Bala-Tik

"Han Solo. You're a dead man." "Bala-Tik... What's the problem?"

- Bala-Tik and Han Solo

Bala-Tik was a human male who worked as a negotiator for the Guavian Death Gang. He handled a deal with the famed smuggler Han Solo by paying for Solo to haul rathtars, a deal that Solo also made with Kanjiklub.

Biography
Bala-Tik was an agent of the Guavian Death Gang in the decades after the Galactic Civil War. During the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, the Guavian Death Gang paid the famed smuggler Han Solo and his first mate, the Wookiee Chewbacca, to acquire Rathtars for King Prana. Unknown to the Death Gang at the time was that Solo also acquired the same amount of credits from Kanjiklub with the intention of swindling both factions. When the two groups learned of Solo's scheme, they confronted him aboard his freighter, the Eravana. Bala-Tik arrived first and told Solo that he knew about the smuggler's deceit, and that Solo's game was too old&mdash;there was no one in the galaxy left for the Corellian to swindle.

After Kanjiklub arrived, Bala-Tik noticed that Solo was in possession of BB-8, an astromech droid that was being pursued by the First Order because it contained part of a map to the location of the self-exiled Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Rey and Finn, two fugitives who were with BB-8 and who Solo had hidden in his ship, heard Bala-Tik's threats to kill Solo and Chewbacca and take the droid. Hoping to close the doors between Solo and the two gangs, Rey instead accidentally released the rathtars, and the fearsome creatures went on a rampage throughout the ship, killing members of the Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub alike. Solo and the others escaped aboard Solo's recently-recovered ship, the Millennium Falcon, and Bala-Tik watched them depart. He ordered his men to inform the First Order that Solo had the droid aboard the Falcon.

Personality and traits
Bala-Tik was a human male with brown hair and light skin, and he spoke with a harsher form of the accent commonly found in the galactic Core Worlds. He had a cybernetic left leg, which he concealed. Bala-Tik frequently used Solo and Chewbacca as sources of information, a relationship that he valued for the Death Gang despite growing increasingly impatient with the Corellian smuggler's schemes. He knew enough about Solo to bring several guards with him aboard the Eravana, believing Solo to be foolish enough to start a blaster fight near a ship's airlock.

Equipment
Like all Guavians, Bala-Tik carried the latest in black market weapons technology. That included a percussive cannon by Tostovin Munitions, which fired particularly explosive blaster bolts. He used this weapon against Solo and the Rathtars on the Eravana.

Behind the scenes
Bala-Tik was portrayed by actor Mark Ellis in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens junior novelization
 * Han & Chewie Return!