Nyrox

"Full forward. Flatten those soldiers."

- Lieutenant Nyrox

Nyrox was a Human male who served in the Imperial Army during the Galactic Civil War. A product of the elite training program at Raithal Academy, Nyrox demonstrated his skill and ingenuity in the cockpit of the giant All Terrain Armored Transport. Having caught the attention of the walker line's main proponent, Maximilian Veers, Nyrox graduated from the Imperial Academy and was promptly promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Veers selected him to pilot the AT-AT walker Thunderer One, the lead walker of Thundering Herd, his personal AT-AT unit. In 3 ABY, Nyrox served under Veers at the Battle of Hoth, leading the invading walker squadron to victory over the defenders of Echo Base. He earned the rank of captain for his actions.

Biography
Nyrox was a graduate of the prestigious Raithal Academy, a training branch of the Imperial Academy. It was at Raithal that Nyrox was trained in the ground warfare tactics of the Imperial Army. There, he was instructed in all types of Imperial Army hardware, ranging from ground-based artillery to complex vehicles like the HAVw A5 Juggernaut, the Heavy Assault Vehicle/repulsorlift A9 Floating Fortress, and PX-4 Mobile Command Bases. His weapon of choice, however, was the mammoth All Terrain Armored Transport. He relished the sense of power the walker afforded him.

He demonstrated his ability in the cockpit of the AT-AT with such flair that it caught the attention of Maximilian Veers, the premiere supporter of walker technology. During an inspection tour of the Raithal Academy sometime during the formation of Darth Vader's Death Squadron, Veers witnessed Nyrox's skill first-hand. Nyrox was running a full-immersion holo-simulation against a squadron of Rebel airspeeders supported by Ultra-Light Assault Vehicles and Rebel Armored Freerunners. When a lucky hit crippled one of the AT-AT's legs, Nyrox resourcefully decided to take up a defensive crouching posture. Although the maneuver ground the walker's bearings to the very hub, he was able to destroy each Rebel craft by making them come to him. Most impressed with the trainee's simulation, Veers appointed Nyrox as pilot for his lead walker, Thunderer One, the point walker of Thundering Herd, an elite force of AT-AT's under his command. Nyrox's abilities earned him the rank of lieutenant straight out of the Academy.

Nyrox served with Veers through action at the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, where he piloted the invasion's lead walker. For his actions during the Rebel defeat at Hoth, Nyrox was promoted to captain.

Personality and traits
Like many Imperial personnel, Nyrox enjoyed a sense of power and control over his opposition, which is what influenced his taste for the might of the AT-AT. He possessed a certain level of military tactical prowess, opting to assume a defensive position after his AT-AT suffered damage to one of its legs and allowing the enemy craft of his groundbreaking simulation to come to him, rather than to seek them out. His skill was well employed during the Battle of Hoth, during which he led the invasion's lead walker in routing the defenders of Echo Base.

Behind the scenes
The character of Nyrox first appeared in the 1989 first edition of the West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back as an example of a standard AT-AT pilot, which provided the character with roleplaying stats only. The July 1996 second edition of the sourcebook included a full profile of Nyrox as part of a major expansion by Pablo Hidalgo.

Inconsistencies
The second edition of Galaxy Guide 3 explains that Nyrox piloted Thunderer One, the lead walker of Veers's elite Thundering Herd AT-AT squadron, the walker squadron assigned to the Battle of Hoth. This implies that Thundering Herd is the AT-AT unit seen in the film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and that Thunderer One is the AT-AT seen commanded by Veers himself, which would also seem to imply that Nyrox is the pilot seen alongside Veers in the AT-AT cockpit. However, the subsequent November 1996 Hoth Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game identified Veers's lead walker as "Blizzard 1," apart of Blizzard Force, Darth Vader's elite assault force, whereas Galaxy Guide 3 did not necessarily place the AT-ATs of Thundering Herd as part of Blizzard Force. The Thundering Herd unit has never again been referenced in Star Wars canon, whereas Blizzard Force has become the recognized name of the Imperial forces at Hoth. Nevertheless, until further canonical connection is made, this article assumes that the Thunderer One and Blizzard 1 walkers are separate.

Nyrox's tactic of assuming a defensive, kneeling posture is strikingly similar to the tactic employed by a promising cadet named Davin Felth in the short story When The Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale, as part of the 1995 anthology book Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. However, rather than rewarding Felth as he does Nyrox, Veers reassigns Felth to the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps to mask an exposed weakness of the AT-AT design.