Thanta Zilbra (planet)

On the surface, the planet of Thanta Zilbra would appear to be nothing more than a lifeless rock covered with rocks and sand. However, the area beneath the surface was home to underground lakes and rivers that allowed a rare, life-saving fungus known as Zilbra fungus to grow.

In 8 ABY a smuggler named Thanta Zilbra was on the run from a debtor who had extensive ties to the underworld. He and his crew crashed their ship on the as yet unnamed planet and discovered that the fungus that they discovered in the planet's caves could be applied medically. After fixing his ship, Zilbra and his crew left Thanta Zilbra and sought out a sponsor for this lucrative business venture.

After a deal was struck with the New Republic to ship the harvested Zilbra fungus to a number of select biomedical facilities, Zilbra established an outpost on Thanta Zilbra and managed to make a reasonable profit from the arrangement. Over the years the outpost grew in size to a population estimated to be 13,000.

In 18 ABY, the Thanta Zilbra system was the first inhabited star system to be targeted for destruction by the Sacorrian Triad, using Centerpoint Station. When the New Republic learned that the system was going to be destroyed, it dispatched the vessel Naritus, along with four other warships and four transports to handle the evacuation of Thanta Zilbra.

The inhabitants, unconvinced that they were in any danger, ignored the New Republic representatives that had come to help them evacuate &mdash; not even the New Republic personnel assigned to evacuate the planet believed that the threat was anything more than a rumor. About twelve hours before the system's primary was scheduled to explode, however, it began to show signs that it was indeed going to go nova. In a mad race against time, the New Republic task force was only able to save 1,263 inhabitants. Among those who perished was the outpost's founder himself, who forced his four sons and two daughters to leave the planet with their family members in his old ship while he stayed behind. A number of casualties were not caused by the destruction of the planet itself, but because of chaotic space traffic. Thanta Zilbra was destroyed along with its two moons.