Lannik–Red Iaro peace negotiations

Peace negotiations between between the government of the planet Lannik and the rebellious Red Iaro terrorist, hosted on the planet Malastare by its Gran Protectorate and arbitrated by emissaries from the Jedi Council, were conducted in 32 BBY as cover for a conspiracy to seize control of Lannik: the Red Iaro and Protectorate plotted with the priests of the Order of the Ffib to frame Lannik prince R'cardo Sooflie IX for the deaths of the Jedi, allowing the terrorists to be awarded authority over their homeworld. Though the negotiations were unfruitful, the Jedi survived the assassination attempt, uncovered the deception, and saved the life of Prince Sooflie.
==Prelude==
For years priorStar Wars (1998) 13 to 32 BBY, the planet Lannik was embroiled in a costly civil war between its government and the Red Iaro terrorist group, including a suicidal attack on Lannik's High Court by the terrorists, during with the lives of Lannik's prince and a delegation of Corellian emissaries were saved by the intervention of the Lannik Jedi Even Piell. Backed by the priests of the Order of the Ffib, the Gran Protectorate of the Mid Rim planet Malastare, and elements of current Lannik prince R'cardo Sooflie IX's guard, the Red Iaro conceived of a plot to win control of their homeworld by framing the prince for the assassination of Jedi negotiators lured to Malastare under the pretext of negotiating a peace treaty between the Lannik factions. The conspirators scheduled the negotiations to take place during the popular Vinta Harvest Classic Podrace, which served the dual purpose of initially drawing attention away from their scheme, and then providing media coverage for their deception.
Months after the invasion of the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation of Planets,The New Essential Chronology by agreement with the Gran Protectorate, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and the Judicial Department of the Galactic Republic requested that six members of the Jedi Council travel from the Republic's capital world Coruscant to Malastare to act as arbiters in the negotiations. Piell, by now a Jedi Master of the Council, took on the mission to put his knowledge of Lannik customs to use, and was joined by fellow councilors Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Yaddle, Plo Koon, and Ki-Adi-Mundi, in addition to Mundi's Padawan apprentice A'Sharad Hett. Gallia wished to complete the work of her parents–the Corellian emissaries rescued by Piell–and the Jedi Master served as the peace treaty's chief negotiator, while Master Windu was the mission's acting director, owing to his status as a senior Council member.
Traveling to Malastare via Consular-class cruiser, the Jedi delegation was met by Gran senators Baskol Yeesrim and Ainlee Teem and their identured Dug servants, who escorted the emissaries to their quarters. En route through the spaceport, they were tailed by a Ffib inquisitor and Red Iaro terrorist dispatched by Senator Aks Moe of the Protectorate, who drew blasters and opened fire when confronted by Piell and Gallia before fleeing at the arrival of Mundi and Hett. The Gran guards' claimed ignorance of the attacker's passing, and their possession of weapons in the controlled spaceport, led the Jedi to suspect treachery behind the scenes on the peace conference. Meanwhile, the assailants returned to Moe and a Ffib affiliate to confess their detection. The senator ordered a pair of Gamorrean guards to kill the subordinates, and assured the priest that their plan would proceed unimpeded by their failure, promising the Jedi's deaths by the end of the following day.
==The negotiations==
The negotiators convened in the palace of Gran governor Gujdim Wiphshun in the city of Pixelito. While waiting to be admitted to the governor's chambers, Hett was struck by a Gamorrean guard in an attempt to spark a conflict, which Master Yaddle defused through the use of a mindtrick on the instigator.
In the negotiation room, the Jedi introduced themselves to Sooflie and his Military Advisor Hutar Zash, with whom Piell had served in the Lannik Palace guard. Upon learning of the Lannik Jedi's rescue of the former prince, his father, Sooflie remarked that where it not for the Jedi Master's actions, he would have assumed his place as prince much earlier. The Red Iaro delegation arrived last, led by Myk'chur Finux Zug, among the terrorists fought previously by Piell. The Jedi Master accused Zug of cowardice and voiced his doubts at the sincerity of the Red Iaro's desire for peace. With a conciliatory word from Windu, Moe initiated the peace talks, though the Jedi emissaries felt coming danger in the Force. In return for concessions from the Lannik government, Zug agreed to relinquish control of the captured Palesia territory. However, the prince took exception to the terrorist's use of crown lands as a bargaining chip, and decried the peace process as a mistake, leading Windu to call a recess for the day.
==Aftermath==
Hutar Zash, a covert agent of the Red Iaro, invited the Jedi aboard his personal airspeeders. Offering transport back to their quarters, he instead planned to detonate thermite bombs concealed on his person and that of his staff, killing the Jedi and his own men in view of the cam droids following the podrace over head. As the airspeeders and podracers converged, Zash revealed his betrayal, explaining to Piell that he had been driven to the terrorists by the new prince's leadership. As the Military Advisor and his staff prepared for detonation, Piell bisected one airspeeder with his lightsaber, allowing himself, Windu, and Gallia to fall free of the explosion, while the Jedi aboard the other speeder pitched their distracted captors over the side, their explosives going off in midair.
Taking hold of each other, the three falling Jedi clung to the connective cables of a passing podracer. Unwilling to reveal their location by levitating to the ground, Windu asked the pilot, the Dug Sebulba, to decrease speed and allow the Jedi to jump to a nearby rooftop. Refusing to slow midrace, the racer instead struck at the Jedi's hand with a wrench in an attempt to dislodge the unwanted passengers. Though Windu split the tool with his lightsaber, he was struck by the severed pieces and lost his grip, prompting Gallia to to embed a cable from her grappling spike launcher in the pod's fuselage. At the same time, assassin Aldar Beedo, hired by fellow racer Wan Sandage to kill Sebulba, approached and took aim at his target. As the Dug drew a blaster to shoot down the Jedi, Beeda fired his own weapon, severing Gallia's cable and leaving the Jedi to fall into the other airspeeder, commandeered by Yaddle and Hett and waiting below.
Reunited, the Jedi deduced the nature of the deception, with Piell speculating that the conspirators sought to exploit the natural resources of Lannik, and Windu concluding that, due to the failure of their gambit, they would shift their target to the prince, who, even with their personal misgivings, the Jedi sought to protect. Sooflie's chambers were breached by Red Iaro forces led by Zug and the Ffib priest, who killed the prince's guards despite their secret allegiance to the terrorist organization, and prepared to feed the prince to a pair of akk dogs, beasts native to Mace Windu's homeworld Haruun Kal,Shatterpoint at once disposing of Sooflie and the evidence of their crime. They were interrupted by the arrival of the Jedi, who crashed their airspeeder through a window and engaged the intruders. While Mundi and his Padawan fought the Lannik terrorists, the Jedi Masters eliminated the threat of the akk dogs: one fell to the lightsaber of Yaddle, while the other was pacified by the bond its kind shared with Windu's people. Their plot foiled, the conspirators attempted to flee. While the priest was suspended in the air by Plo Koon's Force grip, Zug shed his jacket to expose a jetpack, and escaped through the broken window into the engine turbine of Sebulba's oncoming podracer.
Entering the chambers, Senator Moe took custody of the priest before his part in the conspiracy was revealed, promising to investigate the circumstances of the beasts' presence in the governor's palace. With the peace talks canceled, Prince Sooflie departed and the Jedi Councilors returned to Coruscant, save Windu, who, troubled by the akk dogs' use as weapons and having learned in the altercation that they had been acquired from smugglers on the moon Nar Shaddaa, embarked on a mission there to investigate the illicit trade.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars (1998) 13 
*Star Wars (1998) 14 
*Star Wars (1998) 15 
*Star Wars (1998) 16 
==Sources==
*The New Essential Guide to Characters
*Power of the Jedi Sourcebook
*The New Essential Chronology
*The New Essential Guide to Alien Species
*
==Notes and references==
Category:Peace talks