Osvald Teshik

"Grand Admiral Teshik, captured at Endor, was executed by the New Republic."

- Voren Na'al, reporting on the Grand Admiral's fate

Osvald Teshik was a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy. He was one of the original twelve Grand Admirals, appointed to that newly created rank by Emperor Palpatine two years before the Battle of Yavin. He commanded the Imperial Center Oversector, which included the capital world of Imperial Center and all of the oversector's fleets.

For failing to recover Advisor Coh Veshiv from the crew of the Rebel Alliance privateering frigate Far Orbit and deal with its renegade captain, Dhas Fenoep Vedij, Palpatine sent Teshik into the Hapes Cluster to engage the Hapan Royal Navy with insufficient firepower and supplies. He was nearly killed in the battle, and seventy-five percent of Teshik's body required cybernetic replacements. He was shunned by many as a result, who saw him as weak and repulsive.

Teshik was present onboard the second Death Star during the Rebellion's attack on the superweapon in 4 ABY. He escaped the badly-damaged battlestation to his flagship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Eleemosynary, and continued the fight against the Rebels for four hours until his Star Destroyer was disabled by concentrated ion cannon fire. He was captured by the Alliance, and before being executed for inhuman crimes, he responded to his captors with mechanical laughter at the thought of his sentence.

Grand Admiral
Teshik was a Human male who lived during the reign of the Galactic Empire. He was a member of the Imperial Navy, and in 2 BBY he was elevated to the newly created rank of Grand Admiral by Emperor Palpatine. As one of the twelve Grand Admirals, he answered directly to the Emperor and served as a leader of the Imperial military. Teshik was one of Palpatine's most important and trusted Grand Admirals, as he commanded Imperial Center Oversector, which embraced the very capital of the Empire, and its most developed, wealthy worlds. This position put him in command not only of the most important sector but also of the fleets attached to that sector, including the main defensive fleet of Azure Hammer Command, which included the Super Star Destroyer Whelm and fifty-seven other capital ships, the planet Anaxes, the famous Anaxes Citadel, and, ultimately, all other Imperial forces located in Imperial Center Oversector. He was tasked with keeping the Core Worlds safe, and he took this duty very seriously.

In 0 ABY, when Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv was abducted from a space station above Esseles by the privateer Nebulon-B frigate Far Orbit, Palpatine tasked Teshik with the retrieval of Veshiv, as the advisor had been abducted from within Teshik's own domain. The Emperor personally threatened Teshik with execution if he did not immediately deal with the ship and its captain, Dhas Fenoep Vedij. Teshik failed to rescue Veshiv and kill Vedij, so Palpatine ordered the Grand Admiral to attack the isolationist Hapes Consortium with insufficient forces and materiel as an example to the other Grand Admirals that even they were not beyond reproach. Teshik met in battle with the famed Hapan war fleet, composed of Hapan Battle Dragons and Nova-class battle cruisers, and was nearly killed. Despite the odds, however, he survived, but upon returning to the Empire his life was saved only by replacement of seventy-five percent of his body with cybernetic parts. Teshik retained his position, but he was the target of much abuse and discrimination because of his cybernetics. As a result, Teshik completely cut himself off from his emotions.

Battle of Endor and death
Alongside Grand Admirals Nial Declann, Miltin Takel, and Afsheen Makati, Teshik accompanied Emperor Palpatine aboard the second Death Star as the battlestation was being constructed above Endor, in 4 ABY. The Rebel Alliance, learning of Palpatine's presence onboard the new Death Star, launched an attack against the station, believing the Imperial fleet to be scattered across the galaxy. However, it was a ruse orchestrated by the Emperor, and the Rebels had sprung the trap. Under the command of Admiral Firmus Piett from the Star Dreadnoseeught Executor, the Imperial fleet engaged the Rebels in an effort to annihilate them once and for all. However, when the ambush backfired and the Death Star became critically damaged, Teshik attempted to escape the station, but was pinned beneath a fallen column. None would help him out of the myriad of Imperials fleeing the station, bar a construction worker, who stopped and freed him. The worker's generosity and kindness worked a transformation within Teshik; the years of abuse and disdain fell away and he regained his long-lost compassion he had once shown toward others.

He escaped to his personal command ship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Eleemosynary, and prosecuted the fight against the Alliance Fleet, having assumed command of the Imperial fleet with the deaths of the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Grand Admiral Declann and the retreat of Grand Admirals Takel and Makati. He fought off the Rebels on his own after the remnants of the Imperial fleet fled under Captain Gilad Pellaeon. It took four hours of intense fighting before Teshik's flagship was finally disabled by a barrage of ion cannon fire. The Alliance captured Teshik alive, put him on trial for "inhuman atrocities committed against the citizens of the galaxy," convicted him, and sentenced him to death. The irony of the sentencing did not escape Teshik, and before his execution, he responded with mechanical laughter. He would become one of the few Imperials executed for war crimes by the New Republic, along with the engineer and superweapon designer Bevel Lemelisk, creator of the Death Stars, who was killed over ten years later.

Personality and traits
Osvald Teshik was notable for his confidence and compassion, something very rare among high Imperial officials. He was dedicated to the Imperial cause, taking his position as commander of Imperial Center Oversector seriously, and he had a keen mind for military strategy. As a testament to his ability, Teshik was able to stand his ground against the enemy even when they outnumbered him. He refused to surrender even when the odds were against him in his engagements with the Hapan navy in the Hapes Cluster and the Alliance Fleet at Endor. In both situations his losses were personal: he lost seventy-five percent of his organic body in the skirmish with the Hapan fleet, and he persevered when he led the remnants of the Imperial fleet after the destruction of the second Death Star at Endor even when faced with utter hopelessness.

He was also known for the cybernetic replacements he received following his encounter with the Hapan navy. He had a red prosthetic right eye, numerous wires entering both his skull and throat, and metal plates bolted to his forehead. However, the Empire discriminated against the ill and weak&mdash;serious mutilations were rare due to widespread use of bacta. Thus, Teshik was universally shunned and an object of revulsion. Being ostracized, shame and unending prejudice hardened his heart. As a result, he lost his compassion. It was not until he was freed from the fallen column onboard the second Death Star that he regained this compassion.

Behind the scenes
Osvald Teshik was first mentioned in 1998's The Far Orbit Project, written by Timothy S. O'Brien and published by West End Games. It was not until 2003's Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals, by Abel G. Peña and Daniel Wallace, that Teshik was given a backstory. Along with Captain Xamuel Lennox of the Tyrant and Force-sensitive TIE pilot Maarek Stele, Abel G. Peña considers Teshik to be one of his "good" Imperials, "making the best of ethically impossible circumstances." Peña has also said that Teshik's story was intended to be a tragic one.

Before appearing in Star Wars Insider 66, the article Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals was originally planned to appear in an issue of Star Wars Gamer under the name "Dirty Dozen: Imperial Grand Admirals" until the magazine was discontinued. There are few differences between the biography present in Dirty Dozen and the final one present in Who's Who; three pieces of information that did not make it into the final article are described in the accompanying section below.

Cut content
Teshik not once had reservations about the Empire. When sent to eliminate the crew of the Far Orbit, he was also tasked with securing the spacelanes from Vedij's plundering of the Ringali Shell, home to half a dozen highly-populated star systems. If he failed, Palpatine threatened to behead the Grand Admiral. Following the engagement with the Hapan fleet and his reconstruction as a cyborg with a built-in blaster cannon, Teshik did not become a droid-hater like stormtrooper-turned-bounty hunter Beilert Valance or end up infuriated with organics like the largely-cybernetic recluse Kligson. At the time of his execution, his artificial, hollow laughter was the saddest sound the Rebels present ever heard.

Inconsistencies
There is an issue over when the Imperial retreat was called during the Battle of Endor. Who's Who states that the retreat was ordered hours before Teshik was captured by the Alliance, but The New Essential Chronology says that Captain Gilad Pellaeon called the retreat after Teshik's flagship was disabled.