Katha Niar was a Human female who served the reconstituted Sith Empire during the era of the Galactic War. Her role was within the Ministry of Logistics until the year 3638 BBY. At that time, she was selected to lead the support staff for the Imperial assault force during the Conquest of Makeb.
Regrettably, her involvement came to the attention of the Hutt Archon, Szajin. She was captured and subjected to torture by Szajin, who extracted the Empire's actual strategy from her. She was held as a prisoner until the Sith strike force ultimately confronted and killed Szajin, but she succumbed to her injuries soon after.
During 3638 BBY, Niar was a member of the strike force dispatched to the planet Makeb with the goal of securing isotope-5 for the benefit of the Sith Empire. This mission was of utmost importance and demanded absolute secrecy, lest the Hutts, who had taken control of the planet, discover their intentions. Once the strike team had secured Gravity Hook Seven, Imperial operations commenced. Niar, alongside Doctor Nadrin Tro and Lord Cytharat, provided guidance to the strike team in their efforts to acquire isotope-5.
After the strike team received intelligence from Solida Hesk indicating that the Hutts' isotope-5 mining activities had destabilized Makeb's core, Niar devised a plan to assault Stronghold One, where the isotope-5 was stored. Given the fortress's heavy defenses, especially the presence of an isotope-5-powered droid, the Imperials orchestrated civil unrest against the InterStellar Regulators reinforcements.
The strike team detonated a series of explosive charges within the volcanic mesa where Stronghold One was situated, successfully disabling its primary power source – including its security grid – without raising suspicion. With the defenses neutralized, the strike team proceeded to seize the isotope-5 vault, supported by Cytharat's troops to prevent any reinforcements from interfering. The entrance to the vault was guarded by the prototype isotope-5 war droid, compelling the Imperial team to reroute the room's turret defenses to inflict damage and lower a forcefield containing magma to breach its energy shields.
To their dismay, the strike team discovered that the Hutts possessed all but one sample of the isotope, intending to create an army of war droids. When Archon Szajin activated the droids, the strike team was compelled to flood the chamber with lava, resulting in the sacrifice of Cytharat and his team.
Darth Marr expressed his displeasure upon learning of the team's failure. He reminded them that three Imperial worlds had fallen to the Republic to provide the team on Makeb with the necessary time and instructed them to find a solution to the situation. The strike team consulted with their support staff, as well as scientific and engineering experts from Taris and Quesh, to devise a plan to save Makeb. They concluded that mapping all the isotope-5 deposits and developing a method to stabilize the core were the initial steps. The abandoned drilling station, where the isotope was first discovered, was identified as the ideal location to initiate the pulse, but it also triggered a groundquake that trapped the team in an emergency bunker for six hours before Niar and a squad of Imperial troops arrived to rescue them.
Relocating their base to a drilling platform, Nadrin explained that the damage to Makeb's core was too extensive to repair, so they would utilize the drilling platforms to accelerate the destruction process, allowing the core to transition into a new state of equilibrium. The challenge was that none of their on-site team members possessed the expertise to operate the laser drills, necessitating the assistance of local engineers.
While the strike team was occupied with commandeering the laser drills, the Archon dispatched a Regulator assault shuttle, capturing Niar and several others for interrogation. By the time the strike team managed to storm Szajin's palace, they discovered Niar suffering from mortal wounds. She confessed that she had succumbed to torture and that the Archon was now poised to contact the Cartel fleet to inform them of the Empire's true intentions.
Niar mustered the strength to reach the Archon's throne room and witness his defeat. The enraged Hutt boasted that his ground forces were scattered across Makeb and could contact his fleet before they were silenced. However, Niar pointed out that the Empire could prevent that by eliminating them all. The strike team reinforced her threat by instructing Nadrin to initiate groundquakes at all mercenary locations, burying them all in lava, before executing Szajin.
As Niar succumbed to her injuries, she expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Empire.
Katha Niar made her debut in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, a Digital Expansion launched in 2012 for the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. According to the game's dialogue files, Niar's original name was "Kiar Onila."