Nera Kase was a female who was the daughter of Phirmist spacers. She was born on her parents' ship in 27 BBY. When she was a child, in the early years of the Galactic Empire, her parents' ship was impounded and they were killed, resulting in a lifelong enmity with the Empire. She shaved her head, after an incident when she was seven years old where her hair got caught on something while she was crawling around the bowels of her parents' ship.
Kase's hatred for the Empire led her to join the Rebel Alliance. By 0 BBY, she was the chief of starfighter maintenance at the Great Temple on Yavin 4. She organized the flight crews, sixty-seven individuals responsible for thirty starships, in addition to droids. In addition to coordinating the flight crews, she was responsible for manifests, which she kept on a datapad. Everything from equipment manifests, munitions, spare parts, and a duty roster of each pilot complete with specialties, strengths, and weaknesses.
In the week that included the Battle of Scarif, Kase had worked relentlessly, barely finding time to sleep and eat. Over that time, she had lost nineteen pilots and crew in addition to fifteen ships following the events at Scarif as well as a mission to Eadu.
During the Battle of Yavin, Kase sat on an empty proton torpedo crate in the main hangar with the five X-wings, two Y-wings, and one U-wing that were not flying the mission. As the attack runs began, Kase silently entered the command center, listening to the pilots communicate on comms. She concentrated on marking each pilot down as they were killed, noting whether it was flak, an enemy fighter, or other cause responsible. When Red Five, Luke Skywalker, fired his proton torpedoes and destroyed the battle station, Kase collapsed in grief, unable to celebrate with everyone else due to all the deaths.
Nera Kase was a smaller woman who had a youthful face. Due to her features and her size, she was often assumed to be younger than she was. She habitually wore a stained mechanic's jumpsuit. She was routinely burdened by the pain of pilots who died in combat, as she knew all of them. She had an unrequited crush on the Rebel starfighter pilot Garven Dreis, due to his personality and professionalism.