Admiral Piett

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Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett is a fictional character from the Star Wars universe, played by Kenneth Colley in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He was one of the few Imperial officers to appear in two Star Wars films, the only one to have been played by the same actor twice.

[edit] Biography

Piett was born on the Outer Rim world of Axxila. After Piett was drafted into the Imperial Starfleet, he commanded an anti-pirate fleet that patrolled his home sector, which eventually became one of the most pirate-free sectors in the Outer Rim. Vader later assigned Captain Piett to command the Star Destroyer Accuser, under Admiral Griff. When Griff died at Yavin 4 during the Rebel Alliance's evacuation, Piett became captain of the Super Star Destroyer ^[1] Executor to replace its current commander, Captain Ozzel, who was promoted to admiral. This gave Piett command of Vader's flagship.

Three years after the Battle of Yavin, Captain Piett and his command staff received a transmission from a probe droid in the Hoth system that revealed the hidden Rebel Alliance headquarters, Echo Base. Piett made sure that Darth Vader was on the bridge before informing his superiors of this find; as he expected, Admiral Ozzel dismissed it as something other than the Rebel base, only to be overruled by Vader. The dark lord wasted no time in dispatching his fleet, the Death Squadron, to the Hoth system.

The fleet's exit point from hyperspace was close enough to the planet that the Rebels were able to detect it immediately, giving them time to raise an energy shield that would stop any orbital bombardment. Ozzel was swiftly killed by Vader for his incompetence and Piett was instantly promoted to admiral. While General Veers successfully captured the Rebel base, the Millennium Falcon escaped. Vader ordered the fleet to pursue, even though the Falcon had entered a nearby asteroid field.

During the search for the Falcon, the Star Destroyer Avenger found it, but it strangely vanished. The bounty hunter Boba Fett, commissioned by Vader, realized that the Falcon was in fact secretly docked on the back of the Avenger's bridge, and followed and reported its movements as it disengaged and limped over to Bespin. While Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Chewbacca were being given a tour by Lando Calrissian, Piett's engineers deactivated the hyperdrive on the Falcon. As the Falcon fled, it was almost captured by the Executor's tractor beam, but R2-D2 was able to reactivate the hyperdrive and the Falcon again escaped Imperial custody. Despite his failure Piett was inexplicably spared Vader's wrath. Vader's duel with Skywalker and his son's subsequent self-sacrifice had left him deeply troubled; in addition to the fact that the Falcon's escape was not Piett's fault, this conflict left Vader with enough mercy to spare the admiral's life.

One year later, in Return of the Jedi Piett is in command of the Imperial fleet at the Battle of Endor. If Piett had been allowed to engage the Rebel fleet, his ships could have easily destroyed them. Instead, he is ordered by Palpatine to hold position and just keep the Rebels from escaping so they could be vaporized one by one by the second Death Star's superlaser. The plan is disrupted when the Rebels move to attack the Star Destroyers at point-blank range, increasing the risk to themselves but leaving the Death Star unable to fire without destroying their own fleet.

Under Admiral Ackbar's orders, the Rebel fleet concentrates their fire on the Executor, knocking out the shields protecting its bridge. Piett gives what turn out to be his final orders, ordering the turbolaser batteries to increase their firepower to keep anything from reaching the bridge, when a disabled A-wing piloted by Arvel Crynyd makes a kamikaze maneuver into the bridge. Admiral Piett and Commander Gherant are seen diving into the lower command deck in an attempt to save their lives while the Executor falls into the Death Star's gravity well and collided into the uncompleted Death Star. Executor was destroyed with the second Death Star, when it exploded.

[edit] References

• The Annotated Screenplays, softcover, 1997. George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, Laurent Bouzereau, ISBN 0-345-40981-7
• The Hutt Gambit, 1st paperback printing, 1997. A. C. Crispin, ISBN 0-553-57416-7
• Inside the Worlds of the Star Wars Trilogy.

[edit] External links

• Admiral Piett in the Star Wars Databank
• Firmus Piett on Wookieepedia, a Wikia wiki
• Admiral Piett fanclub
• Imperial Chicks Admiral Piett Page