Saun Dann

"You're off the case, Dann! That confession is no good because you beat it out of him! The DA's breathin' down my neck on this one, so keep your nose clean and stay off this case!" "I ain't promising nothing, Chief."

- Police Chief Vodd and Saun Dann

Saun Dann was a good cop who was driven to become a vigilante by a series of horrific events set in motion by the criminal underworld and his own corrupt police force. Later in life he became a friend of the Rebel Alliance and the lover of Malla, Chewbacca's wife.

Dann if you do
A dedicated, hopeful man with a desire to see justice done, Saun Dann joined the Coruscant Police Force in the early days, before the Clone Wars, and quickly rose to the rank of Lieutenant. However, the life of a law enforcement officer on the mean streets soon took its toll on the bright-eyed Dann and turned him hard and cynical. He acquired a reputation for taking the most dangerous assignments, going up against the toughest criminals of the underworld, and racking up a phenomenal body count. The exasperated police chief and mayor were repeatedly embarrassed by Lieutenant Saun Dann's violent tactics, but they were unable to fire him because he got results. They hired Detective Berrez, a policeman in good standing and with only a few years left till retirement, to investigate the rogue cop and provide them with an airtight case to put Dann behind bars.

Events took a dark turn when Dann returned home one day to find his wife and daughter brutally raped and murdered at the hands of a Black Sun gang sent by Vigo Cardoza. Driven past his breaking point, Dann went rogue, hunting down the thugs one by one, earning enemies from both sides of the law. He became a fugitive from justice, hunted by the police and the crime syndicates. Fleeing from police after gunning down the Rodian who had raped his daughter, Dann barged into the apartment of a pretty, lonely Wookiee girl named Woowee. At first Woowee was terrified by Dann, but as time passed she grew to empathize with his plight and even came to love him. She agreed to smuggle him to the spaceport and get him off Coruscant so that he could continue his hunt for Vigo Cardoza, on the condition that, should he survive, the two of them would meet on Kashyyyk afterwards and be married.

Saun Dann fled Coruscant on the luxury liner Cobra, but to his surprise, he found himself booked on the seat directly next to the cyborg punk who had raped and murdered his wife. The punk did not recognize him... so Dann planned his moment, waited for the man to use the fresher, then shot his balls off and left him a bloody mess, with the 'in use' sign still lit on the door. The Cobra arrived without incident at Ord Mantell, where Vigo Cardoza maintained his crime fortress, patrolled by hundreds of armed guards. Dann rented a cheap hotel room and planned his one-man assault, but meanwhile, Detective Berrez discovered the cyborg's body and alerted local authorities, who began a planetwide manhunt on Ord Mantell to track down Saun Dann and bring him to justice, dead or alive.

Hooking up with a previous contact in the black market, Dann purchased a small arsenal of blasters, rocket launchers, thermal detonators, and vibroblades, painted his body in camouflage and infrared masker paint, then set out to take... down... Cardoza. Outside the fortress, he encountered a group of the Vigo's men, but stayed hidden in the grass. While the guards were distracted making a deal with a spice merchant, Dann opened fire, but was spotted by a sniper on the fortress roof. But before the sniper could kill him, Dann was saved at the last minute by Detective Berrez, who had been hiding in a tree. The two policemen then took down the guards in a vicious firefight... but just when they thought they had won, an Aqualish thug, who they had assumed was dead, fired a stray shot that took Berrez in the stomach. Dann blasted the Aqualish to oblivion, but it was too late. Berrez collapsed in a heap. As he died, he confessed to Dann that he had been assigned to discredit him, to stop his vigilante ways, and to see him in jail forever... but in the end, it was either him or the thugs, and he simply couldn't let the thugs win. "Promise me one thing, Dann. Get Cardoza. Take that motherfucker down. You hear me?"

Determined to see Cardoza destroyed once and for all, Saun Dann packed the guards' landspeeder with explosives, then drove it straight at the fortress wall. He leapt from the speeder at the last second, sending the speeder hurtling at the solid duracrete wall and blasting a giant hole in the side. Guards poured out, blasting, but Dann took them all with a giant E-web turbolaser perched on his shoulder. Hundreds of guards fell, some making loud Wilhelm screams as they tumbled from the roof. Finally, Cardoza himself emerged from the rubble, wearing a gigantic armored droid suit with two huge turbolaser cannons mounted on its arms. Saun Dann dove for cover as blaster bolts rained down all around him, returning fire as he could, but suddenly he found all his energy cells had been drained. Left with nothing more than a vibroblade, he turned to face his foe. Cardoza's mech-suit punched at him, its fist rocking the ground... and Dann stabbed down with his vibroblade, piercing the wrist joint and shorting out the entire right arm. Cardzoa immediately opened fire with his left turbolaser, but Dann was clinging to the mech's right arm as it flailed. He climbed up to the suit's head, where Cardoza was frantically working the controls... and finally, Dann thrust the blade through the cockpit and through Cardoza's belly.

Exhausted, Saun Dann collapsed beside his fallen foe... and gradually he came to realize he was surrounded by Ord Mantell police. Prepared to meet his fate, Dann offered his hands for the stun cuffs... but the police refused. "We never saw you. We never saw anything," said the chief. "Cardoza got what was coming to him. You... you just be on your way. Quickly now, before I change my mind." Dann nodded, fled to the spaceport, and relocated to Kashyyyk, to be reunited with Woowee. They were married in a small and simple ceremony with few witnesses. Dann lifted her veil, brushed the hair away from her eyes, and they kissed, hopefully to live happily ever after.

Dann if you don't
Saun Dann set up business on Kashyyyk as a merchant, dabbling now and again in smuggled goods and security equipment. He and Woowee were happy together, but the couple was not destined for a peaceful life. Political tensions were rising, and the Galactic Republic had fallen, to be replaced with a new Galactic Empire. Dann did his best to go along with the changes and keep on the good side of authorities, but things took a nasty turn when his old supervisor from Coruscant, Chief Vodd, turned up as the Moff in charge of overseeing Kashyyyk. Moff Vodd eventually recognized Dann and his handiwork and began blackmailing him, a "protection fee" against any repercussions with the Empire should his identity be discovered. Helpless and terrified, Saun Dann complied. A year went by with him living at Vodd's mercy.

Finally, Moff Vodd made an additional demand of Dann: he was to assassinate a Senator who was visiting Kashyyyk on an inspection tour. Dann refused. He was a good cop, not a cheap assassin. Vodd threatened him with exposure, but Dann held fast. Finally, Vodd seemed to back down. "Have it your way, Saun Dann," he said, darkly. The merchant fled, determined to contact the Rebel Alliance and join the resistance on Kashyyyk... but when he returned home, he found Woowee missing. His comlink screen lit up, revealing Moff Vodd in an interrogation room with Woowee tied up and growling. "No one refuses me, Mr. Dann," he taunted. "If you ever want to see your pretty Wookiee wife again, you'll do as I asked." Dann shared a loving glance with Woowee over the comlink, then his eyes hardened and he answered Vodd with a fierce determination. "All I wanted was to live in peace. To be left alone. I would have let you live, Vodd... but you had to make things personal." He cut the transmission.

Left with few options, Dann sought out a local group of Rebel smugglers and explained his situation, begging them for help. One of the Rebels, a wisecracking computer genius named Jink, helped him slice into the HoloNet, looking for anything they could dig up on Moff Vodd, his history, contacts, and security systems. What Jink discovered next, Saun Dann was utterly unprepared for. Back on the Coruscant Police Force, then Chief Vodd was knee deep in corruption, on the payroll of the Black Sun and the Hutt cartels... and the vicious assault on Saun Dann's wife and daughter had actually been orchestrated by Vodd as part of a scheme to take out all troublesome, independent elements on the force. Saun Dann had been the target, but the hired thugs attacked when he was away. It had been Vodd's doing all along!

Enraged, Saun Dann stormed into the Rebels' war room and shouted, "That's it! I'm taking Vodd down. I'm doing it now! He killed my wife! He killed my daughter! And when I'd finally rebuilt my shattered life, he blackmailed me and kidnapped my sexy new Wookiee wife too! You Rebels can help me, or you can sit here on your sorry asses, but I'm gonna kill him! NOW WHO'S WITH ME?!" The Rebels responded with a mighty cheer, and a few of the younger recruits gave him a strong, respectful salute. They armed themselves from head to toe with armor, blades, and blasters and began a coordinated strike on Vodd's Imperial headquarters, one team sneaking in through the sewers, another rappelling down from the roof. Saun Dann bypassed the outer doors using his XP-21 all-purpose calculating, modulating groomer, gunned down a roomful of guards and security droids, and barged into Vodd's private chamber.

Vodd had clearly been waiting for him. He stood with a blaster pistol in hand, pointed directly at the head of Woowee, who was still tied up and also horribly bruised, having endured multiple beatings at the hands of Vodd's interrogators. "That's far enough, Saun Dann. One more move, and she dies. You know, we are not so different, you and I. We both want to protect our loved ones, we both want to see law and order prevail, and we're both willing to kill to do it." They stared at each other for long minutes, until finally, Dann slowly bent down and laid his blaster on the ground. "Kick it away," ordered Vodd. "And take the microblaster out of your boot, the one you always carry in case of a situation exactly like this one. You see, Dann, I know you too well." Dann grimaced, but complied. Gritting his teeth, hate blazing in his eyes, he looked at his nemesis, the man who had destroyed his life, and warned, "This is your last chance, Vodd. Let. Her. Go." Vodd laughed. "Oh, Mr. Dann. You are amusing. Did you really think&mdash;" At that moment, Jink called out from the hallway, "Dann!" Momentarily distracted, Vodd twitched his gun in the direction of the doorway. Woowee, sensing an opening, growled and rocked violently to the side, pushing Vodd's arm over a few inches. Dann dove at Vodd, grabbing the blaster by the barrel... the two struggled, exchanging forearm punches. The blaster discharged, frying the electronics around the walls, but Dann flung it out of his hand. Temporarily gaining the upper hand, Vodd booted Dann in the stomach and left him laying, coughing, giving Vodd enough time to open an escape hatch.

Jink and the other Rebels stormed into the room. "We'll track him down. You take care of your wife!" But Dann, still in a rage, told them, "No. Not this time. Vodd is mine. Untie Woowee, tell her to wait for me." He took four of the Rebels with him and chased after Vodd, down a long tunnel and onto a hidden airspeeder-pad on the roof. Vodd ambushed them as they arrived, gunning down the four Rebels, but Dann combat-rolled behind a crate and returned fire from a position of cover. "You should have accepted my offer, Saun Dann!" shouted Vodd. "You killed my wife! My family!" shouted Dann. "So. You finally found out, did you? Yes, I'm corrupt. Yes, I've had innocent people killed. But that Senator I wanted you to kill – my crimes and corruption are nothing compared to his. He's killed far more wives and daughters than I ever could. We could join forces, Dann! You're too smart for this vigilante life! You're too good a cop! Don't throw it all away!" But while Vodd was speaking, Saun Dann had tied a thermal detonator and attached it to the quarrel of a Wookiee bowcaster. Ducking out from cover for a split second, Dann fired straight at Vodd... Vodd attempted to return fire, but he was too late. The detonator hit him square in the chest and exploded... his body parts splattered in every direction, drenching his airspeeder and the walls.

As the other Rebels rushed in to survey the damage, Saun Dann pulled out a cigarra, lit it, and said, "Null and Vodd." Woowee appeared at the doorway and rushed into his arms, and the two kissed passionately. The other Rebels were disgusted, but tried their best to hide it.

Later life
Oh, and later on Saun Dann appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special. By then he was an amiable, aging Rebel living peacefully on Kashyyyk. He and Woowee had separated, having grown apart over the years... but in the meantime, he had grown exceptionally fond of Malla, a Wookiee woman who also just happened to be the wife of Chewbacca. However, Chewbacca never spent much time on Kashyyyk, and so Malla and Saun Dann carried on a torrid love affair in his absence. Lumpawaroo affectionately referred to Saun Dann as "Uncle Dann."