User:Green tentacle/Notepad

Biography
Shortly before the Clone Wars, Palpatine, already plotting the destruction of the Jedi, dispatched Thrawn to intercept Outbound Flight, a mission to explore beyond the galaxy which carried six Jedi Masters. Thrawn's attack was successful and Outbound Flight was destroyed.

After the rise of the Galactic Empire, Thrawn spent much of his career in the Unknown Regions, working to bring the untamed area under Imperial control. His campaign in the Unknown Regions met with great success&mdash;only once did he fail to bring a species under Imperial control, instead destroying their world. His successful career earned him the title of Warlord and, despite Palpatine's well-known prejudice against aliens, saw his promotion to Grand Admiral&mdash;the only non-Human to achieve the rank. Even so, Thrawn's importance to the Empire was known only to a few&mdash;his promotion to Grand Admiral took place in a secret ceremony on Coruscant, following the public dedication of the Imperial Palace's Assemblage wing, with few present to witness. Likewise, Thrawn was one of the few Palpatine trusted with knowledge the Emperor's Hands, revealing Mara Jade's true purpose during the ceremony. Despite this, he risked the Emperor's displeasure on no fewer than four occasions by refusing to waste resources attacking an enemy he was unprepared for. The first time, Palpatine declared Thrawn a traitor and assigned the mission to another commander&mdash;after the resulting attack proved unsuccessful, Palpatine developed a greater respect for Thrawn's opinion.

At some point, Thrawn was given command of the Noghri. Darth Vader had once come to the aid of the Noghri, whose homeworld was devastated by a nearby space battle. In exchange for the Empire's help in repairing the damage to their world, the Noghri had pledged their allegiance to the Empire, acting as Palpatine and Vader's private commandos. Later, Thrawn accompanied Vader to Honoghr, where the Dark Lord of the Sith explained that his duties in the war against the Empire's enemies required his full attention and named Thrawn as his heir, after which the Noghri continued their loyal service to their new master.

The Empire's victory at the Battle of Hoth scattered the Rebel Alliance throughout the Outer Rim Territories. Palpatine sought to capitalize on their momentum by calling for the Imperial Navy to complete the destruction of the Alliance. To this end, while Palpatine addresssed naval commanders on Coruscant, Thrawn accompanied a fleet under the command of Darth Vader in an assault on a Rebel space station in the Outer Rim. On Vader's signal, Thrawn launched his TIE squadrons and, catching the Rebels unprepared, the Imperial forces soon destroyed the base and the fleeing Rebel starfighters.

Shortly after, Thrawn received an envoy from the Emperor who briefed him on the growing pirate activity in the Pakuuni system. Thrawn was tasked with eliminating the pirates and establishing a permanent Imperial presence in the system to ensure the safety of nearby trade routes. Thrawn, aboard the Victory-class Star Destroyer Stalwart, traveled to a cargo area near Argoon to retrieve the material needed for the construction of a new Imperial space station. Finding the base abandoned, the Imperials suspected an imminent Rebel attack and, sure enough, Rebel forces soon arrived. However, Thrawn launched TIEs to cover the loading operation and the Rebels were quickly defeated.

Thrawn gave the task of pacifying the system to Commander Buckeye of the Nebulon-B2 frigate Ludwick, holding the Stalwart ready until needed. Buckeye proceeded to the Pakuuni system and quickly destroyed the pirate base. With the pirate's main staging area neutralized, Thrawn took the Stalwart to the system, escorting the convoy carrying the equipment for the new installation. The system, however, was not yet pacified and Thrawn's convoy arrived during a combined attack from pirate and Rebel forces. Although the Ludwick took major damage, the remaining enemy forces fled upon the arrival of the Stalwart and its convoy. Work on the station NL-1 proceeded quickly and Thrawn left the Ludwick to oversee construction. The Rebels made an attempt to prevent the station's completion, but were defeated by the Ludwick and its fighters before Thrawn returned in the Stalwart. The station sustained minor damage in the attack but repairs proceeded quickly and it was soon almost operational. Despite all the Ludwick's TIE fighters and TIE interceptors being repaired and refurbished, Thrawn was eager to inspect the new facility and ensure it would suit the Emperor's purposes, forcing the Ludwick to deploy TIE bombers as a defensive shield. Thrawn left the Stalwart in a Delta-class DX-9 stormtrooper transport and headed to the station but soon became the target of a Rebel starfighter attack. His bomber escorts made short work of the Rebels and was able to land on the station to conduct his inspection. After approving of the construction effort, Thrawn returned to the Stalwart&mdash;again coming under attack, this time from pirate shuttles. After returning safely, due to the efforts of his escorts, Thrawn sent his personal compliments to the pilots for their ability to improvise in using the TIE bomber in a defensive role.

Reemergence
The death of the Emperor saw the New Order spiral into chaos. While Thrawn remained in the Unknown Regions, the Empire found itself steadily pushed back from the Core Worlds as the Rebellion transformed into the New Republic. By the time of Thrawn's reemergence from the Unknown Regions, the Empire was in control of barely a quarter of its former systems. Thrawn took command of the Imperial Military approximately four years after the Battle of Endor, transferred his flag to the venerable Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera and named Captain Gilad Pellaeon as his second in command. Thrawn also picked the Noghri Rukh to serve as his bodyguard and the Noghri would rarely stray far from his master. One of Thrawn's first acts upon taking command of the Chimaera was to convert the former commander's luxury entertainment suite into a private command room which could effectively function as a secondary bridge. After the refitting was complete, the Grand Admiral would spend much of his time meditating there.

The Emperor's storehouse
"There's a degree of risk involved. But risk has always been an inescapable part of warfare. In this case, the potential benefits far outweigh the potential dangers."

- Thrawn on recruiting Joruus C'baoth

Thrawn soon began to formulate a strategy to defeat the New Republic and restore Imperial control. The Grand Admiral was aware that the Emperor had maintained a secret storehouse for various technologies acquired by the Empire. Two items of technology contained in the storehouse particular interested Thrawn&mdash;the schematics to a practical cloaking device developed by the Empire shortly before the Battle of Endor, and at least 20,000 Spaarti cloning cylinders. With the cloning cylinders, Thrawn could quickly produce the personnel required for a major campaign against the New Republic. The effects of the Force on a clone that was grown too quickly could result in clone madness, but Thrawn believed that he had found a way to overcome this. Several years earlier, Thrawn had found a reference to Myrkr, a world which had been inhabited for three centuries, yet left largely untouched by the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. Upon investigating further, Thrawn learned that the indigenous ysalamiri had the ability to repel the Force using a Force-neutral bubble. Thrawn planned to use the ysalamiri to push back the Force from the cloning tanks and avoid clone madness.

Thrawn spent over a year searching for the location of the storehouse while he began gathering Imperial forces for a major campaign against the New Republic. With the Empire's resources severely handicapped they were forced to use inexperienced crews, many conscripted by threat of force. Despite this, before launching his campaign, Thrawn ensured that all personnel were trained to a high level, to the point where even unconventional and typically difficult maneuvers like hyperspace micro-jumps became almost routine.

During this time Thrawn ordered a series of tactical surveys conducted in systems near Imperial space and hit-and-fade attacks in nearby systems, with targets including Draukyze and Paonnid. Thrawn's forces also fought against those of former Republic Senator Garm Bel Iblis, achieving a victory at Linuri which put a temporary end to Bel Iblis's guerrilla attacks against the Empire. Word eventually reached the New Republic that a new leader had emerged in the Empire, but Thrawn's identity remained illusive.

The location of the storehouse finally came to light following a scan raid to the Obroa system. A download from Obroa-skai's central library system revealed the location of the Emperor's storehouse in Mount Tantiss on Wayland. However, the raid did not run entirely as planned and the Imperial scoutships returned to the Chimaera pursued by New Republic forces. Although the Chimeara was outgunned by four incoming Assault Frigates, Thrawn chose not to retreat or call for reinforcements and risk revealing the strength of his forces. Instead he dispatched three sentry ships towards the incoming vessels and observed the enemy shift to respond&mdash;the pattern of their response was enough for Thrawn to identify the New Republic commander as an Elom. This was all the information Thrawn needed and he promptly ordered a Marg Sabl maneuver, knowing that the Elom commander would struggle to cope with the unstructured attack. The New Republic forces were defeated within the hour.

With the location of the Emperor's storehouse in his grasp it was time for Thrawn to put his plan into action. Breaking the Chimaera from the rest of the fleet, Thrawn set course for Myrkr where he dispatched shuttles to begin harvesting ysalamiri. From Myrkr, Thrawn traveled to Wayland. During the five day journey he had the Chimaera's engineers develop portable frames to support and nourish the harvested ysalamiri. Thrawn was aware that Palpatine had left a guardian to watch over the storehouse and, working under the assumption that the guardian would be a Dark Jedi, intended to use the ysalamiri to provide protection. Upon arriving at Wayland, Thrawn, Pellaeon and Rukh took a shuttle down to the surface to locate the guardian. Thrawn had long suspected that Palpatine used battle meditation to coordinate the Imperial fleet in battle, and had reached the conclusion that the shock defeat at the Battle of Endor was prompted by death of Palpatine and the sudden absence of his controlling influence&mdash;as well as retrieving the technology within Mount Tantiss, Thrawn also hoped to recruit the guardian to enhance the coordination of the Imperial forces during their campaign against the New Republic.

However, instead of the guardian, they were met by Joruus C'baoth, a clone of the Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth who had perished in Thrawn's destruction of Outbound Flight. C'baoth claimed to have killed the original guardian and taken his place as ruler of Wayland before launching an attack on the Imperials, though his Force lightning proved useless against the ysalamiri. Despite C'baoth's clearly unstable personality&mdash;a result of clone madness&mdash;Thrawn attempted to persuade him to join them. C'baoth was initially reluctant but Thrawn made an offer that convinced him&mdash;in exchange for fighting for Thrawn, the Empire would capture Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo and her unborn twins so that he could take them as his apprentices.

Thrawn quickly began transforming Mount Tantiss into an active Imperial facility, ordering the power and defense systems restored to full power. Nearly eighty percent of the Spaarti cylinders were either functional or could be restored and Thrawn ordered that they too be brought into use as quickly as possible. Soon after he enacted a policy of having field commanders recommend the best performing personnel for immediate transfer to Wayland to serve as clone templates. Conventional wisdom dictated that clones needed to be grown for a year to be mentally stable but, by using the ysalamiri to repel the Force, Thrawn found that stable clones could be produced in a cycle of just fifteen to twenty days. With the cloning operation underway, Thrawn had the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi, Ord Trasi and Yaga Minor increase production to provide ships for the newly created clones.

Preliminary strikes
"They've never yet met any foe they can't handle, Master C'baoth. One group or another will succeed. Until then&mdash;a few Noghri, more or less, won't seriously drain our resources."

- Thrawn on the Noghri

Thrawn also wasted no time in attempting to deliver on his promise to C'baoth. From his source in the Imperial Palace he learned that Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo would be making a diplomatic trip to Bimmisaari and dispatched a Noghri commando team to capture them. However, the Noghri proved unprepared for Skywalker's abilities and the pair were able to escape. Thrawn was disappointed with the Noghri's failure but ordered a second team to begin preparing for a mission. C'baoth, however, was already growing impatient and declared that if Thrawn could deliver Leia to him, he would take care of Luke himself. With the Empire preparing for a major attack on the shipyards at Sluis Van and unable to spare C'baoth, Thrawn was reluctant to let him go and agreed only to Pellaeon's suggestion of starting a rumor that C'baoth had been spotted on Jomark in order to lure Skywalker into coming to him.

The attack on Sluis Van was prompted by the Empire's ability to produce cloned crews for ships quicker than the ships themselves&mdash;rather than decimating the New Republic forces, he planned to capture as many ships as possible. To this end, he planned a series of raids throughout the Sluis Sector, aimed at forcing the New Republic to send reinforcements to protect Sluis Van and stretching their forces out to leave each ship undermanned and vulnerable. This process began with a three-prong hit-and-fade attack in which Thrawn led a five-ship task force in an attack on Bpfassh while C'baoth used battle meditation to coordinate simultaneous attacks on two other systems. Thrawn's objective was simply to inflict damage and to frighten the enemy and, after destroying the orbital defense platform and several enemy ships, he ordered all three Imperial task forces to withdraw to the rendezvous point, leaving a few hundred dead in the Bpfassh system alone and the New Republic to waste resources sending reinforcements. It was during a visit to reassure the Bpfasshi following the attack that Leia Organa Solo again came under attack from Thrawn's Noghri. To Thrawn's displeasure, the Noghri failed once again.

Part of Thrawn's plan for Sluis Van involved stealing a number of mole miners from Lando Calrissian's mining operation on Nkllon. The planet's unusually high level of sunlight intensity would pose a problem to most ships, but Thrawn knew that a Star Destroyer would be able to handle the direct sunlight for a few minutes and, although they would need to reinforce the viewports and remove external communications equipment&mdash;effectively leaving the ship blind and deaf&mdash;C'baoth would be able to ensure that the ship's performance was not hampered. The Judicator's raid went as planned and the Empire relieved Calrissian of 51 mole miners. Thrawn, observing the raid from the Chimaera at the outskirts of the Athega system, was interested to learn that C'baoth had made contact with Luke Skywalker during the battle. C'baoth insisted on being taken to Jomark to wait for Skywalker, to which Thrawn agreed. However, Thrawn actually planned to capture Skywalker himself and had probes left at the edge of the system, to watch for his departure. Thrawn planned to deliver C'baoth to Jomark then backtrack at least twenty light years to intercept Skywalker on his way there and take him into custody. In addition, he suspected that, with Skywalker on Nkllon, the Millennium Falcon may not be far away, and hoped that the probes would also lead the Imperials to Leia Organa Solo. Thrawn's hunch proved correct when a probe detected not only Skywalker's T-65 X-wing starfighter departing on a course for Jomark, but also the departure of the Millennium Falcon and Calrissian's Personal Luxury Yacht 3000, the Lady Luck, bound for Kashyyyk. Concluding that Leia was on the Lady Luck and seeking refuge with the Wookiees, Thrawn dispatched a Noghri team to Kashyyyk.

After dropping off C'baoth, Thrawn took the Chimaera to set a trap for Skywalker. In order to hide his deception from C'baoth, Thrawn planned to make the ambush look like an accident and summoned an expendable light freighter and an Immobilizer 418 cruiser to the ambush point&mdash;when Skywalker emerged from hyperspace prematurely due to the Interdictor's artificial gravity well, he would see what appeared to be an Imperial attack on the freighter and assume that snaring him was merely a coincidence. Thrawn's plan worked and Skywalker's X-wing was caught in the Interdictor's gravity well. However, after the Chimaera locked a tractor beam on the starfighter, Skywalker acted quickly to reverse-trigger his acceleration compensator, bringing the ship to a stop, and simultaneously fire a proton torpedo which was instead snared by the tractor beam. Skywalker was able to escape as the tractor beam pulled the torpedo towards it, causing minor damage to the Chimaera. Thrawn had Rukh promptly execute the crewman responsible for his inability to adapt to the situation. However, Thrawn was aware that Skywalker's maneuver would have damaged his hyperdrive and he was unlikely to get further than one light year before becoming stranded. With the fleet too busy preparing for Sluis Van to conduct a search, Thrawn offered a bounty of 30,000 credits for Skywalker's capture.

Some time later Thrawn headed back to Myrkr to meet with the smuggler and information broker Talon Karrde, who had declined the Empire's request for assistance with the search for Skywalker. As his shuttle descended to the surface, Thrawn witnessed a chase involving two GAT-12 Skipray Blastboats which resulted in both crashing in the forest. During his meeting with Karrde he inquired about the Blastboats and was told that a former employee had stolen one and that another employee had pursued. The truth was that Karrde had already found Skywalker but had yet to decide whether to turn him over to the Empire and it was the young Jedi who was attempting to flee in the stolen Blastboat. Although unaware of this, the lack of communication from the pursuing Blastboat was enough for Thrawn to conclude that Karrde's people didn't want him to know what was happening. Furthermore, when Karrde sounded surprised that the search for Skywalker was still proceeding, Thrawn began to suspect the truth. Though he admitted it was unlikely, Thrawn felt that it was worth pursuing and, after stormtroopers found the crash site deserted, he dispatched ground forces to Hyllyard City, the most likely destination for for the survivors.

Battle of Sluis Van
"You were expecting, perhaps, that I'd order an all-out attack? That I would seek to cover our defeat in a frenzy of false and futile heroics?" "Of course not." "We haven't been defeated, Captain. Merely slowed down a bit."

- Thrawn and Gillad Pellaeon after the defeat at Sluis Van

Meanwhile, Thrawn left to oversee the final stage of preparations for the attack on Sluis Van. The battle plan would take full advantage of the cloaking device constructed from the schematics found in Mount Tantiss. Instead of cloaking an entire ship, Thrawn's plan involved cloaking only the contents of the cargo hold on a PCL 27 freighter. Any New Republic defenses that scanned the ship on its way in to Sluis Van would see only an empty freighter, allowing it to deliver its true contents, the stolen mole miners and forty escorting TIE fighters, to the heart of the shipyards. While the New Republic defenses were occupied with Thrawn's task force, the mole miners would be free to steal any of the 112 warships in the system, using their plasma jets to cut through bridge emergency escape hatches and deliver stormtroopers to take control of the ships' command centers.

With typically precise timing, Thrawn brought the Imperial fleet into the system moments after the TIE fighters and mole miners launched from the freighter. The battle seemed to be going as planned and, before long, 39 ships were under Imperial control and heading for the perimeter. However, the unexpected presence of Lando Calrissian on the Millennium Falcon provided the New Republic with a way to foil Thrawn's plan. Calrissian used remote control codes to make the mole miners activate their plasma jets, burning through vital equipment on the captured ships and leaving them dead in space. Realizing that his plan had failed, Thrawn ordered the Imperial forces to withdraw.

Unfinished business
"The entire Noghri populace, I think, needs to be reminded of who it is they serve."

- Thrawn plans a visit to Honoghr

The defeat at Sluis Van was a setback, but it had resulted in severe damage to many New Republic vessels and Thrawn remained confident that the Empire would be victorious. However, with the cloning operation firmly under way, the Empire still required ships and Thrawn authorized Pellaeon to contact fifteen underworld groups for assistance in acquiring them, offering a bounty of twenty percent above market value for any armed ships over 100 thousand tons. The bounty soon started to yield results with several ships delivered to the Empire, though nothing larger than a Star Galleon.

There was also one other matter to attend to&mdash;Karrde had assisted in Skywalker's escape from the Imperial forces in Hyllyard City and Thrawn planned to deal with the smuggler. Though he knew that Karrde would already have evacuated his base on Myrkr, he ordered ground forces to begin a search, suspecting that the smuggler would be watching. Spotting a nearby asteroid, Thrawn reasoned that this was the most likely hiding place for Karrde and called for the Interdictor Constrainer to trap them. However, the plan was foiled by Karrde's second-in-command, former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, who sensed the trap through the Force and took the Wild Karrde to safety moments before the arriving Interdictor could intervene. Still determined to deal with Karrde, Thrawn offered a bounty of 20,000 credits for the smuggler.

Meanwhile, Thrawn continued to undermine the New Republic. A series of raids against New Republic convoys along major trade routes were designed to force the Republic to commit additional forces to escort duty or risk abandoning cargo shipments. Thrawn also devised a plan to destabilize the New Republic by targeting its Supreme Commander, Admiral Ackbar. On the same day as the Sluis Van attack, Imperial Intelligence conducted an electronic break-in at the central clearing bank on Coruscant and placed a large deposit in Ackbar's account. Though hardly conclusive proof, it was enough for Ackbar to be relieved of duty and placed under house arrest. Thrawn knew that vacuum-tight evidence would have led to Ackbar being replaced quickly and hoped that the ambiguous evidence would cause uncertainty within the New Republic. His gamble paid off when Councilor Borsk Fey'lya took the opportunity to attempt to seize Ackbar's position, leading to divisions within the New Republic Defense Fleet.

The Noghri had once again failed to apprehend Leia on Kashyyyk and the displeased Grand Admiral planned to visit Honoghr personally to call a convocate of the clan dynasts and remind them of their duty&mdash;there he would remain until the Noghri succeeded in capturing Leia. The Chimaera arrived at Honoghr shortly before Khabarakh, the only surviving member of the failed Kashyyyk mission. When news of this reached Thrawn, he broke off the convocate to visit Khabarakh's village and find out personally why it took him a month to return home. When Thrawn confronted Khabarakh in his clan's dukha, the young Noghri explained that he had spent the month meditating on his failure and had now returned to discuss it with the clan maitrakh, but Thrawn was convinced that he was hiding something. The truth was that the Noghri had identified Leia as the daughter of his former master and had now brought her, along with the Wookiee Chewbacca, to Honoghr to see for herself the plight of his people. Thrawn's suspicions were enough for him to order a thorough search of Khabarakh's shuttle, revealing Wookiee hairs above the ship. Jumping to the wrong conclusion, Thrawn assumed that Khabarakh was captured and interrogated on Kashyyyk before being released. The logical reason for his release being that he revealed information to the New Republic, Thrawn had Khabarakh arrested as a traitor and sent to the dynasts in Nystao for punishment and to serve as an example to his people. However, with news that the Millennium Falcon had been found in orbit of Endor, Thrawn was concerned that the New Republic may be seeking the location of the Emperor's storehouse and searching for clues, so decided to cut short his stay on Honoghr and proceed to Endor.

Resurrecting the Dark Force
"I rule the Empire now. Not some long-dead Emperor; certainly not you."

- Thrawn to Mara Jade

Thrawn arrived to find the Millennium Falcon deserted&mdash;the ship had been left there when Leia Organa and Chewbacca rendezvoused with Khabarakh&mdash;but ordered it brought aboard for closer examination. While at Endor, Thrawn had an unexpected reunion. Mara Jade had been captured by the Adamant in the Abregado system and, identifying herself as the Emperor's Hand, demanded to speak to the Grand Admiral. Jade proposed a deal&mdash;in exchange for Thrawn canceling the bounty on Karrde, Jade would provide the location of the legendary Katana fleet. The fleet disappeared before the Clone Wars but their location had become known to Karrde early in his career. The two hundred slave-rigged Dreadnaughts would solve the Empire's ship shortages so Thrawn agreed to Jade's deal. However, he was aware that Karrde might not be so cooperative and made arrangements to ensure the deal went through. To this end, he had a homing beacon placed aboard Jade's ship, the Etherway, and followed her back to Karrde's base where they captured the smuggler and his associates. A furious Jade was brought before Thrawn and, drawing on her rudimentary training in the Force, attempted to choke him. Thrawn remained calm as Rukh leaped on the threat and, eventually Jade released her grip. Thrawn offered her the chance to return to Imperial service, as executive officer on a Katana Dreadnaught, but warned that any further outbursts would result in her being turned over to C'baoth. In exchange for her service, he would uphold his end of the deal, releasing Karrde's people immediately and Karrde himself after the smuggler provided the location of the Katana fleet.

Though Jade appeared to agree, Thrawn's casual betrayal convinced her that the Empire she once loved was dead and she resolved to find Skywalker and enlist his help in rescuing Karrde. Skywalker had finally made his way to Jomark to find C'baoth and it was here that Jade caught up with him. Jade warned Skywalker that the Jedi Master was working for the Empire and, after escaping from C'baoth, the two headed for Wistril where they stole and Imperial shuttle to board the Chimaera. When Pellaeon later reported that an Imperial patrol has discovered Jade's abandoned Skipray Blastboat on Wistril, Thrawn quickly realized what was happening and sent troops to check on Karrde, as well as ordering the ship's main computer shut down to prevent Jade using using her access codes to gain entry. However, by the time the Imperials checked Karrde's cell, he was already gone. Thrawn ordered a search of the ship and, when one of the search teams was killed by a lightsaber, concluded that Skywalker was assisting in the rescue. He therefore ordered ysalamiri taken to the hangar bays, along with extra troops. He also correctly assumed that Karrde would choose to bypass the main hangar bays and attempt to steal a ship from deep storage but Imperial troops were unable to arrive in time to prevent the fugitives from boarding the captured Millennium Falcon and, with the computer still offline, the Chimaera was powerless to prevent their escape.

Skywalker's involvement in Karrde's rescue made it seem likely that Karrde would now supply the location of the Katana fleet to the New Republic. Fortunately, Thrawn had already taken steps to acquire the fleet by other means. The Star Destroyer Relentless had recently come under attack from Dreadnaughts under Garm Bel Iblis&mdash;Dreadnaughts which Thrawn had since realized were from the Katana fleet. With this information, Thrawn had already tasked the ship thief Niles Ferrier with finding Bel Iblis's supplier, starting with former shipmates of Talon Karrde. Ferrier led the Empire to Hoffner, Karrde's former captain, at the Coral Vanda casino on Pantolomin. The Chimaera arrived and fired on the submersible casino, forcing it to the surface and allowing them to capture Hoffner.

Hoffner soon revealed the location of the Katana fleet and the Empire mounted a recovery operation. Meanwhile, Karrde had revealed the location to the New Republic but the turmoil caused by Fey'lya's power grab slowed their own recovery effort and, by the time New Republic forces reached the fleet, almost 180 of the 200 Dreadnaughts had been recovered by the Empire. When the Judicator reported encountering New Republic forces at what was left of the fleet, Thrawn decided to take the Chimaera to assist in the battle. However, just as they were preparing to leave, C'baoth arrived aboard a Lancer-class frigate and demanded to speak to Thrawn. The Grand Admiral told C'baoth to wait until he returned but C'baoth used the Force to take control of the Chimaera's navigator, forcing Thrawn to agree to meet and to send the Peremptory instead. However, in Thrawn's absence, the battle went against the Empire and resulted in the loss of the Peremptory before the Judicator withdrew&mdash;a loss Thrawn blamed on C'baoth for delaying him. C'baoth had become increasingly arrogant and had gone so far as to disobey orders while coordinating an attack at Taanab. Thrawn had not considered C'baoth a great threat, relying on the ysalamiri to keep the Jedi Master under control but now, following his failure to bend Skywalker to his will, C'baoth declared himself the ruler of the Empire. Although Thrawn still saw C'baoth as a valuable weapon in the campaign, it was becoming clear that he would soon have to put an end to the Jedi's desire for power.

The campaign intensifies
"Have a care, Grand Admiral Thrawn. I rule the Empire, not you." "Do you really?"

- Joruus C'baoth and Thrawn

Even so, the acquisition of the Katana fleet provided the ships needed for Thrawn's clone army. After almost a month of preparation, the campaign began in earnest as the Grand Admiral launched a major attack aimed at capturing the food production facilities in the Ukio system. Thrawn dispatched elements of the Imperial fleet to attack Ando, Filve and Crondre simultaneously, with each raid designed to draw ships away from the New Republic base at Ord Pardon. When the Imperials subsequently hit the now lightly defended base, it would call for reinforcements and leave Thrawn's true target unprotected. As anticipated, by the time Thrawn took the Chimaera's task force to Ukio, only the planet's defense shield prevented its conquest. However, Thrawn had devised a method to overcome the shield without causing major damage to the planet below. Sending two freighters in advance, each towing two cloaked Dreadnaughts, Thrawn was able to infiltrate the Dreadnaughts under the shield. When the overliege of Ukio failed to acknowledge Thrawn's call for his surrender, the Grand Admiral had the Chimaera open fire on the planet. The shots were absorbed by the planetary shield but, using C'baoth's ability to coordinate with the cloaked ships, the Dreadnaughts, positioned under the shield at the exact points hit, opened fire and created the illusion that the Chimaera had fired through the shield. Believing that the Empire had a new superweapon, the Ukians promptly surrendered. The success at Ukio was echoed in numerous other Imperial victories as the Republic struggled to keep up with Thrawn's innovative tactics, such as using Interdictors to ensure Imperial ships emerged from hyperspace in precise locations, combined with the Empire's newfound manpower.

The imminent birth of Organa Solo's twins led C'baoth to begin pushing for a direct assault on Coruscant but, although Thrawn had his own plans for the Republic capital, he felt the time was not yet right. Instead, Thrawn dispatched C'baoth on the Death's Head to repeat the technique in an assault on Woostri and, having lost faith in the Noghri, an Imperial Intelligence team to Coruscant to kidnap Leia and the children, promising them to C'baoth upon his return. Though the commandos were again unsuccessful in kidnapping Organa Solo, they were able to achieve Thrawn's secondary objective of implicating Mara Jade, now on Coruscant, as an Imperial agent, discrediting her in the eyes of the New Republic and ensuring that she would not reveal the location of Wayland.

Although Mount Tantiss remained a secret, word of the cloning project had reached the New Republic. The Republic began to search for the clones' origin but the Empire planted clues to lead them to Poderis. When Skywalker himself traveled to Poderis to investigate, Thrawn took the Chimaera to Poderis to capture him. Despite Thrawn's warnings not to underestimate the Jedi, Skywalker was able to escape an Imperial Intelligence trap on the planet&mdash;for which Thrawn had his shadower demoted&mdash;forcing Thrawn to attempt to capture him as he fled the planet. As the Chimaera's tractor beam locked on to Skywalker's freighter, he activated the self-destruct mechanism, escaping in his X-wing as the freighter broke into pieces, the covert shroud causing the tractor beam to lose its lock. However, Thrawn was unconcerned&mdash;Skywalker's narrow escape would only serve to convince the New Republic that they had discovered the Empire's clone conduit.

The Republic, meanwhile, was maintaining pressure on the Imperial shipyard supply lines, in an effort to disrupt the Empire's ongoing shipbuilding&mdash;as a result the Bilbringi Shipyards were running low on raw materials including Tibanna gas, Hfredium and Kammris. In response, Thrawn ordered another raid on Calrissian's mining operation on Nkllon to acquire the needed supplies&mdash;in order to avoid the damage caused to the Judicator on the previous raid, this time he sent three Dreadnaughts under the cover of a shieldship to avoid direct sunlight. At the same time as the Nkllon raid, Thrawn led an assault on Ord Mantell aimed at creating fear in surrounding systems as well as drawing Republic ships away from other duties, relieving the pressure on the supply lines.

Thrawn soon learned that Talon Karrde was meeting with several smuggling groups on Trogan in an attempt to persuade them to supply information to the New Republic. Knowing that the smugglers would not want to get involved and would reject Karrde, Thrawn ordered the local garrison not to interfere with the meeting. However, Niles Ferrier persuaded Lieutenant Reynol Kosk to lead an attack on the meeting, helping to defeat the Imperials and, therefore, earn the trust of the other smugglers. When Thrawn learned what had transpired he was furious. The apparent Imperial attack had only served to unite the smugglers and Thrawn did not take the deaths of Imperial personnel lightly. Forced to make the most of the situation, Thrawn summoned Ferrier and instructed him to attend the next meeting with the smugglers, taking with him a "stolen" Imperial shuttle to help earn their trust. He would then continue to report on Karrde's activities and await further orders. When the time was right, Thrawn would have Ferrier plant evidence to implicate Karrde in arranging the Imperial attack to gain the others' support, saving the Empire the trouble of tracking him down. Thrawn also made it clear to Ferrier that the cost of another failure would be severe. Despite this, Ferrier's actions soon had repercussions as Mazzic and Ellor launched a guerrilla attack on the Bilbringi Shipyards which destroyed a half-completed Star Destroyer. Thrawn visited Bilbringi in the aftermath of the attack and ordered an evaluation of the shipyards' security.

Siege of Coruscant
"History is on the move, Captain. Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance. And those who stand in our way will not watch at all."

- Thrawn to Gillad Pellaeon

Despite such setbacks, the campaign proceeded swiftly and Thrawn soon looked to making strides towards the Core Worlds, planning an assault on Mrisst for use as a forward base. Finally, the time came to launch an attack on Coruscant itself. Though Thrawn was not yet prepared for a lengthy blockade or invasion of the Republic capital, he developed a strategy that would essentially take the world out of the war, with minimal risk to Imperial forces. To this end, he had 22 midsize asteroids taken to Bilbringi and fitted with cloaking devices. Upon completion, the asteroids were taken aboard Star Destroyers and the fleet prepared to leave for Coruscant. C'baoth misinterpreted Thrawn's intentions, believing that he was going to use the asteroids to destroy the planet and, therefore, kill Organa Solo and her newborn children. C'baoth reacted angrily, using the Force to take control of the Chimaera's crew and announcing his intention to proceed to Coruscant and kidnap Organa Solo but Thrawn, protected by a nearby ysalamir, pointed out that C'baoth could hardly control the entire fleet and lacked the tactical knowledge to defeat the Republic. C'baoth reluctantly released his control but Thrawn was forced to have 500 crewmen sent from the Relentless while his crew recovered, forcing a delay to the Coruscant operation. By the time the fleet was ready to launch, however, C'baoth had experienced and apparent change of heart and instead demanded to be taken to Wayland to take immediate control of Mount Tantiss. Thrawn was suspicious of C'baoth's reasoning and so agreed, but insisted on sending supplementary troops under the command of General Freja Covell. Once the Jedi Master departed, Thrawn took the Imperial fleet to Coruscant.

Thrawn's fleet for the Siege of Coruscant comprised six Star Destroyers, together with Interdictors to pull ships out of hyperspace in position and Dreadnaught escorts. After arriving in the Coruscant system, the Imperials quickly destroyed a relay station to prevent the Republic calling for the Coruscant Sector Fleet. Although the charges against Admiral Ackbar had now been dropped and he had resumed command of Republic forces, the Mon Calamari was off-planet and the defense eventually fell to Bel Iblis. The Corellian presented Thrawn with a choice; either engage the well defended Golan III defense platforms or follow the Republic forces into range of the ground-based defenses. Thrawn, however, had another option in mind. The Star Destroyers began launching the cloaked asteroids, launching all 22, interspersed with dry firings to create the illusion of considerably more launches. When Bel Iblis realised what was happening and disabled one of the asteroid's cloaking device, making it visible, Thrawn allowed the enemy a clear view of what they were up against before destroying the asteroid and ordering the withdrawal of the fleet. The Republic were left with the impression that 286 asteroids lay in orbit of the planet, preventing them from lowering the planetary shield until all were destroyed and leaving Coruscant effectively blockaded.

Shortly after the attack on Coruscant, Thrawn made his move against Karrde. Mazic was captured by Imperial forces near Joiol and taken to the Chimaera but, instead of punishing him for the attack on Bilbringi, Thrawn explained that he understood their desire for revenge after Trogan but that he had given orders not to attack and that Lieutenant Kosk appeared to have been bought off. Allowing Mazic to develop his own suspicions, Thrawn let him go and tasked Ferrier with planting incriminating evidence in the Wild Karrde. However, Ferrier's deception was ultimately discovered by the smugglers, further uniting them against the Empire.

Battle of Bilbringi
"But it was so artistically done."

- Thrawn's last words

Meanwhile, the New Republic's efforts to remove the asteroids from Coruscant were meeting with limited success. In an effort to speed up the process, Admiral Ackbar and General Crix Madine planned to acquire a crystal gravfield trap. With the only three available CGTs located in Imperial space, the Republic identified the one at Tangrene as the easiest target but, believing that it may be a trap, prepared a raid for the CGT at the Bilbringi Shipyards&mdash;providing the additional opportunity to hamper the Empire's shipbuilding capabilities. In order to cover their tracks, they began a misdirection campaign to make it appear that they were intent on hitting Tangrene. By the time Thrawn had completed the capture of Xa Fel, news had begun to reach the Imperials of New Republic movements near Tangrene but Thrawn saw through the deception and, despite Pellaeon's insistence that Tangrene was the target, began preparing the fleet to defend Bilbringi.

However, before Thrawn could depart for Bilbringi, news reached him that General Covell had been found dead shortly after arriving on Wayland. Suspecting C'baoth's involvement in the general's death, Thrawn decided that the time had come to deal with the Jedi Master and ordered Colonel Kleyn Selid to place him under arrest. Thrawn still had one final use for the Dark Jedi and planned to have C'baoth cloned&mdash;away from the ysalamiri effect and slow enough to avoid clone madness. However, the opportunity to clone C'baoth was soon lost as. Leia Organa had believed Mara Jade was innocent in the Imperial attack and had helped to free her. In exchange, Jade led a Republic team to Wayland where C'baoth was killed in combat with Jade and Skywalker, before the Rebels destroyed Mount Tantiss itself.

Thrawn, unaware of events on Wayland, arrived at Bilbringi where he had the fleet take positions to trap the New Republic fleet as their Interdictors forced it out of hyperspace. His gamble proved correct when the Republic fleet fell into the trap. While the Interdictors prevented the Republic ships from escaping, Thrawn had his forces engage. The battle quickly went in favour of the Imperials and Pellaeon suggested allowing one ship to survive to tell of the Imperial victory&mdash;Thrawn agreed and designated Ackbar's command ship to escape, knowing that the inevitable allegations of incompetence would finally ruin the Mon Calamari's career. However, the battle soon took an unexpected turn. Talon Karrde, belieiving the New Republic would be attacking Tangrene, had organized a smuggler raid for the CGT array at Bilbringi for the same time. Despite the unexpected battle raging around them, the smugglers proceeded with the plan and, while making their escape, attacked one of the shipyard's Golan II platforms, allowing the New Republic forces to move in on the shipyard itself, and forcing Thrawn to divide his fleet. However, before the Grand Admiral could respond to the new threat, news of the attack on Wayland arrived&mdash;including the involvement of a group of Noghri aiding the Republic team. After Thrawn left Honoghr, Leia Organa had been able to prove that the Empire was deceiving the Noghri&mdash;making it appear that they were helping to clean their world, while actually ensuring their perpetual service&mdash;and the Noghri had pledged themselves to serve the Republic. News of the Noghri betrayal came too late and, as Thrawn sat in his command chair, Rukh turned on his master, stabbing him through the chest from behind before fleeing the bridge. As Thrawn died, Pellaeon was forced to admit defeat and ordered the Imperial forces to withdraw.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command