SWTOR Headcanon : I present to you the Slice Girls !
So in my headcanon, there was a time about four years before the class stories where five NPCs (two of them fairly prominent) were teenagers running their own slicer gang and surviving on the hard streets of Nar Shaddaa. Mako, Kira Carsen, Kixiaralu, Chaney Barrow and Rylee Dray were.... THE SLICE GIRLS.
(You can all thank @tatterdown and @dorkynanni for the name... i had Wannabe stuck in my head while cutting out the screenshots. Thanks for that. Really. 😂 )
The Slice Girls ultimately broke up when, while on a job for the Hutt Cartel, they were compromised by a rival group and had to scatter. All five young women were forced underground, going their separate ways. But who knows what the future may hold for any of them?
No surprise who leads off our group. Whether it’s genetics, cybernetic implants, or simply raw talent, Mako is a slicer among slicers. She largely taught most of the others, and while she was never actually the leader of the group, she certainly had the maddest “skillz”, and was arguably its soul and linchpin.
When that Cartel operation went sideways, Mako was chased on foot by a pair of Rodian gangsters, trying to draw them off the others. The rest of the gang assumed she’d been killed, but Braden wound up saving her, then recruiting her for his bounty hunting operation. She wouldn’t make it back to N.S. for years.
Some of you may be thinking “Hey - where does it say that Kira Carsen was a slicer?”
Well, follow along, and i’ll lay this out.
During the Coruscant campaign Kiwiiks notes Kira’s computer talents. Now most Jedi seem to be well trained in technology, and basic computer skills and even slicing seem part of the curriculum. But for Kiwiiks to put Kira forward after only two years as a padawan suggests her skill is well above-average.
We later see Kira take the lead on accessing the Justicars’ computer systems, reinforcing the point that she’s really good at this. I figure she must have picked up on that somewhere, and both she and Mako grew up on Nar Shaddaa at about the same time.
Kira was the “muscle” of the group. Her Force abilities and combat training gave her the ability to fight off individual enemies, though she was careful not to blow her cover. I’m imagining Mako yelling at Kira to protect the others when things went south, and Kira probably blames herself a bit for Mako’s “death”.
When Mako left and the others wanted to split apart, Kira withdrew back to the refugee camps on the lower levels. Two years later, she would encounter Master Kiwiiks and the rest was history.
Kixiaralu - aka Kixi - appears on Coruscant during the Smuggler’s story. She is, perhaps, most famous for slicing into Skaavik’s medical records and “giving” him a plague to keep the ladies away from him. She also gets a cameo in the novel Fatal Alliance.
Her Wookiepedia doesn’t put her on Nar Shadaa, but the age-frame seems to fit, albeit she seems a tad younger than Kira and Mako.
In my head-canon, Kixi hoofed it when the job went bad, stowing away on the first transport she could board. As it turns out, the transport was headed to Coruscant. Kixi made a place for herself on the crime-ridden lower levels, assisting vigilantes like Larin Moxla. Unfortunately, she eventually ran afoul of the Migrant Merchants’ Guild, who took her prisoner and enslaved her, using her slicing skills.
Eventually she escaped with the help of the future Voidhound. (Unless you go DS on her. In which case, how dare you? She’s too cute.)
Chaney Barrow shows up on Belsavis during the Imperial Agent story. She was a bit of the black sheep of the group, being a considerably more ruthless and greedy than the others. When things got bad, she didn’t look back, running straight to the Exchange and offering her services. Eventually, she was caught by the Republic and imprisoned on Belsavis. She was released by Cipher Nine during the invasion of Belsavis, though her survival varies on whether or not you play it DS or LS.
Rylee Dray is actually from Nar Shadda in the “canon”, showing up as one of your cult members in the Sith Inquisitor story. She’s a skilled slicer and surprisingly competent and kind.
In my head-canon, when the group broke up, she had few options, and wound up working for the Cult of the Screaming Blade led by Lord Paladius. Later still, she allies with Lord Kallig, effectively becoming the leader of his new cult.
And since every ‘band’ needs a ‘plus one / groupie / roadie’ ....
Anuli wasn’t an “official” member of the group, but he’s something of the ‘kid brother’, especially to Mako. A nice kid, he learned from Mako and the others, and was genuinely gifted. Believing Mako to be dead, he started working for Gele'ren, a Hutt underboss. He appears in the Bounty Hunter story on Nar Shaddaa, where he sadly meets his end at the hands of the Eidolon. (Poor Mako. ☹️ )
I had debated adding Vette, but I much preferred having her meet Kira for the first time years later.
There we are. What do you think?
