Corran Horn

Biography

Corellian Security

Formative years

Corran Horn's birth occurred in 18 BBY. His parents were Valin Horn, often called Hal, and Nyche Horn. Valin Horn was, in truth, the biological son of Nejaa Halcyon, a Jedi Master. However, after Halcyon's death, Rostek Horn, a Corellian Security Force police officer and Halcyon's close friend, adopted Valin. Rostek also married Halcyon's wife, Scerra, and as the Great Jedi Purge commenced, concealed all evidence of Valin Horn's Force-sensitivity, who then went by Hal. Corran Horn was raised in Coronet City, unaware of this history or his own Force abilities.

As a young child, Horn observed his father engaging in subtle meditative practices and tried to emulate him. The elder Horn instructed him in these techniques, presenting them as part of a secret game that he must keep hidden. These were, in reality, Jedi exercises. As he matured, his father and grandfather encouraged him to trust his instincts and heed any sense of unease, recognizing these as manifestations of his Force abilities.

Horn enrolled in the Corellian Security Force Academy immediately after finishing secondary school, where he excelled, setting new records and often surpassing his father's achievements. While at the Academy, he learned of the destruction of the Death Star and the warrant for Han Solo's arrest for his involvement. Horn felt that Solo, as a smuggler, tarnished Corellia's reputation, leading to an excessive association with smuggling and lawlessness.

Around 1 ABY, Horn was stationed in the Corellian city of Doaba Guerfel, conducting an undercover investigation into the powerful Black Sun crime syndicate. During this operation, he discovered that Chandra Conrad was prepared to testify. However, he also had to attend a crucial Black Sun meeting. Horn needed to find a reliable individual to escort Conrad to a later meeting. Finding such an individual and unable to act against Black Sun due to his undercover role, Horn recruited his new operative to bring in Obrio Caldori, a Black Sun administrator willing to become an informant. Caldori quickly provided significant information, seeing how much Horn already knew. With this evidence, Horn arrested Voydd Blancken, a major figure in Black Sun.

After the Battle of Talus, Boushh and another bounty hunter kidnapped his father. Horn, along with several Corellian Security agents, pursued and confronted them, as they had anticipated, hoping to collect a bounty on Horn. The intense battle resulted in a standoff, with the bounty hunters offering to release the elder Horn if Corran Horn surrendered. To protect his father, he agreed. Rebel agents later rescued him and other Rebel-aligned prisoners from a prison outside Bestine on Tatooine.

Around 2 ABY, Horn graduated from the CorSec Academy and became a full officer in the Corellian Security Force. He frequently collaborated with his father, honing his skills and participating in numerous undercover operations. He was once part of a security detail for Imperial actress Wynssa Starflare during her visit to Corellia. The Imperial Intelligence liaison for Horn's division was Kirtan Loor, with whom Horn shared mutual animosity. Horn considered Loor arrogant, incompetent, and intrusive, and avoided dealing with him whenever possible. Loor only intensified Horn's dislike of Imperial interference in Corellian affairs; he sought to minimize the Empire's influence and presence on Corellia. He believed in maintaining a minimal Rebel presence to avoid strong Imperial intervention. He disliked the Rebellion, viewing them as criminals masking their lawlessness with revolutionary rhetoric. Throughout his CorSec career, Horn's investigations led to the capture of Jedi, though he seemed unaware of his role in Imperial Jedi-hunting.

Later in 2 ABY, Horn's mother was severely injured in a landspeeder accident caused by a drunk driver. Horn and his father rushed to the hospital to be with her. She spoke with them about their future before passing away, leaving Horn and his father to grieve together.

Capturing Zekka Thyne

In 2 ABY, Horn partnered with his father. While watching Sajsh's booth on Treasure Ship Row, an outlet for the business of Zekka Thyne, Corellia's top Black Sun lieutenant, he noticed a man speaking with Sajsh and asking for Borbor Crisk, a rival of Zekka Thyne. Suspecting something, he followed the man, who joined a young man, a woman, and a Tunroth. He reported to his father, who also noticed the group meeting Jodo Kast, a bounty hunter. Realizing that Thyne would likely investigate the strangers and bring them to his stronghold, Horn suggested infiltrating the group. Hal considered it dangerous but agreed to observe.

They followed the strangers and intervened when they tried to stop a confrontation between the Brommstaad Mercenaries and a shop owner and his daughter. The mercenaries retreated, and the strangers thanked the Horns. They learned the group consisted of Haber Trell, Maranne Darmic, Riij Winward, Rathe Palror, and Kast, a freighter crew delivering cargo to Crisk. The Horns claimed the cargo was likely illegal and introduced themselves as small-time criminals seeking a position in Crisk's organization. Horn admitted to overhearing their conversation with Sajsh and asked to join the meeting with Crisk's contact, knowing it was an ambush by Thyne's men. Kast allowed only Hal to come, assigning Horn, Winward, and Darmic to offload the cargo.

Horn went to the freighter, the Hopskip, with the others and subtly gathered information. While unloading the boxes, he recognized them as sleight boxes, smuggling boxes using repulsors to neutralize weight. Darmic and Winward were unaware of the boxes' nature. While unloading and discussing the Rebellion with Winward, whom he suspected of Rebel sympathies, Horn was surprised by Kast's return. Kast revealed he had seen Hal, Palror, and Trell captured by Thyne's thugs and done nothing, claiming he was outnumbered. He instructed them to deliver the cargo to Crisk, having arranged a new meeting, while he freed the others from Thyne. Horn insisted on rescuing his father, denying any family connection to Kast and the others. As Kast left, Horn insisted that Darmic and Winward open the boxes. They found glitterstim and Durindfire gems. Horn devised a plan to take only those boxes to Crisk, hiding the rest and revealing their location after the others were rescued. If they failed, they would leverage Crisk into attempting a rescue or use the cargo to ransom the captives from Thyne.

During the ride to Thyne's stronghold, Horn and Kast discussed art, with Horn finding Kast's knowledge unusual and having to justify his familiarity with Venthan Chassu's works. Arriving, they were taken to Thyne's office, where Hal, Trell, and Palror were restrained and beaten. Kast drew a blaster on Horn, claiming Trell and Palror were assassins working for Crisk. They were imprisoned in Thyne's wine cellar, and Kast taunted Horn before leaving. Hal found a molecular stiletto Kast had left, and realized Kast had warned them, in his taunting, that most of Thyne's forces were targeting Crisk, leaving the fortress vulnerable.

They ambushed the guard and freed Trell and Palror, telling them to escape. They stormed Thyne's office, where Horn stunned an enforcer, and Kast killed another. Thyne fled down his private escape route. Kast said he had business inside and left Thyne to the Horns. They pursued him down the tunnel. As it widened into a cave, they advanced cautiously. In the darkness, Thyne disarmed Horn, using him as a hostage and demanding Hal reveal himself. Hal appeared, aiming a blaster carbine at Thyne, identifying himself as a Corellian Security Force inspector and demanding Thyne surrender. Thyne demanded Hal drop his weapon. Hal pretended to comply but used his Force abilities to deceive Thyne, striking him with a stun bolt when he relaxed. Hal carried Thyne while Horn led them out of the tunnel, where they were surrounded by stormtroopers Kast had arranged to raid Thyne's fortress. They identified themselves, and Colonel Maximilian Veers allowed them to pass with Thyne. Unbeknownst to them, "Kast" was Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, helping Darth Vader take down Thyne and strike at Prince Xizor, the Dark Lord's rival.

Living with loss

Around a year after Thyne's capture, in 3 ABY, Horn transferred to the Smuggling Interdiction Division of CorSec. He partnered with Iella Wessiri and worked with an astromech droid he called Whistler. Horn's supervisor was Gil Bastra, a former partner of his father's. Horn was a relentless investigator, while Wessiri preferred subtlety, making them a strong team. Horn sometimes had to fly escort duty, which he disliked. However, he was an excellent pilot, skilled from space missions in his CorSec T-65 X-wing starfighter. Wessiri's husband, Diric Wessiri, often took an interest in their cases. In one case, he became convinced of a suspect's innocence and persuaded Horn and Iella to find evidence. They eventually found Diric was right and arrested the true culprits.

Roughly half a year following his entry into the Smuggling Interdiction Division, Horn and his father embarked on a mission where they anticipated potential danger. From a concealed location, Horn observed Hal's meeting with two individuals, initially perceiving no cause for alarm and relaxing his vigilance. Unexpectedly, the bounty hunter Bossk burst into the room, unleashing a barrage of blaster fire across the table where Hal Horn was seated, resulting in the deaths of Hal and his companions. Horn swiftly emerged, only to cradle his father's lifeless body. The magnitude of the memorial service and the widespread respect shown for Valin Horn deeply moved Horn, inspiring a desire for a similar celebration of his own life. However, the absence of his father left him emotionally unmoored. During the remainder of his tenure at CorSec, he formed only a single new friendship, which dissolved six months later.

Horn successfully located and apprehended Bossk, but Loor released him without any formal charges, justifying the action by claiming that the Trandoshan's limited dexterity made Hal Horn an unfortunate casualty of a legitimate Imperial warrant. This decision ignited a profound and enduring hatred for Loor within Horn, who suspected Loor's involvement in the death itself. Consumed by a desire for vengeance, he was dissuaded from taking action by Bastra, who assumed the role of his primary mentor after his father's passing. Plagued by melancholy and trapped in a cycle of reliving the past, Horn's focus was redirected to the present when Wessiri and Bastra instigated a cantina brawl, helping him to ground himself in the current moment. Horn began wearing his father's cherished medallion, unaware that it was a commemorative piece marking Halcyon's ascension to the rank of Jedi Master, a concealed family treasure whose complete significance remained unknown to Horn, despite his deep appreciation for it.

As the Annual CorSec Awards Ball approached in early 4 ABY, approximately six months after Hal Horn's demise, the traditional lottery system underwent a transformation. Traditionally, male CorSec officers would contribute to a pool, with the winner originally gaining the privilege of escorting the Director's daughter to the ball. Over time, this evolved into a custom where a female officer volunteered as the prize, and the lottery proceeds were donated to the Survivors and Orphans Fund. However, that particular year, the prize was Chertyl Ruluwoor, unbeknownst to her. Ruluwoor, a female Selonian, was participating in an exchange program with CorSec. With no one else willing to take her to the ball, Horn, still grieving his father's death, resolved to spare others the discomfort. He convinced the partners of the other officers in the pool that the lottery was rigged in their favor, leading them to sell him their tickets. Eventually, he acquired every ticket in the pool, donating all the proceeds to the Survivors and Orphans Fund. He then went to great lengths to ensure Ruluwoor had a memorable evening, even flying across the planet to obtain the perfect flowers. Ruluwoor made a striking impression at the ball, and she and Horn, having connected well, later engaged in intimate relations. While Horn thoroughly enjoyed the experience, he discovered he was allergic to her fur, and her skin was irritated by his sweat, resulting in an uncomfortable aftermath for both. Recognizing the incompatibility of their relationship, they parted ways amicably.

During a raid on a glitterstim dealer's storage facility, Horn narrowly avoided being shot in the ensuing conflict. Wessiri, intervening, shot the assailant who had Horn targeted, saving his life. Overwhelmed with gratitude, Horn began to develop feelings of love for Wessiri. In the emotional aftermath of the battle, Wessiri reciprocated his feelings, but they were separated for debriefing before they could act on their emotions. Horn did not see her again until two days later, by which time the moment had passed, and he realized that their feelings were merely a consequence of the emotional intensity of the battle.

During his partnership with Wessiri, Horn was tasked with protecting heiress Siolle Tinta. Their shared appreciation for art fostered a strong connection, and during their three days together in a secure location, Horn convinced himself he was in love with her. However, Wessiri swiftly apprehended the potential kidnapper targeting Tinta, eliminating the need for further protection. Horn quickly came to the conclusion that their time together had been a fleeting infatuation that lacked long-term viability.

Descending into Peril

Approximately ten months after the Battle of Endor, Horn and Wessiri were assigned to investigate the abduction of Fyric Fel, the two-year-old nephew of the renowned Imperial fighter ace Colonel Baron Soontir Fel. They traveled to the Fel estate, where Wessiri interviewed Fyric's parents, Todr and Ajai Fel. The parents were uncooperative and provided little information. After examining the crime scene, Horn concluded that the kidnappers were highly skilled professionals. When three unfamiliar individuals arrived at the estate, identifying themselves as family friends visiting, Horn immediately regarded them with suspicion. They were, in fact, Wes Janson, Derek Klivian, and Isplourrdacartha Estillo from Rogue Squadron, dispatched to offer the Fels asylum in the New Republic, to which Soontir Fel had defected. While Horn questioned Wessiri about the three, Loor arrived and assumed control of the investigation. After diverting Loor's attention, Horn allowed the three Rogues to leave but requested that they persuade the Fels to cooperate if they were indeed family friends.

Horn and Wessiri managed to locate an informant within the kidnapping gang, who revealed the kidnappers' location in an alley. The Rogues arrived at the alley for a meeting with the kidnappers, having been recruited by Ajai Fel to assist them, but were ambushed. Horn and Wessiri drew their blasters and joined the fray, but the mastermind behind the plot, Ilir Post, escaped. Estillo suggested that Post was likely working for the Empire, as Loor seemed eager to remove the investigators from the case. Horn initially dismissed this idea but became suspicious when Estillo mentioned Soontir Fel's defection, leading Horn to suspect that the group was associated with the New Republic. Despite his reservations about collaborating with these agents, Horn remained committed to rescuing Fyric and decided that, with the Empire as an adversary, he would accept any available allies.

Upon receiving information from their informant about Post's hideout, they raided his estate. They engaged in a firefight across an open, guarded lawn, but before they could enter the manor, Post appeared on a balcony, holding Fyric and a blaster. He threatened to kill the child if they did not withdraw. Horn and the others were trapped in a difficult situation with no clear shot at Post, but they knew that withdrawing would likely result in Post opening fire on them. Their dilemma was resolved when a shot struck Post in the head, killing him. Fyric fell several stories from the balcony but was saved by Estillo in a diving catch. Horn was puzzled by the source of the shot, but as they departed, they discovered Todr Fel in the woods with a blaster rifle. He had shot Post, knowing that Fyric would be killed if Post lived, but there was a chance Fyric might survive if Post were shot. Horn allowed the Rogue pilots to leave with the Fels and delayed filing his reports on the incident to prevent alerting the Imperials. As the Rogues' transport departed the planet, it was attacked by TYE-wing uglies. Horn, who had been shadowing the ship in his X-wing, destroyed three of the fighters, enabling the ship to escape.

Around the start of 5 ABY, Horn's division wished to focus on spice smugglers and other serious criminals, but Loor directed them to pursue Rebel shipping. When they expressed their preference for targeting criminals who were actively harming Corellia, Loor threatened them with treason charges, his power amplified by the Imperials fleeing to Corellia after their defeat at Endor. Bastra, sensing danger, created false identities for himself, Horn, and the Wessiris. To dispel suspicion, Horn and Bastra fabricated files on a group of dangerous smugglers, whom Bastra then accused Horn of murdering. They staged a heated argument and pretended their friendship was ruined. With Loor convinced of their mutual hatred, they were free to meet outside the office and plan their escape routes. Loor threatened to bring murder charges against him for the smugglers if Horn ever crossed him.

Knowing he was about to flee, Horn began to openly defy Loor more frequently. Eventually, Loor dispatched Horn to investigate alleged smuggler activity in the system. Horn, accompanied by Whistler in the astromech socket, took his CorSec X-wing to investigate but encountered two flights of TIE fighters lying in wait, an ambush orchestrated by Loor. He shot down several TIEs and jumped into hyperspace.

A Period of Transition

Fleeing Justice

Whistler possessed the complete files for the cover identities created by Bastra, and Horn cycled through several of them. Whistler encouraged him to join the fledgling New Republic, but Horn insisted on remaining hidden. During his time as a fugitive, he made sure to fly at least once a week. He spent the majority of his time as "Eamon Yzalli" on Garqi—over a year—serving as the confidential aide to a succession of governors on the Imperial world. As the last governor he served under was frequently absent, he worked most closely with the military prefect, Mosh Barris. He concealed his X-wing with Whistler in an abandoned building but frequently visited the droid and took the fighter for night flights, easily evading local patrols. When his centrifugal debris extractor was damaged by a rdava-bird striking the intake, Captain Lai Nootka of the freighter Star's Delight provided Horn with replacement parts and a shipment of proton torpedoes for the fighter. However, the Imperial authorities discovered the freighter's cargo, sparking fears of a Rebel presence on Garqi. Minor slicing attacks displaying New Republic crests heightened these fears, although Horn knew they were merely the work of disgruntled students at Garqi Agricultural University. One of them, Dynba Tesc, had been arrested and was being interrogated by Barris. Horn was confident that Barris would release her once he realized she knew nothing, but Barris seemed convinced that Tesc was a genuine Rebel. Feeling responsible for the imprisonment of Nootka and his crew, Horn wanted to free them but felt unable to do so without his X-wing in working order.

As Yzalli, Horn spoke with Barris about Tesc's case, suggesting she might know no more than she had already revealed. Barris remained convinced that she was withholding information and that he could revitalize his failing career by uncovering Garqi's Rebel cell. Barris mentioned that Kirtan Loor had been dispatched to Garqi. Already convinced by the Imperial attention to the world that it was time for him to leave, this news only alarmed him further; Horn knew that Loor would recognize him, even with his beard and dyed blond hair. Further motivating him to act was Barris's intention to publicly execute Tesc as an example, hoping to force her Rebel allies to reveal themselves as they dispersed. Horn immediately devised a solution to his problem and proposed to Barris that he schedule Tesc's execution for one week later. Horn would tell Tesc that he would arrange her escape, using his false identity's Alderaanian origins to convince her that he had decided to oppose the Empire. He would gather her, her Rebel friends, and the crew of the Star's Delight together, and they would attempt to escape on the restocked freighter. Garqi's TIE complement could destroy the entire Rebel presence in one fell swoop as they fled, a kill ensured by sabotaging the ship's shields beforehand. Horn would deliver the parts to the freighter, but to prevent him from actually being on it, Barris would enter a notation of his execution in the Imperial system. The Rebel slicers, assuming that Yzalli had been discovered, would alert their comrades to flee immediately. As the slicers could access the Imperial system, neither Horn nor Barris could enter any information about the plan into the computer system. Delighted, Barriss approved the plan. In reality, Horn would use the parts to repair his fighter and use the supposed Rebels' escape to cover his own, allowing him to escape and free those he had endangered.

Horn spoke with Tesc and informed her of the escape plan, but he did not reveal his true identity or intentions. He removed her from prison and had her impersonate "Kirtana Loor" to release the Delight's crew from custody and bring them to the Delight. Using only the TIE pilots he planned to shoot down as workers, he had the ship's cargo restored, minus the debris extractor he needed. He also had a duplex circuit in the shield system replaced with a triplex one—sabotage that could be repaired by providing the freighter's crew with the proper codes. Everything was in place for an escape attempt the next day, around the time Loor was expected to arrive.

The gathering of the crew and Tesc's cell of slicers proceeded smoothly, and the Star's Delight began its escape. Horn's final act as Eamon Yzalli was to send a report to Loor, stating that Barris had orchestrated the escape as part of a plot to turn Garqi over to the New Republic. With Yzalli's vague death report filed by Barris, Loor had Barris arrested. Horn wanted to send a message to the Delight with the shield codes, but Barris had deactivated his message account when he declared him dead. Now forced to intervene directly, he made his way to his freshly repaired X-wing. There, he was shocked to learn from Whistler that the droid, through HoloNet contact, had been the mysterious leader of Tesc's slicing ring, known as "Xeno" to the students. Horn launched, caught up to the freighter, and provided Nootka with the shield code. He then quickly shot down two of the TIEs with proton torpedoes but had to engage in a dogfight with the last two. After shooting one down, he still had the best of the pilots on his tail. A clever maneuver using his repulsorlifts to bounce off the Star's Delight allowed him to position himself to destroy the final TIE fighter and escape.

Horn followed Nootka to a New Republic base, where the New Republic's Captain Dromath was highly impressed by Horn's actions over Garqi. He urged Horn to join the New Republic, but Horn, hesitant to become involved in the galactic conflict, insisted he simply wanted to be left alone. Dromath and Tesc argued that the New Republic needed him and that he would be better off fighting the Empire with others than on his own. When Dromath mentioned that the elite Rogue Squadron was being reformed and was seeking pilots, Horn was intrigued. He realized that he missed having companionship and that he could never truly escape the Empire without the New Republic. He decided to join the cause.

Becoming a Rogue Squadron Pilot

In 6 ABY, Horn auditioned for a spot in the renowned Rogue Squadron, which was being re-established under the leadership of the famous Corellian Commander Wedge Antilles. He underwent several months of training at Folor, where he shared a room with Ooryl Qrygg, a Gand who consistently referred to himself in the third person. Accustomed to being alone, he remained somewhat aloof from the other trainees. Horn harbored a strong dislike for Bror Jace, a pilot widely considered his main competitor for the top trainee position, whom he viewed as arrogant and conceited.

Toward the end of the training program, he flew his final iteration of the Redemption scenario, a classic piloting simulation where he and three other pilot candidates were tasked with protecting the frigate Redemption during its evacuation to the vulnerable corvette Korolev. Meanwhile, the Imperial frigate Warspite harassed them, deploying fighters and bombers. In a previous simulation, Horn had piloted one of the bombers, successfully destroying the Korolev. Horn, now flying with Qrygg, Nawara Ven, and Rhysati Ynr, was in command of the flight and decided to adhere to conventional tactics, positioning himself ahead to engage the fighters while the other three provided a defensive screen to prevent the Warspite from deploying fighters any closer. Horn successfully shot down the first three TIE bombers, but as he engaged the last three, he noticed that one of the TIE fighters from the initial wave was eliminating his companions. He frantically attempted to deflect the last TIE bomber, which he suspected was piloted by Jace, off his shields, inflicting significant damage, before engaging the final TIE fighter. He engaged the fighter, launching a proton torpedo, which the fighter evaded. As the TIE positioned itself behind Horn, he became convinced that the pilot was the legendary Antilles. He managed to break free of the pursuit and turned for a head-to-head pass. The other pilot's fire disrupted his targeting sensors, preventing him from locking on, and Horn was rendered dead in space. However, he won the scenario because his earlier proton torpedo finally caught up with the TIE and destroyed it. After the mission, the other pilot, who was not Antilles, approached him. He congratulated Horn and left, leaving Horn impressed by his skill but curious about his identity. It was, in fact, Captain Tycho Celchu, a former Rogue whom Antilles had specifically recruited to defeat Horn, as no other trainee was significantly better than Horn. Horn's performance in the Redemption scenario turned out to be the best among all the candidates.

After the simulation, Horn went to perform maintenance on his X-wing, where he was approached by pilot candidate Lujayne Forge. She confronted him about his isolation from the other candidates, accusing him of holding her Kessel origins against her. He explained that he was simply accustomed to solitude and found it difficult to trust others after his time on Garqi, and she invited him to drinks with the other cadets at the DownTime cantina, which he accepted. She also assisted him with his maintenance, putting him in her debt.

Shortly after, Horn received a message instructing him to report to the squadron briefing room. He had been selected for the squadron. At the briefing, he learned that the mystery pilot was Celchu, who would serve as the unit's executive officer. During the introduction, it was mentioned that two of the pilots had death marks against them. Horn, Qrygg, Ynr, and Ven speculated about who might have them, correctly identifying Riv Shiel as a likely target of the Empire's animosity. Horn was amused to learn from "Emtrey," the unit's military protocol droid and quartermaster, that he was the second recipient, Loor having followed through on his threat to use the smuggler incident against him. However, during Emtrey's search of records to confirm his story, the droid discovered an Imperial report stating that Bastra had died. Horn was devastated by the loss of his mentor but suspected it might be a false report by Loor intended to provoke him.

Horn was assigned the callsign Rogue Nine, and Qrygg became his wingman. The following day, he and the other Rogues were sent to fly through a shooting range in the so-called Pig Trough, a Folor canyon. Horn flew it well, hoping to achieve a high score, but upon returning to the base and waiting for the others to complete the exercise, he discovered that they had all performed better than he had. Horn was puzzled, knowing that the others should not be consistently outperforming him. Eventually, he realized that Antilles had instructed Whistler to transmit his telemetry to the rest of the squadron, providing them with information about the run and enabling them to score higher. Horn was furious, feeling humiliated.

When Antilles and Celchu entered the hangar, Horn angrily confronted his commanding officer. Antilles lectured him in return, explaining that he had learned a lesson about teamwork. His individual score in the training exercise was irrelevant; what mattered was the cohesion of the squadron. He was a more skilled pilot but no more important than anyone else. Chastened, Horn accepted the truth of Antilles's argument. Afterward, Celchu approached him and advised him that his solitary tendencies were isolating him from the squadron and urged him to address them. Horn was surprised when a guard escorted Celchu away after the conversation, leaving him wondering if the man posed some sort of security risk. After the conversation, Rogue Erisi Dlarit approached him and told him that the other pilots were at DownTime and wanted to apologize. Horn attended and told them not to feel bad for him, as it had been an important lesson for him to learn.

The Rogues continued their training, including an attack on General Horton Salm's training wing of Y-wings, in which the Rogues achieved an eight-to-one kill ratio. After one month of training as a squadron, the Rogues were assigned an astronavigation exercise. Horn was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and given command of the squadron's Three Flight, which included Qrygg, Forge, and Andoorni Hui. The Rogues were instructed to pack their gear, leading Horn to believe that their trip was more than just an exercise. Their trip would consist of three legs, with One Flight plotting the first, Two Flight plotting the second, and Three Flight plotting the third. Each flight had various starting and ending points to work with, requiring them to develop multiple courses; however, Horn was able to eliminate most of them based on the courses of the first and second jumps, leaving him with only two routes to refine. He decided to shorten the jump to the Morobe system by plotting a course closer to the center of the Chorax system.

This course, as it turned out, was the one utilized, but it led to the squadron's unexpected emergence from hyperspace within the Chorax system. This was due to the presence of an Interdictor cruiser, actively engaged in the capture of a smuggling vessel. Despite his apprehension about engaging in combat, Horn confronted the TIE interceptors guarding the cruiser. He successfully destroyed a single fighter before an ion cannon blast from the Black Asp struck his own fighter, rendering it inoperable. Although he managed to activate emergency power and halt the spin, he was left adrift and vulnerable. The Black Asp was subsequently driven off by the other Rogues, and it fled past Horn, pursued by several interceptors. Tycho Celchu, piloting the squadron's shuttle, named Forbidden, secured a missile lock on a pair of the interceptors, transmitting the targeting data to Horn, which enabled him to destroy both with proton torpedoes. The smuggler craft, allied with the New Republic, then secured Horn's X-wing and transported him to Talasea in the Morobe system, the new base for Rogue Squadron, which had been activated for duty.

After arriving on Talasea, Horn disembarked and discovered that the vessel that had transported him was the Pulsar Skate, commanded by Mirax Terrik, the daughter of Booster Terrik, his father's longtime adversary, whom Hal Horn had previously exiled to Kessel. Antilles, a long-time acquaintance of Terrik, intervened to de-escalate the tension. As he walked away with Antilles, Horn inquired why Celchu was piloting an unarmed shuttle, had never possessed fully functional weaponry on his training Z-95 Headhunter, and had appeared to be under guard while on Folor. Antilles responded that he had unwavering faith in Celchu and that the matter was personal to Celchu. Horn would have to directly ask Celchu for any explanation. Nevertheless, Antilles requested Horn to maintain complete secrecy, as publicizing the matter could negatively impact squadron morale, a request to which Horn agreed.

Rogue rookie

Activation

It took two weeks to repair Horn's fighter. Following its repair, he resumed flying fighter missions, providing escort for New Republic vessels navigating the edge of the Core. Eventually, they received orders to oversee the repair and retrieval of the frigate Battle of Yavin within the Hensara system. The Pulsar Skate and the CR90 corvette Eridain were also present to support the operation. Horn was assigned to air patrol over Hensara III while the other two flights provided cover for the Battle of Yavin on the ground, where Imperial walkers were actively searching for it. However, the patrol duty, which Horn anticipated would be uneventful, quickly became anything but when the Strike-class cruiser Havoc arrived and began launching TIE fighters. Horn led Three Flight against thirty TIEs while the others hurried back to assist him. He achieved ace status by destroying six fighters in the engagement, and the Havoc was compelled to retreat.

The pilots returned to Talasea, where they celebrated their triumph. Jace, however, started to haze sixteen-year-old Gavin Darklighter, who had not achieved any kills during the battle. The squadron collectively decided that a lighthearted punishment was appropriate, and Ven presented the situation to Antilles, Celchu, and Captain Afyon of the Eridain for a decision. Celchu proposed that Darklighter be apprenticed to the squadron's best pilot, a suggestion that was unanimously approved. It was generally assumed that Horn was the best pilot, due to having one more kill than Jace at the Rout of Hensara and four more kills overall. Jace, however, argued that he was the superior pilot because he had eliminated a greater percentage of the targets he had encountered. While Antilles dismissed the argument based on percentages as irrelevant, Horn chose to demonstrate his confidence in Darklighter. He offered to concede the title of best pilot to Jace and average his kill count with Darklighter's, resulting in all three pilots being tied at five kills overall. Subsequently, he and Jace would compete either head-to-head or with Darklighter's kills averaged with Horn's, depending on Jace's preference. Jace agreed to continue averaging Darklighter's kills—terms that were advantageous for him—but stipulated that both he and Horn would jointly hold the title of best pilot. However, in a clever maneuver by Horn, the averaging eliminated Darklighter's position as worst pilot, forcing Ven to serve as Horn's and Jace's errand boy.

One night, Horn was awakened from his sleep by a strong feeling of unease. He was sleeping in a remote, poorly-maintained hut, after a windstorm had caused a kaha tree to fall into the main building, damaging his and Qrygg's room. Horn crouched at the doorway. When a stormtrooper entered, Horn, unarmed, tackled him and used the Imperial's sidearm to kill him. He searched the man and found that the Imperials had been setting explosives in the base. Qrygg returned from a walk, during which he had killed another stormtrooper. Horn took the stormtrooper's weapons and set out for the main building with Qrygg. On their way, Qrygg killed another sentry and Horn took that man's breastplate. The pair slipped into the building, where they awoke and armed Darklighter and Shiel. Stormtroopers entered the hall, and Horn emerged from the other pilots' room firing. Darklighter emerged too soon, however, and took a shot. Horn left him to be tended to by the other pilots, who were awakened by the commotion, while he left to secure the hangar. He scattered a knot of troopers with a grenade, then began firing at the numerous troopers in the hangar while Qrygg and Shiel provided support from outside. His luck did not last and Horn was shot in the chest. Though the other Rogues were able to drive the stormtroopers off and disable the explosives, they had to evacuate the base, and Horn required an extensive session in a bacta tank.

After Horn and Darklighter emerged from their bacta tanks, Antilles greeted them and informed them that Lujayne Forge had been killed in the attack. Horn attended Forge's funeral, and was well in time for the retaliatory attack on Vladet, from which the attack force had come. The Rogues escorted Salm's Defender Wing in an assault on the Imperial base there, but as Three Flight had lost Forge and had Hui still recovering, it was assigned to escort Warden Squadron, which would only be performing cleanup. However, while orbiting and waiting to go in, a Carrack-class cruiser and Lancer-class frigate arrived in the New Republic forces' exit vector. The Lancer-class was designed to present an intense challenge to starfighters, meaning that fleeing Vladet would be extremely dangerous. Horn, inspired by his experience at Chorax, suggested he fly against the Lancer, having the Y-wings of Warden Squadron, which would stand off out of the Lancer's range, target his homing beacon. By interposing the frigate between himself and the proton torpedoes at the correct time, they would strike the capital ship. Salm refused to assent to the plan, but Horn proceeded with it anyway. He successfully weaved through the Lancer's heavy fire, but two late-launched torpedoes maneuvered around the explosion which claimed the Lancer. Only Whistler's timely cutout of the homing beacon saved Horn from being killed.

Despite the successful destruction of the Lancer, Salm remained incensed at Horn's defiance of orders. Horn was confined to quarters and was threatened with a court-martial. He was visited in his cabin by squadron-mates and friends. One of them was Erisi Dlarit, who explained that she felt immensely grateful to Horn for destroying the Lancer and saving her life. Horn rebuffed her romantic overtures, telling her that she was merely feeling the emotional aftereffects of combat. Immediately after she left, Mirax Terrik entered. She had heard Horn was in trouble and brought him a small care package of Corellian goods to cheer him up, including the traditional Corellian ryshcate. They shared the ryshcate and some of the Whyren's Reserve whiskey she had brought, and when she left Horn realized that he enjoyed her company and the ability to share their Corellian heritage.

The Battles of Borleias

The Rogues' next mission was to assault a planet known by the codename "Blackmoon" in order to secure a stepping-stone to Coruscant. Salm's Defender Wing was to be involved, and both he and Antilles thought that the mission was likely to go wrong and that General Laryn Kre'fey, the mission planner, was far from thorough in his research and overconfident in his planning. As a result, Salm dropped all charges, deciding that it was more important that Horn be flying for the mission.

With his flight status reinstated, Horn participated in the battle. His Three Flight, still lacking a replacement for Forge, was tasked with escorting Warden Squadron on a bombing mission to weaken the defenses after the Emancipator's bombardment had brought down the Imperial base's shields. However, Kre'fey aborted the bombing run when the shield came down, citing the lack of heavy resistance. The Rogues were then assigned to escort the assault shuttles in, leaving Horn with an extremely uneasy feeling. His premonition proved accurate when the base reactivated its ion cannon, restored its shields to twice their previous strength, and began launching fighters. Horn engaged the fighters, protecting the shuttles as they retreated. Hui was killed in the dogfight, though Horn destroyed the interceptor responsible for her death. Horn and Qrygg rescued the shuttle Devonian from a TIE attack, but during the rescue, Qrygg was shot down and forced to eject. Horn and the remaining Rogue pilots were forced to fend off two additional squadrons of TIE interceptors that had arrived from a previously unknown base on Blackmoon. They were saved only by the return of Defender Wing, which had been ordered out when the bombing runs were aborted. With all the extravehicular Rogues rescued, they retreated.

The squadron returned to base on Noquivzor, where Lieutenant Judder Page, one of the commandos who had been on the Devonian, bought him a mug of lum in gratitude. While they spoke, Whistler reported that his information-gathering programs had been able to discover the actual location of Blackmoon—Borleias. Horn and Page had already realized that the extra power and reinforcement squadrons likely came from an additional base that the Imperials did not know about—a side operation by the proper base's commander. With Whistler's data, they confirmed that the side operation was likely the abandoned Alderaan Biotics facility, which the base commander, General Evir Derricote, had revived to sell Alderaanian goods on the black market. They also discovered that the power conduit between the two bases was exposed when it crossed a rift valley, giving them the ability to destroy it and cut the power. Horn and Page presented this information to Antilles and Salm, who took it to Admiral Ackbar and received permission for another strike. Rogue Squadron would destroy the conduit, while Page's Katarn Commandos would enter the conduit and capture both facilities. The position of the moon, however, would block any quick escape and, due to the timing of the strike, anyone left behind would run out of life support before reinforcements arrived. With Rogue Squadron depleted, it would be a volunteer mission.

For operational security reasons, all the pilots other than Horn were told that they were striking a different planet. Horn volunteered for the mission, though he insisted that he fly as Antilles's wingman in the first run on the conduit. During the long rounds of simulations, Horn's tension with Jace came to a head, and Jace, who was one behind Horn in kills but winning their competition due to Darklighter's averaging, reverted to a head-to-head competition for the upcoming battle. The evening before they were to depart for Borleias, Dlarit invited him to sleep with her. Though he found her extremely attractive, Horn declined, stating he needed to be rested for the mission. When he returned to his quarters, he found Mirax Terrik sleeping in Qrygg's bunk; Qrygg was in the medical bay due to losing his arm to debris while extravehicular. Terrik expressed relief that Horn was not sleeping with Dlarit, but when Horn pressed her on the issue she denied any feelings for him. Horn was hurt, but suspected she might have denied them so strongly because the accusation was more true than she wanted to admit. They chatted and apologized for hurting each other's feelings, and Terrik, an expert in collectibles, noted that Horn's good-luck medallion was in fact a Jedi Credit, a commemorative medallion struck when a Corellian Jedi reached mastery. When Horn turned in to his own bed, Terrik began hinting that she might like Horn to sleep with her by asking if he was warm enough. Horn, however, said he was warm enough, feeling he would be using Terrik. She, in turn, asked him to hand her his spare blanket.

The next morning, Terrik wore Horn's flight jacket and kissed him goodbye as he entered his fighter, but both maintained that they were only friends. They launched from Noquivzor and headed towards Borleias, approaching through canyons along Borleias's moon before they made their way to the surface under the cover of a meteor shower. During the approach, the fuel pump which would replenish his fuel tank from the auxiliary fuel pod attached to his fighter failed, meaning it would take longer to empty the pod and detach it. He and Antilles began their run through the rift canyon while the other four pilots held off the TIEs. They were pursued by a pair of TIE fighters, and misses by one pursuer led to debris striking his fuel pod and beginning a leak. Horn jettisoned it, with the explosion taking out the fighter. This left him dangerously low on fuel. Horn made his run against the conduit, but missed, as did Antilles. While Antilles returned for another pass, he ordered Horn out, as he had barely enough fuel to head back to base.

Horn began flying back to base, but on his way out of the atmosphere, he noticed two TIEs making a run against the Devonian, which was landing Page's commandos. Horn turned back and destroyed one of the interceptors on his first pass, but had to dogfight with the second one, burning up enough fuel to make it impossible for him to return to Noquivzor. With nearly two more squadrons of TIEs launching, the others had to flee, and Horn was told to land on the moon's surface, where his life support system could concentrate the thin atmosphere, and wait for New Republic forces to arrive. He holed up in an inactive volcanic tube, and when a squadron of interceptors began a search pattern for him, he realized they would find him before reinforcements could arrive. He accepted that he would die, but prepared to take as many enemies as possible with him. When one flight passed over his hole, Horn ambushed them and flew out to begin engaging the other fighters. However, as he prepared to make his last stand, he was caught in a tractor beam. He found that Terrik and Celchu, concerned that operational security had been breached by Emtrey's listing of Alderaanian items on the squadron's sell list, had taken the Pulsar Skate to Borleias in an attempt to warn the squadron. When no ambush seemed forthcoming, they settled in on the moon, and when Horn emerged they flew to his rescue, with Celchu shooting down several of the interceptors around Horn as they fled.

Rescued by the speedy Pulsar Skate, Horn arrived at Noquivzor before the rest of the Rogues. When they did arrive, he decided to play a prank on his squadron-mates, sending a live message to the Rogues as if it were a message pre-recorded in case of his death, but quickly broke the deception. He, Terrik, and Celchu had a small party ready for the others when they touched down. However, Jace had beaten Horn's tally of twenty-one kills by just one. Jace did not have long to enjoy the victory, as he was presumed killed not long after when he disappeared on his way home to Thyferra.

Readying to strike

The Rogues were transferred to Borleias, where they spent the next month guarding the world. There, Horn and Qrygg were given a suite of rooms—a private bedroom for each opening onto a small living room which Horn attempted to furnish as best he could. When Horn was patrolling over the world one month after its conquest, he felt deeply unnerved by the arrival of the Vengeance Derra IV over the world, a freighter which appeared to be unremarkable. Flying with Champion Five and Champion Six, Horn let the Y-wings handle the challenge to the ship as he made a pass to inspect the ship. When Champion Five reported that the ship had given the correct code on the second try, Horn was immediately suspicious, recalling a series of burglaries he had investigated in which the thief, who worked for the company which made the ROMs used in the locks, had built in a password which, when sent the first time, would send the actual password back to the thief for use on the second try. Horn thought that a similar capability might have been built into some of the Y-wing comm components by Imperial Intelligence agents. Horn ordered the freighter to stand by for boarding, but the ship would not stop. Instead, it released four TIE fighters and two TIE bombers. Horn let the Y-wings deal with the bombers as he engaged the starfighters, shooting down one. The Y-wings quickly eliminated the bombers, but Horn kept them from joining the dogfight, worried that the inexperienced pilots would only get in the way. However, when the TIEs took his shields down, Horn had to break away. The TIEs began attacking the Y-wings, and Horn had to shoot down one to save Champion Five. He expected to die, given that another TIE was on his tail, but Champion Six shot that fighter down with a proton torpedo. The Vengeance Derra IV fled.

After returning, Horn met with Celchu. Celchu had recruited him to investigate Emtrey's odd functions. When told to shut up three times in succession, he entered a state in which all his memories could be accessed. He also had an odd skill in acquiring parts through the black market. Horn presented Celchu with the results of his inquiries, stating that Emtrey had been rebuilt at Echo Base on Hoth in 3 ABY by an officer of the Quartermaster Corps and given special commodities-brokering software. Due to Losca, the builder, dying at Hoth, no one else had been aware of Emtrey's abilities until Horn accidentally reactivated them by instructing the droid to "scrounge" a part on Talasea. Horn concluded that the droid did not seem to be a security risk. He did mention to Celchu that he had tried to slice the captain's file while having Whistler slice information on Emtrey. Celchu told Horn that if he wanted to know anything, he could have asked him, and explained that he had been captured while on a spy mission to Coruscant in 5 ABY. He was imprisoned in the notorious Lusankya prison, where Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard turned prisoners into unknowing agents for the Empire. Not remembering their time in the prison, they were capable of being suddenly reactivated and causing great harm. Celchu, however, actually remembered his time in the prison and was adamant that he had not been broken. After transfer to a prison on Akrit'tar, he escaped and rejoined the New Republic, but few other than Antilles trusted him, leading to the security precautions around him. After considering Celchu's apparent sincerity and his repeated saving of his life, Horn decided to trust the man.

Later on, Horn was delivered two distressing updates. First, the remains of Jace's starfighter had been located, suggesting he was intercepted in hyperspace by an Interdictor and subsequently destroyed. Second, Bastra's death was verified, attributed to an accidental killing by Loor during interrogation. Shortly afterward, Terrik reported the Vengeance Derra IV's presence in the GaTir system. Rogue Squadron was dispatched to investigate. Due to a pilot shortage, Horn served as wingman to Captain Aril Nunb, a temporary squadron commander filling in for Antilles, who was attending a conference on Noquivzor. Upon arrival, Horn recognized the Contruum's Pride coordinating with the Vengeance, transferring goods. Nunb demanded their surrender, but they launched TIE fighters instead. The Rogues eliminated the fighters and crippled both capital ships. The Battle of Mrisst resulted in a decisive New Republic victory.

Antilles's Noquivzor trip was due to Rogue Squadron's secret assignment: scouting Coruscant for a potential invasion, a mission known only to Antilles. However, their immediate task was to liberate Black Sun prisoners on Kessel. They would infiltrate Coruscant to create disturbances and support the New Republic. By freeing dangerous inmates from warden Moruth Doole, they would negotiate for the release of political prisoners. Horn felt uneasy, especially upon learning that Zekka Thyne was among those to be freed. He proposed abandoning Thyne and falsifying his death, but Antilles argued that the most dangerous Black Sun members would be most effective against Isard's Coruscant regime.

Horn relented, and Rogue Squadron seized Kessel's moon base before securing a landing zone on the planet. Horn was part of Antilles's negotiation team, reviewing the prisoner list and observing their release. Also on the team were Kassar and Myda Forge, Lujayne's parents and rehabilitation program instructors. Thyne was freed, bringing with him his lover, Inyri Forge, Lujayne's sister. At Rogue Squadron's temporary base, Thyne provoked Horn, claiming responsibility for his father's death. Horn ignored him. After Thyne departed, Horn tried to dissuade Forge from leaving with him, but she insisted on her love for Thyne. Horn managed to secure the release of Fliry Vorru, the notoriously corrupt former moff of the Corellian sector, hoping he could control Thyne.

A New Republic Hero

The Conquest of Coruscant

Horn returned from Kessel to Noquivzor, where Rogue Squadron's base had relocated, and was summoned to Antilles's office. There, he and Erisi Dlarit learned they were to infiltrate Coruscant to scout for a New Republic invasion. Antilles didn't know their cover identities and couldn't confirm if other squadron members were involved, though Horn and Dlarit suspected it. They were immediately dispatched to begin their mission.

Horn and Dlarit trained extensively in their assumed roles before traveling to Coruscant aboard the starliner Jewel of Churba. Horn posed as a telbun servant to Dlarit's Kuati aristocrat. Dlarit treated him dismissively and abusively, forcing Horn to act subservient and wear uncomfortable clothing. He disliked the role and was relieved to arrive safely on Coruscant. There, they were met by their New Republic Intelligence contact, Winter, using the alias Rima Borealis.

They spent a week on Coruscant, gathering intelligence on the security situation and medical facilities. Horn used his police skills to monitor the local constabulary and stormtrooper garrisons, assessing their discipline and tactics. After a week, he, Dlarit, and Winter decided to assess security at the Imperial Palace. He considered it risky, but necessary to determine the building's defenses for a potential New Republic capture. In the Grand Corridor, Horn observed tight, unobtrusive security. During their conversation, Winter indirectly mentioned Celchu, with whom she had a past relationship. Horn realized he had lost trust in Celchu, which conflicted with his admiration for the man and made him disproportionately angry. Winter shared Celchu's life story, noting he witnessed his family's death via HoloNet during Alderaan's destruction. At that moment, Horn noticed Kirtan Loor passing by. Fearing discovery and overwhelmed by the urge to kill Loor, Horn kissed Dlarit to hide his face. After Loor passed, he apologized and explained.

Returning to their hotel room, Dlarit, moved by Horn's outburst in the Grand Corridor and the story of his father's death, tried to comfort him physically. Horn was tempted, but realized a genuine relationship was impossible and their attraction was mere lust. He ended the encounter and went for a walk to clear his head. He wandered into Coruscant's underlevels, resolving to focus on the mission and not dwell on uncontrollable factors. Realizing he had entered a dangerous area, he stopped at a cantina called The Headquarters. There, he spotted Tycho Celchu in a booth. A cloaked figure, whom Horn recognized as Kirtan Loor by his gait, was leaving.

Convinced Celchu was a traitor, Horn rushed to report it but was intercepted by Zekka Thyne's men. Thyne appeared, intending to kill him. Desperate, Horn fought free, stole a blaster, and escaped on a swoop. Pursued by Thyne's thugs, Horn fled upwards, then lowered his altitude to navigate the alleys. He set up ambushes, outdistancing his pursuers. However, a swoop with a sidecar grappled his swoop. He shot the pilot, but the remaining swoop weighed him down. He crashed the trailing swoop into a building, losing it but remaining tethered by the cable and sidecar. Dismounting, he entered a warehouse where Imperial stormtroopers were raiding members of the Alien Combine. The other members of Rogue Squadron were there as well. Horn helped them escape and rescued Inyri Forge, one of his swoop pursuers, from an Imperial attack. They retreated to a safe house belonging to Asyr Sei'lar, an Alien Combine leader.

Horn contacted Winter, requesting to speak with Antilles, who he knew was on the planet. After a few days, she took him to The Headquarters, where Antilles met him. He reported seeing Celchu meeting with Loor, but Antilles said Celchu had been at Noquivzor, which was attacked by Warlord Zsinj. Celchu was presumed dead. Furthermore, Rogue Squadron had a new objective: disabling Coruscant's planetary shields for an invasion. They convened a planning session with Vorru, Thyne, and the Alien Combine leadership. Iella Wessiri, now a New Republic Intelligence agent, was also present. He also learned that Terrik was present, having smuggled the other Rogues onto the planet. The session focused on accessing Coruscant's central computer system. Horn suggested inserting falsified code into subsidiary memory cores manufactured in factories where Alien Combine members worked.

Horn and the others expanded their underground movement, stockpiling weapons and equipment. Gavin Darklighter approached him, seeking guidance on interspecies relationships, as he was attracted to Sei'lar, a Bothan. Horn advised that genuine love could overcome any problems. Terrik and Wessiri arrived, and Wessiri recounted Horn's relationship with Ruluwoor. Horn worried about Terrik's judgment, but she was amused rather than disturbed.

During the core pickup, Horn and Terrik collaborated with Black Sun enforcers to secure their exit. Their concerns were validated when stormtroopers breached the office where they were overseeing the transfer. Horn and Terrik shot the stormtroopers and fled to the garage, finding Black Sun members escaping in airspeeders, pursued by stormtroopers on speeder bikes. Horn knocked a stormtrooper off his bike. Forge, piloting an airspeeder, returned and provided them with an escape. Horn suspected Thyne's betrayal, and at the Black Sun rendezvous, Thyne was present. He aimed a blaster at Horn and Terrik, but Horn told Forge that Thyne had betrayed them. Thyne confessed, revealing his Imperial contact was Kirtan Loor. Realizing she had been sold out, Forge shot and killed Thyne. As he died, Thyne taunted Horn, claiming someone else had already betrayed them to Loor. Horn immediately suspected Celchu.

Horn rejoined the others, learning they had only two days to disable the shields, as the New Republic fleet was approaching. Celchu was with them, having been brought to Coruscant by Antilles as secret backup. Horn's suspicions intensified. Antilles explained that Celchu had been meeting with Lai Nootka at The Headquarters, not Loor. All their supply caches had been raided, except the one Celchu had set up. Antilles insisted Celchu was not a traitor.

The Rogues, joined by Winter, Wessiri, Terrik, Sei'lar, and Forge, planned how to disable the shields quickly. Darklighter proposed creating a massive storm by redirecting an Orbital Solar Energy Transfer Satellite to boil off a reservoir. To redirect the mirror, they needed to control a subsidiary control center. Horn suggested taking control of a nearby construction droid and sending it towards the center, causing an evacuation. They could then shut down the droid and seize the control center. Antilles approved the plan and assigned Horn to fly cover in one of the Z-95 Headhunters Celchu had procured. After inspecting his Headhunter, he told Terrik he was attracted to her and wanted a deeper relationship. She agreed. Afterward, Celchu approached Horn, denying he was a spy and asking for his trust. Horn refused, stating he would find the spy upon his return. Celchu accepted, saying he had nothing to fear from an investigation, and left.

Horn flew solo, leading the four other Headhunters providing air cover. After Antilles took control of the construction droid, a squadron of TIE fighters attacked. He shot down several fighters before destroying an E-Web emplacement pinning down Antilles and his team. He protected Antilles as he transferred from the droid to the control facility. The successful redirection of the OSETS created a massive storm, disabling the inner shield layer but activating a new power grid reinforcing the outer shields. Antilles, Celchu, and Winter located a substation for the new grid, deep within the storm, and sent Horn to destroy it. Pursued by two TIE interceptors, one of which struck a walkway, he evaded the second long enough to fire a concussion missile at the substation, but it failed to penetrate. Antilles, monitoring, used his Imperial system access to slave the interceptor's trajectory to Horn's next missile. Horn fired his last missile, followed by the slaved interceptor, destroying the substation and disabling the shields. With the New Republic fleet arriving, the TIEs shifted their focus to space defense, allowing Horn to return to base. En route, he detected a strange blip on his sensors. Fellow Rogue Pash Cracken saw nothing, but Horn investigated. His controls locked up, and Isard's agents used overrides to capture him. A nearby building was destroyed, making it appear he had crashed and died.

Captivity

The New Republic presumed him dead, posthumously honoring him as a hero of the Liberation of Coruscant. A memorial was erected at the presumed crash site, and a large service was held, celebrating him as a hero and victim of the Empire. The green, black, and gray CorSec color scheme of his flight suit and fighter was adopted for new Rogue Squadron uniforms. Celchu, possessing the override codes for Horn's Headhunter, was arrested for Horn's murder and treason, leading to a publicized trial. While Celchu was vilified, and Wessiri gathered prosecution evidence, Whistler determined Horn was wrong about Celchu and offered to help the defense.

Horn awoke on a transport, meeting Ysanne Isard. Despite his defiance, she confidently stated she would break him at her Lusankya facility. She revealed she had seeded Coruscant with the Krytos virus, causing a plague among nonhuman species. Horn was taken to Lusankya and heavily drugged. In the first brainwashing phase, he flew a TIE interceptor in a simulator. Disoriented and amnesiac, he enjoyed flying and following orders. He shot down two TIEs, then two Uglies, before being ordered to shoot down two X-wings with Rogue Squadron crests. He froze, and his simulated TIE was destroyed. Isard rebuked him, and he apologized, seeking to prove himself.

He was drugged and placed in the simulator again, forgetting the previous experience. This time, he felt unease and manipulation. When two X-wings appeared, labeled as piloted by Tycho Celchu and Kirtan Loor, Horn realized the deception. He deduced Isard was brainwashing him and ended the simulation. Isard appeared, but Horn remained defiant. Even the threat of narco-interrogation didn't deter him, as he held no vital secrets. When Horn revealed nothing, Isard resorted to torture.

Torture failed, and Isard incarcerated Horn with the general population of Lusankya. Urlor Sette took him to the Rebel prisoner leader, Jan. Horn didn't realize he was General Jan Dodonna. He also met General Evir Derricote, the Krytos virus architect, imprisoned by Isard. Horn questioned Dodonna about Lusankya's security and began planning an escape.

Horn spent a week in the general population, making gravel. He attempted to escape by riding the conveyor belt, expecting a failed attempt to provide knowledge for a second try. However, a guard singled him out before he reached the belt. The guard struck him, and Horn reflexively threw his gravel bucket at the guard. He refused to take the guard's weapon, preventing a futile prisoner uprising. He was stunned and remained paralyzed but awake.

He was taken to a medical facility, where he overheard marching feet on the other side of the floor. Realizing the prison floors had reversed gravity, he deduced that escaping upwards was actually going downwards. He shared his discovery with Dodonna and Sette, spending a week convincing them to let him prove his theory. They staged a fight while Horn threw a rock at the ceiling. It didn't fall, confirming his theory.

Horn offered Sette and Dodonna the chance to escape, but they declined. He prepared and tested his ability to fit through the gate before attempting his escape at night, soaking his tunic to reduce his infrared signature. Sette walked back to their quarters to mislead the sensors. Horn squeezed through the gate into the quarry, where Derricote attacked him, seeking to redeem himself to Isard. Dodonna intervened, allowing Horn to kill Derricote. Horn offered Dodonna another chance to escape, but Dodonna felt a duty to the other prisoners. Dodonna returned, and Horn dragged Derricote's body under the conveyor belt, reaching a room with access to the machinery.

Horn entered the properly-oriented prison section, which was surprisingly well-appointed. He dumped Derricote's body into a garbage chute and explored, finding no exit except a turbolift requiring a code. Trapped, he hid in a cabinet as stormtroopers searched the area. He willed them to grow frustrated and give up, as Derricote wouldn't fit inside. The stormtrooper checking his cabinet gave it only a cursory look, and the stormtroopers departed.

He emerged into the library, searching datacards for the escape tunnel trigger. He found a hold-out blaster hidden inside a false box. He accessed the computer terminal, finding his Lusankya record declaring him "unsuitable for conversion," as well as Celchu's. Celchu was not the spy. Horn concluded that only Dlarit, from Thyferra, who had checked out his Headhunter with him, could have given Jace's course to the Imperials and known Horn's Headhunter override codes.

Annoyed by the Emperor Palpatine hologram, which appeared when stepping on a certain spot, Horn realized it kept people off the spot. He stood on it, activating a lift that carried him to a tunnel-shuttle system. The shuttle took him to another lift, leading to an abandoned room filled with Jedi relics. He removed his ratty tunic and donned Jedi robes from a mannequin. A display caught his attention, holding a Jedi credit identical to his lucky medallion. The hologram showed Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon with his apprentice—a boy resembling Valin "Hal" Horn. Shocked, Horn took the items, including his grandfather's lightsaber. Three soldiers entered the room, and Horn killed them, two with the lightsaber.

Realizing the Jedi memorabilia and the Coruscant time signal meant he was on Coruscant, he contacted Whistler, who guided him to Celchu's trial. His entrance shocked the courtroom. Horn apologized to Celchu, testifying that Celchu was not the traitor, as proven by the Lusankya files. The trial was interrupted by news that the Lusankya, an Executor-class Star Dreadnought, had erupted from beneath Coruscant, killing civilians as it escaped with Isard. Dlarit, exposed as Isard's spy, was aboard.

The Bacta War

Horn rejoined Rogue Squadron, hunting down the remnants of the Palpatine Counter-Insurgency Front, led by Kirtan Loor. Loor, having failed Isard, had defected to the New Republic but was shot by Diric Wessiri, a Lusankya agent. Iella Wessiri, protecting Loor, killed her husband. Horn comforted her, as she had comforted him after his father's death. Using Loor's old CorSec encryption key, Horn decoded Loor's data disk, exposing PCF cells. Isard took Lusankya to Thyferra, becoming its leader in a coup. Horn was initially told Terrik had been killed in an ambush but learned she had survived. Horn and Terrik began a serious romantic relationship and quickly began cohabiting.

Ten days elapsed following Horn's return. A celebration was then conducted, marking his reappearance and clearing Celchu's name. The ceremony declared Celchu innocent, stating he was aware his trial was a ruse to expose the true spy, thereby restoring his reputation. Following the ceremony, at the reception, Luke Skywalker approached Horn. After his escape, Horn had given Halcyon's artifacts back to the museum, but Skywalker returned the lightsaber to him. Skywalker explained that his research revealed Nejaa Halcyon was Horn's grandfather, thus clarifying Horn's familial background. Skywalker then extended an invitation for Horn to train as a Jedi. While deeply honored, Horn declined, citing his duty to first liberate the remaining Lusankya prisoners. Borsk Fey'lya, a councilor present, informed Horn that no action would be taken against Thyferra. The New Republic would not interfere, as Isard's installation was deemed an internal political affair, fearing it would deter potential members. Enraged, Horn resigned in protest to take matters into his own hands. Almost the entire Rogue Squadron followed his lead.

It was only while formulating a plan to free the prisoners that Horn, watching a HoloNet special about Rebellion heroes, realized Jan was Jan Dodonna. Although Horn initiated the effort to remove Isard from power, he entrusted Antilles with leading it. Antilles and Celchu initiated the planning phase of their campaign against Isard, gathering resources for their war against her. Horn enlisted Wessiri, adding another ally to the Rogues, along with Winter and Terrik. At their inaugural operational meeting, Horn was tasked with traveling to Tatooine alongside Terrik and Darklighter to acquire the remaining inventory of Huff Darklighter from the Imperial supply cache on the Eidolon, a cache Rogue Squadron had previously encountered on Tatooine.

They journeyed to Mos Eisley aboard the Pulsar Skate, and from there, they proceeded to the Darklighter estate situated near Anchorhead. At the residence of Gavin's uncle, they waited in a library while Huff attended to another client. Huff emerged to inform them that he would speak with them shortly. Horn then brought up Huff's smuggling activities, applying pressure on the Tatooinian water magnate. He also explained their purpose for being there. Huff then revealed that his other visitor was also interested in purchasing the same items. Horn attempted to intimidate the rival bidder by leveraging Terrik's father's reputation, but he was taken aback when the man simply laughed. Terrik informed him that the other man was Booster Terrik. Mirax calmed her father, and upon discovering that Antilles, whom Booster Terrik regarded as a son, desired the cache, Booster insisted that Huff grant it to them. Subsequently, they participated in an impromptu Darklighter family reunion as the Darklighters convened to see Gavin. Amidst the family members, Horn was overcome with grief for the loss of his own family. However, Jula Darklighter, Gavin's father, was able to converse with him and assist him in setting aside his sorrow.

With Booster Terrik now among them, they made their way back to the Yag-prime space station orbiting Yag'Dhul, which now served as the base for their guerrilla force. While Horn possessed his own fighter, the other eleven had belonged to the New Republic. These were then declared surplus and sold to Celchu, along with their astromechs and Emtrey, in a discreet act of support. When the maintenance crew also resigned and joined the Rogues, they finally possessed a functional strike force. They employed it against Isard, targeting one of her bacta convoys in a pirate raid. Horn, drawing on his CorSec background, felt uneasy about the idea of pirating a convoy but acknowledged it as a necessary measure to dismantle Isard's operation. Horn's flight neutralized the convoy's fighter defenses, persuading the freighters to surrender and deliver their bacta to New Republic and unaligned worlds in need. Horn and Qrygg escorted a pair of freighters to Halanit, where the bacta provided relief to the small colony from a spreading virus.

Hoping that Horn would reconsider his decision, Luke Skywalker dispatched some fundamental Jedi training materials, information on lightsaber techniques, and accounts of the Jedi Knights' law-enforcing legacy. Horn examined the material and frequently pondered his instincts. He considered that any feeling of unease could be a harbinger of disaster, causing him to second-guess himself. Horn's subsequent assignment involved infiltrating Thyferra. Taking the captured freighter Mimban Cloudrider to Thyferra, he and Mirax Terrik were to facilitate the insertion of Wessiri and Elscol Loro's team of anti-Imperial resistance fighters to mobilize the native Vratix against Isard.

During the voyage aboard the Mimban Cloudrider, Horn utilized Skywalker's materials to practice with his grandfather's lightsaber, which he had been carrying. Upon arriving at Thyferra, they took a shuttle down to the surface. In the spaceport, Horn drew the attention of a suspicious stormtrooper who thought he recognized him. The stormtrooper attempted to detain Horn for questioning, and Horn tried to use a mind trick to secure his freedom. When the trick failed, Horn was forced to draw his lightsaber and kill the stormtrooper. As more stormtroopers arrived, Horn cut through the ceiling of a refresher to attack the troopers on the balcony above. There, he killed two before another tackled him. Horn fell over the balcony railing and lost consciousness after hitting the floor, sustaining a broken back and multiple other internal injuries.

Their Thyferran contacts successfully repelled the Imperials, and Horn was evacuated to one of the Vratix Ashern resistance facilities. He was then placed in a bacta tank for healing. Upon emerging, he was stunned to see Bror Jace. The X-wing destroyed by the Black Asp had been a decoy, intended to simulate his death so he could assist the Ashern, with whom his own faction of the bacta cartel, Zaltin Corporation, had allied. With the team in place, Horn and Terrik returned to Yag'Dhul with Jace. Jace leveraged his Ashern resistance contacts to slice the navigation computers of some of the bacta freighters in another convoy, leading them into an ambush. As Isard had begun using her three Star Destroyers to guard the convoys, keeping Lusankya at Thyferra, the convoys were now too well-protected to strike directly. The Rogues, reinforced by a squadron of Twi'lek warriors under the command of Tal'dira, whom the Rogues had encountered during Horn's imprisonment, lay in wait for the three diverted freighters. The first ship to surrender was the Xucphra Rose, which Horn and Qrygg escorted to Halanit. Horn also gathered the names of the crew's family members on Thyferra so they could be taken to safety. Isard had threatened to kill the dependents of anyone who cooperated with the Rogues.

Following the return of Horn, Qrygg, and the two Twi'lek pilots working with them, the Corrupter attacked Halanit in retaliation for their acceptance of stolen bacta. Horn participated in the retaliatory strike on Qretu 5, a bacta-producing Thyferran colony. Horn executed one run against the factories before engaging several TIEs that had launched and then securing the spaceport from which they had deployed. After that mission, the Rogues maintained a relentless schedule of missions, harassing Isard's convoys. The demanding pace of missions left Horn exhausted, and his mood was further dampened by the fourth anniversary of his father's death, a date that consistently brought him down.

The Terriks arranged for shipments of various supplies from smuggling king Talon Karrde. The first shipment was to be transferred to the small fleet of freighters operated by the Rogues at the Graveyard, the ruins of Alderaan. Before the transfer could commence, however, they were ambushed by the Corrupter and the Interdictor Aggregator, trapping them. Horn, along with the rest of the Rogues, stood off to unleash a barrage of proton torpedoes using telemetry from Antilles. Celchu made a second run, and Antilles instructed Horn to prepare for a third if the Corrupter survived. Antilles made a run against the bridge, and the long-lost droid-operated Alderaanian War Cruiser Valiant, responding to Celchu's Alderaanian identify friend/foe beacon, emerged from the Graveyard and targeted the Corrupter, destroying it. Another torpedo run by Celchu against the Aggregator drove the Interdictor off. Upon returning to base, Horn assisted in analyzing their security situation to ensure that the individual who had betrayed the meeting point was one of Karrde's personnel.

Overcoming Isard

On Elshandruu Pica, Horn acted as a spotter for the team assigned to target Captain Sair Yonka of the Avarice, one of Isard's three remaining captains. Horn, Antilles, and several other Rogues raided the cottage where Yonka was having a romantic rendezvous. Antilles then bribed Yonka to defect, bringing the Avarice, renamed Freedom, with him. Subsequently, Horn conducted a circuit through the Polith system to verify rumors that Isard was rounding up Vratix for execution within two weeks. After reporting back to Antilles, the commander ordered him to escort Karrde's final shipment directly to the station. Horn protested that this would reveal their location, but Antilles explained that it was part of his plan. For security reasons, Horn would not be fully informed. After delivering his report, he engaged in an argument with Booster Terrik, which Antilles had to resolve by pointing out that Mirax loved them both. Horn put aside his animosity towards Terrik and accepted that he did not need to continue seeing him as his father's foe. During the escort mission, Horn spoke with Mirax Terrik about his desire to have learned about his Jedi heritage from his father. Whistler then revealed that Hal Horn had recorded a holographic message for him and stored it in Whistler. Horn declined to play it at that time, feeling unprepared.

Upon returning to the station, they knew Isard's spy would betray them. They anticipated her forces to arrive within two days, at which point the Rogues would flee. Antilles, Celchu, and Booster Terrik had established a special situation at the base to deal with Isard's ships. Although Horn was not informed, a gravity well projector and tractor beams would hold the ships in place while hundreds of missile targeting units painted the ships with missile locks, forcing them to stand down. They had one night before Isard's capital ships would arrive. Horn, realizing that he loved Terrik and would never find a woman he loved more, proposed marriage to her. To his delight, she accepted.

When the Lusankya and Virulence arrived, the starfighters and freighters departed on a course for Thyferra. However, they did not proceed all the way there. Instead, they rendezvoused with Yonka's Freedom, which transported them to Thyferra, fully supplied and rested. By the time they arrived, the Lusankya had already returned, with the Virulence having positioned itself between the station and Lusankya, allowing the Star Dreadnought to escape. The Rogues engaged the Thyferran Home Defense Corps TIEs launching from the surface, then executed a torpedo run against the Lusankya. Each X-wing transmitted its missile telemetry to the freighters standing off, which had been equipped with the actual missile launchers from the sensor systems on the Yag-prime station. The threat to the Lusankya there had been nothing more than a deception.

During the battle, Horn, Qrygg, Celchu, and Ven were tasked with destroying a Lambda-class shuttle that was fleeing Thyferra, seemingly carrying Isard. Horn initially targeted the TIE interceptors guarding the shuttle. Dlarit was among those pilots, and Horn targeted her after she shot down Ven, forcing him into space. He killed Dlarit, then pursued the shuttle. He hailed it, and Isard responded. However, when he attempted to attack, she revealed that it was an upgraded model. His lasers would not penetrate its shields quickly enough to prevent its escape to hyperspace. Although he was out of proton torpedoes, he targeted her with his torpedo systems to activate her lock-avoidance software and force her to juke. Distracted, she could not proceed as swiftly outside Thyferra's gravity well. She realized he was bluffing and prepared to flee, to which Horn responded by planning to ram the shuttle. This proved unnecessary, as he had accidentally pressed the button to broadcast his telemetry, and Celchu was able to use it to launch torpedoes that destroyed the shuttle.

Meanwhile, the Virulence, having surrendered to Terrik and Pash Cracken's intervening A-wing flight group, returned to Thyferra under Terrik's command, carrying Cracken's fighters. With their assistance, the Lusankya was crippled to the point of surrender. Thyferra's government fell to Wessiri and Loro, resulting in a near-complete success for the group. The sole failure, deeply painful to Horn, was the inability to recover the prisoners, whom Isard had removed from the Lusankya and scattered. Horn intended to continue searching for them. During the cleanup phase following the Battle of Thyferra, Horn learned that his friend Qrygg had been declared janwuine, or worthy to speak of himself in the first person. It was a high honor among Gands, and Horn and the other Rogues were invited to and later attended Qrygg's celebratory janwuine-jika. Also during the cleanup phase, Horn was recruited by General Airen Cracken, the head of New Republic Intelligence, to help him convince Terrik to turn the Virulence over to the New Republic. Through the combined efforts of himself, Cracken, Terrik, and Karrde, they were able to reach an agreement that allowed Terrik to keep the Virulence, renamed the Errant Venture, as a traveling casino and place of business while selling most of its weaponry to the New Republic. During the negotiations, it was revealed that Horn and Mirax Terrik were engaged. Hoping to preempt Booster's grumbling about their engagement, they proceeded directly to marriage. Antilles, as the captain of the Lusankya, officiated the small ceremony with Celchu and Wessiri as witnesses. They planned a public ceremony later on Coruscant. They then attended Antilles's victory celebration, where Antilles announced that, due to creative misfiling, their resignations had never taken effect, and they remained New Republic officers if they so desired. Horn and all the others accepted.

The Rogues were assigned to train Thyferra's new starfighter defense force. They were recalled early from this duty, and at Coruscant, they were met by a New Republic squadron, led by former Rogue Klivian, standing in for Rogue Squadron for morale purposes. Both squadrons performed a crowd-pleasing display of precision flying before landing for a heroic reception ceremony. However, Antilles departed the squadron to form a new pilot-commando unit, Wraith Squadron. Celchu became Rogue Leader, and Klivian transferred back into the unit.

Veteran Campaigns

Combating Zsinj

While Antilles trained the Wraiths, Horn and the Rogues were assigned to join General Han Solo's Solo Fleet in its campaign against Warlord Zsinj, with the goal of hunting down the elusive warlord and destroying his military capabilities. They pursued every report of his activity, keeping them occupied investigating his strikes. Within the fleet, it became a recurring joke that Horn and Solo were, in fact, the same person, as they were never seen together, and one would often arrive shortly after the other departed. The Rogues were present and prepared for the Battle of Talasea, a trap for the forces of Zsinj's subordinate Admiral Apwar Trigit. However, the Wraiths eliminated Trigit's forces on their own before the other forces were needed. The Rogues were also deployed with Wraith Squadron at the Battle of Ession, decimating Trigit's fighter complement before his Star Destroyer, Implacable, was destroyed. When the Wraiths transferred aboard the Mon Remonda, General Han Solo's flagship and the Rogues' base of operations, they began collaborating with the Rogues in striking at Zsinj's facilities, such as when the Rogues supported the feint at Lavisar.

When it was determined that Zsinj would attempt to hijack the Super Star Destroyer Razor's Kiss, which was being completed at Kuat, the Rogues were part of the force that intercepted his flight from the planet. A Wraith pilot had managed to sabotage the shields on the Razor's Kiss, prompting Antilles to order all squadrons to focus their attack on it. The ship was destroyed in a barrage of torpedo strikes. Horn then engaged Iron Fist's fighter screen, encountering the dangerous fighters of Zsinj's impostor 181st Imperial Fighter Group. The battle was fiercely contested, but eventually, the Imperial fighters fled as Iron Fist blasted its way through Solo's blockade.

The Mon Remonda returned to Coruscant for repairs, and Antilles rejoined Rogue Squadron, as both the Rogues and Wraiths were now operating in close coordination. When the fleet was back to full strength, it resumed action. At Levian Two, while investigating a Zsinj raid, the Solo Fleet was ambushed by a much larger Zsinj force. The Rogues launched an attack on Iron Fist's stern, reducing its maneuverability, before eliminating one of the Carracks in Zsinj's flotilla, providing the Solo Fleet with enough space to escape. Subsequently, Horn participated in a planning session in which several pilots brainstormed a scheme to lure Zsinj out by using a false Millennium Falcon to make him strike against his archenemy, Solo.

When Wraith Squadron infiltrated Saffalore to gather more information about a scientific endeavor linked to Zsinj, Rogue Squadron also infiltrated to provide backup. They landed under the cover of a meteor shower and established a base camp outside Lurark. When the Wraiths attacked the Binring Biomedical Product facility, they were trapped by Zsinj's forces, who had anticipated their arrival. The Rogues received their signal requesting air support and immediately departed their base camp. TIE fighters had been dispatched to suppress the Wraiths, which the Rogues engaged and eliminated. They then attacked the local military base to divert attention from the Wraiths' escape.

The Mon Remonda next responded to a Zsinj strike in the Jussafet system. However, while deploying from the cruiser, Horn noticed Tal'dira, who had joined the Rogues after the Bacta War, targeting Antilles. He warned the commander, who was still hit when Tal'dira opened fire. While Celchu shielded Antilles, Horn moved out of formation and informed Tal'dira that his actions were dishonorable, a grave concern for the Twi'lek warrior. When Tal'dira still refused to surrender, Celchu and Antilles led him in a head-to-head pass against Horn, who destroyed his fighter and killed Tal'dira when the pilot opened fire on Celchu. Although he was shocked and dismayed at having killed a fellow Rogue, Horn continued the mission, flying against Zsinj's TIEs and a corvette in the system's asteroid belt.

Later investigation revealed that Tal'dira, in his final moments, had committed suicide, lowering his forward shields so that Horn would kill him easily. Horn's words on honor had stung him. In the aftermath, Antilles called one of the Wraiths' infamously free-wheeling brainstorming sessions, which Horn and some other Rogues attended. They were able to determine that assassination attempts and terrorist attacks being carried out by nonhumans across the New Republic were linked to Zsinj, and Horn suspected them to be an attempt to drive a wedge of species-based dissension into the New Republic. It was correctly theorized that the agents, including Tal'dira, were being forcibly brainwashed, and the group attempted to predict where Zsinj's brainwashed agents would strike next. They successfully predicted that the next attacks would be a Sullustan-created ship accident and a Bothan-created slicing accident. By passing their theories on to New Republic Intelligence, they were able to avert the attacks and restore faith that there was not an alien conspiracy ongoing.

When Solo decided to implement the plan to create a decoy of the Millennium Falcon to lure Zsinj into a trap, Horn and several other Corellians retrieved an old YT-1300 light freighter from a Corellian scrapyard, which was refurbished as the Millennium Falsehood. To alleviate the stress experienced by the highly active pilots and crew, Antilles organized a day of recreation in which the officers' mess was transformed into a zone where the use of rank was forbidden, and everyone could participate in card games, astromech races, and other relaxation activities. The following day, Antilles and Chewbacca flew the Millennium Falsehood to Kidriff 5. Upon detection, they departed. Horn and the other Rogues and Wraiths provided cover as the Falsehood fled, establishing what Zsinj would interpret as a sighting of Solo on a covert mission. As Celchu was escorting Antilles, Horn was left leading the group of Rogues waiting around Kidriff 5's moon to cover the escape. Near the end of the mission, Wraith Lara Notsil was revealed as Gara Petothel, a former agent for Zsinj. While she insisted on her loyalty to the Wraiths, she fled when fired upon by Wraith Myn Donos. Horn later reviewed material about her and concluded that she was a situational conformist, remaining unconvinced of her true loyalty to the New Republic. He was concerned that she would defect to Zsinj and expose the Millennium Falsehood ploy, but Antilles believed her and proceeded with the operation.

The Rogues maintained a demanding schedule, consistently disrupting Zsinj's operations and accompanying the Millennium Falsehood to establish a recognizable pattern. Solo orchestrated an ambush at Vahaba, trapping Zsinj with an Interdictor cruiser. The Solo Fleet unleashed its entire starfighter force against Zsinj's small group. Because Zsinj hoped to escape rather than deploy fighters, Horn and the squadron were able to target the Iron Fist before breaking into smaller groups for attack runs. The Serpent's Smile diverted the Interdictor, allowing the Iron Fist to flee. Just as they accepted the ambush's failure, Notsil, who had infiltrated Zsinj's fleet, informed the Solo Fleet that she had sabotaged the Iron Fist's hyperdrive, stranding it in the Selaggis system.

The task force pursued, with the Rogues and other squadrons searching the system's asteroid belt for the Iron Fist. Upon discovery, they launched an assault. Antilles noticed several squadrons leaving the Iron Fist towards a colony Zsinj had previously attacked. Suspecting a trap, he led the Rogues and Wraiths in pursuit. When Zsinj's fake 181st Imperial Fighter Group, veterans of previous encounters with the Rogues, began firing on the ruins, Horn and his team engaged the TIEs. While battling the fighters, Horn sensed that his target was not piloted by a living being. Voort saBinring of the Wraiths determined that half the fighters were droid-piloted bombs set to detonate in combat, a ploy targeting Antilles and the Rogues. With Celchu shot down and Antilles grounded, exposing the impostor "Soontir Fel," Horn and Wraith One Garik Loran agreed to jam the area, disrupting the fighters' remote control and making them easy targets. The fighters and their TIE Raptor reinforcements were destroyed, and the Iron Fist was presumed destroyed in the engagement.

With the Zsinj campaign concluded, Rogue Squadron was reassigned to a less intense role for recovery. Later, on Coruscant, Horn and Terrik held a formal wedding ceremony with family and friends, followed by a brief honeymoon to Alakatha, a resort world that offered them a complimentary honeymoon due to Horn's fame as a New Republic hero in the liberation of Coruscant and subsequent campaigns. The couple rented a small apartment on Coruscant where they resided with Whistler, while Mirax continued her import-export business.

The Thrawn campaign

In 9 ABY, Imperial attacks against the New Republic intensified. Following the assault on Bpfassh, Han and Leia Organa Solo were dispatched to assess the damage and reassure the population. Rogue Squadron was assigned to protect them. When an Imperial kidnapping attempt targeted the Solos, Solo signaled the Rogues with korfaise gas from the fake Millennium Falcon used by the would-be kidnappers, thwarting the operation.

Subsequently, the Rogues were tasked with protecting the escort frigate Larkhess, repurposed for cargo transport due to a shortage in the New Republic, on routes from Coruscant to Sluis Van and then from Sluis Van to Bpfassh. While awaiting departure at Sluis Van, Antilles observed a suspicious freighter that appeared empty but was handled as if loaded. Antilles mobilized the squadron to investigate, but as soon as Horn and the others launched, the freighter exploded, releasing TIE Fighters and mole miners from its concealed cargo bay. Immediately afterward, a fleet of five Star Destroyers, commanded by the resurgent Empire's new leader, Grand Admiral Thrawn, arrived at the shipyards and initiated an attack. With assistance from Solo and Skywalker, who were present at the shipyard aboard the Millennium Falcon, Antilles determined that the mole miners were being used to breach the hulls of the understaffed cargo transports for hijacking. The mole miners, stolen from Lando Calrissian, who was also aboard the Falcon, were then reprogrammed via his command signals to burn through the bridges of the targeted ships, disrupting Thrawn's plan. The Rogues continued to harass the TIEs as Thrawn retreated.

Upon the New Republic receiving intelligence regarding the location of the legendary lost Katana fleet, Borsk Fey'lya prevented immediate action. Leia Organa Solo and Talon Karrde, the source of the information, believed that any delay could allow the Empire to seize the fleet, as they also knew its location. Organa Solo deployed a task force covertly, led by Solo, Calrissian, and Skywalker, to investigate the Katana fleet; Rogue Squadron was included. Fey'lya's task force, departing the following morning, arrived with orders to arrest the initial group. Solo, aboard the Katana, refused to surrender but instructed the Rogues to comply with Fey'lya to avoid a court-martial. However, an Imperial Star Destroyer then appeared. The Rogues immediately provided cover for Solo's team as they attempted to evacuate the vulnerable Katana. Fey'lya attempted to withdraw, but Organa Solo and Karrde, present on his ship, exposed his view of the military as expendable tools. The task force then abandoned him and supported the Rogues, who defended against drop ships attempting to board the Katana fleet Dreadnaughts. One boarding party succeeded, trapping Solo's group on the Katana. Reinforcements from Karrde's smuggler organization arrived, evening the odds, along with a task force under Garm Bel Iblis. Despite the arrival of another Star Destroyer, Solo rammed it with a slave-rigged Katana Dreadnaught, causing the remaining Star Destroyer to retreat. However, it was discovered that the Empire had already seized all but fifteen of the Dreadnaughts.

Horn continued to fight in Thrawn's advancing campaign with the Rogues, participating in the Battle of Filve and covering the retreat, as well as pioneering Bel Iblis's A-wing Slash at the Battle of Qat Chrystac, another defeat. Horn had hoped for a largely defeated Empire, but the grueling campaign against Thrawn diminished that hope, as he grew increasingly impressed by Thrawn's tactical and strategic brilliance. When Thrawn deployed cloaked asteroids in orbit around Coruscant, the planet was locked down due to the risk of collisions and asteroid impacts if the shields were raised. The New Republic leadership decided that acquiring a crystal gravfield trap to detect the asteroids by their gravitic signature was crucial and planned an attack on the shipyards of Bilbringi to obtain one. To mislead the Imperials, they feigned an attack on Tangrene, deploying the Rogues nearby to attract Imperial attention.

However, when the attack commenced, the Rogues were reassigned to participate in the Battle of Bilbringi. Upon arriving, they were prematurely pulled from hyperspace, and Horn immediately realized that Thrawn had anticipated their strike and was waiting with a substantial fleet. Celchu suggested attacking the shipyards to force the Empire to divide its forces, and Antilles was contacted by Karrde's employees, who were planning a simultaneous attempt to secure the crystal gravfield trap, believing the New Republic would be at Tangrene. Antilles arranged to cover their insertion into the shipyards while he and the Rogues attacked one of the Golan II defense stations surrounding the shipyards. The Rogues assaulted the station, with Horn leading multiple torpedo runs by Three Flight to weaken it for two Assault Frigates to destroy. As they penetrated the shipyards, Horn noticed Thrawn's fleet dispersing and retreating. Only after the battle did he learn that Thrawn had been assassinated by his bodyguard Rukh.

The return of Isard

The Rogues returned to their base on Coruscant, where Horn reunited with his wife. They celebrated Thrawn's defeat before attending a welcome-back party for the Rogues. There, Horn was shocked to see Urlor Sette, the prisoner from Lusankya. Sette, suffering from amnesia, collapsed and died from a fatal hemorrhage upon hearing Horn's name. An autopsy revealed a poison capsule triggered by Horn's name, leaving Horn distraught. Wessiri promised to investigate, and Horn left the morgue. On his way home, he was attacked by street urchins. He endured a few blows before using his Force abilities to slow time, easily evading the gang.

The investigation traced the capsule's components to Commenor. The Rogues were covertly deployed to Commenor to provide air support for a raid on the Xenovet facility, suspected of implanting Sette with the capsule. As the fighters launched from Munto on Commenor, Forge detected pursuit. She and Horn dealt with the four TIE interceptors shadowing them, while the other Rogues assisted the commandos in securing the Xenovet facility. Inside, they found several former Lusankya inmates, near death, who confirmed that Ysanne Isard was still alive and active.

While the new lead was investigated, the Rogues were assigned to the war against Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel of the Ciutric Hegemony, an Imperial warlord. Antilles was promoted to general, opening promotions for the other Rogues. Horn was promoted to captain. During preparations for the strike at Liinade III in the Ciutric Hegemony, Gavin Darklighter sought his advice about fatherhood. Darklighter and his lover, Sei'lar, planned to marry and adopt children. Horn assured the nineteen-year-old that he would be a great father and agreed to be a reference in the adoption process.

During the assault on Liinade III, Horn led his flight in an attack on the interceptor screen for Liinade III's space forces, then cleared ground defenses for the invasion. While securing a hydroelectric dam, his fighter was severely damaged by a ground-launched missile while his shields were focused forward. Forced to land, he sent Qrygg back for assistance. Leaving his fighter, he discovered a new, heavily guarded facility near the dam. He raided the site alone, killing guards and capturing the security office. From there, he locked down the facility and inspected a work area, where he found technicians analyzing plans for a new Death Star.

Due to the importance of this information, Horn and Antilles were recalled to Coruscant to present their report to the Provisional Council after three weeks of pacification missions on Liinade III. Analysis revealed that Krennel was designing a miniaturized Death Star with multiple weaker superlasers targeting capital ships, which the New Republic analysts dubbed Pulsar Station. The Rogues were assigned to escort a reconnaissance X-wing through Krennel's systems to find the Pulsar Station's construction site. They ran simulations to prepare for encountering a well-defended Pulsar Station.

With former Rogue Nrin Vakil piloting the reconnaissance fighter, the Rogues scanned the Corvis Minor system. As Vakil approached Distna for a scan, Horn and Three Flight secured their exit vector. He detected six squadrons of Krennel's fighters ambushing them; the Pulsar Station designs were bait. He ordered his flight to target the interceptors with long-range proton torpedoes to quickly eliminate them. However, missile warning systems limited their success to two interceptors. He shot down several interceptors, but a missile from a TIE bomber crippled his fighter, leaving him helpless as several Rogues were shot down. However, two squadrons of TIE Defenders arrived and decimated Krennel's forces. The Defenders escorted the Rogues away, towing Horn's damaged ship. Lyyr Zatoq, Khe-Jeen Slee, Wes Janson, and Asyr Sei'lar were presumed dead.

The surviving Rogues were taken to a small Imperial base commanded by Ysanne Isard. She explained that she had assigned a clone of herself to scatter the Lusankya prisoners, and that clone was working with Krennel and had gathered the prisoners on Ciutric. Having survived Thyferra by using a holocomm to relay her messages from her supposed escape shuttle to convince the Rogues she was aboard, she had retreated to the base and gathered her forces. She claimed to want to be left alone by the New Republic, and offered them Ciutric in exchange. The Rogues were to infiltrate Krennel's forces as mercenaries flying TIE Defenders, from which they could weaken his defenses for the New Republic strike Antilles would call in. Before Horn learned this, he attempted to comfort Darklighter about Sei'lar's death, sharing his own experience with his mother's death and assuring him that while his grief would never truly disappear, it would become bearable. After that conversation, technicians approached him to place a restraining bolt on Whistler, which Horn strongly opposed. When Antilles ordered him to allow the Imperials to restrain Whistler, Horn affixed the bolt himself, knowing that Whistler was modified due to his time as police property not to respond to restraining bolts.

To maintain the deception, the Rogues trained extensively on TIE Defender simulators, in which Horn excelled. Highly suspicious of Isard's motives, he constantly checked his equipment and attempted to send messages to Mirax, knowing she would believe him dead. Many of these attempts were simply to distract Isard's security while he implemented his real plan, activating Whistler to escape storage and deliver a message to his wife. Isard confronted him and ordered him to stop, but he refused, remaining hostile.

The Rogues, posing as Requiem Squadron, arrived on Ciutric and were greeted personally by Krennel. Horn had grown a mustache and dyed his hair black; he used the alias Pyr "Klick" Hand. They planned to wait a week on Krennel's capital, then provide cover for a strike by Isard's commandos to liberate the prisoners while the New Republic fleet attacked Krennel in orbit. During his time there, Horn played sabacc with many of the pilots, winning a significant amount of money. A few hours before Ackbar was due to attack, the squadron was mobilized. Krennel was planning an attack against Coruscant. They delayed deployment, and once all Krennel's other squadrons had reached orbit, they launched and headed to the prison, around which time Ackbar's fleet arrived. While Antilles's One Flight disabled the shield generator for Daplona, the capital, Celchu's Two Flight, in which Horn flew, stripped the prison of its defenses.

With aerial reinforcements incoming and potentially difficult to handle, Horn landed to secure the prison himself when it became clear that Isard's forces would not appear. With Qrygg and Vakil, he entered the building and proceeded to the top floor, where the Lusankya prisoners were most likely held. There, the sole guard to survive their assault led him to Dodonna. Horn was immensely pleased to finally fulfill his promise to free the prisoners. While he released them from their cells, more of Krennel's men attacked from the stairwell. This became a secondary concern when a concussion missile struck the top floor. Most of the cells were between the prisoners and the missile's impact site, protecting them. Colonel Kapp Dendo's Commando Team One dealt with the troops, and they were able to exit safely. Meanwhile, Antilles killed Isard's clone, and Krennel died in combat in orbit, leading to the surrender of the Hegemony forces. Across the galaxy, Wessiri shot the real Isard as she attempted to steal the refurbished Lusankya from the New Republic. The campaign was a resounding success. The Rogues returned to the New Republic, where their survival was celebrated, and they were pleased to learn Janson had survived. After spending time in isolation on the Lusankya in case Isard had infected the prisoners, the Rogues and prisoners were honored at a reception aboard the Star Dreadnought.

Losing Mirax

When the reborn Emperor emerged from the Deep Core, Coruscant was retaken by the Empire, and Horn's home was destroyed in the attack; fortunately, neither he nor Mirax were home. Horn and the Rogues fought the resurgent Empire, flying V-wing airspeeders against the World Devastators and TIE/D droid fighters in the Battle of Mon Calamari. Ultimately, Palpatine was defeated, and Coruscant was retaken. The Horns were given a former New Republic Intelligence safehouse to live in, thanks to Wessiri's intervention.

The Rogues were significantly expanded, becoming a multi-fighter unit based around E-wings and B-wings, and stationed on the Lusankya, which Antilles left the squadron to command, leaving Celchu as Rogue Leader. This unit first saw combat conquering Phaeda. Shortly after that campaign, the last leaders of the unified Empire were defeated, and the former galactic power dissolved into warlordism. Horn remained and endured these temporary changes, as the squadron returned to X-wings and regular strength within the year.

In 11 ABY, the Rogues were assigned to hunt the Invids, pirates led by ex-moff Leonia Tavira. Tavira's flagship, Invidious, was highly elusive, and she seemed to anticipate any ambush. The campaign was frustrating, with few New Republic victories. During downtime, Horn worked with his wife to rebuild their home. Mirax began seriously advocating for them to have children, but Horn was not particularly fond of children and expressed his disinterest. Mirax insisted that Horn would be an excellent father, and while he continued to resist outwardly, he began to warm to the idea of becoming a father. When he could no longer resist, he asked Mirax to give him until after the defeat of the Invids to make a decision; she agreed.

Eventually, the Rogues set up an ambush over Alakatha based on a tip that some of the Invid gang would attack the luxury liner Glitterstar over the world. While waiting, Horn's mind was still occupied by the prospect of fatherhood, and he decided that upon his return, he would stop delaying the decision and reach an agreement with his wife. When the pirate ship Booty Full attacked, Horn helped defeat its Invid-specific Tri-fighter TIE-variant fighters. One Flight disabled the Booty Full and captured the pirates, making the mission a rare success against the Invids.

By the time he returned to Coruscant, Horn was very enthusiastic about having a child. However, in their apartment, he found only a message from Mirax stating that she had left on an unexpected trip and would be gone for a few days. Horn had been delayed in his return, so Mirax should have already been home. He was slightly uneasy but confident she would return soon. He fell asleep but was awakened by Mirax screaming his name. Frightened and disoriented, he stumbled around the apartment, convinced something had happened to his wife. He was shocked to realize that he could not recall any emotional details of Mirax or their time together and felt no connection to her.

Terrified that he was losing his mind, he called Rogue Squadron headquarters and had Emtrey reassure him that he was awake, sane, and married to Mirax Terrik Horn. He rushed to headquarters to speak to Celchu. There, he found that Celchu had invited General Airen Cracken of New Republic Intelligence to the meeting. Cracken explained that he had been using Mirax to investigate the Invids, and she was currently on such a mission for him. She was slightly overdue to report back, but otherwise, Cracken had no indication of any trouble. Horn blamed himself and his deadline for deciding about children for Mirax's involvement and demanded that Cracken tell him where Mirax was. Cracken refused, citing security concerns; he would handle any problems himself. While Horn understood Cracken's reasoning, he refused to stand by when he was convinced Mirax was in danger.

He decided to petition the New Republic Advisory Council to order Cracken to release the information on Mirax's assignment to him. To that end, he knew he had to call in political favors and get some councilors on his side. He set off almost immediately to see Antilles, who was overseeing reconstruction on Coruscant. Realizing as he spoke that he had no chance of success but feeling obligated to try, he asked Antilles to persuade Organa Solo to help him. During their meeting, Han Solo barged in, and while he too agreed that the request was unlikely to succeed, he offered to use his underworld contacts to see if anyone had seen the Pulsar Skate lately.

Antilles suggested that they consult Skywalker about the problem, and they went to his apartment. He explained his situation to Skywalker, who probed his mind and found that Horn was suffering from an unconscious reflex to the pain of Mirax's loss, blocking all his emotional connections to her. Skywalker believed that the response was temporary and would lessen over time. Skywalker also suggested that Horn might have felt Mirax's separation so strongly because a Force-sensitive was attempting to lure him to her, as Darth Vader had once done to Skywalker. Mirax's possession of his Jedi credit could have linked her to the Jedi. Skywalker urged Horn to train in the ways of the Force with him so that he could seek out Mirax's Force presence and find her. Horn was hesitant, feeling it would take too long. He decided to go home and consider it. There, Whistler played his father's holomessage, in which the elder Horn expressed his pride in his son, explained the family history, and urged Horn to embrace his Jedi heritage. Horn accepted that he would need better-developed Jedi powers to have a real chance of rescuing his wife and acknowledged his father's desire for him to train.

Trials of a Jedi

Becoming a Jedi

To conceal his Jedi training, Horn adopted a disguise: a goatee and blond hair. He enrolled at Skywalker's newly-formed Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 under the alias Keiran Halcyon, a name Skywalker discovered belonged to a long-lost relative. Although neither he nor Skywalker felt fully prepared, he avoided contacting Wessiri, a close friend on Coruscant, fearing she might jeopardize her job to obtain information about Mirax or resent him if she refused. Eventually, he did speak with her, and she revealed intelligence reports suggesting Tavira was accompanied by potentially Force-sensitive enforcers. He then inquired about the possibility of visiting his grandfather on Corellia. While communication with Rostek Horn was possible, their messages were heavily censored by the Imperialist Diktat's government. Wessiri offered to help him establish a secure connection.

Leaving Whistler behind, Horn, accompanied by Skywalker, fellow Jedi students Kam Solusar and Brakiss, and Qrygg, who was tasked with piloting the shuttle back, finally departed for Yavin 4. Upon their arrival, Skywalker explained that he had brought Horn—now known as Halcyon—Solusar, and Brakiss ahead of the other nine students because they possessed prior Force experience and would form the senior core of his student body; Horn's background in law enforcement would also prove beneficial. Skywalker allowed them to select their own living quarters within the Great Temple. Many of Horn's preconceived notions about Jedi training, shaped by his time at the CorSec Academy, were upended by Skywalker's relaxed approach and emphasis on individual preferences and trust in the Force. When Horn raised the subject of combat training beyond lightsaber instruction, Skywalker assigned him and Solusar to develop a training program. While searching for his quarters, Horn was directed to a room on the ground floor, which Skywalker informed him had been occupied by Antilles, Biggs Darklighter, and Jek Porkins before the Battle of Yavin. Skywalker also encouraged Horn to be less suspicious, urging him to dismantle the barriers he erected between himself and others.

Soon after, the remaining trainees arrived, and training commenced. Horn formed a bond with Kyle Katarn, another student with military experience in the New Republic. Horn established a personal routine of early morning runs through the jungle, unwilling to relinquish his pre-academy belief that physical conditioning was essential to training; he also found these runs to be a source of relaxation. He and Solusar began instructing the others in combat, guiding them through unarmed fighting techniques. Solusar, a former Dark Jedi, also initiated lightsaber training using padded wooden swords. Horn cultivated the ability to anticipate his opponent's moves, but he never fully trusted the Force sensations. Although he generally fought defensively and emerged victorious, he did not always succeed, and fellow student Gantoris occasionally defeated him decisively. Gantoris, a former leader in his community, seemed to harbor a rivalry with Horn, and Horn, in turn, found the man irritating. It was during a sparring session against Gantoris, in which Horn was being thoroughly beaten, that his self-image as a superior student crumbled. Freed from the need to maintain a facade, he became more attuned to the Force, receiving precognitive warnings of Gantoris's attacks that enabled him to fight effectively. He realized that by simply being himself, he could better channel the Force; he also recognized that arrogance and self-confidence hindered his connection to it. He understood that a Jedi must be calm and centered.

Horn's training extended beyond combat; Skywalker also taught the students to refine their senses. During one such exercise, Horn was stunned when Skywalker revealed that he was the son of Darth Vader, the galactic symbol of evil, and that he had redeemed him before his death. During the same exercise, Horn also acknowledged that he feared vulnerability and emotional openness, recognizing that this fear was impeding his progress. This sensory exercise marked their first attempt at actively using the Force, as Skywalker prompted the students to employ telekinesis to move the pebbles they were using. Horn was frustrated to find that he could not move his pebble, no matter how hard he tried. That night, Horn felt overwhelmed by the demands of becoming a Jedi. He felt disconnected from the Force and believed that to fully embrace it, he would have to sacrifice essential aspects of his personality and ways of thinking. He was unsure if he was ready to make such a sacrifice. He sought solace on the temple roof, where he encountered Streen and discussed the Force and the dark side with the older, reserved student.

In the following days, Horn consistently failed to utilize telekinesis. He concluded that while he could harness the Force within himself for passive techniques like precognition, he lacked the connection necessary to tap into the Force as a whole and manipulate it. In one exercise, Horn volunteered to be the first to move a massive plinth that was largely buried in the ground. He concentrated intently on succeeding and finally opened himself fully to the Force. He focused on moving the rock, visualizing it rising from the earth. He achieved remarkable success, until he opened his eyes and saw the rock still firmly embedded in the ground. However, he noticed that everyone else in the circle was looking at the spot where Horn had imagined the plinth floating in the air. Skywalker was the first to recognize the illusion.

The next day, Skywalker presented Horn with the Tedryn Holocron, which he had used to research Horn's feat. The holocron's gatekeeper, Bodo Baas, explained the Jedi ability to project illusions and perform mind tricks. Skywalker suggested that this might be a unique talent of Horn's, and Horn associated it with his earlier success in evading stormtroopers during his escape from Lusankya. Skywalker cautioned him to use this talent judiciously, as manipulating another's perceptions could lead him toward the dark side. He advised Horn to explore the power safely with another student. Skywalker also urged Horn to avoid fostering a rivalry with Gantoris and to instead try to help the other man, rather than continuing to compare themselves to each other.

Horn continued his training, becoming more comfortable with the Force, although he found that he did not channel it as effectively through practice as he did when faced with a situation that genuinely required its use. One night, Skywalker led all the students to a hot spring beneath the Great Temple. There, they entered the water and contemplated the cosmos in meditation. Skywalker guided them through a Force-vision of the galaxy, during which Horn sensed Mirax, but he was unable to pinpoint her exact location. The meditation was disrupted by a sense of danger as hot gases began bubbling up from the bottom of the pool, threatening to scald the students alive. Horn tapped into the Force to protect himself and Tionne, who was struggling near the edge of the pool. He absorbed the heat and converted it to energy, effortlessly using telekinesis to lift Tionne to safety.

Horn's sleep was plagued by nightmares about Mirax, and the following day, he returned from his run to find Gantoris dueling Skywalker. Horn was shocked, but being unarmed, he could not intervene. Skywalker eventually won the hard-fought duel, disarming Gantoris. He returned the apprentice's lightsaber and warned him to control his anger, which baffled Horn. While the other students departed, Horn remained to speak with Skywalker. Skywalker seemed convinced that Gantoris would now recognize the error of his ways, but Horn urged him to discipline the other man to ensure the lesson was learned. Skywalker reluctantly accepted Horn's argument that punishment would serve no purpose. Skywalker also mentioned that Gantoris had claimed to have learned how to build his lightsaber from another teacher, which immediately aroused Horn's suspicion, as there were no other likely teachers on Yavin 4.

Murder at the Jedi Praxeum

The following morning, Horn sensed the distress of the other students and rushed to Gantoris's room. There, they discovered the other student's body, burnt. Horn remained behind, examining the body and questioning Skywalker. He discovered that Gantoris had burned, strangely, from the inside out. Skywalker was convinced that Gantoris had unleashed dark side power beyond his control and been consumed by it. Given Skywalker's belief that all the students were innocent and reports of Gantoris having mentioned a "dark man," Horn became convinced that the mysterious dark man was the killer and had taught Gantoris to make his lightsaber. Not even Skywalker could sense his presence, suggesting he was a powerful darksider. Horn initiated a police-style investigation of the murder, seeking evidence, developing a profile of the dark man, and tasking Tionne with researching possible clues in the holocron. Meanwhile, he suggested that Skywalker help the other students resist the temptation of the dark side if the dark man were to approach them. His first step was to find Tionne, who was studying the holocron. She was deeply saddened by Gantoris's death, and Horn comforted her. She began researching the Massassi and Yavin 4's past.

Gantoris's death served to unite the students. Tionne's research revealed that an inability to perform telekinesis was a characteristic of the Halcyon line of Jedi, which reassured Horn somewhat about his own struggles. Meanwhile, Horn organized scouting expeditions to survey the area around the Great Temple. On one such expedition, he, Solusar, and Brakiss investigated the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster, which had been sealed by the Rebels when they occupied the planet; it contained a blue stone of considerable malevolence. The survey team entered the temple and discovered the blue crystal column, from which Horn felt negative emotions emanating. Within it, he saw dead faces, including that of Gantoris. Disturbed, the three quickly left the temple, having found no evidence that Gantoris had ever been there. However, on the way back, Brakiss seemed intrigued by the crystal and suggested that the dark side could be used for good purposes. Horn rebuked him, and Brakiss appeared to retract the idea.

Shortly afterward, Antilles arrived on Yavin 4, bringing supplies and a new trainee, Kyp Durron. Horn visited with Antilles, who had brought Qwi Xux with him. Antilles was serving as the bodyguard to the naïve former Imperial superweapon scientist, whom Horn disliked. Horn could see that Antilles was falling for her and cautioned him against it. As the days passed, Skywalker dedicated much of his time to training the incredibly powerful and rapidly developing Durron, while Solusar supervised the other trainees. As Horn was the only other student with a lightsaber, Solusar began lightsaber training with Horn, pitting him against a remote. Horn worked to block its shots. Solusar also instructed Horn to expand his situational awareness to encompass a wider area around him through the Force during combat. Eventually, he was able to extend his Force senses over long distances.

One evening, while listening to one of Tionne's ballads about Nomi Sunrider, who had battled Exar Kun, the Sith Lord who had once ruled Yavin 4, Durron objected to the story, presenting a pro-Kun version of history. Horn immediately suspected that Durron had been in contact with the dark man, whom Horn was beginning to suspect might be Kun's spirit. The scene was interrupted by the arrival of Mara Jade. Skywalker assigned Horn to help the new student, a former assassin for Palpatine, find quarters. Horn resented her involvement in the Empire, but she confronted him about it, and he realized he should not hold her past against her. As a sign of trust, he revealed his true identity and shared Mirax's predicament. He then went to prepare dinner for the evening, during which Durron stormed angrily through the kitchen. Horn followed him, asking what was wrong, and Durron attacked him with the Force. Horn told him that he was making a mistake but sensed Durron's presence joined by that of the dark man, who attacked with enough force to overwhelm Horn and knock him unconscious. Horn was now certain it was the spirit of Exar Kun. Skywalker urged him to leave Durron alone and, instead of antagonizing him with confrontation, simply allow him to resolve his issues. That night, however, Durron stole Jade's Z-95 Headhunter and flew away.

Horn began sharing his morning runs with Jade, with whom Skywalker was now spending most of his time. He also participated in lightsaber training with her, becoming increasingly adept at deflecting shots from the remotes. Solusar continued to work with the other students, who now included the Mon Calamari Cilghal. One day, Horn was summoned to see Skywalker. The holocron had been destroyed by Kun's spirit while Skywalker was searching for information about Kun. Horn suggested that they analyze the survey logs to identify areas where Durron, who traveled with Dorsk 81, had not reported going and Dorsk had. This might lead them to a headquarters or training area for the spirit.

Within a week, Jade left, dissatisfied with Skywalker's instruction. As dissatisfied with Skywalker's leadership as Jade was, Horn challenged Skywalker to a duel that day. He hoped to help Skywalker focus on the students he had, rather than his failures with Gantoris, Durron, and Jade. He also sought lightsaber training against a living opponent, and only Skywalker possessed the control necessary to ensure both of their safety in a duel with live lightsabers. Horn made the fight brutally physical, forcing Skywalker to fully engage and exert himself. In a conversation after the duel, he urged Skywalker to treat the students less like children, to entrust them with greater responsibility, and to focus on developing their character as well as their skills.

Facing Exar Kun

The next morning, he awoke feeling disoriented and groggy. Upon going outside, he found Jade's Headhunter had returned, with the controls destroyed. Realizing Durron had returned, he followed the younger man's trace through the Force to the top of the Great Temple. There, he found the other students gathered around Skywalker's body, which was breathing but held no trace of his Force presence. They were able to determine that Durron had likely retrieved the Sun Crusher superweapon from the heart of the gas giant Yavin Prime, where it had been submerged to prevent its use. Horn took charge, urging the others to bring Skywalker inside and watch over him. Horn contacted Coruscant, reaching Celchu. He requested a medical team and explosives to destroy the temple that, based on his research of the survey logs, he believed was the nexus of Kun's power. Celchu then connected him with Cracken, whom Horn warned of the threat posed by Durron and the Sun Crusher. He also inquired about Mirax, but the general had no information.

When Celchu arrived, Horn declined his offer to lead a proton torpedo run on Kun's temple, as he was concerned about endangering others and only planned to destroy it in an emergency. However, he did provide Celchu with its coordinates in case of emergency. The medics found nothing physically wrong with Skywalker, leaving the students uncertain. Horn was disturbed by the lack of further signs of Kun, as he anticipated a sociopath, which he considered Kun to be, to accelerate his attacks as he had previously. After a week, the Solo family arrived to see Skywalker, which helped to revive the students' spirits. During a meal with them, Horn and all the Force-sensitives present were struck by a wave of anguish. He stumbled away, realizing that Durron had used the Sun Crusher to destroy an inhabited star system, which he was able to determine through the Force was Carida. He spoke with Han Solo, revealing his true identity and offering to accompany Solo, who made it clear that he intended to track down Durron and attempt to reason with him. Before Solo left, he lent Horn some tools to repair the Headhunter's controls.

The night after Solo departed, Horn was awakened by the distress of the others. He quickly realized that Streen, who had been guarding Skywalker's body, was being influenced by Kun. Rushing to the Grand Audience Chamber, he projected an image into Streen's mind in which the chamber was empty and there was no danger. Streen ceased the windstorm with which he was sweeping Skywalker's body away and, upon regaining his senses, stated that he had been under the impression he was fighting the dark man. Horn returned to his quarters, where the spirit of Exar Kun appeared. Horn was defiant, but Kun offered him the ability to destroy the Invids and showed him a vision of Mirax, promising to reveal her location. When Horn continued to reject Kun's offers, the spirit departed angrily.

When Organa Solo was preparing to leave, having been contacted by the former traitor Terpfen about a kidnap attempt on her son Anakin, Horn spoke to her, explaining that because of Kun's attempts to infiltrate Horn's mind, he was now familiar enough with Kun to be able to deceive him with illusions. However, he could not genuinely trust any of the other students not to be under Kun's influence. While he could not dissuade Organa Solo from leaving, she expressed her faith in his ability to hold Kun off long enough. Believing that Kun would still be attempting to influence Streen, he had the other student work with him on the Headhunter, providing Kun with a potential weapon in the ship. What he did not disclose to Streen was that a code was required to use its weapons. However, Kun declined the opportunity, instead launching an attack at night through flying beasts he influenced. Horn took the Headhunter up and was able to triangulate the location from which he felt Kun's influence emanating. After the initial attacking beasts were dealt with by the other students, four more began approaching the Great Temple. Horn destroyed all of them, and upon his return, Solusar informed him that the Solo twins had been able to hear Skywalker's spirit through the Force. Skywalker had identified Kun as the dark man, and Solusar planned a war council for the students. Horn urged him to postpone it until the next day, as they needed sleep and Kun was likely too exhausted by the attack to strike soon.

During their strategic discussion, Horn used the Force to observe the area. He detected Kun's espionage through Streen and manipulated the information transmitted to Kun using his mental abilities, even though the war council already appeared to be in a state of disarray. As they considered a string of improbable strategies, Kun became disinterested, rejected their ideas, and terminated his link with Streen. Once that was done, Horn suggested his strategy: Streen would protect Skywalker's physical form, and Horn would provoke Kun into launching an attack. The other students would defend against Kun using the light side of the Force. Horn kept his method of inciting Kun's attack a secret and departed for Kun's temple in the Headhunter. He shielded his thoughts with the Force to prevent Kun from detecting his presence and landed close to the small temple that served as the focal point of Kun's power. He planted several Nergon-14 explosives with the intention of demolishing the temple, then revealed himself. Kun materialized, and Horn taunted him, under the impression that Kun's spirit was incapable of directly influencing the physical world. Kun disproved this by destroying the detonators and violently throwing Horn against the temple's stone walls, resulting in multiple bone fractures. He then tormented Horn with an illusion of Mirax and his father reprimanding him, which deeply affected Horn and almost drove him to use his despair, anger, and self-doubt against Kun. However, he resisted, and Jade arrived, provoking Kun. Irritated by their self-assurance, Kun left for the Great Temple, confident in his ability to defeat the students. There, he was ultimately defeated, and Skywalker regained consciousness.

Setting a Different Course

Horn spent a considerable amount of time in a bacta tank in the days that followed. Durron, now free from Kun's control, returned to the academy and received forgiveness from Skywalker. Jade had provided a datacard containing information about Mirax, specifically an appointment she had scheduled on Nal Hutta. Given the significant presence of Invid pirates on Nal Hutta, and their recent departures following Mirax's capture, Horn deduced a strong connection between them and the information. Once Horn had recovered, he spoke with Skywalker. He announced his decision to leave the academy, explaining that he felt Skywalker's training program did not challenge him sufficiently and that he could not remain with Durron, whom he considered a criminal deserving of punishment. Their conversation escalated into a disagreement, with Horn accusing Skywalker of poor judgment and arguing that he interpreted the dark side too broadly, overlooking minor transgressions and everyday temptations. Eventually, they managed to part on amicable terms. Horn emphasized that Skywalker's teaching methods simply did not suit him, while still expressing respect for the Jedi Master. Skywalker, in turn, acknowledged that there were aspects of his approach that he could improve.

Horn departed on the Errant Venture, which he had already requested. Aboard, Booster Terrik expressed his anger at Horn for not informing him about Mirax's capture and questioned him extensively on the matter. Horn quickly realized that Terrik had been aware of the situation from the beginning and was testing Horn's character. He persuaded Terrik to assist him by gathering as much information as possible about the Invids. He also utilized Terrik's connections to enter Corellia in order to visit his grandfather. He was smuggled onto the planet, where he was disappointed to find it under Imperial control and in a state of decline.

He journeyed to Rostek Horn's home, surprised to find that it had become an impressive estate. A servant escorted him to the garden, where he embraced his grandfather for the first time since leaving Corellia six years prior. While touring the garden, Rostek explained that his extensive private files, filled with potentially incriminating information, protected him from—and even by—the Diktat. He maintained these files, along with vast amounts of information on the Jedi, encoded within the genetic sequences of the flowers he cultivated. Rostek expressed his pride in Horn and his joy in providing him with information about his Jedi heritage, as well as Nejaa's belongings, which had been recovered after his death by his Jedi friend Ylenic It'kla. Overwhelmed by the weight of a past he had never known, he accepted Nejaa's Jedi robes and spent the rest of the day with his adoptive grandfather, enjoying his approval as an equal.

That night, he experienced a dream in which he was Nejaa Halcyon, reliving the mission that led to Halcyon's death. Upon waking, he realized he had made a mistake in his Jedi training: he had attempted to emulate his grandfather instead of being himself. He resolved to confront the Invids using the methods he had employed in CorSec: infiltration and investigation. Leaving Nejaa's lightsaber with Rostek, he departed Corellia under the assumed identity of Jenos Idanian, using documents obtained by Rostek. His grandfather also arranged for him to travel on the Tinta Lines liner Tinta Palette. While Horn was waiting aboard a shuttle for transfer from the Tinta Palette to the Tinta Rainbow, he found himself slightly annoyed by the man sitting next to him, a young and overly enthusiastic navigator named Keevy Spart who was a fervent admirer of Rogue Squadron and piloting. However, he soon faced more pressing concerns as the Invidious appeared and a pair of pirates boarded the shuttle. He initially intended to allow them to take what they wanted and leave, rather than endangering the other passengers. But, when he saw Spart preparing to attack one of the pirates, he intervened, using an illusion to trick one into shooting himself in the leg and defeating the other in combat. Knowing that more pirates would be arriving, he took control of the shuttle himself, using Spart as his navigator. They escaped and made their way to Elshandruu Pica, where the Errant Venture was docked.

Terrik analyzed the sensor data from Horn's escape and discovered that one of the ships present was the corvette Backstab, which belonged to the Khuiumin Survivors pirate gang, a significant component of the Invid organization. The Survivors had recently returned to Courkrus in the [Khuiumin system](/article/khuiumin_system], and Horn headed there in the shuttle, Tinta Blue Seven. He landed in the city of Vlarnya, where he was apprehended by several wary Survivors. He was brought before Jacob Nive, their leader, and, still posing as Idanian, he explained that he had been in a hurry to escape others when the shuttle had been boarded, necessitating his departure. He expressed his admiration for their operation and, having successfully escaped, stated his desire to join them. During the interview, he made an enemy of Remart Sasyru, a pilot in Bolt who displayed hostility towards Horn and was relentlessly mocked in return. Nive agreed to assign Horn to Rock Squadron, one of the Survivors' less distinguished units.

Infiltration

Rock Leader, Nakk Kech, began training Horn on the Tri-fighter. Almost immediately, he was assigned to a mission, flying as Rock Nine with Caet Shrovl, a Shistavanen, as his wingmate. Horn's flight provided cover as the other Rocks raided the Galaxy Chance, capturing Zlece Oonaar, the captain of one of the Star Destroyers that had initially devastated the Eyttyrmin Batiiv pirate gang, whose remnants formed the Survivors. However, a private yacht appeared during the raid, and its Headhunter escort engaged Horn's flight. Horn repelled them using his ion cannon, which attracted Nive's attention. Horn explained that, while he was not squeamish, he preferred to avoid killing unnecessarily, believing that allowing enemies to live would reduce future resistance.

During the battle, Horn had instructed Shrovl to refrain from killing a pilot whose fighter was already disabled. Upon their return, she angrily confronted him for denying her what she considered her right to a kill, but Horn managed to calm her down. She was promoted to One Flight, and Horn was elected leader of Three Flight by the other Rocks. In that role, he had to recruit three new pilots to fill out the flight. The new pilots were generally overconfident in their abilities and resistant to Horn's attempts to improve them, but Timmser proved to be the most promising of the group.

During the month he spent training them, Horn became familiar with Vlarnya, which was inhabited by seven different pirate crews. The Survivors typically frequented the Crash cantina, and it was there that Horn encountered Sasyru. The other pilot entered and began insulting Shrovl, and to prevent her from starting a fight, Horn began mocking Sasyru, culminating in the Bolt pilot attacking. Horn dodged the attack and retaliated with a punch, incapacitating the larger man. He then warned Sasyru to avoid bothering any Rock pilots in the future. Afterward, Shrovl confided in him that Sasyru had once befriended and abused her. When she sensed that Horn was separated from the one he loved, he fabricated a story about wanting to use the Invids to eliminate the obstacle between himself and his love. She responded that he would have to become a True Invid, a member of the ship's crew, and to achieve this, he must become a Bolt.

While he and Shrovl devised a plan to have him promoted to Bolt Squadron, there were few missions assigned to the Rocks that would allow him to distinguish himself. During one mission, Kech was killed, and Horn was elected captain of the Rocks in his place. He appointed Shrovl and Timmser as commanders of Two and Three Flights, respectively. He worked diligently to improve the unit's capabilities and largely succeeded. He also encouraged them to use their ion cannons, avoiding unnecessary killing, reducing future resistance, and preserving salvage. When he discovered Sasyru attacking civilian speeders for pleasure during one raid, he disabled his ship and ordered him to return, then sent his share of the loot to the families of the deceased. Eventually, the Rocks were selected to fly with Invidious in a massive raid on the industrial world of Xa Fel. However, they encountered a New Republic fleet there, which was also raiding the world. Rogue Squadron and several Y-wings were dispatched against them, and Horn advocated focusing on disabling the Y-wings and leaving the Rogues alone. He used the Force to project an image of his ship transforming into an X-wing into Celchu's mind, but it was insufficient, as Horn was targeted by several Rogues. He managed to evade Darklighter, then Qrygg. It was then that Celchu locked onto Horn's tail, and Horn had to push himself to his limits to evade the colonel and return to the Invidious, which fled.

Aboard the Invidious, Tavira arrived and commended Tyresi Gurtt, captain of the Bolts, on the battle strategy and promoted her to command of the Invidious's fighters. Gurtt confessed that the strategy had been Horn's and that she had merely relayed it. Tavira responded by placing Horn in command of the Bolts. Sasyru was enraged. Three other pilots joined him in disliking Horn's command, and in response, Horn assigned them to Three Flight on their own. He was interviewed about the Battle of Xa Fel by Tavira and Nive, who questioned him about the fact that her advisors, the mysterious Force-users, had detected a Force presence during the battle. He knew it was his, but he suggested that Skywalker had been flying with the Rogues, deflecting a mind probe performed by one of the nearby advisors. Tavira was impressed by his answer and seemed to hint at the possibility of a romantic relationship; she was known for taking many lovers from among her subordinates. Horn preemptively stated that he was only interested in "challenges" related to his piloting skills, which infuriated the admiral. In response, she took Sasyru as her lover.

Their next mission was to Kerilt, home to a small Caamasi refugee colony that they planned to rob. Upon arriving, they discovered that Thalassian slavers were already raiding the colony. They drove off the slavers, and Horn had Three Flight land and secure the spaceport while he surveyed the area. When Three Flight did not respond to his comm inquiries, he landed to investigate. He found them harassing the local Caamasi, assaulting one for trying to stop them from taking his possessions and raping his daughter. Sasyru was hostile and insubordinate, and Horn reprimanded him for attempting to steal plunder for himself instead of sharing it with the others. When Sasyru asserted his right to shoot the Caamasi for resisting him, Horn declared that he was taking the alien as his personal servant. The other pilot threatened to shoot Horn, but Horn instead provoked him into a fistfight, in which he severely beat Sasyru. The Caamasi, who introduced himself as Elegos A'Kla, a local leader, stunned the other three pilots, who were about to open fire, and offered himself as Horn's servant to support his story; he felt that this was the only way to protect his people. Horn returned the jewelry his pilots had attempted to steal to the Caamasi as well.

Horn was taken back aboard the Invidious and interrogated, where his story satisfied the investigators. Tavira arrived after the investigation was complete, informing him that she had had Sasyru executed for insubordination and striking a superior officer. She suggested that he had secretly wanted her to kill Sasyru and told him that he would now become her lover. She would give him a month to decide whether to come to her willingly. Horn knew that he was physically attracted to Tavira but had no desire to be unfaithful to Mirax. He was troubled by his attraction and did not want to succumb to the idea that sleeping with her would help him find Mirax—he realized that it was merely a justification to allow him to do what he wanted to do but knew was wrong. He was also concerned by Tavira's assessment of his motivations in fighting Sasyru and realized that he had given in to anger and a desire to harm Sasyru, and that his time with the Invids had exposed many of his flaws. A'Kla, who was tending to the hand Horn had broken in beating Sasyru, helped him find his place with the help of the renowned philosophy of the Caamasi.

Horn realized that, while he had made a mistake in trying to be someone else in his Jedi training, he had made an equal mistake in ignoring what he had learned there. He had to integrate both parts of his heritage, both approaches, into something that worked for him and made him a whole person. Upon returning to Courkrus, Horn found his hotel suite filled with extravagant gifts from Tavira, which he rejected. He had decided to trust A'Kla in his plan to bring down Tavira and was shocked when A'Kla confessed that he already knew Horn—as Nejaa Halcyon's grandson. Caamasi possessed the ability to share memnis, an intense and complete memory, and A'Kla had done so with his uncle, Ylenic It'kla—Halcyon's close friend. A'Kla was completely trustworthy and eager to cooperate with Horn to bring down Tavira and the Invids.

An Era of Fear

While Horn was recovering from his hand injuries, he began exploring Vlarnya and gaining a better understanding of the other pirate gangs operating there. His goal was to disrupt Tavira's operations by driving the pirates off the planet. After a week of planning his campaign to terrorize the pirates, he began constructing his own lightsaber, using the notes Rostek Horn had provided him. Using salvaged parts, such as a speeder bike handlebar for the hilt and gemstones from Tavira's gifts for the focusing crystals, he was able to complete it in two days of intense meditation. It was a dual-phase model, capable of doubling in length when twisted to align a different set of crystals. Once he was finished, he began acting affably but constantly drunk, which led people to largely dismiss him as harmless. He finally began his reign of terror one night while speaking with Nive in The Crash. After Nive had consumed some alcohol, Horn began projecting a mental illusion of the deceased Oonaar approaching their table and warning Nive that "Doom is coming to Courkrus." The rumor of the ghostly visitation quickly spread throughout Vlarnya, causing widespread anxiety.

Shortly thereafter, Horn donned a set of green Jedi robes that A'Kla had made for him to resemble Halcyon's and began patrolling the streets, seeking out injustices to correct. He encountered two members of the LazerLords pirate gang attempting to rape a woman and fought them off. Word quickly spread across Vlarnya that a lightsaber-wielding Jedi was on the loose. Over the next several nights, he performed similar feats, incapacitating small groups of pirates. One night, he warned some Fastblasters that he would kill the next member of that gang he encountered. Three days later, the Fastblast left Courkrus. On another night, he targeted the Blackstar Pirates, who operated from a secret stronghold in the back of the Mynock Hole cantina. Entering the rear area, he discovered a spice den, brothel, bar, and gambling house in operation. He ignited his lightsaber, stalked through the facility, damaging the bar and jubilee wheel, and warned the pirates that doom was approaching before departing.

While Horn had shattered the pirates' sense of invincibility, they had noticed that he had not yet killed anyone and were regaining their confidence. Shala, the Hutt leader of one of the gangs, fortified his warehouse base and began having his minions terrorize the local population, daring the mysterious Jedi to attack him. Horn was convinced that he had to act and went to confront Shala, despite A'Kla's protests that he should not relinquish the element of surprise. Horn entered the warehouse den and faced Shala on his dais, who revealed that he held the trigger to a set of laser-flechette mines surrounding Horn. If Horn did not surrender, he would detonate them. Horn attempted to sever the trigger with the longer blade of his dual-phase lightsaber, but the blade malfunctioned. Shala, surprised, dropped the dead-man trigger, triggering the series of mines. Horn channeled the Force to protect himself, absorbing the massive influx of laser energy and flame, using its power to channel the explosive force upward through the ceiling to protect the surrounding areas. He expended the last of his absorbed energy in a massive illusion, transforming the column of flame into a Jedi wielding a lightsaber of fire, which he projected for all of Vlarnya to see.

With the surge of power dissipated, he realized that he had sustained numerous minor wounds, and his clothing had been burned away. Exhausted from his heavy use of the Force, he had to sneak back to his home. However, on his way back, he was spotted by two women leaving their workplace. He lacked the energy to project an illusion to conceal himself, but A'Kla arrived on the scene and began scolding him for being drunk and having crashed his speeder bike, thereby explaining the lightsaber hilt. Relieved, Horn allowed A'Kla to take him home. There, he removed the crystal that had failed—not a diamond, but a cheap substitute—and was able to restore his lightsaber's functionality, although only with a single length setting. A'Kla was able to learn that the Invids were terrified that Shala—the only gang leader who had promised to resist the Jedi and rallied morale—had been so utterly defeated. Some groups of Vlarnya's citizens had risen up and attacked small groups of pirates, and Timmser and Shrovl had fled in the hyperdrive-equipped Tri-fighters Horn had trained them on, hoping to seize the opportunity to escape. He had reinforced that hope by spreading rumors that he was sleeping with them, making them realize that Tavira would seek vengeance on them.

The following night, Horn drove off the last of Shala's group and allowed the populace to loot the storehouse they had been using as headquarters. The Fastblasters and Shala's gang were completely gone, and the LazerLords, Blackstar Pirates, and Red Nova pirates had suffered significant desertion. When one of Tavira's courier ships arrived, the admiral was far from pleased. She found Horn and told him that she believed Skywalker was the "ghost Jedi" who had the pirates running scared. She demanded that he take control of the situation and rally the others against the Jedi, rather than spending his days in dissipation. She also demanded that he kill Nive and assume control of the Survivors, as Nive was terrified and broken. Horn immediately began visiting the other groups, boosting morale, issuing security orders, and relaying the fact that Tavira was promising a successful trap for the Jedi, although he did not kill Nive.

Liberation

He planned to stage his own death at the hands of the Jedi, completely shattering morale. To that end, he appeared as the Jedi inside the Crash, using illusions to conceal his face and challenging Idanian. Upon leaving, a group of five beings followed him from across the street into an alley. Horn intended to deal with them, but soon realized that they were Force-users armed with lightsabers. One more arrived, and he turned out to be Skywalker himself. With his help, he disabled all the attackers and revealed that Qrygg had also arrived. Qrygg brought Force-nullifying ysalamiri to restrain the prisoners, which they had brought back to Horn's hotel room, and began interrogating them. Skywalker played the role of the angry, impatient master, while Horn acted as the good cop, pretending to receive messages from Skywalker through the Force. He learned that they belonged to a Force-using sect calling themselves the Jensaarai, located on Susevfi. Tavira had discovered them and, threatening the population of the world if they did not cooperate, forced them to serve as her advisors. They had detected and captured Mirax, and she was being held on Susevfi.

Horn, Skywalker, A'Kla, and Qrygg departed for Susevfi after entrusting Nive with the secret of Horn's identity and offering him a pardon and a chance for the Survivors to start over, provided they kept the captured Jensaarai guarded with an ysalamir. The other ysalamir prevented the Jensaarai from sensing the Jedi's presence when they landed on Susevfi. On the way, Horn apologized for placing too many expectations on Skywalker's training, and Skywalker acknowledged that they did not have to do things the same way to be great Jedi. Upon landing, the four proceeded to the governor's palace, where they knew Mirax was being held. They attacked it, overpowering the stormtrooper guards, and Horn was able to use the Force to locate Mirax's cell. Skywalker freed her from the Force-induced trance she had been placed in, and Horn was overjoyed to be reunited with his wife.

As there were too many alerted stormtroopers for them to fight their way back to the spaceport, the group decided to fight their way up the tallest tower of the palace to the landing pad and try to find a ship to escape in. Tavira fled from the top of the tower, but on their way up, Horn's group encountered the Jensaarai, led by their Saarai-kaar. The Saarai-kaar seemed convinced that she was destined to confront Horn, and the two dueled. Horn's lightsaber failed upon contact with her cortosis armor, and as she stood over him, he projected into her mind the image of Nikkos Tyris, the Anzat whom he had seen kill his grandfather in his earlier dream and whose distinctive lightsaber style the Saarai-kaar shared. Mirax was able to stun her, and with Skywalker having defeated the other Jensaarai, the last remaining threat was Tavira. She planned to bombard the world with the Invidious, but Horn was able to use the Force to amplify her paranoia and project an image of Lusankya coming for her. She fled.

The Errant Venture, Rogue Squadron, and the Survivors helped secure Susevfi, and an agreement was reached that allowed the Survivors to become the world's security force. Horn and the others confronted the gathered Jensaarai prisoners and learned their history. They had been the students of a Sith cult led by Tyris and some others, but when Halcyon and the other Jedi defeated their leadership, they fled. They had not learned enough of the Sith ways to become devotees of the dark side and believed themselves to be heirs to the true Jedi tradition. They had remained hidden until Tavira found them. A'Kla shared the memnis of Halcyon's death and the deaths of the Jensaarai leaders near the end of the Clone Wars with Horn, who projected it to Skywalker and the Jensaarai. With it, Horn and Skywalker were able to reach the Saarai-kaar and convince her that the Jensaarai's perspective on the Force was not entirely accurate. Skywalker invited them to train with him.

A measure of tranquility

Jedi, pilot, father, and spouse

However, Horn chose not to dedicate himself fully to the Jedi Order. He believed he could achieve more good by utilizing his Jedi skills as a member of Rogue Squadron. Skywalker respected Horn's decision, agreeing that it was the correct path for him. Even though Tavira had escaped, her pirate organization was dismantled, and she lacked the Jensaarai to provide warnings of impending ambushes. Horn's intention was to rejoin Rogue Squadron and assist in bringing her criminal activities to an end. Before doing so, he piloted his X-wing to Yavin 4 and launched torpedoes at Kun's temple, completely destroying it to prevent its dark side influence from corrupting future students. While A'Kla devoted himself to supporting his Caamasi community, Horn maintained contact with him, and their friendship endured. Furthermore, Horn eventually documented his Jedi training and the rescue of his wife, which Tionne Solusar would later quote in her scholarly publications.

In the year 12 ABY, the Rogues, upon Skywalker's request, played a crucial role in expelling Desann, a Jedi who had fallen to the dark side, from the powerful Force nexus known as the Valley of the Jedi. Subsequently, Desann launched an attack on the Praxeum located on Yavin 4, employing the troop transport Doomgiver and ground forces that included the Reborn Dark Jedi. Upon being summoned by Kyle Katarn, a friend of Horn's, the Rogues successfully destroyed Doomgiver and offered crucial support to the New Republic ground troops as they defended against Desann's assault. During that year, Horn made his return to the Jedi Praxeum, having previously informed Skywalker of his availability when needed. In 13 ABY, Horn and his wife celebrated the birth of their first child, Valin, who was named in honor of Horn's father. Also in that year, Horn's close friend Wessiri finally married Antilles, an event that Horn had long encouraged.

In 14 ABY, Horn received his own Jedi apprentice, Raltharan. His training commenced amidst the unfolding Disciples of Ragnos crisis, which prompted Skywalker to dispatch Horn to Wayland. There, he endeavored to ensure that the Disciples of Ragnos, a Sith cult, had not exploited the scepter of Ragnos to harness the Force energy concentrated at Mount Tantiss. It is highly probable that Horn participated in the Battle of Korriban, a conflict that saw a significant portion of the New Jedi Order mobilized to confront the cultists on the Sith tomb world of Korriban before they could resurrect the ancient Sith Lord Marka Ragnos. Following the resolution of the crisis, Horn successfully completed Raltharan's training. In 16 ABY, he and Mirax welcomed a daughter, Jysella, into their lives.

Notwithstanding his involvement in those Jedi adventures, Horn dedicated the majority of his time to the squadron. He also kept his Jedi status a secret from all but his closest confidants within the Rogues. In 18 ABY, the Rogues played a vital role in evacuating the inhabitants of Thanta Zilbra in anticipation of Centerpoint Station's deployment of the starbuster superweapon against the system's sun, a crisis that was ultimately resolved without further planetary destruction. Around that time, Antilles reassumed command of the squadron.

The Caamas Document Crisis

In 19 ABY, Horn—having been promoted to the rank of commander—and the rest of the Rogues were assigned to General Bel Iblis. While stationed on Morishim, they witnessed an Imperial corvette, followed by an Imperial Star Destroyer, entering the system. The Rogues were immediately deployed, but the Star Destroyer successfully captured the corvette and departed before they could intercept it. The unusual incident was dismissed as a potential defection attempt, and the audio recordings of the fragmented transmission that managed to penetrate the Star Destroyer's jamming were forwarded for analysis. Simultaneously, news surfaced regarding the discovery of a partial copy of the Caamas Document, which implicated several Bothans in the sabotage that led to the Empire's destruction of Caamas. Due to the incompleteness of the copy, the identities of the perpetrators remained unknown, but the revelation ignited animosity towards the Bothan people and sparked public outrage. The crisis was further aggravated by the actions of a clandestine organization known as Vengeance, which was rumored to be responsible for various acts of mob violence.

Horn was subsequently dispatched to the Errant Venture to ascertain whether Terrik's intelligence network could unearth any information pertaining to the group, as well as to inquire about the "Hand of Thrawn," a term that had been discovered on a datacard within the ruins of Palpatine's storehouse at Mount Tantiss. He brought Mirax and Valin along with him, and during his conversation with Terrik, Talon Karrde arrived. Horn harbored suspicions regarding Karrde and was hesitant to share the details of his mission with him. However, when Karrde presented Valin, who had developed a fondness for music, with a gift, Horn realized the extent of Karrde's intelligence sources. Given that only a select few New Republic officials at the highest levels were aware of the mission, Karrde's knowledge of Valin's presence aboard convinced Horn that concealing the purpose of his visit would be futile. Karrde pledged to investigate Vengeance and determine whether it had any connections to Imperial Intelligence. In turn, Karrde mentioned rumors of clone soldiers being discovered aboard ships utilized by the Cavrilhu Pirates, and he sought to ascertain whether they possessed their own cloning technology or were employing soldiers who had survived Thrawn's campaign. While on the bridge, their conversation was interrupted by a small ship buzzing them. It jumped to hyperspace after transmitting a message, in which Jade detected Thrawn's full name, Mitth'raw'nuruodo. Horn considered the ship a possible link to the Hand of Thrawn, whatever or whoever that might be. Jade departed to track the ship to the Nirauan system, as the New Republic was preoccupied with the Caamas Document Crisis.

Upon returning to the Rogues, Horn was unexpectedly called into action during dessert to respond to a distressed plea from Sif'kric. Bel Iblis led his task force to the world, where the annual pommwomm shipment, which was crucial to the Sif'kries' economy and highly time-sensitive, was being delayed by a Frezhlix force blockading the system. The Sif'kries' traditional rivals, the Frezhlix, clearly aimed to disrupt Sif'kric's economy, but had refrained from any overt hostile actions. As the call had not originated from anyone within the Sif'krie government, Bel Iblis lacked a legal basis for intervention. Displaying his resourcefulness, Bel Iblis contacted Horn and inquired whether he recognized any of the pommwomm-shipping freighters as belonging to Terrik. Horn identified one, and Bel Iblis decided to investigate it on suspicion of smuggling. The Rogues breached the Frezhlix blockade to reach the freighter, leading the Frezhlix to believe they were under attack. When they opened fire, the New Republic task force swiftly defeated the Frezhlix and facilitated the continuation of the pommwomm shipment.

When the nearby Mengjini comm relay was disabled due to its capture by dissident elements, Bel Iblis dispatched his force to investigate and reclaim the relay. Subsequently, they proceeded to Di'tai'ni upon request. Anticipating potential trouble, Bel Iblis instructed the pilots to sleep in their cockpits. His foresight proved accurate when a distress call arrived from Bothawui in the middle of the night, requesting assistance. The Leresai had launched an attack force. The Rogues were deployed ahead of the main fleet and arrived to find a substantial Leresen force. Upon being contacted by Antilles, they explained that their objective was to avenge the deaths of two Leresai who had perished in a riot on Bothawui earlier. Leresen concepts of justice demanded the lives of the guilty in retribution, or ten innocent lives for each victim. Their intention was to destroy a space station with a crew of twenty, prompting the Rogues to intervene. However, Horn's danger sense prevented them from deploying their S-foils in attack position, and visual inspection revealed that their fighters had been sabotaged, rendering their weapons useless. Helpless, they watched in dismay as the space station was destroyed, resulting in the deaths of twenty-one innocent Bothans.

Shortly thereafter, Ackbar tasked Bel Iblis with preparing for an assault on the Imperial Remnant's Ubiqtorate base located at Yaga Minor in order to retrieve a complete copy of the Caamas Document, which held the key to resolving the crisis. However, Bel Iblis believed that a presence was necessary to ensure Bothawui's security, as twelve separate fleets had arrived in orbit to demonstrate their support for an opposition to the Bothan government. This created a volatile situation that could potentially escalate into violence at any moment, and Bel Iblis feared that Vengeance might attempt to sabotage the shields protecting the capital of Drev'starn. Due to a technicality regarding the composition of his task force, the general was able to leave Antilles and Horn on Drev'starn to safeguard the shield generator and attempt to uncover any Vengeance activity.

While surveilling the shield facility in Drev'starn, which was reputed to be impenetrable, the pair had their pockets picked by two passersby who vanished before the pilots realized they had been robbed. However, their wallets were promptly returned by an older woman named Moranda Savich. A pickpocket herself, she worked for Karrde and had witnessed the theft; she retrieved their wallets and approached Horn and Antilles. Introducing herself, she explained that she was engaged in the same task as they were, on behalf of Karrde. They agreed to collaborate, and their brainstorming led them to conclude that the most probable route for an attack would be the power conduits entering the building. After a check on incoming craft failed to reveal any Vengeance links, they attempted to extract the list of outgoing messages from Drev'starn and search for potential Vengeance transmissions. This proved fruitless, as all suspicious transmissions were directed to relay stations. Instead, they shifted their focus to identifying any businesses that had recently been established near the shield generator, reasoning that Vengeance would require a base of operations that could adequately conceal their activities.

They discovered several suspicious shops and proceeded to investigate them. While inside the Exoticalia Pet Emporium, the owner received a call from a highly secure location regarding a potential metalmite infestation and was requested to assist in exterminating them. Horn deduced that the target was likely the Drev'starn shield generator. This stop aroused more suspicion than any other, although Horn also had a foreboding feeling about a restaurant situated directly above the shield generator's incoming power conduit, which had recently hired new staff. However, their investigation was cut short when Bel Iblis recalled them to prepare for the Yaga Minor attack. Savich, however, pledged to continue the investigation.

At Yaga Minor, the Rogues formed part of the New Republic task force that feigned pursuit of the Errant Venture, disguised as the Tyrannic, into the base, subsequently engaging the perimeter defenses. They maintained the distraction, but the Errant Venture was captured, immobilized by tractor beams within the base's perimeter by Grand Admiral Thrawn himself, who had unexpectedly reappeared in recent weeks, much to the dismay of the New Republic. The New Republic fleet surged into the perimeter, hoping to liberate Bel Iblis. As the Rogues prepared to attack, they were contacted by Talon Karrde, who asserted that he could resolve the situation if they escorted him to the base. Sensing through the Force that Karrde genuinely possessed the ability to end the battle, Horn and the Rogues escorted him in. Karrde delivered Imperial Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon to the station, where he exposed "Thrawn" as a con man involved in a power play orchestrated by Moff Vilim Disra. Pellaeon terminated the battle and announced his intention to initiate peace negotiations with the New Republic, ultimately leading to the end of the Galactic Civil War.

Meanwhile, Savich was unable to prevent the Imperial Intelligence agents behind "Vengeance" from destroying the shield generator, which triggered a massive space battle over Bothawui. This threat was neutralized when the cloaked Imperial Star Destroyers, poised to eliminate the survivors of the battle, were revealed, uniting the opposing fleets against them. Skywalker and Jade returned from Nirauan with a copy of the Caamas Document, bringing the Caamas Document Crisis to its definitive conclusion.

Peacetime

Following the establishment of peace between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, Horn retired from Rogue Squadron, but not before receiving a promotion to the rank of colonel. Deciding that it was time to fully commit himself to the Jedi Order, he journeyed to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. While there, he learned of Skywalker and Jade's engagement on Nirauan. Accompanied by Mirax and the Solusars—Kam and Tionne—he traveled to Coruscant to participate in the wedding festivities. During this time, he and Kam Solusar discussed the possibility of a Jedi wedding with Skywalker. Horn suggested holding a private Jedi ceremony beforehand, as he believed that a public Jedi ceremony would confuse the public and make them feel excluded from what was intended to be a unifying event. Skywalker concurred.

Solusar officiated the Jedi ceremony, which Horn attended. That evening, Solo and Antilles organized a bachelor party for Skywalker at the Red Rancor cantina, attended by numerous former Rogues and smugglers. The celebration was abruptly interrupted by a belligerent swoop gang, who were swiftly defeated by the bachelor party attendees. The following day, they were fitted for suits, and soon it was time for the wedding. Horn served as an usher but was called away when Banner Sumptor approached Karrde and informed him of a small group of Imperials under Moff Derran Takkar plotting an attack on the wedding. Horn and Solusar defended the wedding hall from a diversionary attack launched by the same swoop gang from the Red Rancor. They successfully repelled the initial assault before Horn projected an illusion, convincing the riders that they were being sucked into a black hole. In response, the riders revved their engines, causing all of their swoops to crash. Although Takkar managed to infiltrate the ceremony, Skywalker was able to reason with him, and the wedding proceeded peacefully.

For the next several years, Horn served as an instructor at the Jedi Praxeum, imparting skills in illusion, lightsaber combat, and piloting to the students. Both Valin and Jysella exhibited Force sensitivity and spent their time at the academy as well. During this period, a divergence began to emerge between Skywalker and Durron. Durron advocated for a more proactive role for the Jedi, one that aggressively pursued criminals, sought recognition for the Jedi, and viewed the Force as a tool to be wielded for the Jedi's benefit. Skywalker deemed this philosophy overly aggressive and arrogant, urging greater circumspection and humility among the Jedi. Horn firmly sided with Skywalker as Durron attracted some of the more impetuous young Jedi to his cause, initiating a minor schism within the Jedi Order. He held Durron in contempt and disliked his faction, finding their demeanor arrogant and their methods questionable. When Mara Jade Skywalker fell ill in 25 ABY, Horn increased his presence at the academy.

The Yuuzhan Vong War

Encounter on Bimmiel

When the Yuuzhan Vong launched their invasion of the galaxy later in 25 ABY, employing biologically-based weapons and ships that were undetectable in the Force, Skywalker was summoned to combat them, temporarily placing Horn in charge of the Praxeum. Subsequently, Skywalker convened a gathering of the Jedi on Yavin 4. Horn opposed Durron's suggestion to take the fight to the Yuuzhan Vong, arguing that they lacked sufficient knowledge of the threat and that the New Republic, under Borsk Fey'lya's administration, was hostile towards the Jedi. Skywalker decided that the Jedi would gather intelligence about their enigmatic new adversaries before engaging them. Skywalker assigned Horn to travel to Bimmiel, where a xenoarchaeological team from the University of Agamar had lost contact. The world was situated within the Yuuzhan Vong invasion corridor, and Skywalker deemed it necessary to ensure that it had not been conquered. To Horn's dismay, he was partnered with Ganner Rhysode, a younger, flamboyant Jedi Knight who was a staunch supporter of Durron. Skywalker insisted that Horn was needed to temper Rhysode's impulsiveness and hoped that Horn could serve as an example for Rhysode, potentially steering him away from Durron's philosophy. Before departing, Horn visited Valin outside, where he found him practicing his Force abilities. Rhysode approached and informed Horn that he intended to act as he deemed necessary on the mission, disregarding Horn's role as mission leader. Horn criticized him for prioritizing his philosophy over the mission and urged him to adopt a more approachable style of interacting with others, rather than appearing harsh and critical.

Upon arriving over Bimmiel aboard the freighter Dalliance, Horn observed that the comm relay satellite in orbit had been damaged, explaining the lack of communication from the planet. They landed near the students' camp, but upon investigation, they found it deserted. The Jedi pair surmised that the team had sought refuge in the nearby caves and headed towards them. During their trek, they were attacked by slashrats, indigenous predators that tunneled through the sand and ambushed their prey by leaping from below. They fled, reaching the caves safely, where they were greeted by Doctor Anki Pace, the expedition leader. She was suspicious of them, as recent Jedi-related archaeological discoveries had begun to disappear, leading her to suspect the Jedi of theft. Horn was unaware of these events and managed to gain Pace's trust. She showed him their find: a mummified humanoid corpse, approximately fifty years old, which Horn identified as that of a Yuuzhan Vong, presumably an advance scout.

They spent the following week confined to the caves by sandstorms. Horn and Rhysode took turns on night watch to guard against slashrat attacks, and during the day, he examined the corpse and confirmed its identity as one of the extragalactic aliens. When the storms subsided, he and Rhysode began scouting the area to determine whether the Yuuzhan Vong were present. Guided by the Force, they discovered a Yuuzhan Vong camp, where they sensed inhabitants with a disturbing aura; their presence in the Force was faint, as if they were slowly dying. They approached the edge of the encampment, where they collected samples of the sand, which was repelling the slashrats from the site. There, they witnessed one of the slaves, covered in coral growths, attempting to escape and being beaten to death by two Yuuzhan Vong. Rhysode wanted to liberate the slave, but Horn restrained him, uncertain of the number of Yuuzhan Vong present and unwilling to endanger everyone else. The pair retreated, and Rhysode expressed his anger with Horn, but the older Jedi explained his reasoning.

Back at the students' camp, analysis revealed that Yuuzhan Vong beetles in the soil were producing synthetic stink, the compound released by dead slashrats that repelled other slashrats. Horn proposed that the students engineer a virus that would cause the beetles to produce killscent instead, the scent emitted by slashrats during a kill, attracting others into a feeding frenzy. Pace objected, arguing that the virus could have unforeseen consequences, potentially disrupting Bimmiel's ecosystem. Rhysode urged the Jedi to simply confront the Yuuzhan Vong in battle. During their discussion, however, the Jedi realized that two individuals were missing from the caves. They had departed to repair a meteorological station, but when contacted via comm, they did not respond. It was presumed that they were in the custody of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Horn and Rhysode inspected the meteorological station and found four tracks leading back to the Yuuzhan Vong camp. They began loading equipment and the remains onto the Dalliance and prepared to evacuate the team while conducting daily scouting missions of the Yuuzhan Vong camp. They discovered that the two Yuuzhan Vong were using the slaves to search for something, presumably the body the archaeologists had unearthed. Horn decided that he and Rhysode would rescue the two captured students, then escape as the students aboard the Dalliance sprayed the site with the virus and synthetic killscent. Horn and Rhysode believed that the slaves were irreversibly dying and could not be saved.

Once they were prepared, one of the students buzzed the Yuuzhan Vong camp with a remote probe, diverting the two aliens. The two Jedi entered the grashal building where the two prisoners were held and found them suspended from the Embrace of Pain, a Yuuzhan Vong torture device. As Rhysode moved to free them, Horn pointed out that the device maintained the two in a constant state of pain. Incompletely freeing them could trigger compensation by the device, potentially maiming the prisoners. He determined that he would have to project pain into them to loosen the restraints. To that end, he instructed Rhysode to hold his lightsaber against his outstretched arm. Horn channeled the pain from his burn to the students, loosening the restraints sufficiently to cut them free. However, as they were freed and the Dalliance began dispensing the killscent, the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors returned. Horn instructed Rhysode to cut his way out of the back and levitate the two students away while he remained to hold off the two warriors, sacrificing himself. Horn dueled the younger warrior first and capitalized on the surprise of his dual-phase blade to kill his opponent by extending the blade's length. While battling the older alien, Horn sustained a leg wound before severing the other's leg. In the process, however, he was bitten by the Yuuzhan Vong's amphistaff weapon. Its venom numbed Horn and left him defenseless on the floor. Horn cut out the floor of the grashal, then used the Force to compel the nearby slashrats to attack the warrior. With his opponent dead, Horn prepared to die himself and briefly believed that he had done so before Rhysode returned, levitated him from the grashal, and brought him aboard the Dalliance, where bacta saved his life.

Discovery on Garqi

Following a period of bacta therapy, Horn recovered in time to participate in another Jedi gathering to determine their role in the war. Skywalker decided that they would not engage in aggressive actions, only responding defensively to known threats. He also announced that the New Republic had decided not to support any Jedi operations within the war zone. However, as Horn remained in the military reserve, he was reactivated by Admiral Traest Kre'fey, who was operating alongside Antilles and Rogue Squadron, now under the command of Darklighter. As an officer, Horn was assigned to lead a commando team onto Garqi, a conquered world, to assess the possibility of supporting a resistance movement and evacuating civilians. He commanded six Noghri commandos and was permitted to bring two civilian observers; he chose Rhysode and young Jacen Solo.

They prepared for the mission aboard Kre'fey's flagship, Ralroost. Horn advised Solo, who had a tendency towards impulsive actions, to follow orders, and he spoke with his sister Jaina about her new role in Rogue Squadron. When the time came for the insertion, the Ralroost arrived in the system and deployed the freighter Lost Hope. It served as a mere shell for the true vehicle in which Horn's team was deployed, Best Chance. With all but Kre'fey believing the destruction to be genuine, the Lost Hope experienced an engine failure over Garqi and disintegrated. Disguised as debris, Horn managed to safely land the Best Chance undetected.

On the world of Horn, the commando team was kept under wraps, as they scouted the landscape and survived off the resources available. They discovered the Yuuzhan Vong's technophobia, noting the destruction of much of the local machinery and the scarcity of inhabitants. Eventually, they received a communication from the local resistance, proposing a meeting. He then encountered the resistance leader, Rade Dromath—who was the son of the New Republic officer responsible for Horn's Rogue Squadron recommendation—along with Dynba Tesc, the student he had previously liberated during his initial stay on Garqi. The following day, Dromath revealed the Yuuzhan Vong's activities in the city of Pesktda: they were in the process of constructing a slave army. They were using surge coral implants, similar to those Horn had witnessed on Bimmiel, to control the slave army and put them through training exercises within the city. Horn came to the decision to capture a small group of slave soldiers, allowing the New Republic to analyze the implants and hopefully devise a countermeasure, all while ensuring the Yuuzhan Vong remained unaware of their presence. To achieve this, he planned to execute the capture during one of the simulated war games.

Concealed beneath the streets of the Wlesc neighborhood within utility conduits, they observed the area using their holovision goggles, while resistance fighters provided sniper support from above. As the mock battle reached its peak, they emerged from the conduits. When Rhysode eliminated the first of the three Yuuzhan Vong overseeing the conflict between the Human Thralls and the Chazrach soldiers—the latter being the group against which the slaves were trained—the exercise ceased, and both factions turned their attention to the Jedi and Noghri. Horn dispatched the Yuuzhan Vong leader, while snipers eliminated the third. Some resistance members absconded with a few enslaved individuals, but the arrival of a coralskipper—a Yuuzhan Vong fighter—alerted him to the likelihood of pursuit, and the Ralroost was not scheduled to retrieve them for another two hours. He instructed the others to create a diversion while the prisoners were escorted away, remaining behind himself to confront the coralskipper. Defying his orders, Solo stayed and employed telekinesis to obstruct the fighter's plasma cannon with a hatch cover, causing its destruction when the weapon malfunctioned, likely saving Horn's life in the process.

Horn and Solo acted as a rearguard as the main group of fighters retreated towards the Pesktda Xenobotanical Garden. Under constant harassment from Yuuzhan Vong warriors, they established a defensive position within the bafforr tree grove, hoping to leverage the semi-sentient trees to gain insight into the Yuuzhan Vong's movements. They intended to make a final stand, sacrificing themselves to facilitate the Best Chance's escape. Seven Yuuzhan Vong warriors entered the grove, and their leader, Krag Val, challenged the Jedi to battle. They charged, but Val severely wounded Rhysode. Solo killed the leader while Horn protected Rhysode. He fended off several warriors before noticing that their vonduun crab armor had expanded, suffocating the wearers. As they perished, Horn realized the vonduun crabs were allergic to the bafforr pollen prevalent in the grove.

Recognizing the potential strategic value of this information, Horn ordered the collection of pollen samples and the burning of the grove to conceal the evidence and prevent the Yuuzhan Vong from discovering their vulnerability. To further obscure the grove's significance, he directed the resistance fighters to burn down the entire Garden. Horn felt remorse for the destruction of the semi-sentient bafforrs, but deemed it necessary for the greater good of the war effort. They executed this plan before evacuating aboard the Best Chance. Dromath and his people declined Horn's offer of escape, choosing to continue their fight on their home planet. Horn piloted the shuttle, but the extraction faced opposition from a substantial Yuuzhan Vong fleet. However, Imperial Remnant reinforcements under Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon arrived, providing sufficient support for Horn's escape.

Showdown at Ithor

Kre'fey and Pellaeon led their fleets to Ithor, the native world of the bafforr tree, to safeguard this critical resource. Horn, Skywalker, Pellaeon, and Kre'fey participated in a war council to strategize the planet's defense. Acknowledging the political constraints on their actions, they committed to doing their utmost to defend Ithor. A positive development for Horn was Rhysode's decision, influenced by his injuries on Garqi, to acknowledge his previous arrogance and align himself with Horn's and Skywalker's philosophy. To gain permission to operate on Ithor's surface, traditionally forbidden ground, the Jedi and troops underwent a ritual blessing. The Jedi assembled for the planet's defense participated in a ceremony where they were asked to renounce a personal impediment to their inner peace. Horn renounced his fear of failure.

Horn bid farewell to Mirax as she transported Ithorians and biological samples away from the planet. Evacuation efforts were underway as the New Republic and Remnant awaited the Yuuzhan Vong's attack. Upon the arrival of the first enemy ship, it deployed Elegos A'Kla's shuttle. A'Kla, now a senator, had sought out the Yuuzhan Vong, spending time among them in the hope of comprehending their ways and finding a peaceful resolution. The New Republic recovered the shuttle, which was transmitting a message to Horn. He and Antilles investigated the ship. He allowed the Yuuzhan Vong growths on the hull to collect a sample of his blood, and upon entering, he discovered a message from A'Kla detailing his experiences with Commander Shedao Shai and the fact that the two warriors Horn had killed on Bimmiel were Shai's relatives. Opening the accompanying case, he found A'Kla's gilded bones and a message from Shai. The bones recovered from Bimmiel belonged to Shai's ancestor, and Shai demanded their return.

Horn was deeply saddened by the loss of his peaceful friend and conceived a plan to exploit Shai's obsession with the remains. To gain more time for the evacuation, he proposed a deal to Shai: a truce culminating in a duel between himself and Shai. If he emerged victorious, Ithor would be spared. If Shai won, his ancestor's bones would be returned. Reluctantly, Skywalker and the admirals agreed. Skywalker and Jacen Solo suspected Horn was flirting with the dark side and motivated by revenge, but Horn insisted he sought only to manipulate Shai and protect the Ithorian refugees.

When Shai's forces attacked Ithor, Horn was present with the ground troops, leading a squad of Jedi. As the Yuuzhan Vong forces landed and engaged the false command center established by the New Republic as a trap, Horn led his speeder-bike-mounted Jedi to the landing craft used by the Yuuzhan Vong as a command center. It was lightly defended, and Horn seized it with ease. From there, he contacted Shai via villip and offered him the deal; refusal would result in the destruction of the remains. Shai accepted, agreeing to a week-long truce before the duel.

Shai withdrew his forces, and the evacuation of the Ithorians proceeded unhindered for another week. Chief of State Fey'lya strongly opposed Horn's agreement, but Horn resigned from the military once more to remove Fey'lya's influence and insisted on proceeding with the duel, with Skywalker's support.

After a week, Horn traveled to a tabletop mountain on Ithor, accompanied by Skywalker as his second. There, he met Shai and engaged in a fierce duel. Horn was stabbed in the abdomen, but continued fighting, taunting Shai. When Shai attacked, Horn deactivated his lightsaber, causing the warrior to lose balance and allowing Horn to press the hilt of his lightsaber against Shai's torso and activate it. Shai was dead, and Horn had prevailed. However, upon his return to his ship, Shai's second-in-command, Deign Lian, unleashed a plague on Ithor, obliterating all organic matter on the planet. Horn floated in a bacta tank as he felt the world's demise.

Scapegoat

The agreement had been violated, leading to Horn's vilification in the media as the one responsible for Ithor's loss. Horn was tormented by the fact that he had enjoyed killing Shai, indulging his desire for revenge. He believed he had been tainted by the dark side. To reconcile his feelings and shield the Jedi from further negative publicity, he left the Jedi Order and urged Skywalker to publicly disavow his actions as independent. He would accept the blame to protect the Jedi. Reluctantly, Skywalker agreed.

Horn and Mirax traveled to Corellia, where Rostek Horn's political influence secured them asylum. There, he urged the Corellian government to assist the refugees displaced by the Yuuzhan Vong. After Thrackan Sal-Solo became the Corellian governor-general, he departed that system and began working aboard the Errant Venture. During that period, a fragile truce emerged between the Yuuzhan Vong and New Republic, as Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah declared he would cease the war if the Jedi were surrendered. Collaborators within the Peace Brigade began targeting the Jedi, and Fey'lya permitted it to buy time for the military to recover.

In 26 ABY, while Horn was aboard the Venture, which was assisting the Hutt resistance against the Yuuzhan Vong, the Peace Brigade launched a covert attack on the academy at Yavin 4. Fey'lya refused to allow the Jedi New Republic support, fearing the end of the truce, and forbade the Jedi from intervening to defend the children at the Praxeum, including Horn's own children. Skywalker dispatched Karrde to evacuate the students, successfully doing so with the exception of Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, Sannah, and Valin Horn. Karrde and the Solusars, who had been overseeing the academy, remained at Yavin 4, facing a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and sent the remaining students and a plea for assistance. In response, Skywalker sent the Solo twins to locate the Errant Venture. Upon their arrival, Terrik charged into the Yavin system to rescue his grandchild. Horn and the Solos provided cover, diverting the coralskipper pursuit from the ship carrying the young Jedi away from Yavin. The Yuuzhan Vong were defeated, and after the battle, Horn utilized his Force abilities to locate Shada D'ukal, Karrde's beloved second-in-command, aboard an escape pod. Karrde had believed her to be dead, and her return helped alleviate Horn's debt to Karrde for rescuing his children.

Supply run gone wrong

Terrik kept the students aboard the Errant Venture, ensuring their safety through constant hyperspace jumps. Horn remained aboard with his children, helping to protect the youths. When the ship's supplies dwindled, he selected Anakin Solo to accompany him on a supply run; the young man had grown restless and sought an opportunity to leave the ship. Tahiri Veila, Solo's friend, pleaded to join them. She had been imprisoned and experimented on by the Yuuzhan Vong on Yavin 4, resulting in the implantation of a Yuuzhan Vong identity within her mind. Solo had managed to restore her, but many remained uneasy around her. Horn agreed to bring her along, and the three departed for Eriadu aboard the transport Lucre.

Upon reaching Eriadu, Horn left the two young Jedi to guard the ship while he acquired the necessary supplies. Upon his return, he discovered the pair piloting a stolen police speeder into the cargo bay, pursued by authorities. Enraged, he managed to pilot the Lucre into space, evade the authorities, and escape into hyperspace. There, Solo explained that he and Veila had sensed a Jedi in distress and intervened to help. They had found Kelbis Nu under attack by the Peace Brigade and had unsuccessfully attempted to save his life. They were arrested by local authorities collaborating with the Peace Brigade and were forced to break free. He reprimanded the pair for their impulsiveness and made them promise to obey his orders.

Before succumbing to his injuries, Nu revealed that Yag'Dhul was in danger, and Solo's hyperspace jump positioned them near the system. Upon reverting to realspace, they found themselves amidst a Yuuzhan Vong invasion fleet. Realizing escape was impossible, the three Jedi donned vacuum suits and abandoned the ship, which was set on a pre-programmed course and quickly destroyed. They landed on what appeared to be an asteroid and decided to wait for the fleet to depart. Meanwhile, Horn lectured Solo again for his impulsiveness, warning that his reckless behavior would eventually lead to disaster. After approximately a day, their hiding place began to accelerate; it was not an asteroid, but a Yuuzhan Vong ship disguised as one. They cut their way into the ship and engaged a group of Yuuzhan Vong who came to investigate the breach. Horn was endangered when his vacuum suit helmet was cracked during the fight, but he quickly moved through an airlock into the pressurized section of the ship, avoiding death. Within an hour, they had eliminated the remaining five warriors and captured the crew.

They were in control of the ship when it exited hyperspace in the Yag'Dhul system. Veila, fluent in the Yuuzhan Vong language, piloted the living ship and determined that it had been sent to scout the system ahead of the invasion fleet. Horn interrogated the prisoners and discovered a member of the Shamed Ones caste who was willing to cooperate due to legends among the Shamed Ones that the Jedi would redeem them from their low social standing. He instructed the Shamed One, Taan, to communicate with the fleet, claiming a failure in the artificial gravity had killed all crew members except her, thus allaying the fleet's suspicions. Solo managed to establish communications with Yag'Dhul, but the Givin who answered proved to be a Yuuzhan Vong collaborator. Posing as a Yuuzhan Vong commander, Horn learned that the Given collaborators planned to sabotage the defense grid in fifteen hours, enabling the fleet to seize the planet.

Realizing they could not trust anyone within the Givin government, they decided to approach the Givin and engage any defense officer willing to take action against them. As they approached the space station where Horn had once battled Isard, they were attacked by Givin starfighters. Hailed by military commander Dodecian Illiet, Horn surrendered and was taken to the station. He informed Illiet of the plot, and Illiet located and repaired the sabotage to the defenses. The three Jedi were placed under house arrest while the Givin decided on a course of action.

When the station came under attack, Illiet brought them to the command center. He explained that the defense was likely to fail and offered them vacuum suits and a craft for escape. On their way, they were attacked by several Yuuzhan Vong warriors and their guide, who was revealed to be a disguised Yuuzhan Vong spy, Nom Anor. They were surrounded, and Horn challenged Anor to single combat. However, the commander of the warriors accepted the challenge instead, and Solo insisted on taking Horn's place. Solo killed the warrior, and as he did so, Horn completed the hole Solo's seemingly wild parries had begun cutting in the wall, and the three fled through it.

They discovered that the station was depressurizing as the vacuum-resistant Givin prepared to fight the Yuuzhan Vong aboard. Searching a storage room, Horn found only one vacuum suit. He donned it himself and placed the younger Jedi in a locker with an air pack while he searched the next room for vacuum suits. He found a pair and remembered the existence of a backup system that he used to pressurize the room. They were able to sneak to the ship, a fast Givin craft. Horn outflew the pursuit but found it unnecessary to flee as the fleet itself was recalled due to an attack on the Yuuzhan Vong's Sernpidal shipyards. The three Jedi safely returned to the Errant Venture, albeit without the supplies they had sought.

Return to the Jedi

Horn spent the following months aboard the Errant Venture, although one diversion to a refugee ship, which came under attack by the Yuuzhan Vong, led to Horn's confrontation with voxyn, ferocious Yuuzhan Vong Jedi-hunting beasts. Horn narrowly escaped to one of the ship's escape pods, but only the fortuitous intervention of Mara Jade Skywalker and Jaina Solo, nearby in the Jade Shadow, recovered the escape pod and prevented it from being crushed in the gravity of a nearby gas giant. In early 27 ABY, Horn was attacked again by voxyn, this time with Mirax, while on a supply run on Corellia for the Errant Venture. They managed to escape using a hovertaxi and returned to the Star Destroyer. The Errant Venture was recalled to Eclipse Station, the hidden Jedi base in the Deep Core. The Yuuzhan Vong had amassed many captives over Talfaglio and threatened to kill them all if they were not given Eclipse's location. There, he witnessed Fey'lya welcoming Anor into the Senate to discuss Talfaglio and strongly advocate for the Jedi. Anor revealed that the Yuuzhan Vong had captured seventeen Jedi, including all three Solo children. Horn was shocked, but Skywalker quickly revealed it was a ploy to get them behind enemy lines to destroy the voxyn queen. Furthermore, the Jedi were preparing a strike to liberate the Talfaglio hostages. Skywalker requested Horn to rejoin the Jedi in their time of need and assist in training their fighter pilots. He agreed.

The Jedi maintained four squadrons consisting of both Jedi and non-Jedi pilots: Durron's Kyp's Dozen, Jedi Saba Sebatyne's Wild Knights, Skywalker's Saber Squadron, and Shocker Squadron under non-Jedi veteran Rigard Matl. During their training, Horn had to restrain Durron from pursuing the captured Jedi, as he was unaware of the plan. When they were ready, the Jedi launched their attack on Talfaglio. Horn served as flight control for the operation, based on the freighter Jolly Man. They received unexpected support when Generals Antilles and Bel Iblis arrived in brand-new Star Destroyers. With their assistance, the Jedi wing decimated the enemy fleet and freed the Talfaglio hostages.

After Borleias and Reecee fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, the Errant Venture, which had been at Reecee, returned to Eclipse pursued by a Yuuzhan Vong task force. Sensing his children were in danger, Horn started his X-wing to fly to their rescue but was held back by Skywalker. After calming down, Horn realized that Terrik had some trick to play, and was proven right when the Errant Venture launched escape pods with the students aboard, disguised as battle debris, at Eclipse as his ship and the task force moved past. Horn helped recover the escape pods as Terrik used his shields to superheat several asteroids, blowing them apart and ripping though the enemy fleet. The Jedi fighters cleaned up the survivors with help from the remnant of Reecee's fighter force, carried aboard the Venture.

In the Battle of the Black Bantha, the Jedi and New Republic were called in to ambush a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, which they did, capturing one of the Yuuzhan Vong's yammosk war coordinators. When the Yuuzhan Vong began to stage from Borleias and unrecorded asteroids were found far out in the Yuuzhan Vong system, Horn was among the Jedi analysts who found it likely that the enemy was finally moving on Coruscant itself. He was studying tactical displays when Skywalker felt Anakin Solo die. Still grieving, the Jedi departed to defend the galactic capital. Horn once more served aboard Jolly Man as battle control for the Jedi squadrons as they penetrated the advancing enemy fleet, targeting ships that they were able to detect as carrying yammosks. They made multiple runs, resupplying and going out again as they hunted down the various yammosks in the massive fleet. The New Republic's defense was crippled by Supreme Commander Sien Sovv's refusal to fire through the shield of refugee ships the Yuuzhan Vong sent before their own fleet. While Fey'lya later countermanded those orders and Bel Iblis ignored them from the beginning, the New Republic was unable to prevent the Yuuzhan Vong's suicidal tactics from overwhelming Coruscant's shields. The world fell.

Horn and the Jedi retreated with Antilles's forces. Skywalker reorganized the Jedi squadron survivors into Twin Suns Squadron. Flying in a shield trio with Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, he helped retake Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong, blasting through its fighter defenses and flying cover as ground troops retook its surface. Antilles planned to briefly use the world as a fortified post securing an exit from Coruscant for refugees. They moved into the former Alderaan Biotics facility, and Horn requested to transfer to Rogue Squadron, which had been plagued by losses. Antilles, however, needed Horn to take command of base security and so he did.

The next day, Horn was summoned to a meeting of Antilles and his general staff with the remnants of the New Republic Advisory Council. Senator Pwoe had declared himself chief of state after Fey'lya's death on Coruscant, a move of dubious legality at best. He ordered Antilles to hold Borleias as a staging post for a reconquest of Coruscant, but it was obvious that Pwoe simply wanted to buy time with their lives to allow him to build up his position. Antilles only accepted the orders after extracting significant guarantees of supplies and forces, including Lusankya. After the Advisory Council reluctantly accepted Antilles's terms and departed, Horn remained behind with Antilles's other closest advisors. None of them held any confidence in the New Republic's leadership any longer, and together they formed the Insiders, a cell of trusted leaders who could form the core of a resistance to the Yuuzhan Vong outside the New Republic hierarchy and carry on a guerrilla war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

When a Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrived to contest their hold on Borleias, Horn and the other Twin Suns scrambled, with new pilot Zindra Daine replacing Jade Skywalker in their shield trio. They held off the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, but Antilles intended the battle to be a minor loss to draw the enemy commander into a false sense of confidence. Instead, Lusankya arrived in the middle of the enemy fleet, savaging it. The Twin Suns were among the forces summoned to protect Lusankya and escort it from the middle of the fleet.

Rogue Leader

When discussing the problem of refugee ships being preyed upon by the Yuuzhan Vong, Horn suggested they send out a ship of their own as bait and use one of scientist Danni Quee's gravitic sensors to determine if the Yuuzhan Vong were using tracking creatures. Rigged as a trap, it could also discourage attacks on refugee convoys by fighting back. Lando Calrissian volunteered to direct that operation. Shortly thereafter, Horn transferred back to Rogue Squadron, flying as Rogue Nine once more. The Rogues and other elite squadrons were assigned to guard the pipefighters engaged in the Starlancer Project. The four pipefighters focused energy into a large turbolaser blast, which Antilles set up so that Yuuzhan Vong spies would believe it to be a superweapon in the making. In fact, it was a fraud, designed to give Antilles something with which to force the newly arrived enemy commander's hand.

When Han and Leia Solo decided to move their children, including Valin and Jysella, to Shelter, the Jedi sanctuary located in the Maw, Horn, along with Captain Kral Nevil and Rogue Two, received orders to provide aerial protection for the Millennium Falcon. Following their return, Czulkang Lah, the enemy's commanding officer, launched a significant offensive against the New Republic's position a few days later. The Rogue Squadron took on the responsibility of defending the base's southern flank against the approaching Yuuzhan Vong ground forces. As part of Antilles' strategy, they strategically retreated until they were positioned in the open space near the base. It was at this moment that the Lusankya, positioned in orbit, unleashed a devastating barrage, obliterating the enemy troops.

The Yuuzhan Vong relentlessly harassed the Borleias garrison, gradually eroding the defenders' strength. The Rogue Squadron's numbers dwindled to just nine pilots, with Horn leading a shield formation alongside two inexperienced pilots, Dakorse Teep and Leth Liav. During a defense against an enemy probe, Teep was killed, deeply affecting Horn, who was disheartened by the mounting casualties of the war, especially considering Teep's young age. Subsequently, the enemy's attacks intensified, placing the base under constant siege.

Eventually, Antilles announced his readiness for the decisive battle. During a meeting with his senior officers, he unveiled the true purpose of the Starlancer project and mandated the base's evacuation. He intended to deploy the pipefighters, which the Yuuzhan Vong believed to be a fully functional superweapon, to trigger a final, all-out confrontation. The Rogue Squadron, as usual, guarded one of the pipefighters and then assisted in escorting the Lusankya. The massive vessel, weakened by continuous assaults, executed Antilles' final maneuver by ramming the enemy flagship. When Blackmoon Squadron noticed one of their own engaged in combat over Borleias, the Rogues accompanied them to rescue the pilot, who turned out to be Antilles. He was escaping the base and escorting the last evacuation ship to safety.

Following the evacuation, the New Republic began its recovery, establishing its headquarters on Mon Calamari. The Rogue Squadron became part of General Keyan Farlander's task force, and Horn continued his service, eventually becoming Rogue Leader when the squadron became involved in experiments with Jedi battle coordination. With Horn leading the Rogues, Jaina Solo commanding the captured enemy frigate Trickster, and Durron leading his Dozen, all coordinated by Madurrin on the bridge with Farlander, the technique was employed above Obroa-skai to target what they believed to be the arriving flagship of Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane. Farlander's task force ambushed the fleet, only to discover that their yammosk jammer was ineffective, as the enemy responded with fully coordinated combat. Realizing there were two enemy yammosks, the second was jammed as well, and the battle quickly shifted in favor of the New Republic. The arrival of Hapan reinforcements ensured victory, although it was later revealed that the target was not the Supreme Overlord but a high-ranking fleet commander.

Farlander's fleet relocated its base of operations to Kashyyyk, where they reunited with Kre'fey, Farlander's superior officer. Meanwhile, the New Republic elected Cal Omas as its new chief of state and implemented Ackbar's strategy to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, which involved preparing the troops through attacks on the Yuuzhan Vong's vulnerabilities over the next three months. Horn and the Rogues provided cover for Kre'fey's assault on the Peace Brigade's headquarters on Ylesia and then participated in another raid on Duro. Further development of battle coordination skills enhanced their abilities, complemented by the arrival of more Jedi in Kre'fey's forces. After three months, Horn and the others took part in the Battle of Ebaq 9, Ackbar's elaborate trap for the Yuuzhan Vong. Their fleet suffered heavy losses, and Warmaster Tsavong Lah was killed. In the aftermath, Omas restructured the government into the new Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.

Discovering Zonama Sekot

Later, in 28 ABY, Jedi Master Kenth Hamner summoned Horn to a meeting. Hamner was serving as the acting head of the Jedi Order while Skywalker was on a mission to the Unknown Regions to locate Zonama Sekot, a living planet that he hoped could aid the increasingly difficult war effort. Hamner presented Horn with a message from a Yuuzhan Vong known as Yu'shaa, the Prophet. As the leader of a sect of Shamed One heretics who revered the Jedi, he requested that the Jedi take him to Zonama Sekot, which he considered a promised land for the Shamed Ones. Horn was temporarily released from his military duties for the mission, during which he hoped to receive guidance from Veila, who had recently completed the full integration of her personality with the Yuuzhan Vong personality implanted within her during her time on Yavin 4. However, when Veila was brought in, she insisted on accompanying them and using her knowledge. Horn was willing to risk his own life but strongly opposed bringing the young girl on the extremely dangerous mission to infiltrate the enemy capital and extract Yu'shaa. Besides her youth, Horn was uncertain whether he could trust her new, integrated personality. Nevertheless, after Hamner and the Solos agreed that she should join them, he relented.

Using a captured enemy vessel, Horn and Veila traveled to Coruscant, where they navigated through vulnerabilities in the defense network identified in Yu'shaa's message. They landed in the Great Western Sea, narrowly avoiding detection, and proceeded underwater based on Horn's suggestion, hoping it would reduce their chances of being discovered. However, upon entering one of the tubes leading out of the sea, they found that it had been replaced by a Yuuzhan Vong digestive creature. They were attacked and used the plasma cannon to fend off the creature. However, this action boiled the water and disabled their dovin basal, which provided propulsion to the craft. They were pulled into the drain system and tumbled through it, barely maintaining control, until they managed to stop and surface. While traveling on foot through the crumbling underlevels of Coruscant, Horn tested Veila, questioning her about the nature of her new personality, remaining unconvinced of her trustworthiness.

They met with the heretics, where Horn learned that he was a figure in their mythology as the slayer of Shedao Shai. Yu'shaa also revealed that they had another member joining their party, a Master Shaper named Nen Yim. She possessed a ship that they could use to escape. Veila detected that the Prophet was wearing a masquer, a disguise. Neither Veila nor Horn trusted him, but they did not believe they were walking into a trap and agreed to the plan. They entered the Supreme Overlord's palace through a secret tunnel and then raided Yim's damutek to free her while several of Yu'shaa's cultists created a diversion. Horn devised an additional element: dressing up some of the heretics as mock Jedi and having them flee to draw off the guards, which proved effective. The Jedi fought through the damutek until they found Yim, whom Veila recognized as one of the shapers who had experimented on her on Yavin 4. She overcame her anger but sustained an amphistaff wound while holding off several warriors as Horn cut an exit for Yim's escape ship. Horn rescued her, and the three escaped, picking up Yu'shaa and Harrar, a Yuuzhan Vong priest. Horn was furious about the unannounced addition to their party and even more furious when he realized that Yim, who was piloting the ship, was a completely inexperienced and incompetent pilot. She informed him that the ship had normal controls, not just the Yuuzhan Vong interface she used. Sending Yim back to heal Veila, Horn took control and managed to outmaneuver the planet's defenses by using an old orbital training drone to distract the pursuit, allowing them to escape.

The ship was actually one of those constructed by Zonama Sekot, a living vessel integrated with standard technology. Horn set a course for Zonama Sekot, having obtained its location through previous communication with Skywalker. However, upon returning to the three Yuuzhan Vong, none of whom he trusted, he told them that he was taking them to Mon Calamari instead, unwilling to deal with so many unknown factors. He wanted to observe their reactions. After seeing nothing to make him mistrust them over the next four days, he was about to reveal the truth when they were pulled from hyperspace by an Imperial Interdictor. Mistaking their organic craft for a Yuuzhan Vong ship, it opened fire. Yim activated a new Yuuzhan Vong technology she had added to the ship, which allowed them to break the Interdictor's gravity well and escape back into hyperspace. However, the dovin basals that Yim had used to replace the engines were damaged, and the series of hyperspace jumps through the Unknown Regions placed a significant strain on them. After consulting with Yim, Horn decided to attempt one last jump to Sekot's position before the hyperdrive failed. They emerged from hyperspace out of control, and it took all the dying dovin basals could muster to escape the gravitational pull of the gas giant that Zonama Sekot orbited and make a crash landing on the living, sentient world.

Yim, Yu'shaa, and Veila went to collect samples of the local life while Horn and Harrar searched for shelter. They found a cave, and the two discussed the war and the differences between their peoples, wondering if they could ever achieve peace. While exploring the area around their cave, Horn noticed three massive hyperdrive field guides rising from the landscape on the other side of the hill, part of the hyperdrive integrated into Zonama Sekot. He kept the nature of the vanes a secret, fearing it might cause the Yuuzhan Vong to despise the world's use of technology. Over the next several days, Horn embarked on expeditions to find any of the colonists living on the world but found no signs of civilization. Finally, after a week, he decided to inspect the field guides. When he shared his plan with Veila, she objected, expressing her boredom and desire to accompany him. Annoyed by her petulance, Horn urged her to follow orders for once, and she confessed that she was still working through her issues with her new personality but that she greatly admired Horn and needed his help. She wanted him to be her Jedi Master. Taken aback by her tears and the emotions he had been unaware she was struggling with, he agreed on a provisional basis if she promised to stop being so headstrong.

He set off for the vanes, taking Harrar with him, as the priest was intensely curious about the structures. Upon arriving, he revealed the truth to Harrar, who accepted the revelation well. They entered a maintenance access to the engine system, where Horn found equipment that he believed he could use to transmit a signal across the world. As they were leaving, Veila warned them that Yim had discovered the secret of Zonama Sekot but had been killed by Yu'shaa, who was actually the notorious Yuuzhan Vong spy Nom Anor. Anor was planning to destroy Sekot. Reentering the maintenance access, they found the lifts jammed, indicating that Anor was below. Leaving Veila to guard the lifts, Horn slid down the vast distance on a cable running along the wall, landing safely through the use of the Force and pursuing Anor. The Yuuzhan Vong spy heard him approaching and fled up a turbolift; Horn followed in another lift. During the ascent, Anor cut the lift's power, delaying Horn until he figured out how to operate the backup system. At the top, he discovered that Veila had been knocked over the edge and Anor had escaped, with Harrar pursuing him. Horn pulled Veila up and ran after Anor, catching up with him as the spy reached his extraction craft. They captured him, and he told them that Harrar was dead and that he had already irreversibly poisoned Sekot. A groundquake knocked them off their feet, allowing Anor to escape to the ship, which deployed warriors who surrounded the two Jedi. They were rescued by the Jade Shadow, carrying the Skywalkers, Jacen Solo, and Saba Sebatyne. Anor escaped aboard the ship, but Zonama Sekot itself involuntarily jumped into hyperspace as a result of Anor's sabotage. The planet healed itself of Anor's poisons, but the hyperspace jump itself strained the planet.

Victory

The planet spent days erratically jumping in and out of hyperspace, causing widespread devastation followed by torrential rain that lasted for days. Solo and Sebatyne went to scout the southern hemisphere, which was significantly more devastated. Upon their return, Danni Quee reported that Tekli and Veila had found Harrar alive. Horn and the others went to visit him, where they learned that he had survived Anor's attack and wished to promote peace between their species. Soon after, the planet regained control of itself and began to recover, at which point Horn helped bring the Ferroan natives out of hiding. After a series of test jumps, Zonama Sekot emerged into the Coruscant system itself. The Yuuzhan Vong were taken aback but, fearing the world, refrained from attacking it.

A delegation consisting of most of the Jedi and members of the Smugglers' Alliance, including Horn's wife, traveled to the world aboard the Millennium Falcon and Errant Venture to meet with Skywalker and understand the living world. Skywalker and many of the others returned to the Galactic Alliance to share what they had learned and help plan the final stages of the war, but Horn remained on Zonama Sekot with several other Jedi. The planet grew its renowned living starships for them, with Horn bonding with four seed-partners. Following a ceremony that left Horn in awe, the four seed-partners were transformed into his craft. When Skywalker returned, he shared the news that the Galactic Alliance High Command was preparing to retake Coruscant.

Their Sekotan ships were ready just in time to engage the Yuuzhan Vong force that slipped past the Galactic Alliance's assault and attacked Zonama Sekot. Horn flew in defense of the world, preventing most of the enemy coralskippers from threatening the planet; those that managed to get through were repelled by Sekot itself. However, his ship generally avoided delivering killing shots; Horn sensed that the planet and its living ships were still assessing the pilots before allowing them to abandon the world's pacifistic philosophy. Eventually, they became capable of firing, but in the midst of the battle, Horn's ship suddenly became completely unresponsive, as did the others'. They landed, and the Jedi gathered, fearing that Zonama Sekot had been struck by Alpha Red, a plague engineered to destroy the Yuuzhan Vong but potentially fatal to Zonama Sekot as well, due to its similarity to the ancient homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong. However, it had not been, and when the sky filled with coralskippers, Sekotan drone ships began launching, grappling the enemy fighters and bringing them to the surface, where the Yuuzhan Vong creatures reunited with the facsimile of their homeworld, abandoning the war. The warriors themselves, helpless and bewildered, surrendered.

Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo killed the Supreme Overlord, and Warmaster Nas Choka surrendered. The war was over. In the following weeks, a settlement was reached, and rebuilding commenced. Skywalker called a Conclave on Zonama Sekot, which all the Jedi attended. Horn listened as Skywalker announced the reestablishment of the Jedi Academy on Ossus and proposed a new theory of the Force based on the teachings Vergere had given to Jacen Solo. The Yuuzhan Vong were settled on Zonama Sekot, which disappeared into the Unknown Regions to rebuild their society as one of peace. With peace established, Horn retired from the military for the fourth time and took his family to Corellia for vacation and recuperation.

The Order dedicated itself to assisting in the galaxy's reconstruction, nearly overextending itself as its members attempted to address lawlessness throughout the Galactic Alliance. Horn played a key role in dismantling several pirate rings, helping to stabilize the turbulent times. Based on his performance and past achievements, Horn was promoted to the rank of Jedi Master. As a Jedi Master, Horn served on the Masters' Council, which Skywalker had established as a new Jedi Council. Although he was technically the most junior member of the Council, Horn assumed a leadership role, commanding respect and advocating strongly for his positions. Horn was among those who argued for the Masters' Council to exercise greater control over the Order's Jedi Knights, issuing orders rather than providing advice, but this was not Skywalker's policy. He agreed with fellow Master Kyp Durron on this point, but the two led opposing factions on another issue: cooperation with the Galactic Alliance. While Durron had reconciled with Skywalker during the Yuuzhan Vong War, he remained an advocate for the Jedi Order to follow its own conscience and not be beholden to any government. Horn, however, argued that the Jedi best served peace, stability, and the greater galaxy by supporting the Galactic Alliance and needed to be accountable to an external authority.

Jedi Master

Killik conflict

In 35 ABY, several young Jedi disappeared from their assignments, all of them veterans of the Myrkr strike team, creating a challenge for a Jedi Order already struggling with overwork. Horn was leading a presentation to the rest of the Council on the issue when Chief of State Omas and a Chiss dignitary entered the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Chiss emissary, Aristocra Mitt'swe'kleoni, demanded an explanation for the missing Jedi's operations in the Unknown Regions near Chiss territory. Upon learning that the Council had not authorized the activity and was unaware of the missing Jedi's actions, Mitt'swe'kleoni departed, and Omas remained to inform the Jedi of his complaint: the Jedi were involved in a border dispute with the Chiss. Omas sought a swift resolution to the issue and peaceful relations with the Chiss Ascendancy, so the Skywalkers and Sebatyne set out to speak with the rogue Jedi. In their absence, Horn was left in charge of Jedi operations and was persuaded by the Solos to reveal the whereabouts of the other Jedi, as the Solo twins were among the Jedi in the Unknown Regions.

The Skywalkers and Solos returned from their mission with four of the rogue Jedi. They had joined the Killik Colony, a collection of Killik hives operating under a series of hive minds controlled by Raynar Thul, a former Jedi who had disappeared during the Yuuzhan Vong War. The Chiss considered their rapidly expanding nests, which absorbed outsiders into the group mind, to be a major threat and were attempting to starve out the Killik colonies on their borders. The Masters studied the returning Jedi at the Jedi Academy on Ossus to determine how the Killiks had begun absorbing them into the hive mind, discovering that the melding occurred through pheromones and auras. Horn was greatly displeased when the rogue Jedi Knights argued that the Jedi should go to war in support of the Killiks and would not obey the Council if it suggested otherwise. The Masters debated the issue, with Horn urging the others to support the Galactic Alliance's position and Durron suggesting they follow their own conscience.

When Tenel Ka Djo, the Jedi Queen Mother of Hapes, sent a Hapan fleet to protect the Killiks at the urging of Jacen Solo, Omas was outraged and came to the Jedi Council to demand an explanation. An argument about Jedi compliance with the Galactic Alliance resurfaced, with Horn arguing that the Jedi needed an external authority to check their power. Thoroughly annoyed, Omas threatened to cut off Galactic Alliance funding to the Jedi if they did not comply. Thanks to the Solos, they reached a compromise in which the Killiks would be relocated to uninhabited worlds the Solos had discovered in the Utegetu Nebula. However, the Gorog nest of Killiks, nicknamed the Dark Nest by the Jedi, still needed to be addressed. The Gorog nest was unknown to the other Killiks, unconsciously exerting its will over them, and likely led by Welk or Lomi Plo, two Dark Jedi who had abducted Thul during the war and disappeared. The Skywalkers and several other Masters followed Alema Rar, the Jedi who had become a Gorog Joiner, to Kr, from which they uprooted the Gorog nest, killing Welk. They then persuaded Thul to accept the relocation to the Utegetu Nebula.

Plo and Rar managed to escape, leading to a year of turmoil for the Galactic Alliance. Smugglers, operating from the Utegetu Nebula, and the Dark Nest's black membrosia, an intoxicating substance, plagued the Alliance. The death of Supreme Commander Sovv, caused by a membrosia-intoxicated Vratix pilot crashing into his transport, prompted Horn's investigation. Although he suspected a Killik assassination, he lacked evidence. Concurrently, the Skywalkers and Solos journeyed to Woteba, the Killik's new capital, for discussions with Thul. During their absence, the Killiks initiated landings on worlds bordering the Chiss, reigniting the conflict and alarming Omas. Upon Leia Organa Solo and Saba Sebatyne's return to Ossus, they informed Horn about the Fizz, a corrosive plague consuming the Woteban colony. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo remained with the Killiks as assurance, due to the Killiks' fears that the Galactic Alliance and Jedi were aware of the Fizz before relocating them. Horn, recognizing their potential as hostages in the escalating diplomatic crisis, intended to report this to Omas, but Organa Solo convinced him that Omas would react aggressively, potentially worsening the situation.

Instead, the Jedi convened a council, deciding that Gorog was instigating the Killiks into war and needed to be eliminated. Horn voiced his opposition to assassinating Plo and Thul, but a consensus was reached to extract Skywalker and Solo and dismantle the Dark Nest. It was decided that if Thul could not be reasoned with, force would be necessary. Meanwhile, Cilghal, known for her scientific acumen, confirmed that the Fizz was a nanotechnology-based ecological defense mechanism designed to maintain environmental balance on the worlds. Mara Jade Skywalker, Organa Solo, and Sebatyne led a Jedi team to carry out the mission, but were captured by the Galactic Alliance fleet blockading the Utegetu Nebula.

Learning of this and Skywalker's incommunicado status, Omas convened a session with the Jedi members of the advisory High Council. With Skywalker and Sebatyne unavailable, Horn and Kyle Katarn were appointed as their replacements. They presented a unified stance, directly informing Omas that they would not permit him to assume control of the Jedi Order. Omas simply suggested that with Skywalker out of contact, the Jedi needed leadership to resolve the situation and address the Chiss ultimatum demanding a halt to the Killik migration to the frontier within ten days. Durron and Cilghal dissented and departed, leading the remaining members, at Omas's suggestion, to elect Horn as their leader to facilitate cooperation with the Galactic Alliance.

This election sparked considerable controversy. Horn did not view himself as the true Jedi leader, aware that Omas had chosen him to create division within the Jedi Order. Durron, enraged, attempted to lead an unauthorized rescue mission for the captured Jedi. Horn confronted him in the hangar, but Durron refused to listen. To prevent Durron's departure, Horn physically disabled his StealthX, resulting in a heated argument over whether the Jedi should cooperate with or antagonize the Galactic Alliance. The rescue mission proceeded, encountering a brawl between the Killiks and the Galactic Alliance as the insectoid nests attempted to breach the blockade. The Jedi escaped, but the engagement marked the beginning of a renewed conflict between the Chiss and Killiks.

Skywalker, disappointed by the Order's disunity, summoned all Jedi to Ossus for a conclave. In his address, he rebuked the Jedi for their division, emphasizing the need for harmony within the Order to be effective. He stated that anyone unable to prioritize the good of the Jedi Order above all else would be asked to leave. Deeply affected by Skywalker's admonition and his own role in the crisis, Horn concluded that his departure would benefit the Order by ending his divisive influence. He announced this to the other Jedi before speaking with Skywalker. However, Skywalker refused his resignation, asserting that Horn was not responsible and that his presence was necessary to heal the schism within the Jedi. The Masters then discussed the Killik situation, considering the removal of Thul, Plo, and Rar from the Killiks, which would revert them to their naturally harmless state without their guidance. Horn again objected to the possibility of assassination, sparking another argument. Tired of the infighting, Skywalker assumed personal control of the Order, declaring himself Grand Master.

Following a spy mission into the Killik colony by the Solos, the Jedi received a warning about impending Killik coups within several Galactic Alliance insect societies. Jedi were dispatched to each world to prevent the attacks, with Horn leading a team to Thyferra. However, the Galactic Alliance garrison intercepted and detained him. Despite explaining his mission, the delay proved fatal, as the Vratix and Killiks successfully executed their coup, seizing control of Thyferra and the galaxy's bacta supply.

In response, Skywalker decided to strike at the root of the problem. He led a wing of Jedi StealthX fighters to Sarm, where the Killik nest ships were recovering from their failed attempt to challenge the Fifth Fleet's blockade. Horn led a squadron in the attack on the Gorog nest ship's bow, while the others targeted different areas. Skywalker penetrated the ship and dueled Plo as the other Jedi fought off Gorog reinforcements, but Plo disappeared after sustaining an injury. The Jedi destroyed the nest ship, but Plo escaped. Skywalker proceeded with the next phase of the mission, assigning Horn and the other masters to collect samples of the nanotechnology responsible for the Fizz and seed the colony worlds with them to keep the Killiks in check. Skywalker succeeded in killing Plo and capturing Thul, while Organa Solo defeated Rar, effectively ending the threat.

While committed to cooperating with the Galactic Alliance, Skywalker withdrew the Jedi from government entirely, establishing a new Jedi Council, on which Horn served. The tension between conscience and stability lessened after the Swarm War, leading the Jedi to more firmly support the Galactic Alliance, and the rift between Horn and Durron healed. Horn founded a teaching center in Coronet, where young Jedi from the Corellian area were trained under his guidance. Mirax retired, living peacefully with Horn in Coronet.

Corellian crisis

In 40 ABY, a fresh crisis emerged. The Corellian government resisted Galactic Alliance demands for full tax payments and military contributions, while secretly building an assault fleet and attempting to reactivate the Centerpoint Station superweapon. The Galactic Alliance deemed this unacceptable and displayed its force in the Corellian system. Elements of the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet arrived in orbit, while Jedi strike teams attempted to kidnap high-ranking Corellian officials to force negotiations. However, this served only to divert attention from the sabotage of Centerpoint Station, carried out by Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker. Despite his Corellian heritage, Horn fully supported the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance. He led Team Slashrat, consisting of himself and a partner, monitoring Coronet's spaceport for starfighter launches while the other teams acted. As it happened, the Corellians had already moved most of their starfighters offworld, using them to ambush the Galactic Alliance fleet, while the Jedi teams were betrayed and ambushed. The younger Skywalker successfully disabled Centerpoint, but all other teams failed, and the fleet, under the increasingly unstable Admiral Matric Klauskin, retreated and occupied Tralus before Klauskin suffered a mental breakdown.

Due to Jedi involvement in the attacks, public backlash on Corellia was intense. Mirax was placed under house arrest, but Horn relocated his five young Jedi students to safety; Valin and Jysella were already active as Jedi offworld. Horn remained in hiding in a secret chamber within the Jedi enclave, guarding the seemingly abandoned facility from looters. The other Corellian Jedi trained by Horn remained in hiding with the students. Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker arrived on an intelligence-gathering mission following the assassination of Five World Prime Minister Aidel Saxan during negotiations, and Luke Skywalker spoke with Horn. Horn requested that the Grand Master evacuate the students, which he agreed to do.

The Second Fleet was driven off Tralus, resulting in a tense standoff. Jacen Solo accepted a position in the Galactic Alliance military, taking command of the newly-created Galactic Alliance Guard to combat terrorism on Coruscant sparked by Corellian nationals. This led to Pellaeon's resignation and the promotion of Admiral Cha Niathal to Supreme Commander. While the Jedi Council urged caution, Solo began rounding up and interning Corellians on Coruscant, which outraged the Council members, especially Horn. With the other Jedi safely offworld, he had left Corellia and was serving on Coruscant. When the Council began debating Niathal's proposal to blockade Corellia to bring it into line, Horn objected, believing it would only rally support for the contrarian world. The conversation shifted to the GAG and the involvement of Solo and Ben Skywalker. The Masters urged Skywalker to withdraw the two Jedi from the group, but he ultimately did not, lacking authority over Solo, who was not formally a Jedi, and wanting to allow his son to make his own choices. The Council decided to support the blockade, viewing it as a better alternative to war. As the blockade took hold and Dur Gejjen became the new Five Worlds Prime Minister, the Council urged negotiations, which Omas attempted to initiate, but was rebuffed.

The Council was further disturbed by the revelation that the Sith Lady Lumiya, Darth Vader's former apprentice, had resurfaced after a thirty-year absence, killing Council member Tresina Lobi and seemingly targeting Skywalker's family. Alema Rar, also believed to be dead on Tenupe, had returned seeking revenge against Leia Organa Solo. As the Corellian government became more ruthless, Antilles, who had served as Supreme Commander of the system's forces, retired due to disagreements with Gejjen's administration. A public ceremony marked his retirement, but it was clear that he was a potential assassination target. Iella Wessiri Antilles contacted the Horn family, and Horn assisted Antilles's escape just in time. Horn and Antilles's intelligence-trained daughter Myri shadowed him, and immediately after the ceremony, Antilles was attacked by assassins disguised as Jedi. Horn eliminated them and helped Antilles escape. They sought refuge in a hangar at Elmas Spaceport, lying low and performing maintenance on their fighters and the Pulsar Skate in preparation for their eventual departure.

That night, Horn sensed Leia Organa Solo at the spaceport. While observing her arrival and preparing to make contact, he and the others noticed the approach of Corellian Security forces. They raided the hangar where the Solos and Calrissian, opponents of Gejjen, were berthed, but the Horn-Antilles party launched. Horn destroyed the TIE Crawler threatening the others' yacht from his X-wing. Horn and Antilles shot down the corvette blocking their escape route, clearing the way for the Pulsar Skate and Calrissian's Love Commander to escape to orbit, using Calrissian's codes to evade the Galactic Alliance blockade.

They traveled to the Kuat system, where they docked aboard the Errant Venture. To gather information, the Solos suggested Terrik move the flying casino to the Corellian system, and the ship was approved to operate within the blockade's exclusion zone, providing recreation for Galactic Alliance military personnel. While most gathered information at the tables, Horn, Antilles, and Organa Solo remained secluded, analyzing the data collected. They sought evidence of manipulation behind the growing war, with several events suggesting it. However, they found no proof that the war was manufactured, only that certain events were influenced. During a group session, Myri Antilles suggested that the events had divided the Skywalker-Solo clan, reducing their effectiveness. Horn praised the analysis, and the Solos decided to address the issue. Soon after, the Skywalkers arrived on a mission to contact Jacen Solo, bringing knowledge of techniques useful against Rar's memory manipulation, which they shared.

Immediately afterward, the Galactic Alliance forces were attacked by a fleet of Corellian supporters, members of the newly formed Confederation. Horn and Antilles scrambled to defend the Star Destroyer, joined by Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker in their StealthXs. Forming the impromptu Ganner Squadron—named for Horn's late partner, who died during the Yuuzhan Vong war holding back a large number of warriors—they protected the Errant Venture until its withdrawal. Horn flew as Antilles's wingman, engaging a squadron of I-7 Howlrunners approaching the Venture, drawing attention as the Skywalkers used their stealth fighters to sneak behind the frigate advancing on the Venture and cripple it. Horn and Antilles shot down seven enemy fighters before withdrawing to protect the frigate. While Antilles continued to protect the Star Destroyer, Horn peeled off with the Skywalkers to assist in the main battle. The battle resulted in a loss, forcing the blockading forces to retreat.

War with the Confederation

Horn returned to Coruscant with the Skywalkers, where a Jedi Council session was held. They discussed Ben Skywalker's disappearance, information about Lumiya suggesting that Ben Skywalker had killed her daughter in a duel at the beginning of the war, and the Galactic Alliance's pressure to expel Leia Organa Solo, suspected of collaborating with the Corellians. Horn argued against her expulsion, supported by the rest. Meanwhile, Fondor, Bespin, and Adumar joined Commenor, Bothawui, and Corellia in the Confederation, increasing the threat.

Horn continued to work with the Solo-Antilles group, now including Antilles's nephew and Yuuzhan Vong War veteran Jagged Fel, Jaina Solo, and Zekk, all tasked with eliminating Rar. Still based on the Errant Venture, which had relocated to the Coruscant system, they shared information that the Confederation planned a major conference at Gilatter VIII to elect a supreme commander. They also knew that Rar was aboard the Errant Venture, tracking the Solos. They set a trap for Rar, with Zekk distracting her while Horn moved into position to capture her. She shot a poisonous dart at him when he revealed himself, but he caught it and saved it for analysis before engaging her in a lightsaber duel. Rar quickly brought down a chandelier and fled, and Horn stayed behind to help passengers to safety; Rar had been flushed into the next stage of the trap. However, the Twi'lek escaped due to a Galactic Alliance military program that prevented the hangar from being sealed with military personnel aboard.

With the Gilatter VIII data in the hands of the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi were asked to provide StealthX support for the planned ambush. Horn was among the pilots who scouted the system and helped position ships for the ambush. However, the situation turned out to be a trap. They received a warning from Jacen Solo just before it was sprung, allowing the Galactic Alliance fleet to fight its way out with minimal losses. As the war escalated, Horn and the Jedi Council felt increasingly that the Skywalkers should reign in Jacen Solo. When Dur Gejjen was assassinated, the Council held an emergency session, debating the ramifications of that and of Mandalore's rearmament. Only a few days later, Omas was arrested by Solo and Niathal on charges of conspiring with the enemy, and using a newly introduced provision in the law, the two succeeded him as interim co-chiefs of state. Another emergency session was called. The Council debated their options, deciding to speak with Niathal and continue trying to eliminate Lumiya, suspected of influencing the issues.

When Jade Skywalker, tracking Lumiya, went missing, there was concern; when Luke Skywalker sensed her death in the Force, there was an outpouring of grief. Skywalker was in the Hapes Cluster tracking her; distraught, he handed over control of the Council to Horn. Horn contacted Skywalker, expressing his sympathies for the loss of his friend, and offered the aid of the other Jedi in tracking down the culprit. Skywalker assured him that he would handle it and was closing in on Lumiya. Horn was concerned it was a trap, but Skywalker pressed on and killed Lumiya. Later information from Ben Skywalker revealed that Lumiya could not have been Jade Skywalker's killer.

Skywalker was shaken by having killed the wrong person and became withdrawn and morose, worrying Horn and the other Jedi Masters. Just before the funeral, Horn and the other Masters sensed a disturbance nearby, which Horn, receiving a security feed, confirmed was a GAG squad's attempt to arrest the Solos on their way to the funeral. Organa Solo was to deliver the eulogy, and Horn and the others asked Sebatyne to do so instead. The eulogy was interrupted by the late arrival of Jacen Solo and by Jade Skywalker's body dissipating, becoming one with the Force. Afterward, Skywalker, realizing he had neglected his duties in his grief, spoke with the other Masters, was informed of the events, and resumed full leadership.

Skywalker led a wing of Jedi StealthXs to Balmorra, where the Confederation was preparing an attack and Jacen Solo was leading the defense. Skywalker allowed the battle to begin before contacting Solo, offering assistance, hoping to impress the increasingly dark Solo while demonstrating that cooperation was better than competition. Horn was among the pilots targeting Commenorian ships, crippling the enemy vessels. Solo was intimidating others, using GAG troops to take control of the academy on Ossus, ostensibly for security but clearly holding the children hostage to compel Jedi cooperation. From that battle, the Jedi proceeded to Kuat, its vital shipyards the target of a Confederation offensive. They planned to break through the Confederation fleet, disabling its ships for the multiple Galactic Alliance fleets gathered for the defense. Horn disliked supporting the Galactic Alliance with Solo in charge, but the Jedi leadership decided it was better than allowing the Confederation to win. However, news arrived that Omas had been assassinated while under house arrest and Ben Skywalker was present. Grand Master Skywalker was outraged and withdrew Jedi cooperation from the Galactic Alliance, convinced Solo had involved his son and was betraying the trust the Jedi had tried to extend to him.

Jedi resistance

The Jedi left Kuat, moving to Kashyyyk, where, declared enemies of the state by Solo, they sought refuge with the Wookiees. Solo learned of this and brought the Fifth Fleet to attack. When the Wookiees refused to surrender the Jedi, he began bombarding the world. The Jedi prepared a counterattack on the fleet, with their StealthXs creating openings for the Wookiee fleet to drive off the Fifth. This also served as a diversion, allowing Skywalker to infiltrate the Anakin Solo, Solo's flagship, and disable the long-range turbolasers he was using to bombard Kashyyyk. The Jedi believed Skywalker had perished in the attack, but this was a trick by the Grand Master to infiltrate the Star Destroyer, and within a day he emerged triumphant, disabling the turbolasers, dueling and wounding Solo, and rescuing his son from Solo's clutches. With the aid of a Confederation fleet and a Hapan one under Tenel Ka Djo, formerly one of Solo's greatest supporters, the Fifth was driven away and efforts began to extinguish the massive forest fires started by Solo's bombardment.

The Jedi moved to hiding on Endor, establishing a secret base at the abandoned Imperial base there. At Skywalker's orders, Durron created a plan to target Solo, and the Council members on Endor discussed it over one of their customary melee sessions, in which the Jedi Masters practiced combat in a free-for-all brawl to stay sharp. Seha Dorvald, a Jedi trainee, was to be the mission's guide. Formerly from the Coruscant undercity, she had been a secret agent for Solo, who had brought her from the undercity to the Jedi. Horn, distrusting her, tested her loyalty in an interview until he was satisfied. Horn volunteered to lead the team, but Katarn was selected instead. While Horn did not participate, his son Valin was a member of the team that confronted Solo, escaping safely after planting a tracking device on him.

Skywalker brought Antilles, Terrik, and Karrde into the resistance movement, and with their resources was able to plant a more powerful tracking device on the Anakin Solo and raid its computer for information. In a complementary attack, Horn flew in the Jedi Red Sword Flight to cover an attempt by Skywalker and Durron to attack Solo. However, Solo was in a fighter himself, and Skywalker targeted him, with Horn helping herd him away from the Anakin Solo. When additional Galactic Alliance fighters arrived, Horn helped hold them off, and when Skywalker sensed a young girl in the cockpit with Solo, he broke off the attack. They had attacked during a battle between the Galactic Alliance and Confederation, but that engagement was cut short by a blast from Centerpoint Station, reactivated and used in an ambush.

They returned to Endor, where Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo of Hapes arrived seeking Jedi help. Solo had kidnapped her daughter, Allana, to pressure the Hapans into supporting him, and Skywalker volunteered to retrieve her. Meanwhile, Fel, Zekk, and Jaina Solo succeeded in killing Rar. When Celchu, who remained a general with the Galactic Alliance, arrived, Horn was part of the summit Skywalker held, declaring his plan for a simultaneous strike to disable Centerpoint Station and rescue Allana as Solo attacked the station. To cover the strike team's insertion aboard Celchu's shuttle, Horn flew in Rakehell Squadron, a mixed squadron under Antilles's command that would chase the shuttle aboard Anakin Solo. Horn flew as Rakehell Five, leading the second flight with the Jedi Twool as his wingmate. As the battle began, the Rakehells harassed the Reveille, following it to the Anakin Solo before peeling away. They then harassed the troop shuttle on which the Jedi strike team for Centerpoint, disguised as GAG troopers, traveled to Centerpoint and docked, after which they were pounced on by Rogue Squadron. Horn handled his own unit, but his wingmate Twool was killed. When the Anakin Solo strike team seized Allana and was ready for extraction, the Rakehells flew cover for the Millennium Falcon as they escaped and Centerpoint was destroyed.

The Jedi continued battling Solo, who had taken Horn's former student, Tahiri Veila, as his Sith apprentice. Finding his co-chief of state, Niathal, more sympathetic, they aided her at the Second Battle of Fondor, in which she finally separated from Solo—who the Jedi learned was a Sith Lord and the killer of Jade Skywalker—forming a Galactic Alliance government-in-exile at Fondor. The Jedi established their new secret base on Shedu Maad, deep in the Transitory Mists of the Hapes Cluster. There they concluded that the Jedi needed to strike at Darth Caedus, as Solo was now calling himself. During a war council on the Imperial Remnant's attack on the independent Verpine, in which Horn argued that the Imperial Remnant may have been acting independently, not yet fully under Caedus's control, Jaina Solo returned from her training with Boba Fett. After the Jedi agreed to target the Galactic Alliance supply convoys out of the Roche system, Solo argued that she ought to go after Caedus, which Horn felt was too risky, preferring that Skywalker confront the Sith. When Skywalker revealed that he would not pursue his nephew due to visions of darkness, Solo was chosen to target her brother instead.

When Skywalker received word that Caedus was located on Nickel One within the Roche system, he devised a strategic plan for an assault. Instead of having the Wookiee forces, who would typically escort the Jedi strike team, participate, Horn was instructed to keep them back. Skywalker instead chose to rely on the Mandalorians, who were allied with the Verpine, to provide aerial support. The Jedi launched their attack on the Roche system, with Jedi blastboats, under the protection of Mandalorian Bes'uliik fighters, engaging the Imperial fleet in a series of runs. This diversion allowed Jedi StealthXs to target the command post. During the chaos of the attack, Solo was to infiltrate Nickel One to confront Caedus directly. The operation unfolded as planned, yet Solo only managed to injure Caedus before being compelled to retreat.

Caedus, however, managed to track Solo using a Nightsister blood trail technique, which led him to the approximate location of the base. The Jedi then set up an ambush in the constricted, secure route through the Transitory Mists leading to Shedu Maad. Horn took on the role of battle controller for the Jedi forces, coordinating with the Hapan fleet under the Queen Mother. From his position at Uroro Station, Horn orchestrated the launch of Jedi fighters against the Anakin Solo and the Super Star Destroyer Megador. Solo boarded the Anakin Solo and successfully killed Caedus, while Skywalker spearheaded the Jedi in torpedo strikes against the Star Destroyer. Horn, along with other Jedi Masters, led fifty Jedi in boarding the Anakin Solo, seizing control of the vessel. They then dictated peace terms to the Moff Council aboard the ship and installed Jagged Fel as the new Imperial Head of State. With Ben Skywalker having redeemed Veila, the Sith threat was eliminated. Subsequently, the Jedi facilitated negotiations between all involved parties, leading to a resolution of the war.

A Family's Ordeal

In 43 ABY, Horn and Mirax were both slated to deliver presentations at a significant reunification summit that included the Galactic Alliance, Imperial Remnant, and Confederation. Taking advantage of this unusual opportunity to bring the family together, the Horns collectively reserved a suite at the Kallad's Dream Vacation Hostel on Coruscant. The morning before the summit was to begin, Horn returned from a briefing with the other Jedi regarding his upcoming testimony on government relations. He discovered his son in the kitchen, threatening Mirax, convinced that she had been replaced by an imposter. When Horn instructed Valin to lower his lightsaber, Valin instead launched an attack, equally certain that Horn was also an imposter. Horn defended himself, and Valin then fled through another room, off a balcony, and onto a docked speeder. Horn pursued him and again had to defend himself, until Mirax arrived and stunned Valin.

The Horns secretly transported Valin to the Jedi Temple, hoping to determine the cause of his sudden mental condition. As a result, they missed the opening ceremonies of the Unification Summit, during which Grand Master Skywalker was arrested on charges of neglecting his duties in failing to prevent Jacen Solo's descent to the dark side. This was all part of Chief of State Daala's political maneuver to gain control over the Jedi. Jysella arrived to be with her family, who waited anxiously as Cilghal examined Valin. Skywalker, after being released on his own recognizance, arrived and recognized Valin's manipulation of the electroencephaloscan to prevent a brain scan, identifying it as a Force technique that Jacen Solo had employed.

That night, Valin escaped from the Jedi Temple, though Skywalker did not alert the Horns until after he had been recaptured. With the Galactic Alliance now aware of his condition, a compromise was reached: Valin would be held in the neutral Mon Mothma Memorial Medical Center under a mixed guard. The Horns remained constantly at his bedside, but doctors remained baffled by the nature of his condition. Meanwhile, Skywalker accepted a plea bargain for his charges, aiming to demonstrate that the Jedi were not above the law. He was removed from his position in the Order and exiled for ten years, with the possibility of commutation or pardon if he could identify the cause of Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side and present a method to prevent its recurrence. Horn was among the many tearful friends who bid Skywalker farewell from Coruscant. In Skywalker's absence, Kenth Hamner was appointed as the Master of the Order.

With the political climate somewhat eased, Valin was returned to Jedi custody. As Hamner attempted to improve the Jedi's image, Horn and all other Jedi were assigned individual observers, to whom they had to report at random intervals and who would follow them whenever they left the Jedi Temple. When Horn's former student Tahiri Veila, who had left the Jedi Order after the Second Galactic Civil War, won her legal battle to avoid having an observer, Daala retaliated by having Galactic Alliance Security seize Valin. Horn was horrified when the Galactic Alliance sentenced Valin Horn to imprisonment in carbonite until a treatment could be found. He immediately began calling in favors from old friends, many of whom held high-ranking positions in the Galactic Alliance armed forces, but they could do little to help Horn's case. The pressure on the Jedi lessened when the Galactic Alliance High Court overturned most of Daala's restrictions on them, including the observers, due to an appeal by Horn's old friend Nawara Ven.

Shortly thereafter, Jysella Horn succumbed to the same madness while at the Jedi Temple. After escaping outside, she was captured by Galactic Alliance forces and immediately sentenced to imprisonment in carbonite. The familial connection led to insinuations from the press and Chief of State Daala that the Horns' parenting was to blame, or that a genetic abnormality was present. Horn, devastated by the loss of his second child to the inexplicable insanity, considered the possibility that a genetic element might indeed be involved, and was willing to provide DNA samples to Cilghal for analysis. He first attempted to visit his daughter, but the Galactic Alliance denied the Horns access. He was quickly summoned to a Council meeting, where he expressed his frustrations and offered his cooperation with Cilghal—but he rejected Hamner's request to immediately report for an examination, instead insisting on continuing his efforts to see Jysella.

When Natua Wan also displayed the same madness and was captured by the Jedi, journalist Javis Tyrr released a sensational report on the incident she caused, revealing that Seff Hellin, another mad Jedi, was being secretly held within the Temple and studied, with only Cilghal and a few other Jedi aware of it. At an emergency meeting of the High Council, Horn supported keeping Hellin and Wan under observation, even though it would lead to a confrontation with Daala, who was increasingly determined to control the Jedi. Horn's faction, determined to resist Daala's power plays, lost the debate. While the Jedi were allowed to retain Hellin and Wan, they were publicly humiliated and forced to admit wrongdoing.

When Jedi Knights Bazel Warv and Yaqeel Saav'etu exhibited the same psychosis and were quickly captured by the Jedi, the Galactic Alliance obtained a warrant for the pair and demanded that they be surrendered into government custody. The Council convened to discuss whether to accept the validity of the warrant. After extensive debate, they concluded that all the insane Jedi should be secretly transferred to the Jedi training facility still on Shedu Maad, outside of Daala's jurisdiction. They then addressed the issue of Tahiri Veila's arrest by the Galactic Alliance on charges of assassinating Gilad Pellaeon during the Second Galactic Civil War. Horn supported their decision to hire Nawara Ven to represent her and to publicly oppose the arrest as politically motivated, emphasizing the unequal treatment compared to other facilitators of Caedus's rise. During the meeting, Han and Leia Solo arrived and warned the Council that they had learned Daala was preparing to hire Mandalorians for use against the Jedi.

When Jaina Solo proposed a plan to counter Daala in the battle for public opinion, Horn agreed to participate, even though his grief would be made public. He and his wife, along with several senior Jedi, obtained a writ from Judge Arabelle Lorteli, Daala's appointed judge for the Court of Jedi Affairs, granting them visitation rights for Valin and Jysella. They then arrived at Daala's secret prison, a Galactic Alliance Security blockhouse near Palem Graser Office Tower, with the media in tow. They demanded the right to see the two carbonite-frozen Jedi, exposing the secret prison. They were taken not to cells but to the executive offices, where Horn's children had been put on display as trophies. Outraged and saddened, Horn and his wife were subjected to the press's questioning until the prison commandant, Colonel Wruq Retk, arrived. Mirax punched the large Yaka, knocking him unconscious, leading the other security personnel to insist on arresting her. Horn and the other Masters protected her, but the standoff ended only when the media made the threat of arrest seem absurd and Daala, newly arrived, agreed that there would be no prosecution. She questioned the competency of the judge who had issued the writ, implying he or she had been a weak-minded fool under Jedi mental influence, completing the Jedi public relations coup when it was revealed that her handpicked appointee, Lorteli, had been the judge in question. The display of his children was ended, much to Horn's relief.

Emergence of New Threats

Following those events, Cilghal received a message from Ben Skywalker informing her that he and Luke Skywalker had encountered a group of Sith in the Maw and killed all but one, whom they were pursuing to locate the secret base from which this new, larger group of Sith was operating. Furthermore, there was a powerful dark side presence within the Maw that they were trying to prevent the Sith from accessing. She shared this news with the other Masters, who met and decided to secretly prepare a strike against the Sith, unwilling to involve the hostile Galactic Alliance. They prepared a StealthX wing to slip out undetected, but after Jedi Knight Sothais Saar succumbed to the mysterious psychosis and was returned to the Jedi Temple, it triggered a standoff with Galactic Alliance forces that culminated in an attack on the Temple by Mandalorian mercenaries. The commandos were repelled, but with the Temple under scrutiny, the fighters could not depart stealthily. Still besieged by the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi were offered the hope of a peaceful resolution when Daala authorized Han and Leia Solo to conduct negotiations between the two parties, aimed at rebuilding trust and finding a peaceful solution. They proposed turning Saar over to the Galactic Alliance on the condition that they maintain access to him and Daala unfreeze Horn's children. Daala proposed in return that they turn over Saar and, if cooperation continued and Saar did not escape, she would thaw one Horn out after a month, then the next a month after that.

Daala's deal fell through, and Daala soon contacted Hamner, demanding that Saar and the latest mad Jedi, Turi Altamik, be handed over, issuing vague threats if they were not. Hamner refused to yield to her threats, instead immediately summoning the Council. They discovered that all the exits, even the secret ones, had been blocked by Mandalorian forces, and communications were being jammed, while Mandalorian leader Belok Rhal demanded the release of Saar and Altamik within thirty-six hours. Horn was enraged by the situation, demanding action from Hamner. Kani Asari, a young apprentice working as Hamner's assistant, volunteered to go out and negotiate with Rhal for more time. Horn and the other Masters watched from the doorway, horrified, as Rhal shot Asari dead on the steps of the Jedi Temple, insisting he would accept nothing other than the release of the insane Jedi and reducing the deadline to one day.

Given this affront, Horn maintained that Daala and the Galactic Alliance could no longer be trusted. Under siege, they were in danger of running out of medication to sedate the mad Jedi held inside the Temple, but Horn was the first to notice the arrival of rodents with vials of sedative and a message strapped to them. The Council soon realized Leia Organa Solo was using the Force to guide the vermin into the building through cracks the Mandalorians were not monitoring. Their hope increased further when the sedatives no longer seemed necessary: suddenly, the delusional Jedi seemed to regain their sanity, as if Skywalker had found and eliminated the source of their illness.

The Jedi were able to confirm to Daala that the mad Jedi had been cured in a Fellowship Plaza negotiation broadcast on the HoloNet, forcing her to end the siege. Horn, increasingly tormented over the imprisonment of his children, was outraged when Daala refused to turn over Valin and Jysella, saying she was not convinced that the cure was effective. In a Council meeting afterward, many of the Jedi demanded action, with Octa Ramis suggesting an immediate raid, but Hamner counseled patience and forbade an attack on the Galactic Alliance. Horn challenged Hamner to present an alternative, but the meeting was interrupted by the arrival of Han and Leia Solo, who showed the Council a broadcast of a freedom march on Blaudu Sextus, where Octusi slaves were demonstrating against their condition and Mandalorian mercenaries were preparing to suppress the protests. Hamner noticed that the protests seemed contrived, and theorized that the anti-slavery group Freedom Flight had provoked them and tipped off reporter Madhi Vaandt in order to trap Daala, the suspected backer of the Mandalorians, with bad publicity when the Mandalorians slaughtered the pacifist, semi-sentient, but stubborn Octusi. To prevent a massacre, the Council dispatched a pair of Jedi to defuse the situation. Returning to the topic of Daala, Hamner revealed that he had a private solution in the works, but had promised to keep the matter strictly confidential. The rest of the Council was concerned that Hamner was withholding information, and Horn accused him of fabricating the claim to stall for time. The others, anxious about their inability to aid the Skywalkers against the Sith Lost Tribe, demanded that the StealthXs launch. Hamner, upset that his calls for restraint were being ignored, demanded that if the others wished to reject his leadership, one of them challenge him in a traditional duel rather than simply disregard him. The other Masters looked to Horn, but Horn was unwilling to push matters that far.

When Jaina Solo, along with Lando Calrissian, returned from an unauthorized excursion to aid the Skywalkers, she reported to the Council that Luke Skywalker had killed Abeloth, the dark presence within the Maw that had been the source of the outbreak, and remained in an uneasy truce with the Lost Tribe Sith in an attempt to understand Abeloth's nature. Yet as Solo and Calrissian returned from the Maw, they had been attacked by a Sith pirate force. Realizing that the Lost Tribe were operating as pirates, the pair had plotted pirate attacks with the same modus operandi and found a spate of seizures, frequently of warships. Horn analyzed the data and came to the shocked conclusion that the Sith were building a war fleet of significant size.

As the Jedi Council gathered to welcome those recovered Jedi who were returning from Shedu Maad, their attention was captured by a broadcast of a massacre of Octusi by Mandalorian forces commanded by Belok Rhal. When Rhal realized he was being recorded, he killed Vaandt in front of the holocams. The Jedi dispatched to the scene arrived and captured Rhal, making it appear as if they had been sent to stop the Mandalorians, not to convince the protesters to desist. Saba Sebatyne proclaimed it a sign of the will of the Force and insisted that the Jedi move to support the increasing galactic movement against slavery. Hamner was unconvinced, believing the Jedi could not afford to incite a wave of violence by appearing to back slave revolts, especially with their other concerns at the moment. He refused to do so, provoking Han Solo, who had learned of Hamner's secret plan for a resolution through a leak in the Senate, to challenge him to reveal it. Hamner admitted that during the siege he had been contacted by Chief of Naval Operations Nek Bwua'tu, who had learned of the planned SteathX launch. Bwua'tu, Daala's lover, had offered to use his influence to sway Daala to take a more moderate tack if the Jedi would only hold off on launching the fighters and thereby avoid provoking Daala into a battle. Soon afterward, however, Bwua'tu had been felled in an attempted assassination and remained in a coma; Hamner was hoping that the Bothan admiral would awake soon. Sebatyne, upset with the proposed solution and Hamner's secrecy, called on him to resign, but he refused. In response, the rest of the Jedi Council, uniformly frustrated with Hamner's reluctance to confront Daala and convinced that the matter could not be solved without a fight, deposed the acting Grand Master in an informal motion of no confidence, removing him from the Council.

With Hamner removed, the Jedi Council implemented a plan of action. They agreed to launch the StealthX wing to support the Skywalkers, who were able to reveal that Abeloth had in fact survived and was on Pydyr exercising control over the Fallanassi sect, at the same time as Han Solo led a mission to free Horn's children. To cover the events, Booster Terrik agreed to host a celebrity charity sabacc tournament aboard the Errant Venture, and with the celebrities aboard as hostages, fire on orbital mirrors and demand his grandchildren's release as a distraction before escaping to hyperspace. Prior to the raid, Corran and Mirax Horn made their usual visit to check on their frozen children with Cilghal and, undetected, planted tracing beacons on both carbon-freeze units to allow Solo's team to track them. Horn wished to be part of the team himself, but both Horns were under Galactic Alliance observation and the team could not afford detection.

Prompted by information passed by Jagged Fel that Daala had obtained evidence of Jedi cooperation with the Sith and would soon be releasing it, the Jedi immediately moved to act. Horn was not present in the hangar when Hamner, realizing what was occurring, confronted the rest of the Council members save the Solusars, who were on Ossus as usual. Believing that their aggressive actions would spark a war with the government and were in fact treasonous, Hamner insisted on stopping the launch and attempted to disable the hangar doors. He and Sebatyne dueled, and he fell from an overhanging catwalk. Sebatyne caught him in the Force, but when Hamner threw his lightsaber toward the door control relay, she let him go to stop the lightsaber. Hamner plummeted to his death.

Horn and Cilghal approached Sebatyne afterward, as she took a call from Daala demanding an explanation. They supported her refusal to give in to Daala, and when the Chief of State threatened action against the Jedi, Horn suggested that her belief that the Jedi had joined with the Sith revealed only her ignorance of the situation and of the Jedi. Cilghal reminded Daala that Terrik's hostages would be released in three days, and Daala broke off the call with the prospect of conflict looming. Horn was pleased, believing that they had taken the initiative from Daala, forced her to rethink her position, and achieved their goals of launching the fighters and recovering Valin and Jysella. Contemplating the future, Horn and Cilghal agreed that Sebatyne was the most suitable leader for the moment, reassuring her they did not hold her role in Hamner's death against her. Horn did not feel that he could take the reins of leadership, as he believed that his anger toward Daala would threaten to steer him toward the dark side if he were in control. Sebatyne, as the Jedi Master left on Coruscant with the strongest will and warrior nature, and who most unsettled Daala, was their choice to lead. She agreed, on the condition that she face judgment for her actions when Luke Skywalker returned.

Once the Solos' team returned with Valin and Jysella, several other Jedi joined the Horns in witnessing the thawing of the imprisoned Jedi from carbonite. They were briefly frightened when Valin's medical readout displayed no vital signs, but Cilghal confirmed that he was alive; the equipment appeared to have malfunctioned. The Horns were able to reunite for the first time in months, and neither child displayed any sign of madness, much to Horn's relief.

Character and Attributes

Despite his strong faith in his gut feelings, Horn was a proponent of reasoning and carefully analyzing problems instead of relying solely on emotions. This inclination towards logical thinking was present even after he became a Jedi. Horn was known for his remarkable persistence and unwavering determination. He possessed a competitive nature and disliked losing at anything. A diligent individual, he always aimed to excel in every endeavor he undertook. One of the factors that motivated him to push himself so hard was his fear of disappointing others. Horn was self-aware enough to acknowledge that he had a strong ego and disliked being wrong. However, during his Jedi training, he had to set aside his ego, remaining true to himself while avoiding arrogance, in order to effectively channel the Force. Throughout his time as a Jedi, Horn successfully embraced the Jedi principles of humility and self-control, moving beyond his previous pridefulness.

While Horn took pride in his Jedi heritage, he initially hesitated to embrace it, feeling unprepared to give up his ordinary life for the Jedi path. He avoided listening to his father's message to prevent further internal conflict. However, when Mirax was kidnapped, he finally listened to the message and realized that he had to train as a Jedi, not only because it was his father's wish but also because he knew it was the right thing to do with his abilities. When Horn constructed his own lightsaber, he underwent a personal transformation, realizing that he could no longer act without thinking things through. He had to accept responsibility for doing as much good as possible and constantly strive to become a better person and protector of the innocent. He made a full commitment, dedicating his life to the Jedi way.

During his time in Corellian Security and the New Republic, Horn was resolute in protecting civilians. However, during the dangerous period when he was evading the Empire, he was more concerned with self-preservation. He considered it too risky to endanger himself to help others unless they were in dire circumstances or if he had caused their predicaments. Outside of that difficult period, Horn was extremely willing to sacrifice his life to protect others as a security officer, a soldier, and a Jedi. In life-threatening situations, he found solace in the idea that his death would save others, allowing him to remain calm and focused.

Horn had a tendency to blame himself for any negative situation he found himself in, although he was willing to reconsider his initial self-blame when confronted by others or presented with new information. Skywalker urged him to abandon this habit, considering it a manifestation of Horn's ego, as he took responsibility for situations that were often not of his making.

After his time on Garqi, Horn became somewhat of a loner, distant from others and struggling to trust them. It was Lujayne Forge who helped him integrate into the squadron. However, he remained cautious about being vulnerable and only opened himself up to a few close friends. Due to his nature and his time with CorSec, Horn was highly suspicious of others, a tendency that Luke Skywalker encouraged him to reduce. While he did become more trusting of his allies, he remained constantly wary and cautious in dangerous situations.

Horn remained extremely defiant in the face of capture, even mocking Ysanne Isard during his time in Lusankya. He was also flippant, dismissive, and confident toward the spirit of Exar Kun when it spoke to him, although this was based on the mistaken assumption that Kun's spirit could not physically harm him in the material world.

While he had many romances as a young man, Horn believed in having stable relationships and not basing his romantic encounters solely on lust. Horn also valued strong family relationships and had an extremely positive relationship with his father, whom he considered both a friend and a parent. He looked up to him and felt comfortable sharing his problems with Hal, seeking his moral guidance. They made an excellent team and grew even closer after the death of Horn's mother. Hal Horn's death left the younger Horn feeling lost, without his mentor. He felt emotionally adrift and without his moral compass. Leaving Bastra and Wessiri when he escaped from Corellia made him feel even more alone. Only when he joined Rogue Squadron did he find companionship again, with Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu serving as role models to fill the void left by Hal Horn and Gil Bastra. However, Horn's uncertainty about whether he could trust Celchu led him to feel betrayed and angry with him, although he acknowledged that this was not a logical feeling.

On Corellia, Horn viewed the Galactic Empire as an unwanted and meddling entity, desiring to minimize its influence as much as possible. While generally considering the Empire to be a force of oppression and evil, he regarded the Rebel Alliance as a band of criminals and readily imprisoned its members. This was especially true since the presence of Rebels provided the Empire with further justification to intervene in Corellian affairs. Nevertheless, he was prepared to collaborate with Rebels and act against the Empire's interests if he believed it would serve a greater purpose. Ultimately, he became a member of the New Republic to safeguard galactic citizens from what he perceived as Imperial tyranny. However, he remained somewhat uneasy with the New Republic's dubious beginnings and its association with smugglers during its formative years.

Horn was of the opinion that the Jedi Order could best fulfill its role in serving the Force by dedicating itself to the New Republic and, subsequently, the Galactic Alliance. In his estimation, this was the optimal route to achieving a stable and peaceful galaxy. He also firmly believed that it was crucial for the Jedi to be accountable to some external authority to prevent any potential abuse of their power. Furthermore, he maintained that the Jedi should prioritize the greater good above all else, resisting the temptation to succumb to personal or localized attachments. While he deeply valued love and family, he recognized that these had to take a secondary position to a Jedi's commitment to the Order.

Horn had a great love for flying, and he became easily agitated when circumstances prevented him from doing so. Even when he was operating under his assumed identities between his time with Corellian Security and his joining the New Republic, Horn made it a point to fly at least once each week. He also had a fondness for art, although it was less significant. Because Horn's mother volunteered at the Museum of Fine Art, he had the opportunity to experience a wide range of art as a young man, which led him to develop an appreciation for art and the ability to analyze it.

Powers and abilities

Before realizing his Force sensitivity, Horn possessed the capability to enter a tranquil and focused state, which enhanced his reflexes and helped him evade blaster fire. During combat situations, he could sometimes achieve an even more heightened state where time appeared to slow down, granting him exceptional reflexes and the ability to anticipate the actions of others. Skywalker's Jedi training further honed this skill. Another ability he exhibited even before his formal training was the capacity to subtly influence the thoughts of others, a manifestation of his strong aptitude for the mind trick power, though he was unaware that he was doing so.

At Skywalker's Praxeum, Horn acquired numerous fundamental Force abilities. His precognitive abilities were refined, and he learned to sense through the Force, expanding his awareness and effectively using the Force as an additional sense. He also gained the ability to generate a Force shield and protect his mind from mental intrusions by other Force users, as well as to almost completely conceal his Force presence. He also mastered healing and speeding his movements through the Force. During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Horn participated in Jedi Battle melds, which involved mentally linking multiple Jedi to improve battle coordination.

Like all Halcyon Jedi, Horn's telekinetic abilities were limited, and he struggled to even slightly move a stone. However, he compensated for this with a remarkable talent for mind tricks, which allowed him to implant thoughts, sensations, and images in others. He also possessed great skill in the absorption of energy, both of which were characteristic of Halcyon Jedi. When absorbing energy—whether electrical, thermal, Force-based, or otherwise—Horn could redirect it into telekinetic feats, but doing so required a substantial infusion of power.

Horn was highly proficient with a lightsaber, and many Jedi students regarded him as an exceptional combatant. He was considered one of the Order's finest duelists, on par with Kyle Katarn and Saba Sebatyne. His Force abilities also enhanced his already considerable skills as a pilot.

Lightsaber

Around 11 ABY, Horn constructed his silver-bladed lightsaber on Courkrus, utilizing salvaged components from The Crash. The lightsaber was built using a Durindfire crystal, along with an emerald and diamond (originally a Kubaz xirkonia, which quickly failed and was soon replaced) for the focusing crystals, these came from jeweled furniture in Corran's room. The design was based on schematics hidden within Rostek Horn's columns for the Corellian Horticultural Digest, employing a method intended for emergencies that typically took two days to complete. It was a dual-phase lightsaber, capable of extending its length to three meters when twisted to align its second set of crystals.

Relationships

Chertyl Ruluwoor

Approximately six months after his father's passing, the Annual CorSec Awards Ball took place. Traditionally, each male CorSec officer contributed to a pool, with the winner initially granted the privilege of escorting the Director's daughter to the ball. Over time, this evolved into a tradition where a female officer volunteered as the prize, and the lottery proceeds were donated to the Survivors and Orphans Fund. However, in that particular year, the prize was, unbeknownst to her, Chertyl Ruluwoor. Ruluwoor, a female Selonian, was participating in an exchange program with CorSec. Since no one wanted to be obligated to take her to the ball, Horn, still grieving from his father's death, decided that there was no reason to make anyone else be separated from loved ones.

He convinced the significant others of all the other officers in the pool that the pool was rigged to cause that officer's ticket to win the pool. He then let them sell him their tickets, eventually acquiring every ticket in the pool. He donated all the proceeds to the Survivors and Orphans Fund and went to great lengths to make Ruluwoor's evening special, even flying across the planet to obtain the appropriate flowers and renting a repulsorlimo. Ruluwoor made a striking impression at the ball, and she and Horn, who had connected well, later engaged in sexual relations. While Horn enjoyed the experience greatly, he discovered that he was allergic to her fur, and her skin was irritated by his sweat, resulting in an uncomfortable experience for both afterward. Recognizing that their relationship was not sustainable, they parted amicably.

Iella Wessiri

Horn maintained a close friendship with Iella Wessiri, his partner in the Corellian Security Force. Their relationship remained platonic until an incident where Wessiri saved his life during a battle at a glitterstim dealer's warehouse. Horn felt immense gratitude and began to develop feelings of love for Wessiri, who was already married. She reciprocated these feelings, but before they could act on them, they were separated and debriefed. Horn did not see her for another two days, at which point he had realized his attraction had been the result of the emotional comedown from combat. Neither of them ever again considered a physical or romantic relationship, and Horn was relieved that they had not taken a step he believed would have jeopardized Wessiri's marriage and their friendship.

Siolle Tinta

At some point during his partnership with Wessiri, Horn was assigned to protect heiress Siolle Tinta. They bonded quickly because of their shared appreciation for art, and they had a brief but passionate romance during the three days they spent together in a safehouse. However, Wessiri soon apprehended the potential kidnapper threatening Tinta, and she no longer required protection. Horn quickly realized that their time together had simply been an infatuation that would not have lasted. They separated as friends.

Erisi Dlarit

Horn and Erisi Dlarit both served as pilots in Rogue Squadron during its reformation. While they socialized, Dlarit first expressed romantic interest in Horn following the Battle of Vladet. She confessed that she had feared for her life when the Lancer-class frigate arrived, and implied that she was feeling physically grateful. Horn explained that her feelings were merely a consequence of combat, drawing upon his experience with Wessiri. He gently rejected her advances, as he was uncomfortable with her attention, even though he found her physically attractive. Horn did entertain some ideas of a relationship with her, and found her extremely appealing. Yet, he declined a fairly direct invitation to sleep with her before the Second Battle of Borleias due to his need to sleep, though even he considered himself a fool for doing so.

During their mission to Coruscant, Horn and Dlarit adopted the guise of a telbun and his mistress, engaging in a sexual relationship. However, Horn refrained from becoming intimate with her, justifying his decision as necessary for mission security, and confused by his feelings for Mirax Terrik. He eventually realized that she came from an entirely different society—she was accustomed to wealth and opulence and Horn simply was not. He did not feel he could be a part of her world, as it did not fit him. When she attempted to seduce him in their hotel room, however, Horn nearly gave in to his desire to be with her before he decided that it would be a mistake to begin a physical relationship when he knew their emotional one would not work out. He stopped their encounter and explained his feelings to Dlarit, who accepted them. With separation from her during the later stages of their mission planning, Horn decided that any possible relationship between the two would be a disaster. They simply were not compatible.

Horn ultimately decided to pursue a relationship with Mirax Terrik, and his realization that Dlarit was a traitor to the New Republic destroyed any remaining interest he might have had in her. They found themselves on opposite sides of the Bacta War, Corran ended up killing her in the Battle of Thyferra.

Mirax Terrik Horn

Horn's initial encounter with Mirax Terrik occurred when she transported him from the Chorax system to Talasea after his fighter was disabled. Initially, they did not get along, each blaming the other for his or her father's actions; Hal Horn had tracked down the notorious smuggler Booster Terrik and had him imprisoned on Kessel. However, Wedge Antilles intervened quickly to tell each of them that the other deserved respect. When Horn was confined to quarters following the Battle of Vladet, Terrik brought him a care package, and they talked, sharing a ryshcate and whiskey, during which time Horn realized that he greatly enjoyed her company. The night before the Second Battle of Borleias, Terrik was sleeping in Horn's quarters due to Qrygg offering her his bunk. She and Horn spoke, with Horn feeling cut by her denial of feelings for him when she acted jealous of Dlarit's attentions to Horn. She subtly invited Horn to sleep with her that night, looking for cause to hate him in the morning, but Horn, feeling that he would be using her to avoid his own feelings of loneliness and nervousness, declined.

Horn enjoyed spending time with Mirax and enjoyed their shared Corellian heritage. While he considered her merely a good friend, he was willing to admit that he could fall in love with her if he let himself. After working alongside her during their infiltration of Coruscant, Horn realized that he wanted a romantic relationship with her, and asked her out just before he flew to bring down the shields. She agreed, but their courtship was disrupted by the fact that he was shot down and captured. Horn's escape from Lusankya allowed them to reunite, and their relationship swiftly turned serious. They began cohabiting almost immediately. When Horn met her father, he and Booster Terrik did not get along, but that did not deter him from his relationship with Mirax. Before the Battle of Thyferra, he decided to propose to her. He was overjoyed when she accepted. They were married quietly by Wedge Antilles aboard the Lusankya when news of the engagement broke, but followed it up with a more formal ceremony on Coruscant.

They enjoyed a comfortable married life on Coruscant, though first Zsinj, then Thrawn, and then Palpatine kept them from spending too much time together as Horn was called away to fight. They had some thoughts of having children, but were kept from seriously discussing the issue until after the reborn Palpatine's defeat. At that point, Mirax brought up the issue, and Horn, who disliked children, was resistant. However, continued thinking on the subject resulted in his looking forward to becoming a father. Mirax's kidnapping by Tavira's forces interrupted any plans and forced him to take up his Jedi heritage when he rescued her. After that ordeal, Horn was ready to have children. He and Mirax did so two years later, naming their son Valin, after Horn's father. Valin was followed three years later by a daughter, Jysella. Horn's love for Mirax stayed strong throughout their marriage even though their careers forced them to spend much time apart, and with the passage of time, he and her father even managed to get along.

Leonia Tavira

When Horn infiltrated Leonia Tavira's Invid pirate gang, he learned that she had an extremely strong taste for men, frequently taking sexual partners from among her subordinates. When Tavira began flirting with him during his debriefing after the Battle of Xa Fel, Horn moved preemptively to cut off any thoughts of a relationship, outraging the warlord. In response, she took as her lover Remart Sasyru, Horn's rival among the Survivor pilots. Horn himself acted to cut off the possibility of a sexual liaison precisely because he knew that, despite his love for Mirax and belief in remaining faithful to her, he was physically very attracted to Tavira and did not trust himself not to give in.

After Horn beat Sasyru senseless during an incident in which Horn protected several Caamasi, Tavira executed Sasyru, Horn's subordinate, for his behavior in provoking the fight and refusing orders. She then came to Horn and strongly attempted to seduce him, telling him that he would become her lover willingly. She kissed him, exciting Horn against his better judgment, and ordered him to make his decision regarding becoming her partner in a month. Horn felt guilty about his attraction to her, and did not want to consider the tempting logic that said sleeping with Tavira would help him find Mirax more quickly. Horn was able to reject that idea, and instead devoted himself to destroying the pirate sanctuary on Courkrus. He rescued Mirax and forced Tavira to flee without the Jensaarai that made her so formidable, breaking her power.

Behind the scenes

Author Michael A. Stackpole conceived the character Corran Horn as one of the two central figures in the X-wing novel series. However, Horn's initial appearance was in the short story Missed Chance, also by Stackpole, which served as a prelude to X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. Stackpole crafted Horn's background as a Corellian Security agent to provide a contrast to typical portrayals of Corellian smugglers and to generate conflict with smuggler characters. He chose to make Horn a Jedi because he believed that Star Wars stories needed a Jedi presence. Horn has been featured in every novel authored by Stackpole. Stackpole himself served as the model for Horn's card in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, and later suggested that Chris Pratt "could do a hell of a job" in a hypothetical adaptation of the character by Disney. Due to significant fan demand to see Horn in the Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron comic series, which is set before Horn joined the squadron, Stackpole incorporated a storyline involving Horn as a Corellian Security officer into the comic.

Horn has also appeared, albeit in a less prominent role, in every novel by Aaron Allston, who succeeded Stackpole as the writer of the X-wing series, except for X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar, where he was only mentioned.

In I, Jedi, Horn became the first and only character to narrate an entire Star Wars novel in the first person, until the 2015 novel Heir to the Jedi, in which Luke Skywalker narrated his own adventures. Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, presented as an in-universe document, has retconned I, Jedi into itself having the status of an in-universe document by including selections from the novel.

In Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Family Ties, Horn's hair is depicted as black and his eyes as blue, which contradicts his established canonical hair and eye colors of brown and green, respectively.

The Official Star Wars Fact File 70 asserts that Horn hunted down Jedi while working as a Corellian Security agent. However, passages in X-Wing: The Krytos Trap and X-Wing: The Bacta War indicate that Horn had no prior experience with Jedi, suggesting that his involvement was indirect at best and that he was unaware of the consequences of his actions and investigations.

Horn's name was mentioned as a Jedi Master assigned an apprentice in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. In the cutscene in question, five Jedi Masters appear at the head of the crowd of students: two are distinct individuals, and three are generic stand-in models. Horn, Streen, and Tionne are all mentioned in the dialogue, strongly suggesting that the three generic models stand in for those three Jedi and that Horn does in fact appear in Jedi Academy.

Horn became one of the few Expanded Universe characters to be immortalized as an action figure when Hasbro released a "Droid Factory" pack featuring Horn and Whistler. This figure portrayed Horn in a standard orange New Republic pilot suit, rather than his characteristic green CorSec suit. The pack also included a blue-bladed lightsaber with a hilt resembling Anakin Skywalker's, instead of Horn's silver-bladed weapon.