Tarrin Datch

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Tarrin Datch was a starfighter pilot who served with the Alliance to Restore the Republic. A product of the Datch family-owned space city Pellezara station, he became a skilled flier while helping to manage the many cargo freighters of the space station's clients. Datch joined the Rebellion as a seventeen-year-old in 1 BBY, after helping a fugitive Alliance freighter carrying stolen Imperial cargo and the Rebel special operative Jan Ors reach its destination. His value to the Rebellion's cause came in the dual ability to pilot both starfighters and the Alliance's dilapidated cargo transports; his talents earned him a position with the elite Rogue Squadron, under the command of Luke Skywalker, as Rogue Ten. Datch fought most notably during the Galactic Civil War at the Battle of Hoth with Rogue Group, participating in the delaying action that bought time for the transports of Echo Base to evacuate the planet. He later piloted the GR-75 medium transport Thon's Orchard through the Imperial blockade of Hoth.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early years 1.2 Joining the Rebellion 1.3 Fighting the Empire 1.4 The Battle of Hoth 2 Personality and traits 3 Behind the scenes 3.1 Notable appearances 3.2 Inconsistencies 4 Appearances 4.1 Non-canon appearances 5 Sources 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Datch was born in 18 BBY on Pellezara station, a floating space city, owned by his parents, in the Duro system that serviced large freighters delivering supplies to the planet Duro. Growing up, his siblings included at least two brothers and one sister. In addition to servicing ships, Datch's parents frequently put on stunt shows for the waiting freighter captains to alleviate boredom. Datch, already a gifted pilot by the age of twelve standard years, assisted in these flight shows along with his siblings. These performances involved daring maneuvers with modified cargo tugs and cargo-flitters in crowded areas with free-floating service bays and cargo containers, which created a visually spectacular show.^[1]

When he wasn't performing complex loops and rolls in between container rings and repair grids, Datch was typically tasked with helping to move freighters into parking slots while their captains relaxed. He was once grounded for three standard weeks by his father, literally, being assigned to handle traffic control and resupply, after he attempted a miniature Koiogran turn in a bulk freighter, taking out a dozen beacon pods in the process—though the freighter captain never found out.^[1]

[edit] Joining the Rebellion

In 1 BBY, when Datch was seventeen, he was replacing the gravity disks in the deckplates of a docked freighter that was, unknown to him, carrying stolen Imperial fuel slugs bound for the Rebellion. While dismantling one of the ship's stubborn plates, he discovered a hidden compartment holding a wounded woman, who identified herself as Jan Ors. Her right leg was stricken with a strange injury sustained in the jungles of Oulanne. Datch was both terrified and captivated. In her delirium, Ors revealed the freighter's Rebel ties to Datch.^[1]

The Empire soon arrived at Duro, in hot pursuit of the stolen cargo. The freighter's crew had disembarked for the station to find medical supplies for Ors, and Datch was the only pilot aboard. He knew he could not allow the valuable fuel slugs to fall back into Imperial hands. Datch took control of the freighter and broke away from Pellezara's main docking tower, heading for open space. The Rebels still in the station could only watch in horror as their freighter left them stranded, being followed closely by an Imperial Gamma-class assault shuttle. Datch steered the Rebel transport towards the heart of heavy traffic, weaving as though he was piloting a starfighter. The Imperial ship could barely keep up, inadvertently scraping its hull against stationary lighters and space tugs. Datch was able to reach open space and engage the ship's hyperdrive, leaving Pellezara behind for an outlying-system station he often used as a stunt range.^[1]

There, in the well-equipped medical center, Datch helped to stabilize Ors's condition. He knew they could not return to Pellezara, and how badly the Rebellion needed the fuel they carried. Ors gave him the coordinates of a secret Rebel base on the planet Dantooine, and the two soon left for Rebel sanctuary. At Dantooine the two separated, with Ors going off on other secret missions, while Datch began training as a fighter pilot. Although he missed his family, he knew he could not risk involving them in the Galactic Civil War, for their safety.^[1]

[edit] Fighting the Empire

Datch's experience flying cargo freighters while growing up on Pellezara was a great asset to his new allies, with the Rebellion frequently finding itself short of both ships and capable pilots. With his valuable abilities, Datch's shifting role found him alternating between flying starfighters and piloting the Rebels' dilapidated freighters and transport vessels.^[1]

At some point during his service with the Rebel Alliance, Datch was assigned to the nascent Rogue Group, an elite starfighter squadron formed around two of the survivors of the Battle of Yavin—Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles. He flew under the call-sign Rogue Ten and soon earned the title of starfighter ace.^[1] While with the Rogues, Datch developed friendships with Skywalker, Antilles, and Wes Janson.^[3]

By 3 ABY, four years after joining the Alliance, Datch was assigned to the secret Echo Base on the remote ice world of Hoth with the rest of the Rogues. His duties on Hoth included patrolling the planet's icy wastes in the base's modified T-47 airspeeders, dubbed snowspeeders. When an Imperial Viper probe droid discovered Echo Base, Datch, along with Rogue Eleven, Tenk Lenso, was among the first pilots dispatched by General Carlist Rieekan to respond to the threat.^[1][4][5][6] He and Lenso were instructed to fly over Echo Station 3-8 at low altitude and to expect trouble. Han Solo and the Wookiee Chewbacca tracked down the probe soon thereafter, warning Rieekan that it might have detected the base's shield generator. Rieekan intended to order Datch and Lenso on an attack run for the probe, but Solo dismissed the idea, claiming there was no time and that the sight of snowspeeders flying overhead would alert the droid to their presence. Instead, he told Rieekan that he and Chewbacca would handle the probe themselves.^[7] The probe droid's discovery of the base would soon throw the twenty-one-year-old Datch headlong into the fray of one of the war's most significant battles.^[1]

[edit] The Battle of Hoth

When the Empire invaded Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth, Datch flew one of the base's airspeeders with Rogue Group. They were given the monumental task of delaying the advance of several Imperial walkers long enough to buy sufficient time for the base's vulnerable transports to escape.^[1]

His speeder was shot down by Imperial fire late in the battle, but he was rescued by another Rogue member before a group of three All Terrain Scout Transports could descend on his position.^[2] He was then able to safely return to Echo Base, where he reconvened with Antilles and the final Rebel remnants on the South Slope preparing to evacuate the planet. Datch and Antilles waited for Skywalker, who had also been shot down, to join them before lifting off.^[8]

Datch was once again pressed into dual piloting service. He was tasked with piloting the GR-75 medium transport Thon's Orchard off Hoth, one of the final transports to evacuate the planet. But his job did not end with simply flying the ship free of the besieged base. Waiting in Hoth's orbit to intercept the fleeing Rebel ships was a line of Imperial-class Star Destroyers—Darth Vader's own personal Death Squadron.^[1] To complicate matters, the base's v-150 anti-orbital ion cannon was no longer operational and unable to provide covering fire for the vulnerable Thon's Orchard.^[8]

Flying escort for Datch's transport were two T-65 X-wing starfighters piloted by Skywalker and Antilles, and a BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighter piloted by fellow Rogue Derek Klivian with Janson riding along as gunner. The Thon's Orchard's flight path was directly blocked by one of the Star Destroyers. Antilles and Klivian executed the fanciful maneuver known as the Tallon Split, in conjunction with a surprise attack from Skywalker from below the transport, to help Datch and the Thon's Orchard to escape into hyperspace and rejoin the Rebels at the secret rendezvous point.^[1][3][7]

[edit] Personality and traits

One of Tarrin Datch's virtues included an empathy for family values, assisting his family in both the maintenance of Pellezara station and the flight shows his parents put on for their customers. After piloting the fugitive Rebel ship away from his family's station and joining the Rebellion's cause, he knew better than to return there or to involve them in any way with his affairs, for the danger it would cause them.^[1]

He also carried with him a penchant for daredevilry, risking the ships of Pellezara's clients in order to perform perilous maneuvers. He even used another remote space station as a stunt range. Although his youthful innocence initially betrayed feelings of trepidation at learning who and what Jan Ors was, his risk-taking nature soon clicked in to give him the brazen confidence to defy the Empire.^[1]

As an extension of his daring nature, Datch was more than willing to place his stock in luck in the face of overwhelming danger. While conferring with Skywalker and Antilles about Echo Base's inoperable v-150 ion cannon—neutralized during the battle—Datch was eager to test their luck in taking on the Imperial blockade without the protection of the ion cannon's covering fire.^[8]

Aside from his starfighter and starship transport piloting abilities, Datch was appropriately skilled in the maintenance of such vehicles, as well as airspeeder repulsorlift operation and repair, and starship astrogation. He could also hold his own as a starship gunner.^[1]

[edit] Behind the scenes

[edit] Notable appearances

The character of Tarrin Datch first appeared in the 1983 radio adaptation of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, in which he was likely portrayed by voice actor Sam McMurray, though the character was only identified by his first name.^[8] Datch's last name was first identified in the West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back.^[1] The character was first created by Brian Daley for the radio drama's script after story conferences concluded in November 1981; the script was not published until the release of The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization in 1995.^[7]

Datch's actions at the Battle of Hoth were expanded upon and first visually represented in the video game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. Paul Amendt provided the voice of "Rogue Ten" for the game, though it is unclear if his contributions correspond to Datch's actual character.^[2]

[edit] Inconsistencies

Several sources include a description of the Hoth blockade run made by Datch, inspired from the original script of The Empire Strikes Back radio adaptation.^[7] However, the actual audio recording of the radio drama differs substantially from the script and subsequent sources. Rather than Datch's starfighter escort engaging a Star Destroyer attempting to intercept his transport, Datch and the fighters only detect two Star Destroyers too spread out from the battle to pose a threat, and simply slip through the blockade and enter hyperspace without trouble.^[8] Additionally, the transport Datch pilots away from Hoth in the radio adaptation is intended to be the final evacuation transport,^[8][6] though this is later contradicted by the short story Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, which identifies the GR-75 medium transport Bright Hope as the final transport to leave, a ship that fails to escape through the Imperial blockade.^[9]

According to the novel X-wing: Isard's Revenge, Wedge Antilles identifies the GR-75 medium transport Dutyfree as the ship Datch pilots off Hoth.^[10]

Datch's first name is misspelled "Tarrub" in the PC game Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. Additionally, Datch only appears with the game's Rogue Squadron unit in "Galactic Conquest" and "Skirmish" modes, which are not included as part of the game's official story, thereby most likely representing a non-canonical appearance.^[11]

[edit] Appearances

• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (as "Rogue Ten")
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back radio drama (First identified as "Tarrin")
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization (Indirect mention only) (as "Rogue Ten")
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Indirect mention only) (as "Rogue Ten")
• X-wing: Isard's Revenge (Mentioned only)

[edit] Non-canon appearances

• Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

[edit] Sources

• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe First Edition
• The Movie Trilogy Sourcebook
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe Second Edition
• The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization
• The Essential Guide to Characters
• Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back (First identified as "Tarrin Datch")
• Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays
• Star Wars: Behind the Magic

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

•  Datch, Tarrin in the Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia

Preceded by: Unknown Rogue Ten 3 ABY[1] Succeeded by: Dar Keyis[12]