."

―StarWars.com description of the chapter of The High Republic: Light of the Jedi featuring the appearance of the monitoring station

The Hetzal system monitoring station was created for the 2021 novel Light of the Jedi, written by Charles Soule as part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project's Phase I. Prior to the publication of Light of the Jedi, the chapter of the novel in which the monitoring station appears was published on StarWars.com on November 20, 2020.

Appearances

• The High Republic: Light of the Jedi (and audiobook) (First appearance)

Sources

• Explore Light of the Jedi in Star Wars: The High Republic - Exclusive Excerpt on StarWars.com (backup link) (First mentioned)
• The High Republic Free Digital Sampler

Notes and references

In other languages

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