The Iron Tower served as an automated power transformer and signal amplifier. It was erected by the Galactic Empire on the planet Aridus to combat the severe interference caused by its ionized atmosphere. However, its potent emissions had devastating consequences for the nervous systems of the native Chubbits, compelling them to take up arms against the Empire. A man pretending to be Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi ultimately disabled and partially destroyed it through his sacrifice. He was fatally injured in the resulting blast.
Functioning as a colossal power transformer and signal amplifier, the Iron Tower was an automated structure that enabled the Galactic Empire to maintain uninterrupted communications and provide energy for its hovertrain ore transportation network. Access to its control chamber was possible via a turbolift or an emergency staircase. In addition to automated defenses, like lethal death beam mechanisms, Imperial patrol speeders also guarded the Iron Tower. The planet Aridus' mining region, rife with dangerous lava pits, directly surrounded the tower.
When Imperial scouts discovered valuable natural resources on Aridus, Imperial mining teams rapidly moved in to exploit them. However, the ionized atmosphere, a result of the planet's magnetic fluctuations, generated severe interference, disrupting tunneling equipment and rendering long-range communication impossible. The mining foreman urgently requested permission from his superiors to construct a massive power transformer and signal amplifier, otherwise, operations on Aridus would be terminated. Eager to protect his investment, the Narvath sector's Moff authorized the construction of the Iron Tower, a massive structure capable of transmitting signals through any interference.
Mining operations resumed, and Imperial hovertrains began transporting workers to the mining sites. However, the Imperials failed to consider the potential impact of the Iron Tower on the native Chubbits. The Chubbits silently observed the Empire's devastation of their world, but the new structure presented a lethal threat. Its extremely powerful signal frequencies had detrimental effects on the Chubbit nervous system, forcing them to take up arms to ensure their survival. The Alliance to Restore the Republic willingly provided them with weapons.
In the year 0 ABY, several months following the Battle of Yavin, Darth Vader, the Sith Lord, dispatched a skilled actor impersonating Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Master whom Vader had killed on the Death Star, to seize control of the Chubbit resistance. This was part of a scheme to capture Luke Skywalker. Vader instructed the impostor to lure Skywalker to the Iron Tower, under the pretense of destroying the structure, which the impostor described as "the most significant symbol of Imperial oppression on Aridus". Once there, Vader ordered the actor to meet him in the control chamber, intending to bait Skywalker by feigning injury. However, the impersonator, out of respect for Kenobi, refused and instead pulled a control lever, activating the tower's overload circuits, initiating a catastrophic overload sequence in the structure's upper levels. Before doing so, he summoned Skywalker's ship using an emergency directional beacon.
The resulting explosion engulfed him and the Sith, disabling and partially destroying the Iron Tower. Skywalker arrived in the control chamber after the destruction had ended and held the fatally wounded man, who confessed that he was merely an impostor who had grown to love his role. Following the impersonator's death, Skywalker's ship arrived, and he departed Aridus. The blast nearly killed Vader, rendering him unconscious for a period of time. Wrenga Jixton, a former Imperial Gunnery Sergeant who had befriended the local Chubbits while hiding from the Empire on Aridus, discovered him and brought him aboard his starship. Knowing that Vader's death would attract more Imperial forces to the planet, Jixton offered the Sith a bargain: in exchange for keeping the Empire away from Aridus, Jixton would obey his every command, an offer Vader accepted.
The Return of Ben Kenobi, a Star Wars Legends newspaper comic strip written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Al Williamson, which ran from May 17 to July 25, 1982, was the original source of the Iron Tower.