Stenos

Stenos is a fictional planet featured in the continuity of the Star Wars franchise. It is considered part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and was first featured in flashback in issue #70 of the Star Wars comic book series by Marvel Comics in a story called "The Stenax Shuffle".

History
Stenos was a hot and arid planet in the Stenos system in the Spajda sector of the Gordian Reach in the Outer Rim territories. The natives inhabitants of the planet are the Stenaxes, a race of winged alien warriors who worship an ancient god known as Vol. They believed that Vol existed as an avatar, personified in an idol sculpted in his likeness. Thousands of years ago, Stenos suffered great geological upheaval following a series of groundquakes and the statue of Vol was lost. The Stenaxes were spiritually crushed by the absence of their god and it became taboo for any Stenax to take to the skies until their god was recovered.

During the Galactic Civil War, Stenos was a base of operations for the Alliance to Restore the Republic under the command of Colonel Pejanes Kindar. In the months following the Alliance's victory at Yavin, Colonel Kindar lost contact with the outpost on Stenos and sent several Alliance agents to the planet to investigate. The group consisted of Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. When they arrived, they discovered that the Galactic Empire set up an Imperial outpost on Stenos governed by former Republic Senator Quorl Matrin.

Avoiding Imperial detection, the heroes went to an old temple on a butte that the Rebels had been using for their base. They found the place abandoned with no evidence of violence or a hastily made evacuation. What they did find were three fortune hunters from Solo's past, Rik Duel, Dani and the Rodian Chihdo. Duel claimed that his group had joined the Alliance and were now working under Colonel Kindar. He told them that they were searching for the missing idol of Vol and revealed that if they were to return the idol to the Stenaxes, they might be willing to become allies of the Alliance. Han and Leia were incredulous of Rik's apparent sense of duty, but they spent the next two days excavating the areas surrounding the temple in search of the idol. It was actually Luke Skywalker who discovered it, but as soon it was found. Rik, Dani and Chihdo turned on them. Rik took the idol for himself while Chihdo reported the Alliance heroes to the Imperials. As a squad of Stormtroopers raided the temple, Rick, Dani and Chihdo used the cover of fire to mask their escape.

Rik and his crew were not really members of the Rebel Alliance, but were in fact working for Governor Matrin who wanted the idol for his personal collection. Once the Stenaxes learned that their god had returned, the restriction against flying was lifted and they attacked the Imperial Stormtroopers, allowing Luke and the others to gain a victory over them.

Rik Duel went to deliver the idol to Matrin, but Matrin overheard Rik planning on double-crossing him. Holding him off at blaster-point, he swiped the idol from his hands. This earned the attention of another phalanx of Stenaxes who swooped down out of the sky and attacked Governor Matrin. His final fate remains unclear, but he was likely killed by the Stenaxes.

Three years later, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and their newest ally, Lando Calrissian, returned to Stenos in the hopes of enlisting the aid of the Stenaxes as part of their ongoing search for Han Solo, who had been captured by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. It was their belief that Fett may have double-crossed one of his fellow bounty hunters, Bossk, who had been reportedly seen on Stenos.

Notes & Trivia

 * The planet Stenos was created by writer Mary Jo Duffy and illustrators Kerry Gammill and Tom Palmer based on concepts originally developed by George Lucas.


 * Additional material relating to the planet Stenos was provided in the first issue of Star Wars Gamer by Wizards of the Coast.


 * The exact chronological placement of the Rebel Alliance's first adventure on Stenos is difficult to determine, but it had to have taken place in 0 ABY following the events of issues #7-9 of the Star Wars comic book series by Marvel Comics and the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster.


 * Lando Calrissian once erroneously referred to the name of the planet as Stenax. The Stenaxes are actually the native species of Stenos, not the name of the planet itself.