Ulstermann
Blade Runner
OPERATION IMPERIUM : The Second Thrawn Campaign
THE CLEANSING FIRE (9 ABY-14 ABY)
Almost a decade after the destruction of the Galactic Empire’s first mobile planet killing battle station known as the Death Star the Chiss Grand Admiral known as Thrawn was brought close to death during the climactic Battle of Bilbringi following an assassination attempt by his personal bodyguard, a Noghri called Rukh. The Empire fell further and further into chaos following his apparent death, with the Republic making significant advances into Imperial territory. Myriad star systems broke away from the Empire, becoming part of the Republic or proclaiming their independence from both of the warring factions. It seemed that the Empire’s time was past.
Until Thrawn returned.
The details of how the Grand Admiral survived his assassination attempt are not known; but the reasons why Thrawn chose to remain hidden for almost four years afterwards have since become clear. The Empire needed purged. For the forces under Thrawn’s command belonged not to him but to the various warlords and would-be dictators that had emerged following the battle of Endor, and represented just as much a threat as the Republic.
So Thrawn watched and waited from the safety of an Outer Rim colony world as Imperial Warlords turned on each other. For two years the splinter Imperial factions fought to a standstill. Thrawn chose his moment carefully. In the first quarter of 12 ABY, he engineered a meeting between the leaders of the 17 most powerful Imperial splinter groups on the planet Ozaxa. Chaired by Captain Gilad Pellaeon, the Ozaxa Summit was to attempt to thrash out border agreements for the Empire’s successor groups. However, Pellaeon, secretly still under Thrawn’s command, had a company of the elite 110th Stormtrooper Regiment seize the building where the meeting was to take place. Thrawn then quietly made an appearance, once again in the white uniform of a Grand Admiral and had the leaders of all of the main imperial splinter groups executed. Now the Empire, embattled and slowly shrinking, was Thrawn’s alone to command.
The first and most urgent order of business was to halt the Republic’s thrusts into Imperial space. This Thrawn accomplished by dispatching several brilliant, and newly promoted, Admirals to the most threatened sectors. What followed was a year of brilliantly executed limited counter-attacks that stopped the Republic’s aggression dead. In order to throw the Republic’s Armed Forces Council into disarray Imperial Intelligence Bureau Director Neumann launched an operation to assassinate several key members of the AFC, including Admiral Ackbar, who barely survived a sniper attack while on leave deep inside Republic space.
With the Republic brought to a standstill, Thrawn turned to the internal politics of the Empire, reorganizing and streamlining the economy. More importantly, he did away with the anti-alien laws that had kindled many of the Rebel cause. In a secret ceremony held on the new capital world of Thrawn’s Empire, Ozaxa, the Imperial Senate and the Imperial Ruling Council ratified Grand Admiral Thrawn as the leader of the Galactic Empire.
THE GATHERING STORM (14 ABY- 15 ABY)
The three years of bloody, inconclusive war had hardened the Republic’s hitherto-liberal politics. The election of the hardline Vico Pandi to the Chancellorship in 12 ABY ushered in a new and more authoritarian Republic. The creation of the Office of Internal Security marked the beginning of a far darker era, with dissidents increasingly being locked up. But despite the best efforts of the Republican armed forces and their supreme commander, Garm Bel Iblis, the Republic could not break through the Imperial defence. And behind those lines, the Empire gathered it’s strength to launch an offensive. An offensive that, this time, would not be marred by betrayal
So the Imperial military modernized, reequipped, and retrained.
THE WARLORD CAMPAIGN (13 ABY-15 ABY)
As the Empire slowly geared up for their second great offensive, there were myriad other campaigns between thousands of smaller states and factions across the galaxy. For the Imperial Armed Forces High Command, there was another campaign to be fought even as Grand Admiral Thrawn put the final touches to Operation Imperium.
There is a section of space, bordering on Imperial territory, that has long been home to a powerful collection of warlords, independent star systems, and even Separatist fragments, known as Warlord Space. In 13 ABY the Empire had dispatched the 22nd Fleet under the command of Admiral Gundersson and the 99th Army under General Lymann to bring these recalcitrant systems finally under Imperial control. The two capable Imperial commanders made good headway, carving a swathe through Warlord Space against limited opposition. High Command was satisfied that before long there would be a new sector to add to the starmaps in the High Command HQ on Victory Avenue.
But overconfidence has a high price.
In late 13 ABY the 22nd Fleet began a ferocious battle of attrition in the Witze System against the Overlord of Witze, Bentick. His well trained and brave troops have thus far managed to contain the assault to the third planet of the Witze system. With Imperial effectives along the border of Warlord Space fully committed to the assault on Witze, the remaining planets all along that part of space are thinly defended.
Just the right place for a surprise attack…
THE CLEANSING FIRE (9 ABY-14 ABY)
Almost a decade after the destruction of the Galactic Empire’s first mobile planet killing battle station known as the Death Star the Chiss Grand Admiral known as Thrawn was brought close to death during the climactic Battle of Bilbringi following an assassination attempt by his personal bodyguard, a Noghri called Rukh. The Empire fell further and further into chaos following his apparent death, with the Republic making significant advances into Imperial territory. Myriad star systems broke away from the Empire, becoming part of the Republic or proclaiming their independence from both of the warring factions. It seemed that the Empire’s time was past.
Until Thrawn returned.
The details of how the Grand Admiral survived his assassination attempt are not known; but the reasons why Thrawn chose to remain hidden for almost four years afterwards have since become clear. The Empire needed purged. For the forces under Thrawn’s command belonged not to him but to the various warlords and would-be dictators that had emerged following the battle of Endor, and represented just as much a threat as the Republic.
So Thrawn watched and waited from the safety of an Outer Rim colony world as Imperial Warlords turned on each other. For two years the splinter Imperial factions fought to a standstill. Thrawn chose his moment carefully. In the first quarter of 12 ABY, he engineered a meeting between the leaders of the 17 most powerful Imperial splinter groups on the planet Ozaxa. Chaired by Captain Gilad Pellaeon, the Ozaxa Summit was to attempt to thrash out border agreements for the Empire’s successor groups. However, Pellaeon, secretly still under Thrawn’s command, had a company of the elite 110th Stormtrooper Regiment seize the building where the meeting was to take place. Thrawn then quietly made an appearance, once again in the white uniform of a Grand Admiral and had the leaders of all of the main imperial splinter groups executed. Now the Empire, embattled and slowly shrinking, was Thrawn’s alone to command.
The first and most urgent order of business was to halt the Republic’s thrusts into Imperial space. This Thrawn accomplished by dispatching several brilliant, and newly promoted, Admirals to the most threatened sectors. What followed was a year of brilliantly executed limited counter-attacks that stopped the Republic’s aggression dead. In order to throw the Republic’s Armed Forces Council into disarray Imperial Intelligence Bureau Director Neumann launched an operation to assassinate several key members of the AFC, including Admiral Ackbar, who barely survived a sniper attack while on leave deep inside Republic space.
With the Republic brought to a standstill, Thrawn turned to the internal politics of the Empire, reorganizing and streamlining the economy. More importantly, he did away with the anti-alien laws that had kindled many of the Rebel cause. In a secret ceremony held on the new capital world of Thrawn’s Empire, Ozaxa, the Imperial Senate and the Imperial Ruling Council ratified Grand Admiral Thrawn as the leader of the Galactic Empire.
THE GATHERING STORM (14 ABY- 15 ABY)
The three years of bloody, inconclusive war had hardened the Republic’s hitherto-liberal politics. The election of the hardline Vico Pandi to the Chancellorship in 12 ABY ushered in a new and more authoritarian Republic. The creation of the Office of Internal Security marked the beginning of a far darker era, with dissidents increasingly being locked up. But despite the best efforts of the Republican armed forces and their supreme commander, Garm Bel Iblis, the Republic could not break through the Imperial defence. And behind those lines, the Empire gathered it’s strength to launch an offensive. An offensive that, this time, would not be marred by betrayal
So the Imperial military modernized, reequipped, and retrained.
THE WARLORD CAMPAIGN (13 ABY-15 ABY)
As the Empire slowly geared up for their second great offensive, there were myriad other campaigns between thousands of smaller states and factions across the galaxy. For the Imperial Armed Forces High Command, there was another campaign to be fought even as Grand Admiral Thrawn put the final touches to Operation Imperium.
There is a section of space, bordering on Imperial territory, that has long been home to a powerful collection of warlords, independent star systems, and even Separatist fragments, known as Warlord Space. In 13 ABY the Empire had dispatched the 22nd Fleet under the command of Admiral Gundersson and the 99th Army under General Lymann to bring these recalcitrant systems finally under Imperial control. The two capable Imperial commanders made good headway, carving a swathe through Warlord Space against limited opposition. High Command was satisfied that before long there would be a new sector to add to the starmaps in the High Command HQ on Victory Avenue.
But overconfidence has a high price.
In late 13 ABY the 22nd Fleet began a ferocious battle of attrition in the Witze System against the Overlord of Witze, Bentick. His well trained and brave troops have thus far managed to contain the assault to the third planet of the Witze system. With Imperial effectives along the border of Warlord Space fully committed to the assault on Witze, the remaining planets all along that part of space are thinly defended.
Just the right place for a surprise attack…
