Mission to the Maw

A mission to the Maw was undertaken by a joint alliance of Jedi and Sith in 44 ABY. The Jedi hoped to stop the dark side being Abeloth from continuing to cause a mysterious psychosis among several of the Jedi Order's Jedi Knights, while the Sith, who pretended to have the goal of protecting their apprentices from the psychosis, secretly planned to force Abeloth to join them and then kill the Jedi. Shortly after the alliance was formed, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker suggested that the allied forces wait for the help of his friend, Lando Calrissian, who owned an asteroid tug which they could use for navigation in the Maw. The Sith agreed, and the fleet decided to wait at Klatooine, where the Sith's leader, High Lord Sarasu Taalon, discovered the sacred Fountain of Ancients and became obsessed with it. During the stopover, the Force-sensitive Dyon Stadd, who had accompanied the Jedi, succumbed to the psychosis. Luke's son, Ben, along with the Sith Vestara Khai, managed to help capture Stadd, who was sedated and placed aboard the Skywalkers' ship.

The allies left Klatooine to await Calrissian just outside the Maw, and Taalon left two frigates behind to wait for Calrissian in case something went wrong, although their actual intent was to take wintrium samples from the Fountain. Their raid went poorly, however, and one frigate was captured. Its crew was put on trial by the recently arrived Calrissian and Jedi Knight Jaina Solo and condemned to death. Calrissian, Solo, and the other frigate then met up with the rest of the fleet and entered the Maw. After they discovered that the space station Sinkhole Station had been destroyed, the allies traveled to Abeloth's planet, where Taalon, Luke, Sith Saber Gavar Khai, and Captain Leeha Faal walked beyond shadows. They failed to locate Abeloth, but Vestara placed a homing beacon on Stadd—who, being under Abeloth's influence, knew where to find her—and set him free, allowing the allies to track him to Abeloth. She attempted in vain to convince Luke that she was his former lover, Callista, and the strike team attacked her.

In orbit, Solo found the Meditation Sphere Ship—who was also under Abeloth's control—and attacked the Sphere in her StealthX. Shortly into the battle the Sith betrayed the Jedi—Gavar attacked Luke, and the rest of the Sith created a control web to capture Abeloth. Ben intervened and dueled Gavar, which allowed Luke to fight Abeloth while the other Sith tried to capture her. Abeloth suddenly scattered them with a Force blast and fled; the Jedi and Sith recovered quickly and ran after her. Luke found her first and, despite another attempt of hers to trick him, stabbed her in the chest, which apparently resulted in her death. Ship suddenly fled the planet, and the psychosis that had affected Jedi throughout the galaxy was terminated. The Jedi and Sith then agreed to repair their alliance, ordering Calrissian, Solo, and the entire Sith armada to leave while Taalon, the Skywalkers, and the Khais remained to investigate further into Abeloth. They soon discovered that Abeloth had actually switched bodies with Stadd, and was still alive. Although their alliance was dissolved, the Sith and Jedi chased Abeloth to the moon Pydyr, and again confronted her.

Text and facts from the “Mission to the Maw” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.