Mara Jade Skywalker

"I'm a fighter. I've always been a fighter. The few times when I have been at leisure, I've been miserable. I want challenges, I crave them."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Mara Jade Skywalker was a female Human, who was, during different times in her life, an Emperor's Hand, a smuggler, and later a Jedi Master. As an Emperor's Hand, Mara carried out the Emperor's bidding, killing Rebels and corrupt Imperials alike with cold professionalism even as a young woman. After Palpatine's death, she received his last command to kill Luke Skywalker, but the death of her Master caused her to go rogue. Eventually she joined Talon Karrde, becoming one of his best smugglers and his second-in-command. During the predations of Grand Admiral Thrawn, she was forced to work with Skywalker, and developed a begrudging respect for him. Over the years, she would continue working for Talon Karrde and interacting with Luke intermittently, until the two finally realized that they were in love and wanted to spend the rest of their lives with each other in 19 ABY.

After marrying Luke, Mara devoted her life to the New Jedi Order, becoming a Master in her own right. Shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War, she fell ill due to deadly coomb spores. Using the Force to slow its progress, the disease was only purged from her system after the birth of her son Ben in 26 ABY. Afterwards, Mara then participated in Jedi offensives against the Yuuzhan Vong where she aided in the destruction of Supreme Overlord Shimrra. Mara was active during the Dark Nest Crisis and the subsequent Swarm War, where she helped to thwart the plans of Raynar Thul and the Killiks, and continued to serve by the side of her husband as a Jedi Master during the Second Corellian Insurrection. During the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara was killed by her nephew, Jacen Solo, while hunting the Sith Lady Lumiya.

Regarded as beautiful, intelligent, and deadly with a sharp tongue and quick wit, she was a good pilot and mechanic and was skilled with both a blaster and hand-to -hand-combat even without relying on the Force. As Palpatine's assassin, she received top-notch training from experts in a variety of fields as well as training in the Force, which would later be continued by Luke Skywalker years later. After becoming a Master, Mara took her niece Jaina Solo as an apprentice until she reached Knighthood.

Early life (18 BBY–4 ABY)


Mara Jade was born in 18 BBY during a time of great instability as Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice, Darth Vader, were killing hundreds of Jedi. Emperor Palpatine took her from her parents and brought her to Coruscant when she was an infant and began to train her in the Force, although officially she was one of the Imperial Palace's dancers. She did not remember much about her early life but that somehow her parents did not want her to go and that she was old enough to understand that she was going to leave with him. The Emperor trained her in the ways of the Force and she was made into an agent of the Empire. Some of the Imperial court assumed her to be a dancer or one of Palpatine's concubines.

Emperor's Hand
"She is, shall we say, an experiment."

- Palpatine

When Mara was approximately eighteen years old, she was pushed through an extensive training regime and became an "Emperor's Hand," one of Palpatine's personal assassins, after she successfully broke into Wilhuff Tarkin's private quarters. Despite there being several Emperor's Hands she, like the others, was unaware of the existence of any other Hands. Due to her deep connection with the Force she could hear Palpatine's voice anywhere in the Galaxy via a telepathic link. Mara carried out Palpatine's will on numerous worlds, eliminating corrupt Imperial officials, traitors, and others who he deemed deserved death or judgment. His esteem for her was such that he actually allowed her to get some time for relaxation, atypical of Palpatine's usual style. She also received her personal starship and a protocol droid named K3 to aid her in her duties as Hand.



Before the Battle of Yavin, she was tasked with gathering intelligence in order to help Darth Vader hunt down any Jedi she found that had survived Order 66&mdash;one such Jedi was An'ya Kuro. Mara soon became envious of Vader and sensed a division in him, specifically because she didn't understand the basis of his obsession concerning Luke Skywalker. Mara began to hope that Vader would betray the Emperor so that she could kill him and take his place as the Emperor's apprentice.

During the years following the Battle of Yavin and preceding the Battle of Hoth, Mara spied on Darth Vader and delivered reports on his actions, even going so far as watching, from afar, his assault on the Massassi Temples, some six months after Yavin, which resulted in the capture of Rebel Commander Jan Dodonna.



Despite these spy activities, she still performed tasks for Vader himself. Around 1.5 ABY, Jade was responsible for uncovering information about C-3PO and R2-D2 for Vader, though Vader was either unwilling or unable to collect the information from her himself. Instead, he sent a spacer who had been doing work for the Empire to pick up the information from Jade on Naboo before returning it to him for a reward of 2,100 credits. Around the time of the Battle of Hoth she visited Belsavis.

Mara had also investigated Moff Glovstoak, posing as "Countess Claria" and discovered that he had been skimming the top off tax returns to the Imperial Center. Faking intoxication, she retired to a private room during a formal party Glovstoak was throwing, only to leave an inflatable dummy behind and, having exchanged formal wear for a combat suit, quickly infiltrated his office and found six stolen paintings worth millions of credits in his palace. Mara returned to Imperial Center and reported her findings to Palpatine, but also saved General Deerian, whom she believed to be honest, from the fallout of Glovstoak's destruction.

Upon his arrest, Mara also took the job of looking up who delivered the paintings, and the people who aided him. First, she went to the auction house where the paintings had been sold, but gleaned little information. Next, she investigated secure storage sites and found a good match in the Birtraub Brothers Storage and Reclamation Center, which she sensed seemed to have a criminal element about it. Observing the facility from a nearby tapcafe, the owners of the storage facility attempted to drug her, but her Force-senses alerted her to the attempt. She confronted the owner, Pirtonna Birtraub, who attempted to kill her. She easily subdued him and he admitted the involvement of a pirate group identified as the BloodScars, a ruthless gang that wanted to form all gangs together to dominate the Shelsha Sector.



Mara stowed away on one of the pirate ships that she had been pointed to, choosing a HT-2200 medium freighter that was being sent to attack a transport carrying Imperial military equipment. About the time the craft launched an attack on the Happer's Way, Mara was also discovered and attacked by a group of pirates. Undaunted, she quickly took over the ship, captured Tannis, and via the Happer's Way's communications relay signaled the Reprisal to come to her and the freighter's assistance.

Boarding the Reprisal, Mara was coldly greeted by Captain Kendal Ozzel, who believed she was onto him for five stormtroopers that had deserted earlier after killing Major Drelfin over Daric LaRone's refusal to kill civilians on Teardrop. Mara requested a pair of crewers for the ship, and Colonel Vak Somoril gave her a pair of ISB men to accompany her. Taking the two ISB men and Tannis with her on the Happer's Way, Mara went to infiltrate the pirate base at Gepparin, pretending to be an independent ship thief who wanted to join the BloodScars.

Mara arrived on Gepparin and was brought to meet the Commodore, who was suspicious of her. That evening, Mara was attacked by the two ISB men, who had been ordered to eliminate her, and their attack attracted the pirates' attention. She attempted to deal with the Commodore, who ignored her and had his pirate accomplice Caaldra kill her. His attempt was unsuccessful, but Mara was interrupted before she could stop him and the Commodore. Ozzel and Somoril in the Reprisal, wanting to be sure she was slain, arrived over Gepparin and launched TIE fighters and an orbital bombardment to kill her and the pirates. Mara quickly raced to the command center and found the Commodore's body next to a HoloNet message he was about to send to Shelkonwa. Mara shot down the TIE fighters, and the Reprisal left in pursuit of the Millennium Falcon and their rogue stormtroopers who had appeared insystem, allowing Mara to escape in a Z-10 Seeker.

Journeying to Shelkonwa, she found Vader and the Executor already there in search of Leia Organa. Mara believed that Governor Barshnis Choard was a traitor, and informed Vader of her findings. Upon landing, Caaldra attacked her with a purloined AT-ST, but she was aided by the group of rogue stormtroopers, dubbed the Hand of Judgment. Taking them under her command, she defeated the AT-ST, unknowingly with the help of Chewbacca in a freighter, but Caaldra had escaped. With her newly drafted stormtroopers, she advanced on the Governor's Palace, where once again Caaldra tried to kill her. This time, she put an end to him when he tried to shoot her and she redirected the bolt into him. Linking back up with the Hand of Judgment, Mara arrested Governor Choard and vouched for the rogue stormtroopers, even in front of Vader. Later, she learned their true story. She let them go, but warned them to lie low and lose their Hand of Judgment name, saying she was the only Hand in the Empire.

Hunting Skywalker
Following the Battle of Hoth, Mara became aware of Palpatine's worries about the Rebel Luke Skywalker; she was sent to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine, disguised as the dancing girl Arica, in order to infiltrate and await Skywalker. Melina Carniss, a member of Jabba's secret security detail, suspected her of being out to assassinate the Hutt, and attempted to arrest her; Jade turned the tables on Carniss, however, taking her into custody and then using the Force to cause Melina to shoot one of Jabba's Gamorrean guards. Jade fled down a tunnel and came to a ventilation shaft of the rancor pit. After fighting through three rows of guards, she was able to watch Luke kill the rancor. She then entered the ventilation shaft of the Rancor pit using a vibroax, and used the Force to open the trapdoor and follow the crowd out to the sail barge. Though she begged Jabba to let her join him and others at the Dune Sea, a suspicious Jabba instead provided her with a landspeeder and told her to leave and never come back after she tried to use the Force on him. Thus stymied in this attempt to fulfill her mission, she made her way back to Imperial Center&mdash;and a displeased Palpatine. Years later, a Force vision revealed to Skywalker that, had she been present at the Great Pit of Carkoon, Jade would have succeeded in preventing his escape.

The search for Black Nebula
"Victims run off and hide. Prey runs off and hides. But I'm not a victim. And I'm not prey. I'm the Emperor's Hand. I am the ultimate predator. And it's time for Dequc and Black Nebula to die."

- Mara during her hunt for Dequc



Following her mission on Tatooine Mara received another task from the Emperor&mdash;to kill Dequc, a Jeodu who was seeking to revive Black Sun by incorporating its remnants into his own empire, that of the Black Nebula.

Mara arrived on the planet Svivren where she began laying the ground work for her new mission. She reconnoitered the crime lords base, but realized that she would need a distraction to allow her to sneak in unnoticed. She went to the local Imperial garrison commander, General Touno, and requested two squads or stormtroopers and an officer. The officer assigned to her was Captain Strok, and together, he and Mara planned a raid on the building next to Dequc's, but Strok was unaware that this was all a distraction planned by Mara. The following day, however, saw the raid utterly fail and the majority of the Imperials killed. Mara, though, was still able to use the distraction provided by the firefight to sneak in and assassinate a Jeodu she believed to be Dequc.

After the assassination, Mara reported to the Emperor that the mission had been successful. Palpatine, as a reward for her efficiency, provided Mara with a vacation. Mara did her best to enjoy the time that was provided to her, but she found herself mulling over the events which had transpired on Svivren. She came to the conclusion that the assassination was too easy and that any number of the guards present during her attack should have easily been able to stop her. Mara decided to test her theory by setting up a simulation of the assassination. Only two out of five times was she able to successfully kill "Dequc" and withdraw unharmed. She concluded that the person she killed was not the real Dequc, but a cleverly placed decoy. Mara resolved that it was still her duty to hunt down and assassinate the real leader of Black Nebula.



Mara used her Force link with the Emperor to advise him of her findings, but before she could, he allowed her to witness his destruction by both Vader and Luke Skywalker. Mara was overcome by his death agonies and was rendered unconscious. She remained in a dream-like state for several days, until she was apprehended by two of Ysanne Isard's henchmen. They took Mara to Isard, where she was imprisoned, and Isard used Intelligence tactics to try and force Mara to aid her in her bid for power. Mara, though, was able to escape from captivity and find passage to the backwater world of Phorliss. Mara intended to lay low for the time being until she could raise enough funds to relocate. To better blend into her temporary surroundings, she found work as a waitress at a local cantina owned by Gorb Drig. For several weeks she worked for Drig under the alias Chiara Lorn, until members of Black Nebula arrived to collect a debt owed by Drig. Mara could not believe her luck in discovering that Black Nebula had a presence on Phorliss&mdash;not wanting Drig to be harmed, Mara did her best to fight the more numerous gang members. Mara managed to get a hold of her lightsaber and quickly kill the remaining Nebula members, though not before they killed Drig and Jorshmin, a patron whom Mara had befriended.

Mara set out to find the Black Nebula base on Phorliss, and discovered that the real Dequc was based on Qiaax. Mara used her abilities as an Emperor's Hand to infiltrate a casino owned by Dequc and run by a lieutenant in Black Nebula. She disguised herself as Baroness Paltonae and claimed to represent a mysterious corporate interest that had developed reliable and undetectable ways to cheat at gambling and detect lock combinations&mdash;Mara, however, simply used the Force to create both illusions in an effort to be brought before Dequc. She managed to succeed and was taken to Black Nebula's hidden base in the Bubble Cliffs of Nezmi, where Dequc was waiting for her to discuss the corporate interest she "represented." However, once inside the Nebula's base, Mara unknowingly ran into Strok, the Imperial officer she had worked with on Svivren. She learned that he was actually a Black Nebula agent who had been inserted into the Imperial officer corps to feed Dequc information. Mara was furious about this discovery of an Imperial traitor, but decided to deal with him later. However, she again ran into him in the base's barracks, and when he realized who she was, Mara was forced to kill him to keep her secret safe. His death, though, was soon discovered by Black Nebula and Mara was forced onto the offensive. Mara eventually managed to make her way to Dequc's safe house, deep within the Bubble Cliffs. Once there, she used her lightsaber and a small explosive to kill Dequc and his guards&mdash;Mara then was able to escape through one of Dequc's secret passageways. Once she had successfully withdrawn, Mara stole a private yacht of Dequc's, one which was filled with all of his private information regarding the inner workings of Black Nebula, and left it at an Imperial spaceport where it could be discovered by the authorities.

On the run (4 ABY–6 ABY)


Her hatred of Skywalker for destroying her master burned deep within her, and she vowed to destroy the Jedi Knight. She was unaware that the Emperor's telepathic command was at the core of this rage, making it stronger than any normal wish for vengeance would be. Meanwhile, her life was in shambles: the resources she had once had access to were all dependent on the Emperor, and her life of luxury, privilege and purpose was over. She made her way through the Galaxy, doing odd jobs and manual labor to make ends meet. Her Force abilities faded, returning in ill-timed bursts.

All the while, she was still haunted by the Emperor's last command: "You will kill Luke Skywalker."

Having lost her master and hunted by Isard, Mara traveled from place to place. She landed on Kintoni, where she spotted the Rebel general Crix Madine. Mara followed them and infiltrated the building to see Madine interrogating former Imperial Governor Barkale. Mara made her way towards the imprisoned governor and found a datapad showing the Executor along the way. However, she was stopped in Madine's quarters by the general, who pulled a blaster on her and called for reinforcements. Mara shot his gun and used the datapad to display the image of the Executor on the sensor screens, tricking the Rebels into thinking the ship was after them. Mara stunned the guards and made a deal with Madine to let her and Barkale escape.

Barkale took her back to his home, but Mara noticed a sculpture that he had reported it stolen or destroyed years ago, as were many other pieces of artwork. When confronted, Barkala threw a vase at her after she accused him of treasonous embezzlement. Mara, undaunted, executed him, and then informed Madine of her discovery while she got off the planet, figuring that the Rebels would have found the artwork anyway and executing Barkale was worth it.

Sometime during this time, she lost the violet-colored lightsaber she had been given by Palpatine.

Smuggler (6 ABY–9 ABY)
"If only for that, you deserve to die."

- Mara to Luke

Mara was on Chibias to see the Coruscant Full Symphony when she encountered a young Zakarisz Ghent, who had just had a datacard planted on him without his knowledge. Mara took interest in the young slicer and, posing as a member of the concert hall staff, helped him escape from Raines, a member of Governor Egron's staff, who was trying to capture Ghent. Mara took the startled Ghent back to her hotel room, informing him that his trip to the hall had been a set-up. When Mara failed to slice into records to find out why Ghent was being pursued, Ghent took over and easily sliced through it, revealing the motive behind the attempted kidnapping.

Mara then went to the Governor's Palace, where she confronted Raines with his lack of existence in the Governor's personnel files. Raines told her that he was a special aide to the governor and his name was Markko. She also was able to reveal that he had been hired by the governor for computer work, rather than that the governor needed Ghent's services, which was what Markko had originally told her. Mara, acting as Ghent's broker, agreed to bring him to the palace to slice the computer, which Markko had informed her was captured from the Rebel Alliance, after charging him an exorbitant fee.

However, she was followed on her way back to the hotel. Deciding to turn the table, she lost her pursuit and followed them back to their hideout. Markko confronted her, and then led her at gunpoint to the rest of the group, revealing that they were actually part of the Rebel Alliance. Mara agreed to bring Ghent to the palace as planned, seeing an opportunity to sell out Markko and earn some creds. Upon arriving at the palace, Ghent's slicing revealed that it wasn't a a Rebel computer, but a Star Destroyer control node, and Mara quickly ascertained that Egron was planning on selling the information. Mara stalled for time while using her lightsaber to cut an exit out of the wall with a Paparak cross-cut that would only be revealed when she kicked the wall in. After creating a diversion, she kicked the wall in and escaped with Ghent. However, Egron and Markko managed to intercept her before she could escape the palace. While she executed Egron, Markko took Ghent hostage. However, the two agreed to part ways, despite their ideological differences, with Markko returning Ghent. Outside, Mara told Ghent to go back home to Sibisime, where he had come from while she went to find work on a freigther. Little did she know that Ghent was hired by Talon Karrde, her future employer, shortly after she and Ghent parted ways. For the next few years, Mara drifted from one odd job to another under a variety of aliases. Under the alias Marellis, she was a come-up flector for a Caprioril swoop gang and later worked as a hyperdrive mechanic on Varonat under the name Celina Marniss. Fortune finally struck when Mara managed to save the smuggler baron Talon Karrde from an ambush on Varonat that took the life of Karrde's second-in-command, Quelev Tapper, and almost killed Karrde as well. Mara had originally been working as a hyperdrive mechanic at the spaceport, and her efficiency and striking appearance impressed Karrde, who was operating under the alias of Hart while Tapper was known as Seoul. While out on a safari for Morodins, Karrde discovered both that the Morodins were sentient and that the safari leader was responsible for smuggling a catalyst for Tibanna gas grown in the jungle. Gamgalon found out what Karrde knew though and planned on executing him, having already killed Tapper when he tried to resist. Fortunately for them, Mara remembered hearing about a smuggler who enjoyed wordplay in his aliases and ships (Hart and Seoul), and decided to help them out in hopes of finding a position with them. She followed them out to the jungle, killed Gamgalon and his guard and rescued Karrde. Karrde was so impressed with Mara that he offered her a job on the spot.

There is some slight evidence that their initial encounter may have taken place earlier than most accounts list. The two of them are said to have been already working together as early as 6 ABY, when Mara sold a Rodian statuette to New Republic Senator Baron Jonas Stern on Sluis Van. If this was the case, then Jade cannot have taken up Karrde's offer immediately after Varonat, and they would seem to have subsequently parted company for about two years, before she finally accepted the offer of a permanent position in his organization.

Meeting Skywalker
Mara entered Karrde's organization in c. 8.5 ABY. During her first six months of working with Karrde, Mara swiftly rose through the ranks of his smuggling organization. Her Force-sensitivity, lying largely dormant since the death of Palpatine, reasserted itself when she brought Karrde's freighter, the Wild Karrde out of hyperspace for a routine check right where Luke Skywalker's damaged X-wing was floating in space.



Karrde pulled the stranded Jedi aboard and took him back to his base on Myrkr, where the planet's Ysalamiri creatures blocked Skywalker's Force abilities. Jade was at first intent on killing Skywalker, but Karrde would not have it. However, Karrde did keep Luke and R2-D2 locked up and hid them from view when Thrawn arrived to collect ysalamiri. Luke, though, managed to escape in a Skipray blastboat. Mara gave chase, but both vehicles ended up crashing in the vornskr-infested forest. Mara was forced to work with Luke to survive, and she clearly stated her intentions. The two made their way to Hyllyard City after fending off several vornskr attacks, but were caught in a stormtrooper ambush. Thanks to the timely intervention of Lando Calrissian, Han Solo, and some of Karrde's men, they defeated the stormtroopers and Solo, Calrissian, and Skywalker left Myrkr. Karrde and his organization also fled Myrkr soon after due to a massive Imperial bounty placed upon them.

While setting up a new base for Karrde's group on Rishi, Mara was accosted by a bounty hunter. She killed him, but Karrde's organization was put to flight yet again. Mara realized that Thrawn would not stop hunting them, so she turned herself over to Thrawn, reclaiming her role as the Emperor's Hand and offering him the location of the Katana fleet in exchange for amnesty for Karrde and his men. Thrawn agreed, but double-crossed Mara by placing a tracking device on her ship. Once she arrived at Karrde's next hideout, Imperial stormtroopers followed shortly afterwards and captured Karrde.

Mara, disgusted by Thrawn's actions and now feeling, more than ever, her loyalty to Karrde, journeyed to Jomark, where Luke Skywalker was training under Joruus C'baoth. Mara convinced Luke to go with her to rescue Karrde from Thrawn's ship, the Chimaera. Using her passwords to slice into the computer, she and Luke reached the detention block and freed Karrde. Thrawn shut down the ship's computer, but the trio was able to make good their escape in the Millennium Falcon, which the Empire had retrieved from Endor.

Mara and Karrde's group later returned to aid the New Republic in the Battle for the Katana fleet. Mara flew a Z-95 Headhunter in the battle, but an ion cannon blast left her drifting in the coldness of space. Fortunately for her, Luke Skywalker was able to rescue her before she died of exposure.



Taken to Coruscant for a month of nerve-regeneration therapy, Mara found herself almost completely alone in the Imperial Palace. She wanted to leave the planet, but before she could, she detected an Imperial intrusion team headed for the Solo family's quarters. Mara, accompanied by Lando Calrissian and Garm Bel Iblis, chased down the intruders. They were pinned down, but Mara used her knowledge of the Palace's secret passages to get behind the Imperial commando team. Using the Force to relay a plan to Leia Organa Solo, she successfully gunned down the entire Imperial squad. However, Major Himron, the team leader, survived and implicated her in the attack, which led to her imprisonment.

Wayland
"For I have foreseen that one Mara Jade will bow before me. One Mara Jade, or another."

- Joruus C'baoth to Mara Jade on Wayland

Mara later found out about Thrawn's use of clones while imprisoned, via Leia, and remembered the location of the Emperor's cloning center. Realizing that they might be compromised if they went through normal channels, Luke, Han, Lando, and Chewbacca broke her out of prison and took Mara with them on the Falcon. She gave them the location of Wayland and the cloning center, and the group successfully landed in the forest, along with R2-D2 and C-3PO. Mara was once again forced to work with Luke, who encouraged her to develop her Force skills. Skywalker gradually realized that Jade was acting not so much of her own volition as she was following Palpatine's telepathic command. Jade also came to gradually realize this, that she was being used to inflict a last bit of revenge upon the dead Darth Vader. Skywalker promised to help her remove the command, even though being near her obviously jeopardized his life. They both had premonitions of encountering the insane C'baoth on the planet, which, upon reaching the Mount Tantiss stronghold after an arduous journey through the forest, turned out to be true. Mara asked Luke to kill her rather than let C'baoth take over her mind, but Luke promised that whatever she would face in the stronghold, she wouldn't face it alone.

While looking for a remote destruct for the facility, Luke and Mara found the crazed Jedi Master, who hit Mara and Luke with Force Lightning and pitted Luke against a clone of himself. Despite the aid of Han, Leia, and Karrde, they were unable to defeat the Jedi Master until Mara retrieved Leia Organa Solo's lightsaber and charged C'baoth. Luke injured his clone and strengthened Mara with the Force, and she fulfilled the Emperor's command, slaying the clone. Enraged, C'baoth hit them with a Force Scream, Force lightning and rocks, but Mara, fulfilling C'baoth's visions of bowing before him, kneeling to avoid his attacks, stabbed him with the lightsaber. Luke's Force powers kept her from being injured by the dark side energy released up C'baoth's death, and they escaped in the Wild Karrde as Lando and Chewbacca blew up the facility. As a token of friendship, Luke gave her his father's lightsaber, and she would continue to use it in the years ahead.

Apprenticeship
After fully renouncing the dark side of the Force, Jade sought out Kyle Katarn to train her in the ways of the Jedi. In 10 ABY, Mara was with Kyle Katarn on the battlefront of Altyr 5 to aid the New Republic base, which was receiving bombardment from two artificial asteroids and under attack from the Imperial Remnant. Kyle Katarn managed to repel the attack, and destroyed both asteroids. While there, he got a lead for the planet Dromund Kaas, having some importance to the Empire and went to investigate.

Mara, however, was on her own&mdash;her first mission for the Republic was to negotiate with Ka'Pa the Hutt concerning the New Republic's supplies. In order for Ka'Pa to comply, Mara was forced to steal for him Takara's GCT device. While looking for Takara's lieutenants, Abron Mar in the Katraasii Spaceport, Mara was trapped by Takara, but managed to escape by killing a Rancor and stole the device. Ka'Pa was pleased and agreed to help the Republic.

Mara's second mission was on a Republic Corellian Corvette guarding a Jedi holocron, when they again came under attack from Kaerobani's pirates. Mara repelled the attackers, but the Holocron was stolen. To retrieve the holocron, she decided to 'board' a cargo crate that was headed for Rathalay, the pirates base. Using her deeply ingrained training, Mara reclaimed the Holocron and escaped.

After that, Mara finally arrived on Dromund Kaas to see what had happened to Katarn. While traveling through the swamps, she encountered, and defeated, many native creatures, including her own doppelganger. After getting across the swamp, she reached the Dark Force Temple. Finally she found Kyle totally immersed in the dark side. Master and apprentice fought, but Mara managed to fend him off each time, while Kyle retreated deeper and deeper into the catacombs. On the final encounter, Mara voluntarily turned off her lightsaber and surrendered. Kyle realized that he could not follow this path and was able to turn back to the light side.

When Palpatine returned in his new cloned body, Mara didn't believe it was really him, spurning any thought of returning to his service. Instead, she aided the New Republic in evacuating Coruscant and ferrying cargo for the government. For his part, Palpatine supplanted her and the other Hands with new Dark Side Adepts, including Sedriss.

Smuggler's Alliance
"When I entered the atmosphere I could feel you and Kun tangling. The Force was boiling."

- Mara Jade to Corran Horn

After Kyle forsook the Jedi and the Force and returned to his military action, Mara also participated in a mission from Karrde to track down Jorj Car'das, where she pretended to be involved with Lando Calrissian as a cover for the mission.

In 11 ABY, Mara returned to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 to learn the ways of the Jedi, arriving during the tumultuous time right after Gantoris's death and Kyp Durron's first act of rebellion, both events due to the spirit of the ancient Sith Exar Kun. At first Mara and Corran Horn, himself a student under the assumed name of Kieran Halcyon, got off to a bad start, but they soon settled their differences and got along quite well. She even allowed Corran to use her Headhunter, though Kyp later stole it. Under Kam Solusar's tutelage, they trained together and learned to appreciate their differences&mdash;this proved to be a wise choice, as it was not long until the spirit of Exar Kun took control of Kyp and wreaked havoc on the Jedi. She left the academy not long after, but later returned after she had heard Kun had put Luke in a coma, fearing for his health. While there, she helped Corran defeat Kun's spirit, as the Corellian had attempted to distract Kun by invading his temple. She arrived just in time, as Kun was nearing success with turning Corran's fears against him, and had also severely injured him. She helped Corran trick Kun into returning to the Praxeum to use Streen against Luke, leading to the Sith Lord's destruction from the combined Force power of the students there. With Kun defeated, Mara helped the injured Horn back to the Great Temple. However, she again left the Praxeum after the incident.

During this time, she also became one of the leaders of the Smuggler's Alliance. Lando Calrissian, flush with cash from a recent string of successes, had the idea of mining glitterstim from Kessel and using it as a way to make a sizable profit. Mara led a group of Smuggler's Alliance vessels to Kessel to help him chase the present administrator, Moruth Doole, off the planet. However, Mara was not entirely thrilled with Lando, as she was not fond of his constant flirting with her, though she was impressed by him giving the Falcon to Han Solo as a gift even after winning it back in a game of sabacc. Not long after they took the planet, Mara, Han, and Lando were confronted with the prototype Death Star, which blasted Kessel's moon. Mara and all her ships took off and attacked the prototype, but it fled. Mara and the Falcon pursued the craft into the heart of the Maw, unwilling to let the superweapon escape. In an effort to knock out its superlaser, she and Lando made their way to the core of the prototype in environment suits, planning to plant thermal detonators along the reactor core, but they were attacked by a group of spacetroopers. Mara and Lando escaped, but a spacetrooper was able to remove all but one of their charges, causing less damage than the duo had hoped. Fortunately, Kyp Durron, freed of Kun's influence, managed to lead the prototype into a gravitational well, crushing it and ridding the galaxy of its use forever.



While Han and Leia were on Belsavis, they contacted Mara Jade to see if she had information on the planet. Mara did know about the planet&mdash;she had broken into its secure file when she was working for the Empire. She told the Solos about a secret mission to attack one of the rifts and how Palpatine and Vader used a combination of drugs and the dark side to create crazed, mindless guards, such as the ones that the Solos had found in the smugglers' tunnels in the valley.

Later, she called the Solos after the Solos learned of the presence of the Emperor's Hand on the planet and assumed it was her. All she had were some coordinates from a landing pad that Han had asked for, but she was quickly informed of Leia's disappearance and the presence of the Emperor's Hand on Belsavis years before, when she had never been on that mission. It was at that moment that Mara realized that the Emperor had lied to her&mdash;there were many Emperor's Hands, she had not been alone. Outraged, she grew angry when Han told her the name of the other Hand: Roganda Ismaren. Mara immediately headed for Belsavis and en route, encountered Luke and a group of brainwashed crewers from the recently destroyed Eye of Palpatine. She brought them with her to Belsavis for treatment, after noting the serious injury to Luke's leg. She also pulled in an escape pod from the Dreadnaught, opening it to reveal Callista Ming, a Jedi who had escaped the Eye of Palpatine after helping destroy it, and who had fallen in love with Luke. On Belsavis, Mara helped round up the last of the insane guards, many of whom she had once known, though Roganda Ismaren and her son Irek escaped.

Some time after taking a large role in the Smuggler's Alliance with Lando Calrissian, Mara's contacts passed on word of a Hutt plot related to Orko SkyMine. Mara journeyed to the Yavin Four Jedi Praxeum to warn Luke. Taking him on a ride in her ship, she relayed the information to him and told him that she occasionally enjoyed seeing him. He asked her to stay for dinner, where she met Callista Ming and asked her if she was Luke's new lady. Callista affirmed her statement, and asked if Mara was once interested in Luke. Mara replied that she had once wanted nothing more than to kill him, though the incident apparently didn't seem to cause much consternation between the women.

On one occasion while acting captain on the Wild Karrde in Karrde's temporary absence, Mara and the rest of the crew were captured by Ja Bardrin, a wealthy industrialist whose daugher Sansia had been captured by the slaver Chay Praysh. At gunpoint, Bardrin forced Mara to go to Torpris to rescue Sansia, who had, like all female human prisoners of Praysh's, been forced to work in the slime pits. Mara had no choice but to comply, as she had no way of contacting Karrde and Bardrin threatened to execute the rest of the crew if she didn't do as he wished.

Mara entered the palace under the pretext of bringing a gift to Praysh, supposedly unaware that she was the gift. However, her lightsaber was discovered at the entrance and was thrown to the nearby scavengers, where it was caught by a Togorian named H'sishi. Upon seeing Jade, Praysh had his guards lash her with neuronic whips and throw her into the slime pits, unaware of her identity or intent. Mara made contact with Sansia, though Sansia told her that her father only wanted an experimental, heavily upgraded SoroSuub 3000 luxury yacht that had also been stolen. Mara then inflicted an injury on herself and was then taken to the slave infirmary and used the Force to muddy the camera and steal some of the drugs and chemicals stored there. Once she was returned to the slave barracks, Mara used her skills as a saboteur to mix the chemicals into weapons. One combination created a fire that allowed her and Sansia to escape in the confusion. Other guards were dispatched with the acid she had created, but they were overpowered and forced to surrender. Dragged before Praysh to be interrogated, Mara was at a loss for what to do. However, the scavenger H'sishi entered with Mara's lightsaber (which was actually Luke's), claiming that it bore the corporate signature of another weapons syndicate. H'sishi then stunned Praysh and threw the lightsaber to Mara, who easily handled the guards. Mara and H'sishi then fled to the yacht, which Sansia had recovered after she had made her own escape during the fight.

Returning to Bardrin's mansion, Mara was surprised to find that Karrde, with the aid of some Noghri, had already taken the place and was preparing a mission to rescue her. Mara also got Bardrin to reveal that the entire abduction was a set-up, designed to help him take out Praysh and capture some stolen prototypes. Sansia, outraged, gave Mara the upgraded SoroSuub yacht, which she re-named the Jade's Fire. About this time, Karrde started helping her set up her own small trading company.

First Corellian Insurrection
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be just as happy if this stayed nice and simple"

- Mara Jade on Selonia.

By 18 ABY Mara was temporarily out of Karrde's organization and running a legitimate trading company&mdash;which was meant to prepare her to take over Karrde's organization. While in the Talfaglio system, the Jade's Fire intercepted a drone with a message cube with an Imperial code and addressed to Leia Organa Solo. Curious, she departed for the Corellian system, discerning that the message was most likely urgent. Arriving over Corellia, she attended the trade summit being held in Coronet City,where she encountered Leia and Han. Mara informed them of the message cube, and Leia escorted Mara to her personal apartment, along with Han, to unlock the message cube, which was cued to Leia's fingerprints. The cube revealed the plans of the Sacorrian Triad and the Human League, headed by Han's cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo, to blackmail the New Republic by destroying a number of stars. Shortly afterwards, the Human League caused riots and began their insurrection, and Mara, having left the Solos' apartment, disappeared.

Mara Jade was eventually captured by the Human League and imprisoned with Leia on Corellia as the First Corellian Insurrection sparked across the Corellian system. That, and the fact that her crew was missing, was incentive for her to fight against the Human League. Though neither woman trusted the other, the two decided to work together and escaped out of their cells and rappeled down into Leia's former quarters, where they retrieved Leia's lightsaber and blaster. Mara and Leia then departed the planet on Jade's ship, the Jade's Fire, after Mara called it to her with a beckon call. Both injured, they were just pleased with escaping Human League captivitity, and eventually decided to head to Selonia. Approaching the world, they detected the Bakuran fleet and a coneship that was carrying Han and a Selonian, both also escaped from the Human League on Corellia. Mara brought the Jade's Fire to dock with the coneship and Leia was reunited with her husband.

Both craft then continued towards Selonia, but were intercepted by hostile fighters before they could land and the Jade's Fire flew cover for the utterly defenseless coneship until Mara and Leia shot off the rest of the fighters. On Selonia, with Mara, Leia and Han attempted to convince the Selonians to change their mind about turning over a planetary repulsor and aiding them—and they too were imprisoned for a short time. With the arrival of Luke Skywalker, Mara, Leia and Han were freed, and Mara helped persuade the Selonians to at least sell the operating instructions for the planetary repulsor that was needed to stop the Starbuster plot from destroying an inhabited system. She took part in the final battle at Centerpoint Station in Jade's Fire, fighting with the Falcon and Lando's ship, the Lady Luck, against the Sacorrian Triad fleet, who had been behind the Starbuster plot the entire time. Leia's children, with the aid of the instructions Mara had helped acquire and Bakuran techs, also successfully averted Centerpoint from destroying its next target, diffusing its weapon with a burst from the planetary repulsor on Drall.

Caamas document crisis
"You didn't know, but after that pirate base thing, Faughn told me you and I made a good team. She was right. We really did."

- Mara Jade to Luke Skywalker

Shortly afterwards, Mara became absorbed into the events surrounding the Caamas Document crisis in 19 ABY when she and Karrde arrived on Wayland to hire some Noghri to work for his organization. Upon receiving a call from Cakhmaim, the Wild Karrde forced down the ship of Lak Jit, a Devaronian who had found information that the Bothans had helped Palpatine destroy Caamas.



Later, after sensing a disturbance in the Force, Mara rescued Luke from the Cavrilhu Pirates after while on a mission from Talon Karrde to look up pirate groups who might have been using clones. Luke had been infiltrating the group when he had been discovered, and Karrde had sent Mara in the Starry Ice to check on him and the Cavrilhu Pirates he was infiltrating. Only Mara's timely arrival allowed him to survive the self-destruct sequence of the pirate base by floating a short distance across vacuum in a Jedi hibernation trance to her ship. As they left the pirate base, a small Chiss ship flew by, investigating them before jumping to hyperspace. It would not be the last time Mara encountered these types of ships, however. After meeting Karrde on the Errant Venture, the Star Destroyer received a fly-by by another one of the ships. After the fighter went to hyperspace, Karrde and Mara were able to plot the destination of the ships: the planet Nirauan. Mara decided to investigate the world in the Starry Ice.

Nirauan
"Stupid, stupid. A big fat diversion&mdash;the oldest trick on the list. And I fell for it like some dumb farm kid." "Watch your language."

- Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker

Mara journeyed to the Hand of Thrawn complex on Nirauan, losing contact with Karrde and his organization after setting down on the planet in a Defender starfighter. While exploring the area near the fortress, she fell and knocked herself out on a rock. Her absence and lack of transmission caused the second-in-command, Faughn, on the Starry Ice to head out to seek help, leaving her stranded there. Faughn reported to Karrde, who was with Luke Skywalker at the time. Luke had been investigating a vision the Force had given him of Mara lying facedown in water when he met Karrde, and the vision had disturbed both of them. Luke agreed to go to Nirauan to rescue her, bringing her Jade's Fire and his X-wing to the remote planet.



Fifteen days after she had been stranded on Nirauan, Luke finally reached the cave she had been hiding in, surrounded by the local Qom Jha who had carried her there when she had fallen unconscious. The Qom Jha had taken her weapons and hadn't let her go too far, but other than that had left her unharmed. They also took her starfighter and placed it inside the cave, as she was being hunted by the Chiss who occupied the fortress. While Mara couldn't understand their Force-based communication, Luke was able to, and he helped showed her how to understand the aliens. Mara and Luke were able to convince the aliens to help them get into the fortress, via a series of underground passages. While they were traveling through the caves, Mara and Luke spent their time together settling some of their differences. Mara informed Luke that she had hoped for some attention while at the Jedi academy, but since it had never happened, she stopped attending. She also told him that he should stop trying to do everything himself, as he hadn't fully gotten over his experience serving the reborn Emperor. The layered cortosis in the walls near the tunnel entrance, along with semisentient predators and fire creepers, slowed them down, but they were able to penetrate the fortress.

They, along with their native guides and Artoo, explored the lower levels, but stopped after a pair of Chiss gunmen opened fire on them with charrics, injuring Mara in the shoulder. Luke helped her out back into the caves, where he put her into a Jedi healing trance. By this point, Luke had come to realize that he loved Mara, expressing his feeling by kissing her while she was asleep. However, when they awoke, Luke confronted her about her past and her refusal to give herself to service to others, but the conversation degenerated into an argument, with Luke inquiring about her relationship with Lando while she referred to his experiences with Gaeriel Captison and Callista. Mara calmed down some, and revealed to Luke that she and Lando were never really in a relationship; it had been a cover story for Karrde's mission. Their discussion led to a lowering of the barrier between them, to the point where they were in close mental contact. The two entered the fortress again, only this time they found the existence of the Empire of the Hand and their plans to turn it over to the Imperial Remnant.



Realizing that they needed more information, Mara went down to talk to the inhabitants of the fortress, where she encountered a group of ysalamiri and the leader of the fortress, Voss Parck and Soontir Fel. Parck gave her the true story of Thrawn's mission and history, while trying to recruit her into the Empire of the Hand. He also informed her of numerous threats in the Unknown Regions, which the Empire of the Hand was supposed to guard against. When she refused and they became aware of Skywalker's presence, they decided to keep them prisoner by forcing them into hiberation trances, namely by inflicting non-lethal wounds on Mara. Fortunately, Luke intervened at that time, cutting through the wall. Parck ordered his troops to stand down to prevent unnecessary slaughter, and the two escaped, pursued by Chiss troops once they were clear of the officers. Arriving in the fortress hangar, they disabled the clawcraft there, taking one for their escape.

Outside the fortress, Mara and Luke realized that they needed to return, to obtain data on the threats Parck was referring to earlier. While Luke rested in a hibernation trance, Mara made her sacrifice. Using a beckon call for her ship, she crashed the Jade's Fire into the hangar, preventing Parck from turning over his resources to the Remnant, which would use them against the New Republic. Sneaking in through a second passageway shown to them by their guides, Luke and Mara entered a different part of the fortress, this time encountering an unripened clone of Thrawn. However, two guard droids, layered with cortosis armor, attacked them on a floor laced with rope snares. Fighting back to back, the two joined minds to battle the droids in perfect coordination, though they had little chance of defeating the two droids. However, Artoo distracted one of the droids long enough for Mara and Luke to cut through the wall, letting water from a lake on the other side of the wall into the room, and in the confusion from the flood, Luke destroyed the two droids. Realizing that the water had trapped them inside, Luke told Mara of a vision he had of her lying facedown in water and also confessed his love to Mara, which she had completely realized when they had joined minds. As the water rose, Luke Skywalker asked her to marry him. She accepted.

Luke then realized that letting water into the fusion generator into the cloning chamber would create a blast big enough to blow through the wall. Mara, however, actually made the cut, as she had more experience with that type of technique. As the water roared through the newly created outlet, Luke put her in a hibernation trance and they both flew through the water unconscious. Luke awoke first and pulled Mara from where she had been lying facedown in the water, waking her with the phrase "I love you, Mara." With the aid of the Qom Jha and Qom Que natives one final time, Luke and Mara boarded their ships, he in his X-wing and she in the clawcraft they had taken, and left the planet for the New Republic. As an added bonus, Artoo had picked up Thrawn's copy of the Caamas Document while in the fortress, which they took back to resolve the conflict that had broken out over Bothawui.

Marriage to Luke Skywalker
"Mara.... will you marry me?"

- Luke Skywalker to Mara Jade

After the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom treaty, Luke and Mara spent a couple weeks on Garqi in the Outer Rim relaxing. However, back on Coruscant, Leia announced Luke and Mara's wedding, which was taken by the press as symbol of Imperial and New Republic unity. To complicate matters further, Threepio became involved in the wedding planning, resulting in a grandiose ceremony, much to Mara's dismay.



Much to her chagrin, Mara had to deal with a number of dress designers who were competing for the design of her wedding dress, ranging from a masked dress to a black dress reminiscient of Imperial agents to a minimalist dress that Mara refused to step out of the dressing room in. Mara grew frustrated and left Leia's apartment, where the designers had been coming. On the streets, she met a despondent Twi'lek female dress designer named Jari'kyn who had been seeking to bring her design before Mara, but had been fired by her employer instead. Mara revealed her identity to the designer and was quite impressed with her designs.

Shortly after she commissioned her dressmaker, Luke and Mara had a private, less formal Jedi wedding ceremony at the Jedi training area that had been established on Coruscant. Joining two halves of a crystal together in a symbol of their union, Luke and Mara were married by Kam Solusar. However, Mara was later displeased to find out that Luke got into a barfight during his bachelor party. She was also disturbed by a nightmare of Palpatine having won, and she was marrying a Luke corrupted by the dark side.

While Luke and his male friends recuperated, Mara and her bridesmaids&mdash;Leia, Mirax Terrik Horn, Iella Wessiri Antilles, Winter Celchu, and Tionne Solusar&mdash;went to a spa to relax. Later, they were bored and worked off the stress on the slingball court, handily defeating a group of pilots from Champion Squadron. However, all the women made sure not to tell their husbands of this event, as they had already taken them to task for the barfight.

Leaving the spa, Mara went to get her gown from Jari'kyn and was impressed by its appearance. However, they were attacked by a former Imperial Royal Guardsman seeking to derail the wedding. Still wearing her lightsaber, Mara handily defeated him. On the day of her formal wedding, despite an Imperial plot to ruin the wedding and a former Moff appearing at the climax of the ceremony threatening to shut down all communications, Luke and his friends were able to prevent any serious altercations, with Luke calming down the Moff while the Rogues, Chewie, and Kam dealt with the Imperials. The two exchanged vows and rings, and were introduced to the Galaxy for the first time as the Skywalkers. After their reception, Han flew the couple to their honeymoon site.

A year after they married, Mara grew frustrated with Luke's time constantly being taken by other people as he arbitrated a number of disputes on a planet that revered Jedi wisdom. Luke, however, had made special arrangements for a special second honeymoon for her, which pleased her to no end, although she did playfully warn Luke not to imitate their native host by calling her a "blushing bride."

For the next few years, Luke spent most of his time at the Jedi Academy instructing his Jedi candidates in the ways of the Force. Mara, retaining some of her wanderlust, sojourned far afield with smuggler Mirax Terrik Horn and assisted the fledgling Jedi Knights off of Yavin IV. During this time, she and Mirax were brought up on charges, but were exonerated.

The rediscovery of Outbound Flight
"Doesn't look promising, does it?"

- Mara during the search for Outbound Flight.



In 22 ABY, Mara ended her alliance with Karrde in order to commit herself to her marriage and Jedi knighthood, after one final mission to Jerf Huxley to inform him that Karrde's group was releasing him. The angered smuggler tried to intimidate her with a patched together droideka, but Luke and Mara easily cowed the smugglers and destroyed the droid. Immediately afterwards, they were invited by the Chiss to act as representatives of the Jedi in the return of the ruins of the Outbound Flight project, which had been revealed to have been destroyed by Thrawn and whose remains were located in a Chiss stronghold known as The Redoubt. Mara and Luke traveled as honorary guests aboard the Chaf Envoy, along with Geroon representatives, Dean Jinzler, Chak Fel and four stormtroopers from the Empire of the Hand, with all of the diseparate groups of guests harboring trust of any of the others or their Chiss hosts. During the expedition, Luke and Mara grew increasingly suspicious after several attempts to sabotage the mission, including setting an area near the fuel tanks on fire. As they continued to their destination, Mara began having doubts about her time as an Emperor's Hand though Luke managed to coax her out of it.

Once they arrived on Outbound Flight, the various parts of the diplomatic party were separated by the Survivors in repulsor cars. However, the Geroons revealed themselves to actually be the tyrannical Vagaari and to be in much greater numbers than first thought. Mara and Luke escaped from the Survivors' trap and helped defeat over three hundred Vagaari with the aid of the Imperials, the Chiss party, and the Survivors. After the Vagaari took one of the six Dreadnaughts back to rendezvous with their main ship, Mara and Luke chased it down in a Delta-12 starfighter and intercepted the ship. On board the ship, they fought their way through heavy defenses, including a fully programmed and activated droideka, and defeated the Vaagaari leader. As it turned out, their entire visit had been orchestrated by the Chiss in order to lure the Vagaari into attacking them, thus allowing them to launch a full-fledged war against them. At the end of the mission, Mara told Luke that she felt that being at his side in the New Republic was where she felt she should be, despite its shortcomings and the attractiveness of the Empire of the Hand.

Jedi Master
"As long as I'm fighting, I'm not dying. And I'm not done fighting just yet."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

During a diplomatic ceremony on Monor II, Mara acted as a bodyguard for one of the attending diplomats. Nom Anor, a Yuuzhan Vong agent masquerading as a head of state, was also in attendance, and secretly infected all those present with coomb spores, a deadly Yuuzhan Vong bioagent which killed everyone infected, except for Mara. She was able to hold back the disease through use of the Force, although no permanent cure could be found.



Before the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Mara accompanied Ambassador Leia Organa Solo and Jaina Solo on their diplomatic mission to the planet of Rhommamool, which at the time was waging a civil war with its sister planet, Osarian. The meeting ended in a failure when Rhommamool's leader, Nom Anor (in disguise), lectured Leia and sent them off, as his sole purpose in requesting the meeting was gathering information, especially on Mara's condition. The three women returned to Coruscant, with Mara again experiencing an attack of the disease, this time in her womb. They met up with the rest of the family on Coruscant, with Mara telling Luke of the rash actions of Wurth Skidder in destabilizing the situation over Rhommamool after he met with the New Republic Advisory Council. Back on Rhommamool, Anor would later use a missile strike to hit the Mediator and destroy Osa-Prime, causing the political conflict to escalate into a full blown war.

Both frustrated by Coruscant's government, Mara and Luke, along with the Solos, went to Lando's outpost on Dubrillion to obtain information about Jedi activity in the Outer Rim. Mara also took this opportunity to test her apprentice Jaina's training by having Artoo drop her out of hyperspace in a different location from her calculated destination. As expected, Jaina was up to the challenge and plotted her course back to the rest of the family. When a distress call came from the ExGal-4 outpost on Belkadan, Luke and Mara decided to investigate together. On Belkadan the Skywalkers discovered that the planet suffered from an ecological disaster, a result of Yuuzhan Vong terraforming. Mara sensed that her disease was somehow related to the planet's devastation. She was the first Jedi to engage a Yuuzhan Vong when Yomin Carr, who had instigated the world's destruction, attacked her. She was barely able to defeat the infiltrator and was nearly killed.

Acting on information they had gleaned from ExGal-4's databanks, they went to the Helska system, where Luke was attacked by hostile coralskippers when he went to take his X-wing down to the surface of Helska IV. Mara came to his aid and they fled the system for Dubrillion. Luke realized that he had to return to investigate, and planned to use of one of Lando's iceborers to sneak through the icy crust of the planet, and Mara would pilot the carry-ship for the trip. However, Mara was weakened from her disease, and Jacen and Jaina took the craft instead. When a New Republic fleet, led by the Rejuvenator arrived, Mara and Luke followed the fleet to the Helska system, where they flew cover for Jaina's iceborer while the New Republic fleet was badly mauled by the Yuuzhan Vong. After Jaina recovered Jacen, who had gone into the Yuuzhan Vong stronghold and rescued Danni Quee, Mara and Luke took the Sabre to a nearby system, where they transferred Danni from the extremely cramped stylus ship into the Jade Sabre.

After discussing the invaders with the young scientist and Jacen, they prepared to return to Helska, accompanied by shieldships and starfighters from Dubrillion in a plan to use the shieldships to melt the planet. Mara flew in the Jade Sabre again, knowing that the planet had to be destroyed to kill the Vong inside, and that every craft was needed to cover the shieldships, despite her worsening condition. However, in the thick of battle, she collapsed, and Jaina's attempts to take over the controls were in vain; Mara's lapse had already allowed significant damage to the Sabre. Only a last-minute maneuver by Luke saved her life when he used his repulsor coils to push the Sabre away from the melting ice planet. Still, the shieldships were able to melt the planet and the Praetorite Vong were defeated. Following the battle, Mara became convalescent as she battled the disease inside her.

Escalation
"The key thing is to find out for certain if my illness is connected to the Yuuzhan Vong. If it is, when I get healthy, the Yuuzhan Vong will pay."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Following the battle of Helska, Mara returned to Yavin IV, where Luke had called a meeting of all the Jedi. The meeting resulted in Luke assigning different members of the Order to various missions, and Mara was sent with her nephew Anakin Solo to Dantooine, both as a chance for her to recover and fight her disease and as a small scouting probe to see if Dantooine was on the Yuuzhan Vong invasion corridor.

On Dantooine, Mara tried to recover and also taught her nephew Anakin Solo a lesson about not trivializing the Force on small items, such as in his bartering with the native Dantari. They had been on the planet for a few weeks when they discovered the Yuuzhan Vong had landed on the planet. Anakin had to fend off hunting parties of Yuuzhan Vong warriors until they were rescued by Luke and Jacen Solo, as the Jade Sabre had been destroyed by the Vong. They then participated in the Battle of Dantooine, though Luke requested that Mara stay with Leia and the noncombatants. For once, Mara agreed without argument, but even the middle of the refugee camp was not safe for her as Mara sensed and engaged three Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators in ooglith masquers with the aid of Leia and her Noghri bodyguard Bolphur. Killing the warriors quickly, Mara then sent Leia off to find Danni Quee, who was Force-sensitive and could detect Yuuzhan Vong, to hunt for more similarly clad infiltrators while Mara checked other parts of the camp, killing one more warrior. Once the battle was over and the refugees had been evacuated, the Solos and Skywalkers, including Mara, returned to Coruscant with their grave report of the battle, their retreat covered by Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey.

Mara then returned with her husband to Coruscant, where she, Corran Horn, Luke, and Kyp Durron, along with many other Jedi had another meeting on the role of the Order in the war. Luke, Mara, and Corran sought to ease the aggressive nature of Kyp and his sizable faction and they were somewhat successful. Mara did not contribute much to the meeting, preferring to sit and observe, quietly supporting Luke from the sidelines. Later though, she and Anakin Solo discovered that someone had been accessing files on old Imperial superweapons. Luke, Mara, and Anakin quickly determined that their suspect was Jedi Knight Daeshara'cor and Luke recruited a fringe information broker named Chalco to help them, as Han was still overcome with grief from Chewbacca's death. Luke realized that Daeshara'cor was going to Vortex to talk with former superweapon designer Qwi Xux and the trio joureyed to Vortex with Mirax Terrik Horn on the Pulsar Skate to intercept the rogue Jedi Knight.

On Vortex, Luke and Mara met up with Qwi, who told them that she had told Daeshara'cor nothing. In the course of the discussion, Mara said that under the right circumstances she would use a superweapon, but Qwi maintained her belief in pacifism. Luke and Mara left Qwi at the Cathedral of Winds, continuing their search on Garos IV, a world famed for its university and large database of old Imperial files. Mara and Luke were disturbed, though, when they learned that Daeshara'cor had kidnapped Anakin after the Twi'lek Jedi called them offering a trade: Anakin for information on Imperial superweapons. However, Anakin proved to be a hard catch and, with Chalco's help, subdued the renegade.

Luke and Mara then journeyed to Ithor, soon to be a key battleground in the war. She did not participate in the releasing ceremony to commune with the jungle that the other Jedi did, but did get a chance to spend some time with her husband. Mara told Luke that she was ready to face the uncertainty of the future and that she had long wanted to carry his child, though she wanted to beat her illness first. However, their pleasant time on Ithor was interrupted when Shedao Shai arrived with a large force of ships and warriors, launching a combined air and ground assault on the world. Mara fought against his command on Ithor's surface, despite her relative weakness, acquitting herself well and saving Anakin from the Yuuzhan Vong, and the invaders were temporarily beaten off. The contest for Ithor ended when Corran Horn challenged and killed Shai in single combat, but his subordinate brutally destroyed Ithor anyway. Horn was left to shoulder the blame, and Mara supported him in his decision to abandon both the Jedi Order and the New Republic temporarily, over Luke's protestations.

Expecting mother
"I want to get some more sleep anyways. You don't know what a luxury that is until you have a baby. And that's not a suggestion."

- Mara Jade Skywalker to Jaina Solo

The Jedi Vergere, who possessed the unusual ability to control the molecular composition of her "tears," gave Han Solo a dose to deliver to Jade, who upon ingesting them was almost totally cured her of her disease. Ten months into the Yuuzhan Vong War, Mara realized that the spores had not rendered her barren but that she was pregnant with a son.

As the Jedi's relationship with the New Republic government deteriorated, Mara and Luke were issued warrants of arrests. They went into hiding aboard the Errant Venture. During this time Mara's condition worsened as the disease started to gain ground. With the help of her husband she was able to defeat the disease and give birth to her son Ben. Borsk Fey'lya eventually rescinded the arrest warrants and the Skywalkers moved to Eclipse, a safeworld that acted as a Jedi base. After the birth of Ben, Mara became increasingly over-protective and went as far as sending him away to safe worlds and hiring a nanny droid to protect him. She did this partly because of her son's safety, and because she didn't want to go through the pain of losing a child like Leia went through after losing Anakin.

End of the Yuuzhan Vong War
"Luke, I don't want to discourage your curiosity, but I have to remind you, if something goes wrong, this is an exceptionally embarrassing way to die." I'll trust you to improve the story. Luke Skywalker goes out in a blaze of glory in battle with a red devourer."

- Luke and Mara on occupied Coruscant.



Despite joining forces with General Wedge Antilles's Fleet Group Three, the Jedi was still hopelessly outnumbered by Tsavong Lah's invasion fleet. While the Jedi destroyed several enemy yammosks and Lah's flagship, the Sunulok, the Jedi starfighter wing paid too heavy a price. During the Fall of Coruscant, Mara and Luke learned that Viqi Shesh had kidnapped their infant son. The X-wings of both Luke and Mara, Jedi ace pilots in the galaxy, were shot down when the couple attempted to recover the kidnapped Ben. When Lando Calrissian, YVH 1-1A, and C-3PO took over to recover the baby, Luke led Mara and Artoo to defend Coruscant with surface turbolaser battery. The trio escaped the doomed Coruscant aboard the Falcon.

Shortly after the capture of Coruscant by the Yuuzhan Vong, Mara Jade made her way to Borleias along with her husband Luke and a handful of other Jedi in the hopes of securing a staging point for disoriented evacuees, but she tried to minimize her role in the war in an attempt to be with and protect her son. While on Borleias General Wedge Antilles appointed Mara as Head of Intelligence for all in-system forces with priority on the Borleias ground base personnel. Mara held this position until Iella Wessiri arrived planetside. Around this point, Mara reluctantly left her son Ben in order to scout the Vong terraforming activities on Coruscant with Luke, Tahiri, Danni and Wraith Squadron. The group explored the shattered capital, evading Yuuzhan Vong patrols and making contact with the survivors. After Luke got them past a red devourer tank into a secret chamber, Mara's knowledge of old Imperial codes allowed them access to a secret laboratory where Irek Ismaren had been turned into a mutant cyborg Dark Jedi. Haunted by the mental commands of Irek, now know as Lord Nyax, the three Jedi pursued the deranged Dark Jedi in hopes of stopping him. Mara nearly abandoned the pursuit upon seeing Viqi Shesh with a group of Yuuzhan Vong, but Luke convinced her to stick with him. Together, Mara, along with Luke and Tahiri snubbed out the rising menace of Lord Nyax before he could become a true threat to the Jedi Order and by extension the Republic.

Returning to Borleias, Mara became the second-in-command of Blackmoon Squadron under Luke. Together, the two flew cover for the Lusankya as it executed Operation Emperor's Spear in the final stages of the battle for Borleias.

Husband and wife then journeyed to the provisional capital of Mon Calamari, where Mara and Councilor Triebakk convinced Cal Omas to run for the position of Chief of State. Throughout his campaign, Mara assisted Omas as a private citizen, working to get the pro-Jedi candidate into office. Mara also helped Luke and Cal work out a new plan for the High Council, an advisory council for the Jedi comprised of six Jedi and six non-Jedi. Later, she was with Luke when Jacen arrived in-system with Vergere after escaping Yuuzhan Vong captivity. Her duties shifted though, when Lando and Karrde agreed to help out with Omas's campaign and she began using [YVH-M]] droids to detect Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators, finding pleasure in her work.

While following a pair of disguised Yuuzhan Vong, she noticed them taking a submersible out. Renting another underwater craft, she followed them and stopped them from assassinating Omas and Triebakk with a pair of torpedos by nearly ramming their craft and tricking their own torpedo to come back and hit the Yuuzhan Vong. Omas would later go on to win the election, becoming the new Chief of State.

With his election, the High Council was established, with Mara as one of the founding members. Shortly afterwards, she learned of the genocidal bioweapon Alpha Red. Mara and Luke both opposed using the weapon, as it would represent the slaughter of an entire culture and escalate the war into a further bloodbath. Vergere overheard them talking about it, though, and used her tears to neutralize the weapon, ending the specter of Alpha Red temporarily. In the three months delay of Alpha Red's development that Vergere had created, the New Republic decided to implement the aging and retired Ackbar's plan for a series of limited engagements followed by a trap at Ebaq Nine. Working with New Republic Intelligence on Mon Calamari while Luke went to recruit the aid of Garm Bel Iblis, Mara helped carefully leak information to Yuuzhan Vong spies, giving them knowledge of the bait&mdash;Jedi Knights and government officials&mdash;that were alleged to be in the isolated Deep Core system. The result was the conclusive Battle of Ebaq Nine, which Mara, Winter, and Ackbar viewed from Fleet Command back on Mon Calamari.

In an effort to end the war, Luke and Mara joined several other Jedi on a mission to the Unknown Regions. There, they sought to enlist the help of the Imperial Remnant, as well as to search for the living planet Zonama Sekot.

During the final battle of the war, Mara was part of the strike team that was sent to kill Supreme Overlord Shimrra. After the victory of the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi set up a new Jedi Praxeum on Ossus where the Skywalkers lived.

A cry for help
Despite surviving the Yuuzhan Vong War, the New Jedi Order would still face trouble. Meanwhile, Mara and Luke's infant son, Ben, had cut himself from the Force as a result of the pain and suffering he had sensed during that time. Because of this Mara found it difficult to locate Ben through the Force. Even five years after the war, Ben refused to use the Force, a disturbing development his parents did not know how to overcome.



She and Kyp Durron also led one faction that believed that the Jedi were not responsible for the protection of the Galactic Alliance by mandate, rather, that the Jedi had to take a larger view of Galactic affairs to avoid getting tangled in the internal politics of the Alliance, as was what happened in the Old Republic. They would be opposed by another faction under Kenth Hamner and Corran Horn that believed that the Jedi Order owed the Galactic Alliance their full and unwavering attention, due to the fact that it was the Galactic Alliance that financed the Order, and was also responsible for giving the Order a new Jedi Temple.

These tensions were nominally smoothed by the leader of the Jedi and Mara's husband, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Under his leadership, he tamed the tempers of even the brashest and loudest of the Jedi, but, as he would later reflect, he made the almost fatal error of not providing a power structure within the order. All these things would manifest themselves in the Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War.

Upon learning that group of Jedi were helping a Killik hive in a border dispute with the Chiss, an irate Chiss leader went immediately to speak with Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance Cal Omas, who in turn spoke with Master Skywalker. Concerned, Luke, Mara, their son Ben, and Han and Leia Solo set out to begin their search for the renegade Jedi. When they caught up with the aberrant Jedi, they were attacked by mysterious blue-black Killiks that UnuThul, Raynar Thul's new Killik persona, seemed to know nothing about.

On another occasion, her son Ben befriended a Gorog, thinking of the creature as his pet. Secretly, Gorog attempted to brainwash the child to join the Dark Nest, but the plot was uncovered by Ben's mother, who was forced to kill the Killik.

In a meeting with Mara, and Leia and Han, UnuThul explained why the Skywalkers and Solos were attacked during their first trip to the colony. According to UnuThul, the Gorog wanted Mara dead, because the Gorog Nest became the Dark Nest when the wife and daughter of Daxar Ies traveled to the Unknown Regions after Daxar was assassinated by Mara. They became Gorog Joiners and the idea of revenge against Mara created the Dark Nest. This revelation by UnuThul would later be proven to be false. Mara and Luke were again brought before UnuThul, this time as presumed enemies. Leia, now a Jedi Knight, was able to calm down UnuThul, but he still did not trust him. This mistrust would eventually lead him to hold Skywalker and Han Solo captive, in attempts to get them to join into the Killik nest, hence being able to learn all their secrets. A rescue mission was hatched by Organa Solo and several Jedi, but before they could get to him the nests fled the Utegetu Nebula in massive Hive ships. Some escaped a blockade set up by the Alliance, but the Gorog Hive ship was caught. After fierce fighting, Luke was caught by Lomi Plo herself. Plo eventually gained the upper hand in the battle, and managed to escape. Luke however, was almost killed. The Killik fleets escaped, and engaged the Chiss. The Swarm War had finally fully begun.

The Swarm War
"The Masters are pulling the order in ten different directions. You have to do this, or they'll tear it apart."

- Mara to Luke Skywalker

Luke and Mara immediately returned to the Jedi Academy on Ossus to send a Force-call to the entire Jedi Order. Though Mara was concerned for her husband's health after his intense meditation, she gave her full support to his decision to grant himself the title of Jedi Grand Master and assume full control of the Jedi Order. Indeed, she alone was privy to his plans going into the meeting.

Soon after Luke's announcement, he and Mara were the guest of Tyko and Aryn Thul, who attempted to negotiate for the safety of Aryn's son, Raynar. They also gifted Mara and Luke with the droid R2-0, the prototype for the R2 series astromech droid. An OmniGate gleaned from this droid's brain would later allow slicer Zakarisz Ghent to access holograms in R2-D2's memory, such as that of Anakin Skywalker Force-choking Padmé Amidala. When Luke, Mara, and Jacen viewed the holograms, conflicts became apparent in the way each interpreted the scenes. Mara was disturbed by Anakin Skywalker's anger and threatening behavior, while Jacen saw no problem with it. Furthermore, Luke was forced to confront his doubts that his father Anakin might have been involved in the death of his mother Padmé. Adding to the tensions brewing between the trio, Mara would also confront Jacen about performing a memory wipe on her son Ben, but ultimately accepted his false explanation that he did it for Ben's own protection (and not to conceal the fact that he had fathered a daughter with Tenel Ka Djo).

During the Battle of Sarm, Mara was a member of the Jedi force leading an attack on a Killik nest ship. She was the first to reach an injured Jacen Solo and made a heroic effort to rescue him from the tangled wreckage of his StealthX. When Jacen came to, he joined Mara in protecting Luke's flanks as he battled the deformed Dark Jedi Lomi Plo. Mara sustained a horrific injury herself when a shatter gun pellet ripped through her vac suit and destroyed one of her kidneys. The month-long recuperation period for her wounds meant that she would not see any more action during the Swarm War. When Mara learned that her husband planned to face Lomi Plo and Raynar Thul alone, she became fearful for his fate. In a disturbing episode, Jacen used the Force to fake Mara's death, in order to demonstrate to Luke his own vulnerability to fear. Soon thereafter, the three viewed the hologram of Padmé's final moments, which steeled Luke for battle and influenced him to reject Vergere's teachings. Luke's confidence and trust in Mara was also confirmed by the revelation that she had no role in Padmé's death.

Luke killed Lomi Plo and brought Raynar back to the Galactic Alliance, albeit under heavy sedation. Mara was still in rehabilitation at the conclusion of the Swarm War.

Rising tensions
"There is a lot of unrest in life. The Force is created by life, so it has unrest in it. If you open yourself to the Force, how can you not open yourself to a certain amount of unrest?"

- Mara at the beginning of the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War.



In 40 ABY, a civil war broke out between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia. Her son and nephew were sent to Adumar, where they discovered a secret missile factory. Missions such as this, undertaken as the crisis continued to escalate, only heightened Mara's fears for the safety of her family, especially for her only son, Ben. When the Galactic Alliance decided to have peace talks with Corellia in the Kuat system, Mara accompanied her family to Toryaz Station. Shortly afterwards, the group were attacked by drugged Corellian commandos. Though the attack was stopped, Corellian Prime Minister, Aidel Saxan was assassinated. This act angered Corellia and all attempts at peace talks were ceased.

Eventually Mara went on a mission with Luke to kidnap Thrackan Sal-Solo, Head of State of Corellia. After making it through the planet's security, Mara ventured off to Thrackan's mansion where she rescued Tiu Zax and did more recon work with her in Thrackan's mansion. Meanwhile, Luke went to see Corran Horn and the newly built Jedi facility that housed new Jedi initiates. They were able to save Jaina's and Tahiri's team and escort them to safety and after the mission they arrived on Coruscant. While on Coruscant, Mara battled a twisted Force ghost of her son, Ben. Not realizing that it was in fact the real Ben, Mara caught him off guard with a kick to his midsection.

As the Second Corellian Insurrection swelled, Mara was asked by Cal Omas to head up a new paramilitary organization designed to crack down on Corellian insurgents and terrorists operating on Coruscant. When she declined, the command was given to Jacen Solo instead. She and Luke, along with the other Jedi Masters, were shocked to see Ben and Jacen participate in GAG raids and didn't approve of it.

Despite Luke's deep misgivings concerning Jacen Solo and his relationship with their son Ben, Mara was the only family member&mdash;besides Ben&mdash;that trusted Jacen, correctly ascertaining that her nephew was secretly torn over someone that he loved. However, despite this insight being correct, she wrongly attributed it as the cause of Jacen's questionable behavior when in truth he was turning to the dark side. Her self-denial of Jacen's true motivations brought her, for a time, to the belief that Jacen was the best caregiver for Ben. However, she later came to believe Luke and considered that her nephew was falling to the dark side.

Hunting Lumiya
"I get the proverbial bad feeling about this."

- Mara to Luke

After deducing that Lumiya was alive, Mara constructed a shoto to combat Lumiya's lightwhip and accompanied her husband on his search to locate her and hopefully put an end to this situation. Mara would also supervise a sparring session between Luke and Ben



On their search, they were summoned by detectives to look at Tresina Lobi's corpse in Fellowship Plaza, where she learned that Luke had told Lobi to watch over Ben and Jacen without her knowledge. At the crime scene they found a holocube that brought them to Lumiya's apartment. In the apartment, Mara and Luke found evidence that linked Lumiya to the killing of Bothans. Distraught at their findings, Mara decided that Ben had to be taken away from Jacen.

After landing at the rendezvous point where Jacen had said Ben would meet them, Mara and Luke were attacked by Lumiya and Alema Rar. While Luke dealt with Lumiya, Mara dueled Alema Rar when she nearly killed Mara with a dart. In the duel, Luke was severely injured while fighting Lumiya, but Mara defeated Alema, knocking her unconscious, where she discovered the bomb attached to Alema. Returning to see Luke shoot Lumiya three times, Mara informed him of the bomb and pulled him to safety. Meeting up with the family on Hapes except Han and Leia, Jacen allowed Luke to take Ben away to be cautious. The three then returned to Coruscant.

Upon returning to the Jedi Temple, Mara and Luke were informed by Kyp Durron of Cal Omas' and Cha Niathal's request that Jacen be made into a Jedi Master. After Ben disappeared, Luke and Mara accurately guessed Jacen was involved and contacted him, though they learned little from the encounter. Following their conversation with Jacen, Mara and Luke held a meeting with Jagged Fel at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, who warned them of the survival of Alema Rar, who had helped kill Tresina Lobi. Shortly before the meeting ended, Fel entrusted Luke with a special device to aid in capture of Alema Rar&mdash;Mara and Luke then gave it to Master Cilghal to analyze. The two then received an encrypted message from Han and Leia requesting to meet them on the Errant Venture

While traveling aboard the Errant Venture, Mara and Luke reunited with Leia and Han as well as their old friends Wedge, Mirax, Iella, and Corran. However, they also took that opportunity to confront Jacen about his activities with Ben, but a battle alarm allowed him to slip away. After the reunion, Mara accompanied Luke, Han, and Leia to Gilatter VIII to rescue Jacen, who was unaware that the station was a trap for him and the Galactic Alliance. The rescue mission ended in disaster as the three encountered both Lumiya and Alema, in addition to the station's security, while Jacen fled to the Anakin Solo.

Death
"You're&hellip; as vile as he was." "Who?" "Palpatine."

- Mara Jade Skywalker and Jacen Solo

The fiasco on Gilatter VIII left Mara and the others wary of not only Jacen but Alema and Lumiya as well. Concerned for the safety of her son, Mara decided to hunt down Lumiya and kill her. Mara obtained such a chance at Hesperidium and ended with herself gaining a bruised eye, split lip, burned neck, and bleeding forehead while Lumiya suffered severe lightsaber wounds. When her son, Ben, discovered that Jacen and Lumiya were connected by affiliation, he told his mother. Mara, feeling both betrayed and upset at the dark revelation, cornered Jacen and attempted to sway him back to the light side. After Jacen brushed her warnings off, Mara felt Jacen had become too evil and dangerous to leave alive.

Mara tracked Jacen to Hapes, where he was visiting with Tenel Ka and Allana. When he left Hapes, Mara ambushed him in her StealthX, and after a dogfight in Hapan space, they ended up on the planet Kavan. In the tunnels of Kavan, a short duel ensued that degraded into a very physical brawl. Mara gained the upper hand through tactics, despite her lesser Force ability, and looked as though she would triumph. Jacen stared into her eyes and instantly created the illusion of Ben's face beneath her, causing Mara to hesitate for a split second. Jacen used the time to stab a poisoned dart into Mara's thigh, causing a slow, paralyzing, and painless death. Her final words expressed her belief that Jacen had become worse than Palpatine, and that Luke would defeat him. Mara left her body behind instead of allowing it to become one with the Force to leave evidence of the identity of her killer as well as to give her family something to say goodbye to. Her last uses of the Force were to whisper in Ben's mind and to run a Force-hand over Luke's hair. Other Jedi, including Leia, also felt Mara's passing through the Force.



Mara's legacy
"You're an idiot. You can't stop from touching the Force any more than you can stop breathing. You're a Skywalker. The Force runs strong in your family."

- Cade's hallucination of Mara speaks to him.

Mara's descendants would all be raised on the Skywalker family histories in which Mara featured prominently. Family holos described the important events of her life to those who came after her.

One such descendant was Cade Skywalker, a drug-addicted former Jedi haunted by the ghosts of his past. Hiding from his enemies on Ossus, Cade experience drug-induced hallucinations after ingesting several death sticks; visions of Mara Jade and Anakin Skywalker, who then morphed into Darth Vader and warned him of the perils of falling to the dark side.

Personality and traits
"We don't have a lock for the window but there's an alarm on it. You try going out, and it'll be a toss- up as to whether the vornskrs get to you before I do. But don't take my word on it. Try it and find out."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Mara was an extremely proud woman, who always gave her best at everything that she did&mdash;this can be seen in her time as an Emperor's Hand. A notable example of this is during her investigation of Moff Glovstoak and the efficiency with which she brought down the corrupt Imperial. However, Mara did not let Glovstoak's fall, or the Emperor's approval, end her mission&mdash;Mara continued by dwelling deeper into the conspiracy, eventually following the clues directly to its source. She refused to serve the warlords who seized power after the Emperor died, feeling that they were beneath her.

Additionally, Mara was also extremely devoted, serving what she viewed as Palpatine's will even after his death. She would later display loyalty to Talon Karrde and his organization even at the cost of total alienation from the Empire, and was furious that Thrawn forced her to betray Karrde. Mara later displayed the same commitment to her husband, Luke Skywalker, and her son, Ben Skywalker, even at one point refusing to participate in the defense of Borleias in order to protect Ben.



Due to her upbringing under Palpatine, and also to the training she received from the Sith Lord, Mara learned how to maintain a calm and collected composure in almost every situation. During the First Corellian Insurrection, and though she harbored a vendetta against Luke Skywalker, Mara went was able to prioritize the severity of the situation and place her differences with Skywalker aside&mdash;she proceeded to warn Leia and the Senate about the recently uncovered plot to destroy the New Republic. During her brief tutelage under Kyle Katarn, Mara was forced to face Kyle in an ancient Temple when he fell to the dark side. While he was fully engaged in the dark powers of the temple, Mara was forced to defend against Katarn's attacks, with Mara managing to fend him off each time. Eventually, Kyle and Mara found themselves deep inside the catacombs of the temple, and Mara voluntarily turned off her lightsaber and surrendered, maintaining her calm composure as she realized she could not longer fight her one-time friend. Due to Mara's self-control, Kyle was eventually redeemed and brought back to the light.

Even though Mara exuded a toughened exterior, she was a warm and compassionate individual. Through her love and marriage to Luke Skywalker, Mara was able to realize that her life of constant conflict had not provided her with everything she needed. However, through her experiences and relationship with Luke, she came to acknowledge her love for him and understand what his companionship offered her life &mdash;she realized that it was acceptable to let him past her defenses. A small way in which she showed Luke her love for him was through her own, playful, nickname which she constantly called him&mdash;Farmboy. Mara's love and compassion also managed to manifest itself when she gave birth to her son, Ben, during the Yuuzhan Vong War. The war caused Mara to develop a strong, and somewhat overprotective, demeanor towards Ben, constantly fearing that the war would find him and take him away from her and Luke. After watching the devastation that Anakin's caused Leia, Mara had no wish to experience that type of emotional pain. Later, during the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara's love and protectiveness of her son was still evident. She was constantly worrying over Ben and his actions within the GAG, and even up until her death, her love for Luke and Ben was present in her mind.

Talents
"Sometimes I think you can be spooky just singing nursery songs"

- Elassar Targon to Mara.

Just as her personality was diverse, so were the talents that Mara utilized throughout her colored career. Mara was known to be a skilled slicer, and was known to have been capable in hacking computers and various other pieces of hardware. During Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic, Talon Karrde was captured by Imperial forces, and Mara took it upon herself to rescue the smuggler leader. Mara was able to sneak aboard Thrawn's ship, Chimaera, and used her slicing abilities to hack the Star Destroyer's computer, eventually reaching the detention block and freeing Karrde.



During her life, Mara became an experienced pilot who flew a variety of ships in a number of situations. During the Thrawn Campaign, Mara flew a Z-95 Headhunter and flew against the enemy at the Battle for the Katana fleet, though she was disabled by an ion cannon. During the First Corellian Insurrection Mara piloted her ship, the Jade's Fire, and used it in several different instances. After she and Leia escaped from the Human League, Mara flew her ship through the enemy forces, and eventually managed to rendevous with Han Solo on Selonia. Later, Mara flew the Jade's Fire in the final battle at Centerpoint Station, and contributed to the defeat of the Corellian forces. After the First Corellian Insurrection, Mara piloted the Starry Ice in her rescue of Luke, who had ran into trouble with the Cavrilhu Pirates. Luke had unfortunately been discovered during his infiltration of the pirate group, and Mara's skilled hand as a pilot helped Luke survive the encounter. During the Yuuzhan Vong war, Mara distinguished herself during the Second Battle of Borleias when she was made second in command of Blackmoon Squadron. In that position, she provided cover for the Lusankya during Operation Emperor's Spear, which saw the command ship successfully ram a Yuuzhan Vong worldship.

During her time as an Emperor's Hand, Mara became skilled in the arts of disguise and infiltration. In 0.5 ABY, Mara used her skills of disguise to infiltrate the court of Moff Glovstoak, posing as Countess Claria. During this mission Mara discovered that Glovstoak had been skimming the top off tax returns to the Imperial Center. Mara managed to sneak through Glovstoak's palace and found that he was in possession of six stolen paintings which were worth millions of credits and the Emperor was provided with the proof he required of the Moff's treason, summarily disposing of Glovstoak. After the destruction of the first Death Star, Mara employed her spy abilities against Darth Vader, recording his actions and delivering reports to the Emperor. In the months prior to the Emperor's Palpatine's death, Mara was sent to Tatooine in an effort to infiltrate Jabba's Palace. Mara disguised herself as the dancing girl Arica, and set her plans in motion while she awaited the arrival Skywalker. Following the death of the Emperor, Mara found herself on the run from Director Ysanne Isard, but managed to However, she managed to escape, disguising herself as a refugee. During her days as a smuggler, Mara often employed her spy abilities for Talon Karrde&mdash;she participated in a mission for Karrde to track down Jorj Car'das, where maximized her infiltration skills to complement her spy abilities. Mara's colored life provided her the skills needed to be a successful spy. During the outbreak of the Second Corellian Insurrection, Mara's son Ben would retell of her abilities as a spy to Jedi Knight Nelani Dinn. During the Confederation-Galactic Alliance war of 40 ABY, Mara used her talents as a spy to track and watch Jacen, eventually following him to Hapes, where he was visiting his lover Tenel Ka, and his daughter Allana.



Beginning with her training under Emperor Palpatine, and culminating with her ascension to Jedi Master, Mara continually proved her reputation as an accomplished lightsaber duelist. During the Thrawn campaign, Mara and Luke encountered the crazed Jedi-clone Joruus C'boath and the dark clone of Luke. While being strengthened by Luke through the Force, Mara was able to defeat the clone, Luuke, and then confronted C'boath. Mara dodged a bolt of Force lightning that C'boath threw at her, and managed to stab the insane clone through his chest with her lightsaber. During the Yuuzhan Vong war, Mara and Luke traveled to the ExGal-4 outpost on Belkadan and began an investigation into what had occurred there. During their search, Mara was confronted by the Yuuzhan Vong spy Yomin Carr, and the two proceeded to engage in a violent duel. Mara was evenly matched in skill by the Yuuzhan Vong warrior, who fought with a viciousness Mara had rarely encountered&mdash;Mara was startled by her opponent's lack of presence in the Force, and his seemingly impenetrable armor and his strange weapon which could resist a lightsaber's blade. However, Mara was able to defeat Carr by slicing off both of his legs off at the knee and stabbing him through the chest. The Yuuzhan Vong war also saw Mara, Luke, and Tahiri encounter the deranged Dark Jedi Lord Nyax, formerly Irek Ismaren. Nyax had been held in an Imperial laboratory on Coruscant, where he had lightsabers surgically implanted in his elbows, knees, and forearms&mdash;thus providing him with six lightsaber blades with which to fight with. The ensuing lightsaber battle saw the superior strength of Nyax almost completely overwhelm the three Jedi. However, Tahiri was able to make herself invisible in the Force and proceeded to severely wound the Dark Jedi. The fact that Mara, Luke, and Tahiri were able to defeat Nyax with relatively little damage to themselves is significant, since Nyax easily slaughtered the Jedi-killing voxyn that the Yuuzhan Vong sent after him. During the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara and Luke found themselves confronted by an old enemy&mdash;Lumiya. Mara and Luke eventually tracked the Dark Lady and the Dark Jedi Alema Rar to Hapan space where a violent duel took place aboard the space station known as Roqoo Depot. While Luke and Lumiya dueled each other, Mara and Alema entered into a deadly fight&mdash;Alema shot Mara with a poison dart, but Mara was able to defeat the Twi'lek, knocking her unconscious. The Twi'lek only survived because Mara noticed the bomb on her chest that would go off if she was killed. As the war progressed, Mara began to worry about the safety of her son, and decided to hunt down Lumiya and finish her off for good. Mara eventually caught up with Lumiya on Hesperidium and another lightsaber duel took place involving the two women. Mara fought Lumiya to a standstill, and the two women were both left severely wounded.

After years of training and battle, Mara's skills with manipulating the Force were well-developed. Even Luke relied on Mara's danger sense more than his own, since Mara had required it to survive as an Imperial agent. Mara's keen danger sense provided her warning of imminent danger and saved her life on numerous occasions. As the Emperor's Hand, she was able to hear Palpatine's voice through the Force &mdash;and just prior to her marriage with Luke, she discovered that they had gained a similar telepathic ability. By the time of her ascension to Jedi Master Mara had became a powerful member in the New Jedi Order. This was evident during the Yuuzhan Vong War when she successfully used the Force to keep her disease from attacking Ben inside of her womb. By the time of the Second Corellian Insurrection, Mara's talents as a Jedi Master had progressed enough that she was able to levitate herself across an open area on a bubble of Force energy while keeping the air aronud her stilled and her heat emissions minimal to avoid setting off any sensors.

Additionally, Mara was a decent slicer herself, breaking into secure files with relative ease, though she was not on the same level as Zakarisz Ghent. Mara was adept in immediately reading and assessing any situation or individual, and the Emperor gave her memory retention techniques to enhance her abilities. She was also talented enough to secure a number of odd jobs while on the run, including as a hyperdrive mechanic.

Mara's ships
"This ship fights my way, or not at all."

- Mara Jade

During Mara's life she was an accomplished pilot who flew a number of personal and unique ships&mdash;from unnamed Imperial cargo ships, during her time as an Emperor's Hand, to the Star Yacht Jade Shadow.

While working as an Emperor's Hand, Mara was provided with an enormous cargo ship which she used as her mobile base of operations. This ship was essentially her home, and in it Mara kept a large number of books, personal items, and also an extensive choice of weapons for any number of missions. While Mara was away on missions for the Emperor, the ship was administered by the protocol droid Kaythree, and crewed a small group of trusted Imperials. The ship was large enough that it had its own hangar bay which Mara used to store a number of craft, including groud craft such as landspeeders, and personal starfighters like Z-95 Headhunters.



During her time as a Emperor's Hand, and later during her career as a smuggler and Jedi student, Mara often chose to fly the trustworthy Z-95 Headhunter starfighter. The Z-95 was an extremely dependable and reliable fighter which was able to pack both speed and firepower into its small package. For these reasons, Mara used a number of Z-95s on any number of missions for both the Empire and, later, the New Republic. During her hunt for the Black Nebulae Mara used a Headhunter to insert herself onto the planet Svivren, and was able to go unnoticed in the initial part of the mission. Much later, during the Grand Admiral Thrawn campaign, Mara chose to use a Z-95 Headhunter, most notably at the Battle for the Katana fleet. During that battle Mara flew alongside the New Republic space forces against the fleet of Thrawn, but was hit by an Imperial ion blast&mdash;she proceeded to manually steer her damaged Headhunter into the hanger of an Imperial-Star Destroyer, managing to eject at the last moment before her craft exploded. In the years following the Thrawn campaign, Mara decided to attend Luke Sykwalker's Jedi Praxeum, arriving in a Z-95 which she intended to use as a personal escape if her time with the Jedi did not go as planned. During her time on Yavin 4 Mara lent her Headhunter to fellow Jedi student Corran Horn, and he used it to destroy four Sithspawn monsters, which were two headed flying beasts created by the spirit of Exar Kun.

Mara eventually apprenticed herself, though only for a short time, to the Jedi Kyle Katarn. However, her apprenticeship was unfortunately cut short when Katarn left to search the mysterious world of Dromund Kaas. Deciding to follow him, Mara utilized the ship Shrike to follow and eventually help Katarn. Shrike was a prototype starfighter produced by Incom Corporation, and was privately owned by the smuggler Talon Karrde. During Operation Shadow Hand Karrde permanently loaned it to Mara for her personal use. For a very short while Mara operated a ship by the name of Hunter's Luck, which had originally been a rich kid's private yacht, but was then captured by pirates.



By this time, Mara had been the captain of numerous ships, but had never owned a ship which was registered in her name. Her first ship which she privately owned was a Luxury Yacht 3000 which had been previously named the Winning Gamble, and which had been given to her by Sansia Bardrin. During the First Corellian Insurrection Mara piloted the Jade's Fire alongside the Lady Luck and Millennium Falcon at Battle of Centerpoint Station. When Mara and Luke departed for their mission to Nirauan, Jade's Fire was destroyed over during an attempt to infiltrate the Chiss fortress. The Jade's Fire was unique when compared to other ships that Mara had piloted in that it possessed a special "shoot back" system that automatically fired on any vessel that attacked it.



After Mara's first ship, Jade's Fire, was destroyed Luke Skywalker presented her with the Jade Sabre as a wedding gift. Jade Sabre required a single pilot to operate, but the ship was designed to carry up to fifteen passengers and up to 100 metric tons of cargo. For defense, Luke armed the ship with four concealed quad laser cannons and a tractor beam projector. In 22 ABY, Mara and Luke used Jade Sabre to travel to Crustai on the edge of the Chiss Ascendancy, where they rendezvoused with the Chiss who had offered to lead them to the remains of Outbound Flight. Three years later, at the beginning 25 ABY, Mara flew the Jade Sabre with Jaina Solo and Leia Organa Solo to the planet of Rhommamool, where Leia was asked to act as a New Republic envoy to deal with upstart Nom Anor. The galaxy soon erupted into a full scale war with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and Mara and her nephew Anakin Solo piloted Jade Sabre to the world of Dantooine, where it was hoped that Mara could enjoy a vacation. The Yuuzhan Vong, however, soon invaded the planet, and the two Jedi were forced to abandon Jade Sabre when they found themselves cut off from their landing site by warrior patrols.



In the months proceeding the destruction of Jade Sabre, Lando Calrissian gave Mara the gift of a space yacht that he had recently purchased from spice merchants. Lando's wife, Tendra, named the ship Jade Shadow due to its non-reflective gray hull. Over time, and with the help of her husband Luke, Mara was able to install a tractor beam projector and was also able to reconfigure the aft docking bay to contain her modified Z-95 Headhunter or even carry an entire X-wing. Mara used her new ship throughout the remainder of the Yuuzhan Vong war, utilizing it as a base of operations when she and Luke decided to search out the living planet Zonama Sekot. Following the defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong, Mara continued to use the Jade Shadow and operated it during the Second Corellian Insurrection.

Behind the scenes
"Luke: Before you started impersonating Mara Jade, what was your real hair color? Mara: Farmboy you're asking for a beating."

- Luke and Mara Jade

The character of Mara Jade was developed by author Timothy Zahn, and debuted in the novel Heir to the Empire. She quickly became one of the most famous characters of the Expanded Universe, judging by the number and volume of appearances the character has had.

In a 1997 poll by Star Wars Insider magazine about the fan's favorite Star Wars characters, Mara Jade placed 20th, the highest-ranked character who did not appear in a Star Wars movie.

Mara Jade has been portrayed by several women. The most well-known is model Shannon McRandle (formerly Shannon Baksa), in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Since then McRandle's likeness has been on several products that depict Mara. In the Return of the Jedi radio drama, C-3PO speaks with Arica, voiced by Samantha Bennett. In Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Mara Jade was voiced by Heidi Shannon; by Edie Mirman in Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, and by Kath Soucie in Star Wars: Empire at War.

During a Hyperspace celebrity chat, Mark Hamill voiced his support of the Mara Jade character and the general direction post-Return of the Jedi fiction has taken Luke Skywalker's story.

During the Darth Vader campaign in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, you can discover Mara Jade through cheats in many of the missions. She lurks on the edge of the map, and when discovered, is only there for a moment before walking offscreen. She is also available as a unit if you create a map using the scenario editor. Mara Jade is also the narrator of that campaign.