Jessa Spanjaf

Jessa Spanjaf, a human female, was the mother of Merei Spanjaf and the wife of Gandr Spanjaf. She and her husband worked as data-security specialists and were contracted by several ministries of the Galactic Empire. Several years before the Battle of Yavin, Gandr and his family moved to the planet Lothal to help the local Imperial ministries boost the security of their data networks. Both parents were unaware of their daughter Merei's illegal activities; which included hacking the Transportation Ministry's data network, working as a courier for the criminal Gray Syndicate; and consorting with known rebels and rebel sympathizers including the Spectres cell, her former classmates Zare Leonis and Beck Ollet, and the fugitive Holshef. Merei was helping her boyfriend Zare to find his sister Dhara Leonis, who had been abducted for a secret Imperial program known as Project Harvester.

After Merei hacked into the Transportation Ministry's data network, Jessa was part of the anti-intrusion team that was assigned to investigate that data breach. Merei spent much of that year trying to stay ahead of the Imperial investigators by altering her school photo while working as a courier for the Gray Syndicate at the same time. In a misguided attempt to free herself from the Gray Syndicate and to mislead the Imperial investigation team, Merei staged her own kidnapping, which led to a deadly Imperial raid on Ake's Tavern, the Gray Syndicate's headquarters. As a result, Jessa and her husband came to believe that the Gray Syndicate were the culprits behind the Transportation Ministry's data breach and that they had kidnapped Merei to stop the Imperial investigation.

Jessa and Gandr were later forced to flee Lothal with their daughter Merei after the Empire launched a crackdown on all sedition and crime following the Spectres' hijacking of the Imperial Communications Center at Jalath. While Jessa was initially furious with Merei for "ruining their lives," she changed her mind after Merei revealed that she had downloaded secret Imperial documents that revealed Imperial atrocities and abuses on Lothal. After fleeing to the planet Garel with the help of Old Jho and the Spectres, Jessa accompanied her daughter Merei on a mission to rescue Zare and his sister Dhara from Area Null, a secret Imperial facility on the planet Arkanis. Following the rescue mission, she and her family assumed new identities crafted by her husband, Gandr.

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