Rae Sloane

"I'm Admiral Rae Sloane. You are under arrest for conspiring against the Galactic Empire, long may it reign."

- Rae Sloane, arresting Jas Emari and Norra Wexley

Rae Sloane was a dedicated human female naval officer in the service of the Galactic Empire, and was instrumental in its survival in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. While an Imperial cadet at the Defiance Flight Training Institute, she foiled a plot by Commandant Pell Baylo to assassinate Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. Sloane went on to rise through the ranks of the Imperial Navy.

Despite only filling in for the actual captain, Yale Karlsen, who was on assignment to a construction committee, she was proud to have achieved captaincy of a capital ship by the age of thirty, an Imperial Star Destroyer called the Ultimatum. She was charged with escorting Count Denetrius Vidian to the planet Gorse and was subsequently drawn into the Gorse conflict. During her tour of the Gorse system, Sloane foiled a plot by Vidian to destroy Gorse's moon Cynda and its thorilide reserves in order to enrich himself. Due to her efforts in saving Cynda and its thorilide reserves, Captain Sloane was given permanent command of the Ultimatum.

Later, Sloane tried to capture the rebel Kanan Jarrus by using his old friend Morfizo to lure him into a trap. During the Battle of Endor, Rae Sloane served as an admiral in the Imperial Navy and commanded the Star Destroyer Vigilance. Following the Empire's defeat at Endor, she would organize a secret Imperial meeting on the planet Akiva. After the New Republic liberated Akiva, Sloane fled offworld.

In the following months, Sloane would attain the distinguished rank of Grand Admiral, bestowed unto her by the mysterious Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. From there, she was given command of the Imperial Navy and became its new commander.

Meeting the Sith
A human female, Rae Sloane was born on the Core planet Ganthel nineteen years prior to the galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars. In order to avoid being employed at a shipyard or loading dock, Sloane left Ganthel and enrolled in the Galactic Empire's naval academy on Prefsbelt. During her time at the Prefsbelt Academy, Sloane partook in the Naval Corps Boxing. Despite never winning "the belt," she nevertheless was skilled at it, and always ranked. Sloane graduated high in her class at Prefsbelt, and ended up training as a cadet on board the Defiance Flight Training Institute, a facility run by Commandant Pell Baylo based onboard the Defiance cruiser. During her time on the starship, Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine was invited by Baylo to hold meeting with several chiefs of the Imperial Navy which aimed to decide how the military schools the Empire had inherited from the Galactic Republic could be incorporated into the Imperial academies. The Emperor, and his apprentice Darth Vader boarded the Defiance in the Denon system where Baylo started running Sloane and the other cadets through drills and simulations on the ships bridge for the Emperor and Vader. Palpatine remained only a short time but ordered Vader to stay and observe, which he did for several hours as Baylo constantly berated his cadets as they worked.

When Vice Admiral Tallatz&mdash;the last of the Naval chiefs&mdash;arrived on the Defiance, Sloane programmed a course from the Denon star system to the planet Christophsis, where Palpatine and Vader were transferring from the Defiance to the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Perilous in order to travel to the planet Ryloth and quash the insurgency there. Baylo then gave the order for the course to be plotted, and when Sloane showed that she had already done it, Baylo claimed her course would send them into Wild Space and changed it. Sloane's course had in fact been correct, but Baylo was planning to kill the Emperor and Vader and had changed the course to take the Defiance into the heart of the sun. Once the course was set, the Commandant left the bridge and Sloane looked over her calculations to find where she had gone wrong. Vader then approached her and stopped her from jumping the ship to hyperspace, changing the course back to Sloane's original. Vader then left and executed Baylo in his office in front of the Emperor. Shortly after the Defiance arrived at Christophsis, Sloane entered the office and found Baylo's body, after which Palpatine and Vader disembarked and traveled to Ryloth.

Escorting Count Vidian
"These yokels act as if they haven't seen a Star Destroyer before!"

- Rae Sloane, upon entering the Gorse system

Captain Sloane would eventually serve as the Executive Officer aboard the Star Destroyer Executrix, the personal ship of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. Upon her promotion to captaincy, she was assigned to the Imperial Star Destroyer Ultimatum and was present during the events of the Gorse conflict. During that tour, Sloane was tasked with escorting the Emperor's efficiency expert Count Denetrius Vidian on a mission to speed up the production of thorilide in the Gorse system. Vidian was a cyborg who had overcome Shilmer's syndrome to become one of the galaxy's most respected management gurus. Most of the thorilide was extracted from Gorse's moon Cynda and then transported to Gorse for refining and export. At that time, Sloane's captaincy of the Ultimatum was originally intended as a temporary position since the ship's nominal Captain Yale Karlsen was away on business in Corellia.

Upon entering the Gorse system, Captain Sloane ordered the mining traffic between Gorse and Cynda to stay clear within a kilometre of the Ultimatum per Imperial Navy procedure. Vidian them intervened and convinced Sloane to back her ship away from the mining traffic in order to avoid slowing down production. Sloane and her crew including Commander Nibiru Chamas were present when Vidian ordered the Ultimatum to open fire on a damaged laggard freighter called the Cynda Dreaming in order to "speed" up the traffic. Sloane stayed aboard the Star Destroyer while Vidian conducted his tour of the mines on Cynda. While patrolling the mining fleet, Sloane had a brief but hostile exchange with a "cheeky" freighter pilot named Kanan Jarrus, who made snide remarks about her appearance. Unknown to Sloane, Kanan was a Jedi Padawan who had survived the Jedi Purge.

After Vidian returned from his tour of Cynda, Captain Sloane informed him that the recent blast within Cynda's mines had been deliberately planted by a dissident miner named Skelly, who had been apprehended by a blasting team. Vidian then told the Captain that he needed to change his itinerary and visit the refineries on Cynda. The Count's original plan had been to correspond with the planetary managers by hologram. In truth, Vidian's real motive for visiting Gorse was to destroy the medcenter in Gorse City in order to conceal his past as the safety inspector Lemuel Tharsa. Nonetheless, Sloane complied with her superior's orders. Officially, Tharsa was listed as a free-lance mining consultant who worked for Vidian.

On the day before Vidian's scheduled tour of Gorse, Sloane and Commander Chamas privately discussed their impressions about Count Vidian. Besides commenting on Vidian's efforts to increase economic productivity and security crackdown on the planet, they also noted his personal habits including his frequent calls to his main office on Calcoraan Depot and the damage to Vidian's personal quarters. Chamas told Sloane that he suspected that the Count had a temper; in fact, the Count had flown into a rage after learning from his rival Baron Lero Danthe that the Empire had doubled Gorse's thorilide quota. The two also questioned Vidian's official biographical account that he was a disgruntled ship-building engineer who had rebuilt himself as a successful managing tycoon. Sloane and Vidian made an agreement to keep an eye on Vidian's activities while protecting him from the "rabble" during the tour.

The following day, Captain Sloane accompanied Vidian on his tour of Gorse City. Their first stop was the Moonglow Polychemical refinery where Vidian was hosted by the company's chief operating officer Lal Grallik and her husband Gord Grallik, the head of ground security. Despite the best precautions put in place by Sloane and Gord, Vidian's tour did not go as planned. The dissident miner Skelly, who had escaped with the help of the rebel Hera Syndulla, attempted to convince Vidian not to destroy Cynda. The count instead assaulted him but he managed to escape into the factory conveyer belt system.

Sloane and her men were unable to apprehend the fugitive but instead caught another intruder who turned out to be the same Kanan she had encountered earlier. Kanan claimed that he was a bus driver but Sloane found his explanation unsatisfactory since he had been found loitering in the security zone. Sloane also recognized Kanan as the cheeky pilot whom she had encountered earlier in the Gorse system. Sloane was also about to detain Kanan's friend Hera for unauthorized entry but decided to let them go after receiving new orders from Vidian to return to the Ultimatum immediately. Vidian claimed that he had come up with a new strategy that would serve the Emperor. Sloane reluctantly released Kanan and Hera.

Sloane's efforts to ferry Vidian back to the Ultimatum was fraught by danger and hostility. Skelly blew up two Imperial shuttles that Captain Sloane had diverted from the Star Destroyer to pick up Vidian. She and the Count survived but several stormtroopers were killed. The Imperials' problems were complicated by a vengeful Gord seeking to confront Vidian for callously murdering his wife Lal and Skelly being helped by the rebel Hera and her friend Kanan. Despite dispatching Imperial Troop Transports and two TIE fighters after the fugitives, the rebels managed to escape on a hoverbus which they dumped on a quarry. Sloane was forced to divert a third shuttle Bastinade to pick up Vidian.

Thwarting Vidian's conspiracy
"Then I am just in time. Ultimatum technical crews&mdash;rescind the Detonation Control link to Forager... And all stormtroopers aboard Forager, in the name of the Emperor: Arrest Count Vidian"

- Captain Sloane thwarting Vidian's plot

Once safely aboard the Ultimatum, Captain Sloane and her science officer Lieutenant Deltic were present when Count Vidian outlined his "new strategy" which involved destroying Cynda so that his thorilide collection vessel could harvest the moon's thorilide reserves. Vidian proposed using the baradium-357 stored at his Calcoraan Depot. When Lieutenant Deltic expressed her concerns that destroying the moon would cause the thorilide crystals to dissolve, Sloane demanded that Vidian conduct a test to prove the viability of the test since it would have severe repercussions for Gorse. However, Vidian was prepared for this and produced fake test results under the pseudonym Lemuel Tharsa which supported his arguments that destroying the moon would not damage Cynda's thorilide crystals. In truth, Vidian wanted to discredit Sloane and his rival Baron Danthe in order to secure favor with the Emperor.

As part of the test bombing, Vidian with the tacit approval of Captain Sloane bombed the Moonglow mining facilities on Cynda, killing many workers. The explosion was blamed on Moonglow's management and was later used as a pretext by the Empire to nationalize the company. Despite the loss of lives involved, Sloane accepted Vidian's arguments that alerting the miners would lead to unrest in the Gorse system. The captain was also satisfied by Lemuel's report, which supported Vidian's claims that the resulting asteroid field would continue to yield thorilide for the next two thousand years. This would do more than fulfill the Emperor's recent decision to triple Gorse's thorilide quota.

Putting Vidian's plan into action, Sloane ordered Gorse Space Traffic Control to divert all mining cargo ships in the system to pick up shipments of baradium-357 from the Calcoraan Depot. The Imperial captain and her ship traveled to the Calcoraan system where they supervised the loading of the mining freighters. Captain Sloane was skeptical of Deltic's figures that the debris resulting from Gorse's destruction could continue to supply a hundred interstellar Empires for a century. Shortly later, Chamas informed Sloane that Baron Danthe wanted to talk to her. During their conversation, Danthe expressed concern that Vidian had not informed him of his latest venture and asked her to inform him if she needed any help.

Sloane later visited the Calcoraan Depot where she was given a tour of the facility by Count Vidian. She noticed his employees reverse-engineering Baron Danthe's heat-proof mining drones. While touring the baradium depot, she learned that Vidian's mechanised lungs were capable of filtering out poison. Sloane encountered a disguised Kanan, who had created a blockage in the tramcar tube by shoving a maintenance droid inside. Sloane believed Kanan's report that there was a blockage, which enable Kanan and his rebel friends Hera, Skelly, and the Sullustan Zaluna Myder to infiltrate Vidian's personal quarters.

The rebels managed to incapacitate the Count with a sleeping serum and then downloaded his mind into a computer. As a result, the rebels learned that Vidian was actually Lemuel Tharsa and that he had faked the test results for his own personal enrichment. In order to halt Vidian's plan, they decided that they had to send the original test results to the Emperor. The rebels found an unlikely ally in the form of Captain Sloane. Kanan lured Sloane into Vidian's personal chambers and trapped her in a stasis field. Sloane quickly recognized Kanan as the mouthy pilot but Kanan managed to convince her that he was an "agent of the Emperor." He told her about Vidian's falsified results and asked her to send the original results to the Emperor via a secure channel on her Star Destroyer. Despite her dislike of Kanan, Sloane complied with his request due to her loyalty to the Empire.

After Vidian awoke, Sloane feigned loyalty and claimed that she had been accosted by the same rebels who had attacked him. After alerting security, Vidian ordered Sloane to make the Ultimatum ready for departure to the Gorse system. He also ordered that Sloane deploy TIE fighters and Gozanti-class freighter carriers. Believing Sloane to still be loyal, Vidian offered to support her career advancement in the Imperial Navy if she agreed to take part in the detonation of Cynda.

Back aboard the Ultimatum, Sloane and Chamas contacted Baron Danthe over a secure channel and passed the original test results to him. While Danthe was a civilian, Sloane and Chamas approached him because he was one of the few people who could directly approach the Empero and his highest officials. Upon arriving in the Gorse system, Sloane dispatched TIE fighters to intercept the rebels' freighter Expedient, which she termed "Renegade One." However, the rebels eliminated all the TIEs and managed to make a forced landing aboard Vidian's harvesting vessel Forager.

Despite being boarded, Count Vidian insisted on continuing the countdown. At that point, Commander Chamas informed Sloane that she had received a priority-message from the Emperor himself. While Sloane dealt with the Emperor, Chamas announced that the linkup to Detonation Control was live and that it was only ten minutes prior to the final charges being planted. After confirming Vidian's falsified results and identity with Emperor Palpatine, Sloane realized the full depth of Vidian's deception including his conspiracy to frame her and Baron Danthe for the loss of thorilide yield in the Gorse system. With Chamas and Baron Danthe watching, Sloane ordered her crew to severe the detonation link to Forager and issued orders for Vidian's immediate arrest.

Vidian then revealed that he had a final trick up his sleeve: he was still able to remotely control the injection towers and logistical systems from the Forager. In response, Sloane ordered the stormtroopers aboard the Forager to kill Vidian's cybernetic crew. She also ordered the Ultimatum gunnery crew to bombard the Vidian's ship's transmission tower and energy shields. The Forager was badly damaged during the bombardment. Vidian himself was personally killed by Skelly, who detonated a bomb that destroyed the vessel. Meanwhile, Kanan, Hera, and Zaluna managed to escape in a life pod. The death of Vidian and the destruction of his ship ended his plans to destroy Cynda.

Due to her role in stopping Vidian, Sloane was made the permanent Captain of the Ultimatum. She subsequently learned that Commander Chamas had been working for Baron Danthe all this time by supplying him with information about Vidian's phantom consultant. Baron Danthe himself was granted control over the thorilide mining operations in the Gorse system. Danthe ended all mining operations on Cynda and restored the moon to its former status as a tourist destination. He also embarked on mining operations in Gorse's sunward side using heat-resistant drones. Following a debriefing with one of the Emperor's intermediaries, Sloane came to rightfully suspect that Kanan was no agent of the Emperor and endeavoured to discover his true identity.

Ascending the Levers of Power
In the years following the Gorse conflict, she ascended to the rank of vice admiral, but in her spare time she tried to learn more about the history of Kanan Jarrus, who she had met during the Gorse conflict, following his trail from the planet Gorse to Moraga where it ended. There she captured the rebel Morfizo, who was an old friend of Jarrus, and used him to lure Jarrus. She tried to capture him, but he knocked her down and escaped with Morfizo. After Jarrus's escape she was approached by the Grand Inquisitor, who told her to tell him everything she knew about Jarrus.

Sloane was assigned to the Vigilance, which she commanded during the Battle of Endor. Following the destruction of the Executor, Admiral Sloane was left as the highest ranking officer in that fleet, and organized the Imperial retreat following the destruction of the Death Star.

The rebel pilot
Following the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance transformed itself into a new rival galactic government called the New Republic. Several months after the events on Endor, Rae Sloane became an Admiral and also came into the service of a mysterious individual known as the Operator, the pseudonym of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. Under the instructions of Rax, she organized a secret Imperial meeting on the planet Akiva. The meeting was the start of the Imperial Future Council, the goal of which was to plan the future of the Empire after the death of the Emperor and his apprentice, Darth Vader. Sloane traveled to the Outer Rim world in her flagship 'Vigilance.

Before the meeting started, she encountered the New Republic starfighter pilot Wedge Antilles while he was scouting the system. Wedge tried to pretend that he was a Devaronian pilot names Gev Hessan but Sloane revealed that Hessan had died in Imperial custody. Her crew trapped Wedge's HH-87 Starhopper with the Vigilance tractor beam but Antilles detonated the ship inside the Star Destroyer's hangar bay. Several stormtroopers were killed but Admiral Sloane survived the explosion. Wedge also survived the blast and managed to infiltrate the Vigilance.

While Sloane's men hunted down the rebel pilot, she received word from Lieutenant Nils Tothwin that the other Imperial delegates Grand Moff Valco Pandion and General Jylia Shale had arrived on Akiva in their Star Destroyers Vanquish and Ascent. As Sloane prepared to depart for Akiva on her shuttle, she received news that the Imperial financier and slaver Arsin Crassus and Adviser Yupe Tashu had arrived above the planet on their ships. Shortly later, Sloane and her men captured Wedge in the communications room. However, the rebel still managed to send a distress transmission that was picked up by the New Republic pilot Norra Wexley.

A tense banquet
After capturing Wedge, Admiral Sloane traveled in her shuttle to Myrra, the capital city of Akiva. While Sloane manned the navigator' seat, her pilot Morna Kee helmed the shuttle. She was accompanied by the archivist Februs Temmt, her Corellian assistant Adea Rite, several stormtroopers, and their prisoner Wedge. As the ship headed towards the Satrap's Palace where the conference was to take place, she spotted a Zabrak bounty hunter named Jas Emari zip-lining across a nearby comm tower. Realizing that the Zabrak was an intruder, she opened fire on Jas; who fell off the tower and was captured by the Sullustan crime lord Surat Nuat.

Upon entering the Satrap's Palace, Admiral Sloane and her entourage attended a banquet hosted by Satrap Isstra Dirus. When Grand Moff Pandion asked about the sound of gunfire, Sloane told him that she had engaged a local insurgent. When Tashu queried further, she reassured him that the New Republic had not learned of their meeting. Sloane then informed the other Imperial delegates that the rebels had begun to disseminate propaganda holovids. Shale disagreed with Sloane's view that the rebel holovids were lies and suggested that the Empire were the ones lying to themselves. Sloane responded that the Empire had been betrayed by various sector heads and governors. She added that the rebels had attacked Imperial freighters and transports. Finally, Sloane stressed that they were meeting to resolve the lack of leadership in the Empire.

When Pandion asked her about the rebel prisoner she had taken in space, Sloane quickly realized that she had a spy aboard the Vigilance. Sloane then informed the other Imperial delegates that she had captured Captain Wedge Antilles, a hero of the Rebellion who had participated in both of the Death Star attacks. However, she took pains to assure the other Imperials that the rebel had not been part of a concerted attack and that he would be a good source of intelligence. Tashu asked Sloane whether he could interrogate Wedge while Pandion expressed dismay that the Empire had been reduced to mere hostage takers. In response, Sloane reiterated that the summit to decide the future of the Empire would begun tonight. She instructed Temmt to designate the summit the Imperial Future Council. When Pandjon inquired whether Sloane's Super Star Destroyer Ravager was the last of its kind, Sloane claimed that the fleet admiral had perished.

Imperial Future Council
Before the meeting could commence, Sloane was informed by Adea that the Vigilance had engaged and destroyed two New Republic A-wing scout ships. Upon entering the conference chamber, Sloane informed her comrades that her ship had encountered and destroyed two rebel fighters. As a precaution, she proposed that the Imperials move their Star Destroyers to hyperspace to keep them out of optic and sensor range. When Crassus protested, Sloane responded that if the rebels found nothing, they would move along since they did not have the resources to patrol Akiva's sector.

Pandion derided Sloane as a coward and then proposed that she move the last Super Star Destroyer Ravager to Akiva. However, General Shale came to Sloane's defense and likened the Ravager to an important chatta-ragul token they could not afford to lose. Shale added that the rebel Grand Admiral Gial Ackbar was a genius tactician who would send a drone ship; an argument that Sloane shared. When Crassus sided with Pandion, Sloane derided him as a merchant. Fortunately for Sloane, Tashu sided with her and quoted a Sith mantra that it was not cowardice to hide in the shadows and to strike at a passing enemy.

Having a slim majority of three to one, Admiral Sloane issued orders that they move the three Star Destroyers into hiding despite the protests of Pandion. Later, Sloane was present when Adviser Tashu tortured Wedge in an attempt to gain information from the rebel pilot. Later, Sloane addressed her fellow Imperial delegates after Imperial forces downed a rebel transport above Myrra. While Sloane believed that the rebel ship had been neutralized, one soldier Sergeant Jom Barell managed to escape and infiltrate the streets of Myrra. Crassus and Pandion disagreed with Sloane's view that the rebels no longer posed a threat with the former urging the Imperials to dispatch a fleet led by the Ravager. Before an argument could break out, Sloane reminded the other delegates that they were hear to discuss a greater purpose: the future of the Galactic Empire and the galaxy.

After restored order, Sloane then ordered the meeting to commence. While the other Imperials were debating the merits of using a body double to pose as Emperor Palpatine, Sloane received news from Adea that rebel elements had leaked information about the Imperial Future Conference to the Akivan public. She summoned Satrap Isstra and ordered him to show her a window facing the front. Sloane witnessed a crowd gathering on the Avenue of the Satrapy to assail the Satrap's Palace. Realizing that the Akivan public knew about the Imperial Future Council, she ordered Adea to prepare an evacuation of the Imperial fleet above Akiva.

Rebellion on Akiva
Shortly later, the rebel pilot Norra Wexley commandeered a TIE fighter and used it to shoot down several Imperial TIE fighters. Sloane managed to shoot down the stolen TIE with a turbolaser cannon despite Adea's protests. The turbolaser destroyed the TIE but also damaged the easternmost tower in the Satrap's palace. After ejecting from the fighter, Wexley sent the stricken vessel on a collision course with three parked Imperial shuttles. Sloane's pilot Morna was also wounded during the explosion. The explosions at the Satrap's Palace only emboldened the crowd which attempted to storm the palace.

The recent explosions threw the Imperial Future Council into panic. When Pandion expressed outraged at the minimal Imperial presence on Akiva, Sloane defended her actions on the grounds that they could not make the conference look like a total occupation. Pandion then suggested summoning the Star Destroyers back so that they could escape. In response, Sloane pointed out that their shuttles had been destroyed and that they were being besieged by a population that had long been abused by the satrapy. Satrap Isstra then tried to shift blame to the Empire and castigated Sloane for damaging his palace. Reasserting her authority, Sloane reiterated that they would not be dispatching the fleet in order to avoid provoking the New Republic.

She then ordered Crassus to lend his yacht Golden Harp so that the Imperial delegates could escape. When Crassus protested, she derided him as an opportunist and fired a blaster above his head to silence his protests. To complicate Sloane's problems, Adea informed her that their rebel prisoner Wedge had escaped. In the midst of the chaos, Wedge managed to overpower Adea before falling onto the bottom floor of the place. Despite being knocked out, he managed to send a distress signal to the New Republic Starfleet with her holoscreen. Sloane managed to recapture the unconscious Wedge only to learned that he already alerted the rebels.

Despite the chain of disasters, Admiral Sloane received solace in the form of the local crime lord Surat Nuat. The Sullustan criminal had earlier made a secret deal with Temmin Wexley, the teenaged son of Norra, to trade the bounty hunter Jas Emari and the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus in return for giving him, Norra, and his droid Mister Bones safe passage offworld. However, Surat made another deal with Sloane and offered to sell Norra, Sinjir, and Jas to the Empire. Sloane accepted the deal and assembled troops to meet the intruders outside the Satrap's Palace. Sinjir's plan to enter the building was to use his ISB code to contact the palace security and trick the guards into opening the door. Instead, the five rebels were met by Admiral Sloane and a dozen armed stormtroopers, who swiftly took them into custody.

Escaping Akiva
After capturing the rebels, Admiral Sloane had a brief verbal exchange with Norra. When Norra told her that the Empire was coming to an end, Sloane responded that the comet had not struck them yet. Once inside the Satrap's Palace, Sloane contacted Surat via hologram. When Temmin demanded that the crime lord honor his deal, Surat revealed that he had double-crossed the boy. As compensation, Sloane allowed the boy to leave but took his companions into custody. When Temmin protested and order Mister Bones to save them, Sloane and her stormtroopers disintegrated the droid with their blasters. Sloane personally fired six rounds into the B1 battle droid and then ordered her men to throw the boy off the roof of her palace.

Sloane, her fellow Imperial delegates, and their prisoners then departed on the Golden Harp for the Vigilance. She also brought the captive Wedge with them, seeking to use his as a bargaining chip. When the Satrap demanded refuge from the baying crowd, she killed two of his guards and told him that he had outlived his usefulness. As they prepared for departure, Morna informed Sloane that she had locked Crassus' pilot in one of the bedrooms and that they had received news that the Star Destroyers had returned to orbit from hyperspace. As the yacht ascended into the skies, Temmin, who had survived his fall, managed to climb onto the outer hull.

In the cockpit, Sloane and Morna sensed some movement on the hull. They sent a stormtrooper to check the maintenance hatch. However, Temmin threw the stormtrooper out of the ship and then climbed aboard the vessel. Before they could reach the safety of the fleet, the Golden Harp was hit by turbolaser fire from the New Republic soldier Jom Barell, who had commandeered the turbolaser. The turbolaser blast punched a hole in the ship and sucked out several stormtroopers and an Emperor's Royal Guardsman. The Imperials' problems were further complicated when a New Republic emerged from hyperspace and proceeded to bombard the Vigilance.

With much difficulty, Sloane and Morna managed to land the stricken Golden Harp aboard the Vigilance. The crash-landing killed Crassus, several stormtroopers, and knocked out Adea, Tashu, and Shale. The rebel prisoners managed to escape with the help of Temmin. With the Vigilance falling apart, Sloane and Morna then commandeered an Imperial shuttle and fled to Pandion's Star Destroyer Vanquish. However, Pandion had managed to survive the crash and attempted to force Sloane to hand over command of the Ravager to him. During a brief verbal exchange, she revealed that the Fleet Admiral known as the Operator was still alive.

Following a brief struggle, Sloane expelled Pandion from the cockpit. With Norra pursuing them in another stolen TIE fighter, Sloane and Morna then jettisoned the main body of the Imperial shuttle; which collided with Norra's fighter. Sloane and Morna then sought refuge aboard Pandion's Star Destroyer and escaped while the New Republic fleet destroyed the Vigilance and the Ascent. In Sloane's absence, the New Republic liberated Akiva. Norra survived the battle while her son and companions took Sloane's aide Adea, Tashu, and Shale captive.

Narrowly surviving the events on Akiva, Sloane returned to the Ravager. There she met face to face with her superior, the mysterious Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who revealed that it was indeed he who orchestrated the Battle of Akiva, tipping off the New Republic of the presence of the Imperial summit meeting in order to purge the incompetent Imperial Military leadership. Sloane proved herself to indeed be competent, and so Rax promoted her to the rank of Fleet Admiral, and later Grand Admiral, and made her the de facto leader of the Imperial Navy, also promising to give her a bid for empress in time.

Public face of the Empire
Sometime after, Grand Admiral Sloane began hiring bounty hunter Mercurial Swift to eliminate rogue Imperials like former Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde. Since she controlled the largest faction of the Imperial Navy left, Sloane became the public face of the Empire. From time to time, Sloane would send propaganda transmissions to the rest of the galaxy in order to sway public opinion in the Empire's favor. These transmissions were made on behalf of the Office of Imperial Promotion, Galactic Truth, and Fact Correction (OIP), which was headed by Ferric Obdur, Sloane's new chief information officer. The OIP also produced propaganda posters likening the New Republic to the Hutts. Despite her involvement in Imperial propaganda, Sloane disagreed with Obdur falsifying the facts in order to cast the Empire in a positive light.

Following her propaganda broadcast, Grand Admiral Sloane attended a meeting with Fleet Admiral Rax. Despite their cooperation, Sloane distrusted the Fleet Admiral due to his rapid advancement during his career in the Imperial Navy. Sloane's suspicions were reinforced by the fact that much of the records on his origins had been redacted. After chatting about opera, Rax emphasized that their goal was the resurgence of a stronger, leaner Empire. Despite the purge that had occurred on Akiva, Rax was working on establishing a new Shadow Council to guide the remnants of the Empire.

Rax charged Grand Admiral Sloane with rescuing Commandant Brendol Hux and his illegitimate son Armitage Hux from the besieged planet of Arkanis. The meeting with Rax only reinforced her distrust of the Fleet Admiral. She disagreed with Rax's idea of ruling the Empire like a cult. Nevertheless, Sloane complied with the Fleet Admiral's orders. She tasked her aide Adea Rite, whom Rax had rescued from Akiva, with hiring Mercurial Swift to recover Brendol Hux and his son. Having grown frustrated at the Empire's inaction and fearful of Gallius, Sloane decided to journey to Coruscant in order to find more information on the mysterious fleet admiral.

Meeting with Mas Amedda
Rae soon left for Coruscant under a false identity so she wouldn't arouse suspicion, especially with Gallius. She arrived at the Imperial Archives and began her search for information on Gallius Rax. During this time Rae looked at records concerning Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts and Gallius's service history. She discovered that the Emperor's personnel Super Star Destroyer Eclipse last known location did not match up with records stating where it was destroyed. Finding this suspicious Rae decided to spend more time in the archives. Hours later Rae was about to leave until a droid brought a data crystal. She examined it and witnessed footage where a small boy emerged from a shuttle in front of prominent Imperials like Colonel Wullf Yularen, Mas Amedda and most importantly the Emperor himself.

Since most of the people in the video were dead, Rae decided to go to the only person still alive from the video, Mas Amedda. On the way to Amedda, Rae was caught up in an insurgent attack and taken prisoner. Since the insurgents did not know who she was they debated what to do with her while Rae debated revealing her identity. However she was rescued by Mercurial Swift before any action could be taken. Rae then informed him of his mission to rescue Brendol and Armitage from Arkanis before it fell. He then dropped Rae off at the Imperial Palace where she snuck in and took Amedda's hidden blaster before he arrived. Amedda discovered her before he was about to commit suicide and panicked, thinking she was there to assassinate him. Rae however showed him the video she took from the archives.

He informed her that the shuttle from the video had arrived from Jakku with an unexpected passenger, a small boy. Amedda quickly realized that Gallius Rax was still alive and that Rae served him. He then made a deal with Rae in exchange for more information on Gallius. If he told her where to find more information then he would have a place in her Empire. He did this by drawing similarities between them, that they were both trapped by their life. After she agreed, Amedda told her about the wreckage of the Emperor's personnel yacht, the Imperialis, which was located on Quantxi, the junk moon of Ord Mantell.

Personality and traits
"If that's the way you [Count Vidian] want it. Death warrant extended to all workers on Forager's bridge. Stormtroopers, fire!"

- Captain Sloane was ruthless in exterminating any enemies of the Galactic Empire

Rae Sloane was an ambitious and loyal Imperial Navy officer who was devoted to serving Emperor Palpatine and his Galactic Empire. She was a tall, muscular human woman with dark skin and dark hair. A meritorious officer, Sloane joined the Imperial Navy in order to escape having to work in a shipyard or loading dock in her homeworld of Ganthel. While staunchly loyal, Sloane did not hesitate to question orders which she deemed treasonous and counter-productive to the Empire's interests. As an Imperial cadet at the Defiance Flight Training Institute, Sloane chafed under Commandant Pell Baylo, a harsh but effective instructor who constantly berated his cadets. Using her mathematical skills, Sloane foiled a plot by Baylo to assassinate the Emperor and Darth Vader during a visit to her ship-based academy.

As Captain of the Ultimatum, Sloane saw herself as a servant of the Galactic Empire. She had a tenuous working relationship with her superior Count Denetrius Vidian, the Empire's efficiency expert. While sharing Vidian's belief in the Empire, Sloane was uncomfortable with his volatile and narcissistic personality, micromanagement, and also observed discrepancies in Vidian's official biography. Sloane confided her concerns about Vidian with her fellow officer Commander Nibiru Chamas, who was secretly working for Vidian's rival Baron Lero Danthe. While Sloane expressed concerns about the repercussions of Vidian destroying the planet Gorse's moon Cynda, she complied with his plan after Vidian produced fake results claiming that the moon's detonation would not affect thorilide yields. After discovering Vidian's deception and alerting the Emperor, she did not hesitate to order Vidian's arrest and the destruction of his ship Forager.

While Captain Sloane had no qualms about using force and harsh measures to impose Imperial order on the the people of Gorse, she was still disturbed by her science officer Lieutenant Deltic's willingness to consider detonating Cynda just for the thrill of witnessing its destructive effects on Gorse. Regarding Deltic as an "embarrassment", Sloane toyed with throwing her out through her Star Destroyer's airlock and was relieved when Deltic was excluded from the party that accompanied Baron Danthe's promotion ceremony on Gorse.

As a loyal Imperial official, Sloane also disliked the former Jedi Padawan and rebel Kanan Jarrus due to his cheeky remarks about her appearance. Despite missing an opportunity to arrest him, Sloane was still able to forge an "alliance of convenience" with Kanan after he appealed to her loyalty to the Empire in order to sabotage Vidian's plan to destroy Cynda. Her willingness to work with her nominal enemy was motivated by the rationale that Vidian's actions endangered Imperial strategic assets. Nevertheless, Sloane would resume her hunt for Kanan once Vidian's threat had been eliminated.

Behind the scenes
Rae Sloane was created for John Jackson Miller's 2014 novel A New Dawn, which was the first in a new line of Canon literature produced in consultation with the Lucasfilm Story Group. She was a point-of-view character and served as a secondary antagonist in that novel. An excerpt from the novel including Sloane was first released on July 15, 2014, as part of the Star Wars 2014 Sampler. Sloane later appeared as in Chuck Wendig's 2015 novel Aftermath, which was produced as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens literature series. In addition, Sloane has appeared in several other Canon literature including Jason Fry's short story "The Levers of Power," Miller's short stories "Bottleneck" and "Orientation," and Greg Weisman's Marvel comic series Star Wars: Kanan.

Appearances

 * "Bottleneck"&mdash;The Rise of the Empire
 * A New Dawn
 * Kanan 12: First Blood, Epilogue: The Ties That Bind
 * "The Levers of Power"&mdash;The Rise of the Empire
 * Aftermath
 * Aftermath: Life Debt
 * Aftermath: Empire's End
 * Aftermath: Empire's End