Cantompa was a human male fleet trooper within the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. During the war he served on board the Herald, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer tasked with hunting down the Imperial traitor Everi Chalis. While on board the Star Destroyer he earned the trust of its Captain, Tabor Seitaron, and when Chalis surrendered herself to the Empire in the atmosphere above the planet Sullust, he chose Cantompa and his colleague Zhios to accompany him and Prelate Verge to meet with her and take her prisoner. Upon the group arriving in the hangar where Chalis had landed, she offered Verge all of the information she had gathered on the Alliance in exchange for a pardon. Verge refused and reacted violently,