Thrawn campaign

The Thrawn campaign was a series of innovative military and political manuevers executed by Grand Admiral Thrawn in 9 ABY. Thrawn's attacks, feigns and policies constituted the first major internal and external conflict for the New Republic, and nearly succeeded in toppling the fledgling government.

Preliminary Stages
In 9 ABY, Thrawn emerged from the Unknown Regions, consolidated the remnants of the Galactic Empire, began an ambitious series of technological upgrades and developments, and planned his reconquest of the galaxy. Thrawn viewed his strategy as a series of interlocking pieces that added up to "the only puzzle world solving...the complete, total, and utter destruction of the Rebellion".

The initial phase of Thrawn's plan aimed to alleviate the problem of his limited military forces. He hoped to steal New Republic warships using mole miners, locate and seize the lost Katana fleet and build an army of clones to crew his new fleet. To build the clones, Thrawn sought Palpatine's hidden supply of Spaarti cylinders, which he planned to use at an accelerated pace to fill his ranks with loyal crewmen, soldiers and pilots. But to keep the accelerated process from creating mad, unstable clones, Thrawn planned to uncover the ysalamiri, a creature able to create a Force-blocking bubble. The ysalamiri were also crucial to Thrawn's plan to rein in Joruus C'baoth, the mad Dark Jedi clone. While the Spaarti chambers would provide Thrawn with acceptable soldiers, he lacked sufficient officers to command his new fleet and identified a determined that C'baoth could provide coordination between the Imperial forces as Nial Declann and Palpatine did at Endor.

To uncover the location of his prizes, Thrawn to launched a number of raids against the comprehensive archive computers of Obroa-skai. The raids also provided Thrawn with a wealth of up-to-date information - Thrawn's most lethal weapon - on the New Republic, its allies and the state of the galaxy at large. After the final raid, which provided Thrawn the information he required, a skirmish with a New Republic pursuit force afforded Thrawn his first opportunity to display his tactical brilliance by detecting the species of the pursuit force's commander, initiating an attack that would the commander's species would be unable to counter, and defeating the task force with a numerically inferior force.

Thrawn identified Myrkr, avoided by the Jedi Knights and Galactic Republic for 300 years, as the home of the ysalamiri, and Wayland as the site of Mount Tantiss, Palpatine's secret storehouse. Chimaera ventured to Myrkr, where Thrawn encountered Talon Karrde, who was convinced to aid the Imperial commander despite his preference to remain neutral. After collecting a suitable number of ysalamiri, Pellaeon and Thrawn traveled to Wayland. Protected by nutrient rack-mounted ysalamiri, Thrawn convinced C'baoth to aid his campaign in exchange for Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo and her unborn twins. C'baoth, enticed by the offer of young Jedi minds to shape, pledged his assistance and allowed Thrawn access to the wonders of Mount Tantiss, including the Spaarti chambers and a working cloaking shield.

Early Strikes
Thrawn began his military campaign in earnest after he had enlarged his forces. With the Inner Rim recently liberated from Imperial hands, Thrawn carefully aimed his attacks against a number of Inner and Mid Rim worlds.

After gathering over fifty Mole Miners from Lando Calrissian, Thrawn attacked the Sluis Van shipyards with the intention of stealing a Republic Fleet. He was barely foiled by Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, though they had to cripple many of the ships rather than recapture them.

His campaign was stalled, but Thrawn carried on his guerilla strikes on Republic worlds while he built up strength. A race ending with Thrawn's capture of some 180 Dreadnaught Cruisers enabled him to launch his attack earlier than even he expected.

Imperial fleets started the offensive by striking up the Corellian Run at several sectors, including the major agricultural world of Ukio and the Republic base at Ord Pardon.

As the Republic reeled from that offensive, more ships proceeded up the Rimma Trade Spine coreward, while others still secured Imperial territory by capturing border worlds such as Ord Mantell and Generis. Simultaneously, he launched feints Coreward towards Coruscant, linking up with the Imperial Academy at Caridia, which had been cut-off from the main Empire since the Cores fall.

The New Republic fleets were crushed in individial sectors, as the numerous Dreadaughts Thrawn owned gave him a numerical advantage in each separate sector or planetary system. A feint at Mrisst enabled him to launch a daunting attack on Coruscant itself, knocking it out of the war with cloaked asteroids. The New Republic let Thrawn rampage as they hastily patched together a counter-offensive at Bilgringi.

Despite all his victories, Grand Admiral Thrawn was a few defeats away from being routed. A combination of his death, the loss of the Bilgringi shipyards, the loss of the cloning facilities on Wayland and defeats at Garos IV and the Kathol Sector forced the ships under his command to retreat rimward, or be split up and destroyed. His protege, Captain Pellaeon, took much of Thrawns personal squadron into the Unknown Regions, to be recalled by the Emperor Reborn.

Imperial Intrigues
While Thrawn proved to gain strategic and tactical superiority with a smaller force, his moderate armada did not represent the full strength of the Imperial remnants. The clone Emperor, already consolidating power on Byss, ordered most of the Imperial forces to ignore Thrawn and return to the Deep Core. It is unclear if Palpatine intended for Thrawn to be a distraction while he continued to rebuild his strength, or if his extended out-of-body period effected his mind to the point of considering Thrawn as a threat rather than a loyal officer.

Conclusion
The Battle of Bilbringi marked the conclusion of the Thrawn campaign. As the fallen leader's forces fell into retreat, the New Republic was allowed a brief respite before the reborn Emperor would emerge to launch another near-fatal assault. To quote Admiral Ackbar's analysis of New Republic military losses, "The [New Republic] sustained considerable losses in the Thrawn campaign: ten percent of our forces killed, thirty percent wounded -- but those are just averages. On the worlds Thrawn actually hit, the devastation was significant." In addition, the campaign further fractured the body of the New Republic, giving rise to Borsk Fey'lya's political career.

On the other side, the campaign led to the creation of the Smuggler's Alliance, the return of Garm Bel Iblis, an increase in the organization and size of the New Republic military, the liberation of the beings of Wayland and the Noghri, and a spark of interest in Luke Skywalker to seek out other Force-users that would eventually lead to his creation of the Jedi Praxeum.