Groggin

"The hand. Give it to me.''" "''Got to cover costs, old boy. Though I've a feeling we could arrange a trade. The metal in that helmet could be useful. Not worth much, but still &hellip;"

- Darth Vader and Groggin

Groggin was a male Ugnaught engineer who supervised Smelting Core D, one of Cloud City's most efficient metal processing incinerators. In 3 ABY, during the Galactic Empire's subjugation of Cloud City, Groggin discovered in the refuse awaiting his incinerator a Human hand clutching a strange metal cylinder, which was in actuality the severed hand and lightsaber of Jedi Luke Skywalker, recently lost during his fateful Cloud City duel with the Dark Lord Darth Vader. When Vader appeared in the smelting chamber, demanding the hand and lightsaber, Groggin, unaware of the Dark Lord's identity, instead demanded they negotiate for them. Unamused, Vader killed Groggin and took the prize, bound for the personal vaults of the Emperor himself.

Biography
"You will give me the hand. And the lightsaber. ''Now." "''Now see here &hellip;"

- Darth Vader and Groggin

Groggin was the name of the Ugnaught engineer in charge of Smelting Core D within the bowels of Bespin's Cloud City during the height of the Galactic Civil War. Groggin saw to it that his smelting core remained one of Cloud City's most efficient metal reclamation centers. Any manner of clutter that could be melted down and reprocessed, from droid parts to bulkhead fittings, was put through Groggin's conveyor and boiled down into base metals or usable alloys.

In the midst of the Galactic Empire's subjugation of Cloud City in 3 ABY, Groggin discovered a strange item in the steaming heap of rubbish destined for his furnace. To his surprise, he picked out from the refuse a cauterized Human hand clutching a strange metal cylinder&mdash;the same severed hand and lightsaber lost by the young Jedi Luke Skywalker during his duel with the Dark Lord Darth Vader within Cloud City that same day. Judging by the item's lot number, Groggin discerned that the hand had come from the city's lower air shafts, where apparently the piece of debris had been retrieved by the drones that kept Cloud City's air shaft and piping network free of obstruction.

Although Groggin did not know how the hand had made it into his smelting chamber, all that concerned him was the value of metal he had found. As he moved toward the incinerator to discard the hand and melt the odd cylinder down, Groggin heard a strange mechanical breathing from behind. He turned to find a menacing, two-meter-tall, black-robed figure in the doorway. Vader himself had come to claim Skywalker's hand and lightsaber.

Completely failing to grasp the significance of the situation, Groggin immediately countered Vader's demand to give over the hand with a demand of his own&mdash;2,000 credits, to cover costs, as he noted. He also suggested that they might instead be able to negotiate a trade for Vader's metal helmet, even though, as Groggin again noted, it was not worth much. Momentarily taken aback at Groggin's blatant insolence, Vader, with emphasized threat, once more demanded the hand and lightsaber. When Groggin began to again voice protest, Vader instantly caught the Ugnaught in a Force choke, and with a motion of his wrist, the hand and lightsaber floated to the Dark Lord.

The other Ugnaughts in the smelting chamber rushed to the gagging Groggin's side, searching for the cause of his mysterious coughing fit, but their leader was already dead before they could reach him. Groggin's peers later professed, if it was at all possible to tell, that Vader actually radiated black pleasure at that moment. With the Ugnaught engineer dead, Vader stalked from the chamber with his prize, another trophy for the Emperor's collection.

The severed hand of Luke Skywalker, categorized in Imperial archives as sample B-2332-54, would later be used as the genetic template for the creation of a Luke Skywalker clone in 9 ABY.

Personality and traits
Groggin kept Smelting Core D's furnace, one of Cloud City's most efficient, running day and night. The Ugnaught engineer, however, was completely ignorant of galactic affairs. When Lord Darth Vader entered his smelting chamber in search of the hand and lightsaber belonging to Luke Skywalker, Groggin was unaware of whom he was addressing. Vader was surprised by Groggin's unusual display of disrespect, before proceeding to kill him and claiming the prize, which Groggin refused to simply surrender.

Behind the scenes
Groggin first appeared in the short in-universe narrative Clone B-2332-54, featured in the March 1994 The Last Command Sourcebook, written by Eric S. Trautmann. The story provides an explanation for how the Empire recovers Luke Skywalker's hand and lightsaber, lost during his duel with Darth Vader on Cloud City, which are eventually used for the purpose of creating a cloned Luke Skywalker, as seen in the accompanying novel The Last Command. Artist Tim Eldred provided the sourcebook's illustration of Groggin.