Nolhta grew up like any other of his species on his home planet of Mon Calamari.  His early schooling showed talent for electronics.  So much so that he was sent off to the Naboo Engineering Academy in Theed.  At this time, the Emperor seized power.  The Empire took over the administration of the Academy and all non-humans were thrown out onto the street.  There became very few refuges on Naboo where aliens could reside.  The only town that would tolerate them was Moenia.

After spending many days in the streets of Moenia, scrounging for materials and selling what electronics components he could.  His biggest client was a Wookie who was in one of his classes at the Academy.   The Wookie had been forced into making droids for The Empire near Theed, but could never service enough equipment for his masters. in exchange for some spare military grade hardware, Nolhta would sneak into the workshop at late hours in secret and work with the Wookie to get his quota finished. Here he learned the ways of Droid Engineering, his major at the Academy.

One day, a rather shady character approached him as he was leaving the Wookie's workshop with a deal too good to be true. The only problem was that it required him to travel to Theed, the heart of the Empire on Naboo.  He normally avoided Theed, but this was his big break to get off the planet, so he agreed.  Upon arrival in Theed, he was immediately noticed by a gang of drunk Imperial officers fresh from the cantina.  Nolhta was dragged to a corner of town and beaten.  Suddenly, a shadow appeared behind the officers and with 3 moves that were as quick as lightning the officers were on the ground scrambling to get away.  The man who saved his life was a Corellian, Mar-Civac Horn.  Mar-Civac helped Nolhta escape from the Naboo system. 

Not forgetting what The Empire did to him, he joined the Rebellion with Mar-Civac.  In doing so, he learned what he could about Intelligence and spacecraft construction.  As payment for saving his life, Nolhta maintains all of Mar-civac's equipment and provides him with information, often finding things few know about.