Mirta Gev

"I'm just trying to get by in a tough galaxy."

- Mirta Gev

Mirta Gev was a female Mandalorian bounty hunter around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War. Born on Mandalore as the daughter of a bounty hunter, Ailyn Vel, she embarked on a quest first undertaken by her mother, which was to find and kill her grandfather, the legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett, who had abandoned Ailyn Vel at a young age. When Gev finally tracked Fett down in 40 ABY, she ended up entering into a partnership with the dying bounty hunter to find a cure for his illness. Gev assisted Fett in finding a bounty hunter named Skirata, who had medical data needed to treat Fett.

She continued to work with Fett after that endeavor, including a mission to find Gev's grandmother and Fett's wife, Sintas Vel, who had been frozen in carbonite since 1 ABY. Gev would later take care of Vel while she recovered from her time in carbon freeze. Once Vel was well enough to be on her own, Gev fought on the front lines of the Mandalorian involvement in the Second Galactic Civil War, including fighting in the Second Battle of Fondor and the First Battle of Roche. It was after Roche that she was captured by the Galactic Alliance Chief of State, Sith Lord Darth Caedus, and interrogated. Following her interrogation, the Moffs of the Imperial Remnant released a nanovirus into the atmosphere of her home planet of Mandalore, preventing her from returning home.

Early life
"Mama was all I had and I don't like it that way."

- Mirta Gev

Mirta Gev was born on the planet Mandalore, the daughter of bounty hunter Ailyn Vel and a Mandalorian warrior named Makin Marec. While Marec and Vel's relationship did not last, Gev stayed close to both of her parents, spending two summers with her father as a youth on the planet Null, where Marec taught Gev everything he could related to combat and bounty hunting. Soon afterwards, Marec was killed when his ship suffered a hull breach, leaving Vel to raise Gev alone. Vel was constantly hunting for the famous bounty hunter and leader of the Mandalorian clans Boba Fett, making it difficult for her to raise Gev. Fett had deserted Vel and her mother Sintas when Ailyn was still a child, fostering a desire for revenge in his daughter, who passed it on to Gev.

While Gev was still a child, her home planet Mandalore was devastated in the Yuuzhan Vong War, when an invading extragalactic species called the Yuuzhan Vong bombarded the planet's surface, killing one-third of the planet's population. When Gev grew up, she followed in the footsteps of her mother and grandfather, becoming a bounty hunter. At one point in the course of her career, Gev encountered former ARC clone trooper Jaing Skirata during an ill-fated mission, though Gev only knew him by his last name. Skirata and Gev were both after the same target, and eventually met. When they met, Skirata claimed that he had fought in the Clone Wars. At one point prior to 40 ABY, Gev was married, but that relationship ended. Gev also assisted her mother in her search for Boba Fett, hoping to aid Vel in her revenge. Ailyn Vel gave Gev a Heart of Fire pendant, a Kiffar jewel that had once belonged to Sintas. Vel told Gev to use the pendant to draw Fett's attention should she ever find him.

Finding Fett
In 40 ABY, Gev finally found Fett on the Outer Rim world of Taris, where he was staying for a meeting with his second-in-command, Goran Beviin. Upon sighting him, she stayed at a safe distance, carefully observing and following him. When Fett finally noticed her, Gev approached him. She then revealed her name, and informed him of their mutual acquaintance, claiming Vel was her client. She also showed him the Heart of Fire pendant that had once belonged to Fett's wife, convincing Fett to allow her to stay. Intrigued, Fett wished to see his daughter Ailyn and apologize for leaving her, and Gev offered to accompany him. First, though, Fett needed to find his one-time caretaker, the Kaminoan Taun We, since he was dying due to numerous tumors in his body, and believed that We had the solution to his ailments. The two left the planet Taris in Fett's starship, Slave I, in search of the elusive Kaminoan.

The pair first traveled to Roonadan in the Corporate Sector, where Gev was forced to remain in the cargo bay of the Slave I while Fett was out and about searching for Taun We. Fett returned to the starship empty-handed and changed course to Vohai, in the Outer Rim Parmel sector, where Fett believed We was. Whilst journeying from Roonadan to Vohai, Gev told Fett of her encounter with Skirata. Fett thought he could be healed by obtaining scientific data gathered by Ko Sai, a dead Kaminoan cloner who had specialized in aging. Upon hearing Gev's story about Skirata, Fett realized that Skirata must have had the missing Ko Sai data. Once they reached Vohai, Gev was once again forced to remain aboard Slave I, despite her attempts at convincing Fett to allow her to accompany him. Once Fett returned to the ship, having found We, Gev directed them to Coruscant, where she believed that her mother was. However, when Gev attempted to contact her mother, she was unable to get through.

Before they were able to venture to Coruscant and Ailyn Vel, Fett was presented with urgent business in the Corellian sector, and forced to reroute there, taking Gev with him. Fett, Gev, and a group of Mandalorian commandos assembled by Goran Beviin met in the Zerria bar on Drall two days later. While the rest of the Mandalorians were hostile towards a stranger such as Gev, once Fett mentioned her Mandalorian heritage, they immediately thawed and welcomed her into the group. It was in the Zerria bar that Gev met her future husband, Mandalorian warrior Ghes Orade, for the first time. Some time after, Fett and Gev were contacted by Corellian Head of State Thrackan Sal-Solo, who offered them a job defending repair teams working on Centerpoint Station, an ancient space station that had been previously damaged by Jedi Knights Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker. After hearing of the opportunity, they were contacted by rising Corellian politician Dur Gejjen, who made a counteroffer. Gejjen was scheming to eliminate Sal-Solo, and needed a contract killer. He offered Fett the job, and Fett accepted, bringing Gev along with him. The plan was carried out, with Fett and Gev accompanied by ex-smuggler and Sal-Solo's cousin Han Solo who was brought into the plan as a backup option for Gejjen should the Mandalorians not accept. At the time, Solo had been a target of Vel, and recognized Mirta as one of Vel's accomplices.

Gev, with Fett and Solo, returned to Sal-Solo, pretending to negotiate with him about the offer to defend Centerpoint Station. Solo, his identity hidden in Mandalorian armor, leapt at Sal-Solo and began to throttle him; when Sal-Solo revealed that he had given Vel up to the authorities on Coruscant in order to distract attention from other bounty hunters whom he had hired to kill Solo, Gev realized that the politician had sold her mother out. She shot Sal-Solo in the head, killing him. Gev, Solo and Fett escaped the scene of the crime soon afterwards, and returned to Gejjen, who rewarded them with one million credits. After the assassination, Gev asked Solo for any information on Ailyn Vel's location. Han Solo then contacted his wife Leia Organa Solo for more information on Vel, who informed them that Vel had been killed under interrogation by Leia's son Colonel Jacen Solo of the Galactic Alliance Guard, robbing Gev of her mother. Stricken, Gev pulled her blaster out, aiming it at Fett. However, Organa Solo used the Force to pull the blaster away from Gev before she could fire a shot. Upon losing her blaster, Gev revealed her true intentions for traveling with Fett; she wanted to return him to Vel, so that she could kill him once and for all. Since Vel was dead, Gev wanted to kill Fett to complete her mother's mission. Gev broke down in tears upon divulging her motives, and had to be calmed down by the Solos. Afterwards, Vel's body was returned to Fett and Gev, and Gev decided to bring her mother's corpse back to Mandalore. Before they could return to Mandalore, however, the pair traveled to Geonosis to retrieve the body of Fett's father, Jango Fett, so that the two bodies could be laid to rest on Mandalore.

Search for Skirata
With a heavy heart, Mirta Gev and Boba Fett returned to Mandalore with Jango Fett's body in tow. The two buried Jango next to Ailyn Vel, his granddaughter. Gev and Fett stayed on Mandalore for some time, with Gev staying in the home of a Mandalorian warrior named Novoc Vevut, one of the Mandalorians who had attended the meeting on Drall. While staying with Vevut, she grew enamored with Vevut's adopted son, Ghes Orade. Afterwards, Gev and Fett attended a meeting of the Mandalorian clans, held in a hall donated to the people of Mandalore by MandalMotors, the prevalent arms company in the Mandalore sector. The Mandalorians were anxious to fight in the ever-escalating conflict between the dominant galactic government, the Galactic Alliance, and a breakaway group of systems known as the Confederation. Under Mandalore Boba Fett's reign, the economy had been thrown into dire straits, with a flow of credits needed to import food. The meeting ended with Fett deciding not to back either side in the war, and calling two million Mandalorians to return to Mandalore to strengthen their homeworld after the devastation of the Yuuzhan Vong War. After the meeting adjourned, Gev departed with Fett to search for their missing clone, Skirata.

Since Skirata was working as a bounty hunter, Fett came up with a plan to locate him. Gev would pose as a client looking to hire a bounty hunter, and would enlist the services of Skirata. The grandfather and granddaughter pair traveled in the Slave I to Bador, in the Core Worlds Kuat system. Once they landed on Bador, the two entered a local establishment known as the Paradise Cantina. The barkeeper and employees of the cantina, however, were hostile to the two, as the last Mandalorian to enter the cantina, Skirata, had killed a local crime boss named Cherit. The hostility from the bartender led to an all out brawl, with the Mandalorians winning. After the fight, the bartender told Gev and Fett that Cherit's successor, Fraig, might know of Skirata's whereabouts, and that Fraig could be found at the Tekshar Falls Casino.

When the two reached the prestigious Tekshar Falls Casino, Gev introduced Fett to the receptionist as the "President of Mandalore", gaining them entry. Once in the casino, Gev intimidated Fraig's Hamadryas bodyguard into letting Fett and her see him, by threatening to cut his carotid artery. When the two gained admission to Fraig's private suite and attempted to question him, Fraig was resistant. Gev and Fett were forced to intimidate the location of Skirata out of Fraig by attaching him to a fibercord and throwing him off a balcony. Faced with death, Fraig divulged that Skirata had a grudge against a Twi'lek clan named Himar, giving Gev and Fett information on Skirata's whereabouts and activities. Gev and Fett were forced to fight their way out of the building after Fraig's interrogation against an onrush of bodyguards, but were victorious and escaped the casino. While en route to the Slave I, chased by patrol vehicles, Gev was attacked by a large Strill named Mird. After the Strill had been neutralized, Skirata, its owner, appeared to them, ending their long search.

Sintas Vel
"Just look for the carbonite slab."

- Mirta Gev

With the search for Skirata at an end, Gev returned to Mandalore and continued to stay with Vevut and her new love, Orade. By this time, Gev had begun to consider marrying Orade. Gev would often go for walks on Mandalore with Orade, whose adoptive father, Vevut, encouraged the relationship, promising Gev a blaster that "could take the head off a dozen Trandoshans with one shot" should she marry Orade. Meanwhile, Fett finally used the Ko Sai data provided to him by Skirata to overcome his illness. Gev attended his medical procedure with Orade, and was introduced to Venku Skirata, also known as Kad'ika, a Mandalorian political leader and son of clone trooper Darman and Jedi Knight Etain Tur-Mukan. In a meeting with Venku Skirata and his friend Gotab in a Keldabe tapcafe, Gotab revealed the location of Sintas Vel by using Kiffar abilities to read the Heart of Fire pendant. According to Gotab's readings, Vel was on Phaeda, after an unsuccessful fight with a crime lord named Rezodar. Fett, in an attempt to finally get closure with his ex-wife after more than fifty years, commissioned Gev to bring him more information on Vel's situation.

After some research, Gev discovered that Rezodar, a gangster, had died in 2 ABY, and had left a vast estate. Since the Phaedan government could not claim his possessions, they had been in storage for thirty-eight years, and the Phaedan state lawyer was more than happy than to give away some of Rezodar's possessions. However, by investigating further, Gev found out that Vel's body, frozen within a carbonite slab, was among these objects, possibly meaning that Vel yet lived. Gev and Fett traveled to Phaeda together in the Slave I, intending to bring Vel back to Mandalore and thaw her from her carbonite slumber, before helping her rehabilitate. While on route to Phaeda, Gev was excited and cautiously glad that she would be able to meet her grandmother for the first time. On the other hand, Fett dreaded it, seeing as he had abandoned Vel and his daughter years before. Once on Phaeda, they went to the planet's Registry of Testaments and Legacies, where Vel had been stored, and retrieved her body. The pair then returned to Mandalore, where Vel was unfrozen. Over the next few months, Gev helped care for her grandmother as she dealt with memory loss and dementia caused by her years in carbonite. While Vel was under her granddaughter's care, Gev also gave her the Heart of Fire. Eventually, with the help of Gotab, Vel was able to fully recover both physically and mentally, and forgave Fett for leaving her and Ailyn. Around this time, a Jedi Knight named Jaina Solo came to Mandalore to be trained by Fett for an eventual duel with her brother, Jacen, who had risen to power as the Sith Lord Darth Caedus and the Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. Despite her animosity towards Jedi, Gev and Solo would become good friends.

Second Battle of Fondor
Once Vel was well enough to be left on her own, Gev served on the crew of a Tra'kad with several other Mandalorians and Solo during the Second Battle of Fondor. Fondor had succeeded from the Galactic Alliance, prompting Chief of State Darth Caedus to try and retake the planet and its orbital shipyards. The Mandalorians joined the battle once they received word that long time Imperial Remnant leader Gilad Pellaeon had been murdered by Darth Caedus' apprentice Tahiri Veila, and his flagship, the Bloodfin, had been taken. Consequently, the Mandalorians were ordered to board and gain control of the ship. Fighting alongside Admiral Natasi Daala and her Maw Irregular Fleet, Gev and the Mandalorians boarded the Bloodfin.

Following the death of Pellaeon, the crew of the Bloodfin had mutinied, leaving Veila trapped on the ship. While Gev, Solo and the Mandalorians were engaged in boarding the Bloodfin, they encountered Veila. Gev snuck up on and attacked Veila, injuring her, before Darth Caedus, who had returned to rescue his apprentice, broke up the fight by Force-choking Gev. Fortunately for Gev, Jaina Solo was able to break Caedus' telekinetic hold on the bounty hunter's throat. Gev lay injured on the deck of the ship until Boba Fett, who had accompanied the assault team, rescued her and brought her to safety. Gev would recover from her injuries, and the Mandalorians succeeded in taking the Bloodfin. Once Gev returned to Mandalore, she and Ghes Orade were married.

Interrogation
"How many Jedi accompanied your team?''" "''Go&hellip;get&hellip;borked."

- Darth Caedus interrogating Mirta Gev

The war continued to rage on into 41 ABY, drawing the Imperial Remnant in to support Caedus and his followers. In 41 ABY, Gev fought along with Fett and Solo in the First Battle of Roche, once again serving in a Tra'kad. The battle was fought to protect the Verpine from the Imperial Remnant, who sought to gain control of the species' advanced technology. As business partners with the insectoid species, the Mandalorians could not afford to lose access to the Verpine technology, and rushed to the species' aid. During the battle, Gev's husband Ghes Orade was shot down and injured. Orade survived, and Gev later led an assault team, intending to kill important Imperial personnel.

Gev, along with Jaina Solo and a strike team of Mandalorian warriors, infiltrated the Imperial base on the Roche asteroid of Nickel One, with the objective of eliminating the ruling Moff Council in one swift stroke. Solo eventually split with them to chase after Darth Caedus, who was inside the Nickel One base. Gev and the Mandalorians managed to reach the meeting room of the Council, but were surprised by a large amount of Imperial Elite Guardsmen. The assault quickly turned disastrous for the Mandalorians, with almost all of the warriors killed in the fighting. Soon, Darth Caedus appeared, killing several more of the Mandalorians. When Gev tried to attack Caedus, she was slammed on her head by the Sith Lord, rupturing her spinal cord and paralyzing her temporarily. The fight was not without loss on the other side, however; Jaina Solo managed to sever Caedus' arm during their duel. Caedus, who had been tricked by a Force illusion into believing that although Jaina Solo was present at the duel, it had been Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who had cut off his arm, took Gev as a prisoner following the battle. After the skirmish, Boba Fett, who thought that his granddaughter had been killed, became enraged at Jaina Solo and Luke Skywalker. Fett lambasted them for Gev's death, indicating that the aloof Fett truly did care for his granddaughter.

Gev was taken to Caedus' flagship, the Anakin Solo. The bounty hunter was still paralyzed at the time of her interrogation at the hands of Caedus and his apprentice Tahiri Veila; Caedus promised treatment if Gev divulged how many Jedi had accompanied the Mandalorian strike team, along with their names. Specifically, Caedus wanted to ascertain who had cut off his arm in the battle. Gev refused to talk, but became frightened when Caedus convinced her that Fett had abandoned her, assigning her a suicide mission and landing her in her current situation. When Gev finally revealed that Jaina Solo, Caedus' sister, was the lone Jedi, Caedus thought that she was lying, as he believed that he had fought both Solo and Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker. Dissatisfied, he threatened to disfigure Gev and release a nanovirus that would kill both her and her grandfather Boba Fett. To protect her family, Gev lied and said that Skywalker had been with the team. However, Caedus was able to sense that she was lying about something, and took a sample of her blood, which he used to construct the nanovirus. Despite this, Caedus kept his promise to heal Gev. The nanovirus was then produced by Imperial scientists, and air-dispersed over Mandalore, making it impossible for Gev or Fett to ever set foot there again.

Gev was eventually freed when the Anakin Solo was infiltrated by Jaina Solo, who planned to engage Caedus in a second duel and kill him. Solo visited Gev in the room in which the bounty hunter was being held captive. Having come to believe Caedus' insinuations about Fett, Gev had become depressed, and told Solo that she would simply prefer to put herself out of her misery. Gev also told Solo that if she survived her impending confrontation with Caedus, she had to warn Fett about the nanovirus. Solo promised to do so, but was disturbed when Gev asked her to tell Fett that he deserved it, since Gev believed that Fett had sent her on a suicide mission and abandoned her. Solo was disconcerted by Gev's attitude, and was confused as to what Solo had done to her mind. Before departing, Solo gave Gev a blaster. Solo would go on to defeat Darth Caedus in a lightsaber duel, ending both the threat of the Sith Lord and the Second Galactic Civil War. After defeating her brother, Solo told her friend Jagged Fel to rescue Gev from imprisonment and take her off the Anakin Solo.

Personality and traits
Mirta Gev possessed a great loyalty to her late mother, who inspired her to go on her hunt for Boba Fett. However, once Gev finally met Fett, she was initially hostile, but eventually became closer to her grandfather, bonding over the care of Sintas Vel. Gev did not want to hate her grandfather, who was cold and forbidding, and tried to find ways to love him, even though she found it difficult to do so. She was curious about the grandmother whom she had never met, and undertook great research to try and ascertain Sintas Vel's location. Once Gev found her grandmother, she was caring enough to take much care of Vel, taking time away from the normal duties of a Mandalorian woman.

Gev was also a capable warrior and a good cook, possessing the two qualities most prevalent in Mandalorian women. She was, as a bounty hunter, good at tracking people down, as demonstrated when she caught up with Boba Fett and located Sintas Vel. Gev had a passion for weapons, and was also good at healing, caring for Boba Fett after his surgery, and later Sintas Vel. When Gev was in the custody of Darth Caedus and under interrogation, she refused to surrender information on Solo, but eventually gave up when her grandfather was threatened. When the bounty hunter was later interred in the prison deck of the Anakin Solo, she indicated to Jaina Solo that she would rather be put her out of her misery than undergo further interrogation.

Gev, like many Mandalorians, was suspicious of and disliked Jedi. However, she managed to form a friendship with Jedi Knight Jaina Solo, who gained Gev's respect while Solo underwent training from Boba Fett to kill Darth Caedus. Gev, like Solo, wanted to kill Darth Caedus, but for her own reason&mdash;retaliation for his killing of Gev's mother, Ailyn Vel. Gev attacked the Sith Lord viciously both times they encountered one another, first at the Battle of Fondor, and later at the Battle of Roche. Furthermore, Gev refused to aid Caedus even after he promised medical treatment following her injury during the confrontation on Nickel One.

Behind the scenes
Mirta Gev was first created by author Karen Traviss for her novel Bloodlines, the second book of the Legacy of the Force series. She then appeared in Traviss' next two novels, Sacrifice and Revelation, before appearing in Troy Denning's Invincible.

The only canonical picture of Mirta Gev is of her wedding to Ghes Orade. The picture first appeared in an art gallery by Tom Hodges for Star Wars Insider, but the two Mandalorians were not identified. Its later inclusion in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia established the two as being Gev and Orade.

Appearances

 * Bloodlines
 * Sacrifice
 * Revelation
 * Invincible