 |  |
Warning: The following parameters in the infobox are unrecognized: era
- "The Omega Frost! Brilliant, Silas…! It's going to be the club with which we beat Darth Vader from the Emperor's favor."
- ―Baron Orman Tagge, to his brother, Dr. Silas Tagge
The Omega Frost was a superweapon designed by Doctor Silas Tagge of the Tagge Company and implemented by the Galactic Empire in a failed attempt to destroy the Alliance Fleet. The Omega Frost was devised to flash-freeze any moisture-containing object—including a living being—that happened to be positioned between two strategically placed conductor towers; material frozen by the weapon, even metal, subsequently shattered. As almost every substance in the galaxy contained some degree of moisture, the weapon could be utilized in any environment, including the vacuum of space.
In 0 ABY, Baron Orman Tagge, head of the House of Tagge and brother to Silas Tagge, moved forward with the Omega Frost's production. Establishing a testing facility in the Jundland Wastes on arid Tatooine, the Baron and his brother oversaw a successful trial of the weapon's effects within the planet's deserts; even under the intense heat of the system's twin suns, the landscape—and everything on it—froze. With the testing complete, the Tagge brothers departed Tatooine for the Feriae system, where they prepared to use the weapon to destroy the Alliance Fleet. The Imperials had not been the only ones to observe the Tatooine demonstration, however; Rebels Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca had almost fallen victim to the Omega Frost themselves and vowed to uncover the Tagges' plans.
The Tagges planned to unleash the Omega Frost on the unsuspecting Alliance Fleet within the Feswe Corridor, using more advanced conductor towers to generate the weapon and flash-freeze the Rebel ships. Skywalker attempted to destroy one of the towers before the Rebel Fleet could fall into the trap, prompting Doctor Tagge to prematurely activate the Omega Frost. The Alliance forces narrowly avoided the effective band of the weapon before Skywalker destroyed the tower and stopped the Omega Frost's generation. With the weapon inactive, the Rebel ships proceeded through the Feswe asteroid corridor unmolested, taking the opportunity to destroy the Tagges' Mining Explorer and an Imperial battlecruiser. The engagement put an end to the Omega Frost, though a conceptual cousin, the Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter, survived into the time of the New Republic and the Galactic Alliance.
Description
- "I believe it's safe to say that nothing caught between the conductor towers can survive—not when we generate the Omega Frost, my dear brother."
"You'll be able to duplicate this success anywhere… in any environment?"
"Perhaps not in the heart of a nova. But if it works under these arid conditions… I'm confident I can adjust it for whatever you require." - ―Dr. Silas Tagge and Baron Orman Tagge, after witnessing a successful test of the Omega Frost
The Omega Frost was a superweapon capable of flash-freezing objects of any size[6]—including sentient beings[5]—to temperatures below the mark of absolute zero through the use of force fields and electromagnetics.[6] The weapon was capable of freezing an entire planet and functioning properly in the vacuum of space.[3] Theoretically, it could even freeze an entire star system.[6] The Omega Frost's effect was generated by two conductor towers; when these towers were activated, any object containing moisture that happened to fall between both conductors'[4] effective band[3]—even the terrain—was instantly frozen. The effect was so powerful that even metal shattered after the freezing process.[4]
History
Development and testing
- "I'm moving in secret, Ulric… using the House of Tagge's great scientific and commercial resources. With you to assure continued military cooperation—we'll have revenge… and more! It's all coming to fruition, little brother—on a quiet, unsuspecting backwater world called Tatooine!"
- ―Baron Orman Tagge, to his brother, Ulric Tagge
Conceived by Doctor Silas Tagge of the Tagge Company, the Omega Frost was Tagge's crowning achievement.[6] Baron Orman Tagge, head of the House of Tagge and Silas's older brother, planned to use the Frost as a means by which the Galactic Empire could destroy the Rebel Fleet that had been using the Feswe Corridor to break the Imperial blockade of Yavin 4.[4] The Baron believed an effective use of the weapon would curry Emperor Palpatine's favor, at the same time granting Tagge the revenge he desired against the Emperor's enforcer, Darth Vader. The Baron included his younger brother, General Ulric Tagge of the Imperial Military, in the plot as a means of securing Imperial assistance for the project.[1]
Baron Orman Tagge and Dr. Silas Tagge inspect the successful testing of the Omega Frost on Tatooine.
Doctor Tagge tasked his older brother with selecting an arid world on which the Omega Frost could be tested. Baron Tagge found many locations that fit his brother's conditions, but only one stood out to him—Tatooine, a desert planet that happened to be the homeworld of a young Rebel hero named Luke Skywalker, whom the Baron hoped he could lure to Tatooine with word of the project. The Tagges purchased several moisture farms on the planet and set up their headquarters in the rocky hills of the Jundland Wastes, from which they began experimenting with the Omega Frost. One subject, a bantha, managed to escape the facility, but the Omega Frost took effect before long, freezing and killing the bantha in its tracks below the heat of the Tatoo system's twin suns. The security breach did not overly concern Baron Tagge, as the project was quickly nearing completion.[1]
Skywalker did arrive on Tatooine, but for reasons unrelated to the Tagges' secret project. En route to the city of Mos Eisley to recruit blockade runners for the Rebellion, Skywalker happened upon the frozen remains of the escaped bantha in a narrow canyon. An Imperial Reconnaissance Troop Transporter searching for the creature discovered it at the same time that Skywalker did; the young Rebel managed to avoid detection as a pair of Imperial stormtroopers proceeded to obliterate the bantha's remains to conceal any evidence of the Omega Frost. Having learned previously that the House of Tagge had bought up moisture farms, Skywalker concluded that they were behind the bantha's mysterious death, and he vowed to uncover what exactly was going on.[1] The Imperials eventually learned of Skywalker's presence on Tatooine, forcing him to flee with fellow Rebels Han Solo and Chewbacca into the desert, where they happened upon the Jawa crew of a sandcrawler that aided in their escape.[5]
Concurrently, the Tagge Company proceeded with their experiments with the Omega Frost. Two conductor towers were established within the Tatooine desert to test the Frost's effect; Skywalker and company discovered both towers when the Jawa crew of the sandcrawler happened upon one of them during their trek. They originally mistook it for a giant moisture vaporator, but upon closer inspection, Skywalker realized the tower was rapidly getting cold. Remembering the frozen bantha he had stumbled upon earlier, he urged everyone to flee. The three Rebels succeeded in getting the Jawas out of the way before the Omega Frost took effect, but another sandcrawler and its crew were caught between both towers and instantly frozen with the surrounding terrain. Stunned by the field of ice before them, the Rebels and the Jawas watched as the second sandcrawler shattered. A Reconnaissance Troop Transporter arrived on the scene with the Baron and Doctor Tagge aboard; they marveled at the success of the Omega Frost before ordering the capture of the Rebels, who managed to elude the Imperials and flee Tatooine.[5] Upon departing Tatooine aboard the freighter Millennium Falcon, Skywalker and his companions followed Baron Tagge's Mining Explorer to the planet Feriae Junction, hoping to uncover more details about the weapon they had witnessed.[4]
Trap at Junction
Luke Skywalker discovers in the Feswe Corridor one of the conductor towers used to generate the Omega Frost.
- "You see, instead of using the Omega Frost on Junction as you alerted your friends to believe… we're going to activate it across the corridor. When the Rebel fleet races through here to rescue one of its main sources of supplies… they're going to be destroyed by a sudden wave of the ultimate cold!"
- ―Baron Tagge, to Luke Skywalker
At Feriae Junction, Baron Tagge oversaw the transfer of Omega Frost components to his brother Ulric's battlecruiser. When the Millennium Falcon arrived in the Feriae system, Skywalker donned survival armor and slipped in among the workers handling the cargo transfer. Eavesdropping on the comm chatter, he learned of the Omega Frost's ability to freeze an entire world. Believing Junction—a key source of supplies to the Rebellion—to be the target, Skywalker contacted the Falcon and told Solo to warn the Alliance about the impending use of the weapon; before Skywalker could flee, he was stunned by Imperial stormtroopers and was brought aboard Tagge's Mining Explorer. The Baron revealed the details of his plan to the captive Skywalker; rather than freeze Junction with the Omega Frost, Tagge revealed, the weapon was intended to destroy the Alliance Fleet as it journeyed through the Feswe Corridor. Skywalker was able to overcome the Baron in a brief lightsaber duel before escaping the Mining Explorer in a TIE fighter that had been covertly rigged by Doctor Tagge.[4]
As Skywalker fled, two conductor towers—substantially larger than the two used on Tatooine, and possessing a far greater range—were installed on asteroids at opposite ends of the corridor in preparation for the Alliance Fleet's arrival.[4] The Tagge Mining Explorer detected the approaching fleet on its long-range scanners as it moved away from the target zone. When the fleet was midway into the corridor, Doctor Tagge planned to activate the Omega Frost and immediately freeze the Rebel ships and their crews. Skywalker, meanwhile, decided to do whatever he could to prevent the Tagges from fulfilling their plans. Having abandoned his doomed TIE fighter, Skywalker used the jetpack built in to his survival suit to navigate the asteroid corridor, searching for one of the conductor towers. He arrived at the first of the towers and attempted to destroy it with his lightsaber, only to have the attack deflected by the tower's force field.[3]
Skywalker's move prompted Doctor Tagge to activate the Omega Frost prematurely, freezing a large number of asteroids. The Rebel ships were just beyond the weapon's effective band when the Frost activated, however, but as they lacked the maneuverability to avoid the weapon, they would either proceed forward and be frozen, or attempt to turn only to collide with one another. With moments to spare, Skywalker realized that the conductor tower's force field did not extend below the asteroid's surface. He quickly dug into the rock with his lightsaber and slashed at the vulnerable components of the tower beneath the surface. The move shorted out the conductor tower, shutting down the Omega Frost just as the Rebel Fleet pressed forward into the corridor. Stunned by his failure, Doctor Tagge ordered his subordinates to call in reinforcements from his brother, General Ulric Tagge, before rushing out to find the Baron. The Mining Explorer's military liaison officer, Lieutenant Shanks, realized only too late that such a transmission could be detected and pinpointed by the Alliance forces—the Rebel ships moved in on the Tagges' cruiser and destroyed it,[3] before turning on and destroying General Tagge's battlecruiser.[7] The battle marked the end of the Omega Frost.[3]
Legacy
Although the Omega Frost weapon's destruction was confirmed by Crix Madine, the Rebel general held suspicions that the technology for it was still out there.[8] This suspicion was later confirmed when a conceptual cousin of the Omega Frost[9] known as the Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter survived into the reign of the New Republic[10] and the Galactic Alliance.[11] The Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter possessed the ability to alter the molecular structure of metal, turning it into a powder.[9] The effects of the weapon were sufficient enough to severely damage the hull of a starship.[10][11]
Creators
Silas Tagge
Dr. Silas Tagge
Main article: 
- "I'm a scientist. Having invented something… it's logical I should wish to see it used."
- ―Dr. Silas Tagge
Chief scientist of the House of Tagge,[3] Doctor Silas Tagge was the creator of the Omega Frost, which proved to be his crowning achievement.[6] Whereas his brother, the Baron, plotted to use the weapon to settle vendettas and secure the Emperor's favor,[1] Doctor Tagge was more concerned with ensuring the Omega Frost's success—though he was not adverse to becoming the next Baron when his brother was temporarily incapacitated.[3] He took extra precautions to prevent Luke Skywalker from interfering in his plans,[4] but he underestimated the young Rebel's chances. When Skywalker succeeded in shorting out one of the conductor towers, disabling the Omega Frost, Doctor Tagge was stunned by his failure and rushed to awaken his brother, hoping he could remedy the situation. Before anything could be done, the Rebel Fleet destroyed their Mining Explorer.[3] Both Tagges narrowly survived the encounter, however, and were placed in life support capsules aboard Darth Vader's flagship.[7]
Orman Tagge
Baron Orman Tagge
- "Getting even is one of the great fossil fuels of life, brother Silas. And the hand of fate in this matter seemed too strong to resist."
- ―Baron Orman Tagge
Unlike his scientist brother, Baron Orman Tagge plotted to use the Omega Frost for his own personal gains, using the resources available to him as the head of the House of Tagge to ensure the project met completion. The Baron hoped that a successful demonstration of the weapon would earn him the Emperor's favor, simultaneously fulfilling a vendetta he held against Darth Vader,[1] who had blinded him earlier in his life.[4] Tagge hoped to eliminate another of his rivals, Luke Skywalker, by drawing him to Tatooine with word of the Omega Frost,[1] but the Baron's underestimating of the young Rebel proved disastrous. Skywalker bested Tagge in a brief lightsaber duel, placing the Baron in a state of shock and leaving the fate of the project in his brother Silas's hands.[4] Doctor Tagge's personal ambitions got in the way, and as Skywalker disabled the Omega Frost, he rushed to get his comatose brother's assistance. Baron Tagge awoke just as the Rebel ships succeeded in destroying the Mining Explorer.[3] He and his brother were recovered by Imperial forces and placed in life support capsules aboard Vader's flagship.[7] The Baron later met his end at Skywalker's hands on the planet Monastery.[12]
Behind the scenes
The Omega Frost first appeared in Return to Tatooine, issue 31 of the Marvel Star Wars line of comics. The weapon went on to appear in issues 32, The Jawa Express; 33, Saber Clash; and 34, Thunder in the Stars. The weapon later received entries in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia and Galaxy of Intrigue.
In 2008, the Omega Frost was featured in issue 209 of StarWars.com's biweekly newsletter, the Homing Beacon. The reference to the weapon was done in the style of "Checklist: 10 Star Wars Superweapons", an article that had appeared on StarWars.com only a few days prior. In addition to detailing the origins, functions, and flaws of the Omega Frost, the newsletter also pokes fun at the weapon, comparing it to a gardening tool and claiming it has a "non-draconian" potential for preserving leftovers.
Appearances
- Star Wars 31: Return to Tatooine (First appearance)
- Star Wars 32: The Jawa Express
- Star Wars 33: Saber Clash
- Star Wars 34: Thunder in the Stars
- Star Wars 35: Dark Lord's Gambit (Indirect mention only)
Sources
- Star Wars Homing Beacon #209
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Galaxy of Intrigue
- Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Star Wars 31: Return to Tatooine
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Star Wars 34: Thunder in the Stars
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Star Wars 33: Saber Clash
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Star Wars 32: The Jawa Express
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Galaxy of Intrigue
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Star Wars 35: Dark Lord's Gambit
- ↑ Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Star Wars Homing Beacon #209
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Champions of the Force
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Legacy of the Force: Revelation
- ↑ Star Wars 37: In Mortal Combat