Doctor Artoz, a Mon Calamari male and a starship systems engineer, served the Mon Calamari Knights during the Clone Wars. Following the founding of the Galactic Empire, he joined Berch Teller's rebel cell, driven by a desire for vengeance after the Antar Atrocity. The Empire eventually apprehended him, and he was quietly executed.
During the Clone Wars, Doctor Artoz worked as a starship systems engineer and fought for the Mon Calamari Knights. After the Galactic Republic transformed into the Galactic Empire, Dr. Artoz found himself stationed at Desolation Station. There, he unknowingly worked on the hyperdrive components of the Death Star project, unaware of the superweapon's true destructive power. It was at Desolation Station that Berch Teller, a former Republic Intelligence officer turned insurgent leader, recruited Artoz into his insurgent cell. Teller sought Artoz's expertise in stygian crystal stealth systems.
Teller's rebel cell was composed of various individuals who had either survived or witnessed the horrors of the Antar Atrocity, a brutal Imperial purge that indiscriminately targeted civilians, including Republic loyalists, on the moon Antar 4. Teller and his followers harbored intense hatred for Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the mastermind behind the Antar Atrocity. In the years leading up to 14 BBY, Teller and his followers managed to acquire various Clone Wars-era weaponry, starships, and communications jammers with the assistance of Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit, the Director of the Naval Intelligence Agency and a rival of Tarkin.
Following the attack on Sentinel Base, Teller formulated a scheme to commandeer Moff Tarkin's stealth corvette, the Carrion Spike, with the intention of launching an insurgency against the Empire. Through Teller's contact Knotts, the insurgents secured several fuel cells from Faazah, a crime lord affiliated with the Sugi, and the Crymorah Syndicate. Furthermore, Vice-Admiral Rancit aided the insurgents by planting a communications cache on the planet Murkhana, spreading rumors of insurgent attacks on the Imperial HoloNet reminiscent of the Separatist Shadowfeed broadcasts of the Clone Wars. Acting on the Emperor's orders, Vader and Tarkin journeyed to Murkhana to investigate the communications cache.
Teller's operation included Dr. Artoz, the Gotal pilot Salikk, the Koorivar operations specialist Cala, the former journalist Anora Fair, and the Zygerrian film-maker Hask Taff. The insurgents used a false transmission to lure Sergeant Crest and the stormtroopers guarding the Carrion Spike away from their posts. They then boarded the ship, eliminating the captain, comms officer, and two stormtroopers. After gaining control of the vessel and escaping into space, Artoz provided his comrades with a detailed briefing on the corvette's weapons controls, navigation computer, stealth system initiator, sublight ions, and hyperdrive.
While Artoz continued to describe the ship's systems, Anora inquired about the location of the toilet controls. During the rebels' conversation, Artoz revealed that the Carrion Spike was designed by a consortium of shipwrights, including Sienar Fleet Systems, Theed Engineering, and Cygnus Spaceworks. After Teller discussed Tarkin's involvement in designing the Carrion Spike with its narrow profile and swivel cannons, Cala commented on their potential usefulness. Artoz concurred, before listing the ship's proximity alarms, hypercomm unit, and Imperial HoloNet encryptor.
Shortly thereafter, Salikk detected the crime lord Faazah's starship Parsec Predator on the Carrion Spike's transponder. Unaware that Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader had commandeered the Parsec Predator, Artoz initially believed that the Sugi was heading to the same hyperspace jump point. However, the rebel crew soon noticed that the Parsec Predator was mirroring their every maneuver. Realizing they were being pursued, Artoz assured them that they could outrun the Predator if necessary. Upon realizing that Vader was in pursuit, Teller ordered Salikk to initiate a jump into hyperspace. Despite their escape into hyperspace, Lord Vader managed to track them due to the presence of a meditation sphere onboard.
After leaving the Murkhana system and passing through the Fial system, Teller's insurgents attacked the Imperial station located in the Galidraan system. Utilizing the Carrion Spike's cloaking technology, the insurgents inflicted substantial damage on the station, overwhelming the defending V-wing and ARC-170 starfighters. Tarkin and Vader arrived in the Parsec Predator, but their ship was disabled by the Carrion Spike's powerful pintle guns.
Despite the success of the raid, the Carrion Spike sustained damage to its air lock controls and hyperdrive generator. While searching the ship's cargo hold for tracking devices, Artoz discovered Darth Vader's meditation sphere in cargo hold one and informed Teller. Although unaware of the device's true function, Artoz informed Teller that the black sphere was not connected to the ship's stealth systems. Having thoroughly searched the ship, Artoz concluded that the meditation sphere was the homing beacon Vader had used to track them to the Fial and Galidraan systems. With Teller's assistance, Artoz ejected Vader's meditation sphere. Before departing the Galidraan system, the rebels destroyed the system's hyperspace buoy.
Following the raid on Galidraan, the insurgents raided the TaggeCo mining facilities on Lucazec and broadcast footage of their attacks on the HoloNet, drawing the attention of the Emperor and other high-ranking Imperial officials. After the raid, the insurgents journeyed to a remote system containing a barren volcanic world. Following advice from Teller's informant, Rancit, who told them to avoid Gromas due to the presence of an Imperial task force, the group decided to travel to Phindar in the Mandalore sector to refuel their ship.
When Artoz inquired whether this information had been verified, Teller confirmed that he had consulted multiple sources. Teller then informed his followers that Tarkin had previously tracked pirates by calculating their fuel consumption. To counter this, Teller disguised himself as Imperial Commander Abel LaSal to refuel the Carrion Spike without attracting Imperial attention. This ruse proved successful, and the Carrion Spike docked with an orbital tanker above Phindar.
While refueling, Artoz waited in the ship's cockpit alongside Teller, Anora, Hask, and Cala. As the refueling process neared completion, Teller and Cala spotted an Imperial escort carrier exiting hyperspace. This vessel was revealed to be the Goliath, commanded by Tarkin and Lord Vader. The Phindian administrator aboard the station, suspicious of Commander LaSal, had alerted Tarkin. Artoz initially believed that the escort carrier had arrived to refuel, until the ship performed a microjump and deployed several V-wing starfighters. Realizing that the Empire had caught up with them, Artoz and Cala prepared to jump into hyperspace.
As the hyperdrive was charging, the Carrion Spike circled the Phindar tanker to prevent the Imperials from targeting their vessel. A brief dogfight ensued, during which the insurgents managed to shoot down four Imperial starfighters. Once the hyperdrive was ready, the Carrion Spike activated its cloaking device before jumping into hyperspace. Before departing, the insurgents also detonated the tanker using a concealed explosive within a spent fuel cell.
Following the dogfight above Phindar, Artoz and his fellow insurgents sought refuge in the Expansion Region system designated as LCC-4-4-7, situated between the planets Aquaris and Thustra. There, they listened as their leader, Berch Teller, recounted Tarkin's ruthless history within the Outland Regions Security Force. Teller asserted that the Emperor, along with his disciples Vader and Tarkin, was in the process of purging the galaxy. He explained that they had stolen Tarkin's starship, the Carrion Spike, to transform an Imperial symbol into an emblem of resistance against the Empire.
Later, Teller and Salikk discovered a fuel discrepancy in the Carrion Spike's systems. When Teller sought Artoz's advice, the Mon Cal suggested that the hyperdrive motivator was malfunctioning and proposed recalibrating the synchronization relays. Teller then dispatched Cala, clad in a hazmat suit, to inspect the fuel cells they had acquired on Phindar. Artoz suggested to Cala that a faulty fuel cell might be the source of the problem. Shortly thereafter, Cala returned with a supposedly empty fuel cell containing a Paralight tracker, a type of HoloNet transceiver that interpreted commands from the ship's navicomputer. Realizing that Tarkin was tracking them, Teller and the insurgents decided to transmit a false set of coordinates, indicating that the Carrion Spike was heading towards the Obroa-skai system.
Furthermore, Teller enlisted the information broker Knotts to hire the crew of the freighter Reticent to travel from Taris and Thustra to Obroa-skai as decoys. Acting on this misinformation, Tarkin and Vader amassed a substantial Imperial force, including three interdictor vessels, in the Obroa-skai system. However, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser's gravity well projector malfunctioned, resulting in a massive accident in the Obroa-skai system that claimed 1,100 lives and damaged numerous starships.
Despite this setback, Tarkin and Vader managed to capture and interrogate the crew of the Reticent, discovering Knotts's connection to both the Obroa-skai incident and the theft of the Carrion Spike. After reviewing Imperial files on the HoloNet, Tarkin uncovered information about Teller and his followers, including Artoz. He deduced that the insurgents were former Republic loyalists seeking revenge for his role in the Antar Atrocity.
Artoz and his insurgent companions subsequently raided the Imperial facility within the Nouane system. However, Vice-Admiral Rancit had strengthened the system's defenses. The rebels managed to escape aboard the Carrion Spike, but the ship sustained significant damage to its weapons and operational systems. Following the unsuccessful attack, Artoz tended to Salikk's facial injuries. When Hask remarked that the Empire had released holovids of the Nouane engagement, Artoz quipped that this had negatively impacted their ratings. Anora then warned Teller that his secret informant, Rancit, had betrayed them.
When Teller asked Artoz if the wounded Salikk would survive, the Gotal replied that he would live long enough to finish the fight. When Teller decided to abandon the Carrion Spike and send the empty ship on auto-pilot to the Colonies world of Carida, Artoz cautioned that the Empire would not rest until they were found and dealt with.
In response, Vice-Admiral Rancit assembled an Imperial fleet, including the Secutor-class Star Destroyer Conquest, to intercept the Carrion Spike. Rancit also secretly intended to destroy the Carrion Spike to eliminate all evidence of his treason, hoping to exploit the situation to elevate his position within the Imperial Ruling Council. However, Lord Vader discovered Rancit's treachery and prevented him from destroying the Carrion Spike. He then executed the Vice-Admiral by ordering him to enter an escape pod and issue the command to destroy the ship.
After evacuating the Carrion Spike, Artoz and his comrades rendezvoused with Knotts aboard Berch Teller's warship, a modified Providence-class carrier-destroyer, near the Gulf of Tatooine. Artoz had received intelligence indicating that an Imperial convoy transporting supplies for the clandestine Death Star project would emerge from hyperspace at the system's edge before proceeding to the Imperial marshaling station at Pii, then Sentinel Base and Geonosis. With the Imperial Navy spread across the galaxy, the convoy was relatively vulnerable.
When Knotts inquired about any news from Rancit on Carida, Artoz replied that there was none. Unaware that Vader had executed Rancit, Teller speculated that Rancit believed they had abandoned their cause. Teller further speculated that their planned raid on the Imperial convoy would damage Rancit's career and lead to his dismissal from Naval Intelligence. When Artoz asked about Tarkin, Knotts replied that the Moff would reclaim his "precious corvette." Knotts then asked Artoz how much the attack on the Imperial convoy would hinder their progress.
Drawing upon his experience at Desolation Station, Artoz explained that work on the hyperdrive components had been ongoing for three years prior to his arrival. He estimated that the attack would set the Empire back by four years. While Teller hoped that their group's actions would spark a rebellion, Artoz pointed out that the Empire was producing numerous Imperial Star Destroyers. Even if they disrupted the Empire's weapons project on Geonosis, Artoz acknowledged that their rebellion had little chance of success due to the Empire's overwhelming military strength. He also dismissed the Imperial Senate as an ineffective body unable to restrain the Empire. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, Artoz shared Teller's resolve to maintain hope and do what they could to resist.
As anticipated, the Imperial convoy exited hyperspace. After jamming their communications, the insurgents attacked the convoy with their Providence-class carrier-destroyer, a Nebulon-B escort frigate, swarms of droid tri-fighters, and several starfighters. Before they could destroy the convoy, Moff Tarkin arrived aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Executrix. After deploying starfighters to protect the convoy, he destroyed the Nebulon-B frigate before bombarding the insurgent's carrier-destroyer. With the battle turning against them, Anora and Salikk convinced Teller to flee in his Z-95 Headhunter into hyperspace.
Following the insurgent's carrier-destroyer being boarded, Dr. Artoz and his comrades were captured by Moff Tarkin's Imperial forces. Tarkin personally greeted Artoz and his fellow captives, including Anora, Hask, and Knotts. Artoz remained silent and defiant when Tarkin inquired about Teller's whereabouts, leading the Moff to conclude that the insurgent leader had escaped.
After the Battle near the Gulf of Tatooine, Artoz, along with Teller's followers and collaborators, were interrogated by Tarkin, Lord Vader, and the Imperial Security Bureau. Although the ISB advocated for a public execution, the Emperor ordered them to be executed in private to prevent them from becoming martyrs.
Dr. Artoz was a male Mon Calamari who worked as a starship systems engineer. As a Mon Calamari, Artoz possessed a high-domed, salmon-colored head, large webbed hands, and prominent eyes. He also emitted a saline odor. Due to his profession as a starship engineer, he had knowledge of Moff Tarkin's stealth corvette, the Carrion Spike, as parts of the ship's stygian crystal stealth systems were manufactured at the Mon Cala shipyards after the concept-design team abandoned their attempts to utilize hibridium.
Dr. Artoz utilized his engineering skills to assist Teller and his fellow insurgents in crewing Tarkin's stolen corvette, the Carrion Spike, during Teller's brief insurgency. Despite recognizing that he and his fellow dissidents were outnumbered and outgunned by the Empire, he shared Teller's belief that they should maintain hope and resist the Empire to the best of their ability.
Dr. Artoz made his first appearance in James Luceno's 2014 canon novel Tarkin.