Post by Rose on Mar 10, 2007 18:53:42 GMT -5
Aayla Secura
Basic Information -
Homeworld: Ryloth
Species: Twi'lek
Gender: Female
Weapon: Lightsaber
Affiliation: Jedi
Movie Information -
With an athletic build, an exotic beauty, and deep cerulean hue, Aayla Secura stood out among the many faces of the Jedi ranks. She was a Jedi Knight during the twilight years of the order, and operated out of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. During the Separatist crisis that threatened to split the Republic, Secura was a member of a 200-Jedi strong taskforce sent to the distant world of Geonosis to rescue captive Jedi. In the massive battle that ensued, Secura was one of the few survivors. She was brusquely marched by Geonosian warriors into a circle of Jedi survivors to await execution. The sudden arrival of clone trooper reinforcements spared her that fate. Secura would then lead her own squad of clone troopers into the thick of the Geonosian battle, her lightsaber shimmering in the billowing dust, forming a luminescent beacon for the trained Republic infantrymen to follow.
Like her fellow Jedi, Secura became a general during the Clone Wars, leading clone trooper infantry on numerous campaigns in the epic conflict. During the Outer Rim Sieges, she was stationed on the colorful world of Felucia, trudging through the overgrown underbrush of the Commerce Guild planet with the valiant Star Corps clone troopers under her command.
As General Secura approached the opposing Separatist forces, Chancellor Palpatine activated Order 66 on Coruscant, and contacted Aayla's clone officer, Commander Bly, via hologram. The executive command identified the Jedi as traitors to the Republic. Bly loyally carried out the order, raising his blaster rifle against his Jedi general.
In a moment of distraction, as a native Felucian bird took wing and drew Aayla's attentions skyward, Bly and his troops opened fire, riddling Secura's body with blaster bolts and killing her.
Expanded Universe -
A Rutian Twi'lek born to an influential clan on Ryloth, Aayla Secura was apprenticed to Quinlan Vos at a young age and raised as a Jedi. Like most Twi'leks, Aayla was athletic and graceful. She was highly empathic, intelligent, and impulsive but seemingly devoid of anger. She had an impish and sometimes mischievous sense of humor. While capable with a lightsaber, she preferred to use it in a strictly defensive mode; like most of her people, she preferred cunning over violence.
While investigating the illegal trafficking of glitteryll, a hybrid drug combining glitterstim and ryll spices, both Aayla and Quinlan were robbed of their memories by Pol Secura, the scheming drug baron and Aayla's uncle. So unscrupulous was Pol that he kept the confused Aayla as one of his possessions, holding his unknowing niece as insurance against future Jedi reprisals.
Quinlan Vos, his mind also suffering from a memory wipe, nonetheless found Aayla. Aayla's latent Force abilities, unburdened by the rules of the forgotten Jedi Code, were unleashed in a fit of confused rage. Her uncontrollable outburst resulted in the death of Pol Secura. Aayla, terrified, fled Ryloth, and hid from pursuing Jedi.
The vulnerable Padawan blamed Quinlan for her loss, and she next fell under the spell of Volfe Karkko, a sinister Dark Jedi held captive on the Kiffex prison moon. Entranced by his dark power, Aayla freed Karkko from his imprisoning stasis field. She also attacked her former master. In the conflict that followed, Aayla regained her memories, and realized just how far off the path of the Jedi she had transgressed.
The Jedi Council, in their wisdom, decreed that Aayla and Quinlan be separated while they rehabilitated from the touch of the dark side. Still a Padawan, Aayla was placed under the tutelage of Master Tholme, the Jedi who once instructed Vos. Under his guidance, Aayla would eventually pass the trials, and become a full-fledged Jedi Knight.
During the Clone Wars, Secura's talents saw her assigned to key intelligence-gathering and covert operations. A week after the Battle of Geonosis, Aayla and Ylenic It'kla disguised themselves as smugglers for an important mission to Corellia. She again went undercover as a mechanic named Jaayza when searching for her former master Quinlan Vos at the Wheel space station.
Aayla found Quinlan, who was undercover as a gun-for-hire named Korto Vos. She was disturbed by how much life on the fringe seemed to have changed Quinlan. The scruffy gunrunner role seemed to come too naturally, and she found it hard to find the noble Jedi Knight she knew lurked beneath that unscrupulous shell. Quinlan was haunted by his failure to predict the trap on Geonosis that killed hundreds of Jedi, since he believed his role as intelligence gatherer should have detected this. Furthermore, the strain of the Clone Wars made him question whether the Republic was truly worth defending.
Using intelligence gathered by Quinlan and Aayla, the Jedi Council was able to anticipate a massive Separatist attack on the cloning facilities of Kamino. Aayla piloted a Jedi starfighter in the defense of the storm-shrouded world.
Four months into the Clone Wars, Aayla Secura was part of an elite Jedi taskforce sent to assist Jedi General Daakman Barrek in destroying a massive droid foundry on Hypori. The mission proved to be a disaster and thousands of battle droids surrounded the Jedi, led by the evil commander of the Separatist forces, General Grievous. Aayla barely escaped Hypori with her life.
While the Clone Wars were ostensibly a battle between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic, the Jedi knew the Dark Lords of the Sith had returned and were behind the conflagration -- unfortunately, they were blind to the extent to which the Sith had manipulated these seismic events. Quinlan Vos, in his rogue clandestine operations, continued to peel away layers of the conspiracy, trying to find the mysterious second Sith partnered with Count Dooku. The Sith deception was devilish enough to point Vos in false directions, and to corrupt the wayward Jedi and color him with the taint of the dark side. Though he worked as a double agent infiltrating the Confederacy's inner ranks, there were many in the Jedi who questioned his ultimate loyalty.
When Aayla's learned that Quinlan had abandoned the Jedi and the Republic, and joined the Confederacy, she was deeply dismayed. Her friendship with other Jedi helped bolster her ailing spirit, particularly her close connection with Jedi Master Kit Fisto. This strong bond bordered on attachment -- a forbidden principal according to the Jedi Code. Had they been outside of the Jedi order, perhaps this deep respect and fondness for one another could have evolved into something else.
Shortly thereafter, Aayla was part of a Jedi taskforce investigating Confederacy raids on Republic supply lines along the Corellian Trade Spine. The raiders were pinpointed to Devaron, and Aayla went undercover, posing as a vacuous Twi'lek socialite named Tuulaa Doneeta, daughter of a Twi'lek shipping baron. This ruse allowed her to ingratiate herself with one of the higher ranking Devaronian citizens, Senator Vien'sai'Malloc. Secura didn't realize that sai'Malloc was actually the treacherous element on Devaron until it was almost too late. The Senator, hoping to play both sides in the war, allowed Confederacy raiders to operate from a hidden mountain base. She also hired bounty hunter Aurra Sing to get rid of those snooping too close to her scheme, including the Jedi.
Aayla was ambushed by Aurra, but she persevered. Using a Jedi stealth technique taught to her by Quinlan, Aayla was able to avoid a pack of hungry quarra hunting her, and attacked Aurra. The two did battle, and Aayla was able to peer into the heart of Aurra's damaged personality. She egged on Aurra, unsettling her by identifying her deep-rooted isolation and abandonment issues. Enraged, Aurra lost her edge in combat, and Aayla scarred her on the cheek with her lightsaber, and cut off the antenna implant that allowed Sing to feed off the fear of her prey. Aurra collapsed in battle, but Aayla didn't kill her. She instead turned over the inert bounty hunter to local officials.
With intelligence gathered on Devaron, Aayla provided the location of the raider base to rest of her taskforce. The raiders were dissolved in a sudden attack by Jedi and clone forces.
Following the crash of a Separatist vessel on the remote world of Honoghr, Aayla Secura and her loyal clone officer, Commander Bly, were dispatched to the planet. The crash had spilled a noxious defoliant into the planet's ecology, ravaging the native flora. Secura was tasked with finding the SIP -- the scientific instrument package -- that detailed the nature of the chemical. The natives of Honoghr, the deadly Noghri, had taken the SIP from the wreckage and secreted it in an ancient temple on the planet.
Aayla discovered Quinlan on Honoghr, also seeking out the SIP. The two worked together to bypass the temple's ancient defenses and stole away with the SIP into the surrounding swamps. Vos double-crossed Aayla. Insisting he was on a crucial mission for Count Dooku -- a mission to earn his trust as a double agent -- Vos at first refused to let Aayla leave with the package. Aayla, likewise, followed her orders. At an impasse, the two began to duel.
Aayla was shocked at how readily Quinlan gave into his anger. Her former Master seemed inextricably enmeshed in the dark side. He seemed almost ready to kill her. She dropped her weapon and gave him an unthinkable ultimatum. The only way to secure his objective was to strike her down while she was defenseless. Vos paused, torn; the pause was all the time Commander Bly needed to fire upon the renegade Jedi. Wounded, Vos fled. Aayla completed her mission -- she returned to the Republic with the SIP, and also with troubling doubts as to Quinlan Vos' true allegiance.
When the hunt for the second Sith intensified, Aayla was drawn into the quest. Using information offered by Quinlan Vos, Master Tholme journeyed to Anzat to seek out the Confederacy-allied Dark Jedi Sora Bulq. Aayla aided Tholme by committing her troops to serve as backup, and going undercover as an itinerant mechanic named Jayzaa. The investigation led to Saleucami, where the Separatists were engineering a cloned army of their own, made up of savage Morgukai warriors trained in deadly Anzati martial arts.
The siege of Saleucami began as Generals Oppo Rancisis and Quinlan Vos -- newly returned to the Jedi from his deep undercover role -- attacked the planet's sole city to keep the Morgukai shadow army from being used in other campaigns. In the five-month long siege, Aayla Secura provided air support for the ground forces, flying as Blue Leader. When the Republic forces breached the Separatist bulwarks and infiltrated the caldera-based enemy stronghold, Secura was instrumental in sabotaging the cloning facility.
As the tide began to turn on Saleucami, Secura and Bly were reassigned to a rescue mission on Felucia. The two were frustrated by their constant reassignments, feeling a lack of closure on their various interrupted missions. For their next operation, they were joined by Padawan Ekria and dispatched to the planet Felucia.
There, Secura and her Star Corps were to liberate an undercover Jedi team from a Separatist prison. Having freed the captives -- the Jedi Zonder and Barriss Offee -- their next mission was to stop an insidious doomsday plot enacted by the Commerce Guild to poison the planet of Felucia should they ever lose possession of the world. Aayla's effort to stop the toxins from spreading through Felucia's water table by seizing the planet's pumping stations was her last mission for the Jedi. It was then that Order 66 claimed her life.