Hallis Saper

"I'm fully aware of the sort of commotion he causes when I wear him. But what I know&mdash;and what you don't know&mdash;is that people, when they look at me, only see the two-headed lady. They don't give me a close look, they don't register my features. Meaning that I can tuck Whitecap under my cloak and take off my goggles, and nobody recognizes me. I doubt even you would."

- Hallis Saper, to Wedge Antilles, concerning her "second head"

Hallis Saper was a freelance holodocumentarian who served with the New Republic Intelligence Service. A tall, slender Human female from Bonadan, Saper typically wore her long brown hair either in a braid or in large, elaborate pilings atop her head. Originally trained in sludgenews, Saper experienced a turning point in her career when she accompanied Red Flight to Adumar as a mission documentarian. Despite the fact that the mission didn't go according to plan, with the pilots becoming enemies of Adumar's largest state, Cartann, Saper was loyal to the pilots and played a vital role in their survival by convincing Iella Wessiri to disregard her orders and assist the New Republic pilots. Following the mission, she went on to join New Republic Intelligence, serving in the Yuuzhan Vong War as part of a disinformation campaign.

Early career
Saper began her professional career working in "sludgenews," a branch of journalism popular throughout the galaxy which consisted mainly of turgid stories concerning the private lives of celebrities and often sensational "true" conspiracy theories. In this field, a prospective reporter needed to learn all one could about bribery, planting eavesdropping devices and transmitters, and other unsavory practices in order to obtain credible stories for publication. Saper learned those skills with aplomb and, knowing what the genre was all about almost from the beginning, quit as soon as she could afford to, choosing instead to become a legitimate holodocumentarian.

In this career, Saper was known for her eccentricity, wearing a contraption she had dubbed Whitecap&mdash;a combination of an ex-3PO unit's head and a holorecorder&mdash;on her shoulder, held there by a restraining bracket. She would also wear dark goggles with sensors that tracked her eye movements, allowing Whitecap to record whatever it was that she saw; the whole outfit made some interviewees, mainly children, uncomfortable but it diverted attention away from Saper's facial features and allowed her to shadow people once Whitecap and the goggles were removed. In this way she gained that much more of an edge over her targets, who would have been predisposed to mistake her eccentricities for a basic lack of competence.

Mission to Adumar
In 13 ABY Saper was invited to document the New Republic's mission to Adumar. Saper was annoyed by Wedge Antilles's order that Whitecap be modified so he could deactivate the device for privacy purposes, but she had no other choice but to comply when Wedge threatened to leave her in her cabin for the whole expedition. The members of the delegation initially made the mistake of seeing her as the "the two-headed lady," keeping that opinion through most of the initial diplomatic functions that she accompanied the pilots on, including their initial reception and when they first met the perator of Cartann, Pekaelic ke Teldan. However, Wedge and the pilots revised their opinion of her after Saper figured out that New Republic Intelligence agent Tomer Darpen was in fact spying on them. While intending to secure Whitecap's remaining parts after he had become damaged during the course of her documenting duties, Saper noticed a man forcing his way in; Saper shadowed him as he raided Red Flight's quarters and, when he left, tracked him back to his own quarters - which happened to be the ones assigned to Darpen. Though Whitecap was now basically useless, Saper didn't let that stop her from fulfilling her duties.

Forced to change tactics (which included hiding data-gathering devices in elaborate hairdressings), Saper continued to prove her worth repeatedly as, later in the mission, she recorded damning evidence of Darpen's treachery when he tricked the perator into declaring Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie enemies of the state and cut off communications to the mission's support ship, the Star Destroyer Allegiance, so the pilots could not signal for extraction. As the pilots were forced to run a gauntlet of blaster-wielding Adumari before attempting escape in the local starfighters, Saper was forced to go to ground in order to keep her information safe; during this time she intended to retrieve Red Flight's gear along with Whitecap's remaining parts, but was instead forced to sneak up on and incapacitate a pair of Cartannese would-be robbers.

In the wake of the brief Adumari Civil War, Saper put together and broadcast a series of false news stories pertaining to a supposed guerrilla war waged by supporters of the defeated nation of Cartann against the united Adumari government in order to lull an approaching Imperial fleet, led by the Star Destroyers Agonizer (formerly under the command of Admiral Teren Rogriss), Retaliator and Master Stroke, into believing that as a still-divided world, Adumar was a ripe target for conquest. In the battle that followed, her deceptions enticed the Imperials to divide their starfighter and bomber forces, allowing New Republic reinforcements to penetrate the fleet's screen and deal significant damage to two of the three Star Destroyers in the attacking force. Five years later, Saper created and released the award-winning holodocumentary Adumar: Five Years of Union.

Career in Intelligence
After the Adumar mission was completed, Saper found a new career working with New Republic Intelligence, where she was serving as a major just prior to the Yuuzhan Vong conquest of Duro in 26 ABY. During a meeting with the New Republic Advisory Council, she informed the gathered senators, among them Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya and Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker, about the progress of the disinformation campaign that NRI had been attempting to run against the Yuuzhan Vong war machine. Unfortunately she had little to report, as the campaign seemed to be accomplishing little up to that point. Her fate after this is largely unknown, though it is likely that she continued serving with NRI in her last known capacity.

Personality and traits
Saper was, if anything, a study in contrasts. While possessing technical skill both in the equipment of her trade and its associated field craft, she also had a good-natured sense of humor. She appreciated the dual nature of her job and how best to pursue her targets in order to get the stories she needed to maintain her career. She was highly intelligent and, though she earned her spurs in the sludgenews business, Saper nonetheless did have scruples, which enabled her to make a clean break from the tabloid industry of the galaxy. Striking out on her own as a legitimate news reporter and holodocumentarian, she eventually began a successful, if uneventful, career in New Republic Intelligence that lasted through the first years of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Her skill with machines was demonstrated by her construction and use of Whitecap. In addition, Saper possessed excellent abilities in infiltration, tracking, bribery, and even counterintelligence duties, all of which served to make her a prime recruit for NRI. Using her talents as a documentarian, she assisted the intelligence agency in creating disinformation campaigns. She was even persuasive enough to cause Iella Wessiri, a Corellian agent formerly of CorSec who was known for her stubbornness, to abandon her superior officer (Darpen) and to help Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie defy the delegation's standing orders. Despite what her job often called on her to do in order to accomplish her goals, Saper was, in general, an upbeat woman who was very much the optimist. She also possessed a keen and sometimes biting sense of humor and was not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Behind the scenes
Hallis Saper was created by author Aaron Allston for the novel X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar. Kathy Tyers would later use the character for a minor appearance in her New Jedi Order novel Balance Point.

Appearances

 * X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar
 * Balance Point