Jas Emari

Jas Emari was a female Zabrak who worked as a bounty hunter during the Galactic Civil War. She was present at the Battle of Endor and made the decision there to switch sides on the conflict and no longer work with the Galactic Empire. She was the niece of bounty hunter Sugi who was active during the Clone Wars. Jas was present on Akiva when the Imperial Future Council met on the planet. She then worked with others to take down multiple Imperial targets to collect a large bounty. After her ordeal on Akiva, she decided to work for the New Republic with those others to take down Imperial targets.

Early life
Jas grew up on Iridonia and had a very difficult childhood. When her aunt Sugi gave her advice about running away, she decided to leave the planet and become a bounty hunter as her aunt before her. She thought of her life as very wild, often making remarks about how another crazy event was just another day in the life of Jas. She preferred to work alone, unlike Sugi, who often tried to help those who could not help themselves and worked with team members regularly.

Battle of Endor
During the Battle of Endor, Jas was on Endor as the Rebel Alliance sought to destroy the shield generator that was protecting the second Death star. From a vantage point on a tree, she could see the battle unfold between the Ewoks, rebels, and Empire. She was hired by the Empire to target Princess Leia Organa, but once the tide of the battle switched to favor the rebels, she decided not to take the shot, realizing that she must switch sides in the war if she was to survive. She then climbed down from her tree and took her speeder, cleverly disguised next to a tree, away from the scene of the battle. When she gathered her speeder, she saw Sinjir Rath Velus covered in blood and dressed as a rebel, and they made eye contact for a brief moment before she left.

Bounty on Akiva
"This charade is temporary. What is your plan?" "I have no plan. What I do have is your blaster and my friends and luck on our side. Plus: We're very good at improvising, as you can well see."

- Jas Emari in response to Grand Moff Pandion

After the Battle of Endor, she took jobs that served the New Republic, the new government created by the Rebel Alliance, or worked against the Empire. One of these jobs was to assassinate the Imperial slaver and financier Arsin Crassus, who was supposed to arrive on the remote Outer Rim world of Akiva at Satrap Isstra Dirus's palace. Jas took up position on a rusted tower high above Akiva's old capitol building in the capital city Myrra.

However, when Crassus landed in his yacht, the Golden Harp, she noticed that several other Imperial ships were landing at the same time; bringing with them Grand Moff Valco Pandion, Yupe Tashu, General Jylia Shale, and Admiral Rae Sloane. These Imperials had come to Akiva to attend an emergency summit later known as the Imperial Future Council which had been organized by Admiral Sloane to discuss the future of the Empire. Instead of taking the shot on Crassus, she decided they would be worth a lot more together and decided to take a new course of action. Before she could do anything, she was shot down from her perch by the Imperial officer Morna Kee, who was piloting Sloane's Lambda-class shuttle.

Jas survived her fall but crashed into Temmin Wexley's junk shop. There, she was captured by the Sullustan Surat Nuat, a local crime lord who headed a gang. Surat quickly recognized Jas as a bounty hunter. Jas tried to talk her way out of trouble by offering to hunt down Temmin, who had incurred the wrath of Surat by stealing a valuable cargo shipment. When Jas admitted that she was targeting an Imperial official, Surat revealed that he was working for the Empire and after denouncing the New Republic, ordered his henchmen to take her prisoner.

Surat took Jas Emari to The Alcazar, a cantina and gambling den which served as his base. Surat intended to sell Jas as a slave or exchange her with the Empire. One of the patrons at The Alcazar was Sinjir, the ex-Imperial loyalty officer, whom she had encountered earlier on Endor. Recognizing the Zabrak, Sinjir attempted to buy her claiming that he worked for the Empire. However, Surat did not intend to sell Jas to the Empire and ordered his men to kill Sinjir. Following a brief gun battle, Sinjir was knocked out by the bartender and imprisoned with Jas.

Unlikely allies
Jas found herself locked into a cage beside Sinjir. Following a tense conversation, Jas and Sinjir agreed to put aside their differences and work together to save Temmin, another captive of Surat. Jas managed to free herself and Sinjir from their cages by using a lockpick that she kept in a fake horn on her head. The two unlikely allies then rescued Temmin from having his tongue ripped out by Surat's henchmen. Following a firefight with Surat's henchmen and several Imperial stormtroopers, Jas and her fellow captives managed to escape with the help of Temmin's mother Norra Wexley, a New Republic starfighter pilot on a bala-bala speeder. Since there was not enough room on Norra's speeder, Jas wrapped a chain around a dead Gran gangster's body and used it as a makeshift wakesurfer.

Jas joined her new allies at the home of Esmelle, Temmin's aunt and Norra's older sister. After settling down at their refuge, she and Sinjir discussed their plan to disrupt the Imperial emergency summit and capture their targets; using various household objects and cutlery as improvised sets for their "map." When Jas told Norra about her plan, Norra told her that she was only interested in taking her son Temmin offworld. After Temmin expressed an interest in helping the bounty hunters and Jas raised the subject of the capture of the New Republic pilot Wedge Antilles, Norra reluctantly agreed to help Jas and Sinjir in return for getting safe passage of Akiva.

Shortly later, Jas, Sinjir, and the Wexleys were joined by Temmin's modified B1 battle droid "Mister Bones", who had survived the skirmish at The Alcazar. When Norra attacked Sinjir after learning that he was an Imperial officer, Jas restrained Wexley with her blaster and convinced the two to put aside their differences. Norra agreed and devised a plan to inspire a rebellion on Akiva, capture the Imperial Future Council, and free Wedge Antilles. This was her first time working with a team and trusting others with her mission.

While Sinjir, Temmin, and Mister Bones infiltrated an Imperial communications station and uploaded a New Republic propaganda broadcast, Jas and Norra headed back to Temmin's junkshop. There, Jas killed several unidentified hostiles who had been lying in wait for the Wexleys. Norra then stole a TIE fighter and used it to destroy several other TIE fighters and Imperial shuttles, hampering the Imperial delegates' escape from Akiva. Norra's fighter was shot down but she managed to bail out. The rebels' propaganda broadcast had the effect of inspiring an uprising in Myrra and a large crowd assembled outside the Satrap's Palace.

Fighting the Empire
Following her first joint operation with the Wexleys and Sinjir, Jas reunited with Temmin, Mister Bones, and Sinjir at a cantina called Pok's Place. Since she had witnessed Norra's TIE fighter crashing into the Satrap's Palace, she believed that Norra had perished during the attack on the Satrap's Palace until Norra herself showed up. Putting the next phase of their plan into action, the rebels decided to use Myrra's underground catacombs to infiltrate the Satrap's Palace and capture the Imperials. Temmin offered to serve as a guide but needed to return to his junk shop to retrieve maps. While the other rebels waited for Temmin, Jas stood guard outside the building.

Unknown to Jas and the others, Temmin retreated to his private "hidey-hole-nook-and-cubby" and secret contacted Surat. He offered to sell Jas and Sinjir to the gangster in return for securing him, his mother Norra, and Mister Bones safe passage off Akiva. Surat accepted the deal but double-crossed Temmin by negotiating another deal with Admiral Sloane to capture Norra. Together with her companions, they traveled through the underground passages beneath Myrra. While navigating through a Clone Wars-era battlefield, Sinjir took the opportunity to voice his suspicions about Temmin's nervousness to Jas. Though Emari initially thought that Sinjir had romantic feelings for her but Sinjir implied that he did not have feelings for the opposite sex.

While traveling through an abandoned Separatist factory, they were ambushed by several Uugteen primitives. Jas and her companions managed to escape the Uugteens after Temmin ignited a box of detonators. With Temmin as their guide, Jas and her party made their way through the Old Banking Clan building and reached the entrance to the Satrap's Palace. Jas devised a plan to ambush several stormtroopers and palace guards and gain entrance to the palace. However, they were captured by Admiral Sloane and her stormtroopers. Once inside the palace, Jas learned about Temmin's secret deal with Surat and the Empire. When Surat revealed his secret arrangement with Sloane, Temmin protested but was unable to stop the Imperials from taking away his mother and disintegrating Mister Bones.

Prior to leaving Temmin, she told him that he would make a good bounty hunter. Sinjir added that the boy would make a better Imperial. With a crowd besieging the Satrap's Palace, Jas and her fellow captives were taken aboard Crassus's yacht Golden Harp. Their fellow passengers were the high-ranking Imperial officials and several stormtroopers. However, Temmin managed to infiltrate the Golden Harp and reached Jas's cell through a maintenance hatch. While Sinjir remonstrated with Grand Moff Pandion, Temmin freed Jas and Norra. Jas then singlehandedly held Pandion at gunpoint. Before a firefight could break out, Sloane crash-landed the yacht in the hangar bay of her Imperial Star Destroyer Vigilance.

Jas and her rebel companions survived the crash but Crassus and most of the Imperial stormtroopers aboard were killed. Jas managed to stun General Jylia Shale, Adviser Yupe Tashu, and Sloane's aide Adea Rite but was unable to capture Pandion and Sloane, who escaped aboard another shutle. Jas, Sinjir, and Temmin then rescued Wedge and evacuated their Imperial captives aboard a shuttle before the Vigilance was destroyed by a New Republic fleet that had emerged from hyperspace. Meanwhile, Norra attempted to pursue Sloane's shuttle in a stolen TIE fighter but narrowly escaped death when the Admiral detached the main compartment of her shuttle with the recalcitrant Pandion; causing a fiery explosion.

Joining the New Republic
After Akiva became a member of the New Republic, Jas joined forces with Norra, Temmin, Sinjir, Mister Bones, and the New Republic Special Forces soldier Jom Barell to hunt down surviving Imperial targets across the galaxy.

Behind the scenes
Jas Emari first appeared as a significant point-of-view character in Chuck Wendig's 2015 novel Aftermath, the first book in The Aftermath Trilogy. She along with Norra, Temmin Wexley, Sinjir Rath Velus, and Admiral Rae Sloane serve as the five main point-of-view characters for the Akivan story arc in the novel. Emari later reappeared in Aftermath 2016 sequel, Aftermath: Life Debt.

Appearances

 * Aftermath
 * Aftermath: Life Debt