Ona Nobis

"If you think you can threaten me, you are mistaken. Keep in mind who I am. Do you want to pay me what you owe me, or do you want to die?"

- Ona Nobis demands payment from her current employer.

Ona Nobis was a bounty hunter hired by the scientist Jenna Zan Arbor to capture Jedi for her experiments. She was a member of the near-Human Sorrusian race. She wielded a deadly whip which could be used as a laser as well (though not exactly the same technology as a lightwhip). She was also a master of disguise.

Early life
"We do not speak of Ona Nobis. Her name is forbidden. For money, she betrayed us. A shameful thing."

- Goq Cranna

Ona Nobis was born on the planet Sorrus in a tribe led by Goq Cranna. In 53 BBY, she was paid by an agent from the Sorrusian government to betray and manipulate her own tribe into voting for a dam, diverting water from their territory. The agent could have more fertile land to add to his mountain property. As a result, the tribe's land had dried up, forming the Arra Desert. Nobis fled offworld before the tribe could discover her deception; she had a hideout full of rations and supplies that she could pick up for later.

Nobis was denounced a disgrace by her people, even more so when she became a bounty hunter.

Working with a mad scientist
In 43 BBY, Nobis was hired by the renowned scientist Jenna Zan Arbor into kidnapping Jedi so that the latter would experiment on the Force. She managed to kidnap Jedi Master Noor R'aya and brought him to Zan Arbor's secret laboratory on Simpla-12.

The search for the datapad
"You... will... pay."

- Nobis to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Weeks later, Nobis began to track Didi Oddo on Coruscant because he was believed to have a datapad revealing information on Zan Arbor. She attacked Didi on a swoop, knocking off a Cavrilhu Pirate's visor on the way. Just as she had Didi trapped in her whip, the Cavrilhu angrily chased her away with a vibroblade, but not before she lashed him.

Two days after the attempted kidnapping, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, happened to have returned to Coruscant when Didi asked begged them to help him. When they came to Nobis' apartment at the Soft Landing Inn, in the hopes of persuading her to leave Didi be&mdash;and finding out if she was chasing the wrong target&mdash;the bounty hunter attacked the Jedi. She managed to slightly wound Qui-Gon before escaping.

Disguised as an old man, Nobis went to the Splendor Tavern. There, she "lost" a cottage on Duneeden in the Cascardi Mountains to Helb, a member of the Tech Raiders; she knew that the Neimoidian would trade it to Didi, whom was eager to find somewhere to hide with his adopted daughter, Astri. Minutes later, she was spotted by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, who went after her. However, she outraced them and disappeared in a six-road square.

Afterwards, Zan Arbor was invited to a big dinner party Didi's Diner. Among her group of fellow scientists, Nobis went under the identity of "Reesa On," which was "catch me" in Sorrusian dialect; the whole purpose of the name was to mock her pursuers. Once the party was over, Nobis stayed behind. She knocked Astri unconscious, trapped Didi with her whip around his neck, and searched for the datapad in Didi's office. She could not find it anywhere. When the Jedi came to the rescue, Nobis fought them off with her blaster, using the Oddos so that her opponents would rush at their defense. Then, she jumped out the window and fled on her swoop.

At the hotel where Zan Arbor was staying, Nobis dressed up as a parking clerk. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had been there to question the scientist in their investigation. As the Jedi were leaving, the disguised Nobis "helped" to move some speeders that were blocking their own, at the unsuspecting Qui-Gon's request. Her targets vulnerable, she rammed a speeder onto theirs, knocking Obi-Wan off the platform. The Padawan managed to use his liquid cable launcher to prevent himself from falling. With Qui-Gon entirely focused on Obi-Wan's safety, Nobis made her escape once again.

The bounty hunter knew that the Oddos had left for Duneeden. She had remained on Coruscant long enough to keep the Jedi from figuring out her plan. Arriving at the house in the Cascardis Mountains, she posed as a very old caretaker that "came with the place." She lured the Oddos into a false sense of security by saying that no one came here during the winter.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discovered what Nobis had done and went Duneeden to rescue the Oddos. But Nobis was already inside the house, waiting for them. She activated some sort of lockdown sequence, trapping the Jedi and Oddos with durasteel coverings on every exit. She even tampered with the Jedi's cruiser to keep them from escaping.

Dressed in black, Nobis blended with the dark surroundings to ambush the Jedi. As they fought, she had deduced that Astri was hiding Zan Arbor's datapad in her tunic after kicking her. The Jedi did everything they could to keep her away from Astri. Obi-Wan jumped to swing from some pipes and kicked Nobis with both legs, causing her to fall down the ramp hard and lose consciousness for a few moments.

The Jedi cut the durasteel off a few windows and exited the house with the Oddos. Nobis, furious at being outmatched by such Jedi, woke up and pursued them outside. Obi-Wan discovered the Sorrusian's hidden cruiser down the mountain and urged the Oddos to make a break for it. Nobis knocked off the platform they were fighting on with enough time to form a sled from her suit, sliding after the Oddos. The Jedi raced her downwards, but she managed to stop between the Oddos and the transport. She caught Astri with her whip and dragged her toward her. She shot Didi when he tried to stop her, though he later survived.

Nobis was within inches of Zan Arbor's datapad. When she found that Astri wouldn't give it up, she set her whip to laser mode and prepared to kill her. But Obi-Wan used the Force to leap and kicked Nobis again to send her back. Nobis drew out a vibroblade and threw it at Astri. Once more, Obi-Wan intervened. He grazed her right fingers with his lightsaber in one hand and caught the hilt of the blade with the other just in time. Angered and in pain, the bounty hunter vowed to Obi-Wan that she would have revenge. She shot out a lunge line from her utility belt with a homing beacon attached to pull her toward the ship; she suffered some more injuries while bouncing on the ice. She got aboard, preparing for takeoff. Before the hatch had closed, Qui-Gon jumped inside to catch Nobis, but she shot him at point blank range, just missing his heart. He fell into unconsciousness.

Nobis set course for Simpla-12, where she delivered Qui-Gon into Zan Arbor's clutches. Her obsession with Obi-Wan remained.

Tino
"You will never work for me again." "How it crushes me."

- Nobis concludes her business with Jenna Zan Arbor.

After dropping off Qui-Gon, Nobis' next job was to assassinate Tino, a friend of Zan Arbor's first Force-sensitive subject, the late Ren S'orn. The scientist feared that the man might know something that could expose her location and experiments. However, before Nobis could begin, she had to return to her hideout her homeworld of Sorrus. There, she picked up a survival rations pack and filled her datapad of past jobs with misinformation on her current target: the governor of Cinnatar. She figured that this would lead anyone who found it on the wrong trail, while she could kill Tino without trouble. Then, she returned to Simpla-12.

Nobis knew that Tino was working at a warehouse in Sim-First, Simpla-12's capital city. Dressed in her black suit, she sneaked in and found the unsuspecting Tino working one level below her in Sector Two. She prepared to strike him down with her whip, but she didn't see that Obi-Wan and Astri were also in the vicinity. Obi-Wan spotted her and shouted a warning to Tino before using the Force to jump on the platform where Nobis was standing.

Surprised and angered that she had been discovered, Nobis attacked Obi-Wan by throwing boxes at him before resorting to use her whip and blaster. As they fought, Astri led Tino to safety. Obi-Wan managed to keep Nobis off-balance, simultaneously corkscrewing Nobis' whip with the blade of his lightsaber and avoiding her blaster fire. Nobis was not willing to forsake her whip. However, she was forced to reconsider when she found herself between Obi-Wan at her front and Astri behind her on a gravsled. She jumped off the catwalk and fled on a ramp that led to the lower levels. There, the bounty hunter slipped through a door that was the size of the warehouse's tech droids; her Sorrusian physiology allowed her to fit inside, an advantage her adversaries lacked.

Final battle
When Jedi Master Adi Gallia and her Padawan, Siri Tachi, were sent to help look for Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Siri started looking for leads. Obi-Wan battled Nobis again at a fake hospital in the city of Arra on Sorrus. He was forced to leave the fight due to orders given to him by Qui-Gon. Later on Belasco, the two Masters and Padawans fought Zan Arbor and Nobis.

In a last attempt to escape, Nobis used her whip to hang from a pipe jutting out from the roof of a building. Adi charged her and cut the whip in half, sending Nobis falling to her death.

Appearances

 * Jedi Apprentice: The Deadly Hunter
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Evil Experiment
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Dangerous Rescue
 * The Last of the Jedi: Secret Weapon