Tula was a human female who served as an officer of the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War, even after the Imperials destroyed her homeworld of Alderaan. Tula manipulated her sister, Tace, into providing the Empire with intelligence on the activities of Princess Leia Organa, who was attempting to rescue the survivors of Alderaan. Organa became aware of Tula's manipulation of Tace after Imperial forces attacked the princess while she visited the Alderaan Enclave on the planet Sullust.
Organa then had Tace try and question her sister, but Tula's commanding officer, Dreed, realized what was happening and had Tula taken away by stormtroopers for processing. Organa negotiated with Dreed to exchange herself for Tula on the planet Skaradosh, but once there, the princess had her allies swoop in and kill Dreed and his men. Tula was then reunited with her sister but found Tace angry over her betrayal. The sisters were reconciled to some extent during a battle between Dreed's Star Destroyer and the Alderaanians gathered by Organa above the planet Espirion, which ended in the Imperial vessel's destruction.
The human sisters Tula and Tace were both born on the planet Alderaan but chose very separate paths in life: Tula came to serve as an officer of the Galactic Empire during its war against the Rebel Alliance, while Tace joined the cloistered musical group known as the Melodic Order as a musician. In the year 0 BBY, during Tula's service to the Empire, Alderaan was destroyed by the Imperial Death Star superweapon; however, she continued her Imperial service obediently. Tace, meanwhile, initially remained unaware of her homeworld's fate, as her employers at Club Deeja on the planet Naboo decided their musicians would perform better without such terrible news.
Tula communicated with her sister, Tace, to gain intelligence for the Empire.
Tula's sister finally learned the truth in the year 0 ABY, shortly after the Battle of Yavin, when Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan, rescued the Melodic Order from the club as part of her mission to rescue the survivors of Alderaan from Imperial persecution, then invited them to join her mission. Once off Naboo and aboard Organa's starship, the Lord Junn, Tace used a video call to contact Tula, who was serving on the Imperial-class Star Destroyer of Commander Dreed. Unaware that her sister was an Imperial, Tace tried to arrange for the sisters to meet up and mourn, but Tula, seeing an opportunity to gain intelligence on the fugitive Alderaanians' activity, told Tace that it was her duty to stay with Organa and aid her. She then asked that Tace contact her every day with an update on her location and activities, so that the pair could "keep in touch."
Tace did as Tula asked and frequently updated her on Organa's activities, letting her sister know when Organa traveled to the planet Sullust to make contact with the Alderaan Enclave located there. Tula immediately passed on the information to Dreed, who was impressed by her manipulation of Tace, but Dreed warned Tula that he was ready for her to betray him given her emotional bond with her sister. Meanwhile, on Sullust, a resident of the enclave named Covis discovered the communications between Tula and Tace and reported them to Preserver Jora Astane, head of the enclave. Astane accused Organa herself of betraying the Alderaanians to the Imperials and had her chased from the enclave. As the Alderaanians tried to hunt down Organa, a Sentinel-class landing craft full of stormtroopers sent by Dreed arrived and attacked the enclave. Ultimately, Organa saved the enclave and defeated the troopers using a herd of rockrenders, earning Astane's loyalty and escaping Sullust.
Unperturbed, Dreed continued to use Tula to get information from Tace; however, with the Alderaanians now aware of the siblings' communications, Tace was imprisoned by Astane and questioned by Organa. The princess believed that Tace had not known about Tula's Imperial loyalty and asked that she contact her and try to learn about her sister's location and situation.
Tula was no longer of use to Dreed once the Alderaanians saw through her lies.
Once the call began, Tula almost immediately realized something was wrong, as did Dreed, who saw that the facade was over. Despite Tula's pleas that she could fix the situation, the commander ordered that she be taken away for processing, as she was no longer of any use to him. He then turned to the communications console and accused Tace of being responsible for what was going to happen to her sister. Organa herself then took Tace's place on the video and asked the commander to consider an exchange for Tula. Dreed was initially uninterested until the princess agreed to his demands that she trade herself for Tula.
The exchange was arranged to take place on the desert world of Skaradosh, and Dreed accompanied Tula personally aboard a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle to the planet's surface. Upon meeting with Organa, the commander questioned why Tula was so important but refused to believe the princess's claim that all Alderaanians were important enough to be worth saving. Although not satisfied with the answer, Dreed sent Tula forward to Organa's escort, while the princess crossed over to the Imperials. As the pair passed each other, Tula tried to thank Organa, but her savior only commented that Tula needed to do better in return for being saved. Before either party could return to their ships, Organa's pilot, Evaan Verlaine, and the smuggler Nien Nunb swooped down in the freighter Mellcrawler and opened fire on the Imperials. Dreed and his stormtrooper escort were killed, and Organa safely boarded the freighter alongside Tula and the other Alderaanians.
Now under the command of Captain Venk, the crew of Dreed's Star Destroyer quickly became aware of their commander's death but were tricked into believing that they had killed those responsible after shooting down a decoy sent from Skaradosh by Nunb. The Mellcrawler, meanwhile, escaped the desert world unscathed and headed for the planet Espirion, where Tace and the other Alderaanians awaited them aboard the Lord Junn.
Tula was overjoyed to be reunited with the sister she had betrayed.
En route, Organa was horrified to discover that Dreed's Star Destroyer was also heading for Espirion, as the Imperials were aware of the Alderaanians' presence there from intelligence Tula had previously given to Dreed. The Mellcrawler arrived at the planet first, giving the ship time to dock with the Lord Junn and allowing Tula to be reunited with her sister. The former Imperial was overjoyed to see her sibling, but the feeling was far from mutual, as Tace wanted nothing to do with her sister, whom she considered a traitor, and Tace had even shaved off her hair in order to look less like her. Tula tried to apologize and claimed that they could go back to how things were before Alderaan's destruction, but Tace stormed off, leaving her sister to try and keep up.
Nonetheless, the sisters were soon brought together when the Lord Junn and the rest of the Alderaanian fleet came under attack from Dreed's Star Destroyer as it reached Espirion. Amidst the chaos of battle, Tula and Tace clutched each other in fear, as Organa delivered what she thought might be her final speech to all those Alderaanians who fought alongside her. However, the fleet was saved when reinforcements arrived in the form of the Espirion Multi, a starship sent by the Alderaanian-descended inhabitants of Espirion, known as Alder-Espirions, after they heard Organa's passionate speech. Their combined forces then destroyed the Star Destroyer.
Tula was saved from the Empire by Princess Leia Organa.
Tula had black hair, dark eyes, and light skin. Tula and Tace shared a close bond as sisters, and each was able to tell if the other was lying or speaking under duress, with Tula instantly noticing when Tace spoke to her with lines prepared by Princess Leia Organa.
Tula was a highly obedient individual, according to Imperial personality tests, and continued to serve the Empire even after it destroyed her homeworld. She went so far as to manipulate her own sister to gain intelligence for Commander Dreed concerning the movements of Organa, princess of Alderaan. Despite this obedience, Dreed still expected the officer's betrayal, as Tula scored low on tests for loyalty to the Empire and still clearly loved her sister.
Ultimately, Tula did not have a chance to betray the Empire, as Dreed decided her usefulness had run out once the Alderaanians realized she was manipulating Tace. When Organa saved Tula from the Imperials, she attempted to thank the princess and, upon being reunited with Tace, tried to apologize for what she had done. She hoped that her and Tace's relationship could return to what it was before her betrayal, but Tace expressed uncertainty in their reconciliation.
While serving the Empire, Tula wore a standard gray Imperial officer's uniform. Sometimes, when contacting Tace under the guise of being off duty, she wore a black outfit instead.
Tula first appeared in the second issue of the Star Wars: Princess Leia comic book mini-series, going on to appear in all remaining issues of the run. The series was released in 2015, with writing by Mark Waid and illustrations by Terry Dodson.
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