Chase Piru

Chase Piru was a Human female Jedi Padawan stationed at the Jedi chapter house located on Bogden 3, a world in the Bogden system, during the Clone Wars. Along with Jedi Master Du Mahn, Piru looked after the Soaring Hawkbat Clan, a multi-species group of younglings that had been delayed in returning to the Jedi Temple of Coruscant due to the ongoing galactic conflict in 19 BBY. During the setback, the Whiphid Jedi Master K'Kruhk and Devaronian fellow Master Sian Jeisel also came to Bogden 3 seeking refuge, as they had been ambushed over the planet Saleucami after the siege on the Outer Rim world a couple of days earlier.

While K'Kruhk's and Jeisel's clone troopers attended to repairs on their damaged Theta-class shuttle, Piru cooked a meal for the party. Shortly after everyone consumed their meals, the group's clone captain and his men received Order 66 from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, which declared all Jedi to be traitors to the Galactic Republic. In compliance, the troopers opened fire on the Jedi, including the younglings. K'Kruhk, Du Mahn, Jeisel, and Piru all attempted to defend the group, but were forced to flee because of the troopers' overwhelming numbers. Du Mahn was killed in the initial attack and, as Piru and K'Kruhk led the younglings out to the shuttle, Jeisel sacrificed her life to hold back the clones, using a thermal detonator to kill them all. The Jedi then fled on the shuttle, clueless as to why the betrayal had occurred.

After fleeing from Bogden 3, K'Kruhk and Piru took the younglings to an uncharted moon. For two months, they were able to settle on the world and live in peace. K'Kruhk believed that on an unspoiled world such as the moon, the younglings could grow up happily and as Jedi. The Whiphid also noted that food would not be scarce, and that with their supplies, the Jedi could live in relative comfort on the moon for some years. Piru, meanwhile, cooked for the party and looked after the younglings alongside the Jedi Master. The two Jedi also successfully intercepted transmissions over the HoloNet which claimed that bounties had been placed on all Jedi across the galaxy, though both Piru and K'Kruhk believed the stories to be rumors.

One day as K'Kruhk hunted for game, a vessel entered the system and crash-landed near the Jedi crash site. Piru and the younglings believed the starship to be a rescue ship, but K'Kruhk tried to warn them otherwise, claiming there was no way to know who arrived on the vessel. However, the Whiphid's comlink was low on power and his communications were garbled, and the device eventually lost all its power. Piru was unable to receive his message to lead the younglings away from the camp, and therefore waited idly by.

Shortly after the starship landed on the moon, Lumbra the Gotal and his pirate crew, who needed to make repairs to their craft as a result of an onboard explosion, headed for the wreckage of the Jedi's shuttle in the hope of finding parts for their own ship. When they arrived, Lumbra promised nothing would happen to Piru or the younglings if they remained quiet. However, while the pirates scavenged for the drive unit on the Theta-class shuttle, the Twi'lek youngling Seddwia confronted Lumbra and demanded their vessel be left alone. Lumbra then grabbed the youngling by the arm and threatened her before Piru attempted to free her. Although she was able to Force-push one pirate away, Piru was shot by Callow, Lumbra's right-hand man, before she could strike the Gotal. Kennan Taanzer, another youngling, then attempted to aid Piru, but was quickly knocked down by Callow. In response, Lumbra took the younglings captive, hoping to obtain the bounty placed on the Jedi by the First Galactic Empire. Presumed dead, Piru was left behind.

Later that night, K'Kruhk found Piru and healed her with the Force. Piru, who had been certain she was dead, informed K'Kruhk that Lumbra and the pirates intended on handing the younglings over to the Empire for the Jedi bounty, which confirmed the rumors they had intercepted. K'Kruhk and Piru then discussed the plan to save the younglings, while K'Kruhk hoped Piru, who was still injured and could not use her right arm, would not have to do any fighting. He then praised Piru for her courage before the two went to rescue the younglings. As part of the plan, Piru traveled across a river toward the younglings on a log to remain hidden from sight, where she prepared to assist K'Kruhk against their enemies.

After Piru arrived at cover behind some plants with the younglings in sight, K'Kruhk demanded from afar that the pirates release the younglings unharmed. Lumbra, however, refused and had his men open fire on the Jedi Master. K'Kruhk was able to kill one pirate with an arrow before they realized that their campfire was giving K'Kruhk the means to spot them, so they immediately put it out. Without light to guide the Whiphid, Piru carried out her part of the plan and used the Force to guide the Jedi Master's arrows into Lumbra's men, killing them. As Lumbra and Callow panicked, Piru rushed to save the younglings before the pirates could use them as shields. She was quickly discovered, however, and taken captive by Lumbra, while Kennan was taken captive by Callow. Both tried to use the Jedi as shields, demanding that K'Kruhk show himself or else the Jedi would be killed. K'Kruhk complied, but before the pirates could take him down, he attacked and killed them, unleashing his fury in front of Piru and the younglings.

In the aftermath of the short battle, K'Kruhk explained his actions to Piru, feeling remorseful for the manner in which he had killed the two pirates. Although Piru believed that Lumbra and Callow had brought their deaths upon themselves, K'Kruhk still asked her and the younglings to forgive him for the actions he had committed, which he felt were unworthy of a Jedi. Piru simply remarked that she did not know. K'Kruhk then promised that he would—after Lumbra's ship had been repaired—take Piru and the younglings somewhere safe to live. However, he also stated that he could only visit them from then on but never stay, as he felt that his presence would be a constant reminder of what had occurred on the moon.

After they finished preparing Lumbra's ship, K'Kruhk fulfilled his promise by taking the younglings away from the jungle moon. However, the ship was damaged in an attack by pirates and they were forced to crash land on Arkinnea, a planet on the edge of the Expansion Region. The planet's security forces contacted the crashing ship and warned them to turn back, but K'Kruhk ordered Piru to get the other younglings strapped in when she expressed her fear that they would be fired upon. K'Kruhk avoided the security forces by passing close to the air traffic tower, causing their pursuer to accidentally fire on the structure as the Jedi's ship crashed in a nearby field. Before exiting their damaged vessel, Piru and K'Kruhk created a fake splint for her leg containing the Whiphid's lightsaber, and K'Kruhk explained his situation to the security forces when they came to arrest him. However, their commander Captain Relik's attempt to threaten the refugees was halted when an Imperial Commander Teron arrived with two stormtroopers.

The security forces then escorted Piru and the other younglings to a nearby holding center for refugees, and the group was assigned to a family tent. Piru was given a datachip that would light up when it was their group's turn to take a transport to the Freelands—the open lands to the north of the camp. Upon reaching their tent, a youngling named Genel asked for help setting up a bed, but first K'Kruhk removed his lightsaber from Piru's splint. A fight soon erupted outside of their tent between a Republic loyalist and a Separatist, and Piru was unable to answer Sidirri when the young girl asked whether K'Kruhk was going to kill the fighters like he did the pirates. However, the Whiphid simply broke up the fight, and Piru questioned the wisdom of calling attention to their group. He further reminded her of their duty to protect the younglings before he departed to gather information on the camp, and Piru was surprised when the wife of one of the fighters came up to thank her for K'Kruhk's actions. The woman gave Piru and the younglings advice on how to survive in the refugee camp, warning her to avoid the militia.

Not long afterwards, Piru and the others were surprised to encounter an elderly Veknoid Jedi Master named Zao, who began cooking a meal before K'Kruhk returned and tried to attack the intruder. Piru held the younglings back in as Zao halted K'Kruhk in midair with the Force, and he introduced the others to Zao upon realizing who the hooded figure was. After Zao served dinner to the children and gave them a lesson in using the Force, Piru put the younglings to bed. But when Zao revealed that he sensed great danger in the camp, and K'Kruhk helped Piru get the children out of bed and ready to travel later that night. They met Master Zao on the edges of camp, leaving the datachip that the militia had given Piru behind, and the Jedi used his sabercane to slice a hole in the wall so they could escape.

On Zao's instructions, Piru watched over the younglings as they harvested beelpop melons while K'Kruhk stole a repulsorlift wagon from a nearby camp, and the two older Jedi hid in the wagon with the younglings while Piru sat at the reins. She panicked as they passed a pair of militia soldiers, but K'Kruhk and Zao were able to use the Force and suppress their suspicions. Upon reaching a mountain, Piru was challenged to a race by Kennan and several other younglings, but when the children reached the top of the pathway they found a valley filled with decaying bodies—the bodies of their fellow refugees, who had been dropped from an ore hauler: the actual fate of those who were taken from the refugee camp to the Freelands.

Piru comforted the horrified younglings as she questioned K'Kruhk and Zao as to the militia's reason for killing the refugees, and the Jedi Masters explained that the militia were taking revenge on the refugees for the abuse they suffered under the Separatists during the Clone Wars. However, Piru interrupted the conversation when she pointed out a number of native predators that were feeding on the corpses of the fallen, and the Jedi soon witnessed the arrival of the militia's hauler—only to turn away in utter horror as the hauler opened its bay and released dozens of refugees to their deaths. Unfortunately for the Jedi, one of the militia spotted them and the hauler turned to eliminate the witnesses. K'Kruhk threw several of the younglings into their wagon as Piru and the others jumped into the vehicle, and K'Kruhk ordered Piru to shut off the wagon's inertial dampers just before he cut Wooly loose and shoved the wagon off the clif so that he could distract the enemy and let the younglings escape.

As the wagon slid down the slope and headed towards the nearby forest, Piru struggled to reach the inertial dampers so that they could stop in time, but a nearby explosion sent her crashing into one of the wagon's seats, forcing Taanzer to activate the dampers just before the wagon hit a tree and sent everyone flying. Piru was knocked unconscious during the chaos, and she came around just to find that Master Zao was pulling Sidirri back from the edge of the dark side by asking the child to reach out and sense that K'Kruhk was still alive. Zao and Piru then led the younglings deeper into the forest, though they were forced to hide when they overheard the sounds of the militia battling an unknown enemy—an enemy that they soon realized was a species of large furred beings with primitive spears, as several of them approached the Jedi with spears. One of the creatures was injured by a militia blaster shot, and though Piru tried to hold him back Taanzer insisted on trying to help the being, leading Master Zao to try and communicate with them. However, Zao's efforts wer interrupted by the arrival of more of the militia.

Zao leapt to the defense, drawing his lightsaber and summoning a large rock from undergound to serve as a shield, and he ordered Piru to take the younglings and run. However, as Piru led her charges away, Sidirri stayed behind with Zao and drew on the dark side to crush the militia with the rock shield. No longer hearing the sounds of blasterfire, a concerned Piru raced back to Zao with Taanzer and another youngling close behind, and they arrived just to find all of the furred beings kneeling and calling both Zao and Sidirri "J'ehdai." The beings led Zao, Piru, and the younglings through the forest, encountering Wooly on the way, and the Yunu, as they called themselves, took the Jedi to an abandoned Jedi outpost in a nearby valley. Master K'Kruhk arrived several days later, having spoken with the Imperial commander Teron, who was still loyal to the Jedi and promised to bring them supplies on the first day of spring each year, and Piru and the two Jedi Masters decided that they would make the outpost their home with the younglings.

Over the course of the next year, Piru and the others cleared and cultivated the fields of the valley, planting food for themselves as well as rebuilding the outpost and constructing other farming structures. The first winter was hard on the younglings and the older Jedi, though K'Kruhk's hunting helped them survive, and Commander Teron arrived as promised with supplies and tools for tilling the land. By the next spring, Sidirri had run away and Master Zao had pursued her, though neither of them ever returned to the new Hidden Temple. For the next several years, Commander Teron continued to bring supplies, but the year finally came when Piru and Nable waited for five days without receiving contact from the officer. By that time, the younglings were all Jedi Padawans well into their teens, and they had constructed a village where they and the Yunu lived next to the Hidden Temple. Piru and Nable returned to the village and she reported Teron's absence to Master K'Kruhk, and though the Whiphid Jedi was saddened, K'Kruhk was happy that he, Piru, and the younglings were able to live on in their community. Under K'Kruhk's leadership, the community became a refuge for Jedi during the Great Jedi Purge, and K'Kruhk continued to lead the Hidden Temple with Piru throughout the next several decades.

Chase Piru was considered courageous and a fine Jedi by Master K'Kruhk, who told her this after he healed her from her attack by Lumbra's pirates. Piru attempted to save the youngling Seddwia before she was critically injured, and also previously displayed her courage when she defended the younglings from the clone troopers after Order 66 was issued at Bogden's training facility. Even though Piru was fearful during her and K'Kruhk's strike at Lumbra's pirates, she relied on her late Master Du Mahn's teachings to overcome the fear and aid the younglings. She also told K'Kruhk that she understood her Jedi teachings sometimes had to be placed aside, as she did when defending the younglings, since she felt that Lumbra's men would not have surrendered without a fight.

Chase Piru, although only a Padawan learner, possessed enough prowess to defend herself from blaster fire with her lightsaber. She displayed this talent when Order 66 was issued and the Jedi were attacked on Bogden 3. Piru was one of the few survivors of the attack. Piru later was able to use the Force to shove away a pirate. After K'Kruhk healed Piru from the injuries she had sustained from Callow, the Padawan was able to use the Force to guide the Jedi Master's arrows accurately into Lumbra's men, displaying her prowess with telekinesis even in the darkness of night. Piru was also a cook, who prepared meals for both those at the Bogden training facility and for K'Kruhk and the younglings after Order 66. Piru later trained to use a bow and arrow while living at the Hidden Temple on Arkinnea.

Chase Piru was created by Randy Stradley under the pen-name Mick Harrison, author of the Star Wars: Dark Times comic series, for the Parallels story arc, which was released between October 2007 and April 2008. She was illustrated by Star Wars artist Dave Ross. She did not appear again until 2013, where she was again featured alongside K'Kruhk and the Soaring Hawkbat Clan in the Fire Carrier story arc. The final issue of the arc established the planet Arkinnea and the Jedi outpost as the "Hidden Temple" where K'Kruhk stayed during the Purge that was first mentioned in The New Essential Chronology, and it also established Piru as the unknown Padawan who accompanied K'Kruhk.

• The New Essential Chronology
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia