Malik Carr

Malik Carr, born within Domain Carr, advanced through the ranks of the warrior caste, with his scars and escalation markings showing his military skill. Shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War began in 25 ABY in the galaxy, Carr was promoted to the rank of commander.

Once the invasion was fully underway, Carr's superiors sent him to Obroa-skai, a world recently conquered by the forces of Tla, another commander. Arriving with his large flotilla in mid-25 ABY, he met with Tla and his staff to discuss the invasion's progress. Raff, Tla's tactician, informed Carr of the military situation: the Yuuzhan Vong were nearing the Inner Rim after cutting through the Outer Rim Territories from Belkadan. Malik Carr told his colleagues about the ships being built at the shipwomb in the ruins of Sernpidal, a world destroyed early in the invasion. He suggested a subtle approach to Coruscant, the galactic capital, through Hutt Space. Executor Nom Anor had already approached the Hutt kajidics. Carr approved of the deceitful negotiations with the Hutt Grand Council, eager to command and conquer the territories they ruled. However, Carr arrived at a critical point in the plans of Commander Tla and his associates: Harrar, a priest, Nom Anor, and Raff. Anor and Harrar had devised a plan to have Elan, a deception sect priestess, falsely defect to the New Republic and then assassinate as many Jedi as possible. The Jedi Order was considered a major threat to the Yuuzhan Vong's progress, and the plan had been in development for a long time. Almost immediately after Malik Carr's arrival, news came that the false defection had complications. The Peace Brigade, an organization working with the Yuuzhan Vong, had discovered Elan's location at Bilbringi and, acting in good faith, tried to return her to the Yuuzhan Vong. At Nom Anor's request, Carr provided his personal advanced frigate to the executor, who rushed to the nearby Bilbringi system to fix the situation.

While Anor hurried to Bilbringi, Harrar explained the plan to Malik Carr, who doubted its complex and expensive nature. Harrar reassured the commander, promising that success would lead to Carr's promotion to Supreme Commander. They contacted Anor via villip to stay updated on the battle in the Bilbringi system. New Republic Intelligence operatives were transporting Elan on the passenger liner Queen of Empire when the Peace Brigade ambushed and boarded the liner. Carr and Harrar believed Anor only needed to send a dovin basal to prevent the Peace Brigade gunship from leaving the Queen of Empire, but the arrival of the New Republic Quasar Fire-class bulk cruiser Thurse made the situation more complicated. Carr's frigate, loaned to Anor, was damaged by New Republic forces while using its powerful dovin basals to microjump around the system. Anor desperately wanted the New Republic to recapture Elan from the Peace Brigade to ensure his scheme's success, so he attempted to fight convincingly while keeping his allies at a distance. At Obroa-skai, Tla complained to Carr that alienating the Peace Brigade was counterproductive. Carr asked Nom Anor if he would give command of the frigate to Tla, but the executor refused. The situation at Bilbringi worsened as the Peace Brigade, despite Anor's efforts, rushed Elan toward the Yuuzhan Vong frigate. Eventually, the defector was discovered and killed. With all the yorik-et starfighters lost, Malik Carr considered the phony defection a ridiculous mistake. He joined Anor, Harrar, Tla, and Raff in reporting to Supreme Commander Nas Choka, Carr's direct superior. While the priest and Commander Tla were disgraced and recalled to the Outer Rim Territories, Nas Choka gave Carr command of the invasion of Hutt Space. Prefect Drathul of the intendant caste spared Nom Anor from punishment, and Malik Carr accompanied the executor on a diplomatic mission to meet Borga Besadii Diori, the Hutts' chosen leader, on Nal Hutta.

Before traveling with Anor to meet the Hutt, Malik Carr had been briefed by the executor on the nature of the species, who he described as devious, amoral, and skilled negotiators. Carr was disgusted by Nal Hutta and by Borga's thinly veiled duplicity. Nevertheless, the Hutts served Carr's purpose. After a brief discussion about their new alliance, during which Anor and Carr mostly mocked Borga in their own tongue, Carr advised Borga, at her request, to stop spice shipments to the Tynnani system, Bothan Space, and the Corellian system. By doing this, Carr and Anor were creating a complex deception within their empty deal. They expected that Borga would inform the New Republic of the impending strikes on Tynna, Bothawui, and Corellia, or that New Republic Intelligence would notice the spice trade discrepancy, alerting the New Republic Defense Force to the threats. The real target was Fondor and its shipyards, although Tynna remained an objective to make the spice trade intelligence seem more credible. While Borga and her allies thought they were tricking Malik Carr into giving them vital information, they were being used while giving the Yuuzhan Vong worlds to inhabit, such as Runaway Prince, and offering their services as slavers.

Yuuzhan Vong politics pulled Carr from the Hutt project when Supreme Commander Nas Choka arrived in Hutt Space to be welcomed to the war. Malik Carr welcomed his superior officer aboard his flagship, the Yammka, but Nas Choka addressed the assembled Yuuzhan Vong and promoted several subalterns. Nom Anor then told a doubtful Nas Choka about the plan to manipulate the Hutts, asking the supreme commander to accompany him and Malik Carr to Tynna. There, Choka and Carr coordinated the conflict, knowing that a hidden New Republic vessel was watching the battle as they destroyed the defense forces and terraformed the world for later use. This proved Carr's plan was working, as it showed that the New Republic knew about the spice trade fluctuations and believed the Yuuzhan Vong were unaware of a flaw in their invasion plan. Returning victorious to the flotilla over Runaway Prince, Carr and Choka informed Warmaster Tsavong Lah of the scheme. Carr had already started preparing coralskipper pilots for suicide runs on Fondor's shipyards, and the hyperspace lanes between Bothawui and Fondor, and Corellia and Fondor, were seeded with dovin basal mines.

Before the assault on Fondor, Malik Carr returned with Anor and Nas Choka to Nal Hutta for another meeting with Borga Besadii Diori. Although Choka was less facetious than Carr in his dealings with Borga, preferring to threaten her with invasion and death, they were shocked to learn that a Jedi Knight had been captured at Gyndine and was aboard the Crèche, a vessel transporting a yammosk—telepathic creatures used to coordinate warfare—vital to the upcoming battle at Fondor. This excited Choka so much that he insulted and threatened Borga, and Malik Carr and the other Yuuzhan Vong prepared for a fight. The situation calmed when Choka contacted Chine-kal, the commander of the Crèche. Although Carr and Choka learned that the vessel was in the Kalarba system, they revealed the Crèche's location to Borga. The Hutt, already worried about the deal with the invaders, betrayed Malik Carr and the Yuuzhan Vong. Through a series of Hutt contacts, a New Republic starfighter squadron was informed of the presence of the lost Jedi Knight at Kalarba and engaged the Crèche, forcing Chine-kal to take the vessel to Fondor ahead of schedule.

The unexpected attack on the Crèche caused Choka and Carr to move forward with their plans, and the Yuuzhan Vong armada rushed to Fondor. They bypassed Bothawui and Corellia, the targets Carr had advertised to the Hutts, and arrived at Fondor to launch a relentless assault on the shipyards and the New Republic First Battle Group guarding them. Carr's forces destroyed the thirty valuable New Republic vessels nearing completion, and yorik-et pilots drove their craft into the shipyards and orbital defenses. Thanks to Carr's strategy, the elements of the New Republic Fifth Battle Group launching from Bothawui could not reach Fondor in time because the hyperspace lanes had been mined. Fortunately for Carr and Choka, the Crèche arrived at the same time as their armada, although the squadron that had pursued it from Kalarba boarded the vessel and killed the yammosk. Nevertheless, the attack on Fondor and its shipyards, vital to the New Republic war effort, continued, with the First Fleet pushed back to the planet and Fondor itself bombarded.

As a task force of Hapan warships arrived from nearby Commenor to defend Fondor, Centerpoint Station was fired upon the system. Dormant in the Corellian system since its last firing in 18 ABY, Centerpoint Station was a construction of unparalleled power, capable of destroying entire fleets with repulsor waves or causing supernovas with a massive pulse of gravitic energy. Malik Carr knew that Corellia was a trap, so Fondor remained the target, but he had no intelligence about the space station's extraordinary abilities. When it fired upon his fleet, it instantly obliterated half of the Yuuzhan Vong ships and three-quarters of the newly arrived Hapan forces. Malik Carr could only stare at the carnage and voice stunned comments while Choka tried to communicate with a dying Chine-kal on the Crèche. Shocked but partially successful, Choka and Carr retreated with the remnants of the armada, knowing that the Hutts had betrayed the location of the Crèche at Kalarba. Malik Carr became a supreme commander nonetheless.

After the failure at Fondor, both Choka and Carr were blamed. While Choka managed to redeem himself through his relentless destruction of the Hutts, Carr was demoted from supreme commander to a prison warden, guarding captives on the backwater world of Selvaris in the Tantara system. A prison was built, with high walls and watchtowers, guarded by many warriors, which Carr saw as a sign of the poor progress of the war against the reconstructed New Republic. Commander Malik Carr spent long days in Selvaris's blistering heat. In his absence, Nas Choka was promoted to warmaster, Harrar to high priest, and Nom Anor to prefect of conquered Coruscant, renamed Yuuzhan'tar. During his time on the planet, Carr learned to speak fluent Galactic Basic and was respected by the lesser warriors. However, he watched over the captives with disinterest. Depressed and miserable, Carr allowed food to be brought to the sickly prisoners from nearby settlements and left most of the camp's management to his subordinate, Subaltern S'yito. By 29 ABY, three years after the disaster at Fondor, the prison was full of high-ranking Galactic Alliance officials and soldiers. After the failure of the Galactic Alliance's Operation Trinity at Bilbringi, Judder Page and Pash Cracken arrived at Carr's camp, leading Galactic Alliance soldiers who quickly organized the prisoners and spent months planning an escape with local help. Carr and S'yito did not notice the prisoners' subterfuge; Carr spent most of his time in his quarters, brooding over his failures.

Eventually, Carr was informed that a Yuuzhan'tar-bound sacrificial ritual demanded a multitude of captives. A Yuuzhan Vong and Peace Brigade convoy was systematically visiting Yuuzhan Vong penal colonies, with Selvaris as the concluding stop before reaching the Yuuzhan Vong's central world. Consequently, when, mere days before the convoy's anticipated arrival, four prisoners broke free from the confinement through a concealed passage, commandeered swoops, and sped off into Selvaris's dense jungles, Carr initially considered suicide, fully aware that Warmaster Nas Choka's fury would be unbearable. However, Carr soon regained his composure and dispatched retrieval teams to recapture the escaping prisoners. Yorik-et, bissop hounds, and Tsik-Vai reconnaissance vehicles were deployed to intercept the fugitives; two were eliminated, one was apprehended, and the last—a Jenet—escaped the planet aboard the light freighter known as the Millennium Falcon. Enraged and seeking retribution, Carr had the remaining prisoners sedated, instructed several of S'yito's guards to engage in lethal combat as punishment, and tortured the surviving escapee, a Bith, to his death using a tkun before the assembled prisoners. Carr could not decipher the information the Bith and his fellow escapees were attempting to deliver, only that it involved a coded message. As further punishment, he confined Cracken, Page, and the others to an intensely suffocating immolation pit for an entire day, resulting in the deaths of fifty prisoners. Finally, Carr dispatched S'yito and his warriors to the nearby settlements to execute any locals they could find; the warrior correctly deduced that someone from the local population had aided the prisoners in their escape. Having failed to extract the code's meaning from Judder Page, Malik Carr awaited the prison convoy's arrival.

Commander Bhu Fath and the convoy arrived at Selvaris several days afterward, and the surviving prisoners were embarked onto the vessels. As an invited guest, Malik Carr boarded Fath's Uumufalh gunship, named the Sacred Pyre, and somberly observed as the Yuuzhan Vong ships linked with the Peace Brigade vessels, transferring the prisoners throughout the convoy. Carr felt revulsion at associating with the Peace Brigaders and their inorganic vessels, and dreaded the prospect of meeting Nas Choka on Yuuzhan'tar. Shortly thereafter, however, he discovered the content of the code the prisoners had fled with: the convoy's route coordinates. A squadron of Galactic Alliance warships emerged from hyperspace and engaged the convoy; realizing the absence of a yammosk, Malik Carr knew immediate action was necessary to avoid further degradation. Acting on instinct, Carr summoned reinforcements, ordered the Peace Brigade vessels to flee to Yuuzhan'tar, and deployed the convoy's yorik-et starfighters—Commander Fath deferred to the more seasoned warrior's judgment. As the Galactic Alliance forces dealt with the escaping Peace Brigade freighters, Carr crossed to the Brigade freighter connected to the Sacred Pyre by an oqa membrane to retrieve the prisoners back onto the Yuuzhan Vong gunship. The Galactic Alliance, however, held numerical superiority, and their operatives within the Peace Brigade had disabled the hyperdrives of several convoy ships. Soon, coma gas was launched via boarding harpoons into the freighter; Galactic Alliance assault teams advanced through the organic cofferdam and overwhelmed the warriors aboard the Sacred Pyre. Carr and Fath were captured in the Sacred Pyre's rear hold. Once Carr's adversary, Judder Page, was liberated by his rescuers—Han and Leia Organa Solo—he and Carr exchanged a few words. Fortunately for Malik Carr, Page declined Solo's offer of a blaster to exact his vengeance, choosing instead to leave the prison commander to his destiny on Yuuzhan'tar. At that moment, however, reinforcements arrived from Yuuzhan'tar in the form of slayer ships, and the Galactic Alliance forces withdrew. Before Page departed, Carr vowed to his former prisoner that he would witness the captain's demise. With less than half the required prisoners for the ceremony, Fath and Malik Carr guided the convoy's survivors to the Yuuzhan Vong capital.

Upon reaching Yuuzhan'tar, the Peace Brigaders were taken as prisoners, and Bhu Fath explained his actions to High Priest Jakan. Malik Carr remained silent until Nas Choka summoned him before the Yuuzhan Vong's leader, Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, praising Carr's conduct at the Battle of Selvaris as exemplary. On the Supreme Overlord's command, a cloak of command was placed upon Malik Carr's shoulders. After three years of obscurity, Carr was reinstated as a supreme commander. The planned ceremony still lacked the necessary sacrificial victims, and therefore Supreme Commander Carr was dispatched to Caluula, a world being prepared as a staging area for an assault on the Galactic Alliance capital of Dac, to acquire more captives for sacrifice. Assigned a full battle group, an ychna warbeast—towed into position by special dovin basals grown on Tynna, one of Carr's early conquests—and hundreds of warriors, Carr led his forces to Caluula and immediately assaulted the planet's defense station. Despite fierce resistance from a complement of Mandalorian Protectors and the station's defenders, Malik Carr's forces overwhelmed them, and the supreme commander's vessels were soon filled with captives to be returned to Shimrra Jamaane on Yuuzhan'tar. Pash Cracken, a prominent inmate on Selvaris, was recaptured—the Millennium Falcon, one of the ships involved in the convoy raid, had traveled directly to Caluula from the Tantara system, resulting in the return of several prisoners liberated over Selvaris to Yuuzhan Vong custody.

Nas Choka had instructed Malik Carr to establish a yammosk on Caluula to coordinate the armada's movements as it retreated from or returned to Dac through the Caluula system. Therefore, when the governess surrendered to his invasion force in exchange for concessions to the populace, Carr installed the yammosk in a heavily guarded minshal at the heart of Caluula City, and the population, after the disposal of their technology, was permitted to coexist with their conquerors. Malik Carr even permitted a scientific exploration team to observe the Nocturne of the Winged-Stars, a unique Caluula phenomenon occurring every three centuries. However, Carr first needed permission from Jakan, High Prefect Drathul of the intendants, and Nas Choka. The warmaster contacted Malik Carr and conveyed that the scientific exploration team should be allowed to land on Caluula. Carr was unaware that Caluula was a testing ground for Galactic Alliance Intelligence; Chiss scientists and Alpha Blue, an Intelligence organization, had been developing a Yuuzhan Vong-specific pathogen, highly contagious and lethally efficient. Caluula Station had fallen as part of the Galactic Alliance's plan, and the planet's government had been ordered to capitulate so that the Alpha Red virus's effects could be observed on the world. Of the recently arrived scientists, only one member was genuine; the others were tasked with destroying the yammosk—unbeknownst to most of the strike team, they were also to observe Alpha Red's impact on Carr and his forces. The virus began to devastate the Yuuzhan Vong on Caluula; yorik-et became sluggish and crashed, and biots struggled with even simple tasks. Lethargy and illness soon plagued Carr's forces, though the supreme commander retained enough awareness to recognize the scientist team as a Galactic Alliance force; he had the strike force ambushed and captured by Slayers, and discovered that Judder Page, a Jedi Master, and the Solos were among its members.

Despite his rapid decline—he was usually supported by two other warriors—Malik Carr survived for some time in the decaying, diseased minshal. All around him, Yuuzhan Vong and their technology were failing; the yammosk itself was dying, but the supreme commander remained determined to sacrifice Page and the others to the ailing war coordinator, as he had sworn over Selvaris. After sending the minshal's shaper back to Yuuzhan'tar with the dying Slayers to inform Supreme Overlord Jamaane of the virus afflicting the Yuuzhan Vong, Malik Carr visited his prisoners. By this point, the supreme commander had lost all strength; he calmly asked Page what it was about Caluula that was killing him and his species, before admitting that in his weakened state he could not bring himself to hate his enemies. As the yammosk and guards perished, Carr made a final effort. Standing unsteadily, Supreme Commander Malik Carr offered Page his respect before collapsing dead.

Malik Carr possessed the cunning and shrewdness expected of a commander in the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. He recognized the dangers of the defection scheme and avoided excessive involvement, allowing him to be nominated as the leader of the attack on the Hutts, where his manipulative and deceptive abilities were again evident. A skilled tactician, Carr's use of yorik-et as suicide weapons proved devastating for the Fondor Shipyards, and his order for the crucial Peace Brigade freighters to retreat from the Battle of Selvaris demonstrated adaptability and initiative. However, Carr often underestimated his adversaries; pride and shortsightedness led to the loss of the fleet at Fondor and facilitated the prison escape. Similarly, the supreme commander was not suspicious of Caluula's easy fall and capitulation, and he allowed the fake scientific research team to infiltrate the planet.

Following his demotion and disgrace, Carr became prone to fits of anger and regret, often contemplating suicide. A sadistic streak emerged in the warrior's personality, along with a dark sense of humor, best exemplified by the interrogation and torture of the Bith captive. Malik Carr also lost some of his faith and devotion to his superiors, loathing Nas Choka and killing fifty prisoners despite their value to the Yuuzhan Vong on Yuuzhan'tar. Once Carr was reinstated, his unwavering loyalty returned; he oversaw the conquest of Caluula and personally guarded the yammosk. The arrival of the Alpha Red pathogen brought another shift in Malik Carr's personality. Drained of all energy, the supreme commander found it difficult to hate his enemy, claiming he only "pitied" the inhabitants of the galaxy. Indeed, Carr used a blaster without hesitation shortly before his death and sat exhaustedly by his captives with apparent respect before dying.

Malik Carr made his first appearance near the end of James Luceno's The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, and while he had a small role in the final stages of the Elan defection, he was positioned at the novel's conclusion as the officer responsible for conquering Hutt Space. The second novel in the Agents of Chaos Duology, Jedi Eclipse, features Malik Carr as a primary Yuuzhan Vong antagonist. The last Yuuzhan Vong activity in the novel is Nas Choka and Malik Carr's reaction to the Battle of Fondor; Carr's demotion following the battle is not mentioned in Jedi Eclipse. Malik Carr was not mentioned for the remainder of The New Jedi Order series before reappearing in The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force, Luceno's third New Jedi Order novel and the series' finale.

Throughout Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, Malik Carr is consistently referred to as a commander; this remains the same in Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, and whenever Nas Choka and Malik Carr are together, only Choka is identified as a supreme commander. Choka presents himself as Malik Carr's superior during the negotiations with Borga the Hutt, and there is no mention of Carr holding a rank higher than commander in the text. However, in The Unifying Force, Malik Carr has been demoted to "commander," a rank he seemingly already held. Furthermore, both Bhu Fath and Nas Choka apparently refer to Carr as having held the rank of supreme commander before his demotion. This article assumes that Malik Carr achieved the rank of supreme commander after the Battle of Fondor, only to be demoted from that position shortly afterward by the Yuuzhan Vong hierarchy. While this is speculative, it serves to reconcile Luceno's conflicting statements in his three novels.