Malcor Brashin

"Brenn, I had such faith in you. I never thought you would turn out to be a traitor."

- Malcor Brashin to Brenn Tantor

Malcor Brashin was a respected Grand General in the Imperial Army. He oversaw the development of the Battlefield Holographic Control Interface and served as Brenn Tantor's superior throughout Tantor’s Imperial career.

Rise to prominence
Brashin entered a military academy, likely Raithal Academy, Corulag Academy, or the Academy of Carida, as a very young man. Given his age, it is highly likely that he served in the Clone Wars.

Neither ambitious nor outstanding, Brashin nevertheless impressed his superiors as a competent and intelligent officer. His career would likely have remained unspectacular if not for a defining moment in his life.

During one of Brashin's deployments, his wife and daughter were killed by Rodian thieves. This tragedy transformed him into a New Order zealot. Committed to destroying "unchecked anarchists and aliens", his newfound fervor, combined with a string of victories, propelled his climb through the ranks of the Imperial Army until he reached its apex with the rank of Grand General.

The training of Brenn Tantor
"These are dark days, gentlemen. I need my best officers to support the Empire now."

- Malcor Brashin to Brenn and Dellis Tantor

Something of a technophile, Brashin oversaw the development of the Battlefield Holographic Control Interface, an advanced command-and-control interface that allowed an officer to command his troops from the safety of an orbiting starship.

Brashin employed decorated training officer Beri Tulon to recruit promising young candidates for training on the BHCI. During the Battle of Kalaan, Captain Tulon discovered a young stormtrooper by the name of Brenn Tantor leading his squad after the death of his sergeant. Impressed by Tantor's leadership, Tulon issued him a battlefield promotion to lieutenant and ordered him to report to the Inquisitor, Brashin’s personal Star Destroyer.

Brashin observed as Tulon led Tantor through a series of training exercises on Tatooine. The training was abruptly interrupted, however, when Brashin reassigned Tantor's squad to track down the escape pod that had been ejected from the Tantive IV with the Death Star plans inside. When the plans were discovered to be missing from the pod, Brashin oversaw a series of operations designed to track down the droids that carried them.

During the course of Tantor's training, Brashin came to be unnerved by the attitudes and opinions displayed by Tulon. In his opinion, Tulon held to an outdated and subversive code of ethics that had no place in the New Order. Concerned, Brashin decided to remove Tantor from Tulon’s influence as soon as possible.

When the Millennium Falcon escaped, its destination was determined to be either Alderaan or Sriluur and its moon Ruul. Darth Vader departed for Alderaan with the Devastator while Brashin took the Inquisitor to Sriluur. Though the Falcon had in fact fled to Alderaan, Brashin’s trip was rendered worthwhile when he discovered that Rebel forces had captured a computer facility on Ruul.

Brashin observed approvingly as Tantor retook the computer complex and, with the aid of his brother Dellis Tantor, strung a series of data relay beacons from the facility to a working broadcast antenna.

Brashin took advantage of Tantor's excellent performance to promote him over Tulon’s head. Now a commander, Tantor would report directly to Brashin. Tulon was reassigned from the BHCI project entirely. Brashin could now exercise direct control over his promising pupil without worrying about Tulon's negative influence. Brashin made it clear to Tantor that he had lost confidence in Tulon and that the captain’s mistakes were not to be repeated.

Reviewing the information that the Rebels had stored in the facility, Brashin discovered that the Rebel Alliance had covertly taken control of several energy collectors on the world Sarapin, a key source of geothermal energy. Brashin took the Inquisitor there and deployed his forces. Led by Tantor, they were able to retake the collectors with assistance from the technical skills of Dellis Tantor. In the course of his operations, Tantor discovered that the Rebels had also managed to capture a drilling platform, but had lost control of it. The overactive drill threatened to cause destructive groundquakes and the Tantors were able to shut it down in the nick of time only after fighting through significant Alliance forces.

During the Sarapin operation, Brashin received sobering news: the Death Star had been destroyed over Yavin with the loss of nearly all aboard. To fill the void, Brashin promoted Brenn to major and promoted Dellis to colonel and transferred him to Imperial Intelligence, a branch of the military better suited to his talents.

Brashin and Tantor rushed to Yavin 4 on a mission to crush the Rebel base there. Tantor was able to raze the base and rescue Colonel Maximilian Veers, who had crashed on the moon after escaping the Death Star’s explosion in a shuttle. Tantor's performance drew the eye of even higher powers than Brashin, leading to personal congratulations from Darth Vader.

From protégé to enemy
"Scanners show a refugee camp to the east of the base. Your Empire wishes you to eliminate it as a show of strength to our enemy."

- Grand General Malcor Brashin to General Brenn Tantor

Over the course of the next three years, Tantor rose to the rank of general. Brashin continued to serve as his superior, most notably at the Battle of Hoth. From Hoth, Brashin and Tantor moved on to Endor, where Brashin oversaw the selection of a site for the Second Death Star's shield generator.

Unknown to Brashin, Tantor had gained knowledge of his superior's other acts. Prior to the Battle of Hoth, Brashin had become aware that Dellis Tantor had used his position within Imperial Intelligence to look up records on his father. Tantor had discovered that his father had been killed not by Rebels, as the brothers had been told, but by the Empire itself in order to make an example of him after he lost a grain shipment to pirates. Brashin reacted by sending Dellis on a mission to Ruul and arranging for his capture and imprisonment during its course. What Brashin did not know was that Dellis managed to pass the data and his suspicions to Brenn before embarking on what he believed to be a suicide mission.

This knowledge tortured Brenn. Despite his misgivings, Tantor successfully recaptured the Government Center and an Imperial base on Abridon and apprehended Rebel hero Luke Skywalker. Following that, Tantor prevented Beri Tulon, now under his command, from defecting. After the general destroyed the last Rebel base in the area, Brashin ordered him to destroy a nearby refugee camp in order to make a statement that anyone who tolerated the presence of Rebels would be destroyed. Brashin soon learned that, despite his removal, Tulon's teachings had remained with Tantor. Citing the mentor he had so recently captured, Tantor refused Brashin's order. Infuriated, Brashin locked him out of command frequencies and issued the order directly to Tantor's stormtroopers.

In the aftermath, Brashin assigned Tulon to Tarkin Detention Facility on Ruul and directed Tantor to report to Kalaan, where he would be court-martialed. In the same message, he gave Tantor the news that Dellis had been killed.

Upon arrival at Kalaan, Tantor was imprisoned in an outdoor cell, where Brashin informed him that he would be tried, found guilty, and publicly executed in the morning. What Brashin did not know was that Tantor had contacted General Tyr Taskeen of the Rebel Alliance and arranged to defect. In a serious oversight, Brashin assigned Tantor's own troops to guard him. More loyal to their commander than their Empire, the stormtroopers released Tantor and defected to the Rebellion with him, taking with them Tantor's fellow captive Skywalker and the Tracked Mobile Base, a prototype vehicle that contained a portable BHCI unit.

Brashin later encountered Tantor when the defector attempted to steal an All Terrain Armored Transport from the proving grounds of Trasse. Brashin appeared in the middle of Tantor's operation, trapping him and Beri Tulon, whom he had rescued, on the asteroid's surface. Fortunately for the Rebels, Tulon was able to fire a planetary-defense ion cannon and disable the Inquisitor.

Brashin remained a prominent general within the Empire, and when Ysanne Isard, the leader of the Empire at the time, abandoned Coruscant to the New Republic and fled to Thyferra, Brashin commanded the defense of the capital world. Ironically, the New Republic sent Tantor against him. Tantor hammered through Brashin's defenses and, with the help of fellow general Rand Talor, captured the Imperial Palace, finding Dellis imprisoned there. Brashin's ultimate fate is unknown, but it is likely he died in the capture of the Palace and the rioting that followed.

Behind the scenes
Malcor Brashin was voiced by David Warner, who portrayed Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI, Gul Madred in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Chain of Command," Ra's Al Ghul in the Batman animated series, and the embodiment of Evil in Time Bandits.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Force Commander