Mission to Taris (Desolator crisis)

During the Cold War era between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the Sith Lord Tarnis infiltrated the Republic superweapon initiative functioning as a scientist. In 3643 BBY, he made an attempt to utilize the Planet Prison superweapon against the capital of the Republic, Coruscant. Furthermore, Tarnis transmitted information concerning the Republic's other superweapons to his father, the Sith Lord Darth Angral, before his death at the hands of a young Jedi Knight in a duel. Angral witnessed the duel via holotransmission, and in response to his son's death, he initiated war against the Republic. Leveraging the information provided by his son, Angral dispatched his apprentices to seize control of the Republic's superweapon initiatives. Angral also acted upon Tarnis's suspicions that Doctor Nasan Godera, a highly skilled scientist responsible for designing the majority of the Republic's superweapons, was in hiding on the planet Taris. He contacted Imperial Intelligence and issued orders for the scientist's capture. The Empire's intelligence agency, which maintained an outpost on the planet, had already verified Godera's presence and dispatched Watcher One—one of their most highly ranked operatives—to oversee the operation.

Following the Coruscant debacle, General Var Suthra, the leader of the superweapon initiative, sent the Jedi Knight responsible for Tarnis's death to the planet Ord Mantell to investigate an Imperial listening post located there. The Knight, the Jedi's Padawan Kira Carsen, and the astromech droid T7-O1 uncovered evidence of Angral's designs for a "Desolator" superweapon. General Suthra then dispatched the trio to Taris after discovering mentions of Godera in Tarnis's files, suspecting that the Empire intended to capture the scientist. Godera had abandoned the Republic after the government submitted to the Empire's terms in the Treaty of Coruscant that concluded the Great Galactic War a decade prior. He had constructed a network of underground laboratories on the devastated planet of Taris amidst the Republic's reconstruction efforts. The Republic had recently discovered a facility in the Republic Resettlement Zone staffed by Godera's droids, but had been unable to locate any other labs; Suthra instructed the Knight to investigate the facility and meet with the small monitoring team stationed there.

Under his command, Watcher One had a contingent of Imperial operatives. Upon learning of the Jedi Knight's mission and imminent arrival, he directed his soldiers to commence searching Godera's laboratories. Watcher One, accompanied by several Imperial stealth operatives, droids, and Intelligence officers, conducted a search of the Resettlement Zone lab. The soldiers swiftly dealt with both the monitoring team and Godera's droid assistants and defenses. RE-M0, one of Godera's droid assistants responsible for surveillance, remained concealed and observed Watcher One utilizing the facility's tracking relays to trace Godera's biosignature to another facility located in the Brell Sediment region. To prevent the Jedi from replicating this action, the operative destroyed the lab's central computer before departing, leaving his men behind. However, the Jedi Knight and a companion arrived at the laboratory while Imperial forces were securing the facility. The duo fought their way through the soldiers and battle droids, eliminating all of them. While the pair explored the lower level of the facility, Watcher One activated a communications terminal and engaged the Knight in conversation. The Imperial operative was distracting the Jedi to allow his stealth operatives to position themselves for an ambush. He revealed knowledge of the Jedi's exploits as a Padawan on the planet Tython to undermine the duo's confidence, and then terminated the communication after ordering his operatives to eliminate them.

The Knight and the Jedi's companion defeated the battle droids and stealth operatives in the ensuing battle. Once the conflict subsided, RE-M0 emerged from behind the wreckage to speak with the Jedi. Identifying the Knight as a member of the Jedi Order, RE-M0 explained that he had remained hidden from both the Republic team and the Imperial operatives, as his programming prevented him from cooperating with lifeforms other than Godera or a Jedi. Relating his observations about Watcher One's actions, RE-M0 requested that the Knight reset the external tracking relays while he repaired the central computer. The Knight and the Jedi's companion departed to locate the relays. Fighting through the pirates and scavengers in the Sinking City region, the duo reactivated the three relays. After RE-M0 sent the Jedi Godera's location, the pair headed to the Brell Sediment facility. Meanwhile, Watcher One's forces had secured the Brell Sediment laboratory and captured the scientist, rendering him unconscious. Aware that the Jedi was approaching, the operative devised an elaborate deception: he donned a holoprojector that disguised him as a Rodian, while a squad of Imperial Shadow Commandos equipped with stealth projectors were stationed in the main chamber. Their captain was disguised as Watcher One using a holoprojector, and a corpse disguised as Godera was left on the floor to deceive the Knight into believing the scientist was dead.

Upon arriving at the facility with a companion, the Jedi discovered "Kulaa" concealing himself near the entrance with an unconscious Godera. "Kulaa" claimed that they were Godera's assistants and had escaped the Imperial raid. Believing the Rodian's assertions that Godera had barricaded himself in the main lab, the Jedi instructed them to seek safety and proceeded deeper into the facility. Watcher One swiftly transported his captive northeast to the Tularan Marsh region, where he brought the scientist to the Imperial Intelligence Outpost located within the ruins of Transport Station 5. Simultaneously, RE-M0 conducted a second bioscan and realized that Godera was no longer in the Brell Sediment lab. He rushed to the other facility to warn the Knight. The Jedi and the Knight's companion eliminated the Imperial soldiers guarding the facility and entered the main lab, where they were surprised to find Doctor Godera seemingly lying dead at the feet of Watcher One. "Watcher One" requested that the Knight stand down and offered a cessation of hostilities, asserting that Godera had committed suicide. However, their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of RE-M0. The droid warned the Jedi that Godera was not yet dead, and an irritated "Watcher One" shot RE-M0 before deactivating the holoprojector disguise. The ensuing fight resulted in the defeat of the Shadow Captain and all of the commandos, despite their advantages of surprise and numbers.

Watcher One observed the fight via holocomm at the Intelligence outpost. When the Knight emerged victorious, he contacted the Jedi and revealed his "Kulaa" deception. Before the Knight could depart, the operative proposed a deal: he had learned of a Sith assassin named Rora Seake who had arrived on Taris to destroy a Republic colony. In exchange for time to interrogate Godera, Watcher One would provide the Jedi with the location of Seake's target. Recognizing the lives of civilians at stake, the Jedi reluctantly agreed to Watcher One's deal. The agent identified Seake's target as a colony situated on the shores of the nearby Lake Brell. The Jedi and a companion raced to the colony bunker to find the colonists hard at work under the leader Yelzrin, but the duo did not arrive in time to evacuate the colonists. Rora Seake arrived with her two pet jurgorans only minutes after the Jedi. Enraged upon discovering that her mission had been compromised, Seake unleashed her pets upon the Jedi before attacking the Knight herself after their deaths. The Jedi and the Knight's companion emerged victorious in the duel, neutralizing the threat to Yelzrin and the colonists. They then followed Watcher One's coordinates to the ruins of Transport Station 5.

Around that time, SIS agents under the leadership of Agent Fau-Kes arrived on Taris and set out to locate the Jedi on General Suthra's orders. However, the search party dispatched to Godera's Resettlement Zone lab found the aftermath of the battle with the Imperials, and Fau-Kes's team assumed the worst, though they continued their search from Olaris. In the Tularan Marsh, the Knight and the Jedi's companion fought through the rakghoul-infested tunnels of Transport Station 5 to reach the Intelligence outpost. After defeating the dozen Imperial soldiers who guarded the facility, the duo breached the outpost's main chamber to find that Watcher One had completed his interrogation and was reporting success to Darth Angral via holocomm. Angral was furious to learn that Watcher One had compromised with his son's killer, and ordered the agent to take the Knight alive and bring both the Jedi and Godera to the Imperial capital Dromund Kaas. Expressing his regret for breaking their deal, Watcher One nonetheless drew his blaster and attacked the Knight with two other Intelligence operatives. The Jedi and the Knight's companion ultimately emerged victorious in the fight, slaying the other operatives and injuring Watcher One.

Wounded, Watcher One questioned his opponent on what his fate was to be, and he was surprised when the Knight allowed the agent to leave—to make himself a new life in the Republic.

The Knight then freed Doctor Godera from his imprisonment, and convinced the doctor to return to Olaris and help the Republic once again. When the Knight, the Jedi's companion, and Godera arrived at Olaris's spaceport, they found Agent Fau-Kes waiting for them, and Fau-Kes took custody of Godera and escorted him back to Coruscant.

Doctor Godera was appointed as the scientific advisor to General Suthra, serving as a consultant to both the general and the Knight as the young Jedi continued the search for the stolen Republic superweapons. The Knight traveled to the moon of Nar Shaddaa in order to locate the Power Guard supersoldier project, and then investigated the statuses of the Shock Drum and Death Mark laser projects on the planets Tatooine and Alderaan. The specifics of the mission to Taris were classified at the highest level within the Republic. The planet's name, along with that of Godera's rescuer, were redacted from Godera's SIS personnel file, and the mission was only described as a "near-abduction by Imperial Intelligence."

The mission to Taris first appeared as the Jedi Knight class storyline on the planet Taris in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a video game released by BioWare in 2011. The Taris storyline is separated into four missions, but the third mission can be one of two missions depending on the player's alignment. If a player has a dark side alignment, Watcher One informs them of a deal between a Sith and a pirate captain for valuable Jedi relics. Light-side and neutral players receive the mission to save the colonists; regardless of their alignments, players can ignore Watcher One's offer and continue straight to "The Rescue." However, as the Jedi Knight is a Republic character and is assumed to take the light-side choices, this article assumes the Knight saved the colonists. Similarly, this article assumes that the player allowed Watcher One to live, rather than attempt to arrest him—an option that ends in his death—or kill him.