Salmaca cave

A salmaca creature lived in a cave near Peka village on the world Batuu. The entrance to the cave was a tunnel that eventually widened into an immense space, where the salmaca made its nest. The chamber was large enough that the glow of a lightsaber could not light it entirely. The salmaca's nest was a pile made of various pieces of wreckage and junk. The corpses of several gant spiders, the salmaca's main food source, were stored in a makeshift larder. The air temperature in the cave was colder than it was outside.

Around 379 BBY, the salmaca settled in the cave after being attracted by a nearby colony of gant spiders. The salmaca began raiding homes Peka at night for junk and valuables, which it brought back to its cave to line its nest. During one raid, the salmaca took the droid Dee-Twelve and a shield belonging to Jedi Master Silandra Sho, who had deliberately left the shield out for the salmaca to take.

The next day, Sho tasked her Padawan, Rooper Nitani with finding the shield in order to pass her Jedi Trials. Nitani eventually arrived in Peka, where she learned of the salmaca and its cave from the villager Jerlyn, whose family owned Dee-Twelve. Nitani agreed to solve the village's problem, and a group of four villagers, including the Weequay Kaxx, showed her the way to the cave. Nitani entered the cave with P3-7A, a church droid that was accompanying her during her trials, while the villagers waited outside. Because of the darkness of the cave, P3-7A used a lamp to illuminate it, and Nitani used one of her lightsabers.

After Nitani entered the cave's large chamber, she saw the makeshift larder where the salmaca had stored the gant spider carcasses, and realized that it might have been protecting Peka from the dangerous arachnids. She then found Dee-Twelve, who was underneath the sleeping salmaca's paw. She used the Force to influence the salmaca into rolling over, and then freed Dee-Twelve from the creature's nest.

After sending him out of the cave with P3-7A, Nitani began looking for the shield. Just as she saw it, the villagers entered the cave and began shooting at the salmaca with blasters. Calling on the Force again, Nitani used the shield to deflect the villagers' blaster shots and disorient the salmaca, who had attempted to attack them. Nitani then ordered the villagers to leave, which they did. After the villagers fled, Nitani extinguished her lightsaber, throwing the cave into darkness. The salmaca determined that Nitani was not a threat and returned to sleep. Nitani then collected the shield and left the cavern. After the villagers learned of the gant spiders, Nitani was able to convince them to leave out junk each night for the salmaca so that it would no longer need to raid their homes.

The salmaca cave appeared in the short story "Shield of the Jedi," written by George Mann and published in the 2023 young-adult anthology The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life as a part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project.