Kosh / Legends Captain Kosh was a Human male Imperial officer in charge of a garrison of stormtroopers on the planet Tatooine . In 0 BBY , Kosh was tasked by Commander Nahdonnis Praji to search for the droids R2 - D2 and C - 3PO , who were carrying stolen plans for the newest Imperial superweapon , the Death Star . Working in conjunction with Captain Mod Terrik ' s Desert Sands sandtrooper unit and the elite 501st Legion , Kosh ' s troops followed the droids ' trail to the spaceport of Mos Eisley , but R2 - D2 and C - 3PO were ultimately able to escape . Biography . Kosh was a Human male captain in the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps who was stationed on the planet Tatooine in the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin . Kosh was the officer in charge of a local garrison of stormtroopers . In 0 BBY , Rebel Senator Leia Organa ' s starship , the corvette " Tantive IV " , was intercepted above Tatooine while in possession of the stolen plans for the newest Imperial superweapon , the Death Star battlestation . Led by Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader , Imperial forces seized the ship but found no trace of the plans . Organa was also captured , but she had managed to hide the plans inside her astromech droid , R2 - D2 , who , along with his counterpart , C - 3PO , used an escape pod to reach Tatooine ' s surface . After he was informed about the ejected escape pod , Vader believed that the plans were hidden aboard and ordered his forces to have the escape pod located and the plans secured . Vader assigned Commander Nahdonnis Praji to supervise the search and recover the plans . While Vader ' s elite 501st Legion was being prepared , Praji appointed Kosh ' s garrisoned troops and the newly arrived Desert Sands sandtrooper unit under the command of Captain Mod Terrik to lead the search for the plans . After a brief landfall , however , Praji delegated the overall command of the operation to Kosh . The Imperial troops discerned that the two droids had been aboard the escape pod and followed their trail , discovering that a young moisture farmer , Luke Skywalker , had acquired R2 - D2 and C - 3PO and was heading to the Mos Eisley spaceport to secure passage off - world . The troops under Kosh ' s command searched Mos Eisley but were unable to find any trace of the two droids , who were deliberately hiding from them . Kosh himself soon arrived at the spaceport in a " Sentinel " - class landing craft to oversee the search . As he was disembarking from the craft , flanked by two stormtroopers , the rest of the troops greeted him and snapped to attention . Although the search for the droids continued , a delay in coordination between Kosh ' s garrison , the Desert Sands , and the 501st allowed R2 - D2 and C - 3PO to escape Tatooine aboard the " Millennium Falcon " , a freighter captained by smuggler Han Solo . The droids and the plans were eventually delivered to the Rebel Alliance , allowing the Rebels to destroy the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin . Personality and traits . Kosh had fair skin and wore a gray stormtrooper officer ' s uniform . Behind the scenes . Captain Kosh first appeared in " Heroes in Hiding " , a 1996 children ' s pop - up book written and illustrated by Ken Steacy . In the book , he was identified as the officer in charge of the search for the missing droids . This created a contradiction , as in 1995 , Decipher , Inc . had released its " Premiere Limited " set for the " Star Wars " Customizable Card Game , which identified the officer leading the search operation as " Commander Praji . " Because the depiction of Kosh in " Heroes in Hiding " was very vague , the article " " — published in " Star Wars Insider 96 " in September of 2006 — dismissed the inconsistency as easily reconcilable . In 2008 , Kosh received an entry in " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , although it did not describe his participation in the search for R2 - D2 and C - 3PO . However , the StarWars . com - exclusive article " Tinker , Tailor , Soldier , Praji " , written by Nathan O ' Keefe and published on February 5 , 2009 , provided a resolution of the contradiction , integrating both Kosh and Praji into the storyline . The 1995 short story " " features a character , who is addressed as an Imperial captain and depicted as being in command of the troops searching for R2 - D2 and C - 3PO . After the " Millennium Falcon " has escaped from the planet , he searches for the one responsible for letting the droids slip away . When the Ithorian Momaw Nadon lies that Lieutenant Alima knew about the droids ' planned means of escape but did nothing to stop them , the captain executes Alima on the spot . Although that individual holds a position of authority similar to that of Kosh , other sources identify the character from the " Sand Tender " as the Imperial Prefect of Tatooine .