Laurita Tohm

In his youth, Laurita Tohm resided with his extended family within a mining installation. His parents, employed as tibanna gas miners, assigned Tohm minor responsibilities. During the period of the Clone Wars, representatives from the Confederacy of Independent Systems arrived at the family's residence and made the decision to destroy the facility. Tohm, while carrying a tool kit, discovered his parents bound to the gas mining equipment, with explosives positioned around them. His mother urged him to flee, but in a state of shock, Tohm had barely turned away when the explosives detonated. He suffered the loss of his left arm up to the shoulder, as well as his left eye, and sustained extensive scarring across his face and body. Tragically, both of his parents, his four brothers, his two aunts and three uncles, and nine cousins perished in the attack, leaving Tohm orphaned and alone.

Subsequently, Tohm enrolled in the Raithal Academy, refusing to let his physical challenges hinder his progress. In 19 BBY, a few months subsequent to the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Tohm graduated at the top of his class. Despite being subjected to teasing by his fellow cadets, including his friends Shens and Caul Gentis, his unwavering dedication to studying propelled him to the position of valedictorian. Cadets from six different academies across the galaxy converged on the planet of Coruscant, the capital, to participate in the inaugural graduating class of Imperial officers. Their training, along with that of the Empire's clones and other military personnel, had been expedited from the typical years to a mere few months. Prominent Imperial figures, including Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, were in attendance. General Gentis, a hero of the Clone Wars and Tohm's personal idol, presided over the brief ceremonies and bestowed upon Tohm the rank of lieutenant in recognition of his exceptional performance at the Academy. After the promotion, Gentis briefly inquired about the impact of Tohm's deformities on his excellence, then encouraged him to maintain his superior work.

Following this, Tohm attended a celebratory gala at the urging of Shens and Caul, despite his reservations about his appearance and his stated desire to analyze the First Battle of Geonosis. Caul reassured him that the young women present would either overlook his appearance or feel sympathy for his condition. Tohm reluctantly agreed, hoping to meet superior officers during the event, but Headmaster Gentis surprised the trio by informing Tohm that his new assignment had already arrived. Tohm was to join a secret project led by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's fleet, with Tarkin arriving within a week to collect his new recruits. Gentis then instructed Caul and Shens to ensure Tohm's safety—their first order as officers, a directive that Tohm would not fully comprehend until later.

With beverages in hand, Caul and Shens escorted Tohm to a nearby security center, revealing a platform filled with prototype TIE/LN starfighters. Tohm hesitated at the prospect of flying one, but Caul reminded him that Tohm, like the rest of them, had always dreamed of being a pilot and that he knew Tohm was capable of flying the fighter. Tohm conceded, believing that he could gain valuable professional experience, but upon entering the cockpit, the engines failed to start. He looked to his friends, who avoided his gaze, and they confessed that this was done to keep him out of trouble for the night. Tohm demanded answers and his release, but Shens had sliced the locking mechanism, and they told him that he'd be free in a few hours, and that everything would be over by then.

Initially, Tohm dismissed their actions as a prank, unaware of their true motives, yet he remained determined to escape the fighter. He swiftly and skillfully activated the ejection seat on the fighter, launching himself high above the cityscape—just in time to witness the true intentions of Gentis and his classmates.

Explosions reverberated across the cityscape for kilometers, eliminating seventy-two Imperial targets within minutes. The officer's club, various stormtrooper garrisons, the Comm Towers, and a supply depot were all destroyed. Tohm landed on Imperial Plaza, which had become ground zero in the battle that erupted, as "terrorist" forces swarmed through the city streets, fighting with the Empire's clone forces. The stormtroopers were losing the battle, and Tohm was saved by a stormtrooper who pulled him behind cover. The trooper demanded some sort of chain of command until Tohm pointed out the appearance of Darth Vader himself. Vader was leading stormtrooper reinforcements, cutting down their attackers on all sides with his lightsaber. As the terrorist forces fled, Vader threw a large piece of broken stone atop several enemy soldiers, crushing them beneath its weight. Tohm requisitioned a blaster from a trooper, then rushed into the battle, still not realizing the source of the attacks. One enemy, his body crushed, grabbed Tohm's ankle as he passed and asked for help. Tohm bent and removed the man's mask, revealing him to be his friend Shens. Shens told him that Gentis was orchestrating the attacks in an attempt to assassinate Palpatine, and asked Tohm to join them out of loyalty. He told Tohm that the coup was because Gentis knew that Palpatine would carelessly waste their lives in his warmongering, but Tohm demanded to know why he wasn't recruited. Shens told him that it was because he always stood out too much, but begged him to stand with them now and kill Lord Vader. Tohm thought for a brief moment, then told Shens he should have been asked earlier, before shooting his friend in the head.

Vader approached, and Tohm bowed to him, affirming to the Sith Lord that his allegiance lay not with Gentis, but with Vader and the Emperor. Vader simply instructed Tohm to follow him. As the pair made their way from the plaza, another explosion tore through the nearby buildings, unleashing a potent necrotic virus known as Aorth-6. Dozens of Imperials, including Royal Guardsmen, were killed by the aerosolized virus, which liquified them from the inside out. Tohm donned a breathing device that he had taken from the TIE fighter when he ejected and followed Vader inside. Though one of Palpatine's guardsmen claimed that the Emperor was dead, Tohm and Vader found him still alive, bleeding from the mouth and nose. Palpatine was using the dark side of the Force to keep the virus at bay, but was losing the battle even with his formidable powers. Moff Trachta appeared, and Vader accused Trachta of being in league with the conspiracy, but the Moff vehemently denied it. Trachta told Vader that they needed to get the Emperor into hiding; fear of his power was the only thing keeping the Empire together. Once Palpatine agreed, the trio escorted the Emperor to a secret hangar below the Imperial Palace, where they loaded him aboard a stealth transport.

Once safe, Trachta revealed that Gentis had pretended to want to meet the Emperor in order to present his most prized students, but instead unleashed the virus. He urged them to move the Emperor immediately, fearing Gentis's troops and discovery by his slicers, and cautioned against underestimating Gentis. Tohm then interjected, saying that Gentis had done all this because he was tired of losing his students. Trachta pointed out that Gentis must not have trusted Tohm, but that he didn't either, and he pointed his blaster at the back of Tohm's head. Before he could pull the trigger, Vader grabbed Trachta's wrist, knocking the weapon from his grasp. As he crushed Trachta's cybernetic arm beneath his own mechanical grip, he made it clear that he was in control. Trachta suggested that they hide the Emperor on Kessel or in The Maw, but Tohm pointed out that any Imperial system might be compromised, due to Gentis's influence.

Vader then remembered of a place he had once heard of, but he needed more information, and took Tohm to the ruined Jedi Temple in order to get it. While they were gone, Gentis's engineers sent a command to every droid within five kilometers to kill any Imperial officer they saw. Dormant Jedi training droids activated within the temple and attacked Tohm and Vader with their lightsabers. Tohm held his own in the battle, taking out several of the droids with his blaster, but it was Vader's mastery of the Force which allowed them overcome their attackers.

Vader then led Tohm into the High Council Chamber and called up a holorecording of a Jedi High Council meeting that Anakin Skywalker had attended. As he watched, Tohm was baffled to find the Jedi—whom he'd never even seen before—"arguing like children". Skywalker demanded to know what happened to the myriad prisoners he had captured over the course of the war, but the Council told him that he was chasing rumors and nothing more. Skywalker persisted, saying that he would get the truth from then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, but Obi-Wan Kenobi calmed him, though Skywalker still left angry. The Jedi Masters further discussed the topic after Skywalker left, revealing that the secret prison was a tightly-kept secret, even from the Chancellor and the GAR. The Jedi believed that the Republic Security Force couldn't contain the Force-users, cyborgs, shape shifters and others that they had captured, and that once the war was over, they would then receive fair and open trials. Kenobi was displeased, but obeyed the Council's wishes, still asking that he be allowed to visit the prison himself. Master of the Order Mace Windu revealed the prison's location and urged Kenobi not to take Anakin. When Kenobi agreed, Vader flew into a rage, destroying the Council chambers and shouting that the Emperor had been right, that they had been plotting against the two of them from the beginning. He then urged Tohm to remember that the Jedi believed in too many ambiguities, when there was only the Empire, and everyone else.

With their new information, the Imperials left for the Diab system, where the Prism was hidden. Over the course of the three day journey, Tohm attempted to connect with the Force, and even tried to pull his blaster toward himself, but Trachta walked in on his attempt and told him it would be unwise to discover any Force-sensitivity at that point. Tohm tried to make excuses for what Trachta had seen, but the older soldier was uninterested. The two then recounted the tales of their mutual disfigurations to one another; Trachta had been tracking a Dark Jedi Padawan who had fallen in league with Count Dooku during the Clone Wars, but when he cornered the Padawan, he threw a thermal detonator at Trachta and his clones, incinerating the man's arms, eyes, and ruining his respiratory system. Trachta then commended Tohm on several qualities that it seemed Vader valued greatly, such as Tohm's ability to mask his emotions, yet asked him if two men—such as Gentis and Vader—both claim to serve the Empire, which of them was a traitor? Tohm replied that whomever tried to kill the Emperor, but Trachta retorted that a traitor is only thus if he fails.

Though electrical storms at Diab caused their sensors to malfunction, Tohm was able to find the Prism, and they landed quickly. The Imperials were greeted by a bewildered Jedi Master and a force of security droids, but Vader cut down the Jedi before she knew what was happening, and all three quickly dealt with the droids. They brought Palpatine to the prison's medical center, where they were able to staunch the disintegration of his body. Tohm then accessed the prison's databank, learning that there were two-hundred and eight prisoners held there, with over half for them arrested by Anakin Skywalker. Tohm didn't think it could be true, but Vader told Tohm that Skywalker was an impressive Jedi. Tohm asked what happened to Skywalker, and Vader said that he had killed him, then telling Tohm to wipe the system clean. Trachta, however, wanted to find a particular prisoner, and had Tohm help him locate the individual. It turned out that the Padawan who had so terribly disfigured Trachta was imprisoned there, and the cyborg decided to spend several hours beating and torturing him to death, and had Tohm seal them in together.

Later, Tohm approached Lord Vader with an idea. Knowing that they couldn't trust any Imperials they might contact, Tohm believed that he could raise an army a different way—if Vader would allow him to release all the prisoners.

Vader amended Tohm's idea, and rather than simply releasing the prisoners, he forced 207 of them to fight one another, as well as Tohm and himself, for the right to serve the Empire.

The fighting that erupted was brutal, with bodies accumulating quickly. Tohm was attacked by a Separatist, General Ur'Loach. The general had wrapped his long tongue around Tohm's neck and was attempting to draw him into his large maw, a move that he was known for—beheading his enemies with his own teeth. As Ur'Loach knocked the blaster from Tohm's hand and prepared to kill him, another Separatist, Shonn Volta, pulled Tohm's blaster toward herself and shot Ur'Loach through the mouth, killing him and saving Tohm's life. Tohm thanked her, but she told him that it was a self-serving act, and that if they worked together, they'd both live and he could pardon her sentence.

In the end, only thirty-three prisoners survived in fighting condition, and Vader ordered Trachta to tell the survivors what it meant to serve the Empire. Trachta informed them all that their crimes were now forgotten, but their reasons for committing them were not—they would now serve an institution not beholden to the "selfish" senators of the Republic, nor the Jedi Order. The prisoners knelt before Trachta and the others, yet Volta remained standing. Vader commanded her to kneel as well, but she instead asked why the prisoners were needed. Vader took his lightsaber from his belt, but Tohm stepped in front of the Dark Lord, telling Volta that they had been betrayed, and that with her service she could become an Imperial or even go free. Volta accepted, and knelt before the pair. Trachta then told the survivors that their training would begin that night.

As they left, Tohm encountered a survivor, N'won Raines. Raines was a cyborg, his body in shambles, yet he reached out for Lieutenant Tohm, begging for help. Tohm brought this to Vader's attention, hoping to help the wounded cyborg, but Vader felt no such pity. He ordered Tohm to execute Raines. Tohm placed his blaster against Raines's head, with the cyborg feebly attempting to put out his hand to stop him, but Vader ordered Tohm to save his ammunition and handed the lieutenant a metal pipe instead. Tohm apologized to Raines, and as Raines once more vainly tried to reach out, Tohm beat the cyborg to death.

Immediately afterward, Tohm ran into a medical bay where Trachta was being seen to by a medical droid, and became ill. As Tohm vomited, disgusted by the act he had committed, Trachta recognized that the young man had clearly done something horrible for Vader. Trachta then urged Tohm to consider following him instead of Vader, claiming that the Sith Lord only knew how to make followers, whereas Trachta could train Tohm to be a leader.

Tohm later asked Volta, the Force-sensitive sniper, to meet him again, standing on a platform outside the prison. There she expertly shot the heads off of five 2-1B surgical droids while talking with Tohm, who was reading her prison files for the mission records he was compiling. Volta angrily informed him that the prison's records were not complete, and told him of the terrible things the Republic and the Jedi had done to her and her loved ones. Tohm then told her that he had wanted to be a pilot too, like Volta's father, but that he no longer could. He then suddenly realized that Volta's experience with hyperspace study could allow them to save Tarkin from the trap Gentis had lain.

Tohm and Volta used her hyperspace expertise to find Tarkin while he changed hyperspace lanes at the nexus of several trade routes. Successfully finding and hailing his vessel, the Imperials and freed prisoners secreted themselves within Tarkin's shuttle. As they landed, Volta told Tohm to stay close to her.

Gentis amassed his cadets to greet Tarkin's shuttle, planning on finally cementing his hold on the Empire. Tarkin disembarked along with his stormtroopers, but was immediately surrounded by the cadets. Gentis confronted Tarkin, wanting him taken alive for interrogation, and told him his reasons for the coup. Tarkin was unapologetic, not caring about the hundreds of innocent cadets who had died under his command. When Gentis told Tarkin that his own sons had been killed by the policies of the Emperor, he was told by Vader that he would see them again soon.

Gentis looked up in horror as Vader emerged from the shuttle alongside Tohm, Trachta, Volta and rest of the deadly ex-prisoners. Though Gentis's forces outnumbered the attackers by eight to one, there was no accounting for the disparate skills Vader's group brought to the fight. Vader himself unleashed a violent Force wave while the prisoners slaughtered the cadets. Tohm's former friend, Caul, ordered Koh, a demolitions expert, to hit their attackers with grenades, but Volta shot Koh before he could throw the armed explosives, which detonated in the midst of the cadets.

Caul retreated among the scattered and wounded cadets until he heard Tohm call out to him. Thinking that Tohm was still on their side, he was happy to see him, but Tohm shot him in the stomach, killing him. Gentis saw his son fall and ran to his side, horrified that he'd lost his final child. As he cradled Caul's body in his arms, unable to believe that he was dead, Tohm backed away, disconcerted with what he'd done. Gentis begged for Caul not to die, then promised to keep his son safe. Suddenly, he was wracked with Force lightning, attacked by the Emperor himself. As he screamed and clutched his son to his chest, his body was ravaged by Palpatine's dark side power, and he was left a charred husk. Tohm looked down on his former hero's face, which now looked eerily like his own.

Following the battle's conclusion, all those who had demonstrated loyalty to Gentis were captured and summarily executed. Tohm himself supervised these executions, permitting the corpses to accumulate into a towering heap as a stark warning to any who contemplated betraying the Empire. In recognition of his service, the Emperor elevated Tohm to the rank of Admiral, granting him command within the Outer Rim Territories. Trachta also received a reward, being promoted to Grand Moff and assuming the role of the new Headmaster of the Imperial Academies.

Unbeknownst to the surviving ex-prisoners who had been instrumental in saving the Empire, the Imperials alongside whom they had fought were at that very moment deliberating their fate. Trachta advocated for extending gratitude to the prisoners, urging that the promises made to them be honored. Vader, however, argued for their execution, citing the need to prevent them from becoming future adversaries. Tohm proposed a third course of action, suggesting that the prisoners be granted freedom on the condition that they exile themselves to the Corporate Sector. Before their departure, they were met by Tohm, Trachta, and Vader, where the terms of their release were reiterated. Nax Cirvan assented to all aspects of the agreement, and Trachta wished him well.

As the ship ascended over the Coruscant cityscape, it detonated, killing Cirvan and all those aboard. Tohm and Vader had betrayed the agreement, as well as Trachta, who was horrified by the dishonorable massacre. He railed against Tohm and Vader for their duplicity, but both men were unapologetic. Tohm lied to the cyborg, telling him without emotion that the old ship must have malfunctioned. Trachta, disgusted, left Tohm to Vader's care, no longer willing to try to take the young man under his own wing.

In addition to his promotion to Admiral, Tohm managed to secure a pardon for Volta, sparing her the fate of the rest of the prisoners. She was given the rank of captain, and Tohm asked her to serve under his command while they met in his new apartment. Tenderly touching the burned side of his face, Volta told him that she would be honored. Like the prisoners, Tohm was also unaware that powerful men were discussing his fate. The Emperor told Vader that he admired much about the young admiral, and that should Vader ever die, Palpatine believed that Tohm would be an able successor.

Subsequently, Vader summoned Tohm, and they convened on a balcony situated high above the cityscape. Vader inquired whether Volta had accepted the offered position, and Tohm eagerly informed his new mentor that they were scheduled to depart the next day. Vader then informed Tohm that he had just one final lesson to impart, prompting Tohm to express his excitement once more, conveying the significance of working alongside him. Vader then seized Tohm by his uniform, proclaiming that one should never acknowledge the existence of rivals. Despite Tohm's pleas, the Dark Lord remained resolute, casting Tohm from the balcony, sending him plummeting several miles into the depths of Coruscant.

The most defining characteristics of Laurita Tohm were his ambition and his relentless pursuit of success. His strong desire to succeed allowed him to overcome the devastating accident he endured during the Clone Wars. This incident left him blind in one eye, severely scarred, and with only one arm remaining. His initial aspirations of becoming a pilot were dashed by his disfigurement, leading him to strive to become the most accomplished naval officer possible, ultimately graduating as valedictorian from the Raithal Academy. He was not shy about expressing his opinions, even in the presence of Darth Vader or Trachta.

As a consequence of his accident, Tohm felt insecure regarding his physical appearance, especially in the company of women. In social settings, he was easily swayed by his friends, whereas he assumed personal command in academic or military contexts. When conversing with Shonn Volta about her military record or their strategies to save Coruscant, he displayed boldness, but he became self-conscious when confronted with her tragic past, particularly her subtle hints of attraction towards him.

Tohm demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the Empire. Even when confronted with the betrayal of his closest friends and his idol, Headmaster Gentis, Tohm's loyalty remained steadfast. Instead, he found a new hero in Vader. Throughout their association, Tohm endeavored to demonstrate his capabilities and dedication to Vader in every conceivable manner, even resorting to acts—such as murder—that he found abhorrent. His admiration for the Dark Lord manifested in his longing for Force-sensitivity, which ultimately led to his downfall. Trusting Vader completely, he failed to grasp the lesson that Gentis's betrayal could have imparted, and consequently, he was murdered by his hero.