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The fall of Imperial Center in early 42 rS brought with it the immediate collapse of the Empire’s hitherto iron grip on the Core Worlds. The
Dark Empire Sourcebook states that “Coruscant, Alsakan, Grizmallt, Wukkar and a host of the most heavily populated worlds surrendered to
Admiral Ackbar’s fleet” and “many worlds eagerly threw off the yoke of despotism” (given the prevalence of Quisling satellite regimes among
the million member states of the Empire, this actually implies widespread revolution and regime change). The Essential Guide to Planets and
Moons adds that Duros and its large shipyards were abandoned by the Imperial State “several years after the Battle of Endor,” and that
Chandrila was finally captured “a mere handful of years” after the Grand Vizier’s blockade six months after the Battle of Endor. Coruscant and
the Core Worlds states that the city-states of Recopia IV were among the first Core Worlds to secede and support the Alliance, while Esseles
(Essess III) in the Darpa Sector is said to have peaceably seceded “during the retreat of the Imperial Navy.” Prominent among these losses is
the surrender of Osted Wermis, Commandant of Anaxes Citadel, on Anaxes (Solis Axum IV), the so-called “Defender of the Core” and
headquarters of Azure Hammer Command, charged with defending the worlds of “Sector Zero,” Imperial Center Oversector. The Bacta War
states that “a fair number of military leaders and politicians proclaimed their loyalty to the Empire until Coruscant fell.”
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition explains that the Core Worlds Region had “comprised the heart of Palpatine’s support” and
“there were few who desired the destruction of the Empire” there. Nevertheless, the Imperial State rapidly lost control of this heartland of the
galaxy, and the New Republic took control of much of it. However, at the same time the sourcebook states clearly that the Core Worlds had
been “carefully insulated from the evils taking place in the outer regions” and as a result the New Republic enjoyed popular support that was
“broad, but not particularly deep.” It is not clear how the New Republic addressed the Mussolinification of life under the Empire, if it could
even do so at all, being founded on the principle of decentralization and self-government; more than likely it hoped for local political pressure or
revolution to reverse the more Palpatinistic policies in place on member states. Certainly the Dark Empire Sourcebook indicates that a large
number of Imperial loyalists remained in important positions throughout the Core and the New Republic bureaucracy. In contrast, the Colonies
Region, which “suffered through several brutal battles as the Empire prepared its retreat,” had been much more vigorously administered by the
Imperial State, and as a result came to be much more firmly supportive of the New Republic; presumably these brutal battles took place after
the fall of Imperial Center, as the New Republic had only engaged in “planet hopping” campaigns before the Battle, and Isard had maintained
her hold on most of the Inner Rim, Colonies, and Core Worlds Region throughout her regime.
In The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council concisely states that “as soon as Isard lost control,” the collapse of the
Empire “grew more severe as officers lost faith in their leaders.” Leadership was very much a part of the problem: The Empire was accustomed
to strong leadership, a tendency that had become very much more pronounced during the two and a half years of Isard’s dictatorship. Yet there
was now no single leader strong enough to take command as she had done. Isard’s synchronization policy of centralized defense had
undermined the command and control functions of the Sector Governors, and instead entrusted the High Command with responsibility for
deploying and commanding the Imperial Armed Forces. Yet much of the High Command had been killed or captured with the fall of Imperial
Center, and there was now little in the way of an Imperial general staff to command the centralized forces. In place of Iceheart the dictatrix, the
Imperial State was now directed by “the coalition that had replaced Isard,” according to Solo Command. This coalition was the heterogenous
and fractious Emperor’s Ruling Circle, hitherto united only by their opposition to the Grand Vizier’s and Isard’s regimes. Without this common
element, there was little impetus to maintain solidarity amongst themselves, and each faction within the Circle sought to aggrandize itself at the
other factions’ expense.
Chronologically, the Ruling Circle is first mentioned in Cracken’s Threat Dossier, which states that Admiral Zsinj had chosen to defect from
Imperial service in 39 rS rather than accept subordination to “a group of Palpatine’s advisors led in force by the loathsome Ars Dangor” based
on Imperial Center (this innocuous passage becomes important later because of its statement regarding Dangor). The Essential Chronology,
however, dates Zsinj’s defection as having happened within the first six months after the Battle of Endor, during the Grand Vizier’s regency.
For this reason it seems that the Ruling Circle had attempted to take control of the Imperial State at the same time as the Grand Vizier, and it
resented the latter’s success at establishing himself as the de facto ruler; relations between the Ruling Circle and the Grand Vizier evidently
remained strained for the duration of the Grand Vizier’s regency. Oddly, most stories actually set in this time period do not use the name
“Emperor’s Ruling Circle” at all. The Grand Vizier and his effectual prime minister Ysanne Isard both refer to “the Cabal” in “In the Empire’s
Service,” while the Grand Vizier is formally replaced by a triumvirate called the Tribunal in “Mandatory Retirement.” The Tribunal consisted of
two Tribunes, Challer and Plumba, and one Tribunal Leader, General Paltr Carvin; earlier the story depicts Isard reporting to a committee of at
least six members earlier in the story, of whom Carvin is one. Neither the Tribunal nor the second committee is mentioned in other sources.
Indeed, most other sources gloss over the Grand Vizier’s ouster and Isard’s own coup d’état against the Tribunal. “The Emperor’s Pawns” calls
the ERC “the Imperial Ruling Council” and claims that Sarcev Quest betrayed the Grand Vizier’s clone and left him to the Ruling Circle and to
Isard. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe calls it “the Imperial Interim Ruling Council” and the Grand Vizier’s “rivals in the
Ruling Circle.” In Wedge’s Gamble, Admiral Ackbar says that the Grand Vizier was overthrown by “a coup by a coterie of other Imperial
advisers” but at the same time says that Ysanne Isard, the Director of Imperial Intelligence, “deftly undercut the bureaucrats she had used to
vanquish Pestage and took control of the Empire for herself,” and The Bacta War agrees by calling the Ruling Circle “a cabal of Imperial
Advisors” that “ousted [the Grand Vizier] from power.” In The Essential Chronology, the Historical Council calls the ERC “Palpatine’s former
advisory staff” and claims that “Isard ruthlessly exterminated the Ruling Circle and assumed the throne,” which starwars.com’s Databank agrees
with by claiming that “the Ruling Circle of Imperial officials came to power next, but it was only a matter of time before Isard had them slain as
well.” These sources seem to agree that the late Galactic Emperor’s Privy Counsellors form the basic core of the Ruling Circle, although
“Mandatory Retirement” clearly indicates that there are also commissioned officers of the Armed Forces involved, as evidenced by Carvin’s
position as Tribunal Leader. The Dark Empire Sourcebook heavily implies that the former “Imperial Advisors” and grandees of the Galactic
Emperor’s Imperial court form the backbone of the Ruling Circle, comparing their position in the Empire to that of the Provisional Council in
the New Republic, a non-elected junta which evidently exercised absolute power subject to no check outside its own membership. The same
source, however, also refers to members of the ruling class as “squabbling ministers,” “munitions tycoons and functionaries,” and The Essential
Chronology refers to “a coalition of moffs and Imperial advisers,” “the coalition of advisers,” and “moffs, governors, and other political
leaders.” These disparate interests, in many ways incompatible with one another, were all collected into the Ruling Circle.
The Dark Empire Sourcebook provides a broad outline of the period of the Ruling Circle’s direct control of the Imperial State, one of the few
sources to touch on the period in any detail. It mentions that “charismatic leaders who seemed capable of asserting power were toppled by
jealous rivals and their own greed,” and that “public confidence was eroding rapidly” in light of the crisis in leadership. Internal leadership in
individual Sectors “had not changed significantly,” but nevertheless “Mon Cal cruisers, Corellian Corvettes and the rest of the Republic fleet
drove Star Destroyers from planet after planet,” provoking increasingly pessimistic public sentiment. Furthermore, the Imperial State’s
command and control systems were breaking down, as “access codes changed overnight, troops received inconsistent orders, and commanders
were intractable and independent” (this is symptomatic of the increasing problem of rogue warlordism), and “the Navy might order a system
under Rebel siege defended, only to find a few weeks later the same fleet had been, with all proper procedure, redirected to an insignificant
fortress world deep in the Core” (the Prologue also refers to this breakdown in command and control by saying “whole squadrons and
battlegroups abandoned strategic objectives to follow seemingly random dispatches from competing authorities”). As the Empire lost its grip on
the Core Worlds, Inner Rim, and Expansion Regions, it began to suffer serious financial crises, as HIM Treasury was no longer receiving
anything remotely like the revenues it had once collected; exacerbating this situation was the fact that “huge sums continued to be spent on
useless projects,” such as the construction of an Imperial residence in the Corporate Sector and the construction of the late Galactic Emperor’s
personal flagship, Eclipse; this too was no doubt affected by the loss of comprehensive and accurate treasury records along with Imperial
Center, thus explaining why the finance ministry was unable to “streamline the enormous spending programs” and “guarantee proper
apportionment of credits vital to the perimeter defense efforts” (quite simply, if the ERC didn’t know exactly how much was being
appropriated for any given project, or if it didn’t even had records of all projects, it would be impossible to properly organize them).
The Dark Empire Sourcebook further states that the Imperial State “disintegrated under its own weight, splintering into countless independent
factions with cautious allegiances to other factions, all swearing loyalty to the ‘Empire’,” while “party officials, admirals and advisors jockeyed
for some clear mandate.” Warlordism and secessionism became increasingly acute, and the rapidly expanding New Republic continued to
advance on Imperial territory, “claiming system after system, sector after sector.” Indeed, some of the power blocs within the Empire simply
“surrendered and were absorbed into the growing Republic.” The Ruling Circle’s rule was clearly insufficient to control the dying Empire, and a
mere six months after its assumption of power in early 42 rS, Admiral Betl Oxtroe opened secret negotiations with the New Republic for the
creation of a parliamentary monarchy, with the Galactic Emperor’s “eleven year old remote grandniece” Ederlathh Pallopides as a purely
ceremonial Galactic Empress, and the New Republic’s Provisional Council replacing the Ruling Circle as the actual ruling class; Oxtroe was
assassinated by what is believed to have been a Noghri Death Commando after the first round of these secret talks, and her proposals were
never again put forward.
While the Empire was busily breaking its own back with its death throes, charismatic and audacious rogue warlords rose to increasing
prominence, most especially the self-styled Imperial Warlord Zsinj, who had since come to control a third of the galaxy, according to the
Rebellion Era Sourcebook. The greatest of all the rogue warlords, Zsinj is said by The Essential Chronology to have “gained many new officers,
ships, and planets during the post-Isard defections,” and was revealed in Solo Command to have a matching financial empire of aliases,
pseudonyms, holding companies, and dummy corporations extending not only throughout his own territory, but that of the New Republic and
of the Empire as well. Dressed in the immaculate white of an Imperial grand admiral, Zsinj surveyed his vast domain from a Super Star
Destroyer, the Iron Fist (originally HIMS Brawl, placed under his command by the Galactic Emperor himself). Zsinj’s habit of expanding his
territory at his neighbors’ expense brought him into inevitable conflict with the New Republic and his former masters in the Empire, and both
commissioned special task forces to deal with him, commanded by General Han Solo and Fleet Admiral Teren Rogriss, respectively. For five
months Zsinj battled directly and indirectly with both task forces, at one point even going so far as to launch a sneak attack on Kuat in an
attempt to steal the new Super Star Destroyer Razor’s Kiss in Iron Fist. Finally, Solo and Rogriss agreed to informally coordinate their efforts,
and Zsinj was soundly defeated in the Battle of Selaggis, seemingly resulting in the destruction of his flagship Iron Fist (in reality, Zsinj fled
with Iron Fist to Rancor Base, an enormous 10-kilometer shipyard and naval base orbiting Dathomir in the Outer Rim, defended by “dozens of
old Victory-class models and escort frigates, thousands of box-like barges”). Nevertheless, even this defeat did not eliminate Zsinj as a threat,
and his holdings remained extensive and formidable until his unexpected death — he was vaporized by concussion missiles fired directly into
Iron Fist’s bridge by Solo’s tramp freighter SS Millennium Falcon — in the Battle of Dathomir with a Hapan battle fleet in The Courtship of
Princess Leia.
Zsinj’s death in 43 rS set off what was apparently one of the most violent struggles in the history of the Civil War and the ensuing wars.
According to the Historical Council, the Ruling Circle ordered Rogriss and other fleet commanders into Zsinj’s empire, even as the New
Republic and other warlords — most notably the self-styled High Admiral of the Mid-Rim, Teradoc — did the same. The fighting apparently
resulted in the destruction of a large number of the ships donated to the New Republic by the Hapes Consortium as well as many of their
captured Imperial Star Destroyers (specifically, NRS Crynyd was destroyed, NRS Liberator and NRS Emancipator were heavily damaged and
sent to undergo extensive repairs at the Hast Shipyards, and NRS Rebel Dream was “mercilessly shelled” and recaptured by HIMS
Peremptory). The culmination of this exhausting campaign, during which “the Republic and Empire suffered grave fleet losses,” was the capture
by the New Republic of the highly-prized Kuat, one of the most important shipbuilding centers in the galaxy (KDY’s senior design team fled to
the Deep Core aboard “the half-completed warship Eclipse”); although The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology states that pro-New
Republic administrators were installed in the halls of Kuat Drive Yards’ corporate headquarters, Imperial loyalists remained in control of parts
of the company. In any case, the question was academic, as the New Republic’s capture of Kuat is said by The Essential Chronology to have
caused such extensive damage to the yards themselves that “new construction was delayed indefinitely,” thus depriving both the New Republic
and the Imperial State of their services.
By this time, the Empire was ailing badly. Most of the Core Worlds Region had been lost early in the Ruling Circle’s tenure, as had the
Colonies Region and the Inner Rim Region, although The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition notes that the Inner Rim Region “was
held by the Empire far longer than New Republic analysts expected,” giving rise to a great deal of popular resentment against the New Republic
for its perceived failure to drive the Empire out in a more timely manner. The Expansion Region, formerly a source of “rich tax revenues,” was
now “generally allied with the New Republic,” leaving most of the Imperial State’s holdings in the backwater Outer Rim (which had long ago
ceased to be a major Imperial holding) and the resource-poor Mid-Rim Region, which was infested with pirate fleets and rogue warlords, and
“private empires,” which the Imperial State apparently tolerated on the condition that they supply troops and tribute to the Empire proper.
The latest series of clashes had left the New Republic with control of three quarters of the galaxy, according to The Essential Chronology,
leaving the Empire to share the remaining quarter with other independent states and rogue warlords, such as the Commonality, the Corporate
Sector, the Pentastar Alignment, the Centrality, the Tion Hegemony, and Hutt Space (many of these independent states were formerly Imperial
client states). Even much of these holdings were theoretical at best; some warlords, like Moff Governor Getelles of Antemeridian Sector and the
self-styled Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel of the Ciutric Hegemony, recognized a nominal suzerainty on the part of the Imperial State, but little
else; the Imperial State’s territories in Wild Space, formally annexed by Grand Admiral Thrawn according to A Guide to the Star Wars Universe,
Second Edition, were also largely nominal, as the Empire was “too busy to enforce its subjugation.”
Although the Imperial State held onto its shipyards at Bilbringi in the Inner Rim, it had in fact lost most of its major shipyards, including Kuat,
Corellia, Duro, Sluis Van, and Imperial Center (the disposition and allegiance of Rendili and Loronar are not known during this period), thus
depriving it of much of its capacity to manufacture the Imperial Starfleet’s larger warships, although some shipyards like Ord Trasi and Yaga
Minor remained in the Outer Rim. At the same time, enormous numbers of Imperial warships were simply disappearing, vanishing into the
Deep Galactic Core, making the Navy’s losses during the recent fighting over Zsinj’s territory all the more debilitating. It was quite fortunate
that in an Isardian twist, Kuat — like Brentaal in 39 rS — had been denied to the New Republic as well, and a sudden and unexpected Imperial
raid on the New Republic’s secret Hast Shipyards resulted in that yard’s also being rendered inert, and single-handedly “helped throw the
Republic’s plans years behind schedule,” “cutting short a planned campaign against what remained of the Empire,” according to the Dark
Empire Sourcebook.
From its very beginning as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s comprehensive program for socio-economic reform, the New Order had enjoyed
powerful corporate sponsorship. One large corporation, SoroSuub Corporation, a conglomerate which rivaled TaggeCo. in sheer variety of
markets, actually allied with the rebel Alliance before the Battle of Endor in 39 rS, becoming one of the New Republic’s staunchest allies;
Balmorran Arms, chief manufacturer of the Imperial Army’s AT-ST and SD series war androids, abandoned the Empire when Balmorra itself
did in 40 rS. Two of the largest and most important of the Empire’s corporate partners, TaggeCo. and KDY, had fallen into irregular
relationships, with pro-New Republic administrators being installed in corporate headquarters on Tepasi and Kuat; a third, Santhe/Sienar
Technologies (SST), was now fully independent, and freely sold its products to both the Empire and to the New Republic, according to The
Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology. The same source mentions that artillery manufacturer Golan Arms “allied itself with the New
Republic” after a fight with the Imperial Army’s bureaucracy resulted in most of its contracts being cancelled, and that Czerka Arms, a
voracious corporate imperium in imperio, cancelled its exclusive distribution deal with the Imperial State and began making weapons sales to the
New Republic. Arms & Equipment Guide Extras! mention that Arakyd Industries, a major weapons, starship, and automaton manufacturer,
“sold its products without concern of political background,” despite the claim in The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels that it “remains a
loyal Imperial company” “despite the death of Emperor Palpatine.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that “the Empire
had lost control of the corporations which manufactured its weapons and supplies.”
Furthermore, the collapse of the Empire, rise of the New Republic, and proliferation of independent states created instability in currency, a
phenomenon last seen during the Separatist crisis preceding the Clone War in the 10s rS, as described in “Currency Upheavals Deliver Profits to
IBC.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition explains that at the height of the Empire’s power, the Imperial credit was universally
accepted, “even outside the boundaries of the Empire.” However, the collapse of the Imperial State resulted in this Imperial credit going out of
circulation, replaced by the New Republic credit and a new Imperial credit (which was used only in Imperial territory and in the so-called
Borderland Regions, unaffiliated and independent areas of space between Imperial and Neo-Republican territory); oddly, Geonosis and the
Outer Rim Worlds states that the InterGalactic Banking Clan (IBC) on Muunilinst III was guarantor of both currencies and presumably
functioned as the central bank for both rival states (even though Muunilinst remained Imperial territory, the Imperial State was unable to act
against the IBC without destabilizing its own currency). Furthermore, the relative value of the two currencies fluctuated wildly, a problem
exacerbated by the fact that “many planets, local governments and other corporations have their own currencies, which may or may not be
accepted depending on where in the galaxy you are,” which of course provoked currency speculation, which in turn encouraged lack of faith in
money; barter became an increasingly preferred means of exchange. The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that in this time period
“corporations go bankrupt or make fortunes on a regular basis,” that “companies default on their loans and use military force to dissuade
creditors,” and “the value of the myriad of currencies in the galaxy fluctuates more rapidly than financial market computers can calculate,”
which, in addition to rampant piracy, made commerce extremely risky. The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition even points out that
these “fears of economic instability” and “lack of new incentives to restart the engines of industry” had dragged the galactic economy into
depression, leaving even the New Republic “far from wealthy” and needing to “scrounge for supplies and ships.”
The arrival of the year 44 rS found the Ruling Circle ruling an Imperial State with nominal control of “barely a quarter of the galaxy” and
suffering from a stagflated economy and lack of ships and resources. The Dark Empire Sourcebook explains that the Ruling Circle suddenly and
quite unexpectedly received “a series of ident codes” from the Unknown Regions, which were “unquestionably authentic” and “accompanied a
holo message” from the last of Isard’s pet Loyalist grand admirals, Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last Warlord of the Empire (a title whose precise
significance is unknown, but which appears to have been distributed at the Galactic Emperor’s pleasure, as the Dark Empire Sourcebook refers
to him as “the last of the Emperor’s Warlords,” and Heir to the Empire states that his “brilliant successes had won him the title of Warlord and
the right to wear the white uniform of Grand Admiral — the only nonhuman ever granted that honor by the Emperor”). The Essential
Chronology states that Thrawn was promptly occupied for six months with reorganizing the fleet and commanding “strategic raids along the
New Republic-Imperial border,” which “weren’t sufficient to panic the New Republic,” but served to impress the Ruling Circle (referred to as
“the moffs, governors, and other political leaders”); evidently this included having Imperial warships patrol deep within New Republic space,
as the smuggler Mara Jade was detained in Dark Force Rising by HIMS Adamant, a Victory Star Destroyer patrolling the Abregado system,
which Coruscant and the Core Worlds explicitly states to have been a lawless port on the edge of the Core Worlds Region. The Dark Empire
Sourcebook explains that the Ruling Circle quickly put aside their differences and decided that Thrawn would be the perfect figurehead, being a
non-human with “no power base save his own competence,” who could “rely on no support other than what they chose to give him.” In the
event of his success, they would back him and reap the rewards of his conquests. In the event that he should prove “too independent,” they
resolved to have him assassinated. Thus in agreement, the Ruling Circle appointed him their supreme commander and Thrawn was “effectively
handed the reins of the Empire.”
The Essential Chronology states that Thrawn “consolidated loyal Imperial forces,” which probably refers to the quasi-independent pocket
empires under nominal Imperial suzerainty in the Mid-Rim; The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that “many such areas”
controlled by the Empire were “firmly controlled by the Imperial starfleet, which for the time being has rallied around Grand Admiral Thrawn,”
but “this is a tenuous alliance at best,” as “many of the regions of ‘Imperial Space’ are actually small dictatorships, administered and controlled
by the Moffs who were directed to run them for the Emperor in years past.” (The Dark Empire Sourcebook adds that “Thrawn’s support was
far from universal or even enthusiastic.”) Second to this consolidation of Imperial command and control, the Historical Council further states
that he “marginalized warlord fiefdoms” such as Ardus Kaine’s Pentastar Alignment and the Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric Hegemony (although
Isard’s Revenge indicates that the latter gave some financial support to the Imperial State during Thrawn’s shōgunate). According to Thrawn’s
flag captain, Captain Gilad Pellaeon (Commanding Officer, HIMS Chimaera), actual operations during this period generally consisted of “minor
shipping raid[s]” and “complex but straightforward hit-and-fade[s] against some insignificant planetary base.” One such minor operation was
the information raid on Obroa-skai seen in Heir to the Empire.
Thrawn used information recovered from Obroa-skai to find his way to Wayland, an obscure planet which happened to house one of the
Galactic Emperor’s private storehouses; among those items to be found in this particular storehouse was a working cloaking device (which The
Essential Chronology states was a derivative of the late Grand Admiral Martio Batch’s defunct Vorknkx Project), and 20,000 cloning cylinders
manufactured during the Clone War by Spaarti Creations, as seen in “Hero of Cartao.” He also obtained the services of an insane clone of Jorus
C’baoth, a Jedi Master who had formerly been “Jedi Advisor” to Senator Palpatine; for some inexplicable reason, this clone mispronounces his
own given name as “Joruus,” which Thrawn tells his flag captain is a telltale sign of his identity as a clone (more probably, Thrawn knew that
Joruus C’baoth was a clone based on the rather more mundane evidence that he had killed Master Jedi Jorus C’baoth on then-Supreme
Chancellor Palpatine’s orders several years before, as mentioned in Heir to the Empire). One month after joining the Grand Admiral’s war
effort, the dangerously unstable C’baoth proclaimed himself the legitimate heir to the Galactic Emperor, a claim which was ignored by everyone
not under C’baoth’s direct influence (for his part, Thrawn chose to indulge C’baoth’s fantasy that the Chiss warlord continued to serve as
shōgun of the Empire at his pleasure).
Although Thrawn had finally found a partial solution to the stormtrooper and manpower shortage which had been plaguing the Empire since
Isard’s regency — partial, because with only 20,000 cylinders and a gestation period of 15 to 20 days (as stated in The Last Command),
Thrawn could only decant about 35,000 to 47,000 clones per 35-day month, which is only equivalent to a full ship’s company of an Imperial
Star Destroyer — , he encountered the strategist’s worst logistical nightmare: he now had more troops than he had ships to move them. His
first solution to this crippling shortage of ships was to attempt to steal warships from the Sluis Van shipyards, where there were “a hundred
ships [...] at any given time, not to mention the docking facilities themselves,” according to Commander Wedge Antilles. Despite personally
commanding the strike force, he was defeated in battle and wisely withdrew once it was clear he could not accomplish his goal (he had, however,
successfully crippled forty New Republic warships, which were “grievously damaged, and removed from military service until their bridges
could be rebuilt,” which would take months, according to The Essential Chronology). Still, hoping to get as much value out of the operation as
possible, Thrawn used Imperial Intelligence — which the scholars call in the Star Wars Encyclopedia “one of the best trained and professional
parts of the Empire to survive the Battle of Endor,” and is said to have “fully supported” Thrawn — to manufacture a scandal against Ackbar,
effecting his removal as the New Republic’s supreme commander in Dark Force Rising; aside from Ackbar and the former Grand Admiral
Grant, in quiet retirement on Rathalay — “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals” indicates that he waited the entire length of Thrawn’s War
for an invitation to fight his ex-colleague, confident in his ability to defeat the Chiss generalissimo — , there was no one in the New Republic
who could match Thrawn’s tactical brilliance.
With the failure of his scheme to steal New Republic warships in Heir to the Empire, Thrawn needed to find another source to supplement the
new construction being undertaken at the Bilbringi, Ord Trasi, and Yaga Minor shipyards (all of which were mentioned as being active in The
Last Command). He decided to make use of the fabled lost Katana fleet of Dreadnought heavy cruisers, which had vanished into hyperspace
shortly before the outbreak of the Clone War in 13 rS, according to Dark Force Rising; these Dreadnoughts had been modified so as to be less
manpower-intensive than the standard model. This operation was largely successful; at the cost of a single Imperial Star Destroyer — HIMS
Peremptory, destroyed by collision with an unmanned Dreadnought during a battle with New Republic forces — Thrawn had recovered 178 of
the 200 derelict heavy cruisers (The Essential Chronology states that fifteen remained unclaimed, to which must be added former Imperial
Senator Garm Bel Iblis’s six refitted Dreadnoughts and the Dreadnought which collided with Peremptory, both mentioned in Dark Force Rising).
Thrawn had kept up a brisk operational tempo throughout the Empire’s forces since his appointment as the Ruling Circle’s generalissimo, but it
was not until a month after the Katana fleet skirmish — a time that Pellaeon described as being occupied with “frenzied preparations” — that
he finally felt prepared for a full resumption of hostilities, seen in The Last Command. The first operation of Thrawn’s “master campaign for
the Empire’s final victory” was the attack on Ukio (Abrion Sector), a complicated and elaborate affair in the Abrion and Dufilvian Sectors. The
attack began with Captain Aban’s Bellicose Battle Group — the Imperial Star Destroyer herself and eight of the recovered Katana
Dreadnaughts — launching an attack on Ando, in the process drawing away ships from the New Republic’s naval base at Ord Pardron; this
attack was immediately followed by Captain Brandei’s Judicator Battle Group’s attack on Filve, Nemesis Battle Group’s attack on Crondre,
“and so on and so on,” until the Ord Pardron base itself was badly underdefended and exposed to attack by Captain Harbid’s Death’s Head
Battle Group. This in turn drew all available naval assets to relieve the beleaguered naval base, leaving them unable to come to the defense of
Thrawn’s true target: Ukio, which Luke Skywalker called “one of the top five producers of foodstuffs in the entire New Republic.”
Ukio’s planetary defense shield and ground/space arsenal would have ordinarily made it an unattractive target, necessitating heavy orbital
bombardment, a lengthy siege, or an amphibious landing in force, any of which would require a sizeable investment in time and resources on the
Empire’s part, in addition to the difficulty of capturing so well defended a planet intact; Ukio was defended by a full-scale planetary deflector
shield, as opposed to the theater deflector shield employed by the rebel Alliance at Hoth VI, which was in itself “powerful enough to deflect
any bombardment” by the late Darth Vader’s Death Squadron, which was substantially larger than Chimaera and Stormhawk Battle Groups,
which Thrawn had assigned to capture Ukio. To overcome this tactical and strategic problem, Thrawn made novel use of Batch’s cloaking
technology and C’baoth’s preternatural abilities in order to create an effective illusion of his flagship accurately firing through the planetary
deflector shields; this illusion was so effective that the Overliege of Ukio surrendered, with Thrawn’s guarantee that there would be no war-
status tax levies on the planet or conscription of Ukian youths. Nevertheless Thrawn made clear that Ukio would be expected to contribute its
share toward the Imperial war effort, most probably making those contributions from its “extensive food production and processing facilities”
and “food distribution system, the processing facilities, and vast farming and livestock grazing regions.” In a single stroke, Thrawn acquired a
major source of foodstuffs and supplies for his own forces, deprived the New Republic of the same in equal measure, and sent political
shockwaves throughout Abrion Sector and its neighbors: Not only had the New Republic failed to defend so important a world as Ukio, and
had a major naval base sustain severe damage, but now the Empire had a beachhead and staging point in the Sector, not to mention what
appeared to be a powerful weapon capable of piercing even the most formidable of planetary defenses.
Ukio was only the beginning. Coruscant and the Core Worlds states that “Imperial forces seized a region of space bordering Abregado-rae,”
which the New Republic’s strategists interpreted as a potential beachhead for invasion of the system itself in preparation for an “advance on
Coruscant with a twin-pincer tactic through the galactic northern and southern quadrants,” which was ultimately a game of misdirection, as
Thrawn was quite unambiguous with his flag captain and C’baoth that he was not prepared for an attack on Coruscant. Instead, Thrawn
invaded the Farrfin and Dolomar Sectors, where he met stiffer resistance than he had anticipated and had C’baoth repeat the Ukian fraud with
Death’s Head Battle Group at Woostri. He began planning an attack on Mrisst, in order to divert the Coruscant sector fleet to defend it, or else
seize the planet and acquire a forward base, complementing the Abregado-rae beachhead, and personally led an attack on Ord Mantell to
destabilize the surrounding region of space and ease New Republic pressure on the Empire’s shaky shipyard supply lines; already the Bilbringi
Naval Shipyard was running low on Tibanna gas, as well as hfredium and kammris. Thrawn’s response was to order an increase in Tibanna
production from the garrison on Bespin and to order three Katana Dreadnaughts to Nkllon to steal Lando Calrissian’s stockpiles of hfredium,
kammris, dolovite, and other metals, rather than pay the rising market prices (the stockpiles, which were probably destined for sale to the New
Republic, were worth some three million credits according to Calrissian). As with the capture of Ukio, the raid on Nkllon simultaneously
deprived the New Republic of the same resources, with the added bonus that the mining facilities were crippled and would not soon replace the
stolen metals.
Thrawn’s campaign against the New Republic met with considerable success. As the Princess Leia of Alderaan’s aide Dame Winter described
the situation, “In the past five days we’ve effectively lost control of four sectors, and thirteen more are on the edge,” a statement that Admiral
Hiram Drayson — Mothma’s pet admiral and evidently the New Republic’s deputy supreme commander, although that is far from certain —
supported with his claim that “at the rate he’s going, Grand Admiral Thrawn could take three more sectors in ten days.” It seems necessary that
much of Thrawn’s success was as much due to political victories as to military ones, given that Sectors can contain thousands of planets and
stars. These victories could possibly owe much to propaganda and political fallout from spectacular triumphs like the bloodless conquests of
Ukio and Woostri — indeed, The Essential Chronology states that “this trick worked so well that dozens of planets, thinking their defenses
hopelessly compromised, surrendered to the Empire without a fight” — or to the fact that Thrawn seemed invincible, even dealing a sound
defeat to the New Republic’s famed General Garm Bel Iblis at Qat Chrystac, where Thrawn’s Star Destroyers and Dreadnaughts destroyed a
third of Bel Iblis’s ships before forcing the former Imperial Senator from Corellia to retreat. Coruscant and the Core Worlds states that at some
point the Empire re-occupied Duro in the Core Worlds Region, while Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds mentions that the Empire also
launched an attack on the major shipping port of Svivren, which ultimately resulted in defeat for the Imperial invasion forces, but in the process
destroyed the Svivreni crystal gravfield trap (CGT) array. Thrawn was even so audacious as to launch a raid on Coruscant itself, an extended
hit-and-fade operation intended to shake New Republic morale; the course of this raid involved the release of 22 cloaked asteroids into
Coruscant’s orbit, requiring the planetary deflector shields be kept up constantly to prevent a disastrous asteroid strike. He then proceeded to
launch an attack on Atrivis Sector, capturing the New Republic’s communications center on Generis and most of the sector fleet’s supply
depots, although the New Republic’s General Kryll managed to evacuate the famous rebel leader Travia “Icewoman” Chan and her staff before
Atrivis Sector fell. Thrawn then promptly oversaw the capture of Xa Fel and the heart of Kanchen Sector (The Last Command Sourcebook
succinctly calls Xa Fel “one of Kuat Drive Yards’ (KDY) major manufacturing facilities, producing fully 20 percent of the corporation’s
inventory of starship hyperdrive engines”).
The New Republic’s joint operations staff determined that it was necessary to relieve Coruscant of the phantom siege — Thrawn’s attack force
had simulated the launch of 287 asteroids, and the New Republic did not know there were only 22 actually released — and so determined to
acquire a new CGT array in order to assist in searching for the asteroids. New Republic Intelligence located three available arrays, all in Imperial
space. The joint operations staff decided to prepare a feint on the new Ubiqtorate base being constructed at Tangrene, while the real operation
would be an assault on the Bilbringi Naval Shipyard, with the intent of stealing the CGT array and at the same time severely damaging the
Empire’s still limited shipbuilding capabilities (Talon Karrde’s sources indicated that the New Republic was supposedly to devote two sector
fleets to the attack on Tangrene). Thrawn’s interpretation of Ackbar’s and Bel Iblis’s personalities — based on their tastes in art — led him to
guess that the Tangrene operation was a cover for an attack on Bilbringi and immediately set out to prepare a trap, at the same time freely
admitting to his flag captain that he had no intelligence to substantiate his guess, and indeed expressly prohibiting an increase in Imperial
Intelligence operations near Bilbringi to identify Neo-Republican preparations, on the grounds that such operations would tip off the New
Republic that their plan had been discovered.
Mere days before the attack on Tangrene was scheduled to go forward, Thrawn received word from High Colonel Kleyn Selid, garrison
commander at Mount Tantiss on Wayland, that Thrawn’s best general, General Freja Covell, had died hours after arriving at Wayland with a
company of soldiers and troops intended to serve as templates for the cloning project. The matter was made even more unfortunate by the fact
that Covell’s death was a direct result of C’baoth’s destructive form of mind control; Thrawn ordered C’baoth’s immediate arrest and detention
in the Galactic Emperor’s quarters in Mount Tantiss, on the grounds that it was the safest place in the Empire to confine him. Unbeknownst to
Thrawn, a team of New Republic saboteurs led by a trio of former New Republic generals — Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Lando Calrissian
— had already arrived on Wayland to destroy the cloning facilities, having obtained the planet’s location from the former Emperor’s Hand,
Mara Jade, who had once accompanied the Galactic Emperor to Wayland.
Somewhat earlier in the course of Thrawn’s War, the smuggler chieftains Mazzic and Ellor had launched a surprise attack on the Bilbringi Naval
Shipyard, destroying an Imperial Star Destroyer that was nearing completion as a rather costly vengeance for an Imperial raid that had killed
Mazzic’s friend. Since then, Thrawn had ordered the Shipyard’s commandant, High General Theol Drost, to reorganize the security measures;
Drost had positioned shield generators throughout the yards to create security fields preventing traffic from flowing through the yards except in
flight paths predetermined and assigned by Bilbringi Control, where the CGT array was. The smuggler chieftain Talon Karrde — Mara Jade’s
current employer — convinced other smuggler chiefs to combine their fleets to steal the CGT array from Bilbringi during the New Republic
attack on Tangrene and sell it to the New Republic; as a result, a sizeable fifth column of ships was within the Shipyard facilities themselves
when the Imperial battle fleet arrived and set up an entrapment formation, dragging the two New Republic sector fleets from hyperspace by
means of Interdictor cruisers. Isard’s Revenge indicates that the Imperial fleet had been arranged in a large bowl-like formation, with Golan II
Space Defense Stations in place behind it protecting the yards themselves. Unfortunately for the Empire, the combination of the New Republic
fleet and the smuggler forces damaged the Golan II stations, and exposed the Shipyard itself to enemy attack. Even as Thrawn prepared to
maneuver his forces in response, he received word of an attack on Mount Tantiss — although Thrawn did not yet know it, the cloning facilities
had been destroyed and C’baoth killed — and Thrawn himself was assassinated aboard his own flagship by his bodyguard, a Noghri Death
Commando named Rukh clain Baikh’vair, in revenge for the Imperial State’s deliberate and treacherous policy of holding his species in
perpetual servitude. Panicked, Thrawn’s flag captain immediately ordered a full retreat, leaving the entire Bilbringi Naval Shipyard in the hands
of the New Republic.
Thrawn’s successes were remarkable, especially given the desperate strategic, financial, and political situation he’d inherited upon assuming the
supreme command of Imperial forces. He had commanded a successful war against a numerically, militarily, and strategically superior enemy
despite severe handicaps, demonstrating ingenuity and genius in a war quite unlike any that his predecessors Admiral Terrinald Screed and
Darth Vader had ever fought. Despite the fact that he was only the supreme commander and not regent like the Grand Vizier and Isard, Thrawn
was the first strong leader the Empire had seen since the fall of Isard’s dictatorial regime; indeed, Thrawn’s shōgunate ultimately reflects better
on his prowess as a leader than Isard’s regency reflects on hers. Isard the regent had acquired her position through treachery and ruthlessness,
whereas Thrawn the shōgun’s rise to power was the product of pure merit. Isard had ruled a vast Empire with every advantage, and had lost it
to the rebel Alliance; Thrawn had commanded a crippled and demoralized Empire banished to the galactic backwater, and yet had become the
first Imperial leader to retake territory that had been lost to the Empire’s enemies; The Essential Chronology says that Thrawn’s War, which
lasted somewhat less than six months, nearly doubled the size of the Empire. Thrawn had succeeded brilliantly despite commanding the forces
of an Empire plagued by chronic shortages of resources, manpower, ships, and money, and still ruled by a fractious cabal of intrigants.
Unfortunately, Thrawn was a one-man show, and there was no one else in the Empire who could take his place when he was killed; the result
was an immediate collapse of the Imperial offensive after his assassination. The High Command had evidently not been involved in much of the
strategic planning; like some musical prodigy, Thrawn appeared to do all of his operational planning in his head, and only then informed his
subordinates of their assigned tasks (Pash Cracken notes for example that he didn’t think Thrawn personally commanded the attack on Generis,
but “he sure planned out the assault”). He kept his own counsel and only discussed his plans with his flag captain; his only interaction with his
best general, General Freja Covell, was to give him his marching orders and to subject him to professional discourtesies like attempting to
micromanage his operations (such as giving him instructions on how to deploy his already-advancing cavalry force on Myrkyr in Dark Force
Rising). While Thrawn may have been a genius, he did little to endear himself to his senior commanders, treating them as little more than junior
watchstanders. He had not even so much as informed his “top Fleet and army commanders” about the Mount Tantiss project until two weeks
before Covell was to lead a force of clones to the surface of Ukio, according to The Last Command. Furthermore Thrawn was poor at delegating
responsibility, and frequently commanded operations in person; this necessarily left the coordination of concurrent operations in other theaters
to someone far less qualified and not privy to all the details of the overall strategy, while the supreme commander exposed himself to
unnecessary danger and wasted his time with work that should have been delegated to a competent task force commander or fleet commander.
Thrawn’s uniqueness was simultaneously his greatest strength and his greatest weakness: his death left the Imperial State in the unenviable
position of having to replace an irreplaceable supreme commander. With his death, the entire Imperial war effort ground to a halt, and, as The
Essential Chronology puts it, “the New Republic began recapturing its lost territory, planet by planet.”
See also:
Dark Empire Sourcebook states that “Coruscant, Alsakan, Grizmallt, Wukkar and a host of the most heavily populated worlds surrendered to
Admiral Ackbar’s fleet” and “many worlds eagerly threw off the yoke of despotism” (given the prevalence of Quisling satellite regimes among
the million member states of the Empire, this actually implies widespread revolution and regime change). The Essential Guide to Planets and
Moons adds that Duros and its large shipyards were abandoned by the Imperial State “several years after the Battle of Endor,” and that
Chandrila was finally captured “a mere handful of years” after the Grand Vizier’s blockade six months after the Battle of Endor. Coruscant and
the Core Worlds states that the city-states of Recopia IV were among the first Core Worlds to secede and support the Alliance, while Esseles
(Essess III) in the Darpa Sector is said to have peaceably seceded “during the retreat of the Imperial Navy.” Prominent among these losses is
the surrender of Osted Wermis, Commandant of Anaxes Citadel, on Anaxes (Solis Axum IV), the so-called “Defender of the Core” and
headquarters of Azure Hammer Command, charged with defending the worlds of “Sector Zero,” Imperial Center Oversector. The Bacta War
states that “a fair number of military leaders and politicians proclaimed their loyalty to the Empire until Coruscant fell.”
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition explains that the Core Worlds Region had “comprised the heart of Palpatine’s support” and
“there were few who desired the destruction of the Empire” there. Nevertheless, the Imperial State rapidly lost control of this heartland of the
galaxy, and the New Republic took control of much of it. However, at the same time the sourcebook states clearly that the Core Worlds had
been “carefully insulated from the evils taking place in the outer regions” and as a result the New Republic enjoyed popular support that was
“broad, but not particularly deep.” It is not clear how the New Republic addressed the Mussolinification of life under the Empire, if it could
even do so at all, being founded on the principle of decentralization and self-government; more than likely it hoped for local political pressure or
revolution to reverse the more Palpatinistic policies in place on member states. Certainly the Dark Empire Sourcebook indicates that a large
number of Imperial loyalists remained in important positions throughout the Core and the New Republic bureaucracy. In contrast, the Colonies
Region, which “suffered through several brutal battles as the Empire prepared its retreat,” had been much more vigorously administered by the
Imperial State, and as a result came to be much more firmly supportive of the New Republic; presumably these brutal battles took place after
the fall of Imperial Center, as the New Republic had only engaged in “planet hopping” campaigns before the Battle, and Isard had maintained
her hold on most of the Inner Rim, Colonies, and Core Worlds Region throughout her regime.
In The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council concisely states that “as soon as Isard lost control,” the collapse of the
Empire “grew more severe as officers lost faith in their leaders.” Leadership was very much a part of the problem: The Empire was accustomed
to strong leadership, a tendency that had become very much more pronounced during the two and a half years of Isard’s dictatorship. Yet there
was now no single leader strong enough to take command as she had done. Isard’s synchronization policy of centralized defense had
undermined the command and control functions of the Sector Governors, and instead entrusted the High Command with responsibility for
deploying and commanding the Imperial Armed Forces. Yet much of the High Command had been killed or captured with the fall of Imperial
Center, and there was now little in the way of an Imperial general staff to command the centralized forces. In place of Iceheart the dictatrix, the
Imperial State was now directed by “the coalition that had replaced Isard,” according to Solo Command. This coalition was the heterogenous
and fractious Emperor’s Ruling Circle, hitherto united only by their opposition to the Grand Vizier’s and Isard’s regimes. Without this common
element, there was little impetus to maintain solidarity amongst themselves, and each faction within the Circle sought to aggrandize itself at the
other factions’ expense.
Chronologically, the Ruling Circle is first mentioned in Cracken’s Threat Dossier, which states that Admiral Zsinj had chosen to defect from
Imperial service in 39 rS rather than accept subordination to “a group of Palpatine’s advisors led in force by the loathsome Ars Dangor” based
on Imperial Center (this innocuous passage becomes important later because of its statement regarding Dangor). The Essential Chronology,
however, dates Zsinj’s defection as having happened within the first six months after the Battle of Endor, during the Grand Vizier’s regency.
For this reason it seems that the Ruling Circle had attempted to take control of the Imperial State at the same time as the Grand Vizier, and it
resented the latter’s success at establishing himself as the de facto ruler; relations between the Ruling Circle and the Grand Vizier evidently
remained strained for the duration of the Grand Vizier’s regency. Oddly, most stories actually set in this time period do not use the name
“Emperor’s Ruling Circle” at all. The Grand Vizier and his effectual prime minister Ysanne Isard both refer to “the Cabal” in “In the Empire’s
Service,” while the Grand Vizier is formally replaced by a triumvirate called the Tribunal in “Mandatory Retirement.” The Tribunal consisted of
two Tribunes, Challer and Plumba, and one Tribunal Leader, General Paltr Carvin; earlier the story depicts Isard reporting to a committee of at
least six members earlier in the story, of whom Carvin is one. Neither the Tribunal nor the second committee is mentioned in other sources.
Indeed, most other sources gloss over the Grand Vizier’s ouster and Isard’s own coup d’état against the Tribunal. “The Emperor’s Pawns” calls
the ERC “the Imperial Ruling Council” and claims that Sarcev Quest betrayed the Grand Vizier’s clone and left him to the Ruling Circle and to
Isard. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe calls it “the Imperial Interim Ruling Council” and the Grand Vizier’s “rivals in the
Ruling Circle.” In Wedge’s Gamble, Admiral Ackbar says that the Grand Vizier was overthrown by “a coup by a coterie of other Imperial
advisers” but at the same time says that Ysanne Isard, the Director of Imperial Intelligence, “deftly undercut the bureaucrats she had used to
vanquish Pestage and took control of the Empire for herself,” and The Bacta War agrees by calling the Ruling Circle “a cabal of Imperial
Advisors” that “ousted [the Grand Vizier] from power.” In The Essential Chronology, the Historical Council calls the ERC “Palpatine’s former
advisory staff” and claims that “Isard ruthlessly exterminated the Ruling Circle and assumed the throne,” which starwars.com’s Databank agrees
with by claiming that “the Ruling Circle of Imperial officials came to power next, but it was only a matter of time before Isard had them slain as
well.” These sources seem to agree that the late Galactic Emperor’s Privy Counsellors form the basic core of the Ruling Circle, although
“Mandatory Retirement” clearly indicates that there are also commissioned officers of the Armed Forces involved, as evidenced by Carvin’s
position as Tribunal Leader. The Dark Empire Sourcebook heavily implies that the former “Imperial Advisors” and grandees of the Galactic
Emperor’s Imperial court form the backbone of the Ruling Circle, comparing their position in the Empire to that of the Provisional Council in
the New Republic, a non-elected junta which evidently exercised absolute power subject to no check outside its own membership. The same
source, however, also refers to members of the ruling class as “squabbling ministers,” “munitions tycoons and functionaries,” and The Essential
Chronology refers to “a coalition of moffs and Imperial advisers,” “the coalition of advisers,” and “moffs, governors, and other political
leaders.” These disparate interests, in many ways incompatible with one another, were all collected into the Ruling Circle.
The Dark Empire Sourcebook provides a broad outline of the period of the Ruling Circle’s direct control of the Imperial State, one of the few
sources to touch on the period in any detail. It mentions that “charismatic leaders who seemed capable of asserting power were toppled by
jealous rivals and their own greed,” and that “public confidence was eroding rapidly” in light of the crisis in leadership. Internal leadership in
individual Sectors “had not changed significantly,” but nevertheless “Mon Cal cruisers, Corellian Corvettes and the rest of the Republic fleet
drove Star Destroyers from planet after planet,” provoking increasingly pessimistic public sentiment. Furthermore, the Imperial State’s
command and control systems were breaking down, as “access codes changed overnight, troops received inconsistent orders, and commanders
were intractable and independent” (this is symptomatic of the increasing problem of rogue warlordism), and “the Navy might order a system
under Rebel siege defended, only to find a few weeks later the same fleet had been, with all proper procedure, redirected to an insignificant
fortress world deep in the Core” (the Prologue also refers to this breakdown in command and control by saying “whole squadrons and
battlegroups abandoned strategic objectives to follow seemingly random dispatches from competing authorities”). As the Empire lost its grip on
the Core Worlds, Inner Rim, and Expansion Regions, it began to suffer serious financial crises, as HIM Treasury was no longer receiving
anything remotely like the revenues it had once collected; exacerbating this situation was the fact that “huge sums continued to be spent on
useless projects,” such as the construction of an Imperial residence in the Corporate Sector and the construction of the late Galactic Emperor’s
personal flagship, Eclipse; this too was no doubt affected by the loss of comprehensive and accurate treasury records along with Imperial
Center, thus explaining why the finance ministry was unable to “streamline the enormous spending programs” and “guarantee proper
apportionment of credits vital to the perimeter defense efforts” (quite simply, if the ERC didn’t know exactly how much was being
appropriated for any given project, or if it didn’t even had records of all projects, it would be impossible to properly organize them).
The Dark Empire Sourcebook further states that the Imperial State “disintegrated under its own weight, splintering into countless independent
factions with cautious allegiances to other factions, all swearing loyalty to the ‘Empire’,” while “party officials, admirals and advisors jockeyed
for some clear mandate.” Warlordism and secessionism became increasingly acute, and the rapidly expanding New Republic continued to
advance on Imperial territory, “claiming system after system, sector after sector.” Indeed, some of the power blocs within the Empire simply
“surrendered and were absorbed into the growing Republic.” The Ruling Circle’s rule was clearly insufficient to control the dying Empire, and a
mere six months after its assumption of power in early 42 rS, Admiral Betl Oxtroe opened secret negotiations with the New Republic for the
creation of a parliamentary monarchy, with the Galactic Emperor’s “eleven year old remote grandniece” Ederlathh Pallopides as a purely
ceremonial Galactic Empress, and the New Republic’s Provisional Council replacing the Ruling Circle as the actual ruling class; Oxtroe was
assassinated by what is believed to have been a Noghri Death Commando after the first round of these secret talks, and her proposals were
never again put forward.
While the Empire was busily breaking its own back with its death throes, charismatic and audacious rogue warlords rose to increasing
prominence, most especially the self-styled Imperial Warlord Zsinj, who had since come to control a third of the galaxy, according to the
Rebellion Era Sourcebook. The greatest of all the rogue warlords, Zsinj is said by The Essential Chronology to have “gained many new officers,
ships, and planets during the post-Isard defections,” and was revealed in Solo Command to have a matching financial empire of aliases,
pseudonyms, holding companies, and dummy corporations extending not only throughout his own territory, but that of the New Republic and
of the Empire as well. Dressed in the immaculate white of an Imperial grand admiral, Zsinj surveyed his vast domain from a Super Star
Destroyer, the Iron Fist (originally HIMS Brawl, placed under his command by the Galactic Emperor himself). Zsinj’s habit of expanding his
territory at his neighbors’ expense brought him into inevitable conflict with the New Republic and his former masters in the Empire, and both
commissioned special task forces to deal with him, commanded by General Han Solo and Fleet Admiral Teren Rogriss, respectively. For five
months Zsinj battled directly and indirectly with both task forces, at one point even going so far as to launch a sneak attack on Kuat in an
attempt to steal the new Super Star Destroyer Razor’s Kiss in Iron Fist. Finally, Solo and Rogriss agreed to informally coordinate their efforts,
and Zsinj was soundly defeated in the Battle of Selaggis, seemingly resulting in the destruction of his flagship Iron Fist (in reality, Zsinj fled
with Iron Fist to Rancor Base, an enormous 10-kilometer shipyard and naval base orbiting Dathomir in the Outer Rim, defended by “dozens of
old Victory-class models and escort frigates, thousands of box-like barges”). Nevertheless, even this defeat did not eliminate Zsinj as a threat,
and his holdings remained extensive and formidable until his unexpected death — he was vaporized by concussion missiles fired directly into
Iron Fist’s bridge by Solo’s tramp freighter SS Millennium Falcon — in the Battle of Dathomir with a Hapan battle fleet in The Courtship of
Princess Leia.
Zsinj’s death in 43 rS set off what was apparently one of the most violent struggles in the history of the Civil War and the ensuing wars.
According to the Historical Council, the Ruling Circle ordered Rogriss and other fleet commanders into Zsinj’s empire, even as the New
Republic and other warlords — most notably the self-styled High Admiral of the Mid-Rim, Teradoc — did the same. The fighting apparently
resulted in the destruction of a large number of the ships donated to the New Republic by the Hapes Consortium as well as many of their
captured Imperial Star Destroyers (specifically, NRS Crynyd was destroyed, NRS Liberator and NRS Emancipator were heavily damaged and
sent to undergo extensive repairs at the Hast Shipyards, and NRS Rebel Dream was “mercilessly shelled” and recaptured by HIMS
Peremptory). The culmination of this exhausting campaign, during which “the Republic and Empire suffered grave fleet losses,” was the capture
by the New Republic of the highly-prized Kuat, one of the most important shipbuilding centers in the galaxy (KDY’s senior design team fled to
the Deep Core aboard “the half-completed warship Eclipse”); although The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology states that pro-New
Republic administrators were installed in the halls of Kuat Drive Yards’ corporate headquarters, Imperial loyalists remained in control of parts
of the company. In any case, the question was academic, as the New Republic’s capture of Kuat is said by The Essential Chronology to have
caused such extensive damage to the yards themselves that “new construction was delayed indefinitely,” thus depriving both the New Republic
and the Imperial State of their services.
By this time, the Empire was ailing badly. Most of the Core Worlds Region had been lost early in the Ruling Circle’s tenure, as had the
Colonies Region and the Inner Rim Region, although The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition notes that the Inner Rim Region “was
held by the Empire far longer than New Republic analysts expected,” giving rise to a great deal of popular resentment against the New Republic
for its perceived failure to drive the Empire out in a more timely manner. The Expansion Region, formerly a source of “rich tax revenues,” was
now “generally allied with the New Republic,” leaving most of the Imperial State’s holdings in the backwater Outer Rim (which had long ago
ceased to be a major Imperial holding) and the resource-poor Mid-Rim Region, which was infested with pirate fleets and rogue warlords, and
“private empires,” which the Imperial State apparently tolerated on the condition that they supply troops and tribute to the Empire proper.
The latest series of clashes had left the New Republic with control of three quarters of the galaxy, according to The Essential Chronology,
leaving the Empire to share the remaining quarter with other independent states and rogue warlords, such as the Commonality, the Corporate
Sector, the Pentastar Alignment, the Centrality, the Tion Hegemony, and Hutt Space (many of these independent states were formerly Imperial
client states). Even much of these holdings were theoretical at best; some warlords, like Moff Governor Getelles of Antemeridian Sector and the
self-styled Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel of the Ciutric Hegemony, recognized a nominal suzerainty on the part of the Imperial State, but little
else; the Imperial State’s territories in Wild Space, formally annexed by Grand Admiral Thrawn according to A Guide to the Star Wars Universe,
Second Edition, were also largely nominal, as the Empire was “too busy to enforce its subjugation.”
Although the Imperial State held onto its shipyards at Bilbringi in the Inner Rim, it had in fact lost most of its major shipyards, including Kuat,
Corellia, Duro, Sluis Van, and Imperial Center (the disposition and allegiance of Rendili and Loronar are not known during this period), thus
depriving it of much of its capacity to manufacture the Imperial Starfleet’s larger warships, although some shipyards like Ord Trasi and Yaga
Minor remained in the Outer Rim. At the same time, enormous numbers of Imperial warships were simply disappearing, vanishing into the
Deep Galactic Core, making the Navy’s losses during the recent fighting over Zsinj’s territory all the more debilitating. It was quite fortunate
that in an Isardian twist, Kuat — like Brentaal in 39 rS — had been denied to the New Republic as well, and a sudden and unexpected Imperial
raid on the New Republic’s secret Hast Shipyards resulted in that yard’s also being rendered inert, and single-handedly “helped throw the
Republic’s plans years behind schedule,” “cutting short a planned campaign against what remained of the Empire,” according to the Dark
Empire Sourcebook.
From its very beginning as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s comprehensive program for socio-economic reform, the New Order had enjoyed
powerful corporate sponsorship. One large corporation, SoroSuub Corporation, a conglomerate which rivaled TaggeCo. in sheer variety of
markets, actually allied with the rebel Alliance before the Battle of Endor in 39 rS, becoming one of the New Republic’s staunchest allies;
Balmorran Arms, chief manufacturer of the Imperial Army’s AT-ST and SD series war androids, abandoned the Empire when Balmorra itself
did in 40 rS. Two of the largest and most important of the Empire’s corporate partners, TaggeCo. and KDY, had fallen into irregular
relationships, with pro-New Republic administrators being installed in corporate headquarters on Tepasi and Kuat; a third, Santhe/Sienar
Technologies (SST), was now fully independent, and freely sold its products to both the Empire and to the New Republic, according to The
Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology. The same source mentions that artillery manufacturer Golan Arms “allied itself with the New
Republic” after a fight with the Imperial Army’s bureaucracy resulted in most of its contracts being cancelled, and that Czerka Arms, a
voracious corporate imperium in imperio, cancelled its exclusive distribution deal with the Imperial State and began making weapons sales to the
New Republic. Arms & Equipment Guide Extras! mention that Arakyd Industries, a major weapons, starship, and automaton manufacturer,
“sold its products without concern of political background,” despite the claim in The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels that it “remains a
loyal Imperial company” “despite the death of Emperor Palpatine.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that “the Empire
had lost control of the corporations which manufactured its weapons and supplies.”
Furthermore, the collapse of the Empire, rise of the New Republic, and proliferation of independent states created instability in currency, a
phenomenon last seen during the Separatist crisis preceding the Clone War in the 10s rS, as described in “Currency Upheavals Deliver Profits to
IBC.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition explains that at the height of the Empire’s power, the Imperial credit was universally
accepted, “even outside the boundaries of the Empire.” However, the collapse of the Imperial State resulted in this Imperial credit going out of
circulation, replaced by the New Republic credit and a new Imperial credit (which was used only in Imperial territory and in the so-called
Borderland Regions, unaffiliated and independent areas of space between Imperial and Neo-Republican territory); oddly, Geonosis and the
Outer Rim Worlds states that the InterGalactic Banking Clan (IBC) on Muunilinst III was guarantor of both currencies and presumably
functioned as the central bank for both rival states (even though Muunilinst remained Imperial territory, the Imperial State was unable to act
against the IBC without destabilizing its own currency). Furthermore, the relative value of the two currencies fluctuated wildly, a problem
exacerbated by the fact that “many planets, local governments and other corporations have their own currencies, which may or may not be
accepted depending on where in the galaxy you are,” which of course provoked currency speculation, which in turn encouraged lack of faith in
money; barter became an increasingly preferred means of exchange. The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that in this time period
“corporations go bankrupt or make fortunes on a regular basis,” that “companies default on their loans and use military force to dissuade
creditors,” and “the value of the myriad of currencies in the galaxy fluctuates more rapidly than financial market computers can calculate,”
which, in addition to rampant piracy, made commerce extremely risky. The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition even points out that
these “fears of economic instability” and “lack of new incentives to restart the engines of industry” had dragged the galactic economy into
depression, leaving even the New Republic “far from wealthy” and needing to “scrounge for supplies and ships.”
The arrival of the year 44 rS found the Ruling Circle ruling an Imperial State with nominal control of “barely a quarter of the galaxy” and
suffering from a stagflated economy and lack of ships and resources. The Dark Empire Sourcebook explains that the Ruling Circle suddenly and
quite unexpectedly received “a series of ident codes” from the Unknown Regions, which were “unquestionably authentic” and “accompanied a
holo message” from the last of Isard’s pet Loyalist grand admirals, Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last Warlord of the Empire (a title whose precise
significance is unknown, but which appears to have been distributed at the Galactic Emperor’s pleasure, as the Dark Empire Sourcebook refers
to him as “the last of the Emperor’s Warlords,” and Heir to the Empire states that his “brilliant successes had won him the title of Warlord and
the right to wear the white uniform of Grand Admiral — the only nonhuman ever granted that honor by the Emperor”). The Essential
Chronology states that Thrawn was promptly occupied for six months with reorganizing the fleet and commanding “strategic raids along the
New Republic-Imperial border,” which “weren’t sufficient to panic the New Republic,” but served to impress the Ruling Circle (referred to as
“the moffs, governors, and other political leaders”); evidently this included having Imperial warships patrol deep within New Republic space,
as the smuggler Mara Jade was detained in Dark Force Rising by HIMS Adamant, a Victory Star Destroyer patrolling the Abregado system,
which Coruscant and the Core Worlds explicitly states to have been a lawless port on the edge of the Core Worlds Region. The Dark Empire
Sourcebook explains that the Ruling Circle quickly put aside their differences and decided that Thrawn would be the perfect figurehead, being a
non-human with “no power base save his own competence,” who could “rely on no support other than what they chose to give him.” In the
event of his success, they would back him and reap the rewards of his conquests. In the event that he should prove “too independent,” they
resolved to have him assassinated. Thus in agreement, the Ruling Circle appointed him their supreme commander and Thrawn was “effectively
handed the reins of the Empire.”
The Essential Chronology states that Thrawn “consolidated loyal Imperial forces,” which probably refers to the quasi-independent pocket
empires under nominal Imperial suzerainty in the Mid-Rim; The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that “many such areas”
controlled by the Empire were “firmly controlled by the Imperial starfleet, which for the time being has rallied around Grand Admiral Thrawn,”
but “this is a tenuous alliance at best,” as “many of the regions of ‘Imperial Space’ are actually small dictatorships, administered and controlled
by the Moffs who were directed to run them for the Emperor in years past.” (The Dark Empire Sourcebook adds that “Thrawn’s support was
far from universal or even enthusiastic.”) Second to this consolidation of Imperial command and control, the Historical Council further states
that he “marginalized warlord fiefdoms” such as Ardus Kaine’s Pentastar Alignment and the Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric Hegemony (although
Isard’s Revenge indicates that the latter gave some financial support to the Imperial State during Thrawn’s shōgunate). According to Thrawn’s
flag captain, Captain Gilad Pellaeon (Commanding Officer, HIMS Chimaera), actual operations during this period generally consisted of “minor
shipping raid[s]” and “complex but straightforward hit-and-fade[s] against some insignificant planetary base.” One such minor operation was
the information raid on Obroa-skai seen in Heir to the Empire.
Thrawn used information recovered from Obroa-skai to find his way to Wayland, an obscure planet which happened to house one of the
Galactic Emperor’s private storehouses; among those items to be found in this particular storehouse was a working cloaking device (which The
Essential Chronology states was a derivative of the late Grand Admiral Martio Batch’s defunct Vorknkx Project), and 20,000 cloning cylinders
manufactured during the Clone War by Spaarti Creations, as seen in “Hero of Cartao.” He also obtained the services of an insane clone of Jorus
C’baoth, a Jedi Master who had formerly been “Jedi Advisor” to Senator Palpatine; for some inexplicable reason, this clone mispronounces his
own given name as “Joruus,” which Thrawn tells his flag captain is a telltale sign of his identity as a clone (more probably, Thrawn knew that
Joruus C’baoth was a clone based on the rather more mundane evidence that he had killed Master Jedi Jorus C’baoth on then-Supreme
Chancellor Palpatine’s orders several years before, as mentioned in Heir to the Empire). One month after joining the Grand Admiral’s war
effort, the dangerously unstable C’baoth proclaimed himself the legitimate heir to the Galactic Emperor, a claim which was ignored by everyone
not under C’baoth’s direct influence (for his part, Thrawn chose to indulge C’baoth’s fantasy that the Chiss warlord continued to serve as
shōgun of the Empire at his pleasure).
Although Thrawn had finally found a partial solution to the stormtrooper and manpower shortage which had been plaguing the Empire since
Isard’s regency — partial, because with only 20,000 cylinders and a gestation period of 15 to 20 days (as stated in The Last Command),
Thrawn could only decant about 35,000 to 47,000 clones per 35-day month, which is only equivalent to a full ship’s company of an Imperial
Star Destroyer — , he encountered the strategist’s worst logistical nightmare: he now had more troops than he had ships to move them. His
first solution to this crippling shortage of ships was to attempt to steal warships from the Sluis Van shipyards, where there were “a hundred
ships [...] at any given time, not to mention the docking facilities themselves,” according to Commander Wedge Antilles. Despite personally
commanding the strike force, he was defeated in battle and wisely withdrew once it was clear he could not accomplish his goal (he had, however,
successfully crippled forty New Republic warships, which were “grievously damaged, and removed from military service until their bridges
could be rebuilt,” which would take months, according to The Essential Chronology). Still, hoping to get as much value out of the operation as
possible, Thrawn used Imperial Intelligence — which the scholars call in the Star Wars Encyclopedia “one of the best trained and professional
parts of the Empire to survive the Battle of Endor,” and is said to have “fully supported” Thrawn — to manufacture a scandal against Ackbar,
effecting his removal as the New Republic’s supreme commander in Dark Force Rising; aside from Ackbar and the former Grand Admiral
Grant, in quiet retirement on Rathalay — “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals” indicates that he waited the entire length of Thrawn’s War
for an invitation to fight his ex-colleague, confident in his ability to defeat the Chiss generalissimo — , there was no one in the New Republic
who could match Thrawn’s tactical brilliance.
With the failure of his scheme to steal New Republic warships in Heir to the Empire, Thrawn needed to find another source to supplement the
new construction being undertaken at the Bilbringi, Ord Trasi, and Yaga Minor shipyards (all of which were mentioned as being active in The
Last Command). He decided to make use of the fabled lost Katana fleet of Dreadnought heavy cruisers, which had vanished into hyperspace
shortly before the outbreak of the Clone War in 13 rS, according to Dark Force Rising; these Dreadnoughts had been modified so as to be less
manpower-intensive than the standard model. This operation was largely successful; at the cost of a single Imperial Star Destroyer — HIMS
Peremptory, destroyed by collision with an unmanned Dreadnought during a battle with New Republic forces — Thrawn had recovered 178 of
the 200 derelict heavy cruisers (The Essential Chronology states that fifteen remained unclaimed, to which must be added former Imperial
Senator Garm Bel Iblis’s six refitted Dreadnoughts and the Dreadnought which collided with Peremptory, both mentioned in Dark Force Rising).
Thrawn had kept up a brisk operational tempo throughout the Empire’s forces since his appointment as the Ruling Circle’s generalissimo, but it
was not until a month after the Katana fleet skirmish — a time that Pellaeon described as being occupied with “frenzied preparations” — that
he finally felt prepared for a full resumption of hostilities, seen in The Last Command. The first operation of Thrawn’s “master campaign for
the Empire’s final victory” was the attack on Ukio (Abrion Sector), a complicated and elaborate affair in the Abrion and Dufilvian Sectors. The
attack began with Captain Aban’s Bellicose Battle Group — the Imperial Star Destroyer herself and eight of the recovered Katana
Dreadnaughts — launching an attack on Ando, in the process drawing away ships from the New Republic’s naval base at Ord Pardron; this
attack was immediately followed by Captain Brandei’s Judicator Battle Group’s attack on Filve, Nemesis Battle Group’s attack on Crondre,
“and so on and so on,” until the Ord Pardron base itself was badly underdefended and exposed to attack by Captain Harbid’s Death’s Head
Battle Group. This in turn drew all available naval assets to relieve the beleaguered naval base, leaving them unable to come to the defense of
Thrawn’s true target: Ukio, which Luke Skywalker called “one of the top five producers of foodstuffs in the entire New Republic.”
Ukio’s planetary defense shield and ground/space arsenal would have ordinarily made it an unattractive target, necessitating heavy orbital
bombardment, a lengthy siege, or an amphibious landing in force, any of which would require a sizeable investment in time and resources on the
Empire’s part, in addition to the difficulty of capturing so well defended a planet intact; Ukio was defended by a full-scale planetary deflector
shield, as opposed to the theater deflector shield employed by the rebel Alliance at Hoth VI, which was in itself “powerful enough to deflect
any bombardment” by the late Darth Vader’s Death Squadron, which was substantially larger than Chimaera and Stormhawk Battle Groups,
which Thrawn had assigned to capture Ukio. To overcome this tactical and strategic problem, Thrawn made novel use of Batch’s cloaking
technology and C’baoth’s preternatural abilities in order to create an effective illusion of his flagship accurately firing through the planetary
deflector shields; this illusion was so effective that the Overliege of Ukio surrendered, with Thrawn’s guarantee that there would be no war-
status tax levies on the planet or conscription of Ukian youths. Nevertheless Thrawn made clear that Ukio would be expected to contribute its
share toward the Imperial war effort, most probably making those contributions from its “extensive food production and processing facilities”
and “food distribution system, the processing facilities, and vast farming and livestock grazing regions.” In a single stroke, Thrawn acquired a
major source of foodstuffs and supplies for his own forces, deprived the New Republic of the same in equal measure, and sent political
shockwaves throughout Abrion Sector and its neighbors: Not only had the New Republic failed to defend so important a world as Ukio, and
had a major naval base sustain severe damage, but now the Empire had a beachhead and staging point in the Sector, not to mention what
appeared to be a powerful weapon capable of piercing even the most formidable of planetary defenses.
Ukio was only the beginning. Coruscant and the Core Worlds states that “Imperial forces seized a region of space bordering Abregado-rae,”
which the New Republic’s strategists interpreted as a potential beachhead for invasion of the system itself in preparation for an “advance on
Coruscant with a twin-pincer tactic through the galactic northern and southern quadrants,” which was ultimately a game of misdirection, as
Thrawn was quite unambiguous with his flag captain and C’baoth that he was not prepared for an attack on Coruscant. Instead, Thrawn
invaded the Farrfin and Dolomar Sectors, where he met stiffer resistance than he had anticipated and had C’baoth repeat the Ukian fraud with
Death’s Head Battle Group at Woostri. He began planning an attack on Mrisst, in order to divert the Coruscant sector fleet to defend it, or else
seize the planet and acquire a forward base, complementing the Abregado-rae beachhead, and personally led an attack on Ord Mantell to
destabilize the surrounding region of space and ease New Republic pressure on the Empire’s shaky shipyard supply lines; already the Bilbringi
Naval Shipyard was running low on Tibanna gas, as well as hfredium and kammris. Thrawn’s response was to order an increase in Tibanna
production from the garrison on Bespin and to order three Katana Dreadnaughts to Nkllon to steal Lando Calrissian’s stockpiles of hfredium,
kammris, dolovite, and other metals, rather than pay the rising market prices (the stockpiles, which were probably destined for sale to the New
Republic, were worth some three million credits according to Calrissian). As with the capture of Ukio, the raid on Nkllon simultaneously
deprived the New Republic of the same resources, with the added bonus that the mining facilities were crippled and would not soon replace the
stolen metals.
Thrawn’s campaign against the New Republic met with considerable success. As the Princess Leia of Alderaan’s aide Dame Winter described
the situation, “In the past five days we’ve effectively lost control of four sectors, and thirteen more are on the edge,” a statement that Admiral
Hiram Drayson — Mothma’s pet admiral and evidently the New Republic’s deputy supreme commander, although that is far from certain —
supported with his claim that “at the rate he’s going, Grand Admiral Thrawn could take three more sectors in ten days.” It seems necessary that
much of Thrawn’s success was as much due to political victories as to military ones, given that Sectors can contain thousands of planets and
stars. These victories could possibly owe much to propaganda and political fallout from spectacular triumphs like the bloodless conquests of
Ukio and Woostri — indeed, The Essential Chronology states that “this trick worked so well that dozens of planets, thinking their defenses
hopelessly compromised, surrendered to the Empire without a fight” — or to the fact that Thrawn seemed invincible, even dealing a sound
defeat to the New Republic’s famed General Garm Bel Iblis at Qat Chrystac, where Thrawn’s Star Destroyers and Dreadnaughts destroyed a
third of Bel Iblis’s ships before forcing the former Imperial Senator from Corellia to retreat. Coruscant and the Core Worlds states that at some
point the Empire re-occupied Duro in the Core Worlds Region, while Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds mentions that the Empire also
launched an attack on the major shipping port of Svivren, which ultimately resulted in defeat for the Imperial invasion forces, but in the process
destroyed the Svivreni crystal gravfield trap (CGT) array. Thrawn was even so audacious as to launch a raid on Coruscant itself, an extended
hit-and-fade operation intended to shake New Republic morale; the course of this raid involved the release of 22 cloaked asteroids into
Coruscant’s orbit, requiring the planetary deflector shields be kept up constantly to prevent a disastrous asteroid strike. He then proceeded to
launch an attack on Atrivis Sector, capturing the New Republic’s communications center on Generis and most of the sector fleet’s supply
depots, although the New Republic’s General Kryll managed to evacuate the famous rebel leader Travia “Icewoman” Chan and her staff before
Atrivis Sector fell. Thrawn then promptly oversaw the capture of Xa Fel and the heart of Kanchen Sector (The Last Command Sourcebook
succinctly calls Xa Fel “one of Kuat Drive Yards’ (KDY) major manufacturing facilities, producing fully 20 percent of the corporation’s
inventory of starship hyperdrive engines”).
The New Republic’s joint operations staff determined that it was necessary to relieve Coruscant of the phantom siege — Thrawn’s attack force
had simulated the launch of 287 asteroids, and the New Republic did not know there were only 22 actually released — and so determined to
acquire a new CGT array in order to assist in searching for the asteroids. New Republic Intelligence located three available arrays, all in Imperial
space. The joint operations staff decided to prepare a feint on the new Ubiqtorate base being constructed at Tangrene, while the real operation
would be an assault on the Bilbringi Naval Shipyard, with the intent of stealing the CGT array and at the same time severely damaging the
Empire’s still limited shipbuilding capabilities (Talon Karrde’s sources indicated that the New Republic was supposedly to devote two sector
fleets to the attack on Tangrene). Thrawn’s interpretation of Ackbar’s and Bel Iblis’s personalities — based on their tastes in art — led him to
guess that the Tangrene operation was a cover for an attack on Bilbringi and immediately set out to prepare a trap, at the same time freely
admitting to his flag captain that he had no intelligence to substantiate his guess, and indeed expressly prohibiting an increase in Imperial
Intelligence operations near Bilbringi to identify Neo-Republican preparations, on the grounds that such operations would tip off the New
Republic that their plan had been discovered.
Mere days before the attack on Tangrene was scheduled to go forward, Thrawn received word from High Colonel Kleyn Selid, garrison
commander at Mount Tantiss on Wayland, that Thrawn’s best general, General Freja Covell, had died hours after arriving at Wayland with a
company of soldiers and troops intended to serve as templates for the cloning project. The matter was made even more unfortunate by the fact
that Covell’s death was a direct result of C’baoth’s destructive form of mind control; Thrawn ordered C’baoth’s immediate arrest and detention
in the Galactic Emperor’s quarters in Mount Tantiss, on the grounds that it was the safest place in the Empire to confine him. Unbeknownst to
Thrawn, a team of New Republic saboteurs led by a trio of former New Republic generals — Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Lando Calrissian
— had already arrived on Wayland to destroy the cloning facilities, having obtained the planet’s location from the former Emperor’s Hand,
Mara Jade, who had once accompanied the Galactic Emperor to Wayland.
Somewhat earlier in the course of Thrawn’s War, the smuggler chieftains Mazzic and Ellor had launched a surprise attack on the Bilbringi Naval
Shipyard, destroying an Imperial Star Destroyer that was nearing completion as a rather costly vengeance for an Imperial raid that had killed
Mazzic’s friend. Since then, Thrawn had ordered the Shipyard’s commandant, High General Theol Drost, to reorganize the security measures;
Drost had positioned shield generators throughout the yards to create security fields preventing traffic from flowing through the yards except in
flight paths predetermined and assigned by Bilbringi Control, where the CGT array was. The smuggler chieftain Talon Karrde — Mara Jade’s
current employer — convinced other smuggler chiefs to combine their fleets to steal the CGT array from Bilbringi during the New Republic
attack on Tangrene and sell it to the New Republic; as a result, a sizeable fifth column of ships was within the Shipyard facilities themselves
when the Imperial battle fleet arrived and set up an entrapment formation, dragging the two New Republic sector fleets from hyperspace by
means of Interdictor cruisers. Isard’s Revenge indicates that the Imperial fleet had been arranged in a large bowl-like formation, with Golan II
Space Defense Stations in place behind it protecting the yards themselves. Unfortunately for the Empire, the combination of the New Republic
fleet and the smuggler forces damaged the Golan II stations, and exposed the Shipyard itself to enemy attack. Even as Thrawn prepared to
maneuver his forces in response, he received word of an attack on Mount Tantiss — although Thrawn did not yet know it, the cloning facilities
had been destroyed and C’baoth killed — and Thrawn himself was assassinated aboard his own flagship by his bodyguard, a Noghri Death
Commando named Rukh clain Baikh’vair, in revenge for the Imperial State’s deliberate and treacherous policy of holding his species in
perpetual servitude. Panicked, Thrawn’s flag captain immediately ordered a full retreat, leaving the entire Bilbringi Naval Shipyard in the hands
of the New Republic.
Thrawn’s successes were remarkable, especially given the desperate strategic, financial, and political situation he’d inherited upon assuming the
supreme command of Imperial forces. He had commanded a successful war against a numerically, militarily, and strategically superior enemy
despite severe handicaps, demonstrating ingenuity and genius in a war quite unlike any that his predecessors Admiral Terrinald Screed and
Darth Vader had ever fought. Despite the fact that he was only the supreme commander and not regent like the Grand Vizier and Isard, Thrawn
was the first strong leader the Empire had seen since the fall of Isard’s dictatorial regime; indeed, Thrawn’s shōgunate ultimately reflects better
on his prowess as a leader than Isard’s regency reflects on hers. Isard the regent had acquired her position through treachery and ruthlessness,
whereas Thrawn the shōgun’s rise to power was the product of pure merit. Isard had ruled a vast Empire with every advantage, and had lost it
to the rebel Alliance; Thrawn had commanded a crippled and demoralized Empire banished to the galactic backwater, and yet had become the
first Imperial leader to retake territory that had been lost to the Empire’s enemies; The Essential Chronology says that Thrawn’s War, which
lasted somewhat less than six months, nearly doubled the size of the Empire. Thrawn had succeeded brilliantly despite commanding the forces
of an Empire plagued by chronic shortages of resources, manpower, ships, and money, and still ruled by a fractious cabal of intrigants.
Unfortunately, Thrawn was a one-man show, and there was no one else in the Empire who could take his place when he was killed; the result
was an immediate collapse of the Imperial offensive after his assassination. The High Command had evidently not been involved in much of the
strategic planning; like some musical prodigy, Thrawn appeared to do all of his operational planning in his head, and only then informed his
subordinates of their assigned tasks (Pash Cracken notes for example that he didn’t think Thrawn personally commanded the attack on Generis,
but “he sure planned out the assault”). He kept his own counsel and only discussed his plans with his flag captain; his only interaction with his
best general, General Freja Covell, was to give him his marching orders and to subject him to professional discourtesies like attempting to
micromanage his operations (such as giving him instructions on how to deploy his already-advancing cavalry force on Myrkyr in Dark Force
Rising). While Thrawn may have been a genius, he did little to endear himself to his senior commanders, treating them as little more than junior
watchstanders. He had not even so much as informed his “top Fleet and army commanders” about the Mount Tantiss project until two weeks
before Covell was to lead a force of clones to the surface of Ukio, according to The Last Command. Furthermore Thrawn was poor at delegating
responsibility, and frequently commanded operations in person; this necessarily left the coordination of concurrent operations in other theaters
to someone far less qualified and not privy to all the details of the overall strategy, while the supreme commander exposed himself to
unnecessary danger and wasted his time with work that should have been delegated to a competent task force commander or fleet commander.
Thrawn’s uniqueness was simultaneously his greatest strength and his greatest weakness: his death left the Imperial State in the unenviable
position of having to replace an irreplaceable supreme commander. With his death, the entire Imperial war effort ground to a halt, and, as The
Essential Chronology puts it, “the New Republic began recapturing its lost territory, planet by planet.”
See also:
| This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended. Star Wars and related materials are © Lucasfilm Ltd., which reserves all rights thereto. All original material is © Julius Sykes. Please do not use without permission. |
| This article was originally published on 18 April 2005. It was republished on 4 February 2007. The header was generously provided by Mr. Jamie Holm, using a pencil drawing of Ars Dangor and Grand Admiral Thrawn done by the author in March 2007. |
