A skirmish took place in a landing meadow on Dathomir in 43.5 ABY. Sith apprentice Vestara Khai, the sole survivor of a Sith strike team that had ambushed the Jedi Luke and Ben Skywalker, fled to Dathomir and sent a hypercomm message to her Sith Tribe to retrieve her. On Dathomir, Khai encountered a group of Nightsisters and, realizing their dark side potential, arranged for their capture by her Tribe. A convoy of Sith led by Lord Viun Gaalan arrived planetside to pick up the Nightsisters, who attacked when they discovered that the Sith included men. The Sith easily defeated the Nightsisters, capturing them and killing their rancors.
In 43.5 ABY, Sith apprentice Vestara Khai—the sole survivor of a Sith strike team that had battled with the Jedi Luke and Ben Skywalker—made her way to the planet Dathomir, where she sent a hypercomm message to the Sith Order of her homeworld, Kesh, so they could retrieve her. On Dathomir, she came into contact with the dark side-wielding Nightsisters. She convinced them that they should team up with the Sith so the factions could share the knowledge of their powers with each other; however, Khai simply intended for them to become Sith.
When a group of shuttles arrived on Dathomir under the command of Sith Lord Viun Gaalan, Khai ordered for the Nightsisters to convene in a meadow. Approximately 24 Nightsisters arrived with at least 18 rancors to await the Sith's arrival. When Gaalan landed and revealed his presence, however, the Nightsisters felt betrayed—in their culture, women were superior to men, and the idea of being in league with a man disgusted them. Their leader, Dresdema called for them to attack, but they were outflanked by 7 more Sith. Their powers proved to be no match for the Sith, who quickly killed the rancors and incapacitated the Nightsisters, loading them into a shuttle and taking them to meet up with the larger Sith fleet in orbit over Dathomir. Although many of the Nightsisters still resisted, the Sith planned to break their will and turn them into Sith.
Back on Dathomir, the Skywalkers—who had tracked Khai and found her living among the Raining Leaves Clan of Dathomiri Witches—along with their Force-sensitive friend Dyon Stadd, arrived on the scene and confronted Gaalan and two Sith Sabers who had remained behind to retrieve Khai, defeating them and capturing the apprentice. They were confronted by the Sith fleet in orbit, however, and coerced into an alliance with the Sith for a mission to eliminate the dark side entity Abeloth.
During the battle with Abeloth, the Sith used a technique that they had learned from the captured Nightsisters, the control web, to attempt to capture Abeloth.
The skirmish first appeared in Fate of the Jedi: Backlash, the fourth novel in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series, written by Aaron Allston.