Raid on the Armand Isard Correctional Facility

In 43.5 ABY, Jedi Knight Valin Horn experienced a psychotic episode triggered by the dark side entity Abeloth. This caused him to be under the impression that everyone he knew, excluding other beings suffering from the same psychosis, had been replaced by imposters. Initially, Horn was confined to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the galactic capital. Following a brief rampage during an attempt to flee Coruscant, he was relocated to the nearby Mon Mothma Memorial Medical Center. Horn's detention there was a concession to the Galactic Alliance government, which was becoming increasingly skeptical and controlling of the New Jedi Order under Chief of State Natasi Daala. The government soon froze Horn in carbonite and incarcerated him within Coruscant's Armand Isard Correctional Facility.

Seff Hellin, a rogue Jedi afflicted with the same condition, felt compelled to liberate Horn, believing him to be the only person he knew who hadn't been replaced by an imposter. Tahiri Veila, a Force-sensitive member of Darkmeld, a covert organization established by Jedi Knight Jaina Solo to counter Daala's efforts to undermine the Jedi Order, spotted Hellin outside the prison. Veila informed Solo of the sighting, and they immediately deduced Hellin's intention to free Horn. They also recognized that capturing Hellin would provide an opportunity to study the disease and potentially develop a cure.

Hellin devised a detailed plan to enter and exit the prison undetected. A tunnel connecting a law enforcement station to the prison was intended to facilitate the suppression of prison riots. However, Hellin burned a hole in the permacrete above for access, sealing the side leading to the prison. As a last-minute addition, Solo and Jagged Fel, the Imperial Remnant Head of State, decided to include Mirax Horn, Valin's mother, in their group of conspirators to leverage her contacts, skills, and financial resources. She was tasked with keeping the group's existence secret from her husband, Jedi Master Corran Horn, because the Jedi Council was not to be aware of the organization, ensuring that they could truthfully deny any knowledge of Darkmeld if questioned by the Galactic Alliance.

Several days after securing his tunnel entrance, Hellin initiated his plan to free Horn, but was promptly intercepted by Veila and Fel upon entering the tunnel. Hellin, believing Veila to be an imposter and Fel to be a Mandalorian due to his distinctive armor, attacked them. He used the Force to send Fel flying backwards.

Hellin and Veila engaged in a lightsaber duel, during which Fel fired a stun bolt at Hellin. Hellin deflected the shot, hitting Veila's leg. Subsequently, Hellin turned and ran towards a blast door leading into the prison, throwing a thermal detonator at Veila. Fel picked up Veila and fled down the tunnel. Hellin used the Force to push the detonator, ensuring it continued to roll after them. Once Fel and Veila were far enough away that Hellin believed the blast would not kill them—as his intention was not to kill imposters, but merely to free Horn—he triggered the detonator. Hellin anticipated that the blast would lead the prison guards to believe there had been a fuel explosion outside the prison, or that someone was trying to break free, thus keeping his entry a secret, at least temporarily. Hellin then began to melt through the blast door using his lightsaber.

Fel's Mandalorian armor shielded him and Veila from the blast, and Winter Celchu, another Darkmeld member, contacted them to assess the situation. Fel informed her of the events and instructed her to summon the rest of Darkmeld to the prison.

As Hellin approached his objective, he encountered three security guards in a turbolift. He quickly incapacitated them and proceeded, using the Force to disable holocams as he passed them. Hellin reached the room where Horn was being held and began to melt through the blast door with his lightsaber. However, Veila was close behind and reached the corridor outside the room. Veila began jumping in front of one of the holocams to attract all of the security guards to the area. Hellin quickly breached the blast door and located the carbonite slab containing Valin Horn. However, when he attempted to release Horn, an error code appeared, triggering an alarm. Fel, whom Hellin still believed to be a Mandalorian, entered the room, and Hellin slashed at him with his lightsaber.

Hellin continued his attack, but Fel blocked the blow with his impenetrable beskar crushgaunts. Veila also entered the room, and Hellin, realizing he couldn't fight them off and free Horn simultaneously, used the Force to hurl the carbonite slab containing Valin at Fel and Veila. Veila dodged it, but Fel was not quick enough and was struck by the slab, knocking him aside. Hellin then fled the room, leaving the carbonite slab in the doorway to block the exit. He ran down the corridor to the turbolift shaft and jumped in blindly, dropping a few meters. Fortunately for Hellin, the lift was above him and halted at the corridor he had just left. Several security guards searching for Hellin entered the corridor, slowing down Fel and Veila's pursuit.

Hellin continued along his escape route, returning to the tunnel he had used to enter the prison. However, as he passed the location where his thermal detonator had exploded, he was cut off by more security troopers. He used the Force to fling the debris from the detonator blast at the troopers and charged them, quickly incapacitating them. He then took a blaster rifle from one and a pistol from another. As he attempted to escape, Celchu tried to intercept him, and Hellin quickly shot her with a stun bolt from the rifle. Sensing the presence of many security guards closing in, Hellin made a break for a shaft leading to the surface.

Outside the prison, Mirax Terrik Horn arrived in a speeder she had stolen from outside her family's suite. She spotted Hellin escaping and flew towards him, but was sideswiped by a cargo hauler piloted by Zilaash Kuh, a bounty hunter working for Natasi Daala's special-missions force. Kuh's Quarren partner, Dhidal Nyz, an inventor and bounty hunter, fired an electric net at Hellin, who attempted to dodge it. However, the net was too large and ensnared him, sending paralyzing electrical surges through his body every few seconds. The cable connecting the net to the gun went taut, and Hellin was yanked into the air behind the moving cargo hauler.

Jaina Solo arrived on the scene, having managed to escape her Jedi supervisor, Dab Hantaq just minutes earlier. She witnessed the bounty hunters capturing Hellin. She contacted Terrik Horn, who was recovering in her speeder, and instructed her to pursue Hellin, who was being dragged through the air. The cargo hauler passed over Solo, and she threw her lightsaber at the cable connecting the net to the gun, severing it. Hellin fell from the sky, still paralyzed by the electric net, and Solo used the Force to slow his fall, allowing him to hit the ground just hard enough to incapacitate him. Solo knocked Hellin unconscious with a swift blow to his head using her lightsaber hilt. Terrik Horn quickly landed the speeder beside Solo, who lifted Hellin aboard and climbed in. The bounty hunters pursued them, and four of the prison security's speeders took off after them. Not far behind, Veila and Fel, carrying the unconscious Celchu, quickly stole a speeder and joined the chase.

Five security speeders, including one piloted by Veila, and the cargo hauler now pursued Terrik Horn and Solo. Terrik Horn steered the speeder into a tunnel used for maintenance and waste haulers. Veila quickly maneuvered past two of the security speeders, passing just above the second one so that her speeder's repulsor wash knocked the security speeder into the wall. The security speeder crashed, and Veila piloted up underneath the bounty hunters' cargo hauler. Fel, struggling against the hauler's repulsor wash, slowly stood up and began destroying servos and repulsor nozzles with his crushgaunts. Finally, he found an auxiliary energy cell, which exploded as he squeezed it, peppering him with shrapnel. Smoke billowed from the area, and the cargo hauler slowed, falling behind Veila's speeder.

Meanwhile, in the stolen speeder, Solo injected Hellin with a sedative. Turning back to the nearest pursuing security speeder, Solo used the Force to push it sideways into the tunnel wall, holding it there until the pilot was forced to decelerate and drop to the ground to maintain control of the vehicle. She repeated this process twice more, until only Veila and Fel's speeder remained. Solo guided the group out of the maintenance tunnels to a small niche off of a major thoroughfare, where they parked the speeders.

After parking, Celchu removed all forensic evidence from the two speeders to prevent them from being traced back to any of them. Fel was returned to the Imperial Remnant embassy, while Veila, Terrik Horn, and Celchu met up with Tekli, a Chadra-Fan Jedi healer affiliated with Darkmeld, back in the Jedi Temple. They met up with Solo, who had checked in with Hantaq and was free of the supervisor once more. Tekli opened a special chamber, accessible only to her and Master Cilghal, and strapped Hellin to a bed inside.

The following day, the raid was reported in the news. Suspicion fell on the Jedi Order, but there was no concrete evidence of their involvement. Galactic Alliance Security forces, under the command of Captain Oric Harfard, arrived at the temple to take Hellin into custody. However, because Solo had kept Darkmeld's actions secret from the Jedi Masters, acting Grand Master Kenth Hamner truthfully stated that he did not know Hellin's whereabouts. Terrik Horn and the non-Jedi members of Darkmeld also avoided scrutiny, as Seff Hellin was the only person who had been close enough to recognize any of them during the raid.

Later, Hantaq revealed to Solo that he suspected her involvement in the raid but lacked proof and thus planned to take no action. Convinced that Solo's plans were justified, Master Cilghal conducted tests on Hellin to gain further insight into the disease affecting him and Horn.

The raid was conceived by author Aaron Allston for Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, the inaugural novel in the Fate of the Jedi series, which was released in 2009.