Star Wars (1998) #7

Star Wars (1998) #7 kicks off a six part storyline titled "Outlander: The Exile of Sharad Hett".  The story begins on Tatooine, when farmers Conil Barje, his wife Camelle, and their baby Tekil arrive at the Mochot Steep trading site to purchase weapons.  The Barjes are new arrivals to Tatooine having arrived from the planet Corellia.  The Jawa trading camp is busy with people seeking guns due to a recent Tusken Raider attack on Anchorhead.  The raid involved several Tusken clans and was led by a war chief who the Jawas call Ootman or "Outlander".  Before Conil can secure a weapon, Tusken Raiders led by the "Outlander" attack the camp and Conil along with many others is killed.  Camelle, clutching her baby, pleads for her life, but one of the Sand People takes her baby.  The Tusken draws a knife to kill the baby, but the war chief draws a lightsaber and severs the Tusken's hand holding the knife and returns the baby to Camille.  The Tusken Raider chief in common speaks: "Blessed be your going out from us, Woman of Corellia."  Overseeing the ordeal from a nearby sand dune is Aurra Sing astride a speeder bike.

Shortly afterwards, on Coruscant at the headquarters of the Jedi Council, a meeting is taking place between Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Eeth Koth.  Ki-Adi-Mundi finishes playing the recording of the words spoken by the Tusken chief and the three start discussing who the chief is.  A holo is then played from the Anchorhead raid and the lightsaber at the war chief's side is enlarged.  All three immediately recognize it is the lightsaber of Sharad Hett, a Jedi apprentice of Eeth Koth who was presumably killed fifteen years ago.  Ki-Adi-Mundi is asked to go to Tatooine to confront Sharad and Yoda urges him to also meet with Jabba the Hutt first.  The story ends with Aurra Sing sitting in a cantina at the Mos Eisley Spaceport.  She muses to herself that another Jedi will be coming and she opens a case containing a collection of lightsabers.

The cover by Ken Kelly shows the Tusken Raiders attacking Mochot Steep with Camelle holding Tekil trying to flee in the foreground.

Star Wars #7b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (June 1999)

The Dark Horse creators were able to deftly navigate the time period between the sequel trilogy movies with compelling stories.  It is unfortunate these stories have been relegated to Legends and are no longer considered canon. It is a testament that readers, like myself, still enjoy them despite their non-canon status.  This 1998 Star Wars title did a great job fleshing out the myriad of characters introduced in the movies and also added a number of compelling characters of its own to the mythos.  This story in particular helps define Aurra Sing as the Jedi hating bounty hunter that was not shown in her brief cameo in the Phantom Menace.