- "Fast now! I want a clean sweep... no survivors!"
- ―Beilert Valance
In 0 ABY, the notorious bounty hunter Beilert Valance led his crew in a wholesale slaughter of the neutral and unarmed medical center Anglebay Station on Telos IV. Formerly a promising stormtrooper commander, Valance had suffered grievous wounds in battle and taken to Anglebay Station, where he was rebuilt with cyborg parts. Unable to continue his Imperial service, Valance entered into a life as a bounty hunter, but despised his cybernetic parts and kept his true form a secret even from his own crew. Wanting to destroy the past and eliminate any record of his treatment, Valance ordered his crew to join him in attacking and completely annihilating the station. Valance's crew stormed the hospital and immediately began murdering patients and staff, with particular malice being shown to the droids that Valance so despised. After Valance personally obliterated Anglebay Station's computer records, he and his crew took off, triggering explosions that completely destroyed the hospital.
Prelude[]
- "MY FACE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY FACE?"
- ―Beilert Valance reacts to his new cybernetic parts on Anglebay Station
A cunning and brilliantly talented young stormtrooper commander, Beilert Valance was expected to achieve great things in the Imperial Army. Instead, that chapter of his life ended, quite suddenly,[4] on the Outer Rim world[5] of Doniphon. During the Imperial campaign known as the Kwymar Suppressions, Valance led Imperial ground forces that were strafed from above by Rebel starfighters, suffering grievous wounds. Near-death, Valance was taken to Anglebay Station, an unaligned medical station on Telos IV, and left to suffer his fate. But rather than perish, Valance was rebuilt with cybernetic parts, ending his career in the Imperial Military but giving him a new life as a cyborg.[6]
His life forever changed, Valance decided to contribute to Imperial justice in a different way: as a bounty hunter. After his ordeal, Valance became dangerously unhinged: his loathing of his half-mechanical state and the end of his military career manifested itself in a violent hatred of all droids, and an increased disposition towards brutal violence. Meanwhile, he had become single-mindedly obsessed with an unnamed "farmboy" who had been involved in the Rebel rescue of Princess Leia Organa from the Imperial Death Star battle station, wishing to punish the fugitive for his apparent friendship with two droids. Assembling a crew on the starship known as the Kill Switch, Valance led his men on hunts and raids across the Outer Rim,[4] all the while going to great lengths to hide his cyborg state. Eventually, feeling the need to destroy all evidence of his past, Valance ordered his men to attack and completely destroy Anglebay Station, including all the sick and wounded patients staying there. Although the planned massacre did not sit easy with Valance's veteran crew, he offered enough money that the plan went ahead with no defections.[4]
The battle[]
- "Good grief! There must be some error. This facility is neutral. Even the Empire, Re-"
"Shut up... junk!" - ―A droid orderly and Beilert Valance during the raid
Valance's attack on Anglebay Station was carried out with maximum speed, efficiency, and brutality. Without warning, Valance's crew blasted a hole in the side of the hospital and stormed the facility, executing medical staff as they went. Valance gave the honor of rounding up and destroying Anglebay Station's robot orderlies, to whom particular malice was reserved, to his second-in-command, Slssk. Meanwhile, Valance proceeded to his main objective: the station's computer records, which contained information on his treatment and his cyborg body. Valance laid waste to the record room, killing several technicians in the process, ensuring that any data on his treatment was wiped.[2]
Meanwhile, Slssk, Remel Fud and several other of Valance's crewmen invaded the in-patient bays, moving from room to room and executing whoever they found. In one of those bays, they encountered a dying, delirious man babbling in his sick bed. However, before they could kill the man, his ravings took an interesting turn: he started to speak of wanted Imperial fugitive Han Solo, a Lepi smuggler named Jaxxon and an unnamed, mysterious "boy" with a droid. Slssk and Fud immediately rushed to Valance with the information, which piqued his interest, as Solo was a known associate of Valance's farmboy, and had a large bounty on his head besides. His next objective in mind, Valance boarded the Kill Switch and set off, triggering a series of explosions in his wake that completely annihilated Anglebay Station and left no survivors.[2]
Aftermath[]
- "But that's the past... I've destroyed that! Now there's the boy. The boy and his droids..."
- ―Beilert Valance, after the raid on Anglebay Station
The babblings of the dying old man on Anglebay Station led Valance to believe that his path to Solo, and therefore his elusive "farmboy," led through Jaxxon. As such, Valance sent Fud to track him down on the Lepi's base on Nar Shaddaa.[4] Although Jaxxon managed to evade capture, the Kill Switch followed him and his partner Amaiza Foxtrain to the Outer Rim farmworld of Aduba-3, where they had gone to warn the "boy" of Valance's hunt. Valance and his crew got to Aduba-3 not long after, but almost immediately blundered into a trap set by Jaxxon, Foxtrain and a group of local villagers, leading to the death of many of Valance's men in a bantha stampede. Valance himself survived the attack only to realize that Jaxxon's "boy" wasn't the Rebel he was searching for: rather, he was a local farmer named Jimm Doshun, who some months before had helped Jaxxon and Solo defend his village from a swoop gang. Realizing his mistake, Valance broke into a fit of hysterical laughter, before blasting back off into the stars to continue his hunt alone.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Beilert Valance's attack on Anglebay Station appeared in Star Wars (1977) 16, written by Archie Goodwin and released in 1978. In its appearance, the battle was illustrated by Walt Simonson.[2]
Appearances[]
- Star Wars (1977) 16 (colorized in Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 1: Doomworld) (First appearance)
Sources[]
- "The Hunt Within: Valance's Tale: Part 2" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- "The Hunt Within: Valance's Tale: Conclusion" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Not-So Magnificent Seven on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Yavin blockade ends in Star Wars (1977) 35
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 Star Wars (1977) 16
- ↑ Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, Part 11: Serving the Empire on StarWars.com (article) (backup link)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Not-So Magnificent Seven on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion on StarWars.com (article) (backup link)
- ↑ "The Hunt Within: Valance's Tale: Part 2" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)