CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

Pellaeon stood on the bridge, staring out into the void of Hyperspace. Outside the view ports a blue cylinder of blue light streamed past the ship. Pellaeon was indeed looking forward to meeting Thrawn. He had finished reading his profile. The Emperor had chosen well. Thrawn was an excellent leader indeed. He had hundreds of successful campaigns against the Alliance. During the search for the Rebel base after the battle of Yavin he assisted in many large attacks against countless Rebel strong holds. Also was helpful in the prevention of the experimental TIE defender from falling into Alliance hands. He was a vice admiral at the time, but quickly earned a promotion after once again preventing Imperial technology from falling to the rebels, this time a prototype clocking device, one that could not only make it invisible to sensors, but also the naked eye. The Emperor promoted Thrawn to grand admiral, the 13th at the time. Only the most excelling officers were ever granted such an honor. Just a month before the Battle of Endor Thrawn was sent to the unknown sector for a 3-year mission, the nature of which is still uncertain.

The ship rattled as it began it's decent from hyperspace. Out side the stars turned from blue light into white streaks, then into little pinpricks on the black back drop of space. Ahead the planet Barkura became more visible. Although no longer at light speed, the ship was still moving fast toward the planet. The planet became a large wall in the view ports taking up most of the view. 5 little gray wedges could be seen orbiting the planet. One of them was the Death's Head, one of Pellaeons. The other 4 were unknown; those must have been Thrawns fleet. He looked closer, the 4 ships consisted of 1 interdictor cruiser, 2 Imperial class Star Destroyers, and 1 Victory Class Star Destroyer. It had been a long time since Pellaeon had seen a Victory class Star Destroyer in person, they were old ships, dating back to the time of the Old Republic, but they were not weak ships, just not as useful as the larger and more powerful Imperial class Star Destroyers.

As soon as the Chimaera came in range, Thrawns ship hailed them.

The viewer flickered and the image of one of Thrawns communication officers appeared.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn is awaiting your arrival aboard his ship Captain, shall we dispatch a shuttle?" the unfamiliar face asked.

"No, that's quite alright, I'll take one of my shuttles over." Pellaeon said.

Pellaeon started down to the main launch hangar. He had expected this much from an admiral, making the less ranking officer go to him. But that was all right; Pellaeon had one of his shuttles already prepped for launch. As soon as Pellaeon was aboard the shuttle took off. The ride was quick a mere 3 kilometers away only took about 3 minutes at maximum sublight speed. When the ship landed, Pellaeon expected an empty hangar bay, but was surprised when he saw 2 rows of Storm Trooper and 1 row of mid ranking Petty Officers awaiting him. And of course, standing front and center was Grand Admiral Thrawn.

"Ah welcome aboard Captain. It is good to finally meet you" Thrawn said with much enthusiasm. Thrawn extended his arm and shook Pellaeons hand.

It was indeed a strange event to have a higher-ranking officer shake the hand of a simple Captain, but perhaps he was just glad to be among some imperials he hadn't meet yet. Being cooped up with the same crew for 4 years must be hard, but Pellaeon knew all about that. To be truthful, Pellaeon was glad to meet Thrawn too.

"Yes admiral, it is good to meet you as well." Pellaeon said, not really unsure what to say to a man such as Thrawn.

"There is much business to attend to. What with the rebellion in control of the galaxy now." Thrawn said.

"Well sir, they no longer call them selves the Rebellion, they are now the New Republic." Pellaeon said, correcting the admiral. Thrawn stared at Pellaeon. It seemed an eternity before he responded

"Well I don't consider them such a thing. The Republic is dead, the Empire is the true ruler of this galaxy, and although them seem in control, they are still a simple rebellion against us." Thrawn said back, snapping at Pellaeon almost but still emotionless.

"Yes sir." Pellaeon said, feeling like a private who had just talked back to his commanding officer. They were heading to the conference room on that level. Once they reached it, Thrawn continued.

"But it's all a matter of opinion. My ship is quite under supplied. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to command your ship from now on. You'll remain as captain, but I'll have to transfer a small percentage of my current bridge crew to your ship. Have you set up a central command yet?" Thrawn asked. Pellaeon was still focusing on the fact that Thrawn had just invited himself to the Chimaera.

"Yes sir I have. It's on Yarstoss. But I consider the Chimaera the real central command." Pellaeon said, hesitating long enough to show his reluctance of Thrawn moving in.

"I gather you don't want me on your ship?" Thrawn said, a rather snapping tone in his voice.

"Well, no sir, it's not my place to-" Pellaeon began.

"It's quite alright Captain, but it's not up for discussion. As I see it, the Empire might be in ruins, but I am still your superior officer. But do not worry, after reading your profile from the past 3 years out here, I'm greatly impressed with your leadership abilities. I intend to keep you in the highest respect and to keep you as second in command over all operations. The first thing that we must do is devise an appropriate course of action." Thrawn said. The events were going rather quickly here, but Pellaeon was quick, and understood exactly what the admiral was doing.

"I've been doing a lot of reading recently, analyzing the things done during my absence. The battle of Endor in particular. A very interesting defeat I would say. I'm still at a loss of how we managed to lose so many ships in so little time, to such a small fleet. Not to mention the Death's Stars presence. I really can't understand it. Well you were there, what are your thoughts on the subject?" Thrawn asked.

"I'm not really sure what you mean Admiral." Pellaeon said. Not knowing if Thrawn was accusing him, or just simply looking for a discussion.

"Well, what do you think was the major cause of the defeat? I certainly can't get it from these records. I see the list of ships present. It was almost 3 to 1 in the matter of capital ships. With my experience, a battle where we out number the rebels like that is over before it begins. The fighter balance was even higher, an 8 to 3 ratio. Plus the Death Star itself. Now it says the Death Star used its super laser against 3 Rebel cruisers. It's almost as if, randomly, out of no where the Empire forgot how to fight. So I'm asking, you, Captain, what happened? You were there, in command of a ship." Thrawn said, sounding even more accusing than before.

"Well sir, to my knowledge, the Emperor had planned on destroying the rebels with the Death Star alone. All the fighters we had out there were simple TIE fighters and TIE interceptors. We had at least 3 squadrons of TIE defenders on stand by. But were ordered not to launch them." Pellaeon said back, trying to keep to tone of annoyance out of his voice.

"Under whose orders?" Thrawn asked.

"The Admiral in charge of the battle, Admiral Piett." Pellaeon answered.

"Piett? He was in command? He wasn't even a trained admiral, he had Vader to thank for his promotion!" Thrawn sat back, putting his finger to his chin. His eyes just stared at the floor. They seemed to never blink.

"Tell me more" Thrawn said.

"Well the way it happened, was the Emperor wanted to set a trap for the Rebels. He let the Rebels capture the information on the construction site." Pellaeon said, still with more to say but was interrupted.

"WHAT?" Thrawn said, completely in shock. He looked as if he was going to jump out of his uniform.

"Interesting." Thrawn said. Once again emotionless.

"Well the idea was to trick the Rebels into taking their entire fleet to Endor and to find the Death Star operational. The Imperial fleet was sent to the far side of the moon, and when we detected the Rebels entering the system we came up right behind them." Pellaeon said.

"Ah, a very insightful plan. The Emperors?" Thrawn questioned.

"Yes." Pellaeon answered.

"Then why the defeat? The Rebels, facing the Death Star and an entire Imperial fleet directly behind them." Thrawn asked.

"Well our orders were to not attack, but to rather just prevent them from escaping into hyperspace. Frankly I think had we should have just let them go. That or been allowed to destroy them. But the orders came from above, the highest, the Emperor himself. At one point during the battle, the Rebels started attacking the Star Destroyers, hiding from the Death Stars superlaser." Pellaeon explained, Thrawn merely sat there staring at the floor. "Eventually the Rebels on the surface took out the Death Star Shield Generator. At which point the Alliance fighters in the space battle directed their assault on the Death Star. We had already lost most of our TIE fighters, and were only able to send a few after the Rebel fighters. The Rebels flew down the uncompleted super structure of the Death Star and flew right into the core, threw a few proton torpedos at it. The effect of which destroyed the station. When all that was happening, the Rebels also managed to take out the Executor, by destroying the bridge and sending it crashing into the Death Star. When the Death Star it self blew up, I Hailed the three closest ships to mine, and we left. After the battle, many of the remaining commanders at the various strongholds throughout the Empire fought over control. The 11 Grand Admirals did the most fighting. We also got news that the Rebels even captured two of our Star Destroyers after the Death Star was destroyed and everyone else had left the scene." Pellaeon explained.

"That was more than a defeat, it was slaughter. It still doesn't explain why we lost. But I suppose I'll have to do more thinking on the subject. But yes, back to what we do now. One of the other things I came across in the Death Head's database, a planet. Vader and the Emperor visited. I find it interesting that they would go there, and more than once at that, without ever taking control of it. I'd like to go there immediately." Thrawn said.

"Yes sir, we going to use the Chimaera for this trip?" Pellaeon asked.

"Yes I believe that would be the best thing to do. I'll send all my ships to Yarstoss, and the Death's Head as well. After we meet them there we'll do more planning." Thrawn said.

"What's the name of the planet we're going to?" Pellaeon asked.

" I believe it's called Honoghr. Very out of the way from know traveled space. The records I did find on it were kept pretty short and to the point. I believe the Emperor and Vader may have a secret on this planet." Thrawn said.

"Well then I suppose we should get underway." Pellaeon said.

They both returned to the Chimera. Pellaeon introduced Thrawn to his crew. They we are very excited to have a great leader like a Grand Admiral among them. About one hour past before the Death's Head and the Admirals 4 ships left for Yarstoss. After which the Chimaera left for this unknown world in the deeps of the Outer Rim sector. What were they going to find on this planet. And why did the Admiral find it so important to go all the way out there to find out? It was going to take some getting used to. The Admiral seemed to have a sneaky way of doing things. But Pellaeon trusted in him. He didn't get the status of Grand Admiral by failing. No, if this was how he commanded his troops, then he knew exactly what he was doing.