Sirro Argonne Sirro Argonne was a human male scientist who served in the Galactic Republic ' s Ministry of Science before becoming an operations specialist in the Galactic Empire ' s Tarkin Initiative and being assigned to the planet Eadu . He was executed by death trooper s under the command of Director Orson Krennic after a message was sent to the rebellious Partisans by Argonne ' s colleague Galen Erso . Biography . Sirro Argonne was a scientist who served as a member of the Galactic Republic ' s Ministry of Science during the final decades of the Republic ' s rule . After the Republic was replaced by the Galactic Empire , he became a part of the Tarkin Initiative which was responsible for the creation of the Death Star superweapon . Argonne was assigned as operations specialist to a group of five other scientists led by Galen Erso , whom were tasked with finding out how to fuse the kyber crystal s used by the Death Star ' s superlaser into larger forms and how to create and redirect a controlled chain reaction of the crystals . The group were based in a secret laboratory on the planet Eadu , where Argonne was responsible for administering the facility and seeing to the personal and professional needs of the other scientists based there . The team remained in seclusion on the planet for nearly twenty years , but by 0 BBY they had successfully completed their given tasks , allowing the Death Star to be equipped with a functional weapon . After the weapon was complete , Erso secretly sent a message to the rebellious Partisans ' leader Saw Gerrera on the moon Jedha , asking him to bring information of a structural weakness he had built into the Death Star to the Alliance to Restore the Republic . Once Director Orson Krennic of the Empire ' s Advanced Weapons Research division became aware that information had escaped from the laboratory , he personally traveled to Eadu to find the source of the betrayal . Upon his arrival at the laboratory he had Erso gather his team on the facility ' s landing pad where he demanded to know who had sent the message . When neither Argonne or his colleagues stepped forward , Krennic declared that he would assume it had been a group effort and prepared to have his personal cohort of death trooper s execute them . Unable to see his innocent colleagues slaughtered for his crime , Erso stepped forward and admitted his guilt , but despite this , Krennic still ordered his men to fire , killing Argonne and the others where they stood . Erso was killed shortly after when the Alliance ' s Blue Squadron bombed the laboratory , forcing Krennic to flee . Personality and traits . Arogonne was a human male scientific genius with fair skin and hair that had turned gray by the time of his death in 0 BBY . Equipment . While on Eadu Argonne wore antiseptic coveralls to prevent lab contamination and carried a pair of code cylinder s that granted him access to the high security laboratories . Argonne ' s coveralls were marked with the insignia of both the Empire and the Tarkin Initiative and bore blue sections across the neck and shoulders that changed color as a warning when revealed to high levels of radiation . The outfit ' s boot s were grounded to prevent potentially dangerous static discharges occuring in the labs . Behind the scenes . Sirro Argonne first appeared in the film " " , which was released in North America on December 15 , 2016 . He was not named in the film , but received identification in " " , a reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo and released the day after the film . Arogonne was portrayed by Richard Franklin in the film , but was credited as " Engineer " in the end credits .