Mulchive Wermis

"Wermis, I haven't been a boy for some years, and no one has ever rated me as dear--If there is another mind in this galaxy still capable of evoking the Force--not matter how weakly--it poses nearly as great a threat to the Empire--as wimpish incompetents like you!"

- Darth Vader

Mulchive Wermis was a Human male captain of the Star Destroyer Devastator while that vessel was the flagship of Darth Vader, and at times felt the grip of Vader's Force choke. Wermis was a coward, and Vader enjoyed tormenting him psychologically.

Capturing the Tantive IV
Mulchive Wermis was a Human male who served the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War in which they fought the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Wermis rose through the ranks of the Imperial Navy, despite being an incompetent coward, and by the year 0 BBY he had obtained the position of captain on board the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, Devastator, the flagship of the Sith Lord Darth Vader which had previously been captained by a man named Pychor. In 0 BBY, Wermis captained the ship when it caught the CR90 corvette Tantive IV, a diplomatic vessel from the planet Alderaan, near the planet Toprawa and then chased it to the planet Tatooine before disabling it. Stormtroopers, followed by Vader himself boarded the ship and took it over, aiming to locate plans for the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station which they believed to be on board in transit to the Rebel Alliance. The Imperials were unsuccessful in finding the plans but did capture princess Leia Organa, an Alderaanian diplomat believed to be aiding the Alliance. The Devastator then sent Stormtroopers down on to Tatooine to search for the plans there, as they believed they may have been placed in one of the Tantive IV's escape pods and jettisoned to the planet. Whilst still orbiting Tatooine, the Devastator was attacked by a squadron of Rebel fighters called Blue Squadron, who were based in Tatooinian city of Anchorhead. The Rebels managed to intercept a group of TIE/LN starfighters the ship sent against them whilst destroying the Star Destroyer's emplacement canons and deflector shield generators, and damaging its bridge. Following the events at Tatooine the Rebel Alliance, using the plans from the Tantive IV managed to destroy the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin and following this the Devastator was taken from Vader by the Galactic Emperor Palpatine and a man named Bircher was made its captain.

Return to the Devastator
Later that year however the captaincy was transferred back to Wermis, who accompanied Vader on a mission to the planet Ultaar in search of a Rebel information retrieval outpost they believed to be there. Whilst Vader and Wermis were en-route in the Devastator to the Ultaar, Vader felt a presence in the Force, and ordered Wermis to check what was located at the coordinates the presence had been at. Wermis tasked a team of technicians with checking the coordinates while Vader travelled to Ultaar's surface with a group of Stormtroopers. On the surface Vader discovered the outpost had already been destroyed by Beilert Valance, a cyborg bounty hunter who was searching for Luke Skywalker and the group with him. Before returning from Ultaar Vader received a message from Wermis telling him that nothing was located at the coordinates he'd been asked to check, and that the captain considered the search a waste of time. Vader belittled Wermis and informed him of the importance of tracking down other Force users and told him to find the closet location a starship could of travelled to from the coordinates he'd checked. Wermis then informed Vader as the Sith returned to the Devastator that the nearest location was the Wheel space station and set a course for that location. Vader forced Wermis to push the star Destroyer to its limit in order to reach the Wheel as fast as possible in case his target escaped. When Wermis argued and claimed that the journey was based on a whim, Vader Force choked the captain to show him the power of the Force and that it was no whim. He then demanded Wermis crawled to him and mocked the man's stamina. When the ship arrived at the Wheel Wermis informed Vader and told him they had received transmissions claiming the space station was in turmoil due to the fact that the forces of Imperial commander Zertik Strom, whom normally was stationed just outside the Wheel's sphere of diplomatic immunity, had trapped Rebels there. Instead of informing the Wheel of their presence and landing Vader ordered Wermis to have the station scanned as to locate the Rebels so that the Devastator could catch them if they escaped. As Vader suspected Strom failed to capture the Rebels and was killed by Simon Greyshade, administrator of the Wheel. Meanwhile Vader's targets, Luke Skywalker and his companions, attempted to escape the station in Greyshade's yacht Spoilt Sport and discovered the Devastator waiting for them. Wermis promised Vader the Rebels couldn't escape but was thrown to the grown as the Devastator's bridge was shaken by fire from the Millennium Falcon, a YT-1300 light freighter belonging to Han Solo another of Luke's companions. Recognising the Falcon as the vessel which had fired on him at the Battle of Yavin, Vader order Wermis to focus entirely on destroying Solo's starship. Before the Devastator could vaporise the Falcon however Luke lashed out in the Force due to his recent anguish and caught Vader unprepared, stunning him and allowing both of the Sith Lord's targets to escape.

Wermis later witnessed Vader torturing a Rebel prisoner trying to learn the name of a Rebel deserter whom might tell the name of the Hero of Yavin, the pilot who had destroyed the Death Star. The sight made Wermis feel queasy and he asked to leave, something that Vader mocked him for. Vader however learned the name Tyler Lucian, a Rebel who fled the Great Temple Rebel base before the battle of Yavin. Vader then had Wermis take him to Centares, the planet which Tyler had fled to, and proceeded alone to track the deserter down. Vader returned without having learned the Heros name, as the cyborg bounty hunter Beilert Valance had also tracked down Lucian and fought Vader when the pair encountered one another. Vader killed Valance but not before the hunter gave a speech which persuaded Lucian to kill himself rather then give Vader what he wanted. Upon returning to the ship Vader gave Wermis further coordinates to travel to and put the ship on full alert status. Vader continued his hunt for the mystery pilot and eventually learned the man's name from another Rebel he interrogated after destroying a Rebel refuelling station. With his target's name finally known Vader ordered Wermis to take the Devastator to rendezvous with the fleet of Baron Ulric Tagge much to Wermis's surprise, due to the problems Vader had previously had with the house of Tagge, meaning the rivalry between Vader and Ulric's brother, Orman Tagge. When Wermis voiced these concerns Vader told him to simply follow orders, which Wermis did. Upon reaching Tagge's fleet Ulric came aboard the Devastator, where Vader questioned him about a recent defeat he and his family had suffered at the hands of Luke Skywalker, in which Ulric believed his brothers Orman and Silas Tagge had both been killed. Vader revealed that they hadn't in fact died but had nearly suffocated before being rescued and were in the process of recovering, although still no concious. He then told Ulric that they could remain unconscious, allowing Ulric to remain Baron of his house instead of Orman reclaiming the title, as long as he promised Vader his absolute loyalty. Ulric agreed to the deal and after the baron left Wermis admitted his surprise at Vader's alliance with Tagge, as the captain had expected the Sith Lord to destroy the Tagge line once and for all at the meeting.

With the Tagge's now serving as his pawns Vader had Wermis take him to the planet Monastery, where Ulric's sister Domina Tagge served as a member of the religious Order of the Sacred Circle. Vader and Domina then hatched a plan together to lure Luke Skywalker to the planet, where they would capture him. Domina travelled to the Rebel's base at Yavin where she told the Alliance that the Empire had sent an envoy to persuade the order to side with them in the Galactic Civil War. She persuaded the Rebels that Luke should accompany her back to Monastery to act as their own envoy, which he did with Han Solo, his co-pilot Chewbacca, and Princess Leia Organa, another Rebel. Once they reached the planet Vader confronted Luke and informed him that he was the opposing envoy, after which the Sith informed Wermis over comm unit to commence the next part of the plan. Wermis then located the Millenium Falcon which was orbiting Monastery and still crewed by Solo, Chewbacca and Organna, and ordered them to prepare for Imperial inspection. After using the Devastator's tractor beam to pull the Falcon aboard Wermis confronted Solo, who showed him forged papers and claimed that the Imperials had no issues with him. Wermis however destroyed the papers and informed Solo that he knew who the smuggler was due to Vader's careful planning. Wermis then ordered his stormtroopers to search the ship for the princess who he believed was hidden on board in a spice hold. When the search revealed nothing Solo offered to leave without the captain filing a report as to avoid showing his superiors he'd captured the wrong ship, but Wermis refused the offer, having Solo and Chewbacca thrown in detention cells instead. After leaving the Falcon, Wermis was informed that Orman Tagge, who was still being kept on the ship, had made a full recovery. Having been given no orders by Vader as to what to do in such a situation, the captain ordered Orman simply be kept in his life support capsule. Immediately after giving the order however he was thrown to the floor by explosions from lower decks of the Devastator, which he was informed had come from two supply holds. Once recovered he rushed to the Star Destroyer's medical bay to find that the explosions had shattered the Tagge's life support capsules and that Orman was gone. One of Wermis's troops then suggested that House Tagge agents may be the ones causing the explosions, an idea Wermis pretended he to had had, hoping Lord Vader would accept it and not blame him upon his return. Before he could begin the search for Tagge though the Devastator's artificial gravity was turned off leaving Wermis floating in the medical bay. Princess Organa was in fact the one behind the various sabotages on the ship, and using a propulsion pack navigated the ship while the Imperials were caught unprepared. During the chaos that the gravity changed caused Organa freed Solo and Chewbacca and the trio escaped from Wermis's clutches in the Falcon, with Orman also stowed away on board. Vaders plans on Monastery also ended in failure with the Rebel's escaping and only Orman being killed after he forced Han and Leia to take him to Vader and Luke. With the Rebels escaped Vader returned to the Devastator and had Wermis leave the system soon after.

Administrating the Wheel
At some point after the events at Monastary, Wermis was transferred from naval duty to a desk job as Administrator of the Wheel, which had been run by a council with the aid of the droid Master-Com since Greyshade's death, but was then siezed by the Empire. Upon beginning his admin-ship Wermis shut down the Wheel for two months to preform repairs to the section of the station damaged by the Proton grenade which Greyshade had used to kill Strom. After reopening it, many were reluctant to return due to the Imperial presence although the draw of gambling did bring in enough customers to keep the station going. All profits from the Wheel during this period were transferred to the Empire, bar those that Wermis secretly kept for himself and the mistress he kept while Administrator, a Zeltron named Malyssa Raventhorn. Over the several years in which Wermis was administrator a series of mysterious cyber-attacks caused him serious issues, but despite this he grew obese and sedentary in his posting. Wermis's time as administrator ended when the Besh Gorgon system, the star system in which the Wheel was located, was liberated by the newly formed New Republic. The event caused Wermis to suffer a fatal heart attack as his meagre forces on the Wheel were overwhelmed. Immediately after Wermis's death, Raventhorn and the profits Wermis had kept for himself vanished from the Wheel and weren't located by the Republic forces. Admin-ship of the Wheel was eventually handed over to Master-com, who had remained on the Wheel during Wermis's control and had in fact been behind all of the cyber-attacks.

Behind the scenes
Captain Wermis and Captain Bolvan served at the same time aboard the Devastator. Wermis has been specified as the vessel's commanding officer; Bolvan apparently served in an inferior capacity, overseeing turbolaser operations and ground assaults. Their exact professional relationship in the command hierarchy is uncertain, but they may have belonged to different branches of the Navy, as Bolvan was a black-uniform officer, whereas Wermis wore a standard naval officer's uniform.



Appearances

 * Death Star
 * Star Wars 21: Shadow of a Dark Lord
 * Star Wars 22: To the Last Gladiator
 * Star Wars 23: Flight Into Fury
 * Star Wars 29: Dark Encounter
 * Star Wars 35: Dark Lord's Gambit
 * Star Wars 36: Red Queen Rising
 * Star Wars 37: In Mortal Combat
 * Star Wars: Visions of the Blade