Mika Grey was a Force-sensitive human female archaeologist. Around 31 ABY, she began scouring the galaxy for Sith artifacts, hoping to acquire them before the First Order could. The archaeologist traveled to the celestial body Vargos 9 nearly two years afterward and encountered a squad of First Order Raiders who were also searching for dark side artifacts. Following her departure, the squad continued to track Grey's travels. In 34 ABY, Grey visited the planet Ashas Ree and excavated a Sith temple there. After successfully raising the Sith temple, the treasure hunter attempted to take a Sith relic from the site, only to accidentally activate a trap that imprisoned her in a chamber below. Nearly two days later, the Resistance spy Kazuda Xiono, the siblings Kel and Eila, and the astromech droid CB-23 heard Grey's pleas for help and entered the temple to assist her.

After attempting to touch the Sith relic, Xiono, too, fell into Grey's chamber. Kel, Eila, and CB-23 helped the two escape their predicament by pressing on Sith hieroglyphics before the structure's mechanisms could crush the pair. Grey then stowed the Sith relic in her backpack. Afterward, when Xiono accidentally activated the Sith temple's self-destruction sequence, Grey fled the crumbling temple with her newfound acquaintances. First Order Raiders, who had tracked Grey to the world, met them outside, eventually capturing most of the group. The archaeologist then activated the Sith relic, and its detonation killed the troopers. Grey subsequently accepted Kel and Eila's offer to join them aboard the supertanker fuel depot Colossus.

Grey began working as a fortune teller and prophet on the Colossus in the platform's marketplace. When the Warbird pirate Leoz cursed Xiono, the latter consulted Grey for assistance in removing the supposed affliction. The fortune teller gave him a wooden talisman to ward off the curse's effects, telling him that they only extended to how much he believed in it. Emboldened by her words, Xiono overcame his fears concerning the curse and successfully helped the Colossus's Ace Squadron protect the platform against the Guavian Death Gang. Later that year, Grey helped defend the Colossus when the First Order Star Destroyer Thunderer attacked the platform in the Barabesh system.

Biography[]

Relic hunting[]

The human female Mika Grey^[1] was a Force-sensitive^[4] archaeologist and treasure hunter who lived during the reign of the New Republic.^[5] At some point during her travels, she acquired a wooden talisman.^[2] Around 31 ABY, Grey began searching for Sith artifacts across the galaxy in an effort to keep the relics out of the hands of the First Order,^[5] particularly its eventual Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren.^[6] Nearly two years later, Grey first encountered a squad of First Order Raiders—elite First Order troopers hunting for dark side relics—while on the terrestrial astronomical object Vargos 9. She eventually traveled off the celestial body and believed she had eluded her pursuers. Unbeknownst to Grey, the First Order Raiders continued tracking her whereabouts.^[5]

In 34 ABY,^[7] Grey embarked on a new hunt for an ancient Sith relic she considered dangerous due to its destructive potential^[1] to kill all life in its path.^[8] Having been searching for it for two and a half years, she traveled to the forested^[1] Outer Rim^[5] planet Ashas Ree. After landing her starship on the outskirts of the planet's trading outpost, she entered the settlement, finding it to be adjacent to a Temple of the Force that had in turn been built atop an ancient Sith temple. When the treasure hunter began excavating the Sith temple to raise^[1] its shrine^[5] upward, her efforts terrified the local villagers.^[1] Sensing the ripples of destructive dark side power emanating from the nearby structure,^[9] the locals fled into Ashas Ree's forests, leaving hastily scrawled warnings in their outpost to ward away travelers. The treasure hunter's excavation efforts proved successful, and she broke inside the structure.^[1]

Trapped in a temple[]

While attempting to retrieve the relic from^[1] the temple's dusty crypt,^[8] Grey set off one of the totem's^[1] many traps and puzzles^[8] and became trapped in a chamber below^[1] the artifact's altar.^[10] She began pleading for help, remaining trapped in the chamber for almost two days. Eventually,^[1] the siblings^[4] Kel and Eila,^[1] the Resistance^[5] spy Kazuda Xiono, and the astromech droid CB-23 heard her cries when they entered the temple, and they followed the sound of her voice to try to help her. After the group became separated in the temple, Xiono and CB-23 entered the room holding the artifact Grey had been seeking, and the spy reached out to touch it while suffering disorientation from an electric shock trap. When Xiono's hand neared the object, despite Grey's warning to stay away, he set off one of the temple's traps and fell into the chamber housing the archaeologist.^[1]

After Xiono sent CB-23 away to bring Kel and Eila to help, Grey approached the spy and admonished him for trying to touch the artifact. The archaeologist's appearance scared the Resistance operative, and he backed away from her, eventually tripping and falling on his back. Grey picked up Xiono by his jacket and demanded to know his intentions, only releasing him after ascertaining that he was not working for the First Order. The treasure hunter then expounded on how she had excavated the temple and eventually became trapped inside. Grey continued to answer Xiono's questions, explaining how the planet's villagers had fled when she began her work on the world. Despite Grey's warnings for him to stay still, Xiono accidentally triggered a booby-trap device that activated a giant^[1] drill-like^[11] machine below them.^[1]

Xiono and Grey were then thrown against the chamber's walls when they began to spin, with the resultant force immobilizing them. Eila, Kel, and CB-23 arrived as the trap's grinder moved closer to the pair, and with Grey's guidance, the two siblings pressed the two star-shaped Sith hieroglyphics that deactivated it. Although CB-23 let down a grappling cable for Xiono to help him out of the chamber, Grey leaped out of the pit on her own. She then retrieved the relic and stored it in her backpack, informing the others present that she intended to take it in order to keep it out of others' possession. Shortly afterward, Xiono pressed one of the temple's wall symbols and activated the structure's self-destruction sequence. The group rushed out of the crumbling temple together, narrowly escaping up several flights of stairs.^[1]

Destruction of a relic[]

Upon reaching the temple's exit, the group found that First Order Raiders led by the stormtrooper Raith had arrived on the world searching for Grey. When Grey saw that the squad had captured Xiono's colleagues—the pilots Torra Doza and Freya Fenris—she suggested returning to her ship to flee the confrontation. However, the First Order destroyed her vessel moments later, leading Xiono to propose an alternate plan of rescuing his friends. Before they could do so, Grey left, and Xiono, Kel, Eila, and CB-23 were captured by the First Order Raiders and held in custody alongside Doza and Fenris.^[1]

Meanwhile, Grey climbed onto the temple's roof and taunted the troopers by brandishing the Sith relic she had acquired. When Raith demanded she surrender the artifact, she instead activated the relic and threw it toward the troopers and their captives, warning Xiono and his companions to flee into the temple. Moments afterward,^[1] the Sith relic unleashed waves of destructive energy,^[12] killing the First Order Raiders who had attempted to deactivate it.^[1]

After eliminating the First Order threat, Grey briefly bemoaned the destruction of^[1] the now-useless^[12] relic, as she had been searching for it for a long time. She then told Xiono and his companions that she needed to find a way off Ashas Ree since the First Order had destroyed her ship. Kaz and Eila invited Grey to join them aboard the Colossus—a supertanker fuel depot fleeing the First Order. Accepting the invitation, Grey conversed with Eila during their journey to the Colossus and told the young girl about the Force and about her own identity as neither a Jedi nor a Sith. As the archaeologist expounded on her perspective on the qualities of the Force,^[1] Xiono listened intently.^[13]

Fortune teller[]

Later that year,^[14] Grey began working as a fortune teller and prophet^[6] in the Colossus's marketplace, where she operated a stall and charged each customer fifty credits for her services. The gorg merchant Bolza Grool became one of her clients and wished to know if he would survive the ongoing war in the galaxy. When Grey predicted that his future included tiny teeth gnawing on his insides, Grool interpreted it to mean that he was in danger from his gorgs. Despite the Klatooinian's offers to pay her an additional fee for more details about his future, she declined and collected payment from him.^[2]

After the Warbird pirate Leoz cast a supposed curse on Xiono, Grey became aware of his predicament and watched the pilot and his colleague, the mechanic Neeku Vozo, from her marketplace stall. Later, the Resistance operative visited her in order to remove the curse after Vozo had convinced him he needed her help. The fortune teller slowly eased Xiono's boot full of credits toward herself, tucking them closer to her as she counseled him that the effects of any curse largely depended on how much one believed in it. She gave Kaz a small wooden talisman to ward off bad luck and evil energies, explaining that she had acquired it on her travels.^[2]

When the Colossus's alarms began blaring due to a Guavian Death Gang attack, Xiono hastily left Grey's company and took the charm with him. Shortly afterward, Xiono accidentally dropped the talisman in a hangar prior to boarding his racer,^[2] the Fireball.^[5] After leading the platform's Ace Squadron to victory against the Guavians, the pilot learned from Vozo that he had dropped the charm before leaving the Colossus and realized Leoz had never cursed him. Recalling Grey's earlier advice, Xiono decided to give Grey's totem to the pirate and claimed that it was cursed, which made the pirate panic due to his superstitious beliefs. Xiono later thanked Grey for helping him, and, after he left, the amused fortune teller reflected on how superstitious the pirates on the Colossus were.^[2]

Fighting the First Order[]

When the First Order Star Destroyer Thunderer pursued the Colossus to the Barabesh system in 34 ABY,^[5] Captain Imanuel Doza gathered the platform's residents, including Grey, in the cantina Aunt Z's Tavern. He pleaded with those present to help rescue a trio of Colossus residents—Xiono, the mechanic Jarek Yeager, and the TIE pilot Tamara Ryvora—who were trapped onboard the Thunderer. After Xiono and Ryvora sent a holographic transmission broadcasted to those in the cantina begging them to flee before the First Order arrived, Grey and the others on the Colossus felt moved by their loyalty and decided to help them.^[3]

The fortune teller and several others prepared to engage with a boarding party in one of the Colossus's marketplaces, and when the troopers arrived, she fired her blaster pistol at them before retreating alongside her colleagues behind a door. However, the First Order's stormtroopers pursued Grey and the station resident Jooks down a corridor. As the pair fled, Grool jumped in the pursuers' path to slow their pace and attacked them. Shortly afterward, pilots from the Ace and Jade Squadrons destroyed the Thunderer's engines, causing the vessel to explode and marking the Colossus's success in the entanglement. Grey celebrated their victory alongside the platform's other residents.^[3]

Personality and traits[]

Grey was a woman with tan skin, white hair, and green eyes. She sported blue tattoos on her face and arms. By the time of her visit to Ashas Ree^[1] in 34 ABY,^[7] she possessed a well-muscled physique and was capable of executing leaps and running from First Order pursuers.^[1] Grey also had an aged appearance by that time,^[6] evidenced by a few wrinkles on her face.^[1] The archaeologist was a fearless individual^[6] willing to seek out dangerous Sith artifacts to keep them out of the hands of the First Order. Although she was pursued by First Order Raiders, Grey proved inventive in eluding them as she traveled the galaxy.^[1] The rugged archaeologist preferred to work alone,^[6] trusting in her own abilities to lead her to success.^[1] Despite the alluring power offered by the Sith relics she hunted,^[5] she cared little for the monetary benefit of turning them over to the First Order.^[6] Although she was neither a Jedi nor a Sith, Grey cared about the Force and held the opinion that it belonged to everyone instead of any specific person.^[1] Grey did not believe in curses being real and thought that their effect only reached as far as the cursed individual's belief in them.^[2] The archaeologist regarded the villagers on Ashas Ree as superstitious fools for fleeing after her excavation of the world's Sith temple.^[1]

Upon first meeting Kazuda Xiono, Grey was wary of the possibility of him working for the First Order and expressed her distrust of him.^[1] Her fierce, formidable^[15] presence scared the pilot, and he worried that she would hurt him. However, after Grey determined he was not a threat, the treasure hunter merely found the Resistance spy's clumsiness annoying and disliked how chatty he was. Rather than allow First Order Raiders to take a Sith relic from her, she chose to render it useless by activating it in order to kill the troopers. She enjoyed taunting the First Order Raiders prior to their deaths, taking pride in her evasion of them up until that point.^[1]

While working as a fortune teller on the Colossus, Grey capitalized on the superstitious fears of her customers by offering advice for a fee of credits. Grey helped counsel Xiono on his fears that a pirate curse was affecting him, offering him a talisman in exchange for his credits to ward off evil. Later, when he realized he had never been cursed, he thanked the fortune teller for her help in overcoming his fears.^[2] When the First Order attacked the Colossus, Grey helped defend the station against the invading troopers and worked alongside other residents to repel the soldiers.^[3]

Powers and abilities[]

By the time of the New Republic, Grey had experience as an archaeologist and treasure hunter, allowing her to explore worlds^[5] with ancient and dark histories.^[9] She was especially knowledgeable about dark side artifacts, including Sith relics and^[1] the sacred^[9] temples they resided in.^[1] The archaeologist was Force-sensitive,^[4] which allowed her to sense and seek out sites emanating the power of the Force,^[1] such as Ashas Ree's temple.^[16] Her skills helped her excavate the world's Sith temple, raise it, and break into it in order to locate an artifact. Grey's dark side knowledge helped save her from perishing in the temple, with her proving able to guide Kel and Eila into deactivating one of the temple's traps via interacting with Sith hieroglyphics.^[1]

The treasure hunter was also able to activate^[1] and drain the power from a Sith artifact,^[17] which killed the First Order Raiders threatening her and her companions.^[1] As a fortune teller on the Colossus, Grey proved skillful at manipulating people's fears and desires regarding their superstitious beliefs. By charging credits for her services to act as a prophet, she profited from Colossus residents seeking advice or solutions.^[2]

Equipment[]

While hunting for Sith relics, Grey owned a starship^[1] she used to planet-hop across the galaxy.^[6] However, First Order Raiders destroyed the vessel on Ashas Ree.^[1] While working as a fortune teller in the Colossus's marketplace, Grey charged her customers fifty credits for her services and stored her payments near her workspace. At some point, she acquired a talisman that she later gave to Xiono aboard the Colossus, though he gave it to Leoz shortly afterward.^[2] During the platform's fight against the First Order in the Barabesh system, the fortune teller used a blaster pistol to fire at stormtroopers.^[3]

Grey wore a multicolored shirt trimmed in gold, gray pants, and white wrappings around her lower calves. She also put on a gray scarf, gray shoes with white soles, and a gold ring, and styled her hair with decorative clips and a brown hair tie. As part of her outfit, she sported a coral-colored anklet on one leg, several black ties on the other, gray earrings, and a gold nose piercing. Grey donned a brown side pouch attached to a belt and a light gray backpack that she used to carry the Sith relic on Ashas Ree^[1] and to hold her possessions on the Colossus.^[2] To complete her ensemble, the treasure hunter wore two armbands—one white and one gold—and donned several beaded bracelets in brown, coral, and white.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Development[]

Mika Grey first appeared in "The Relic Raiders,"^[1] the seventh episode of the second season of the animated television series Star Wars Resistance. Prior to the episode's release on November 17, 2019,^[19] Grey appeared unnamed in a season trailer released on August 14 of the same year.^[20] She was identified by name in "The Relic Raiders" and was voiced by the actor Tudi Roche.^[1] Lucasfilm Animation artist JP Balmet made a concept illustration of the character on March 10, 2018.^[21] In an earlier version of the script for "The Relic Raiders," Grey would have elaborated that the Sith relic she acquired on Ashas Ree once belonged to an ancient Sith Lord.^[4] Concept design of a destroyed droid titled "droidMikaDmg" was created by Lucasfilm Animation artist Aaron Pham on May 17, 2018.^[22]

Grey also appeared in "Kaz's Curse,"^[2] the tenth episode of Star Wars Resistance's second season that aired on December 8, 2019.^[19] One early version of the episode's story involved the curse inflicted on Kazuda Xiono being real and Grey letting him believe it was merely a superstition in order to make it easier for her to remove.^[18] A StarWars.com article indicated that the talisman in "Kaz's Curse" had several possible origin stories, one of which was that Grey had discovered the trinket on^[18] the planet^[23] Mimban, while another possible background story was that it was one of Eila's missing dolls.^[18]

The character was set to feature in another episode of Star Wars Resistance which was later cut after being written and would have established that she was old friends with^[24] the Force-sensitive smuggler queen^[25] Maz Kanata, having worked together as pirates in the past. The episode would have included Grey working with Kanata to retrieve an ancient text for the Jedi Rey—which would have been key to her learning of the Force, including the Force healing ability—from a starship that was slowly being pulled into a star. During the course of the mission, the First Order Raiders would have reappeared to find the relic, though the two would have ultimately acquired the text, with Kanata later giving it to Rey.^[24]

Characterization[]

According to the Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo, Grey's character was inspired by imagining what Asajj Ventress^[4]—a member of the Nightsister coven of witches from the Outer Rim planet Dathomir, who had previously served as a Jedi Padawan and later as a Sith apprentice before becoming a bounty hunter^[23]—would have been like had she survived into the episode's time period.^[4] The character's name, according to Hidalgo, was a "sort of rhyming nod" to Nika Futterman,^[26] who voiced Ventress in the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.^[27] Star Wars Resistance lead writer Brandon Auman indicated that a very early version of the story^[24] for "The Relic Raiders"^[4] was written to include an older Ventress's confrontation with Kylo Ren.^[24]

The script, however, was eventually rewritten to replace Ventress with Grey, as the show's creator Dave Filoni felt that fans would focus too heavily on Ventress's appearance due to her popularity as a character from The Clone Wars, taking focus away from the series' other characters. During production of the series, Filoni informed Auman that Grey was an ex-Nightsister.^[24] Author Kristin Baver considered the archaeologist similar to Kanata in that Grey did not actively use the Force despite retaining a deep knowledge of and respect for it.^[15]

Appearances[]

• Star Wars Resistance — "The Relic Raiders" (First appearance) (First identified as Mika Grey)
• Star Wars Resistance — "Kaz's Curse"
• Star Wars Resistance — "The Escape"

Sources[]

Notes and references[]