Firmus Piett/Legends


 * "Don't fail me again, Admiral."
 * &mdash; Darth Vader

Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett (39 BBY–4 ABY) served in the Imperial Starfleet during the Galactic Civil War.

Piett was born on the Outer Rim world of Axxila. In the Imperial Starfleet, it is always important to have Deep Core connections. Officers from the Outer Rim usually never earn valuable strategic postings. When Piett joined the Imperial Starfleet, he proved a most competent officer and by the time he was 26, Piett was already a lieutenant in command of a fleet that patrolled his home sector.

Darth Vader later assigned Captain Piett to command the Star Destroyer Accuser, under Admiral Griff. When Griff died at Yavin 4 during the Rebel evacuation, Piett became captain of the Star Dreadnought1 Executor after her previous commanding officer, Kendal Ozzel, was promoted to admiral and placed in command of Lord Vader's Rebel-hunting fleet, Death Squadron.

Three years after the Battle of Yavin, Captain Piett and his command staff received a transmission from a probe droid in the Hoth system that revealed the hidden Rebel Alliance headquarters, Echo Base. When Piett promptly informed his superiors of this find, Admiral Ozzel dismissed it as something other than the Rebel base, such as a smuggler outpost. However, Vader immediately accepted Piett's interpretation of the data (based largely perhaps on the Dark Lord's own instincts) and ordered the fleet to the Hoth system.

The fleet's exit point from hyperspace was close enough to the planet that the Rebels were able to detect it immediately, giving them time to raise an energy shield that would stop any orbital bombardment, thus thwarting Vader's original plans for a clean bombardment of the base from a distance. Ozzel was swiftly killed by Vader for his incompetence and Piett was immediately promoted to admiral (crew members then started to bet on how long Piett had to live). While General Veers successfully captured the Rebel base, the Millennium Falcon escaped. Vader ordered the fleet to pursue, even though the Falcon had entered a nearby asteroid field.

During the search for the Falcon, the Star Destroyer Avenger found her, but the ship then strangely vanished. The bounty hunter Boba Fett, one of several hunters commissioned by Lord Vader to continue the hunt, realized that the Falcon had never left the system, and was in fact discreetly docked on the aft side of the Avenger's command tower. He followed and reported her movements as she disengaged and limped to the planet Bespin. While Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Chewbacca were being given a tour of Cloud City by Lando Calrissian, Piett's engineers deactivated the hyperdrive on the Falcon. As the Falcon attempted to flee, she was nearly captured by the Executor's tractor beam, but R2-D2 was able to reactivate the hyperdrive and the Falcon again escaped Imperial custody. Despite this incident, Piett was allowed to live by Vader, because the admiral had preformed his duties effectively, unlike his predecessor.



One year later, Piett commanded the Imperial fleet at the Battle of Endor. If Piett had been allowed to engage the Rebel fleet, his fleet could have easily destroyed them. Instead, Emperor Palpatine ordered him to hold position and prevent the Rebel's from escaping so that the Death Star's superlaser could pick them off one by one. However, the Emperor's plan backfired when the Rebels moved to attack the Star Destroyers at point-blank range, denying the battle station a clear shot.

During the battle, Admiral Ackbar ordered all Rebel ships to concentrate their fire on the Executor. This concentrated fire temporarily knocked out her bridge deflector shields, allowing two A-Wings to destroy a targeting dome on the Executor's bridge tower, cutting the vital flow of targeting information to her many gun emplacements. Piett ordered the forward turbolaser batteries to intensify their firepower, to compensate for the momentary shield failure, but it was too late. Moments later, a disabled A-wing crashed into the bridge, killing Piett, and the entire bridge crew. The fire and destruction spread down a primary corridor, disabling the navigation centers of the mighty vessel. Before the crew could regain control from one of the secondary command centers, the Executor was caught in the gravity well of the Death Star, and promptly crashed into the surface of the station, exploding in a gigantic fireball.

Behind the Scenes
Piett was the only Imperial officer to appear in two Star Wars films. Piett was portrayed by Kenneth Colley in both appearances.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi