Tanbris

"We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader, but they're so small they're evading our turbolasers."

- Lieutenant Tanbris, during the Battle of Yavin

Tanbris was a male Human who served Palpatine's Galactic Empire at the time of the Galactic Civil War. A capable TIE Fighter pilot, he reached the rank of lieutenant, but was grounded after an injury. By 0 BBY, Tanbris was a tactical officer aboard the first Death Star as part of Darth Vader's personal crew. He was killed that same year when the Death Star was destroyed by Luke Skywalker, a young new pilot of the Rebel Alliance.

Biography
"We'll have to destroy them ship to ship. Get the crews to their fighters."

- Darth Vader to Lt. Tanbris

A Human male, Tanbris joined the Imperial Military, the armed forces of Emperor Palpatine's New Order, in which he became a TIE/LN starfighter pilot and attained the rank of lieutenant. At some point during his Imperial service, Tanbris came to work with Thul Fain, who later left the Empire and became a smuggler for the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Tanbris' promising career as a fighter pilot was ruined when he was injured. Following the accident, he was grounded and got reoriented, becoming a tactical officer.

By the year 0 BBY, Lieutenant Tanbris served aboard the Death Star, a deep-space mobile battlestation built by the Empire to destroy entire worlds with a single superlaser shot. He was made a crew officer of the Emperor's right-hand man Darth Vader, answering directly to his orders. When the Rebel Alliance launched an attack on the station, Tanbris rushed to Darth Vader in the corridor of the command center in the, informing him that the enemy ships were too small to be shot down by the meridian trench's turbolaser towers. After being so ordered by Vader, the Lieutenant had the Black Squadron, a unit of elite fliers, get to their fighters so they could shoot the Rebels one by one. A few moments later, the young Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker fired proton torpedoes in the the trench's exhaut vent, triggering a chain reaction that propagated to the Death Star's core. The battlestation exploded, filling the surrounding space with trillions of microscopic fragments. All those who were stationed on the Imperial superweapon perished with it, and Tanbris was among them.

Personality and traits
A male Human of average built and height, Lieutenant Tanbris had brown hair and blue eyes. While serving aboard the Death Star, he wore the black, double-breasted tunic of the Galactic Empire with matching black pants, issued boots and cap. He also sported one code cylinder and the four-squared badge corresponding to the specialist rank of lieutenant in the Flight branch of the Imperial Navy. Throughout his military career, Tanbris had emerged as a capable pilot and skilled officer.

Behind the scenes
"Walking in the middle of the chaos, a vision of calm and foreboding, is Darth Vader. One of his astro-officers rushes up to him."

- Tanbris' introduction in the script of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

The Imperial Lieutenant Tanbris first appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the first movie of the Star Wars original trilogy. Although he was not credited, stuntman Andy Bradford played the character according to the fan website Dahoov's Autograph Collecting. The lieutenant went unnamed in the film itself and was referred to as one Vader's "astro-officers" in the script. Tanbris was first identified in the Premiere Limited set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game.

Tanbris was present in most adaptations of Star Wars Episode IV, including the 1977 novelization&mdash;in which he was referred to as a "a harried Commander"&mdash; and Marvel comic book, and also the 1997 adaptation by Dark Horse Comics. In the 1977 comic book, the lieutenant was depicted with blond hair and wearing an olive green tunic with a tan officer cap.

A string in Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption has TEXT_UNIT_TIE_TANBRIS as the string's name, with TIE Advanced X-2 as the data in the string, however no unit uses this string, and there is no TEXT_TOOLTIP string to go with it as its description as there is for all other units. This suggests that Tanbris was to pilot a TIE Advanced x2 starfighter in the game, but was canceled early on, and its name string was left in.

In 2008, Tanbris received his own entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. He was also mentioned in Thul Fain's entry, although oddly misspelled as "Trabinis."

Appearances

 * Death Star
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novel
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars 6: Is This the Final Chapter?
 * Star Wars: A New Hope - The Special Edition 4
 * Star Wars Manga: A New Hope 4
 * Star Wars: A New Hope (Cine-Manga)
 * The Star Wars Storybook
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader