Trachta

"The Emperor plans to disband the Senate. But the shift in authority shall be greater than he expects. We shall eliminate the Sith. And save the Empire."

- Trachta

Trachta was an Imperial Grand Moff over the Imperial Center Oversector who unsuccessfully masterminded the Anti-Sith conspiracy and attempted to kill Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader.

Trachta appeared to be a Human male, but was encased with cybernetic implants after being horribly maimed by a thermal detonator during the Clone Wars. His most distinctive feature was a rectangular breath mask that fed into the mechanical lungs required to keep him alive and obscured his pale face. In addition to his cybernetic respiratory system, Trachta's organic eyes were replaced with ocular cameras, and a third ocular camera was installed in the back of his head, allowing him to see behind him.

Early political career
Trachta first met Senator Palpatine during the last years of the Republic. He was impressed by a lecture given at the Republic University and offered his services to Palpatine if ever they were needed. Palpatine forwarded Trachta's records to the Republic Military Academy, where Trachta became an instructor in tactics and intelligence.

During the Clone Wars, Palpatine called upon Trachta to investigate and capture Jedi leaving the Republic for the side of Count Dooku. In the line of duty, Trachta was grievously injured by a thermal detonator, scarring the future Moff and leaving him without arms or eyes. He was brought back to Coruscant, where his arms and eyes were replaced with cybernetics. Trachta resumed his service by the end of the Clone Wars.

Trachta, as a loyal servant of Palpatine, became one of the first Moffs in the Galactic Empire, where he ruled over the Imperial Center Oversector. In the following years, Trachta was appointed to the rank of Grand Moff.

Anti-Sith conspiracy
In 11 BBY, several years after the birth of the Galactic Empire, Trachta became increasingly more power hungry, craving to overthrow the Order of the Sith Lords and take control of the Imperial state. He concentrated his life on the upcoming coup, preparing to assassinate the Sith and rule the Empire. Trachta was not the only member of the conspiracy, but he recruited the other conspirators as well, including Grand Moff Bartam, General Skosef, Second Officer Dezsetes and the assassin Gauer. He saw both the Jedi and the Sith as foolish, declaring that the Empire could not be ruled by a clique of two Force-sensitive men. Trachta convinced his accomplices that the Empire was doomed unless the conspirators would overthrow the theocratic Sith and install a secular leadership. The pivotal element in Trachta's plot was a detachment of a one hundred clone stormtroopers, programmed loyal to the conspirators and trained by an army officer named Carsan.

In 1 BBY, Trachta accompanied with Darth Vader and Moff Kadir, commander of the Coruscant Security Force, to test the blaster accuracy of the stormtroopers. Vader ordered the stormtroopers to be transferred to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's ship, but Kadir objected the Dark Lord's orders, because the stormtroopers were to assign in Coruscant City Guard. However, Kadir finally had to obey Vader unless he wanted to be executed like his predecessor in the Coruscant Security Force. Sensing Kadir's hatred of the Sith, Trachta recruited the Moff to the conspiracy. Then, Trachta visited in the Imperial Palace and met Emperor Palpatine, who informed Trachta on his plans to dissolve the Imperial Senate. Afterwards, Trachta met Carsan and the clone stormtroopers. Trachta ordered Carsan to be placed under arrest to prove the stormtroopers' loyalty to him. When Carsan panicked and tried to resist the arrest, he was shot down by the stormtroopers.

In the meeting with the conspirators, Trachta introduced Moff Kadir and announced the Emperor's scheme on rendering the Senate irrelevant. Using the fact that Vader was sent to Dargulli to slay a lightsaber-wielding Force-senstive, Trachta planned to storm the Imperial Palace with the clone stormtroopers and eliminate the Emperor during Vader's absence. Meanwhile, Dezsetes was assigned to eliminate Vader aboard the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Mathayus. However, Trachta became paranoid, suspecting Bartam for being disloyal and secretive. He asked Kadir to observe the Grand Moff, sowing the seeds of distrust and rivalry between the conspirators.

Trachta planned to assassinate Palpatine by destroying his personal Lambda-class shuttle, as the Emperor was going to visit the unfinished Death Star. Trachta's clone stormtroopers planted a bomb, hidden in a crate of bottles, on the shuttle, but Palpatine sensed the assassination attempt through the Force. Trachta accompanied the Emperor, realizing that Palpatine was too cautious and shrewd to spring the trap. The bomb exploded destroying the shuttle and killing several Royal Guardsmen and stormtroopers, but Palpatine himself survived unharmed.

Since the Emperor lost many of his loyal bodyguards in the assassination attempt, Trachta send his own clone stormtroopers to replace the men killed in the explosion. However, the clone stormtroopers allowed the conspirators to invade the Imperial Palace and eliminate the Emperor in his throne room. When Kadir introduced the stormtroopers to the Emperor, Trachta informed Skosef that he was implicated in the assassination attempt, affecting in Skosef's role in the plan.

Assassination
While Trachta planned to betray his co-conspirators, he was not oblivious to the reality that one of his allies might plan to betray him as well. Trachta's suspicions were confirmed when, while working in his personal quarters, an armed droid prepared to assassinate him from behind. Trachta's rear ocular camera allowed him to sense the attack, and he easily destroyed his would-be assassin. Unfortunately, as Trachta went to examine the destroyed droid, he overlooked Gauer who was standing just outside his room. Out in the hallway, the Grand Moff was shot in the chest, with bolts of electricity bursting from his ocular implants. Gauer dragged the remains of the droid with him, leaving Trachta's corpse in his personal quarters. Gauer was sent by Bartam to remove Trachta, in response to the infighting between the leaders of the coup.

Meanwhile, Skosef, acting under Trachta's orders, assassinated Bartam and was killed by the Grand Moff's stormtrooper guard. With Trachta, Bartam and Skosef dead, Kadir became the leading figure of the conspiracy and attempted to eliminate the Emperor, but he and the clone stormtroopers were killed by Palpatine and his Royal Guard. Thus, Trachta never saw the conclusion of his failed coup.

Behind the scenes
While developing the story for Star Wars: Empire: Betrayal, writer Scott Allie originally intended Trachta to be the absolute leader of the plot to assassinate Vader and Palpatine. It was only later in the development process that he came up with the idea of the other conspirators becoming more independent and treacherous on their own.

According to Abel G. Peña, the article Imperial Betrayal in The Official Star Wars Fact File 122 was supposed to imply that Trachta worked with genetics master Atha Prime, a character developed for the Kenner toy line in the 1980s, and that Prime was the one responsible for creating the clone stormtroopers under Trachta's command. However, the reference was removed from the released product.

In the cover of Star Wars: Empire 2: Betrayal, Part 2, illustrated by Brian Horton, Trachta's breathing mask has a more elongated shape compared to the triangular breathing mask seen in the comic.

In the scene where Gauer's armed droid is attempting to assassinate Trachta before it is shot itself, the reader can see what appears to be a symbol made out of the to-be-finished Death Star I on Trachta's door.

As part of the 2008 Legacy Collection, Hasbro released a Moff Trachta 3 and 3/4 inch figure in their Dark Horse Comic Pack wave. The figure was well articulated with a moveable head, hinged shoulders, elbows and ankles, he also came with a hand blaster. The pack also contained another figure, that of Darth Vader and a reprinted Star Wars: Empire comic book.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Empire: Betrayal