Beilert Valance

Beilert Valance, also known as Valance the Hunter, was a human male bounty hunter. Born into slavery on Chorin, Valance became a miner like his father. He grew up idealizing the Galactic Empire, which he later left his homeworld to join, under designation Cadet 404-913.
Valance served alongside Han Solo as a cadet at Carida Academy, the Imperial Naval Academy on the planet Carida. He was involved in at least two altercations with Solo, and both ended up crashing during an exercise due to their conflict. While covering bombers during a battle on Qhulosk, Valance was shot down, leaving him with several permanent injuries. After being rescued by his fellow cadets, Valance enlisted for the infantry and was deployed to Mimban, where he was severely injured in the ensuing battle. The Empire repaired Valance's body with extensive cybernetics, but he was discharged from service. Valance became a bounty hunter after failing to protect his homeworld from raiders. He was mentored by Nakano Lash, who betrayed him during a mission on Corellia. Valance later resorted to breaking the Bounty Hunter Code by stealing bounties from other hunters.
The Hidden Hand crime syndicate eventually tracked down and hired Valance to hunt down Darth Vader. Leading the team of bounty hunters, which included Dengar, Chio Fain, Honnah, and Urrr'k. Valance eventually faced Vader on Heva, but most of his team was killed by Vader, and the cyborg himself was betrayed by Dengar. After capturing him, Vader offered to leave the bounty hunter alive if he worked with the Empire to destroy the Hidden Hand. Valance, however, made a deal with a group of Rebel Alliance operatives. After leading the Empire to the Hidden Hand's main base, Valance escaped, using his payment for the initial job to purchase weapons for the Rebellion, in exchange for the rebels rescuing his people from Chorin.
Valance later took on a job from his old friend Han Solo, who had become a rebel, which involved delivering the engineer Vharn and the schematics for a shield generator to the Rebellion. During the mission, he killed Vharn after learning of his treachery. After delivering the schematics to the Rebellion personally, he requested that they spend half the credits to ransom Vharn's family.
Around 3 ABY, Lash resurfaced with a bounty on her head, attracting the attention of several bounty hunters. When Valance learned about Lash's resurgence, he began tracking her down. He followed Lash's coordinates to the planet Galmerah, where he engaged in a fight with the bounty hunter Bossk. His path led him to Ruusan, where he encountered the body of Thisspiasian bounty hunter Ooris Bynar, and later Lash herself in orbit. There he fought Boba Fett, before losing. Fett then left the crumbling ship, as did Valance, who regretfully left Lash for dead while taking responsibility for a Cadeliah, who was under Lash's protection. Soon after, Valance handed the child off to his old love Yuralla Vega at the rebel outpost on Lowik after paying Zuckuss and 4-LOM off of his trail.
Feeling he owed Han Solo for saving him all those years before, Valance was soon called back into action to rescue Rebels from the Spirit of Jedha who were captured by the Ohnaka Gang. Fighting the pirates, he was soon reunited with Dengar. The two soon heard about the bounty placed on Boba Fett for the loss of the frozen Han Solo, and pursued this opportunity together. This search took them to Nar Shaddaa and Canto Bight, where they fought Crimson Dawn and the assassin Deathstick. The two hunters next targeted the Auction for Han Solo. Valance and Dengar fought Boba Fett on Jekara, but Valance left Dengar on the icy world while accompanying Fett into space to reclaim Solo from the Executor. On board the Super Star Destroyer, Valance helped Fett find the frozen smuggler, but Fett blew the cyborg up with a thermal detonator, leaving him for dead while escaping to claim Solo for himself. Escaping his fate through sheer willpower, Valance made his way to the destroyer's hangar to meet up with T'onga on the Edgehawk. Just before escaping and boarding, Valance was captured by Darth Vader and repaired to once again work for the Empire.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Beilert Valance was born into a mining family which had dug the hills of their homeworld of Chorin for centuries as slaves until the Galactic Empire liberated them. As a child, Valance spoke with his father about his heritage, asking if he would follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps as a miner. His father informed him that, because of the Empire's efforts, their people were no longer slaves, and Valance was free to venture into the stars. As a child, Valance once attended an Imperial parade, where he stumbled into Captain Tarl Sokoli. Sokoli gave a hungry Valance his final ration bar, and inspired him to look past the mines and consider joining the Imperial military.Bounty Hunters 18 Valance later worked in the mines and soon decided to join the Empire. Before he left, Yuralla Vega, his lover, gave him a red gem to remember her by. Valance's father told him to work as hard as he did in the mines.
===Imperial cadet===
====Meeting Han Solo====
Valance eventually became a cadet for the Empire at Carida Academy, the Imperial Naval Academy on the planet Carida in the star system of the same name. At the Imperial Academy, the Imperial cadets were referred to by their assigned operating numbers instead of their names, with Valance being known by the digits "404-913." While he seemingly won the love of the Empire, due to his belief in beating others into submission to show he was the best, one of Valance's fellow cadets, Kanina Nico, particularly hated him, even more than she hated everyone else.
Valance came to dislike fellow cadet Han Solo, as he believed Solo was holding him back and viewed him as merely a Corellian scrumrat. At one point during training, Solo spoke out of turn to their training officer Lieutenant Triosa Broog. She responded by ordering the cadets to run up a mountain in full swamp trooper gear. In response to this, several cadets attacked Solo. Afterwards, Valance insulted Solo, claiming scrumrats like him did not belong in the navy. Before Valance could cause any serious physical harm, cadet Nico cut in and told him to let the other cadet go.
====Causing trouble====
While Solo was detained temporarily for trying to escape Carida in a TIE fighter, Valance climbed to the top of the cadet leader board, competing heavily with Nico. When Solo returned to see the leader board, he confronted him again. Solo tried to fight him, but was knocked to the ground by Valance. Solo then kicked him in the groin and hit him around the face with a tray. An officer arrived and questioned the incident, but Solo and Valance dismissed it as a misunderstanding to avoid punishment. Valance briefly threatened Solo after, before they both parted ways.
Later, Valance was partnered with Lyttan Dree for another training session. In TIE fighters, they were tasked with working together against the other pairs to obliterate their target. During the session, Lyttan's brother, Tamu Dree, flew in a collision course. Lyttan abandoned Valance and their mission for his brother, but it was Solo who saved him in the end. After, the cadets were put in a cell for not completing their task. Their punishment was making soup for the other cadets. When Solo became covered in live roots, Valance refused to let the Dree brothers help him.Han Solo - Imperial Cadet 3
One day, the cadets under punishment were approached by training officer Yurib Nakan, who reported that their work duties were already fulfilled for the day, supposedly thanks to Valance. He had Valance return to flight training and other four flying the Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier which carried the rest of the cadets flying in TIE fighters. As a part of their training session, the cadets in TIEs had to fly across open space to rendezvous with a destroyer while Solo, Nico and the Dree brothers flew the carrier. Following the exercise, Valance was with the four cadets after they returned with the carrier. They had all been reinstated to full-flight status following their success in returning on time. Nakan entered the room after the news came to light and told Valance and the others that they would be combating real enemies.
====Shot down====
Valance and the rest of the squad were assigned to Qhulosk. Before the mission on Qhulosk, he argued with Nakan about Solo's fitness to fly into battle. Once the attack began, Valance took the lead. Solo strafed some cannons, but was pursued by three Qhuloskian fighters. Valance dropped in behind them, destroying them and saving Solo. He then took the point and led an attack on the shield generators that were protecting the Qhuloskian army. After a successful attack, Valance's TIE fighter was hit by enemy fire and heavily damaged. A pair of Qhuloskian fighters got behind him, but Solo convinced Valance to turn off his engines so he would drop out of the line of fire and give Solo a clear shot at them. He restarted his engines, but was unable to maneuver his fighter. Before Solo could assist him, his fighter was hit by more enemy fire and he crash-landed, unable to eject.
Valance got out of his crashed starfighter and set up a defensive perimeter. When Solo and the rest of the squad approached him, he fired on them, thinking they were enemies. Tamu applied first aid to his wounds. Valance expressed disbelief that the Empire would send his squadmates to rescue him, and Solo informed him they did it on their own. While Valance could not believe it, Solo told him that Valance was like all soldiers, expendable. Solo got Valance on the back of his speeder bike, and Valance begrudgingly thanked him for the rescue.
On their way back to base, they ran into a large group of Qhuloskian soldiers. Valance fired upon them, but the squad was quickly surrounded. They were saved by a group of Ghular slaves. After learning Nico's planet was next to be conquered by the Empire, Solo concocted a plan to make it look like she died in combat. Valance agreed to go along with the falsehood but warned her she'd be wanted by the Empire. When Valance got back to base and was sent to medical bay, he learned the Empire would not replace his eye or leg and he would lose his flight privileges. He was upset, but Tamu guessed he would pay for them himself and re-enlist as a soldier so he could continue to serve.
===Serving in the infantry===
====Fighting battles====
Valance did indeed serve in the infantry. During one battle in the Mid Rim, serving as a stormtrooper, Valance was pinned behind a trench alongside three of his comrades. When one of them asked him if his death was worth it, Valance recounted how the Empire had saved his family, implying that his death was worth it for that. Four enemy soldiers arrived to kill the stormtroopers, only for them to be killed by Darth Vader as he brought reinforcements with him.Target Vader 3
During an assignment to Mimban, Valance served as a swamp trooper and was pinned down in a trench with several other troopers. One attempted to climb out, only to have his head vaporized by enemy fire. When Valance failed to muster air support through his comlink, the other soldiers claimed the Empire did not care about them. Determined to complete his mission, Valance led them out of the trench. He was suddenly hit by enemy fire, injuring him gravely as he was swept away by an explosion. As his body burned, he told his comrades to "keep going."
====Discharged====
At the Imperial medical facility, Captain Valance received cybernetic arms and legs, as well as having the left side of his face cybernetically enhanced. Although Valance wanted to return to battle, his old instructor, Yurib Nakan made sure that he was discharged, wishing for him to not be sent to his death. Valance was shocked at this news, but Nakan told him that he would get to go home, something which most soldiers in the Empire could never do.
Valance returned to Chorin in a Zeta-class Heavy Cargo Shuttle. Upon his arrival, he discovered his home in ruins and a graveyard of miners beside it. Kneeling before his father's grave, Valance said he was "sorry." Approaching the ruins of the village, he found Vega among the people. She told him the Empire had taken everything from the mines and left the people defenseless to raiders, which they were not able to stop. Valance told her he would make the raiders pay. He found where they had been, but the raiders were already gone. He was determined to keep going, and became a bounty hunter.
===Bounty hunter===
====Beginning as a hunter====
At some point, Valance met a smugglerBattle of Jakku — Republic Under Siege 4 who operated in the anoat sector.Star Wars: Uprising While residing in a cantina in Phelar Port on the Outer Rim planet of Eriadu, Valance witnessed a boy being harassed by a patron, before a company of stormtroopers entered the cantina and confronted the boy. The cyborg approached the troopers and attacked them, while lamenting how he was a pawn of the Empire and the loss of his "humanity" as a result of the injuries he sustained on Mimban.
Unbeknownst to him, Nakano Lash, a Nautolan bounty hunter, rushed to save Valance, as she believed the cyborg would be killed by the stormtroopers. After Valance encountered another group of stormtroopers, he was incapacitated by laser fire, before Lash stepped in to save the cyborg and eliminated the troopers. When questioned why the Nautolan had saved him, Lash, accompanied by the bounty hunter T'ongor and the technician Jhorstek, replied she had once been in a similar situation to the boy he saved, before allowing Jhorstek to repair and upgrade Valance's cybernetics, the cost of which Lash paid.
====Failed job====
Following the event, Valance was mentored in bounty hunting by Lash. Prior to embarking on a job, Valance, Lash, and fellow hunters Bossk and T'ongor were stationed aboard Lash's starship, the Starskimmer. Valance used the ship's long-range communicator to contact Vega on Chorin via Receiver Station 356-39, but closed the connection before they could meet. He was then taunted by Bossk, who stated that she would not accept Valance due to his cybernetics. After getting into a scuffle with the Trandoshan, the two were interrupted by Lash and were briefed on the job, which was to assist the son of Mourner's Wail Syndicate's leader, Khamus, in the assassination of a member of the Unbroken Clan on the Core Worlds planet Corellia.Bounty Hunters 1 The team also hired the revered bounty hunter Boba Fett to help them.
During the mission, Valance moved in to assist Fett in eliminating the Unbroken Clan's members. He criticized Fett for not following the team's original plan, which involved a discreet approach. While exchanging fire with one of the clanmates, Valance's face was struck by blaster fire, melting the skin off the left side of his face and exposing his cybernetics. Suddenly, Lash betrayed her team and killed Khamus. T'ongor alerted Valance and Fett to her actions over his wrist comm and told them to flee, but was killed afterward.
Valance worked with a number of bounty hunters over time, including CT-720, BT-823, Kolivo, and a Nautolan, as well as Cavic, whom he considered an ally. Later, Valance teamed up with Cavic and hid from the Empire, traversing the Outer Rim in their starship, the Broken Wing. As they landed inside a ship after flying through an asteroid field, Cavic explained to Valance that he knew exactly where the Empire's reaches extended, and set up outposts across other asteroid fields. Valance was told that sticking together with him would put the cyborg in heavy debt and cut his life short, stating that parting ways with him would make a free man.Target Vader 6
====Abregado-Rae====
During the performance of a hit on Abregado-rae, Valance was part of a job with the Caviness Thorn Crew. In order to prove himself, Thorn forced Valance to make his way through the spaceport and face countless Pyke Syndicate enforcers. After a brawl, Valance took out all of the Pykes and moved on to join the crew for the hit. Scanning the area for the target, whom Valance heard would be paying the dockmaster, he saw the target: Han Solo. Valance was taken aback by this, and fumbled his shot to spare his old compatriot's life. Soon a fight ensued between Thorn's crew and Solo and Chewbacca. Valance stepped in to take out Thorn, but fell over the balustrade next to Solo. Solo was surprised to see Valance as part of a crew trying to kill him, and felt betrayed. Still in shock, Valance couldn't get the words out and wished to apologize to Solo.Bounty Hunters 12
====The new job====
During his career, he notably developed a grudge against the bounty hunter Dengar over an incident the latter referred to as "the Ralen job." In what Valance called "the hangar job," he teamed with the Besalisk Fetya. However, Valance was shot down and held captive during the job, and Fetya escaped empty handed. Valance also made a habit of stealing bounties, which put him at odds with the Bounty Hunters' Guild. At one point, he lured a number of bounty hunters who had a score to settle with him at BG-RT's Tavern and Spirits in Level 1313 on Coruscant. Xonr, of whom Valance had stolen five bounties from, confronted him first. Valance revealed his plan to the bounty hunter and incinerated him with his palm blaster. As the other bounty hunters Valance had lured confronted him, he killed them all in the middle of the crowd, further flouting the Bounty Hunter Code.
While returning to his ship, the Broken Wing, Valance was approached by the Tarsunt Gwi, representing the Hidden Hand criminal syndicate. As the Tarsunt tried to talk him into joining a team of rule breakers assembled by the Hand, Valance initially refused, since he would only work alone. However, he was quick to change his mind when he heard the target was none other than Darth Vader, the Galactic Emperor's right-hand man. The former Imperial met with the rest of the team: the tracker Honnah, the sniper Urrr'k, the slicer Chio Fain, the droid Arr-Nine-Nineteen, and Dengar. Valance's very first reflex after punching Dengar was to incinerate Arr-Nine-Nineteen, not just out of dislike for droids, but because he suspected him of being a mole. As it turned out, the loose cannon was right, since a snitch for the Hutt Clan was found inside the droid's remains.
====Chaos on Arvina====
Aboard the Broken Wing, Valance took his new team to Arvina. Piloting his ship, he destroyed an Imperial patrol. Although Dengar disliked this, Fain assured him Valance was jamming transmissions so the Imperials could not call for help. Landing on the surface of Arvina, Valance had Urrr'k stay to guard the bounty hunters from afar with her sniper rifle as they entered Fetya's Hollow, in search of Valance's former accomplice Fetya. As Valance led the others into a weapons shop, Fetya confronted them and hugged Valance. He asked for sonic cannons, which Fetya supplied stating the cost was on the Hidden Hand. Fetya then explained how she had been selling weapons to the syndicate and told Valance of one of it's contacts who wore a starbird, the symbol of the Rebel Alliance.
As Valance called her out for working with "the good guys," Fetya told him there were no good guys and the bounty hunters found themselves surrounded by her armed assets. She and Valance exchanged threats until they were both interrupted by cannon fire from an Imperial-class Star Destroyer which was raining down on the whole of Fetya's Hollow. Firing on Fetya's men, the bounty hunters fled the weapons shop and Valance revealed that he had actually amplified the signal of the patrol he had destroyed to lure Darth Vader. Fetya and her men pursued the bounty hunters as they boarded a re-purposed Imperial Troop Transport. Urrr'k, however, fired on them, covering Valance and the other bounty hunters as they fled the destruction that was Fetya's Hollow.
====Skirmish on Heva====
Valance and the crew arrived on the world Heva, where they planned to use an electro-pulse device on Vader in order to immobilize him. They purchased a number of bot-drones from the arms dealer Wef, right as Vader promptly arrived in the Star Destroyer Formidable. The team quickly moved to their designated positions. While Dengar and Honnah remained on the ground, Valance flew the Broken Wing with Urrr'k and Fain on board and engaged the star destroyer with the bot-drones escorting them. He ordered Urrr'k to man the guns and shoot down the TIE fighters chasing them, while Fain remotely controlled the drones. He distracted Vader and the other fighters while giving the drones enough time to create a formation and destroy the Formidable. The Broken Wing was heavily damaged in the engagement, forcing Valance to make a crash landing. He and the others quickly escaped the starship as Vader and his forces surrounded them. Using the dust cloud created by the crash landing as an opportunity, Valance and his team trained their weapons on Vader.
Valance prepared the electro-pulse device he had acquired earlier, ordering the rest of the team to stand by and await his signal. However, Fain grew impatient and began firing at Vader. He deflected his shots, catching the rest of the team off guard and injuring Valance in the process. Urrr'k quickly arrived to check on him, revealing her true identity as the rebel spy Gita. Valance ordered her to cover him while Fain and Honnah were killed by Vader. He dashed towards the Sith Lord to activate his electro-pulse device. However, he failed to place the device on Vader, and was promptly electrified by Dengar, who revealed his true client to be the Empire. His betrayal led to Valance's capture.Target Vader 4
====Return to Chorin====
Valance was transported to the Star Destroyer Vengeance and was interrogated by interrogator droids for many days, dreaming of his past life on Chorin and the battle on Mimban, repeating the words "keep going" in his sleep. Vader entered his interrogation room and ordered everyone else to leave. Valance woke up, stating that he had Vader right where he wanted him. He was tortured and interrogated about the locations of the Hidden Hand outposts, but stated that the outposts were already destroyed. Later, Valance escaped by severing his arm, and copied the data on the outposts by connecting his arm to the terminal. Using the noise produced by the limb, he attracted and incapacitated the stormtroopers outside the room, disguising as one of them in the process. However, he discovered that the Broken Wing was also brought on board, and was caught by Vader. Vader accompanied him on the starship and traveled to his homeworld, Chorin.
While on the planet, Valance lamented the attack on his village, stating that while the Empire abandoned the planet, he also abandoned his people. He told the story of how he returned to kill the raiders that laid waste to his home, but was too late as they had already left. He explained to Vader that the Hidden Hand was created as a result of these events. Vader stated that his people were still safe for the time being, and invited him back to the Empire. Valance later traveled to a rebel outpost on Lowik, where he met Gita and her commanding officer. He stated that he needed to meet the Hidden Hand while the Rebellion required weapons from them. He connected his arm to the terminal and displayed the location of a Hidden Hand outpost, claiming he knew where both he and the Rebellion could fulfill their goals.
====Meeting the Hidden Hand's leader====
As Valance approached the Hidden Hand's main base inside an asteroid field, he was captured, but not before placing a beacon that attracted the Empire's attention. He was brought before Gwi, who revealed himself to be the criminal syndicate's true leader. Furious over the failure of his mission to kill Vader, Gwi immediately began thrashing Valance. The cyborg explained that only he knew about the Hidden Hand's hideout as he deduced its position thanks to his old friend Cavic's advice, and that the rest of his team was killed on Heva. Valance stated that he tracked him down as revenge for his home's destruction. As Gwi prepared to fire his blaster, Vader and his forces, who tracked the beacon, arrived and assaulted the base. In the ensuing chaos, Valance quickly overpowered Gwi, aiming his own blaster at him. However, he was stopped by Vader as he lifted Gwi in the air, stating that the Emperor wished to interrogate him personally. As Vader and forces took Gwi away, Valance took this opportunity to escape back to Lowik.
Back on Lowik, Gita asked Valance if he could stay and help the Rebellion alongside his people, who migrated from Chorin and escaped certain doom from the Empire. He refused, returning the gem to Vega that she gave him back when he left Chorin to become a pilot. Valance then traveled to Coruscant to meet his old rival Dengar, who boasted about his earnings to a crowd in the Galactic City. Upon meeting him, he struck Dengar in the face. A member of the crowd pointed out that he was part of his team back when they hunted Vader down, and asked him where he spent his credits. Valance clarified that his team was killed and Dengar had betrayed him. He explained that he used his credits on "something stupid." In reality, he used them to purchase supplies for the rebels on Lowik.
====Task from an old friend====
Valance was contacted by an old friend from his Imperial days, Han Solo, who was by then allied with the Rebellion. He traveled to Rimmer's Rest on Nar Shaddaa where he met Solo and the engineer Vharn. The smuggler piqued Valance's interest for the job when he stated he could strike back at the Empire. Valance was tasked with delivering Vharn to the Rebellion, who possessed the schematics for a shield generator that could withstand an orbital bombardment. After accepting the job, the cyborg and the engineer made their way to Docking Bay 13, where they were attacked by a TIE fighter. Valance shot down the fighter after damaging its stabilizers with his blaster, but were soon engaged by a platoon of Imperial forces. Distracting them with a thermal detonator, he eliminated the platoon, and the two made their way to Valance's starship, the Broken Wing, to escape into the Outer Rim.
While in the Outer Rim, they were caught by a detachment of TIE fighters alongside a Star Destroyer, but escaped into hyperspace through an opening in their formation. At the rendezvous point, Valance revealed Vharn's connection to the Empire and threatened him. Vharn pleaded with the cyborg, stating that the Empire held his family hostage. As Valance prepared to kill the traitor, Vharn requested that his treachery be kept a secret from Solo, and Valance agreed before killing him using his palm blaster in order to keep the vital information the engineer possessed safe from the Empire. The bounty hunter arrived on Home One to deliver the schematics to the Rebellion personally, informing them that Vharn had died during the mission. He requested that half the credits for the job be sent to ransom Vharn's family on Sorgal 12 before leaving.
====An old mentor's resurgence====
At some point following the mission from Solo, Valance acquired a droid companion named Nine-Four-El. He also conducted repairs for his palm blaster. In 3 ABY,Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Bounty Hunters 1 to 3 ABY. Valance took on a job which involved capturing members of a clan of Devaronians within Black Spire Outpost on the Outer Rim planetThrawn: Alliances Batuu. During the mission, Valance eliminated the clanmates before the last surviving member began making a getaway by hijacking a landspeeder. Valance attempted to fire his palm blaster at the speeder, but the weapon did not function despite its prior repairs. As the Devaronian charged towards Valance, the cyborg wrenched a pipe from a moisture vaporator and knocked him out of the speeder, incapacitating him. Valance was then informed by Nine-Four-El of a highly profitable bounty.
Unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, the bounty was his old mentor Lash, who had resurfaced under mysterious circumstances. Syphacc, who handed out bounties from Syphacc's Bountiful Bounties, contacted Valance and attempted to inform him of the target, but Valance closed the communication after interrupting Syphacc and declaring his disinterest in the bounty. When Valance learned about his former mentor's resurgence, he decided to track her down.
====Searching for Lash====
Valance eventually followed Lash's trail before it went cold at the Safe House on Eriadu, accompanied by Nine-Four-El. Discovering Jhorstek's corpse among the dead bodies in the building, he decided to have a drink and reminisce about the time he first met Lash. He was then informed by the droid that the cameras in the building were also destroyed in order to avoid witnesses. As he pulled out a control panel from a wall, he ordered his droid to stay on silent mode while the latter reminded Valance about property regulation.
Valance connected a wire from the panel to his cybernetic arm, and discovered through viewing security footage that Fett was behind the killings. Using the reflection on Fett's macrobinocular viewplate, he read Jhorstek's lips and learned that Lash had visited the graveyard planet of Galmerah. Leaving Eriadu aboard the Broken Wing, Valance and Nine-Four-El traveled to Galmerah, unknowingly pursued by the bounty hunter Ooris Bynar, who had taken the bounty from Syphacc that Valance had rejected earlier. Unbeknownst to Valance, Lash intentionally left clues for him to follow.
====Galmerah====
Upon arriving at Galmerah, Valance and his droid traversed the landscape before they found the grave of Lash's parents. After ordering his droid to unmute himself, he learned that the pheromones produced by the grave were a recreation of the Nautolan language, Nautila. When Valance touched the water, the pheromone composition changed, and Nine-Four-El stated the scents revealed a set of coordinates. The two were then confronted by Valance's former ally Bossk, who had also followed the trail to Galmerah after receiving information from the archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra. The Trandoshan blamed Valance for Lash's betrayal, as she had mentored the cyborg in his early bounty hunting days. Valance stated Bossk had escaped from the mission unscathed while the cyborg was left to suffer the consequences of their failure, before the two engaged in a gunfight.
Ordering Nine-Four-El to return to the Broken Wing, Valance attempted to incapacitate Bossk, only to lose his blaster pistol in the process. After his palm blaster malfunctioned, Valance decided to take Bossk head-on in melee combat, but the Trandoshan leaped out of his reach. Valance eventually knocked Bossk out by smashing an object over his head and tied his hands together. He returned to his ship only to find that Nine-Four-El's head had been stolen by Bynar, who headed to Lash's location on the planetStar Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia Ruusan. Boarding the Broken Wing, Valance was confronted by T'onga, who blamed Lash for her brother T'ongor's death.
====Ruusan====
Following Bynar to Ruusan, T'onga and Valance encountered the Thisspiasian bounty hunter's corpse where Lash and Cadeliah, the heir of both the Unbroken Clan and Mourner's Wail Syndicate, had been hiding. Valance and T'onga entered a nearby village to ask where Lash had gone, and were met by defensive citizens and a nexu. After battling the beast, a villager informed them that Lash was nearby, hiding in Clone Wars–era wreckage in orbit. The two took the Broken Wing to dock with Lash's ship.
On board, Valance betrayed T'onga's goal of eliminating their target, as the restraining bolt she planted on him was damaged by the nexu earlier. T'onga was shot in the chest and killed by Boba Fett, who followed them to Ruusan thanks to the confession of Bossk. Valance lunged at Fett and brawled with the bounty hunter, before being electrified and temporarily disabled, allowing Fett to attack Lash and the young Cadeliah. They engaged in a short fight with Fett, where he stabbed Lash in the chest. As the ship began to disintegrate and Fett fled the scene, Valance had to leave her to die after desiring to, yet failing to save his former mentor. Valance was the sole protector of Cadeliah, with whom he escaped on the Broken Wing just as the Unbroken Clan arrived to destroy Lash once and for all.Bounty Hunters 5
====On the run====
To get repairs on his injured cybernetics, Valance brought Cadeliah to the Spur Orbiting Market. While stopping for food, he and the girl barely escaped an ambush from an Arcona bounty hunter before making it to Slade's Repairs, where Valance could get his palm blasters repaired and improved. Unknown to him, the Unbroken Clan's general Vukorah has enlisted the help of famed bounty hunting duo Zuckuss and 4-LOM to hunt him down. The two quickly reached the repair shop, and shot down the technician finishing work on Valance. After a brief brawl with the two, Valance had dismembered 4-LOM's right arm, and sliced open Zuckuss's regulator, narrowly escaping with Cadeliah once more. Zuckuss soon revealed to his compatriot, however, that he placed a tracking device on the Broken Wing. On the ship, a heavily damaged Valance and Cadeliah soon arrived on Lowik, to visit Valance's old lover, Yuralla Vega. They quickly greeted each other, as Valance falls into her arms while slowly bleeding out. In orbit, the Mist Hunter arrived at the planet.Bounty Hunters 6
====Ambush at the rebel outpost====
Zuckuss and 4-LOM soon arrived on the forested world with a cache of B2 battle droids on Valance's trail. Meanwhile, Vega and some other rebels set up the mess hall's table as a makeshift operating table for Valance. He began to fade away, clutching the fire ruby his love had given him many years prior. Eventually regaining consciousness, Valance witnessed a group of rebel soldiers heading out to protect the compound from the threat detected outside. Valance barricaded the door, allowing for Vega and Cadeliah to escape through a tunnel while he held off the droid bounty hunter.
Outside, super battle droids kept the rebel soldiers busy as Zuckuss ambushed Vega and Cadeliah, battering the former in the head while stunning the youth. Valance rushed into the forest to find his injured lost love, only to find her being cradled by her husband, who confirmed that she would survive. With this reassurance, Valance went off to retrieve Cadeliah from the bounty hunters. Meeting the duo at the Mist Hunter, Valance made a deal. He traded them the rare fire ruby to buy time as the Rebellion evacuated their base, taking Cadeliah with them. Valance gave a final, tearful goodbye to Vega, as she accepted care of the young girl, while he left alone.
====Nar Kaaga====
In the H'unn Cabaret Pit on Nar Kaaga, Valance met with the cybernetically enhanced Syphacc for what he thought was a new job. This was actually a hit on Valance by Tasu Leech of Kanjiklub. After a small fight with the young assassin, and using a waiter droid, Valance escaped the club and returned to the Broken Wing berthed at Docking Bay 27-A. There, he was contacted by Lieutenant Kondra, who asked him for a favor: rescuing a rebel transport, the Spirit of Jedha, which was adrift in the Terminus.Bounty Hunters 8
====The Spirit of Jedha====
As he arrived at the Terminus, Valance found the wreckage of several X-wing starfighters, and the Broken Wing was promptly attacked by several of the Ohnaka Gang's [[Flarestar-class attack shuttle]|Flarestar-class attack shuttles]]. Aboard the nearby Corona-class armed frigate, Skragg, the gang's leader, and an imprisoned Dengar gave the command for all guns to fire on Valance. After not receiving any transmissions from the captured rebels on board, he ejected the escape pod and left behind his faithful ship. His escape pod crashed into the Spirit hangar bay, where Valance was confronted by Commander Hill Purpura and a small group of rebel soldiers.Bounty Hunters 9
Skragg, upset that Valance survived, considered simply blowing the Spirit away and forgetting about the job, but Dengar protested, to Skragg's dismay. Having a knife pulled on him, Dengar confidently argued for his life, telling the pirate captain that he knew who owned that ship, and could best him again. Meanwhile, an imprisoned Valance was questioned by the rebels, who did not believe he was there to help them. Commander Purpura planned on surrendering to the pirates, using the rebel cause as a justification for that choice, and ironically accused the honorable Valance of not knowing what it was like to sacrifice your life for something greater.
After Purpura's departure, Valance talked to his guard, Blanch Sproull, who told the cyborg about the mining planet she was from and why she joined the rebellion. She also told him that as a mechanic, she checked the ship's hyperdrive just before it left, yet it still stalled, leaving them stranded in the Terminus. Suddenly, an alarm sounded warning the rebels of the Ohnaka gang boarding the Spirit. Trusting him, Sproull freed Valance as he agreed to stop the pirates, just before she told him that there was one remaining starfighter on the transport, yet no one to fly it.
Valance, accompanied by droid copilot Tee-Six, blasted off in a lone T-65B X-wing starfighter, taking on the gang's Flarestars around the nearby asteroids. On the Spirit bridge, Purpura ordered the fighter to stand down to no avail, as Valance continued to destroy the gang's shuttles, and even used a move he had not tried since his time in the Imperial Academy. Seeing as Skragg's Corona-class flagship was docking with the Spirit, Valance broke off the attack and ejected from the X-wing, trusting Tee-Six to transmit a message to Kondra for Rebel aid, as the cyborg boarded the flagship from the outside.
Aboard the two docked ships, Valance aggressively made his way through the pirate crew using explosives, melee combat, and his palm blasters to take out the Weequay and free the rebels. After being freed, Sproull discovered that the hyperdrive motivator had been sabotaged by someone on board. Arriving at the bridge, Dengar introduced Skragg to his man on the inside, Purpura, the traitor who had sabotaged the ship's hyperdrive. Purpura intended to sell the Rebel Alliance's transponder codes to Skragg, revealing the locations of the hidden groups of the Rebel Fleet. But before this could happen, the power was cut. Skragg commanded his pirates to hunt Valance down and kill him by whatever means necessary.
As he made his way across the ship, Valance took out many pirates before making it to the engine rooms, where Skragg, Dengar, Sproull, and Purpura were present. A massive brawl ensued, ending with Skragg escaping, Purpura being incapacitated by Sproull, and Valance leaving with Dengar in the Corona-class flagship after the Corellian revealed that Han Solo had been captured by Boba Fett. Just then, a part of the Rebel fleet arrived in the Terminus after receiving Valance's transmission. Kondra, on board a CR90 corvette, contacted the transport looking for the cyborg, but his call was received by Sproull instead, who confirmed Valance had left.
====Prelude to the War====
Prior to the War of the Bounty Hunters, one of Dengar's contacts on Nar Shaddaa had confirmed a sighting of Boba Fett, so Valance and the Corellian bounty hunter made their way to the smuggler's moon.Bounty Hunters 11 While traveling through the nearby Y'Toub System, they were attacked by the Mist Hunter, Zuckuss and 4-LOM still being on the hunt for Cadeliah. Dengar wanted to surrender, to Valance's disagreement, so he threatened to kill the cyborg. Flying into an asteroid field full of exogorths, Valance believed he had lost his pursuers. Suddenly, the Gand's blasts landed and damaged Valance's ship's thrusters. Having had enough, Dengar knocked out Valance, taking control of the vessel and striking a deal with the two insectoid hunters. He gave them Boba Fett's location, much to Valance's dismay.
====War of the Bounty Hunters====
Back on Nar Shaddaa, Valance and Dengar searched for Fett, looking to Devono Vix for answers as to why Jabba would place a bounty on his favorite enforcer. This started a cantina brawl that was spotted and interrupted by Chewbacca and C-3PO. Taking his rage out on Valance for his past dealings with the Wookiee and Solo, the beast fought the two bounty hunters, before Valance finally explained that he owes Han for saving his life on Qhulosk. As he left, Chewbacca told Valance to stay out of his way if he truly cared about Solo. Valance and Dengar soon caught up with Vix and learned that Crimson Dawn syndicate had returned, to their disbelief, and that the syndicate had Solo. Suddenly, Vix was beheaded from afar, as Deathstick, working for Crimson Dawn, closed in on the duo.Bounty Hunters 13
On the run from Crimson Dawn, Valance and Dengar sought refuge in Mama Stammoch's workshop, where Valance was repaired once more. Shortly after the repairs were completed, Deathstick and several assassin droids infiltrated the workshop, destruction following in their path. Valance and Dengar narrowly escaped on a landspeeder and faked a crash, which they believed got Crimson Dawn off of their trail. In reality, Deathstick was still following them, following Qi'ra's intricate plan.Bounty Hunters 14 The two bounty hunters then booked passage to Canto Bight, where they crossed paths with Just Lucky and Ariole Yu, before meeting with Wen Delphis of the Sixth Kin. Valance cut a deal with the crime boss, promising that he would stir up trouble at Crimson Dawn's upcoming party. As they reached the Punishing One, Deathstick attacked once more, but was called away for some other business before she could finish off the two hunters. During the scramble, however, Dengar swiped an invitation to the auction for Han Solo from the assassin.Bounty Hunters 15
On the way to Jekara, Valance made a transmission to Kondra, Yuralla Vega and Cadeliah at their temporary Rebel base, expressing his uncertainty about the upcoming mission, and his dilapidated cybernetics. On the icy world, Valance and Dengar ambushed Boba Fett whilst he waited near the Vermillion for the frozen Solo. The three hunters exchanged blasterfire, culminating in an explosion from Fett's Z-6 jetpack missile, separating Dengar, on an iceberg, from Valance and Fett. Valance let Dengar float away, claiming he cared more for Solo's fate than for Dengar. During the fight, the Empire escaped with the frozen Corellian, leaving Fett and Valance to make a deal to pursue the prize together in the Slave I. Unbeknownst to Valance, Dengar had sold off Cadeliah's location to Deathstick, using data from the transmission Valance sent to Vega before the mission.
Above Jekara, Fett used a seismic charge to disable the Millennium Falcon and the shuttle carrying Solo, but interference from the Hutt navy prevented him from intercepting the frozen smuggler. As a last resort, Valance and Fett used Fett's old clearance codes to board the Executor. Valance used his knowledge of Imperial facilities to guide Fett to where Solo was being held, while the Imperials were distracted by the attack from the Hutt clan. The two were stopped by a security droid, but Valance used his palm blasters to shear half of the droid's head off. After being saved by the cyborg, Boba Fett threw a thermal detonator at Valance's chest, blowing him up and leaving him a barely alive pile of scrap and flesh on the deck of the Star Destroyer. Fett went on to fight Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca and finally return the frozen Solo to Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine.War of the Bounty Hunters 5
===Return to the Empire===
====Final stand on the Executor====
Barely clinging to life, Valance fought his way through the Executor, taking out hordes stormtroopers and scout troopers in his rage. While cornered, he used a mouse droid to bash in the helmet of a trooper, before receiving a transmission from T'onga on board the Edgehawk telling him to meet her at the destroyer's main hangar. As the Edgehawk fought countless TIEs, Valance limped through the Executor, eventually being confronted by an Imperial cadet named Venn, who held a gun to the cyborg. Valance reflected upon his past and expressed his distaste for the Empire in talking to the young cadet, seeing who he used to be. Just as he began to break through to the young man, Lieutenant Jyala Haydenn ordered that the airlock be opened on Valance, killing the young man in front of Valance's eyes, and furthering his hatred for the Empire and its carelessness for life.
Finding it was too difficult for T'onga to pick him up in the hangar, Valance decided to come to her instead. Using his grappling hook, Valance grabbed a Jumptrooper and hijacked their jetpack, using it to rocket out into space, while Zuckuss opened the hatch on top of T'onga's vessel to receive Valance. Struggling against blaster bolts coming from all directions and against the sheer forces of space and the Edgehawk speed, Valance reached out and finally grasped the hand of the Gand bounty hunter, for a second grasping the idea of freedom. But this would not last, as Valance was pulled away, leaving Zuckuss with only his cybernetic arm. The force pulling Valance away from the Edgehawk was actually Darth Vader. As he was being pulled back towards the Executor, Valance drifted off out of consciousness.
====Servant of Vader====
Later, Valance suddenly jolted awake, shocked by the fact that he was fully repaired, with a new arm and new synthflesh. Confused by this, he wondered out loud what Vader had done to him. Vader informed Valance, sitting on the operating table in a new Imperial uniform, that he worked for him now. Realizing his heart was gone, Vader revealed to Valance that his heart had given out during the procedure and was replaced with cybernetics, along with other upgrades to his body. Valance attacked Vader, but he was quickly struck down and left to be repaired by the medical droid. Once Valance was fixed, he was met again by Vader and Haydenn, who told him that he would be hunting down Crimson Dawn's agents within the Empire. For if he did not, they would kill those he cared about.
Left with little choice, he begrudgingly agreed to lead the Empire's newly formed Dark Squadron against Crimson Dawn. Back at the hangar, Valance and Haydenn were met by Ochi of Bestoon, a Sith assassin, who provided the bounty hunter with his first target: the Imperial General and secret Crimson Dawn agent Tarl Sokoli, who years ago had inspired Valance to join the Empire in the first place. In truth, there was no link between the Dawn and Sokoli, although the general had been growing discontent with the Empire. By ordering him to kill his childhood idol, Vader reasoned it would be a good test for Valance.Bounty Hunters 19
====Killing Tarl Sokoli====
Piloting a TIE Defender, Valance led Dark Two, Dark Three, Dark Four, and Dark Five to the Eriadu system. There, they were met by Sokoli's light cruiser, the Forerunner II. After losing Dark Three and Dark Four in the ensuing battle, Valance rammed his TIE into the bridge of the ship, cornering Sokoli amidst the wreckage. When Sokoli asked Valance why he had come to kill him, Valance replied that Vader told him about Sokoli being a mole for Crimson Dawn. When Sokoli asked him what he believed, Valance said that Vader had the power to kill those he loved if he refused. Valance confessed that he never thought he would be someone other than a miner until he met Sokoli as a child. To this, Sokoli admitted the Empire had disappointed him as well. While Valance was distracted by a pair of stormtroopers, Sokoli took out his blaster and said that only death was certain. Valance killed Sokoli with one of his palm blasters, claiming he had learned that long ago. As he stood alone reflecting on his childhood, Valance reported Sokoli's death to Dark Two and had her pick him up in her TIE.
====Working with Ochi====
Afterwards, Valance was called by Vader to Laecor as part of a crew, where a group of stormtroopers were watching over a crowd of civilians. When Valance asked Vader why he had called him there, the Sith told him to simply do as he was told. Ochi approached the stormtroopers and introduced Valance, as well as the assassins Loriach and Gee-Ninety and a group of mercenaries called the Revengers. One of the stormtroopers explained that the civilians had been attacked by Crimson Dawn. The civilians chastised the stormtroopers for doing nothing to stop the attack, to which the stormtroopers accused them of being Jedi sympathizers. Ochi taunted Valance over his disgust towards the stormtroopers, guessing he was more respectful of them while he was still one of them. When the stormtroopers attempted to move the civilians, they refused to comply, prompting the stormtroopers to fire at them, to Valance's horror. But Vader jumped in to deflect the blaster bolts and kill the stormtroopers. When Ochi expressed confusion over this, Vader revealed that the stormtroopers served Crimson Dawn.
As their group continued on, Ochi gave Valance his next assignment; to help them kill every Crimson Dawn agent at their secret base. But for now, the bounty hunter would scout ahead. Valance tugged on Ochi's cape and asked him what the trick was, to which Ochi claimed that everything was as it seemed. As they made their way to the stronghold, Valance asked for the Revengers' names. The Revengers introduced themselves as Tanka, S'ira, and Ankala Sahm. Valance told the Revengers that Vader was just using them as bait to draw out Crimson Dawn. Tanka expressed disbelief at this, as Vader had previously saved the civilians. Valance replied that Vader only served the Empire and wasn't doing anything for their sake. Upon reaching the base, Valance and the Revengers were quickly surrounded by Crimson Dawn. Ochi and his assassins simply observed them for a while until Vader used the Force to throw Ochi towards them. The Sith then rode on Gee-Ninety as they rolled to the base's entrance. Valance followed Vader and Ochi inside the base. Once inside, they discovered a layout of every Crimson Dawn agent within the Empire, which Valance noted went all the way to the top.
Following this, Vader and his followers returned to Coruscant. As they arrived, Ochi tasked Valance, the assassins and the Revengers with infiltrating the Zanchal Estate while he and Vader went to the Imperial Palace. When Valance questioned if they should trust the list, Ochi told him that the Assassins Guild confirmed at least half the people on the list were Crimson Dawn collaborators. As they landed and split up, Ankala asked Valance what the odds were of Ochi setting them up for another suicide mission, to which Valance responded that Ochi might be on one himself. Valance, the Revengers and Gee-Ninety infiltrated the Estate and confronted Baron Espis Zanchal. When Zanchal insisted he wasn't with Crimson Dawn and told them to search everything, they found a pair of hostages being fed to a Narglatch. They killed Zanchal in a firefight and rescued the hostages.Darth Vader (2020) 20
Afterwards, Valance and the rest of the assassins were assigned on a mission to Tranchar. Their objective was to capture and interrogate Lieutenant Grapa for information regarding an Imperial operation on Naboo. While they prepared to leave, Valance tried again to warn them about Vader. When Ankala said that the Sith Lord had killed the right people so far, Valance reminded them that he was only there for the child that Vader was threatening, to which Ochi pointed out that he would have to kill Valance if he was suborning a mutiny. When Valance told S'ira that Vader was going to betray them, S'ira claimed that it had already been worth it. Once they arrived on Tranchar, the assassins fought their way through many stormtroopers and sentry droids. But when they came upon civilians being tortured by the Imperials, Gee-Ninety broke from the mission to free the civilians, prompting Vader to destroy the droid as punishment. Once Grapa was interrogated and executed, Vader realized that the Imperials had known they were coming. When he asked Valance who had sent the droids, Valance confirmed they were from Romodi's command. As Vader confronted Ochi over having spoken with Romodi prior to their departure, Ochi blew his own cover and ran away while Valance fired at him. Vader then trailed Ochi in his TIE Advanced as the assassin stole a ship and left the planet.Darth Vader (2020) 21
Later, Valance and the assassins were sent to Oro Sankeria by Ochi, who had apparently returned to Vader's service. As the assassins waited for their next assignment, they were suddenly attacked by TIE fighters sent by General Hurst Romodi. When Loriach asked why Romodi was attacking them, Valance pointed out that they had killed some of Romodi's favorite soldiers and that Ochi had lured them there. Ochi contacted the assassins and told them they weren't the target, but rather a distraction. Ochi then arrived in a landspeeder and sped off with the assassins as a Crimson Dawn cell attacked Romodi's forces. Once the fighting parties were wiped out by a pulse bomb, Ochi informed the assassins that Vader had used them to get Romodi's forces and the Crimson Dawn cell to wipe each other out.Darth Vader (2020) 22 Vader left the planet as Ochi called after him, with Valance chuckling and saying that Ochi was no longer Vader's favorite. When Tanka asked Valance if they were still in Vader's service, Valance said nobody left Vader's service until Vader either released or killed them. Chilla Zin asked Valance what they should do, to which Valance said they would return to the Executor and await their next mission. Just then, Ochi boarded a TIE fighter and said he was getting back on the job before the handmaiden set them up for destruction.Darth Vader (2020) 23
====Assignment on Garel====
Shortly after, Valance was called to Garel by Haydenn to prevent the possible assassination of General Skarhorn. While Skarhorn gave a public speech for the opening of an Imperial munitions factory, Valance argued with Haydenn over his loyalty to the Empire. But they were interrupted by a call from Sahm, who reported that neither her nor S'ira had seen any signs of an assassin. As Tanka pointed out that the intel had come from Vader, they tackled an Imperial officer who they thought was carrying a weapon, only for it to be a flask. Valance yelled at Tanka that the mistake would provoke the assassin to make their move. Sure enough, one of the surrounding AT-STs targeted the general. When S'ira claimed they didn't have the firepower to destroy a scout walker, Valance said he had it under control as he took another Imperial's speeder. As Sahm tackled Skarhorn out of the line of fire, Valance drove the speeder towards the walker and leapt off before it crashed into one of its feet, throwing it off balance and toppling it. The resulting collision threw Skarhorn's child Maree over a ledge while Maree's mother shouted for help. To this, Valance leapt from the ledge and caught the child before using his cybernetic body to break their fall. As Valance comforted Maree, the injured rebel assassin emerged from the walker and told Valance the Imperials wouldn't stop what was coming. When Valance claimed he wasn't Imperial, the rebel pointed out that he wore their skin. While Valance felt his damaged skin, Haydenn reprimanded him for leaving his position. When Valance explained that he saved Skarhorn's child, Haydenn claimed the child was of no strategic value. Haydenn also informed Valance that a second assassin struck amidst the chaos and killed Skarhorn, meaning Valance had failed his assignment.
====Imperial temptations====
Later, Valance rescued seventeen Imperial engineers from a ship with a reactor sabotaged by a Crimson Dawn mole. Sustaining injuries in the process, he was brought to the Ryleel Imperial Base on Carida for medical treatment. Once he was healed, he continued to argue with Haydenn, reiterating that he didn't care about the Empire. To this, Haydenn pointed out that he had radiation burns from saving the engineers. Haydenn took Valance to the room where the engineers were recovering. They thanked Valance for assisting them, to which Valance lightly smiled as Haydenn showed her approval.Bounty Hunters 25 Later, Haydenn summoned Valance to tell him that he had become the Imperial hero he once dreamed of being. Valance pointed out that that was a long time ago and that Haydenn had sifted through his memories to learn that. Haydenn went on to tell Valance he could be happy with the Empire before she kissed him on the cheek. When Valance reminded her that there was someone else, Haydenn began to say that Yuralla was gone before she stopped herself and dismissed Valance.Bounty Hunters 26 Later, Valance was aboard the Star Destroyer Righteous Fist attempting to drink away his sorrows. However, he lamented to a service droid that his cybernetics wouldn't allow him to taste or get drunk from alcohol. The droid informed Valance that a drink had been bought for him by another Imperial officer who found him attractive. As Valance took note of his new appearance in a window, he was met by General Bordeaux, who informed him of his role in the Battle of Hoth. When Bordeaux pointed out the importance of taking action before opportunity dissipated, Valance left to meet with Haydenn again. He explained to her that he had given thought to her offer and that he would like to get to know her better. To this, Haydenn told Valance to stop talking before pulling him in for a passionate kiss.
====Battle at Bestine====
Following this, Valance and Haydenn were summoned to the Executor along with the Revengers. When Valance asked Haydenn what Vader wanted with them, she reminded him to address her as lieutenant when they were in public and to address Vader as lord. Once inside the turbolift, Haydenn attempted to fix Valance's collar. When Valance claimed Vader wouldn't notice, Haydenn said he never missed any detail. Once they reached Vader, he chastised them for being early. When Valance demanded to know why they were there, Vader used the Force to fix his collar, saying that he expected those who served him to be held to a certain standard. Haydenn told Vader that Valance had the team operating at peak efficiency. To this, Vader said they would get a chance to prove their loyalty and advised Valance to channel his energies in a less self-destructive manner. When Valance asked what their mission was, Piett explained that they had been selected to protect a medicine shipment to Bestine IV from Crimson Dawn. Vader warned them not to disappoint him as he would be watching before they left for their mission.Bounty Hunters 28
After boarding the transport ship, Valance explained the plan to the Revengers as they approached Bestine. Once they landed, Valance told one of the stormtroopers stationed there to have the dock's perimeter patrolled. As Valance and the Revengers waited, the transport was ambushed by the crew of the Edgehawk. While guarding the ship's controls, Valance was attacked by a local insurgent, who he promptly killed as he heard a familiar voice. T'onga then peaked out from behind a crate and expressed shock at seeing Valance still working with the Empire.Bounty Hunters 29 Valance likewise expressed shock at T'onga working with Crimson Dawn. When T'onga pointed out that this kind of mission wasn't like him, he explained that he had no choice due to Vader threatening to kill Yura, who was stationed at the rebel base where he left Cadeliah. T'onga told Valance that Cadeliah had been taken by Crimson Dawn and had chosen to stay with Qi'ra. She then reluctantly informed Valance that the rebel base had been bombed by the Empire, meaning Yura had likely been killed. Realizing the Empire must have learned of her location from his extracted memories, Valance collapsed in grief as T'onga comforted him.Bounty Hunters 30
With nothing left to keep him in the Empire's service, Valance exited the ship and began killing the surrounding shoretroopers, saving T'onga's crew in the process. As the Revengers expressed confusion over Valance's actions, Valance opened the supplies and discovered that they were explosives rather than medicine. The crews were then met by a pair of TIE fighters, and Valance used his knowledge from his Imperial training to throw a projectile at one of the TIEs' weak spots and cause it to crash. After 4-LOM used the Edgehawk to destroy the other TIE, Valance contacted Haydenn and accused her of withholding Yura's fate from him. Haydenn attempted to apologize and explain that her feelings for him were genuine, but Valance stopped her and told her he was going to complete the mission before breaking the connection. When T'onga suggested leaving before more Imperials arrived, Valance said he was going to use himself as bait as a Lambda-class shuttle landed in front of them. Vader then stepped out of the ship along with Haydenn as he drew his lightsaber.Bounty Hunters 30
Charging into battle, Valance told Vader that he regretted ever serving the Empire. As they fought, Vader took note of Valance's power and told him that he was a waste of potential. Once he was beaten into submission, Valance said that the planet's people would still be free of the Empire. But Vader retorted that Valance had doomed them as the Sith Lord's forces bombed the locals, as well as Vader's own troops. Valance chastised Vader's lack of care for even his own people, which Vader ignored. As Vader prepared to strike Valance down, Haydenn insisted on finishing the job herself to make up for her previous failures, which Vader allowed. Valance tried to convince Haydenn to leave the Empire with him and start anew with someone she loved. However, Haydenn responded that her first love was the Empire before blasting Valance in the face and sending him falling over the edge of the cliff. Later, as the Empire left the planet, Valance was found by Losha and Zuckuss. Saying there was nothing left for him there, Valance left with their crew aboard the Edgehawk, mulling over his loss of Yura and guilt over ever having loved Haydenn.
===Noted by a pirate===
Around 9 ABY As Star Wars: The Secrets of the Bounty Hunters dates itself to occur shortly after the Battle for Mos Espa, thereby placing it around 9 ABY as well. during the New Republic Era, the pirate Hondo Ohnaka found himself with a seven thousand credit bounty on his head. According to Ohnaka, Valance was still active as a bounty hunter and working with the Guild, although Ohnaka knew of his past of breaking their guidelines, at this time. However, he had also heard about Valance's softer side, evidenced by his time helping Cadeliah and trying to rescue Solo. Should Valance pursue him for the bounty, Ohnaka hoped to exploit his morals with, what Ohnaka said would be, "a bit of persuasion." Ohnaka thus included a write-up of Valance within a guide to bounty hunters he gave to one of his few remaining allies and provided an image breaking down Valance's cybernetics.Star Wars: The Secrets of the Bounty Hunters
==Personality and traits==
===Early life and Imperial career===
Beilert Valance was a human male with brown hair, blue eyes and light skin. As a child, Valance believed the Empire had saved his family. His father had convinced him that he was destined for a career far greater than a miner. Growing up, he developed a relationship with Vega, and was saddened to leave her behind to become a pilot for the Empire. At the flight academy, Valance believed he could prove he was the best by beating others into submission, as demonstrated by his fight with Solo, which made him well suited for service in the Imperial Military. He also held a distaste for Solo for his past as a scrumrat. As an adult, Valance measured 1.8 meters.
During training exercises, he acted as the de facto leader, and would be furious when his orders were disobeyed. At the mission on Qhulosk, Valance repeatedly ordered his team to reduce unnecessary chatter and focus entirely on the mission at hand. He suffered damage to his TIE, but survived after listening to Solo's instructions and softened up to him, saying he was not a waste of life before he was shot down by Qhuloskian fighters. After he was rescued by his team, Valance thanked Solo, finally abandoning his hard-heartedness towards him.
===Leaving the Empire===
While serving in the infantry, Valance was ready to give up his life for the Empire, as evidenced in a situation where he and a few stormtroopers were surrounded by enemy soldiers. During an assignment on Mimban, Valance bravely led his comrades out of their trench and told them to keep moving forward, even if it nearly cost him his life.
Despite suffering extensive injuries at Mimban, Valance believed he could continue fighting, even after Nakan discharged him from service out of good faith. This led to Valance losing faith in the Empire. Traveling back to his homeworld Chorin, Valance was devastated to find his home ravaged by raiders, and learned from Vega that the Empire had stripped the mines of its resources and abandoned the people. Determined to find and eliminate the raiders, he left and traveled down a new path. During this time, he struggled to settle in the galaxy and was distraught about being a "pawn" for the Empire. This led him to violently attack a group of stormtroopers on Eriadu, where he met Lash and her crew and started a new career as a bounty hunter. His distaste for the Empire lasted well into his bounty-hunting career, evidenced by his violence against stormtroopers, and trying to relate to a cadet named Venn, in whom he saw himself aboard the Executor.
===Bounty hunter===
As a bounty hunter, Valance did not hesitate to eliminate anyone who attempted to silence him, such as in the shootout at BG-RT's Tavern and Spirits, which left several bounty hunters dead. It was around this time that Valance realized that both rebels and Imperials were only soldiers waiting to be killed, the only difference being which side of the battlefield the blaster fire came from. Valance kept food and energy capsules with him as a reminder of the food he once enjoyed before becoming a cyborg.
However, the cyborg also had a softer side, such as when he assisted the Rebellion in exchange for granting the people of Chorin a haven on Lowik. He spent the credits earned from the job to assassinate Vader on acquiring munitions for them, and returned the gemstone to Vega, saying she needed it more than he did by then. During a job from his old friend Han Solo, Valance killed Vharn, whom he was supposed to protect, after learning of his treachery, but honored the engineer's wish to free his family when he requested the Rebellion that they spend half the credits for the job to ransom the family on Sorgal 12. Valance also showed his softer side in taking care of Cadeliah from his old master Nakano Lash after her passing, and struggled immensely to get her to safety on Lowik.
Owing a debt to the Rebellion, and to Han Solo, Valance once more risked his life to rescue several rebels aboard the Spirit of Jedha from the Ohnaka Gang. He butted heads with Skragg and found kinship with Blanch Sproull in conversation about truly believing in the values of the Rebellion. Valance once again showed his dedication to doing what was right in the galaxy, even if it meant getting his hands dirty. From there, Valance made even with Dengar and they set off together to find Han Solo in Boba Fett's possession. Valance fought hard against and with both other hunters and the Empire trying and failing to reclaim Han Solo. He was eventually betrayed by Fett, who took the frozen smuggler for himself.
===Working with other individuals===
During their mission on Corellia, Valance held a rivalry with Fett and disliked Bossk; Fett due to his arrogance, and Bossk due to him abandoning the mission. In his later years, Valance mainly worked in isolation, completing bounties for the Bounty Hunters' Guild stolen from other hunters. When working for the Hidden Hand with a team, Valance showed little concern for them, even when Honnah and Fain lost their lives while fighting Vader. However, Valance also trusted Gita with the safety of his people, despite learning about her true identity and motivation.
Valance displayed a stern attitude towards his droid Nine-Four-El whenever he would remind the cyborg of details such as bounty terms and property regulations. Upon discovering the droid's lifeless body, however, Valance showed a little sorrow, stating that while he hated Nine-Four-El for his stupidity, it was "his stupid droid." When Lash supposedly betrayed her team, Valance was shocked upon learning about this and searched for her in order to learn the reason for her actions, unlike other hunters who wished to kill Lash either out of revenge or profit from the bounty on the Nautolan's head.
When serving under Darth Vader, Valance was forced to work with a team of other individuals, including Ochi, the Revengers, and some assassins, fighting against the growing threat of Crimson Dawn. Valance and Ochi had something of a rivalrous back and forth, at one point both acknowledging their statuses as pawns of Vader.
===Yuralla Vega===
As a young man on Chorin, Valance had fallen in love with Yuralla Vega. Valance explained to her his intention to join the Imperial Military and leave Chorin. He was sad to leave her, yet was confident in attaining higher status and returning. As he left, Vega gave him a fire ruby to remember her by. Valance would clutch this gem as he was being operated on on the battlefield of Mimban, after he'd been scorched in a ground assault. The 2-1B surgical droid and an officer around the operating table remarked how it was baffling that Valance was still alive, as he held on through his love for Vega and the thought of returning to her.
Valance returned to Chorin years later, but he was a changed man. He'd lost all of his limbs on Mimban, and his eye on Qhulosk. After saving the citizens of Chorin and relocating them to a rebel outpost on Lowik, he decided to leave Vega again, giving her back the fire ruby he had held onto for all those years. She was betrayed by this notion, and was enraged by his breaking their promise. Valance believed that she looked at him differently after he'd lost most of his body, and could not bear to stay and have her not really love him. She threw the gem back at him, and left before he could offer any explanation.
Later, Valance was at his wit's end as he was protecting the heir of a criminal empire, Cadeliah, and decided to bring her to the only person he could trust: Vega. He arrived very injured, and his old flame helped him inside the rebel outpost to be operated on. Cadeliah commented on how difficult it was for Valance to see Vega now married to Rebel Lieutenant Kondra. Vega was still very upset with Valance, but they did not have time to talk before bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM attacked the outpost. Valance fought the hunters, and rushed out to rescue an injured Vega, exclaiming how he would not lose her again, and how he felt guilty for being so bad to her. He finds her in the arms of Kondra, and leaves to finish off the hunters. Valance gives away his precious fire ruby to pay off the hunters, saving the Rebels, Cadeliah, and Vega. The two former citizens of Chorin shared one final embrace as Vega confessed that she would have always loved Valance no matter what he looked like. She would have waited for him, if he only would've stayed. Valance leaves Cadeliah with Vega to give her a better life than he could give her.
Just before arriving at the auction for Han Solo, Valance attempted to communicate with Vega through a transmission to Kondra. Valance expressed his uncertainty about his fate in the coming days, and reminded Vega to take care of Cadeliah, and Kondra to take care of Vega.
===Han Solo===
Valance had an ever-changing relationship with Han Solo. The two young men first met at the Imperial Academy on Carida, where they had a very competitive relationship that lead them to fight on at least one occasion Their training as wingmen culminating in a battle on Qhulosk, where Valance's TIE was shot down, left for dead in an area that would soon be bombed by Imperial leadership. Not willing to let a teammate die, Solo and his fellow cadets set out on speeder bikes to rescue their squad mate. The cadets reached Valance, who was surrounded by Qhuloskian soldiers. Sneaking by their enemies, the Imperials made a deal with some Ghulars, slaves of the Qhuloskians, in order to escape the battlefield. Solo had risked his own life and saved Valance's, although injuries from this battle lead to the first batch of cybernetics Valance would receive.
Over time, Valance would learn to appreciate what Solo did for him, eventually feeling that he owed the Corellian. In one particular instance on Abregado-Rae, Valance ran into Solo and Chewbacca on a hit job, not knowing his former wingman was the target. When Solo realized this, Valance didn't have time to explain why he was targeting the smuggler, and Solo felt betrayed by the friend he saved, leaving Valance with regret. In another instance, Valance, at Solo's request, aided the Rebellion in transporting a young engineer carrying a datacard to his designated rendezvous point. The two were continually ambushed by the Empire, and the engineer was revealed to be a traitor. Nonetheless, Valance released the engineer, gave his credits to the man and his family, and followed through on his debt to Solo by delivering the datacard to the Rebel Alliance.
As Solo was frozen in carbonite, Valance struggled immensely intending to rescue the smuggler from first Boba Fett, later Crimson Dawn, and then the Empire, but was betrayed by Fett on board the Executor in the end. During this time, Valance went through hell and back trying to save his old fellow cadet, resulting in what was almost his death.
===Dengar===
Valance had a very complicated working relationship with the Corellian bounty hunter Dengar. The two were both part of a crew hired by Vader to track down the Hidden Hand crime syndicate, where Dengar dirtily double crossed Valance and the team. Dengar ratted out Valance's compassion for his homeworld to Vader, and Valance, not forgiving him, tracked Dengar to Coruscant and promptly punched him in the face.
Later, Valance and Dengar were reunited as Dengar was a prisoner of the reformed Ohnaka Gang, and Valance was working to save members of the Rebel Alliance captured by the same pirates. Dengar agreed to help Valance track down Han Solo, repayment for selling out Valance to Darth Vader the last time they met. The two bounty hunters did not trust each other at first, but grew to rely on each other more as they learned about one another's true selves and fought against Crimson Dawn on the streets of Nar Shaddaa and Canto Bight together, eventually participating in the War of the Bounty Hunters together, where Valance let Dengar drift away on an ice chunk, claiming he cared more for Solo than his former partner.
==Skills and abilities==
While at the flight academy, Valance proved himself to be the top cadet. Aside from his piloting skills, Valance was also trained in using blasters, utilizing one during his rescue on Qhulosk. As a cyborg, Valance could take on several opponents at once using his palm blaster and a combination of other weaponry. With his knowledge from his academy days, he was able to maneuver through Imperial forces on his starship, the Broken Wing.
Valance was skilled in hand-to-hand combat, defeating opponents such as his former employer Gwi and the bounty hunter Bossk. When his weapons failed him, he improvised in combat by using nearby objects to incapacitate his enemies. He was also able to use his knowledge of TIE fighters to shoot one down by damaging its stabilizers during an assignment from Han Solo. While infiltrating the Executor with Boba Fett, Valance used his Imperial knowledge to guide the bounty hunter to the frozen Han Solo, where he was betrayed.
==Equipment==
===Cybernetics===
After losing his left eye on Qhulosk, Valance was given a cybernetic eye as a replacement. Sustaining severe injuries in Mimban, he received extensive cybernetics at the medical facility, which covered the majority of his body and internal organs. Synthflesh was used to cover his cybernetics in order to avoid revulsion at his cyborg appearance from others. Valance's cheaper Imperial cybernetics were upgraded greatly after encountering Nakano Lash and her team. A durasteel skeleton made from scrapped battle droid technology covered his internal organs, replacing the older parts installed by Imperial medics. His heart, which received severe damage at Mimban, was covered with ryboarse-based synthetic cybernetics to strengthen it.
A built-in respirator supported his lungs, which enabled him to survive for more than ten minutes in a vacuum. His right arm had space for various weapon upgrades, including a vibroblade, grappling hook, or a concussion disc launcher, while his left arm was equipped with a palm blaster, a weapon that could be fired from his hand. The legs were piston-powered, allowing Valance to leap at much greater distances than a normal human. His feet contained magnetic pods that could attach to metal surfaces and assist Valance in scaling them, or stabilize him in zero gravity. His synthetic organs filtered out any lactic acids and poisons from the system in order to increase his stamina.
Valance's brain's nervous system was replaced with cybernetic ports connected to electrostatic wiring. His ears had built-in receivers that could tap into unencrypted transmissions within a short distance. Valance's cybernetics were also equipped with a failsafe that placed Valance in hibernation should he face a critical systems failure. The right eye was an advanced cybernetic photoreceptor that could switch between infrared, night, ultraviolet, and magnetic vision. The eye could be used for targeting or telescopic zooming, and had both a built-in camera and a holographic projector to capture and display footage, respectively. The eye could also display a diagnostic screen which monitored Valance's body and cybernetic systems.
Valance's body and cybernetics were powered by a power cell. After recovering from losing consciousness and regaining stability, Valance's internal power cells were able to recharge.
When Valance was once more in service to Darth Vader, his heart was removed and placed in a vat aboard the Executor. This greatly disturbed Valance, and Vader would continue to heavily abuse Valance's cybernetic systems.
===Other equipment===
Throughout both his piloting and bounty hunting careers. Valance used various weaponry such as his cybernetic palm blaster as well as other types of blasters. As a bounty hunter, he donned a blue outfit, black boots, and a brown cape. He also wore gray nanotech gloves that hid the weapons in his arms. A shinbone blade, serving as a last resort if Valance's cybernetics were compromised, was concealed within his cybernetic tibia, which was connected to his electronic systems and was activated with pressure. For transportation, he flew a starship known as the Broken Wing.
Valance wore multiple equipment pouches as well as a holster for a IB-94 blaster around his waist. In a pouch, he stored nutrition supplies in order to keep his remaining human organs active. He also carried a medpac in a sack worn around his chest, which contained bacta vials, various health boosters, and spare power cells. The power cell could potentially create enough power for a personal shield if Valance were to acquire the necessary parts.
==Behind the scenes==
Beilert Valance first appeared in Star Wars canon in the first issue of the comic book adaptation of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was written by Robbie Thompson, illustrated by Will Sliney and published by Marvel ComicsSolo: A Star Wars Story Adaptation 1 on October 10, 2018. The character went unnamed until the release of the Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet comic miniseries, which was written by Thompson, illustrated by Leonard Kirk, and published by Marvel Comics. Initially introduced as Cadet 404-913 in the first issue, he was later identified as Valance in the third issue and further identified as Beilert in the fourth.
The character of Beilert Valance originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, first appearing in Star Wars (1977) 16—a comic book written by Archie GoodwinStar Wars (1977) 16 and published on July 25, 1978. The name "Beilert" was established in "The Hunt Within: Valance's Tale: Part 1," a 2004 scenario for the Star Wars Miniatures roleplaying game by Jason Fry. According to Fry, Goodwin likely took the name "Valance" from the title outlaw character in the classic John Ford western film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; accordingly, Fry devised the name "Beilert" as a near-anagram of "Liberty."
After being reintroduced to Star Wars canon, Valance became a major character in the Star Wars: Bounty Hunters comic series written by Ethan Sacks. Fans of Valance called themselves the "ValanceNation," whom Sacks reflected endured a great deal of torture thanks to all he put Valance through in Bounty Hunters. Sacks stated his favorite thing about writing him was how the character recovered from the trauma inflicted upon him. Sacks played coy with fans as to whether Valance would survive the series, joking that Bounty Hunters 42 was his "last adventure" and remarking that, if a fan did not open the issue, Valance would be simultaneously dead and alive. With the end of the series, Sacks joked that Valance's odds of survival were suddenly much higher all because he was no longer writing his journey.
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Bounty Hunters' Guild bounty hunters
Category:Carida residents
Category:Cyborgs with prosthetics
Category:Dark Squadron members
Category:Galactic Empire deserters
Category:Humans
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Individuals with it/its pronouns
Category:Individuals with lost eyes
Category:Individuals with lost limbs
Category:Individuals with respiratory disabilities
Category:Males
Category:Members of Nakano Lash's crew
Category:Members of T'onga's crew
Category:Members of Vader's crew
Category:Miners
Category:Officers of the Galactic Empire
Category:Revived individuals