Garth Breise was a Human male astronomer at the scientific organization known as the Extragalactic Society. He was stationed at ExGal-4 exploratory base on the Outer Rim world of Belkadan, where he worked the night shift at the facility's sensor station by 25 ABY. Breise also filled the position of engineer at the base and was often tasked with technical assignments, such as building proprietary equipment.
Well-liked at ExGal-4, Breise regularly conversed and played the board game dejarik with his colleagues. He also worked alongside Yuuzhan Vong advance agent Yomin Carr, who was incognito at ExGal-4 to prevent any transmissions from alerting the galaxy at large to the imminent threat that the Yuuzhan Vong posed. During an inspection of the base's communications tower, which Carr had sabotaged, Breise was killed by the Yuuzhan Vong agent to deprive the base of its engineer and effectively sever its link to the outside.
ExGal-4 on Belkadan, where Garth Breise worked
A Human male astronomer employed by the scientific organization known as the Extragalactic Society, Breise worked at the ExGal-4 listening post on the Outer Rim Territories planet Belkadan during the time of the New Republic. At some point between 22 ABY and 25 ABY, he became part of the team monitoring the edges of the galaxy for signs of extra-galactic life, working night shift at the base. He was initially elated at being assigned to ExGal-4 and the possibility of being part of any extra-galactic discoveries, a trait which the team generally attributed to "newbie" excitement. He came to find the posting monotonous, remarking that any new recruits would become fed up eventually. His primary responsibility was manning his sensor station while observing and monitoring areas of space for a scientific anomaly or discovery that would benefit the galaxy; in addition, he also had engineering acumen.
In 25 ABY, ExGal member Danni Quee detected an unusual object entering the Helska system; Breise calculated the that trajectory of it would impact the system's fourth planet. Amid a heated debate among the team over how to proceed with this information, rookie Yomin Carr proposed that a detachment investigate and report their findings to ExGal proper. A ryll-intoxicated Breise was quick to praise Carr for settling the argument, unaware that his colleague's Human appearance was only a disguise; Carr was secretly an advance agent for the Praetorite Vong, a vanguard force for the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong, and had been aware of the importance of that point in space.
A team that included Breise's good friend Bensin Tomri was scrambled to investigate the anomaly; however, the base could not make contact with any outside agency due to damage to ExGal-4's communications tower, which was sabotage secretly perpetrated by Carr to protect preparations for his people's impending invasion. Breise would stay behind to repair the fault, a task that he felt obligated to perform regardless of his disdain for it—being reprimanded by his colleague Quee was the outcome Breise wished to avoid.
When Breise and Carr went to climb and repair the damaged communications tower, Breise happened upon several small red beetles on the ground around the tower. He was unaware that they were Yuuzhan Vong-developed creatures known as dweebits that Carr himself had introduced into Belkadan's ecology to aid in his people's future terraforming efforts there. Barely noticing the gas that the dweebits were producing and reluctant to blame any of the tower's damage on the beetles as Carr suggested, Breise decided to see to any problems at the top of the tower first, and he led the way up the construct.
Yomin Carr, Garth Breise's killer
Knowing that any transmissions resulting from a successful repairing of the tower would likely call attention to the incursion of the Praetorite Vong, Carr made ready to ambush Breise at the summit of the tower. While Breise was momentarily distracted by the departure of the base's Spacecaster shuttle, which carried the outbound team members, Carr struck Breise's windpipe. As Breise put one hand to his throat, Carr struck him again on the wrist of the hand that was holding on to the tower before cutting Breise's climbing rope with a coufee blade. Despite his efforts to regain his balance, Breise fell a hundred meters to his death, hitting the side of the tower and finally landing on the ground. Carr momentarily expressed regret—not for Breise's killing, but for the probability that his falling body had crushed several dweebits on the ground.
Following Breise's death, the other present members of the ExGal-4 team were immensely upset. Tomri never learned of Breise's fate, as he died on Helska IV. Tee-ubo Doole, another team member, dreaded informing Tomri of Breise's death, but she remained unaware of Tomri's fate before dying from the gas unleashed by Carr's dweebits, which had reached toxic levels.
Breise was an active member of ExGal-4, both in professional and social respects. Competent and hardworking despite apathy towards his job, he was also an avid conversationalist, and discussing new members at the base was one of his favorite subjects. Moreover, he praised intelligent observations and discoveries made by his colleagues. Breise also enjoyed playing the board game dejarik with other team members, such as Tomri, Doole, and Quee, and partook in the recreational use of ryll spice alongside Tomri.
While Breise's duties mainly revolved around astronomy, which he eventually found to be boring and pointed out that new member Carr would come to find boring as well, his engineering skills meant that repair jobs were handed over to him, such as building a connector to sort cables after the ExGal-4 communications tower was damaged. Despite his dislike of certain responsibilities at ExGal-4, he took them on with aplomb, as refusal meant being berated by Quee. Even so, Breise did not hesitate to express sullenness and sarcasm if he felt put upon. While going to effect repairs on the base's communications tower, Breise was safety-conscious, acting on concerns raised by Carr and using ExGal-4's floodlights to check for any potential dangers near the tower—namely, Belkadan's redcrested cougars.
Breise was introduced in the 1999 novel Vector Prime, the first installment of the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series, by R. A. Salvatore.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia