Valorous (Victory-class)

"Ackbar: Plat Mallar got close enough to the first ship to interrogate it with his targeting system. It answered as the Imperial Star Destroyer Valorous.''" "''Leia Organa Solo: I know that. And if it was at Polneye under Yevethan command, then you're looking at the biggest fool in the whole Republic."

- Admiral Ackbar and Chief of State Leia Organa Solo

The Valorous was a Victory-class Star Destroyer of the Imperial Fleet assigned to Black Sword Command. It was later captured by the Yevetha following an uprising led by them, and the ship was renamed the Devotion of Yevetha or simply the Devotion.

Characteristics
The Valorous had a black hull, and was loaded with TIE/rc starfighters for long-range reconnaissance. It was also equipped with weaponry capable of subjugating settlements of considerable size, such as that on Polneye.

History
In 4 ABY, the Valorous was assigned to Black Sword Command and based in the Koornacht Cluster. Along with the Super Star Destroyer Intimidator, she was one of two ships seized substantially intact by the native Yevetha in their coup eight months after the Battle of Endor, together with at least one Type II orbital repair yard, plus a number of ships under construction and undergoing repair.

The surviving Imperial crewers from Valorous, along with their counterparts from Intimidator, were sent to Camp Pa'aal, and the two Star Destroyers were renamed and incorporated into the fleet of the Duskhan League.

Twelve years later, at the onset of the Great Purge, Devotion was under the command of Primate Jip Toorr, serving as command ship of the other two Duskhan League warships in an assault on the Imperial world of Polneye, along with the similarly black-hulled Liberty and Honor. However, unbeknownst to the Yevetha, the Imperial survivors they had retained for their technical skill, led by Major Sil Sorannan, had secretly equipped every Imperial-designed ship in the Black Fleet with extensive slave circuitry. Devotion was one of the ships that was designated to play a key role in their escape plan. Jip Toorr ordered the Devotion to launch four TIE/rc scouts under Polenye's atmospheric field to spot for the capital ships, but the Star Destroyer's Tactics Master did not anticipate enemy resistance, and Plat Mallar, a Grannan colonist flying one of the handful of TIE/In interceptors left behind by the Empire, shot down one of the scouts. Jip Toorr dismissed the Tactics Master, who committed suicide. The Yevethan battlegroup was able to destroy Polneye without any further casualties, wiping out almost the entire planetary population and enslaving the rest, but Plat Mallar escaped in his lone interceptor, and was discovered by elements of the New Republic's Fifth Fleet.

In 17 ABY, as the Duskhan League and the New Republic moved to clash in the Battle of N'zoth and several other simultaneous engagements throughout the Koornacht Cluster, the remaining Imperials aboard Valorous, led by an officer named Jaratt, seized control of the ship before she could open fire, and activated her slave circuits. Along with every other remaining Black Sword ship in the Koornacht Cluster, she responded to an unjammable hypercomm signal sent from Sorannan aboard the Intimidator, turning towards Byss and making the jump to hyperspace.

Behind the scenes
Valorous appears in Before the Storm by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, and later appears in Tyrant's Test by the same author. Valorous is identified as a black-hulled Victory-class ship in the former novel. The assault in which the ship participates is referenced in Shield of Lies, which takes place after Before the Storm. The vessel later received two entries in the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, listed under both its original name and the Yevetha-bestowed Devotion.

Appearances

 * Before the Storm
 * Tyrant's Test