Spiker

"You probably won't make it. I'd like to say I'm sorry, Spiker, but I never liked you anyway."

- Jix, after Spiker was badly injured in a swoop accident

Spiker was a Chiss mercenary and swoop gang member with Big Gizz, working for Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. One of few Chiss to ever leave the Unknown Regions during the time of the Empire, none knew of his heritage, much less Spiker himself. Several years before the Battle of Yavin, he became an undercover agent in Jabba the Hutt's swoop gang, spying on the gang's leader, Big Gizz, for Jabba, while severely downplaying his intelligence. For his efforts, Spiker was rewarded with a suit of unique, spiked armor from Jabba, from which he earned his nickname.

Spiker worked with Gizz for several years, and his deception was never discovered; together with the rest of the gang, he intimidated Jabba's clients and customers into repaying their debts, and earned a reputation for surviving extremely dangerous maneuvers. In 3 ABY, the gang took on a new member, Jix, who was in truth an agent of Lord Darth Vader. Jix attacked Gizz, telling Spiker he had been killed in a collision, before leaving Spiker to die after his swoop bike exploded. Spiker survived, and was healed by members of the B'omarr Order; he was also reunited with Gizz, and the two hatched a plan to commandeer a secret ship of Jabba's in Glass Mountain. Their plan went awry when Gorga the Hutt also attempted to claim the ship, and they ultimately came away from the adventure with nothing, save for a straggling Lizling named Onoh. During their travels, the trio were attacked by a rogue Imperial dark trooper, though they managed to survive by the skin of their teeth. After that, Spiker and Gizz were believed to have disappeared.

Early life
The being who eventually became known as "Spiker" was a male Chiss hailing from the Unknown Regions, though he knew nothing of his origins. Although no one knew exactly how, he ended up in the Outer Rim Territories some time after the rise of the Galactic Empire; he was one of extremely few Chiss who had ventured beyond Chiss Space in over a century, the others being Sev'rance Tann and Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

Working for Jabba
He eventually found himself in the employ of Jabba Desilijic Tiure, an influential Hutt crime lord on the planet Tatooine. Jabba paid a swoop gang, led by "Big Gizz," to run various errands for him, though he was not entirely trustful of Gizz and sought to infiltrate another, more loyal biker into the gang to ensure that Gizz was following Jabba's wishes. Jabba's Chiss recruit had a lust for death-defying feats of bravery, so a position in Gizz's swoop gang suited him perfectly. Jabba had made for him a suit of spiked red armor, complete with a helmet which would obscure his identity, to protect him while he was using his swoop bike and to stop any attempts Gizz might make to kill the Chiss should he discover he was a spy for Jabba. The suit spawned the nickname "Spiker" because of its spikes, and the Chiss was known by his nickname for the rest of his life.

Spiker joined Gizz's troupe of bikers, acting as a fear monger and debt collector for Jabba; he demonstrated a keen grasp of tactics and strategy, and he eventually became Gizz's lieutenant. Everyone who met Spiker thought him dim-witted and slightly insane; he laughed manically at Gizz's jokes, often picked fights with spacers in Mos Eisley who were far bigger than he was, and had a penchant for high-risk maneuvers, often coming out of them with grievous injuries. However, this was all an act drawn up by Jabba and Spiker to ensure that no one suspected his true motives, and while his outward persona was seen to worship Jizz, inwardly he hated the other biker. Spiker reported back to Jabba on all of the swoopers' activities, informing him when Jizz attempted to siphon off extra funds. Spiker was perceived as a bully by many of his subordinate bikers, suc as Vol Hamame. Hamame eventually left the gang after a rift with other members to find work with a criminal named Phedroi. Several years before the Battle of Yavin, Spiker was running an errand on Coruscant.

Some time later, Spiker, Gizz, and the other dozen or so bikers traveled to Tatooine's capital, Mos Eisley, to collect a sum of money owed to Jabba by Twi'lek smuggler Whizzer. They found and cornered Whizzer, though he did not have the money; he told them that he would pay off his debt in a week or so. Gizz was not satisfied, and ordered Spiker to kill Whizzer with his hands. Spiker knew that the crate alongside the Twi'lek was likely filled with spice, so rather than killing him, suggesting that Gizz allow Whizzer and extension on his debt in exchange for some of the drug, in an effort to goad Gizz into defying Jabba's orders. Whizzer agreed and gave the swoopers some of the spice, though they returned to collect his money several days later.

Later, around 2 BBY, Spiker, Gizz, and another biker named Twitch, searched the old home of the late Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, searching for anything of value. The swoop gang was due to return to Jabba's Palace, but decided to visit Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley first. En route, they were ambushed by a group of droids led by 12-4C-41, who wished to learn the location of Jabba's Palace. Spiker and the others were able to escape, and fearing that the droids planned to kill their Hutt employer, they fled towards Jabba's Palace to warn him. One of Spiker's fellow swoop riders was captured by 12-4C-41, though managed to send a message to Jabba's Palace of the incoming barge which the droids were using to travel to the desert citadel. Jabba was pleased with his bikers for their warning, though they neglected to tell him that they had discovered that the droids had not been after Jabba, but his torture-droid, EV-9D9.

Hunting Luke Skywalker
In 3 ABY, while terrorizing the citizen's of Mos Eisley, Spiker was attacked by a Human on a swoop bike; he was sent sprawling to the ground, and he and Gizz furiously announced the Human's death. Before Gizz could pull the trigger of his blaster, Spiker's attacker identified himself as Jix; his defiant attitude impressed Big Gizz, who decided to take him to Jabba and induct him into the swoop gang. Spiker reluctantly agreed, though he was still angry at Jix for his attack. They arrived at Jabba's Palace and informed him of Jix's joining the group, though Jabba expended it little attention; news had come in of a death mark placed by Black Sun on a prominent Rebel named Luke Skywalker. Skywalker had been spotted near Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut on Tatooine, and Jabba sent his swoop gang to the area to attempt to kill him. Confident of their prospects against the Jedi Knight-in training, they set off towards Skywalker's location.

They made inroads towards Kenobi's hut, and planned to sneak up on Skywalker and surround him; their plans were ruined by Jix, who began firing earlier than Jizz ordered, giving Skywalker a warning and allowing him to find shelter. Using his lightsaber, Skywalker fought off several of the bikers, commandeering a swoop bike and using it to flee towards Beggar's Canyon. Spiker and his comrades were quick in pursuit, though Jizz and Jix were both incapacitated when their swoops collided by accident. Skywalker's quick maneuvering proved too much for many of Spiker's fellows, who crashed into rocks jutting out from the clifface, though Spiker was able to evade any obstacles. Numerous other attempts of Skywalker's to throw Spiker off his bike failed; however, with most of his comrades downed, and with the arrival of Skywalker's ally, Dash Rendar, on another swoop bike, Spiker decided to give up their pursuit and called a retreat. Jix had managed to survive his crash and teamed up with Spiker before they visited Jabba to explain their failure; according to Jix, Big Gizz had been killed when his head was crushed by his swoop bike.

They told Jabba that Skywalker was simply lucky, and that the next time they went after him, they would be successful. The Hutt was suspicious of Jix though; in response to one of Jabba's questions, the Human implied that he thought Spiker a coward for calling the retreat. Infuriated, Spiker prepared to attack the new recruit, but Jabba stepped in before things could escalate. Spiker was lucky to escape Jabba's Palace with his life, though the Hutt soon recalled all of his bikers to his court: one of his trusted lieutenants had been found dead, and a secure communications relay had been broken into and used. Jabba trusted all of his other employees in the Palace, leaving one of the swoop gang as the likely culprit.

Jabba's interrogation was cut short when his majordomo, Bib Fortuna, appeared with the news that Boba Fett&mdash;a renowned bounty hunter who was delivering the carbonite-encased body of Han Solo to Jabba&mdash;had set his ship down near the palace. Jabba did not wish to pay Fett his asking price, and tasked Spiker and Jix with intercepting the Mandalorian bounty hunter en route to the palace and retrieve Solo's body, offering them five thousand credits for their efforts. A horde of other bounty hunters were on Tatooine attempting to steal Solo from Fett, though Spiker was able to push them aside as he approached Fett's speeder bike. However, one of the bounty hunters, Bossk, fired at him, shooting him in the stomach and destroying his swoop leaving Spiker unconscious and badly wounded. Jix survived, and put Jabba's code book&mdash;which had been used to access his communications replay&mdash;on Spiker's body in order to evade suspicion.

The Jabba Tape
Although his wounds were life-threatening, Spiker made his way to the Citadel of B'omarr, where the B'omarr monks nursed him back to health. By the time he was permitted to leave, Jabba had been killed at the Skirmish at Carkoon, leaving him without a means to earn credits. To Spiker's immense surprise, Big Gizz arrived in his room the day he was planning to leave; Gizz told his companion that Jix had tried to kill him, and that the Human was a spy for Darth Vader. The B'omarr had found Gizz and replaced part of his broken skull with a metal plate; its only downside was that it intermittently picked up comlink and other signals from nearby. The two left the B'omarr Citadel, though Spiker was unsure exactly what they would do: no money and no one to employ them. Jizz had heard of an old storehouse of Jabba's in Glass Mountain, where Jabba supposedly stored a well-armed ship for escape purposes. They hatched a plan to steal the ship and become pirates in the local star systems.

When they reached Glass Mountain, they found they had been beaten to the punch by a group of thugs employed by Gorga Desilijic Aarrpo, Jabba's nephew. The bikers made short work of the thugs, however, and rescued a Lizling named Onoh, who had been posted by Jabba to safeguard Glass Mountain several years prior. Gorga's men had already opened the hangar and prepared the secret ship, Spirit of Jabba, for take off, leaving little additional work for the swoop bikers. Onoh initially objected to their boarding the ship, though his objections subsided when they informed him that Jabba had been killed. Spiker and Gizz found the ship to be very well-stocked, and fitted with numerous weapons which they hoped would help them carve out a piece of the Outer Rim for themselves. They also decided to take Onoh on as a member of their pirate crew.

One of Gorga's henchmen had survived and alerted the Hutt to the events, though Spiker was able to fly the ship into space and open up a good lead on Gorga's enforcers. However, an interactive security tape&mdash;the "Jabba Tape"&mdash;kicked in, immobilizing the ship until the security clearance code was submitted. The tape also began draining oxygen from the ship's bridge, and closed off all exits; it estimated that they had approximately four minutes left to live. While all this was happening, one of Gorga's ships caught up with the would-be pirates; Jizz was able to pick up transmissions on his skull plate, telling them to surrender. The ship fired several shots at Spirit of Jabba, damaging it severely but also ripping apart a bulkhead and allowing Spiker, Jizz, and Onoh to escape the oxygen-deprived bridge.

With the artificial gravity disabled, Spiker and Gizz could do little but float aimlessly around the bridge, and were unable to reply to Gorga's ship's transmissions and warnings, because the Jabba Tape was blocking communications. Eventually, Onoh revealed that he knew the override code, and the bikers were able to deactivate the tape and announce their surrender to Gorga's ship. The other ship escorted them down towards Mos Eisley, though when Jizz's skull plate picked up a transmission from Gorga announcing that Spiker and his companions would be killed when they reached the surface, they decided they would not be quite so co-operative. Gizz felt they would have a decent chance of evading the other ship if they could lighten their load, so Spiker and Onoh ventured into the cargo hold and began preparing much of the ship's provisions to be let loose onto Gorga below. They attempted to flee in Spirit of Jabba, but Gorga's ship was able to disable them, and they crashed-landed in the desert, kilometers from the nearest settlement.

The dark trooper incident
The group exited the ship, and with little other option, began their long trek back to civilization. They eventually found somewhere to acquire replacement swoops, though the times of old were no longer; they never hooked up with the rest of the gang, and Onoh was their only follower. Some time after Gorga's pursuit of them, the trio were sleeping close to the Mos Espa Grand Arena, when a loud noise woke both Spiker and Onoh; a group of Jawa sandcrawlers, seemingly out of control, arrived and almost ran over the bikers and their Lizling companion. Spiker was able to quickly mount his bike, and managed to save Gizz from being crushed by the largest sandcrawler, though Gizz's bike was not spared, and was destroyed.

The bikers watched in awe as the three sandcrawlers continued to the edge of the Mos Espa Grand Arena and fell into, dropping over fifty meters. Determined to enact his revenge, Big Gizz led the others down to the largest sandcrawler, which was sitting on its side. They realized that the vehicle had a multitude of blaster burns covering it, which they suspected were Imperial of origin. Gizz found just one Jawa survivor, a male named Klepti B'ay, who repeatedly told them to flee while they could. Translating from Klepti's Jawaese, Onoh told Spiker and Gizz that his tribe had been attacked by a "droid of kind unseen." Surveying the area, Gizz found a deactivated IG-97 battle droid, and, believing it to be the droid Kelpti spoke of, destroyed it. However, the droid the Jawas were speaking of was in fact an Imperial dark trooper that had fought against Rebel forces survived on board a Rebel ship that crash-landed on Tatooine almost 4 years earlier. The dark trooper emerged from the sandcrawler and launched itself at Spiker and Gizz.

Gizz, Onoh, and Klepti fled while Spiker started up his bike; their plan worked a treat, with the dark trooper following the three beings on foot, while Spiker was able to get behind it and fire several blaster shots at the droid. The droid shrugged off the blaster shots, though, and began its pursuit of Spiker, who had little option but to try to flee. Unable to shake off the dark trooper, Spiker hatched a plan to tangle it in fiber wire connected to part of the Grand Arena, and although he was able to tie up and momentarily disable the droid, it broke free and continued its chase. Gizz and the IG-97 droid began firing at the dark trooper, though their efforts were in vain; eventually, though, the dark trooper dropped its blaster, giving Spiker an oppurtunity to grab it. The Chiss biker reached the heavy blaster before his opponent, but the dark trooper took hold of his swoop bike and sent Spiker sprawling.

The bike landed on the dark trooper, though it once again shrugged off the damage and continued in its efforts to kill the bikers. Klepti and Onoh released a barrage of boulders from atop of one of the arena's stands, crushing the dark trooper, and in the explosion that followed, it was finally destroyed. The group&mdash;which Klepti, swearing a life-dept to Spiker and Gizz, had joined&mdash;left, taking the ruined IG-97 droid with them, so they could use its blaster. Spiker's whereabouts after these events were unknown, and he was believed to have disappeared soon after them. A document written by Tem Eliss for the University of Sanbra after the Empire's demise reported that Spiker was almost certainly a Chiss, though Eliss had no way to check for sure.

Behind the scenes

 * Spiker can be briefly seen on Coruscant in the background of a panel in First Impressions. The art for the story was done by Kilian Plunkett, who also worked on Shadows of the Empire, The Jabba Tape and Sand Blasted.
 * Spiker has a fairly strong resemblance to He-Man action figure Spikor, which originally sold in 1985.

Appearances

 * First Impressions
 * Star Wars Missions 10: Showdown in Mos Eisley
 * Shadows of the Empire novel / comic
 * The Jabba Tape
 * Sand Blasted
 * The Mandalorian Armor