A mere three thousandths of a light-year away from the Sluis Van floated the Imperial force. Aboard the Chimaera, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon patiently awaited the reports from all Imperial ships - five Star Destroyers, twelve Strike-class cruisers, twenty-two Carrack-Class light cruisers and thirty squadrons of TIE Fighters ready to launch and, at the center of the entire task force was a battered and stripped down A-class bulk freighter. Finally, the last Star Destroyer, the Judicator, checked in.

From the bridge of his flagship, Grand Admiral Thrawn gazed out over the star-scape. "Status, Captain?"

"All ships are on line, sir. The freighter's cloaking shield has been checked out and primed; all Fighters are prepped and manned. I believe we are ready."

Thrawn nodded. "Excellent. What word from Myrkr?"

The question caught Pellaeon off guard for a moment. "I don't know, Admiral;" turning to the comms officer, he asked, "Lieutenant, the last report from the Myrkr landing force or from Darth Diabolis?"

"It was a- wait..." and the young officer paused, frowning at his display. Thrawn watched and listened silently. "A message was sent from one of our shuttles, Sir. It wasn't on the strike force's frequency and since all Sluis Van preparations were priority, I haven't yet gotten to it"

Pellaeon felt his gut twist painfully. "Play the message Lieutenant."

It was only a second before the image of Darth Diabolis appeared. "Grand Admiral Thrawn, this is Darth Diabolis transmitting immediately before I enter hyperspace. The Skywalkers escaped. They had help from a couple of their New Republic friends and Talon Karrde. We miscalculated him and lost the strike team. I will be returning to my flagship over Wayland. Alert me when the Sluis Van operation is over or if you need any assistance. Darth Diabolis out."

When the message ended, all three were silent. Pellaeon hesitantly turned to the Grand Admiral. The blue face was emotionless as he finally said, "We will deal with Karrde and his people later. In the mean time, the Sluis Van operation must continue. Signal the freighter, Lieutenant. Have them activate the cloaking shield."

Turning to the viewport, Pellaeon looked at the freighter as it sat benignly in the running light of the Chimaera. "Cloaking shield on, Admiral."

Thrawn nodded. "Order them to proceed."

The order was transmitted and the freighter began to lumber sluggishly around and face the shipyards. With a flicker of psuedomotion, it jumped to lightspeed. "Time mark," Thrawn Ordered and one of his bridge officers acknowledged, "Time marked."

Turning to Pellaeon, Thrawn asked formally, "Is my flagship ready, Captain?"

"The Chimaera is at your full command, Admiral;" confirmed Pellaeon.

"Good; we follow the freighter in exactly six hours and twenty minutes. I want a final check of all ships... and I want you to remind them one last time that our task is only to engage and pin down the system's defenses. There are to be no special heroics or risks taken. Make that clearly understood, Captain. We're here to gain ships, not lose them."

Pellaeon nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"And Captian..."

Pellaeon turned back to him with a small frown. "Admiral?"

There was a tight smile on Thrawn's face. "Remind the, too, that our final victory over the rebellion begins here."

A thrill ran up Pellaeon's spine when he realized that Thrawn meant every word and, most importantly, could actually follow through with it. No matter how hard he tried, the Star Destroyer captain could not keep his own tight smile from appearing. "As you command, Grand Admiral Thrawn."

The Falcon and the Star were drifting and waiting for their arrival slot when it began. A simple, clunky looking A-class bulk freighter exploded and TIE Fighters began to swarm from its wreckage. Luke and Mara were yanked out of their preoccupation with one another. Luke threw on some clothes and shoes and ran to the cockpit. "You got the guns?"

"In a sec;" she replied. "just let me get a shirt on. Go evasive. Don't them hurt my ship."

Luke did better than that. The Star had forward facing guns as well as a underslung cannon that could swivel and elevate. Luke used the forward facing gun to shred any fighters that happened to be in his path. When the comms unit went off, Luke heard Han cursing. "Blast it. We just got caught in an Imperial attack!"

"You don't say." gritted out Luke as he maneuvered the Star out of a spray of laser fire. "I count three - four - five Star Destroyers not to mention numerous strike cruisers and carracks."

Mara came over the comms. "That's why they hit Bpfassh! He anticipated out response perfectly."

"Who anticipated our response?" demanded Han. "Who the hell are we dealing with, Mara?"

"We can have this conversation when the battle's over;" said Mara as she began to blast away at the TIE's.

Luke debated facing the oncoming horde of fighters but then noticed that the emergency frequencies were blowing up. Activating it, Luke heard a familiar voice. "Emergency! Imperial TIE fighters in the orbit-dock area. All ships to battle stations."

"That's Wedge!" he exclaimed as he switched over to Rogue Squadron's frequency. "Wedge, is that you?"

"Luke?" replied Rogue Leader. "We got trouble here-at least forty TIE fighters and fifty truncated-cone-shaped things I've never seen before-"

He broke off as a screech from the X-wing's etheric rudder came faintly over the speaker. "I hope you've brought a couple wings of with you," said Wedge. "We're going to be a little pressed here."

Han came over the comms. "We have the Falcon and Mara's Jade Star. We'll get to you as soon as we can. Lando, get to the dorsal gun."

"I guess that's worth a fighter wing or so. Make it quick, guys. We need all the help we can get against these fighters and cone-things."

"Hey!" came Lando's indignant call over the comms. "Those are my Mole Miners!"

"Impossible. There is no way!" said Han but Lando was adamant. "That's them, Han. Some blasted Imperial moron has brought them into the middle of a battle."

Mara came over the comms. "Who we're dealing with is as far on the other end of the spectrum from being a moron as you can get, Calrissian. Whatever his plan is, I guarantee it's absolutely brilliant."

Her words were less than comforting.

"All ships report engaged, sir;" reported Pellaeon. But Thrawn didn't take any notice. He was gazing out the viewport at the New Republic ships scrambling to defend the yards. "That was them, Captain;" the Grand Admiral said, his voice unreadable. "That ship straight ahead is the Millennium Falcon and the one just off to its starboard, I assume, is the Jade Star."

"Yes sir." replied Pellaeon, carefully hiding his doubts. "Cloak Leader reports a successful breakout, and the command section of the freighter is making its escape to the periphery. They're encountering some resistance from escort ships and a squadron of X-wings, but the general defense has so far been weak and defuse."

Thrawn took a deep breath and turned away from the viewport. "That will change;" he told Pellaeon, back in control again. "Remind him not to push his envelope too far, or to waste excessive time in choosing targets. Also that the spacetrooper mole miners should concentrate on the Calamari Star Cruisers-they're going to have the largest number of defenders aboard."

His red eyes glittered. "And inform him that the Millennium Falcon and Jade Star are on their way."

"Yes, sir," said Pellaeon. He glanced out at the absurdly modified luxury yacht and frowned. As if reading his mind, Thrawn said in a hard voice. "It would seem that our 'neutral' smuggler friend Talon Karrde does have a great deal to answer for."

Luke cut the starboard thrusting and gunning its reverse thrusters while simultaneously gunning the port thrusters, causing the ship to spin around on a cred stick. Mara was prepared since their minds were completely linked. Indeed, neither of them could tell who's idea the maneuver was. Luke vaped several fighters that had been pursuing them while Mara intercepted those that had been coming in from their port side. "Nice maneuvering, Farmboy;" she murmured into the comms. "Thanks. Nice shooting."

Luke took stock and saw that they were out towards the outskirts of the battle and no enemy ships were engaging them at the moment. "We can fix that;" said Mara, answering his unspoken thought. "In just a moment;" Luke replied. They had noticed something. On one of the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, right up against the bridge blister, was one of Lando's Mole Miners. As they moved towards it, they saw that an X-wing was doing the same thing. Suddenly, turbolaser fire lanced out, narrowly missing the X-wing! More poured out, some of it towards the Star. "What the blazes?" snapped Mara and it suddenly all became quite clear.

"Artoo, get to the outlet and scan for the rest of the mole miners. Make it quick, buddy."

It was the work of a moment and the droid whistled and beeped. The monitor that translated his binary stated that there were only fifteen in the area. "Wedge, it's Luke, how many of those mole miners came from the freighter with the TIE's?"

"Fifty, Luke, and their are only fifteen left. What the hell are they doing with them?"

Luke gritted his teeth. "I'm guessing they have troops board our ships and are using them to take the bridges. Look, there's one heading towards that escort frigate. Wedge, go after it and I'll take one of those headed towards that cruiser. We have to keep them from stealing this fleet!"

As they jumped into action, Han muttered, "How can they possibly take a cruiser with - what, four or five troopers?"

"The way these ships are manned," replied Wedge, obvious strain in his voice, "four or five storm troopers would easily be enough."

As he spoke, a light brighter than laser fire, came from beneath one of the mole miners that was settling on one of the cruisers. "If we could get aboard the cruisers, Luke and I could easily take them;" said Mara. But that came with it's own set of problems. If they blew the miners perched on the outside of the ships, the loss of a seal would cause the ship's blast doors in the area to shut, making it far more difficult to take the bridges back. "We'll have to take out the ships' engines, render them immobile."

"We can get to that;" said Wedge. "Let's take care of the unattached mole miners first."

"You got it."

Mara took careful aim and fired, guided by the force. Her blast vaporized a section of the cone. She was trying to blow it apart as oppose to disintegrating it so as to get a look at the numbers and equipment the troops inside had. Before she could fire again, the hatch opened and out came a robot-like figure that reminded Mara uncomfortably of Dark Trooper war droids. But they weren't Dark Troopers. No, they were were 'space troopers' stormtroopers with training and tech suites that allowed them to survive in the vacuum of space. "Luke!" she yelled but he was already on it, banking and spinning but not before the ship shook violently from a nasty concussion. "Are we alright?" she called. "Yup, it just glanced us. He must have a PLEX missile launcher or something."

Mara swung her gun around and took aim. Spacetroopers weren't fighters and a comparatively small explosion appeared. "Good;" she growled before turning back to the mole mine.

Pellaeon watched the battle and though to himself that it was good that they were here just to keep the Sluissi and New Republic tied up because they were putting up one hell of a fight. Suddenly, a status board at one of the stations in front of him went red. "Get that starboard shield back up now!" he ordered, giving the sky in that direction a scan. There were several ships firing at them like mad and a orbital battle station behind in backstop position. The shields were beginning to fall completely. "Starboard turbolasers: focus all fire on the Assault frigate at thirty-two mark forty," ordered Thrawn with absolute calm. "Concentrate on the starboard side of the ship only."

The Chimaera's guns sent out a withering salvo of fire. The whole starboard side of the frigate went up in vapor and it's weapons were no longer firing. "Excellent;" said Thrawn. "Now, starboard tractor beam crews, lock on and bring it close. Keep it between the damaged shields and the enemy and be sure that it's starboard side remains facing us so that the weapons on the port side are useless t them."

Pellaeon watched for several long moments before turning to the rest of the battle. "Squadron four, get after that group of B-wings. Port ion cannons, continue pressure on that command center. Admiral;" and he turned to Thrawn, "Any special orders?"

"No, the battle seems to be progressing as planned. Any word from Cloak Leader?"

"The TIE fighters are still engaging various escort ships and forty-three of the mole miners have successfully attached to target ships. Of those, thirty-nine are secure and making for the perimeter. Four are still encountering internal resistance, though they anticipate victory."

"And the other eight?"

"They've been destroyed," Pellaeon told him. "Including two of those with the spacetroopers aboard. One of those is failing to respond, presumably dead with his craft."

"Inform Cloak Leader that it is time to begin pulling his group back to the perimeter. "

"You mean now, sir?" asked Pellaeon with a frown.

"Certainly now, Captain. The first of our new ships will be arriving within fifteen minutes. As soon as they're all with us, the task force will be withdrawing."

"But..."

"The Rebel forces within the perimeter are of no further concern to us, Captain. The captured ships are on their way. With or without the TIE fighter cover, there's nothing the rebels can do to stop us."

Han was examining one of the frigates' engine system for a way to damage them enough to stop the ships but it was no good. There was just too much armored plating over the coolant systems and power regulators. "No good;" he said over the comms. "There's no good way to manipulate it."

"Okay;" growled Mara, "So now what?"

"Dammit!" said Lando suddenly. "I can't believe I didn't think of this. Those mole miners are usually run on radio remote back on Nkllon."

"Do you remember the commands?" asked Han.

"Most of them, yeah. What are you thinking?'

"Nothing fancy. Just start them running and hope that they can burn through enough equipment to cause these ships to shut down. It should work considering that the miners are right up against the bridges and control wings of the ships.."

They watched anxiously as the frigate suddenly began to twitch slightly. Suddenly, the engines dimmed and died and just like that, it stopped it's movements towards the perimeter of the fight. A call from Wedge came over the comms. "It's working! Look - it's working!"

The ships around them were suddenly twisting and flames shot from their sides, no longer making for deep space.

Thrawn was silent for a lone time as he gazed out at what would have been his new ships. Finally, he asked calmly, "Have all Cloak Force fighters returned to our ships, Captain?"

"Yes, sir;" replied Pellaeon.

"Order the task force to withdraw."

Pellaeon frowned. "Withdraw, sir?"

It was clearly not the order he was expecting from his superior. Thrawn gave him the faintest smile. "I suppose you were expecting me to order an all out attack, covering our defeat in a frenzy of false and futile heroics?"

"Of course not, sir;" said Pellaeon but they both knew the truth. Thrawn's smile became cold. "We haven't been defeated, Captain, merely slowed down a bit. We have Wayland and the treasures of the Emepror's storehouse. Sluis Van was merely a preliminary to the campaign, not the campaign itself. As long as we have Mount Tantiss, our ultimate victory is still assured."

Turning back to the viewport, Thrawn gazed at the shipyards as they began to spin away. "We've lost this particular prize, Captain. But that is all that we've lost. I will not waste ships or men trying to change that which cannot be changed. There will be many more opportunities to obtain the ships we need. Carry out your orders."

"Yes, Admiral," Pellaeon said as he obeyed, relief flowing through him. So there would be no explosion after all... and with a twinge of guilt, he realized that he should have known better. Thrawn was not merely a soldier like so many others that Pellaeon had served with. He was, instead, a true warrior, with his eyes set on the final goal and not on his own personal glower.

Pellaeon ordered the retreat after one final look out the viewport and wondered, not for the first time, how Endor would have ended if Grand Admiral Thrawn had been in command.

It took a couple hours for the battle to truly end after the Imperial fleet departed. The stormtroopers were mostly dead, sucked into space when the mole miners had ruptured their air seals. The space troopers were a little more difficult. They fanned out and did as much damage as they possibly could, ignoring all orders to surrendered. Eventually, six were destroyed and two self destructed, one managing to cripple a Corellian Corvette. They left behind them, a shipyard in absolute chaos.

After a rather heated discussion with one of the ships Captains, Han received an oncoming call from Coruscant. "Han?" said a voice that was music to his ears. "It's Leia."

"Leia!" Han said, feeling a delighted if slightly foolish looking grin spread across his face. A second later, though- "Wait a minute. What are you doing back on Coruscant?"

"I think I've taken care of our other problem," she said. Her voice, he noticed, sounded rather tense and just a little ragged. "At least for the moment."

"You think?"

"Look that's not important right now"

A cold hard knot settled into Han's stomach. "What's wrong?"

"Admiral Ackbar has been removed from command and arrested on charges of treason."

The room filled with a brittle silence. Han looked in turn at Wedge, Lando, Luke and Mara but none of them had anything to say. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Good;" said Leia, sounding relieved. "Ackbar is going to need all the friends he can get."

"Alright. Contact me on the Falcon if there's anymore news. We're heading there right now."

"I'll see you soon. I love you, Han."

"Me too."

The connection was broken and Han turned back to the others. "Well there goes the hammer."

"We need to get back as fast as we can;" said Mara. "Aside from this whole crate of insanity, the New Republic needs to know who it's up against."

They all looked at her and Mara decided that she needed to give them something. "His name is Grand Admiral Thrawn. In short, he fell out of favor years ago and was essentially banished to a mapping expedition into the Unknown Regions. It's a good thing too because if he was here during the war, the Rebel Alliance wouldn't have stould a chance. He's tactically and strategically brilliant - more so than any other officer I have ever seen. That's all I have time for right now. We need to go."

They were silent as they hurried back to their ships, fretting about everything they had just learned. "We could be on the edge of a civil war here."

Han replied with a confidence he certainly didn't feel, "Yeah well, we aren't going to let that happen. We haven't been fighting through this endless war just so some over ambitious, smarmy Bothan can attempt a take over and wreck everything."

"How are we going to stop him?" asked Luke. Mara snorted. "I have several ideas."

"Mara..." chided Luke.

Han grimaced. "We'll think of something."

And thus ends the first part of my AU Thrawn trilogy. Please read, review and request. I hope you enjoyed it.

Updated 12.06.2017