- Nirama's spies: "Are you planning to overthrow Nirama?"
- Cell leader: "Let's just say that we've taken an unofficial vote of 'no confidence' in his leadership."
- ―Nirama's spies being recruited into the Cell[1]
The Cell was a secret organization in the Cularin system during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. A faction in Nirama's criminal Organization, The Cell wanted to oust, replace, and execute the current crime lord. They believed Nirama was not making enough profits, mostly because he opposed slavery in a movement that many considered too soft.
History[]
The Cell was the name of a secret conspiracy within the criminal Organization of the Cularin system. The aim of the conspiracy was to dispose of the Organization's leader, Nirama, and reinstitute the practices that Nirama had banned, such as dealing in the slave trade. In addition, they wanted to join forces with the Metatheran Cartel to form a trade monopoly within the Cularin system.[1]
Although there had always been those opposed to Nirama's policies since he took over from Riboga the Hutt in 53 BBY, the Cell didn't come together until decades later. In 31 BBY, they took advantage of the Metatheran Cartel's attention-drawing actions under Velin Wir to shift resources and approach other powers within the system. This did not escape Nirama's attention, however, and he discovered that there was an organization calling itself "the Cell" active within his Organization which wished to depose him.[1]
Not trusting his own people, Nirama turned to outsiders to investigate the situation. The outsiders were brought in as new recruits and set to work inside the Organizations's primary asteroid base. A recruiter for the Cell soon had a conversation with the outsiders, and found them to be sufficiently ambitious enough for recruitment. Soon, the outsiders were questioned by the Cell's leadership and then had their skills tested in Mokada's Place.[1]
A group of Trandoshans within the Cell discovered (or believed to have discovered) that the new recruits were plants, and wanting full credit, attempted to kill the recruits without reporting their find to the rest of the Cell. The recruits, however, were armed and defeated the Trandoshans. The recruits were quickly arrested by Nirama's guard, and in punishment, were cycled out to less prestigious assignments—a common enough punishment that it did not raise suspicions that the recruits had been working for Nirama. To cover their tracks in case the recruits had talked, the Cell's meeting places were abandoned and all the Cell members who had been involved in the Mokada's Place testing were killed.[1]
To protect their identities, the Cell members often wore hoods and black clothing. Even most of their leaders wore hoods when speaking to new recruits through a wall of boxes. One of the leaders of the Cell was Force-sensitive.[1]
Meanwhile, in the asteroid—repair station Darkside, the local Cell members were considered harmless urchins, not even worth of notifying Nirama. One month later, Nirama's forces found the hiding of most of the local leaders and wipe them out; they also found a datapad suggesting that The Cell was trying to recruit some of Nirama's former allies. Unaware that The Cell in Darkside had suffered a devastating blow, Nirama called his one-time employees a second time and asked them to perform undercover work to find the local Cell leaders. The surviving Cell members, who were nevertheless having a very hard time recruiting Kaarl the Ithorian and some Wookiees, were captured and sent to the public asteroid. Nirama questioned them and discovered important information about other, more powerfull Cell members.[2]
The Cell then staged a new operation in Rothe Gate, Nirama's main weapon storage asteroid in the local belt. Apparently, the person behind all this scheme was Ari Melast, one of Nirama's lieutenants. Following her orders, the Cell reprogrammed Nirama's former protocol droid N3-A2, which had valuable information in its memory banks. They also took Nirama's reliable master of properties, Jobril the Twi'lek, extracted his self-requested, surgically-implanted loyalty chip, and misled him to make him believe to still be following Nirama's orders. They made Jobril hire some independent mercenaries who had previously worked for Nirama and take them to Rothe Gate. There, N3-A2 was programmed to give the agents some orders. The agents were supposed to discover some false proofs linking Nirama's most loyal agents in Rothe Gate with The Cell. Not all of the Cell's members in Rothe Gate were informed of this conspiracy.[3]
Nirama discovered that Jobril had been seen in Rothe Gate, and went there with his right-hand man Len Markus. The Cell decided to speed up their scheme and assassinate Nirama while in target: They replaced the security guard of Nirama's chambers with Cell members, and waited for the moment. They staged a distraction by sending N3-A2 with an explosive to kill the previously-described mercenaries, although this plot failed and the independent agents survived to meet with Nirama. When Nirama was questioning them, the Cell attacked. Markus called for reinforcements, and the mercenaries held The Cell until they arrived.[3]
After this sound defeat, Nirama knew of Melast's implication, and sent Markus to capture her.[3]
Known members[]
- Ahlya[2]
- Dor Balse[2]
- Beebo[1]
- Blarg[1]
- Duus[1]
- Kruss Gaal[2]
- Gebs[1]
- Gorssk[3]
- Hooded Wookiee[1]
- Horssk[1]
- Janna[1]
- Jarrilyn[2]
- Jasper[2]
- Jobril (unaware of it)[3]
- Ari Melast[3]
- Michael[2]
- N3-A2 (unaware of it?)[3]
- Mack Oides[1]
- Kor Pastar[1]
- Vel Pastar[1]
- Re'Nicu[1]
Behind the scenes[]
- "You watched Nirama hauled away by the Cell and had to wonder if you did the right thing. A strange mix of sobriety and celebration filled Rothe Gate before you left, as news of Nirama's deposal and death spread."
- ―Alternative end narrative of UnderWorld
The role-playing game adventure UnderWorld feature two possible endings: If the player characters side with Nirama, then he defeats a squad of Cell members and remains as the crimelord of the system. However, if the player characters chose to not help him, the Cell captures, deposes and eventually executes Nirama, replacing his rule and thanking the characters. The official RPGA teams were supposed to include this information in a "Critical Event Summary" that would be sent to the RPGA office, and the most common answer would be canon. Although the survey answers are not known, further sources still mention Nirama as the crimelord of Cularin, and thus implicitly reveal the results.
Appearances[]
- Between the Worlds: TopWorld – Living Force (First appearance)
- Between the Worlds: MidWorld – Living Force
- Between the Worlds: UnderWorld – Living Force
- Below the Belt: Philology – Living Force (Mentioned only)
"Remember When" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link) (Mentioned only)- EndTimes: The Hand – Living Force (Mentioned only)
Sources[]
"Gang War" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)- "Dark on Dark" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- "The Cell Revisited" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- "A Changing Galaxy" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- "Farewell" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)