Lestra Oxic

Lord Lestra Oxic was a Human noble who built a career as a high-profile defense lawyer on Coruscant. In the last days of the Galactic Republic, Oxic ran a large and prestigious firm and, noted for his skill with words and data, represented political power-brokers and celebrities. Oxic was a highly influential man himself, mingling with Senators and entertainers in Coruscant's ultra-elite social circles. As Senator Palpatine grew in power, becoming Supreme Chancellor, Oxic grew to despise the man and his cabal. When Palpatine began politically-charged trials of enemies on sedition charges during the Clone Wars, Oxic eagerly defended the accused.

In the course of his opposition to Palpatine, Oxic made many friends in the Republic Group, a secret group of elites dedicated to undermining Palpatine's reign. He became aware that, in 25 BBY, the Republic Group had stolen the Insignia of Unity, an elaborate incarnation of the Republic sigil in aurodium, orichalum, and Coruscanthium, from the Senate podium and replaced it with a fake during a restoration. They hoped to keep the powerful symbol safe, hidden away until they could restore the Republic's honor and evict the dictatorial Palpatine from power.

Despite his public opposition to Palpatine, Oxic survived the transition to the Galactic Empire and remained a fabulously wealthy attorney who still kept friends and clients such as Bail Prestor Organa. Around the time of the Declaration of a New Order, it became known that the Insignia of Unity was a counterfeit, and the original became a coveted, priceless collector's item. Oxic, with a taste for art and antique collection, especially pieces from the late Republic, desperately wanted to be the one to find and own the ultimate collector's item.

A tall, thin, clean-shaven man, Oxic began to worry about his body as he aged, knowing a decrepit appearance would undermine his command of the courtroom. He spent lavishly to keep his appearance youthful and extend his life with treatments at the exclusive Aurora Medical Facility on Obroa-skai, which specialized in rejuvenation therapy for the galaxy's elite.

One of Oxic's friends and longtime clients, former Senator Des'sein, began ailing of a congenital disease. In his last days, Oxic traveled to his bedside, where Des'sein confessed to the Insignia of Unity's theft and told Oxic that the crew of the Republic Group freighter Stellar Envoy, which had disappeared in the last days of the Clone Wars, held the key to finding the lost artifact. Oxic began pursuing the matter, but even with the name of Tobb Jadak, the ship's captain, he turned up little information until 4 ABY, when he found secret documents formerly belonging to former Senate Bureau of Intelligence and Imperial Intelligence Director Armand Isard which described the Stellar Envoys flight from Coruscant under Republic pursuit and gave the vector of its hyperspace jump.

Oxic spent a year working to discover the ship's location, finally learning that the Stellar Envoy had jumped to Nar Shaddaa, where it was wrecked in a crash; Captain Tobb Jadak was grievously injured and reduced to a vegetative state in the collision, while copilot Reeze Duurmun was killed. Oxic found Jadak in a coma in a Nar Shaddaa medical center. He dedicated a portion of his vast fortune to paying the staggering costs of rehabilitating Jadak in a private room at the Aurora Medical Facility in the hope that Jadak could eventually recover under the care of renowned neurologist Doctor Lial Sompa, whom Oxic paid to add to the staff, and provide him with the clues to track down the symbol.

Around 20 ABY, Oxic developed his hobby of collecting Republicana into a full-blown obsession. It soon became the focal point of his private life, with Oxic frequently attending auctions to bid vast sums on pieces from late-Republic Coruscant. That period and location was his personal focus, as it reminded him of his bygone glory days. When the famed Hydians auction house relocated to Epica during the Yuuzhan Vong War, where Oxic kept a mansion overlooking Epica City, bidding for items became extraordinarily convenient.

In 28 ABY, Oxic gained the services of Koi Quire, a displaced Firrerreo who proved to be an excellent employee for his firm, demonstrating great instincts. She quickly became his most trusted aide, handling much of his private business for him. Oxic also employed assistants of a less refined nature, using security specialists and hired muscle such as Gomman, Cynner, and Remata to protect witnesses, collect information, collect bail-jumpers, and carry out sensitive tasks. In his old age, his practice remained enormously prestigious, with Oxic remaining one of the galaxy's top defense lawyers, but Oxic downsized the firm, keeping only one hundred or so employees and restricting cases largely to what he could handle personally. Oxic's visits to Aurora became even more vital, and he retained a preternaturally young aspect and hale body as he entered extreme old age.

By 43 ABY, Oxic had grown frustrated with Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala's administration—not because of her policies, but because the former Imperial admiral's election spiked interest in Imperial and Republic artifacts, leading to increased bidding for Oxic's preferred items. In that year, Oxic represented Colla-Arphoc Automata, long since put out of business by the Empire, as they re-formed and filed suit to be allowed to resume manufacturing. They claimed, with a star witness from Colla Designs testifying, that they had documents proving their dissolution had been only for a limited term and had expired in 42 ABY.

In that same year, Jadak finally awoke from his coma and began putting his memories in order. Quire traveled to Obroa-skai to give him ten thousand credits, ostensibly as an insurance indemnity, and had him released after arranging for him to gain access to Sompa's files. Jadak thought he had secretly accessed them and stolen off to put the memories of his life back together, starting with the final mission that he now remembered. Quire approached Oxic during an auction at Hydians, informing him of the exciting new development. Learning that Jadak had headed for Nar Shaddaa—presumably not where the Insignia of Unity had been cached—Oxic decided to have his men bring in Jadak rather than have him range out of his control, and put him directly to work in locating the lost treasure.

Oxic was displeased to learn that Jadak had escaped his employees' attempt to seize him, especially as the complication came as he was in a rush to complete discovery on the Colicoid case. While he hoped to pick up Jadak's trail again, he had to concentrate on the case. The trial opened on Holess, a world renowned for its love of legal drama, but was quickly derailed when the Colicoid star witness, being escorted up the Mount of Justice by Oxic's personnel, was subjected to a holographic image of a hueche, its natural predator, by agents of Rej Taunt, a crime lord with a long-held grudge against the Colicoids. The witness curled up in a defensive reflex and rolled down the ramp, where it was caught and carried off by Taunt's employees. Without that key witness, Oxic's case was ruined and the suit was dismissed after a one-day stay. Oxic was chagrined not only that he had not been able to win the case and gain a much greater fee, but that he would not be given a gift of one of the incredibly valuable statues that had once stood on the Senate Plaza. He would have to buy it instead.

After the dismissal, Quire reported that the agents had not been from the Galactic Alliance, as Oxic had suspected, but from Taunt, a man Oxic despised due to his intense competition for Republicana. Among Taunt's saboteurs had been Tobb Jadak, who appeared to be tracing what had become of the Stellar Envoy. Oxic was unable to act on that information, but soon Sompa contacted him to report that Han and Leia Solo—a woman whom, as Bail Organa's daughter, he had known his entire life—had been looking into the Millennium Falcons history and discovered it had once belonged to another doctor at Aurora. He had learned that both the Millennium Falcon and Stellar Envoy were the same age and strongly suspected that they were the same ship. Quire found the theory plausible, and Oxic agreed to send his men to Vaced, where the former owner had obtained the ship herself, in the hope that Jadak would find his way there. They could also steal the Millennium Falcon and search it for clues or hold it to secure Jadak's cooperation, as the Solos were destined for Vaced as well.

On Vaced, Cynner and Remata stole the Millennium Falcon, but its theft-prevention systems returned it to the spaceport. Having been nearby to supervise the team after losing confidence in their ability to carry out the task on their own, Oxic rushed to the scene and, serving as their legal counsel, offered a plea deal for joyriding and misuse of personal property, reminding the Solos that to make any further charges stick, they would have to devote much of their time to a trial. They accepted, and his role in the scheme went unexamined.

On learning that a slicer droid had been left inside the ship from an attempt by Jadak's confederate Flitcher Poste to steal the ship before Oxic's men, Oxic had the droid's owner track its anti-theft homing signal, finding the ship, with the Solos, Jadak, and Poste all aboard, headed for Tandun III. Oxic rushed there with Quire and four guards, finding the others already gazing on the Insignia of Unity. He laid claim to it in the name of his massive investment and in light of the fact that he was the only one who had actually known the specifics of what he sought, though he offered the others finders' fees. On scanning it, though, he was devastated to learn that the piece was a counterfeit; the genuine Insignia had been stolen long before the Republic Group absconded with it. He quickly realized that Sils Naffiff, head of the Naffiff Brothers construction corporation hired to renovate the Senate Rotunda earlier, had likely been the thief, and offered Jadak and Poste jobs helping him track down the genuine symbol, which they accepted. With groundquakes beginning to threaten the integrity of the ancient structure in which the Insignia had been hidden and the treasure proven worthless, Oxic and the Solos parted amicably but urgently, barely escaping as the fragile planet itself came apart.

Lord Lestra Oxic had a bright legal mind and firm grasp of the law, and was noted as an extremely capable lawyer and great orator. Though not an ideological radical, he did not care for Supreme Chancellor and future Emperor Palpatine's policies, especially his subversion of the law for political ends. He became a strident opponent of the powerful Palpatine, even at risk to himself, and remained powerful, rich, and influential even under the Empire.

Oxic was a rich man, but he valued money less than he did his life and lifestyle. He took great pride in his appearance, knowing his presentation was important to winning cases, and so spent exorbitantly to preserve his visage and prolong his life. A devoted collector of Coruscanti Republicana, he was willing to spend gigantic sums in the pursuit of a desired piece, even more than he felt an item was truly worth. He spent massive sums of money in pursuit of the Insignia of Unity, only to be reduced to tears when he found the object he had pursued was a forgery.

The character of Lord Lestra Oxic was created by author James Luceno for the novel Millennium Falcon, in which Oxic was a competitor to Han Solo and Tobb Jadak in uncovering the Millennium Falcons secrets.

• The Essential Reader's Companion