Daric LaRone

Daric LaRone was a human male instructor within the 501st Legion of the Empire of the Hand born on the planet Copperline. While serving on the Reprisal, LaRone became unsatisfied as a stormtrooper to the Galactic Empire after being ordered to massacre civilians on Teardrop. Confronted by Imperial Security Bureau Major Drelfin over his tacit refusal to kill the civilians, he was forced to murder Drelfin in self-defense. He and fellow stormtroopers Korlo Brightwater, Taxtro Grave, Saberan Marcross, and Joak Quiller took an ISB-modified Suwantek TL-1800, the Gillia, and fled, intending to go the Outer Rim Territories.

However, still feeling compelled by their duty to the Empire citizens, LaRone led the group in a number of vigilante actions on Drunost and Janusar, with LaRone christening them the Hand of Judgment. Later, he and his four comrades met up with Rebel Alliance heroes Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca and they managed to work out a mutual working relationship between the rebels and ex-troopers. LaRone and the group ended up on Shelkonwa, where they helped Mara Jade eliminate treasonous Governor Barshnis Choard. After learning the identity of him and his men, Jade let them go and the five stormtroopers made their way across the galaxy intent on aiding other Imperial citizens.

LaRone and his ex-stormtrooper companions continued their vigilante actions, eliminating small-time warlords and forcing the resignation of a small-time administrator. Their actions were monitored by Jade, who decided to enlist their assistance in infiltrating the palace of Governor Bidor Ferrouz, who was suspected of treason, on Poln Major. With little other choice but to lend their aid, LaRone and his men helped Jade breach the palace security, only to encounter Luke Skywalker again shortly afterward. Skywalker became embroiled in a plot by a local warlord, Nuso Esva, to seize control of the system after pitting the Rebel Alliance and Empire against each other, and LaRone and his stormtroopers helped rescue him. When Jade caught wind of the plot, she rescued Ferrouz and Rebel ambassador named Vestin Axlon and gave them a temporary reprieve while they deal with Esva. She entrusted the two to LaRone and his men and they hunkered down in an abandoned tapcafe to hold off attacks from Esva's people, several of whom had already infiltrated Ferrouz's palace staff.

However, Axlon proved traitorous and, though LaRone and some local Troukree allies they had acquired were able to deal with him, they soon faced waves of attackers in the employ of Esva. LaRone and his men put up a valiant defense, fending off the onslaught. After the attackers were defeated and Esva's forces in orbit defeated by a newly-arrived Imperial fleet, LaRone and his companions were taken by the Troukree to meet their employer. That individual turned out to be Senior Captain Thrawn, who recruited them to train an indigenous force of stormtroopers from worlds sympathetic in the Unknown Regions and went on to serve in the Empire of the Hand located in Wild Space.

Text and facts from the “Daric LaRone” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.