Maximilian Veers Maximilian Veers was a male Human Major General of the Galactic Empire ' s Imperial Army , famous for his leadership at the assault on Hoth in 3 ABY and other battles . He also was the father of Zevulon Veers . He died on a suicide mission in 10 ABY . Biography . Early life and career ( 48 BBY – 0 BBY ) . Maximilian Veers was the son of a middle - class working family on the ecumenopolis planet of Denon in the Core Worlds . He joined the Imperial Academy and , while there , decided to train towards a career in the Assault Armor Division , where he might operate the mechanical behemoths that were the All Terrain Armored Transports . He believed the massive vehicles introduced during the Clone Wars best embodied his own personality as well as that of the Galactic Empire . He took up his training with rigorous determination , showing a surprising intellect and initiative after emerging from several " suicide missions " by surpassing his mission assignments . Veers graduated at the top of his class , and , his superiors finding him both skillful and dangerous , was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant upon graduation and an assignment as commander of an AT - AT . As a test of his abilities , he was soon shipped to a barbaric and backwater Outer Rim Territories world called Culroon III . The Culroon III campaign was designed to either make or break Veers . If he failed , he was likely to perish . He quickly learned that the Empire did not tolerate incompetence and failure . During the attempt to pacify the natives of Culroon III , General Irrv had ordered for Lieutenant Veers to remain confined to the base while he and an Imperial party went to negotiate a peace with the Culroon natives . Veers had warned that it was a trap and that Irrv should bring armored support to deter any would - be ambushers . General Irrv did not listen and paid the price with his life when he was executed for incompetence after the Culroon natives deceived and killed most of his party . If it had not been for Lieutenant Veers ' s quick thinking and disregard of a direct order , the Imperial party would have been utterly slaughtered . For his bravery and brilliance in saving the Culroon mission ' s stormtrooper detail , Veers was promoted to major . Major Veers married and had a son named Zevulon . When Zevulon was only a young boy , Veers lost his wife to a rare disease during a family vacation . Devastated by the death of his wife , Veers buried his grief in his military career . This began to affect his relationship with his son , who he advised to honor his mother by joining the Sub - Adult Group , a youth paramilitary organization of the Empire . Veers ' s devotion to the army seemed to pay off , as he was granted the rank of colonel and the command of an Imperial garrison on Corellia . Veers was also widely recognized as an authority on the AT - AT , and often returned to Carida to guest - lecture at AT - AT training courses and demonstrate prototypes of new AT - AT models . During one of these demonstrations , shortly before 0 ABY , Veers came to the attention of Darth Vader when he defeated a Rebel invasion force . At this point , however , Veers ' s career seemed to stagnate . Veers lacked the aristocratic connections needed to move up in rank , and questions had arisen regarding his methods of career advancement . Worse , during one of the training courses on Carida , a promising Cadet named Davin Felth lowered his walker to its knees in order to prevent the opposing force from exploiting the weakness its long legs presented . The weakness threatened Veers ' s career , as it was so closely tied to the success of the walkers . Veers buried the incident by reassigning Felth to the infantry . Galactic Civil War ( 0 BBY – 3 ABY ) . Veers had been selected for a position on the first Death Star , as a ground commander , and as an academic instructor . With Felth out of the way , this seemed the perfect opportunity to achieve an elite position . The assignment turned out to be another dead end , as Veers had only just arrived in - system at the Battle of Yavin . A Rebel X - wing fighter spotted his shuttle and forced a crash landing on the jungle moon of Yavin 4 . For some time , Colonel Veers survived on emergency rations and local wildlife before he contacted an assault force led by Major Brenn Tantor , which was able to rescue him . Having had his new position blown out from under him , Colonel Veers returned to his garrison on Corellia . There he helped CorSec Inspectors Hal and Corran Horn put an end to the criminal Black Sun lieutenant , Zekka Thyne , by storming his fortress on the notion that Thyne was harboring Rebel insurgents . Impressed by Veers ' s performance in removing Black Sun ' s presence near Coronet City , Vice Admiral Thrawn recommended the brilliant ground commander to Darth Vader . As it turned out , the destruction of the Death Star aided Veers ' s career in the long run . The deaths of so many high - ranking officers aboard the station had left a power vacuum that Veers stepped into following the raid on Thyne ' s stronghold . Veers was able to continue work in secret on the new AT - AT prototype on Zaloriis , which he described as " " the " walker " . Unexpectedly , the Zalorians declared independence from the Empire and abducted him . He was later rescued by Darth Vader . Together , Vader and Veers completed work on the prototype and used it to crush the Zalorian rebellion , destroying Zaloriis City in the process . Impressed , Vader accepted Thrawn ' s recommendation and promoted Veers to Major General over the heads of several high colonels , placing him in command of Death Squadron ' s ground troops . Despite the questions that had surfaced concerning his career advancement , not a single high colonel questioned Veers ' unorthodox promotion to Vader ' s fleet , and these issues quickly faded . Veers recruited only the best pilots to serve in his Thundering Herd AT - AT squadron . Often , he would pilot an extra armored and more powerful walker . His new appointment was the pinnacle of success for someone in Veers ' s position , and he wasted no time proving himself . Just weeks after the promotion , Veers had his forces pared down by ten percent , yet efficiency had risen by 50 percent . His timing was impeccable , for in 3 ABY an Arakyd Viper probe droid from Death Squadron had discovered the Alliance High Command ' s secret Echo Base on the planet Hoth . Veers ' s most notable success occurred at the Battle of Hoth when he was given the chance to correct a mistake caused by the incompetent Admiral Ozzel . General Veers lived up to both his reputation and Lord Vader ' s expectations by quickly deploying his armored regiment , designated Blizzard Force , into the Echo Base mountain valley and personally destroying the shield generator protecting the Rebel base . Shortly after the destruction of the shield generator , Rebel snowspeeder pilot Derek " Hobbie " Klivian flew his damaged vessel directly into the cockpit of Veers ' s Blizzard One walker . Both men miraculously survived the incident but came out badly injured . General Veers attempted to flee the bridge of his walker , but was not swift enough and a falling support beam crushed his leg bones into pieces so small that reconstruction and bacta could not restore them . Veers , like many in the galaxy , held a dislike for cybernetics and refused to have his legs replaced with prosthetics . Because of this , Veers would be confined to a hoverchair for the rest of his life . After Hoth ( 3 ABY – 10 ABY ) . Although the Battle of Hoth was a great victory for him , bringing him fame and glory , it was overshadowed by a report from his son ' s COMPNOR SAGroup commander . The commander reported that Zevulon Veers had gone missing during a SAGroup mission dealing with Rebel spies . However , the honored General suspected that his son had defected to the Rebellion and disowned him . The betrayal of his son brought shame and dishonor to the Veers name despite the General ' s victory at Hoth . He would suffer from the ignominy his son brought forth for the rest of his life . Nearly a year later , General Veers was on a planetside mission when the " Executor " was destroyed over Endor . After the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor , General Veers served under command of Admiral Sander Delvardus . Delvardus soon became one of the first Imperial Warlords and created the Imperial splinter faction known as the Eriadu Authority . This was criticized by General Veers and other Imperial officers serving under him . In the following years he would move from one Imperial commander to the next in search of a new command , eventually serving as a template for Grand Admiral Thrawn ' s clones . Most of the time he was shunned away or rejected downright because of his relationship with Lord Vader . Most post - Endor officers despised anyone who had served and survived Darth Vader and wanted nothing to do with those people . For six years , Veers wandered the galaxy watching as everything he believed in and fought for crumbled around him . Eventually , he became disappointed and distraught with the path the Empire was following , but his sense of loyalty and honor had kept him from defecting or going . When the message recalling the remaining Imperial forces to the Deep Core arrived , Veers , like many other officers searching for a new hope , answered it and reported to the Imperial Fleet orbiting Byss . Six months after Thrawn ' s defeat at the Battle of Bilbringi , Veers would participate in the Battle of Calamari and Balmorra . It was during the Battle of Balmorra that Veers suffered the worst fate that could be given to an established officer of the Empire . Hated for the fact that he served and survived Lord Vader , Veers was severely demoted to the rank of captain and sent on a suicide mission by Executor Sedriss QL . Maximilian Veers , one of the Empire ' s greatest ground tacticians and heroes , perished on that fateful suicide mission . Personality and traits . Veers was a ruthless and aggressive officer who enjoyed wreaking havoc with the destructive Imperial ground forces , but was also an honorable frontline commander who was not opposed to putting himself in harm ' s way . These traits earned him the respect of Grand Admiral Thrawn for his courage under fire . Behind the scenes . Maximilian Veers was portrayed by Julian Glover in " " . George Lucas would later cast Glover as the villainous Walter Donovan in " Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade " , reuniting him with Harrison Ford ( although " Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade " was the first film in which Glover and Ford appeared together onscreen , having shared no scenes in " The Empire Strikes Back " ) . Veers was voiced by Gordon Gould in the audio drama version of " The Empire Strikes Back " . Guy Siner provided the voice of Veers in " " . His voice in the 2005 video game " " was provided by Jamie Glover , Julian ' s son . In the novel adaptation of the screenplay of " The Empire Strikes Back " , General Veers was killed shortly after the destruction of the shield generator during the Battle of Hoth . The snowspeeder pilot Derek Klivian suffered severe damage to his craft and sped it into a suicide attack on Veers ' s walker . The resulting explosion destroyed the " head " of the walker , killing Veers and his crew . Early versions of the " " script had Veers present , commanding scout forces on Had Abbadon . His death in " " made him the second film character with a speaking role to be killed in the Expanded Universe . " , " a video game released in 2001 , portrays Veers as a colonel at the beginning of the Battle of Zaloriis and being promoted to general afterward . " Congratulations , " General " Veers , " Vader tells him . This may be inconsistent with other sources . However , a stormtrooper calls him " General " before this promotion , when Veers arrives to take the prototype AT - AT . Also , when the player selects Veers , he sometimes responds by saying " General Veers , my Lord ? " The game ' s incorrectly states he led the Imperial Marine s at the Battle of Hoth . In the 2006 video game " " , Grand Moff Tarkin states that Veers designed the AT - AT personally . In the game he commands a modified AT - AT . Veers also appeared in a skit for the non - canon special " " , where he tells the AT - ATs to start their attack on Echo Base , only to be completely dumbfounded when two of the AT - ATs jumped out of line to participate in a race that greatly resembled a freeway race by teenagers , resulting in one of the AT - ATs being totaled . When Vader asks for the results of the mission , Veers was in such a state of shock that he wasn ' t able to give any , causing him to instead cover Vader ' s hologram with a plastic coffee cup . General Veers briefly appeared in the 2007 video game " " at the beginning of the " Escape from Echo Base " level ( " The Empire Strikes Back " ) .