Berch Teller

During the Clone Wars, Berch Teller served the Galactic Republic as a Republic Intelligence station chief with the rank of captain. He was one of the officers that debriefed Captain Wilhuff Tarkin after his escape from the Citadel with the coordinates to the Nexus Route. Under the oversight of Dodd Rancit and in association with Knotts, a subcontractor from Lantillies, he worked with loyalist beings on worlds that had joined or were occupied by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, training them to serve as resistance fighters for the Republic. In the war's final year, he was assigned to the Gotal moon of Antar 4, organizing the Gotal and Koorivar partisans into well-armed resistance groups.

At the end of the war, he expected the Galactic Empire to spare them from punishment due to their work for the Republic during the conflict, and appealed to his superiors in the Imperial Intelligence community to provide documentation and transport for their extraction. However, COMPNOR refused to cooperate, allowing forces under the command of now-Moff Tarkin to kill many of the fighters on Antar 4 along with former Separatists, which became known as the Antar Atrocity. This event angered Teller and shortly after being assigned to Desolation Station, which focused on research for the top-secret Death Star project, he deserted the Empire.

With this disappearance, he created his own resistance cell to fight against it, while intending to inspire the creation of other rebel groups throughout the galaxy. Teller's rebel cell consisted of individuals from several species including humans, Gotals, Koorivar, and at least one Mon Calamari. Several of his followers were the Gotal Salikk, the Mon Calamari Dr. Artoz, the Koorivar ops specialist Cala, the human journalist Anora Fair, and the Zygerrian Hask Taff.

Teller's rebel cell was aided by Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit, the Director of the Naval Intelligence Agency and a rival of Moff Tarkin. Using his position as Director of Naval Intelligence, Rancit diverted funds from the agency's black budget to supply Teller's cell with proscribed armaments, confiscated Separatist war materiel, and communications jammers. Knowing that Teller and Knotts were former Republic Intelligence operatives, he also facilitated their access to Imperial depots and armories. Teller was also assisted by several disaffected technicians and scientists including Dr. Artoz.

Teller kept the identity of his contact Rancit secret from his most trusted followers including Anora, Artoz, Cala, and Hask. With the help of the Tenloss and Crymorah Syndicates, Teller also assembled a small fleet included a heavily modified Providence-class Dreadnought which served as his flagship, an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, several Z-95 Headhunters and Tikiar starfighters, and a large number of vulture droids and droid tri-fighters.

In 14 BBY, Teller and his followers embarked on a campaign against Moff Tarkin for his role in the Antar Atrocity. By then, Tarkin was a rising star in the Imperial hierarchy who was privy to the Emperor Palpatine's top-secret Death Star project. Teller's forces tried to attack Tarkin's headquarters on Sentinel Base by creating a fake holo-transmission claiming that the nearby Rampart Station was under attack.

Teller then attacked Sentinel Base with his Providence-class Dreadnought and several Vulture droids and droid tri-fighters. However, Tarkin had seen through the ruse and ambushed the intruders with his Venator-class Star Destroyer Electrum. While Teller's warship was able to retreat, the Empire managed to capture several of Teller's droid starfighters.

When Tarkin and Darth Vader visited Murkhana on a mission to investigate a communications cache, Teller and his followers hijacked Tarkin's vessel, the Carrion Spike. Teller wanted to use the Carrion Spike, a symbol of Tarkin's power, against the Imperial Moff. Their plan was to raid Imperial targets across the galaxy and broadcast holovids of their raids on the HoloNet, mimicking the Separatist Shadowfeed propaganda broadcasts during the Clone Wars. In connivance with Teller, Vice-Admiral Rancit had planted and leaked information about the Murkhana communications cache to the Imperial authorities for the purpose of drawing Tarkin and Vader there.

Since the Carrion Spike relied on special fuel cells, Knotts arranged for the Crymorah Syndicate to supply the technology to their local affiliate Faazah, a Sugi crime lord. After luring most of the Carrion Spikes stormtrooper sentries away using a fake transmission, Teller and his fellow insurgents stormed the Carrion Spike and killed the ship's captain and comms officer along with two stormtroopers before taking off.

While departing Murkhana, Teller met with his followers in the Carrion Spikes cockpit about their Imperial foes and their stolen ship. Before they could exit the edge of the Murkhana system, Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader caught up in Faazah's requisitioned starship Parsec Predator. Under Teller's command, the Carrion Spike jumped to the Fial system. However, Lord Vader was able to track down the rebels using his meditation chamber and a Paralight system concealed within the ship's hyperdrive.

Upon detecting the Parsec Predator, Teller suspected that there was a tracking device hidden aboard the Carrion Spike. Hask suggested that the tracking device was located on the hull or concealed in a landing strut. Unable to do a full EVA search, Teller told his followers to hang on before telling Salikk to do a hyperspace jump. The insurgents resurfaced in the Fial system only to find the Parsec Predator in hot pursuit. Realizing that Vader was still able to track them, Teller told Salikk to do a hyperspace jump to Galidraan.

Using the Carrion Spikes stealth technology and weapons systems, Teller and his followers attacked the Imperial Galidraan Station in the Galidraan system, causing extensive damage to the station's outer ring. Since the Carrion Spike was cloaked, the station's particle-beam weapons emplacements were unable to hit the stealth ship. Galidraan Station then dispatched several ARC-170 and V-wing starfighters, which attempted to force the enemy ship to reveal its location by flying directly at the source of the energy bolts targeting the station. This desperate tactic caused the lives of numerous Imperial pilots.

Using the meditation sphere, Darth Vader and Tarkin were able to track down the Carrion Spike. Though they managed to close in on the stolen corvette using Vader's Force powers, Teller was able to disable the Imperials' ship Parsec Predator with the Carrion Spikes pintle guns. Despite knocking out their pursuers' ship, the Carrion Spike sustained significant damage to its systems during the skirmish including the short circuiting of its escape pods' airlock controls, a cargo hold fire, and damage to the hyperdrive generator.

With Galidraan Station launching another squadron of starfighters, Teller tasked Salikk with preparing them for sublight travel while he headed down to the first cargo hold. There, he met Artoz who speculated that Darth Vader was using his black mediation sphere to track them down. After learning from Cala that the hyperdrive generator was ready to go, Teller told Salikk to navigate their jump point and to destroy Galidraan's hyperspace buoy on their way out to cover their trail. Working with Artoz, Teller managed to jettison the Darth Vader's meditation sphere. Before departing the Galidraan system, the Imperials destroyed the hyperspace buoy, preventing Tarkin and Vader from tracking them down.

Following the attack on Galidraan, Teller and his followers raided the TaggeCo mining facilities on Lucazec. The insurgents used an altered transponder signal and the Carrion Spikes stealth systems to sneak up on mining facility. During the raid, Teller and his insurgent inflicted substantial damage on the city-sized orbital processing plant and downed several V-wing starfighters and ore haulers. The insurgents also broadcast holovids of their raid on the HoloNet, attracting the attention of the Emperor, the Imperial Ruling Council, Moff Tarkin, and Lord Vader.

With the Carrion Spike running low on fuel, the insurgents then traveled to a remote system with a lifeless volcanic world. Having been warned by Vice-Admiral Rancit to avoid Gromas in the Perkell sector, Teller and his followers decided to travel to the planet Phindar in the Mandalore sector to refuel their stolen ship; which had special fuel requirements. For the refueling trip, Teller posed as the Imperial Commander Abel LaSal and dressed in an Imperial officer's uniform. Using his disguise and a stolen Imperial code cylinder, Teller managed to convince the staff of the Phindar tanker facility to refuel the Carrion Spike.

However, the Phindian Administrator became suspicious of his customers and alerted Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader. One of Tarkin's specialists aboard the Imperial escort carrier Goliath realized that the real Commander Abel LaSal was stationed aboard the Star Destroyer Sovereign above Fondor. Meanwhile, Teller suspected something was afoot due to the smooth nature of the refueling operation and ordered Anora to retract the transfer tube. Before they could leave the Phindar system, Tarkin arrived in his escort carrier Goliath accompanied by the V-wing Yellow Squadron and Darth Vader's interceptor.

Since they had a quarter of an hour before they could jump into hyperspace, Teller ordered to fly rings around the Phindar tanker in order to make it hard for their Imperial pursuers to target their hyperdrive generator. During the dogfight, the Carrion Spike managed to take out two of Tarkin's V-wings. The remaining Imperial fighters fired upon the Carrion Spike but were unable to penetrate the ship's powerful shield generators. As the dogfight escalated, the Phindar tanker deployed several ARC-170 starfighters to protect the tanker.

With the hyperdrive ready, the Carrion Spike hurtled away from the tanker and charged at the Goliath, firing all its guns and taking out two more V-wings. After activating its cloaking device, the Carrion Spike jumped into hyperspace. Before leaving, Teller and his insurgents also used a concealed explosive within a spent fuel cell to ignite the Phindar tanker. The resulting explosion destroyed the tanker, its ARC-170 starfighters and singed the tails of Tarkin's V-wings.

Teller and his crew brought the Carrion Spike to the Expansion Region sector designated as LCC-4-4-7, which lay between the planets Aquaris and Thustra. The dogfight in the Phindar system caused significant damage to the Carrion Spikes hull and interior systems. Teller and his comrades gathered in the command cabin to nurse their wounds and fiddle with the starship instruments. Three hours after the Phindar ordeal, Anora managed to upload a holovid of the dogfight on HoloNet. However, the Empire had suspended HoloNet service in most of their sector. Though Anora doubted that their transmission reached more than six star systems, Teller reassured her that they needed to reach one system for their holovid to spread to other sectors.

After discussing the events of the Phindar ordeal, Teller recounted Tarkin's service with the Outland Regions Security Force to his followers. Teller explained how Tarkin had used the Outland Regions Security Force to purge the Seswenna sector of pirates and those harboring them. He attributed Tarkin's ruthless streak to the Eriaduan culture and history of repelling pirates, slavers, and privateers for centuries. However, Teller added that Tarkin went beyond the norms of Eriadu's ruthless culture by waging a ruthless campaign against migrants and refugees. He credited Tarkin's ruthless leadership with transforming Eriadu into a powerful planet that won him the favor of the Emperor and his New Order, who shared his ruthlessness.

Teller then reminded his followers Cala, Artoz, Salikk, and Hask of Tarkin's ruthless actions following the Clone Wars and the Great Jedi Purge. He added that the Emperor, his followers Vader and Tarkin, and soldiers were in the process of "winnowing" the populations of the galaxy until the only ones left were those he could control. Teller then reiterated that they had hijacked the Carrion Spike in order to turn a symbol of Tarkin into a symbol of resistance against the Empire. Hask observed that their group was also killing civilians serving the Empire, just as Tarkin had done with regard to civilians aiding the pirates in the Seswenna sector. When Teller began an attempt to justify their killings as opposed to the Empire's, Anora remarked somewhat sardonically that the difference was that they were "the good guys."

While checking the Carrion Spikes hyperdrive and fuel capacity, the Koorivar Cala found a paralight tracker, a type of HoloNet transceiver that parsed commands from the ship's navigation computer. Realizing that the Empire was tracking them, Teller instructed his crew to send the Empire fake coordinates to the Obroa-skai system. Teller also arranged for Knotts to send the YT-1000 light freighter Reticent as a decoy to the Carrion Spikes coordinates. Acting on this disinformation, Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader assembled several Imperial ships including three interdictor vessels to intercept the stolen corvette.

However, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser's gravity well projector malfunctioned, yanking out several starships from hyperspace including the MC80 Star Cruiser Stellar Vista and the Reticent. This caused a massive hyperspace accident in the Obroa-skai system that damaged many civilian and Imperial ships and killed 1,100 passengers aboard the Stellar Vista. Despite this setback, Tarkin and Vader managed to interrogate the crew of the Reticent and learned that Knotts was connected to both the Obroa-ski incident and the theft of the Carrion Spike. Tarkin also compared the insurgents' holovids with Imperial files on HoloNet and discovered that Teller and his followers were seeking revenge against him for his role in the Antar Atrocity.

Following the Obroa-skai incident, Teller gave Cala the privilege of destroying the paralight tracker. Though Teler and his crew were dismayed that the Imperials had captured and questioned the crew of the Truant, Teller was relieved when Vice-Admiral Rancit gave the corvette's crew were given a new target to attack: an Imperial facility in the Nouane system. In private, Anora questioned Teller about their campaign and whether he trusted their mysterious contact. Teller kept the identity of Rancit hidden from his followers. When Anora asked Teller if he had any compassion for their "stand-ins" at Obroa-skai, Teller claimed that they knew the risks.

Anora then confided that she did not intend to become a revolutionary. Teller countered that she was already fighting the "good fight" with words before he had met her. After admitting that she was motivated by fame and fortune, Anora commented that she had underestimated COMPNOR and the Emperor's reach, power, and barbarity. Teller reassured Anora that she was not alone in underestimating the Emperor. When Anora expressed regret for dragging her friend Hask into trouble, Teller responded that they could always ask if she wanted to be dropped off but added that Hask would probably say no. Teller also reassured Anora that they were winning.

Since the Empire had deployed warships to protect the Imperial facility in the Nouane system, Teller had the Carrion Spike exit hyperspace deeper inside the system to avoid the capital ships. Despite Teller's planning, the Empire had fortified the Nouane facility. Encountering a withering hail of laserfire, Teller and his followers were forced to retreat aboard the Carrion Spike. Unknown to Teller, his informant Vice-Admiral Rancit had attempted to betray and destroy Teller and his followers in an attempt to cover up his collusion with the insurgents. Rancit had hoped to exploit the crisis in order to improve his standing in the Imperial hierarchy.

Despite their narrow escape, the Carrion Spike sustained significant damage to its navicomputer, shields, stealth systems, sublight drives, and communications systems. The corvette's armament was down to two forward laser cannons and one starboard battery. Cala estimated that the hyperdrive motivator was only capable of two more jumps. While Teller initially believed that Rancit was trying to "make it look real", Anora pointed out that Rancit had betrayed them.

Since Rancit had instructed Teller and his insurgents to attack the Imperial Academy on Carida, Teller realized that the Vice-Admiral was planning to lure them into another trap for good. As the Carrion Spikes autopilot was still operational, Teller and his followers evacuated the ship and sent the corvette on autopilot to Carida. Above Carida, Vice-Admiral Rancit waited aboard the Secutor-class Star Destroyer Conquest to intercept and destroy the insurgents, covering his tracks.

However, Lord Vader and Moff Tarkin had discovered Rancit's treachery. Darth Vader boarded the Conquest and stopped the Vice-Admiral from ordering the destruction of the Carrion Spike. After confronting Rancit for his opportunism, the Sith Lord forced Rancit to board an escape pod and issue the order to destroy his craft.

Berch Teller and his followers rejoined their comrades including Knotts aboard his modified Providence-class carrier near a cratered moon in the Gulf of Tatooine. Artoz had received intelligence that an Imperial convoy of ships carrying supplies for the top-secret Death Star project would exit hyperspace in that system while traveling to the Imperial marshaling station at Pii. Unaware of Rancit's death, Teller believed that the Empire had not yet uncovered Rancit's treachery and that the Empire thought they had abandoned their cause.

When Knotts warned that Rancit would be hunting them down for betraying him, Teller speculated that Rancit withdrawing ships from protecting the convoy would threaten his position in Naval Intelligence. Teller also believed that Tarkin would not be held accountable for the insurgents' attacks and would keep his command of Sentinel Base. When Knotts warned that Tarkin would come after them, Teller suggested fleeing to the Corporate Sector. While the insurgents were unaware of the Death Star project, Artoz believed that raiding the convoy would set the Empire back by four years.

Though Teller hope that their strikes against the Empire would eventually inspire rebellion, Artoz believed that the Empire still had an overwhelming advantage due to its mighty war machine. Despite the odds stacked against them, Teller urged his followers to hold out for hope and do what they could. As the insurgent pilots headed to their starfighters, Cala informed Teller and his comrades that the supply convoy had exited hyperspace and that their HoloNet and communication jammers were enabled. As he donned his helmet, Teller told Cala to tell Anora and Hask that he expected a galactic-class holovid.

After jamming the convoy's HoloNet and communications relays, the insurgents bombarded the enemy convoy and unleashed their starfighters. For this attack, Teller's forces included his modified former Separatist carrier, an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, multiple droid tri-fighters, and four Z-95 Headhunters and Tikiar starfighters. Though the convoy's escort gunboats and frigates formed a defensive perimeter around the transports, Teller's droid starfighters were able to dart through gaps and swarm the Imperial ships, destroying two tugs, two escort gunboats, and several ARC-170 starfighters.

Despite Teller and his associates' careful preparations, the tide of the battle turned against them when Moff Tarkin arrived aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Executrix. Tarkin used the Executrixs massive firepower to destroy Teller's Nebulon-B frigate before deploying V-wing starfighters to pick off Teller's droid fighters and to protect the convoy ships. Having safeguarded the Imperial convoy, Tarkin then unleashed the Executrixs cannons against Teller's flagship.

As the Imperial forces gained the upper hand, Teller and a Koorivar Tikiar pilot were the only organic starfighter pilots left. After several attempts, Teller managed to contact Salikk. He told Salikk to jump their carrier into hyperspace and get clear of that Star Destroyer. However, Salikk responded that they were already committed. Anora then urged Teller to escape to fight another day. Teller disagreed but Salikk convinced Teller to listen to Anora. He added that allowing Teller to escape would be his gratitude for helping him survive the Antar Atrocity.

Despite Teller's protests, Salikk transmitted a series of hyperspace jump coordinates to his starfighter. Heeding his followers' words, Teller escaped aboard his Headhunter into hyperspace. Meanwhile, Tarkin's Star Destroyer disabled Teller's carrier and boarded it, capturing Teller's surviving followers. Teller landed on the crystal planet of Christophsis before disappearing into hiding. Imperial forces later discovered the starfighter. In the wake of the battle near the gulf of Tatooine, the Empire executed Teller's followers. The newly promoted Grand Moff Tarkin also tightened security around the Death Star project and exacted a heavy price against the workers, salvagers, scientists, and criminal elements who had aided Teller's rebels.

After escaping Christophsis, Berch Teller tracked down Grand Moff Tarkin to the Carrion Plateau on his homeworld of Eriadu. The Carrion Plateau was situated on the lands of the Tarkin family. When Tarkin visited the Carrion Plateau to seek solitude, Teller attempted to sneak up on the Grand Moff but fell into a pit trap. Though the sharpened stakes at the bottom had long rotted to mulch, Teller still sustained a broken ankle. Tarkin's uncle Jova discovered Teller in the pit and alerted his nephew Tarkin.

Tarkin met with his twice-defeated nemesis, telling Teller that he had baited him by intentionally leaving his stormtroopers behind in Eriadu City. Teller accepted that he had taken the bait as that was the only chance he had of shooting the Grand Moff. When Tarkin mocked him for missing earlier opportunities to shoot him, Teller responded that he wanted them to be looking each other in the eye when he killed him. Tarkin again mocked him, remarking upon how ridiculously unnecessary his desire was, and that it had cost him his opportunity. Teller then quipped that ultimately it didn't matter, as Jova would have still have shot him even if he had managed to evade Tarkin's notice.

After exchanging conversation with his uncle, Tarkin turned his attention back to Teller. When Tarkin claimed that Teller was seeking to splinter the galaxy again, Teller countered that subjugating the Separatists was practice for subjugating the galaxy. Tarkin claimed this was pacification but Teller countered that it was "rule by fear". When Teller denounced Tarkin as a monster, Tarkin responded that he was only a monster from a certain point of view and described himself as a product of the nature of the plateau; that his ruthlessness, uncompromising attitude, and perchance for survival through strength and fear were simply a reflection of nature itself. Teller asked about the Imperial project on Geonosis but Tarkin refused to divulge Imperial secrets to a foe.

Before leaving, Tarkin offered to let Teller escape if he could climb out of the pit before nightfall; knowing that Teller stood little chance of surviving the dangerous predators that inhabited Carrion Spike. Rejecting Tarkin's offer, Teller cursed Tarkin, telling him that he would die a horrible death. Tarkin mockingly dismissed Teller's threats, reminding Teller that it was he, not Tarkin, who was crippled and at the bottom of a pit. After they finished, Tarkin and Jova left him in the wilderness to see if he could get out of the pit alive after nightfall.

Despite failing to kill Grand Moff Tarkin personally, Berch Teller's prophecy that Tarkin would die a "horrible death" came to fruition during the Battle of Yavin fourteen years later. Tarkin was killed aboard his Death Star superweapon when the Force-sensitive Rebel Alliance starfighter pilot Luke Skywalker fired a proton torpedo into the superweapon's thermal exhaust port.

Ultimately, Teller and his followers' efforts would not be in vain. Some time after Teller's campaign, the Rebel Alliance saw Teller as a prime example of how counter-propaganda would be useful, and that if it were not for him, the galaxy would not be aware of the Antar Atrocity. Following the death of the Emperor and Vader during the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Empire ultimately collapsed at the Battle of Jakku a year later.

Berch Teller was a tall, slim, middle-aged human male with dark hair and eyebrows. He had a long face covered with stubble and a cleft chin. Teller was a natural leader who was able to inspire his followers to fight. He used these skills to lead loyalist fighters on Antar 4 during the Clone Wars and later a group of anti-Imperial insurgents during the Imperial period. Teller regarded the Empire as a tyrannical dictatorship built on the subjugation of the galaxy's inhabitants. Teller developed a hatred of the Empire and Grand Moff Tarkin in particular for their role in the indiscriminate slaughter of Antar 4's inhabitants including Republic loyalists following the Clone Wars.

Teller believed that the Clone Wars served as a pretext for the Emperor to take over the galaxy. He also believed that the Emperor and his chief disciples Darth Vader and Moff Tarkin were determined to subjugate all beings in the galaxy. He regarded the soldiers of the vastly expanded Imperial military as an army of beings who had been stripped of independent thinking; weapons that had not been seen for thousands of years. Teller regarded Tarkin as the embodiment of some of the worst aspects of the Empire and sought to kill him personally.

Teller's followers including Anora, Knotts, Cala, Salikk, and Hask looked up to him as a mentor and leader. Though Teller was willing to buy time for his comrades to escape, their respect for him let him to convince him to escape to fight another day. Teller was resourceful enough to infiltrate Tarkin's homeworld of Eriadu but fell into a pit trap. In the face of defeat, Teller remained defiant towards Tarkin and cursed Tarkin to die a horrible death. He maintained his constitutional resolve that the Empire was a force for evil and would one day meet its end.

Teller was also known for his passionate zeal and gave several talks "educating" his followers about why they were fighting Tarkin and the Emperor. This once led Anora to joke that he would make a good holodrama actor. Teller was known for his colorful language and once chastised Salikk for risking his own life to save him. However, Teller accepted his followers' willingness to sacrifice their life for him so that he could escape and hunt down Tarkin.

As a former Republic intelligence operative turned insurgent leader, Teller was skilled at training men and women how to fight. He also knew how to fly a Z-95 Headhunter and once taught a Koorivar follower to fly a Tikiar starfighter. Teller was also adept with starships, communications technology, and various weapons including blasters.

Berch Teller wore cargo pants, boots, and a thermal shirt. While impersonating the Imperial Commander Abel LaSal, Teller donned an Imperial officer's uniform, a bionic eye, and a thick red wig.

Berch Teller first appeared as the primary antagonist of James Luceno's 2014 novel Tarkin.

• Entertainment Weekly's Ultimate Guide to Rogue One
• Star Wars: The Rebel Files
• The Star Wars Book