Skirmish on Ambria

In 3999 BBY, Nomi Sunrider, a Jedi Padawan and widow of the late Jedi Andur Sunrider, sought instruction in the Jedi ways from Thon, a Tchuukthai Jedi Master, after surviving an attempted robbery at the Stenness Hyperspace Terminal. While at the spaceport, Bogga's enforcers, working for the Hutt crime lord Great Bogga, ambushed the Sunriders, aiming to steal the Adegan crystals they carried. A thug used a poisonous gorm worm to attack Andur, leading to his untimely death. To defend herself, Sunrider grabbed Andur's lightsaber and killed two attackers, causing the rest to flee, abandoning their mission. Despite successfully repelling the thugs, she was horrified by the deaths she caused. Consequently, she swore off using a lightsaber again. Even after the Hutt and his underlings tracked Sunrider and her daughter to Ambria and assaulted Thon's camp, she still refused to wield the Jedi weapon. Thon defeated the thugs, who were then banished in disgrace along with their Hutt boss. Thon recognized the potential in his new student, who demonstrated a natural aptitude for Jedi battle meditation when she saved her daughter from the dark side dragons of Ambria's Lake Natth. He decided to concentrate on this skill, as well as other aspects of Sunrider's training, in the hopes that she would eventually conquer her fear of the lightsaber.

After being defeated by Thon, Bogga retreated to his fortress to plan his next move. Bogga was unhappy with his henchman's failure to recover 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 day arrived when Thon felt his apprentice was ready to construct her own lightsaber. Upon informing Sunrider of this, she immediately refused, stating that while she would learn the Jedi arts, she would never wield the blade again. Despite repeated attempts, Thon was unable to change his apprentice's mind. Instead, he instructed Sunrider to gather her child and belongings, and led them to a great canyon in Ambria's mountains for a Jedi ritual. During the ceremony, Thon presented his own lightsaber to Sunrider as a gift, but she still refused to touch her Master's weapon. Suddenly, a Hutt sail barge appeared in the distance, accompanied by the sound of explosions nearby.

Gudb and the enforcer gang, accompanied by Stonebone and his pirates, returned to Thon's camp, only to find the Jedi Master, his apprentice, and her child gone. After destroying Thon's hut, they scanned the surrounding area and quickly located the Jedi trio on the edge of a nearby canyon. The enforcers fired missiles at them from the sail barge, but Thon deflected the projectiles using the Force. The Jedi Master and his companions then tried to escape as Stonebone and Gudb pursued them.

Thon saw the sail barge and recognized 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 followed Thon's instructions. She and her daughter rushed toward her ship, the Lightside Explorer, where they met 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.