During the era of the Clone Wars, the military forces of the Galactic Republic launched a significant offensive targeting starfighter bases operated by the Confederacy of Independent Systems situated on the celestial body known as Ongary IX.
Ongary IX, a Mid Rim world primarily known for its mining operations, fell under the control of the CIS, who sought to exploit its valuable hfredium deposits. The CIS transformed the planet's existing mine shafts into heavily defended starfighter bases, housing squadrons of Vulture droids.
Although ground forces from the Grand Army of the Republic were available, the Galactic Republic's fighter squadrons were already engaged in a separate military undertaking at Uvadala. Consequently, the responsibility for leading the Republic's retaliatory strike fell to the local Ividal Sector Forces. The Z-95 Headhunters belonging to Foxfire Squadron underwent modification to serve as bombers. They were tasked with attacking the Separatist positions within the mines using missiles equipped with Arakyd-manufactured burrowing plasma charges.
The Republic forces encountered unexpected challenges when they discovered that the intense luminosity produced by the burrowing plasma charges' explosions caused complete polarization of the visors on flight helmets and rendered head-up displays unusable. This resulted in two members of Foxfire Squadron becoming casualties during the initial bombing runs. To address this issue, the squadron's helmets were retrofitted with plastoid blast shields for the third bombing attempt. These shields were designed to be lowered just before missile launch, protecting the eyes from the intense flash, and then raised again once the light had faded.
Foxfire Squadron successfully navigated through a defensive screen of Vulture droid starfighters, employing low-altitude flight tactics to reach and attack the mine. The assault proved successful, causing the mine's collapse and the destruction of the Separatist base. However, one pilot, Jorn Kulish, experienced a harrowing situation when his blast shield jammed in the lowered position. He narrowly avoided a collision with a mountain before managing to remove his helmet entirely.
The Republic achieved victory, and the Ividal Sector Forces were transported back to Ividal aboard a Venator-class Star Destroyer. However, the harrowing events of the battle led Jorn Kulish to resign from his position. He sought passage to the Core Worlds aboard the YT-1300 light freighter known as the Stellar Envoy. Upon disembarking at Denon, Kulish inadvertently left his blast shield-equipped helmet behind on the freighter, a loss he did not regret. Many years later, Luke Skywalker would utilize Kulish's helmet, still present on the freighter now famously known as the Millennium Falcon, as part of his training regimen under the guidance of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The concept for the attack on Ongary IX originated at Celebration VI in 2012. During the event, Star Wars author Jason Fry initiated an informal discussion centered around the potential need for an opaque blast shield attached to a flight helmet, as seen on Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Initially intended for inclusion in The Essential Guide to Warfare, the passage was ultimately omitted from the final publication due to limitations in word count. However, it was later featured in Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, a twelve-part blog series that detailed material that had been cut from the book.