Zekka Thyne

"Aggressive and intelligent, although aggression is his default setting. Surprise him and he strikes out. Unpredictable beyond that."

- Fliry Vorru

Zekka Thyne, known to some as "Patches" due to the blue mottling of his skin, was a half-Human, half-alien, who was regarded as one of the most vicious associates in the Black Sun criminal organization. Thyne was an intelligent and murderous criminal being groomed as Prince Xizor's chief associate on Corellia shortly after Black Sun started gaining power there in 7 BBY. Although rumored to be the heir-apparent to Xizor's criminal empire, he was also secretly serving as a spy to Imperial agent Kirtan Loor at the time.

In 3 ABY, Thyne was captured by Corran and Hal Horn and imprisoned on Kessel, through a plan conceived by Darth Vader and arranged by Grand Admiral Thrawn in an attempt to harm Black Sun and Xizor. He was released by the New Republic in 6.5 ABY, however, in a plot to unleash dangerous Black Sun officers into Coruscant to disrupt the Imperial presence during a covert Rogue Squadron mission in the months prior to the planet's liberation.

On Coruscant, Thyne was captured by Kirtan Loor and returned to service as an Imperial spy. He arranged for Imperial forces to ambush Rogue Squadron during a covert mission, after which he attempted to personally kill Corran Horn. Thyne was shot to death by Inyri Forge, his lover from Kessel, before he was able to kill Horn.

Rising Black Sun criminal
"What Patches lacks in brains he makes up for in feral viciousness."

- Corran Horn

Zekka Thyne spent the early stages of his life as little more than a youthful drifter before becoming recruited into The Skulls, an infamous swoop gang. Thyne proved himself as a capable and violent criminal who began building a particularly brutal reputation. Eventually, Thyne drifted into the Corellian system, where he started working for local loan sharks and again gained notoriety as a relentless and dangerous thug. He soon joined the Black Sun syndicate which, due to the rise of the Galactic Empire, had shed the loose sense of honor the organization once possessed.

Black Sun began utilizing more devastating tactics, such as using bombs in crowded cantinas to eliminate single targets. Thyne thrived in this environment; during his time in the syndicate, he was responsible for the murders of dozens of people, all of whom were rivals of Black Sun. This gave Thyne a reputation as a psychopath and a loose cannon, making him a wanted man by CorSec and resulting in several bounties being placed on his head. It also won him the favor of Prince Xizor, the leader of Black Sun, who began grooming him as the heir-apparent to the criminal empire, according to rumors among CorSec officials and Corellian criminals.

Appointment to Corellia
"Those who are lying will pay the ultimate price for daring to deceive me."

- Zekka Thyne

In 7 BBY, Fliry Vorru, then a Moff in charge of the Corellian Sector, was sent to the prison world of Kessel after being framed by Xizor. With Vorru now powerless to stop him, Xizor was able to establish Thyne as his chief associate on Corellia, which served as a training ground for the rising criminal. During this time, Thyne continued to further his reputation as a brutal and dangerous man; he was rumored to have murdered a spice courier who confessed to borrowing credits from a payoff, even though she quickly repaid the loan with interest. As his power grew, Thyne developed a strong rivalry with Borbor Crisk, a smaller-scale criminal trying to wrest control of the Corellian underworld from Black Sun. CorSec also issued an outstanding warrant for Thyne's arrest. However, he was well protected by the four dozen armed men under his command and his heavily secured fortress.

Located east of Coronet City, Thyne's fortress featured double-thick walls, double-paned transparisteel windows, full-spectrum surveillance systems, and complete electronic sensor systems, including technology for tapping or jamming transmissions. Mines surrounded the stronghold, and the defensive towers boasted E-web cannons. Thyne's personal office also contained a secret escape panel that led to a cave where he kept secret or sensitive cargo. Thyne obtained the deed to the fortress after the previous owner was sent to Kessel on spice smuggling charges; however, many believed that Xizor and Thyne set the owner up with these charges in order to gain ownership of the building.

In addition to his fortress, Thyne also established a network of spies on Corellia disguised as shop owners in Treasure Ship Row, a large, open-air shopping mall in Coronet City's notoriously dangerous Blue Sector. One such spy included Sajsh, a supposed curio shop owner of an unknown reptilian species. He also controlled a group of thugs known as the Brommstaad Mercenaries.

Spy for Kirtan Loor
"I would not be averse to seeing Thyne eliminated, but that is outside the purview of my immediate task."

- Thrawn, disguised as Jodo Kast, to Corran Horn

During the period prior to the Battle of Hoth, Thyne served as a spy to Kirtan Loor, who was serving as an Imperial liaison officer to CorSec at the time. In the course of a raid on his fortress in 3 ABY, Corran and Hal Horn learned that Thyne enjoyed backdoor Imperial connections that allowed him to ship spice past Corellian customs, but never learned that Loor was behind them. Loor kept his involvement with Thyne a secret, which he used as leverage in 6.5 ABY to once again turn Thyne into his spy during Rogue Squadron's covert reconnaissance mission on Imperial Center.

Imperial scheme and capture
"No matter where you go, I'll find those double diamonds of yours. Count on it."

- Corran Horn

In 3 ABY, Darth Vader collaborated with Grand Admiral Thrawn on a scheme that would harm Xizor, Vader's rival, without tracing the plan back to the Empire, since Palpatine had an agreement with the Falleen crime lord. Vader and Thrawn decided to target and eliminate Thyne, thus frustrating Black Sun's operations in the Corellian Sector and taking out a high-ranking Black Sun associate. Thrawn concocted a plan that would utilize a small attack by a local garrison, but needed to provide just cause for such an attack.

Thrawn captured the Hopskip, a smuggler vessel running blasters to Rebels on Derra IV. Disguised as the bounty hunter Jodo Kast, Thrawn traveled with the crew to Corellia, under the guise that they were delivering unknown cargo to Borbor Crisk. Upon arriving at Corellia, Thrawn anonymously informed Colonel Maximilian Veers that a Rebel force was gathering in the forest near Thyne's fortress. Thrawn then intentionally sent his de facto partners to make contact with Sajsh, knowing that news of their arrival would reach Thyne. When Thyne learned that the group were looking to contact his rival, he had them captured and taken to his fortress.

Posing as his ally, Thrawn was able to infiltrate Thyne's fortress, where he presented the captured crew as would-be assassins, thus earning Thyne's trust. Thyne agreed to dispatch some of his men to capture the remainder of the Hopskip crew, unaware that he was leaving his fortress weakened prior to the imminent Imperial attack. Thrawn's original plan was to assassinate Thyne during the Imperial attack; however, when Thrawn encountered disguised CorSec investigators Corran and Hal Horn, he modified his plan to allow the Horns to capture Thyne. News of the Imperial forces outside his fortress eventually reached Thyne, and when his security system detected the Horns approaching his office, he mistook them for Imperials. As the two CorSec agents entered the room, Thrawn revealed his deception and helped them eliminate Thyne's bodyguards. Seeing the situation turning against him, Thyne attempted to flee via the secret panel in his office, but the Horns pursued him. Thyne ambushed Corran and took him as a hostage, but the reflection of Thyne's gold eyes proved to be a liability, even in the dark cave. Hal used his rudimentary control of the Force to disable Thyne, accurately firing a stun shot to his eye. By allowing Thyne to be captured instead of killed, Thrawn further distanced Vader and the Empire from the arrest, and created an additional distraction for Xizor by making him wonder whether Thyne was giving up Black Sun secrets in custody.

As the Horns were hunting down Thyne, Veers stormed the fortress, believing, based on Thrawn's information, Thyne to be harboring Rebel insurgents. Since many of Thyne's soldiers were not present at the fortress at the time, having been dispatched to find and kill Crisk, also based on false information provided by Thrawn, the Imperials soon took control of the fortress. Thrawn also had the Hopskip traced after its release, leading the Imperials straight to a Rebel Alliance convoy. For his assistance in arranging the capture of Thyne and gathering intelligence that led to the Battle of Derra IV, Vader rewarded Thrawn by giving him command of the Dark Lord's Noghri.

Imprisonment on Kessel
"There are a few on here who really shouldn't be allowed off Kessel, unless we're going to dump them in the Maw on our way out of here."

- Corran Horn

Thyne was tried and sentenced to the Imperial detention facility on Kessel. Although convicted on smuggling charges, he was not formally charged with the many murders associated with him. Since CorSec was credited with his capture, the Imperial conspiracy to remove him from power was never discovered. Xizor tried to slice files in order to get Thyne off of Kessel, but Loor made this impossible when he accidentally altered the structure of the files with Thyne's information. Corran Horn described this error as "the only good thing Loor ever did." During Thyne's time in prison, Xizor was killed by Vader, which crippled Black Sun to an extent from which it never recovered.

On Kessel, Thyne met Inyri Forge, daughter of prison rehabilitators Kassar and Myda Forge. Thyne took advantage of the disillusionment she felt from her life on Kessel and the negative connotations outsiders associated with Kessel residents. Although Forge would later admit that she had underlying reservations about Thyne's character, she desired the respect that he seemed to give her, and it in turn helped her to respect herself. Thyne and Forge became lovers, and she became his cutter, a spicer term for someone trustworthy enough to handle their spice.

Release from Kessel
"Oh, forgive me, I've forgotten the Rebels are all sweetness and light. Then again, you're here taking someone like me away from this place. Expediency wins over purity, it would appear."

- Zekka Thyne, to Wedge Antilles

After serving more than three years on Kessel, Thyne was released along with fifteen other Black Sun officers as part of the New Republic mission to liberate Coruscant in 6.5 ABY. During the Provisional Council's planning of the liberation, Borsk Fey'lya formed a plan to free several Black Sun prisoners from Kessel and release them into Coruscant. Fey'lya believed they would bring together disparate parts of the criminal organization still remaining on the planet and work to sabotage the Empire. This, he believed, would help Rogue Squadron infiltrate the planet, collect reconnaissance, and bring down the planet's shields.

Thus, Commander Wedge Antilles made a deal with Moruth Doole, warden of the Kessel facility, to give the New Republic political prisoners in exchange for getting rid of the Black Sun problem prisoners. Antilles would allow the political prisoners to return to galactic life or to join the New Republic, and he would use the problem prisoners in the campaign for Coruscant. Zekka Thyne was second on the list of "bad prisoners," behind Doole's sadistic enforcer Arb Skynxnex. Antilles noted that Doole feared Thyne and was anxious to be rid of him, prompting Antilles to ask for more political prisoners in return.

Corran Horn, now serving as a pilot for Rogue Squadron, tried to discourage Antilles from taking Thyne in the first place, arguing that he was too vicious to be released and would challenge Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard for control of Coruscant if given the opportunity. Horn suggested slicing files to make it appear that Thyne was dead so that the New Republic would not demand his release. When this request was denied, Horn instead recommended that prisoner Fliry Vorru be pulled off Kessel to keep Thyne in line. Antilles and Vorru agreed to this arrangement.

Doole informed them that Inyri Forge, sister of slain Rogue Squadron pilot Lujayne Forge, had insisted on accompanying Thyne. Forge saw this as an escape from Kessel, thus causing her adoration of Thyne to grow. Antilles made an offer to her family to make arrangements so that she would not be permitted to stay with Thyne. Myda wanted to take the offer, yet Kassar insisted that his daughter needed to make her own decision and even expressed hope that she might be able to change Thyne for the better.

Presence on Coruscant
"Now I have a blaster and am just full of ideas about what I can do with it."

- Zekka Thyne, to Corran Horn

During his time working with Rogue Squadron on Coruscant, Thyne repeatedly attempted to psychologically attack Horn, trying to take responsibility for the previous death of Hal Horn years prior. Horn doubted Thyne was involved because the murder took place well into Thyne's prison term. Although he did not completely disregard the possibility, Horn did not allow himself to be bothered by Thyne's comments.

Some time later, Thyne tried to take the opportunity to eliminate him after finding Horn alone in The Headquarters, a cantina in Coruscant's Alien Protection Zone, an area the Empire used to segregate aliens from the Human population. With the aid of a Human and a Trandoshan, Thyne tried to trap Horn, but the Corellian twisted away, causing the Human assailant to shoot the Trandoshan, leaving an opening for Horn to disarm the Human and flee the cantina. Thyne attempted to shoot him with a blaster pistol, but Horn escaped, leading to a speeder bike chase that resulted in the deaths of a handful of Black Sun officers working for Thyne.

The chase ended when the bikes accidentally interrupted an Imperial raid on the Alien Combine. Several members of Rogue Squadron were present at the time, having been captured by Asyr Sei'lar, a Combine member who mistook the Rogues for anti-Alien bigots and turned them over for execution. A firefight between the Combine, Rogue Squadron, and Imperial stormtroopers broke out, during which Thyne attempted to flee for his own safety. He did not make any attempt to help or check on Forge, who was rescued by Horn and fellow pilot Gavin Darklighter.

Return to Imperial spy status
"You will be my eyes and ears within the Alliance community here. I want to know their plans. I want timetables, suppliers, personnel rosters, anything and everything. If you give me what I want, I let you live."

- Kirtan Loor, to Zekka Thyne

Thyne was nevertheless captured during the fight by the Empire and brought to Kirtan Loor, who was now serving as an Imperial Intelligence officer. Loor once again recruited Thyne as a spy, establishing him as his "eyes and ears" among Rogue Squadron during their mission on Coruscant. When Thyne resisted, Loor threatened to reveal Thyne's previous Imperial spy activities to Black Sun slicers, which would have almost certainly resulted in Thyne's death.

Loor also gave permission for Thyne to kill Horn if given the opportunity. Although he said this was for Thyne's protection and as a reward for his services, Loor actually wanted Horn killed out of fear for his own life, since he had previously released Bossk, the Trandoshan bounty hunter who killed Hal Horn, from prison. Loor ordered a stormtrooper to fire a non-fatal blaster shot into Thyne's abdomen so it would appear that he had escaped capture, then ordered Thyne back to Rogue Squadron.

Although Thyne continually relayed information to Loor, much of which was useful, he was unable to inform him about a crucial plan Rogue Squadron formed to bring the planetary shields down. Thyne did attend the meeting during which the plan was formed, but as a result of a confrontation he started with Horn, Vorru punched him in the abdomen and smashed his head against the table. As a result, he suffered a concussion and thus did not remember the meeting.

Death
"In all the time I was with him, I knew that he was not the sort of person I had been raised to respect."

- Inyri Forge, after shooting Zekka Thyne

Thyne did, however, discover and inform Loor of a Rogue Squadron mission to infiltrate an Imperial warehouse. Thyne was assigned guard duty for the mission, but he abandoned his post because he did not want to risk being shot when the Imperials launched their counter-attack against Rogue Squadron.

Although Forge was at the warehouse during the mission, Thyne did not warn her about his betrayal or the imminent Imperial attack. As a result, she was nearly killed when a stormtrooper pursued her airspeeder on a 74-Y speeder bike. She was only saved by the assistance of Horn and Mirax Terrik, a smuggler assisting Rogue Squadron. Forge then brought Horn and Terrik to a backup location Thyne had provided her.

There, Thyne expressed no relief that Forge was alive, and instead pulled a blaster carbine on Horn. Thyne revealed that he was working as an Imperial spy and that he planned to kill Horn and deliver his body to Loor in exchange for safe passage and a new identity on a new world. Before he could kill Horn, however, he was shot in the abdomen by Forge, who finally realized that Thyne only respected her to the point where she was useful to him.

In his dying breaths, Thyne once again tried to allude that he was responsible for the death of Horn's father, but Horn saw through the ruse. In an attempt to haunt him after his death, Thyne instead told him there was at least one other spy in Rogue Squadron, although he did not know the identity of that spy; it was, in fact, Erisi Dlarit, one of the Rogue pilots. Horn assured Thyne, however, that this news not only did not haunt him, but also served as a warning to him about an enemy he had not previously realized existed. With this, Thyne died.

Legacy
"There, I will haunt you."

- Zekka Thyne's last words

Although Thyne did not torment Horn following his death, he unknowingly caused some posthumous trouble for the New Republic and, more specifically, Tycho Celchu, a Rogue pilot under suspicion of serving as an Imperial spy.

Thyne's dying warnings to Horn about an Imperial spy heightened suspicions he already had about Celchu's potential role as a brainwashed Imperial agent. This would result in a confrontation between Horn and Celchu shortly before the First Battle of Coruscant, which was later used as evidence when it appeared Horn was killed during the battle. The confrontation would serve as primary evidence for the prosecution when Celchu, in fact innocent, was arrested and charged with treason and Horn's murder. Thyne's legacy proved a further problem during Celchu's trial when prosecuting attorney Halla Ettyk used Thyne as a way of casting doubt of Wedge Antilles' ability to identify an Imperial spy, implying that he was also unable to determine whether Celchu was a spy or not.

During the outbreak of the Krytos virus, a devastating bioweapon unleashed upon the Coruscanti alien population by Ysanne Isard, Fliry Vorru convinced the Provisional Council to install himself as leader of the Imperial City People's Militia to assert control of the Coruscant underworld. He invoked the name of Zekka Thyne in his proposal, convincing the Council he was regretful for his inability to control the criminal and wished to make amends. The Council believed Vorru and gave him the position, which proved to be a mistake, as Vorru was secretly working for Isard and provided Kirtan Loor with domestic targets to destroy in order to weaken the New Republic.

Personality and traits
"He's got sharp ears, sharper teeth and the sharpest sense of retribution you've ever run into this side of a Wookiee bearing a grudge."

- Corran Horn

In temperament, Zekka Thyne was extremely aggressive, often using threats and intimidation to get his way, earning himself a reputation as the most vicious Black Sun criminal. Thyne had a tendency to lash out, especially when surprised, and thus could be very unpredictable, but was quite intelligent despite this apparent lack of self-control. He had excellent vision and reflexes and was very skilled with the use of vibroblades.

Thyne's flesh pigmentation varied between two shades, with light blue patches of skin that seemed to be layered over another whitish-pink color. This appeared to be a result of the cross-breeding of a Human and an unknown alien species. His skin was mottled and patchy, earning him the nickname "Patches," although few would dare to call him as such to his face except when he was taunted by enemies. The most dominant of his blotches cut from the bridge of his nose under his cheekbone to his left ear, and then back up to the midline of his skull, which Corran Horn felt gave the impression of one slowly fading, massive black eye. Thyne had a wiry build and appeared to be congenitally hairless; he was clean-shaven and completely bald. He had sharply pointed ears, similarly serrated pointed teeth, and cat-like red eyes with slender black diamond pupils outlined in gold specks, which reflected slightly in the dark.

Thyne had an appreciation for art, although his taste was considered questionable by such people as Horn and Thrawn. The works displayed at his Corellia fortress were mostly excessive nudes and relied heavily on a color scheme of pinks, purples and harsh shades of green. Thyne was known to correct works that did not include this scheme.

Inyri Forge
Zekka Thyne seldom demonstrated any genuine signs of love or caring for Inyri Forge, whom he became involved with during his time on Kessel; in fact, he abandoned her to possible harm and death on more than one occasion, including the Alien Combine firefight on Coruscant and the Imperial ambush against Rogue Squadron. His relationship with Forge seemed more a matter of convenience than of caring and he often treated her more like a subordinate than a lover, like when he demanded a blaster from her during an encounter with Corran Horn in a Coruscant cantina. He first won Forge not by wooing her but by manipulating her, playing to her disillusionment from her sister's death and her insecurity with being negatively associated with Kessel and she believed that he respected her despite the typical stigma of Kesselian heritage. Likewise, Forge stayed with Thyne not from any genuine feelings of affection, but as means of rebelling from her family and expressing her ill feelings; upon killing Thyne, she acknowledged that she always knew he was not right for her.

Behind the scenes
Zekka Thyne was created by Michael A. Stackpole and first appeared in the novel X-wing: Wedge's Gamble. Stackpole is the only author to date to have featured Thyne in writings. Although Thyne was a central character in Side Trip, a novella co-written by Timothy Zahn, Thyne himself was only featured in the portions of the story written by Stackpole.

Zekka Thyne appears as a Bothan character in Star Wars Galaxies, a Star Wars massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It can be assumed the Galaxies character was intended to be the Thyne from Stackpole's novels, but since the game classes him as a Bothan, and his appearance is nothing like the character on which he is based, it cannot be canonically said that the two are the same. Galaxies made a similar error when Chertyl Ruluwoor, a Selonian character, appeared in the game as a Human.

Appearances

 * Tales from the Empire
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-wing: The Krytos Trap
 * X-wing: The Bacta War
 * X-wing: The Bacta War