Jan Ors

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Jan Ors was an Alderaanian intelligence operative who began her work as an agent for the terrorist organization Justice Action Network. As the undercover agent Jan Strange, she then shifted to helping the Alliance to Restore the Republic, becoming one of their trusted operatives.

Ors was instrumental in recruiting Kyle Katarn to the Alliance and together they worked on many missions for the Alliance and later the New Republic. The two would later become romantically involved. Ors continued her work for the New Republic by joining Alpha Blue, a secret intelligence organization, that she eventually took over from Hiram Drayson. There she worked for the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Jan wore always a kind of glove on her right hand. Whether it was cybernetic or had another special reason, it is not known.^[2]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Alias and espionage 1.2 Rebel Alliance 1.3 New Republic 1.4 Yuuzhan Vong War 2 Behind the scenes 2.1 Portrayal 2.2 Continuity 2.3 Character 3 Appearances 4 Sources 5 Notes and references

[edit] Biography

Jan's mother was a choreographer for Alderaan's premier ballet company, and her father was an aerospace engineer; Jan learned both of these arts.^[3] Her parents also were instrumental in Earnst Kamiel's establishing of the Justice Action Network, an anti-Imperial terrorist organization whose initials (JAN) were partly chosen to honor the Ors' daughter. However, Jan did not stay with the JAN, instead striking out on her own path.^[4]

[edit] Alias and espionage

She began her career by infiltrating Imperial Intelligence under the pseudonym Jan Strange.^[4] Once she was well placed in the Surveillance section of Intell, she contacted the Alliance Intelligence, providing them with invaluable counterintelligence and performing sabotage and covert extractions.^[4][5] She first encountered the Imperial cadet Kyle Katarn while working in Intell, though neither left an impression on the other at the time.^[4] She maintained a very delicate balance of providing intelligence to the Alliance while simultaneously performing her duties as an Imperial Intelligence officer. Surveillance section came to value her ability to pinpoint the right subjects for observation, and often sent her to the Core Worlds where corruption was rampant. This "talent" was the result of Jan arranging to have targets planted by the Alliance, whom she would then observe, capture, and interrogate; they would then be set free, and she would fake a "termination during interrogation" to cover their escape. Unfortunately for the Alliance, her cover required her to sometimes act against them, even sometimes going so far as to sacrifice clumsy and careless agents. Despite having never worn the uniform of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, her difficult assignment earned her a Captain's rank and a Nebula for Bravery in absentia, along with an almost legendary stature among other Rebels.^[5]

[edit] Rebel Alliance

Ors did not remain in her Jan Strange guise for long, and was soon performing missions as part of the Rebel Alliance itself. In 1 BBY, she participated in a mission to steal prime-grade fuel slugs from Imperial forces in the jungles of Oulanne. In the course of the mission, her leg was injured, and it became infected. Her teammates fled with her to Pellezara station in the Duro system, where they hid her beneath the deckplates of their freighter while they all disembarked in search of medical supplies. Tarrin Datch, a seventeen-year old son of the owners of the station, found her while replacing the ship's gravity disks during routine restocking. In a delirium brought on by the strange alien infection, Ors told the boy her name and the cargo the ship was carrying.^[6]

When Imperial forces entered the Duro system, Datch, an accomplished pilot, took action to save the strikingly beautiful woman, undocking the ship, and proceeding to fly it in a manner more befitting a starfighter than a freighter, outmaneuvering the Gamma-class assault shuttle that was pursuing them. When he made it to open space, he hypered to an outer-system station that was equipped with a well-equipped medicenter, where he stabilized Ors. Unable to return to Pellezara station, and knowing the fuel slugs needed to be delivered to the Alliance, Ors disclosed the location of the Dantooine base to Datch, who took them both there. There, Datch joined the Rebellion and began training to become a fighter pilot, while Jan went on to other missions;^[6] one of them stationed her at a Rebel base on the asteroid AX-456.^[3]

It was not long before the Empire located the AX-456 base and invaded; coincidentally, Kyle Katarn was the cadet commander in charge of the mission. At one point, Jan and Kyle saw each other, and though neither remembered their brief past encounters, both felt a spark of distant recognition. Katarn spared the lives of the Rebel group she was in, which fled the asteroid.^[3]

It would not be their last encounter. During a mission aboard the Star of Empire, Jan again encountered Kyle, to whom she revealed that it was the Empire, not Rebels, who killed his father Morgan Katarn. She established a relationship with the already ambivalent Kyle, and when spies uncovered the presence of Rebels aboard the Star, Kyle defected with Ors.^[3]

Jan Ors met with Mon Mothma and persuaded her to hire Kyle Katarn as a mercenary and commando, going so far as to lie in her reports to give credence to her faith in Kyle's trustworthiness.^[4] Jan provided briefings from Alliance Command to Kyle and served as pilot of their ship, the Moldy Crow, in their pivotal missions to capture the plans for the first Death Star on Danuta and to thwart the Dark Trooper Project. She became one of the few people Kyle trusted, and was also one of the few people he could count on to help him get out of sticky situations. During their adventures while on Nar Shaddaa, Jan and Kyle were captured and brought onto one of Jabba the Hutt's ships. Jan was held as a bargaining chip against the Alliance until she was again rescued by Katarn, who had to go through many extremes to save her, including defeating a Kell dragon with his bare hands.^[7]

[edit] New Republic

Jan and Kyle's relationship continued to deepen, but Jan feared allowing Kyle to get too close.^[4] This changed as she accompanied Kyle on their quest for the Valley of the Jedi on Ruusan, where she was captured by the Dark Jedi Jerec. Jerec asked Kyle (who came very close to the dark side) to execute her. Kyle refused, and Katarn defeated Jerec and sealed the Valley.^[8] Jan and Kyle then declared their love for one another.^[9] She later continued to turn down Kyle's proposals of marriage, however, fearing that each day could be their last.^[10]

On Mon Mothma's recommendation, Jan joined Hiram Drayson's secret Alpha Blue organization. There, she helped expose the Yevethans and kept tabs on the Order of the Canted Circle, the Azurite Society of Lords, and Grand Admiral Grant^[4], who was allegedly retired on Rathalay.^[11] She also accompanied Kyle, who had returned to his mercenary ways after slipping to the dark side on Dromund Kaas, on a number of off-the-record missions against the Imperial Remnant in their new ship, the Raven's Claw.^[4][12]

While following up a lead on the Reborn, Jan was captured by a failed student of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum, Desann, and his apprentice Tavion Axmis. They pretended to kill her, and Kyle heard the lightsaber sound without being able to help her. Grieved by her apparent loss, he returned to the Valley of the Jedi to regain his Jedi powers, allowing Desann to find the Valley's location and use its powers to fuel the Reborn. It was only much later when Tavion confessed to Kyle that they only feigned Jan's execution, and the couple was ultimately reunited before Desann met his doom.^[13]

[edit] Yuuzhan Vong War

Eventually, Admiral Drayson retired, and Jan took over Alpha Blue just before the Yuuzhan Vong War. In the desperate circumstances the invasion engendered, Jan looked back to her terrorist roots and, with the help of the Chiss, Lurrians, and others, concocted the genocidal bioagent Alpha Red.^[4] Fortunately, the invasion was halted before Alpha Red had to be put to widespread use.^[14]

In addition to her work with intelligence, Ors still performed some field missions during the war. On one such occasion on Ord Sedra, Ors and Katarn teamed up with a local Imperial stormtrooper unit under the command of Lieutenant Pallin. A force of Yuuzhan Vong warriors and Peace Brigadiers had captured an entire village and taken them as slaves. While being transported, Katarn infiltrated them, while Ors and Pallin orchestrated an ambush of the patrol. The ambush was successful and resulted in the freeing of the slaves and the capture of the enemy forces which were left under the guard of the Imperial troops. They proved unable to contain them, however, and in her rush to aid them, Ors was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong. Only the timely arrival of Katarn saved her life.^[10]

Following the end of the invasion, Kyle disappeared while investigating rumors of Sith activity. Jan, along with Kyle's former apprentice Jaden Korr, used every free moment to track him down. Eventually, she teamed up with Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker in forming an elite team of Alpha Blue agents and Jedi Knights to track him down. The trail led to the Cloak of the Sith, where the cyborg Jedi Daye Azur-Jamin held Katarn captive. Katarn was freed and Azur-Jamin, redeemed from the dark side of the Force, revealed the existence of a Force-strong Yuuzhan Vong.^[4]

[edit] Behind the scenes

[edit] Portrayal

In Star Wars: Dark Forces, Jan Ors is voiced by Julie Eccles, who also played Ru Murleen in Star Wars: Rebel Assault II. She appears only in stills and her appearance is featureless. In Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, she is played by Asian model Angela Harry. In Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, she is voiced by Vanessa Marshall. She was portrayed by actress and comedienne Mo Collins, best known for her work on MADtv, in the Dark Forces audio dramatization.

[edit] Continuity

Jan Ors was created as a supporting character for the game Star Wars: Dark Forces, and reappeared in its sequels, excluding Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II comes with an alternate ending where Kyle fell to the dark side and, when prompted by Jerec, killed Jan. The light side ending has been deemed by Lucasfilm to be the canonical ending, and is reflected in later products.

The Dark Forces Saga, Part 2: Unsung Heroes of the Light retconned her into the same character as Cracken's Rebel Operatives mysterious Jan Strange, who was created 4 years before Dark Forces.

Interestingly, and perhaps coincidentally, the sketched panel portraying Strange, bears a resemblance to Angela Harry that portrayed Ors some years before the retcon.

[edit] Character

Jan Ors is also a playable character in the multi-player modes of the all of the games in the Jedi Knight series. It is interesting to note that the unused female Jedi model in Jedi Outcast is just a jacketless Jan with a lightsaber and Force powers. Though it does not appear in the main game, it is accessible using the cheat "npc spawn jedif".

[edit] Appearances

• Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire
• Star Wars: Dark Forces (First appearance)
• Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
• Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
• N.R.I. Reports (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Mentioned only)
• Equals and Opposites

[edit] Sources

• Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back (First mentioned)
• Cracken's Rebel Operatives (Retcon)
•  "Building a Better Jedi" - Star Wars Insider 31
•  The Dark Forces Saga, Part 2: "Unsung Heroes of the Light" on Wizards.com (article)

[edit] Notes and references