Mara Jade Skywalker (Retaliators)

Mara Jade Skywalker was a Jedi Master and wife of Luke Skywalker. She was also Skywalker's third apprentice, after Kyp Durron and Kyle Katarn. Mara, despite her death at the hands of Darth Caedus was present when the Infinity Hole opened in the Maw Cluster&mdash;given new life by the Force to fight Abeloth in one last encounter. When the Infinity Hole was destroyed by the revived Anakin Solo, Mara was returned to an earlier point in her life&mdash;immediately after the death of Palpatine&mdash;and she forgot all that had occurred in her future life.

Early Life
Little was known about Mara Jade's early life; she was taken at a young age by the Emperor Palpatine to be her Emperor's Hand. Trained in the ways of the Force, Jade was one of the Emperor's best assassins. Given a purple lightsaber crystal by Palpatine, Jade constructed her own lightsaber at age fourteen.

First Life
Main article: Mara Jade Skywalker

Mara had a long, painful life. Initially, with the death of Emperor Palpatine, she lost her connection to the Force. Driven by hatred for Luke Skywalker, the man she would later marry, she joined a smuggler named Talon Karrde and became his lieutenant. It was during service to Karrde that she met Skywalker in person, and she initially attempted to kill him. However, when she learned the truth of Palpatine's death, her hatred toward Skywalker lessened and she eventually became his friend. Skywalker and Jade would later marry. After the galaxy-spanning Yuuzhan Vong War, Mara was killed by her nephew Darth Caedus.

Revival
Mara was brought back to life by the Force when Abeloth created the Infinity Hole in the Maw Cluster. Reunited with her husband and son, Jade Skywalker fought Abeloth and her forces until Anakin Solo, Mara's nephew who had been killed during the Yuuzhan Vong War, destroyed the Infinity Hole, stopping the galaxy-destroying loop Abeloth had attempted to create. However, doing so caused the galaxy to return to one of the few fixed points in time&mdash;the death of the Emperor. With no memory of her later life, the now-young Mara was given a new chance to live.

Death of the Emperor
When the Emperor died, Jade was on Imperial Center, taking a vacation that her master had provided her. She spent most of her time at one of Coruscant's "oceans", relaxing in the sunlight provided by the planet's large reflectors. When the Emperor died, he attempted to cloud the image of his death in order to make Mara believe that he had been murdered&mdash;however, the stress of struggling against Vader caused his illusion to crumble, and Mara saw everything as it truly was, including Palpatine's insidious torturing of the young Luke Skywalker, who had been unarmed. Horrified, Mara decided to flee Coruscant. First, she returned to the Imperial Palace and gathered her belongings onto her ship. As she left the atmosphere, the traffic controllers attempted to stop her, but her Imperial access codes fooled them into letting her go.

Mara went immediately to Endor. Recognizing her ship as Imperial, Rogue Squadron intercepted her and demanded that she state her business. Mara told them that she had private information for Colonel Airen Cracken, the leader of the Rebel Alliance's Intelligence force. Reluctantly, Rogue Squadron allowed her to land. Luke Skywalker, who had sensed Mara had Force abilities, met her as she landed aboard Home One. She was reluctant to speak to Skywalker, but finally confided in him that she had seen the death of Palpatine through the Force and had realized what a monster he was&mdash;although she used the name Celina Marniss rather than her true name. Skywalker led her to Cracken, and Mara joined Alliance Intelligence as a field agent.

Probationary Period
"Celina"'s first task as an intelligence agent was to help the Alliance find any parts of the Death Star that might still have had functioning computer parts. Mara, using specialized scanners on her ship, led them to several different chunks of rubble. The technicians managed to recover and slice into the parts, and discover the names of the remaining Imperial warlords.

Mara, during her probationary period, was housed aboard Home One. During the time, she met fellow intelligence agent Winter, whom Mara realized she had inadvertently tangled with before Palpatine's death several times. Mara and Winter became close friends during the time, and Winter confided in Mara that she was a native Alderaanian. Mara asked her what had really happened at Alderaan, and when she learned the truth she stormed off, her anger at the Empire she'd once loved growing. When Home One finally departed Endor, Mara was sent with Winter and A-Wing pilot Pash Cracken to look for potential bases for the Alliance. Mara, using her resources from her Hand days, located several possible planets and satellites for use. However, the Rebellion ultimately ended up using Mon Calamari as its temporary base of operations, and Winter revealed to Jade that their team had actually been a decoy to distract the Empire.

Mission to Gerrard V
Gerrard V, a planet where Rogue Squadron had once taken down an Imperial governor, contacted the Alliance for assistance shortly after they settled on Mon Calamari. They explained that, after the Battle of Endor, several Imperial Moffs had fled there and were holding the capitol city, Harazod, captive. Cracken, realizing the mission was too delicate for a full invasion, sent Jade, Winter, and Rogue Squadron to handle the mission. Mara, using the alias of Countess Claria of the Empire, smuggled Winter and her intelligence team onto the planet, while Rogue Squadron arrived disguised as freelance spacers. "Claria" met once with the leader of the Moffs, High Admiral Teradoc. When she could not convince Teradoc to leave the planet freely, she left the palace and feigned leaving the planet&mdash;using a beckon call, she sent her ship into orbit to await her signal.

Removing her Claria disguise, Mara became a simple civilian on the street. She rendezvoused with Winter and Rogue Leader&mdash;Skywalker&mdash;in a local hostel to discuss strategy. Winter suggested infiltrating the palace and kidnapping Teradoc and several of the other Moffs, while Skywalker was in favor of a more subtle strategy, using the Force to trick the Moffs into leaving without conflict. However, Mara, who knew many of the Moffs personally, knew they could not be influenced by the Force, so she reluctantly backed Winter's plan, knowing it would result in loss of life on the Alliance's side.

The plan began with surveillance of the palace. Dressed in plainclothes, Luke and Mara spent several days in the city area around the palace. The other teams included Winter and Tycho Celchu, and Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson. After three days of surveillance, they discovered that the biggest problems in infiltrating the palace would be the Imperial army guards outside the palace and the holocams imbedded in the palace's lawn, which took 360-degree recordings of their surroundings at all times. Luke and Mara agreed that, using the Force, they could jam the holocams long enough for the teams to get inside the castle, but they would have to find a way to sneak past the guards&mdash;fighting them in plain sight would not help accomplish their goal. Janson suggested bribery, but Mara told them that the Imperial army officers were notorious for being incorruptible.

On one of their surveillance trips, Mara decided to try something unorthodox&mdash;seduction. She explained that one thing she had noticed in her days in the Emperor's Court was that the guards were always distracted by the most attractive women in the court. She explained that if she could seduce one of the guards into leaving his post, then Luke could disable the holocams while Winter led her intelligence agents and Rogue Squadron into the palace. Luke disagreed with the plan, but agreed to try it on the grounds that he was near enough to Mara that he could assist her if she needed it. Reluctantly, Mara agreed.

With the plan formed, it was only a matter of execution. In the light of the glowlamps that lit the streets around the palaces, Mara approached one of the Imperial guards and attempted to strike up a conversation. The Imperial guard ignored her for the most part, until she slowly began to unbutton her shirt. Then she reached up and kissed the guard hard on the lips, pulling him out of the light and into a nearby alley as she did so. As soon as they were out of sight, Mara delivered a nerve strike to the man's ear, knocking him out. Quickly refastening the buttons of her shirt, she snuck back into the street to meet with Luke, who had disabled the cameras. Together, Luke and Mara drove the team's escape speeder to the rear exit of the castle and waited for their team.

While they waited, Mara crawled into the back of the speeder and changed into her combat suit. At that moment, the plan went wrong; one member of Rogue Squadron, a woman named Elscol Loro, tripped a silent alarm. The panicked Moffs attempted to escape, and Teradoc succeeded. Mara and Luke quickly rushed inside and split up; Mara to find the Moffs and Luke to find his team. Mara, using her hidden sleeve pistol, managed to capture a handful of unguarded Moffs, though the rest escaped. When Luke and the Rogues rallied with her, they congratulated her on a job well done, and with their prisoners, they departed Gerrard V.

Beginning of the End
The first step to ending the war was to recapture Coruscant. Mara, who knew the planet well, provided intel for Rogue Squadron, which had been taken over by Wedge Antilles over the years. Along with Winter and a smuggler named Mirax Terrik, Mara snuck onto Coruscant before Rogue Squadron to help set up resistance cells. While there, Mara's image was captured by a security droid, and Ysanne Isard, Director of Imperial Intelligence, realized Mara was on Coruscant. She sent a squad of assassins after Mara, to either bring her in or kill her. However, Mara sensed them coming in the Force and, using a bit of back-alley trickery, she managed to escape. However, since she had been compromised, she agreed to leave Coruscant until the Rogues accomplished their mission.

To do so, however, Mara had to sneak back to the spaceport&mdash;no easy feat, given the constant guard by Imperial guards. The red-armored soldiers had blocked off all entries to the spaceport and were stopping everyone before they entered. Mara returned to her hostel, dyed her hair brown, and used prosthetics to change the appearance of her face enough to fool the guards' databases. Then she returned to the spaceport on foot. The guards, after a close inspection, let her pass. Mara boarded her ship and left Coruscant. She later received word that not only had the Rogues succeeded, but they had also unearthed an Imperial super Star Destroyer called Lusankya, which Mara had never known about.

Capture of Ysanne Isard
Shortly after the capture of Coruscant, Ysanne Isard established her government on Thyferra. Rogue Squadron insisted on finishing her off, but the bureaucrats denied their request. The Rogues, disgruntled, resigned their commissions and set out on their own with what X-Wings they owned personally. Mara, who was angered by the government's unwillingness to act, went with the Rogues. She, along with Iella Wessiri, were part of the ground team on Thyferra who did reconnaissance missions to Isard's home and the government capitol building. Mara, Iella, and Winter developed a plan to capture Isard and her lacky, Fliry Vorru. When the Rogues launched their assault on Thyferra, Mara joined the ground force to capture Isard.

However, the woman had gotten advance warning and left Thyferra on a shuttle. However, Mara and Iella still managed to pursue Vorru and his personal guard. Vorru, armed with a holdout blaster, fired upon the women, and Mara was forced to kill him. Meanwhile, the Rogues had succeeded in shooting down Isard's shuttle, bringing an end to the woman's reign. With Isard dead, a large portion of the Empire was leaderless, and a tentative peace settled on the galaxy.

Resignation
Without the Empire to fight anymore, Mara temporarily resigned her commission with Intelligence, though she did tell General Cracken that she would resume her role if the Empire ever returned. Free for the first time in her life, Mara wandered the galaxy for a year, seeing things she had always lamented on missing&mdash;the beautiful snow-capped mountains of Ilum, the beautiful forests of Kashyyyk, and the purple plains of Dantooine among them&mdash;and while she did, she began teaching herself in the ways of the Jedi from several datapads Luke Skywalker had given her. While on Ilum, she harvested a blue crystal that she used in her lightsaber in place of the purple one that had preceded it.

When her journey was over, she returned to Coruscant to find work. Luke Skywalker congratulated her on her training and told her he planned to begin a Jedi Academy soon, and Mara agreed to join when he did. However, Mara did not wish to tie herself down only to the Jedi, so she began some freelance work as well, taking a brief stint as a bounty hunter. During this time, she became acquainted with a smuggler named Talon Karrde.

Winter's Wedding
Shortly after Mara's return to Coruscant, Winter contacted her with the good news that she was to be married to Tycho Celchu. Mara, together with Leia Organa and Mirax Terrik, threw Winter a bridal shower at one of the most expensive spas on Coruscant. While there, Mara confessed that she knew little about romantic relationships, but that she did have feelings for Leia's brother Luke, and that at one point she had had a crush on Wedge Antilles. Leia encouraged Mara to pursue a relationship with Luke, whom Leia was concerned about due to his seclusion during his Jedi studies. Mara was hesitant about it, however, due to the awkwardness she felt around Luke due to the events on the second Death Star. Mirax, too, confessed that she had feelings for a man&mdash;Corran Horn, a member of Rogue Squadron. Mara, who had worked with Corran several times before, told Mirax that he was a good man, and Leia agreed that they would fit together very well.

After an elegant meal, Mara and the other women returned to the posh hostel they had rented for the evening. The next morning, they went to the hostel's exclusive wave pool, where the four women, clad in bikinis, played and exercised for several hours. Finally, they clothed themselves and returned to their separate lives.

The next day, Mara served along with Leia and Mirax as Winter's bridesmaids, with Wedge as Tycho's best man and Luke as the officiator of the ceremony due to his title as Jedi Master. Winter eagerly accepted Tycho as her husband and they returned to the hostel. Not long after, Mara got a call from Winter telling her that the woman had become pregnant. Mara congratulated her friend and told her she'd be a terrific mother.

Extracurricular Work
With the war against the Empire still stagnating, with only a few attempts at terrorism by Imperials, Mara had to look elsewhere for work. A desk worker for the newly-formed New Republic Intelligence told Mara she had the perfect look for an enlistment poster. Mara noted that intelligence agencies did not usually have recruiting posters; the worker, however, told Mara she'd be posing for a military poster rather than an intelligence one. Mara, reluctantly, agreed.

Her first gig required her to cut her red hair short&mdash;the enlistment officer explained that long, flowing hair would not fit inside a helmet, and would thus be unrealistic for a military recruitment ad. Reluctantly, Mara agreed, cutting her long hair down to a short bob. Her first appearance depicted her with a blaster pistol, gas cartridge out in her other hand, posing in a black bodysuit. Mara commented that she did not like being seen as an image of sex appeal, and initially refused to allow the shots to be published. However, she reluctantly accepted the contract when she learned that a tenth of any funds paid for the posters would be donated to Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy.

After the modeling gig, Mara took up mercenary work, leading a squad of soldiers called the Red Moons. With the other soldiers in the Red Moons, she took out multiple Imperial military bases. When Luke Skywalker called on Mara for help in searching out Jedi students, she left the Red Moons, turning command over to a man named Andrephan Stormcaller.

Early Training
Mara quickly responded to Luke's call, meeting him on Coruscant, where he explained that he had already recruited the reluctant Corran Horn, as well as several other Jedi, to his cause. Mara, knowing several people she considered to be possibly Force sensitive from her time in NRI, told Luke she'd report to him shortly. The first man she contacted was an old friend of hers, Kyle Katarn, a mercenary who worked for NRI, who had earlier in his life discovered his Jedi talents. He agreed to train with Skywalker, and went to a space station over Coruscant to wait.

The next man was Kenth Hamner, a colonel in the military who had shown an innate ability for predicting enemies' actions. Hamner was reluctant to go with Jade, but he owed her a favor from earlier in the war, so he agreed to meet Skywalker on the Coruscant space station. With both of her potentials convinced, she went to the space station shortly thereafter, when Luke arrived with a pair of students, Kam Solusar and Streen. The last student, to Mara's jealousy, was a pretty blond woman named Callista Ming, who had inhabited the body of the dying Jedi Cray Mingla&mdash;and Callista was in a romantic relationship with Luke.

Lightsaber construction
After five months of extensive training, Luke took his students to the planet Ilum, where they could construct their own lightsabers. Mara, whose lightsaber had been constructed for her by Palpatine, was forced to leave it behind and build a new one in its place. Reluctantly, Mara once again entered the crystal caves of Ilum. While inside constructing her lightsaber, she had a horrific vision of a new war with the Empire, one in which the Jedi would be all but destroyed.

Determined not to rush, Mara finished constructing her lightsaber with delicate care. Only when she was done did she reveal her vision to Luke. Disturbed, Luke told her he'd consider having the Jedi moved to a safer location than a space station above Coruscant. He then asked Mara about her new lightsaber. She ignited it, showing him its shining green blade, and he told her that since she had two weapons, she was a good candidate to learn Jar'Kai, the art of wielding two lightsabers simultaneously. However, Mara told him that she still preferred to wield her ligthsaber in unison with a blaster, though she would carry both her weapons on his advice.

Moving to Yavin
While Luke sent Callista, Kyle, and Corran on a mission, he agreed with Mara that they should move the Academy and decided on the Massassi Temples of Yavin IV. Mara, Kenth, Streen, and Kam loaded their supplies onto a shuttle and took them to the Yavin academy. Shortly thereafter, Callista and the others returned from their mission with a report of mysterious gray-skinned aliens with cortosis weapons and armor. Luke agreed to search for information on these aliens, but little surfaced, and with no further sightings, the Jedi training resumed uninterrupted.

The Empire strikes
Almost a year after the Jedi moved to Yavin, a series of strikes by the Empire, planned in rapid succession, brought a halt to Republic shipments to the Outer Rim. The Jedi were sent to investigate, and they found an Imperial fleet, headed by the Star Destroyer Chimaera, massing in the Rim. Because of this, General Cracken summoned Mara back to NRI, and she was forced to temporarily abandon her Jedi studies. Luke was hurt by her departure, but she explained that she had agreed to return to Intelligence work if the Empire ever returned, and he reluctantly gave his blessing.

Returning to NRI gave Mara the chance to meet with her old friend Winter, who now had two children with Tycho Celchu. Winter, glad to see Mara again, told her that they had very little information on the Chimaera-led fleet, only that it had a Grand Admiral at its helm. It was not long, however, before a strike at the Republic world Borleias revealed the identity of the man&mdash;Thrawn. Mara, who had known Thrawn during her time as Emperor's Hand, told Winter that he was a tactical genius, but had a major flaw in that he believed himself practically infallible. However, he backed this up by most of the time practically being infallible. Winter delivered this message to General Cracken, and Mara was promoted to commander of her own team, since she was familiar with Thrawn.

One of Mara's first actions as commander was to sweep the Outer Rim for signs of Thrawn working with the underworld. Though she found some proof that he had at least contacted some crime bosses, she found nothing indicating they had accepted his offer. She decided to contact her old friend Talon Karrde, who was initially reluctant to work with her. Eventually, however, he agreed to at least hear her out, and she went to his base on Myrkr.

Visit to Myrkr
Mara landed on Myrkr in her personal ship and Talon Karrde welcomed her personally. She asked him if he or any of his men had been contacted by Thrawn, but Karrde insisted that he remained completely neutral in galactic affairs. Mara requested that he inform her if he heard of any Imperials poking around in smugglers' affairs. He did not agree to anything, but he said he'd at least keep an eye out. Mara, satisfied, was preparing to leave Myrkr when Chimaera and three other Star Destroyers exited hyperspace.

Mara returned to Karrde's office and demanded to know what was going on. Karrde admitted that he did not know Thrawn had been coming, but with four Star Destroyers bearing down on him he didn't have much of a choice but to allow Thrawn in. Thrawn contacted Karrde and told him he wanted some of Myrkr's native ysalamiri&mdash;creatures that deadened the Force around them. Realizing that Thrawn was planning to use them as weapons against the Jedi, Mara knew she had to escape immediately. Karrde allowed Thrawn to land, and told Mara she could hide in the smuggling compartment in one of his Skipray blastboats. Karrde's second-in-command, Aves, and two of his other men led stormtroopers into the forest and brought back several ysalamiri.

When the Star Destroyers had left the system, Mara returned to her ship and made immediately for Yavin IV. However, an interdictor cruiser pulled her ship out of hyperspace to reveal the Chimaera waiting for her. With no choice left, Mara surrendered, and the Chimaera pulled her aboard.

Captured by the Empire
Thrawn and Captain Gilad Pellaeon met Mara in the hangar bay. Thrawn told her that he knew she was the Emperor's Hand, and that he wanted her help against the Republic. Mara flatly refused such an idea, and told Thrawn she would rather die. Thrawn, however, would not kill a potential ally, and he took her weapons and had his men imprison her in the Chimaera's detention block.

Mara was alone for several hours before Thrawn came down to the detention level to speak with her. He told her he knew that she was a member of New Republic Intelligence and that she had left the Empire because she hated Palpatine's tyranny. He told her that he was not like Palpatine, and that his Empire was ruled with equality and fairness. Mara replied that the New Republic was ruled the same way, and that he should come over to their side. Thrawn, however, believed that a democratic rule was not strong enough, and that a single, powerful ruler was required in order to have a stable government. He told her that he was taking her to Bastion, his capitol, and that if she agreed not to try to escape, he would allow her to explore the planet and see the truth of his sayings for herself.

Residence on Bastion
When the Chimaera arrived at Bastion, Mara agreed to go with him. Thrawn, Mara, and Pellaeon took a shuttle down to the government building there, and Thrawn gave Mara several changes of clothes and a hostel room near the palace. Over the next few days, Mara began to see that Thrawn was right&mdash;his government was like the New Republic's with the exception that it was ruled by a powerful, singular leader rather than many politicians. Mara had been disgusted several times by the Senators and their constant bickering, and she found herself conflicted; she was growing to like Bastion.

However, this was to be short-lived, for Luke Skywalker had contacted Winter to find out how Mara was. When Winter revealed that they had not heard from Mara since she left for Myrkr, Luke grew worried. Together with Winter and Callista, Luke set out to search for Mara. Using the Force, he managed to sense her presence and that she was in Imperial territory. Fearing she was in danger, and realizing that her Force presence was flickering&mdash;due to the ysalamiri, unknown to him&mdash;Luke decided to rescue her.

By the time Luke, Winter, and Callista arrived at Bastion, Thrawn was ready to give Mara permission to leave. He summoned her to his private residence and gave her a datacard with the coordinates of Bastion, though he told her if she tried to copy it, send it to anyone, or even had anyone else in the room when she read it, it would self destruct. Mara promised to consider it and was preparing to leave when Skywalker's ship came out of hyperspace. Thrawn, believing Jade had betrayed them, told his guards to arrest her. Mara, however, insisted that she had known nothing. The stormtroopers, however, were already preparing to bind her wrists. With no other choice, Mara slid out her hidden sleeve gun and blasted one of them and took off running.

Luke's ship blasted its way into the palace hangar and Luke met Mara in the halls. Together, they fought their way out of the palace and back to the ship. Once in space, Luke asked Mara if she was all right&mdash;angrily, she responded that she had been, until he had come along. With conflict between Thrawn's Empire, the Jedi, and NRI raging in her soul, she told Luke to drop her off on Coruscant and contacted Cracken to tell him she was taking a leave of absence.

On her own
When Luke dropped Mara on Coruscant, she found a small mid-level apartment and settled there, putting her NRI uniform, lightsabers, and the Bastion datacard in a drawer and locking it, since she wanted no part of any of those lives for the moment. She began considering different ideas for careers&mdash;going back to the Red Moon, or even contacting Karrde and joining up with him. However, in the end, she decided to do something with no moral qualms, that would not require her to think about any of her problems&mdash;modeling.

Angry at the galaxy in general, Mara decided to go contrary to her nature and contact the modeling agency she'd posed for in the New Republic army propaganda poster. They sent an agent to meet her at a mid-level tapcaf near her apartment. The agent told her she had a beautiful figure that would be perfect for any type of modeling. Mara told him she'd model dresses, jumpsuits, anything he wanted&mdash;except swimsuits. He agreed, and Mara began modeling.

However, after her first several weeks, the agent slipped hypnotic Zeltron inhibition-reducing pheromones into Mara's caf and again told her she had the perfect figure for anything&mdash;especially bikini shoots. Mara, now uninhibited due to the Zeltron pheromones, agreed, and she soon became a galaxy-spanning sensation in a swimsuit. Mara became a flirtatious, sensual woman and began wearing impractical, low-cut outfits that showed off her figure, even when she wasn't modeling. Though a small part of the back of her mind told her she was abandoning her morals, the Zeltron-influenced part of her mind said she was escaping her problems, just like she'd wanted.

As a smuggler
Mara continued her pheromone-driven modeling for almost a year. One night, while she was being driven home from a gig, her speeder pilot accidentally crashed into another speeder, causing Mara's vehicle to plummet three stories before it crashed on a slidewalk below. Mara, thrown from the speeder, used the Force to catch herself&mdash;and with her first Force use since her hypnotism, she awoke from her daze. Realizing what she was doing, Mara angrily stormed back to her apartments, dressed in a flight suit, and left Coruscant.

She went to Myrkr. Karrde met her again, and told her he'd seen her on the news in the past several months&mdash;and that he was quite frankly surprised, since swimsuit modeling seemed totally against her character. Mara explained that she had not been in her right mind then, and requested a position in his organization. Karrde accepted, and told Mara that she could start out as a navigation officer aboard his own ship, the Wild Karrde. Mara accepted, and joined Karrde aboard his ship.

Mara spent several months with the Karrde, during which she made herself more and more indispensable. Eventually, Karrde gave her command of her own ship, the Jade's Fire, and Mara began running with her own crew aboard the ship. Eventually, she was promoted to one of Karrde's top lieutenants, alongside his security chief, Aves.

Beginning of the End
Mara's all-too-brief life with Karrde was a golden age for her&mdash;she did not have to worry about the war between the Republic and the Empire, the Jedi, or NRI. Unfortunately, this would end one day when she and her crew came out of hyperspace over Bilbringi in a massive space battle between Thrawn's forces and those of the New Republic. Contacting her from the Wild Karrde, Aves told her to break out and take the lead. Mara agreed, but halfway out of Bilbringi's orbit, she was torn when she heard a familiar voice on the comm&mdash;Winter Celchu was on one of the shipyards.

Quickly explaining the situation to Karrde, Mara told him that he was free to leave but she and her crew were staying. Karrde, loyal to his people, agreed to stay and fight the Empire; the first time he'd ever done such a thing without payment. The Jade's Fire and Wild Karrde shot through the Imperial ships, hitting them in key spots when they didn't expect it. Thrawn, surprised for the first time in the battle, ordered his forces into a retreat. This allowed a strike team of Luke Skywalker and three Noghri&mdash;the gray creatures Callista had encountered years earlier, and had recently turned against Thrawn&mdash;to land aboard Chimaera and take Thrawn prisoner. Luke, who had sensed Mara, contacted her and thanked her for her assistance, but Mara told him it was a one-time deal, and flew off with Karrde, leaving the battle behind.

Upon return to Myrkr, Mara told Karrde that she would remain with his organization&mdash;but seeing the battle had made her realize that she needed to take a part in the ongoing battle for the galaxy. She told him that she felt it was her responsibility to help organize the galaxy, though she did not know why&mdash;she confessed that it may have just been a nudge from the Force. Karrde reluctantly allowed her to do what she needed, provided she still fulfil her responsibilities as lieutenant in his organization.

Final Defeat of the Empire
Through many years, during which Mara continued to serve simultaneously with Karrde and against the Empire, the Empire's warlords continued to pop up and threaten the New Republic, only to be shot down. Eventually, Admiral Pellaeon decided to sign a peace treaty with the New Republic, and the war came to an end. Mara, relieved, threw herself completely into Karrde's service.

Prelude
Six months after the signing of the peace treaty, Mara was making a run on the Outer Rim. Her instruction was to drop her shipment in an escape pod over the planet Helska IV and then depart, and her credits would be transferred to her account. However, Mara was surprised when she pulled out of hyperspace amidst a war fleet. Mara was alarmed when strange, spheroid ships launched from the fleet's hangars and opened fire. She commanded the Jade's Fire's crew to pull around and get them out of there. The ships tried to pull them in with their tractor beams, but the Fire managed to make it to hyperspace in time.

Mara ordered a course set for Coruscant, feeling shaky at the sight of the ships, especially when she realized several of them had been Star Destroyers. Fearing that the Empire was planning to return to war with the Republic, she decided to inform NRI's new director, Hiram Drayson. Upon arrival at Drayson's office, she was met with hostility by the man; unlike Cracken, Drayson did not approve of Mara's decision to leave NRI in favor of becoming a smuggler. However, he agreed to have a scout force investigate the fleet on one condition: Mara rejoin NRI as the head of a special unit of combined Jedi/agent soldiers. Backed into a corner, Mara agreed.

The Retaliators
Mara told Karrde she'd have to leave his organization for the time being, and began work immediately to form her new team, which she named The Retaliators. She contacted Kyle Katarn, her old friend, first, and Corran Horn. Along with them, she took non-Jedi Bhindi Drayson, Hiram's daughter, and ex-Wraith Squadron member Wes Janson. She also contacted Winter, who agreed to be the team's base controller. Hiram gave the team a Defender-class Star Destroyer, the Strikefast, as their base.

Enemy Strike
Just weeks later, the alien fleet Mara had sighted attacked. Striking planets throughout the Mid Rim, they captured the planets' capitols and held them for ransom. Drayson contacted Mara and told her it was time for the Retaliators to get a test run. Mara ordered the Strikefast to go to hyperspace and meet the alien strike force on their latest conquered planet, Lanteeb. Mara led Kyle, Fenn, and Janson into the capitol and fought with the aliens' leader. To Mara's horror, it was Callista. Mara lit her lightsaber and attacked Callista, who seemed to be struggling with something. However, the blonde woman continued to attack Mara viciously, forcing Mara to whip out her blaster and stun the woman. The Retaliators finished off the alien forces, revealed to be a species from the Core Worlds called the Yevetha, and retreat, allowing Callista to escape.

First strike
Director Drayson decided that the Republic had to strike at the Yevetha before they could do any more damage, so he massed a fleet of warships, including Nebula-, Victory-, and Republic- class Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari cruisers, and Corellian corvettes to strike at the Yevetha fleet at Helska IV. The plan was for Mara and the Retaliators to jump the Strikefast into the system after the battle was already in full swing and board the Yevetha command ship and take it out.

As the Strikefast entered hyperspace, Mara summoned the team to the ready room to prepare for battle. Kyle Katarn and Fenn Shysa, as the team members with the most combat experience, formulated the plan&mdash;while Winter and the Strikefast's crew remained aboard to fire upon the Yevetha flagship, Mara and the Retaliators would take one of the ship's YT-2400 freighters and land in the Yevetha ship's docking bay. Kyle and Corran would hold off the Yevetha, while Fenn sabotaged the engines, and Mara, Bhindi, and Janson attacked the bridge.

When the Strikefast exited hyperspace, the YT-2400 launched from the hangar while the ship's turbolasers barraged the Yevetha flagship's flank. With the warship distracted, the YT-2400 landed in the main hangar bay. Mara led her team to the bridge, using her twin blaster pistols to eliminate Yevetha soldiers, with Bhindi using her cybernetic jetpack to fly ahead and quickly deal damage to ship systems, and Janson brought up the rear. Once they reached the bridge, Mara confronted the leader of the Yevetha, Nil Spaar. Spaar turned on Mara and pulled a blaster from a hidden holster at the small of his back. Mara threw herself aside and opened fire on Spaar, only for the bolts to be blocked when Callista leapt from a hiding place across the bridge. Callista's cyan blade deflected the bolts back, one of them hitting Bhindi's jetpack, and one clipping Janson's shoulder.

Mara dropped one of her blasters and withdrew her lightsaber, leaping in to attack Callista. The other woman leapt in, sweeping her blade toward Mara's neck. Mara blocked the blow and attempted to once again stun Callista, but the woman anticipated the attack and Force-pushed the pistol from Mara's grasp. Forced to rely on lightsaber combat only, Mara waded in, her saber matching Callista's blow for blow. However, Callista had more training, and would've killed Mara had not Luke Skywalker appeared as if from nowhere at the last moment and blocked Callista's blow. He was horrified to see his old flame on the Yevetha ship, apparently serving the dark side. However, he was able to surmise that her mind was not her own, and that she was being somehow influenced. Mara, seeing the same thing, moved to Bhindi's side and took the woman's neural scrambler, firing it at Callista. Callista, unsuspecting, went down as the scrambler shut down her brain activity.

During the fight, Nil Spaar had slipped away, and Shysa commed and reported that the engines were set to blow. Mara helped Luke carry Callista back to their YT-2400. Luke explained that he and several Jedi had been part of the New Republic battle fleet, and that he'd sensed Mara in danger on the bridge. Once back aboard the Strikefast, Mara took Callista to the medical ward, where Bhindi examined her and determined that she'd had a transmitter installed in the base of her skull that was influencing her thoughts. With a quick surgery, Bhindi removed the device.