Aeten II

"Kavas ordered an old-style camera as a gift for Ind. We mixed it in with a shipment of spice from Aeten II... and there was a whole mess... I don't have time to go into details."

―Ki'shai, to a spacer^[7]

Aeten II was a planet located in Wild Space, on the borders of the Outer Rim Territories. The planet was known primarily for its Stygium crystals, which could be used to create cloaking devices or as lightsaber crystals which gave a Jedi increased stealth and dexterity. The planet was destroyed in 3 ABY, shortly following the Battle of Hoth, by Imperial Grand Admiral Martio Batch, using the Tarkin superweapon.

History[]

During the time of the Cold War between the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic, the planet Aeten II, located in Wild Space, was represented in the Rift Alliance by the Sullustan Diab Duin.^[8] The Sith Empire established a space station in the planet's orbit. Near the end of the Cold War, two Imperial traitors infiltrated the Sith Empire's space station and disabled its defenses. The agents were eventually neutralized, though their efforts left the station defenseless; this allowed a Republic fleet to attack and capture the station.^[9]

Aeten II was later settled by the Galactic Republic, circa 1000 BBY. Eventually, the new inhabitants discovered the vast resources of stygium within the planet and rapidly built mines to extract the valuable mineral. In 22 BBY however, shortly before the Clone Wars, the Galactic Senate passed a law restricting the export of stygium crystals, although the supply of crystals had utterly came to a halt due to the over-mining of reckless profiteers. Nonetheless, prospectors found new resources to mine.

AetenSurface — AT-ST surveying an abandoned mining facility on the surface.

During the last year of the Clone Wars, Aeten II was the site of the month-long Battle of Dreighton. Both the Galactic Republic, aided by the Pendarran Warriors, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems wished to capture the planet so that they could gain a significant advantage in the use of cloaking technology. Once the two factions attacked one another, however, Hutt and Black Sun forces entered the system and destroyed the remainders of all three fleets. It is believed that the Dreighton Nebula itself eventually annihilated all combatants.

Whatever occurred there, it would soon be declared that there were no more stygium caches on Aeten II. The aftermath of the battle also had many rumors about the nebula being haunted afterwards with ghost ships and the dead pilots of the battle, giving birth to the idea of the Dreighton Triangle. This was ratified by strange disappearances of ships flying in the nebula.

During the Galactic Civil War, after the destruction of the first Death Star, Grand Admiral Martio Batch, wishing to recreate cloaking devices like the one used in the Sith Infiltrator, brought the Tarkin to Aeten II, where the Stygium mines had dried up. The Admiral then used the Tarkin to destroy the planet and used the large supply of previously unreachable crystals to forward the Phantom TIE project. The planet stayed intact and habitable but had gashes leading to the core. It was in orbit of the ruins of Aeten II that the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Terror, under Admiral Sarn, protected the crystal supply.

His plan eventually failed when Rebel saboteurs Rookie One and Ru Murleen destroyed the Terror, the corresponding TIE Phantom factory on Imdaar Alpha and all the TIE Phantoms.

Behind the scenes[]

Aeten II is present in the Empire at War story campaign, but not in the Forces of Corruption story campaign. This is consistent with the planet's destruction by the Tarkin superweapon after the Battle of Yavin. However, the planet appears in Forces of Corruption's galactic conquest mode unchanged, which is acceptable because this game mode is not meant to be taken as canon.

The Star Wars: Empire at War: Prima Official Game Guide and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia incorrectly place Aeten II in the Outer Rim Territories. The Essential Atlas has eventually stated that the system is in Wild Space. Some of the mission text for the Aeten Defense space mission in Star Wars: The Old Republic mistakenly refers to the planet as Aeten Ten, while other instances in the text files correctly name it as Aeten II.