Approximately 11 months earlier, deep space, aboard the Black Knight

Garin stood in the Knight's flight control overlooking that hangar, the new unit had arrived earlier and he was interested to see how they interacted with the old Hades. When he'd joined them there had been nine Howlrunners and six Scimitars, he'd been given a TIE Advanced, partially to be kept separate from them but also because it enabled him to command the unit in a more secure manner given the durability of the Advanced. The Howlrunner was arguably better than the standard TIE fighter, and it was faster than the X-wing, but it wasn't anything stellar. He'd developed a tactic in which each pair of Scimitars would be shepherded by three Howlrunners ensuring their ability to get to the target intact. So far the unit hadn't been forced into the kind of heavy combat that Hades had seen and had lost no one but now he'd need to train them up and perhaps do something about the lackluster armament* of the Howlrunner.

Hades current fighter compliment was quite impressive in his mind, they'd lost two Skiprays, three of their Star Wings were gone, one Diamond Blue, one Defender, and two Avengers. That left them with a ship inventory of three Skiprays, nine Gunboats, eleven DBs and Defenders, and ten Avengers. Add to that this influx of nine I-7s and six bombers it evened out nicely. Almost all of his pilots had returned somewhat to his surprise, including Vic'que, there were seven who had not come, all of whom had originally taken the recall address. He didn't fault any of them, to be perfectly fair he was probably crazy to come back to the fight after finding a new place for his family and getting a good civilian job. Yet here he was, and he felt alive; it was good to be back. Even if being back meant figuring out what to do with his seven pilot-less craft when he couldn't request further reinforcement.

"What are you saying, the 'runner is an amazing craft. Better than the TIE that's for sure."

"Sure, compared to the original TIE Fighter it's worlds better, even if its armament is terrible; but look around you Lieutenant, you aren't being compared to TIE Fighters here; the I-7 is a piece of junk."

"Watch your mouth tails, don't forget your commander picked us to join Hades, he knows we're worth the effort."

"Then why did he fly an Advanced during his service with you?"

"Why you—"

Garin snorted and leaned over the shoulder of the operator in front of him who smiled as they both listened to the continuing argument between Daru and one of the new pilots.

"The Chief is tearing them a new one sir."

"Yes she is," Garin said with a hidden smile. "Compared to what she's used to working on I imagine the Howlrunner is a bit of a downgrade."

"Yeah but not those Scimitars, I've talked to some of the techs since they landed this morning. They're real beasts; I can understand why no one has used them till now despite all that power."

"I imagine Diamond Squadron is going to have quite a fun time seeing how they compare in the sims," Garin said in response, his eyes still fixed on the holocam that was observing Daru's growing debate over the I-7. It had attracted a small crowd, both pilots and crew. He hoped it wouldn't break out into anything too serious, the last thing he needed was a schism in the unit.

"Uh oh," the controller said suddenly as the pilot Daru had been arguing with grabbed the front of her jumpsuit. He reached for the intercom button.

Garin got there first and punched the intercom without hesitating, "alright everyone that's enough, Reaver group get off the flight deck and let the crews do their jobs. If you've got nothing better to do then find the XO and set up a sim run. Chief, if you have the chance, paint the new fighters in Hades colors; they're with us now."

There was a pause as the offending pilot seemed poised to carry through against Daru who was staring back at him coolly. Garin wondered when that had happened, she wasn't weak willed, but he'd never have pegged her to stand up to someone with such an obvious advantage in a scuffle. He recalled what had happened while Stele and his goons had stayed aboard the Knight before Endor and felt a tinge of sadness. All the abuse had produced someone much stronger than he remembered; maybe he'd talk to Iriana about that. Perhaps Sissir, she'd always been close to Daru. Below, the pilot finally let go of Daru. She looked up at the control room and saluted loosely.

"I'll take care of it sir."

"Commander," the Lieutenant, Arjuna, called. "Sorry sir, it's just that—"

"Again, if you've got nothing else to do, get the Reavers over to Lieutenant-Commander Arusi and set up a sim run. You're in a different league now, all of you, you'll need the training."

After another moment the group dispersed and Garin stood back, "sorry about that, I took your job."

The controller took a sip of his caf and sighed in relief, "no sir, anytime you want to break that kind of thing up go right ahead. I'm not the CO; they might come after me if I have to pull security on them."

Garin patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave, "I doubt that, I wouldn't have let them into the unit if I didn't think they could learn."

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"I'd forgotten that you'd lost that many pilots," Deana said quietly as she looked over her notes a frown crossing her features as she looked back at me. "Wait, it says here that Hades was noted to be 'at full strength during the battle and operating with astounding efficiency.'"

"Thrawn had an ace up his sleeve that he didn't bother to tell anyone about, at least not anyone outside of his inner circle. I didn't know about it until just after Sluis Van when Hades got a call to rendezvous with the command fleet."

"What had you been doing up to that point?"

"Raiding mostly, and bringing the Reavers up to our level of operational ability. You would have liked to hear Harth during that time; he got quite colorful during the sim debriefings. It was quite sobering for them and their egos to have Harth tearing them to shreds like a bunch of fresh cadets."

"The Reavers sound a bit undisciplined, hardly up to Hades standards."

"Like I said, they weren't on our level, but they were good enough that I brought them onboard to compensate for our losses."

"How many of them did you lose in the coming months?"

I looked at her and smiled dangerously, and why not? It was worth boasting about.

"Not a one; but you didn't want to hear about that did you? You want to know how we got our numbers back when we obviously didn't have the manpower…."

Approximately 6 months earlier, deep space, aboard the Black Knight

"What are we doing out here anyways," Toth asked curiously as he studied the holomap in the Cave.

"Thrawn called us out here; he said he has something important for us, something he can't trust anyone else with."

Toth blinked slowly, looking at Garin curiously. "He trusts us?"

"He must, he also said we'd finally be getting reinforced."

"Well considering how low intensity our missions have been so far, I can't say we need it."

"Don't you want all your Gunboats back," Garin chided with a smile.

"It would be nice to actually have a full compliment for our squadrons, but I'm more likely to hear that my vineyard has produced a wining wine in my absence."

"You left it in the hands of who exactly," Garin asked with a chuckle.

"Bunch of droids and my parents," Toth responded with a grin.

Garin snorted, "should be interesting." He paused and looked at Toth, speaking quietly. "I've been meaning to ask; why did you come back, I thought you always wanted your own place to get your brew."

Toth shrugged, "felt like I'd be letting everyone down if I didn't respond when I got the mail."

They fell silent as the ship reverted to realspace, Garin's eyes widened as nearly two-hundred signals appeared in the Cave's holotank.

"What in space is that," Toth whispered, "Thrawn doesn't have that many ships."

Garin was sure that Toth was right; there was no way Thrawn could have come up with this many capital ships in such a short period of time. Just what was going on though, since Garin was certain all the ships were in fact there, was anyone's guess.

"The Grand Admiral is signaling us," one of the techs called.

Thrawn's image appeared to replace the sensor scan of the area, his red gaze focused on Garin, both he and Toth saluted as the Grand Admiral began to speak.

"Commander, I have an important task for you; you will join me aboard the Chimaera immediately."

Garin opened his mouth to affirm the order but the connection died and Thrawn's holo was replaced by the sensor scan once more.

"That was," both began with a smile, "abrupt."

"Probably has something to do with all these ships," Garin responded turning and walking towards the hatch, keying his comlink. "Iriana, I'll be going over to the Chimera, you have command."

"Affirmative sir, I'll have a shuttle standing by in the hangar bay."

"Hey Gar," Garin stopped and looked back at Toth, "even if all those ships are ours, we don't have the manpower to man them all. What do you think the Admiral has up his sleeve?"

Garin smiled, "considering what he's done in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if he's about to tell us exactly what he has planned for all these ships."

Toth nodded and looked back at the screen with a frown, "just be careful. I get the feeling he has something more than ships on his mind."

Garin chuckled and waved at his friend, "don't go force sensitive on me, Stele and the Shrikes were bad enough."

Garin stepped off the shuttle and was greeted by Pallaeon, the pair had come to a grudging truce over their differences. Pallaeon, despite whatever else he may or may not be, was a good officer and cared about those that served with and under him. The fact that he was able to adapt to and willingly learned from Thrawn's tactics made him worth more than the average Imperial officer in Garin's mind; so despite past differences Garin was willing to forgive him Endor and move on if cautiously.

"Do you know what the Grand Admiral needs sir?"

"No Commander," Pallaeon said to Garin's surprise; Thrawn told Pallaeon everything as far as he'd seen. "He said that only you needed to know what was going on in this case."

Garin nodded thoughtfully and followed the Chimaera's Captain as he led the way towards Thrawn's private chambers. Garin noticed something as they went, a lot of familiar faces; he didn't recognize them exactly, but he swore that he kept seeing the same people over and over again. By the time they reached Thrawn's darkened rooms, he was certain of it and felt his throat growing dry as the only reasonable explanation sank in.

Then something cold slid against his neck and he felt someone grab him from behind, Pallaeon turned immediately as if he'd heard something Garin hadn't.

"Rukh, how many times have I told you to stop doing that?"

Garin heard a growl and what he assumed was Rukh's knife slid away from his neck, he turned around to find Thrawn's squat bodyguard standing and glowering at them both.

"I must practice or lose who I am," growled the Nogihri as he moved back into the shadows.

Garin watched as the bodyguard vanished and felt a shiver run down his spine, "thank you for that."

"He's like a rabid dog, if they weren't deathly loyal to the Grand Admiral I'd never let him stay aboard the ship."

Pallaeon turned and opened the hatch, it hissed and Garin was let in on a sight that surprised him as Pallaeon closed the hatch once more. Thrawn was sitting in a command style chair at the center of the room and all around him; whimsically rendered holographic sea life swam in a blue-green sea.

"Do you follow art Commander," Thrawn asked quietly, stroking a strange yellowish creature that purred in his lap.

The imagery was like something out of a drug induced dream as far as Garin was concerned, but he didn't express his views, instead answering simply as was usually the best option when Thrawn was in this sort of mood.

"Only when it involves ships and their combat sir, I'm afraid that is the only art I regularly follow."

He watched as a massive, ray-like animal swam over his head casting a vast shadow over him as it glided through the water and faded into the 'ocean' beyond. The feeling of submersion was surreal, the animals moved so fluidly that it was almost possible to forget that it was all holographic and programmed and that you were actually standing on the deck of a warship and not floating in some vast underwater expanse.

"Pity," Thrawn said, placing what Garin assumed was his pet, on the arm of his chair and standing. The animal immediately slid onto the seat of the chair and curled with a satisfied grunt as Thrawn walked around the virtual aquarium.

"The study of a species' art can lead to an understanding of that species and the knowledge needed to defeat it."

Garin blinked and watched as the Grand Admiral ran his hand through a holographic shark, "similar to what you did with Zaarin; a study of his personality to find his weakness." He looked around the holographic art piece curiously, "only on a species wide scale."

Thrawn smiled quietly, "exactly."

Garin looked back to him, "what did you need me to do."

"I have reinforcements for you, as well as replacements for your lost equipment," his smile broadened, "even for Chief Kerrila's rather unique starfighter, I was able to procure some Missile Boat parts for her as well as TIE Advanced frames."

"You could have sent those via transport, you didn't summon me here to explain the finer points of art, or to reinforce Hades."

Thrawn's gaze was appreciative as he stared at Garin, "you're wondering about the cruisers out there, how I plan to man them."

Garin nodded cautiously, "we certainly don't have the manpower to spare on that many warships, unless they're all automated."

"We do now; you saw the answer on your way here."

Garin's eyes narrowed, "clones."

Thrawn nodded, Garin watched him carefully as he continued.

"Doesn't that normally take decades?"

"If we were dealing with the Kaminoans yes, but I've found a way to produce clones, effectively, and sanely, within thirty days."

Garin felt his heart jump, he knew about the Clone Wars of course, its battles and tactics had been required study for the Academy, and knew how effective clones could be; he also knew that the Empire had stopped using the fast growing clones because they had no perception of tactics and were often insane**. What had Thrawn found that enabled him to do so safely? More importantly, what caliber were these clones, could they be integrated into a unit like Hades? The Reavers were troublesome enough, what would two squadrons worth of clones be like?

"Don't look so worried. I promise that they are quite competent and will meet your expectations. They are tailored to be swift learners, provided your crew can train them they will learn all they need to within a matter of days."

"That still doesn't explain why you summoned me," Garin pointed out.

"I have a very special and very secret task for you Commander. Even Pallaeon will not know of this."

Garin felt himself swallow involuntarily, what was so secretive that Thrawn would not entrust it to Pallaeon, and did he want to have any part in it was an even more pressing question.

*The I-7 Howlrunner was faster and more maneuverable than the TIE Fighter it competed against, and was faster and almost as maneuverable as the X-wing (ironically both produced by Incom Corporation despite flying on opposing sides). With its shields and optional hyperdrive it was arguably a better and more survivable fighter. However in one case it fell behind its competition: its twin laser cannon armament was significantly underpowered, even when compared to the TIE Fighter.

**The second clone type used by the Republic and later the Empire near the conclusion of the Clone Wars were grown using Spaarti cloning vats. These clones were able to grow much faster (half a year was the shortest time frame) than Kaminoan clones who took a decade to grow. However this increased speed came at the price of all the training that the original Fett clones received. It was not uncommon for these clones to run, guns blazing, at their targets regardless of casualties or orders. Because of this, the Stormtrooper Corps, which had originally been a clone only force comprised of the surviving Fett clones and billions of the new Spaarti clones was opened to normal humans as the Spaartis were deemed far too unstable and inefficient to make effective soldiers. Thrawn got around this problem by using Ysalamir to block out the force from the cloning vats, creating stable clones that could be grown in a matter of weeks. Known candidates for Thrawn's new clones were individuals such as Soontir Fel, Maxmillian Veers, and Maarek Stele.