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| - Almos Terthbak was a Human male from Anaxes, born to a family to middle-class laborers. In 20 BBY, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Republic academy to escape what he viewed as drudgery in the business field, but did not complete his training until after the Clone Wars had ended and the Empire had been formed. Terthbak was swept up in a wave of zeal for the new government and had dreams of grandeur related to achieving high rank in the Imperial academy. He graduated from the academy in the top twenty percent of his class and dreamed of quick advancement and dedicated service to the Empire as part of the mighty Imperial fleet. However, his superiors were not impressed with his toadying nature nor his obsequious fawning. For a few months, he served in minor capacities at various installations, but never could hold a serious post. Eventually, though, he was promoted to Lieutenant and received his first real assignment. To his dismay, his first post wasn't to serve as a junior officer on a Star Destroyer, but rather as the captain of a tiny scout vessel, the Observant. Boarding the brand-new vessel at the Sluis Van Shipyards, Terthbak's first impression fell flat, as the officer literally fell flat on his face within seconds of meeting two of the crewmembers. He boarded and took command of the Observant, setting out on their mission: to survey a number of systems for traces of Jedi activity using a special experimental detector put together by the Inquisitorius. Terthbak soon became incredibly unpopular with the other four members of the crew, who were used to a far more relaxed style of command. With no experience in scout ships, whereas all the other crewmembers were veterans. His officious and arrogant mannerisms did little to endear him to the crew, nor did his excitability and tendency to shout out orders they'd already carried out. In less than a month, he had become the butt of their jokes. According to Crewman Marsden Royner of the Observant, the answer to "What's white, stupid, blond, and looks good with a nek battle dog on it?" was "Almos Terthbak." To make matters worse, the sheer dullness of their cruise soon wore on them as days turned into weeks turned into months of searching system after empty system. The Observant would jump into a system, conduct a series of scans, only to find nothing, not even a trace of the Jedi. Finally, in the Erediss system, the Observant detected an old derelict Jedi starfighter left there from the Clone Wars. Terthbak and his crew were ordered to bring the ship and the desiccated corpse it contained with them for later evaluation. To his surprise, Warrant Officer Jasnan, the ship's pilot and the lone female in the ship's crew, offered to help him suit up and bring the Jedi corpse into a storage hold. Terthbak, who was smitten with the pretty Jasnan, readily agreed to her help, and after that, noticed that she seemingly began to reciprocate his feelings. From Erediss, the Observant continued its mission, though due to their instructions, they had to fly around with the Jedi starfighter strapped to their hull, ruining their sensor signature, for several months. They visited dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim without success, but didn't find anything more until a priority signal from Imperial High Command sent them back to the Mid Rim to scan the world of Haruun Kal. The results showed that there was a sizable Jedi presence. Terthbak relayed this information to his superiors, who commended them for their work and sent them back out to the Outer Rim. The only thing that made his journey a little easier was that Jasnan's shell had finally cracked and she had begun openly returning his affection, to the surprise of the rest of the crew. Little did Terthbak know that Jasnan was playing him, using their relationship in a partially-successful attempt to get concessions from the uptight officer. Their mission eventually took them to a remote nebula. The Observant had scarcely arrived when the ship began experiencing an airlock failure, which turned out to be a cloaked ship full of Jedi boarding them. Terthbak and the rest of the crew were summarily imprisoned in a cargo hold, as their capture had taken them completely by surprise. The Jedi interrogated him, using his relationship with Jasnan as leverage to get him to spill all of the details of his mission. They then locked him back in the hold and absconded with his ship. Terthbak attempted to find an escape route, but the other crewmembers were simply happy to be alive and ignored both his ranting at them and his unrealistic escape plans. Two of the Jedi took the Observant to the Outer Rim world of Yanibar, where they landed. Terthbak and his crewmates remained imprisoned, albeit with a sufficient supply of food and water, and had no choice but to endure their captivity quietly. Eventually, they were able to escape. Terthbak and the other crewmembers armed themselves and prepared for a desperate attempt to take over the ship. They were pleased to find that there were only two Jedi onboard and they were brawling on the bridge when the Imperials burst in. Terthbak fired at one of them, injuring the Jedi named Spectre, but the other one, Selu Kraen, was more than able to defeat all five crewmembers. In the process, Selu severed fingers from Terthbak's right hand, leaving the lieutenant in agony, and the rest of the crew perished. Terthbak was left maimed and disconsolate over the loss of Jasnan. Their escape attempt failed and Terthbak was locked into the refresher. He remained a prisoner for some time afterward, until the Observant was shot down on Darlyn Boda. Terthbak was left behind and recovered by Imperial forces. He was taken to the Star Destroyer Corrupter and detained by an Inquisitor named Ajaur. Though Terthbak was cooperative and told Ajaur everything he knew, the Inquisitor was not satisfied and continued interrogating the lieutenant until he perished. Terthbak's death ultimately motivated the captain of the Corrupter to confront Ajaur and prevent him from further injuring other Imperial personnel who had been held prisoner by the Jedi. Terthbak's record indicated that he died of a sudden, massive stress-induced heart attack after being held prisoner by renegade Jedi.
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