Kuuztin

Kuuztin was a male Imperial officer who served as the captain of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Courageous during the Galactic Civil War and had a reputation for bravery. Around 3.5 ABY, Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin launched a coup against Emperor Palpatine. Zaarin's initial attempt to abduct the Emperor failed, and Zaarin's fleet was subsequently pushed back by loyal Imperial forces under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn. As Zaarin fled toward the Unknown Regions to regroup for a new offensive, Kuuztin was one of the Imperial officers personally selected by Thrawn to quickly respond to any leads.

When an Imperial probe detected a supply convoy led by the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser Rahmat heading to the Semag system in the Mid Rim, where Zaarin was thought to be hiding, the Courageous was sent to capture any weapons or military supplies. Keeping the Courageous nearby to watch for Zaarin's forces, Kuuztin dispatched a flight group of Assault Gunboats to engage the convoy's escorts while the ace pilot Colonel Maarek Stele used the experimental Missile Boat starfighter to destroy the Rahmat. After the arrival of Zaarin's EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Strident, Kuuztin entered the battle and launched the Courageouss TIE bombers to assist Stele in destroying the frigate while the Imperials captured the convoy ships.

Not only did the capture of the convoy deprive Zaarin of much-needed supplies, but interrogation of its crew revealed the location of a refitting base near Gwar that Zaarin was using as a marshaling area ahead of a planned ambush operation. Seeing the opportunity to catch Zaarin off-guard, Kuuztin decided to launch an immediate preemptive strike on the facility without seeking authorization from Thrawn. After arriving in the system, the Courageous and its starfighters set about destroying the base. However, with the arrival of the Star Destroyers Thunderer and Imperator, and several flights of TIE Defenders, it became clear that Kuuztin had led his forces into a trap. Though Stele was able to escape to safety in his Missile Boat, Kuuztin and his crew remained trapped aboard the Courageous, which was destroyed by a barrage of proton bombs.

Despite the loss of the Courageous, Kuuztin's attack resulted in the destruction of Zaarin's Immobilizer 418 cruiser Bomb and the Nebulon-B2 frigates Kuma 1, Kuma 2, and Kuma 3, leaving the losses roughly equal. Partly in retribution for the Courageouss destruction, Thrawn subsequently planned his own trap for Zaarin, using a shipment of Missile Boats as bait to draw the renegade out.

Kuuztin was a skilled commander whose reputation for bravery led to him being handpicked by Grand Admiral Thrawn to take part in the toughest operations of the Zaarin campaign. He was also ambitious and overconfident—qualities that proved to be his undoing. Upon learning that Zaarin was marshaling his forces for an attack, Kuuztin decided not to alert Thrawn and to instead risk an immediate attack. The captain believed that a swift victory over Zaarin would lead to a promotion and the chance to replace Thrawn as leader of the task force. However, the ill-planned attack instead led to the destruction of the Courageous and Kuuztin's death.

Kuuztin was created for the 1995 LucasArts video game Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM and is mentioned in mission briefings for the first three missions of the previously unreleased "Enemies of the Empire" campaign and in in-mission communications during the second mission, in which the character is killed when the Courageous is destroyed.