Iden versio

**Iden Versio** was a human female soldier who served in the military of the Galactic Empire. A TIE fighter pilot in the Imperial Starfighter Corps, Iden became Commander of Inferno Squad, an Imperial Special Forces commando unit assembled by her father, Admiral Garrick Versio, in response to the destruction of the Death Star. Along with Agents Gideon Hask, Del Meeko, and Seyn Marana, she infiltrated the Dreamers and successfully destroyed them, though Marana died in the mission. Inferno Squad would later go on to participate in and conduct special operations for the Empire in the Galactic Civil War, and, in 4 ABY, participated in the Battle of Endor, which saw the death of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the second Death Star, resulting in the fracturing of the Empire with the lack of a line of succession and broken chain of command.In the immediate aftermath of the battle, the secret Contingency was activated, and Messenger droids carried the final posthumous orders of the Emperor to select Imperial officers, among them Admiral Versio: Operation: Cinder was to begin at once. However, when climate disruption arrays targeted the Versio homeworld of Vardos as part of Operation: Cinder, Iden and Meeko both went rogue, escaping aboard the *Corvus* and surrendering to the Rebel Alliance. Iden and Meeko both agreed to help the Rebellion combat Operation: Cinder at the Battle of Theed, and ultimately decided to defect to the Rebellion and join the New Republic.

## **Biography**

### **Early life**

Iden Versio was born and raised in the city of Kestro on the Core Worlds planet Vardos during the reign of the Galactic Empire. She was the daughter of Garrick Versio, an admiral in the Imperial Security Bureau; and Zeehay Versio, a premier artist in the Coalition for Progress who contributed to the design of propaganda posters. Following her father's example, Iden trained to become a soldier of the Empire, and to that end attended the Future Imperial Leaders Military Preparatory School on Vardos, and following that enrolled in the Imperial Academy on Coruscant, the Imperial capital world. Iden later graduated from the Imperial Academy with honors, at the top of her class.

### **Imperial service**

#### **Early service**

Assigned to the Death Star as a Senior Lieutenant, Versio was present for the Destruction of Jedha City in 0 BBY, in which Jedha City, an ancient city located on the desert moon Jedha, was destroyed by the Death Star's superlaser. The ensuing destruction also obliterated the ancient Temple of the Kyber, and killed Saw Gerrera and his group of rebels known as the Partisans.

Shortly after the destruction of Jedha City, Iden was present for the Battle of Scarif, in which the Death Star's superlaser was used to destroy an Imperial facility which had been infiltrated by rebels, who sought to steal the Death Star plans which were present at the Imperial facility. The ensuing blast wiped out an entire region, along with several rebel ships which had been trapped within Scarif's shield, though rebels on the ground were able to transmit a copy of the plans to a rebel ship in orbit. The plans were then transferred to a blockade runner under the command of Princess Leia Organa.

After the capture of Organa, her home planet Alderaan was chosen by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin as a suitable test of the Death Star's superlaser. Upon its arrival in the Alderaan system, the superlaser was charged, and on Tarkin's order fired, destroying Alderaan. As most personnel aboard the Death Star had been ordered to do, Iden looked on at the destruction of Alderaan.

#### **Battle of Yavin**

"*Attention, pilots. Death Star is now six minutes out from target.*" "*Respectfully, Commander, with only six minutes until the entire moon's destruction, why are we out here? Surely thirty one-person ships won't be able to do anything resembling damage to the Death Star in that amount of time.*"
―Versio, questioning her squadron's deployment during the Battle of Yavin[src]
Shortly after the destruction of Alderaan, Iden participated in the Battle of Yavin, in which Tarkin planned to destroy the moon, Yavin 4, and with it the Rebel leadership. As the Rebel Alliance launched fighters to attack the Death Star, Iden, under the callsign TIE Sigma Three, and her squadron were deployed to intercept them. When Iden's commander, Kela Neerik, informed the squadron that the Death Star was six minutes from firing range, Iden believed the Rebel fighters presented no threat to the Imperial station and questioned their deployment, but once she was warned not to waste Darth Vader's time, she kept silent and followed orders. During the course of the battle, Iden shot down several Rebel fighters. Ultimately, rebel pilot Luke Skywalker was able to fire a pair of proton torpedoes down the Death Star's thermal exhaust port, which triggered a chain reaction resulting in the battle station's destruction. Following the Death Star's explosion, Iden's TIE fighter was struck by debris from the station, causing her to lose control of her TIE. Barely able to dodge the debris from the battle station, Iden crash-landed on Yavin's moon, Yavin 4. There, she was able to steal a ship while the rebels celebrated their victory and returned to Imperial lines.

#### **Commander of Inferno Squad**

In response to the destruction of the Death Star, Garrick assembled Inferno Squad, which consisted of Iden, Gideon Hask, Del Meeko, and Seyn Marana. To determine who will be the initial leader of the squad, Garrick told each squad member to formulate a plan for their first mission; to expose Moff Jaccun Pereez for espionage. Determined to become the leader, Iden furiously planned and was chosen to lead the squad on the first mission. Iden's plan saw the squad infiltrate the wedding of Pereez's daughter Famma in pairs, with Iden and Hask giving Pereez, who was known to like various liquors, a drugged bottle of rare wine while Marana and Meeko recovered a datapad from this mansion. When the mission was a success, Iden was granted continued leadership privileges and was promoted to Captain. The squad also was granted a ship, the Raider-class corvette *Corvus*.

On their second mission, the squad was sent undercover to retrieve data from Bokk Naarg, an Imperial informant who worked with the Partisans. Iden led the mission from the *Corvus* while Hask was sent in to make contact with Naarg, but when Marana noticed Naarg and his companions were equipped with suicide bombs, Iden decided to go in to support Hask wearing stormtrooper armor. However, the bombs were detonated, with Iden and Hask barely escaping with a datachip and failing to bring in Naarg alive.

Their first significant mission was to neutralize the Dreamers, a rebel group that had risen from the ashes of the Partisans. Each squad member was given a different route to proceed to join the Partisans, with Iden pretending to defect from the Empire due to her attitude towards the Destruction of Alderaan. Iden wanted to tell her mother Zeehay of the plan, but Garrick insisted that for the deception to work, only the squad could know of the circumstances. Ultimately, Iden played her part and was arrested by Imperial officer Tarvyn Lareka after she told him that she was beginning to hate the Empire and what it stood for after the Death Star destroyed Alderaan. Iden was arrested for treason and, by Garrick's design, sent to be imprisoned on her homeworld of Vardos, where Gleb, the headmaster of the Future Imperial Leaders Military Preparatory School on Vardos, who was informed of the plan, would watch over her and make sure she was allowed to be rescued by the Dreamers. This mission was ultimately a success.

##### **Escaping the *Invincible Faith***

"*Today, the Rebellion dies.*"
―Iden Versio shortly after she escaped the *Invincible Faith*[src]
Around 4 ABY, Iden was willingly captured by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, planning to delete intercepted Imperial transmissions. She escaped the *Invincible Faith* with the help of Del Meeko's ID10 seeker droid after deleting Moff Raythe's intercepted transmission regarding the Imperial Fleet's position at Endor. After reuniting with Inferno Squad, they were sent to the Endor system.

##### **Battle of Endor**

Iden led Inferno Squad in the Battle of Endor and witnessed the destruction of the second Death Star. Knowing they were defeated, Inferno Squad looked to her for direction. Iden led several squads of stormtroopers to take an Imperial landing pad the rebels were attacking. After defeating a hijacked AT-ST, Inferno Squad fled in the remaining TIE fighters on the platform. In space, the *Corvus*'s engines had been damaged, leading the captain to reroute power from the shields. Inferno Squad defended it from Y-wing bombers until its engines were back online. The *Corvus* then retreated to the rendezvous point with the remainder of the Imperial fleet at Endor. Iden led her

troops to avenge their Emperor by hunting down the people responsible for his demise and the destruction of the second Death Star, namely Luke Skywalker.

##### **Defending the *Dauntless***

"*What's the plan, Commander?*" "*Keep this Star Destroyer safe. The Rebels can't learn about Operation: Cinder.*"
―Agent Gideon Hask and Commander Iden Versio —  Listen (file info)[src]
Inferno Squad's next orders were to head to the Fondor shipyards to protect the *Dauntless*, while it retrieved experimental satellites for Operation: Cinder. During their stay, a small rebel fleet composed of one MC80 Star Cruiser, multiple CR90 corvettes, and several squadrons of starfighters arrived in system. The MC80's ion cannons disabled the *Dauntless*. Inferno Squad's TIE fighters launched, and Iden destroyed one CR90 and several U-wings that were trying to board the Destroyer. After receiving orders from Moff Raythe to destroy the cruiser's ion cannons, Iden and Hask boarded the ship and destroyed its cooling cells. Iden ejected the last cooling cell into space, which disabled a CR90. The corvette crashed into the ship, and Iden and Hask narrowly survived only by having ID-10 turn on the shields again. Iden then returned to her ship in the hangar and disabled the docking clamps of the shipyard. With his ship now free, Raythe ordered a full salvo of turbolasers on the MC80A, destroying it.

##### **Returning to Vardos**

"*Leave for Vardos immediately. Recover Protectorate Gleb. She is your only target.*"
―Admiral Garrick Version to Commander Iden Versio[src]
After the Battle of Fondor, Inferno Squad was ordered to destroy one of the Emperor's personal observatories on the uncolonized world of Pillio. She ordered Agent Meeko to accomplish the mission. Unknown to her, however, Meeko came across an unlikely ally during the mission and decided not to destroy the observatory. After Del's mission, Iden briefed Inferno Squad on their next task: to extract Gleb from Vardos. They were told this was an element of the Emperor's contingency plan Operation: Cinder, but were not given further details about the mission.

Upon arrival to Vardos, Iden learned Admiral Versio had deployed satellites above the planet to conjure an electrical storm as part of Operation: Cinder. Iden was furious, feeling the extermination of a people loyal to the Empire was immoral and unjustified. The Admiral ordered her to carry out the mission, clarifying that she was only to extract Gleb and nobody else. When Inferno Squad reached the Archive, where Gleb was waiting, an explosion caused by the electrical storm broke off some debris from the inside of the palace, crushing some citizens. Unable to stand the situation any longer, Iden and Meeko disobeyed Admiral Versio's orders and offered to evacuate some of the citizens via their ship, the *Corvus*. Gideon Hask, however, was adamant that they follow the original plan. Unbeknownst to Iden and Meeko, Hask had been given orders to kill them if they defected. When Hask drew his weapon to fire, Iden quickly disabled him by shooting him in the leg. Now traitors to the Empire, Iden and Meeko fought their way through Vardos to make it to the *Corvus* and escape.

Along the way, they stole an Imperial AT-AT and used it to destroy several anti-aircraft cannons that were targeting civilian shuttles trying to flee. After destroying the satellite dish, all turrets in the city were shut down. After destroying several AT-STs and TIE fighters and finally reaching the *Corvus*, Iden and Meeko defended the ship with crew members that chose to stay loyal to her, until the ramp was lowered and the *Corvus* escaped the system.