Jao Assam

Jao Assam was a male Human Imperial Knight who lived during the time of the Second Imperial Civil War and Darth Wredd's insurgency. At some point in his early career, Assam had been mentored by Master Yalta Val, a senior Imperial Knight. Following the conclusion of the Second Imperial Civil War which saw the defeat of the One Sith, a new Galactic Federation Triumvirate was created which consisted of the Fel Empire, the Jedi Council, and the Galactic Alliance Remnant. The new Galactic Empress Marasiah Fel embarked on an ambitious communications infrastructure project to link the Outer Rim Territories with the rest of the galaxy. This involved the creation of a series of communications array stations across the galaxy.

In 138 ABY, Jao Assam was assigned to supervise the final stages of the construction of a second communications array outpost in the Ithori system. Under Jao's management, the Ithorian communications array project progressed ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, his mentor Yalta Val was assigned to supervise the final construction of the communications array station in the Carreras system. While traveling through the Surd Nebula, Yalta Val's starship crashed-landed on the uncharted floating world of Mala. There, Val was ambushed and kidnapped by the rogue Sith Darth Wredd who took the Knight captive, stole his armor, and impersonated him. Darth Wredd intended to break away from the One Sith and to create a new Sith order based on the ancient Rule of Two.

Yalta Val's absence did not go unnoticed by Jao Assam, who became concerned when his section of the array did not receive a carrier signal from the other side of the Surd Nebula. His concerns only deepened when Master Val did not use comm droid to transmit an updated completion time. Jao contacted Empress Fel to express his concerns about the construction delays in the Carreras system. However, the Empress assured him that construction delays were not unusual. Sensing that something bad had befallen Master Val, Jao attempted to seek leave to travel to the Carreras system and investigate the situation. While pleased with the progress of Assam's work in the Ithori system, the Empress refused to grant him permission to visit the Carreras system. She reiterated that he had been assigned to oversee the Ithorian link in the array and assured Jao that Master Val was more than capable of looking after himself. Jao reluctantly appeared to obey the Empress's orders but remained determined to ascertain Master Yalta Val's whereabouts.

Satisfied with the progress of the Ithorian communications array, Jao departed for the Carreras system in his starfighter and accompanied by his astromech droid W3. Upon exiting hyperspace at the edge of the Surd Nebula, Jao encountered a naval blockade of Shifala warships. Docking in one of these warships, Jao attempted to seek an audience with Master Yalta Val. However, this request was denied by the Shifala security guards, who had come under the command of Darth Wredd, who was still impersonating Yalta Val. The Sith impostor ordered his men to arrest Jao but the Imperial Knight managed to escape on his starfighter. The Shifala gave chase, but Assam activated the hangar bay force field and sealed them inside. He then detected the homing signal from Master Val's comm droid on Carreras Minor, which had come into the possession of Ania Solo and her Mon Calamari friend Sauk.

Jao Assam was able to locate Master Yalta Val's Imperial comm droid on Carreras Minor by tracing its locator signal. Assam arrived on the planet just in time to rescue Ania and her allies, including the assassin droid AG-37 from a large, tentacled creature that had attacked AG-37's freighter on the planet's surface. The freighter managed to escape by firing its booster engines at the monster, incinerating it. Despite saving Ania, the former remained distrustful of Jao since her recent experience with Darth Wredd had made her distrustful of Imperial Knights. However, Ania was stopped by AG-37 who managed to convince the former that Jao did pose a threat to them. For Jao, this was his first encounter with an assassin droid who was counselling restraint. Jao then explained that he had come to the Carreras system by following the locator signal on Master Val's comm droid. At that point, Ania's Mon Calamari friend Sauk exited the starship's landing platform armed with a gun, believing Jao to be an intruder.

Ania was able to convince Sauk that the Imperial Knight did not pose a threat to them. Sauk was quickly followed by Master Val's newly-repaired Imperial comm droid. After settling down, Sauk and AG-37 recounted their prior unpleasant experience with "Master Yalta Val" to Jao. Knowing the real Yalta Val, Jao defended his mentor and suggested that something bad had happened to Val. To resolve the confusion, the Imperial comm droid played a holo-recording of the real Yalta Val fighting an unidentified Sith master he had encountered on a planet in the Surd Nebula. After examining the footage, Jao Assam, Ania, Sauk, and AG-37 came to the conclusion that the real Yalta Val had been replaced by a Sith impostor. Jao feared that this Sith impostor now had access to the Carreras communications array and was plotting to do harm to the Carreras system. The four companions agreed to rescue Yalta Val and decided to travel to the last known coordinates where the recording was made.

After loading Assam's starfighter aboard AG-37's freighter, they plotted a course for the last known coordinates of the uncharted planet in the Surd Nebula. While traveling there, they were pursued by a pair of Shifala starfighters and the starship's port thruster was hit by laser fire. Upon entering the nebula, the Carreras starfighters broke off their pursuit. Upon arriving at the coordinates, they discovered that the uncharted planet had simply vanished into space. Shortly later, AG-37's freighter was captured in the tractor beam of a Shifala warship, which dragged the freighter into its vast hangar bay. The Shifala authorities then used a swarm of tiny droids to burn a hole through the freighter's hull and board a ship. Jao Assam attempted to fight back against the swarm with his [lightsaber]] but was soon overwhelmed. They retreated down the freighter's gang plank only to run into the blasters of a squad of heavily armed Shifala security guards, who quickly overpowered and detained them.

Jao Assam and Ania's company were captured and brought aboard the Carreras G51 communications array. Jao was separated from his new-found companions and held in a stasis field. Shortly later, he met the Sith impostor Darth Wredd, who was still dressed in Yalta Val's Imperial Knight armor. Jao questioned the Sith impostor about what he had done to Master Val but the Sith merely mocked Jao's predicament. Darth Wredd coldly commented that a statis field was ideal for inflicting pain without causing lasting damage to his captive. When Jao repeated his question about Val's whereabouts, Darth Wredd merely retorted that a "stronger knight" would not need to ask such a question. Darth Wredd then briefly recounted his harsh apprenticeship to his deceased Sith master and expressed his hope that similar methods would drive the captive Yalta Val to the dark side of the Force. When Jao Assam objected, Darth Wredd replied that it was not his intention to turn Master Val to the dark side. He explained that Val was merely a "puzzle piece" in his grand scheme of things.

When Jao asked the Sith impostor why he had chosen to target the Carreras system, Wredd responded by asking his captive the same question. Wredd tried to undermine Jao's faith in the new Galactic Triumvirate by claiming that it was weak and was prone to fall if its Empress were to die. When Jao objected again, Wredd taunted him by asking the young Knight about what good he was without having to serve the Fel Empire. When Jao asserted that the Imperial Knights brought peace to the galaxy, Wredd mocked the Triumvirate for focusing on construction projects rather than hunting down the One Sith, who were busy infiltrating governments and corporations across the galaxy in order to restore their "golden age." Wredd then revealed to Jao that he had abandoned the One Sith in order to create a new Sith order based on the Rule of Two. Unknown to Jao or Wredd, their conversation was being monitored by Governor Biala, who quickly deduced that "Yalta Val" was a Sith impostor.

After Darth Wredd had exited the holding cell, Governor Biala freed Jao from his restraints and brought him his lightsaber. In exchange for dealing with the Sith impostor, Jao managed to secure the release of his friends. Together with Ania, Sauk, and AG-37, Jao followed Darth Wredd into the hangar bay where they witnessed him boarding a small shuttle. Feeling that he and his new-found friends lacked the strength to deal with the Sith impostor on their own, Jao advised a policy of caution and suggested returning to their freighter and pinpoint the kidnapped Yalta Val's location. However, Ania disagreed with Jao's plan and wanted to stop Darth Wredd before he could leave the Carreras communications array. Against the advice of Jao and Sauk, Ania opened fire on Darth Wredd's shuttle as it was departing. She managed to his the ship's turbo-engines, causing the shuttle to explode.

However, Darth Wredd survived the explosion due to his mastery of the dark side and attempted to Force choke Ania Solo. Before he could finish his work, Jao, together with Sauk and AG-37, attacked the rogue Sith. The Sith quickly incapacitated Sauk and AG-37 with his lightsaber but found Jao to be a much more difficult and capable opponent. Wredd quickly sensed that Jao fought because he wanted to prove himself. During the lightsaber duel, Jao succeeded in blinding Wredd's right eye but was unable to gain an advantage over the Sith. In retaliation, the rogue Sith used the Force to impale Jao with two shard metal rods. Jao then fell outside of the hangar bay's containment field and was left to drift in zero gravity space as his Sith opponent fled aboard another shuttle.

Darth Wredd then returned to his base on the dark planet of Mala. There, he used the nearby Carreras array to make a broadcast to the wider galaxy, outlining his Sith ambitions. Wredd also attempted to execute Master Val but was stopped by Ania. Ania and her companions then managed to escape on their starship before the Carreras array collided with Mala. However, Darth Wredd also escaped and headed for parts unknown. While traveling through space, Ania, Sauk, AG-37, and Master Val came across Assam floating in space. Miraculously, the young Imperial Knight had been saved from certain death by Master Val's comm droid, which had secured a breath mask over Assam's face. AG-37 speculated that perhaps the droid had felt Assam had come to the Carreras system specifically for it and had saved Assam in gratitude. Jao was quickly brought aboard the freight's medical bay where a medical droid quickly attended to his wounds. Due to immediate medical treatment, Jao's condition was quickly stabilized.

Assam remained in a critical condition aboard AG-37's freighter until the comm droid's distress signal was picked up by the Star Destroyer Animus. Assam was placed in a bacta tank to continue his recovery. While submerged, he experienced a Force vision of Darth Wredd killing Empress Fel. Assam later related his vision to Yalta Val, while he was dueling with a training remote. However, Yalta Val dismissed Assam's concerns about Wredd's threat to the Empress and reminded the younger knight that they had orders to follow and that Wredd was not his problem. Jao disagreed and insisted that Wredd was still a threat. Val explained that he did not like his orders but as an Imperial Knight, he was bound to serve the Force by serving the Empress. He reminded Assam to remember his vows and reprimanded the younger Knight for disobeying a direct order by venturing to Carreras to rescue him. While Val was grateful to Assam for saving his life, he believed that Assam's disobedience was an act worthy of punishment.

While Assam viewed his recent assignment to Coruscant for the next cycle as a form of punishment, Master Val thought that the younger Knight need to spend time recovering since Darth Wredd had nearly killed him. While distracted, Jao was hit by a laser beam fired by the training remote. Continuing his conversation, Assam argued that their highest duty as Imperial Knights was to protect the Empress. Val refused to continue the discussion and insisted they had orders. Frustrated, Assam sliced the training remote in half but indicated that he understood his orders. Uncomfortable with his superiors' unwillingness to tackle the threat posed by Darth Wredd, Assam later confided in Ania, telling her of the vision and his feeling that Wredd wanted him as an apprentice. However, Ania assured Assam that because he had already reached the rank of Imperial Knight, there was no danger of him falling to the dark side. After briefly relating the history of the Sith to Ania, Jao speculated that Wredd was systematically killing off the other Sith in order to restore the Rule of Two.

When Ania asked Jao why Wredd would use the Carreras array to make a spectacle of himself, Jao speculated that Wredd was a megalomaniac who wanted to gain attention for his actions and to make the Triumvirate look weak. Ania then related how her travels had brought her to the Carreras system. When Jao asked her why she was going to Coruscant, Ania admitted that she wanted to avoid execution in Carreras and revealed that she had been summoned by Empress Fel herself. When Ania asked Jao what he was going to do about Darth Wredd, he replied that it would be better to obey the Empress. Later, Jao changed his mind and decided to go after Darth Wredd. He persuaded Ania to join him in their hunt for Wredd. Ania and Assam tried to sneak off of the Animus, but were discovered and confronted by Master Val and a squad of stormtroopers.

Master Val attempted to reason with Jao Assam by reminding the younger Knight that they had to trust that the Force would guide the Empress in this matter. Assam replied that that was what he was exactly doing. Assam warned that Darth Wredd was not satisfied with just killing Sith and had wider ambitions. Master Val refused to listen and ordered Assam to stand down. At that point, Val's Imperial comm droid arrived, spooking the stormtroopers and causing them to open fire. Val deflected their laser blasts with his lightsaber and told Val that he did not want violence. After Assam refused to submit, Val conceded that the younger Knight was right and allowed him to go. However, he warned Assam that dereliction of duty was a "selfish act" for any Imperial Knight. Jao and Ania then left on a stolen Imperial shuttle before Val and the stormtroopers changed their minds.

Jao Assam and Ania Solo then headed into hyperspace, intent on hunting Darth Wredd but with no clues of where to fight the Sith insurgent. While traveling through hyperspace, Ania questioned Assam about whether his vision had given him any hint of where they should be traveling. The two of them also browsed through regional incident reports for information on Darth Wredd's whereabouts, which included files on courts-martial and prisoners of war. Aia also asked Assam how long the authorities kept these records and whether they stretched back through the Second Imperial Civil War. Jao responded that Wredd was probably a Sith apprentice since he did not wear the tradition Sith tattoos which most members of the One Sith wore. He also speculated that Wredd could have been serving anywhere during that time and that they should look at files relating to that period.

At that point, Ania recognized one of the individuals on the file as Dieben, a Nalydian who had been Darth Wredd's henchman on Mala. Following the destruction of the Carrerras communications array, Dieben had been picked up in an escape pod in the Surd Nebula. Jao and Ania quickly learnt that Dieben was a wanted fugitive who had been extradited to his homeworld of Nalyd to face punishment for various crimes. They then traveled to Nalyd, a planet of swirling orange fog. After landing at a spaceport on that planet, Jao discovered from local sources that Dieben had been sentenced to death for various felonies including the assassination of a minister, assaulting an "officer of the law", and the sabotage of a public transport resulting in ten deaths. As punishment, Dieben was to be executed by firing squad in a public arena.

Before the execution could be carried out, Ania commandeered a spider-like creature and "rescued" Dieben. Together with Ania and Dieben, Jao fled the arena and managed to commandeer a Nalydian floating jellyfish. They were pursued by the Nalydian authorities, who also rode giant spiders and fired blasters. During the escape attempt, the spider was shot and the three beings fell down a steep cliff. While Jao and Ania survived the fall, Dieben was not so lucky and was impaled by a sharp needle-like plan, resulting in wounds that led to his death. Though Dieben died before he could reveal any information to them, Jao and Ania quickly found out from the guards that Dieben had been planning to travel to the planet Dac before he was apprehended by the Carreras authorities and extradited to Nalyd. Dac, the homeworld of the Mon Calamari and Quarren species, had become a "dead world after the One Sith unleashed a biological weapon into its oceans the previous year.

When cornered by their Nalydian pursuers, Ania managed to convince them to release her and Assam by pointing out that the latter was an Imperial Knight who was skilled in lightsaber combat. In exchange for returning Dieben's body to the Nalydian authorities, the Nalydians informed Jao and Assam that Dieben had indeed planned to rendezvous with Darth Wredd on Dac. While Jao was skeptical about the reliability of this information, Ania argued that Dieben was telling the truth because he was not smart enough to lie. Jao also recalled that Dieben had bragged about having powerful friends, which Ania assumed to be Darth Wredd. Since the One Sith had poisoned Dac a year ago, the planet had become uninhabited and was lawless. There was some criminal activity in the Calamari system since the Galactic Triumvirate lacked a presence there. Ania replied that Dac's lawlessness made it a perfect hiding place for the Sith. Assam was convinced by Ania's argument and the pair traveled to Dac.

Upon exiting hyperspace, Jao Assam and Ania Solo arrived outside the Mon Calamari Orbital Shipyards, a series of orbital shipyards which had fallen into ruins since the Mon Calamari genocide. Their shuttle was quickly attacked by two Dac pirate droids which proceeded to wreck the starship's systems. However, Jao managed to shake off the intruders. Their shuttle was then caught in a tractor beam and then dragged into a hangar bay. Two criminals, an Aqualish and a Gran then approached the shuttle. However, Jao and Ania fought against the two criminals and overpowered them, stealing their clothes and armor. Jao deduced that the two were merely common criminals but sensed the presence of the dark side of the Force, which implied a Sith presence. Followed by their Imperial communications droid Jao and Ania explored the shipyard and quickly discovered that a pirate gang had taken over the shipyards and were forcing enslaved Mon Calamari and Quarren to build a fleet of pirate ships.

Jao and Ania also managed to make contact with a Mon Calamari and a Quarren named Luen and Tikin respectively. Luen revealed that the Mon Calamari and Quarren refugees had been lured back to Dac under the pretext of making the planet habitable again. Tikin added that the pirates had held their children and elderly relatives hostage in order to force the able-bodied Mon Calamari and Quarren to build ships. Tikin also revealed that he had lost his wife during the Genocide and that his son was being held hostage. Luen also revealed that the pirates were part of a criminal syndicate led by a "rogue" Sith. Jao ordered the Imperial communications droid to send an encrypted message to Coruscant informing Empress Fel about the pirates' slave-labor operations in the Dac system. When Ania raised concerns about Jao being executed by the Triumvirate authorities for desertion, Jao explained that the threat posed by the pirates to the Triumvirate and the galaxy outweighed his own predicament.

Jao, Ania and their two local "guides" were then pursued by more pirates. After dodging their pursuers through the shipyard, the four encountered the Sith Darth Luft, a tall red-skinned male Twi'lek. Darth Luft revealed that he had no connections with Darth Wredd and derided the rogue Sith for rebelling against the One Sith. He also mentioned that the One Sith had sent emissaries to contact the Galactic Triumvirate and claimed that the government was not interested in Dac. Instead of killing Jao, Ania and the two escaped slaves, Darth Luft decided to dump them through a trapdoor into the poisonous oceans of Dac. The four fell into an escape pod which was immediately jettisoned into the ocean world. Due to the presence of viral spores in Dac's oceans, one single drop was enough to kill a living being.

While Jao, Ania, and their local guides faced certain death as the escape pod plummeted into Dac's oceans, the Imperial communications droid managed to reconfigure his antenna in order to broadcast their location even from the ocean depths. Meanwhile, Sauk and AG-37 arrived in the Dac system. AG-37 detected the Imperial communication droid's signals from beneath Dac's oceans and quickly deduced that Ania and her companions were trapped in an escape pod. They realized that they had to get to them before the hull buckled since a single drop of the poisoned ocean was enough to kill any lifeform. Meanwhile, Ania was unwilling to resign herself and her companions to death and attempted to gain control of the escape pod's directional thrusters. However, Tikin revealed Sith and his pirates had forced their slaves to strip all of the propulsion systems from the pods to use in the fleet.

At that point, AG-37 made contact with Jao and Ania, assuring them that they were going to use their ship's grappling arm to retrieve the escape pod. AG-37's ship had dived into the oceans of Dac and Sauk had fired the ship's grappling gun in attempt to catch the plummeting escape pod. Sauk and AG-37's rescue effort succeeded and they managed to rescue Jao, Ania, Luen, and Tikin. AG-37 ship's towed the escape pod into one of the shipyards above Dac where Jao and Ania reunited with Sauk and AG-37. Sauk and AG-37 also confirmed that they had gotten past the pirate defenses and that they had intercepted their distress signal.

Having escaped a narrow brush with death, Jao Assam urged his companions to stop Darth Luft before the Sith figured out that they had survived. He argued that Darth Wredd was behind all the events that had previously occurred and reiterated that they had to find him. Ania Solo disagreed with Jao and argued that they were outnumbered and should wait for reinforcements to arrive. When AG-37 agreed with Ania's plan and recommended that they depart at once. However, Jao insisted that both Wredd and Luft had to be stopped and stressed that "cutting of the head would kill the body." However, Ania pointed out that Dieben had been lying since Wredd was not in the "Broken Ring" above Dac. On a different note, the Quarren Tikin refused to accompany them and insisted that he would not abandon his son, Tilin, to the depredations of Darth Luft and his pirates.

Jao dismissed Ania's concerns and argued that they had not been led to Dac by coincidence. He reiterated his belief that Wredd was behind everything that had transpired and refused to miss the opportunity to stop Darth Wredd once and for all. Jao's crusade against the Sith angered Tikin who argued that attacking Darth Luft would endanger the lives of his son and the families of the Mon Calamari and Quarren slave workers. Refusing to be part of this crusade against the Sith, Tikin stormed off and returned to the pirates' lair. Ania also criticized the "reckless" nature of Jao's plan to fight Luft and the entire pirate ring by himself. Unable to resolve their differences, Jao parted company with Ania and her companions and went to confront the pirate syndicate and their Sith master. Meanwhile, Jao's mentor Val and the Galactic Alliance Navy Admiral Gar Stazi mustered a force to deal with the pirates and liberate the Mon Calamari and Quarren slaves.

Jao Assam infiltrated the shipyard and headed towards Darth Luft's headquarters, which was housed above the shipyards. By that stage, Tikin had revealed that Jao and his companions had escaped in the hope of securing the release of his son Tilin. Instead, Darth Luft used the Force to throw Tikin down to his death. Unfortunately for Darth Luft, his callous action triggered a slave uprising among the Mon Calamari and Quarren workers, who attacked their captors. At that point, Jao revealed his presence and sought to find Darth Luft. Meanwhile, Jao's companions Ania and AG-37 were being pursued by pirate starfighters. However, the pursuing starfighters were destroyed by a Galactic Alliance task force, which had just emerged from hyperspace.

The Alliance reinforcements scattered the pirate starships and headed to the orbital shipyard. The Alliance forces included a water tanker, the Trand Cappa, which proceeded to dock with the shipyard's ring. Knowing the aquatic nature of the Mom Calamari and Quarren, Stazi flooded the Mon Calamari shipyards in order to give them an advantage over their captors. Jao and Darth Luft's duel was interrupted by a deluge which engulfed the pirate's base, wrecking their fleet. The surviving pirates were quickly apprehended by a force of seatroopers led by Master Val, who liberated the Mon Calamari and Quarren prisoners. The pirates also attempted to kill their slaves' families by exposing their quarters to zero gravity space. However, they were saved by Ania, Sauk and their comm droid who managed to close the doors.

Amidst the battle, Jao and Luft dueled and hurled insults at each other. Luft taunted Jao that his arrogance would be his undoing. Jao retorted that Luft had to answer for stealing an entire star system. Luft vowed that Jao would not be the one who would take his head. In an attempt to disorientate Jao, Luft hurled pieces of debris at the Imperial Knight but Jao cleaved them in half with his lightsaber. Darth Luft boasted that he would not be the one who would drown in the flood and threw a large piece of debris at Jao, knocking him into the water below. While gloating over his victory, Luft was interrupted by two Imperial Knight cadets who ordered the Sith to surrender. While Luft fought with the newcomers, Jao swam behind the Sith and stabbed him from behind, killing Darth Luft. Jao then thanked the two Imperial Knights for "distracting" the Sith.

Following the battle, Jao Assam reunited with his mentor Yalta Val, who presided over the arrest of the pirates. Both men were satisfied at the outcome of the fighting and viewed the liberation of the Mon Calamari and Quarren as a sign of healing taking place in the galaxy. However, Jao was unwilling to return to his duties even though desertion meant death. He argued that his life meant nothing compared to his duty to keep the Empress safe from Darth Wredd. Jao departed from the Dac spaceport with Ania and her companions. While traveling through space, Jao received an incoming holographic message from Darth Wredd himself. The Sith revealed that Jao and his companions had actually played into his hands by eliminating Darth Luft, thus bring his plan several steps closer to completion. Darth Wredd also tried to tempt the young Imperial Knight with a place in his new Sith Order, which would be based on the Rule of Two. While Jao was upset that he had played into the hands of the Sith fugitive, Ania assured him that they had liberated the Mon Calamari shipyards and saved many slaves. If they could accomplish this much, she reasoned that they could take down one arrogant Sith.

One year following the events of the Carreras Incident, Jao joined Ania and her companions on a delivery run to Lasgo Port, which was on a remote planet that was surrounded by an orbital minefield left over from the Second Imperial Civil War. Short on credits, Sauk had found Ania and her crew a job delivering supplies to Lasgo Port. After navigating through the minefield with much difficult, AG-37's ship landed at Lasgo Port. In an attempt to earn some extra credits, Ania attempted to tame a yarthul, a large quadruped beast native to the planet. Ania failed and lost her comlink as collateral. While walking through Lasgo Port, Jao found that Ania was wanted for the murder of an Imperial Knight named Teemen Alton. When Jao confronted Ania, she denied murdering the Knight, insisting that Ania had been the first Knight she had ever met. Suspicious, Jao questioned why she was residing in the remote Carreras system around the time of the alleged murder.

While departing Lasgo Port's planet, AG-37's freighter had to travel through the minefield again. While passing through the minefield, their freighter's fuel injection bay was hit by some small-scale blaster fire, which was mistaken for asteroid debris. The ship crew sent their Imperial communications droid to fix the damage. While repairing the fuel bay, the communications droid discovered a damaged starship nearby with its crew alive but in distress. AG-37's freighter docked with the damaged starship and Jao, Ania, and their companions made contact with the crew. During that meeting, Ania met her former love interest Ramid, who claimed that his ship's net isolator had been damaged by a mine causing the ship's shield systems to break down. With their shields inoperative, the starship was unable to travel through space. While Ania reunited with Ramid, her companions return to AG-37's freighter to get tools and spare parts. However, this was all a ruse.

Once Ania was separated from her companions, Ramid and his crew took her captive. Ramid's starship then activated its engines and opened fire on AG-37 freighter, attempting to blow it up in the minefields. Jao narrowly saved their starship from destruction. However, Ramid and his crew took advantage of the explosion to make a jump into hyperspace, taking the captive Ania with them. Jao and his companions quickly realized that Ania had been kidnapped. Following Ania's kidnapping, AG-37 attempted to track Ramid's starships' communications but received a response signal from her comlink, which they traced back to Port Lasgo. Since Ania had lost her comlink as collateral during her failed attempt to tame a yarthul, Jao was skeptical that it was actually her and speculated that she did not want to be found.

Jao felt that it was suspicious that Ania lost her comlink and that some of her old "friends" then kidnapped her. Sauk then rose to Ania's defense and asserted that she did not kill the Imperial Knight anyway. Jao suggested that Ania and her kidnappers could be anywhere in the galaxy by now. However, Sauk pointed out that Ramid's starship had made a cold jump into hyperspace and deduced that they could have gotten no further than two star systems before their fuel ran out. AG-37 then added that this situation would make their task much harder to guess their next destination. Sauk then commented that if Ania had secretly been a Sith, AG-37 would have known about it. To dispel Jao's suspicions about Ania, Sauk related how Ania had vouched for him when he had been homeless and hungry on the streets of Carreras Minor even though he was a total stranger.

Jao then turned to AG-37, who had known Ania for a long time. AG-37 recounted how he had first encountered Ania near the end of the Second Imperial Civil War in the Selvatas system. Ania had escaped from an Imperial prison camp on Drash-so and had pulled a gun on AG-37, who was doing business in the system at the time. However, AG-37 took pity on her and gave her a free ride to the Carreras system, where she established a junkyard. When Jao asked AG-37 why he had taken pity on here, AG-37 explained that he had made an unspecified promise to Ania's ancestor, the smuggler Han Solo more than a century ago. The three companions then resumed their quest to discover Ania's whereabouts and to ascertain the truth about her past.

After Sauk and AG-37 ruled out most of the galaxy, the two speculated that Ania's kidnappers were traveling to a remote planet with a few small settlements where they could refuel without and questions asked. Jao was not sure that Ania's kidnappers were bounty hunters and wondered whether they would have gone to the nearest Triumvirate official. Still questioning Ania's innocence, Jao suggested that she had deliberately wanted to disappear due to the seriousness of her alleged crime and the hefty bounty on her head. However, Sauk refused to believe that she was guilty until they heard her side of the story. He told Jao that nothing they had seen in AG's memory had convinced him to change his mind.

When Jao suggested that AG-37's memories put things in a different light, Sauk questioned the Knight why he was so unwound by the murder of the Imperial Knight since he had left the Order behind. In response, Jao explained that while the Force was leading him in unexpected directions, he still had not forgotten his vows. He reiterated that Teemen Alton was a Knight he had looked up to and respected and would not take his murder lightly. AG-37 explained that what the three of them had seen in his memory records were circumstantial. He added that extreme positions would often lead people to carry out extreme decisions which led to extreme outcomes. After a lengthy philosophical discussion about the Force and people's past, the three companions agreed to put aside any differences they had about Ania's alleged guilt or innocence and to find out the truth behind the matter.

Running low on fuel, Jao Assam and his friends headed to the next planet on the nearest jump away: a barren planet that rained glass and acid. Upon landing, they found Ramid's wrecked starship but found no trace of Ania or her estranged lover Ramid. However, Sauk found a thin trail of blood leading down the gangplank. Jao reasons that Ania and Ramid could not have traveled far on foot especially if one of them had been injured. Sauk found a storage for a speeder bike aboard the starship but found that the bike had gone missing. AG-37 deduced that Ania and Ramid had traveled a considerable distance and suggested scanning the ground from the air. Before they could embark on their hunt, the skies began raining glass and the three companions were forced to return to AG-37's freighter for shelter. Since Jao and Sauk's hide could not withstand the glass, AG-37 continued the rescue mission alone. His metallic body sheltered him from the sharp glass. AG-37 instructed them to take off as soon as the storm had subsided.

While waiting for the "glass storm" to subside, Sauk and Jao received a holographic message from Master Yalta Val. Master Val had recently visited the medical records at the Triumvirate archives on Coruscant and found that Teemen Alton's real killed had a prosthetic arm. Since Ania was completely biological and had no artificial arms, she was innocent. After the storm had subsided, Jao and Sauk received a transmission that AG-37 had spotted Ania and Ramid heading on a speeder bike to a remote settlement. Convinced of Ania's innocence and knowing her location, the two flew AG-37's freighter to the settlement. Jao arrived at the settlement just in time to save Ania from being attacked by a mysterious bounty hunter, who had already killed Ramid. This bounty hunter was Teemen Alton's true murderer and wanted to frame Ania for a crime she had never committed.

Jao attacked the bounty hunter with his lightsaber, giving Ania enough time to escape out of a window. Following a protracted duel, the bounty hunter managed to drive Jao away by detonating a thermal detonator, which damaged the building. However, the Imperial Knight survived due to his Force powers. The bounty hunter then found Ania hiding in a cave and quickly immobilized her. She then intended to frame Ania by performing surgery to cut off her left hand and to implant her own prosthetic hand. Before she could carry out her surgery, the bounty hunter was ambushed by Jao Assam who managed to throw her to the ground, causing her to drop her remote, which controlled her specially-modified TIE bomber. The TIE bomber crashed into the pit.

During the duel, the masked bounty hunter fought back with her laser whip and managed to choke Jao with it. However, Jao managed to free Ania using his Force powers and the girl grabbed a blaster. Ania then shot the bounty hunter's prosthetic hand, causing her to drop her whip and to lose her grip on Jao. Before Jao could recover, the bounty hunter approached Ania and attempted to execute her with a blaster pistol. However, Ania grabbed the bounty hunter's remote and used the TIE bomber to ram into her, killing the bounty hunter. Despite the defeat of the bounty hunter, Ania's problems were still not yet over. Shortly later, an Imperial shuttle landed a squad of stormtroopers who proceeded to arrest Ania for her alleged crime. Jao and Sauk were unable to stop them and could only watch as they apprehend Ania for trial on Coruscant.

On Coruscant, Ania was brought before a military tribunal that was presided over by Antares Draco, the head of the Imperial Knights and Marasiah Fel's lover. Ania was ably represented by Master Yalta Val, who challenged the Triumvirate's evidence. Jao Assam arrived on Coruscant on time to present the masked bounty hunter's prosthetic hand. This piece of evidence proved crucial in exonerating Ania and the Triumvirate authorities released her. Following her acquittal, Ania was reunited with her companions Sauk, AG-37 and their Imperial communications droid. Ania admitted that she had been sent to the prison camp for murdering a malevolent individual.

However, this good news was shattered by news that Jao Assam had been arrested and imprisoned for deserting the Imperial Knights, a crime which carried the death penalty within the Galactic Triumvirate. Despite clearing Ania's name, Yalta Val explained that by returning to Coruscant, Jao had effectively given himself up. While in prison, Jao Assam was visited by the elusive Darth Wredd himself, who sensed the former's despondency at being untreated unfairly. Darth Wredd offered to help Jao escape from prison by slipping a Sith lightsaber through the bars of his cell. Seeking to discover and thwart Darth Wredd's plot against the Empress, Jao accepted the Sith Lord's offer and used the lightsaber to break out of the cells. They managed to make their way to the Imperial brig after killing several stormtroopers. Jao and Darth Wredd then escaped on the Sith Lord's starship into hyperspace.

Darth Wredd and Jao traveled to the floating world of Mala. During the journey, Wredd had Jao sealed in the ship's holding cell. There, Wredd revealed his life story and origins to the captive Jao. Growing up on Mala, Wredd had discovered that he was Force-sensitive in his youth. Unable to join the Jedi Order since it had been driven underground following the Massacre at Ossus, Wredd instead became a skilled swordsman and the champion of his village. Towards the end of the Second Imperial Civil War, Wredd's world was destroyed by the One Sith who tested a bioweapon on it, which destroyed all life and knocked the planet off its orbit, causing it float in space. While Wredd was allowed to live, he was forcibly apprenticed to a Sith master.

Due to the destruction of his homeworld and his family, Wredd harbored a deep hatred towards the One Sith. He then elaborated how he had killed his master and impersonated the Imperial Knight Yalta Val during the Carreras Incident. With the death of his master, Wredd was now free to destabilize the galaxy. Jao was initially skeptical of Darth Wredd's story until the Sith produced a broken blade from his sword, confirming that he was indeed telling the truth. Wredd then left the broken shard to rest on the floor. Using the Force, Jao managed to levitate the shard against the control console, opening the door. Heading to the cockpit, Jao transmitted Mala's coordinates to his Imperial comm droid and Ania. However, Darth Wredd resurfaced and revealed that he had merely arrange for Jao's escape in order to lure Empress Fel and One Sith to Mala, where he intended to destroy his enemies.

Darth Wredd then had Jao Assam bound and tied up in a cave, leaving him for Ania and her companions to find. As planned, Ania, her companions, and a platoon of stormtroopers found Jao. Knowing that Jao had not fallen to the Dark Side but was serving the Force, Empress Fel had sent Ania to rescue Jao. Jao quickly revealed to Ania that Wredd had been planning to lure the Imperials to Mala into a trap. Shortly later, a large fleet of unidentified ships landed on Mala's surface and disgorged an entire army of One Sith. The One Sith were hunting for Darth Wredd and believed that Ania and the Imperials were harboring them. A battle quickly broke out and Ania's stormtroopers opened fire on the Sith. At that point, Darth Wredd reappeared and came to the aid of Jao and Ania. He then hand Jao a Sith lightsaber. Despite Wredd's assistance, Ania's forces were still outnumbered by the One Sith and were forced to retreat to the wrecked Carreras communications array, which had come to rest on Mala's barren surface a year ago.

While Ania and her forces retreated, Jao and Darth Wredd used their combined Force powers to push a large piece of space station debris onto the advancing Sith horde. This gave enough time for Ania and her companions to retreat inside the wrecked Carreras communications array. After regrouping with Ania's companions, Darth Wredd tried to rationalize his actions by claiming that he was aiding the Galactic Federation Triumvirate by rooting out the Sith. He also shared with Jao about his ambitions of restoring the Rule of Two. Wredd viewed the disaffected Jao as a prospective apprentice. While acknowledging they were temporary allies, Jao reiterated that he was loyal to the Empress and that he would never join the dark side. As their argument became heated, the One Sith army caught up with Ania's party and Wredd. In the midst of the fighting, Imperial reinforcements under Empress Fel herself arrived at the communications array. A flight of Predator-class fighters flew over the trench and strafed several Sith. After the One Sith rejected an ultimatum by the Imperial authorities to lay down their arms, the Empress deployed her Imperial Knights and stormtroopers onto the battlefield, thus beginning the second stage of the Battle of the Floating World.

The Imperial Knights and the One Sith fought fiercely, with neither side giving an quarter. After Antares Draco, the head of the Imperial Knights, was wounded in battle, Empress Marasiah Fel entered the battlefield. Amidst the fighting, Jao Assam linked up with Empress Fel and together they fought against the One Sith acolytes. Jao and Empress Fel witnessed Darth Wredd killing his own fellow Sith. While Jao did not trust Wredd's motives at all, he acknowledged that they needed his help. Empress Fel replied that a Sith was only motivated by one thing—hatred. Jao deduced that Darth Wredd was wreaking revenge against the One Sith for murdering his family and destroying his entire homeworld.

By dusk, the Imperial Knights had succeeded in destroying much of the One Sith army. It was believed by many observers including the assassin droid AG-37 that the Sith that they had killed were the last of those left in hiding. Empress Fel ordered the Imperials to begin evacuating their wounded on the Imperial shuttle Neuer and to start searching for survivors. While Empress Fel was tending to the wounded Antares Draco, Darth Wredd snuck up behind her and stabbed her through the chest with his lightsaber. Jao witnessed the attack and immediately pursued Darth Wredd. A fierce lightsaber duel ensued and Jao succeeded in slicing both of Darth Wredd's hands with his lightsaber. Wredd then pleaded with Jao Assam to finish him off, hoping that Jao would kill him in anger and fall to the dark side. He insisted that the Sith had to be destroyed for the sake of the galaxy and for the memory of his family. However, Jao refused to kill Wredd, having realized his plan. In the end, Wredd was killed by Ania Solo, who fired a blaster bolt to his chest.

Following the battle, the wounded Empress Fel was evacuated and Jao reconciled with Master Yalta Val. Jao reasoned that Darth Wredd had engineered the entire battle to punish and destroy the One Sith for the harm they had done to his homeworld. But after it was all over, there was still one Sith left: himself. Having strayed to far into the dark side to believe in redemption, Wredd had deliberately engineered his own death and almost succeeded in creating a new Sith in the process. Ania assured Jao that he was not dark side material. As a result of the Battle of the Floating World, it was believed that the Sith had been exterminated in the galaxy. Master Val regarded the apparent destruction of the Sith as the "end of history" but Empress Fel was skeptical, commenting that history had "a way of continuing."

Following the Battle of the Floating World, Jao Assam and his companions returned to Coruscant, the galactic capital. Ania Solo succeeded in convincing Empress Fel to drop the desertion charges against Jao and to release him from service in the Imperial Knights. Before Jao departed to spend his new life with Ania, Jao Assam had a final conversation with his former mentor Yalta Val at the hangar bay. Both men were delighted with the Empress's plans to reform the Knights by focusing their loyalty on the light side of the Force, rather than just the Empress alone. Jao warmly described Master Val as one of the least orthodox Knights he had encountered and thanked him for all the lessons that he had taught him. Jao vowed not to stray from the light side but conceded that he was no longer a Knight. Jao also promised that he would be prepared to fight by Master Val's side should the need ever arise. After embracing each other, Master Val praised Jao for never letting him down once. Jao was accompanied by Master Val's old Imperial comm droid, which had become close to Jao.

The following year, Jao and his companions were traveling throughout the galaxy. While visiting a cantina, Sauk succeeded in purchasing a retrofitted stabilizing coil from Jariah Syn and his companions Cade Skywalker and Deliah Blue. Sauk's purchase of the starship part came at an opportune moment as she, Ania, Jao, and AG-37 were attacked.

As an Imperial Knight, Jao Assam was committed to following the light side of the Force and serving Empress Marasiah Fel, the leader of the Fel Empire. He also had a warm relationship with his mentor Master Yalta Val, whom he regarded as one of the least orthodox Imperial Knights around. While he had good instincts, Jao also had a tendency to be rash and was known to break the rules in order to do what he perceived was right. On one occasion, he disobeyed the Empress' orders to remain at his post in the Ithori system in order to rescue Master Val, who had been kidnapped by the rogue Sith Darth Wredd. On another occasion, Jao was compelled by a Force vision to disregard his orders a second time in order to hunt down Darth Wredd, who was plotting to kill Empress Fel. While these actions brought him into trouble with his superiors, his actions on both occasions helped save lives and foil Wredd's scheme.

Jao Assam also had a clear moral compass. On one occasion, he was sufficient aroused by the plight of the Mon Calamari and Quarren slaves in the Mon Calamari Shipyards to alert the Triumvirate authorities and to take on Darth Luft, the leader of the pirate ring that had enslaved them. On another occasion, he refused to accept Darth Wredd's offer to embrace the dark side of the Force and to become his Sith apprentice. Jao also developed a friendship with Ania Solo, Sauk, and AG-37. His friendship with Ania led him to embark on a mission to rescue her after she had been kidnapped by her former flame Ramid. While initially skeptical of her innocence, he was unwilling to place judgement on her until he knew the facts behind her story. When presented with evidence pointing to her innocence, Jao played an important role in securing her acquittal. While remaining true to the light side, Jao reached a point in his life when he realized that he was no longer an Imperial Knight.

As an Imperial Knight, Jao Assam was skilled in the ways of the light side and lightsaber combat. He wore the red armor of the Imperial Knights and wielded a blue lightsaber. In addition, Jao was a skilled starfighter pilot. Following his departure from the Imperial Knights, Jao donned a white version of the Imperial Knight's armor.

Jao Assam first appeared as a protagonist in Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman's Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 comic series, a spinoff of Dark Horse Comics' popular Star Wars: Legacy comic series. One fan, Reed Beebe, described Jao and Ania as an interesting duo, contrasting Jao's sense of honor with Ania's sense of preservation. He drew attention to Jao's willingness to put himself in danger by alerting the Fel Empire to the pirate presence in the Calamari system. In response, the series' assistant editor, Freddye Lins, confirmed that both characters were headstrong in their own way. These traits took them in slightly different directions throughout the series. Following a fan query, the series' editor Randy Stradley clarified that Empress Marasiah Fel's harsh reaction to Jao's desertion stemmed from a "there have to be rules" standpoint rather than any personal animosity towards Jao. From Fel's standpoint, Jao had been given orders and he had chosen to ignore them.

• "Blaster" — Star Wars Insider 145
• "Blaster" — Star Wars Insider 151