Malachor superweapon

The Malachor superweapon was an ancient Sith superweapon constructed by the year 3966 BBY by the ancient Sith Lord Darth Tanis. It required a giant kyber crystal to be powered, and it was housed in a temple on Malachor. It had the power to petrify living beings. During the Great Scourge of Malachor, the superweapon fired, petrifying the warriors battling there. In 3 BBY, The rogue Sith Lord Darth Maul tricked young Padawan Ezra Bridger and his friends into activating the superweapon by making them believe that putting a Sith holocron, which was found inside the Temple, on top of the structure would reveal the secrets of defeating the Sith. The Inquisitors attempted to stop the Jedi and Maul from using it, but were killed during their encounter.

When Ezra put the Sith holocron in the superweapon's obelisk, it activated and began firing a huge beam of energy into the sky. Shortly afterwards, Darth Vader arrived to take the power for Emperor Palpatine. Before he could kill Bridger, former Jedi Ahsoka Tano intervened and battled the Sith warlord outside the Temple's obelisk. While the two dueled, Bridger and his Master Kanan Jarrus—who got blinded by Maul, but was able to defeat the dark sider by pushing him off the Temple's cliff—prevented the machine from completing its firing cycle by removing the holocron from the obelisk, causing the whole temple to collapse. Bridger and his Master Kanan Jarrus managed to escape before the Temple exploded. Vader and Tano survived the explosion and parted company. Tano’s disappearance and Maul's betrayal affected Bridger, causing him to drift closer to the dark side.

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