Garth Breise

"Way to go, newbie."

- Garth Breise to Yomin Carr at ExGal-4

Garth Breise was a male Human scientist and astronomer at the Extragalactic Society's ExGal-4 exploratory base on Belkadan in 25 ABY, where he worked the night shift at the facility's sensor station. He also had the dubious prestige of being one of the first galactic citizens to encounter a Yuuzhan Vong advance agent, as well as one of the first to be killed by one; Yomin Carr killed him to prevent any transmissions alerting the galaxy at large to the imminent threat that the Yuuzhan Vong posed.

Career at ExGal
"He'll get bored of it soon enough."

- Garth Breise, discussing Yomin Carr's enthusiasm for working at ExGal-4

A Human male scientist and astronomer, Garth Breise was, as of 25 ABY, stationed at ExGal-4 on Belkadan with an Extragalactic Society team monitoring the edges of the galaxy for signs of extra-galactic life. He worked the night shift at the base, which he had come to find monotonous. His primary responsibility was manning his sensor station observing and monitoring areas of space for a scientific anomaly or discovery that would benefit the galaxy; in addition to this, he also had engineering acumen.

A dark discovery
When an unusual object was detected entering the Helska system and hitting that system's fourth planet by rookie ExGal member Yomin Carr, Breise was quick to praise Carr, unaware that his colleague was an undercover advance agent for the Praetorite Vong, a vanguard force for the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong, and had been closely observing that point in space. A team, including Breise's good friend Bensin Tomri, was scrambled to investigate the anomaly; however, the base could not make contact with any outside agency due to damage to the communications tower&mdash;damage perpetrated by Yomin Carr to protect preparations for his people's impending invasion. Breise would stay behind to repair the fault, a task that he felt obligated to perform regardless of his disdain for it; being reprimanded by colleague Danni Quee was the outcome Breise wished to avoid.

Death
"Why?"

- Breise to Yomin Carr, shortly before falling from the tower due to Carr's actions

When Breise and Yomin Carr went to climb and repair the damaged communications tower, Breise happened upon several small red beetles on the ground around the tower, unaware that Carr himself had introduced them into the ecology of Belkadan to aid in the Yuuzhan Vong's future terraforming efforts there, and blamed the damage to the tower on them. Knowing that any transmissions resulting from a successful reparation of the tower would likely call attention to the incursion of the Praetorite Vong, Carr made ready to ambush Breise at the summit of the tower. As Breise was momentarily distracted by the departure of the base's Spacecaster, which carried the outbound team members, Carr struck Breise's windpipe and, as Breise put one hand to his throat, struck him again on the wrist of the hand with which he held on to the tower. Despite his efforts to regain his balance, Breise fell, and died from the hundred-meter fall. Carr momentarily expressed regret&mdash;not for Breise's killing, but for the probability that his falling body had crushed several of the beetles on the ground.

Following Breise's death, the other present members of the ExGal-4 team were immensely upset. Bensin Tomri never learned of Breise's fate, as he died on Helska IV; Tee-ubo Doole, another team member, dreaded informing Tomri of Breise's death, but she remained unaware of Tomri's fate before dying of the beetle-borne bioweapon unleashed on Belkadan by Yomin Carr.

Personality and traits
"I just want to get this stupid work over with."

- Garth despairing of his latest task

Garth Breise was an active member of ExGal-4, both in professional and social respects. Both competent and hardworking, he was an avid conversationalist; discussing new members at the base was one of his favorite subjects. Moreover, he would praise intelligent observations and discoveries made by team members. Despite his dislike of some responsibilities at ExGal-4, he would take them on with aplomb; refusal meant being berated by Danni Quee.

Behind the scenes
Garth Breise was introduced in the 1999 novel The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore.

Appearances

 * The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime