Operation Shieldfall Operation Shieldfall was a Sith mission to the planet Nam Chorios in 44 ABY that resulted in a battle between the forces of the New Jedi Order , the Lost Tribe of Sith , and the dark side entity Abeloth . After their tenuous alliance to destroy Abeloth was broken , both the Jedi and Sith pursued Abeloth — who had caused a psychosis amongst the Jedi . Sith apprentice Vestara Khai , along with Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his son , Ben , tracked Abeloth to Nam Chorios , where they met the Force - sensitive Theran Listener s and discovered that the Theran s had fallen under Abeloth ' s control . Khai sent a message to her father , Gavar , who led a Sith flotilla to the planet . After searching for Abeloth in various locations and being attacked twice by Sith under the command of Saber Tola Annax , Vestara and the Skywalkers located Abeloth in the city of Crystal Valley . In a pumping station there , they found the psychotic Jedi Valin Horn with Abeloth , who was in the guise of former Jedi Callista Ming . Luke successfully extracted Ming ' s spirit from the entity , and the Master of the Theran Listeners , Nenn , whom Abeloth had also possessed , committed suicide , severely weakening Abeloth . Horn lost consciousness , and Vestara and the Skywalkers were immediately ambushed by a group of Sith . Vestara killed one of the planet ' s sentient crystals , a tsil , resulting in a major death convulsion that further weakened Abeloth and gave Vestara and the Skywalkers time to flee the area with Horn . Meanwhile , Gavar ' s forces had arrived in orbit , where they were ambushed by a Jedi StealthX starfighter wing that had been called in by Luke days previously . Upon rendezvousing with the Jedi forces , Luke piloted one of the StealthXs in pursuit of Abeloth , who fled in the meditation sphere Ship . The Sith flotilla sustained heavy damage from the Jedi and was forced to retreat , but Luke was hit before he could destroy Ship , and Abeloth escaped . As Luke recovered from his injuries and the Sith regrouped , Abeloth contacted the Sith fleet and proposed an alliance to defeat the Jedi . Prelude . In 43 . 5 ABY , several Jedi began to contract a Force psychosis that caused them to believe that everyone they knew had been replaced by impostors . Meanwhile , Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala ordered the arrest of Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker , who was put on trial and exiled for his inability to prevent Sith Lord Darth Caedus ' fall to the dark side during the Second Galactic Civil War . Luke took the opportunity to retrace the steps of the five - year journey Caedus had taken after the Yuuzhan Vong War in hopes of finding out why he had turned to the dark side . Skywalker ' s son , Ben , accompanied him on his travels . They eventually encountered a strike team from the Lost Tribe of Sith at a space station in the Maw . They also met the dark side entity Abeloth , whom they speculated was causing the psychosis . After tracking the strike team ' s sole surviving member , Sith apprentice Vestara Khai , to the planet Dathomir , they were convinced by the Sith , led by High Lord Sarasu Taalon , to ally for a mission to destroy Abeloth . Although the alliance was a ploy by the Sith , the Jedi survived the Sith ' s betrayal and defeated Abeloth . The alliance was temporarily restored , but after discovering that Abeloth had not actually died it again dissolved into violence . The Skywalkers , with Khai in tow , tracked Abeloth to the moon Pydyr and again confronted her . During the battle , Khai killed Taalon , who had begun to transform into another Abeloth - like being , and Abeloth was again forced to flee . Fearing that the Sith would not take the time to learn the reasoning behind her action and would only see it as a betrayal , Khai left the planet with the Skywalkers , who used a blood trail established by Luke to track Abeloth to the planet Nam Chorios . There , the group met with former Jedi Knight Taselda . Luke informed her of Abeloth and soon after learned the technique of mnemotherapy — with which one was able to withdraw and eradicate memories from another being — from Listener - Master Taru Durn . As Khai and the Skywalkers continued to hunt for Abeloth , they were ambushed by the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship , who was under the control of Abeloth . When one of the orbiting Golan III Space Defense NovaGun s fired down on them , it missed and hit a sentient crystal known as a tsil , resulting in a death convulsion in the Force that caused Ship to flee . Upon their return to the city Hweg Shul , they discovered that Abeloth had possessed the Master of the Theran Listeners , Nenn , and taken over the Listeners themselves . Vestara sent a secret message to her father , Gavar , in order to alert him of the situation , unknowingly playing into Master Skywalker ' s plans — he had arranged several days previously for a flight of Jedi StealthX starfighters to lie await in the system , hoping to lure the Sith there so that the starfighters could ambush them . As Khai and the Skywalkers began to investigate Abeloth ' s possible locations , they were ambushed in the town of Kesla Vein by a Sith party led by Sith Saber Tola Annax . After defeating the Sith , the group was contacted by journalist Kandra Nilitz , who had brought the psychotic Jedi Valin and Jysella Horn to the planet in return for the promise of finding a good story . Luke convinced her to meet with him , but once Khai and the Jedi arrived at Nilitz ' s airspeeder they were again ambushed by Sith . After fighting off the Sith and informing the reporter about Abeloth and the Tribe , Khai and the Skywalkers made their way to the city of Crystal Valley to confront Abeloth . The operation . At the Crystal Valley pumping station they discovered that Abeloth was draining the Theran Listeners and that the psychotic Jedi Knight Valin Horn had come to Abeloth ' s aid . He led them to an illusion conjured by Abeloth , in the form of Luke ' s former lover , Callista Ming . Abeloth tried to appeal to Luke ' s past love for Ming and requested that he join her . However , Luke was able to sense Abeloth ' s consciousness trying to hide behind Ming , and Ming begged for Luke to save her . He initiated the mnemotherapy technique on Ming while blasterfire erupted outside the cave — the Sith had arrived and entered battle with Abeloth there . Horn , believing that the Jedi had brought reinforcements , attacked Ben and Khai . Although Horn was outnumbered , he had more combat experience and was able to hold them off . Meanwhile , Luke succeeded in ripping Ming ' s spirit from Abeloth ' s possession ; Ming was freed from Abeloth ' s control and allowed to pass on into the Force . Abeloth ' s body then morphed into that of the Master of the Theran Listeners , Nenn , whom she had also consumed . Rather than allowing Abeloth to control him , however , Nenn killed himself , weakening Abeloth to the point where she could no longer control Horn — who fell unconscious — and causing her to flee . Before Khai and the Jedi could follow , however , the group was ambushed by at least two dozen Sith , once again led by Annax . The Sith had them surrounded , and realizing that it would only be a matter of time before they were killed , Khai decided to repulse the Sith by killing a tsil . As they dueled , she warned the Skywalkers of an imminent massive Force attack , and began counting down . After ten seconds , she killed the tsil , and a tremendous death convulsion hit the area , causing both Luke and Khai to drop to their knees and stunning the Sith . Khai and the Jedi were the first to recover , and Ben carried the unconscious Horn while Khai helped Luke leave the station . Luke was troubled that she had killed a tsil , but Khai rationalized that Luke was the only being who could defeat Abeloth , and that meant that he had to survive . Gavar Khai , now in command of a flotilla of Corporate Sector frigates , had sent advance agents to take control of the planet ' s orbiting Golan III Space Defense NovaGun s , and had succeeded to do so in all but one . As he arrived in orbit , however , his fleet was ambushed by the Jedi ' s StealthXs . Meanwhile , Khai and the Skywalkers emerged from the cave and into the war zone . After being questioned by Khai , Luke admitted that he had planned the whole scenario , drawing the Sith to Nam Chorios so they would be ambushed by the Jedi . Luke contacted the closest StealthX , piloted by Jaina Solo , and after commandeering Jedi Knight Tyria Tainer ' s starfighter , he joined the battle . The Sith fleet quickly suffered heavy damage , and Khai was forced to call a retreat . Meanwhile , Skywalker pursued Abeloth , who was fleeing in Ship . Skywalker — whose exile had finally been revoked following a coup that removed Daala from her office — led Gray Squadron in pursuit of Ship . Gold Squadron ' s Raynar Thul was hit by one of the NovaGuns and forced to eject from his starfighter , but he was nevertheless able to detonate a shadow bomb he had launched near Ship . Both Abeloth and Ship were damaged and Luke took the opportunity to score a hit on Ship with his laser cannons , before he himself was shot down by the NovaGun . The rest of the StealthXs abandoned their pursuit of Abeloth and focused on drawing fire away from Luke , who was rescued along with Thul . Aftermath . The Jedi recuperated on the Galactic Alliance supply ship " Verity " , where Luke was able to recover in a bacta tank . Although injured and severely weakened , Abeloth was able to escape from Nam Chorios in Ship . While the Sith fleet regrouped , Abeloth contacted Gavar Khai and stated her belief that they could not defeat their mutual enemy — the Jedi — alone , and she bid for an alliance with the Sith . The Tribe ' s Grand Lord Darish Vol then ordered Gavar to bring her back to the Tribe ' s homeworld Kesh to confer with the Tribe ' s leadership . There , Vol agreed to allow Abeloth to travel down to the surface , so that they could observe her and then decide whether or not to accept her offer for an alliance . However , Abeloth soon launched an attack against the Grand Lord , and when her attempt on his life failed and left her in agony , she destroyed much of the capital city of Tahv with Force energy . Gavar Khai then broke his bonds with the Tribe and led those Sith who chose to remain loyal to Abeloth in a retreat from the world . Behind the scenes . Operation Shieldfall appeared in Aaron Allston ' s third and final novel in the " " series — and the seventh of nine installments overall — " " , released May 24 , 2011 .