Nanda was a Human female from Naboo who served as an ensign in the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War. A few months after the Battle of Yavin, she worked as Darth Vader's aide during a five-day mission to find and punish every person the Sith Lord considered as responsible for the infiltration of Rebel agent Kell Bircher into the Imperial Navy ranks.
Nanda, a Human female, was born on the Mid Rim planet of Naboo during the last years of the Galactic Republic.
Since her graduation, she had been working on the Super Star Destroyer Executor. In 0 ABY, shortly after turning 21, Nanda was appointed by Darth Vader, the Emperor's second-in-command, as the commanding officer of a squad of six elite stormtroopers, whose purpose was to deal with the mysterious slicers who had inserted a Rebel Alliance spy, Kell Bircher, into the Imperial Navy.
Ensign Nanda had "some difficulties" with Vader's ruthless actions.
Nanda's first task was to fly their shuttle to the Data Center on Coruscant. As soon as they reached their destination, she had to deal with a deck officer, whose role was to check the crew and cargo of every incoming ship. Inside the Data Center, Nanda witnessed for the first time Darth Vader's infamous ruthlessness with obvious fear and shock.
Several hours later, the young ensign piloted their new ship, the corvette Archer, to Bothawui—where Vader's stormtroopers quickly took care of several Bothans who were suspected to be the wanted data slicers. The next stop was the Core World planet of Kuat. Vader brutally dealt with the command staff of his former flagship, the Devastator, with Ensign Nanda watching the scene with wide-eyed terror.
After leaving the Kuat Drive Yards facilities, Nanda spent a certain amount of time alone in the corvette's cockpit. When Vader came back from his personal quarters, the Sith Lord ordered Nanda to set a course for the Alderaan system where, according to Intelligence reports, a X-wing starfighter would have been spotted along with an old Star Destroyer. Doubting the veracity of this information, Nanda tried to convince Vader that it was probably pointless to go there. She eventually complied when the Sith Lord insisted to go to the system "at once."
Darth Vader and Ensign Nanda watching the remains of Alderaan
Upon their arrival to the Alderaan system, Nanda detected the Audacity, a Venator-class Star Destroyer with a former Imperial scientist named Tag Rogaren on board. Vader subsequently sent his elite stormtroopers to bring back Rogaren alive aboard the Archer. When the six troopers came back with their new prisoner, they suddenly turned on Vader, who immediately attacked them with his lightsaber. However, exactly as Nanda feared, the ship's hull was damaged during the fight. After having taken care of the treacherous troopers, Vader ordered Nanda to maintain course while he would repair the damages. When the Sith Lord was done with sealing the hull and torturing Rogaren, he told Nanda to set a course for the Chandrila system, as he had noticed that the traitor Bircher had a slight Chandrilan accent.
Ensign Nanda was then sent by Vader to Bircher's childhood home on the planet of Chandrila. On the site, she found three tombstones belonging to members of the Mothma family. Nanda soon realized that Bircher was actually related to Mon Mothma, one of the leaders of the Rebel Alliance. As soon as she commed Vader to inform him of her discovery, the Archer destroyed the estate.
As promised, Nanda was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander after the completion of her mission, and an impressive amount of credits was deposited into her accounts. However, she was so traumatized by the five days she spent with Darth Vader that Nanda had hallucinations, seeing the Sith Lord everywhere.
A deeply traumatized Nanda
A native from Naboo, Nanda was a young woman with black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. One of her most prominent character traits was her unwavering loyalty to the Empire. When she was assigned to act as Darth Vader's assistant during one of his missions of "vengeance and redemption," she followed the Dark Lord's orders without questioning, despite her clear disgust with some of Vader's ruthless methods.
The young ensign could also be perceived as naïve. Despite knowing about the destruction of Alderaan by the Death Star, she was genuinely surprised when they arrived to the Alderaan Graveyard and saw nothing left of the Core World planet but asteroids and debris.
Nonetheless, even though she was far from being cold-blooded and merciless like Darth Vader and the stormtroopers, Nanda had no objection to the slaughter of the Bothans who were suspected to have made Bircher's deception possible, simply because she had lost friends in the destruction of the Death Star by the Rebel Alliance.
Nanda proved to be a good pilot, flying the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle and the Assassin-class corvette Vader and his team of elite stormtroopers were traveling on across the galaxy. She also successfully used her diplomatic skills with an unidentified deck officer upon their arrival to the Data Center on Coruscant, which earned her a "Well done." from Vader himself.
Nanda first appeared in the thirteenth issue of Dark Horse's Star Wars comic book series, written by Brian Wood and pencilled by Facundo Percio. It was released on January 8, 2014, and is the first part of a two-issue arc, , which centers around Darth Vader and his quest for revenge, following the revelation of Colonel Bircher being a Rebel spy, with Nanda acting as the narrator for the story.