Chelli Lona Aphra

"Thank you, Mr. Lord Vader. Sir? Your majesty? Your illustriousness? Honestly, no idea. I'm a rogue archaeologist, not a protocol droid."

- Chelli Aphra, to Darth Vader

Chelli Lona Aphra was a human female archaeologist who was recruited by Darth Vader after the Battle of Yavin. Aphra, along with her two assassin droid companions, 0-0-0 (Triple-Zero) and BT-1 (Beetee), fulfilled several missions for Darth Vader before falling out of his favor.

Failures of family
"Mom's dead in a ditch on that alien world she took us to when she left you for being obsessed by old dumb stuff! Oh&mdash;the psychologist says I may have some issues. Fair to warn you."

- Chelli Aphra, to her father

Chelli Lona Aphra was a human female who was born to her father and her mother, Lona Aphra&mdash;whose name she took as her middle name&mdash; a few years before the year 22 BBY. The Aphras retained a house on a peaceful world, free from the strife that broke out throughout the galaxy after the flirtation of war during the Separatist Crisis was replaced with an all out war between the Galactic Republic's Grand Army of clone troopers and the newly-formed Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids during the Battle of Geonosis.

Around this time, Chelli's father, a dedicated scholar who specialized in researching the ancient Ordu Aspectu&mdash;a nearly-forgotten group of spiritual believers who disappeared with little trace millenia before Chelli's birth during the Twilight of the Republic&mdash;became extra involved in his work, which led to him neglecting his wife and child. Young Chelli&mdash;known affectionately as "boop" to her father&mdash;often observed her father's work, hearing him speak about an extinct species known as the Massassi, and their Massassi piece crystals. Chelli was also versed in the history of the Jedi Order, a group of spiritual followers of the Force who had served as the primary peacekeepers of the Republic for thousands of generations. However, Lona struggled in her relationship with her husband due to his obsession with locating and his belief that he could bring back the Ancient Aspectu and the Jedi and bring back the light to the galaxy which the Clone Wars had darkened, eventually provoking Lona Aphra to split with her husband, take Chelli, and move to a homestead on a forest world in the largely primitive Outer Rim Territories.

The Clone Wars continued to rage throughout the galaxy, and while the Republic and the Confederacy were occupied fighting one another, a group of raiders took advantage of the chaos and attacked Chelli and Lona's homestead. Chelli ran and hid when they attacked at Lona's urging. Later, Chelli returned and was grieved to find her mother's lifeless body lying in a ditch. Angry in mourning and all on her own, Chelli eventually made her way back to her father's home with the help of the Republic's successor state, the totalitarian Galactic Empire. The Empire came to power in 19 BBY when the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, Sheev Palpatine proclaimed the Empire's rights when the Clone Wars were brought to an end and the Confederacy leadership was disbanded. Chelli saw a psychologist who diagnosed young Chelli as having mental issues&mdash;but that didn't stop her from attempting to burn down her father's house and all his research with it. Chelli was stopped when her father saw the fire, and began putting out the blaze while expressing his surprise at Chelli's unannounced return. Chelli screamed at him that his wife had been killed while the senior Aphra distractedly patted out the flames to save his life's work.

University years
"Aphra, you are a flash. Archaeology isn't about flash. This is the work of decades. Archaeology is about determination. All those years mocking me, you never thought to ask me why I selected you for my doctoral supervision. Because I was never going to let someone like you become a doctor. Not because of my standards. Not because your work is sloppy. Just because I hate you."

- Sava Toob-Nix, to Chelli Aphra

Chelli began studying history and ancient civilizations in the hopes of pursuing the archaeological field as a career, and as a result of her passion and work, received a grant by the Empire to enroll at the University of Bar'leth on the planet Bar'leth in the prestigious Core Worlds region. The young Aphra excelled in her classes under the tutelage of the university's Sava, the Ugnaught Korin Pers. Aphra made several friends during her time at the university, including Sana Starros and Susina. Some time later, Korin Pers, who studied and respected the near-extinct Jedi, was replaced with a new Sava, Toob-Nix. Toob-Nix held a strong opinion on what qualified an archaeologist; an opinion Aphra didn't share. Over the next few years, Aphra and Starros engaged in many misadventures with other cadets and eventually found themselves as a couple. Meanwhile, Aphra consistently antagonized Toob-Nix while in his classes, but Toob-Nix, curiously, bestowed upon Aphra the honor of being personally supervised by him in order to gain her archaeological doctorate.

Servant to a Sith Lord
"That was fun. Let's never do it again."

- Aphra, after narrowly escaping Vader's attempted execution

Enlisted by Darth Vader
"You...are even more interesting than I could have hoped, Sir Vader."

- Aphra to Darth Vader

Sometime after parting ways with Starros, Chelli Aphra reactivated and customized a pair of Clone Wars-era Separatist droideka security droids with missile launchers and sold them to a small group of pirates who operated from a space station in the Outer Rim, and in the name of the prestigious Crymorah syndicate. However, the pirates gained the attention of the Galactic Empire and were hunted down and eradicated personally by Darth Vader, a member of the ancient Sith Order and second in the Imperial hierarchy only to the Galactic Emperor himself, Sheev Palpatine. Having accessed the pirates' main computer while aboard, Vader learned of Doctor Aphra's involvement in upgrading the droidekas&mdash;which he was very impressed by&mdash;so the Dark Lord of the Sith set out to recruit her to his secret list of allies. Aphra, meanwhile, was hired by the Droid Gotra, which was a militarized organization of Separatist battle droids who were not disabled by the droid shut down order at the conclusion of the Clone Wars. Aphra, as an archaeologist who specialized in droid and weapons technologies, was hired for work on several missions; including stealing the ancient Triple-Zero droid personality matrix, to locate and activate the unique BT-1 assassin droid "Blastomech" prototype; and to recover a forgotten portable droid factory on the desert world of Geonosis.

Aboard her prized ship, the Ark Angel, the archaeologist soon located the "Blastomech" prototype, designated BT-1, floating in space near its Imperial-built Tarkin Initiative base, where BT-1 was left after he destroyed the base because he was programmed to be entirely homicidal. However, BT-1 had gone dormant and would not wake up&mdash;the only languages the droid spoke were seemingly lost to history when the Tarkin Initiative base was destroyed. Aphra's next stop was a large asteroid-turned-space station: Quarantine World III in Kallidahin Space&mdash;which was where the Triple-Zero matrix was held in quarantine.

Aphra stealthily made her way into the quarantine facilities and located the safe where the droid matrix was kept. Fearing security measures, Aphra released a cloud of antique stealth microdroid dust, which reveled a web of lasers that would trigger and alert the facility to Aphra's trespass if eclipsed. The doctor crawled prone to the safe and disconnected the personality matrix and stowed it on her person without incident. However, on her return journey crawling under the lasers, she accidentally triggered them, and was forced to sprint to the hangar of the quarantine world as the facility self-destructed around her. After outrunning a shielded droideka and diving under a closing doorway, Aphra was confronted by Quarantine World III's curator and old adversary, Utani Xane. Aphra was unsurprised to see the Kallidahin working at the facility, and handed over her blaster pistol and the personality matrix to Xane's handful of B2 super battle droids without argument&mdash; though, as Aphra was placed in stuncuffs, she did insist that the Triple-Zero matrix should be in an armory, not left stagnant in quarantine or a museum for centuries. Before Aphra could be escorted away back to prison, an uninvited TIE line starfighter approached and released none other than Darth Vader. Mouth agape at the arrival of Vader himself, Aphra watched as the dark lord systematically eradicated the B2 battle droids using the Force and his red-bladed lightsaber. Aphra took advantage of the chaos and tackled Xane, who was attempting to flee with the personality matrix. In the tumble, Aphra barely managed to catch the matrix and herself as she and it went over a large ledge and nearly into a deep chasm. Vader helped the doctor back up after killing Utani Xane and let the doctor know why he was present: he wanted Aphra's help.

Shortly thereafter, Aphra returned to the Ark Angel, where Vader's TIE Advanced starfighter docked with the ship. As the two conversed, Aphra admitted to being a huge fan of Vader's. Vader then explained that he had encountered the droidekas Aphra had supplied to the Crymorah-aligned pirates and that they had impressed him. Aphra thanked "Mr. Vader" and inquired as to how Vader had found her, before coming to the realization that she probably didn't want to know all the bloody details. The archaeologist then explained to Vader the dangers of the Triple-Zero matrix, and that she intended to activate it in the body of a spare 3PO-series protocol droid. However, the matrix was locked and unable to be used, and Aphra perceived that she would need hours to slice into it. Vader, however, ignoring Aphra, used her computer and unlocked the matrix in seconds. Aphra was impressed, and installed the personality matrix into the head of the gunmetal plated protocol droid and awoke him. The Triple-Zero matrix-powered protocol droid came alive and introduced himself as 0-0-0&mdash;or Triple-Zero, appropriately. After Aphra imprinted herself and Vader as Triple-Zero's new masters, she told the droid to speak the R&D language that the Tarkin Initiative created and wake up the BT-1 prototype. After BT-1 was awakened, he took immediate hostilities to Vader and Aphra, but was calmed down by Triple-Zero, who informed the nefarious "Blastomech" that Aphra and Vader was his new masters.

Relieved, Aphra sank to the floor and admitted to Vader that she felt out of her league working with the infamous Sith Lord and asked what it was Vader really wanted from her. Vader revealed that he had been unceremoniously demoted by the Emperor, and therefore planned to build private, secret resources without his master's knowledge. Aphra picked herself up and came to the conclusion that Vader was more worthy than the Droid Gotra, so she turned ownership of BT-1 and Triple-Zero over to him and explained that he could find troops of unquestioning loyalty on Geonosis in the form of the portable droid factory that she was hired to obtain for the Droid Gotra as well. The new allies set course for the Geonosis system immediately, where Vader chaffed Aphra that it would be unwise to disappoint him.

Building forces for Darth Vader
"You know, you can trust me, but you shouldn't. I'm a walking talking stupid risk. You need to win, Lord Vader. This is for a higher cause. When you need to do it, do it. And lightsaber, please."

- Aphra willingly surrenders her own life in order to further Vader's agenda

A short time later, after Vader enlisted the aide of one of his own personal starships, J-type 327 Nubian starship from Naboo, the Ark Angel set down in the midst of an old Clone War battlefront on the red-desert world near the cave system where the droid factory was believed to be hidden under the watchful eye of a native Geonosian queen, Karina the Great, who had survived the Imperial sterilization of her homeworld years earlier. Doctor Aphra then sent the two assassin droids into the queen's subterranean lair while she and Vader followed closely behind, taking notice along the way of the wreckage of modified B1 battle droids, whom were disabled by Aphra's assassin models. Aphra informed her employer that the B1 droids confirmed that the factory was present and still operational. Aphra and Vader caught up with BT-1 (Beetee) and Triple-Zero and the entrance to the queen's chamber, where Aphra added that with the unusual changes, such as mechanical wings, to the battle droids, that Karina the Great viewed the droids not as simply mechanical soldiers, bust as her own children&mdash;Karina had been forced to continue her race by any means necessary after being left unable to reproduce after the sterilization. Aphra, intimidated by the sight of the Geonosian queen using the droid factory as a cybernetic womb, inquired as to whether Vader still thought barging into the insectoid queen's domain was not foolhardy. Vader replied simply "yes" and put the heist into motion; he cut Queen Karina from the portable factory and fought off the attacking B1 droids with the assistance of Beetee, while Aphra attempted to attach a locater beacon to the roof of the chamber. After jumping down to Vader's position and getting him to use the Force to get the beacon to the ceiling without a second thought, Aphra called in the Ark Angel via voice command. The starship fired on the location of the beacon, dropping mounds of rock to the chamber floor. Vader protected himself and Aphra from the cascade using the dark side of the Force. The archaeologist connected a crane lowered by the Vader's J-type 327 Nubian to the factory and held on while the heavily modified yacht lifted Sith Lord, archaeologist, and factory to the safety of the sky. Triple-Zero and Beetee followed utilizing the latter's rocket boosters.

Aphra and the team soon got the factory loaded onto her ship, and after some testing and slight modifications contributed by Triple-Zero, the portable factory began producing an army of nimble BX-series droid commandos to add to the dark lord's growing forces. Seizing the moment of down time, Aphra somberly inquired as to when Vader was going to kill her&mdash;not a doubt in her mind that he would spare her life after her usefulness to him had ended. Vader, pleased that Aphra had thus far been entirely loyal and resourceful, stated that he would not end her life until he saw fit. Satisfied with his logic, Aphra risked requesting that when Vader came to kill her, to do so with his lightsaber, and if she did not earn a quick and painless death, then to be ejected into space to freeze and suffocate to death; something she had always had nightmares about. Just then Triple-Zero interrupted with news that a bounty hunter whom Vader had hired from Jabba the Hutt of the powerful Hutt Clan had arrived with his bounty in tow. The disowned, outcast Wookiee Black Krrsantan of Kashyyyk. Krrsantan quickly brought aboard the Ark Angel the yet-to-be-identified Doctor Cylo, whom Vader tasked Triple-Zero with torturing and identifying.

Later, Aphra's team traveled aboard Vader's chromium-plated Nubian to a secret research base maintained by Doctor Cylo located in the Crushank Nebulae of the Outer Rim. Upon arriving in the nebula and seeing that the base was constructed of a multitude of space-born whales, Aphra admitted she was impressed&mdash;Vader, though, determined that it was only impressive if one was "fond of abominations." At Vader's word, Aphra began the illegal boarding mission: she launched an ion charge, which disabled the whale-ship's systems, before wishing to Vader an old Jedi saying: "may the Force be with you." Before Aphra landed the Nubian on the whale so Triple-Zero and Beetee could gain access to the base with a dozen commando droids, Vader ejected himself into space and cut his own way to the base through the flesh of the whale-ship. Aphra proceeded to analyze the plans to the base after Beetee provided them from slicing into the bases's system. From the schematics, she provided the locations of possible resistance on the base, so Vader and the commando droids systematically cleared the living vessel before half of the commando droids were lost in a place called "the dojo." Vader, therefore, made his own way to the dojo with his half of the battle droids, where Aphra lost contact with her employer for some time. Triple-Zero and Beetee returned to Aphra at the ship with no information on why Vader was out of contact. As time went on, Aphra became increasingly worried at Vader's safety, eventually deciding to arm herself and go in after the seemingly lost Sith Lord. While waiting, the other bounty hunter Vader had hired, the no-nonsense Boba Fett, called, having caught up with his bounty. Just before Aphra planned on leaving the ship, Vader returned in a state of fierce anger. Aphra informed Vader that Fett had information, so Vader piloted the Nubian to a Star Destroyer of the Imperial Navy where he had meeting with the bounty hunter.

Vader returned after the meeting with orders for Aphra to travel to the the desert planet Tatooine in the Arkanis sector with him aboard the Ark Angel. Upon arrival in Tatooine's Dune Sea region, the group located the homestead moisture farm previously occupied by the Lars family before they were killed weeks before during a Rebel Alliance mission to Tatooine. There, Vader reveled to Aphra only that the Rebel Alliance pilot who destroyed the Death Star had lived at the moisture farm before the family was killed by the Empire. Aphra found it ironic that since the long-standing Imperial Senate had only recently been dissolved by the Emperor when the Lars family had been killed, prompting the future pilot who destroyed the Death Star, to leave and join the Rebellion; believing that revenge was what had motivated the pilot to damn so many Imperial souls. Vader agreed. Next, Aphra and the others traveled several kilometers away to the Jundland Wastes to a small home where Fett had engaged in a battle with the pilot just recently. At Vader's order, Aphra waited outside while Vader examined the interior of the structure using the Force. Moments later, Vader reemerged, so Aphra detonated a molecular purge bomb within the structure, which erased all forensic evidence that anyone had ever occupied the building. Vader then told Aphra that he had to return to his legitimate duties within the Empire as punishment for not preventing the Death Star from being destroyed, so Aphra was dismissed from his service&mdash; though Vader had a new mission for the doctor already in mind.

Thieving against the Empire
"Now...we have a droid factory. We have the bounty hunters. We have the money to pay the bounty hunters. What next? Is it a holiday? I think I'm due a little holiday time."

- Aphra, to Vader on Anthan 13

Just as Vader had promised, he soon contacted Aphra with a new mission: steal a fortune's amount of credits from an Imperial Arquitens-class light cruiser while it was in transit to the Anthan system. The credits, recently acquired by the Empire after raiding and killing the leadership of the Son-tuul Pride criminal syndicate on the jungle planet Son-tuul. In order to enact the robbery, Aphra herself traveled to Son-tuul, where in a local cantina, she gathered a group of bounty hunters to help her. The five bounty hunters&mdash;Black Krrsantan, IG-series assassin droid IG-90, armor-clad Beebox, and the very experienced Trandoshan Bossk&mdash;agreed to her terms, and together aboard Aphra's ship, they headed to the Outer Rim Anthan System. However, per a secret plan of Vader's, Aphra did not inform any of the hunters besides Krrsantan, whom was in on the plan due to his already having already impressed Vader with the capture of Cylo, that Vader was behind the raid, and that the plan was not for themselves to get rich, but for Vader to have funds to expand his forces.

As soon as the Imperial light cruiser emerged from hyperspace in orbit over Anthan Prime, Aphra began what would come to be known as the Son-tuul Pride robbery. She blew up a large asteroid with previously installed explosives and thrusters, which, when detonated, created a small asteroid belt that quickly engulfed the Imperial cruiser in the unexpected collision. Seizing the time bought by the asteroids, Aphra fired an ion charge into the cruiser; which gave Aphra and her crew&mdash;excpet for Krrsantan, who was waiting, hidden, for his part in his Auzituck anti-slaver gunship nearby&mdash;five minutes to board the vessel and steal the mounds of credit chips. Donning space suits, Aphra, Bossk, IG-90, and Beebox, left the Ark Angel through its airlock and spacewalked onto the underside of the Imperial light cruiser where they boarded the vessel and circumvented any Imperials to the ship's vault, defeated a trio of Viper probe droids guarding it, planted a homing beacon on the vault, and then hastily retreated back to the Ark Angel, which allowed Krrsantan to do his part: slingshot an asteroid into the cruiser in his gunship, which cracked open the vessel at the vault, spilling the millions in credit ingots into space. Beetee was there on the hull of the vessel and managed to lasso a portion of the ingots using magnets&mdash;though, as per the secret plan Vader concocted, Beetee let a majority of the credits float away, seemingly lost. Krrsantan, gathered, up the rest of the credit ingots in his gunship and dropped them off on Anthan 13, one of Anthan's primes many moons.

Aphra later gathered the credits Beetee had gathered into boxes and split them up five shares, one for Aphra and each hunter. Krrsantan, acting his part to fool the other bounty hunters, sided with IG-90 and Beebox, who were disdained that the amount of credits promised was still huge, but not nearly as huge as promised. Aphra managed to brush off their grievances and agreed to pay up front if she ever asked to work with them again in the future. Later, Aphra gave Krrsantan five times his promised share on Anthan 13 and promised to help him find the individuals responsible for "cutting him up" in his previous career. Aphra added that she and him were in deep together, in crossing three bounty hunters. After Krrsantan departed, Vader emerged from the shadows of the crystalline caves of the moon and gave her a datachip with her next mission detailed inside. Darth Vader warned that if she did not contact him with new information within a month, he would contact her. Something the doctor would not enjoy.

The mortician of Naboo
"If you're not a strong queen, good doesn't mean anything. And strong and order beats good but weak on every planet in the galaxy, from now until the end of time.''" "Amidala was good and strong." "''Not strong enough."

- Aphra and Commodex Tahn discuss the former queen, Padmé Amidala

Within the span of a few days, Aphra returned to Anthan Prime,this time, however, she visited the Anthan Spire, a floating city in the cloudy storms of the gas-filled world. Aphra was directed to the Spire's lower class Tradesman's Entrance due to her less-than-luxurious ship, and paid a quick visit to an old friend and associate, the Ante, an information broker who could easily provide any relevant information on her and Vader's target as revealed on the data chip given to her by Vader. The Ante quickly decrypted the information, supplying that the subject of the data was Commodex Tahn, a long-retired former mortician from the idyllic Mid Rim planet Naboo. Aphra paid the brilliant Givin a sum of credits that the Ante deemed excessive, but accepted them nonetheless&mdash;the Ante's methods were far more discreet than using the public HoloNet, Aphra deduced. Aphra then returned to the Ark Angel with her two assassin droids, and the trio made way to the Naboo system, posthaste.

Aphra stealthily piloted her starship into Naboo's capital city of Theed, and along with Triple-Zero, Beetee, and a squadron of seven commando droids, assaulted the luxurious home of the retired mortician. With orders to take Tahn alive in order to interrogate him, the droids attempted to stun Tahn into unconsciousness when he took up arms against them. Beetee, however, shot Tahn's clone trooper-issued DC-15 blaster rifle out of his hands, drawing blood and upsetting Aphra. Aphra ordered the droids to break into and steal out of Tahn's safes, in order to make the home invasion look like robbery. Aphra then turned her attention to Tahn, she reaffirmed in him what she already knew; that Tahn had prepared former Naboo Queen Padmé Amidala's body for burial upon her death at the very end of the Clone Wars. A patriot, Tahn stood firm, insisting that he would never betray Amidala&mdash;not even her memory. Tahn argued that Amidala had been a good queen, which was why he would not betray her. Annoyed with Tahn's unwillingness to comply, retorted that a strong queen would have beaten out Amidala's good queen act in the end. Looking at the upper class quality of life in Theed, of which Tahn was a part, Aphra read a romanticized version of her memories of how her mother had been killed during the Clone War after her parents had split up, how Aphra had killed a group of raiders with an "awesome cannon" she found, and how her father had returned thereafter; a happily ever ending that did not occur. Feeling pity for Aphra, Tahn digressed his pity for her loss.

However, Aphra brushed it off, adding that a galactic war had been happening&mdash;everyone had lost someone. Getting back to business, Aphra brought down on Tahn that if Amidala had been both good and strong, she would have avoided her fate, believing that the Empire was both good and strong, which was why she believed in the regime. At Aphra's word Triple-Zero began his torturing interrogation of Commodex Tahn. Aphra, meanwhile, walked the man's house, where she came across a holovid of the Tahn family. She, in her own way, apologized for having to end Tahn's life, finding comfort that Tahn had lived a good life. Triple-Zero appeared, having violently coerced Tahn into answering Aphra's inquiry. Aphra easily got the battered Tahn to confirm that then-Senator Amidala had given birth to a son who had been taken by the a pair of Jedi Knights just before she died. Satisfied, Aphra told Triple-Zero to "finish up" so they could depart; the protocol droid electrocuted Commodex Tahn to death and the team fled Naboo, happy that Vader could now know the full story. Back on Anthan Prime, Aphra reported all she had learned to Vader. Appeased, Vader gave Aphra her next mission: locate the boy who had destroyed the Death Star before another could first, namely Imperial agent, Commander Karbin.