Iden Versio – ‘Star Wars’ Character Spotlight

This week’s Star Wars Character Spotlight shines on Iden Versio, an Imperial special forces commando who commanded Inferno Squad during the reign of the Empire, before eventually defecting to the New Republic. Performed by actress Janina Gavankar, Versio was created especially for the 2017 video game Battlefront II’s story campaign, though she has appeared in other mediums since then. 

 

Serving the Empire

 

 

Iden Versio was a firm believer in the Empire, as the daughter of ISB Admiral Garrick Versio and an Imperial propaganda designer. She was raised on the planet Vardos and trained to become a soldier for the Empire. Versio ascended the ranks quickly and ended up serving on the Death Star, which meant she was present on the battle station throughout the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. 

 

In the Battlefront II tie-in novel Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, we learn that she was on the Death Star when it struck Jedha City and Scarif’s Imperial base during the events of Rogue One.

 

She also took part in the Battle of Yavin, piloting a TIE fighter to protect the Death Star from any rebel fighters. She questioned the decision to send them outside in the first place, believing there was no way the rebels could hurt the battle station, but was warned not to go against Darth Vader’s orders. 

 

Those orders saved her life. While she shot down a few X-Wings, she was unable to stop Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star but survived the station’s destruction. Her ship was hit by debris and she crash landed on Yavin IV, but she was able to steal a Rebel ship and escape while her enemies celebrated. 

 

Inferno Squad

 

 

Iden’s father Garrick created Inferno Squad as a direct response to the destruction of the Death Star. It was to be an elite special forces commando unit of four people: his daughter Iden along with Gideon Hask, Del Meeko and Seyn Marana. 

 

They were sent on various missions over the next few years, such as exposing a Moff for espionage, retrieving data from an Imperial informant who worked with Saw Gerrera’s Partisans, eliminating the Dreamers – a rebel group that had risen from the ashes of the Partisans – and killing the blackmailers of another Moff. 

 

Iden Versio and Inferno Squad were next seen in the run of comics set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In the first issue of the Hidden Empire crossover comic, Crimson Dawn resurfaced as a major player in the galactic underworld. Inferno Squad were tasked with rooting out Crimson Dawn agents within the Empire as part of the Empire’s response to the new threat. The comic shows them eliminating at least two Imperials suspected of collaboration with Crimson Dawn. 

 

Inferno Squad also show up in the Bounty Hunters comic series, when they were tasked with killing bounty hunter Beilert Valance, whose cyborg mind unwittingly contained the plans for the second Death Star. They managed to track down the bounty hunter and succeeded in wiping all knowledge of the battle station from his mind, taking his humanity in the process. 

 

By this point, Iden had established herself as the de-facto leader of Inferno Squad. 

 

Battle of Endor

 

 

From this point on, all of Iden Versio’s story is told in the Battlefront II video game. Shortly before the Battle of Endor, she allowed herself to be captured by the Rebel Alliance in order to delete records of intercepted Imperial transmissions held in the rebel ship Invincible Faith’s databanks. 

 

She shortly escaped captivity and deleted the transmissions before returning to Imperial forces. This ensured that the Rebel Alliance remained unaware of Imperial Fleet activity when the battle began. 

 

She then led Inferno Squad on the ground during the Battle of Endor and witnessed the destruction of the second Death Star. Iden led her team and several squads of stormtroopers off planet and back to her ship Corvus. They escaped the battle to rendezvous with the rest of the Imperial Fleet as the Empire reeled from the death of its emperor. 

 

Operation: Cinder

 

 

Iden’s father ordered Inferno Squad to extract a target from her homeworld of Vardos before Operation: Cinder began. Iden and her crew were unaware of the full plan for Operation: Cinder and only understood that rescuing their target was a small part of the plan. 

 

During the mission, they learned that Operation: Cinder intended to destroy the Imperial facilities on Vardos, killing millions of people. Iden was furious and couldn’t understand why the Empire would willingly order the execution of so many loyal citizens. 

 

As the mission went on, Iden couldn’t take it anymore and decided to disobey orders by offering to evacuate some citizens with the Corvus. Del Meeko agreed with the decision, but fellow Inferno Squad member Hask drew his weapon on them. Hask revealed that Iden’s father Garrick had given him orders to kill anyone who might defect during the mission. Iden quickly shot him in the leg and ran away with Del, reaching the Corvus and escaping after fighting their way through scores of stormtroopers. 

 

As soon as they left the system, Iden and Del contacted the Rebellion and surrendered, offering their services to the Alliance. After a conversation with Lando Calrissian and a Duros named Shriv, their offer was accepted. 

 

Soldiers of the New Republic

 

 

Iden and Del were put to work quickly. The nascent New Republic had learned that the Empire intended to enact Operation: Cinder on the planet Naboo, and Iden was part of the New Republic forces that destroyed the weather satellites above the planet that would have caused widespread destruction on the planet’s surface. 

 

Once that was dealt with, Iden and Del traveled to the city of Theed to help Leia Organa protect the city from Imperial forces. Once the Imperials were repelled, Leia officially welcomed them into the New Republic. 

 

Six months later, Leia contacted Iden again and tasked her with finding General Han Solo, who had gone missing on Takodana. She arrived on the planet and helped Han and Chewbacca defend themselves from Imperial forces while they prepared to liberate the Wookiees from the Empire on Kashyyyk.

 

Some time later, Iden reported to Leia that she believed they could take down her father Garrick and his Imperial forces. She revealed that Garrick had been using Chinook Station on Bespin to refuel his fleet for months and Leia sanctioned an operation where Iden and Del would infiltrate the Imperial operation there as stormtroopers. 

 

 

They arrived on the station and blended in smoothly, until they reached what they believed would be Garrick’s location. No one was there, only a message from their old comrade Hask, who was overseeing the refuelling operation and had left a message for them. While he gloated, they realized they had walked into a trap. They fought their way back to their X-wings and managed to destroy the refuelling station as they escaped. 

 

Finally, Iden Versio fought for the New Republic at the Battle of Jakku. She was active all over the battle, rescuing the crew of a downed Corellian Corvette, ordering an orbital strike on Imperials, blowing up the hangar bay on a Star Destroyer, and defeating Hask in a dogfight. 

 

Iden boarded her father’s Star Destroyer Eviscerator, which had been irreparably damaged and was falling to Jakku’s surface. Despite everything her father had done, she still loved him and fought her way to the bridge to try and rescue him. When she reached him, she was dismayed to learn that he would rather go down with the ship but got some closure, as Garrick realized that Iden had spotted the flaws in the Empire a long time ago, and wished for her to live a better life away from the Empire. 

 

Iden used an escape pod just before the Eviscerator crashed on the surface, killing her father. 

 

Fighting the First Order

 

 

The remainder of Iden’s story is told in the story expansion for Battlefront II. Iden retired from war and married Del Meeko. They had a daughter named Zay and lived a peaceful life for nearly 30 years. It was just before the events of The Force Awakens that Del – now a Resistance soldier – went missing and Iden went off in search of him. 

 

In reality, Del had been captured by Kylo Ren, who had learnt that Del knew the location of Lor San Tekka in his efforts to find Luke Skywalker. Kylo tortured Del for the information, and ordered Hask – now a First Order officer – to take care of him. Hask killed Del and left a trail for Iden to find, hoping to lure her into a trap on Vardos. 

 

Iden and her daughter Zay took the bait, which had been carefully staged on her old ship the Corvus, and headed to Vardos to rescue her husband. On the ground, they explored the scarred ruins of the planet to find Del. 

 

They made their way to Del’s location only to be ambushed by Hask, who revelled in telling her that he had already killed her husband, having waited 30 years to get his revenge. Iden had earlier noticed a flash of red in the sky, and realized that was Starkiller Base destroying Hosnian Prime and the centre of the New Republic.

 

Strangely, Hask then left and ordered his stormtroopers to execute Iden and Zay. When some fighting broke out between the First Order forces and another faction, the three of them escaped and hatched a plan to board Hask’s Star Destroyer and transmit any information located there to the Resistance. 

 

They boarded Hask’s Star Destroyer using stolen TIE Fighters, though they were discovered and were forced to blow a hole in the exhaust port in order to enter. The ship went into hyperspace and they found schematics for a First Order dreadnought. With the ship in hyperspace, they were unable to contact the Resistance so they opted to plant charges around the hyperdrive core.

 

Death

 

 

Right before they set the final charge, Hask appeared and grabbed Zay, holding her at gunpoint. Following a tense exchange, Zay escaped and a hectic gunfight followed. Iden shot Hask dead but took a blaster bolt in the abdomen herself. 

 

Iden and Zay made it a short way through the ship before the mother doubled down in pain, realizing that her wound was fatal. Zay was distraught but Iden told her there was no time, urging her to leave with the dreadnought plans and get them to the Resistance. She told Zay that she loved her and passed away. 

 

Zay escaped the ship and sent General Leia the dreadnought schematics just as Starkiller Base was destroyed. Zay went on to use her mother’s contacts to recruit more soldiers to the Resistance cause after the Battle of Crait.

 

Iden Versio lived a long, heroic life and proved that even the staunchest of Imperials can be redeemed if they wish to be. 

 

What next?

 

There’s plenty of scope for Iden Versio to return in stories set either during the Reign of the Empire exploring her time with Inferno Squad, or stories set in the New Republic era. The next run of Star Wars comics are about to cover that latter period, so I’d expect her to return sooner rather than later.