Once an Imperial officer, Martio Batch ascended to a position among the twelve Grand Admirals of the Galactic Empire. His appointment, orchestrated by Emperor Palpatine, occurred during an elaborate New Year's Fete Week celebration two years prior to the Battle of Yavin. In contrast to his Grand Admiral peers, Batch held a strong dislike for the Imperial court politics, leading to a low profile and the moniker "invisible admiral." Following the Empire's setback at the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, the Emperor entrusted Batch with creating an infallible cloaking device. This device was intended to surprise the Rebel Alliance and ensure the Empire's ultimate triumph. Batch dedicated years to this endeavor, working at the Imdaar Alpha research station and experimenting with hibridium to create a novel cloak. However, his work was hampered by a critical flaw: while the ship would be invisible while cloaked, the pilot would lose all visibility.
Around 3 ABY, Batch shifted his strategy, abandoning the hibridium approach to replicate the stygium cloaking technology previously employed in cloaked vessels. He commandeered the Empire's new Tarkin superweapon and directed it to the planet Aeten II. Aeten II had once been a source of stygium crystals obtained via mining, but the supply had been exhausted. Batch used the weapon's powerful superlaser to obliterate the planet, scattering millions of crystals from its core. With access to these crystals, the Grand Admiral swiftly recreated the stygium screen, and the Empire equipped modified V38 assault fighters with the technology. After thorough trials, Batch's new cloaked TIE phantoms were greenlit for mass production. However, the Rebel Alliance uncovered the project. During an operation aimed at acquiring a TIE phantom, the Rebels obliterated the Imdaar Alpha research facility, destroying all cloaked fighters and the cloaking technology in the process. Batch survived the assault and escaped to the Outer Rim Territories with his remaining vessels. His crew, however, betrayed him, assassinating the Grand Admiral before joining the rogue Warlord Harrsk's new splinter kingdom within the Deep Core.
Martio Batch, a Human male, was an officer within the Galactic Empire, eventually becoming one of the twelve Grand Admirals appointed by Emperor Palpatine during a lavish New Year's Fete Week ceremony two years before the Battle of Yavin. Unlike the other Grand Admirals, Batch detested Imperial court politics and rarely made public appearances, which led to him being called the "invisible admiral."
Following the Rebel Alliance's destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin, the Emperor tasked Batch with the creation of a foolproof cloaking device. The loss at Yavin had infuriated the Imperial command, driving them to seek a weapon that would guarantee the Empire's victory over the Rebels. Palpatine deemed Batch an ideal choice to oversee the secret development project because of his low profile.
Batch dedicated years at the Imdaar Alpha research station in an attempt to create the cloaking device. These devices had once been commonplace, relying on stygium crystals mined from the planet Aeten II in the Dreighton Nebula. However, the Aeten II mines eventually ran dry, making cloaking technology increasingly scarce. While researching alternatives to stygium, Batch wrote a section titled "What You Don't See: Cloaking Devices" for the Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, the Empire's official military manual.
Using hibridium as a substitute, Batch developed an experimental cloak, but it had a critical flaw: while the cloaked ship would be invisible, the pilot would be unable to see. Around 3 ABY, Batch abandoned the hibridium-based cloaking technology and tried to replicate the stygium cloaking screen that had been successful in the past. Batch achieved success when he used his authority to reroute the Empire's new Tarkin superweapon, a simplified version of the Death Star, to Aeten II. Using the weapon's powerful superlaser, Batch destroyed Aeten II, releasing millions of free-floating crystals from the planet's core. This was the Tarkin's only offensive action before it was destroyed by a Rebel strike team in the Patriim system.
Having acquired the necessary crystals, the Grand Admiral easily reproduced the stygium screen used in the past. Under Batch's direction, the Empire equipped modified V38 assault fighters with the technology at the Imdaar Alpha facility, aiming to create a fleet of cloaked starfighters. In addition to stygium, the fighters needed a supply of oridium fuel, and the Empire established a mining facility in the Belt of Arah to extract and process the ore. To protect his investment, Batch requisitioned the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Terror, commanded by Admiral Sarn. Both the Terror and the Imdaar Alpha facility were also equipped with cloaking technology.
The initial prototypes of Grand Admiral Batch's new TIE phantom starfighters underwent testing near Dreighton; however, some early setbacks delayed the project, and the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader eventually visited the research station to oversee the project's final stages. The final field tests were soon completed, and, impatient with the project's progress, the Dark Lord ordered the full-scale production of the new fighters. Under Vader's command, thousands of TIE phantoms were soon ready at the Imdaar Alpha facility.
Around this time, the Rebel Alliance discovered Batch's project and launched an operation to steal one of the cloaked fighters for study. The Rebels destroyed the Empire's oridium-mining facility at Arah, cutting off the project's supply. During their mission to acquire a TIE phantom, two Rebel agents destroyed the Terror and Imdaar Alpha. The entire fleet of TIE phantoms was destroyed, except for one that the Rebels used to escape. For his failure, Admiral Sarn was executed by Vader before the Dark Lord escaped the Rebel attack. The stolen TIE phantom was taken to a Rebel base in the hope that Alliance engineers could adapt the technology for their own fighters; however, the fighter's self-destruct mechanism activated shortly after arriving at the base, destroying both the fighter and the cloaking technology it contained.
Batch survived the Rebel attack and, knowing he had failed his Emperor, took his remaining ships and fled to the Outer Rim Territories. However, the Grand Admiral's crew remained loyal to Sarn, and after the Emperor's death in 4 ABY, they assassinated Batch before joining Warlord Blitzer Harrsk's Zero Command in the Deep Core.
Years after Batch's death, one of his discarded cloaking designs, plagued by the double-blindness flaw, was used during Grand Admiral Thrawn's military campaign to retake control of the galaxy from the New Republic. By 19 ABY, the Empire was still trying to overcome the double-blindness flaw in its cloaking design, using technologies like the Computerized Combat Predictor to help ships fire while unable to see their targets, but without success.
Martio Batch, one of the twelve officers entrusted with the rank of Grand Admiral by Emperor Palpatine, disliked Imperial court politics, earning him the nickname "invisible admiral." This lower profile, a result of his aversion, was leveraged by Palpatine. When the Rebels destroyed all the TIE phantoms, Batch fled, unwilling to face the Emperor's wrath for his failure, taking what remained of his forces with him.
Martio Batch was a creation of Star Wars authors Kevin J. Anderson and Daniel Wallace for The Essential Chronology, released in April 2000. Wallace, along with Abel G. Peña, later expanded on Batch's backstory in the Star Wars Insider 66 article "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals."
Daniel Wallace, co-author of "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals," has suggested, unofficially, that Batch's personal Star Destroyer was named Meniscus on his StarWars.com blog. The blog entry also listed equipment for Batch, including a blaster pistol, a comlink, his code cylinder, a datapad, and a stygium splinter.
The "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" article from Insider 66 was originally intended for Star Wars Gamer magazine, but after the publication's cancellation, it appeared in Insider instead. The original Gamer article, titled "Dirty Dozen: The Imperial Grand Admirals," was longer and contained more information than the Insider version.
Shortly after his appointment as Grand Admiral, Batch received a direct order from the Emperor: create a foolproof cloaking device or face execution. Batch occasionally attended New Year Fete parties or military fund-raisers with the other Grand Admirals, but he knew his life depended on the project's success. Batch experimented with hundreds of new designs without success, with his flawed hibridium design being the most promising. Desperate to show the Emperor he was making progress, the Grand Admiral sent Palpatine prototypes of ships using his hibridium cloak, which the Emperor stored in his secret vaults inside Mount Tantiss.
Batch moved his research station to Aeten II, believing there had to be a way to obtain more stygium crystals from the planet. After using the Tarkin to blast free the stygium crystals, Batch sent the Emperor a shuttle and a yacht equipped with his new stygium cloak. Impressed, Palpatine sent Darth Vader to observe the project.
After the Rebel attack on the project, Batch escaped with the remnants of Admiral Sarn's fleet, hiding in the Outer Rim to avoid Palpatine's wrath. He soon learned of the Emperor's death at Endor, but his relief was short-lived. Batch was assassinated by the crew of his flagship, who were still loyal to the late Admiral Sarn and defected to Warlord Harrsk's new splinter kingdom in the Deep Core.
- The Essential Chronology (First mentioned)
- Rebellion Era Sourcebook
- " Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals " — Star Wars Insider 66
- "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cloaking Devices" — Continuity, Criticisms, and Captain Panaka — Daniel Wallace's StarWars.com Blog (content now obsolete; backup link)
- "Grand Admirals: What Have They Got in their Pocketsses?" — Continuity, Criticisms, and Captain Panaka — Daniel Wallace's StarWars.com Blog (content now obsolete; backup link)
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Atlas
- Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 67
- The Essential Guide to Warfare
- Death Star Owner's Technical Manual
- The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire, Part 2 on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
- Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide