Valerie

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Valerie
Level 18 Assassin
Val12.png
First appearanceDYOS 11
Last appearanceAt Plot's End
No. appearances79
Created byGruekiller
Profile
Nickname(s)Val
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
Date of birth16 April 1991
Age33
OccupationAssassin
FamilyUnknown
StarsignAries (♈)
ReligionJewish
Nationality Coruscanti
American

Valerie, or Val, is a human bounty hunter and assassin. Once charged with assassinating Gruekiller, she instead became a traveling companion of his, after her attempt to kill him was thwarted, and accompanied him on a number of adventures from DYOS 11 to At Plot's End.

Before DYOS

Valerie is of American nationality, which presumably makes her now a citizen of the Republic of Coruscant. Little is known of her early years as of yet, so how she came to be an assassin is uncertain, but she once implied that she became one "because [she had] to be".[1] In a mailbag segment, she revealed that she trained under the Assassins, and served briefly in the Israeli army.[2] Her career as a bounty hunter inevitably brought her to an American airport one day in 2010, where her destiny would become intertwined with that of her would-be mark.

DYOS 11

Halfway through DYOS 11, Valerie, seeking a 64 million dollar bounty from the Burmese government, attempted to assassinate the adventurer Gruekiller.[3] In this she failed, confounded by Gruekiller's quick reflexes, and was disarmed and knocked flat. Although he initially pondered killing his would-be assassin, Gruekiller decided instead to try and extract a life-debt from the situation, and instead forced her to work off her forgiveness as a member of his crew.[4] Her role as official "team medic", given to her by Gruekiller during this encounter, was never fulfilled in actuality. Her skills in combat would prove of more immediate use.

Fed-up from the very start.

Grudgingly, Valerie journeyed with Gruekiller and Master Shake to Ethiopia via an eventful Republic Airlines flight.[5] It was here that she first witnessed Gruekiller's use of the Archaean power armor, which caused her to view her new employer with curiosity and apprehension. Once they arrived in the Ethiopian highlands in search of an Internet-fixing artifact, she and Shake aided in the defeat of a pack of stray Space Nazis[6], and she was present during Gruekiller's brief showdown with the Hacker. Soon after, she also accompanied him into space, and ultimately, following a Transatlasian ambush, to Avalon as well.[7]

When they crash-landed on the surface of Avalon, she accompanied an injured Master Shake and Gruekiller into Camp Hope, an underground refugee settlement. On Avalon, Valerie was mostly left behind in the course of Gruekiller's antics, which caused Valerie to become annoyed with the lack of combat that she had seen lately. Soon, however, she got a chance to handily trounce a small troop of Crinoor soldiers, which seemed to placate her.[8] She saw Gruekiller off during his effort to destroy the Crinoor fleet blockading the system.

After Gruekiller was briefly killed by Bowie, she sat with him as he died, tearfully lamenting the loss of her friend, to whom she had become somewhat closer as they traveled and fought together over the previous few days (slash two years). She witnessed his regeneration with some disbelief.[9]

DYOS 12

The conversation didn't start off well.

During Gruekiller's brief coma, Valerie, distraught over Gruekiller's near-death at Bowie's hands, managed to lead the Avalonians in hitting the TSC Dauntless with an EMP, disabling it for as much as three days.[10] Once Gruekiller awoke in his new incarnation, Valerie's first greeting for him was a punch to the face.[11] Frustrated with him for nearly getting himself killed, she stormed off, and it was only after a heartfelt conversation that the two agreed to let the matter rest and try to be friends again.[12] She apprised Gruekiller of the situation since he had fallen unconscious, and was disturbed in turn when Gruekiller explained the dark past of his lost suit of power armor.[13]

Personality

Valerie is often resigned to the role of the group's lone voice of reason, stuck between the inanity of Master Shake and Gruekiller's eccentricities. Though typically sarcastic and level-headed, she is seen to have a quick temper, and tends to distance herself from others with her snark and surly attitude. Though initially mistrustful of Gruekiller and easily annoyed by his antics, she grew to view him as a rather good friend, and even seemed somewhat infatuated with his first incarnation for a brief moment. It seems probable that a heart of gold lies somewhere under her hard exterior.

Capabilities and Armament

Val on a good day.

Valerie is a skilled fighter at close range, specializing in stealth. She prefers to employ her agility and grace to close the distance and use a knife to finish the job. That being said, she is also proficient with firearms at medium and long range. When pressed by Gruekiller for her exact skill set, she listed it as: "Gunslinging, sharpshooting, hand-to-hand combat, Medieval weapons mastery, knife-fighting, and first aid."[4] Valerie has been seen to have several knives and a handgun[6] in her possession, but as a master of concealment, it is very possible that even more deadly armaments might be hidden on her person.

References