| “ | Redouble our efforts against the Installation. Let us show Tol Sivron how it must be done. It's time to destroy Maw Installation once and for all. Open fire! | „ |
| ~ Daala ordering the Maw Installation destroyed. |
Admiral Natasi Daala is a major character in Star Wars Legends, appearing as one of the supporting antagonists, with her most prominent roles being as the secondary antagonist of the Jedi Academy trilogy and the Fate of the Jedi series.
Biography[]
Before the Battle of Yavin, Natasi Daala joined the Imperial Navy. When some of her simulation scores came to the attention of Grand Moff Tarkin, he sought her out and promoted her to the rank of Admiral. Daala became Tarkin's protégée and lover. On the surface the pair kept their relationship professional. When officers started spreading rumors that Daala was sleeping her way to the top, both Tarkin and Daala had those officers executed. In one case this involved putting such an officer in a spacesuit with the comm link turned on and sending him into a slowly decaying orbit over a habitable planet, resulting in everyone getting to hear his pleas and screams as he burned up upon reentry.
Daala was assigned to the top secret Maw Installation, where some of the most intelligent people in the Empire labored to create super-weapons for the Empire, including a prototype version of the Death Star. She traveled to the Death Star shortly before the destruction of Despayre to review security and to spend time with Tarkin. However, she suffered a brain injury during a Rebel attack on the Death Star. While Imperial doctors were able to successfully operate on her, Daala lost her memories of being on the station or even having left the Maw Installation to see Tarkin.
Following the splintering of the Galactic Empire following the deaths of both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine during the Battle of Endor, the defeat of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the final death of a resurrected Palpatine, she was encountered by Han Solo and Kyp Durron as the pair fled Moorth Doole on Kessel. Up until then, she had no idea that the Empire lost at Yavin and Endor, and that the New Republic was becoming the dominant government in the galaxy. When Solo, Durron, and a Omwati scientist named Qwi Xux escaped in the Sun Crusher super-weapon, she pursued them out of the Maw, but was unable to prevent them from escaping back to Coruscant.
With her task force of three star destroyers, Daala began to consider her options. Her officers reached out for information on the current state of the Empire. They informed her that the Emperor, Vader, Thrawn, and many other high ranking Imperials were dead, and that Coruscant was in New Republic hands. Daala began a campaign against the New Republic before returning to the Maw to protect the installation. She was defeated by the New Republic task force sent to rescue the Wookies enslaved at the installation and find out what the Empire was working on there. Retreating from battle, she decided to take her ship to the deep core and work to unite the various warlords and take the fight to the Republic.
She attempted to unify all the other warlords. Working with Thrawn's former second in command Gilad Pellaeon, she summoned the other warlords to a summit but the warlords were more concerned with keeping their own position than striking back against the New Republic. When these warlords started to attack each other, Daala eliminated the other warlords and took command of their forces, creating the Imperial Remnant. She launched multiple campaigns against the New Republic, but was unable to restore the Empire to its former prominence, and after being defeated during a failed assault on Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, her campaign came to an end. Daala decided to resign and hand command over to Pellaeon, feeling he represented the best chance to restore the Empire.
Following her initial defeat, Daala vanished and was believed to be dead. She resurfaced about a year later, helping the New Republic to defeat Moff Getelles and prevent the spread of the Death Seed plague - which had been launched by Getelles and the Loronar Corporation. Daala met with Leia Organa-Solo who allowed Daala to return to the colony world of Pedducis Chorios with her old lover Liegeus Vorn and live in peace. During this time she gave birth to a child. Her peaceful co-existence with the Republic did not last long, as Daala relocated to the Deep Core and began working with local warlords to attack the New Republic. After a disastrous campaign in 17 ABY, she was presumed to be dead but the New Republic intelligence was wary of such rumors and continued to list her as an active threat.
Daala stayed out of sight as the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic signed a peace treaty. She continued to remain in hiding as the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy. She returned in the years following the invasion, commanding her own private fleet against the former Jacen Solo, who had fallen to the dark side and took the Sith name of Darth Caedus. As Caedus the former Jedi had become the tyrannical Chief of State of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (the successor government to the New Republic.)
Following Caedus' defeat, Daala was named the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. In her first few years as Chief of State she seemed to have rejected her Imperial tendencies in her efforts to repair the damage done by Caedus, and there was peace for a few years; she later, however, became distrustful and paranoid towards the Jedi Order, fearing that more would fall to the Dark Side like Caedus had.
She would soon exile Grand Master Luke Skywalker and launch a campaign to eliminate the Jedi. However, after she ordered a siege of the Jedi Temple and entered a severe dispute with the acting Grand Master, Kenth Hamner, her actions caused her to be perceived more negatively by the public and viewed as a tyrant by the Jedi. Unable to handle her increasingly extreme policies, a group of Jedi led a coup to depose her. Sent to prison, Daala was able to escape from confinement with the help of the bounty hunter Boba Fett and began to plan her revenge on those who had removed her from power.
Daala attempted to strike back by removing Head of State Jagged Fel from power and placing herself in charge of the Imperial Remnant. However, her assassination attempt on Fel's life was foiled when the "assassin", Moff Tol Getelles, turned out to be working for Fel. This placed Daala and Fel at a stalemate that led Daala agree to a democratic election, which would be slated in her favor from the beginning, thanks to the Force entity Abeloth. Fortunately, Imperial Hand Tahiri Veila and Manda'lor Boba Fett worked together to destroy the Abeloth avatar assisting Daala, which was ensured after Fel fired on the planet.
Upon learning that Fel had fired on her campaign headquarters, Daala was sure that the election was in her favor. Unfortunately for her, Fel came back with intelligence that Moff Getelles had been performing illegal experiments on the dangerous droch species, something considered incorrigible in both the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant. Daala retorted that this was obviously a lie to the blame toward. However, Fel would have nothing to gain from such a deception, as he had already removed his name from the ballot. Thus, Daala lost the election to Imperial Admiral Vitor Reige, the former adjutant of her old friend Gilad Pellaeon.
Trivia[]
- The Princess Leia, Imperial Servant comic strip from Los Angeles Times Syndicate, released fifteen years before Natasi Daala's introduction, stated that Grand Moff Tarkin had a wife named Thalassa Tarkin. This would make Wilhuff unfaithful during his affair with Daala, as he was already married by that time. However, whether Thalassa was aware of her husband's infidelity is beyond anybody's guess, as Daala was established in the canon much later.
- The Daala character was noted as being the opposite of Thrawn in her tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. Some of her personality quirks were considered controversial among fans.
