Shanta Killian

Background

Shanta Killian was born as Shanta Ru’killian on Brentaal IV. Separated from her mother directly after birth her family clan tried to convince her that she had been abandoned by her mom and only the benevolence of the clan had saved her. Whenever she cried for her mommy the was beaten. When she was 2 years old one of the aunts everyone had warned her about because they claimed that aunt was evil, woke her up at night and tried to sneak away with her. The little girl was afraid and cried out loud, which led to the whole habitat building awakening. The “evil” aunt was caught and almost beaten to death. Only much later aunt Ranja told Shanta, that this had been her mother who had tried to escape with her. Little Shanta blamed herself for having caused her mommy to get hurt, but aunt Ranja assured her that her mother escaped and would someday return to take her away, too.

But years passed by without her mom returning. Shanta was sent to school alongside her fellow clans children, but they treated her like the piece of trash that her mother was supposed to be. Aunt Ranja was the only one being nice to Shanta, but one night she, too, was caught, when she tried to smuggle in some food for the detained girl. The clansmembers treated Ranja as bad as Shanta’s mom and she vanished shortly thereafter. Then, all the kids were brought off-planet for further education in various boot camps, where they tried to brainwash them to cooperate. Finally they brought her and the others to a secret asteroid base containing a huge automated arms factory that belonged to Clan Ru’killian.

Then, one day during class, all holo emitters only showed one scene: inside a huge spherical room a handful of humans and aliens fought a desperate battle against Sith-master Cyrus who wanted to destroy the whole galaxy. Holding her breath Shanta watched the ensuing fight and wondered why that woman with the blue hair who wielded a blue bladed lightsaber seemed so familiar to her. Only when that woman jumped into the dark annihilation beam of Cyrus to absorb it Shanta recognized her screams: This had to be her mom! When that woman activated her Spirit Link and invited the whole galaxy to join in her fight against Cyrus Shanta could not hold back and joined in the link as well. This was the first time she was in contact with her mother who called her “Little Star” and told her that she had always been the most important thing in her whole life, before she defeated the dark lord and died from exhaustion.

Until that moment Shanta had believed the lies she had been told about her mom being an insignificant nobody not worth mentioning. Now she knew better: Her Mom was a great heroine who had sacrificed her life for the galaxy. Shanta knew she had to get away from her clan and she wanted to know everything about her mother. By subconsciously using her inherited force ability the girl was able to reprogram the asteroid base’s computer systems and reach out to organize a freelance freighter to pick her up and smuggle her out. She also gave herself a new name: Ki’Sha Brightstar.

So, by sheer luck or the will of the force she dropped right into the ship of Mia De’Ore her mother’s former apprentice who instantly recognized her because she very much looked like her mom. The twi’lek took Shanta in to fulfill Trance’s last wish and so the girl stayed on the “Deep Hopper”, her mom’s former ship that she had given to Mia as a parting gift. When Shanta’s force sensitivity became apparent she was also introduced to the masters of the holocron and started training to become a Jedi knight.

After a few adventures with Mia De’Ore, Dar’Shok and some other friends Shanta was visiting a museum when an imperial commando unit raided the building and she was tossed into an ancient burial urn. The urn broke and black dust burned itself into her left forearm in a tattoo-like tribal pattern. This method was used by the spirit of an old sith-lord that had been slumbering in the urn to enter her body. He waited and watched her and her friends until the right moment to take over.

The moment came when Shanta seemingly sacrificed herself to save an entire planet from destruction. The Sith who called herself “Darkstar” saved Shanta’s life, but took over her body and revealed herself to her friends to suggest a truce and a cooperation. It turned out that they were all after the same evil Sith Lord, Inquisitor Vengeanar, although for different reasons. Meanwhile Shanta’s spirit was trapped alone in a dark illusionary world and this almost drove her insane.

While Shanta’s friends were still planning to somehow get the sith out of her body it seemed to change from the inside by taking on more and more traits of his host. In the end Darkstar even agreed to relinquish control of her body to Shanta for 24 hours, so the girl could celebrate her 16^th birthday with all her friends.

In the end they were able to vanquish their common enemy and the sith left Shanta’s body to seek out another suitable vessel. The scar on her forearm remained, however.

After Mia De’Ore was tasked with searching for and returning the lost spirit of Shanta’s mom Trance Nar Shaddaa kingpin Reelo Baruk tried to bend Shanta’s will to becoming his slave, but the girl rebelled, sabotaged a shipment of his expensive disruptor rifles and took away with her mom’s ship. After a short odyssey across the galaxy Shanta finally went to see her aunt Ranja who had been running Trance’s logistics company on Eriadu. But Reelo would not let her get away and so the only way to pay off the horrendous bounty he had put on her head was for Ranja to sell the company and all ships – to Reelo.

The following year Shanta went to a private high school on Eriadu and made friends there while Dar’Shok and the crew of the freighter “Dream Voyager” (which was the renamed and overhauled “Deep Hopper”) ran many legal – and some illegal – cargo missions throughout the galaxy. Then, the family habitat of clan Ru’killian on Brentaal was attacked by a Dark Trooper who decimated the clan by a third. Shanta and Dar’Shok raced to Brentaal and while Shanta used her force powers to exhaustion to save as many lives as possible the barabel went on a retaliation mission and struck down the mastermind behind this attack, Chiz’tor the hutt, in cold blood.

This resulted in a chaotic succession conflict throughout hutt space, and a clever crime lord that called himself “Octopus” used the turbulence to push into the territory and secure his slice of it. After Dar’s crew had hindered his plans a few times the Octopus took more direct measures and had his boss Ranja Killian assassinated. Fortunately, Shanta had seen this in a force vision and together with some friends she had prepared a huge deception to save her aunt’s life, but make the attackers believe they had succeeded. It worked and Ranja was sent to Mia’s adopted family Titon on Rathalay where she could lay low for a while. After these events, ships mechanic Kenny took care of Shanta whom she considered her little sister.

Meanwhile Reelo made Dar’Shok CEO of “Galactic Tranceport” and after a few other missions he demanded that Dar finally bring Shanta back to him on Nar Shaddaa so she could take her mother’s place in his harem. Shanta went along voluntarily, having her body and mind prepared for her ordeal. But then Dar had illusions of grandeur and got himself killed in an attempt to save the moon’s primary stabilizer generator.

Shanta wanted to bring him back with the force, but she was so caught up in her own emotions that she transferred much more of her life force than she was supposed to. Dar survived, but now Shanta’s spirit resided within his body as well, suspended in deep slumber, while her body awakened as a blank slate with no memory of who she was, creating a completely new consciousness. This was formed by the interactions with her environment and developed into a unique personality. Meanwhile Shanta’s friends desperately searched for a chance to reunite body and spirit. They even went as far as to recruit the help of the Sith-Lord “Darkstar” who now called herself “Rae Carson”. But the sith had grim news: in order to save one of them they would have to sacrifice the other because two spirits could not exist in the same body for more than a short time.

Due to a fortunate circumstance, however, Rae could offer a way out of this dilemma. Since she had absorbed a portion of the essence from a powerful cosmic being they all bonded together to make a short trip to the past to place an order for a new clone body that would be ready in the present time. Dar learned a sith ritual to bind Shanta’s spirit and banish her into a burial urn, much like the one Darkstar had been imprisoned in. This way they could bring Shanta’s spirit to her new body. Kenny placed the urn besides the cloned body and a swirl of black dust burned itself into Shanta’s left forearm again, this time forming a pattern of stars, while Shanta’s spirit took up residence in the new body.

After Shanta learned what had happened to her old body and that it had formed a new personality who called herself Liliana she was happy to have a new sister and adopted Kenny and Liliana into her family. The republic secret service went to great lengths to cover up the fact that Shanta was now a clone and so they altered documents and made it seem as if Liliana had always been Shanta’s twin sister and had just remained on Brentaal for the past several years.

Now that the whole team was back at full strength they started a large scale operation to finally put down the Octopus, but the clever gangster was one step ahead and set a trap for their fleet. Greatly outnumbered Shanta and the crew of the “Dream Voyager” surrendered to the Octopus and were taken into custody. While the rest was drugged and kept on a secluded island Shanta had been frozen in carbonite and the Octopus had used her as his favorite wall decoration. When the rest finally recovered and broke free they confronted the Octopus and took him down, but Shanta’s carbonite block was damaged during the escape. This resulted in her left eye becoming badly damaged and so she’s half blind now.

A few weeks later Mia returned from her secret mission – together with Shanta’s mother Trance, so after 18 years mother and daughter were finally reunited.

But the galaxy continues to be a dangerous place and sinister forces will continue their plans of conquest and destruction, so Shanta will continue to fight for peace after her high school graduation.

Physical Description

Shanta is a young woman with fair skin, emerald eyes and long, curly, blonde hair.

When on duty for the New Republic she wears her uniform or flight suit with rank insignia of a cadet. In addition to her stun blaster she carries her double-bladed lightsaber openly on her belt. Her secondary weapon, a single-bladed lightsaber, is hidden in a belt pouch. In this outfit she puts on no make-up or jewelry and wears her hair tied up in a bun.

For covert ops Shanta wears her black-and-green armored battlesuit which provides moderate protection without hindering her movement. Her weapons-belt is also part of this suit and it also features a flexible headpiece that covers everything besides eyes and mouth.

In her spare time Shanta likes to wear short skirts and short tank-tops that show her midriff, revealing her star-shaped belly button piercing. In addition to a small helix bar in her left ear she mostly wears a pair of large round or star-shaped hoops plus three more pairs of smaller hoops or studs as earrings. Another small hoop or – depending on the occasion - some other, more flashy and sparkling piece of jewelry is worn in her septum. A large number of small bangles cover her forearms and some also her upper arms, while she only wears a few select rings, together with sparkling green nail polish. She only puts on make-up for special occasions to appear a bit older. A trendy purse and some shiny black boots complete her outfit. Depending on how she feels she might wear a sleeve covering her left forearm. Otherwise her scar can be seen, appearing like a black tribal tattoo consisting of many stars in different sizes and shapes. Only rarely Shanta sticks out her tongue so her tongue-piercing can be seen.

Since her brand new clone body is slightly more muscular than her old human body she had to purchase mostly new clothes leaving a full stock for her “twin sister” Liliana to choose from.

After having been frozen in carbonite during her captivity with the Octopus her prison was damaged during the escape. This seems to have severely damaged her left eye and made her become almost half-blind. To prevent irritation to the eye and to avoid drawing too much attention with wearing an eye patch Shanta had gotten a few contact lenses that are non-transparent and look like her real left eye. Only an attentive observer might notice the difference.