User:Andykatib/workspace

Thrawn: Treason plot summary

Prologue
The Chiss Defense Fleet warship Steadfast under the command of Admiral Ar'alani is on a secret mission to track the movements of an Imperial Star Destroyer deep inside alien territory. The Steadfast has cloaked itself in dark mode, rendering itself invisible to the Star Destroyer's sensors. Ar'alani summons her senior officers including Mid Commander Tanik, Captain Khresh, and Lieutenant Eli Vanto for a briefing.

Departing Lothal
Following Captain Hera Syndulla's failed raid against the TIE/D Defender assembly line on Lothal, Governor Tarkin informs Grand Admiral Thrawn that his TIE Defender project is facing competition from Orson Krennic's Stardust project and instructs him to rendezvous with the Emperor Palpatine to plead his case.

Commodore Karyn Faro delivers her communications report to Grand Admiral Thrawn, apologizing that she was unable to find a pattern. The two talk about the capture of Syndulla and the threat posed by her rebel comrades. Faro confides that she is uncomfortable with leaving for Coruscant in the midst of a rebel insurgency on Lothal. Faro express concern that Governor Arihnda Pryce does not know how to deal with Kanan Jarrus and his team. Thrawn agrees and opines that losing the TIE Defender program will be worse than losing Syndulla.

Commander Hammerly informs them over the intercom that Tarkin has dispatched a new set of coordinates to meet him aboard the Star Destroyer Firedrake in the Sev Tok system. After resetting their course, Thrawn and Faro discuss the abrupt change in venue with Faro describing it as "cloak-and-blade."

The Gralloc wager
Aboard the Firedrake, Governor Tarkin and Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit discuss the upcoming meeting with Director Krennic and Grand Admiral Thrawn to discuss funding for the competing Stardust and TIE Defender projects. The four senior Imperial officials meet in the Firedrake command conference room where they are joined by the Emperor via hologram.

Director Krennic informs them that the Stardust project has been held up by grallocs, larger cousins of the mynocks which have attacked power cables and couplers at the equipment transfer point. To resolve the dispute between Thrawn and Krennic's rival projects, Tarkin convinces the Emperor to restore funding to his Defender program if Thrawn is able to resolve the gralloc problem. Krennic agrees provided that Thrawn can destroy the grallocs within a week; a proposal that Thrawn accepts.

Following the meeting, Director Krennic meets with his lieutenant Brierly Ronan and briefs him about their meeting with Thrawn, Tarkin, and the Emperor. Unwilling to have the funding for Stardust jeopardized, Krennic has arranged for Ronan to join Thrawn aboard the Chimaera and tasks him with preventing Thrawn from eliminating the grallocs within a week. Krennic emphasizes that he wants to gather enough information so that he can take the credit for resolving the gralloc problem himself.

Later, Savit meets with Thrawn and confides that Tarkin is playing him against Krennic. After exchanging greetings with Ronan, Savit passes Thrawn the information on the grallocs. Commodore Faro shows Ronan to his quarters. She asks Ronan about his encrypted data card. Ronan responds that Director Krennic ordered that his card be encrypted for security reasons. When Ronan asks how Thrawn worked out the location of the Stardust transfer station, Faro explains that Thrawn calculated Admiral Savit's command area and Tarkin's recent travel trajectory.

Hunting grallocs
The Chimaera arrives at the Kurost transfer point where supplies are shipped to the Star Dust's location. Aboard the Chimaera bridge, Thrawn, Ronan, Faro, and the bridge crew discuss dealing with the threat posed by the grallocs. After conferring with chief weapons officer Lieutenant Pyrondi, Thrawn decides to first use ion cannons to drive away the grallocs.

Since the grallocs are able to dodge the ion blasts, Thrawn dispatches his TIE Defender squadron under the command of Captain Benj Dobbs against them. The TIE Defenders spend two hours pursuing grallocs but are unable to take them down. While Ronan thinks Thrawn's methods are not working, Thrawn reveals that he was merely baiting the grallocs. With Lieutenant Fentaugh's Defender acting as bait, Captain Dobbs is able to shoot and kill one of the grallocs, which is then dissected aboard the Colossus.

Later, Grand Admiral Savit briefs Moff Haveland about Thrawn's operation against the grallocs. Despite Thrawn capturing a gralloc, Savit reports that the Allanar N3 light freighter AL6-KM44 was prematurely driven into hyperspace and presumed lost. Haveland despises Thrawn, believing that Thrawn's successes were due to a secret adviser. Following the conversation, Savit ponders on the whereabouts of the missing Imperial officer Eli Vanto.

Missing in action
Meanwhile, Eli Vanto reflects on his first meeting with Admiral Ar'alani a year ago. After joining the Chiss Defense Fleet, Vanto was "demoted" to the rank of lieutenant. While learning Cheunh, Vanto is assigned work aboard the Steadfast analysis department.

After being summoned to the bridge, Vanto meets the Chiss navigator Vah'nya, a 22 year old Chiss woman who is Force-sensitive and employed as a navigator aboard Chiss ships. Commander Tanik informs Vanto that the Chiss Fleet have been tracking what appears to be a ship that was hit by a salvo. Vanto is unable to offer much help but speculates that the pursuer had been lying in wait for the ship. While Admiral Ar'alani and her command crew discuss the situation, Vanto senses that something is going on out there.

Following the trail
Faro, Thrawn, and Ronan observe the dissection of the fallen gralloc. Ronan thinks the dissection is a waste of time since he claims that his data card has all the information they need. Thrawn declines the offer, aware of the discrepancy between Haveland's data and their own. Thrawn is interested in the gralloc's organic propulsion system, which is fueled by Clouzon-36. When Thrawn asks about a ship record and manifest listing, Ronan refuses to hand the information to the Chimaera analysis group, claiming that it is highly confidential.

As they are walking down the corridor, Ronan questions Faro's loyalty to her commanding officer. In an attempt to sow doubt, he reveals information suggesting that Thrawn blocked her appointment as commander of Task Force 231. While Faro defends Thrawn, she is troubled by Ronan's revelation.

While tracking the missing Allanar N3 light freighter AL6-KMM4, Faro discovers that the ship was mainly carrying replacement parts and a package of blosphi extract, which are mostly sold as low-cost rations for Wookiee slaves. After tracking the vectors of several missing freighters, Thrawn and Faro deduced that these missing freighters had been stolen and not devoured by the grallocs as purported.

Tracking the missing freighters, they find the corpses of the dead crew aboard a derelict space station. Examining food and oxygen use records, Thrawn deduces that twelve of the crew members are missing. Most importantly, Thrawn and Faro work out that alleged gralloc attacks are being used to cover up the theft of 28 ships ferrying supplies to the mysterious Stardust project. When Thrawn asks if they are on the same vector the Allanar disappeared, Faro admits that the Chimaera traveled through a different part of space since they entered the vector father out on the edge than the Allanar. To Ronan's surprise, Thrawn does not humiliate her for her error but instead decades to backtrack along the precise vector this time.

Reunion amidst battle
Traveling through space, Vanto spots the Chimaera in the distance. Before he can transmit a coded message to the Chimaera, the Chimaera jumps into hyperspace. While traveling back to the transfer point, the Chimaera stumbles upon the wreckage of the Allanar N3 freighter. Thrawn, Faro, and Hammerley also detect a cloaking device and gravity well nearby which is hiding an asteroid observation post. Hiding beneath the asteroid is an armed Grysk warship.

Under Thrawn's orders, Commodore Faro deploys the TIE Defenders and two TIE fighter squadrons in a Marg Sabl maneuver. He also instructs Lieutenant Pyrondi to bombard the enemy ship with turbolaser fire. Exiting hyperspace, the Steadfast deploys plasma spheres to draw away the Grysk warship's laser fire. Observing the Chimaera and its starfighter's Marg Sabl maneuver, Vanto realizes that Thrawn wanted to distract the Grysks from his TIE fighters.

Thrawn's starfighters take out the Grysk warship's electrostatic generator nodes and laser defenses. To help Thrawn, Admiral Ar'alani orders her crew to belay the plasma spheres and to fire the Breachers at the enemy ship's laser sites. The Grysk warship's laser cannons take out two of the Breachers but four of the Breachers hit their targets, burning through the ship's hull. Thrawn's Defenders and TIEs then take out the Grysk warship's hyperdrive and thrusters, destroying the ship.

Following the battle, Ar'alani and Eli receive an invitation from Thrawn to meet him aboard the Chimaera. Before leaving, Ar'alani orders her crew to salvage the debris from the Grysk warship. After exchanging pleasantries aboard the Chimaera, Thrawn, Eli, and Ar'alani board the Grysk warship where Major Carvia and four stormtroopers have captured two Grysk prisoners. There is a tense exchange between Ar'alani and one of the Grysks, who derides Eli as a human hireling and boasts that he is the Lifeholder, Deathbringer, and Seeker of Conquest.

Major Carvia informs Thrawn and Ar'alani that they found the bodies of five humans an eighteen beings of an unidentified species, who had all been stabbed multiple times. Carvia reports that they also found a young Chiss girl who survived the massacre. Ar'alani wants vengeance against the Grysks but Thrawn does not believe in executing prisoners. In private, Ar'alani confides with Eli than she feigned anger in order to mislead their Grysks prisoners into thinking that there was tension between her and Thrawn.

Imperial entanglements
Meanwhile, Grand Admiral Savit and Director Krennic receive news about Thrawn's recent battle but much of the information is patchy. Savit is supportive of Thrawn's TIE Defender programme and butts heads with Krennic, who is defensive of his Stardust project. Having heard no word from Rowan, Krennic and Savit contact Grand Moff Tarkin's office for more information.

Tarkin confirms that the TIE Defenders acquitted themselves well in the recent battle but is unsure about the identity of the belligerents, believing them to be pirates. Following their meeting with Krennic, Savit issues orders for Captain Rasdel to activate his spy in Tarkin's office and to arrange a meeting with Captain Gilad Pellaeon of the Harbinger to discuss his new pirate-hunting mission.

The Chiss girl
Meanwhile, aboard the observation post's medcenter, Thrawn, Vanto, and the Imperial and Chiss forces examine the remains of dead human crew from the missing freighters and a client alien race of the Grysks. Thrawn and Vanto deduce that the Grysks killed their subordinates and prisoners as a self-destruction tactic in the face of defeat. Admiral Ar'alani tends to a seven year-old Chiss girl and has woken up from a state of unconsciousness. Discussing the thrusters of the freighter and Grysk warship they destroyed, Thrawn and Vano deduce that there is a third cloaked Grysk warship in space.

The Chiss girl introduces herself as Un'hee and tells them that she was kidnapped by the Grysks two years ago. As a five-year old, Un'hee had been enslaved by the Grysks and forced to work as a navigator due to her Force-sensitivity. Thrawn believes that the alien clients of the crew protected Un'hee by pretending that she was dead. Admiral Ar'alani believes they can use Un'hee's knowledge of hyperspace routes to track down the remaining Grysks.

Thrawn and Ar'alani conclude that the two Grysks allowed themselves to be captured in order to ascertain that Un'hee was dead. Since they have two Chiss navigators including Vah'nya and Un'hee, they think that the Grysks will target them. Un'hee confirms that she was the only Chiss navigator in Grysk captivity and that the Grysks also employ individuals from other species as navigators. Thrawn and Ar'alani agree that they need to protect their two navigators. Their situation is complicated by Ronan's demand that he be allowed to visit the observation post.

Ronan's interference
After two unsuccessful attempts, Ronan manages to bully a stormtrooper into letting him take a shuttle to the asteroid observation post. There, he encounters Admiral Ar'alani, Un'hee, Vah'nya, and Commander Vanto; the latter of whom he regards as a deserter. Thrawn is displeased that Ronan disobeyed his orders to remain aboard the Chimaera. Ronan fears that Thrawn has brought the Chiss to subvert the Stardust project.

To test whether the Grysk prisoners have some way of communicating with their people, Vanto proposes sending them back with two shuttles to the Chimaera. The Grysks would be in one shuttle while the other is a decoy. Ronan thinks the plan is folly but Thrawn proposes sending an Imperial code with the ships. As the Chiss women speak, Vanto tries to explain their "flush-trap-operation." However, Ronan is hostile towards Vanto, regarding him as a deserter.

Vanto theorizes that the Grysks have a comm center from which they using a triad to communicate with their bases. Vanto offers his services as a translator but Ronan rejects it, prompting Admiral Ar'alani to refuse to have any dealings with him. Swallowing his pride, Ronan reluctantly accepts Vanto's services. Thrawn allows Ronan to be privy to their "flush-trap-operation."

The flush-trap operation
Under Thrawn's orders, the two Grysk prisoners are transported back to the Chimaera aboard a shuttle, which is to be drawn into the Star Destroyer by a tractor beam. Thrawn's plan is to bait Grysk forces int he vicinity. Ronan doesn't like Thrawn's plan. When Vanto fobs off his questions about the Chiss, Ronan tells Vanto that the Emperor fully supports Director Krennic's Stardust project and that the rest of the political structure on Imperial Center will be irrelevant once it is operational.

As part of Thrawn's plan six TIE Defenders escort the shuttle. Just as Thrawn expects, a second cloaked Grysk ship opens fire on the convoy. Under Thrawn's orders, the Chimaera turbolasers blast the cloaked ship but it manages to escape into hyperspace. Though the Grysk warship escapes, Captain Dobbs and his TIE Defenders manage to locate a cloaked gravity well projector. Thrawn and Faro conclude that the Grysk have developed a new hyperspace sensor system. Thrawn orders Faro to prepare the Chimaera for a voyage to Grysk forward base and communications center.

Following the skirmish, Ronan is angry that Thrawn failed to trap the Grysk warship. Thrawn responds that this is merely the first phase of the battle and that the second phase will soon commence. Regarding Ronan as an obstacle to his plans, Thrawn issues orders for him to be returned to the Chimaera. However, Ronan counters that he has a mandate from Director Krennic and Governor Tarkin which supersedes Thrawn's orders.

To defuse the situation, Thrawn instead orders the stormtroopers to escort Lieutenant Vanto back to the shuttle. However, Ronan points out that Vanto is still facing charges of desertion. Thrawn counters that Vanto is on loan from Admiral Ar'alani due to his expertise with data crunching. Ronan protests, unwilling to let sensitive Imperial data fall into the hands of someone he regards as a traitor.

An exasperated Thrawn calls Ronan a fool and explains that a stolen ship masquerading as an accidental misfire has taken its cargo to a secret station. The Grysks have attacked and destroyed the way station and intercepted the cargo ship. Thrawn explains that humans are missing from the station and those from the ship have been murdered. A chastised Ronan realizes that Thrawn is right and backs down. He allows Vanto to work through the data but on the condition that Commodore Faro supervises him. Thrawn also agrees to allow Ronan to set up Vanto in Faro's office.

Thrawn's loyalties
Later, the navigator Vah'nya uses telepathy, which the Chiss call the "Second Sight", to probe Un'hee's mind for information on how she uses the Force, which the Chiss call "Third Sight", to navigate Grysk ships through space. Thrawn and Ar'alani watch the proceedings, intending to use Un'hee's telepathic abilities to probe Un'hee's mind for the location of the Grysk base. When Ar'alani questions Thrawn about his loyalties, he reassures her that he is true loyalty lies with the Chiss Ascendancy. Thrawn also reassures her that he has a plan to "eliminate" Ronan so that he does not cause trouble for their plans.

After Vah'nya separates her mind from Un'hee's mind, the navigator tells Thrawn that she can take them to the Grysk forward base. However, Vah'nya is uncomfortable with serving aboard the Chimaera. Ar'alani assures her that Vanto will be aboard the Chimaera but that he will be working on a separate mission. At Vah'nya's insistence, Ar'alani reluctantly agrees to accompany her aboard the Star Destroyer.

Uncovering a conspiracy
Aboard the Chimaera, Vanto, Ronan, and Thrawn go through the data on the missing ships. Vanto finds that 28 of the 41 missing ships vanished along suspicious vectors and believes that those 28 ships were most likely stolen. Vanto also notices that three of the ships carried foodstuffs and a large amount of blosphi extract, which is used to feed Wookiee slaves working on Stardust. Other items include TRL-44 cylinders, Klymtra spark collimators, Boorian synchronization grids, and Thorilide shock absorbers.

Ronan notices that the stolen ships carried the enough components for eight complete turbolasers. Ronan and Thrawn realize that someone in the Esaga sector is manipulating the shipping records in order to steal Imperial technology. Ronan realizes that the stolen ships originated from three worlds in the Esaga sector, which is ruled by Governor Haveland, who convinced Director Krennic that Stardust should funnel most of its supply chains through her territory.

Thrawn realizes that Haveland arranged for a small number of freighters to be lost to the grallocs in order to accustom Stardust's overseers to such losses. Once the pattern has been established, Thrawn deduces that special ships can disappear under supposedly identical circumstances. Seeking to get rid off Ronan, Thrawn assigns Ronan to investigate the Aloxor system, one of the three systems where the freighters are originating from.

Ronan thinks this is a matter for the Imperial Security Bureau to investigate but Thrawn suggest that the local ISB has been compromised. When Ronan proposes sending Vanto instead, Thrawn responds that Ronan is the only person that Director Krennic will listen to and that he must be a direct witness to the plot. Vanto also agrees to come along and Thrawn outfits the two of them with civilian clothing.

While walking on the bridge of the Chimaera, Ronan is unnerved by the presence of the Force-sensitive Chiss navigator Vah'nya, who causes a crew member to topple while using the Force. Ronan comes to believe that Thrawn is a traitor for tolerating potential Jedi. For the moment, Ronan resolves to find incriminating evidence about Governor Haveland.

Thrawn assigns a pair of Death troopers to escort Ronan and Vanto. Meanwhile, Krennic briefs Grand Admiral Savit about Ronan's report about a danger to the Kurost transfer point. Savit is unable to lend forces to defend the transfer point because the Third Fleet is currently engaged in hunting down pirates. Krennic tells Savit that Ronan warns that at least two alien factions are interested in the transfer point. Savit claims Ronan is being paranoid but Krennic speaks up for his Assistant director. Savit reluctantly agrees to send a ship to each of Krennic's staging areas.

A tense alliance
After some arguing with Thrawn, Admiral Ar'alani allows Commodore Faro to remain aboard the bridge of the Chimaera while the navigator Vah'nya guides the crew with the Force on the condition that she takes up position at the weapons station. Faro orders the bridge crew to leave in order to avoid hindering Vah'nya's efforts to track down the Grysk forward command base.

While discussing the theft of Imperial ships and supplies bound to Stardust, Thrawn and Faro realize that the grallocs were a ruse for chosen ships and crew to pretend that they had been damage and travel via hyperspace to a mobile observation post to transfer their cargoes to the thief's ships. Based on their interrogation of the Grysk prisoners, Thrawn and Frao also realized that the Grysks had intercepted the ship's communications, captured the observation post, and ambushed the crew of the missing Allanar N3. They also deduce that the escaped Grysk ship was a supply ship commandeered by the aliens.

Mission to the Aloxor system
Eli and Ronan travels with the death troopers Pik and Waffle to a spaceport town called Tiquwe on the planet Aloxor. At the advice of Waffle and Pik, Ronan reluctantly changes out of his Imperial uniform into civilian clothes. They decide not to reveal themselves to the local Imperial authorities since they are not sure if they can trust them.

While traveling through the streets of the spaceport town, the four are attacked by a dirty faced woman named Sisay and a man named Skulk. After subduing them, the Imperials learn from Sisay that Grand Admiral Savit has been benefiting from the movement of smuggled goods through Aloxor. Eli poses as a friend of Nightswan and claims that the Hutts want to deal with Savit.

Eli tells that Assistant Director Ronan can secure an audience with Savit. When Sisay asks what is Eli's plan, he suggests smuggling "Snick" aboard one of the ships heading to the Stardust project. Realizing that Eli is referring to him, Ronan reminds Eli that his name is Ronan. Sisay and Skulk agree to help "smuggle" Ronan aboard the transport ship.

Together with Sisay and Skulk, the four Imperials travel to the spaceport where they meet a slicer named Mole, who works for Parpa. Sisay hires Mole to forge Imperial identity data cards for the four of them to infiltrate the transport ship. Mole promises to have it done in a few hours. However, Eli's plan runs into trouble when Sisay demands that the undercover Imperials show the Hutt tattoos on their bodies which prove that they work for the Hutts.

Sisay thinks that the visitors' presence is linked to the presence of an Imperial Star Destroyer above their town. Before Sisay and her gang can subdue the undercover Imperials, they are defeated in physical combat by Mole, who reveals himself as the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) agent Dayja. Sisay tries to shoot Vanto but is instead shot dead by Dayja. Dayja reveals that he was sent by ISB Colonel Wulff Yularen to help Thrawn.

Hunting the Grysks
In space, the Chimaera approaches two Grysk ships that have been fused together by short pylons. Using sensors, Faro determines that the conjoined ships are an improvised booby trap with the hostages and Grysk client species being used as bait. Admiral Ar'alani realizes that a cloaked Grysk warship is hiding nearby using the conjoined ships as decoys. In response, Thrawn orders Pyrondi to deploy the tractor beams in a slingshot maneuver.

Under Thrawn's orders, the tractor beam projectors grab onto several TIEs and fling them at the conjoined Grysk ships. The fighters' mission is to gather information the Chimaera cannot obtain without the active sensors; provoke the cloaked ship into revealing its locations; and to be in a position to attack the conjoined trips. Ar'alani reminds Thrawn that their mission is to capture alien prisoners and rescue the Grysks' captives. Faro notices the cruisers have moved. She believes that the Grysks' presence in Imperial space means that they have set their sights on the Empire.

While Thrawn reflects on the Grysks' apparent lack of art, Navitagor Vah'nya informs him that the Chiss child navigator Un'hee called the Grysk client species Scratchlings and is terrified by them. Thrawn and Vah'nya vow to find and destroy the enemy. Ar'alani notices that the conjoined Grysk ships have two triad poles anchored on long tethers stretching to both sides. The conjoined ship rotate slowly to ensure that the tethers remain taut.

By calculating the trajectory of the conjoined ships' rotation, Thrawn and his team are able to work out the location of the cloaked Grysk warship. After issuing an ultimatum to the enemy, Thrawn orders Major Carvia to prepare a stormtrooper boarding party. Rejecting Thrawn's ultimatum, the Grysks move their conjoined ships closer to the Chimaera, exposing the third triad pole and the cloaked Grysk warship. The Chimaera and TIE fighters blast the cloaked warship. The Grysks try to escape in a stolen supply ship but are destroyed.