Chimaera

"Shuttle TYA77, transmit clearance codes.''" "Copy, Chimaera'', transmitting codes now."

- An Imperial shuttle prepares to land aboard the Chimaera

The Chimaera was an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer captained by the Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, that served as his command ship of the Seventh Fleet in 2 BBY.

History
The Chimaera was an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer captained by Grand Admiral Thrawn, serving as the flagship of the Galactic Empire's Seventh Fleet.

In 2 BBY, a group of rebels traveled to Mykapo in order to extract rebel sympathizers and managed to destroy a light cruiser under the command of Admiral Kassius Konstantine, the Chimaera traveled to the system in order to reinforce the defeated commander, although the rebels were able to escape the battle.

Thrawn continued the hunt for the rebels, and sent out Imperial E-XD infiltrator droid to secretly land on worlds in search of them. EXD-9, one of the droids, managed to land on Chopper Base and began it's infiltration of the base, but, was compromised when Fulcrum informed the rebels of the infiltration. The droid was ultimately powered-off after a skirmish on the base, however, was programmed to self destruct if it was powered-off while in combat mode. The rebels managed to disrupt the program long enough to send the droid back to the Imperial fleet and detonate it's proton bomb. After Imperial engineers discovered it has returned and reactivated it, the droid self-destructed, destroying the Imperial Star Destroyer it docked with. The Chimaera was present for this, and as a result, Agent Kallus boarded the ship to inform him. Thrawn was relatively unconcerned by this, as the sabotage only narrowed his search from a thousand systems to just ninety-four.

As the Seventh Fleet continued to blockade Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn requested many Imperial officers who had encountered the Specres to board the Chimaera. These included Lieutenant Lyste, Agent Kallus, Colonel Yularen, Admiral Konstantine, Governor Pryce, Commander Titus and Captain Brunson. Lyste had recently captured a disguised Ezra Bridger who wanted to rescue Kallus, as he was secretly Fulcrum, so Bridger was brought aboard too. While Bridger was locked away in Detention Block B7, Thrawn, Konstantine, Yularen, Kallus and Lyste met in Thrawn's Office. There, the Grand Admiral informed them of a rebel spy threat. Later, Kallus made his way to the Detention Block to release Bridger, using Lieutenant Lyste's Code cylinder. They then made their way to Thrawn's office to erase information of the Rebel's base from his database, while also gaining clearance codes so the retrieval team could land and extract them out.

Thrawn noticed the prisoner's escape and returned to his office to investigate any tampering. Kallus, Chopper, and Ezra hid while he inspected his office, whilst Kallus reprogrammed Thrawn's Sentry droids to attack him. Kanan Jarrus and Captain Rex land on the ship on a Sentinel-class landing craft, and attempt to extract Bridger and Kallus using Stormtrooper armor. However, Pryce confronts them, and attempts to shoot them. Seeing Pryce shooting who he thinks are Stormtroopers, Lyste stuns her with his blaster, as he thinks she is the traitor. This allows the Rebels to escape, although Kallus chooses to stay behind to continue his role, now that he is able to frame Lyste as the traitor. However, Yularen and Thrawn later discuss the outcome of the incident and are not satisfied with the results. They then come to the conclusion that Agent Kallus is the rebel spy Fulcrum.

Halfway through the Battle of Atollon Chimaera was commanded by Governor Pryce while Thrawn led the ground assault.

Design
On the underside of her hull, the Chimaera had a large engraving representing a chimaera.

Crew
Many of the crew of the Chimaera wore a stylised symbol of a Chimaera, either of their arms or pauldrons, to show their allegiance to Thrawn.

Behind the scenes
The Chimaera first appeared in the 1991 Star Wars Legends novel Heir to the Empire. In the book, she also served as the flagship of Grand Admiral Thrawn, although, unlike in Rebels, it was an Imperial II-class star Destroyer.

Appearances

 * Thrawn