Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3

The "Star-Hoppers," a team created by smuggler Han Solo alongside his Wookiee companion Chewbacca, was intended to shield the small farming village of Onacra from a brutal gang. The team consisted of some of the most dangerous fighters in the Outer Rim, as well as a few unpredictable characters. The Star-Hoppers were an eclectic mix of individuals, ranging from the famous gunfighter Amaiza Foxtrain to a young man named Jimm Doshun who had never been in a fight before. Despite initially struggling to work together and often clashing with each other, the Star-Hoppers united when it mattered most, functioning as a team to defeat a gang that outnumbered them five to one. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the group remained loyal to Solo, their charismatic leader, although they didn't always agree with his decisions.

In the year 0 ABY, the notorious smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca, made their way to the Outer Rim planet of Aduba-3. They were looking for a place to avoid attention after their involvement in the Rebel victory at the Battle of Yavin. Solo landed his ship, the Millennium Falcon, at the spaceport of Tun Aduban. Soon after, they went to the local cantina. However, they found themselves in a new conflict when a local farmer named Ramiz approached them. Ramiz explained that his village, Onacra, was being targeted by a ruthless swoop gang known as the Cloud-Riders. This gang was led by an unstable former swoop racer named Serji-X Arrogantus. The Cloud-Riders, based in the hills west of Tun Aduban, had chosen Onacra as a target simply because it was the closest community to their camp. They would regularly raid Onacra, stealing crops and women, until the two sides reached an uneasy agreement in 3 BBY: the Cloud-Riders would leave Onacra alone in exchange for an annual payment of 9,000 credits.

After only three years, the village grew tired of this arrangement. They decided to offer the entire 9,000 credit payment that would have gone to the Cloud-Riders to Solo, in exchange for protecting the village from the menacing thugs. Solo, sympathizing with the farmers' situation, agreed to take on the job and began assembling a team to help him defend Onacra. Solo asked Ramiz to spread the word, and soon a line of spacers were applying for the job in his rented room at the cantina. Although the first ten applicants were disappointing, Solo soon found his first team member in the mysterious Spiner named Hedji. Hedji impressed the Corellian with his ability to accurately throw his natural quills. Hedji's appearance led to a series of successful applicants: first, Solo offered a spot to an old acquaintance named Amaiza Foxtrain, a famous 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 carried a real lightsaber.

After Kihotay joined the crew, a large Boltrunian named Warto—who had been involved in a bar fight with Solo and Chewbacca earlier that evening—tried to cut in line and interview for the job. However, he was quickly defeated by a clever and strong Lepi named Jaxxon. Solo witnessed the fight and immediately offered Jaxxon a spot on the team. Finally, Solo gave a place to a local teenager named Jimm Doshun, a native of Onacra who brought his own droid, FE-9Q. Although Doshun had no experience with a blaster, the young farmboy's spirit reminded Solo of his friend Luke Skywalker, convincing Solo to complete his crew with the boy and his droid. The next morning, Solo gathered his new group to head to Onacra, but before they could leave, they were attacked by swoops from the west. Serji-X Arrogantus himself led a group of Cloud-Riders to bribe Solo to leave Onacra alone—they had been informed by Warto, who had joined the gang after being defeated by Jaxxon. Solo refused, and Arrogantus left, promising violence the next time they met. However, the group gained something from the encounter: Warto referred to the team as "star-hoppers" during the confrontation, a name that Solo decided to adopt as the gang's new name.

Despite their brief encounter with Arrogantus and his Cloud-Riders, the Star-Hoppers set off for Onacra, traveling through the Aduban wastes on bantha-back. Hours before the Cloud-Riders were scheduled to attack the village, the Star-Hoppers had their first fight when they encountered a pack of dangerous high-hounds in the maze-stalk fields surrounding Onacra. Using the avian predators for 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 continued 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 began preparing for the incoming attack. During their preparations, Solo was approached by a village elder called the Old One. The Old One, Oncho Shen's father and Merri's grandfather, told Solo about a local legend, the Behemoth from the World Below: a sleeping monster that lived beneath the earth, and that he claimed he could summon to protect Onacra. The Old One asked Solo and his Star-Hoppers not to engage the Cloud-Riders, allowing him and his supposed Behemoth to handle the threat themselves, an offer that Solo, disbelieving, refused.

Soon after, the Cloud-Riders arrived, swooping down on Onacra on their swoops and skyspeeders. The Star-Hoppers immediately engaged the gang in battle, despite being outnumbered and giving up the aerial advantage to the Cloud-Riders. Early in the fighting, Solo's team suffered its first loss: 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 surrounded, forcing the elderly Kihotay to ignite his lightsaber and join the fight. Although Kihotay wielded the blade surprisingly well, he was soon incapacitated by a shot to the back. With two of their number down, things looked bad for the Star-Hoppers. Suddenly, the battle was interrupted by piercing screams and loud chanting from the Old One, who was trying to summon his Behemoth from below. The ground split open 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, ignoring the Star-Hoppers and focusing on destroying the Cloud-Riders. Solo was happy to have his group stand back and watch the beast do their work for them, but that soon changed. Desperate, Arrogantus made a speeder run on the Old One, hoping to kill 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 wiping out the remaining Cloud-Riders before turning its attention to the Star-Hoppers and the village. Solo's group was initially unsure how to deal with the monster: Jaxxon tried to charge 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 strangely to Kihotay's lightsaber, and took up the Jedi weapon, dodging the beast's attacks and stabbing it 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 stay in Onacra with her. Meanwhile, the other five survivors took their reward and went their separate ways, off to their next adventures.

Although the Star-Hoppers disbanded after the battle for Onacra, circumstances would bring some 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, a neutral 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. By chance, he received a lead on his target in Anglebay Station. Don-Wan Kihotay was recovering 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." Since 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 him. However, Amaiza Foxtrain, with whom Jaxxon had gone into business after Aduba-3, surprised them and gunned them down. Realizing that the hunters were mistakenly after the innocent Jimm Doshun, the two jumped into Jaxxon's Rabbit's Foot and traveled back to the Outer Rim world to warn the "Starkiller Kid," who was now married to Merri with a child on the way. Although Doshun initially didn't believe that bounty hunters could be after him, Valance's crew had followed the Rabbit's Foot to Aduba-3, making it clear that another fight was coming to the plains of Onacra. Thinking quickly, the three former Star-Hoppers set up 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 target 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 legendary, bolstered by Solo's growing fame. That year, Tri-Nebula Entertainment, a studio based in the Minos Cluster, released a holo-doc called Eight for Aduba-3: The Saga of the Starhoppers. This documentary claimed to tell the story of the battle for Onacra and became a moderate success. Doubting the documentary's accuracy, Rebel historian Voren Na'al traveled to Aduba-3 to try to uncover the real story of the Star-Hoppers. Na'al doubted every aspect of the documentary's narrative, even the name "Star-Hoppers"—which Na'al believed was invented by Tri-Nebula marketing executives. He struggled to find anyone in the highly transient Aduban society who had been there long enough to remember the events firsthand. The Star-Hoppers themselves had long since scattered, but Na'al managed to track down Jimm Doshun and his wife, who still lived in Onacra. Although Doshun refused to meet with him, Na'al briefly interviewed Merri, but was dismayed to find that her story closely matched that of the holo-doc, including 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.

Han Solo, a confident smuggler hailing from Corellia, would later be celebrated for his heroic actions fighting for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Previously employed by the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, Solo became involved in the war in 0 BBY, playing a vital role in the rescue of Princess Leia and the Alliance victory in the Battle of Yavin. Following the Battle of Yavin, he and his trusted first mate Chewbacca journeyed to Aduba-3 to keep a low profile. There, emissaries from Onacra pleaded with him to help save their village from the Cloud-Riders. Solo then formed the Star-Hoppers to protect Onacra, becoming the group's leader as they defeated the swoop gang and the Behemoth from the World Below. After leaving Aduba-3, Solo resumed his adventures with Chewbacca, eventually rising to the rank of general in the Rebel Alliance.

Chewbacca, a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, was already 200 years old when he arrived on Aduba-3. Like many of his kind, Chewbacca was sold into slavery after the rise of the Galactic Empire. However, he was rescued by a young Imperial Lieutenant named Han Solo and swore a life debt to the Corellian. Chewbacca became Solo's loyal right-hand man as they began their careers as smugglers, eventually ending up on Aduba-3 after contributing to the Rebel victory at Yavin. Using his immense size and strength, Chewbacca often found himself in the middle of the fighting on Aduba-3, even 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 many key battles throughout the war.

Jimm Doshun, a native of Onacra known as "The Starkiller Kid," was orphaned at the age of three by a high-hound attack and raised collectively by the village. In reality, this meant that Doshun was mainly cared for by FE-9Q, the tractor droid that had belonged to his parents. Over time, Doshun grew into a rebellious teenager, although "Effie" was always there to help him out of trouble. As his village fell under the control of the Cloud-Riders, Doshun became angry at his elders' inability to defend themselves. In 0 ABY, at the age of 16, he traveled to Tun Aduban with FE-9Q to prove himself. Skilled with a knife and sling, Doshun believed he could hold his own against the Cloud-Riders, even though he had never been in a real fight before. He impressed Han Solo with his spirit, reminding the smuggler of his friend Luke Skywalker. Doshun proved his bravery during the battle with the Cloud-Riders, winning the heart of his lifelong crush, Merri Shen. The two were soon married and had several children.

FE-9Q, a tractor droid also known as "Effie," was one of the few droids in Onacra. However, he was not used often because the villagers insisted on doing their farm work themselves. The Doshun family took Effie in, drawn to the droid's strong personality, and employed him as a household servant. When Jimm's parents died, Effie essentially raised the boy, doing his best to pass on his parents' values. Although Effie tried to control Jimm as he grew into a restless teenager, his programming dictated that he do what the young man said. As a result, Effie couldn't prevent Doshun from venturing to Tun Aduban or joining Solo's Star-Hoppers and joining the fight. However, Effie stuck with Doshun 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, becoming the first casualty of the Star-Hoppers.

Amaiza Foxtrain's transformation into a notorious gunslinger of the Outer Rim began on her homeworld of Ord Mantell. It was there that she initially earned a living as a captivating dancer alongside her twin sister, Jodelle. The Foxtrain sisters were under the management of a devious Twi'lek named Quatrain Pudundruh, who, following a disappointing season, sold the pair to the infamous Black Hole Gang operating in the Delphon system. The accidental demise of Jodelle during a raid ignited Amaiza's drive to become an exceptional gunfighter. She eventually rose to lead the pirate crew after fatally shooting the previous chief. However, the Imperial Navy's subsequent crackdown on Delphon resulted in the dispersal of Foxtrain's gang. Seeking employment, Foxtrain journeyed to Aduba-3, where she crossed paths with Solo, an acquaintance from her past. Recognizing her exceptional skill with a blaster, Solo promptly offered her a position with the Star-Hoppers. Her gunfighting abilities proved invaluable during their confrontation with the Cloud-Riders. Following this, she established a smuggling enterprise with fellow Star-Hopper Jaxxon, which ultimately led her back to Aduba-3 to defend Doshun from Beilert Valance.

A mysterious spacer dedicated to the protection of the vulnerable, Hedji belonged to the rare Spiner species, a dwindling group on the verge of extinction. The Spiner's planet of origin, Yablon, met its end via supernova during the time of the Galactic Republic. A genetic anomaly that restricted Spiner reproduction to Yablon sealed the species' fate. Hedji rarely discussed his background or motivations, keeping his reasons for being on Aduba-3, as well as his decision to join Han Solo's Star-Hoppers, a secret. What was known about Hedji, however, was his lethal nature. Despite avoiding blasters, Hedji utilized the Spiner's inherent ability to launch precise, high-speed quills, which could be as deadly as blaster fire. Despite Solo's initial doubts about Hedji's refusal to use a blaster, Hedji's proficiency with his quills convinced him to enlist the Spiner. Hedji proved his worth against the Cloud-Riders, but ultimately perished at the hands of the Behemoth from the World Below.

Hailing from Coachelle Prime, Jaxxon was a rugged Lepi smuggler whose towering height of 1.9 meters and resemblance to a giant green rabbit often caused others to underestimate him, a mistake they would soon regret. Quick-thinking and always ready for a fight, Jaxxon earned his reputation with the notorious mercenary group known as the Boys of Corus, where he became a skilled marksman with a blaster. Following the disbandment of his gang, Jaxxon pursued a career as a smuggler operating from Nar Shaddaa. In 0 ABY, he landed on Aduba-3 to repair his starship, the Rabbit's Foot, and decided to align himself with Han Solo's group. Jaxxon played a crucial role in the Star-Hoppers' triumph over the Cloud-Riders. Subsequently, he partnered with Amaiza Foxtrain in a smuggling operation, using his ship, the Rabbit's Foot, as their base. The duo later returned to Aduba-3 to defend fellow Star-Hopper Jimm Doshun from Beilert Valance's assault.

Originally named Hess Korrin, the individual who would become known as "Don-Wan Kihotay" began his life as a librarian on Obroa-skai, dedicating himself to the cataloging of ancient artifacts. In his free time, Korrin delved into the history of the Jedi Order, developing a growing obsession with the Jedi. However, with the rise of the Empire, the Imperial Security Bureau deemed Korrin's antiquities section a "public safety issue" and destroyed it. The destruction of his cherished Jedi relics shattered Korrin's sanity, leading him to take up a yellow-bladed lightsaber, one of the few artifacts he managed to salvage, and adopt the identity of Don-Wan Kihotay, striving to preserve and embody the Jedi legacy. To shield him from further Imperial scrutiny, his sympathetic manager secretly transported him to Aduba-3, where he joined Solo's crew. In reality, Kihotay possessed a mild sensitivity to the Force, and as demonstrated on Aduba-3, he was skilled in lightsaber combat. Kihotay sustained injuries during the battle at Onacra, but Solo wielded his lightsaber to defeat the Behemoth from the World Below. While recovering from his injuries at Anglebay Station on Telos IV, Kihotay was killed when Valance and his henchmen attacked the hospital.

The Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 made their debut in Star Wars (1977) 8, penned by Roy Thomas and released in 1977. The Star-Hoppers continued to feature in numerous subsequent issues of the original Marvel Star Wars comic book series.