Battle of the Maelstrom The Battle of the Maelstrom was an early battle of the Galactic War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire . The Jedi Master Oteg , a fleet admiral in the Republic Navy and commander of the First Expeditionary Fleet , had learned of a powerful Jedi who had been held as a personal prisoner of the Sith Emperor at a secret prison in the Maelstrom , and rallied an elite team to free him . After obtaining a Gree computer to travel the shifting expanse of the Maelstrom , the team infiltrated the base to free the prisoner while Oteg ' s fleet engaged the Imperial defenders in space . Prelude . Oteg had come in contact with the Force ghost of the slain Jedi Master Meetra Surik , who informed him that the Sith Emperor had held a Jedi prisoner for three centuries at a secret prison in the Maelstrom . Believing the prisoner to be a possible solution to ending the war before it escalated , Oteg called upon an elite team of Jedi , Republic soldiers and hired guns to infiltrate an Imperial fortress on Taral V in order to obtain a Gree computer , required to navigate the Maelstrom . Using a captured Imperial shuttle , Oteg ' s strike team was able to enter the fortress and defeat both its Imperial garrison and the jungle beasts tamed to their will . As they claimed their prize , they were confronted via holocom by Grand Moff Rycus Kilran , commander of the Imperial Fifth Fleet and reviled by the Republic as the " Butcher of Coruscant " . The Grand Moff ordered his ships to bombard the fortress to ensure the strike team could not escape , and indeed the team barely managed to escape back to Oteg ' s flagship , the Valor - class cruiser " Telos " , before Kilran ' s fleet obliterated the compound . Having the Gree computer integrated into the navigational systems of the " Telos " , Oteg prepared to take the next step . Rallying his fleet , the Jedi Admiral ordered a course set for the Maelstrom . His ships would engage the station ' s defenses , while the strike team from Taral V would board the station itself and locate the Jedi prisoner . The battle . Upon arriving at the station , the strike team boarded the base as planned . However , Kilran - one of the Empire ' s most brilliant military strategists - had made his way to the Maelstrom before Oteg ' s forces arrived , lying in ambush ; with the team boarding the prison and breaking through its defenses , Kilran pinned Oteg ' s fleet between his warships and the station ' s defenses . Contacting the strike team in the station ' s security control room , Kilran gloated that Oteg had spread himself too thin , and remarked that Darth Malgus would be pleased at the result . Oteg then contacted the team , knowing that as long as his ships stood between Kilran ' s fleet and the station , the team would be protected long enough to do their job . Knowing Oteg ' s fleet would be wiped out if they stayed , the team advised Oteg to make a fighting retreat out of the system while they proceeded through the station towards their objective . After battling their way through the station ' s defenders - including captured beasts , battle droids , Imperial soldiers , and even several Sith - the Republic team made its way into the station ' s secured prison cell , where they came face to face with Kilran and a pair of bodyguards from his fleet . Kilran was in holoconference with Darth Malgus , who instructed Kilran that the Emperor ' s prisoner was to remain his top priority , not the attackers ; Kilran replied that he could handle both problems in a single stroke . Kilran battled the Republic attackers using a customized sniper rifle with deadly accuracy , but despite his skill , he was no match for his opponents . After defeating Kilran , the strike team approached the holding cell in the prison ' s core , holding a single figure in richly - adorned robes . The team deactivated the holding cell and the figure collapsed to the floor . Coming unsteadily to his feet , the Jedi momentarily panicked , demanding to know what the strike team had done . The Force ghost of Meetra Surik , who had revealed the prison ' s location and aided the strike team in the search , appeared before him , declaring that he had to be freed or all would be lost , and that the Emperor was drowning him in " black waters " . The Jedi prisoner revealed himself to be Revan , a Jedi Knight and hero of the Mandalorian Wars . Discovering the Sith capital of Dromund Kaas after defeating the Mandalorians at Malachor V , Revan and his friend Malak had been corrupted by the Sith Emperor , returning to the Republic as Sith Lords . The newly - minted Darth Revan initiated the Jedi Civil War and nearly brought the Republic to its knees ; after losing his memory to a treacherous attack by Malak , Revan was taken back by the Jedi Order , redeeming himself by rallying the Republic and destroying Malak . Revan revealed that he had gone with his allies after the Jedi Civil War to hunt down and destroy the Sith Emperor on his homeworld of Nathema , but was waylaid for years on Dromund Kaas , where he eventually confronted the Emperor . However , due to betrayal from within , Revan ' s allies were slain and Revan himself captured by the Emperor , held in unaging , unfeeling stasis by Sith sorcery . Revan and the Emperor were mind - linked throughout his imprisonment - the Emperor attempting to force the Jedi to submit to his will and become Darth Revan again , and Revan tempering the Emperor ' s hate , preventing him from striking against the Republic until the first Great Galactic War , some three centuries later , and convincing him that peace was in his best interest at that war ' s end . Now that the link was broken , Revan feared that the war would resume , but Meetra told him that the peace had already collapsed . Aftermath . Fleeing from the Maelstrom , the heroes met with Revan again in the situation room onboard the " Telos " . Revan was preparing to journey to Tython , the seat of the Jedi Order , to inform the Jedi High Council of the knowledge he had acquired during his three - century long imprisonment . Revan also revealed that there was one bit of information he was able to hide from the Emperor - the location of a space station known as the Foundry , a lost relic of the Rakata Infinite Empire . He bade farewell to his rescuers and urged them to return to the war , where their strength would be needed to defend the Republic . After meeting with the Council , Revan journeyed to the Foundry and began producing extermination droids - modelled on his first creation , the assassin droid HK - 47 - to destroy the Emperor and his followers . However , Revan was eventually hunted down and defeated by an Imperial strike team sent by Darth Malgus , and the Foundry fell into the hands of the Empire despite Revan ' s efforts . Kilran ' s death resulted in the ascendancy of Grand Moff Ilyan Regus , long overshadowed by Kilran ' s career and reputation . As the war progressed , Regus would oversee the most crucial military operation since the Sacking of Coruscant : Operation Dark Ice . Behind the scenes . The fate of Master Oteg is determined by the choice made just after the first holocall from Grand Moff Kilran in the prison ' s security center . The light side choice ( implied to be canon ) is to instruct Oteg and his fleet to fall back , allowing him to survive the battle and take part in the debriefing at the end of the " Jedi Prisoner " quest . The dark side choice is to instruct Oteg to fight on , despite the odds ; during the debriefing , Revan reveals that Oteg was killed by a direct hit on the " Telos " ' bridge .