Kazz

"... 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 1.5 BBY, his ship was assigned by Emperor Palpatine himself to transport Dr. Raegar to the remote forest moon of Endor.

Raegar'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 sceptical 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 Raegar.) Even when Raegar returned with the Sunstar, Kazz continued to be doubtful of the "trinket"'s power and utility.

While waiting for the Emperor's shuttle to arrive, Raegar's droid PD-28 arrived separately in a pod from Raegar'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 Raegar 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 fufilling their mission to rescue their friend PD-28 and recover the Sunstar, managed to foil Raegar'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 Raegar, the Ewoks, PD-28, and the Sunstar were gone. Kazz arrested Raegar for high treason, and also accused him of inventing the story of the Sunstar as part of his plot against the Emperor. A satisfied Kazz turned Raegar 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