Kiviett Lieutenant Kiviett was a planetologist serving in the Imperial Military . He was second - in - command of Imperial Survey Team IX3244 - B , serving under Captain Toss . While with IX3244 - B , he led the first Imperial team to land on the forest moon of Endor . Biography . Lieutenant Kiviett ' s opinion was that a " barren rock with low gravity and a poisonous atmosphere " would have been a better site for the shield generator necessary to protect the second Death Star while it was under construction , since there would be no indigenous sentients to interfere with construction and no natural cover for a Rebel military operation against the generator . However , Lord Darth Vader himself had already decreed that the shield generator would be constructed on a world capable of supporting Human life , in order to avoid wasting time and energy building life - support systems for the personnel running the shield generator . When IX3244 - B ' s survey frigate arrived in the Endor system , Captain Toss reasoned that the forest moon would be a perfect site . It was suitably remote , and the most advanced lifeforms detected — the Ewoks — had only primitive technology . Though standard procedures dictated that the local sentients had to be investigated , Toss left this task to Kiviett , and immediately reported that Endor fit Lord Vader ' s requirements . Kiviett led an expedition consisting of two stormtroopers and two other personnel down to the moon ' s surface in a shuttle . They landed within hiking distance of an Ewok village ( presumably Bright Tree Village ) . As they tried to make their way to the village , unseen Ewoks ensured that the Imperials did not get within one kilometer of their village . They did this by obscuring their path , turning it into a shifting maze filled with dead ends and forcing the Imperials to hike in circles . After two hours , as night fell and Kiviett ' s team became hopelessly lost , the Ewoks began to beat drums all around them . Kiviett ' s team panicked , and started firing their blasters randomly into the woods . To his credit , Kiviett had his blaster set on stun , and insisted on the rest of his team doing the same . Kiviett was an Imperial officer , but considered himself a scientist first . The shots did not stop the Ewoks , who only stopped when Kiviett and his team found that in their wanderings , they had returned to their shuttle ' s landing spot . Shaken , all of them agreed to retreat to their frigate . Kiviett ' s report to Toss was dismissed , and apparently not forwarded to any superior officers . Toss did not agree with Kiviett ' s suggestion that the Ewoks were a potential problem deserving further study . Even Kiviett ' s suggestion that Imperial personnel and vehicles on Endor be outfitted with forest camouflage was ignored . Kiviett was stationed on Endor during the Battle of Endor , though it is unclear if the rest of IX3244 - B was on the forest moon at the time . After the battle , he surrendered to the victorious Rebel Alliance ' s forces . During a post - capture debriefing , he told Alliance historian Voren Na ' al about his experiences during the survey of Endor . After expressing his opinion that the Empire lost the battle at least in part because no one listened to him , and that the Empire was doomed to eventually lose the Galactic Civil War , he offered his services as a planetologist to the Rebellion .