General Maximilian Veers

SW Character


General Veers in the cockpit of his AT-AT walker during the Battle of Hoth, preparing to destroy the Rebel Base
bgcolor=#ccc
fgcolor=#000
name=Maximilian Veers
position= Major General of the Imperial Army's Assault Armor Division
species=Human
gender=Male
height=1.93 meters (6'4")
hair=Brown
eyes=Brown
weapon=Blaster
vehicle=AT-AT
planet=Unknown
affiliation=Galactic Empire/Imperial Army
portrayer=Julian Glover

Major General Maximilian Veers is a fictional character and supporting villain in the "Star Wars" universe. He is portrayed by Julian Glover in "The Empire Strikes Back".

The Empire Strikes Back

He is introduced as the Imperial General who led the assault on Hoth. He is also the inventor of the AT-AT. A tall man, Veers is notable for being the only Imperial officer seen in the original trilogy tall enough to stand eye-to-eye with the towering Darth Vader.

Expanded Universe

In the Expanded Universe, Maximilian Veers was the son of a middle-class family. He joined the Imperial Academy and graduated in the top of his class. He was given a Lieutenant command upon graduation. One of his early tours sent him out to the Outer Rim to a barbaric world called Culroon III where he quickly learned that the Empire did not tolerate failure. During the attempt to pacify the natives of Culroon III, General Irrv had ordered Veers to remain confined to the base while he and an Imperial party went to negotiate peace. Veers had warned that it was a trap and that Irrv should bring armored support to deter any would-be ambushers. Irrv did not listen, however, and paid the price when the Culroon natives deceived and killed most of his party. Vader promptly executed him for his failure. If it had not been for Veers' quick thinking and disregard of a direct order, the Imperial party would have been utterly slaughtered. As a reward, Veers was promoted to Major.

Some time later, Veers would be appointed to commander of the Emperor's personal AT-AT legion and promoted to the rank of Colonel. He also became an instructor at the Imperial Academy on Carida. Sometime between the ranks of Lieutenant and Colonel, Veers married and had one son named Zevulon. When Zevulon was only a young boy, Veers lost his wife in an accident during a family vacation. Devastated by the death of his wife, Veers buried his grief into his military career to the point where it began to affect his relationship with his son.

That relationship would be tested further when Veers was ordered to report to the first Death Star as a ground commander and as an academic instructor. Fortunately, he had only just arrived on Yavin IV when the Battle of Yavin began, and was spared an untimely death in the battle station's destruction at the hands of the Rebel Alliance. However, an X-wing spotted his shuttle and forced him to crash land on Yavin IV. For weeks, Veers survived on emergency rations and later the local wildlife before the Imperial fleet rescued him.

After the Battle of Yavin, Veers was sent to command a troop garrison on Corellia. There he helped CorSec Inspectors Hal and Corran Horn put an end to the criminal Black Sun lieutenant, Zekka Thyne, by storming his fortress on the notion that Thyne was habouring rebel insurgents. Impressed by Veers' performance in removing Black Sun's presence near Coronet City, Grand Admiral Thrawn recommended the brilliant AT-AT commander to Darth Vader. Vader accepted the recommendation and promoted the Colonel to Major General and placed him in command of Death Squadron's ground troops.

A few months before the Battle of Hoth, Veer's Star Destroyer was ambushed by Rebel ships in the Felucia system. The Imperial ship crash-landed on Felucia, and the Rebel forces landed on-planet to exterminate the survivors of the crash. Thus the Second Battle of Felucia began. Although greatly outnumbered, The Imperial forces won the battle, partly due to the help of Boba Fett, who killed almost all the Rebel landing force after he was on the Star Destroyer collecting his pay from an Imperial bounty.

Veers' most notable success occurred at the Battle of Hoth when he was given the chance to correct a mistake caused by the incompetent Admiral Ozzel and prove to Vader that he was not chosen poorly. Veers had lived up to both his reputation and Vader's expectations by quickly deploying his armored regiment, designated Blizzard Force, into the Echo Base mountain valley and personally destroying the shield generator protecting the Rebel base. Shortly after the destruction of the shield generator; a rebel snowspeeder pilot kamikazied his craft into the cockpit of Veers's Blizzard One walker. Veers was maimed in this attack. (Note that in the original script for "The Empire Strikes Back", as well as the novelization by Donald F. Glut, Veers is actually killed during this scene, and the pilot is Luke Skywalker's wingman Hobbie, though this scene was deleted from the film and hasn't been incorporated into any of the restorations of it.)

Although the Battle of Hoth was a great victory for Veers, it was overshadowed by a report from his son's COMPNOR SAGroup (Sub-Adult Group) commander. The commander reported that Zevulon Veers had gone missing during a SAGroup mission dealing with rebel spies. However, the honored General suspected that his son had defected to the Rebellion and denounced his father. Zevulon's betrayal brought shame and dishonor to the family name, and Veers would suffer from the ignominy his son brought forth for the rest of his life.

Nearly a year later, Veers would be placed in command of the Emperor's Elite AT-AT force on the forest moon of Endor. There his forces suffered a defeat to the combined forces of the Rebel Alliance and the Ewok natives shortly after the shield generator and the surrounding base was incinerated. Veers escaped capture with several other officers and fled the battle with the remnants of the Imperial fleet. Later on he would serve as a template for Grand Admiral Thrawn's clones and move from one Imperial commander to the next in search of a new command.

Most post-Endor officers despised anyone who had served and survived Vader and, thus, wanted nothing to do with Veers. For six years, Veers would wander the Empire and would watch as everything he believed in and fought for crumbled around him. Eventually he became disillusioned with the path the Empire was following, but his sense of loyalty and honor had kept him from defecting or going AWOL.

Like many other officers searching for a new hope, General Veers answered a call for the redeployment into the Deep Core, and reported to the Imperial Fleet orbiting Byss. Six months after Thrawn's defeat at the Battle of Bilbringi, Veers would participate in the Battles of Mon Calamari, Byss and lastly Balmorra. During the Battle of Balmorra, Veers was demoted to the rank of Captain and sent on a suicide mission by Executor Sedriss — an insane and inept dark-sider.

Maximilian Veers was reported to have perished on that fateful mission.

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