Tam Posla

"I am an instrument of justice, not murder."

- Tam Posla

Tam Posla was an interstellar lawman representing the Milvayne Authority who investigated a rash of crimes committed by Doctor Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba. Though taken off the case by his superior officer, Posla voyaged well beyond his jurisdiction and, determined to bring the criminals to justice, became a bounty hunter.

Posla was unable to catch the culprits on Jedha and took jobs to pay for a his hunt for them. He joined a crew of mercenaries led by Chelli Aphra and they endured a search for the memories of her superior, 0-0-0. During the search, they captured the rebel General Hera Syndulla and used her as bait to get into the R&D headquarters of the Tarkin Initiative, Hivebase-1. Their mission was successful but Aphra betrayed Posla after in order to get her love interest off a rebel ship.

Posla swore to get his revenge on Aphra but until then, he continued his hunt for Evazan, who was no longer working with Baba. While searching for his nemesis, Aphra contacted him and used a changeling posing as Evazan to convince him into rescuing her from Accresker Jail. He therefore took his ship to the prison, with a shuttle to trade for the fake Evazan. When he arrived he inspected the man, who was frozen in a chunk of ice, and took him away.

Visit to Vandor
During 10 BBY, Tam Posla was at The Lodge on Vandor. There, he spectated a game of Sabacc between Lando Calrissian and several others. During the game, a human named Han Solo entered the room and took a seat near to Posla. Solo joined the game and began beating Calrissian and the other players. Posla was among those who cheered every time the man raked in more money. However Solo was soon beaten by Calrissian after the man cheated and slipped a card out of his sleeve to form a winning hand.

Hunt for Cornelius Evazan
"We missed him by seconds. We had to evac when the Imperials used some hellish new device to destroy the city&hellip;"

- Tam Posla, recounting the events on Jedha

Tam Posla was a lawman of the Milvayne Authority, a law enforcement agency based on Milvayne. Sometime before or during 0 BBY, he worked on a case involving a series of crimes on Milvayne including kidnapping, forced servitude and surgical alteration, all thought to have been carried out by a pair of visitors to the world using the aliases Roofoo and Sawkee; in reality the criminals Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba. Evazan was eventually nicknamed the Mutilator of Milvayne.

Posla was taken off the case by his superior officer but learned of a similar string of crimes taking place in the streets of Jedha City on the moon Jedha. Determined to bring justice to the pair, Posla traveled well outside his jurisdiction and his superior officer had his badge taken from him, saying he had no sanction to do it. But he was too attached to the case to give up and became a bounty hunter in order to track the duo down on Jedha. When at Jedha, he met one of Evazan's cyborg prototypes, Caysin Bog, in the midst of chaos as the Galactic Empire's new project loomed over Jedha City. Posla missed Evazan by seconds and he and Caysin were forced to evacuate before Jedha city was destroyed.

Working for Aphra
"Tam Posla. A former Milvayne cop. Threw down the lawbook to go chase an unhinged psycho. Now well on his way to becoming one. Doing merc work to fund the hunt"

- Doctor Chelli Aphra, on Tam Posla

Posla eventually got into a relationship with Bog and some time later, they joined a crew of mercenaries led by the archaeologist Chelli Aphra. The team comprised of: the cyborg mercenary Rexa Go; the Alderaanian noble Rabael Dir Glorio; their Skakoan guide Hallio Bas; Aphra's 1st generation reprogrammed Droideka Dek-Nil; the assassin Sister Six; and the passive aggressive Defel Glahst Ombra.

Although anonymous to the mercenaries, other than Aphra and Rexa, the crew was hired by the Son-tuul Pride, which had recently come under the control of 0-0-0 and BT-1, and were tasked with to finding information about 0-0-0's origins in the Techno Union. Before they left Son-tuul for their mission, however, 0-0-0 told Aphra that one was to be left behind. Imperial forces soon arrived at the Son-tuul Spaceport and Aphra left behind Glorio to keep them busy.

Mission to Skako Minor
"Shouldn't we at least try to save that doctor lady?''" "''Why? She's a criminal. It's off-mission. That monster's broken no law"

- Tam Posla refuses to help Chelli Aphra

The crew began by searching on Skako Minor and eventually got to the entrance of the abandoned facility, where a dozen stormtroopers waited to arrest them. Bas revealed himself to be a traitor and demanded his side of the deal from the Imperial officer, which the man refused. Aphra, however, had on her a Tooka, one that was modified to explode when hearing a certain code phrase. She offered Bas the Tooka and he blindly accepted it. Aphra recited a code phrase and the Tooka detonated, killing Bas the Imperials. Aphra then took Rexa's crate, which the others assumed carried booze. However it carried sixty more shrink frozen Tookas, one of which Aphra took out to replace the one she detonated. A stormtrooper then sprung to life and ran past Posla and Bog. The two refused to chase them as they hadn't broken any Imperial law, although Ombra dealt with them as they entered the tree line.

The group entered the abandoned facility and found a room full of machines and artefacts. As they searched the place, Bog examined a techno-totem before Aphra stopped him, saying it may be booby-trapped. Their search was soon disrupted by a Delta-class T-3c shuttle which flew in through the roof and landed a squad of stormtroopers led by Lieutenant-Inspector Magna Tolvan. The stormtroopers open fired on Aphra's crew and the mercenaries took cover. However, the shuttle had landed on the techno-totem, which awoke the large cyborg machine in the middle of the room, the Chthonic worm god. The beast attacked both sides, killing several stormtroopers in the process. Aphra wanted Bog to use his bayonet to stab at it, but Posla stopped him as it was not part of their contract. Aphra then threw her Tooka at the worm god and detonated it with the code phrase, briefly stunning the beast. But it only grew more angry, and chased Aphra and Tolvan into a small area, cornering them.

With the beast distracted, Rexa opened fired at it with her machine gun and Ombra abandoned them. The other members of the team considered saving Aphra but Posla reminded them it was not part of their contract. Sister Six then pointed out to Posla that the worm god had left Bog lying lifeless behind them. Angered, Posla revealed his cybernetic missile launchers and launched a number of rockets at the beast. His attacked made no effect and Bog awoke, temporarily winded from the attack. Relieved, Posla sat behind cover again. Dek-Nil then shot a hole into the worm god's skin and it's fluid fell on one of the surviving stormtroopers. The confused trooper shot their rocket launcher by accident and it hit the ceiling, sending rubble down onto the worm god and killing it. After the beast was killed, Rexa found Tolvan with Aphra. The two had kissed minutes before, during their time cornered by the beast. Aphra killed Rexa to save her new lover and the others heard the shot. She then came out of the rubble and prompted the others to keep looting rather than wondering what had just happened. When they finished the looting, Posla began wondering there Rexa was. Aphra assured him that it didn't matter and as they returned to their ship, Ombra returned to them.

Capturing Hera Syndulla
"We know who you are Posla. Milvayne's most celebrated lawman. Gone rogue when the Imperials wouldn't let you do your job."

- Bini, to Tam Posla, on his past.

The information they had found on 0-0-0's past was promising, but the next key to finding 0-0-0's past was his memories, which were stored in the R&D hub of the Tarkin Initiative, Hivebase-1. Aphra had a plan to get in, but first she took Posla and the others went to the Alliance's flight school&mdash;a re-purposed Lucrehulk-class battleship&mdash;where General Hera Syndulla was training Rebel pilots. Shortly after they landed on the ship, Ombra slipped away again and climbed into the vents. The rest of the group was then greeted by Rebel officer Bini, who assumed they were signing up for the Alliance. However, Posla made it clear to him and Syndulla that they weren't signing up and he attempted to make an proposal to Syndulla. Realizing they were mercenaries, she had them.

Aphra and the others were put into cells. As they stayed there, Ombra continued roaming the vents and found Aphra and Dek-Nil's cell. After entering, Ombra revealed herself to be Magna Tolvan in the Defel's skin. She pointed her gun at Aphra, but Dek-Nil stunned her and she accidentally shot the shield generator, disabling the shields detaining Aphra and her team. Although it sounded the alarms, the group instead stayed put as they didn't want to ruin the plan by angering the rebels. Syndulla acknowledged their act and offered them to leave on their ship. Aphra, Posla and Bog, however, began explaining to her that they knew how to get into Hivebase-1. Syndulla was willing to listen to this but when Posla was about to explain it, Bog launched six blasters out of the compartment in his head. Sister Six caught the blasters and stunned all of the rebels in the room in a matter of seconds. Posla, not knowing this was going to happen, was confused to what they were doing, but soon realized they were kidnapping Syndulla. He was furious about this and despite Bog trying to reassure him, he refused to show any positivity for Aphra's plan. Aphra began retracting the ramp to their ship and Posla quickly jumped on as rebel reinforcements closed in.

Infiltrating Hivebase-1
"Posla. I need you to do that crazy explodo thing you do''" "''Negative. These are innocent victims of experimentation. They've broken no law."

- Chelli Aphra and Tam Posla

As they flew out of the flight school Aphra almost immediately got to the next part of their plan: She borrowed a transmitter from the others and used it to contact an Imperial officer from Hivebase-1, asking for his superior. When the man asked her business with his superior Aphra claimed she wanted to make a trade with Syndulla. Although the officer did not yet confirm their compliance with the trade the group still travelled for Hivebase-1. On the way, Aphra repaired Bog's diagnostics, which had been damaged from their encounter with the worm god on Skako Minor. To Bog's ignorance, however, Aphra was actually installing orders into Bog's brain to advance on danger in case Posla refused to fight again. Whilst tinkering with Bog's wiring, Aphra complemented Doctor Evazan's work on Bog. Posla scowled at her comment and explained the story of why he hated Evazan, recounting how he met Bog in the process.

When the group arrived at Hivebase-1, the Imperial officer confirmed their trade with Syndulla and gave them specific directions to enter their base over the comms. Aphra then revealed to Syndulla that her tracker&mdash;on her general plaque&mdash;had been reactivated. Subsequently, the flight school arrived in the system found itself overwhelmed by the scaraphyte swarm surrounding it. It caused the Hivebase-1 personnel to forget about Aphra's team and focus on the arriving rebels. During the chaos, Aphra sneaked their ship into one of Hivebase-1's hangers and they began moving towards Hivebase-1s datacore, where 0-0-0's memories were. They entered a room full of frozen prototypes, which had been rejected before they had a chance to be mass produced, and as they searched around, Aphra got news that the bridge of the rebel flight school had been commandeered by Magna Tolvan. She got onto the comm channel to convince her not to mess their plan up. Tolvan spared the flight school but in doing so, she revealed to the Imperials that Aphra and the others were roaming around in Hivebase-1.

Posla and the others soon realized that the rejected prototypes were being unfrozen. The forgotten projects open fired at them, disabling Dek-Nil, and they took cover behind crates. Aphra demanded that Posla use his cybernetic weapons to help them but he refused, once again saying that the enemy had done nothing wrong. Aphra begged him to change his mind but his morals kept him from doing so. That's when Aphra ordered them back to their ship and she activated the commands she had put into Bog. This made the cyborg advance towards to prototypes, being gunned down in the process. Both shocked and furious, Posla revealed the entirety of his weapons from under his armor and open fired on the prototypes. With the prototypes at bay, Aphra, Syndulla and Sister Six left Posla to face the swarm of rejects alone.

Posla survived the fight and returned to the others at the datacore of Hivebase-1. He was now very traumatised from seeing his soulmate gunned down and rested at a terminal. However, they were eventually found and attacked by Commander Yewl and his troops and Posla remained at rest by the terminal. That's when Aphra put the final part of her plan into motion: She had bugged the control core of the flight school during their visit there to capture Hera. Therefore she used Rexa's old headset to control the ship and the flight school cling onto Hivebase-1 and have it's X-wings rip the datacore out with their tow cables. Meanwhile, the rest of the shrink frozen Tooka's escaped Aphra's crate and began roaming Hivebase-1. One of the officers in the Hivebase control room then noticed that the base's firing registry had been altered and recited the new name for it, the name being the code phrase to detonate the Tookas. This set off the entirety of the Tooka's and destroyed the complex.

Double crossed
Posla, Aphra, Sister Six and Syndulla made made it safely on board the flight school, where Hera pardoned them for what they did. Tolvan was still present on the flight school's air vents and Aphra told Posla to save her while she talked to Syndulla. Tolvan attacked Posla upon him finding her and she took his armor as a disguise to get off the flight school. Tolvan then revealed Posla's location to the rebels as they left and the rebel soldiers were shocked to see it was Posla in the vents and not Tolvan. Tolvan and Aphra went their separate ways but Tolvan soon travelled to Son-tuul with Imperial forces and captured Aphra, imprisoning her in Accresker Jail.

Resuming the hunt
"I know he escaped Jedha. I know he was in a scuffle on Tatooine. I know he infiltrated a biofarm on Thannt. But the trail's been cold a month. His ego's never kept him off-grid this long. I conclude he's either dead--or incarcerated."

- Tam Posla, on Cornelius Evazan's whereabouts

After the betrayal, Posla suspected Aphra to be responsible for Bog's death and swore to slowly cut her heart out when he found her again. But until then, Posla resumed his long halted search for Cornelius Evazan. He bought a ship from 0-0-0 on Son-tuul, in which he adopted as his new base of operations. Little did Posla know that 0-0-0 had bugged the ship's systems to listen into him. During his investigations, Posla found out about the Evazan's scuffle on Tatooine and how his subordinate, Ponda Baba, had lost his arm. Posla managed to obtain the arm of the Aqualish thug and put it into a jar. He also learned of Evazan's infiltration of a biofarm on Thannt.

Evazan's trail, however, came to a halt, and after a month Posla had ended up killing five informants for information purposes. On the four-hundred and twentieth day of the hunt, he kicked a sixth informant to death, for lying about Evazan's whereabouts. Posla knew that Evazan's ego never kept him off the grid for this long and had to assume that the man was either dead of imprisoned. So he began scanning Imperial custodial facilities in the hopes of finding him. On the four-hundred and twenty-first day of the hunt, he was floating around in deep space aboard his ship and he updated his log, explaining his recent findings and general knowledge on Evazan, he stated that he would adopt a less hands on strategy temporarily to reduce the deaths of his informants. Later that day, Posla was listening to a transmission from Hera Syndulla to the rebel ship Volt Cobra, which had been shot down. He noticed a reference to Aphra and logged it, hoping to chase up on Aphra after taking care of Evazan. At that time, 0-0-0 was listening in from a touring ship he had hijacked and, as he was very keen on finding Aphra, he began repeating Posla's statement on her reference.

Fooled and slayed
"You are on my list malefactress. I am seeking my nemesis, Cornelius Evazan, but rest assured I will bring you to justice in due c--''" "No. You'll come now. You will agree to my terms and come now. I have something you want." "''E-Evazan. The Mutilator of Milvayne&hellip;Damn you, woman. It's a deal."
 * Aphra reveals a fake Cornelius Evazan*

- Chelli Aphra convinces Tam Posla to go and rescue her

Without warning, Posla was contacted by an unidentified broadcaster. When he told them to state their name and reason of contact, the individual revealed herself as Aphra. She demanded for him rescue her, but he told her his priority was only Evazan. However, Aphra then showed him Evazan at knife point. Unable to resist bringing justice to the man, Posla accepted her deal. Aphra told Posla her location, being Accresker Jail, and left the comm channel. 0-0-0, who was still spying through the systems Posla's ship, also made haste for the prison in order to pursue Aphra.

Posla travelled to Accresker Jail with an escape shuttle trade with Aphra for Evazan. The prison at hand was decommissioned and on a crash course towards the planet Tiferep Major as an example for its rebellious population. Posla found Accresker's prison-tug crashed into the prison and he flew into the hanger of the wrecked cruiser. There, Aphra awaited him with Evazan frozen in a cube of ice, and Magna Tolvan, who had attempted to rescue her before but had failed. Posla inspected the frozen Evazan and confirmed him to be alive. He then grappled the ice chunk with his clamps, and asked Aphra if she really had helped kill Caysin Bog. Aphra asked him if it changed the things she did and he assured her that if she had killed Bog, he would pursue her punishment. As he spoke to Aphra, some gundravian hookspores, which had become aware his presence, approached him from behind. As it approached, however, Tolvan activated the coolant grille which froze it and saved Posla. He then took the ice chunk, containing Evazan, away and left.

As he departed Accresker Jail, Posla aspired to return to Milvayne and make the most of his accomplishment. He then looked back at the frozen Evazan and, having doubts about it being the man, decided to divert his ships power to the heating array, so that the ice chunk would melt. He was furious to learn that it was a shapeshifter named Lopset Yas. Posla therefore turned back towards Accresker Jail to deal with Aphra. Aphra was once again stranded on the wreckage-prison due to 0-0-0 arriving and shooting down the shuttle Posla gave her. Posla and Yas soon found her watching a transmission of Darth Vader interrogating Tolvan. He then stepped out and attempted to arrest her for deceiving him. 0-0-0, though, attacked Posla from behind, killing him in the process.

Post death
"Irony is, if Posla didn't get so angry at being lied to, he might've realized! He had his man after all."

- "Lopset Yas", revealing himself as Cornelius Evazan

Following Posla's death, 0-0-0 captured Aphra and took her towards his ship. Yas escaped the commotion and as 0-0-0 drapped Aphra towards his touring ship, he shot the assassin droid. Aphra assumed he was saving her but he then stunned her and took her and 0-0-0 onto Posla's ship to escape. When Aphra awoke, Yas revealed himself to be Cornelius Evazan using a pluripleq to disguise himself.

Personality and traits
"Tam Posla's one of those "time consuming and expensive trial first, shoot later" kinda guys. He's the most honorable idiot i've ever met."

- Chelli Aphra, on Tam Posla

Tam Posla was an individual of a humanoid species with light skin. He was a homosexual, having fallen in love with one of Cornelius Evazan's victims, Caysin Bog. When Bog was killed, Posla took it out on the swarm of rejected prototypes that had killed his soulmate and it left him traumatized after. Posla became very deviant following Bog's death and it led him to slashing his left forearm during his hunt for Evazan.

Posla was a dedicated lawman, having received an Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificate. He chased Doctor Evazan to the point where his Superior officer took his badge. By that time, Posla was already too attached to the case and continued to chase Evazan. He also cared very much for the rights of individuals. He refused to kill anything that had either not broken the law or wasn't required to kill on his contract. When a stormtrooper was getting away on Skako Minor, Posla let the soldier go as they were only following orders from their superiors. Posla also refused to help Chelli Lona Aphra when they were under attack from the Chthonic worm god as it wasn't part of his contract to do so. Although Posla made exceptions when harm came to his Bog and when the worm god attacked the Cyborg, Posla to attacked the beast with his cybernetic rocket launchers. Aphra took advantage of Posla's love for him and programmed Bog to advance towards danger at the press of a button. Aphra used this to turn Posla against the army of rejected projects in Hivebase-1.

Although it was uncommon for him to use violence, Posla ended up being brutal to anyone who did him wrong. After Aphra betrayed Posla, he found out her involvement in Bog's death and swore to cut her heart out slowly when he found her again. Until then he decided to continue his long craved hunt for Evazan, whom he now hated more than anyone in the galaxy. During the hunt, his madness for finding Evazan led him to killing six informants, kicking the sixth to death for lying to him. After killing the sixth informant, Posla realized that it may not have been the best choice and decided to adjust to a less hands on strategy.

Posla hated Evazan to the point he put him above everything else, even when Aphra, who he swore to kill likewise, contacted him. He intended to take Evazan back to Milvayne and put him on trial for what he had done. However, Aphra knew of his madness for this and was able to trick Posla into delivering a shuttle to her using the changeling Lopset Yas to impersonate Evazan.

Skills and abilities
Tam Posla was a skilled tracker, being able to pick up on every one of Evazan's doings for over a year. Although he did not fight much, Posla was a hard man to beat, having taken on a swarm of dangerous projects. He once killed an informant by kicking the individual until they died.

Equipment
"You've got more firepower in one pinky than the rest of us put together!"

- Chelli Aphra, on Tam Posla's cybernetics

Tam Posla covered his face with a black and white colored helmet marked with the symbol of the Milvayne Authority and equipped with a targeting array on an articulated stalk. He also had a white mask with a similar design to the helmet. He wore a brown padded jerkin and gray pants as well as black shoulder pads and brown gloves. He kept his Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificate in a patch pocket on his pants and on his belt he carried a portable scanner array in a Electromagnetic pulse proof pouch. While on Jedha he was armed with a black DL-17 blaster rifle modified with an extended magazine and equipped with a long strap. He also carried and a modified BlasTech Industries DH-17 blaster pistol. Posla also bought a ship from the protocol droid 0-0-0, in which he conducted his hunt for Evazan from following the infiltration of Hivebase-1.

Tam Posla had a vast array of cybernetics throughout his body, his right eye being a yellow robotic eye. The many features could be hidden under Posla's armor with his white mask being able to move forward to reveal a large gun out the top of his head and two rocket launchers and a laser on the sides. Posla also had rocket launchers tucked into his left knee and shoulders. Further to them, Posla had a gun in his other knee and could semi-detach his hands to show two more guns with blades coming out of his knuckles. Furthermore, Posla had several more guns embedded in his Torso and a twin gun attached to his right thigh. Mobilizing these guns and launchers usually ended up damaging his clothing, which led him to wear a selection of different jerkins throughout his time working for Aphra.

Behind the scenes
Tam Posla first appeared in the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which was released on December 16, 2016. The film, however, did not show the scene that introduced Posla in the trailer. Although the film did not identify Posla, his name and back story was provided by Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, a reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo and released on the same day as the film. Posla later appeared with a larger role in Doctor Aphra 15: Remastered, Part II and has appeared in the following four issues in the story arc. During the arc Posla was portrayed as homosexual, having a relationship with Caysin Bog. In April 2018, Posla appeared in the official trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story before making his forseen appearance in the movie in May 2018.

Appearances

 * Solo: A Star Wars Story
 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
 * Doctor Aphra 15: Remastered, Part II
 * Doctor Aphra 16: Remastered, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 17: Remastered, Part IV
 * Doctor Aphra 18: Remastered, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 19: Remastered, Part VI
 * Doctor Aphra 22: The Catastrophe Con, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 23: The Catastrophe Con, Part IV
 * Doctor Aphra 24: The Catastrophe Con, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 25: The Catastrophe Con, Part VI