Xamuel Lennox was a naval officer who hailed from a line of noble military men. Lennox detested the political maneuvering and betrayals among his colleagues in the Imperial Navy, but he became adept at deception to safeguard his position as captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer Tyrant. He fought in the war against the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which he viewed to be threatening to restore a Republic that was just as corrupt as the Galactic Empire he served. As a result, Lennox became cynical about the universal nature of deceit.
Nevertheless, Captain Lennox commanded Imperial naval forces in the Pakuuni sector and led ten Star Destroyers in the Battle of Turkana in 1 BBY. The Rebellion proved the effectiveness of its new T-65 X-wing starfighters at the battle, where Captain Firmus Piett was critical of Lennox's tactics that forced the Imperials to retreat. Lennox and the Tyrant were later attached to Death Squadron, the battle group of the Sith Lord Darth Vader, which initiated the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY to flush out the Rebellion. Blockading the planet Hoth with the Tyrant at Death Squadron's forefront, Lennox's eagerness to catch fleeing Rebel vessels was quashed when the Rebels' ion cannon inactivated his Star Destroyer, allowing the Rebels to escape the system.
After the Tyrant was repaired, Lennox welcomed an Imperial soldier and their captive Rebel General Crix Madine aboard his Star Destroyer. The captain lost Madine to a Rebel boarding crew as the Tyrant was inactivated again by the Rebel ion cannon. After recovering the Tyrant, Lennox attempted to recapture Madine from the evacuating Rebel cruiser Champion, but it, too, evaded his attack.
Darth Vader then assigned Captain Lennox to remove a Jedi, Rachi Sitra, from Cloud City on the planet Bespin. Tasking the soldier who had initially escorted Madine to lead his forces in the city, Lennox successfully minimized interference from Vader's affairs by driving the Jedi away and capturing Rebel sympathizers. The next year, Lennox and the Tyrant were present at the decisive Rebel victory in the Endor system that ushered the Empire's collapse, and several years later, the Rebellion's fledgling New Republic captured Lennox and his ship, which they renamed the Rebel Dream.
Xamuel Lennox was the scion of a proud family of military men who were officers for several generations. After the fall of the Galactic Republic in 19 BBY, Lennox joined the navy of the Galactic Empire with the consideration that the Republic was corrupt and that he would attempt to follow in his forebears' noble footsteps. By 1 BBY, during the Galactic Civil War against the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Lennox was the captain of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Tyrant.
The Battle of Turkana, in which Imperial forces were led by Captain Lennox
Lennox was in command of Imperial naval operations in the Pakuuni sector in that year, and he received its sector governor's order to lead a squadron of ten Star Destroyers to trap and destroy the Rebel warships that were orbiting the planet Turkana; Imperial Intelligence had reported on the Rebel group, which was initially estimated to consist of between four to six capital ships and between three to eight smaller vessels. Before dropping his fleet out of hyperspace in the Turkana system, Lennox used a starfighter flyby to verify the Rebels' presence—on the bridge of the Tyrant, Lennox received confirmation from his first officer, Cabbel, that their TIE interceptors had located the Rebels over Turkana.
Using Formation Besh in Attack Pattern Tartarus to keep the surprised Rebels from escaping, Lennox's Tyrant was the lead ship, with Captain Firmus Piett of the Star Destroyer Accuser providing primary support as they engaged the Rebels' seven Mon Calamari Star Cruisers at long range. The two Star Destroyers and the Flanchard, another of the Destroyers, also launched their TIE fighter wings at Lennox's command. The evading Rebels also had two Nebulon-B frigates, two CR90 corvettes, four GR-75 transports, and a Golan Ribbon tanker, and their cruisers' engines were attacked by TIE bombers that flew under the protection of TIE fighters and interceptors.
In under a minute, Rebel Admiral Gial Ackbar deployed three squadrons of Y-wings and two squadrons of newly acquired T-65 X-wing starfighters. Despite Captain Piett's warnings about the X-wings' advanced capabilities, Lennox maintained his tactics of superior TIE fighter numbers. While the defensive screen of TIEs was occupied by the X-wings, the Y-wings began to destroy the Imperial bombers, prompting Piett to redirect the Accuser to target the Rebel fighters and allow the bombers to disable one MC80 Star Cruiser's engines.
Captain Piett, who questioned Lennox's tactics at Turkana
Piett had already been convinced that Lennox's inaction cost an Imperial victory and overrode his fellow captain's orders when the remaining TIEs suffered heavy casualties, moving the Imperial fleet closer to the Rebels into full weapons range as part of Formation Aleph, Attack Pattern Abbadon. Nevertheless, none of the Rebel capital ships were destroyed, and the Rebel fighters inflicted heavy damage on the Star Destroyers Formidable and the Ajax by breaching their bridge shields with proton torpedoes, forcing Captain Lennox to order the Empire's retreat via hyperspace.
After regrouping at the world Pakuuni, Captain Piett filed a mission report on the battle that was later included in the Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide tactical manual, distributed just before the Battle of Yavin nineteen years into the Empire's reign. Piett recommended Lennox's removal from command of naval operations in the Pakuuni sector in the report and led the subsequent unsuccessful Operation Strike Fear counterattack.
The Imperial Star Destroyer Tyrant, which was under Captain Lennox's command and formed a part of Death Squadron
By the time the Tyrant joined the battle against the warlord Nuso Esva eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the starship had garnered a fearsome reputation across the Empire as part of Death Squadron, the personal fleet of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader—it typically consisted of five Imperial I- and Imperial II-class Star Destroyers supporting Vader's Super Star Destroyer, the Executor, aboard which Piett served as captain under Admiral Kendal Ozzel. In 3 ABY, Captain Lennox and Lieutenant Cabbel continued serving as commanders of the Tyrant, and, at some point, the former's right hip had been given a myoelectric replacement.
Cabbel reported to Captain Lorth Needa aboard the Star Destroyer Stalker as part of a temporary detachment of Death Squadron that also included Needa's Avenger in the Anoat sector. Following the Battle of Derra IV, they retargeted probe droids in search of the Rebel headquarters for the planets Allyuen, Tokmia, and Hoth in the sector. Upon finding the Rebels on Hoth, Death Squadron, supported by four Star Destroyers from Juris Sector Forces, took a series of hyperspace jumps from the Juris sector's Qeimet system to attack the Hoth system, where Lennox was joined by Cabbel aboard the Tyrants bridge.
Lennox and Cabbel's warship was positioned at the front of Death Squadron's formation as one of six Star Destroyers making up a heavy attack line reinforced by the Executor, maintaining a full complement of seventy-two TIE fighters. Despite Admiral Ozzel's mistake of alerting the Rebels to the fleet upon exiting hyperspace close to Hoth, Death Squadron promptly initiated the Battle of Hoth by launching a ground assault on the Rebel base there. Meanwhile, Lennox and the Tyrant advanced to intercept the Rebels' GR-75 transports and their X-wing escorts as they attempted to evacuate personnel from the surface.
Lennox's Star Destroyer was not prepared for the firing of the Rebels' ion cannon.
Lennox was beside the viewports on the Tyrants bridge when Cabbel eagerly informed him that Rebel vessels were approaching their position. Wishing to engage the Rebels even though he had no knowledge of the makeup of the incoming crafts, Lennox announced to his bridge crew that they were about to catch the first quarry of the battle. An officer relayed that they faced two starfighters and a transport—it was the first Rebel transport, the Quantum Storm, escorted by a pair of X-wings. Although Lennox ordered his crew to attack at his command and fixed his sight ahead, the Rebels fired their planetary ion cannon at the Tyrant—an officer reported that com-scan detected power fluctuations on the planet's surface, but before the captain could request clarification, he identified the flashes of incoming ion blasts—one struck the Tyrants dorsal superstructure while another hit its conning tower, forcing Lennox onto the deck floor and removing his cap.
Lennox's vessel lost its shields and helm control, allowing the Rebel ships to escape the star system. Due to the energy surge, Lennox realized that the Star Destroyer's bridge also lost its console displays and lighting, and the ion blast also deactivated a droid and affected Lennox's myoelectric hip replacement, which caused his foot to tap wildly. Despite the chaos, Lennox attempted to stand and told Cabbel to belay his commands for all stations to report, realizing that the Tyrant, albeit veering off course, would not collide with Hoth and that the Accuser would have to replace his ship's point position.
The incapacitated Tyrant was unable to stop the Rebels escaping the Battle of Hoth.
The Tyrants bridge further suffered from the loss of artificial gravity, forcing Lennox to grasp a handhold while he watched his crew, who were strapped into their stations, attempt to secure a tumbling Cabbel. Lennox concluded from the impact of the ion cannon that the weapon was a large emplacement on Hoth, and the captain dismissed his crew's futile status reports as he became aware that the Tyrant would remain debilitated until after the battle's outcome was clear.
Captain Lennox during his attack on the Champion
Lennox's crew was able to repair the Star Destroyer as the battle raged on. Soldiers of the Imperial 501st Legion had captured the Rebel General Crix Madine on Hoth and took him to the Tyrants docking bay via a shuttle, intending to transfer him to prison on the planet Dathomir. Captain Lennox summoned one of the soldiers to report the battle's status on the bridge, but the Tyrant was hit by another ion blast, prompting Lennox to alert his crew of a possible Rebel boarding action, order his helmsman to repair the inoperative systems, and instruct the soldier to secure Madine in the Tyrants brig.
Indeed, Rebel commandos took advantage of the ship's ion damage to board it, rescue Madine from the brig, and return to Hoth aboard a stolen Lambda-class shuttle before evacuating with the Rebel cruiser Champion. When the Champion prepared to enter hyperspace for the Rebel rendezvous point, Captain Lennox's Tyrant attacked the vessel and launched his Star Destroyer's TIEs, offering to call off the attack if the Rebels handed over General Madine. The captain of the Champion refused such a deal and launched X-wings and Y-wings that held off Lennox's forces and allowed the Rebels to flee. Ultimately, the Empire either captured or destroyed seventeen of the thirty transports fleeing Echo Base, scattering the rest of the Rebellion.
Lennox's operatives captured potential threats to the Empire, such as Lobot of Cloud City (pictured).
After the Battle of Hoth, Darth Vader sent a communication that Lennox received in his ready room on the Tyrant with the Imperial soldier whom he had summoned earlier. Lennox's forces were assigned to the mining colony Cloud City on the gas giant Bespin in the nearby Bespin system, where he would drive away Rachi Sitra, a Jedi Diplomat who was making trouble for Imperial negotiations with the city. Vader ended the message warning Lennox not to fail again, and Lennox assigned the Imperial soldier to lead the attack on the Jedi. After two days, the Tyrant reached the Bespin system, and the Imperial soldier took a number of troops in a shuttle to Cloud City and forced Sitra to flee from the colony before Darth Vader's arrival with Death Squadron, which had been pursuing Rebels through the Hoth asteroid field between Hoth and Bespin.
The soldier alerted Lennox of Sitra's departure via hologram, and the captain ordered the operative to remove Rebel sympathizers from Cloud City's lower levels, giving the soldier locations to search and names of suspected sympathizers. However, before the soldier could investigate any suspects, Cloud City's Baron Administrator, Lando Calrissian, advised his people to evacuate. In the ensuing chaos, the soldier captured Calrissian's top aide, Lobot, and prevented Rebel commandos from rescuing the Rebel Captain Han Solo from Vader's forces. When Lennox debriefed the operative aboard the Tyrant, he praised the soldier's removal of the Jedi and their work in keeping the Rebels from interfering with Vader's business, and he further assured that the Empire would provide the soldier with another worthy assignment.
Lennox retained his post as captain of the Tyrant and served in Death Squadron at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, where the Rebels destroyed the second Death Star superweapon and killed Vader and Emperor Palpatine, fracturing the Empire. Several years later, shortly after the Bacta War of 7 ABY, Lennox's Tyrant was captured by the Rebel Alliance's successor, the New Republic. With Lennox imprisoned, the New Republic renamed his ship Rebel Dream and made it the flagship of Princess Leia Organa.
Lennox and Cabbel on the Tyrant at the Battle of Hoth
Xamuel Lennox was a Human man with angular features, short brown hair and brown eyebrows, dark eyes, light skin with a mole on his left cheek, and a deep voice. Lennox received years of training and sought to honor his forebears as a noble officer himself. Proving himself to be an adept tactician and capable leader, he commanded the Imperial Star Destroyer Tyrant and was dedicated to it and its crew; he cared more about his crew's wellbeing than his own political advancement, and gave compliments to his subordinates if they succeeded in their assignments.
Lennox hated the Empire being mired with corruption, backstabbing, and political maneuvering, unlike the noble values his ancestors had served. However, he was also a cautious man and was wary of being swept away by the war machine of the Empire just as the Republic was made obsolete. Having played his colleagues at their own game by practicing deception as ably as he did warfare, Lennox grew cynical with the belief that the only truth was the universality of deceit. Combined with the Galactic Civil War, Lennox's station took a significant toll on his conscience, becoming disillusioned with the Empire's depravity while also holding the Rebellion in contempt for starting the war, viewing them as immoral and hypocritical—he believed that they were attempting to rebuild a Republic that had been just as corrupt as the Empire they demonized.
Lieutenant Cabbel, Lennox's first officer
Despite his command abilities, Lennox's tactics during the Battle of Turkana and his refusal to listen to the advice of Captain Piett led to the Empire's defeat and Piett's subsequent recommendation of Lennox's removal from command of Imperial naval forces in the Pakuuni sector. By the time of the Battle of Hoth, Lennox was familiar with ion cannon emplacements. While some naval recruits could not cope with the constant noise and vibration aboard a Star Destroyer, Lennox missed the thrum while not on a starship, regarding it as the Tyrants heartbeat.
Lennox restrained his expressions, keeping his hands clasped behind himself but making eye contact with Cabbel and slightly smiling upon the lieutenant's report of incoming Rebel ships at the Battle of Hoth; he was undaunted by whatever arsenal the Rebels had, confident about his ship and Death Squadron's capabilities, and focused on the approaching spacecraft. The captain was quick to identify the trails of the ion cannon blasts hitting his Star Destroyer and was alert of the resulting mayhem around him but remained calm, analyzing the situation's implications for the Imperial fleet and his vessel while promptly securing himself when artificial gravity deactivated. Lennox scowled as he concluded that the Tyrant would remain knocked out of action during the decisive stages of the Battle of Hoth.
As an Imperial captain, Lennox wore the standard uniform of an Imperial naval command officer, donning a cap and black gloves. He had a single code cylinder beside a rank insignia plaque on his left chest that featured three red bars above three blue bars. At the time of the Hoth campaign, he had received a myoelectric replacement for his right hip.
Lennox first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back novelization.
Xamuel Lennox's character and his Star Destroyer, the Tyrant, first appeared misidentified as Captain Needa and his Star Destroyer, the Avenger, in Donald F. Glut's April 1980 novelization of the original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, which was later released in May that year. Lennox appears in the film, where he is portrayed by John Dicks, listed among the Imperial character credits as one of the "other officers." Interior Star Destroyer scenes were filmed between April 17–30, 1979, on Elstree Studios' Stage 5.
The 1996 Hoth Limited set of Decipher's Star Wars Customizable Card Game named the character Lennox, "Xamuel" was made his first name in the article "The Empire's Finest: Who's Who in the Imperial Military," published in the September 4, 2007 ninety-sixth issue of the Star Wars Insider magazine with writing by Abel G. Peña and Daniel Wallace.
"The Empire's Finest," which expanded on Lennox's character, was originally written in 2002 for publication alongside Peña and Wallace's "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" article in the Star Wars Gamer magazine prior to its cancelation. Peña initially intended Lennox's first name to be "Corazon," the Spanish word for "heart," feeling that it tied into the character's inner conflict regarding the Empire and the Rebellion, but the author changed it to "Xamuel" prior to The Empire's Finests release. Peña decided that borrowing words from another language was an overused method of naming and settled on the United States Founding Father Samuel Adams as an inspiration—although Peña admitted that he was thinking of Samuel Adams beer at the time. The author regarded Lennox as one of the "good" Imperials that he had written about and had wanted to revisit the character, whom he described as adapting to situations that were ethically untenable.
"The Empire's Finest" mentioned that there was initially some confusion among fans about Lennox's only line in The Empire Strikes Back being erroneously attributed to Firmus Piett; the article explains that although Lennox's face is not fully visible in the scene, his voice was much deeper than Piett's. The article also claims that part of the confusion was due to the film novelization mistakenly giving the line to Piett, but the novel actually misattributed it to Captain Needa.
Captain Lennox (right) in Star Wars: X-Wing
The introductory scene of the 1993 video game Star Wars: X-Wing features artwork that traces Captain Lennox's scene with Lieutenant Cabbel in The Empire Strikes Back, albeit with ungloved hands, and the 2014 reference title Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide confirms that Lennox participated in the events of the game, set before the Battle of Yavin, as captain of the Tyrant.
The Imperial soldier serving Lennox mentioned in the article biography is the player character of the Dark Side scenario campaign of the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Games 2010 set, The Price of Victory. Unlike his film appearance, Captain Lennox's card in that set features him with a thin brown moustache and lacking his code cylinder.
The commander (left) resembling Lennox in Crimson Empire
A character visually resembling Xamuel Lennox appears in the fifth issue of Empire Lost, the third mini-series of the Star Wars: Crimson Empire comic series. The issue was written by Mike Richardson, illustrated by Paul Gulacy and Michael Bartolo, and published by Dark Horse Comics on March 7, 2012. This article refrains from assuming that the character was Xamuel Lennox.
The character had clearly brown-colored eyes and was an Imperial Remnant commander at a meeting of the Council of Moffs on the world Orinda around 13 ABY, when Admiral Gilad Pellaeon convened the group to discuss a treaty with the New Republic. After the council received news that the Republic had murdered the Imperial Feena D'Asta—who was in fact killed by a dissident Imperial faction—the commander argued against retaliating against the New Republic, believing that doing so could potentially weaken the Imperial fleet following their prior defeat in the Pallaxides system. Despite the commander's objection, Admiral Pellaeon and the council chose to strike back at the New Republic.
Captain Lennox is among the characters whose name can be randomly selected as an Imperial leader in the 2001 video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegroundss standard game mode, and in its 2002 expansion Clone Campaigns. Given that the Imperial leaders' mentions are independent of the game's plots, they are non-canonical with respect to the Star Wars Legends continuity.
Jason Fry's story focuses on Lennox facing the consequences of the Rebel ion cannon on Hoth (pictured).
Jason Fry wrote a story expanding on Captain Lennox's experiences during the events of The Empire Strikes Back for his April 2012 reference title, The Essential Guide to Warfare, but it was cut from publication. The story was instead released on StarWars.com on August 8, 2014 as part of the eleventh installment of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, which presents various material cut from the book. Titled "A SOLDIER'S STORY: HIT BY AN ION CANNON," the story piqued the interest of Warfare editor Erich Schoeneweiss, who thought that Fry could further expand the story into a much larger exploration of the impact of the ion cannon strikes on Lennox and his ship.
- Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays
- Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook, Special Edition
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Illustrated Screenplay
- Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Star Wars: Behind the Magic
- "The Battle of Hoth" — Star Wars Gamer 6
- Rebellion Era Sourcebook
- The Official Star Wars Fact File4
- "The Empire's Finest: Who's Who in the Imperial Military" — Star Wars Insider 96
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Star Wars in 100 Scenes
- Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide