Mission to Nar Shaddaa (5 ABY)

On his second mission to Nar Shaddaa, Kyle Katarn sought information on his father Morgan Katarn's killer, for which he met with droid information broker 8t88, who claimed knowledge of the killer's identity, in the Rimmer's Rest bar. The droid, however, was in the employ of the elder Katarn's killer, the Dark Jedi Jerec, and, backed by hired bodyguards and bounty hunters, had lured the younger Katarn there in the hope of accessing an encrypted holodisc which he had found in the Katarn family's homestead.
==Background==
In 5 ABY, infochant droid 8t88 was hired to assist the Dark Jedi Jerec in locating the elusive Valley of the Jedi. His search led him to the abandoned Katarn estate on Sulon, the former residence of Rebel leader Morgan Katarn, executed by Jerec himself in 1 BBY. 8t88 salvaged several holodiscs but was unable to decipher one. For this he lured Katarn's son, Kyle Katarn, who was seeking knowledge on the identity of his father's killer, and arranged a meeting.
Receiving his message, Katarn was eager to meet the information broker at the Rimmer's Rest cantina on Nar Shaddaa. His partner, Jan Ors, sensed it was a ruse and attempted to dissuade him. Katarn pretended to listen to her concerns but while she wasn't expecting it, he left the Alliance headquarters on his own. Ors followed his trace on the Moldy Crow, knowing that he would need to be saved by her one more time.
Meanwhile the droid, fearing that Katarn would refuse to assist him in cracking the holodisk, at first hoped to recruit the bounty hunter Boba Fett to act as a bodyguard, who declined. The droid made due with several other alien thugs instead.
==Chasing 8t88==
Indeed, a little later Katarn met with the droid who started giving the information Katarn wanted, revealing the identity of Jerec, whom Katarn himself had met a few years ealier during his graduation. 88 was then joined by his hirelings who surrounded Katarn; the droid offered Kyle his life in exchange for decoding his father's holodisc but the Rebel agent refused to cooperate. 8t88 ordered the man's death and left.
Kyle Katarn however had released a tracker droid that attached itself to 8t88. Kyle Katarn was left in the company of two hirelings who took his Bryar pistol and were ready to kill him; but Katarn somehow managing to cause a blaster to fly through the air and straight into his own hands—unknowingly, he had performed a Force Pull—and easily overcame them. Following his tracker's signals, he went after 8t88. Kyle Katarn had to fight his way to the top levels of Nar Shaddaa, having to shoot his way through 8t88's minions. Katarn reached the top just as 8t88 was about board Furious. Katarn fired at 8t88, shooting off the arm in which the droid was holding the holodisc. The limb, still clenching the holodisc dropped deep into the bowels of Nar Shaddaa, while 8t88 got away in his ship. Katarn exchanged a volley of shots with 8t88's guards including Grentho. All of a sudden, a TIE bomber appeared, ready to destroy Katarn. Fortunately, Jan Ors, who was looking for Katarn, also appeared in the Moldy Crow and blasted the TIE bomber into pieces, saving Katarn's life.
==Air battle==
After leaving the tower and Launch Deck Three, Jan Ors in the Crow was pursued by two TIE/LN starfighters. Using her high piloting skills she attempted to gain distance in the artificial "canyons", and putting building spires between her and her pursuers, all while Kyle was fighting 8t88's minions. The TIE pilots, displaying their arrogant neglect of citizen life (or even desperation) and flew and shot among the inhabited buildings, demolishing a sky bridge in the process, which fell into the canyon, along with the people on it. To end the vicious zigzagging, Jan hid the Crow in the empty rectangular space of a spire under construction without walls; displaying her piloting skills in putting the ship down in the right amount of speed, without navigational lights.
Although the TIEs swept past her location, one of them detected her engine's heat and returned; Jan shot it down once it came in front of her, blocking her way out. While the other was following up, Jan flew the Crow vertically through the future turbolift shaft of the unfinished building, emerged from the top and and circled down as the TIE was blasting away. Her cannons caused it to crash into the building. Jan reached a platform waiting for Kyle but because of the high fees, and the arrival of other ships, she had to leave; for the following three hours she returned attempting to spot Kyle and in vain to contact him over the radio.
==Into the bowels of Nar Shaddaa==
Kyle Katarn had no choice but to descend into the depths of the lower levels of the Smugglers' Moon to retrieve it. He and Ors agreed on a rendezvous point where she would pick him up, once he had found the holodisc. He climbed down a maintenance ladder to the lower levels, but an Imperial patrol ship located him with its searchlight and its cannons opened fire. Between the ship and a maintenance droid sent to knock him clear; Katarn made a sideway leap to a broken apartment window and the droid wailed as it roared by. Katarn climbed into the broken apartment; it was when Kyle exited the door into the hall when the ship started firing again, devastating the apartment. Pursued by Imperials, Katarn descended a fire escape, then tubeways, and reached the streets, even long-forgotten levels of the ecumenopolis where the heat was stronger.
Fighting his way through the sewers, as 8t88 had left several thugs behind to capture him, Katarn managed to find 8t88's severed arm thanks to a glow rod, the hand still holding the disc. He was surprised by the Trandoshan mercenary Porg, who managed to disarm him. Katarn evaded his blow and jumped to grab the droid arm, which he used to block his second blow. He temporarily incapacitated the Trandoshan when an Aqualish bounty hunter joined. Kyle turned off his rod and once more used telekinesis to retrieve his Bryar pistol, exchanging fire with the Aqualish where both he and Porg were killed.
Hearing more pursuers coming, Kyle Katarn passed through a cemetery and reached a vertical spiraling ramp that connected the mines of the surface to the loading docks far above. Following the ore for some time, he jumped to a cross brace to avoid a machinery. Seeing his pursuers climbing a ladder, he walked a beam in order to climb aboard a catwalk, which led to a maintenance platform and a freight lift, which led to roof access. On his way up he also climbed about thirty stairs and a dozen of ladders.
==Skirmish on the deck==
He made it back to the top level, where he was to rendezvous with Jan Ors in the Moldy Crow. But fifteenDark Forces: Rebel Agent audio drama thugs waited for him there, and a blast bolt penetrated his shoulder. Exhausted, Katarn was on the brink of giving up, when suddenly a voice, which came from Qu Rahn's spirit spoke to him telling him to let the Force protect him as he went to peace within. It was as if suddenly he had oceans of time, and with great ease, he managed to shoot seven of his pursuers, a Rodian, a Gamorrean and a human. Kyle had used the Force power Force speed for the very first time. Feeling a sense of pride and invincibility, Kyle suddenly snapped out of the Force speed. He lost his senses after a concussion grenade explosion, and was slumped against the elevator with the three remaining bounty hunters approaching him.
Kyle didn't respond to the radio and Jan moved towards the flashes of light and the explosion, activating the Crow weapons. The bounty hunters who turned around when they heard the ship approaching, attempted to shoot their blasters but the Crow evaded them and swung firing the cannon, killing them. The remaining bounty hunter alive decided to continue playing dead when Ors exited the ship armed with two blasters. She saw that Kyle was still alive and dragged him up the ramp.
==Aftermath==
After three days' transit, Ors brought Katarn, his health fluctuating, to the hospital ship Mercy stationed with the New Hope, a New Republic Dreadnaught, in the Milagro system; while Katarn was healing in a bacta tank Ors stole the mysterious holodisk to find out what was so important for him. On the New Hope she managed, with the help of technicians Xiong Wong and Wires, to decrypt the holodisc, playing back the low-quality recording to her superiors: Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, and former Senator Mon Mothma. Following Skywalker's advice, she never told Katarn that she knew the content of the holodisc. Katarn and Ors then set off to the Katarn family compound on Sulon to find a way of decrypting the disc and learning more of Morgan Katarn's killers.
==Appearances==
*Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
*Dark Forces: Rebel Agent audio drama
*Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II 
==Sources==
*Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: The Official Strategy Guide
*
*The Essential Reader's Companion
==Notes and references==
Category:Missions of the Galactic Civil War
Category:Missions to Nar Shaddaa