Ona Nobis, a Sorrusian of near-Human descent, worked as a bounty hunter. She was employed by Jenna Zan Arbor, a scientist, to abduct Force-sensitive individuals, including Jedi, for experimentation. Her weapon of choice was a lethal whip that could also function as a laser (though its tech differed from that of a lightwhip). Additionally, she possessed exceptional skills in disguise.
A strong animosity was held by Nobis towards Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Padawan.
Born on the planet Sorrus within a tribe led by Goq Cranna, Ona Nobis' early life took a dark turn in 53 BBY. She was bribed by a Sorrusian government operative to deceive her tribe into supporting the construction of a dam. This dam would divert water away from their lands, allowing the agent to expand his mountain property with more fertile soil. Consequently, the tribe's territory transformed into the arid Arra Desert. Before her treachery could be discovered, Nobis fled off-world, having prepared a hidden cache of provisions for her escape.
Her actions led to her being branded a disgrace by her people, a reputation further tarnished by her career as a bounty hunter.
In 43 BBY, Nobis found herself working for Jenna Zan Arbor, a well-known scientist, tasked with capturing Jedi and other Force users for her experiments on the Force. Her methods involved strangulation and bloodletting. Her first victim was Ren S'orn, the son of Belascan Senator Uta S'orn. Nobis murdered him to protect her employer's activities, claiming he had attempted to infiltrate Zan Arbor's secret laboratory on Simpla-12 after his "release".
Over the following months, Nobis left a trail of six victims in the slums of Coruscant, baffling the police. She even succeeded in kidnapping Jedi Master Noor R'aya from his home planet of Sorl, delivering him to Zan Arbor for further experimentation.
Weeks later, Nobis began pursuing Didi Oddo on Coruscant, believing he possessed a datapad containing incriminating information about Zan Arbor. During an attack on a swoop, she dislodged the visor of a Cavrilhu Pirate's. As she ensnared Didi with her whip, the enraged pirate forced her to retreat with a vibroblade, but not before she injured him with a lash.
Two days after the failed abduction, Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, returned to Coruscant, where Didi sought their assistance. They visited Nobis' apartment at the Soft Landings Inn, hoping to persuade her to leave Didi alone and to determine if she was pursuing the wrong target. However, the bounty hunter attacked the Jedi, managing to inflict a minor wound on Qui-Gon before escaping.
Disguised as an elderly man, Nobis visited the Splendor Tavern, where she feigned losing ownership of a cottage on Duneeden in the Cascardi Mountains to Helb, a member of the Tech Raiders. She knew that the Neimoidian would trade it to Didi, who was eager to find a safe haven for himself and his adopted daughter, Astri. Shortly after, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan spotted her and gave chase, but she evaded them in a complex intersection.
Subsequently, Zan Arbor was invited to a grand dinner party at Didi's Diner. Among her fellow scientists, Nobis adopted the alias "Reesa On," which translated to "catch me" in Sorrusian, a deliberate taunt to her pursuers. After the party, Nobis remained behind, incapacitating Astri, trapping Didi with her whip, and searching his office for the datapad. Unable to find it, she fought off the Jedi with her blaster, using the Oddos as shields before escaping through a window on her swoop.
At Zan Arbor's hotel, Nobis disguised herself as a parking attendant. As Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan departed after questioning the scientist, Nobis "helped" move speeders blocking their path, at Qui-Gon's request. With her targets vulnerable, she rammed a speeder into theirs, knocking Obi-Wan off the platform. The Padawan used his liquid cable launcher to prevent a fall. With Qui-Gon distracted, Nobis escaped once more.
Knowing the Oddos had fled to Duneeden, the bounty hunter remained on Coruscant long enough to mislead the Jedi. Arriving at the house in the Cascardi Mountains, she impersonated an elderly caretaker, claiming to "come with the place," and lulled the Oddos into a false sense of security by stating that no one visited during the winter.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discovered Nobis' deception and traveled to Duneeden to rescue the Oddos. Nobis, already inside the house, activated a lockdown sequence, sealing every exit with durasteel coverings. She also sabotaged the Jedi's cruiser to prevent their escape.
Dressed in black, Nobis ambushed the Jedi in the darkness. During the fight, she realized Astri had hidden Zan Arbor's datapad in her tunic after kicking her. The Jedi fought to protect Astri. Obi-Wan kicked Nobis, causing her to fall and lose consciousness briefly.
The Jedi cut through the durasteel on the windows and escaped with the Oddos. Enraged, Nobis pursued them outside. Obi-Wan located the Sorrusian's hidden cruiser and urged the Oddos to flee. Nobis knocked off the platform they were fighting on and slid after the Oddos. The Jedi raced her downwards, but she managed to stop between the Oddos and their transport. She caught Astri with her whip and dragged her toward her, shooting Didi when he tried to intervene, though he survived.
Nobis was inches away from Zan Arbor's datapad. When Astri refused to give it up, she activated the laser mode on her whip, preparing to kill her. However, Obi-Wan used the Force to leap and kicked Nobis again. Nobis drew a vibroblade and threw it at Astri. Obi-Wan intervened once more, grazing two of her right fingers with his lightsaber and catching the hilt of the blade. Enraged and in pain, the bounty hunter vowed revenge on Obi-Wan. She shot out a lunge line from her utility belt with a homing beacon attached to pull her toward the ship; she suffered some more injuries while bouncing on the ice. She boarded the ship and prepared for takeoff. Before the hatch closed, Qui-Gon jumped inside to catch Nobis, but she shot him at point blank range, just missing his heart. He fell into unconsciousness.
Nobis set course for Simpla-12, where she delivered Qui-Gon to Zan Arbor. As part of her treatment, her injured fingers were fused together. Her obsession with Obi-Wan remained.
After delivering Qui-Gon, Nobis was contracted to assassinate Tino, a friend of Ren S'orn, Zan Arbor's first Force-sensitive subject. The scientist feared Tino possessed information that could expose her location and experiments. Before commencing the mission, Nobis returned to her hideout on Sorrus to retrieve a survival rations pack and plant misinformation about her current target, the governor of Cinnatar, in her datapad. She reasoned this would mislead anyone who found it, allowing her to eliminate Tino without interference. She then returned to Simpla-12.
Nobis discovered that Tino worked at a warehouse in Sim-First, Simpla-12's capital city. Disguised in her black suit, she infiltrated the warehouse and located the unsuspecting Tino working one level below her in Sector Two. As she prepared to strike with her whip, Obi-Wan and Astri appeared. Obi-Wan spotted her and warned Tino before using the Force to jump onto the platform where Nobis was standing.
Surprised and enraged, Nobis attacked Obi-Wan by throwing boxes at him before resorting to her whip and blaster. As they fought, Astri led Tino to safety. Obi-Wan managed to keep Nobis off-balance, simultaneously corkscrewing Nobis' whip with the blade of his lightsaber and avoiding her blaster fire. Nobis was not willing to forsake her whip. However, she was forced to reconsider when she found herself between Obi-Wan at her front and Astri behind her on a gravsled. She jumped off the catwalk and fled on a ramp that led to the lower levels. There, the bounty hunter slipped through a door that was the size of the warehouse's tech droids; her Sorrusian physiology allowed her to fit inside, an advantage her adversaries lacked.
Shortly afterwards, Nobis accepted another job from a different client. She arrived outside Zan Arbor's laboratory and requested access via the entrance's intercom from the doctor's Quint assistant, Nil. But Nil was not responding. Before long, Zan Arbor let the Sorrusian in and explained that the laboratory had been infiltrated: Nil was missing and two people, including a Jedi, were most likely trying to rescue Qui-Gon. She demanded Nobis to find the intruders, but the latter of the two women was expecting payment for her "last task" given by the former; she even had plans in case she and Obi-Wan would meet again. Zan Arbor, frantic, tried to persuade Nobis that Obi-Wan might be here at this very instant. Still, the bounty hunter wouldn't budge, stating that she would meet the Padawan whenever she, not her employer, saw fit. When Zan Arbor began refusing to pay her, she made her a gruesome offer: pay or die.
Frustrated, Zan Arbor gave Nobis her payment in an envelope, vowing to never hire her again. Nobis didn't care in the slightest; she just left the premises. Then, she took off for a return trip to Sorrus.
Upon arriving on her home planet, Nobis discovered that she was being followed by Astri Oddo, who brought along three companions—Cholly, Tup, and Weez—to capture the bounty hunter. Sensing an opportunity to get revenge on Obi-Wan, she ambushed the foursome on their air taxi, killed the pilot with a brand new whip, and took them to her hideout. There, she tied them up and gagged them before taking out every tool and provision available to her. In case Obi-Wan would try looking for the captives, Nobis set up a lever that would cause debris to collapse and cave everyone inside once tripped. She then made her way to the Sorrus Medical Center in the planetary capital, Yinn La Hi; she had another trap in mind.
Nobis persuaded "Doctor" Ivo Muna to contact Obi-Wan on his comlink, informing the Padawan that Astri was the hospital, badly injured in an "accident"; the girl had "asked" for him to come before she passed out. Obi-Wan, anxious, promised he would be there soon. Nobis had then made her way to a room on the partially constructed Wing M, third door on the left, which was where Astri would be said to be resting. The ward was just the same as the hallway outside. After studying the terrain, she perched herself on a beam used for the ceiling, readying to ambush Obi-Wan.
Sure enough, Obi-Wan was being led toward the room by Doctor Rai Unlu. He went inside alone after Rai Unlu had left for some "emergency." Nobis leaped from her beam out of the darkness and attacked, but not before Obi-Wan had time to back away, drawing his lightsaber. She knew that this room would restrict Obi-Wan's movement because the Padawan retreated into the construction site to get on better ground. The bounty hunter followed behind, expressing how she had longed for this moment to come.
At first, Obi-Wan jumped on every obstacle in the hall to gain the upper hand over Nobis, letting the Force guide him as he went. But as Nobis drew a blaster to add with her whip, the boy could not concentrate on both weapons at once, slipped on some stones and fell onto a muddy puddle. He dodged her weapons and then went back on his feet. Outmatched, Obi-Wan telekinetically threw a fusioncutter at her, causing her to intercept it with her whip. This distraction gave Obi-Wan time to jump over the bounty hunter, landing on the nearest girder behind her. Nobis tried to lasso the Padawan in, but he was out of reach, hopping from girder to girder until he was on the other side of the site. Knowing that her quarry had escaped her, she let out an angry scream.
During this time, Nobis was contacted via her comlink by Jenna Zan Arbor, who wanted to rehire her, despite the latter's previous claim to the contrary. She was needed to smuggle the scientist and Noor R'aya into Belasco, the home of former Senator Uta S'orn; then, she would once again protect Zan Arbor as she began working on a cure to the bio-plague she introduced on this world's water supply. Hearing that she would get a cut of this reward the Belascan people could offer Arbor Industries, Nobis accepted the offer and left Sorrus for Belasco.
As she arrived at the Senta spaceport, the bounty hunter disguised herself as a Belascan medic and awaited the V-wing cruiser Zan Arbor would be flying. Zan Arbor went under the alias "Cir L'ani", a native Belascan returning home with her sick "father" (Noor). When the cruiser landed, Nobis met her employer, who held the weakened Noor on a med-splint, and they both traveled to the palace. She kept herself well hidden in one of the ceiling vents nearing S'orn's private quarters, where Noor was being held. S'orn, who was a part of this conspiracy, posed as a volunteer med aide and left two trays of food for her Sorrusian compatriot. Nobis slithered out of the vent, helped herself to two tarts, and sneaked the trays with her into her hiding place.
Later in the day, Zan Arbor and S'orn's scheme was falling apart. It was in the middle of a party in the royal grounds that the Jedi revealed the plot to Belascan Leader Min K'atel, who ordered for S'orn's quarters to be searched and the Senator surrounded. But the palace guard droids had been reprogrammed at the last moment by Zan Arbor to shoot the Jedi. As the fight broke out, Siri Tachi, apprenticed to Master Adi Gallia, somehow found Nobis and went after her.
This act of impulse would almost cost Siri dearly. Nobis lured her onto the palace roof and caught the Padawan's lightsaber with her whip, trying to wrench it off. As she drew a blaster to shoot Siri, Obi-Wan rushed to the rescue, using the Force to knock the blaster away from her. Nobis nearly fell as a result, but quickly recovered. She switched the whip to laser mode to attack Obi-Wan and pulled out her second blaster. She dodged a charge from Siri, causing her to mock both Padawans on their abilities. Once again, Obi-Wan corkscrewed his lightsaber around Nobis' whip and the bounty hunter fired in response, narrowly missing him. As she pulled on the whip hard, Obi-Wan fell, but used this opportunity to twist and kick Nobis' blaster out of her grasp. Then, Siri joined Obi-Wan as they cornering Nobis together.
Feeling the need to escape, Nobis reverted her whip to normal mode and lassoed onto a nearby drainpipe, propelling herself over the Padawans. At the same time, while in midair, she pulled out a third blaster and aimed at her prey. Before she could fire, Adi Gallia arrived and jumped toward Nobis, cutting the whip in half. All the bounty hunter could do was give a look of surprise as she fell to her death.
Ona Nobis was characterized by her intelligence, greed, sarcasm, and treachery as a bounty hunter. She consistently sought methods to outwit those pursuing her and rarely engaged in conversation with her targets. Upon capturing a bounty, she invariably secured them with servo-cuffs.
Nobis displayed a lack of concern for the anxieties of her employers, revealing a selfish and heartless nature. Her primary motivation was financial gain, leading her to swiftly move on to subsequent assignments. Her ruthlessness extended to threatening Jenna Zan Arbor, reminding her of her capabilities.