Corman Quien

"I'll cover sector twelve. Have com control set to screen alpha."

- Corman Quien

Corman Quien was a Human male corporal and scout of the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Galactic Civil War. Although he never thought his love of animals would benefit the Rebellion, Quien found use for his skills as a beast tamer. Assigned to Alliance High Command, Quien joined the Alliance Corps of Engineers as one of the first to be sent to the newly established Echo Base on Hoth, where he helped capture and train the planet's native tauntauns as mounts. Quien died during the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY when a startled herd of tauntauns broke loose from their holdings, trampling him.

Biography
"One of you men take his reins!''" "''Here, I'll take 'em."

- Commander Tamizander Rey orders Corman Quien to help Han Solo dismount his tauntaun

Corporal Corman Quien's value to the Alliance to Restore the Republic came in his expertise with animals. The Alliance put his skill to use by charging Quien with the capture, taming, and training of native creatures to use as mounts or beasts of burden. In this capacity, the Alliance High Command assigned Quien to Major Kem Monnon's Corps of Engineers, the constructors of the Alliance's headquarters of Echo Base on the remote Outer Rim Territories ice planet Hoth. Quien's presence on Hoth proved more valuable than expected when the Alliance faced difficulty adapting the base's T-47 airspeeders to the planet's freezing temperatures. While Monnon's men built the base, Quien rounded up and tamed Hoth's native tauntauns to use as mounts in place of speeders.

Quien's service as a tauntaun handler at Echo Base continued into early 3 ABY. At the behest of deck officer Commander Tamizander Rey, Quien took the reins of Han Solo's tauntaun to help him dismount the beast after Solo finished a routine patrol of Hoth's plains around the base's outer perimeter with Luke Skywalker, which ended in Skywalker being attacked by one of the planet's native wampas.

Soon thereafter, when Echo Base discovered that Skywalker had gone missing, Quien volunteered to cover Sector 12 as part of Lieutenant Cal Alder's search party for Skywalker. He instructed base control to set their surveillance cameras to alpha screen.

Quien was killed in the evacuation of Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth when a startled herd of tauntauns broke free of their restraints and trampled him. Four others were similarly killed. Following his death, Quien became well-known as one of Echo Base's tauntaun handlers.

Personality and traits
Corman Quien was typical of scouts posted at Echo Base. He didn't believe his love of animals was a skill that could be put to good use with the Rebellion, but Quien's service at Echo Base demonstrated the success the Rebels achieved by way of making use of their surroundings. He helped Echo Base round up Hoth's native tauntauns, effectively creating an alternative mode of transportation to the Rebels' snowspeeders.

Notable appearances
Corman Quien appears fleetingly in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back as the individual who takes the reins of Han Solo's tauntaun when he first enters the base at the beginning of the film. The character went unnamed until the November 1996 Hoth Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game identified him as one "Corman Quien" on the "Tauntaun Handler" card.

Quien is also notably referenced in the December 2003 Wizards of the Coast online article Hoth: Under the Ice, which identifies the character as obtaining a certain level of notability as a tauntaun handler, as well as the February 2004 article Who's Who in Echo Base, appearing in Star Wars Insider 74, which establishes Quien's background as an animal enthusiast. The Insider article identifies Quien as being the character behind the off-screen voice in The Empire Strikes Back who announces that he will "cover sector twelve" in the search for the missing Luke Skywalker, and it was the first source to confirm Quien's death at the Battle of Hoth.

Inconsistencies
The Marvel Star Wars comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars 39: The Empire Strikes Back: Beginning, shows Quien teasing Solo about looking cold and not demonstrating typical Corellian toughness when he takes the reins of his tauntaun, to which Solo replies, "Cold isn't the word for it!" Alternatively, The Empire Strikes Back novelization features a similar exchange during this same scene moments later between Solo and Chewbacca, in which Solo recites the same line. However, the film shows no such verbal exchange between Quien and Solo.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back radio drama
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back junior novelization
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars 39: The Empire Strikes Back: Beginning