Samoc Farr/Legends

"She is one of our best pilots. We cannot afford to lose her."

- General Carlist Rieekan

Samoc Farr was a Human female pilot in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. A veteran of several battles who was regarded as one of the Rebellion's best, she flew a modified T-47 airspeeder at the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY. Farr's snowspeeder was shot down during the engagement by an Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport walker. Although badly wounded, she survived and was later evacuated from Hoth aboard the GR-75 medium transport Bright Hope along with her older sister, Toryn Farr, Echo Base's chief controller. The Farr sisters again survived when the Mist Hunter, the craft of the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM, disabled their escape transport during its failed blockade run through the line of Imperial-class Star Destroyers orbiting the planet. After Toryn convinced the bounty hunting duo to rescue Samoc, herself, and the remaining eighty-eight Rebel passengers aboard the Bright Hope, the group was delivered to the Rebellion's underground cell on the planet Darlyn Boda, where Samoc received medical treatment, including the fabled healing powers of the Ankarres Sapphire, before finally reaching the safety of the Alliance Fleet at the Rebels' secret rendezvous point beyond the edge of the galaxy.

Battle of Hoth
"Imperial walker shot me down&mdash;"

- Samoc Farr, to her sister, Toryn Farr

By 3 ABY, Samoc Farr, a talented pilot of the Alliance to Restore the Republic who had served in several battles, was stationed at the Alliance High Command's secret Echo Base on the remote Outer Rim Territories ice planet Hoth. Farr flew a T-47 airspeeder during the critical Battle of Hoth against Blizzard Force, the Galactic Empire's invasion force of All Terrain Armored Transport assault walkers, attached to Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer fleet, the Imperial Death Squadron. Farr was tasked with helping to delay the inexorable advance of the Imperial walkers long enough to buy time for the Rebels' vulnerable transports to evacuate Echo Base's personnel and equipment.

At some point during the battle, Farr's snowspeeder was one of several Rebel craft shot down by an AT-AT, though she herself survived. Badly wounded, Farr was eventually brought back to Echo Base's main hangar during the late stages of the conflict as the final remnants of Rebel personnel rushed to escape the planet before Imperial snowtroopers descended on the base. Farr was left lying amidst an assortment of similarly wounded Rebel soldiers being treated by medical droids around the flight deck of the Bright Hope, the last remaining Rebel GR-75 medium transport yet to depart the base. Toryn Farr, Echo Base's chief controller and Samoc's older sister, soon arrived in the hangar, after ordering the final evacuation code signal to the Rebel troops still fighting in the field, only to find the flight deck flooded with wounded and dying. She hastily began to help load the wounded onto the Bright Hope and eventually discovered her sister among the hangar's casualties, injured but still conscious. That Samoc had been shot down during the battle led Toryn to believe that the engagement had been truly horrific, considering she was among the Rebellion's best pilots. Toryn found Samoc medically untreated in the haste to evacuate and covered in burns&mdash;her red hair and eyelashes were gone, and her hands and face were charred. Toryn carried Samoc aboard the transport, despite the pain she knew it must have caused her sister, as snowtrooper blaster fire exploded around them. The Farr sisters were among the last to board the Bright Hope before it blasted away from Hoth. Although the vessel was designed to safely carry ninety passengers, the Bright Hope had been cleared of vital equipment to make room for hundreds of evacuees.

Survival aboard the Bright Hope
"This goes on and on.''" "What do you mean?" "''We're still alive. The Imperials are having a hard time killing us. I'm wondering how the Imperials will finally do it."

- Samoc and Toryn Farr, following their survival of the Bright Hope blockade run

Aboard the final evacuation transport, Toryn strapped her wounded sister into a vacant seat near the boarding hatch and knelt beside her to keep her body stable for the transport's imminent blockade run through the line of Imperial Star Destroyers waiting in Hoth's orbit. The Bright Hope was disabled and all but destroyed by concentrated fire from the Imperial fleet and the Mist Hunter, the personal starship of the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM, who had entered the Hoth system in the midst of the engagement to capture Rebels fleeing from the battle. Although a large portion of the Bright Hope had been completely blown away, the Farr sisters survived, among 108 others.

When Toryn regained consciousness following the transport's ordeal, she found Samoc alive and conscious as well, but shaking and moaning&mdash;with her burn wounds still untreated, Samoc had fallen into shock. After Toryn retrieved a brown bantha-wool blanket that had spilled from an overhead cupboard to cover her sister, Samoc grimly whispered to her that the Imperials had failed to kill them, first after Samoc had been shot down over the Hoth battlefield, then having nearly been shot by stormtroopers while boarding the transport, and finally having survived the blockade run; she could only wonder how they would finally do it. Toryn refused to think about that possibility but realized that she and her sister, for all the battles they had been through, had never been that close to death. Instead, she wrapped her sister tighter in the blanket and promised to look for something with which to treat her burns as she went off to search the crippled transport for a way to save themselves.

During her search of the Bright Hope interior, Toryn happened upon the medical droids 2-1B and FX-7, who had previously served in the Echo Base medical lab. She ordered the latter, who was equipped with excellent burn-treatment programs, to tend to the wounded Samoc, despite knowing that the droid would adhere to its command by bypassing all other Rebel wounded no matter the extent of their injuries. She reasoned that if there was a way to survive, she wanted Samoc to live, for she had once promised her mother that she would take care of her sister, the youngest of the Farr family.

Continuing through the transport, taking stock of their situation, Toryn eventually compiled a list of all survivors aboard in an effort to determine who would be selected to fill the eighteen available passenger spots in the Bright Hope three still-functioning escape pods, which would be jettisoned back to Hoth to give those Rebels most valuable to the Alliance's cause the best chances of survival. When the list of 108 survivors was broken down to fifty-six, eliminating fifty-two who were identified as too badly wounded by the ship's medical droids to attempt survival in Hoth's unforgiving environment, Samoc was among those selected to remain aboard. Toryn's leadership abilities earned her a nomination to join the escape pod party, but she refused. Aside from the fact that she knew she was still needed aboard the transport, she would never leave Samoc behind.

An unexpected rescue
"You left one of our best pilots off your list of people to save&mdash;Samoc Farr. You think the Rebellion doesn't need good pilots?"

- Toryn Farr, to 4-LOM

With little left to do following the escape pods' jettisoning back to Hoth but prepare for the Bright Hope inevitable seizure and boarding by a nearby Imperial-class Star Destroyer that had begun mop-up operations on similarly crippled Rebel transports, the ship's remaining passengers began to stockpile weapons and tend to the wounded. They were interrupted, however, when another ship was spotted approaching the Bright Hope, which one Rebel, Rory, identified as the Mist Hunter&mdash;the same craft that had disabled the Bright Hope, though those aboard were unaware of the role the Mist Hunter had played in neutralizing the transport.

The bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM soon docked with and boarded the Bright Hope, intending to capture the twenty-six Rebels aboard identified by the Imperial Most Wanted List as having the largest bounties placed on them. Toryn was foremost on the list. Trying to masquerade as bounty hunters with Rebel connections in one of the largest Imperial bounty hunter guilds, 4-LOM attempted to persuade his twenty-six targets to come with him aboard the Mist Hunter, where he claimed they would be safely transported to the Rebels' rendezvous point at a remote location of space beyond the rim of the galaxy. In truth, he hoped to infiltrate the Alliance Fleet there and collect on the much more lucrative bounty placed on Rebel smuggler Han Solo by Darth Vader. However, none of the Bright Hope passengers believed him. Growing desperate, 4-LOM physically ensnared Toryn, the most valuable Rebel, and dragged her aboard his ship and into a secure holding cell. When she protested that the bounty hunters were not there to rescue them, the droid insisted that their efforts were genuine, to which she pointed out that Samoc, one of the Rebellion's most talented pilots, was left off the list of those to be rescued, a blatant lapse in logic. 4-LOM did not respond.

After the bounty hunting duo realized their guise of an allied rescue attempt had convinced no one and ended in utter failure, Toryn convinced them to take on the remaining passengers still aboard the Bright Hope, including Samoc. And, rather than making the long and hazardous journey to the rendezvous point beyond the reaches of the galaxy, Toryn had convinced their rescuers to deliver them to the Rebel underground on the nearby planet Darlyn Boda, where Samoc would be able to receive badly needed medical treatment.

Deliverance at Darlyn Boda
"Samoc. Do you know what this is?&hellip;Touch it to your burns. It might help you heal&hellip;Did it help you?''" "''I don't know. I feel so different&mdash;in a good way. Rested, maybe?"

- 4-LOM allows Samoc Farr to use the healing powers of the Ankarres Sapphire

As the bounty hunters transported their new Rebel passengers to Darlyn Boda, Samoc lay in a cramped rear corner of the confined interior of the Mist Hunter alongside other Rebel wounded, though her face and hands had since been wrapped in bandages. Looking over her tormented sister, Toryn uneasily doubted her own abilities to lead her comrades on behalf of Samoc. Twice had she put Samoc's well-being above anyone else&mdash;first when she had sent the medical droid to see to Samoc's condition, and then when she tried to get 4-LOM to add her to his list of Rebels to be rescued. What was more, she knew she would do it again, and she knew it was not fair to anyone else. Toryn only hoped she could find someone to take over her command duties once they reached Darlyn Boda.

Upon reaching Darlyn Boda, a steamy, crime-ridden world, 4-LOM retrieved the Ankarres Sapphire, a blue gemstone fabled for its reputed healing powers, from a small jewel shop, where he had consigned the valuable jewel years before. The two bounty hunters and their Rebel consorts spent several weeks on Darlyn Boda before preparations were made to finally depart for the Alliance Fleet and the secret rendezvous point. Toryn was joined by Samoc and four other Bright Hope survivors for the trip, while the others would remain behind in the care of Darlyn Boda's Rebel underground. Aboard the Mist Hunter, just prior to lifting off, 4-LOM handed the Ankarres Sapphire to Samoc, allowing her to touch it to her bandaged face wounds in the hope that its healing powers would aid her. Samoc remarked that the sensation the sapphire provided her felt strangely physically rejuvenating.

Samoc and Toryn finally reached the safety of the Rebel fleet at the rendezvous point with the help of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, where they were reunited with family and friends aboard the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Redemption, the fleet's primary medical frigate. They were warmly greeted and informed that they and everyone assigned to the Bright Hope had been believed dead, or worse. When the Rebel command intended to promote Toryn for her actions in rescuing the passengers aboard the Bright Hope, she attempted to explain to General Carlist Rieekan how she had put Samoc's needs ahead of anyone else's. Rieekan, however, only further commended her&mdash;of course she had saved Samoc, for her sister's piloting abilities made her an invaluable asset to the Rebel cause. Samoc, along with her bounty hunting rescuers, attended the ceremony in which Rieekan officially promoted Toryn to the rank of commander.

Personality and traits
Samoc Farr was one of the Rebel Alliance's best pilots and an invaluable asset to the Rebellion's cause. Her skills earned her assignment to the Alliance High Command's secret Echo Base, where she flew one of the base's modified snowspeeders during the critical Battle of Hoth. However, like many Rebel pilots during the battle, she was shot down by an AT-AT despite her abilities.

After surviving the Bright Hope failed blockade run through the Imperial fleet orbiting Hoth, Farr had defied death at the hands of the Empire for the third time over the course of the battle. She had survived being shot down in her snowspeeder, then narrowly missed being blasted by snowtroopers in Echo Base's hangar, and finally found herself among the few fortunate enough to survive the Bright Hope virtual destruction. Her harrowing experiences had a substantial effect on her, and she expressed to her sister, Toryn, of the Imperials' inability to kill them time and again, only wondering when she would finally die.

The youngest in her family, Farr had always been regarded as the most beautiful, the happiest, and the one with the most promise. Her mother had made her older sister, Toryn, promise to watch out for her. After suffering serious injuries during the Hoth battle, Farr's red hair had been mostly burned away, along with her eyelashes, and she had burns on her hands and face.

Behind the scenes
The character Samoc Farr was first created by author M. Shayne Bell for the short story Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, as part of the 1996 anthology book Tales of the Bounty Hunters. Samoc's creation was meant to complement the story's main protagonist, Toryn Farr, Samoc's sister. Toryn's creation provided an identification for the previously anonymous Echo Base chief controller first seen in the film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Samoc's inclusion in the story earned her individual entries in the 1998 Star Wars Encyclopedia the 2000 third edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, and the 2008 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Appearances

 * Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM