Tyber Zann

Tyber Zann - Art By: GamersGallery

**Tyber Zann** was a Human male crime lord from the Core World Anaxes who rose to prominence after the beginning of the Galactic Civil War and led his own faction, known as the Zann Consortium, a powerful criminal syndicate. Before becoming a crime lord, Zann was briefly an Imperial Cadet, but was caught and expelled when his criminal activities were exposed. After Tyber Zann built his criminal empire, he would become involved with both sides of the Galactic Civil War and profit from the war efforts, but waged a personal war against the Empire for expelling him from the Carida Imperial Academy.

## Biography

### Rise of the Consortium

#### Imperial Service

**Tyber Zann** was born on Anaxes in 34 BBY, and first worked in the family firm Zann Remanufacturing, which specialized in refitting outdated Old Republic and Imperial Military hardware for civilian use. He became bored with the linear business, and started running illicit sabacc games and book-making, which he found to provide the excitement and revenue that he sought. In order to arm his gambling ring's enforcers, Zann attempted to steal an arms shipment from one the company's warehouses. The security forces caught him and reported the attempted theft to his father, who as punishment, arranged for Zann to be enrolled as an Imperial Cadet in the Cardia Academy. Operating out of the Academy, he established the Zann Consortium, which began as a new smuggling ring. Being familiar with the facility’s security made it simple for him to steal Imperial weaponry and smuggle it off-world, to his partner, who sold them on the black market.

#### Alliance with the Hutts

A top performer, Tyber Zann used the credentials this granted him to get on cadet training missions where he could form a network of contacts for the smuggling trade. The operation became one the largest in the galaxy, and he started to evoke the attention of more powerful criminals, namely Jabba the Hutt. Jabba coordinated a plan to catch Zann during a smuggling run shortly before his graduation. Fortunately for Tyber, his partner intercepted transmissions between Imperial authorities about the plot. Although he was able to avoid any prosecution, Zann was forced to leave the Academy in contempt. Despite his misgivings, Zann perceived that to continue building the Zann Consortium he would need to forge an alliance with Jabba the Hutt. Subsequently Zann began running smuggling operations for the Hutt in exchange for vehicles and vessels, while also concealing assets from the fellow crime lord, an arrangement that he never intended to be permanent.

The Zann Consortium was still small, and Zann intended to establish communications with a black market on Nal Hutta, though first he needed to show them an example of his capabilities, and develop a reputation that the Consortium was a force-to-be-reckoned with. After being informed by one of his soldiers that a high-ranking Mandalorian official was traveling to Hutt controlled territory in Mandalorian space, Zann seized the opportunity. Traveling to Mandalore, the Consortium flotilla destroyed the V-Wing escort sent to prepare for the official's arrival. Shortly afterwards, the official arrived, though the Consortium ambushed him. During the battle, the official's engines were destroyed, his ship was boarded, and he was taken prisoner. Zann assigned one of his defilers to establish communications with the black market, and another was sent to buy disruptor tech for the Constortium's mercenaries.

Zann's agents decoded a message from an Imperial outpost that spoke of a valuable artifact being sold to the Empire from the Hutts. Recognizing this as an opportunity, Zann lead a taskforce alongside several squads of mercenaries to steal the artifact before the transaction could be made by posing as forces of the the Hutt Clan separate from the main group to safeguard the artifact. But during this mission, Zann was caught by Imperial Stormtroopers, but before being taken into custody he vowed that they would not keep him imprisoned forever. While Zann rotted away in the spice mines of Kessel, his associates waited for the right time for his escape. By starting a riot on Kessel and hiring a smuggling crew to pick him up, Zann made his escape. After his return to freedom, Zann, along with his closest allies, gradually reestablished the Consortium. The Imperial Security Bureau noted his activities around the start of the Galactic Civil War, mentioning his use of spies to study Super Star Destroyers.

### Corrupting a Galaxy

Apart of Zann's dealings with Jabba to increase his criminal organization was making a treaty with the Hutt stating that he would not operate on any Hutt worlds under Hutt control, though this only was relative to Jabba's group while other parts of Hutt space were passably open as a condition of the treaty. During the course of the Galactic Civil War, Tyber and his associates had established the Consortium as a power to be reckoned with from their headquarters on the planet Hypori. Among other things, the criminal organization would offer protection to worlds affected by the conflict between the Empire and the rebellion, having built up a sizable military force. He used his extensive crime network to influence the warring factions of the war, siphon their credits, and sabotage their operations when deemed necessary. During the course of his ascent to power, his forces fought against both factions of the war. For his naval forces, Tyber would often equip his most vital ships with cloaking devices that rendered them undetectable.

#### Operations in the Anoat Sector

After the Empire seized control of Bespin three years following the Battle of Yavin, Zann discovered that the Black Sun had been holding a great quantity of Tibanna Gas from the Bespin refinery. Tyber hired several hunters particularly IG-Series assassin droids, to assist his forces in stealing his competitions reserves of Tibanna Gas. After Zann and the IG-Series droids raided the gas from Bespin, Xizor of the Black Sun had put into place the trap that he had orchestrated, with the Imperial ships engaging Tyber's fleet. The Imperial forces managed to destroy the ship containing the Tibanna Gas at a gross cost to their fleet. With Zann's profits destroyed, the leading Admiral fled the battle and left the remaining ships to their fates, with Zann defeating the remaining Imperial fleet. Zann's group still maintained a presence on Bespin as well as the rest of the Anoat Sector after their run in with Imperial forces, still at odds with the Black Sun. During the Iron Blockade, Zann's work would continue through those operatives trapped by the Empire, especially against those who traded with the Black Sun. Information regarding Zann's activities after the Battle of Endor and the fall of the Galactic Empire is hard to come by.

#### Battle for the *Annihilator*

One of his last confirmed actions took place months after Endor during which time Zann made a pact with pirate ruler Eleodie Maracavanya, to seize control the Super Star Destroyer *Annihilator*. The pact was that while Eleodie would maintain command over the ship, Zann would be allowed to procure all information he wanted for himself regarding the Emperor's vaults. The vaults which Zann assumed was full of billions of credits to steal, technical data, and priceless works of art cataloged in Palpatine's vault network, thus insuring that he had enough resources to spread the Consortium throughout the galaxy. After the battle, the pirate crew took control of the *Annihilator*, while Zann honored the agreement of letting them have it while wiping the ships memory banks and discovering all forms of Imperial secrets. He decided to allow the rebels to form their New Republic, seeing it as a chance to bribe a few Senators. However, secretly one of Zann's partners betrayed him by removing key information from their records, and selling it to a third party who had an interest in Palpatine's vaults. At an unknown point after the attack on the *Annihilator*, Tyber Zann would perish, and following his death along with the loss of the vast majority of his forces, his criminal syndicate collapsed.