Kazz

"&hellip;a magic stone guarded by furry warriors called "Ewoks." Ha! No one believes that! It's just one more of your foolish ideas!"

- Admiral Kazz

Admiral Kazz of the Imperial Navy was the commanding officer of an unnamed Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. In 3 ABY, his ship was assigned by Emperor Palpatine himself to transport Dr. Raygar to the remote forest moon of Endor.

Biography
Raygar's mission was to retrieve a powerful artifact from the moon's surface&mdash;the Sunstar, a gemstone believed to be guarded by the Ewoks. Kazz was skeptical about the mission, convinced that nothing on the backwater moon could be of use to the Galactic Empire. (Kazz may have worked with the eccentric scientist before, and a previous unsuccessful mission may have led the admiral to hold a low opinion of Raygar.) Even when Raygar returned with the Sunstar, Kazz continued to be doubtful of the "trinket"'s power and utility (especially since Raygar refused to show anyone but the Emperor the Sunstar itself.)

While Kazz and his crew were waiting for the Emperor's shuttle to arrive, Raygar's droid PD-28 arrived separately in a pod from Raygar's ship. When the droid claimed to have escaped from a group of Ewoks who had captured him, Kazz replied that a proper Imperial droid would not have been captured in the first place. He ordered PD-28 to be "recycled into something useful." Kazz was unaware that a group of young Ewoks, led by Wicket W. Warrick, had been on the pod as well. He was also unaware that Raygar planned to use the Sunstar to power a laser cannon, assassinate the Emperor by destroying his shuttle, and take control of the Galaxy.

Nevertheless, things worked out reasonably well for the Admiral in the end. The Ewoks, while fulfilling their mission to rescue their friend PD-28 and recover the Sunstar, managed to foil Raygar's assassination attempt so that the Emperor's shuttle was merely damaged. When he discovered that someone on his Star Destroyer had attacked the Emperor, Kazz promptly sent stormtroopers to search the ship for the assassin.

When the stormtroopers found Raygar, the Ewoks, PD-28, and the Sunstar were gone. Kazz arrested Raygar for high treason, and also accused him of inventing the story of the Sunstar as part of his plot against the Emperor. (After all, Kazz had not actually seen the Sunstar, just a box which Raygar claimed contained the Sunstar.) A satisfied Kazz turned Raygar over to Emperor Palpatine, who would deal with the traitor personally.

Behind the scenes
Admiral Kazz's rank insignia, consisting of two code cylinders and three blue squares above three red squares, may imply a lower rank than Admiral (at least, according to some attempts to systematically explain observed Imperial rank insignia.) For example, the Imperial Sourcebook identifies similar insignia with the red rank plaques on top as belonging to mere commanders.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Ewoks
 * "Battle for the Sunstar"