Tula

"Call me every night and tell me where you're headed, what you're doing, and what the princess plans for you."

- Tula asks her sister Tace to report on the activities of Leia Organa

Tula was a human female officer of the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War. After the Empire destroyed her homeworld of Alderaan in the year 0 BBY, she continued to serve them and in 0 ABY she manipulated her sister Tace into providing the Empire with intelligence on the activities of Princess Leia Organa, who was attempting to rescue the survivors of Alderaan.

Unaware of Tula's betrayal, Tace let her sister know when Organa visited the planet Sullust, information which Tula passed straight to her commanding officer Dreed. The princess managed to evade Imperial attempts to kill her on Sullust, and in the process became aware of Tula's communications with Tace thanks to the inhabitants of the enclave.

The next time the pair spoke, Organa had Tace try and find out more about Tula's location and situation; however, realizing that the Alderaanians were onto Tula, Dreed had her taken away by stormtroopers for processing. In order to save the traitor, Organa agreed with Dreed to exchange herself for Tula on the planet Skaradosh, but once there had her allies swoop in and kill Dreed and his men.

Now in safe hands, Tula was reunited with her sister aboard the Alderaanian vessel Lord Junn, but found Tace angry over her betrayal. The sisters were reconciled to some extent during a battle between Dreed's Star Destroyer and the Alderaanians gathered by Organa above the planet Espirion, which ended in the Imperial vessel's destruction.

Betraying her people
"Tula, I have to mourn with you. As soon as I can get off this ship, I'm quitting the order and joining you wherever.''" "No, you mustn't. Your duty's with the Princess. You must serve her and Alderaan'', any way you can."

- Tula persuades Tace to remain with Leia Organa and continue to unwittingly feed the Empire intelligence on her movements

The human sisters Tula and Tace were born together on the planet Alderaan, but chose very separate paths in life, with Tula coming to serve the Galactic Empire as an Imperial officer and Tace joining the cloistered musical group known as the Melodic Order as a musician. In the year 0 BBY, during Tula's service to the Empire, Alderaan was destroyed by the Imperial Death Star superweapon; however, she continued her Imperial service obediently. Tace, meanwhile, initially remained unaware of her homeworld's fate, as her employers at Club Deeja on the planet Naboo decided their musicians would perform better without such terrible news.

Tula's sister finally learned the truth shortly after the Battle of Yavin in the year 0 ABY, when Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan, rescued the Melodic Order from the club as part of her mission to rescue the survivors of Alderaan from Imperial persecution and invited them to join her mission. Once off Naboo on board Organa's new starship, the Lord Junn, Tace contacted Tula, who was serving on board the Imperial-class Star Destroyer of Commander Dreed. Unaware that her sister was an Imperial, Tace tried to arrange for the sisters to meet up and mourn, but seeing an opportunity to gain intelligence on rebel activity, Tula told Tace that it was her duty to stay with Organa and aid her. She then asked that Tace contact her every day with an update on her location and activities, so that the pair could "keep in touch".

Tace did as Tula asked and frequently updated her on Organa's activities, letting her sister know when Organa traveled to the planet Sullust to make contact with the Alderaan Enclave located there. Tula immediately passed the information onto Dreed, who was impressed by her manipulation of Tace, but warned her he was ready for her to betray him. Meanwhile, on Sullust, a resident of the enclave named Covis discovered the communications between Tace and Tula and reported them to Preserver Jora Astane, head of the enclave. Astane accused Organa herself of betraying the Alderaanians to the Imperials and had her chased from the enclave. As the Alderaanians tried to hunt down Organa, a Sentinel-class landing craft full of stormtroopers sent by Dreed arrived and attacked the enclave. Ultimately Organa saved the enclave and defeated the troopers using a herd of rockrenders, earning Astane's loyalty and escaping Sullust.

A traitor revealed
"Enough, Tula. The rebels are plainly onto you.''" "Please commander, I can fix'' this&mdash;"

- Dreed realizes that Tula's betrayal has been found out

Unperturbed, Dreed continued to use Tula to get information from Tace; however, with the Alderaanians now aware of the siblings communications, Tace was imprisoned by Astane and questioned by Organa. The princess believed that Tace had not known about Tula's Imperial loyalty and asked that she contact her and try and learn about her sister's location and situation.

Once the call began, Tula almost immediately realized something was wrong, as did Dreed, who saw that the facade was over. Despite Tula's pleas that she could fix the situation, the commander ordered that she be taken away for processing, as she was no longer of any use to him. He then turned to the video communications and accused Tace of being responsible for what was going to happen to her sister. Organa herself then took Tace's place on the video and asked the commander to consider an exchange for Tula. Dreed was initially uninterested until the princess agreed to his demands that she trade herself for Tula.

The exchange was arranged to take place on the desert world of Skaradosh, and Dreed accompanied Tula personally aboard a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle to the planet's surface. Upon meeting with Organa, the commander questioned why Tula was so important, but refused to believe the princess' claim that all Alderaanians were important enough to be worth saving. Although not satisfied with the answer, Dreed sent Tula forward to Organa's escort, while the princess crossed over to the Imperials. As the pair passed Tula tried to thank Organa, but her savior only commented that Tula needed to do better in return for being saved. Before either party could return to their ships, Organa's pilot Evaan Verlaine and the smuggler Nien Nunb swooped down in the freighter Mellcrawler and opened fire on the Imperials. Dreed and his stormtrooper escort were killed, and Organa safely boarded the freighter alongside Tula and the other Alderaanians.

An unhappy reunion
"I'm sorry. But I'm back, now. We can be together like old&mdash;''" "''No we can't, Tula. It's not going to happen. The Empire's going to murder us all, because you gave them our position."

- Tace and Tula are reunited on board the Lord Junn

Now under the command of Captain Venk, the crew of Dreed's Star Destroyer quickly became aware of their commander's death, but were tricked into believing they had killed those responsible, after shooting down a decoy sent from Skaradosh by Nunb. The Mellcrawler, meanwhile, escaped Skaradosh unscathed and headed for the planet Espirion, where Tace and the other Alderaanians awaited them aboard the Lord Junn.

En route, Organa was horrified to discover that Dreed's Star Destroyer was also heading for Espirion, as they were aware of the Alderaanians' presence there from intelligence previously given to Dreed by Tula. The Mellcrawler arrived first, giving it time to dock with the Lord Junn and allowing Tula to be reunited with her sister. The former Imperial was overjoyed to see her sibling, but the feeling was far from mutual, as Tace had shaved off her hair in order to look less like her traitorous sister and wanted nothing to do with her. Tula tried to apologize and claim that they could go back to how things were before Alderaan's destruction, but Tace stormed off, leaving her sister to try and keep up.

The sisters were soon brought together, however, when the Lord Junn and rest of the Alderaanian fleet came under attack from Dreed's Star Destroyer as it reached Espirion. Amidst the chaos of battle, Tula and Tace clutched each other in fear, as Organa delivered what she thought might be her final speech to all those Alderaanians who fought alongside her. The fleet was saved, however, when reinforcements arrived in the form of the Espirion Multi, a starship sent by the native and Alderaanian inhabitants of Espirion after hearing Organa's passionate speech. After their combined forces destroyed the Star Destroyer, the Alderaanians and Espirion celebrated their victory with a party where Tace played alongside the rest of the Melodic Order.

Personality and traits
"Splendid work, Tula. I marvel at your capacity to manipulate your own sister&mdash;even as I steel myself against your betrayal to come.''" "How can you say that, Commander? I've done everything you've asked." "''Indeed. You score very high on obedience&mdash;but rather low on loyalty."

- Dreed questions Tula's loyalty

Tula had black hair, dark eyes, and fair skin. She was a highly obedient individual according to Imperial personality tests, and continued to serve the Empire even after it destroyed her homeworld, going as far as to manipulate her own sister to gain intelligence for Commander Dreed. Despite this obedience, Dreed still expected her betrayal, as Tula scored low on tests for loyalty to the Empire and still clearly loved her sister.

Ultimately Tula did not have a chance to betray the Empire, as Dreed decided her usefulness had run out once the Alderaanians realized she was manipulating Tace. When Leia Organa saved Tula from the Imperials, she attempted to thank the princess and upon being reunited with Tace tried to apologize for what she had done. She hoped that her and Tace's relationship could return to what it was before her betrayal, although Tace seemed unsure if that was possible. Tula and Tace shared a close bond as sisters and each was able to tell if the other was lying or speaking under duress, with Tula instantly noticing when Tace spoke to her with lines prepared by Princess Organa.

Equipment
While serving the Empire, Tula wore a standard gray Imperial officer's uniform. Sometimes when contacting Tace under the guise of being off duty, she wore a black outfit instead.

Behind the scenes
Tula first appeared in the second issue of the Star Wars: Princess Leia comic book mini-series, going on to appear in all remaining issues of the run. The series was released in 2015, with writing by Mark Waid and illustrations by Terry Dodson.

Appearances

 * Princess Leia, Part II
 * Princess Leia, Part III
 * Princess Leia, Part IV
 * Princess Leia, Part V