Mulchive Wermis 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 . Biography . 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 . By the year 0 BBY , he succeeded an officer named Pychor as the captain on board the " Imperial " I - class Star Destroyer , " Devastator " , the flagship of the Sith Lord Darth Vader . 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 Death Star battlestation 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 the Tatooinian city of Anchorhead . The Rebels managed to intercept a group of TIE / LN starfighter s the ship sent against them whilst destroying the Star Destroyer ' s emplacement cannons and deflector shield generators , and damaging its bridge . Following the events at Tatooine , the Rebel Alliance managed to destroy the Death Star over Yavin Prime , using the plans from the " Tantive IV " . As a consequence , the " Devastator " was taken from Vader by the Galactic Emperor Palpatine , and a young colonel named Kell Bircher was made its captain . Return to the " Devastator " . Later that year , however , Bircher was revealed to be a Rebel spy that had managed to insert his name into the civilian and military databases of the Empire . 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 traveled 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 , then told him to find the closest location a starship could have traveled 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 that 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 . Recognizing the " Falcon " as the vessel which had fired on him at the Battle of Yavin , Vader ordered Wermis to focus entirely on destroying Solo ' s starship . Before the " Devastator " could vaporize 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 Hero ' s 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 refueling 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 had not in fact died , but had nearly suffocated before being rescued and were in the process of recovering , although still not conscious . 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 Tagges 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 traveled 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 " Millennium Falcon " which was orbiting Monastery and still crewed by Solo , Chewbacca and Organa , 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 for Orman to 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 too had had , hoping Lord Vader would accept it and not blame him upon his return . Before he could begin the search for Tagge , 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 change caused , Organa freed Solo and Chewbacca and the trio escaped from Wermis ' s clutches in the " Falcon " , with Orman also stowed away on board . Vader ' s plans on Monastery also ended in failure , with the Rebels 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 Monastery , 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 seized by the Empire . Upon beginning his admin - ship , Wermis shut down the Wheel for two months to perform 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 meager 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 .