Kyle Katarn

Kyle Katarn is a Human male Rebel operative from Sulon and later a Jedi of the New Jedi Order. He was a former Imperial stormtrooper who defected to the Rebellion. Often paired with fellow Rebel agent and smuggler Jan Ors, he performed many covert missions for the Rebel Alliance and later the Galactic Federation, including the sabotage of the Dark Trooper Project.

Katarn was later informed of his Force-sensitivity, and taught himself to become a Jedi while in search of the Valley of the Jedi. During this journey, he confronted the dark side within both himself and in the form of the Dark Jedi Jerec and his minions. After defeating them

History
Kyle was the son of Morgan and Patricia Katarn, farmers from the Sullust colony moon of Sulon. Growing up on the farm, Katarn had found a brother of sorts in his father's custom-made labor droid, WeeGee. As a result, Katarn became fluent in the electronic language of droidspeak.

After learning about his mother's death at the claw of a malfunctioning BT-16 perimeter security droid, Katarn enrolled at the Imperial Academy on Carida. Living out on the rim, he had few other opportunities to obtain an education. During a raid on a Rebel asteroid base, Katarn began to suspect his Force potential, a trait passed to him by his father, when he experienced several premonitions that saved the lives of many of his strike team members. While on the mission, Katarn also met Jan Ors, an agent working for the Rebellion. Katarn and Ors were on opposite sides of the war, but they experienced a strange connection that led Katarn to spare her life as well as the lives of many of the station's inhabitants. As a result of the success of his mission, Katarn became a decorated Imperial stormtrooper officer, but his father, unbeknownst to him, was a supporter of the Rebel Alliance.

Following this last mission, which was his Omega Exercise, Katarn learned that his father had been killed in a suspected Rebel raid on his homeworld of Sulon. Katarn, recalling the lives he spared on the asteroid base, became extremely hateful towards the Rebellion, believing them to be murderers.

Defection
Putting aside his grief for the time, Katarn took a pleasure cruise on the Star of Empire, his last bit of freedom before officially becoming an officer in the Imperial navy. It was while on this ship that he met Lando Calrissian, and ran into Jan Ors for the second time. After a brief chase and a brawl with some of Ors's fellow agents, Katarn's attention was grabbed when Ors dropped the name Sulon. Ors showed Katarn footage from the battle there that had been obtained by a reporter and her loyal droid. She explained to him that it was in fact the Imperials who had staged the attack. They had painted Rebel insignias on their ships to make it seem as if the Rebels had been the aggressors. Their use of standard Imperial tactics, which Katarn had studied extensively at the Imperial Academy, gave them away.[11]

After seeing the footage for himself, Katarn became distrustful towards the Empire and defected, becoming a neutral mercenary. He left the Star of Empire with Ors and her fellow agents aboard their ship after a brief scuffle with some Imperials and a bounty hunter that worked for them. During this incident, the droid with the recordings of the battle on Sulon was captured and self-destructed, allowing Katarn and the others to make a clean escape. Ors took Katarn back to her base and introduced him to Mon Mothma, the leader of the Alliance, and he became a Rebel spy.[11] Soon after his recruitment into the Alliance, Katarn was responsible for introducing the Twi'lek Rianna Saren to the organization. He first tasked her with infiltrating a Black Sun warehouse on Coruscant to discover how they were involved with the Empire. After Saren successfully completed this mission, Katarn revealed to her that he was a Rebel agent and introduced her to Leia Organa

Katarn's first mission for the Alliance was the infiltration of an Imperial facility on Scarif with a small group of Rebels to steal the Death Star Plans. He along with the small Squad successfully stole the plans, the Imperial Records were destroyed purposely as to hide what in fact they were really after, the small squad suffered causalities but in the end was successful.

Rebel Officer
Soon after the Battle of Yavin, Mon Mothma asked Katarn to investigate the destruction of Tak Base resulting from the attack on Tak Base. Katarn accepted, and, upon request, took on Jan Ors as his mission officer. Katarn's investigation revealed the Imperial Dark Trooper project, led by Clone Wars veteran General Rom Mohc. Several clues led Katarn to Anoat, where he captured Moff Rebus, an infamous Imperial weapons engineer. After raiding a testing facility for phrik on the planet Fest, Katarn was led to the Gromas system, where the mineral was being mined and the first stage of the Dark Trooper was manufactured. After destroying the facility, Katarn had to rescue Crix Madine from an Imperial detention center on Orinackra and traveled to the Ramsees Hed docking port on Cal-Seti. There, he was able to track a smuggling ship that was making runs to the frozen planet of Anteevy, where the second stage of Dark Trooper construction was being completed. Katarn destroyed the facility on Anteevy and was led to Nar Shaddaa, where he located a nav card describing the activities of all the smugglers involved in the Dark Trooper project. Upon leaving the planet, though, Katarn and Ors were briefly captured by Jabba the Hutt.

After defeating several kell dragons barehanded, Katarn was able to regain the card, rescue Ors, and escape Jabba's space cruiser. Katarn and Ors infiltrated the ISO building on Coruscant, where he was able to decode the nav card. He also fought and defeated Boba Fett. Using the new information from the card, Katarn and Ors tracked one of the smuggler ships to the Refueling Station Ergo. Katarn hijacked this ship and used it to sneak onto the Executor, which was the only ship with the information regarding the location of the Arc Hammer which was where the third and final stage of the Dark Trooper was being manufactured. Once on board, he stowed away on a cargo transport en route to the Arc Hammer. After an intense shootout against a Phase III Dark Trooper clad General Mohc, Katarn proceeded to blow up the Arc Hammer and escape, destroying the Dark Trooper Project for good. In gratitude for his bravery, Mon Mothma awarded him the Star of Alderaan.[3]

Katarn was also a member of a SpecForce group assembled by the ex-Jedi Knight Corwin Shelvay, in which he teamed up with Force-sensitives Shira Brie and Erling Tredway to sabotage the superlaser of the second Death Star en route to D'rinba IV

Mercenary Life Once more...
1 Year after the Battle of Endor, Katarn was visited by the spirit of the Jedi Qu Rahn, A Jedi Purge survivor that perished recently at the hands of an Imperial inquisitor, who told Katarn of the Jedi heritage of his father: Morgan had discovered the Valley of the Jedi on the planet Ruusan, where the spirits of many Jedi and Sith lay trapped after a cataclysmic battle over a thousand years earlier. This site was a nexus of power from which Force-sensitives could draw great energies of the Force. The locals on Ruusan prophesied that a "knight shall come, a battle will be fought, and the prisoners go free.Morgan could have been that knight, but chose instead to keep the knowledge of the valley safe, telling only the Jedi Rahn of its existence.

Katarn located a recording from his father on the family droid WeeGee in his old farmhouse on Sulon as well as the lightsaber of the late Rahn, setting him on the path to become a Jedi. He embarked on a journey to locate the Valley of the Jedi and protect it from a faction of Dark Jedi led by Jerec, who coveted the valley's energy for his own dark ends. Katarn's father, believed to have been killed in the battle of Sulon, had actually died at the hands of Jerec after refusing to reveal the location of the Valley of the Jedi. However, Morgan had etched a map to the valley into the ceiling tiles in the Katarns' house that was later discovered by Jerec. Katarn arrived after the map had been removed. He Infiltrated Jerec's tower in the city of Barons Hed, and located the droid 8t88, who had created a digitized version of the map. Katarn was intercepted by Yun, one of Jerec's dark pupils. Katarn defeated Yun, but he could not kill a disarmed opponent and allowed him to leave; Katarn was soon attacked and had to escape without either version of the map. He tracked 8t88's shuttle to a fuel station outside Baron's Hed, and he stowed away aboard a frigate headed for Ruusan. While on board, Katarn encountered and defeated two more of Jerec's pupils, the symbiotic "twins" Gorc and Pic, who had recently destroyed 8t88 to dispose of any witnesses to the Valley's location. After defeating Pic and injurying Gorc Katarn took the droid's severed head and managed to escape the vast ship.

Reaching out to Luke for help to defeat this threat him and looked headed to Ruusan.

After arriving on Ruusan, Katarn and Skywalker infiltrated Jerec's outpost Katarn engaged and defeated the Dark Jedi Maw, killing him in a violent rage as Maw told Katarn that it was he who had placed Morgan's head on a pike for all to see. Skywalker took on Gorc and defeated him as well Jerec confronted Katarn, revealing a captured and bound Jan Ors, offering Katarn a place and Jan to live at his side if he would strike Skywalker down. Katarn nearly to the darkside filled with anger and hate nearly killed Luke but Skywalker finally talked him back to the light side, Jerec offering one more time Katarn refused, staying true to his father. Disappointed but not surprised, Jerec blasted Katarn and Skywalker with dark side energy, damaging parts of the outpost and trapping the two of them inside. The two Jedi made their way through the tumbling vessel and attempted to flee in Katarns ship, the Moldy Crow, but one of the wings smashed against the rock wall, damaging the vessel beyond repair. Upon hitting the planet's surface, Katarn and Skywalker wererendered unconscious. Two of the remaining Dark Jedi, Sariss and her apprentice Yun, pulled the unconscious Jedi from the wreckage. Boc, another Dark Jedi, destroyed Katarn's lightsaber tauntingly in front of him took the Unconcious Luke with him to assist Jerec. Sariss was about to kill Katarn when Yun, out of sympathy for Katarn, who had previously spared his life and feeling guilty for executing so many people, blocked her blow with his lightsaber. Sariss' blade was deflected and struck Yun, mortally wounding him. As Katarn regained consciousness, he heard the young man's final words, stating that as a Jedi, Kyle deserved a battle.

Yun breathed his last breath, possibly returning to the light side. With his own lightsaber destroyed, Katarn picked up Yun's saber and defeated Sariss.

After Katarn defeated Sariss, he rushed to the Valley of the Jedi to rescued Ors. and now Skywalker Disguising himself as one of the statues that littered the Valley, Boc revealed himself and attacked Katarn, By this point Skywalker was awake and escaped his bounds and helped Katarn, While Boc was not as skilled a fighter his Force illusions were strong, Luke suggested for Katarn to continue forward and face Jerec and he would finish this fight.

Katarn then descended into the Valley Core to face the Dark Master himself. The two dueled, and though the Dark Jedi Jerec had already begun drawing power from the Valley of the Jedi and used its power to heal himself, Katarn was able to defeat him with the light. Disarmed, Jerec tried to turn Katarn to the dark side by reminding him of his father's murder, urging Katarn to strike him down and claim the Valley's dark power for himself. Katarn, not wishing to feed his hatred, showed Jerec mercy and tossed the Dark Jedi his lightsaber. Jerec would not accept Katarn's mercy and once again attacked him. Katarn's counterstrike killed Jerec, and he fulfilled the prophecy by freeing the souls of the countless Jedi trapped by Lord Skere Kaan for over a thousand years.

Galactic Federation Service
During this time frame Katarn became a Galactic Federation Commander and helped build the Government back up.

Jedi Ways
Over the next severial Years Katarn learned along side Skywalker the Jedi ways and continued to work for the Federation until Luke established a New Jedi Order which at this point Katarn along with Skywalker resigned their commissions with the Federation