Picket Force Two

Picket Force Two was a frontier patrol unit of the Chiss Ascendancy's Expansionary Fleet, commanded in 27 BBY by Force Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, then simply a young Chiss officer, but later to win Galaxy-wide fame as Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Galactic Empire.

The mission of Picket Force Two was to represent and protect Chiss interests in the volume of space around the Crustai system, prior to the planned establishment of a civilian colony by the Chiss Ascendancy. As a permanent presence here, Thrawn constructed a command post buried deep inside asteroid, but he seems to have preferred to lead from his command ship, the cruiser Springhawk.

The Springhawk, rather less than 200 meters on the keel, and armed with missiles and Chiss masers, was apparently typical of Picket Force Two's capital ships; her escort of three hyperspace-capable heavy starfighters was also apparently typical of the patrol elements these ships led. With just three cruisers and their nine fighter escorts, Thrawn routed a force consisting of the Lucrehulk-class battleship Darkvenge and Keeper, six Hardcell-class armed transports, seven Trade Federation escort cruisers, and two thousand Vulture droid starfighters.

It seems that these this small force represented the total combat strength of Picket Force Two, although two transport shuttles and a further force of five fighters were also seen at the asteroid base. The capital ships bore names - such as Springhawk, and the Whirlwind, retrofitted with a Vagaari gravity-well generator; the fighters had numerical designations, such as Fighter Four, which performed an important probing feint in the battle against the Trade Federation force.

Appearances

 * Outbound Flight