Everi Chalis

"My name is Everi Chalis. Governor of Haidoral Prime, emissary to the Imperial Ruling Council, and, of course&mdash;local artist-in-residence."

- Everi Chalis

Everi Chalis was a female human from a remote and impoverished planet in the galaxy. Enrolling in the Colonial Academy to become an artist, she took an apprenticeship under Count Denetrius Vidian of the Galactic Empire. She later became his successor and served as the governor of Haidoral Prime during the Galactic Civil War, before temporarily defecting to the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Early life
"We had nothing. My mother tried to sell me to a Trade Federation exploratory vessel when I was six. I was too small. Out of pity, the captain gave me a packet of nectrose crystals."

- Everi Chalis, revealing her childhood to Hazram Namir

Born a female human, Everi Chalis grew up on an impoverished planet under the care of her mother. When Chalis reached the age of six, her mother tried selling her to a Trade Federation exploratory vessel. The vessel's captain rejected the offer because Chalis was too small, and the captain gave her a packet of nectrose crystals out of pity. Chalis continued to live in the ruins of a bombed-out paper mill, sleeping on her mother's stained mattress and using her fingers to eat the crystals. Nectrose was intended to be sprinkled in water to add fruitiness, but Chalis didn't know this and didn't have fresh water anyway. She rationed the crystals and had them only once a week for months. Chalis soon after realized she was living in filth, eating garbage, and drinking poison, while others in the galaxy were rich enough to share treats such as nectrose packets. Desperate to leave her world, she enrolled into the Colonial Academy and trained as an artist. Eventually, she made it offworld, but found she had nowhere to go under the Galactic Republic.

Imperial career
"All parts of the armor-production chain will be brought under the Imperial Department of Military Research. It will be a lengthy transition; I am placing Everi Chalis directly in charge."

- Count Denetrius Vidian

When the Galactic Empire was born from the Republic, Imperial Count Denetrius Vidian saw quality in Chalis's sculptures and admired her ability to visualize concepts, so he offered her an apprenticeship. Chalis accepted the offer, and artistry drifted out of her life. Rising to be a lieutenant under the tutelage of Vidian on Calcoraan, Chalis found herself committing horrible acts, such as proposing the mining of an inhabited planet's atmosphere and deceiving and killing an Imperial moff. Fourteen years before the Battle of Yavin, Chalis was Vidian's most trusted aide, and he constantly had her traveling on assignment. After Vidian and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin uncovered an insurgence on Gilvaanen, a planet responsible for producing stormtrooper armor, Vidian placed Chalis in charge of the Imperial Department of Military Research. After Vidian's death during the Gorse conflict less than three years later, Chalis took over the roles of her mentor, becoming an emissary to the Imperial Ruling Council and the honorary Grand Architect of the New Order.

Defecting to the Rebellion
"I've been appointed a task, by our beneficent Emperor: the capture of Everi Chalis, former emissary to the Imperial Ruling Council and honorary Grand Architect of the New Order&mdash;now defector to the Rebel Alliance."

- Prelate Verge

Sometime later, Chalis was appointed to be the governor of Haidoral Prime, a planet in the Mid Rim, by Darth Vader. Despite the promotion, Chalis considered it to be a punishment. During the Galactic Civil War, a galactic conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Haidoral Prime became the site of a battle. Convinced she would be punished by her superiors regardless of winning or losing the fight, she defected to the Alliance, turning herself over to the Sixty-First Mobile Infantry, also known as "Twilight Company." Twilight Company brought Chalis to the Thunderstrike, their CR90 corvette, and, as an act of caution, placed her in the airlock as a make-shift cell. She stayed there for days, until the Thunderstrike was attacked by Imperial forces. The section of the corvette containing Chalis's airlock caught fire, so Sergeant Hazram Namir attempted to rescue her. Namir reached the airlock, but the heat's intensity prevented him from making a return trip, so he locked himself in the airlock with her. Eventually the flames were put out, and their burns were treated.

Recalling the Tseebo incident, Chalis believed that Vader would come looking for her. In actuality, Vader was searching for Luke Skywalker, the pilot responsible for destroying the Death Star two years earlier, while Verge, a young prelate, led the search for Chalis. The company continued moving from planet to planet fighting in numerous battles, before being summoned to the new Rebel base on the ice planet Hoth. While on Hoth, Chalis gained the trust of Rebel general Philap Bygar, and she provided the Alliance High Command with statistical data of the Empire. In the following days, the Empire discovered the location the the Rebel base, and within eleven days of Chalis's arrival the Rebellion began evacuating. In the subsequent Battle of Hoth, Imperial ground forces led by Darth Vader breached the base. Before Chalis was able to evacuate, she and her Rebel escort encountered Vader and his 501st Legion. After a short-lived battle, Chalis, believing Vader was there for her, approached the lord and submitted herself for execution. Vader, uninterested in Chalis, Force choked her and demanded to know the location of Skywalker. As Chalis struggled, a stormtrooper informed Vader that the Millennium Falcon had been found. Vader then released Chalis and resumed his chase for the young rebel.

Other than Chalis, only Namir survived Vader's attack. The two limped to a shuttle and managed to slip pass the Imperial blockade using Chalis's old clearance codes. Following the jump to hyperspace, they rendezvoused with the rest of Twilight Company on the planet Ankhural. Chalis, now aware of her triviality to the Empire, wanted to get revenge. Together with Namir, whom unofficially replaced the deceased Micha Evon as captain of Twilight, Chalis plotted out seemingly random targets for the company to hit, finishing with an Imperial Star Destroyer construction yard on Kuat. Understanding the workings of the Imperial system, Chalis knew that destroying the listed facilities would be a devastating setback for the Empire. Namir, not seeing any alternatives, complied with Chalis's plan. Twilight began its campaign against the locations determined by Chalis, and after several victories the company reached their second-to-last target: the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility on Sullust. However, Prelate Verge had determined Chalis was assisting the Rebels, and he was able to predict their attack. Twilight Company was ambushed, and they suffered heavy losses, including the Thunderstrike.

During the ensuing battle, Chalis fled to the nearby city of Pinyumb, killed an Imperial officer, and attempted to escape the planet in a shuttle. Before she was able to leave the atmosphere, Verge's Star Destroyer, the Herald, locked onto the shuttle with its tractor beam. Verge, accompanied by Tabor Seitaron, approached the captive shuttle. Chalis exited the vessel, and after exchanging a few words with the prelate, revealed the shuttle had been rigged with ion charges. Chalis activated the charges, dealing major power loss to the Star Destroyer. Unable to power its weapons and maintain altitude, the ship began to drop towards the surface. Verge, adamant about continuing the attack, ordered the ship's crew to continue firing and began scuffling with Chalis. However, Seitaron, who was not willing to die unnecessarily, shot and killed the young prelate, ordering the crew to cease the attack and move the ship into orbit. As Seitaron prepared to execute Chalis, she took advantage of his fear of punishment for killing Verge, and she convinced him to let her go.

Starting over
"I'm very far from Sullust and I won't be returning to Twilight Company or the Rebellion. We never really were a good match, even when our goals looked similar. You made that clear to me in the end. I thought I owed it to you to say in person. Or as close as I can get, under the circumstances. Where I'm going next shouldn't and won't concern you. It's best that our paths don't cross again."

- Chalis, in a message to Namir

No longer a captive of the Rebellion, Chalis traded the shuttle for a civilian starcutter and drained her offworld financial accounts. In the following days she sent a recorded message to Namir, telling him that he should have trusted her and that she would not return to the Rebellion. Thinking of plans for her future, she decided to reside on a remote planet and continue her artwork. Recalling Namir speak of his homeworld, Crucival, she decided to start there.

Personality and traits
Everi Chalis was a female human with light skin and white-streaked, graying, black hair. She spoke with an exaggerated Coruscanti accent, enjoyed reading classical fiction, and was a skilled sculptor.

Behind the scenes
Everi Chalis was first mentioned in the canon short story "Bottleneck," which was published in The Rise of the Empire in 2015. Written by John Jackson Miller, "Bottleneck" bridges the novels Tarkin and A New Dawn. Chalis made her first full debut in the novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, which was written by Alexander Freed and released November 3, 2015.

Appearances

 * "Bottleneck"&mdash;The Rise of the Empire
 * Battlefront: Twilight Company