Sheeka Tull

"I don't know why I do this to myself. I just have this soft place in my head for you strong, quiet, self-contained types."

- Sheeka Tull

Sheeka Tull was a Human woman who was born in 59 BBY and grew up on Atrivis 7. Her parents were killed in a range war on that world, leaving her orphaned. At the age of eighteen, she met and fell in love with the bounty hunter Jango Fett, and the two had a brief romantic relationship. She eventually moved to Ord Cestus and worked as a pilot, operating her own ship, Spindragon. She fell in love again, this time with a miner named Yander. The two married, but he died four years later, leaving her with three children, Tarl, Tonoté, and Mithail, to raise.

Sometime later, her younger sister joined a religious group on Devon Four. When a plague developed among the sect, the Republic refused to ship medicine in due to a trade embargo, and so Tull smuggled it. Although she saved the colony and her sister, she was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to ten years of labor. However, Tull found a way to clear her name during the Clone Wars when the Republic launched a Jedi-led mission to Ord Cestus. In exchange for aiding them by ferrying supplies and providing intelligence to the Jedi and their small contingent of clone troopers, her criminal record would be expunged.

Tull did as she was told, helping Jedi Master Kit Fisto assemble a force of insurgents to strike against the Ord Cestian government. During the mission, she fell in love with an ARC trooper named A-98. He reminded her of Jango Fett, and she grew close to him even as she tried to open his eyes to what it meant to be human and not just another soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic. As part of this process, Tull, disturbed by the use of numeric designations for the clones, gave him the name Jangotat. After the insurgents, clones, and Jedi were ambushed by droids sent by the Ord Cestian government, she saved Jangotat's life, taking him to her village to heal. They spent time together, but after he recovered, he departed and assisted in the final Republic attempt to prevent Ord Cestus from falling into the hands of the Confederacy. Tull was left behind, and she was later heartbroken to learn that Jangotat had died in action, though the Republic was victorious. She parted on good terms with the Jedi, as her criminal record was cleared. Tull then resolved to do her best to raise the child of Jangotat's she was carrying as an individual, not just as another clone.

Early life
"Sometimes I feel like I've been everywhere, and done everything."

- Sheeka Tull

Sheeka Tull was born in 59 BBY as the daughter of Sheevis Tull and grew up on Atrivis 7. Her parents, however, were slain in a range war. In 41 BBY, Tull was romantically involved with the bounty hunter Jango Fett, whom she met in the Meridian sector, where he was looking for his lost armor. The couple spent a year together and developed a relationship. Their time together ended when their ship was attacked by pirates; the two entered separate escape pods and never saw each other again, though Tull's memories of him remained fond for years afterward.

She later journeyed to the remote planet of Ord Cestus, where she fell in love with and married a miner named Yander, moving to his home in the Zantay Hills. Tull enjoyed the community there and spent time with Vander's three children, Tarl, Tonoté, and Mithail. She and Vander were together for four years before he died, after which she cared for his children. She continued flying, leaving the children with their aunt and uncle at their fungus-farming community when she was away.

Sometime later, her younger sister joined a religious group on Devon Four. After the sect refused to pay their taxes, the Galactic Republic placed an embargo on the world. When a plague developed on Devon Four, the Republic refused to ship medicine in, and so Tull smuggled it instead. The medicine saved the life of her sister, but she was caught and sentenced to ten years of labor on a work planet.

Republic contact
"Somewhere on Coruscant is a computer file listing every indiscretion ever committed in the galaxy. There was a need, my name came up, and doing a favor is better than spending a decade on a work planet."

- Sheeka Tull on her reasoning for aiding the Republic

In 21 BBY, Sheeka Tull was on Ord Cestus when she was recruited as a Republic contact to assist a Jedi-led mission. Before the Jedi and his team arrived, Tull scouted a cave in the Dashta Mountains suitable for their use as a staging area, though her report on there being no cave spiders inside of the cave was inaccurate. After the Nautolan Jedi Master Kit Fisto arrived on Ord Cestus, accompanied by four clone troopers, they were forced to defend themselves against a brood of spiders, but they were successful in doing so. Shortly after they cleared the cave, Tull arrived to meet them in Spindragon. The Jedi Master was displeased with her erroneous report, but she apologized and agreed to help them, in exchange for her criminal record being expunged. Fisto then told Tull that he needed to get in touch with the leaders of Desert Wind, a group of guerrilla fighters who opposed the Ord Cestian government. Tull asked him why he wanted to meet with Desert Wind; in return, the Jedi said he preparing a force to possibly sabotage and overthrow the government. She told him that she could take him to people who knew them, but also stated that she would part ways with the Jedi after this mission.

Taking Fisto&mdash;accompanied by two clone troopers&mdash;up in Spindragon, Tull flew them to meet her contacts. The flight was short, and when they landed at a nearby settlement, Fisto gave a recruitment speech to the locals gathered there, urging them to take up arms against a greedy government. As part of his presentation, Fisto had both of the clone troopers remove their helmets, which elicited a shocked reaction from Tull due to her earlier relationship with Jango Fett, the genetic template for the soldiers. After the presentation was finished, she took them to several other settlements to deliver the same recruitment spiel.

At their third stop, the Jedi, Tull, and the two troopers were invited to eat with some of the locals. The clone troopers initially sat apart from the others, but Tull chose to sit next to the Advanced Recon Commando trooper A-98, or Nate, whom she'd briefly conversed with on Spindragon en route to the first stop. He noted that she didn't speak Basic like a native, and she told him a little of her background, discussing her parents and how she came to Ord Cestus. However, she was unwilling to talk to him about her family's whereabouts or why she had a criminal record. Her revelation that she had known Jango Fett took the ARC by surprise, and he plied her with questions about him, but Tull didn't tell him anything, instead teasing him by saying she'd tell him more later if he was good.

Tull continued to ferry the Jedi and clones around, and watched when Nate was placed in charge of delivering the recruitment speech to some of the locals at their fourth stop. Soon thereafter, they returned to their base and awaited the arrival of new recruits. For her part, Tull continued to ferry around Master Fisto to various settlements to continue their efforts at enlisting more Ord Cestians to join a guerrilla force. She spoke with Nate again after dropping Fisto off at the base camp, and he inquired further about Jango Fett, specifically asking how to become more like him. In response, Tull told him that he'd have to "not be afraid of being human." He bristled at that suggestion, so she challenged him to try and experience life as a human being instead of just a soldier. He stalked off, perturbed, and returned to his duties, while Tull spent the rest of the day assisting the Jedi with setting up and running the camp. That evening, while she was working on Spindragon, Nate approached her again. They spoke briefly, and she flirted with him. However, Tull was even more strongly reminded of Fett by the clone trooper, and she left him and returned to her ship.

Tull continued to occasionally observe the training of the new recruits. On one occasion, she asked Nate what he thought of the trainees, commenting that many of them believed it was time to fight. He replied that they were doing well and playfully suggested that she'd be good as a soldier, though Tull insisted that she was just a pilot. She teased him in response, but the ARC enjoyed her attention and didn't mind the joke.

As part of the Republic operation, Fisto and another Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi executed a bluff, where Fisto posed as a servant of Separatist leader Count Dooku and threatened the heads of the ruling Five Families until Kenobi rescued them. After its successful completion, Sheeka Tull was present at a celebration of the victory. For her part, she had been kept busy delivering illegal cargo for the next stage in the Jedi's plan and arrived late. She found Nate at the celebration and coerced him into dancing with her. While dancing, he told her a little bit about her mission. Sensing her displeasure, he asked her why she was helping the Republic, and she told him that she was trying to clear her name. He then asked her why she spent so much time with him, and she said it was because he reminded her the most of Jango Fett.

Tull then decided to show him something and, taking him with her on Spindragon, took Nate to a nearby settlement to meet what she referred to as her extended family, people that she cared for and trusted despite not being related to. It was in the mountains that she loved, and she relished showing the clone trooper how her people lived and had families. She pointed out the contrast between family life on Ord Cestus and serving in the Army of the Republic, and suggested that living the life of a villager was harder and more fragile than that of a trooper due to the emotional attachments that came with it. In doing so, she stated that men like Nate were a danger to her people's way of life, which displeased him. Realizing the offense she'd conveyed, she apologized for judging him, but communicated to him that she had a hard time relating to the troopers in part because they did not have names, just numerical designations. She then asked if she could give him one. He was amenable to the suggestion, and Tull named him "Jangotat", Mando'a for "Jango's brother." The ARC liked the name and, when they returned to the base camp, told the others of his new moniker.

Saving Jangotat
"I thought, I really thought I might be able to avoid all this. That never again would I have to watch people I love die."

- Sheeka Tull

Shortly thereafter, the Jedi attempts to negotiate with the Ord Cestian government were stymied, forcing Kenobi to leave the central city of ChikatLik. Moreover, his ship had been destroyed by an ambush, and though Kenobi was not aboard it when it was attacked, the Jedi and their clone troopers were stranded on a hostile planet. As such, they began using their newly trained recruits and Desert Wind fighters to launch a number of sabotage raids on Cestus Cybernetics in order to force the government back to the negotiation table. Tull was kept busy throughout the campaign, ferrying in supplies. Their efforts were largely successful, but the raids attracted the ire of the government, who dispatched several probe droids and JK-13 security droids to attack the Republic camp.

The attack caught the Desert Wind and Republic fighters by surprise, and they took heavy casualties. Tull was present in the cave when the droids launched their assault, and was soon cut off from the others. Jangotat leaped to her rescue, pulling her behind a boulder and shielding her with his own body. He was grazed by a blaster hit and so she and another fighter named Skot OnSon dragged the injured clone out of the cave towards Spindragon. OnSon left her to return to the fight though, and she made the last leg of the journey herself, burdened with the wounded trooper. Taking off, she tried to escape. Several ships pursued her, but she outflew them. Hiding in the caverns, Tull enriched her engines' fuel mixture to create a thick cloud of smoke to conceal her vessel. One of her pursuers flew through it and, disoriented, crashed into the caves. The other lost her trail in the thick cloud, allowing her to escape.

Tull cautiously skirted her way through the local airspace, taking precautions to avoid pursuit, and flew Spindragon to her home in the Zantay Hills. Finding a friend of hers named Brother Nicos Fate, she arranged for the injured Jangotat to receive medical treatment and refuge at her village while he recovered. While he was treated, she also enjoyed a happy reunion with her children. However, she also knew that his presence endangered her people, though she was pleased to see him recovered. After he was ambulatory again, Jangotat was moved into her home by her request, and she took care of him alongside her three children. As he regained his strength, he helped her around the village with farming tasks, and Tull's children took a liking to him. His very presence reminded her of Jango Fett and she found herself wishing that the love she'd shared with Fett could be reincarnated with the clone trooper. However, he knew that his place was not in her village and that his duty was to depart and make contact with the surviving Republic forces on Ord Cestus.

Before he left, though, Tull took Jangotat to see the caves where the sentient Force-sensitive Dashta eels resided. It was a great secret among her people, and he was blindfolded during the trip to keep the location hidden, and she revealed that the eels were the source of the medicinal and nutritional fungus that were grown on Ord Cestus, as well as a principal component of the JK-13 security droids. The eels had an effect on the clone, showing him possible alternate futures through the Force that gave him an idea of what it would be like to live with a family, to grow old. He voiced his newly discovered emotional inadequacy to her, and she responded by encouraging him to embrace his humanity and to develop relationships that would anchor him emotionally. He continued to express his feelings about the life he might have had if he hadn't been born into Republic service, and also told Tull of his attraction to her. She replied that she loved him.

He stayed with her a few more days, and though he enjoyed living in the tranquility of the village with Tull, he knew it was his duty to return. When the time came, Tull conveyed him to a neutral landing site and he went from there to reunite with his clone brethren and the Jedi. They parted with a kiss, and then he returned to the war. Shortly thereafter, Jangotat undertook a mission to take out the ruling Five Families so the Republic could negotiate from a position of strength. He was badly injured in the process, but called down an orbital bombardment on himself to destroy the Five Families and restore power to the people of Ord Cestus. Little did he know that the bombardment beacons had previously been re-targeted by a Separatist agent to hit populated areas; his action allowed the Republic to prevail with minimal casualties, but it cost him his life. He sent one last message out before his death, requesting that it be shown to Tull. In it, he professed his love for her, but also stated that his duty had always been to serve the Republic, but that if given a chance, he would have returned to her, as he loved her. She wept as she saw the message.

As the Jedi were preparing to leave, Tull asked Kenobi if she had done wrong in showing Nate the true nature of humanity. He replied that she had not, and that Jangotat would have thanked for what she had done. He then told her to be strong, both for her sake and for the sake of Jangotat's child that she was carrying. After the Jedi and clones left, Tull said her own farewell to Jangotat at the cairn they had built for him, and promised that their son would grow up with a name, not a number.

Personality and traits
Sheeka Tull was a both a pragmatist and an idealist. She was willing to work with the Republic in order to clear her name from the criminal charges against her despite not believing in its cause. However, she also had no problems with flaunting a Republic embargo in order to save the lives of her sister and other colonists affected by a plague. Tull was willing to go to great lengths to protect those she cared about, flying through a series of caves while pursued to save Jangotat, and assisting the Republic in dangerous missions despite having three children to look after.

She was not a fighter by nature, preferring to "just fly." However, she could be tough when needed, dragging a semi-conscious man through a cave to her ship by herself on one occasion. She hated the destruction wrought on the galaxy by the Clone Wars, but felt pity for the clones were brought up to fight in them. Tull wished that events would stop taking those she loved away from her, and would go to great lengths to avoid them.

Tull was an expressive person, easily moved to laughter or tears, depending on the occasion. When speaking of hardship, people she'd lost, or distant memories, such as her relationship with Jango Fett, she grew wistful and sad. When she first met the clone trooper Jangotat, she was shocked by how much his face reminded her of Jango Fett's. She grew close to him, admiring his natural leadership, and hoping to recreate the life she'd had with Fett in her adventuresome youth with Tull. As she did with others, she developed her trust of him incrementally, revealing more of her heart to him until she admitted her true feelings for him after he was wounded. Tull could also be mischievous, teasing the ARC trooper by promising him more stories of Jango Fett if behaved himself. She wanted to reveal humanity to him fully and grew frustrated by how literal Jangotat could be at times. She eventually succeeded in doing so, though she later wondered if she had done the right thing, as he was no longer perfectly contented with his life as a soldier.

Jango Fett
"But if he wanted, when he entered a room every head would turn. Especially mine. But that was all so long ago. I was eighteen years old, and Jango was twenty-five."

- Sheeka Tull on her relationship with Jango Fett

Tull met Jango Fett in her youth shortly after he'd been freed from slavery. He was looking for his armor at the time, and she fell in love with him. They spent a year together and Sheeka developed a lasting attraction for him. They parted suddenly during a pirate attack and she never saw him again. However, the feelings she felt for Fett were deeply ingrained inside her, which later prompted and influenced her relationship with Jangotat.

Vander
"It wasn't just him. It was his three children, too. Tarl, Tonote, and Mithail. His whole community. I fell in love with all of them. We married. Yander and I had four good years together. More than a lot of people get."

- Sheeka Tull

Though she had fled to Ord Cestus seeking isolation, Sheeka Tull soon fell in love with a miner named Vander, as well as his three children and their whole community. They were married, and Tull and Vander spent four happy years together, until his death. Tull would later speak fondly of their time together, though she was somewhat reluctant to broach the painful memory of her lost husband.

Jangotat
"Until I met you, I was not certain I was a man at all. I was the vows, the uniform, the rank. No. You showed me I was more than that, more than one of a million soldiers stamped out of a murderer like pieces on an assembly line. There is value in knowing your place in the universe, but there is also something else, and you helped me discover that."

- Jangotat in his final message to Sheeka Tull

Tull first met the clone trooper known as "Nate" on Ord Cestus while helping the Republic on a mission during the Clone Wars. She was taken aback by how strongly he resembled Jango Fett, but was dismayed to find him thoroughly ingrained in his military mindset. Little by little, she tried to draw him out of his shell, to reveal to him what it meant to be human. The fact that he had no name disturbed her and led her to eventually dub him Jangotat, or "brother of Jango." At the same time, she herself began falling for him as she tried to reincarnate what she had with Jango with Jangotat. Though they did eventually have a relationship, leading to her becoming pregnant with his child, it was short-lived. Jangotat died on Ord Cestus in the line of duty, leaving her heart-broken but determined to raise their child as an individual, not as merely another clone.

Behind the scenes
Sheeka Tull was first introduced by Steven Barnes in the novel The Cestus Deception. She was later given a mention in Jangotat's entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. There is a discrepancy in the amount of time she spent with Jango. In two locations in The Cestus Deception it is specifically said that they met in 41 BBY; however, she also says that they met two years after the destruction of the Mandalorians, which took place in 34 BBY. This article assumes that the former interpretation is correct.

Appearances

 * The Cestus Deception