Cassio Tagge

"Tagge always argued against the arrogance of the Death Star as a sole weapon. He alone was properly wary of the rebels' threat."

- Emperor Sheev Palpatine

Cassio Tagge served as the head of the Imperial Army and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of the Imperial military during the reign of the Galactic Empire. General Tagge, who was born into the powerful House of Tagge, the owners of TaggeCo mining operations, was stationed on Coruscant, where he had access to the upper-levels of the Imperial Palace. Following the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the Death Star, Tagge was elevated to the rank of Grand General by Emperor Sheev Palpatine.

Early life and career
A male Human, Cassio Tagge was born to a wealthy, powerful family who owned and operated TaggeCo, a company that notably had mining interests on Lucazec. At some point, Tagge joined the ranks of the Galactic Empire, the autocratic governement that replaced the Galactic Republic at the end of the Clone Wars. By the sixth year of Emperor Palpatine's reign, Tagge had reached the rank of general, and headed the Imperial Army as a member of the Imperial military Joint Chiefs.

That year, Tagge gathered with the rest of the Joint Chiefs on Coruscant to confer with members of the Imperial Ruling Council and the intelligence agencies of COMPNOR to discuss the attacks carried out by a group of insurgents who had hijacked Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's personal vessel, the Carrion Spike. During the meeting, word arrived that the insurgents were attacking Imperial assets on Lucazec, which alarmed Tagge due to TaggeCo having operations on the planet. He watched in anger as footage came in of the insurgents destroying both space and surface operations on the planet. The insurgents were eventually caught and executed, and Tagge was among those rewarded for his aid in stopping the threat.

Aboard the Death Star
"If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical readout of this battlestation it is possible&mdash;however unlikely&mdash;that they might find a weakness, and exploit it." "The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands."

- General Cassio Tagge and Darth Vader

Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Tagge was stationed aboard the Death Star. During a meeting of the Joint Chiefs aboard the Death Star, Tagge argued with Admiral Antonio Motti, who did not share Tagge's view that the Rebel Alliance, which had stolen plans to the Death Star, represented a threat to the Empire and to the Death Star. Motti dismissed Tagge's concerns, noting that while the Rebels might pose a threat to Tagge's fleet, they were no threat to the Empire. Tagge began to point out that the Rebels had been building support within the Imperial Senate, but was interrupted by the arrival of Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader, who informed the Joint Chiefs that the Senate had been disbanded by the Emperor. Tagge was stunned by this news, and openly questioned how control would be maintained without the bureaucracy, but Tarkin revealed that regional governors like himself would now wield total control over their territories, with the threat of the Death Star keeping systems in line through fear.

Tagge protested again that the Rebel Alliance was a threat to that plan due to their possession of the technical readouts of the Death Star, but Darth Vader claimed that the plans would soon be recovered and Motti stated that even with the plans, any attack would be useless against the battlestation. After suggesting that they use the Death Star, Motti began to argue with and insult Vader due to his failure to locate the stolen plans and his devotion to the the Force. Tagge watched uncomfortably with the other officers as Vader began choking Motti with the Force until Tarkin ordered him to stop. The Grand Moff then addressed Tagge's concerns by claiming that Vader would soon learn the location of both the plans and the hidden Rebel base, after which the Rebellion would be swiftly crushed along with any threat it presented to the Empire.

Grand General of the Empire
"Tarkin had vision. You have graphs." "I have graphs and the command."

- Darth Vader and Grand General Tagge

Despite the confidence and arrogance of Tarkin and Motti in the might of the Death Star, Tagge's fears were soon realized when the Rebels destroyed the battlestation at the Battle of Yavin. Tagge survived the destruction of the Death Star, having left the station beforehand to return to his fleet, and was praised by the Emperor for having the foresight to recognize the Rebel threat and weaknesses of the Death Star. As a reward, Tagge was elevated to the rank of Grand General and placed in charge of the Imperial military, which would now be governed by his philosophy as the second Death Star was constructed.

Darth Vader was placed under Tagge's command due to his failure to protect the Death Star, and the two began working together to identify the source of increased pirate raids on the Empire's shipping. Vader stopped one of these attacks, disabling a automated CR90 corvette and returning it to Tagge's flagship, the Super Star Destroyer Annihilator. Tagge and Vader both agreed that the sophistication of the attacks suggested a well-supplied and smart group was behind them, and that a spy was likely feeding them information on Imperial shipping. Tagge was unconcerned with the level of attrition to the Empire's supplies by the attacks, noting that they were well within normal levels of unrest that could be expected after a disaster like the Death Star's destruction. However, he expressed disappointment at the amount of resources wasted in the construction of the Death Star, referring to it as "Tarkin's Folly", and wondered how many more Super Star Destroyers could have been built instead.

Vader countered Tagge by claiming that Tarkin had vision, while Tagge was more concerned with statistics and graphs. Tagge reminded Vader that he also had the command of the military, and that although his plans might not be as grand as Vader or Tarkin's, they were still effective. After lecturing Vader on the power of the fleet to crush any form of resistance through sheer size and firepower applied over time, he informed Vader that he planned to repair the pirate vessel so that it would return to its source. Vader noted that the pirates would surely destroy their station rather than risk further exposure, a point Tagge agreed with, and he then informed Vader that he would lead the team aboard the corvette aboard the station to recover the information they needed before that occurred. The Grand General then proceeded to lecture Vader on how their new arrangement was for the best, comparing himself to a skilled lightsaber wielder, with Vader as the lightsaber. He then informed the Dark Lord that he was also assigning Lieutenant Oon-ai to be Vader's adjutant, albeit one who would also be personally reporting back to Tagge.

After Vader successfully raided the pirates' space station, he returned to Tagge and complimented the Grand General on his plan and informed him that the pirates were being backed by the Crymorah syndicate. Tagge was pleased that they knew who to target, but was stunned when he turned around and saw Vader carrying Oon-ai's body. Vader threw the lieutenant at Tagge's feet and claimed that he had identified him as the leak, noting that Oon-ai must have used his closeness to Tagge to steal the information, and that Tagge should choose his aides more carefully. In actuality, Vader had a astromech droid plant information in the pirates base that implicated Oon-Ai in order to remove Tagge's spy from his presence and send a message to the Grand General.

Personality and traits
A fair-skinned man, Cassio Tagge had brown eyes and hair. Tall and thickly built, he had a broad face with a cleft chin. By the sixth year of the Empire, he sported long, flaring sideburns, and he still had them more than fourteen years later.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Galactic Defense
 * Tarkin
 * Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 1: Vader
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 2: Vader, Part II
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 3: Vader, Part III