LE-914, or Ellie, was an LE manifest droid that served as the trusted companion of Rebel spy Tay Vanis throughout the Galactic Civil War. Ellie accompanied Vanis on numerous Rebel missions until 3 ABY, when Vanis was tasked with retrieving Bothan information on a new Imperial superweapon. Pursued by the Empire, Vanis and Ellie fled to Dennaskar, where Vanis entrusted Ellie with the Bothan tapes before disappearing. Ellie later met with a group of Rebels searching for Vanis' whereabouts, and helped track Vanis to an Imperial prison on the world—finding that her master had been tortured into a mind-wiped shell, Ellie turned the Bothan tapes over to the Rebels before destroying herself, Vanis and the Imperial installation.
LE-914, usually referred to as "Ellie," was an LE manifest droid manufactured by Cybot Galactica originally constructed to specialize in shipping management. LE-914 eventually came into the service of Tay Vanis, a Rebel Alliance spy from the planet Telfrey a long-lasting partnership that took them through the height of the Galactic Civil War. Ellie was at Vanis' side on dozens of missions, becoming the Human's closest companion. In 3 ABY Vanis and his longtime partner, Yom Argo, were dispatched on a mission to retrieve intelligence gathered by Bothan spies regarding the construction of a new Imperial superweapon. Soon after acquiring the intel, however, they realized the Empire was on their tail. Vanis and Argo agreed to split up, with Vanis—Ellie in tow—taking the Bothan tapes while Argo returned to the Rebel fleet for assistance.
LE-914 cradles what is left of Tay Vanis.
Vanis attempted to stay ahead of the Imperial pursuit by planet-hopping along a predetermined course, but his luck ran out on Dennaskar, where his X-wing crashed in thick jungle. Knowing that he could soon be captured, Vanis entrusted the Bothan tapes to Ellie, leaving the droid with strict orders to destroy the intel if she received no word from him within two days. Vanis promptly vanished off the map, but Ellie kept the tapes, blending into local society by posing as a common manifest droid at a nearby Imperial outpost. Soon, the disappearance of both Vanis and Argo—who had himself died in a crash on Lahsbane—prompted the Rebellion to send a team led by Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa on a high-priority mission to retrieve the intelligence they had received from the Bothans. They encountered Ellie when their search led them to Dennaskar, and their request for Ellie to access information on Vanis raised an alarm that drew a squad of stormtroopers, forcing the Rebels to flee with Ellie in tow.
Ellie had managed to glean Vanis' location before being locked out of the Imperial computer system, and upon reaching the Rebels' ship, the Millennium Falcon, Ellie guided them to where Vanis was held—an Imperial prison in the remains of an abandoned castle. Now knowing Vanis' exact location, Ellie fled the Millennium Falcon to find her master, finding him in his cell deep within the castle. Upon being captured by the Empire, Vanis had been tortured brutally by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, leaving him little more than a husk. The Rebels were right on her heels, following Ellie to Vanis' cell. Revealing that the spy they had hunted for was essentially dead already, Ellie passed on the Bothan tapes to the Rebel droid C-3PO before embracing Vanis and self-destructing, killing them both and destroying the entire installation.
LE-914 had been in the service of Tay Vanis for the majority of Vanis' adult life—as such, the two had an uncommonly close relationship, and Vanis trusted Ellie completely. In turn, Ellie was loyal to Vanis to the last, and was willing to give up her own existence in order to ease her master's suffering. As an LE manifest droid, Ellie was built to excel at efficiently managing clerical tasks and data work, with a specific concentration in shipping management and import/export regulations. However, where Ellie differed significantly from most typical LE units was in her ability to lie and deceive—LE droids long had a reputation for scrupulous honesty, which in part had let to the discontinuance of the LE line. Vanis specifically outfitted Ellie for high-stress situations, including greatly increasing her physical durability—these modifications included replacing her torso plating with blaster-resistant armorplast, and a secret storage chamber that could hold either contraband along with a built-in proton bomb with self-destruct controls.
LE-914 appeared in Star Wars (1977) 80, written by Mary Jo Duffy and released in 1983. LE-914 was illustrated by Ron Frenz, who based her design off of one of Ralph McQuarrie's early concept drawings for C-3PO.
- The New Essential Guide to Droids
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- "Red Five" — Star Wars Insider 151