Eneb Ray was a human male who served in the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Galactic Civil War. He was a spy for the Rebellion and infiltrated the Imperial bureaucracy on Coruscant, working as a tax collector under the codename Tharius Demo. Under the orders of Princess Leia Organa, Eneb undertook a mission to rescue dissident senators from the Arrth-Eno Prison Complex.
Ray was subsequently caught up in a failed plot to assassinate the Emperor Palpatine, which resulted in the destruction of the Arrth-Eno prison complex and the deaths of all the senators. The Empire claimed that the rebels had killed the senators in a terror attack. Ray left Coruscant, his cover having been blown.
Later, his psychological state severely damaged, Ray attacked Sunspot Prison, murdering the Imperials imprisoned there in an attempt to turn Princess Leia into a more ruthless leader. He was defeated and captured by the Alliance. However, he managed to escape during transportation.
Eneb Ray was an Rebel Alliance operative who lived during the Imperial Era. Following the Battle of Yavin, he infiltrated the galactic capital of Coruscant where he posed as the Imperial tax collector Tharius Demo. On one occasion, "Tharius" visited a business exporter whose business was owing the Galactic Empire considerable taxes in arrears. When the man threatened to bring the rebellion on him, "Tharius" counseled him that his incarceration would hurt his family's ability to pay his taxes. Taking his warning seriously, the man agreed to pay his overdue taxes.
Later, Ray uploaded shipping and procurement data for the Core sectors to his boss Princess Leia Organa. Acting upon the recommendation of General Davits Draven, Organa later dispatched Ray on a mission to extract several Imperial senators from the Arrth-Eno Prison Complex including Nadea Tural who were facing execution. She provided him with maps, relevant access codes, and a ship willing to smuggle them off from Coruscant. Despite believing that the mission was difficult if not impossible, Ray complied with Organa's orders.
Hitching a ride on an airspeeder, Ray used special electrical gloves to scale the prison tower. Using a grappling hook he managed get in through a ventilation shaft. After taking out a stormtrooper sentry, Ray rescued the senators from their cell only to learn from Tural that the Emperor was visiting the prison.
Ray then stormed the command center and took the guards prisoner. He subsequently learned that one of the guards Coleet was a fellow rebel agent. With Coleet's help, Ray managed to contact Organa over a secure line and revealed that the Emperor was going to visit the prison and that it was the perfect opportunity to assassinate him. Despite Organa's misgivings, she authorized the mission and dispatched six other agents on Coruscant to help with the assassination attempt.
Posing as the imprisoned senators, Ray and the other agents met with the Emperor, who arrived on a repulsorlift platform with several stormtroopers and Imperial Royal Guards. Ray and the other rebel operatives sprung their trap and opened fire on the Emperor and his bodyguards. After taking out a stormtrooper with his grappling hook, Ray managed to approach the Emperor only for his quarry to ascend on the repulsorlift platform.
Ray managed to pursue the Emperor to the landing platform with his grappling hook. Despite the presence of stormtroopers, Ray managed to gun down the man whom he believed to be the Emperor. However, the man turned out to be a double. The real Emperor arrived on a Lambda-class shuttle and attacked Ray with Force lightning.
During the confrontation, the Arrth-Eno complex exploded; killing all the senators, rebel agents, and Imperials inside. Ray fell from the Emperor's shuttle but managed to survive by using his grappling hook to cling on to a speeder. While escaping the scene, Ray overheard a broadcast by the Emperor claiming that the rebels had murdered the senators in order to prevent them from revealing how they had been coerced into betraying the Empire. Stung by the failure of the mission and having sustained a broken left arm, Ray escaped offworld with the help of his get-away contact, who turned out to be the export businessman whose life he had saved earlier.
After the events on Coruscant, Ray embarked on a quest for vengeance. Despite surviving his encounter with the Emperor, Ray's face was disfigured and he believed that the Sith Lord's touch would eventually kill him. Regarding the Rebel Alliance's moderate tactics as weak and ineffectual against the ruthless Galactic Empire, Ray came to believe that the Rebellion needed to be more ruthless in waging for against the Imperials. Organa and the Rebel Alliance tried to search for Ray but were unable to find him. Organa was upset at the loss of one of her top agents and believed that he had disappeared.
Seeking revenge against the Empire, Ray decided to kill Imperial prisoners at the top-secret Rebel Alliance Sunspot Prison, which orbited a star and was protected by a bank of ion canons. Donning a mask and armor to hide his face, Ray assumed leadership of several battle droids and IG-RM bodyguard and enforcer droids.
Traveling to the rebel prison in a freighter, Ray and his droids disembarked at a distance from Sunspot Prison to avoid being picked up by their sensors. Using grappling lasers, Ray and his droids managed to cling on to the station. One of the droids was consumed by the scorching heat but Ray and his droids managed to breach the prison's Q Sector and control room.
Though rebel forces led by Organa and her friend Sana Starros managed to subdue Ray's droids in Q Sector, this turned out to be a diversionary attack. Ray's forces captured the control room where he took the warden and several rebel guards prisoner. After pistol–whipping the warden for dismissing as a fool, Ray contacted Organa and told her that he had no intentions of freeing the prisoners but had come to kill them.
Organa and Starros managed to stop two of the IG-RM droids from gunning down prisoners. Speaking through Organa's comlink, Ray reminded her that the men in the cells were murderers and offered to read a list of their crimes. When Organa protested against his actions, Ray responded that there was nothing noble about a war if she wanted to win. To test Organa's resolve and adherence to her ideals, Ray released eleven Imperial murderers from their cells including the ruthless soldier Kolar Ludd.
Organa and Starros managed to subdue the escaped prisoners and lock them in a cell. However, Ray deactivated the sun shields, exposing the prisoners to the scorching heat of the sun, incinerating them. Taunting Ray for believing that she was better than the prisoners, Ray warned that she would lose the war. He added that he embraced his identity as a murderer and credited Organa for making him the person whom he was.
While Organa and Starros struck an uneasy alliance with the rogue archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra, Ray headed to maximum security cell 17 where he killed an Imperial prisoner who claimed to have killed three Jedi. Before stabbing the man to death, Ray told him that his Emperor was a Sith Lord. After ordering one of his droid lieutenants to open cell 18, Ray used the prison's automated systems to throw several Imperial prisoners into the sun.
Despite fierce resistance, Organa and her team regained control of the control room. When Organa demanded to know the identity of her mysterious adversary, Organa's droid lieutenant claimed that "he" was trying to teach her the way she had once taught him. Shortly later, Organa's rebel comrades Han Solo and Luke Skywalker arrived aboard the Millennium Falcon. However, Ray had reached the hangar bay and ambushed the two, binding them.
Organa along with Starros and Aphra cornered Ray in the hangar. Still trying to convince Organa to see his point of view, Ray offered to spare Skywalker and Solo if she killed the Imperial "prisoner" Aphra. While Organa refused to abandon her morals, Starros sought an opportunity to kill her estranged friend Aphra with a blaster. Unable to break Organa's resolve, Ray removed his helmet and showed Organa his burnt face.
Organa was both horrified and saddened to see Ray, who was believed to be missing in action. Taking pity on Ray, Organa offered to help him but Ray countered that she was the only one who needed help. Ray began a countdown but Organa refused to play his game. At Organa's signal, R2-D2 activated an ion pulse which allowed Organa to knock Ray to the ground.
While Organa and Ray fought, Starros attempted to kill Aphra. Gaining the upper hand over Organa, Ray attempted to strangle Organa while taunting her that her royal background shielded her from the realities of war. However, Starros shoved Aphra into Ray, knocking him to the ground. The three women then overpowered Ray.
After Ray was defeated, Rebel Alliance forces entered Sunspot Prison and evacuated the surviving prisoners and rebel personnel. The dead were placed into body bags. Ray was led into custody by rebel troopers. Taking pity on her adversary, Organa vowed not to give up on him and to get him the help that he needed. However, Ray believed that he was beyond help and told her that she would someday wish she had listened to him.
As his transport departed from Sunspot prison, Ray managed to removed an unlocking device from his mouth that was disguised as a dental implant. In his mind, Ray believed that Organa and her rebellion stood no chance against the Empire and that she would regret spurning his "help."
Ray as the Imperial tax collector "Tharius Demo"
Eneb Ray was a human male with blond hair, green eyes, and fair skin. Ray was a skilled spy who excelled in working undercover and combat. Ray regarded himself as a realist in comparison to the idealistic Leia Organa. While Ray maintained the exterior of a steely Imperial tax collector while working undercover, he despised the Empire's crippling taxation and destruction of Alderaan.
While Ray initially regarded the mission to rescue pro-rebel senators difficult if not impossible, he grabbed the opportunity to assassinate the Emperor, who was visiting the condemned senators. However, this turned out to be a trap and all of the senators and Ray's rebel comrades were killed. This failure led him to believe that the Rebel Alliance was incapable of making the hard decisions needed to win the Galactic Civil War.
The failure of the Arrth-Eno mission and his scarring at the hands of the Emperor led Ray to embrace ruthless and violent tactics against the Empire. He regarded Organa as a misguided idealist who lacked the ability to win the war against the Empire. Ray's guilt for his role in the Arrth-Eno mission let him to advocate killing all Imperials including prisoners at the Rebel Alliance's Sunspot Prison.
Following the events on Coruscant, Ray embraced his identity as a ruthless killer who was willing to shed blood. Still, Ray held Organa in deep respect and sought to convince her to embrace his ruthless tactics. However, Organa refused to abandon her moral compass and ultimately defeated him. Spurned by Organa, Ray refused to accept her offers of help and vowed revenge against her.
Eneb Ray excelled in both unarmed and melee combat. He operated a grappling hook. While Ray was a seasoned fighter, he was also skilled in using words to convince others to his bidding. Ray was also an escape artist who carried a concealed unlocking device inside a dental implant.
Eneb Ray was introduced in the 2015 Marvel comic book Star Wars Annual (2015) 1. He was created by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Angel Unzueta, and colored by Paul Mounts. Eneb is the main protagonist and narrator of that one-shot story. In the comic's solicitation, he was incorrectly identified as Haarkon Dak.
Ray resurfaced in the 2016 Marvel story arc Star Wars Book IV: Rebel Jail. He was written by Jason Aaron, drawn by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Gerry Alanguilan, and colored by Sunny Gho and Java Tartaglia.
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