Star Wars Tales is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics, beginning on September 29, 1999, and completing its run on July 13, 2005. Each issue is 64 pages and features a few unrelated stories from various eras of the Star Wars timeline.[1] Stories from issues #1–20 were retroactively labelled "Infinities", placing them outside the Star Wars canon, while those of issues #21–24 were considered to be within continuity, unless labelled otherwise. References to the stories were made within the Expanded Universe, the entirety of which was deemed non-canon by Lucasfilm in 2014.[2]
The entire series was collected into six trade paperbacks, comprising four issues each.
Han Solo and Chewbacca, flying the Jaina's Light (named after Han's mother), are stopped by the Vigilant, an Imperial ship. A Level One inspection is performed on Jaina's Light, but the Imperial Captain Deyd Llnewe and Lieutenant Raprice find nothing. This happens two more times, with the inspection being more intensive each time, Llnewe being convinced that Solo is up to something. After the third unsuccessful inspection, Han and Chewie are sent on their way, when Captain Llnewe suddenly realizes that the ships Solo was piloting were different each time; Han was not smuggling spice or some other illegal substance, but ships. Deyd orders his gunners to fire on Han, but he was long gone by then.
In the Gungan city of Otoh Gunga, Chef Marshoo catches Jar Jar Binks in the kitchen trying to scavenge leftovers. Marshoo prepares to punch Binks just as Captain Roos Tarpals comes in to arrest Binks for the very same thing. He puts the handcuffs on Binks and takes him away. Soon after, Tarpals tells Binks that everyone down at the station is calling him "The Death of Captain Tarpals." Suddenly Tarpals is ambushed by Marshoo and some of his friends, who prepare to beat down Binks as they'd planned. They throw a frying pan at Binks, but he ducks, and it goes flying into his kaadu, who retaliates with a kick to Marshoo, sending him and his cohorts into a small fountain. Binks revives Tarpals, and asks to be released after taking care of Marshoo. Roos ignores him and takes him to the surface of Naboo, where he shall live for a long time to come.
Vilmarh Grahrk has been hired by the people of Ootoola (who he fondly refers to as "fishfaces") to smuggle Princess Foolookoola off-planet; she is currently being hunted down by the purists of Ootoola, who previously killed the patriarch and his wife, seizing power of the planet. He and Naradan D'ulin, the caretaker of the princess, begin taking her to Villie's ship, when they're suddenly ambushed by a group of Ootoola purists. Villie hands the princess over, telling Naradan that the purists offered more credits than the loyalists did. Naradan and the princess are taken away and put into the purists' prison.
That night, Villie blows open the prison door and rescues them, only to get a punch in the face from Naradan. Vilmarh explains that before, with the princess running loose, everybody was looking for her, but now that they've assumed she's still locked up, nobody will be trying to find her. Naradan grabs a rifle in case she decides to shoot him, and they head out. They spot a couple of guards, and Villie casually walks up to them, steals one of their blasters, and shoots both of them. Villie, Naradan and the princess quickly escape the palace and head to Vilmarh's ship, the Inferno, where they are vocally greeted by NT. They fly off, Villie destroying the palace on his way up. They make their way to the planet Dur Sabon, where Foolookoola is to live her life among the Dur Sabon until she can return to Ootoola.
The story takes place 3 A.B.Y. Awarru Tark arrives aboard the Star Destroyer Avenger in a YT-1300 freighter, answering Darth Vader's call for bounty hunters to find the Millennium Falcon. When he meets with Vader he immediately launches a vicious assault on the Sith Lord with Grenades and light blades that extend from his arms.
As Vader reaches into Tark's mind he finds Awarru Tark is actually Stauz Czycz. Czycz underwent a surgical transformation to implant a force field generator into his body, so that he could attack Vader as revenge, having lost his own family in an Imperial assault on his homeworld.
Using telekinesis to disable the generator, Vader decapitates Czycz, leaving him to consider Czycz's status as more machine than man.
Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Tol Sivron, and Bevel Lemelisk submit their Death Star proposal to Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. The perceived flaws of the schematics are humorously discussed. The appearance of Bevel Lemelisk is different in this comic than in any other source where he is portrayed. This was an intentional choice on behalf of the comic's creator, although for unknown reasons. One should also note the presence of Ackbar, a Mon Calamari, and Grand Moff Tarkin's slave, soon to be Rebel Alliance Admiral listening in through the door.
Several references in the story allude to popular culture, including the following:
Whilst discussing the possibility of knighting Yaddle the Jedi Council revisit the story of her training under the tutelage of Polvin Kut, two-hundred years prior.
On a mission to liberate the colonies of the Advozse Warlock Tulak the duo are betrayed on Koba, leading to Kut's death. The Padawan Yaddle is taken hostage by the Warlock but is impervious to his interrogations, warning him 'Rule by terror you do, die by fear you will'.
In time Tulak tires of the colony and leaves Koba. However, he seals Yaddle in a pit with the hope that he can use her as a future bargaining tool but she is soon forgotten. She is confined for a century, surviving on food and water provided by wardens left behind when Tulak left. Over the generations, the Koba society collapses, though the primitives still tend to her, lowering food as part of a ritual they barely understand. She is spoken of as The One Below. During this time Yaddle hones her Jedi skills.
Eventually an earthquake brings down the roof of her pit, allowing her to escape. Seeing the destruction of the nearby village she remains on the planet to aid the Kobans. She dedicates herself to teaching the children, society rebuilds around her. She is quietly content with her work until the day Kalut, Tulak's son, returns to Koba claiming it as his heirloom. He casually attacks, slaying many and deciding what, if anything to take, Forced to fight, Kulat ends up speared on his own weapon and dies.
On hearing the story the Jedi Council, in particular Yoda, are swayed to initiate her as a Jedi Master.
An encounter on the frozen ice fields.
A series of devastating pirate raids are costing the Rebellion dozens of lost lives, tons of equipment and ships and their credibility in the eyes of other forces. Lando is tasked to lead a mission to destroy the pirates. Among his people, the man who taught the pirates everything they know!