Captain Wermis

From the Apocrypha of Voren Na'al

During the Era of Rebellion there were those whose decisions would shake the foundations of the galaxy. And there are those whose decisions would not.

From the last days of the Old Republic through the rule of Emperor Palpatine, the stain of corruption infected every part of the galactic bureaucracy, from the lowest clerk to the highest ranks of the mighty Imperial Star Fleet. While no one who had survived the retreat from Hoth or the siege of Coruscant would doubt the skill of leaders such as General Veers or Grand Admiral Thrawn, graft and nepotism were often a more secure means of promotion than experience and dedication to duty.

It is often remarked with dark humor that Darth Vader did his best to purge the ranks of the Star Fleet of incompetent and dim witted officers, but at least one such officer managed to escape the Sith Lord's wrath: Captain Wermis.

The second son of a noted Chandrillan family, Captain Wermis sought his fortune in the Republic Navy. His grades at the Academy were average at best; and, although he served during the latter days of the Clone Wars, his postings were well away from any action. If not for a small inheritance and distant relation to the infamous Admiral Ozzel, Wermis would've toiled away in obscurity in the Navy of the newly anointed Emperor Palpatine. Instead, Wermis' career remained on a steady, if slow, upward track, and eventually he was awarded the command of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Following the Battle of Yavin, Wermis discovered that he had received the honor of escorting Lord Darth Vader, who was on a quest to discover the identity of the pilot who had destroyed the first Death Star. Wermis would later tell the Alliance War Crimes Tribunal that when he heard the news of this assigment, he thought he was "deader than Xim."

Wermis spent the next several months in abject terror of Vader who made no secret of his contempt for the Captain. After Vader's encounter with the bounty hunter Valance on Centares, Wermis hid in his quarters for three days. Miraculously, he survived.

In truth, Wermis' survival was not a testament to his skill, but rather to Vader's success in his missions. During Vader's return to Centares, the Dark Lord finally extracted the information that it was Luke Skywalker who had destroyed the Death Star. Soon after, Vader outmaneuvered the House of Tagge and arranged the death of Baron Orman Tagge.

By that time, Lord Vader's command ship Executor was ready to launch from the shipyards at Fondor. Rather than join the so-called "Death Squadron" assembled to pursue the Rebel Fleet, Wermis was assigned to locate and arrest Domina Tagge, who had assumed control of her family's fortune and fled across the frontier. Wermis located Tagge deep within the mysterious Red Nebula and ordered his Star Destroyer to attack and board Sister Domina's mining explorer, little realizing that it was a trap. Tagge planned to infect both the Empire and the Rebellion with an exotic alien disease known as the Crimson Forever. Wermis and his crew were infected with the disease and carried it towards the Rebel base on Golrath.

Thanks to the timely intervention of Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca the Wookiee and Princess Leia Organa, the Crimson Forever did not claim Wermis among its fatalities, although many other members of his crew were not so lucky.

Thereafter, Wermis was taken into Alliance custody and spent the remainder of the civil war on a secluded prison planet. Following the Battle of Endor, Wermis volunteered to fully cooperate with the Alliance War Crimes Tribunal in a successful effort to gain his freedom. Wermis has since adopted a new identity and is living a quiet and anonymous life on a minor Outer Rim world.

It is tempting to dismiss Wermis as a joke, just another symptom of a corrupt Empire, but I believe it is more telling to place him in a context of those who had a chance to make decisions that mattered but did not. During his career, Wermis never acted on behalf of anyone or anything other than his own life and career. Yet, by his own admission, Wermis was disgusted by the methods Lord Vader used during his campaigns. As the commander in charge, Wermis bears some responsibility for the massacre of a Rebellion refueling station on Centares, and indeed the amnesty extended by the War Crimes Tribunal does not extend to Centares where a warrant for Wermis' arrest remains outstanding.

Former Imperial Captain Wermis declined to be interviewed for this datafile.

• Captain Buckner Wermis

Type: Imperial Lackey

Height: 1.7 meters

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Force Points: 1

Move: 10

Equipment: Blaster (4D), comlink, datapad.

Description: Captain Wermis is the very model of a modern Imperial officer. He is arrogant, sniveling and conniving.

A Quote: "Surely you're not going to enlist him in you plan...? Hasn't there been trouble between you and the House of Tagge?"

"Don't anticipate what I will or will not do, Wermis. Your talent is for subservience... not strategy."

Captain Wermis was created by Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino.

Return to Home