Legacy of the Force : Sacrifice Legacy of the Force : Sacrifice is the fifth novel in the " Legacy of the Force " series . It is a hardcover by Karen Traviss . Jacen Solo received his ' official ' Sith name in this book , after the name had been chosen from the Darth Who Contest . According to Sue Rostoni , " Sacrifice " begins " a day or two after " " ends and covers 30 to 40 days . " The was narrated by Marc Thompson . The novel was released on May 29 , 2007 , with 367 pages long . The paperback edition includes " " and was put into mass production on April 29 , 2008 . Publishers ' Summary . Hardcover . Back cover . To bring peace and order to a galaxy at war , Jacen Solo will sacrifice anything — or anyone . Now the moment of choice is at hand . Internal flap . " Civil war rages as the Galactic Alliance — led by Cal Omas and the Jedi forces of Luke Skywalker — battles a confederation of breakaway planets that rally to the side of rebellious Corellia . Suspected of involvement in an assassination plot against Queen Mother Tenel Ka of the Hapes Consortium , Han and Leia Solo are on the run , hunted by their own son , Jacen , whose increasingly authoritarian tactics as head of GA security have led Luke and Mara Skywalker to fear that their nephew may be treading perilously close to the dark side . But all Jacen wants is safety and stability for all — and he ' s prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal . " " But as his family sees in Jacen the chilling legacy of his Sith grandfather , Darth Vader , many of the frontline troops adore him , and countless citizens see him as a savior . The galaxy has been torn apart by too many wars . All Jacen wants is safety and stability for all – and he ’ s prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal . " " To end the bloodshed and suffering , what sacrifice would be too great ? That is the question tormenting Jacen . Already he has sacrificed much , embracing the pitiless teachings of Lumiya , the Dark Lady of the Sith , who has taught him that a strong will and noble purpose can hold the evil excesses of the dark side at bay , bringing peace and order to the galaxy – but at a price . " " For there is one final test that Jacen must pass before he can gain the awesome power of a true Sith Lord : He must bring about the death of someone he values dearly . What troubles Jacen isn ’ t whether he has the strength to commit murder . He has steeled himself for that , and worse if necessary . No , the question that troubles Jacen is who the sacrifice should be . " " As the strands of destiny draw ever more tightly together in a galaxy - spanning web , the shocking conclusion will shatter two families . . . and cast a grim shadow over the future . " Paperback . To bring peace and order to a galaxy at war , Jacen Solo will sacrifice anything - or anyone . Now the moment of choice is at hand . " Suspected of treason , Han and Leia Solo are on the run , hunted by none other than their own son , Jacen . But though his family sees in Jacen the chilling legacy of his Sith grandfather , Darth Vader , many of the frontline troops adore him , and countless citizens see him as a savior in a galaxy torn apart by too many wars . All Jacen wants is safety and stability for all - and he ' s prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal . . . even if it means embracing the teachings of Lumiya , the Dark Lady of the Sith . But there is one final test that Jacen must pass before he can gain the awesome power of a true Sith Lord : He must bring about the death of someone he values dearly . What troubles Jacen isn ' t whether he has the strength to commit murder , but who the sacrifice should be . " Plot summary . The novel starts off with Mara Jade Skywalker worrying about her son , Ben , since he had gone missing in the . Her husband , Luke , tells her that there is nothing to worry about , as he can sense Ben through the Force . Mara says that she can , too , but her worries extend beyond that of Ben ' s safety . Ben returns from his mission to Ziost piloting the Sith Meditation Sphere aboard the " Anakin Solo " and giving the Amulet of Kalara to his cousin , Jacen Solo . With the ship put under restriction by Jacen ' s crew , Lumiya decides to take the ship under his supervision and reminds him that the time for his sacrifice is nearing . On Mandalore , Boba Fett declares the nation ' s neutrality in the war before he sets out with his granddaughter , Mirta Gev , to find the clone with the gray gloves that she mentioned when she . They find the clone , Jaing , and ask for a sample of his blood so that it can be used under experimentation in order to find a cure for Fett ' s cell degeneration , as the double - aging process in Jango Fett clones had been neutralized in Jaing thanks to the machinations of his late adoptive father Kal Skirata . Jaing refuses to give Fett and Mirta what they want , leaving the two of them empty - handed as they return to their home planet . But they are greeted by the discovery of new lodes of beskar that was revealed thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong ' s attack during the war against them . The Mandalorians decide to make new invulnerable ships called with the new lodes , and thanks to Fett , they decide to side with the Verpines on Roche against Murkhana , as Roche declared Murkhana to be selling similar products in the market . What the Mandalorians want in return is trade with Roche . And because Murkhana is a Galactic Alliance state , it appears as though that the Mandalorians will be siding with the Confederation in the war . In the meantime with Fett , he meets the man nicknamed Kad ' ika , whose real name is Venku , and he gives him the cure to his degeneration for reorganizing Mandalore as a true leader . Fett ' s arc in the novel , after being cured , comes to an end when he realizes that his ex - wife , Sintas Vel , was not dead , but frozen in carbonite for 38 years . In the Galactic Alliance , Jacen decides to cement more of his power in the government by improving weaponry conditions for the Galactic Alliance Guard . He also assigns Ben with fellow GAG agents Jori Lekauf and Lon Shevu to the planet Vulpter in order to assassinate Corellian Prime Minister Dur Gejjen while he is on a meeting . But GAG also finds out that the nature of Gejjen ' s meeting is to discuss terms of peace with GA Chief of State Cal Omas without the consent of the Alliance government . Jacen and his military ally Supreme Commander Cha Niathal decide to plot a coup against Omas and take over the government for the sake of Coruscant and the rest of the GA until the war ends . Then , on Vulpter , Ben assassinates Gejjen by shooting him in the head , but before he is able to escape with Lekauf and Shevu , Vulpter Security begins to check everyone in the area for weapons to root out Gejjen ' s assassin . Lekauf takes the weapon that Ben used to kill Gejjen from him and acts as a Corellian terrorist who was against Gejjen . He backs up to a Corellian shuttle with an innocent woman as a hostage , and after letting the hostage go as Lekauf enters the shuttle , he blows himself up to Ben ' s horror . Ben and Shevu escape . Then , following the assassination , Jacen arrests Omas after he returns to Coruscant , and he and Niathal formally declare their takeover of the government , though neither of them are formally the Chief of State . Ben , still grieving and blaming himself for Lekauf ' s death , eventually finds out that Jacen and Lumiya are working together after overhearing a conversation between them ( the only reason that Jacen did not sense him in the Force was because he taught Ben to hide in the Force like he does ) . Ben then tells his mother about this , and she confronts Jacen to try to coerce him into coming back as a genuine Jedi . But Jacen refuses , prompting Mara to plan his death , as she follows him through Lumiya and her Sith ship via a tracking beacon placed upon the latter . Jacen visits his lover Tenel Ka Djo and his daughter Allana on Hapes , and Lumiya , through the Force , finds out about Jacen ' s love for them . Despite this , she does not prompt him to choose either of them as his sacrifice , though he does try to kill her for this knowledge , and then Mara attacks Jacen in a StealthX X - wing starfighter duel while Ben captures Lumiya and the Sith ship . However , Mara ' s StealthX is shot down and she lands on Kavan , luring Jacen to hunt her down . They fight each other in a sewer tunnel and Jacen wins by killing Mara via a poisonous dart in the leg . Mara accuses Jacen as being as bad as the late Emperor Palpatine , despite Jacen ' s claims that he is trying to improve the galaxy , before she dies . Her death is sensed by both Ben and Luke , and they are thrown into shocked grief . Lumiya , meanwhile , feels a turning point in the Force which wordlessly tells her that Jacen has made his sacrifice , and he is now powerful enough to be a Sith Lord . Luke immediately blames Lumiya for Mara ' s death , tracks her down onto Terephon and duels her . He wins the duel by decapitating Lumiya , believing that he has avenged Mara . The Sith Meditation Sphere is stolen , and Ben later takes Mara ' s corpse back to Cilghal for evidence as to her death , where Ben tells Luke that he was with Lumiya at the time Mara died , therefore , Lumiya could not have killed Mara . With that , Luke falls into even deeper grief , for not only is Mara dead now , but he killed the wrong person , and he killed Lumiya for the wrong reasons . In conclusion , Lumiya has hurt Luke more than she ever could have in life . In the aftermath of Mara ' s death , Jacen acquires new Force powers that allow him to direct GA battles with precise accuracy . He then names himself Darth Caedus , the new ruler of the Sith . Behind the scenes . The novel ' s front cover featured a youthful - looking Mara Jade Skywalker , while the back cover displays an older Luke Skywalker . The image of Mara , who at the time of " Sacrifice " would be 58 years old proved controversial among fans who believe that it depicts her inaccurately , although some authors depict Mara as " eternally youthful " . Some fans , including Shannon McRandle , the professional model who represented Mara Jade for the " Star Wars " card games , had expressed their displeasure for " Legacy of the Force : Sacrifice " due Mara ' s death . McRandle herself has stated that she believes that if one person was able to kill Mara Jade , that was Timothy Zahn , who created the character in " Heir to the Empire " . Despite this , Karen Traviss has confirmed that she wasn ' t the one who pitched the idea to kill off Mara Jade , and has also stated that she didn ' t knew the character ' s importance when she was introduced to her . Cover gallery . This is a gallery of the different cover variations of " Sacrifice " .