Sh'tk'ith

Being born into the influential blue-scaled caste which dominated Ssi-ruuvi society, Elder Sh'tk'ith exercised considerable power on the Ssi-ruuvi homeworld of Lwhekk in the remote Ssi-ruuk Star Cluster deep in the Unknown Regions. In 2 BBY, a Ssi-ruuvi expeditionary fleet had attacked the small Human colony of G'rho in the Outer Rim Territories following a secret agreement with Emperor and Sith Lord Palpatine who had offered the Ssi-ruuvi dozens of worlds and millions of Humans to entech, in exchange for the use of their technology.

The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium powered their technology through an esoteric process called entechment, a means of electronically transferring the life-energy of a person into a power source for a mechanical construct. Traditionally, the main source of entechment stock were their saurian cousins—the subservient P'w'eck slave species. However, it was learnt that containment of these souls for long periods would result in madness and that P'w'ecks did not last that long as energy sources; requiring frequent replenishing. This put a drain on resources in their isolated region of space and it was decided that the Imperium needed to expand.

The Ssi-ruuk forces easily overcame the meek defenses of the colony world and proceeded to entech their captives. Due to their secret agreement with the Ssi-ruuk, the Imperial leadership covered up the incident and blamed the Alliance to Restore the Republic for the attack. Among their captives was a Human boy named Dev Sibwarra who possessed strange powers to sense others. Fascinated and astounded by his powers, the Ssi-ruuk spared him from the entechment rig and instead shipped him to their capital world of Lwhekk.

Dev came under the wardship of Bluescale who brainwashed him through mind manipulation techniques including sleep-inducing hyposprays. Due to his indoctrination, the boy came to regard Bluescale and his colleague Entechment Master Firwirrung as his family albeit reluctantly. It was from this boy that Ssi-ruuk discovered that Humans were the galaxy's dominant species. They also discovered that humanoids had longer containment time when enteched and could last longer than most other species.

However in 4 ABY, Emperor Palpatine was killed during the Battle of Endor onboard the Second Death Star. Due to his Force powers, Dev sensed this disturbance in the Force and told the Ssi-ruuk. With the Emperor unable to fulfill his promise, the Ssi-ruuvi launched an invasion of the edge of the known Galaxy. An expeditionary fleet including at least one Ssi-ruuvi assault carrier and numerous battle droids under Admiral Ivpikkis attacked Bakura after capturing Cattamascar.

By taking Bakura, the Ssi-ruuk would have seized a major Human world and thus enteched its population. Millions of Bakuran citizens would be enteched and used to power more battle droids and ship components. Bakura's raw metals would be utilized to manufacture entechment rigs and starships. With more resources, the Ssi-ruuk planned to "invade" the 12,000 terrestrial worlds of the known Galaxy particularly the heavily-populated Core Worlds—the center of galactic civilization and wealth.

Following a sizeable naval engagement with Imperial elements; the numerically-superior Ssi-ruuvi fleet destroyed half the Imperial fleet. The Ssi-ruuvi fleet then blockaded the space around Bakura. To fulfill the demands of entechment, all bodies including those wounded or captured alive were taken back onboard to the entechment labs onboard the Ssi-ruuvi capital ships. This practice baffled the local Bakuran and Imperial recovery crew who would later learn to their horror that these unfortunate prisoners had been captured by the reptilian Ssi-ruuk and subjected to entechment.

In response to heavy casualties, the Imperial governor Wilek Nereus sent an antique Message Droid to the forest moon of Endor after failing to contact Imperial Center and the Death Star II, to contact his Imperial superiors and ask for assistance to fend off the invasion force. Endor was the nearest world with a sizeable Imperial presence to Bakura as the site of the Second Death Star.

However, the Imperials had been defeated during the pivotal Battle of Endor which saw the destruction of the Second Death Star and the death of Sith Lord Palpatine. Instead, the message was received by members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic which dispatched a task force to neutralize a hostile threat and to secure a potential ally. A small Alliance task force was quickly scrambled under the command of Luke Skywalker. It also included an Alliance delegation led by Leia Organa.

Arriving in the Bakura system, the Alliance made contact with the Imperial Commander Pter Thanas, who agreed to cooperate even though a formal truce had not been settled. Sustaining heavy forces including a cruiser and several fighters, the Ssi-ruuk were forced into a retreat. This was the second time that the Ssi-ruuvi fleet had been on an emergency orient since their conquest of Cattamascar. This unexpected changed forced the Ssi-ruuvi leadership to analyze the newcomers' different tactics, starships and command style.

Meanwhile, his protégé Sibwarra sensed the arrival of a powerful Force-strong Jedi among the new arrivals—later revealed to be Skywalker. Privately, Sibwarra was fascinated with powers and skills of the extinct Jedi Knights and desired to meet one. However, he refrained from telling his superior Bluescale since it meant confessing a guilty "secret habit". Publicly, he pretended to lament the loss of human souls onboard the destroyed battle droids which prompted Bluesacle to arrange for a "renewal service" later.

Following the Alliance attack and the brief jump into hyperspace, the flagship Shriwirr had been left in state of chaos with the galley swamped with blobs of spilled food. Dev had voluntarily joined the P'w'eck slave crew in cleaning up the mess with units. Following an hour, Dev reported for a "renewal service" at Elder Sh'tk'ith's work station on the battle-droid deck.

Sensing that Sibwarra was hiding something since sharp Ssi-ruuvi nose-tongues were able to notice subtle changes in sweat, Bluescale ordered him into a sealed cage and interrogated him. Dev tried to deflect attention by talking about his translation project but Bluescale brought him to the topic by bluntly reminding him of his inferior place in Ssi-ruuvi society. A tearful Sibwarra then revealed to Sh'tk'ith of the presence of another Force user among the newcomers.

According to Dev, this "Outsider" had introduced new and successful tactics to the planet's defenders. Having extracted the necessary information, Sh'tk'ith subjected Dev to a hypnotic hypospray treatment which induced him into a sleep. Dev awoke to find himself on the command bridge and quickly learnt that Sh'tk'ith had reported the information to other leaders of the expeditionary force including Ivpikkis and Firwirrung.

Recalling how Dev had sensed Palpatine's death in the Force many light-years away, Sh'tk'ith suggested that the Force powers of the "Outsider" could be used to conduct entechment from a far distance. The entechment master Firwirrung suggested modifying the entechment rig to keep this being alive in a fully magnetized state and drain the life energies of millions of sentients from light years away. Ivpikkis welcomed the idea and saw it as a means of enteching all sentients within the vicinity of known space.

They then compelled Sibwarra to tap his mind into the "unseen universe" or the Force in order to discover the identity and whereabouts of this Force-strong being. Dev complied with their order provided they promised not to entech him when he was no longer needed. To allow him to tap into the Force, Sibwarra was induced into a trance by a hypospray. Through the Force, Dev discovered that the Outsider was Luke Skywalker and that he was in the Bakuran capital Salis D'aar. The feelings of power from Skywalker were enough to give Dev some remembrance of his past.

Satisfied, the Ssi-ruuvi leadership openly praised his efforts. However, Dev was personally torn between loving his "adopted family" and hating them for the way they had exploited him. The commander Ivpikkis stoked Dev's hatred by derogatively referring to him as the "pet" of Firwirrung. Feeling guilty, Sibwarra initiated some sort of telepathic contact with Skywalker, warning him of the Ssi-ruuvi intent on capturing the Jedi, as well as giving him a vision of how dangerous the Ssi-ruuk could be to the larger galaxy if left unchecked.

Due to their losses in the recent Alliance-Imperial attack, Admiral Ivpikkis decided to prevent further losses by making a covert deal with Governor Nereus. The Ssi-ruuk agreed to withdraw from Bakura in exchange for the handover of the Force-strong "Outsider"—Skywalker. Given that their physiology made them incapable of communicating directly with Nereus, Sibwarra was woken from his bed pit in the night by Firwirrung to initiate contact with Nereus. The Ssi-ruuk's devious scheme led Sibwarra to question the motives of his "family".

Earlier, the saurians had captured several operational Imperial starships during their campaign which allowed them to access HoloNet. In the early hours of the morning, Wilek Nereus received a HoloNet transmission from the Ssi-ruuk requesting negotiations at the Imperial headquarters. Dev presented the Ssi-ruuvi terms of a full withdrawal in exchange for the handover of Skywalker. Nereus accepted the offer; given his hatred of the Rebels and as part of his secret plan to stab his Rebel colleagues in the back.

He told them to contact him within a day while he made the sufficient arrangements for Skywalker. However, Nereus had no intentions of allowing the Ssi-ruuk to survive, and decided to double-cross the aliens. He would infect Skywalker with parasitic olabrian trichoid larvae, which would eat into Skywalker's body upon hatching. Nereus's plan was to allow the Ssi-ruuk to capture Skywalker, only to have the trichoids hatch and begin multiplying and killing the Ssi-ruuk.

• The Essential Guide to Characters
• The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook
• "Star News" — Star Wars Insider 31
• The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology
• The Official Star Wars Fact File100
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia