Kyle Katarn started out, like many top Alliance soldiers, as an Imperial student. In
the Military Academy at Carida, Kyle rose to the rank of Cadet Leader. After witnessing
the atrocities perpetrated by the Empire, Kyle defected to the Rebellion. One of his
most famous exploits was stealing a partial copy of the technical plans to the Empire's
first Death Star from an installation on Danuta, which were later combined with a set
stolen by Toprawan spies to complete a full copy of the plans. The plans were then
beamed to Princess Leia Organa's corvette near
Toprawa.
Kyle was most active in the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin. He captured Imperial
weapons specialist Moff Rebus from his hidden stronghold under the sewage system of
Anoat City. He planted a tracking device on a smuggling ship at Cal-Seti, which led him
to an Imperial robotics facility on Anteevy, which he disabled with several sequencer
charges. The facility was where the alloy phrik was refined and treated for use in
armoring the Empire's new Dark Troopers. Following the phrik trail took Kyle to Fest,
where a secret Imperial Weapons Research Facility team hidden in a steep mountain
performed metallurgical research on new alloys. Kyle stole a sample to be analyzed by
Alliance scientists. He then journeyed to the Gromas system, which had a small moon
where the Empire was mining phrik -- until Kyle blew up the facility, effectively
bringing down the Dark Trooper project, as well as rescuing Imperial defector Crix
Madine.
Among his other adventures, Kyle infiltrated two Imperial ships, the Super-class
Star Destroyer Executor and the Arc Hammer. A year after the Emperor's
death at Endor, Kyle faced a terrible personal tragedy: his father, Morgan, was
murdered by the Dark Jedi Jerec. Jerec was hunting for the fabled Valley of the Jedi,
which Morgan had discovered years earlier. In one of his most difficult challenges,
Kyle defended the Valley from Jerec and defeated his band of Dark Jedi. Later, during
the Clone Emperor's reign of terror, Kyle continued his assault on Jerec's troops of
terror. He did take some time out of his schedule, however, to investigate a Sith
temple with the help of Mara Jade.
When I decided to set up the Jedi Academy, I asked Kyle, who was then a Commander in
the New Republic military, to join. He said yes, and joined the first batch of twelve
students. He defended my incapacitated body from the spirit of Exar Kun, defeating the
evil phantom forever. His skills were vital to the defense of Yavin IV when Admiral
Daala threatened it with the SSD Knight Hammer. Kyle is one of the strongest of
the new order of Jedi. He has recently used his extensive military expertise to
formulate defensive strategies against the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.
