Xamuel Lennox

"Sir, Rebel ships are coming into our sector.''" "''Good. Our first catch of the day."

- Lieutenant Cabbel and Captain Lennox, during the Battle of Hoth

Xamuel Lennox was a male Human who hailed from a long line of men with military backgrounds. Lennox began his career as a naval officer for the Galactic Empire with a noble, proud philosophy, similar to that of his ancestors, and he hated the deception and ruthlessness that was commonplace in the New Order. When the Empire became embroiled in a galaxy-spanning conflict with the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Lennox found himself caught between both sides; on the one hand, he saw the Empire as mired with corruption and greed; on the other, the Rebellion had begun the war and opposed a legitimate government. He found himself conflicted in his ideology, eventually accepting that corruption was how things would always be. Lennox eventually became a captain in the Imperial Navy with the command of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Tyrant, which was attached to Death Squadron, the personal battle group of Darth Vader, who was a Dark Lord of the Sith and one of the most powerful people in the Empire. As of 3 ABY, Captain Lennox's first officer on the Tyrant was Lieutenant Cabbel.

During that year, Lennox and the Tyrant participated in the Battle of Hoth, though the Star Destroyer was hit by fire from the Rebels' planetary ion cannon in the early stages of the battle over the planet Hoth and was unable to assist the Empire until repairs were made. After the Tyrant had been repaired of its ion damage, a shuttle brought the captured Rebel General and former Imperial, Crix Madine, aboard so that he could be taken to prison. However, Lennox's incarceration of Madine was short lived&mdash;the Tyrant was hit again by the ion cannon's fire and Rebel commandos boarded the ship rescued Madine. New the end of the battle, when the Tyrant was repaired again, Lennox attempted to recapture Madine by attacking the Champion, a Mon Calamari cruiser that was evacuating the General from Hoth.

The Champion managed to escape from Captain Lennox, who was then given an assignment by Darth Vader to go to the Bespin system and remove the Jedi Diplomat, Rachi Sitra, from Cloud City, a tibanna gas mining colony floating over the gas giant of Bespin. After reaching the system and overseeing the Jedi's dispatch, Lennox ordered his men to remove Rebel sympathizers from Cloud City. The assignment was thwarted by Lando Calrissian, the colony's Baron Administrator, who threw the colony into chaos by telling his people to evacuate. Later in 4 ABY, Lennox and his crew were present at the Battle of Endor, where the Galactic Empire's leader, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were killed and the Empire's Death Star II battlestation was destroyed, while the Empire was defeated by the Rebel Alliance. Lennox's Tyrant was captured by the New Republic several years later and renamed the Rebel Dream, while he was imprisoned.

Captain of the Tyrant
Xamuel Lennox was a Human male who was born into a proud legacy of military men and who eventually joined the Imperial Navy himself. His ancestors were all known to be honorable, noble officers, and Lennox attempted to follow suit during the early days of the Galactic Empire. However, his attitude toward duty and his crew was in stark contrast to that of the majority of his colleagues, who were content to betray each other and engage in what Lennox referred to as "political maneuvering," which he despised. He knew he would not survive long if he persisted with the traditional Lennox philosophy, so he decided instead to engage in the deceit and political strategies which he hated. By mastering the tactics of deceit, he was able to fend off those who vied for his Navy positions.

By the time of the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, Lennox was the captain of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Tyrant, which became part of Death Squadron after the disastrous Battle of Yavin. Death Squadron was the personal battle group of Darth Vader, who was a Dark Lord of the Sith and one of the most powerful men in the Empire. Lennox was an able leader and cunning tactician, earning his position through merit alone; he was also very dedicated to his crew and ship, and cared about their wellbeing more than political advancement. However, the dishonorable means to which he resorted to safely keep his captaincy left him quite disillusioned with the Empire and military life in general. Lennox had serious qualms about the corruption and lack of moral principles that the Empire with which he served was mired, though he despised the Alliance to Restore the Republic and knew that the Galactic Republic before it was every bit as corrupt as the Empire. Ultimately, he realized that deceit and corruption were the natural order of things.

Starting the battle
In 3 ABY, Imperial Viper probe droids were launched from the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron to search throughout the galaxy for the location of the Alliance's headquarters. The squadron was near the Qeimet system when a probe droid discovered the Rebel base on the planet Hoth in the Anoat sector. Death Squadron, led by Admiral Kendal Ozzel's Star Dreadnought, the Executor, set a course for the Hoth system, taking a series of hyperspace jumps from Qeimet to the Hoth system. Although Lord Vader disagreed with Ozzel's tactics of attempting to surprise the Rebels by exiting hyperspace very close to the planet&mdash;a mistake for which Ozzel was executed&mdash;the Imperials continued with their planned attack. General Maximilian Veers led the ground assault while Lennox and the Tyrant moved into position to intercept the first Rebel GR-75 medium transports as they attempted to flee.

Lennox was on the bridge of the Tyrant when his subordinate, Lieutenant Cabbel, informed him that the first Rebel transport, named the Quantum Storm, and its T-65 X-wing starfighter escorts were approaching the Tyrant position. Eager to engage the Rebels, Lennox prepared to attack. The Rebels had a large planetary ion cannon stationed near the base, however, which fired two shots that hit the Tyrant. The ion blasts disabled the Star Destroyer's shields and helm control, which allowed the Rebels to escape.

The hunt for General Madine
"We're blind. We could be boarded by a Rebel ship at any minute."

- Captain Xamuel Lennox, after the Tyrant was hit by an ion cannon during the Battle of Hoth

During the battle on the surface, Imperial troops captured a Rebel Alliance General and former Imperial named Crix Madine and sent to the Tyrant via a shuttle so that he could be sent to prison on the planet Dathomir. After the shuttle entered the Tyrant docking bay, Captain Lennox ordered that one of the Imperial troops come to the bridge and report to him on the status of the battle. During the report, the Tyrant was hit by another blast from the planetary ion cannon. While overseeing the repair of systems disabled by the ion cannon, Lennox ordered the soldier that was reporting to him to make sure that General Madine was still secure in the ship's brig. A short time afterwards, Rebel commandos boarded the ship, rescued Madine, and escaped back to Hoth with General Madine on a Lambda-class shuttle that they stole from the docking bay. Captain Lennox was unable to pursue the shuttle due to the ion damage the Tyrant had suffered. Although Lennox's warship was left to float through the system and several more Rebel transports subsequently escaped, the Battle of Hoth proved a resounding victory for the Empire and kept the Rebels on the run.

Later, a shuttle brought General Madine to the Mon Calamari Cruiser Champion, which then prepared to jump to hyperspace. Lennox engaged the cruiser with the now functional Tyrant, and proceeded to order the launch of the ship's TIE fighters in preparation for battle. Lennox hailed the Champion and said that if they handed over General Madine that he would call off his attack. The captain of the Champion refused and ordered the launch of his ship's fighters. Captain Lennox and the Tyrant were unable to defeat the Champion and its fighters, and the ship escaped with Madine.

Mission to Bespin
"Go to the Bespin system. Remove a Jedi diplomat who undermines the Empire's negotiations on Cloud City. You failed to capture the traitor. Do not fail me again."

- Darth Vader, assigning Captain Lennox and the Tyrant to remove the Jedi diplomat, Rachi Sitra from Cloud City

After Captain Lennox and the Tyrant failed to recapture General Madine, Darth Vader sent a communication to Lennox giving him a new assignment. Lennox received the message in his ready room with the Imperial soldier that had originally captured Madine. Darth Vader assigned the Tyrant to leave for the Bespin system and try to dispatch Rachi Sitra, a Jedi Diplomat who was making trouble for Imperial negotiations with officials on Cloud City, a tibanna gas mining colony floating over the gas giant Bespin. Vader ended the message warning Lennox not to fail again, and Lennox assigned the Imperial soldier to lead the attack on the Jedi. After two days the Tyrant reached the Bespin system and the Imperial soldier took a number of troops on a shuttle to Cloud City. There, the soldier was able to force Sitra to flee from Cloud City in an Actis interceptor.

After completing the assignment, the soldier sent a message back to Captain Lennox, who then ordered the soldier to remove Rebel sympathizers from Cloud City's lower levels. After giving the soldier locations to search and names of suspected sympathizers, Lennox ended the transmission. Before the soldier could investigate any suspects, Lando Calrissian, the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, advised the people of the colony to evacuate. During the chaos that followed, the soldier captured Lobot, Calrissian's aide, and kept Rebel commandos from rescuing the Rebel Captain and smuggler, Han Solo, who Darth Vader had ordered frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter, Boba Fett. When Captain Lennox debriefed the soldier, he praised the soldier's removal of the Jedi, and his work in keeping the Rebels from rescuing Solo. Lennox further assured the soldier that the Empire would give the soldier another assignment.

Battle of Endor
After his assignment to Bespin, Lennox retained his post as captain of the Tyrant, and he continued to serve as part of Death Squadron until 4 ABY. The Tyrant was part of the Imperial fleet that participated in the Battle of Endor. The Rebels staged a daring assault on the second Death Star, which they believed was not yet fully operational; in truth, it was, and the Empire was able to ambush the Rebels. During the initial stages of the battle, the Empire gained the upper hand against Admiral Ackbar's fleet, though when Han Solo's Rebel strike team destroyed the Death Star's shield generator on the forest moon of the planet Endor, the Rebels were able to destroy the Death Star; Vader and Emperor Palpatine were also killed, leaving the Empire bereft of leadership.

The battle continued for a time, until Gilad Pellaeon, the captain of the Star Destroyer Chimaera ordered an Imperial retreat. Several years later, shortly after the Bacta War, Lennox's Tyrant was captured by the Rebel Alliance's successor, the New Republic. Lennox was imprisoned, and the New Republic renamed his ship Rebel Dream and made it the flagship of Princess Leia Organa. The Rebel Dream was still in service by the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 29 ABY, dozens of years after its capture.

Personality and traits
"This is good work. I'm sure the Empire will soon have another assignment worthy of your many talents."

- Captain Lennox, complementing the leader of his operations on Bespin

Xamuel Lennox believed himself to be an honorable man and tried to emulate his forefathers as a dedicated and loyal captain. After proving himself to be an adept tactician and capable leader, Lennox was given command of his own ship and crew to command. Unlike many of his peers, he genuinely cared about and was totally dedicated to both the Tyrant and his crew. Lennox hated what the Empire had become during his time; mired with corruption, backstabbing, and political maneuvering, it was a far cry from the noble regimes his ancestors served with. However, Lennox knew that if he alone attempted to rise above the Empire's corruption, he would end up as the Republic had: swept away by the Imperial war machine. Thus, he decided to play his foes at their own game, proving as adept at guile and deception as he was at commanding a Star Destroyer.

Committing numerous dishonorable deeds to keep himself in the captain's chair took a significant toll on Lennox's conscience, and by the time the Rebels launched their campaign against the Empire in 2 BBY, he had grown considerably disillusioned with how the Empire was run. While he saw many faults in the Empire, he saw even more in the Rebel Alliance; they had started the Galactic Civil War, and, in Lennox's opinion, the blood of the dead was on their hands. Additionally, he knew that the Republic that they championed and wished to re-establish was as riddled with corruption as the Empire that they spoke out against; he saw the Rebels as immoral and hypocritical, and the Imperials depraved and unethical. Realizing that a more suitable government would never exist, Lennox sided with the Empire, which he saw as legitimate, and helped fight against the Rebels. When his subordinates were successful in their assignments, Lennox complemented them on their success. Lennox had brown hair and fair skin.

Behind the scenes
"I am quite happy with what got through approvals of Xamuel's character. Like Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik and Maarek Stele, I think of him as one of my "good" Imperials, making the best of ethically impossible circumstances."

- Abel G. Peña

Lennox first appeared in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, where he was portrayed by John Dicks, though the character was credited as just "Imperial officer." According to Star Wars Insider 96, there was initially some confusion among fans about Lennox's only line in the film, which is often erroneously attributed to Firmus Piett; although Lennox's face is not fully visible when he speaks, his voice is much different than Piett's. Insider claims that part of the confusion was due to the fact that Donald F. Glut's movie novelization assigned the line to Piett, though in actual fact the novelization gave the line to Lorth Needa.

Lennox did not appear again until 1993, when Star Wars: X-wing, a video game by Totally Games was released. The game uses a shot taken from The Empire Strikes Back featuring Lennox and Cabbel in its intro cutscene, though whether or not this is intended to portray that particular character is not known. Lennox was finally named by Decipher, Inc. as part of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, with the release of Hoth Limited in 1998. That same year, Lennox received an entry in Del Rey's Star Wars Encyclopedia. "Captain Lennox" could also get a brief mention in the "standard game" mode of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, a 2001 video game by LucasArts, where he is a possible Imperial leader, chosen randomly. However, he does not actually appear in the game, and the mention of "Captain Lennox" is game mechanics, and thus non-canon. His name was used in the same way in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns, a 2002 expansion pack which was also released by LucasArts. In September 2007, Daniel Wallace and Abel G. Peña's The Empire's Finest: Who's Who in the Imperial Military, an article appearing in Star Wars Insider 96, provided Lennox with his first name, Xamuel. In 2008, Xamuel Lennox received an entry in Del Rey's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

In 2010, Captain Lennox was featured in some of the mission texts for both the light side and dark side campaigns in The Price of Victory, the eighth set of the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game. He also featured as the player's opposing avatar card in the third scenario of the light side campaign. This card was simply used in the game for this scenario and was not available for players to use. The Imperial soldier mentioned in the article above was the player character in the dark side scenario campaign for The Price of Victory.

The source that provided a large part of Lennox's backstory, The Empire's Finest, was originally written in 2002 and scheduled to be released in conjunction with Peña and Wallace's Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals in Star Wars Gamer magazine. However, the editor of Star Wars Insider decided to cancel The Empire's Finest and publish only Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals. Eventually, the article was released in September 2007.

Abel G. Peña had originally intended to give Lennox the first name of "Corazon." The Spanish for "heart," Peña felt that it tied into Lennox's character and his conflicting inner feelings about the Empire and the Rebellion. However, when he and Daniel Wallace prepared the article for its eventual publishing in 2007, Peña felt that using names that have a meaning in another language has already been used too much, and decided to assign Lennox with another first name. He eventually named the character "Xamuel," a play on Samuel Adams, though Peña admits that at the time he was thinking of Samuel Adams beer.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back junior novel
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Manga: The Empire Strikes Back 1
 * Star Wars 40: The Empire Strikes Back: Battleground Hoth
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns