Betl Oxtroe

"Sadly, the first round of talks had only begun when the Admiral fell victim to an assassin's blade, presumably wielded by a Noghri, and the plan was forgotten."

- Voren Na'al

Betl Oxtroe was an Admiral of the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War, one of the few females to reach senior command rank in the armed forces of the Galactic Empire.

In 7 ABY, Admiral Oxtroe made overtures to the New Republic Provisional Council to negotiate an end to the war between the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. She proposed the conversion of the Empire into a constitutional monarchy, with Ederlathh Pallopides assuming the throne and with the Provisional Council serving in place of the Imperial Ruling Council&mdash;as Pallopides was only eleven years old, this would have effectively made the Provisional Council the actual leadership in this new proposed Empire, although it would have also meant a continuing role for the Imperial military.

Before Oxtroe got very far in her negotiations, she was assassinated. A later official New Republic account suggested that this was the work of Noghri, implicitly implicating Grand Admiral Thrawn, and expressing regret at the failure of the scheme. In reality, it seems that there was no compelling evidence as to who ordered the murder or how it was carried out, though it is very possible that agents of Emperor Palpatine, then living in exile on Byss, were behind it: even then, Palpatine was preparing the ground for his own eventual return to the throne, removing potential sources of opposition.

Alternatively, it is possible that this was an early action of Nom Anor's fifth column ahead of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, or even that elements of the New Republic leadership were themselves behind the assassination, unwilling to compromise with elements of the Imperial hierarchy, but unable to openly reject the offer of peace negotiations.

Pallopides, it is presumed, was left untouched; quite possibly she was never aware of the significance of the events that had gone on in her name, or what hopes Oxtroe had placed on her.