Kuallue
| Kuallue | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information: | |
| Homeworld: | Celegia |
| Born: | 167 BBY |
| Died: | 21 BBY, Bandomeer |
| Descriptive Information: | |
| Species: | Celegian |
| Gender: | Male |
| Eye Color: | Gray-brown |
| Family Information: | |
| Children: | Kuallue's son |
| Partners: | Uyuo |
| Chronological and political information: | |
| Apprentices: | |
| Masters: | |
| Affiliation: | Altisian Jedi |
Kuallue was an Altisian Jedi who lived during the Rise of the Empire period.[1]
Biography
Jedi Order
Kuallue was given his name by the Jedi Order, for his own people had little use for names.[1] He visited the planet of Obroa-skai during his time with the Jedi Order, prior to 121 BBY, and found it to be quite cold.[1] He was a friend to Thame Cerulian at the time when Count Dooku was apprenticed to Thame.[1] By 32 BBY, Kuallue was training an apprentice named Clees.[1]
Altisian Jedi
Kuallue left the Jedi Order to join the Altisian Jedi in late 32 BBY or early in 31 BBY, spurred on by his meeting Mars LaRone on Brentaal, whom he took as a second apprentice, contrary to the Jedi Code. He lived aboard the Chu'unthor, becoming a close friend to Djinn Altis.[1] He was known as the oldest and wisest of the Altisian Jedi, and Djinn held him in high regard. Around 24 BBY, Djinn sent Kuallue, and his apprentices, Clees and Mars LaRone, on a mission to Samaria. There, the latter fell to the Dark side and killed Clees, although Kuallue did not falter in his own commitment to the Light side. With help from Geith Eris, Kuallue was able to subdue and kill his former apprentice.[1]
Kuallue comforted Djinn after the death of Margani, and he married Uyuo and had a son with her in 26 BBY. At some point prior to 21 BBY, the three of them went on a vacation to Manda and saw the Ark of Baron Auletphant.[1]
As an Altisian Jedi, Kuallue avoided any combat role in the Clone Wars and focused mostly on humanitarian efforts.[1] He visited Obroa-skai for the second time beginning around 13 months ABG, after he was sent by Djinn Altis to find a home for displaced R'tunb people.[1]
In 14 months, 6 days ABG, Obroa-skai was victim to a Separatist attack, and Uyuo and his son were killed by a Vulture Droid crashing into their home while Kuallue was at the Obroan Galactic Observatory. Afterwards, he felt the presence of General Grievous in the Force and vowed revenge on him.[1]
Search for Grievous
Kuallue chased the General, who was rumored to be in the neutral Carest System. He searched on Aquaris and then in the Weku Republic of Tierfon. Eventually, he heard reports that Grievous had been trapped on Bandomeer, and he arrived on the planet 14 days into the 15th month ABG.[1] He planned to operate on his own and didn't outright state the purpose of his visit to Bandomeer while going through customs at Hercht J. Karrak Spaceport in Bandor, but he aroused enough suspicion that Sadiya Keldon became aware of his presence as he approached Selbar, where Grievous had his forces. After two days of travel on a rented speeder, he circled the town twice and found a place to stay at Hotel 4.[1]
There, he was confronted by a suspicious Sadiya Keldon, who insisted on bringing him into her fold. Kuallue was beginning to accept this proposition when he saw a vision of Sadiya's own darkness, and he began to suspect that working with her to defeat Grievous would sway him to the Dark Side. He then requested to work independently, which she firmly rejected. This brought them to a standstill, and Keldon began to threaten to force Kuallue to leave the planet.[1]
First Battle with Grievous
While at a standstill, they were interrupted by an attack from General Grievous, which forced Sadiya to take cover.[1] Kuallue forced Grievous to crash his Arrow-21 Landspeeder with a telekinetic attack, then pulled a STAP into his grasp to commandeer it. He escaped out a window while Sadiya tried to reach her own speeder, but Kuallue was pursued by Grievous. Ultimately, Grievous was able to chase and shoot down Kuallue, but in doing so, he exposed himself to an aerial attack from a V-19 Torrent. Despite his own damage, Kuallue survived his speeder crash and went out to kill the wounded General, who had loss function of all his limbs. However, as Kuallue approached, he got another vision, providing further warnings of darkness from Djinn Altis and Yoda. Ultimately, he decided that he could not kill Grievous in good conscience, but that what he had done was good enough: Grievous was helpless, and Republic forces were inbound to capture him. Kuallue fled to avoid Keldon's ire, satisfied that his goals were completed and his family avenged.[1]
Alliance with Keldon
However, he was captured by Keldon, who interrogated him the next day, and she suspected that she was found so quickly because Kuallue was secretly a Separatist mole. Kuallue was ultimately able to convince her that her frustrations were irrational. He then explained that his visions and experiences had caused him to change his mind, and that he now wanted to work with her. Sadiya saw this as a last-second attempt to flatter her, now that there was a blaster pointed at him. Kuallue insisted that his change of heart was sincere, and he opened his mind to her to let her telepathically probe him. Ultimately, she decided to accept him into the cause.[1]
After this, Kuallue spoke with Commander Epsilon, who asked him about the combative applications of his powers, and with Head Quartermaster Saul Larins, who went about acquiring the supplies needed to sustain Kuallue's unique physiology. Sadiya then invited Kuallue into her quarters in the back of an A6 Juggernaut to teach him more about her ways in the Force and to explain her past to him. She invited him to explore her mind the way that she did to him, but he turned her down as a show of trust, instead requesting her to explain aloud. She explained the similarities in their story, how she also lost her family after leaving the Jedi Order, and she asked him if he was willing to make a change in order to prevent future tragedies.[1]
Kuallue then developed a habit of training with Sadiya in the early mornings, which both of them looked forwards to, since neither had any chance to train with other Force-sensitives in the recent past. They would meet in the taiga near camp besh, and Kuallue devised an exercise for the two of them in which Sadiya would try to avoid objects that Kuallue threw at her, and then she could score blows by kicking or slapping his tank.[1]
Counterattack at Valmin
About a week later, Keldon unvieled a strategy for breaking into Selbar: They dug a tunnel that ultimately connected with an ancient well, allowing them to climb up and enter the Valmin Water Treatment Facility within Selbar. Keldon also ordered that they use the opportunity to poison the water table below, forcing the Meerians to rely entirely on water supplies that had been brought in. Kuallue led three squads of jet troopers into the well before finding himself in a cistern that he and the clones blew open. When Kuallue tried to come back up into the treatment facility, he was attacked by soldiers from above, who threw down frag grenades and attacked. However, Kuallue was able to defeat them with a few feats of telekinesis, allowing the jet troopers to make their way up. They quickly captured the facility, detaining a dozen workers and destroying several B1 Battle Droids.[1]
However, it was not a quiet takeover, and the Separatist reinforcements were already summoned. Before Kuallue or the clones could escape, they were surrounded by droids and an AAT. After a breif battle, the Separatists withdrew to avoid clone snipers, establishing a no-man's-land on the streets surrounding the facility. Kuallue knew that he and the clones would be slaughtered if they left, but Grievous couldn't afford to waste his droids in storming the facility. The Republic took advantage of the time to dump toxins into the water supply and sabotage the Valmin facility. Grievous eventually decided that a bombardment of Valmin was the only option, forcing the Republic to retreat underground. The bombardment killed 17 clones as well as the captured Meerian workers, but it forced the Republic out of Selbar. Kuallue lamented the losses, but he told himself that it was a necessary evil.[1]
When he confronted Sadiya on it the next day, she explained that he needed to embrace a larger view of the Force that wasn't so beholden to the Light side. She had him embrace the Dark by lifting a well-rooted tree, forcing him to use a telepathic attack that caused the tree to wither its roots and willingly die for him. Once he completed this task, he earned more of her trust, allowing him to hear the full extent of Keldon's latest plan to end the battle.[1]
Endgame
On the 2nd day of month 16, Sadiya Keldon invoked her plan, attacking Selbar with her largest offensive yet in hopes to destroy the shield generator in the city center and end the battle via a bombardment from the Kalpana. The primary attack came from east of Selbar in camp aurek, sending AT-TEs up the cliffside, but Sadiya and Kuallue were the true key to the attack, hoping to sneak behind enemy lines. They repurposed an ambulance from elsewhere on Bandomeer, removing its medical supplies to haul a large quantity of explosives. Sadiya also dressed up as a Babteer Pil medic, although Kuallue and the two Republic Commandos with them, Forr and Lio, made no effort to disguise themselves, instead waiting in the back part of the vehicle where they were obscured.[1]
The Separatists were slow to respond to the Republic's diversionary attack on their east, which was led by Commander Epsilon. They attempted to breach the 10-meter high wall with AT-TE Walkers but were repelled initially, but Sadiya's real plan used LAAT Gunships, which crashed into the wall. Two were laden with explosives, but one actually carrier her and Kuallue's fake ambulance in the passenger compartment. They ejected the airspeeder from the gunship shortly before it crashed, thus allowing them to land safely in the middle of chaos without anyone noticing. Then, they sped off behind the Separatist lines, blending in with the larger fleet of emergency vehicles that were supporting the Babteer Pil.[1]
Kuallue was then dropped off at the the Jedlor Spaceport, where both the Venture and the Demask were parked and secured by B1 Battle Droids. His target was the former, which was being used as a backup shield projector for the town.[1] After mind tricking a guard, Theel, he was quickly able to infiltrate close to the lower levels of the ship. They were eventually confronted by droids, who raised an alarm, but Kuallue fought his way through and into the Venture's lower levels. They had lost power, meaning that Kuallue was able to disappear into dark hallways with no security cameras. There were not enough personnel in place to stop Kuallue from walking a long loop around the ship until he ended up below the shield generators. They trapped him while he was climbing through maintenance tubes surrounding the coolant lines. In the ensuing battle, he inadvertently caused a leak, and then the blaster fire set it on fire, causing massive damage throughout the ship. Kuallue was expected to have died, but he telekinetically pushed the fires away from him to continue his journey in relative safety, although his legs were damaged by blaster fire. He would later also destroy two Droidekas that were defending the shield. After about an hour of sneaking through the ship, Kuallue was able to reach its shield generators.[1] He set his charges before being confronted by General Grievous's Decoy, who forced him to flee. He was caught up with very quickly, at which point he set off the bombs.[1]
However, before Kuallue could be killed, the real Grievous ordered the decoy try to escape aboard a Sheathipede-class Shuttle, ignoring Kuallue. Kuallue pursued, and he telepathically ordered the Kalpana to capture it in a tractor beam.[1] Thanks to the intervention of several Colicoid Infiltrator-series Droids, Kuallue was unable to capture Grievous's decoy when it first landed, and the decoy was able to sabotage sensors of the Kalpana.[1]
Kuallue teamed up with recent arrivals Djinn Altis and Nan Latourain to eventually corner the decoy, setting aside their philosophical differences for a time. After a prolonged battle, they defeated it, realizing afterwards that they had not killed the real Grievous. At that, Admiral Dorain reached out to Kuallue, asking him to come to the bridge in order to help relay commands from Sadiya, who was still MIA. Meanwhile, Altis was sent off to handle another group of saboteurs that included escaped prisoners, and Nan was sent down to the planet's surface to stop Grievous from seizing camp aurek.[1]
Once Kuallue reached the bridge, he saw a Munificent-class Star Frigate fleeing Selbar, and he ordered the gunners to destroy it. This proved to be a gross misstep, because the frigate was actually a holographic projection, carefully alligned by Grievous such that the Kalpana's guns shot at the Republic forces on the ground. Kuallue's carelessness resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Clone Troopers and allowed Grievous to seize camp aurek. The ship, already chaotic with the lack of working communications, turned even more chaotic after that, with Kuallue and Dorain struggling to relay orders to other parts of the ship.[1]
When they were attacked by hijacked V-19 Torrents, CR25 Troop Carriers, and the Micah Giiett, Kuallue went back and forth on his orders, causing further confusion until it was too late. Their engines were targeted, and multiple were destroyed in the confusion. Kuallue attempted to flee, but his tank's repulsorlift ran out of power, and he went down with the ship.[1]
Equipment
Kuallue travelled around in a transparisteel tank just over three meters tall that had four legs with which to walk, as well as repulsorlift capabilities that drained power more quickly. The tank had a datapad on one side, which Kuallue could control to interface with computers and even some landspeeders.[1]
Powers and Abilities
Kuallue was primarily a scholar and was given research projects by Altis that could use his scientific expertise to aid their cause.[1] He could easily communicate telepathically to those nearby, with ease similar to how a human would speak, and he could make contact over longer distances via his Force powers, when he knew the target well enough, such as with General Grievous and his family.[1] His telepathy also made it easier for him to understand vocal speech, such as filling in gaps when Meerian speakers were unable to make certain sounds in Galactic Basic Standard.[1] He could communicate with animals, at point causing a large bovine to walk into the path of General Grievous's STAP.[1]
Kuallue was highly adept in telekinesis, which he used to make up for his lack of lightsaber. He flew a STAP using telekinesis to move the controls while grasping the speeder with his feet, and he was also able to hurl STAP's with relative ease.[1]
Personality and Traits
Kuallue saw himself as a husband and father first and foremost up until the death of his family, but after their deaths, struggled to understand his own identity. He often pondered what it meant to be a Jedi, and he imagined that non-Celegians would be unable to fathom the galaxy because of their over-reliance on words, which he believed caused them to become bogged down in semantics.[1] He was skeptical of the Jedi Order and viewed the Galactic Senate as being highly corrupt, though he was ultimately willing to work with Sadiya Keldon and the Grand Army of the Republic once it became clear to him that it was necessary to kill Grievous.[1]
Kuallue was amiable and prone to rambling in his telepathic communications, sharing an excess of off-topic tangents.[1]