Hallis Saper

"I'm fully aware of the sort of commotion he causes when I wear him. But what I know--and what you don't know--is that people, when they look at me, only see the two-headed lady. They don't give me a close look, they don't register my features. Meaning that I can tuck Whitecap under my cloak and take off my goggles, and nobody recognizes me. I doubt even you would."

- Hallis reminding Wedge Antilles that she knows what she's doing

A tall, slender Human female from Bonadan who typically wore her long brown hair either in a braid or in large, elaborate pilings atop her head, Hallis Saper was a freelance holodocumentarian and later served with New Republic Intelligence. Originally trained in sludgenews, Hallis experienced a turning point in her career when she accompanied Red Flight to Adumar as a mission documentarian. Despite the fact that the mission didn't go according to plan- with the pilots becoming enemies of Adumar's largest state, Cartann, Hallis was loyal to the pilots and played a vital role in their survival by convincing Iella Wessiri to disregard her orders and assist the New Republic pilots. Following the mission, she went on to join New Republic Intelligence, serving into the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Early career
Saper began her professional career working in "sludgenews," a branch of journalism popular throughout the Galaxy which consisted mainly of turgid stories concerning the private lives of celebrities and often sensational "true" conspiracy theories (akin to real-world "tabloid news" items) where a prospective reporter needed to learn all one could about bribery, planting eavesdropping devices and transmitters, and other unsavory practices in order to obtain credible stories for publication. Saper learned those skills with aplomb and, knowing what the genre was all about almost from the beginning, quit as soon as she could afford to, choosing instead to become a legitimate holodocumentarian.

In this field Saper was known for her eccentricity, wearing a contraption she had dubbed Whitecap - a combination of an ex-3PO unit's head and a holorecorder - on her shoulder, held there by a restraining bracket. She would also wore dark goggles with sensors that tracked her eye movements, allowing Whitecap to record whatever it was that she saw; the whole outfit made some interviewees, mainly children, uncomfortable but it diverted attention away from Saper's facial features and allowed her to shadow people once Whitecap and the goggles were removed. In this way she gained that much more of an edge over her targets, who would have been predisposed to mistake her eccentricities for a basic lack of competence.

Mission to Adumar
In 13 ABY, Saper was invited to document the New Republic's mission to Adumar. Wedge Antilles and his pilots initially made the mistake of seeing "the two-headed lady", but revised their opinion after Saper figured out that New Republic Intelligence agent Tomer Darpen was in fact spying on them, shadowing the agent as he raided Red Flight's quarters. At some point around this time Whitecap became damaged to the point of near uselessness, however this didn't stop her from fulfilling her duties. Forced to change tactics (which included hiding data-gathering devices in elaborate hairdressings), Hallis would prove her worth again and again as, later in the mission, she recorded damning evidence of Darpen's treachery when he tricked the perator into declaring Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie enemies of the state and cut off communications to the mission's support ship, the Star Destroyer ''Allegiance so the pilots could not signal for extraction. As the pilots were forced to run a gauntlet of blaster-wielding Adumari before attempting escape in the local starfighters, Hallis was forced to go to ground in order to keep her information safe.

In the wake of the brief Adumari Civil War, Hallis put together and broadcasted a series of false news stories pertaining to a supposed guerrilla war waged by supporters of the defeated nation of Cartann against the united Adumari government in order to lull an approaching Imperial fleet, led by the Star Destroyers Agonizer (formerly under the command of Admiral Teren Rogriss}, Retaliator and Master Stroke into believing that as a still-divided world, Adumar was a ripe target for conquest. In the battle that followed, her deceptions enticed the Imperials to divide their starfighter and bomber forces, allowing New Republic reinforcements to penetrate the fleet's screen and deal significant damage to two of the three Star Destroyers in the attacking force.

Career in Intelligence
After the Adumar mission was completed, Saper found a new career working with New Republic Intelligence, where she was serving as a major just prior to the Yuuzhan Vong conquest of Duro in 26 ABY. During a meeting with the New Republic Advisory Council, she informed the gathered Senators, which included Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya and the Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker about the progress of the disinformation campaign that NRI had been attempting to run against the vast Yuuzhan Vong war machine. Unfortunately she had little to report, as the campaign seemed to be accomplishing little up to that point. Her fate after this is largely unknown, though it is likely that she continued serving with NRI in her last known capacity.

Personality and traits
Hallis was, if anything, a study in contrasts. While possessing technical skill both in the equipment of her trade and its associated fieldcraft, she nonetheless had a good-natured sense of humor and appreciated the dual-nature of her job and how she pursued her targets in order to get the stories she needed to maintain her career. She was highly intelligent and though she got her start in the sludgenews business, Hallis nonetheless did have scruples, which enabled her to make a clean break with the tabloid industry of the Galaxy and strike out on her own as a legitimate news reporter and holodocumentarian and, eventually, a successful if uneventful career in New Republic Intelligence.

Her skill with machines was demonstrated by her construction and use of Whitecap; as well, she possessed excellent abilities in infiltration, tracking, bribery, and even counterintelligence duties, all of which served to make her a prime recruit for NRI, using her talents as a documentarian to asist in creating disinformation campaigns. She was even persuasive enough to turn Iella Wessiri, a Corellian agent formerly of CoreSec, known for her stubbornness, to abandon her superior officer (Darpen) and to help Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie defy the delegation's standing orders. Despite what her job often called on her to do in order to accomplish her goals, Hallis was, in general, an upbeat woman and quite the optimist.

Appearances

 * X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar
 * Balance Point

Notes and references
Hallis Saper