Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Shadow Knights and make use of some established Chaos lore.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Ahzija is a career rebel and Sith hunter. She is one of the few non-elves who is a member of the Shadow Knights, who have allied themselves with the Togorian group she is part of.
Links: New Caross, Togoria, Operation Hammer, Naamah Aesham, Naesala Faethyra, Caross, Darth Soteria, Natalie Dorne, Ylaea Althena. Firemane gained access to ARGH tech in this thread.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Thirties.
Force Sensitivity: Non-Force User
Species: Togorian.
Appearance: Ahzija is a Togorian female with the build of a warrior. She is 7'2 foot tall, which is average height for a female of her specie. She has fairly distinctive feline features. Her face has whiskers and her body is covered in fur. She has golden eyes and prominent ears. Being a Togorian, she has an extremely dense bone structure. This allows her to endure greater physical trauma than a member of a species with a similar physique. She has retractable claws on her hands and feet. Ahzija's life has been defined by hardship and struggle, and her body has the scars to prove it. Ahzija usually wears a combat outfit of some form, but eschews heavy, tanky armour in favour of more lightweight suits that give her freedom to manoeuvre. A much-scarred slaver's mark is still visible through the fur on her right shoulder and she tends to cover it. Her back was branded during her time in captivity to mark her as a slave. Ahzija could have it removed after her liberation, but chose not to.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Ahzija
Loyalties: Shadow Knights, Togorian exodites.
Wealth: Low to Moderate. Ahzija accepts bounties on Sith, Imperials and similar individuals. This gives her a source of income, but it is obviously variable. She has no qualms about looting her enemies and has some loot stashed away. But this emergency fund is not always easy to turn into hard currency. The Shadow Knights pay her, but the rebels are not rich.
Notable Possessions: Collection of lightsabres, Sith swords and misc. trophies and mementos. A heirloom necklace she inherited from her mother and tooth of a Liphon. Both represent her ties to her homeworld Togoria. They remind her of simpler, more innocent times and of what she must avenge. Collection of guns. Owns a Sc'rath, the traditional sword of her people. She has an apartment aboard the Defiance, the flagship of the Shadow Knight nomad fleet. She is not there a lot, so it does not look very lived in. She has been given a pair of shatterguns and a sniper rifle by Firemane. She has a standard MKI Boltgun and a Shatterboltgun. Sometimes she makes use of Gorgon Web Rifle, as it is useful for capturing foes, particularly Force-Users. She often wears a pair of Mandalorian vambraces.
Skills: Ahzija is a highly experienced irregular fighter, rebel and Sith hunter. Her life has been one of struggle - first for survival, then for revenge. She is a Non-Force-User, so she has to rely on her wits, physical prowess and skill rather than preternatural powers. The impressive strength of her species helps as well. Ahzija is a highly capable sharpshooter, good with demolitions and slicing. She also has a knack for tech, especially droids and machines. These are all skills that have served her well as a career rebel and make her useful to the Shadow Knights.
She is skilled in small unit leadership, irregular warfare and acts of sabotage. The Togorian has made a living out of hunting Sith, Dark Jedi and Imperialists in general. She is very experienced in fighting Force-Users despite lacking Force powers. Moreover, she is a very capable investigator with an eye for detail. In addition to the Togorian language, Ahzija is fluent in Basic and reasonably good in Eldarai. She has some knowledge of Huttese, but while she can understand it just fine she is not that good at speaking it. Her Eldarai has a strong accent, but is understandable. Ahzija has an affinity for music. She enjoys playing the guitar.
Personality: Relentless. Vengeful. Ahzija has been sustained by a campaign to obtain justice for the many massacres the Sith perpetrated against her people, the Togorians. She has a heavy dose of shut-down anger. It gives her fuel, but is also her demon. She seldom conveys a lot of emotion in her speech or body language, but her fury is a sight to behold when it is unleashed. Tranquil fury is more her thing than being a berserker.
When she faces a threat, she will seek to methodically dismantle and destroy it. Blind anger is wasteful. Instead she nurtures an ice-cold hate. It is directed against Sith, Imperials and the like. She considers it to be her calling to hunt such individuals. Ahzija is driven by a strong determination to carry on no matter what, even if the odds are against her. She is stubborn, serious and opinionated. While a hard woman, she is not without compassion, especially for victims. However, she her idea of how to be nice can come across as rather rough, particularly to those who do not not know her well.
Her attitude can also make her come across as rather judgemental, while her fierce determination may make her appear arrogant and overly stubborn. Moreover, she is unforgiving towards those she views as collaborators and enablers. Her people have suffered much at the hands of the Sith since the days of the Old Empire. Her world was subjected to occupation, deforestation, saturation bombardment until it was turned into an arid waste. Her people have been murdered, intentionally starved, enslaved and experimented on. As a consequence, her motto is never again.
She is very protective of her people, but has found herself to be unable to settle down on Togoria. Today, her homeworld is under the protection of the Silver Jedi, who have carried out reconstruction efforts and provided humanitarian aid. Ahzija does not bear Jedi any ill will. Indeed, she does not care much about them either way unless they become obstacles for this or that reason. But she will not and cannot settle down. Like many veterans, she finds it difficult to turn her sword into a ploughshare. Of course, she could join her home planet's local defence forces, but she is too driven by her self-appointed calling. To her, peace is fleeting. She regards herself as an agent of justice.
Ahzija is part of a group of Togorian rogues and exodites. In addition, she has allied herself with the Shadow Knights because she believes in their cause. She shares their survivalist ethos, emphasis on self-reliance and military preparadness. The Eldorai have not been subjected to genocide like the Togorians, but been driven off their homeworld, experienced foreign invasion, persecution and enslavement. They also have the same foes as her. Aside from her combat skills, she also provides technical support. Eldorai are new to many aspects of galactic technology, and this applies even more to their cousins, the Xioquo, Qadiri and Vashyada. Thus she acts as an instructor when she is not off on missions.
Her being allowed to join them is unorthodox, as the Shadows are elf nationalists and suspicious of foreigners. However, they are willing to work with select ones and the pragmatic members of the coalition have recognised a kindred spirit in the feline aliens, though xenophobic elves have voiced discontent with such arrangements. Ahzija has history with Strategos Yseult Faerin, a former Republic officer and now the general-in-chief of the Shadows. This helped broker an accord.
However, Ahzija still runs her own missions. She has several contacts in the underworld. One of them is a Clawdite called Naameh Aesham, a former Inquisitor of the Atrisian Empire, then a Chaos worshipping darksider and now a cynical, somewhat morbid vigilante trying to atone for her crimes. Ironically, the fact that her species is not human-like at all has been a point in her favour, as the Shadows are not keen on humans. Racist Eldorai get short shrift from her.
Traditionally, Togorian males live as nomads, riding their mosgoths and hunting, and competing in contests of power, while the females stay in settlements with the pre-pubescent children, tend domesticated herds and develop technology. Males visit the females for about a month each year, but otherwise both sexes live completely separate lives. Ahzija had abandoned these cultural traditions. Needless to say there are many Eldorai - and human - customs she finds strange. Eldorai society is traditionally matriarchal, after all. Moreover, the elves have a penchant for ideological hair-splitting and often self-destructive schisms.
The Togorian has some radical left-wing beliefs. Association with fringe resistance groups as well as exposure to a Galaxy that is so often dominated by empires, megacorporations and elitist Force Orders have contributed to this. She has also taken notice of the fact that many big corporations have been owned by 'Business Sith' or worked closely with Sith and Imperial factions. Some megacorporations have puppetised or outright replaced governments.
She advocates redistribution of wealth and believes the common people should seize the means of production in order to establish a more egalitarian society. The Togorian despises Human High Culture and other humanocentric ideologies. Ahzija holds true to the ideal that the free should not need a boss to lead them to do the right thing. This made her reluctant to assume a greater position of leadership. Survivors' guilt also plays a role. From her perspective, she is a soldier. Others can lead.
Ahzija has a young ward called Qa'hasa. She saved the girl from the One Sith during the second occupation of Togoria. She was unable to save her mother, who begged Ahzija to take care of the girl, who was still a toddler then. Qa'hasa does not call her mother, and Ahzija is secretly grateful for this. However, she is very protective of the girl and cares for her deeply. Interestingly, she is trying to steer Qa'hasa away from a life of that revolves around revenge. She wants better for her ward than for herself. Qa'hasa does not quite know the specific details...deliberately. Ahzija is grateful for this.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Ranged Weapons | Blade | Explosives.
Combat Function: Ahzija is a rebel and a Sith hunter. She is experienced in insurgencies, sabotage, targeted assassinations and leading small teams. She is strong and the extremely dense bone tissue of her species allows her to endure a lot of physical trauma. The Togorian does not have Force powers, and thus must rely on skill rather than preternatural abilities.
This is pertinent since she often hunts Force-Users. Like Non-Force-Using Jedi and Sith hunters throughout history, she generally relies on unorthodox tactics rather than direct confrontation. These include the use of land mines, sonic weapons such as hard-sound guns and sonic projectors, high explosives, nerve gas, slugthrowers and sniping. Thanks to harsh training, trial and error, Ahzija has learned how to hide her mind from Force-Users, using techniques similar to those employed by the assassin Atton Rand millennia ago. Moreover, she is a competent though not brilliant slicer and decent pilot. She can also use her claws in a fight. This is obviously of little use against an armoured opponent, but she has no qualms about using them to jab an enemy's eyes out.
Ahzija will actively seek out Sith and other hostile Force-Users in combat. She is a good planner, but her focus can give her tunnel vision, potentially making her vulnerable. She has a preference for more lightweight armour that allows her to stay mobile, relying more on her agility and the impressive resilience granted to her by her Togorian physiology than the protective qualities of tanky armour.
She has leadership abilities, but lacks the experience or interest in leading large units. She often operates in the shadows pursuing clandestine missions, where a large force would only arouse unnecessary attention. Thus she is most comfortable leading small units on the tactical level. For anything larger she is better off working within the framework of an existing command structure. However, Ahzija is stubborn, opinionated and sometimes hard to get along with, as she has a strong independent streak.
Strengths:
- Highly experienced Force hunter and irregular fighter.
- Togorian resilience and strength. Like a Nexu, or other feline predators, she has highly attuned senses of smell and hearing. This is quite useful in her line of work.
- Lack supernatural powers herself. Has to rely on her skill, weapons and her wits to prevail in combat.
- A tactical not a strategic leader. Good at small unit leadership, but is poor at commanding larger formations.
- Distinctive. A tall, bipedal feline sticks out, especially in areas populated mostly by humans. Depending on the situation, this can make infiltration operations problematic.
Togorians are no strangers to warfare and hardship. They are a hardy people with a strong sense of honour and well-honed martial traditions. Their first contact with the outside Galaxy occured when the Mandalorians invaded their home planet, seeking to conquer it. However, the Togorians united to defend their home from the invaders. Their tactics and fierceness impressed the Mandalorians so much that they recruited them. Thus they were among the first non-Human or non-Taung race to join the Mandalorian ranks. Togorians aided General Grievous during the Battle of Togoria. Later a monarchy was established under Imperial rule.
Like virtually all worlds in the Galaxy, Togoria was ravaged by the Gulag Virus. This led to a period of isolation, technological regression and mass deaths. However, the planet managed to emerge from the Dark Age and reconnect with galactic society. Sadly, the end of the Dark Age did only bring benefits with it. Great powers arose, seeking to exact their will upon the Galaxy. Like many other worlds, Togoria would become one of the objects of the game stars. However, it would have a worse fate than simply being a prize being fought over or someone else's colony. The Togorians would be repeatedly subjected to xenocidal campaigns at the hands of the Sith.
Ahzija was still a little child when the forces of the First Sith Empire descended upon the planet to ravage it, slaughter and enslave her people. Her family held true to the old ways of their people. Her mother lived in Caross, where she ran a small droid shop. She looked after Ahzija and the girl's little brother, who was still an infant then. Meanwhile, her father lived the nomadic life of the Togorian hunters of old, taking her older brother with him. Ahzija only saw him rarely, as tradition demanded, but whenever her father came home, he brought trophies from hunts with him. Some of these were sold to off-world travellers who visited Caross, the only settlement tradition allowed off-worlders to visit. The business deals were arranged by her mother, who had a good eye for when off-worlders were trying to deceive the 'simple feline'.
It was a simple life, but not without its amenities and she was close to her family. Ahzija showed some skill tinkering with tech. However, it was not to last. She was still young when war came to Togoria. The Sith Empire had ruled Togoria since the reign of Tyrin Ardik, but their touch had been a light one. But now this changed. After Kaine Zambrano ascended to the position of Sith Emperor and the abolition of slavery was repealed in Sith space, Togoria became a target of the Sith. Sith soldiers, Blackblades and Sith warriors descended upon the planet's surface. However, their goals went beyond subjugation. Instead they wanted to enslave and break the Togorians. Any Togorian who was found was to be murdered or rounded up. Entire villages were razed, men, women and children were butchered. Others were rounded up and brought to the Sith's warships. Then the Sith fleet firebombed the planet. The once green world became a wasteland.
Ahzija's family tried to escape the inferno. Her older brother died during the fighting on the ground. Her mother and younger brother tried to flee Caross and reach the wilderness where they hoped they would be safe, but they perished in the bombardment. Her father was grievously injured during the fighting, suffering horrible burns, but survived. Father and daughter were both captured by the Sith. Their captors proceeded to put them to work in one of the enormous foundries they had built to exploit the planet's resources. There they worked as slave labourers. The conditions under which they laboured were horrific. They were slave labourers, and so their lives meant nothing to their overseers.
Their rations were far from sufficient, their hours were long and the labour back-breaking. A malnourished Ahzija soon fell sick. Her father, desperate to protect his remaining child, tried to shield her from the worst and cover her. Thus he took over work assigned to her, even though his injuries had not healed. He also tried to steal and bargain with camp guards to get her food and medical treatment. But the functionaries took notice and he was punished.
When a camp guard beat her to teach her a lesson, her father snapped and tried to defend her. Some other prisoners rose up as well, but they were beaten. At the behest of a Sith researcher, her father was taken away for medical experimentation. Later she learned that these had killed him. Orphaned and abused, she was left with her anger. Desperate, she tried to escape the factory complex. She almost managed to sneak out, but was seized. The guards made an example of her. To remind her of her lowly status and drill it into her skull that she could leave escape it, she was branded.
Despair threatened to overtake her. She had to bury her feelings. She was just an expendable drone in a huge machine. She survived, but many of her fellow inmates did not. Abuse and starvation took a heavy toll. Deliverance came when the Sith Empire collapsed under the combined Republic and Mandalorian onslaught. Togoria was far from the main battlefields, and the slave labourers did not have access to galactic news. Indeed, the Sith's propaganda machine fed them stories of glorious victories over the foes of the Empire, right up to the destruction of Dromund Kaas at the hands of the Mandalorians.
But soon word spread. Ahzija managed to overhear a hushed conversation between Sith functionaries. The Empire was finished. Cut off from the resources that had sustained them, many Sith tried to flee, fearing retribution from their vanquishers. A force of diehard Sith tried to liquidate the work camp in order to hide the evidence of their crimes.
Forewarned, prisoners rose up. A Jedi task force came to their aid. Ahzija made her first kill then. She managed to sneak up on a camp guard who had beaten her father and stab him. One of the Jedi rescuers was Shakkara Kalon, a radical Togruta Jedi Knight. In time she would forsake the Light and became one of the butchers she used to oppose, but back then she was still a paladin. Shakkara was in no mood to accept pleas of Sith minions who claimed they had been just following orders, and rendered swift judgement.
However, a number of high-ranking functionaries had managed to escape the planet. The once green planet of Togoria had been devastated, so many inmates of the camp were resettled. But Ahzija could not and would not forget. She could not fogive the Sith for the atrocities they had carried out, or forget her murdered family. Or the many other Togorians who had been butchered or enslaved. She could not bring them back, but she would have retribution. So when offered a chance for an education and a new life, she turned it down. There was only one form of training she wanted.
Recognising the fire burning inside her, Shakkara stayed with the girl for a bit. She warned Ahzija that the path she wanted to embark on might very well end in her death, told her to think hard about it, then come to her if she still wanted to pursue it. When Ahzija remained adamant, the Togruta Jedi started training her. The Togorian proved to be a good student. She pushed herself hard, determined to be as strong, fast and quick as possible. Shakkara taught her about combat and how to fight Force-Users.
Ahzija could not use the Force, but the Jedi educated her about the common techniques to take on space wizards. They meshed well together. Before joining the Jedi, Shakkara had been a huntress on the Togruta homeworld. She knew how to track down and hunt dangerous prey. To give her some experience, Shakkara brought her to Shili. There they trained and hunted. But their time together was short-lived. When the Republic went to war with the Lords of Fringe, Shakkara had to return to the battlefield. Reluctantly she bid Ahzija farewell, though not giving her all the information she had on fugitive Sith.
Armed with this knowledge, Ahzija began her hunt. Her first target was the alchemist who had been responsible for the death of her father and many other inmates. She tracked down, interrogated and hanged a former camp guard, who had settled down and was now running a cantina. In the process she found out that the alchemist had found employment with a respected medical corporation called Grace Medical. The Sith's new employers knew of her past, but did not care because her 'expertise' was deemed invaluable. So they had helped her conceal her past.
Ahzija tracked her to their office on Bothawui. There she spent several days studying the Sith, familiarising herself with her schedule and habits. The Sith believed she was safe. Indeed, she still maintained contact with some of her 'old comrades', who had formed a network of sorts to provide mutual assistance to one another. Finally, the time came for the Togorian huntress to strike. Her first attempt to kill her with a parcel bomb failed, but then she managed to ambush the Sith with a sniper rifle. She injured the Sith, but she used her powers to turn invisible and managed to sneak up on her. When she dropped the cloak, she attacked Ahzija with a blast of lightning and a mental assault.
While Ahzija was in the throes of agony, the Sith taunted her. Ahzija saw what her father and the other Togorians who had been 'selected' by the alchemist had gone through. But this also triggered her anger. She would not go down and capitulate. She was not, contrary to what her tormentor thought, just some animal. Thus when the Sith tried to land the killing blow, Ahzija struck, shooting her with a poisoned dart. Though injured by the Sith's lightsabre, her greater strength and physical resilience enabled her to overpower her and beat her down. Taking the Sith captive, Ahzija enlisted the help of a Togorian smuggler to get away. To keep the Sith from dying, she administered an antidote for the poison, forced the alchemist to confess her crimes and recorded the confession. It was broadcast on Galaxytube. Then she executed her.
Her next target was the head engineer and commandant of the foundry. Through some skilled detective work and diligent research, Ahzija learned that he now lived on Vandelhelm, where he was employed by Firemane Industries. It was ambigous whether the corporation knew of his past. She managed to infiltrate the planet, presenting herself as a technician looking for work. This gave her entrance. When she was able to catch the former Sith bigwig off-guard, she attacked him, knocking out his guards. She was able to overpower him. But when she held a gun to his throat, she was caught by Firemane security. A standoff ensued. Incidentally, Siobhan Kerrigan happened to be there on an inspection. The former Sith, who had become a respected engineer in Firemane, recognised the Togorian and tried to present himself as a victim. However, Ahzija proclaimed he was a butcher and presented proof.
After studying the evidence, Siobhan declared it to be genuine. The Sith pleaded his case, claiming he had never authorised slavery or inhumane experiments, but she blasted him with lightning, told Ahzija she had an hour, then left the two alone and sealed the door. When Ahzija was finished with him, she had a brief meeting with Siobhan. The two could bond a bit about their shared hatred for Sith. Siobhan enquired about the lot of the Togorians, expressing interest in aiding them. Doubtless she was aiming to advance her own business interests and perhaps gain recruits, but she was also genuinely sympathetic.
She gave Ahzija a reward for ridding her company of a war criminal, but admonished her not to sneak into her company again. When asked why she had not approached the company's leadership about her suspicions, Ahzija's response was to ask whether Siobhan would have done that if their positions had been reversed, and risked being turned away or silenced. This the Firemane executive understood.
However, they soon crossed paths again. Ahzija came across information on a Sith sect that had gone underground after the Empire's collapse and set up a base in the so-called Omega Neutral Zone. This was a buffer zone between the Lords of the Fringe and the Omega Protectorate. Occasional skirmishes and incursions took place in the zone. Rebels and all manners of characters used it as a refuge.
She obviously lacked the resources to face the Sith on her own, so she forwarded the intelligence to Firemane, but insisted on participating in the operation. The Sith had gained a following by founding a human centric cult which advocated the superiority of humanity and the inferiority of alien species. Indeed, the Sith sect blamed the Gulag Virus on alien Jedi, who had conspired to wipe out mankind. Firemane assembled a clandestine strike force to eliminate it. Ideological revulsion aside, the Sith had intruded upon worlds Firemane had interests on.
Agents were dispatched to gain information on the cult. Then Firemane conducted pinpoint stealth strikes on the Sith's fortress, combined with previous infiltration from its agents. Ahzija joined the strike force, working alongside Siobhan. The Togorian showed her worth by deactivating the defensive shield that protected the base, allowing Firemane to assault it in full force, and killing one of the Sith leaders. She and Siobhan fought alongside one another, taking down many Sith.
Ahzija turned down a job offer from Firemane, for she did not want to tie herself to a large organisation. Firemane was opposed to Sith, but it was a company and thus would focus on its commercial interests first. Ahzija took her leave. The Sith had seemingly returned to the shadows, but her quest was not over. Looking for work, she joined a bounty hunters' guild and specialised in contracts on Sith, former Imperials and the like. She acquired a reputation for reliability and competence, though the fact that she was quite picky about her contracts obviously limited her earnings. But then she not out to make a fortune. She donated a lot of her income to reconstruction efforts on Togoria.
Here and there, she did work for Firemane or shared intelligence with them. Sometimes she worked with Shakkara. Like the Togruta, Ahzija was obsessed with the idea that the Sith were planning something, especially after a terrorist attack on the Fondor shipyards. She was proved right when the One Sith resurfaced and invaded Coruscant, taking control of the Republic's capital in a surprise attack. Immediately, Ahzija returned to the battlefield. Now she was not just fighting for revenge, but for the freedom of her people, for she was certain that if the Sith won, her people would suffer.
She accepted work from the Republic military, though she would not join it. She conducted targeted assassinations of Sith and Imperial officers, ran blockades and performed sabotage. She provided aid to resistance fighters on worlds such as Alderaan. During the war she made the acquaintance of Major Yseult Faerin, an Eldorai royal bastard and mercenary who had enlisted with the Republic army. Both worked together on many missions. Ahzija also worked alongside Shakkara. She was shaken when she heard that the Togruta was missing in action and considered dead, and even more so when it turned out that her former friend had joined the One Sith, alongside several other Jedi.
The Republic was losing the war. Finally, Togoria was invaded by the Sith. Ahzija hastened to her homeworld, taking her place among its defenders. They fought bravely against the Sith attack. Ahzija was part of a unit holding a trench against a Sith force. Fighting fanatically, they repulsed several assaults. She sniped a Sith Master with a railgun. But during the battle she met Shakkara again. Her former mentor had now become a Sith Lord, who called herself Darth Soteria. She had to face her old friend. The battle was a ferocious one. The Sith Lord was a force of nature, slaying several of the Togorian's comrades. Ahzija fought fiercely, using gas, a bolter and finally a blade. But she was grievously wounded. Yseult came to her aid with a light walker, but they had to pull out. In the end Togoria fell. Caross, Togoria's old capital, had been destroyed. The Sith began to round up all Togorians. First they were interned in labour camps, then forced to live in New Caross, an enormous ghetto. There life was defined by squalour, fear and starvation. Some were taken away for experimentation and transformation into Sithspawn.
Ahzija managed to escape the deportations. She linked up with Togorians rebels who had managed to hide in the wastelands, along with Republic soldiers who had been unable to get off the planet during the retreat. She swore revenge on the invaders. Only a few fighters remained, but she took command of a rebel cell and fought a guerrilla war. Support came from Natalie Dorne, a rogue Republic agent turned terrorist, and Yseult. Though a mercenary now due to her disillusionment with the Republic, the Eldorai still provided help. Ahzija tried to free fellow Togorians from captivity and smuggle them off the planet. She also conducted terrorist strikes against Sith forces. The invaders were destroying her people, so she showed them no mercy, especially after she had to kill a comrade who had been turned into a Sithspawn abomination.
Captured One Sith minions were shot out of hand, hanged or crucified in the wastelands their masters had created. The rebels were able to score a notable success when Ahzija led a raid to blow up a Sith air base. The damage was considerable. However, the Sith carried out reprisals. Their victims were innocent Togorian civilians, who were massacred. Sith officers announced that they would murder even more unless the rebels gave themselves up. Stricken with guilt, Ahzija personally led an operation to rescue a group of Togorian civilians slated for execution. She only let volunteers go on the mission with her. Natalie went with her. Ahzija was able to ambush the Sith and rescue civilians, but there were casualties.
A Togorian mother who had been mortally wounded in the fighting begged Ahzija to take her her daughter Qa'hasa with her and look after her. Thankfully, the child was still very young. Ahzija vowed to protect her, but could not bring herself to tell the little one the full circumstances, as she felt guilty. The rebels had to move their camp to shake off their pursuers. Ahzija altered her strategy, focusing more on rescuing Togorians as possible and getting them to safety off-world as well as smuggling supplies into the camp. In addition to saving lives, the rebels also tried to preserve Togorian culture.
She steppped up her attacks as the One Sith's hold on their empire started to crumble. With the destruction of the One Sith at the hands of the Galactic Alliance, Togoria was liberated and the imprisoned Togorians were freed. Ahzija was a participant in the liberation. When learned that a group of die-hard Rogue Sith had built a superweapon called Omega and wanted to unleash it on the Galaxy, she joined the coalition of the willing. Ahzija fought at Castameer, working together with Firemane's task force. She was given a medal for ambushing and taking out a Sith artillery position. The coalition of the Galaxy's various powers was able to defeat the Rogue Sith and destroy the Omega.
However, their separation caused a rift between her and her ward. She had fought to protect Qa'hasa, but the girl felt abandoned, especially since she feared her caretaker might die, leaving her all alone. In the aftermath, Ahzija realised that she needed to actually be there to take care of the little one and fulfil her oath. Thus she took a step back from fighting. She might never truly heal, but she could try and help others do so and make sure Qa'hasa was not forced down the same path as her.
Eventually Togoria came under the protection of the Silver Jedi, who invested in the planet to rebuild it and provided humanitarian aid. But events had taken a heavy toll on the planet. Adrift, Ahzija fell in with a group of Togorians who wanted to seek their fortunes elsewhere and rebuild somewhere not ravaged by war. They called themselves the Wanderers of Gwaarth, deriving their name from a Togorian spirit of the hunt. She left the homeworld with a heavy heart. She brought Qa'hasa with her, having remained true to her vow to look after the girl. She refused to assume a leadership position. For a while she acted as an instructor rather than a field operative. The bloodletting had left deep mental scars. Life on the migrant flotilla was not an easy one. Resources had to be rationed carefully and the exodites had to protect themselves against raiders. To raise funds and provide for her ward, Ahzija reassumed her old work as a huntress, accepting bounties on Sith, Dark Jedi and the like.
However, the Togorian also had an unexpected reunion. While she was conducting a scouting operation in a remote system, she came across the Shadow Knights. This was a renegade faction of Eldorai that had been formed in the aftermath of the cataclysmic destruction of Kaeshana. Most Eldorai had been evacuated prior to the calamity, but not all. The Shadows tried to protect the few survivors. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kaeshana and the planet's occupation by the First Order, they had to flee the planet and formed a nomad fleet.
Ahzija answered a distress call from one of their ships, which was adrift in space and severely damaged. The Togorian was able to save the survivors aboard the ship. One of them turned out to be Yseult's younger brother. The group had to deal with Bando Gora pirate attacks, but managed to return to the flottilla. There Ahzija learned about the Shadow Knights and that her old comrade was one of their leaders.
The two groups made contact. The initial negotiations were somewhat awkward. Few of the Eldorai had ever met Togorians and the applied vice versa. Ahzija was no politician or career diplomat, but she helped bridge the gap, as she knew the Eldorai somewhat. She also had a reunion with Yseult. As a sign of good faith, the Shadow Knights helped the Togorian exodites wipe out pirate group that had been giving them grief and taken some of their people captive.
There was distrust and xenophobia on both sides, but over time both groups began to work more closely together. Ahzija became something like an unofficial representative to the Shadow Knights, though she disliked being called that. However, she had a connection to their leading general. She brought her little ward with her. More progressive voices on both sides began talking about joint expeditions and settlements. The Shadow Knights had larger numbers, but many elves were new to spaceflight and had only had limited exposure to modern tech. So Ahzija and some of her comrades provided technical support. A joint committee was established to pool resources and coordinate their activities.
Eventually her work with the renegades brought Ahzija to Tygara. At a summit of all the major leaders, the Eldorai Matriarchy and the native elves had decided that their people would go off into the stars to colonise. The Shadows intended to conduct a recruitment drive. Ahzija was the perfect contact since she was at least friendly with Firemane and not an elf, so she could move with less suspicion of being a Shadow recruiter. She also provided transport for Tygarans wanting off the planet. The Togorian warrior is now trying to balance her responsibility for her ward with that to her people and her quest of retribution against Sith. In the aftermath of Kaeshana's final, cataclysmic destruction due to Netherworld aftershocks, she started working with Kaida Taldir.
