Star Wars - A Grand Admiral Returns Read online

  A Grand Admiral Returns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Grand Admiral Thrawn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Grand Admiral Thrawn Roleplaying Game Statistics

  Template Type: Imperial Grand Admiral

  Loyalty: To the Empire

  Height: 1.8 meters

  Species: Unknown

  Sex: Male

  Homeworld: Unknown

  Age: Unknown

  Quote: “Learn about art. When you understand a species’ art, you understand that species.”

  DEXTERITY 2D+1

  Blaster 9D+1, brawling parry 6D, dodge 9D, grenade 7D+1, heavy weapons 8D+1, melee 8D+2, melee parry 8D+1

  KNOWLEDGE

  3D+1 Alien races 11D+1, bureaucracy 12D+1, cultures 11D+1, languages 12D, planetary systems 11D, streetwise 8D, survival 8D, technology 7D

  MECHANICAL 3D+2

  Astrogation 7D+2, beast riding 7D+2, repulsorlift operation 6D+2, starship gunnery 9D+2, starship piloting 10D+2, starship shields 9D+1

  PERCEPTION 3D+1

  Bargain 12D+1, command 12D+1, con 10D+1, gambling 9D+1, hide/sneak 7D, search 11D+1

  STRENGTH 2D+1

  Brawling 6D+1, stamina 9D+1, swimming 4D+2

  TECHNICAL 3D

  Computer programming/repair 8D, demolition 6D+2, Droid programming/ repair 6D, medicine 5D, security 9D+1

  Captain Pellaeon

  Captain Pellaeon has spent fifty years in the Imperial Fleet, and he carries the regal weight of those years like a badge of honor and courage. He served through the good times and the bad times, always loyal, always professional. He became Captain of the Star Destroyer Chimaera at the Battle of Endor. His former commander had been killed, and someone had to take charge before the entire ship was lost. Pellaeon became that man.

  He remembers the Imperial Fleet at the height of its considerable power, and that makes the current situation so much more painful. In the old days, it would have been inconceivable for a very young man to serve as a bridge officer on a Star Destroyer. However, that was the situation the Fleet faced five years after the defeat at Endor. Men so young that they were barely of an age to be cadets filled all but a few positions, and it sickens Pellaeon. It is an old bitterness, and the root of the problems that have plagued the Empire since the Emperor’s death.

  The scenes of Endor still haunt Pellaeon’s dreams. Images of the Super Star Destroyer Executor and its disproportionate number of the brightest young and mid-level officers and crew members colliding with the unfinished Death Star, exploding spectacularly and utterly. The Fleet never recovered from that fiasco, and only now with the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn does Pellaeon see any hope for things to change. At Endor, the remnants of the Fleet were forced into a confused rout, running away with whatever remained of their once great armada, hoping to survive long enough to fight another day.

  In the five years since, Pellaeon has done his best to hold the remnants together. Despite his best efforts, however, the Empire could never regain the initiative against the Rebels. He was forced to order retreat after retreat, wincing as the Empire was pushed back to a mere quarter of the territory it once controlled. Worse, they were forced to hold territory that was once considered the backwater of the Empire. It was a disgrace to see the mighty Empire reduced to such a state, and Pellaeon hated it.

  He had painstakingly trained his ship’s crew, but he could not provide them with the benefits of experience. The crew was young, so young. Inexperienced children were at the controls, many of whom were conscripted from their homeworlds by force or threat of force. It was a sorry situation.

  But the end was not upon them yet, Pellaeon knew. Not since he had turned command over to the greatest military mind the Empire had ever produced. Pellaeon works well at Grand Admiral Thrawn’s side. It takes some getting used to that the Grand Admiral actually wants to hear differing opinions. So many previous Imperial commanders wanted subordinates to regurgitate their own views and ideas back to them. Some even eliminated those who attempted to think on their own. Thrawn was secure enough in his position not to be threatened by initiative and fresh ideas. In fact, he welcomes them.

  Captain Pellaeon is nervous about the presence of a Dark Jedi. He fears a return of someone of Lord Vader’s power and disposition. But he trusts and admires Grand Admiral Thrawn, despite the fact that the Warlord is not human. He likes the new direction the Empire is taking, and he will continue to serve it with dedication and to the best of his ability for as long as he is able.

  Perhaps he will even live to see the final defeat of the Rebellion — an event which only a few short months ago he believed might never happen, at least not within his own life time.

  Captain Pellaeon Roleplaying Game Statistics

  Template Type: Imperial Captain

  Loyalty: To the Empire

  Height: 1 .7 meters

  Species: Human

  Sex: Male

  Homeworld: Coruscant

  Age: 70+

  Quote: “Run engines to full power. Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed.”

  DEXTERITY 2D+2

  Blaster 7D+2, dodge 7D+2, grenade 7D+2, melee 6D+2, melee parry 6D+2

  KNOWLED
GE 3D

  Alien races 6D, bureaucracy 9D, cultures 5D, languages 6D, planetary systems 10D, starship tactics 9D, technology 6D+1

  MECHANICAL 3D+2

  Astrogation 8D, repulsorlift operation 6D+2, starship gunnery 6D+2, starship piloting 8D+2, starship shields 7D+2

  PERCEPTION 3D+1

  Bargain 7D+1, command 8D+1, con 7D+1, gambling 6D+1, hide/sneak 7D+1, search 8D+1

  STRENGTH 2D+1

  Brawling 3D+1, stamina 7D+1

  TECHNICAL 3D

  Computer programming/repair 6D, demolition 5D, Droid programming/repair 5D, repulsorlift repair 5D, security 8D, starship repair 6D+1

  From Heir to the Empire Sourcebook (07-1992)

  11.6.18.15.14.5-1

 

 

  Bill Slavicsek, Star Wars - A Grand Admiral Returns

  Thanks for reading the books on GrayCity.Net