Thune (bounty hunter)

Thune, named for a Dantoonian pack animal, was a Human female who grew up during the Imperial Period. She had a sister, and as a child dreamed of entering the Imperial Academy, and serving the Galactic Empire with distinction and honor. However, her efforts to enroll were staved off, as she was forced to watch as males who she believed to be less deserving enter the Academy. The men were less fit, and less educated than her, but they were nonetheless accepted, while Thune was passed over. Angered, she sought to prove those making the selections wrong, and she decided to become a bounty hunter. Thune ensured that there were no surviving records of her past, and no ties to her former life. She enjoyed her anonymity, and used it to her advantage. Becoming one of the best bounty hunters in a field dominated by men, she was considered to be an entity who was somewhere between being a killer and a law-enforcer.

Her vehicle of choice was the YT-1300 light freighter Faceted, which featured a heavily modified array of weaponry. To aid her in her work, the bounty hunter employed a crew aboard the ship. Thune invested in an expensive holoprojector, which had the ability to make the Faceted appear to be an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The bounty hunter also purchased an echo tractor beam, which would allow the Faceteds beam systems to mimic those of a Star Destroyer. To further augment the ship's disguise, equipment was installed to mask the ship's appearance on other sensor readings. Thune frequently worked for the Galactic Empire, and made allies throughout the government. In return for her services, her allies made sure that no record was kept on her background. Thune was also known to utilize the services of a fellow bounty hunter, the Chadra-Fan Tutti Snibit, who would fence valuable intelligence of marks for a considerable fee.

One Imperial Admiral enlisted Thune to hunt down the young Alderaanian businessman Deckland Carper. The Admiral's dispute with Carper originated from a childhood squabble with the man—Thune accepted the task without a second thought, having no pretenses about idealism any more. She gunned down Carper in cold blood, and brought his head to the Admiral for verification. Thune also took Carper's droid, U-THR, and made sure that he was the only one who was aware of what had transpired. U-THR disliked Thune's lack of ethics, and would continually complain about her behavior, but as a protocol droid, he had no choice but to serve her faithfully. She put him to use on the Faceted, monitoring the cockpit and general repairs. U-THR was also updated with data about other bounty hunters. Thune viewed him as nothing more than a tool that she had rightfully won by killing Carper.

In 1 ABY, Thune was hired by Dominic Raynor to capture or kill the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, Lando Calrissian, and his cyborg assistant, Lobot. Raynor had been the Baron Administrator until Calrissian won the title from him in a game of sabacc, with the aid of Lobot. The fee for their capture was 200,000 credits. In preparation, Thune had a homing beacon installed in Calrissian's ship, the Cobra. Raynor had previously sent a Gank to kill Calrissian and Lobot, but it had failed twice. A further attempt was made, when a Human replica droid of Queen Sarna of Drogheda was wired to explode upon meeting Calrissian. In the wake of the third attempt on his life within a week, Calrissian decided to feign his death, and leave Cloud City, so as to discover who was trying to kill him. As the Baron Administrator and his assistant departed from Bespin in the Cobra, Thune, piloting the Faceted, decided to move in.

Using the ship's holoprojectors, Thune activated the Faceteds Imperial-class Star Destroyer disguise, and fired upon the Cobra. She then caught Calrissian's ship with her tractor beam, and pulled him into what appeared to be the docking bay of a Star Destroyer. While doing so, Thune hailed Calrissian, and ordered him to deactivate the Cobras engines. The Baron Administrator did not comply, and responded by firing on the ship's holoprojectors and tractor beam, before destroying one of the Faceteds gun turrets. Thune, livid at the damage to her ship, opened fire with her highly modified weaponry and severely damaged the Cobra, bringing what she thought was an end to the brief confrontation. She contacted Calrissian once again, and swore that he would pay for what he had done to the Faceted.

She began dispatching her men to board the Cobra, but as they secured an airlock on the Baron Administrator's ship, Calrissian sent his craft hurtling toward the Faceted. Acting quickly, Thune opened fire, but the Cobra was able to evade the attack, before stopping short just in front of the bounty hunter's freighter. The Cobra then jumped into hyperspace from a standstill, and the resulting flushback disabled some of the Faceteds systems, preventing an immediate pursuit. In addition, four of Thune's men had been killed thanks to Calrissian's actions. The homing beacon on the Cobra, however, allowed Thune to track Calrissian and Lobot to Quilken in the Roon system. Landing on Quilken, she found the parked Cobra, and broke into it. Perusing Calrissian's communications logs, she ascertained that he was meeting with one Mungo Baobab at the Club Baobab casino.

Making her way to the casino, Thune spotted her quarry instructing Baobab in the art of sabacc, and hurriedly made her way over to their table. The bounty hunter held both of them at blaster-point, warning Baobab that she would gun him down, even though she was only there to retrieve Calrissian. She sensed movement from one of Club Baobab's security guards, and sprang into action. Rolling across the floor, she managed to hold a drunken Zeltron patron at knifepoint, while pressing her blaster up against Calrissian's forehead. The security guard punitively tried to fire at Thune, but she quickly shot her assailant dead. Another guard attempted to rush the bounty hunter, but she managed to dispatch him as well.

Thune returned her blaster to Calrissian's forehead, and drew ire from Baobab, who told her that she would not be permitted to leave Quilken. Thune retorted; since there was a price on Calrissian's head, she was well within her rights. Baobab held his ground, and the bounty hunter responded by swinging her blaster around to him. Calrissian, in an instant, produced a knife and flung it into Thune's hand, instantly disarming her. She was forced to take her knife from the Zeltron's throat—the Zeltron then rapidly restrained her, forcing her to drop her weapon, to Thune's surprise. The Baron Administrator then struck her with the butt of a blaster, rendering her unconscious. The "Zeltron" had in fact been Lobot in disguise.

Thune woke up in an interrogation room, where she was scrutinized by Calrissian and Baobab, who had been trying to find out about her through the latter's sources—and had found nothing. The Baron Administrator had been able determine that Thune was a highly professional individual, as her work exhibited a certain degree of thoroughness and polish. The bounty hunter was unimpressed, however, when Calrissian and Baobab stated that since she had gunned down the casino staff, she would likely be sent to an Imperial detention center. Thune retorted, reminding Calrissian that he had killed four of her men earlier. She divined that Calrissian and Baobab would not be turning her over to the Imperials, since they knew she had allies in their ranks, and so was curious as to what was to be done with her, and what would prevent her from merely attempting to take the bounty on Calrissian's head once again. At that moment, she had a sample of kessum injected into her bloodstream by Lobot—Baobab explained that the mineral essentially turned her into a Human tracer. If she came near any of Calrissian's or Baobab's operations ever again, she would be easily detected, and interrogators formerly in the employ of Bwahl the Hutt would hunt her down.

Realizing that she had been well and truly defeated, Thune was told that the Faceted would be returned to her, and that she would be released. She was also informed that she would be paid a tenth of Raynor's fee in roonstones for Raynor's capture. Thune was incredulous, but Calrissian pointed out that she was no use to him if she did not turn against Raynor. She distrusted the Baron Administrator, however, and wondered what would stop him from merely killing her if she successfully captured Raynor. Calrissian could offer nothing but potential gratitude for removing the threat of Raynor—although Thune refused to trust the Baron Administrator, she accepted the terms, since her efforts would not have been totally in vain.

In 2 ABY, Thune accepted a bounty on the head of smuggler Kaj Nedmak from Bwahl the Hutt—Nedmak had taken a shipment of weaponry from Bwahl and had agreed to deliver it to Tammuz-an, but had decided to sell the cargo off for his own gain. At the same time, she accepted an Imperial contract for the capture of Nedmak's female companion, Celia "Crimson" Durasha, who had conspired to liberate Alliance to Restore the Republic collaborator Detien Kaileel from Imperial custody, and had assaulted Imperial official Adion Lang. She accepted a third bounty, again from the Imperials, as well—on the head of Treytis Prash, a leading gun-runner within the Alliance. There were a multitude of Imperial bounties on Prash's head, and Thune was confident that if she successfully completed the job and collected them all, she would be able to live in luxury for the rest of her life and never work again.

Thune and her employees were able to track Nedmak and Durasha to Ord Mantell. As the smugglers' ship, the Tryan Kajme, departed the planet, Thune's employees—in three Z-95 Headhunters and a BTL Y-wing starfighter—engaged it, forcing it back down to the planet. Nedmak crash-landed his ship near the ruins of a stellar-energy station on a plateau. He and Durasha were able to clear their ship and hide inside the station, and Thune landed the Faceted nearby. Her men were able to retrieve Nedmak, who the bounty hunter had secured, but Durasha was nowhere to be seen. Thune remained in hiding in the factory while her men departed with Nedmak, and after two hours, Durasha emerged cautiously. Thune approached her, with her weapon holstered, but Durasha, apprehensive after her ordeal, drew her weapon on the bounty hunter. Thune lied to Durasha, claiming that she had been looking through the ruins, and meant her no harm. She reasoned that if she wanted to kill Durasha, she could have done so easily before revealing herself. The other woman accepted Thune's logic, and put away her weapon, claiming that she had been attacked by pirates, and that she had been flying the Tryan Kajme alone. Durasha offered Thune 200 if she would take her back to the nearest starport—the bounty hunter feigned acceptance of the terms.

Aboard the ship, Thune introduced Durasha to U-THR, before curtly dismissing the protocol droid, who was coming perilously close to revealing the bounty hunter's true nature. Durasha revealed that she believed Thune to be a scavenger—although the bounty hunter did not flatly object to the label, she instead perpetuated her ruse by suggesting that she was more of a smuggler, not unlike Durasha herself. Durasha then went on to explain her ongoing ordeal and how she had come to be on Ord Mantell. Thune informed her that bounty hunters had captured Nedmak, and that she would be able to help Durasha get him back, as long as Durasha earned her keep aboard the Faceted. Summoning U-THR, she bade him to read out the names of all known bounty hunters who were operating in the Bright Jewel Cluster. The protocol droid reeled off a series of names, but none of them had been seen near Ord Mantell recently. Durasha complained that the effort had been for naught, but Thune pointed out that they could now definitively rule out hunters such as Boba Fett, Dengar, Dyyz Nataz, and Spurch Goa.

While Durasha was occupied playing B'shingh on the ship's hologame table with U-THR, Thune determined that Treytis Prash was on Ord Simres. Returning to Durasha, she found that the smuggler had taken a liking to the droid. Again, Thune was forced to stop the protocol droid from revealing her true profession, before informing Durasha of their new destination. The bounty hunter claimed that Prash was the one who had captured Nedmak. Prash had last been seen at the CardSafe public house on Ord Simres—Thune and Durasha resolved to confront him there. After arriving on Ord Simres and making their way to the CardSafe, Thune pointed out Prash, and his two guards—one Rodian, named Beidlo, the other a Krish named Kurvis, both heavily armed. As they entered the public house proper, Thune advised Durasha that Prash's guards would need to be killed without hesitation. Contacting U-THR and instructing him to quickly bring a landspeeder to the public house, the bounty hunter quickly shot the Krish dead, while Durasha gunned down Beidlo. The smuggler then interrogated Prash, demanding to know where Nedmak was, having believed Thune's ruse implicitly.

Prash was confused by Durasha's questions, and accused her of being a bounty hunter instead—in response Thune blasted him with a stun shot, rendering him unconscious. As the two of them moved Prash out of the public house, Durasha correctly divined that Thune was indeed a bounty hunter, and Thune elected not to deny it this time. U-THR arrived in a rented OP-5 landspeeder, and together they managed to haul the body on board. As they entered the speeder and U-THR ferried them back to the Faceted, Thune pulled her blaster on Durasha, holding her at gunpoint. She revealed that Durasha had been her quarry all along, and she had Nedmak in custody. Thune then declared that after rendezvousing with her men and delivering Nedmak to Bwahl, Durasha and Prash would be delivered into the clutches of the Galactic Empire.

While U-THR prepared the Faceted for departure, Thune had Prash and Durasha restrained. The two captives began to converse, but the bounty hunter quickly warned them to refrain from speaking, as she could easily remove their limbs and still collect their bounties. When one of Thune's employees, a Gank, landed his Y-wing near the Faceted, the bounty hunter escorted Durasha to the top of her ship's entry ramp. The Gank produced the beaten and battered Nedmak to Durasha's horror. As he was being brought up the ramp into the Faceted, Nedmak was able to break free of the Gank—Thune moved her blaster away from Durasha and prepared to shoot Nedmak, but the other woman took the advantage and struck the bounty hunter. Nedmak barreled into Thune, pinning her to the deck and taking her blaster. Durasha and Nedmak swiftly severed each others bonds with the blaster, before Durasha threatened to access U-THR's memory and sell Thune out to the families of all her captured bounties.

Thune accused Durasha of hypocrisy—she had killed Beidlo earlier without mercy. She also revealed that Adion Lang had placed an additional bounty of 5,000 on Durasha's head, illustrating that idealism was hardly relevant in their line of work. Durasha, enraged, took the blaster, and prepared to execute the bounty hunter, before the revived Gank entered and shot the weapon out of the other woman's hand. Durasha responded by extracting her own blaster from Thune's tunic, swiftly killing the Gank. Livid, Nedmak hauled Thune to her feet, ready to kill the bounty hunter there and then, and only relented at Durasha's insistence. As Thune was being escorted to the cockpit, Nedmak was introduced to Prash, who decided to aid the two smugglers, after they revealed their Alliance sympathies. He suggested that they aid him in his gun-running, and deliver blaster rifles to the Alliance. As Prash prepared to take over the monitoring of Thune, the bounty hunter managed to plunge a knife into Nedmak's chest. Thune then attempted to take Prash's blaster, but Nedmak barreled into her once again, bringing all three of them to the deck.

Nedmak, keeping Thune pinned, urged Durasha to flee. Prash was also able to break free, and while he and Durasha left the ship, Thune and Nedmak desperately grappled. With Nedmak's blood spilling all over the deck, Thune was able to break free, leaving her opponent for dead, and raced to the Faceteds open ramp. Prash had been obliterated by one of Thune's Z-95s, which was circling above, but Durasha still lived, attempting to hijack the Y-wing. Thune urged her to exit the cockpit, but Durasha hurriedly sealed the hatch, and took off, destroying the Z-95 as she took to space. Thune launched the Faceted in pursuit, firing continually at Durasha's stolen Y-wing. Durasha attempted a punitive suicide run, hoping to ram the Faceteds cockpit, but Thune was successfully able to disable the Y-wing.

She instructed U-THR to prepare the airlock for docking with the stricken starfighter, but as he went to do so, he accidentally kicked a fallen blaster towards Nedmak, who had survived the earlier stabbing. Thune was subsequently shot by Nedmak and rendered unconscious. U-THR, whose empathy circuits were almost burned out by the fact that Thune had been trying to kill the only Human who had been even remotely civil to him since the death of his former master Carper, helped Nedmak, and bound Thune to her chair at the Faceteds tech station. Durasha was then recovered safely, and Thune was taken down to the Faceteds cargo hold by U-THR. It was Nedmak's intention that they drop off the bounty hunter in a place where she could no longer harm them. Furthermore, Nedmak and Durasha took the Faceted as their own, renaming it the Starlight Red, while Durasha claimed U-THR as her personal protocol droid.

When dealing with targets such as Lando Calrissian, Thune took on a particularly curt and impatient demeanor. The bounty hunter was immune to Calrissian's charm, and did not engage in pleasantries, instead preferring to simply talk business. She was not averse to the concept of killing an innocent man who was harboring her quality, a trait she was prepared to demonstrate at Club Baobab. When threatened, she would instantly leap into action, and would not hesitate to dispatch any threats to her. In spite of this, she valued her crewmen, and was displeased when they were killed in her service. When she was in a position over power over her quarry, Thune would gloat, and trivialize the situation with humor. When subdued and at the mercy of her enemies, Thune became particularly bitter and smug. She was able to quickly divine what her opponents did and did not know about her, as she made sure to regulate just what could be found out about her history.

She had the utmost confidence in her abilities, and in her younger days held a great deal of enthusiasm and idealism for the endeavors of the Galactic Empire. As she was passed over in favor of less deserving candidates for Academy enrollment, her idealism gave way to cynicism, aloofness, and bitterness. She shed all semblance of ethics, and instead became vitriolic, especially when in the company of her protocol droid, U-THR. Thune was also duplicitous, using her unassuming appearance to sway Celia Durasha into believing that she was merely a scavenger. Thune was able to manipulate Durasha into doing her bidding, by preying on her fears that her friend Kad Nedmak was in danger. She enjoyed a unblemished record for success for a while, in spite of her less ostentatious reputation among the bounty hunting community. Thune had blonde hair, and elected to wear it cropped short.

Thune attired herself in a form-fitting grey tunic and dark blue trousers. She wore her blaster low at her side, allowing her to draw it quickly should the situation demand a rapid response. Essentially, she dressed in a casual and unassuming fashion, which set her apart from more distinctive bounty hunters such as Boba Fett, Cypher Bos, and Beilert Valance, who were more instantly recognizable and infamous. Thune was also equipped with a comlink and a hunting knife.

Thune first appeared in "Crimson Bounty," co-written by Charlene Newcomb and Rich Handley, and published in Star Wars Adventure Journal 14 (1997). The character would not appear in another narrative Star Wars work until 11 years later, when Handley utilized Thune as the chief antagonist in his Hyperspace short story "Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array" (2008).

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