"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else." - Charles Dickens
Anna Sachae is a freelance technician, formerly a member of the Imperial ISB R&D. During her term of service, she was known for her work on Admiral Disra's flagship, the Aegis, the Hoth facility, and the Dark Trooper Project.
Early Life and KDY[]
Anna was born to two working-class parents, Garen and Marilin Sachae, both of whom were mechanics in the prestigious Kuat Drive Yards. Anna grew up around machines of all kinds, learning from a young age how to take things apart and put them back together better than new. It was obvious that she was going to join her father in engineering some day, and Anna bode her time until her fifteenth birthday, when she was offered a job at KDY.
Anna eagerly took that job and rose through the ranks quickly, proving herself to be even more of a mechanic than her father was. For years, all the way through tech school and well after she graduated, Anna worked as one of the head maintenance officers in her drydock. She showed her expertise in every engine she repaired, every navicomputer she programmed. She kept getting better and better at what she did, and she knew it. Not even her superiors could keep up. Anna's head began to swell with pride.
That pride would be her downfall. Craig Hawthorne, one of the few mechanics with any authority over Anna, put an end to her arrogant dismissal of her coworkers, busting her down to the most menial of duties and preventing her from working on the largest, most complicated engines. To Anna this was a fate worse than death, and she was very quickly humbled. Craig, however, did not allow her a chance to redeem herself, even after months of drudgery. Instead of bending to his whims and suffering for her momentary ego, Anna quit the job she had held for most of her life and looked for employment prospects elsewhere.
Joining the Empire[]
Roughly two months after quitting KDY, Anna finally stooped to the last option she had considered. Entering an Imperial recruiting station, Anna applied for a position as a mechanic for the Imperial Navy. The officer who met her, Commander Ell'iru'micha, was particularly impressed by her resume and awarded her an NCO position under Tech Sergent Jorsh Wyn, a strict man with little tolerance for mistakes. Luckily, mistakes were rare in Anna's work, and she left the Tech Sergeant after a relatively short amount of time. Anna was reassigned to the Aegis, Admiral Disra's flagship.
Some time after her assignment to the Aegis, Operation: Durasteel Fist took place near the Imperial Academy Endor. Anna was once again assigned with Admiral Disra, providing both technical support and repairs for the ground troops. At least some of this support involved upgrading Disra's blaster pistol on the way down to the planet.
After Operation: Durasteel Fist, Anna was assigned to the Thracae space station. Her tasks there included assembling three large gravity well projectors and installing the communication-jamming systems that facilitated the station's primary purpose. With a bit of initial difficulty, both systems came online ahead of schedule and almost directly after a visit by Admiral Disra.
A coordinated Jedi/ Rebel attack on the station soon followed, giving Anna her first taste of combat and waking her up to the reality of war.
Crash Landings[]
After Thracae, Anna was given a bit of downtime in observation of her recent work. She chose to spend this time assembling a scavenger team to search through the ruins of a few crashed ships on Endor. The team included Second Lieutenant Hardrad Domingo, who defended Anna against attacks by the more dangerous creatures of Endor's jungles. During this mission, Anna's life was saved by the sacrifice of TK 0188 "Moody". She took his dogtags as a reminder of that moment, and of the impact that a single life can make on others.
Her second crash came on Dxun, where she was sent to scavenge important intel from a crashed shuttle and possibly retrieve its more deadly weaponry. This mission was a bust rather quickly, as roughly fifteen minutes after landing and getting lost in the jungle, her escorts were killed and she was left for dead in the jungle, surrounded by beasts. It was there she met Aurora Starkiller and fought her way back to her shuttle, growing rather attached to the girl at the same time.
The third crash landing during this period was on Anoat, caused by horrid upkeep of her shuttle's hyperspace engines. By a miracle repair, Anna was able to get the ship to crash into the planet's surface instead of being flattened in the hyperspace lane, but she was badly wounded in the crash. Jedi Knight Jesse Ariston was fortunately there to heal her and the two worked together to get off the planet.
Cloud City and R&D[]
Anna's performance on the Aegis and several confrontations earned her a personal recommendation to Commander Marok Tidian's team when assaulting Cloud City in an attempt to capture Hawk Hinata. During this operation she proved even more useful, slicing into a security room and hacking the Cloud City computer systems to lock down doors, drain oxygen, download important information, and a variety of other things. She left the city before the end of the confrontation, but was important in its aftermath to repair Commander Rodo Mass, who was damaged during a fight with the Jedi.
Anna received a promotion from these acts, bringing with it new responsibilities and a higher standard. She was ordered to receive self-defense training from Captain Sloane Saniss to maintain a higher level of physical fitness, as well as to protect herself in the likely event she came in contact with hostiles again. Her new duties included custom weapon requests from all levels and branches of the Empire, most of which she fulfilled with ingenuity and punctuality.
Steph Zenima, the Dark Trooper Project, and Exile[]
During Anna's time on the rebuilt Echo Base, she furthered her knowledge of cybernetic limbs and mechanical assistance implants. That knowledge was put to use when a brutally wounded Steph Zenima arrived in her medical bay. Anna rebuilt the broken woman's body as well as her mind over the course of several days of counseling. After weeks of work, Anna managed to repair Steph's body and heal her mind. The two bonded rather strongly as well, developing something akin to love that lasted up until the incident with the Dark Trooper Project.
Anna's position within ISB R&D and her incredible mechanical aptitude made her the prime candidate for a leading researcher in the revived Dark Trooper Project. As her specialization in cybernetics furthered, her knowledge of droid mechanics also increased, which turned her into the lead (and at times only) researcher in the project. With her help, it was completed months ahead of schedule, and the Dark Troopers were ready for deployment.
Unfortunately, Anna's conscience had other plans. Before their first deployment, Anna rewired all of the Dark Troopers with non-lethal stun rounds and nerve charges, making them - while not totally ineffective - much less decisive than Imperial High Command wanted them to be. As a result, Anna was charged with several crimes against the Empire and dishonorably discharged from the Imperial Navy. In addition, she was exiled from Imperial space for 50 years, and Steph was placed under the supervision of one Joseph Mengol, much to Anna's dismay.
Anna's exile began rather simply. She limped her way out of Imperial space and tried to find a place to call home. Her first stop was Tatooine, where she had once met Anija Ordo and Lilly Qenadius. It didn't take much convincing for them to take her in, and soon Anna Sachae had transitioned from a pacifistic Imperial mechanic to a pacifistic Mandalorian technician. Her life with the Mandos was surprisingly satisfying, though simple. She quickly lost track of time.
Some time after her exile, Anna leased a machine shop on Tatooine, content to spend most of her time there, working on the various podracers, swoop bikes, and pit droids that came by.
Anna's Powersuit[]
Anna's battle armor is based on the Dark Trooper Phase II, but so heavily customized that it only vaguely resembles any Dark Trooper every produced. Its basic design is humanoid, with increased bulk towards the shoulders and a quasi-Mandalorian-style visor. The right arm has a large canon in place of a hand and forearm.
The armor is designed for multiple functions. Its defensive capabilities are very impressive, being designed mostly to totally nullify solid attacks. Blades, ballistics, and conventional physical attacks break upon the overlying phrik plates and underlying ballistic mesh. The shoulders contain personal deflector shield generators, usable for up to four hours and capable of taking impressive punishment. A temperate ploarizer function protects the inside of the suit from the affects of extreme heat and cold, though other effects such as frozen joints are not stopped.
The basic Phase II design has a jetpack attached, but Anna has modified this to instead function as a minor acrobatic booster. By using small, controlled bursts of the same fuel used in primative repulsor droids, Anna can greatly assist her jumps and aerial maneuverability to levels that most Jedi have to strive to achieve. In a zero-G environment, this also works to allow her perfect maneuverability.
Offensively, the suit's weaponry is contained within the arm-cannon. It's capable of ion shots and stun blasts, both of variable potency, and can fire several grenades contained within the converted jetpack. These include cryogenic, adhesive, and neurotoxin grenades, as well as standard flashbang and ion grenades.
The suit is controlled by a combination of muscle power and a basic droid brain installed in the helmet. At any time, it can respond to voice commands to activate any of the suit's functions, but will only respond to Anna's voice and only when it reads Anna's vitals in the suit. It automatically activates things like shields, climate control and jump jets the instant they're deemed necessary.
Most impressive of all, the helmet is connected to the suit, cannon, and the neuromesh bodysuit Anna wears beneath it. The setup monitors her biological status, movements, and a direct feed links the canon's trajectory with a crosshair in the helmet. The HUD displays several different feeds regarding her ammunition, energy levels, shields, vitals, the exterior conditions, and enough bells and whistles to write another paragraph about. It also includes a multifrequency comlink that works well into low orbit of the average planet.