Nikora Rhan

From Wikipedia of the Dark Brotherhood, an online Star Wars Club
Revision as of 22:44, 8 November 2019 by Essik Lyccane (talk | contribs)
Under Construction
This page seems to be Under Construction. Watch out for large groups of Rebel fighters.
After construction is complete, please place a note on the article's talk page and remove this message.
Imperial eraRise of the Brotherhood eraExodus era.New Order era.
Nikora Rhan
Biographical Information
Homeworld:

N/A, voidborn

Date of Birth:

6 ABY

Physical Description
Species:

Nautolan

Gender:

Female

Height:

1.8M

Weight:

140.0 kg

Eyes:

Black

Personal Information
Lightsaber Color(s):

Green double-bladed lightsaber

Lightsaber Form(s):

Niman

Weapon(s):
Fighting Style(s):

Mandalorian Core

Chronology & Political Information
Profession:

Jensaarai Defender

Position:
Era(s):

New Order Era

Affiliation:
Dossier:

14751

[ Source ]



"'You can develop all the fancy stunts, tricks, and tactics you like. They won't mean a damn thing unless you have someone around to make sure that your ships fly and your guns can shoot."
―Rhan

Nikora Rhan is a Nautolan female serving Clan Odan-Urr. Raised by a pair of smugglers operating on the Outer Rim for much of her childhood, she was eventually recruited into the Jensaarai Order as her blossoming powers became increasingly difficult to control. This affinity with machinery led to her becoming a defacto weaponsmith within their organisation, serving to keep the Ring Defenders in operation and maintaining equipment. This emphasis on engineering and maintenance meant that she was one of several who voiced in favour of the Reclaimer experiment to seek out lost battlegrounds and recover salvage for the Jensaarai to use. This activity led to her frequently butting heads with those among the Jensaarai who believed that secrecy and isolation were needed in order to survive.

Rhan became increasingly disillusioned with the Order's leadership as they pushed for ever-greater seclusion from the galaxy. This finally led to her breaking with the group entirely following a discovery that the elder Jensaarai were hoping to avoid possible annihilation by the likes of the First Order by erasing past records. After being tasked with arresting Ka Tarvitz during his reappearance on Susevfi, Rhan instead opted to follow him into exile and sided with the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.

Character History

The Nomad (6-13) ABY

The Engine of Souls

Like many children born among the Outer Rim, Nikora Rhan was someone who came into existence without a home. Unlike most this was because she was bound to no single world. Born during a hyperspace jump between planets, Rhan grew up surrounded by machinery and listening to the constant thunder of ships' engines. Both of her parents were smugglers, seeking to make their fortunes by profiting from the ongoing Galactic Civil War and the infighting among Imperial warlords. With so many battlefields left behind from the Clone Wars and other conflicts littering old battlegrounds, there was no shortage of profit to be made by reclaiming everything still operational. Although it carried with it no shortage of dangers, the work at least avoided the more typical risks associated with smuggling such as dealing directly with the Hutts, or some planetary authorities. Favouring selling their supplies to small planetary governments and the New Republic, they were able to gain some degree of legitimate backing for their ventures and even direct support when needed.

The constant need to jump from world to world, system to system, meant that Rhan became accustomed to making only fleeting friendships with others. Her parents' operations could drag on for months or even weeks at a time, and she was frequently left to entertain herself while they worked to free their prizes. It was perhaps because of this state that Rhan's abilities manifested as they did, with the Force granting her an innate connection with machines. These things were subtle at first, with Rhan claiming to "hear" when the engines were complaining of constant strain or when droid motivator was coming to the end of its life. Coming from a child, her parents laughed this off at first, largely accepting this as her way of comprehending the world. Yet as time drew on, her efforts in listening to equipment became more pronounced and accurate. She was able to briefly bring technology back to life simply from being in close proximity to her, and her crude repairs to simpler machines worked almost in spite of her errors. Nevertheless, they worked.

As Nikora grew older, her idiosyncrasies about the souls and emotions of machines became less tolerated. Her parents became increasingly infuriated at Nikora's refusal to abandon what they regarded as a childish misunderstanding, even as her technological aptitude expanded. She was repeatedly encouraged to abandon her ideas, and reprimanded when she was caught holding conversations with their ship's engines, or her own creations. This was the subject of ridicule more than once, among the few times that she did remain on a world long enough to hold a conversation with others, especially those of greater experience. The fact that she could break their creations with little more than a gesture, or seemingly give them minds of their own, was overlooked in the face of mockery. However, Nikora remained adamant that she could listen to the words of machines and correct them without needing access to even the most basic tools. It would be several years before she was able to definitively prove this skill.

Derelict of Ages

By 13 ABY, life was becoming increasingly difficult for Nikora's parents. With many past battlefields picked clean and the New Republic itself backing Operation Flotsam under the newly appointed Historical Battle Site Preservation Act, they were relying less upon freelancers to carry out its salvage operations. Even without that, the brief piece which had emerged with the Empire's fractured warlord states had permitted larger powers to strip old derelicts bare of goods. Driven from more profitable ventures, they were gradually pushed to pursue less likely leads in order to fund their lifestyle. After months of raiding the sites of old skirmishes and planetary crash sites, they were doing little more than maintaining their funds. Yet one yielded an unexpected reward. The aging cockpit of a Trade Federation gunship carried with it an active and up to date navicomputer. Severed from the main fuselage, exposure to vacuum had killed the pilots instantly but it had left the machinery within undamaged and unwiped; an act which had prevented its automated functions immediately wiping the machine.

The navicomputer was code-locked but, after working past its defences via older CIS codes that they had previously produced, Nikora's parents were able to examine the data within. The information was decades out of date, speaking of locations known to many scavengers and sites picked clean. One, however, proved to be of immense interest. The vessel that the gunship had been seconded to was noted to have been located within a nearby nebula, and logged communications indicated that it had suffered significant damage. More importantly its name, the Merciless, was listed as one of the few Lucrehulk-class battleships which was still listed as missing. Having never been confirmed as destroyed, integrated into the Rebellion, or even sighted flying under a pirate flag, its fate had been one of the mysteries surrounding the final days of the Clone Wars. More importantly, it was the sort of haul that no salvage hauler could afford to overlook.

Following the last listed location, they were able to follow the gradual drift of the vessel and locate it within a dense pocket of the nebula's gasses. Its engines had suffered severe damage, and the hull plating was blackened under multiple impacts. Yet even with this damage, the ship's hangers and central sphere seemed remarkably intact. Noting the number of missing escape pods on the ship's surface, Nikora's parents soon elected to investigate the ship. If nothing else, they would examine the main hanger, confirm its status, and then take proof of their find. Either they would be able to sell its location to the New Republic or, if possible, to begin harvesting the hardware and selling it off in smaller deals. Unfortunately for them, the battleship was far from abandoned. A small group of pirates had discovered the vessel and had utilised one of its massive hangers as a base of operations. Upon detecting the smugglers' approach, they waited to ambush the new arrivals and claim their ship.

No sooner did either of Nikora's parents step free of the ship than forcefields locked into place behind them, blocking any avenue of escape. Tractor beams activated, holding the ship in place and armed figures emerged about the ship. Most came out firing, driving the smugglers from the warship as they sought cover. Nikora, out of curiosity, had followed them and was quickly pinned down. Instinctively reaching out in fear with the Force, she hunted for anything which might keep them alive. Boosted by her heightened emotions, a trio of red Photoreceptors burst into life amid the darkness. A Destroyer Droid, partially disassembled and long disused, dragged itself free from a pile of broken droids. With its power core sputtering and only a single active cannon, it seemed to be little more than scrap metal. However, as its shield sparked into life and blasters screamed through the air, it proved to be more than a match for the surprised pirates. By the time it halted in its rampage and shut down, not a single pirate was left standing.

This act proved without a doubt that Nikora's abilities were far more than mere childish fancy, but this only made her parents more wary of her.

Keepers of a Bygone Era

For the following months, the smugglers stripped the Merciless' complement of fighters for spare parts. Ignoring the larger warship, the far smaller and more manageable groups of Scarabs and Vultures filled their cargo holds, ferrying spare parts and raw materials back to New Republic worlds. However, Nikora found herself isolated at this time. Even after the shock of her seemingly bringing machinery to life through sheer force of will had worn in, neither of them could look at her in the same way as before. Nikora was still their daughter, the one they had loved and raised for years, but her abilities were an understandable cause for concern. Neither of them was certain that, in an outburst, that the event might be repeated with themselves or even an innocent figure being caught in the crossfire. These concerns were shared by Nikora herself. It had not been will or even concentration which had pushed her powers to new heights but raw fear tinged with rage. Yet a solution was soon to present itself.

In one of their later visits to the Merciless' wreck, they were greeted by several waiting figures in the hanger. Clad in stylised metalwork and with swords at their belts, they were clearly warriors and yet they made no move to threaten the smugglers. Cautiously giving the group the benefit of the doubt, the smugglers met with them. Their leader, an aging Nikto by the name of Kylun, spoke with the smugglers freely and enquired of the pirates' fate. Rather than being allies or a rival group of corsairs, the warriors had been hunting them after they had pillaged their world. In particular, a selection of crystals mistaken as precious gems had been stolen by these groups. While effectively worthless to most of the galaxy, the warriors regarded them with great value. The smugglers had found these among the pirates' belongings, hidden within a safe that Nikora had coaxed into unlocking for them. While her parents tried to avoid mentioning Nikora's role in either the pirates' deaths or her later efforts, Kylun rapidly picked up on the fact that they were hiding something. When pressed, they first tried to claim that they had accomplished Nikora's feats themselves. When this effort failed to shield her from their interest, they then tried to pass it off as a third member of their group who was not present. Neither occasion worked to dissuade Kylun, as he quickly picked up on the deception. It was only when the warriors became increasingly suspicious, to the point of near hostility, that Nikora stepped forward.

Nikora's parents first objected to this, trying to still hide her role in the hopes of sparing their daughter the warrior's attention, or even to make matters worse. Yet rather than accusing them of another falsehood, Kylun showed genuine interest in her abilities. Nikora was shy, worried that the hulking figure in plate armour might choose to simply slay her parents and take her as a slave if he deemed her abilities as useful. To her surprise, Kylun spoke of things that Nikora had always been half-aware of in her life. He asked about energies she felt but no one else could pick up on, or the imprints of lives on objects which others claimed held no life to them. Gradually, he was able to coax answers from her and gain a better picture of how her abilities were manifesting. In return, he displayed some powers of his own: Casting lightning from his fingertips and moving objects with his will. He claimed that what she was experiencing was an extremely strong connection to the Force, and that it was both a blessing and a curse.

Kylun spoke to both Nikora and her parents as the hours wore on. He outlined what the Force was, how its practitioners - near-mythical among the galaxy's outer worlds even with the steady rebuilding of the Jedi Order - could often be divided into two groups of recruits. Some only had their powers manifest in small ways, requiring training and self-discipline to gradually focus their energies in any conscious or substantial form. Others retained them in a far stronger but less controlled manner, displaying connections through either constant passive actions or sudden outbursts. While both ultimately held the same potential for control and growth, the latter group could easily find their lives ruined as their powers overwhelmed them or developed in a way that controlled their lives. Nikora was one of these people, or so it seemed to him. Without training, her ability to listen to machinery could slowly overwhelm her, or her emotions could more easily lean toward the Dark Side. Kylun offered her an opportunity to train with a group of similarly gifted individuals, to control her powers and avert this fate. As he spoke, all that Nikora could think of was her emotions when she had indirectly slaughtered the pirates, and the fear that still clung to her. To her, the choice was an easy one. The two groups left the derelict as one, traveling to the moon of Susevfi to show Nikora just what her future might hold.

The Defender (14-24) ABY

The Reclaimer (25-31) ABY

The Preserver (32-37) ABY

The Warsmith (38-?) ABY

Physical Description

Personality

Equipment

Powers and Abilities