Ambush in the Surd Nebula This Ambush in the Surd Nebula was a short battle between the Galactic Federation Triumvirate and a pair of Sith , which took place on the floating world of Mala few months after the Second Imperial Civil War . During this brief skirmish , the One Sith Darth Wredd and his master shot down an Imperial shuttle carrying the Triumvirate ' s emissary , the Imperial Knight Yalta Val to the Carreras system . Val had been sent by the Galactic Triumvirate to supervise the final stages of the construction of the Carreras G51 communications array , which was part of a galactic - wide G51 communications array network . Wredd ' s master killed Yalta Val ' s crew and stormtrooper escorts and destroyed the shuttle . However , the Sith master was then slain by his apprentice Darth Wredd , who took Val prisoner and impersonate him , stealing his armor . This set the stage for the Carreras Incident and Darth Wredd ' s insurgency against the One Sith . History . Background . Following the defeat of Darth Krayt and the end of the Second Imperial Civil War , a new Galactic Federation Triumvirate consisting of the Fel Empire , the Jedi Order , and the Galactic Alliance Remnant became the new galactic government . The new Galactic Empress Marasiah Fel embarked on an ambitious project to create a network of communication arrays to improve communications between the Outer Rim Territories and the rest of the galaxy . The Carreras system was designated as the last chain in this galactic - wide communications network . In 138 ABY , the Imperial Knight Yalta Val was assigned to supervise the finishing stages of the Carreras G51 communications array . His shuttle traveled through the Surd Nebula , a dense region of space where communications was difficult . Yalta Val was accompanied by a small force of stormtroopers and a communications droid . Shortly after launching their comm droid , Yalta Val ' s shuttle was hit by a missile , causing them to crash - land on an uncharted planet : the enigmatic floating world of Mala . Unknown to Yalta Val and his crew , they had come under attack by two members of the underground One Sith order . At the urging of Darth Wredd , his master had opened fired on Yalta Val ' s shuttle . Darth Wredd had been forced to join the One Sith , who had destroyed his homeworld Mala and killed his family with a bioweapon . The Sith bioweapon had also loosened Mala from its orbiting , turning it into a rogue planet which wandered through the galaxy . Seeking vengeance against the One Sith , Darth Wredd had tricked his master into attack the Triumvirate starship . During the fighting , Darth Wredd had planned to take the opportunity to kill his master and to break free from the One Sith . The Ambush . Yalta Val ' s pilot managed to landed their shuttle on top of a black cliff . Upon landing , the shuttle ' s stormtrooper escorts disembarked to make a perimeter around their shuttle in order to carry out repairs . Before they could complete their work , they were quickly attacked and killed by Darth Wredd ' s master , who wielded a Sith lightsaber . Yalta Val emerged from the shuttle only to be attacked from behind by the Sith master . During the lightsaber duel , the Sith master used the Force to push the shuttle down the cliff , killing the remaining crew aboard . Yalta Val narrowly survived being crushed by the shuttle and crossed lightsabers with the Sith . Using the dark side of the Force , the Sith master gained the upper hand over Val . Before he could kill Yalta Val , the Sith master was impaled through the chest by his apprentice Darth Wredd . Putting his plan into action , Darth Wredd disarmed Yalta Val and forced him to strip off his armor and exchange clothes . During his captivity , Val was forced to wear Darth Wredd ' s Sith helmet , which was designed to drive its wearer to the dark side . Darth Wredd was thus able to impersonate the real Yalta Val and pretend to be an emissary of the Galactic Triumvirate , However , Darth Wredd was unable to find Yalta Val ' s lightsaber , which was recovered by Val ' s comm droid . The comm droid was shortly later hit by debris in the Surd Nebula , knocking it out of action . The droid and its precious cargo , the lightsaber , was later recovered by a pair of junk dealers who sold it to a young Human woman named Ania Solo , a distant descendant of Han Solo who owned a junk yard on the planet Carreras Major , the most populated planet in the Carreras system . Aftermath . A week after the events on Mala , the false Yalta Val ' s escape pod was picked up in the Surd Nebula by the Carreras security forces . He was subsequently brought to the Carreras communications array , which was under the command of the local Governor Biala . " The Sith impostor claimed that he had been ambushed by the Sith , who had killed his crew and that his lightsaber had been lost during the fighting . Citing the threat of the Sith presence in the Carreras system , the Sith impostor coerced the governor into giving him full control of her security forces to deal with the threat . Meanwhile , the real Yalta Val was imprisoned at Darth Wredd ' s base on Mala . Meanwhile , Ania Solo brought her recently - scavenged comm droid to her Mon Calamari friend Sauk , an engineer who worked as a miner on the ice rings orbiting Carreras Minor . Upon examining the comm droid , they found Yalta Val ' s lightsaber . Seeing an opportunity to get rich fast , they attempted to sell it to a technology dealer . However , they ended up in a scuffle with several Carreras security personnel , in which Ania killed one of the guards . Following a lengthy pursuit , Ania and Sauk managed to escape back to Ania ' s junkyard . This set the stage for a chain of events which brought Ania and her companions into Darth Wredd ' s insurgency against the One Sith and the Galactic Triumvirate . Behind the scenes . The Ambush in the Surd Nebula served as the main exposition of " " , the first five - issue story arc in Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman ' s " " comic series . It introduced one of the protagonists , Yalta Val , and the main antagonist Darth Wredd .