Chanath Cha

"My armies serve well as a hammer, but I suspect this undertaking is more suited to a needle. I have no needle sharper than Chanath Cha."

- Emperor Palpatine

Chanath Cha was a human female bounty hunter who operated during the Galactic Civil War.

Hunting the Imperialis
"There is a ship. The Imperialis. It belongs to me, and yet someone has been so foolish as to steal it. I will provide you with transportation&mdash;perhaps the only vessel in my great fleet equipped to locate the Imperialis. "Consider it done, Emperor."

- Palpatine informs Cha of her mission

Cha worked as a prestigious bounty hunter during the Galactic Civil War that occurred during the reign of the Galactic Empire. She had a past romantic history with Lobot with some tension between them due to Lobots decision to work with Lando.

During that time, Cha was hired by an individual who did not like the crime boss Big String&mdash;who resided in a volcanic fortress on the Inner Rim world Amethia Prime&mdash;to destroy his fortress and apprehend Big String.

Soon, Cha traveled to the ocean world and invaded the fortress, flying through its structure and destroying it using near-indestructible armor and rocket boots, until the entire complex went up in an explosive fireball. Then Cha focused on Big String, who was fleeing in a boat with three of his bodyguards. Cha dove underwater and raced towards the craft, launching upward through it, destroying its engine and overturning it; quickly ending Big String's escape. Cha confronted Big String, who pleaded to know why Cha had destroyed the "empire" he had spent twenty cycles creating. After providing a name, Cha told the criminal that it was a contracted job. Cha then engaged the guards in hand-to-hand combat, quickly defeating them. Cha convinced Big String to drop his blaster, allowing Cha to hoist him up by his belt and took to the air using rocket boots to deliver the bounty.

However, once at cloud-level, Cha received a holographic comlink call from the Emperor. Cha apologized to Big String and dropped him; not wanting to ignore the call from this most important client. Palpatine appeared from the holoprojector and informed Cha that his yacht, the Imperialis, had been stolen from an Imperial Imperial shipyard in the Castell system, and he wanted Cha to recover it, because Palpatine had little faith in the military forces he had assigned to the task, stating that he needed a needle, and that Cha was the sharpest needle he had. The Emperor gave Cha a unique starship to aid in recovering the Imperialis, and told the bounty hunter that success would mean great reward&mdash;but if the yacht could not be recovered, Cha needed to destroy it, in order for the "personal items" it contained to not fall into the hands of others.

Cha immediately traveled to Imperial Facility 729-D, a classified Imperial space station that housed the vessel Palpatine promised Cha use of during the mission. She examined the exterior of the ship, noting it appeared unique in design. O-66, a droid sent by Palpatine to assist Cha, appeared and explained that the ship, the Scimitar, had been in use for an extended period of time by "special" owners. O-66 informed Cha that the technical readouts for the Scimitar were available, Cha, however, ordered O-66 to paraphrase the instructions. Once O-66 had done so, Cha removed O-66's head for protection; O-66 could no longer hold a weapon to attack Cha if that was the droid's programming. Cha then piloted the Star Courier into space, where O-66 explained that the Scimitar was configured to track the Imperialiss hyperdrive signature through space; a feat that Cha had believed impossible. However, the Imperialis's signature was very similar to that of a neuron star&mdash;which if the Scimitar tracked instead, would kill Cha when it emerged from hyperspace. Cha was unworried and entered hyperspace.

A short time later, the Scimitar emerged from hyperspace near the Imperialis in deep space. Cha spacewalked to the Emperor's yacht, and with O-66's help, located an airlock, sliced into it and rushed through the Imperialis to locate the hijackers. Cha needed the ship's operation system codes from O-66 in order to lock the escape codes, thereby preventing the hijackers from escaping. O-66 refused, but relented after Cha revealed that she had planted a pulse bomb in the droid's neck. Cha disabled the hijackers' only escape option, and soon stumbled across one of the thieves: the Ugnaught Korin Pers. Pers claimed she was alone in stealing the Imperialis, but Cha knew better than to believe her, and was proved correct when one of Per's partners appeared and tried to jump Cha. Cha, however, easily outmaneuvered the thief and was shocked to recognize the thief as her old friend Lando Calrissian. Cha removed her helmet, allowing Calrissian to likewise recognize her. Calrissian was equally shocked and greeted her with a kiss to the hand.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 16: The Shu-Torun War, Part I
 * Star Wars: Lando, Part II
 * Star Wars: Lando, Part III
 * Star Wars: Lando, Part IV
 * Star Wars: Lando, Part V