Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3

Formed by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee companion Chewbacca to defend a small farming village called Onacra from a vicious gang, the "Star-Hoppers" were comprised of some of the deadliest fighters on the Outer Rim, and a few wild-cards. The Star-Hoppers were a mismatched lot, ranging from a renowned gunfighter in Amaiza Foxtrain to a teenager named Jimm Doshun who had never been in a fight in his life. While this group initially struggled to gel and fought amongst itself, the Star-Hoppers came together when it mattered the most, working as a team to fight off a gang that outnumbered them five-to-one. Despite their disparate origins, the group loyally followed Solo, their charismatic leader, although not always without question.

In 0 ABY, notorious smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate Chewbacca traveled to the Outer Rim world of Aduba-3, hoping to lie low for a while after their participation in the Rebel victory at the Battle of Yavin. The pair landed Solo's Millennium Falcon in the spaceport of Tun Aduban, and shortly afterward proceeded to the local cantina. However, once there, the pair found a new fight when they were approached by a local farmer named Ramiz. Ramiz's village, Onacra, had become a target for a ruthless swoop gang called the Cloud-Riders, led by an unhinged former pro swoop racer named Serji-X Arrogantus. Based in the hills near the farming villages west of Tun Aduban, the Cloud-Riders had set their sights on Onacra simply out of convenience, as it was the closest community to their camp. The Cloud-Riders periodically swept down upon Onacra, stealing crops and women, before the two sides settled on an uneasy truce in 3 BBY: the Cloud-Riders would leave Onacra alone in exchange for a yearly tithe of 9,000 credits.

The village had gotten tired of this arrangement after just three years, and instead decided to offer the entire 9,000 credit payment that would have gone to the Cloud-Riders to Solo, in exchange for saving the village from the menacing thugs. Sympathizing with the farmers' plight, Solo decided to take the job, and went about putting together a posse to join him in defending Onacra. Solo tasked Ramiz with spreading the word, and soon Solo had a line of spacers applying for the job in his rented room at the cantina. Although the first 10 interested parties disappointed Solo, he soon found his first team member in the enigmatic Spiner named Hedji, who impressed the Corellian with his ability to accurately throw his natural quills. Hedji's appearance sparked a run of successful applicants: first, Solo gave a spot to an old acquaintance named Amaiza Foxtrain, a renowned shootist and former pirate. Then, Solo added an elderly man named Don-Wan Kihotay, who claimed to be a member of the long-lost Jedi Knights and wielded a genuine lightsaber.

After Kihotay was added to the crew, a hulking Boltrunian named Warto—who had been involved in a bar fight with Solo and Chewbacca earlier that evening—attempted to jump the line and interview for the job. However, he was swiftly beaten and dispatched by a quick-witted, hard-hitting Lepi named Jaxxon. Solo witnessed the fight and immediately offered Jaxxon a spot on the team. Lastly, Solo granted a place to a local teenager named Jimm Doshun, a native of Onacra who brought along his own droid, FE-9Q. Although Doshun had no experience with a blaster, the young farmboy's moxie reminded Solo of his friend Luke Skywalker, convincing Solo to round out his crew with the boy and his droid. The next morning, Solo gathered together his new group to set out for Onacra, but before they could depart, they were set upon by swoops from the west. Led by Serji-X Arrogantus himself, a group of Cloud-Riders had come to attempt to bribe Solo to leave Onacra alone—they had been tipped off by Warto, who had defected to the gang after being beaten by Jaxxon. Solo refused, and Arrogantus went on his way, promising that the next time they met it would end in violence. However, the group gained something out of the encounter: Warto referred to the posse as "star-hoppers" during the confrontation, a moniker that Solo decided to use as the gang's new name.

Undeterred by their brief encounter with Arrogantus and his Cloud-Riders, the Star-Hoppers set out for Onacra, traversing the Aduban wastes on bantha-back. Hours before the Cloud-Riders were scheduled to plague the village, the Star-Hoppers ended up in their first scrap, as they ran across a pack of vicious high-hounds in the maze-stalk fields surrounding Onacra. Using the avian predators as target practice, Solo and the gang fought off the high-hounds, with Solo personally saving a young girl named Merri from an attack from above. The Star-Hoppers proceeded on to Onacra, where they learned that Merri was the daughter of village spokesman Oncho Shen, who welcomed the group to the community. The group immediately set about readying themselves for the incoming attack, and during their preparations, Solo was approached by a village elder called the Old One. Oncho Shen's father and Merri's grandfather, the Old One told Solo of a local legend, the Behemoth from the World Below: a slumbering monster that lived beneath the earth, and that he claimed he could call forth to protect Onacra. The Old One asked Solo and his Star-Hoppers not to engage the Cloud-Riders, letting him and his supposed Behemoth to handle the threat themselves, an offer that a disbelieving Solo refused.

It was soon afterward that the Cloud-Riders arrived, screaming down upon Onacra on their swoops and skyspeeders. The Star-Hoppers did not hesitate to meet the gang in battle, although they found themselves outnumbered and gave up the aerial advantage to the Cloud-Riders. Soon after the fighting started, Solo's posse suffered its first casualty: the droid FE-9Q, who used its telescopic arms to bring down several Cloud-Rider vehicles, was destroyed protecting Doshun from a blaster shot. The Star-Hoppers soon found themselves swarmed in all directions, forcing the elderly Kihotay to ignite his lightsaber and join the fray. Although Kihotay wielded the blade surprisingly deftly, Kihotay was soon incapacitated himself by a shot to the back. With two of their number down, things were looking bleak for the Star-Hoppers. Suddenly, however, the din of the battle was interrupted by piercing screams and loud chanting from the Old One, who was attempted to summon his Behemoth from below. Suddenly, the ground split and a giant monster emerged—the old man's stories were true.

The Behemoth, an apparently unstoppable beast that shot a laser beam from its forehead, seemed to follow the Old One's commands, and ignored the Star-Hoppers entirely in favor of wiping the floor with the Cloud-Riders. Solo was all too happy to have his group hang back and watch the beast do his job for him, but that soon was no longer an option. Desperate, Arrogantus made a speeder run on the Old One, hoping to take out the man controlling the monster destroying his forces—the Behemoth killed them both with one giant stomp, freeing it from the shaman's control. Without the Old One directing it, the monster went wild, easily mopping up the remaining Cloud-Riders before turning its attention to the Star-Hoppers and the village. Solo's group was initially at a loss about how to deal with the monster: Jaxxon attempted to make a run at the creature, but the creature created a rockslide to stop the Lepi's charge, requiring Foxtrain to save him. Kihotay, who had recovered from his blaster wound, then took it upon himself to confront the creature, wielding his ancient lightsaber. Hedji charged in to rescue him, only to find his quills had no effect on the Behemoth, and the Spiner was almost immediately killed by the monster's forehead laser.

During that encounter, Solo noticed that the Behemoth reacted oddly to Kihotay's lightsaber, and took up the Jedi weapon, dodging the beast's attacks and stabbing the beast in the hand. After flying into a brief rage, the Behemoth suddenly began to disintegrate, destabilized by the lightsaber's energies. Having finally saved the village, the Star-Hoppers returned to Onacra for their payment. Having won the heart of Merri with his bravery in the battle, Doshun decided to remain in Onacra with her. Meanwhile, the other five survivors took their reward and went on their way, off to their next adventures.

Although the Star-Hoppers split apart after the battle for Onacra, circumstance would bring several of them back together. Some time after the fight with the Cloud-Riders, a bounty hunter named Beilert Valance—an insane former Imperial stormtrooper commander—launched a brutal attack on Anglebay Station, an unaligned medical facility on Telos IV. Valance had become obsessed with finding an unnamed "farmboy" who had participated in the Rebel rescue of Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan several months before, and by chance, he received a lead on his target in Anglebay Station. Don-Wan Kihotay was convalescing from his wounds in the station's in-patient bays, and in his senile ramblings, several of Valance's men overheard him mention Jaxxon in relation to Han Solo and an unnamed "boy." As Solo was a known associate of Valance's "farmboy," Valance immediately set off to Nar Shaddaa to track Jaxxon down, believing that the Lepi would be the key to finding his prey.

On Nar Shaddaa, a group of Valance's hunters kidnapped Jaxxon and attempted to torture the Lepi, only to be surprised and gunned down by Amaiza Foxtrain, with whom Jaxxon had gone into business after Aduba-3. Realizing that the hunters were mistakenly after the innocent Jimm Doshun, the two hopped in Jaxxon's Rabbit's Foot and traveled back to the Outer Rim world to warn the "Starkiller Kid," now married to Merri with a child on the way. Although Doshun initially did not believe that bounty hunters could be after him, Valance's crew had followed the Rabbit's Foot to Aduba-3, leaving no doubt that another fight had come to the plains of Onacra. Thinking quickly, the three former Star-Hoppers put together a trap. Jaxxon and Foxtrain took to the skies in the Rabbit's Foot, harassing Valance's ship and leading it down to Onacra. Valance and his men disembarked their ship, only to find that their quarry had taken up position in the neighboring hills. Then, Doshun and the villagers stampeded their banthas, and the massive pack animals trampled and killed most of Valance's men. Valance survived the bantha's charge, only to realize that Doshun was not, in fact, the farmboy he was after. Amused by the miscommunication, Valance immediately took off again for the stars, continuing his hunt.

By 2 ABY, the events of the Star-Hoppers' battle with the Cloud-Riders had already become legend, bolstered by Solo's rising celebrity. That year, Minos Cluster-based studio Tri-Nebula Entertainment released a holo-doc called Eight for Aduba-3: The Saga of the Starhoppers, which purported to tell the story of the battle for Onacra and ended up a moderate success. Doubtful of the documentary's veracity, Rebel historian Voren Na'al traveled to Aduba-3 to try to get the real story of the Star-Hoppers. Na'al was doubtful of every facet of the documentary's narrative, even the name "Star-Hoppers"—which Na'al believed to be an invention of Tri-Nebula marketing executives—and he faced significant difficulty finding anyone in the highly transient Aduban society who had been there long enough to have remembered the events firsthand. The Star-Hoppers themselves had long since dispersed, but Na'al managed to track down Jimm Doshun and his wife, who still lived in Onacra. Although Doshun was unwilling to meet with him, Na'al briefly interviewed Merri, but was dismayed to find that her story closely matched that of the holo-doc, down to the sudden appearance of a massive monster shooting a laser beam out of its head. Na'al left Aduba-3 soon afterward, convinced that he had failed to uncover the true tale of the Star-Hoppers.

A cocksure smuggler from Corellia, Han Solo would become renowned for his exploits fighting for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Formerly in the employ of the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, Solo was drawn into the war in 0 BBY, playing a crucial part in the rescue of Princess Leia and the Alliance victory in the Battle of Yavin. After Yavin, he and his trusty first mate Chewbacca traveled to Aduba-3 to lie low, where emissaries from Onacra entreated him to help save their village from the Cloud-Riders. Solo went on to form the Star-Hoppers to help protect Onacra, becoming the group's leader as the posse defeated the swoop gang and the Behemoth from the World Below. Solo resumed his adventures with Chewbacca after leaving Aduba-3, eventually becoming a general in the Rebel Alliance.

A Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, Chewbacca was already 200 years old by the time he made his way to Aduba-3. Like many of his species, Chewbacca was sold into slavery after the rise of the Galactic Empire, but was rescued by a young Imperial Lieutenant named Han Solo and swore the Corellian a life debt. Chewbacca became Solo's stalwart right hand as the two began a career as smugglers, eventually making their way to Aduba-3 after contributing to the Rebel victory at Yavin. Using his hulking size and overpowering strength, Chewbacca often found himself in the thick of the fighting on Aduba-3, killing the massive Boltrunian named Warto with his bare hands during the battle. Chewbacca continued to travel with Solo after saving Onacra, serving the Rebel Alliance in a number of key battles throughout the war.

A native of Onacra who went by the nickname "The Starkiller Kid," Jimm Doshun was orphaned at the age of three by a high-hound attack, and left to be raised collectively by the village. In practice, this meant that Doshun was mainly taken care of by FE-9Q, the tractor droid that had belonged to his parents. In time, Doshun grew into an unruly teenager, although "Effie" was always there to get him out of trouble. As his village fell under the thumb of the Cloud-Riders, Doshun grew furious at his elders' inability to defend themselves—in 0 ABY, at the age of 16, he set out to Tun Aduban with FE-9Q to prove himself. Skilled with a knife and sling, Doshun believed that he could hold his own against the Cloud-Riders even though he had never been in a real fight before, and he impressed Han Solo with his moxie, reminding the smuggler of his friend Luke Skywalker. Doshun distinguished himself with his bravery during the battle with the Cloud-Riders, winning the heart of his lifelong crush, Merri Shen. The two were shortly married, and had several children.

A tractor droid, FE-9Q—or "Effie"—was one of the few droids in Onacra, although he fell into disuse due to the prideful villagers' insistence on doing their farm work themselves. However, Effie was taken in by the Doshun family, which was drawn to the droid's strong personality and employed him as a household servant. When Jimm's parents died, Effie practically raised the boy, doing his best to pass on his parents' values. Although Effie did his best to rein Jimm in as he grew into a restless and unruly teenager, he was hampered by his programming dictating that he do what the young man said. As such, Effie could not prevent Doshun from venturing to Tun Aduban, nor could he stop him from joining Solo's Star-Hoppers and joining the fight. However, Effie stuck with Doshun all the same, and even though his programming prevented him from harming sentients, he found a way to contribute in the battle with the Cloud-Riders by using his telescoping arms to destroy enemy speeders. Effie was destroyed during the battle of Onacra, the first casualty of the Star-Hoppers.

Amaiza Foxtrain's path to becoming one of the Outer Rim's most feared guns began on her homeworld of Ord Mantell, where she first made her way as part of a sultry dancing act with her twin sister Jodelle. The Foxtrains were managed by a shifty Twi'lek named Quatrain Pudundruh, who sold the girls to the Delphon system's notorious Black Hole Gang after a rough season. Jodelle's accidental death during a raid drove Amaiza to become a top-notch gunfighter, and she eventually assumed leadership of the pirate crew after gunning down the previous chief. However, not long afterward, the Imperial Navy cracked down on Delphon, scattering Foxtrain's gang. Foxtrain traveled to Aduba-3 to find work and encountered Solo, with whom she had a previous acquaintance. Cognizant of her brilliant reputation with a blaster, Solo immediately offered her a spot on the Star-Hoppers, and her gunfighting bona fides proved to be critical during the fight with the Cloud-Riders. Afterward, she formed a smuggling partnership with fellow Star-Hopper Jaxxon, which eventually brought her back to Aduba-3 to defend Doshun from Beilert Valance.

An enigmatic spacer who was devoted to protecting the weak, Hedji was a member of the rare Spiner species, one of the last of his kind. The Spiner homeworld of Yablon was destroyed by a supernova during the era of the Galactic Republic—a genetic flaw that only allowed Spiners to reproduce on Yablon doomed the species to a slow extinction. Hedji spoke little of himself or his past, and kept his reasons for being on Aduba-3, and his reasons for joining Han Solo's Star-Hoppers, to himself. What was known about Hedji, however, was that he was quite deadly. Although he eschewed using a blaster, Hedji used the Spiners' natural ability to throw accurate, high-velocity quills that could prove just as fatal as a blaster bolt. Although Solo was skeptical of Hedji and his refusal to wield a blaster, Hedji's skill with his quills convinced him to bring the Spiner aboard. Hedji more than held his own against the Cloud-Riders, but ultimately met his end at the hands of the Behemoth from the World Below.

A rough-and-tumble Lepi smuggler from Coachelle Prime, Jaxxon's physical appearance—at 1.9 meters tall, he essentially resembled a giant green rabbit—led many to underestimate and mock him. That, almost always, ended up being a mistake. Quick-witted and always ready for a fight, Jaxxon made his bones with a vicious mercenary crew called the Boys of Corus, becoming a crack shot with a blaster. After his gang broke up, Jaxxon embarked on a career as a smuggler based out of Nar Shaddaa. In 0 ABY, he touched down on Aduba-3 to repair his starship, the Rabbit's Foot, and decided to join Han Solo's posse. Jaxxon played a critical part in the Star-Hoppers' victory over the Cloud-Riders, and afterward formed a smuggling partnership with Amaiza Foxtrain that operated out of his Rabbit's Foot. The pair later returned to Aduba-3 to protect fellow Star-Hopper Jimm Doshun from the attack of Beilert Valance's gang.

Born Hess Korrin, the man who became known as "Don-Wan Kihotay" was originally a librarian on the world of Obroa-skai, dedicating his life to cataloging antiquities. In his spare time, Korrin became a scholar on the history of the Jedi Order, and over time became more and more obsessed with the Jedi. However, after the rise of the Empire, the Imperial Security Bureau destroyed Korrin's antiquities section as a "public safety issue." The destruction of his Jedi relics broke Korrin's mind, and he took up a yellow-bladed lightsaber, one of the few artifacts he managed to survive, and adopted the name Don-Wan Kihotay, seeking to preserve and embody the Jedi legacy. His sympathetic manager snuck him offworld to Aduba-3 to protect him from additional Imperial inquiries, where he joined Solo's crew. In truth, Kihotay actually was mildly Force-sensitive, and as he displayed on Aduba-3, he knew how to wield a lightsaber. Kihotay was wounded during the battle at Onacra, although Solo took up his lightsaber and slew the Behemoth from the World Below. While convalescing from his wounds at Anglebay Station on Telos IV, Kihotay was killed when Valance and his thugs destroyed the hospital.

The Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 first appeared in Star Wars (1977) 8, written by Roy Thomas and released in 1977. The Star-Hoppers went on to appear in a number of other issues in the original Marvel Star Wars comic series.

• "ComicScan: Marvelously Silly Aliens" — Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 3
• "The Starhoppers of Aduba-3" — Star Wars Gamer 4
• Underworld Appendix: Swoops, Spice, and Wretched Rogues on Hyperspace
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia