Skirmish on Ambria

In the year 3999 BBY, Jedi apprentice Nomi Sunrider, wife of the late Jedi Andur Sunrider, came to study the Jedi arts under the Tchuukthai Jedi Master Thon, after surviving a robbery attempt at the Stenness Hyperspace Terminal. While at the spaceport, henchmen of the resident Hutt crime boss, Great Bogga, attacked the Sunriders in an attempt to steal the Adegan crystals in their possession. One of the thugs attacked with a poisonous gorm worm that bit Andur, resulting in his premature death. To save herself, Sunrider had picked up Andur's lightsaber and struck down two of the assailants, causing the others to flee, forsaking the crystals they were sent to retrieve. Though successful in driving the remaining thugs off, she was mortified to know that her actions resulted in the deaths of two individuals. As a result, she vowed to never handle a lightsaber again. Even after the Hutt and his lackeys managed to locate Sunrider and her daughter on Ambria and attacked Thon's camp, she still refused to handle the Jedi weapon to fend them off. The thugs were ultimately beaten by Thon himself, and they were banished, along with their Hutt master, in shame. Thon recognized the potential in his new student, who had also displayed a natural talent with Jedi battle meditation, when she saved her daughter from the dark side dragons of Ambria's Lake Natth. He instead chose to focus on this, as well as other areas of Sunrider's training, hoping that she would one day overcome her fear of the blade.

After suffering defeat at the hands of Thon, Bogga returned to his fortress to contemplate his next move. Bogga was displeased with his henchman's failure in retrieving the Adegan crystals, particularly his enforcers: the gangster Gudb and the pirate captain Finhead Stonebone. He then decided to accompany Gudb and Stonebone to Ambria, going after Thon, the Jedi woman, and her precious crystals. However, he was unprepared for the strength of Thon when he arrived, and was easily defeated along with his gang, unable to acquire the Adegan crystals. The Hutt gangster and his pirates then returned to his fortress-moon, where they could rethink their strategy. Bogga decided that more forceful measures were required to subdue Thon and take his crystals. He had furnished a set of custom shackles forged of Mandalorian iron, strong enough to restrain even a Jedi Master. He gave the restraints to Stonebone and Gudb, and sent them back to Ambria, telling them to capture Thon with them and not to return without the Adegan crystals.

The time came one day that Thon felt his apprentice was ready to construct her own lightsaber. When he told Sunrider this, she immediately refused, saying that she would learn the Jedi arts, but would never take up the blade again. After repeated attempts, Thon could not persuade his apprentice otherwise. He instead told Sunrider to gather her child and her things, leading them to a great canyon in the mountains of Ambria, for a Jedi ritual. In the midst of the ceremony, Thon presented his own personal lightsaber to Sunrider as a gift, but still, she refused to handle her Master's weapon. Suddenly, a Hutt sail barge approached from the distance, and the sound of explosions was heard nearby.

Gudb and the enforcer gang returned to Thon's camp with Stonebone and his pirates, but the Jedi Master, his apprentice, and her child were gone. They destroyed Thon's hut, and then scanned the surrounding area, quickly locating the Jedi trio on the precipice of a nearby canyon. The enforcers fired salvos at them from the sail barge, but Thon deflected the projectiles with the Force. The Jedi Master and his companions then attempted to flee, as Stonebone and Gudb continued their pursuit.

Thon had noticed the sail barge and saw the impending battle as a final test for his apprentice; if an actual threat could not force her into battle, then nothing would. He again ordered his apprentice to take up his lightsaber in defense, and again she refused him. Realizing the steadfastness of Sunrider's conviction, he gave up on the lightsaber, and ordered her to exercise her natural ability with battle meditation, as she had done to protect her child. She still refused, so Thon told her to find shelter for herself and the child, for his power rested in that of his student. Thon then approached the thugs in seeming submission. Bewildered, Sunrider was in shock as Thon allowed himself to be imprisoned with Mandalorian manacles by the Hutt's minions.

Sunrider did just as Thon had instructed. Racing towards her ship, the Lightside Explorer, she and her daughter met up with her protocol droid, A-3DO. The droid informed her that the Lightside Explorer was primed for departure, but as the pirates were situated between them and the starship, they would have to run the gauntlet in order to reach safety. Sunrider thought of Thon, and how he had surrendered so willingly to the Hutt's thugs. She then thought of the Jedi power of hers that he spoke of—the battle meditation technique she used previously against the hssiss of Lake Natth. Concentrating on the Force, she reached out to the minds of the pirates and caused them to quarrel amongst each other. With the pirates at each other's throats, Sunrider then cast aside her fear, took up Thon's lightsaber, and charged to his rescue.

The majority of Bogga's enforcers and Finhead's pirates loaded Thon onto the barge, while Gudb located the Adegan crystals in one of the camp tents. Just as he announced that he had found the crystals, Gudb was confronted by nearly every other member of the gang, who sought to either hold the crystals for Bogga or claim them for themselves, and soon after broke out into a full brawl over them. They never saw Sunrider rushing them from behind as the first of the pirates fell under her blade. The enforcers were completely caught off-guard as she cut her way through to Thon. The gang was terrified of the lightsaber-wielding woman and scurried off, managing to put some distance between them. Meanwhile, Sunrider cut Thon free of the iron manacles, and told him that she had overcome her fear and had finally accepted her destiny. Thon replied that she was a Jedi, and it was her nature.

The pirates realized, however, that there were still twelve of them alive, and that was more than a match for only two Jedi. Gudb regrouped his gang, and they turned back towards the Tchuukthai Jedi and Sunrider. Seeing their numbers, she faltered in confidence for a moment but Thon reassured her, saying that he would join his apprentice and they would fight together in battle. They were met head-on by the gang, who fired blasters as they advanced. Sunrider displayed her natural prowess with the lightsaber as she cut swaths of enforcers down, and Thon blasted the remaining thugs with concentrated waves of Force energy. The thugs trained their blasters on Thon, but he erected a Force barrier that repelled the blaster shots with ease. After an intense but brief battle, five of the enforcers were dead, and the rest were injured. Gudb and Stonebone were beaten yet again. Unwilling to continue their attack, they gathered their remaining forces and boarded the sail barge, to return to their Hutt master in utter humiliation.

Thon and Sunrider retired to the camp, where they reflected on the day's events. Thon was proud of his student for overcoming her fears, and knew that she was ready to begin her new life as a Jedi. Sunrider, now a full-fledged Jedi Knight, sat with her daughter as Thon began to talk of a new threat; the civil unrest on the planet of Onderon. Thon planned to assist the Jedi already there by traveling with Sunrider to the galactic capital of Coruscant, in an attempt to convince the senators of the Defense Ministry for military intervention on behalf of the Jedi Order. For the time being, Sunrider had just taken the first real steps onto the path of her new life, the path of a Jedi Knight.

The Skirmish on Ambria was written and conceived by author Tom Veitch, and first appeared in the third issue of the 1994 The Saga of Nomi Sunrider story arc. The battle was also recounted in author Kevin J. Anderson's Tales of the Jedi audio adaptation. Veitch used this battle to show the transition of the character Nomi Sunrider from a timid Jedi learner to a venerable Jedi Knight. This battle also laid the groundwork for further development of the Thon and Sunrider characters in the following Freedon Nadd Uprising, Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War and Redemption story arcs.

The comic version introduces the character Finhead Stonebone as the henchman that Bogga sent in pursuit of Nomi Sunrider on Ambria. In the audio version, however, Bogga's primary henchman is Gudb, and Stonebone's role is not included.

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