Trachta

During the Republic's twilight years, Trachta first encountered Senator Palpatine. Impressed by a lecture at the Republic University, he volunteered his services to Palpatine, should they ever be required. Palpatine subsequently endorsed Trachta's enrollment at the Republic Military Academy, where he became an instructor specializing in tactics and intelligence.

In the early stages of the Clone Wars, Agent Trachta supervised the transfer of Tark Squad from Kamino to the Golandras within the Marat system. Unbeknownst to many, this squad comprised clones originating from the Dark Worlds, specifically the Empire of Zeta Magnus. These clones were designed to infiltrate the Grand Army of the Republic, but they were ultimately eliminated by Jedi Halagad Ventor during the Battle of Skye. Serving as a liaison between the Jedi High Council and Armand Isard at the Senate Bureau of Intelligence, Trachta was personally tasked by Chancellor Palpatine with investigating and apprehending Jedi who were abandoning the Republic to side with Count Dooku. On a mission to Noctralis, they pursued a Padawan who had joined Dooku's cause. Trachta, along with a contingent of clone troopers, cornered the Padawan, who then activated a thermal detonator and used the Force to hurl it towards Trachta and his troops. The clones were instantly incinerated, and Trachta suffered the loss of his arms and eyes. He was subsequently transported back to Coruscant, where his missing limbs and sensory organs were replaced with cybernetics, alongside the reconstruction of his damaged respiratory system. By the Clone Wars' conclusion, Trachta had resumed his duties.

As a devoted follower of Palpatine, Trachta became one of the first Moffs within the newly formed Galactic Empire, governing the Imperial Center Oversector. During the Clone Wars, he also commanded the 1st Sector Army. Trachta harbored a deep-seated rivalry with Darth Vader, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military and a Sith Lord.

In the aftermath of the New Order's establishment, Trachta was compelled to collaborate with Darth Vader and Lieutenant Laurita Tohm. Emperor Palpatine sustained severe injuries in a terrorist attack shortly after the graduation of several Imperial cadets; this attack was orchestrated by Headmaster Gentis as part of a military coup aimed at overthrowing the Emperor. Similar to Vader, Trachta survived the airborne viral assault due to his breathing apparatus. When Vader and Tohm encountered him near the weakened Emperor, they promptly accused him of being complicit in the coup, allegations Trachta vehemently denied. Seeking a secure refuge for the Emperor, Vader realized that only one such place existed: the clandestine Jedi prison known as the Prism. While Vader and Tohm journeyed to the Jedi Temple to ascertain the Prism's location, Trachta remained with the Emperor in a concealed shuttle hangar, fending off a medical droid that had been reprogrammed to assassinate Imperial officers.

During their voyage to the Diab system, Trachta recounted the origins of his injuries to Tohm, and in return, learned of the young lieutenant's disfigurement. Upon landing at the Prism, Trachta and Tohm neutralized the droid guards, while Vader dispatched the solitary Jedi warden. After examining the prison's records alongside Vader and Tohm, Trachta discovered that the renegade Jedi responsible for his injuries was incarcerated within the facility. Trachta and Tohm located the fallen Jedi's cell within the prison, and Trachta instructed Tohm to seal the cell behind him, indicating his intention to remain there for an extended period. He then proceeded to brutally assault the Jedi with his cybernetic fists, exacting a bloody vengeance.

Vader refined Tohm's concept; rather than simply releasing the prisoners, he compelled 207 of them to engage in combat against one another, as well as against Tohm and himself, for the privilege of serving the Empire. The ensuing battle was savage and chaotic, resulting in numerous casualties. Ultimately, only thirty-three prisoners remained in fighting condition, and Vader commanded Trachta to articulate the meaning of service to the Empire to the survivors. Trachta informed them that their past transgressions were now forgiven, but the motivations behind them were not—they would now serve an institution unburdened by the "selfish" senators of the Republic or the Jedi Order. The prisoners knelt before Trachta and the others, signifying their transformation into Imperials through submission. He then announced that their training would commence that very night.

Subsequently, Tohm entered a room where Trachta was undergoing a diagnosis by a medical droid, carrying a bloodied length of pipe. As Tohm vomited, repulsed by the act he had committed, Trachta recognized that the young man had carried out a task for Vader—beating a wounded prisoner to death. Trachta then encouraged Tohm to consider aligning himself with Trachta rather than Vader, asserting that the Sith Lord only knew how to create followers, while Trachta could mentor Tohm to become a leader.

Tohm realized that they could exploit Shonn Volta, one of the prisoners and a hyperspace expert, to locate Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin while he altered hyperspace lanes at the nexus of several trade routes. Successfully locating and hailing his vessel, the Imperials and freed prisoners concealed themselves within Tarkin's shuttle.

When the shuttle landed and Gentis attempted to take the Grand Moff prisoner, Trachta, Vader, and the others launched an assault. Despite Gentis's forces outnumbering the attackers by a ratio of eight to one, the diverse skills possessed by Vader's group proved decisive. Trachta's onboard targeting computer enabled him to wield two blasters simultaneously, while Vader employed the Force to slaughter numerous cadets, and Volta utilized her sniper skills to eliminate a detonations expert, triggering his grenades and further decimating Gentis's forces. Soon, Gentis's own son, Caul, was killed by Tohm, causing Gentis to cease fighting and cradle his fallen son in his arms. The Emperor himself, having recovered from his injuries, attacked and killed Gentis with Force lightning, leaving him a charred husk.

In the battle's aftermath, the Emperor rewarded Trachta for saving his life by promoting him to Grand Moff and appointing him Headmaster of the Imperial Academies. Unbeknownst to him, the surviving ex-prisoners, who were celebrating their victory and impending reward alongside the Imperials they had fought with, were at that moment contemplating their fates. Trachta believed that they owed the prisoners a debt of gratitude and should honor their promises to them. Vader, however, advocated for their execution to prevent them from becoming future enemies. Tohm proposed a third option: the prisoners would be granted freedom but would be exiled to the Corporate Sector. Before their departure, they were met by Trachta, Tohm, and Vader, and the details of their release were reiterated. Nax Cirvan agreed to all the terms of the agreement, and Trachta wished him well.

As the ship ascended over the Coruscant cityscape, it detonated, resulting in the death of Cirvan and all those aboard. Tohm and Vader had betrayed the agreement, as well as Trachta, who was horrified by the dishonorable massacre. He vehemently criticized Tohm and Vader for their duplicity, but both men remained unapologetic. Disgusted, Trachta abandoned Tohm to Vader's care, no longer willing to mentor the young man. Tohm's betrayal of Trachta's trust would ultimately lead to his downfall—after the Emperor promoted Tohm to the rank of Admiral, Vader murdered him, unwilling to tolerate a future rival.

In 11 BBY, several years after the Galactic Empire's inception, Trachta's ambition intensified, driving him to overthrow the Order of the Sith Lords and seize control of the Imperial state. Echoing Gentis's earlier actions, he dedicated himself to the impending coup, meticulously planning the assassination of the Sith and the subsequent assumption of power. Trachta was not alone in this conspiracy; he recruited other conspirators, including Grand Moff Bartam, General Skosef, Second Officer Dezsetes, and the assassin Gauer. He viewed both the Jedi and the Sith as misguided, asserting that the Empire could not be governed by a duopoly of Force-sensitive individuals. Trachta convinced his accomplices that the Empire was doomed unless they overthrew the theocratic Sith and established a secular leadership. A crucial element of Trachta's scheme was a detachment of one hundred clone stormtroopers, programmed to be loyal to the conspirators and trained by an army officer named Carsan.

In 1 BBY, Trachta accompanied Darth Vader and Moff Kadir, the commander of the Coruscant Security Force, to assess the blaster accuracy of the stormtroopers. Vader ordered the stormtroopers to be transferred to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's ship, but Kadir objected to the Dark Lord's orders, citing that the stormtroopers were assigned to the Coruscant City Guard. However, Kadir ultimately complied with Vader's command to avoid suffering the same fate as his predecessor in the Coruscant Security Force. Sensing Kadir's animosity towards the Sith, Trachta recruited the Moff into the conspiracy. Subsequently, Trachta visited the Imperial Palace and met with Emperor Palpatine, who informed Trachta of his plans to dissolve the Imperial Senate. Afterward, Trachta met with Carsan and the clone stormtroopers, ordering Carsan to be placed under arrest to demonstrate the stormtroopers' loyalty to him. When Carsan panicked and resisted arrest, he was shot down by the stormtroopers.

During a meeting with the conspirators, Trachta introduced Moff Kadir and revealed the Emperor's plan to render the Senate irrelevant. Exploiting Vader's assignment on Dargulli to slay a lightsaber-wielding Force-sensitive, Trachta devised a plan to storm the Imperial Palace with the clone stormtroopers and eliminate the Emperor during Vader's absence. Simultaneously, Dezsetes was tasked with eliminating Vader aboard the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Mathayus. However, Trachta grew paranoid, suspecting Bartam of disloyalty and secrecy. He instructed Kadir to monitor the Grand Moff, sowing seeds of distrust and rivalry among the conspirators.

Trachta plotted to assassinate Palpatine by destroying his personal Lambda-class shuttle as the Emperor was en route to visit the unfinished Death Star. Trachta's clone stormtroopers planted a bomb, concealed within a crate of bottles, on the shuttle, but Palpatine sensed the assassination attempt through the Force. Trachta accompanied the Emperor, realizing that Palpatine was too vigilant and astute to fall into the trap. The bomb detonated, destroying the shuttle and killing several Royal Guardsmen and stormtroopers, but Palpatine himself emerged unscathed.

Following the loss of many of his loyal bodyguards in the assassination attempt, Trachta dispatched his own clone stormtroopers to replace those killed in the explosion. However, these clone stormtroopers were instructed to facilitate the conspirators' invasion of the Imperial Palace and the elimination of the Emperor in his throne room. When Kadir introduced the stormtroopers to the Emperor, Trachta informed Skosef that he was implicated in the assassination attempt, thereby influencing Skosef's role in the plan.

While Trachta plotted to betray his co-conspirators, he was not unaware of the possibility that one of his allies might be planning to betray him as well. Trachta's suspicions were confirmed when, while working in his personal quarters, an armed droid prepared to assassinate him from behind. Fortunately, Trachta's rear ocular camera alerted him to the impending attack, and he swiftly destroyed his would-be assassin.

However, as Trachta turned to examine the destroyed droid, he failed to notice Gauer, who was positioned just outside his room. From the hallway, the Grand Moff was shot in the chest, with bolts of electricity erupting from his ocular implants. Gauer then dragged the remains of the droid with him, leaving Trachta's lifeless body in his personal quarters. Gauer had been dispatched by Bartam to eliminate Trachta in response to the escalating infighting among the coup's leaders.

Meanwhile, Skosef, acting under Trachta's orders, assassinated Bartam but was subsequently killed by the Grand Moff's stormtrooper guard. With Trachta, Bartam, and Skosef dead, Kadir ascended to the leadership of the conspiracy and attempted to eliminate the Emperor, but he and the clone stormtroopers were ultimately killed by Palpatine and his Royal Guard. Consequently, Trachta never witnessed the culmination of his failed coup.

Trachta, a Human male, possessed prosthetic eyes, lungs, and cybernetic arms resulting from a thermal detonator explosion caused by a dark Jedi Padawan. He held a strong belief in order and structure, viewing the Empire as its embodiment, and would resort to any measure to preserve what he perceived as order. The Moff was a cunning individual, devising a plan to overthrow the Emperor once he concluded that the Sith were hindering the Empire's progress.

Trachta possessed a sense of personal honor, desiring to pardon the freed criminals of The Prism for their actions in suppressing Gentis's uprising, and he was angered when Lieutenant Tohm and Darth Vader betrayed them and committed a dishonorable massacre. However, this did not prevent him from killing his co-conspirator Bartam when he deemed him untrustworthy.

During the development of the story for Star Wars: Empire: Betrayal, writer Scott Allie initially envisioned Trachta as the sole mastermind behind the plot to assassinate Vader and Palpatine. It was only later in the development process that he conceived the idea of the other conspirators becoming more independent and treacherous on their own.

According to Abel G. Peña, the article Imperial Betrayal in The Official Star Wars Fact File 122 was originally intended to imply that Trachta collaborated with genetics master Atha Prime, a character developed for the Kenner toy line in the 1980s, and that Prime was responsible for creating the clone stormtroopers under Trachta's command. However, this reference was ultimately omitted from the published product.

On the cover of Empire 2, illustrated by Brian Horton, Trachta's breathing mask appears more elongated compared to the triangular breathing mask depicted in the comic itself.

In the scene where Gauer's armed droid attempts to assassinate Trachta before being shot itself, the reader can observe what appears to be a symbol resembling the incomplete Death Star I on Trachta's door.

As part of the 2008 Legacy Collection, Hasbro released a Moff Trachta 3¾-inch figure in their Dark Horse Comic Pack wave. The figure featured good articulation with a movable head, hinged shoulders, elbows and ankles; he also came with a hand blaster. The pack also contained another figure, that of Darth Vader, and a reprinted Star Wars: Empire comic book.

Although some details regarding his characteristic life support system and cybernetics were provided, specifically that they were the result of being caught in a thermal detonator blast during the Clone Wars, the specific circumstances surrounding the injury were not revealed until issue 3 of the comic book arc Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison.