Skirmish on Coruscant (32 BBY)

The skirmish on Coruscant was an incident that took place in 32 BBY just before the Naboo invasion. It was sparked after Hath Monchar from the Trade Federation attempted to sell a holocron that contained information about the imminent invasion since Monchar wanted to profit from it. This did not remain unnoticed as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious tasked his apprentice Darth Maul to kill Monchar and those that Monchar spoke to. The Trade Federation, on the other hand, attempted to hire an assassin that could remove Monchar if he did in fact speak about the invasion to others in order to save face before Sidious (the Federation was unaware that Sidious knew about Monchar's schemes).

Monchar attempted to meet with the information broker Lorn Pavan but Maul killed him and the Federation's hired assassin Mahwi Lihnn before the pair could conclude their business. Pavan came into possession of the holocron and attempted to sell it off to the Hutt Yanth; the Hutt was also killed with Maul in pursuit of Pavan and his droid before the Jedi Master Anoon Bondara and his Padawan Darsha Assant saved the pair. Bondara was killed when he attempted to divert Maul, while Assant sacrificed herself soon after to save Pavan. Pavan later managed to surprise Maul and recover the holocron before losing his hand and surrendering it to Senator Palpatine to give to the Jedi Order (Pavan was unaware that he delivered it to Sidious himself). Maul killed Pavan in his hotel on Sidious's orders which kept details about the Naboo invasion secret until it was launched soon after.

Prelude
"To be sure, desperate times call for desperate measures. Though I regret having to ask this of a person of your stature, I hope you can find it within yourself to once again contact this Mahwi Lihnn, in order that we may satisfactorily resolve the Monchar situation."

- Nute Gunray asks Rune Haako to oversee hiring Mahwi Lihnn

Darth Sidious communicated with the Trade Federation leaders to discuss the blockade and continued with their plans despite the fact that Hath Monchar was absent. Sidious decided to give the impression that he believed that Monchar had taken ill (as Nute Gunray told him) when he knew that Monchar intended to profit from what he knew about the imminent Naboo blockade. He contacted his apprentice Darth Maul (who was sparring with his training droids on Mustafar ) and ordered him to kill Monchar and to kill those that he spoke to.

The information broker Lorn Pavan and his droid I-5YQ were able to meet with Monchar in the Dewback Inn and Pavan was given details about it as well as being told to meet him in his apartment within an hour with the funds in hand. Monchar offered to give Pavan a holocron that contained the information.

The Padawan Darsha Assant failed in her recent mission in the Crimson Corridor and contacted her Jedi Master Anoon Bondara to inform him about it. He picked her up in an airspeeder and the two proceeded to return to the Jedi Temple in order to inform the Jedi High Council about the incident. But the two sensed a disturbance and found Pavan and his droid with an unidentified individual in pursuit on a speeder whom the pair identified as a Sith Lord.

The Trade Federation, on the other hand, decided to hire an assassin Mahwi Lihnn to either kill Monchar (if he spoke out) or to return him to them so as to save face before Sidious. The Federation was unaware that Sidious was aware of what had transpired and had decided to deal with it himself. Rune Haako, on Gunray's behalf, contacted Lihnn and she accepted the job to find Monchar on Coruscant.

Skirmishes
"If I'm right, there's a Sith out there. He's probably looking for this. He can't be bought off, scared off, or thrown off the trail, and he'll stop at nothing to get it."

- Lorn Pavan

Maul arrived at the Kaldani Spires Residential Apartments to seek out Monchar, and confronted him after he killed Gorth and his two Quarren guards. Maul slew Monchar but was forced to confront Lihnn who arrived on the scene; she was killed in the ensuing explosion which also happened to knock Pavan unconscious as he arrived. Pavan recovered the holocron when he woke up and noticed from the scene that a Sith - as Monchar said was involved earlier - had been responsible for the carnage around him. He and I-5YQ fled the scene and hoped to give the information to their Hutt contact Yanth in order to save themselves; but Maul was in pursuit and chased them into the streets after he killed Yanth. Pavan and I-5YQ were saved when Bondara and Assant ushered them into their airspeeder.

Maul pursued the four on his speeder Bloodfin and was surprised to see Bondara leap from his airspeeder to confront Maul. That duel saw Bondara die in the explosion he caused when he plunged his lightsaber into the speeder's power core. Maul managed to escape the explosion and continued to pursue the Padawan and her allies.

Pavan and his allies fled into the underworld and ended up in a service conduit to head towards the Jedi Temple. But the three came under attack when cthons were in the area and this for a time rendered them unconscious. The three soon realized that Maul was still in pursuit and it led to Assant using the Force to push them into a carbon-freezing chamber while she locked the door behind her to face Maul herself. In their duel she decided to detonate barrels of explosive fuel in an effort to stop him as she recited the Jedi Code in her mind before she died.

Pavan and the droid managed to get to the exit and Pavan contacted his old Black Sun contact Tuden Sal to get them offworld. But the two noticed that Maul had survived while Maul believed that Pavan was dead. Pavan decided to follow the Sith Lord while I-5YQ gave him a piece of taozin skin (creatures the group encountered below) to render himself invisible to the Force. Pavan told Sul to deliver his droid to the Jedi Temple while he boarded a space station in orbit and shot two bolts at Maul that stunned him. Pavan recovered the holocron but Maul awoke and sliced off his right hand.

He fled with Maul in pursuit but soon ended up in a solarium in the presence of Senate Guards and Senator Palpatine. Pavan gave him the holocron and told him to give it to the Jedi High Council. Kinman Doriana and Sate Pestage took Pavan to receive medical treatment while Palpatine provided him with a hotel suite to recover from his injuries while awaiting a prosthetic hand. Palpatine on the other hand returned to an event he was attending and informed his Sith Master Darth Plagueis about what had transpired. But Palpatine directed Maul to kill Pavan and the apprentice located and decapitated Pavan to keep the details about the invasion a secret.

Aftermath
The Trade Federation's blockade over Naboo took place without incident following this and the invasion was fast-tracked after Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum decided to send two Jedi as ambassadors to negotiate an end to the standoff.

But Bondara and his apprentice's sudden disappearance did not go unnoticed. The Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi was sent to investigate the matter and determined that Black Sun were involved in their deaths without knowing about the invasion nor the Sith's involvement.

Appearances

 * Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
 * Darth Plagueis