Atuarre

Atuarre was a female Trianii Ranger and the mate of Keeheen, another Trianii Ranger. After Keeheen went missing during the Corporate Sector Authority's annexation of Fibuli, Atuarre and their cub, Pakka, joined a group dedicated to finding and rescuing the Authority's political prisoners. After Rekkon, the leader of the group, had discovered the location of the prisoners and was murdered, Atuarre assisted Han Solo in infiltrating the prison and freeing its prisoners.

Early life
Atuarre spent most of her early life on Trian and was accustomed to an upper-class lifestyle. She aspired to be a corporate executive, a model or a dancer. However, this would change when she met a young Trianii Ranger named Keeheen.

She first met Keeheen when he was training in public with his fellow Rangers. Upon seeing Atuarre, Keeheen proposed to her and she declined his offer. However, Atuarre exchanged comsignal prefixes with him, which resulted in her receiving flowers as well as repeated proposals over the next two years. Atuarre was impressed by Keeheen's persistence, and when he was granted vacation time from his patrol duty as a Ranger, Atuarre and Keeheen married. Shortly thereafter, Atuarre gave birth to a male cub who they named Pakka.

Keeheen encouraged Atuarre to become a Ranger so that she could join him on his patrols of the borders of Trianii space. Atuarre initially resisted this idea since she felt that her upbringing had not prepared her for the life of a Ranger. However, she relented, began training as a Ranger and found that she indeed had what it took to be one.

Trianii Ranger
After Atuarre gained her status as a full Ranger, she and Keeheen were assigned to Fibuli, a Trianii colony world that was the center of a dispute between the Trianii government and the Corporate Sector Authority. Though Atuarre and Keeheen's patrol tour saw them put an end to the activities of thionarx dealers on Brochiib and those of herdbeast rustlers on Ekibo, the uncharacteristic inactivity of Authority forces in the area meant that it was largely uneventful.



When the Authority undertook its annexation of Fibuli, however, the level of conflict in the area increased immensely. During the course of the fighting, which ended in a victory for the Authority after three months, Keeheen and Pakka were captured by Authority forces. It was during this period that she first witnessed the brutal interrogation method known as "The Burning". Atuarre pledged to find and rescue both of them or she would die in the process of doing so, for she could not bear to leave them in the hands of individuals who would do such things. Atuarre eventually discovered that Pakka was being taken to an interrogation facility deep within Authority space. She rescued him, but she found, much to her dismay, that Pakka had been traumatized by interrogators before his rescue and refused to speak.

During the succeeding weeks, Atuarre searched in vain for any news on where Keeheen might have been taken by the Authority. She then discovered a group dedicated to finding and freeing the Authority's political prisoners and made contact with their leader, Rekkon. He had Atuarre and Pakka come to the Authority agricultual world of Orron III, where she worked under the cover of an apprentice agronomist. In the meantime, Atuarre won Rekkon's trust and he made her a member of the group's core leadership, which included two others &mdash; Rekkon's second-in-command, Torm Dadeferron and a boy named Engret.

The search for Stars' End
During the course of approximately one standard month, Atuarre waited as Rekkon worked to find the location of the political prisoners. However, his efforts were mostly fruitless. At the end of this period, Atuarre was summoned by Rekkon to the Authority's local Data Center. Before leaving, she discovered that Engret had failed to check in with her and did not answer when she tried to reach him by comlink. Troubled by this, she stopped by his dwelling, was given reason to believe that it was under surveillance and concluded that he had either been kidnapped or killed by the Authority.

She and Pakka arrived at Rekkon's office at the Data Center, and in addition to Rekkon and Dadeferron, two strangers and two droids were waiting for them. Despite Rekkon's reassurances that Han Solo, Chewbacca, Bollux and Blue Max were there to help them find the location of the Authority's secret prison and leave Orron III, Atuarre remained suspicious of them. Matters were not helped when Blue Max informed them that their presence had been detected by the Authority. In the process of escaping Orron III, they were forced to leave Chewbacca behind.

During the Millennium Falcon's flight from the planet, Atuarre crewed one of the Falcon's gun turrets at Solo's request, however, she was never given the opportunity to use it before the freighter made the jump to hyperspace. Atuarre was shocked to discover that Rekkon had been murdered during the Falcon's escape. She discounted the possibility that Pakka was responsible for the deed and in her anger, she accused both Dadeferron and Solo of doing it. Solo was having none of it and over her objections, he disarmed her as well as the others so that he would not have to worry about being shot while trying to figure out who the traitor was. In the meantime, Solo gave her blaster back to her and tasked her with putting the Falcon's forward compartment in order. Although she balked at being treated this way and voiced her belief that Solo was a fool, Atuarre complied.

Solo managed to trick Dadeferron into outing himself as the traitor by revealing to him that he had discovered the location of the prison facility known as Stars' End. Seeing Dadeferron draw his blaster on Solo, Atuarre drew hers on Dadeferron and tried to fire but to no avail, for Solo had drained the power of both blasters. During the fight that ensued, Dadeferron nearly snapped Atuarre's neck, but she was saved by Pakka, who tried to blind and choke him. Dadeferron dashed off to find something that would serve as a suitable weapon but accidentally locked himself in the Falcon's emergency airlock. She and Pakka looked on as Solo jettisoned him into hyperspace.

The Falcon arrived in the Mytus system and they located Stars' End on the barren surface of Mytus VII. However, the freighter's occupants were at a loss with regard to how to proceed until approximately ten Standard Time Parts later, when they intercepted a transmission from the Imperial Entertainers' Guild informing Viceprex Mirkovig Hirken, the head of the facility, that the entertainment troupe that was scheduled to arrive had been cancelled and that a replacement act would be on its way. Solo hit upon the idea that Atuarre, Pakka, Bollux, Blue Max and himself could pass themselves off as the replacement act. Atuarre was initially hesitant to accept Solo's plan, but decided to go along with it when he suggested that this would be her only chance to free Keeheen.

The Millennium Falcon&mdash;now the touring vehicle of "Madam Atuarre's Roving Perfomers"&mdash;landed at Stars' End. Atuarre, the dancer, Pakka, the acrobat, "Master Marksman", the trick shooter, and the "robotic raconteur" known as Bollux were greeted by a group of Security Police who treated them with suspicion. However, Atuarre managed to defuse the situation caused by their unauthorized landing by taking on the air of a vain celebrity. They were brought to the top level of the facility where they were received by Viceprex Hirken.

Though she felt inclined toward committing acts of physical violence against a man whom she suspected of possibly torturing her mate, Atuarre retained her composure while dealing with Hirken. However, she discovered that Hirken had been expecting them to bring a gladiator droid with them&mdash;something which the communique from the Imperial Entertainers' Guild had only barely hinted at. Solo managed to spare her from having to conjure up an excuse for why Bollux would be unable to fight for the Viceprex's amusement. He told Hirken that one of Bollux's internal components needed to be repaired. Hirken granted him the use of Stars' End's facilities to repair the damaged component.

Solo removed Blue Max from Bollux's chest with the intent of bringing Blue Max to the facility's central computer section in order to use him to find the prisoners. Meanwhile Atuarre and Pakka tried to buy time for Solo first by entertaining Hirken and his entourage with Pakka's acrobatic exploits and her skill for dancing. However, Hirken was itching for some automated combat and began to feel cheated. Hirken decided that he would punish them for what he saw as fraud by using his cutting-edge Mark X Executioner to destroy Bollux in a duel and have their license with the Imperial Entertainers' Guild revoked. Atuarre sensed that she would have more options available to her if she could get to the Falcon and after requesting to leave, Hirken allowed her to do so.

On their way to the Falcon, Atuarre and Pakka met Solo, who was on his way with Blue Max to the amphitheater to save Bollux. Solo informed her that he had located the political prisoners and that Blue Max had rigged Stars' End to self-destruct if Hirken failed to meet his demands to release them. Atuarre had severe misgivings about Solo's plan, but she decided that this would be their only chance to free the prisoners. When they had nearly made it to the Falcon, Atuarre and Pakka were stopped by their escort because Hirken wanted Atuarre and Pakka to return to the amphitheater. Atuarre tried to convince the trooper to let her go the rest of the way to the Falcon, but when he refused, she and Pakka attacked and killed him. It was then that the tower of Stars' End was propelled into the sky of Mytus VII by an explosion that had resulted from the destruction of its power plant.

Once she was at the freighter's controls, Atuarre noticed that a Marauder-class corvette had lifted off to intercept the airborne prison facility. She used the Falcon's weapon systems to ensure that no other Authority ships made it off the ground and then started her way to the tower with one of the facility's tunnel-tubes in tow. Because Stars' End had not been blasted into orbit and was instead in the beginning of a ballistic arc, Atuarre had a limited amount of time to dock with it and evacuate as many prisoners as possible before it crashed into Mytus VII's surface. In the meantime, several of the prisoners had been freed from their captivity in stasis-booths because of the waning power supply. However, Solo was trapped with the prisoners on the detention level with Hirken's people pressing on him from above and reinforcements from the corvette coming up from a lower airlock. Atuarre managed to connect the Falcon to the detention level airlock just in time to prevent Solo from making a suicidal rush with the prisoners in order to take Hirken hostage.

The prisoners began to evacuate Stars' End, but the Falcon could only hold so many of them. However, Atuarre had planned for this in advance and informed Solo of the tunnel-tube that she had attached to the Falcon before she had left the surface of Mytus VII. Both she and Solo decided that it would be a good idea to use it to board the corvette and then capture it from the skeleton crew that remained onboard while the others sought to rescue Hirken. A boarding party led by a newly-freed Chewbacca stormed the Authority vessel and successfully commandeered it while Solo helped to hold back the reinforcements from the detention-level airlock.

An associate of Solo's named Klaus Vandangante took control of the Falcon's cockpit as Atuarre and Pakka remained behind to help the prisoners get aboard the Falcon. It was at this time that she was reunited with Keeheen. Though she was glad to see him again, she told Keeheen that if he did not make sure that Solo got off of Stars' End alive, he should not bother to come back. She then left for the cockpit to help Vandangante. Keeheen succeeded in his task and the two vessels detached from the tower before it plowedinto Mytus VII's surface. They made their way to a rendezvous point on Urdur, after which Atuarre, Keeheen and Pakka returned to Trianii space. Though both Atuarre and Keeheen remained Rangers, they decided to take a year's leave from patrol duty so that they could help Pakka adjust to normal life in the wake of the trauma that he had experienced at the hands of the Authority and a few weeks later, Pakka began to speak again. Atuarre eventually landed a position training Ranger cadets to meet the physical demands that their prospective occupation entailed.

Appearances

 * Han Solo at Stars' End
 * Han Solo at Stars' End comic

Notes and references
Atuarre