Dengar

It was much more dangerous, and there was one other rider who could rival Dengar’s ability: Han. Han had become extremely good, and Dengar was tired of always being compared to the young Corellian. In the end he challenged Han to a winner-takes-all race. The circuit was the dangerous crystal swamps of Agrilat. By this time Solo had been accepted into the Imperial military training centre on Caridia, and knew that this race could get him thrown out. Nevertheless, he accepted, unable to turn down such a great challenge.

As the two riders were so famous, the race attracted one of the biggest crowds seen in the Corellian system. Throughout the race, both racers looked equal, but on the final stretch, things went wrong. Wanting to get ahead, Han went low over the underbrush, a dangerous move that paid off when he pulled ahead. Dengar knew that to beat Solo, he would have to do one better. He took his swoop down close to the swamps, even lower than Han was at the moment. When the undergrowth cleared, he saw the finish line ahead of him. But he did not realise that his opponent was directly above him, and when Dengar pulled up, he crashed into Han's main repulsor fin. The accident left his body badly burnt and scarred. He thought his life could not get any worse, until he heard the news that, because of his race with Han, he had been kicked out of professional swoop racing. With his only avenue of moneymaking closed, Dengar's life was theoretically at an end, and Han was held to blame.

Eventually Dengar healed, but his hatred for Solo was immense. No longer able to ride swoops, he chose to use his muscle for work. He became a gladiator for a while, but then found his calling: the Empire. The Empire offered Dengar a job as an assassin. They would enhance him and help balance his mind. He was given training of the highest order, and equipped with the most deadly of weapons. Wanting Dengar to be able to perform any task, no matter how inhumane, the Empire took away his ability to have feelings. But even so, Dengar could not bring himself to kill the holy children of Asrat. This meant that he had to leave the Empire’s service, and chose the life of a freelance bounty hunter.

He was not a bounty hunter yet, but when he found out about the bounty on Han's head, he decided to give it a try. He found himself employed by Jabba, but his success at hunting was not one of the best. Out of twenty-three bounties he captured in the following decade, only six were alive, and even some of those were only just living. Dengar fit himself up with body-protecting blast armour, and some very heavy weaponry. He waited for the day when he would be able to use it on Han.

His chance came just before the Battle of Hoth. Fett gathered together several bounty hunters to capture Han. The party was made up of Fett, Bossk, Dengar, and Skorr. The hunters were successful, and captured Han aboard a ship belonging to the pirate Raskar. They received a bonus as well, as Luke and Chewbacca were also aboard the ship. But on the way to Ord Mantell, Luke used his Force powers to escape and rescue the Rebels.

A short time afterwards, Dengar was called upon by Vader. The Dark Lord was convening together some of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the galaxy. On board his Super Star Destroyer Executor, Vader gave the hunters their bounty: Han Solo. Only Fett was successful in the hunt, and tracked Solo to Bespin. There he not only received the bounty from Darth, but also the carbon-frozen body of Han to present to Jabba.

Dengar spent the next few months roaming the galaxy looking for more bounty, thinking that his chance to capture Han was finally gone. On one assignment to the planet Aruza, he met a technological empath named Manaroo, whom he rescued quite a few times. The last time he came to her aid, Manaroo had just been enslaved as one of Jabba’s dancing girls, and as a reward she used her powers to partially restore some of Dengar’s emotions. It was then that Dengar realised he was in love with the empath. He then decided to go to Tatooine to join Jabba’s party. He was around when the Rebels infiltrated the palace, but became to drunk on Zeltron spiced wine to realise that everyone had gone to witness the Rebels’ execution at the Great Pit of Carkoon. This would save his life, and shortly after he learned of the Hutt’s death.

Just after these events, Dengar set out on an expedition to recover Jabba’s body near the Sarlacc. He hoped to find an identi-chip on the body, one that would open all the secret vaults that the Hutt kept his most valued treasures in. But he instead found the body of Boba Fett, with no armour, and immense scarring on his body from the juices of the Sarlacc. Dengar helped the stricken Fett back to Jabba’s palace and, with the help of the medical droids there, helped the bounty hunter recover. During Boba’s recuperation, Dengar made several trips to Mos Eisley on some strange business that only he knew about. Once Fett was able to travel once again, the most feared bounty hunter acted as Dengar’s best man at his wedding to Manaroo. Knowing that he had commitments at home, Dengar fought the guilt and travelled with Fett to the spaceport moon of Nar Shaddaa, also known as the smuggling centre of the galaxy.

During the next six years, Han and Leia married, and made a trip to Nar Shaddaa. There Han got the shock of his life when he found Fett and Dengar waiting in his quarters. Through a hail of blaster fire, Han and Leia made it off the planet on Sala Zend's Starlight Intruder, and set course for Byss. The hunters followed, and caught the Intruder's co-ordinates as she jumped into hyperspace. By this time Fett had found his other ship, the Slave II, and the hunters managed to arrive at Byss before the Han and Leia. But just as they thought they had the two Rebels, only Han's ship was allowed access through the planet's security shields. As the Slave II made a desperate attempt to follow, the shields closed on the ship and knocked off a control rudder. The ship spun away, and as Fett tried to wrestle the ship under control, Dengar told the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy that it was the last time he would ever work with him.

At the moment Dengar's whereabouts are not known. He is still bounty hunting, there is no doubt about that, for as long as Solo is still around, Dengar will be too. But he is married, and knows that that life must come first.