Star Wars - A Grand Admiral Returns

A Grand Admiral Returns

Captain Pellaeon stood on the bridge of the Star Destroyer
Chimaera
, looking out the viewport at the stars beyond. Once, all of those stars had belonged to the Empire, and every being on every planet around them had bent knee before the Emperor’s majesty. Now the Empire, or what was left of it, occupied barely a quarter of the systems of the Known Galaxy. The Emperor was dead, his Empire dying. And for four years it had seemed like Pellaeon alone was holding the remnants together. Today, he would relenquish that duty to another.

Around him, on the command deck and in the crew pit beneath, the young crewers worked to keep
Chimaera
in position on the frontier boundary. They were trying to behave like proper Imperials, he had to admit. But trying wasn’t good enough to stop the expanding New Republic. So many of the experienced officers and crewers had died with the Emperor four years past … had died with the
Executor
… with the second Death Star. So many deaths. So many dead. Just like the Empire …

“No!” Pellaeon shouted to himself, driving the weariness and melancholy out of his system. The Empire was not dead. It was wounded, there was no denying that. And it was listing like a war-torn ship, its hull breached and its life support failing … but like that ship, the Empire still had some fight left in it. It still had the ability to take its enemies with it on the final jump, and maybe it had even more than that. Maybe the war would finally take a turn.

Pellaeon thought back to the Battle of Endor. His own commander had died when the
Chimaera
took a hit from a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, and he stepped forward to command the vessel. When the Fleet was reduced to a disorganized shadow of its former self and its destruction seemed imminent, it was Pellaeon who ordered the ships to withdraw. For four years he had struggled to keep the Fleet together and keep the Empire intact. But he was losing. Every day that passed saw another system slip from their grasp, and another victory register for the New Republic. It was harder and harder to keep the other ship commanders in line, and prevent individual Moffs from declaring their sectors new governments. They were fighting a two-pronged war — a rear-guard harassment against what used to be the Rebel Alliance, and a battle against the ambitions and desires of those Imperials with even a small measure of personal power.

The captain was tired. He was old, and his ideals were from a different age. He had served beneath men such as Lord Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Admiral Piett. He had received orders from the Emperor. Now he saw the end in sight, the end of everything he had believed in and served. At least, that was the way he felt a few days past — and then the message arrived.

It came out of the Unknown Regions in a packet of encrypted holo bursts, bypassing all other communications sensors, in favor of the Emperor’s private holopod comm units that had been installed within every Star Destroyer early in Imperial history. Through these holopods, the Emperor and his most-trusted servants could communicate over vast distances. Even the encrypt codes were right. When Pellaeon was made aware of the incoming signals, a shiver ran up his spine. No one had used the holopods since the death of the Emperor. It was a ghost from the past, and Pellaeon stared at the comm board for a long time. “Message received,” the board indicated, blinking the words across the priority screen in urgent intervals. Finally, Captain Pelleaon turned away from the comm board and stepped into the holopod to receive the message.

Pellaeon kneeled before the pod, expecting to see the Emperor’s grim visage appear in holographic form above his head. Instead, he was greeted by a blue-skinned humanoid with powerful features and glowing red eyes. Those eyes seemed to bore into him, taking the measure of the man with burning intensity. But it was the voice that convinced Pellaeon that this man was a high-ranking Imperial. His voice was not loud, but it was strong, and it vibrated with the tones of command.

“I am Grand Admiral Thrawn,” the hologram informed him. “I have been away, but now I have returned. I know some of what has occurred. You will fill in the details of the rest when I come aboard. Rejoice, Captain, for the Empire will rise again. You will find astrogation coordinates that have been encoded with this transmission. I will await your arrival.”

And now Pellaeon was waiting on the frontier for the Grand Admiral to arrive. His fears and concerns were gone. Now there was just the thrill of glories past and the promise of glories to come, personified in a Grand Admiral named Thrawn and carried aboard a shuttle flying out of the Unknown and into the
Chimaera’s
hangar bays.

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Once, twelve Grand Admirals served as the Emperor’s military commanders. Today, five years after the bitter defeat of the Fleet at Endor, only one of these august geniuses remains — Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn is a tall man of regal bearing, but his alien features reveal that he is not entirely of human origin. He has shimmering blue-black hair and pale blue skin. He has glowing red eyes that seem as menacing, in their own way, as the inscrutable, emotionless face mask of Darth Vader once did.

Thrawn had spent much of his career in the Unknown Regions. He was charged with the task of bringing the barbaric worlds and systems under Imperial control. His brilliant successes eventually won him the title of Warlord and the right to wear the white uniform of a Grand Admiral. Knowing the Emperor’s discrimination against nonhumans, this appointment was doubly impressive. Thrawn became the only alien to be admitted into the Grand Admiral brotherhood. It should be noted that Thrawn’s species and homeworld are unknown. While rumors of where the Emperor found him have been wide and varied, the truth has remained Thrawn’s secret, as has most other information regarding Palpatine’s Grand Admirals.

The Warlord is a military genius. He has a very flexible mind, which allows him to find correlations in seemingly unconnected information, and respond effectively to rapidly changing situations. In addition, Thrawn knows almost every tactic and response taught either in the Imperial Academy or the Rebel training centers. He has the ability to twist this knowledge to his own ends, often pulling stunning victories out of certain defeat. He rarely take the most obvious approach to a problem or situation, but instead relies upon his powers of observation, his remarkable intuition, and his masterful powers of reasoning to find a weakness and pursue that avenue. In addition to being highly intelligent, he is tenacious and patient, able to wait out a situation for the optimal moment for action. However, as evidenced following Joruus C’baoth’s actions, even his patience has limits.

The Grand Admiral has a passion for art. He studies the art of the galaxy’s varied species, for he believes that by understanding a species’ art one gains understanding of the species. And understanding is crucial to the art of subjugation and control.

Thrawn returned from the Unknown Regions to find his beloved Emperor dead, his New Order in ruin, and his Empire on the verge of total defeat. He used his considerable skills and command ability to rally the remnants and gather them back into a cohesive fighting unit. He knew he needed two things to defeat the Rebellion and restore the glory of the New Order, and once his Fleet was again in shape, he set out to secure these things. He needs ships and soldiers in order to build a force capable of beating the Rebel fleet. But the means to both of these key items remains a puzzle. He loves puzzles, and he is currently hard at work on the only puzzle worth solving — the complete, total and utter destruction of the Rebellion.

The Grand Admiral found the first piece of his puzzle on the planet Myrkr. Here, he secured tiny creatures called ysalamiri. These creatures have a unique ability which pushes back the Force and renders Jedi powerless.

The second piece was found on a planet called Wayland. Here, Thrawn located one of the Emperor’s personal storehouses. He needed the ysalamiri to get past the Dark Jedi left to guard the storehouse hidden deep within Mount Tantiss. Through the defensive position provided by the ysalamiri, Thrawn was able to gain an added bonus — the services of the Dark Jedi Joruus C’baoth.

In the storehouse, Thrawn found the items he hoped for. With these bits of technology, he would be able to secure his much-needed ships and soldiers. The items, a working cloaking shield and a number of Spaarti cylinders (whose purpose has yet to be revealed), and the powers of a Dark Jedi, have given Thrawn the impetus to set his final campaign into motion.

Thrawn has inherited the services of the Emperor’s private Death Commandos, the alien hunting machines called the Noghri. He sends teams of the deadly beings on strike missions which require ruthlessness, skill, and stealth. The Noghri, Rukh, serves as Thrawn’s personal body guard.

Thrawn has also managed to place a spy within the New Republic’s headquarters in Imperial City. Through this spy, Thrawn often knows the moves of the Rebels before they have been decided.

The New Republic is never referred to as such in Thrawn’s presence. It is simply the Rebellion, and its members are nothing more than Rebels. To call them anything else would be to grant them a legitimacy they do not deserve. To his thinking, they are traitors and criminals. They deserve the full and unyielding punishment of the Empire, which Thrawn believes he will finally deliver unto them.

Thrawn’s base of operations is the Star Destroyer
Chimaera
. While Captain Pellaeon nominally commands the ship, Thrawn commands the entire fleet from his Admiral’s Chair on the bridge and in his command room. Thrawn had the ship’s commander’s luxury and entertainment suite turned into his private meditation chamber and command post. He can often be found sitting in his chair, surrounded by holographic representations of the galaxy’s greatest art treasures. He studies these works, trying to find solutions to the problems facing him and his command. Though most of these pieces of art are merely hologram copies, one piece is real. The sculpture, sitting alone in a globe of light, writhes upon its pedestal like a wave in some bizarre alien ocean. It represents one of the Warlord’s few failures. He was unable to gain understanding of its creators, a species living on a Fringe world. They refused to respond the way he expected them to. Because of this, he destroyed them.

The preliminary action to Thrawn’s campaign against the Rebellion began at Sluis Van. Through circumstances of his own making, the Rebels amassed a fleet of star cruisers at the system’s shipyards — star cruisers the Grand Admiral meant to steal. Only the untimely arrival of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo foiled Thrawn’s plans and kept the ships out of the Empire’s grasp. This victory has slowed down Thrawn’s campaign, but it has not ended it. Thrawn is not merely a soldier, but he is a true warrior. His red eyes are not set on personal glory, but on the final goal. Perhaps, because of this trait, he is destined to succeed where so many Imperials have failed. His campaign continues …

Grand Admiral Thrawn Roleplaying Game Statistics