Dru Valan was a Human Imperial Navy admiral who was originally loyal to the Fel Empire. During the Sith–Imperial War, he was made responsible for ensuring that Admiral Gar Stazi of the Galactic Alliance did not escape Caamas. However, Valan underestimated Stazi and he failed to prevent his escape. Valan later sided with the One Sith when they seized control of the Empire.
In 137 ABY, Valan was placed in command of the Outer Rim Third Fleet and tasked with killing Stazi and destroying the Galactic Alliance Remnant. Using a new Star Destroyer as bait, Valan attempted to trap Stazi's fleet. But the Alliance escaped the trap with the Star Destroyer. Valan, disgraced again, was left contemplating suicide.
In 130 ABY, Admiral Dru Valan fought at the Battle of Caamas. When the Galactic Alliance, under the command of Rear Admiral Piers Petan surrendered, Admiral Gar Stazi chose to escape and continue the fight against the Empire. Grand Admiral Morlish Veed commanded Valan to make certain Stazi couldn't escape so he and his fleet could be destroyed for their defiance. But Valan underestimated Stazi, who escaped using a spacer hyperspace route. Valan was blamed for Stazi's escape. Valan chose to side with Darth Krayt when the Sith took over the Empire.
Some time between 130 ABY and 137 ABY, he was placed under the command of Admiral Sha Dun of the Outer Rim Third Fleet (most likely this was his punishment for failing to prevent Stazi's escape at Caamas). But after the Sith Lord Darth Azard executed Sha Dun for failing to stop Stazi's attacks on the Empire, Valan was placed in command of the fleet and tasked with hunting down Stazi. Valan believed in Human High Culture and ordered his second in command the removal of all alien crew from the fleet to ensure that "only the best" would serve under him. He even crushed a part of the Kel Dor's breathing mask under his foot after his former commander had been eliminated.
Now in the command of the Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer Relentless, Admiral Valan plotted to set up a trap for Stazi by baiting him with the possibility of capturing the Imperious-class Star Destroyer Imperious. Having analyzed Stazi's tactics, he presumed that the Alliance admiral could not think strategically. A female Toydarian named Niffla told him she had seen Gial Gahan's niece, who was also a member of Rogue Squadron, at the shipyards. Valan was then certain that he would soon redeem himself from allowing Stazi to escape at Caamas.
Several days later, Stazi's fleet jumped into the system to take the Imperious. But Gial Gahan had been arrested for trying to disable the shipyard's defenses and stormtroopers had re-seized the Imperious from Stazi's troops. When Valan's fleet arrived in the system, it appeared to him that Stazi's fleet was trapped between his fleet and the shipyards. But Stazi had prepared for Valan's trap by setting up one himself. Monia Gahan hacked the shipyard's automated defenses to fire on Imperial ships, and the combined firepower from the Alliance fleet and the Shipyards inflicted heavy damage on Valan's fleet. To add insult to injury, the stormtroopers that had re-seized the Imperious were actually Alliance Remnant troops. They hijacked the advanced Star Destroyer and got it to one of the Alliance's bases.
Despite being outmaneuvered, Valan ordered his ships to fire on the Indomitable, hoping to eliminate Stazi and cripple the Remnant. But while the Indomitable took the fire, the rest of the Alliance fleet escaped. After Stazi was removed from the Indomitable, its captain Jaius Yorub piloted the ship into the Mon Calamari Shipyards, destroying a third of them.
By the end of the battle, the Imperious was in Alliance hands, Stazi had escaped, the Mon Calamari Orbital Shipyards had been heavily damaged, and Valan's fleet had been devastated. Valan retired to his quarters with a blaster pistol of his own personal collection after being defeated, apparently contemplating suicide.
Even though by his time the Imperial Military allowed aliens to serve alongside humans, Dru Valan was a blatant speciesist as well as a Humanocentric, believing that humans were superior to "aliens." This was shown when his first act after being made the commander of the Outer Rim Third Fleet was to dismiss all non-humans and replace them with humans.
Because he had been outmaneuvered by Admiral Gar Stazi once before, Valan had a grudge against the Alliance admiral. His vendetta against Stazi blinded him to the bigger picture; when he had "trapped" some of the Alliance fleet at Dac, he was so focused on Stazi that he allowed the rest of the fleet to escape.
Valan's name was misspelled as "Valens" in the opening scrawl of Legacy (2006) 22.