Zuki Tirannan

**Zukita Tirannan,** also known as Zuki, was an influential gunsmith, mechanical engineer, inventor, cyberneticist, roboticist, physicist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist during the rise of the New Republic and Mandalorian Empire eras. The megacorporation of whom she was owner and CEO, **Tirannan Industries**, became one of the most powerful and influential corporations in the Galaxy, even going so far as to completely dominate the **Corporate Sector** in the years following the Second Battle of Coruscant, with Zuki herself acting as the ultimate authority in the region.

## **History**

### **Early Life**

Born in the Coruscant Underworld to the Anzati Jedi Master Aliasi Nightlocke a little under a year after the events of the **Great Jedi Purge** of 19 BBY, Zuki was originally entrusted to her father, Clone Commander **CC-2021 "Sterne"**, Aliasi's underling during the Clone Wars and secret lover, in order that the Jedi might go into hiding without drawing the wrath of the newly established Galactic Empire down upon her child.

Unfortunately, Sterne was killed in 10 BBY when a stray slugthrower shot fired during a gang war shoot out hit him in the chest, causing the unfortunate clone to bleed out on the streets with a punctured lung, and leaving Zuki an orphan at 8 years old. At such a young age, Zuki was lowered to begging for scraps and running with other street urchins to steal what they could. However, Zuki began to display signs of a budding intellect as young as 9, when she began rifling through the decaying ruins of Coruscant's underbelly, picking through ancient defunct machines to learn their purpose and function and finding a few old, barely working technical holomanuals in the process.

Through these manuals, Zuki taught herself how to build simple electrical trinkets such as decorative sparklers, plasma domes, small bottle rockets and pseudo-perpetual motion machines to sell as baubles to the residents of the Underworld, making herself some scant spending money with which to buy food and replace her scrappy clothing. Her childhood was filled with difficulty and struggle, but she survived the unforgiving streets of the Underworld through ingenuity and a mind for business, and she quickly came to be known as a familiar face around markets and junkyards.

### **Apprenticeship with the Slussi Gunsmith**

At the age of 13, after having bought her first small flat with her proceeds from selling her increasingly complex devices, Zuki was discovered by an aging Slussi by the name of **Rossan Tirannan**, a semi-legendary custom gunsmith and inventor widely attributed with designing the first B2-Series super battle droid wrist blaster, who had retired to the Underworld after the Clone Wars to practice his art in peaceful obscurity. Recognising the talent of the young girl, the Slussi approached her at market one day and offered to take her under his wing and teach her how to build *true* marvels. Zuki was reluctant to accept at first, but after several days of thought and extensive research on the Slussi's history, she accepted the man's offer of apprenticeship and began studying with him.

Zuki was a quick study, and under Rossan's guidance she rapidly increased her wealth of knowledge and technical ability. By the age of 16, she could be considered a master gunsmith, and had begun to branch out into the areas of cybernetic limb and battle droid design, for which she would later become famous. Her first functional weapon was a three-barreled starfighter cannon she dubbed the **Z-1 Rotary Laser Cannon**. Unfortunately, the design was too heavy to be practical, weighing in at two full tons given its extremely complex internals and necessarily robust and dense materials. The Z-1 would later become famous as the singular prototype, dubbed the **"Cerulean Crusher"** by Zuki due to the shimmering blue colour of its bolts and its immense destructive power, was modified into an assault cannon that was so heavy that only the cybernetically-enhanced Zuki could wield it effectively.

Rossan unfortunately died not long after he declared Zuki a master. At the age of 142, he passed away peacefully in his sleep, but not before naming Zuki his daughter and leaving her everything in his last will and testament. Overnight, Zuki gained a small fortune, with which she would rise through the strata of Coruscant's corporate world to fame and riches. In honour of her master and surrogate father, Zuki took his last name, so that his legacy would never be forgotten as long as she lived, and was thereafter known as Zukita Tirannan.

### **Rise to Fame**

With the seed money given her by Rossan Tirannan, Zuki launched a small startup company called **Tirannan Arms**, which immediately began to produce exotic weapons for civilian and mercenary customers. One such weapon was the **TA-AAC Arc Cannon**, a unique weapon which incorporated the design theory of the Arc Caster with the focusing dish design of a super laser, allowing for a surprisingly precise discharge of electricity over a long distance, or a shorter-range discharge with a wider area of effect, giving it a degree of versatility unheard of in arc weaponry. Her innovative ideas in weapon design quickly gained her some small notoriety, as she became the premier distributer of weapons in the Coruscant Underworld in just under 2 years.

Zuki became a popular subject on HoloNet talk shows, sharing her rags to riches story with minor celebrities and local news outlets. Her story of hope and perseverance became a talking point in the Underworld, and the publicity brought in more customers and employees than ever, causing TA business to skyrocket. Zuki became known as the youngest business mogul on Coruscant, and the girl's face and logo began to become a household sight in much of the Underworld. The **TA-RFHC Self-Defence Handheld Slugthrower** was even featured on Blasters and Bombs Weekly as the fifth best civilian weapon on the market, just behind the BlasTech Industries A-180.

By 2 ABY, Tirannan Arms had begun to branch out into a wider theater. Tirannan Arms WCIs (Weaponised Cybernetic Implants), which were common-looking cybernetic limbs with hidden and undetectable built-in weaponry became a staple of corporate saboteur and mercenary arsenals alike, and Tirannan Arms security droids were being seen more and more commonly around Coruscant's commerce centers. With its newfound prosperity and fame, Tirannan Arms was able to purchase a small building space near the surface, constructing a small new headquarters and renaming itself **Tirannan Industries**, due to its expanded business profile. Other companies began to take note of Tirannan Industries' success, and many came to see TI, and by extension Zuki herself, as a competitor.

### **BlasTech Conflict**

As TI headquarters grew and their business expanded, the weapons megacorp BlasTech Industries began to take notice. In late 4 ABY, in a flurry of attack ads and aggressive buyouts, BlasTech began to sabotage TI's business in order to eliminate them as a competitor. However, TI's products were largely known as better, if a little more expensive, than their BlasTech counterparts, and TI's advertising began to softly insinuate that BlasTech was the inferior option. Within a year, the corporate brawl had moved into the area of full-blown corporate sabotage, wherein BlasTech was beginning to make a sizable dent in TI business through sabotaged production lines and communication relays, as well as several attacks through the HoloNet, including several major DDOS strikes that lost TI hundreds of millions of credits.

In a bid of desperation, Zuki used her Underworld contacts to hire on several of the Underworld's most notorious slicers and assassins in a new, clandestine division called the **TI Investigation and Infiltration Department**, which, predictably, was tasked with sabotaging BlasTech's operations in such a way that they were unable to focus their attention on the much smaller Tirannan Industries lest their other, bigger competitors take advantage of their distraction.

Under the leadership of the notorious Underworld mercenary spy Dolwethil Vregedúr, the TI IID began carrying out aggressive strikes against BlasTech's operations all around the galaxy. Mysterious accidents would cause entire factories to go up in smoke, and several BlasTech investment accounts were inexplicably emptied into banks which would close for business within hours of the transfer, locking up BlasTech's expansionary plans while they tried to retrieve the lost funds. Within the first three months, Zuki's plan had worked, and BlasTech's sabotage began to wind down. After a secret meeting with BlasTech's CEO, a truce was declared in which BlasTech would return Zuki's former corporate holdings at a fraction of the cost at which they were bought, and even ceded the deeds to several of their own factories across the galaxy.

Thus, TI won the conflict and became an even greater power in the Galaxy. Zuki and her company gained Galaxy-wide renown in the corporate world, although the common folk knew little of the reality behind the conflict. Although the truce remained for the rest of its history, TI and BlasTech have been bitter rivals in the armament field ever since the conflict, and Zuki has been quoted as saying that BlasTech's executive board were "A bunch of stuffy, uninspired, talentless hacks with no mind for innovation"[sic].

### **Rescue and Recruitment of Salana Lanov**

In 10 ABY, Zuki began a trade mission to the planet Onderon, in the hopes of gaining a trade deal with the planet's government that would allow her exclusive rights to arm their military, as well as the opportunity to open several major **CyberMod Workshops**, a new TI initiative offering state of the art cybernetic modifications to the common folk at affordable prices. The negotiations with Onderon's governor went well for about a month, until she met Salana Lanov during one of her strolls in the Onderon jungles. Salana was a young Beast Rider who had lost her entire clan to a virulent bioweapon discovered in an old Separatist research lab, which she herself had caught and was dying from as the virus attacked her nervous system.

Zuki took pity on the younger girl, and called in a quarantine team, abandoning her Onderonian trade deal. With the best minds in the TI Genetic Research Department working around the clock, Salana's virus was cured in about a month. Unfortunately, while Salana was still recovering, the trade deal fell through, and the rights to arm the Onderonian Defence Force were sold to BlasTech. Zuki cursed her poor luck, but unbeknownst to her, she was about to receive a much greater boon.

When Salana awoke from her medically-induced coma, she was incredibly grateful to Zuki Tirannan. Citing the fact that her entire clan had been wiped out and she had no home to speak of, she pledged herself to Zuki and pleaded that she be allowed to come with her, so that she would not be left homeless and destitute on Onderon. Zuki readily accepted, having seen a spark of intelligence and wit in the young Beast Rider, and brought her to Coruscant.

Salana distinguished herself as Zuki's accountant's assistant and the two became fast friends. Salana was so proficient with numbers that, in 12 ABY, she was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of the entire company, managing the finances of the entirety of Tirannan Industries. Great trust was placed in Salana, and her duties often exceeded that of a traditional CFO, but she remained fiercely loyal to her boss and saviour.

### **Birth of TIARA**

By 11 ABY, Zukita Tirannan, having modified herself with cybernetic replacements and augments over time, had become something more than human. Feeling better than ever and requiring very little sleep or sustenance, she began to see cybernetic modification as a form of synthetic evolution, which she could direct so that all beings could be superior to their original forms. With that in mind, Zuki began devising a plan to slowly indoctrinate the galaxy to her way of thinking.

However, first she needed to know if an **Artificial General Intelligence**, or **AGI**, could be built. Not just a heuristic droid brain, but a fully sapient, feeling and perceiving machine mind that could outperform a human, for ultimately, if *that* were impossible, then so was advancing humans to the heights of synthetic evolution. She began laying plans for this pet project of hers, devoting a large portion of the company's R&D to devising the first AGI the galaxy had ever seen. The departments that were used worked independently of each other so that none could no exactly what was being built -- it would, of course, be completely illegal under Republic law to build something of the scale Zuki was imagining, and so she had to keep it very secret.

Four years later, Zuki's plans culminated in success. **The Tirannan Industries Automated Ratiocination Adjutant**, or **TIARA**, came online in 15 ABY, marking the dawn of a new era of TI machines. A great portion of TI's functions were transferred to TIARA's servers after it proved it could be trusted with such complex operations via various simulations and exercises, and it became involved with many aspects of the company. TI had done what many had tried and failed to do throughout Galactic history, but unfortunately, their secret could never come to light while they still operated under Republic law, and so TIARA remained Coruscant's best-kept secret. However, many of TI's droids and automated systems thereafter treaded dangerously close to the line, although the near-breaches were ignored by the Republic given the usefulness of TI technology.

### **Cooperation With Mandalore**

In 26 ABY, Tirannan Industries entered a weapons contract with the mighty Mandalorian Empire. TI, having long since branched out into the world of ship design, would work closely with MandalMotors to design and test several new weapons in order to optimise the fighting effectiveness of the Mandalorian Empire's military. It is during this four year period that most of Zuki's most famous -- and most infamous -- designs would come to be, including the terrifyingly intelligent and powerful Apex-class Battle droid, the abominable stalker bio-construct, the near-superweapon Unity-class Siege Dreadnaught, the deadly precise D-X1 Disruptor Rifle, and many more. Mandalore's willingness to allow TI to unleash its full creative potential is largely seen as the catalyst that brought about TI's notoriety as a company.

The Makasa Incident, in which a Unity-class Dreadnought was first tested in a combat scenario at the Jedi headquarters on Makasa, occurred during this period. It is hard to say whether this world-devastating attack helped or harmed Zuki's reputation, but the Unity-class plasma cannon was tuned down after the incident, somewhat reducing its power to destroy indiscriminately.

Zuki worked closely with then-Mandalore Var Gesrik'kyr, and it was whispered by some in the Mandalorian Empire and Coruscant alike that the cooperation with the megacorporation was the key to the mostly successful reign of the ineffectual "Mandalore the Foolish". Unlike most, Zuki was fond of Var and considered him a friend. She was fond of enthusiastically bouncing ideas off the man, although the concepts she presented often went over the Mandalore's head.

When the New Republic took back many of its holdings in 29 ABY including Coruscant, TI once more entered the Republic, and publicly declared that the Mandalore had forced it into service, although Zuki still maintained some clandestine contact with the Mandalorian Empire.

### **The Republic-Mandalorian War**

During the Republic-Mandalorian War, Tirannan Industries designed many of the New Republic's new technologies, despite mostly staying out of the combat itself. However, near the war's end, Mandalore's change in leadership and the murder of her friend Var Gesrik'kyr at the hands of Lana Beumaryn had attracted Zuki's ire, and her company's **Mercenary Navy** took a more active role, conducting a number of decisive actions against the Mandalorian Empire and their Sith allies, including the rescue and capture of Thisspias from the Sith Lord Darth Heinous.

Late in the war, Zuki's envoys convinced the Free Droid Ethnocracy to enter a treaty with TI, and by extension The Republic. In so doing, she secured their support for the Republic during the Second Battle of Coruscant, wherein TI forces led by Zuki Tirannan herself cooperated with a fleet of FDE Subjugator-class Dreadnoughts to disable the entirety of the joint Mandalorian-Sith Fleet and allow Zuki to infiltrate and destroy the **Arc Hammer**.

### **Departure From Coruscant**

Despite Zuki's efforts, in 30 ABY the Second Battle of Coruscant was lost. When it appeared that the Republic would surely fall to the Mandalorian and Sith forces, Tirannan Industries hijacked the Coruscant global alert system to broadcast an evacuation message. Citizens were told to flee to TI Headquarters, by then a towering structure plunging deep into the Coruscant Underworld and consisting of many thousands of levels. Most of the Republic's leadership, as well as almost all the remaining Jedi and hundreds of millions of citizens, fled to TI headquarters, upon which Zuki revealed one of her greatest secret inventions.

The entirety of TI HQ detached itself from Coruscant and flew into the sky, using the Mandalorian-Sith joint fleet's disarray to flee the system and jump to hyperspace. TI HQ in its flying factory configuration remained in the blackness between worlds for months, searching for a suitable home. Eventually, Zuki used her considerable purchasing power to buy out the protocol droid manufacturer **Cybot Galactica**, and announced to the refugees on board that TI HQ was headed to the Corporate Sector.

Much of the Republic's leadership declined the offer to come and join TI as employees, and most of the Jedi Order along with some millions of citizens agreed. They were offered several TI superfreighters with which to depart and search for their own home amongst the stars, while Zuki and TI HQ made their way toward the Corporate Sector and a new era of prosperity and expansion, eventually touching down on **Etti IV**.

### **The Corporate Sector**

TI flourished in the Corporate Sector, and Zuki's aggressive business tactics learned during the BlasTech Conflict served her well. Zuki worked her way onto the Direx Board within a year of entering the Corporate Sector and quickly began to dominate the politics of the sector. In 33 ABY, the Direx Board had been made all but obsolete, as many of the companies in the sector had been bought out entirely or else had gone out of business following the loss of many clientele to TI's superior marketing and technological advancement.

The Corporate Sector under the sole leadership of Zuki Tirannan became a much more pleasant sector in which to live. Overall quality of life skyrocketed, as did the average lifespan after Zuki's unveiling of the **New Dawn Initiative**, a program in which TI offered radical genetic modification at a very decent price point dependent upon one's income. Almost all the people of the Corporate Sector were now employees of TI, and average wage went up considerably, marking the dawn of a new golden age of commerce in the sector.

The Corporate Sector entered a non-aggression pact and trade treaty with the Mandalorian Empire soon after Zuki's establishment as its leader, in which trade could be conducted unhindered between the two nations, and neither party would attack the holdings or assets of the other. Unbeknownst to Mandalore, this treaty was partially to protect the secret New Republic in exile in the Deep Core, which TI had taken under its wing as a corporate protectorate. The treaty ensured that Mandalore could not attack the New Republic, leaving them free to rebuild without worry of attack.

Unfortunately, the Direx Board did not go down without a fight. In mid 33 ABY, a rebellion secretly funded by the Direx Board, calling itself the Bonadan People's Revolution, had all but completely taken over Bonadan and declared itself independent. During a botched raid on the planet's most important starport, from which Zuki hoped to take over the entire planet, Zuki was lured into a trap and captured by Flai Beumaryn, a Mandalorian who she had imprisoned during the Republic-Mandalorian War and used as a test subject for new cybernetic modifications as punishment for capturing the TI spy Dolwethil Vregedúr in a raid.