Lastok, designated TK-7834, was a male Imperial AT-AT pilot who served in Blizzard Force during the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY. He was the designated pilot for Blizzard 1, the AT-AT of General Maximilian Veers, along with the gunner TK-5187. The vehicle was taken down by a Rebel snowspeeder flown by rebel pilot Derek Klivian, that crashed into the cabin. Lastok survived the crash, and helped to find and rescue General Veers along the rubble of the AT-AT.
Lastok, as he appears in The Empire Strikes Back
The AT-AT pilot that would later be known as Lastok first appeared in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, directed by Irvin Kershner. He was played by an uncredited extra and is only seen from behind. There is a distinctive disparity in his appearance in the film as well. Early in the battle sequence, his helmet is plain white, however, later in the battle, there is a clearly visible red line down the back of the helmet. Lastok was later identified, as well as his designation TK-7834, in the short story "The Truest Duty," written by Christie Golden as a part of the 2020 short story collection From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back.
Lastok is a tuckerization of the last name of George Kostal, who ran the @VeersWatch Twitter account. VeersWatch was dedicated to checking out each new Star Wars content in search of potential appearances of Maximillian Veers, the focus of "The Truest Duty." The tweet announcing Veers as the story's subject even referenced the VeersWatch account, stating that the "watch has ended" with the return of Veers. In addition, Lastok's designation number, 7834, was a scrambled variation of the date 3-4-87, the birth date of video creator Alex Damon, aka "Star Wars Explained."