Randd

"We're headed toward a large standoff with the rebels. We're committing a fair portion of the fleet, and if the damned Rebellion wants to stand a chance of keeping that sector, they'll have to do the same. This promises to be the largest battle since Endor."

- Grand Moff Randd

Randd was a male human that served the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War as Grand Moff of the Exterior in the Outer Rim Territories. Sometime after the Rebellion on Akiva, he was considered one of the most elite Imperial officers left surviving. Because of this, he was selected by Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, de facto commander of the Imperial Navy, to be part of his Shadow Council, the proposed successor to the Imperial Ruling Council, with Grand Admiral Rae Sloane as its figurehead. As such, he was present at the meeting where Rax set the stage for the Battle of Jakku. Days before the battle, Randd was aboard the space station Wrath over Ponemah Terminal where he promoted Ciena Ree to the rank of Captain of the Star Destroyer Inflictor. He was also responsible for the tactics used in the battle and although the Empire lost the battle, he himself survived.

Shadow Council
A male human, Randd was a Grand Moff who lived during the Age of the Empire and the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. By 5 ABY, he was the special governor of the Exterior, a remote sector in the Outer Rim Territories that was one of the few remaining Imperial sectors in the face of New Republic advances and defections. The New Republic was the successor government created by the Rebel Alliance following the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader over Endor. Due to his elite status within the remnants of the Empire, Randd was invited by Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax to join the Shadow Council, an elite ruling council charged with rebuilding the Empire. Randd was also known to have a wife named Danassic, who regarded him as stern and lacking humor.

The inaugural meeting took place aboard Rax's Super Star Destroyer Ravager in the Vulpinus Nebula, which was home to the largest Imperial remnant under the command of Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. During the Shadow Council's inaugural dinner, Grand Moff Randd questioned the Imperial propagandist Ferric Obdur about what kind of narrative the Empire would promote in the aftermath of Endor. Randd replied that the Empire should promote the narrative that it was the wounded hound that had been kicked out by a brutal, unjust, and deadbeat father. At that point, Rax entered the room and praised the delegates for their ideas. He then revealed that he also commanded other Imperial remnants in the Almagest, the Recluse's Nebula, the Queluhan Nebula, the Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata. Randd and the others listened as Rax outlined his plan to use the Imperial factories in Xa Fel, Anadeen, and Turco Prime to rebuild weapons, vehicles, and starships for the Imperial war effort against the New Republic.

During the attack on Chandrila, Randd met Fleet Admiral Rax in his chamber. He then received orders to mobilize the Imperial fleets to travel to a set of coordinates, which turned out to be the Inner Rim planet of Jakku. Rax also ordered Randd to coordinate the mobilization with Grand General Hodnar Borrum. When Randd expressed puzzlement at Rax's orders, Rax insisted he carry out those orders. Randd relented when Rax alleged that Sloane had approved of Rax's orders. Rax then ordered the Grand Moff to convene a meeting of the Shadow Council.

During the meeting, Randd was the only Shadow Council member to make eye contact with Rax; a sign of deference. Rax claimed that Sloane had been lost to the New Republic and that every effort was being made to rescue her. Randd listened as Rax claimed the temporary title of Counselor to the Empire and announced that the Imperial remnant fleets would assemble on Jakku for a test to take advantage of the New Republic's setback on Liberation Day; setting the stage for the Battle of Jakku. In secret, Rax planned to eliminate Randd and the other Shadow Council members with the exception of former Commandant Brendol Hux.

The hour of Rax
Following the Empire's relocation to Jakku, Randd along with General Borrum, Brendol Hux, and Ferric Obdur remained members of the Shadow Council. In the months after the attack on Chandrila, the Empire waited for the New Republic to launch their attack. After the New Republic discovered their presence and sent a scout ship and a probe droid, Randd opined that they should allow the enemy to arrive at the battle at a slow pace since that would give the Empire time to bolster their numbers. He also informed Counselor Rax that the veterans of Ryloth had arrived in the Star Destroyer Diligent.

Leading up to the Battle of Jakku, Randd tried to warn Counselor Rax that bringing the Empire to the desolate planet of Jakku could wear down the souls and minds of their troops. However, Counselor Rax reassured him that the Imperials who had come to Jakku were the greatest of their kind and that they would not break. Rax claimed that the harsh conditions would only bolster and harden them like calluses. As a fan of belt-tightening, Randd trusted Rax and regarded him as an admirable, capable, true hero of the Empire. Unknown to Randd and his comrades, Rax was planning to destroy Jakku, the Imperial, and New Republic forces as part of the Emperor's posthumous Contingency plan.

Grand Moff Randd officiated over a ceremony at the space station Wrath over Ponemah Terminal where he promoted the Imperial Navy Commander Ciena Ree to the rank of Captain and assigned her command of the Imperial Star Destroyer Inflictor. During the ceremony, Randd took the opportunity to speak of Ree's meritorious and selfless service to the Empire. He also assigned Commander Brisney as the ship's Imperial Security Bureau officer, Commander Erisher as the ship's systems officer, and Ree's fellow Royal Imperial Academy alma mater Nash Windrider as the Inflictor flight commander. Randd the informed the assembled officers and crew that the Empire was assembling for a major battle against the Rebellion.

Battle of Jakku
After the New Republic's Galactic Senate dispatched its fleet to Jakku, Randd attended a briefing with his fellow Shadow Councillors via hologram while aboard the Inflictor. He informed Rax and his fellow Councillors that the enemy fleet would be larger than the Imperial forces. However, he reassured them that the Empire had the Ravager and dismissed the New Republic fleet as a ragtag force of incompatible ships and squadrons. In his view, the Empire's unified fleet would allow them to defeat the Republic. Randd and his fellow Imperials then listened to Gallius Rax's speech extolling the Imperial forces to destroy the New Republic.

During the Battle of Jakku, Rax commanded the Imperial fleet from the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Ravager. During the space battle, Randd's tacticians devised a defensive tactic of using the Star Destroyers to form a defensive perimeter around the Ravager. Throughout the battle, the Star Destroyers would open formation periodically to allow the Ravager to fire its turbolasers at the New Republic fleet. Under Admiral Ackbar's leadership, the New Republic ships were able to tighten the Imperial perimeter but were unable to break through.

Randd's tactics began to unravel when Captain Groff of the Star Destroyer Punishment panicked and rammed his ship into the Mark One Starhawk Amity. This created a gap which allowed the New Republic Commodore Kyrsta Agate's Starhawk Concord to attack the Ravager. The Super Star Destroyer managed to cripple the smaller Republic ship with her cannons, causing the Concord to descend into Jakku's atmosphere. However, Agate used her ship's tractor beam to drag the Ravager down with her. New Republic starfighters and ships then began attacking the Ravager rear engines. With the ship's weapons systems recharging, the Ravager was unable to repel these attacks. As its engines were taken out, the Ravager descended into Jakku's atmosphere. Realizing that his ship was lost, Randd panicked and fled in an escape pod.

The downing of the Ravager turned the tide of the Battle of Jakku in the New Republic's favor. As the battle dragged on, Randd's mass battle tactics proved in-effectual against the more maverick New Republic forces, who attacked on multiple fronts. Captain Ree attempted to contact Grand Moff Randd to suggest a change of tactics but lost communications when her ship was boarded by New Republic soldiers. Ree ordered a mass evacuation of the Inflictor and set the ship to crash on Jakku's barren surface in an effort to deny the ship to the New Republic. While Randd and Windrider believed that she had perished during the crash, Ciena was rescued by her lover Thane Kyrell, who had joined the New Republic Starfleet.

Imperial defeat
The Battle of Jakku ended as a catastrophic defeat for the Imperial remnants and allowed the New Republic to become the dominant government in the galaxy. Due to the events on Jakku, the defeated Empire was eventually forced to sign the Galactic Concordance which ended the Galactic Civil War in the New Republic's favour. The surviving Imperial forces retreated to the Queluhan Nebula for a renewed offensive against the New Republic. A month after the Battle of Jakku, Grand Moff Randd and several other Imperial officers, including Windrider, nominated Ciena Ree for the Distinguished Medal of Imperial Honor, the highest honor in the Imperial Military.

Personality and traits
Grand Moff Randd was a rigid and thin human man who was as sharp as a needle. He was a deeply-focused and paranoid man who would not eat food if he suspected it was poisoned. Despite being perplexed by Fleet Admiral Rax's secrecy, Randd complied with his orders once Rax had claimed that he had Sloane's approval. He feared and respected Rax. Randd also had a wife named Danassic, who regarded her husband as stern and recalled that he only laughed twice a year.

Randd regarded Rax as true hero of the Empire and accepted Rax's claim that bringing the Empire to Jakku would toughen and harden the Imperial remnant forces for their showdown with the New Republic. However, Randd's fear that the harsh conditions of Jakku would adversely affect his men was proven during the Battle Jakku when Captain Groff broke formation and rammed his ship into a New Republic vessel, creating a gap in the Imperial defensive formation.

He regarded Ciena Ree as an exemplary Imperial Navy officer who had risen through merit and selfless service to the Empire. Randd deployed mass battle tactics during the Battle of Jakku which proved ineffective against the New Republic. According to Rae Sloane, although Randd was a capable leader, he did not have the courage or the inventiveness to win a fight of the magnitude of the Battle of Jakku. Since Rann was not a tactician, he had to rely on tacticians to come up with a defensive strategy during the Battle of Jakku. Randd panicked after the Super Star Destroyer Ravager was downed during the battle. Humiliated and fearing retribution, Randd escaped in an escape pod rather than go down with his ship.

Behind the scenes
Grand Moff Randd first appeared as a minor character in Claudia Gray's 2015 junior novel Lost Stars. He later reappeared in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath: Life Debt and Aftermath: Empire's End, the second and third books in The Aftermath Trilogy.

Appearances

 * Lost Stars
 * Aftermath: Life Debt
 * Aftermath: Empire's End