Episode VIII- Wrong Side of the War

"You don't have a plan?! You don't have a plan. No one ever has a plan. Why does no one ever have a plan?" -Han Solo



Date
Year: 1 ABY

Preceeded by: The Maw

Succeeded by: The Prism

Events
While Beri Tulon strongly advocated scuttling the Sun Crusher, Airen Cracken disagreed. He felt that throwing away the Empire most powerful weapon would be a mistake, as it could be used to force an Imperial surrender. Mon Mothma, however, agreed with Tulon. She ordered the Sun Crusher be sent on a collision course with the sun. While Tionne debriefed Daala and Qwi Xux, Col Serra discovered why their intelligence had been so wrong about the prisoners and the Peregrine. He noted that Grand Admiral Thrawn had met with Darth Vader shortly after the Battle of Arbra. Col Serra pointed out that Thrawn's deceptions and intelligence-related attacks were legendary, and if he had taken charge of the prisoners and the Peregrine, it would have been his style to plant misinformation to lead the Rebels into traps.

Airen Cracken realized that this meant his best agents, Targeter, Jan Ors, and Deena Shan, were all compromised. Cracken assigned Luke Skywalker to extract these compromised agents. Luke went to extract Deena Shan, Leia Organa went to extract Targeter, and Kyle Katarn went to extract Jan Ors. Meanwhile, Airen Cracken tasked Fenn Shysa, Den Siva, Dani, and Bey to start a galactic manhunt for Thrawn's ship, the Admonitor.

While Kyle and Luke were able to extract Jan and Deena without incident, Leia was recognized while attempting to reach Targeter, and she had to slip a legion of Terror Troopers before she found Targeter. The two of them blasted their way out of Yaga Minor, but they were forced to crash an orbital space station into the Imperial Ubiqtorate base to do so.

Meanwhile, Fenn, Den, Dani, and Bey drifted from one Imperial military outpost to the next, dropping into cantinas. Fenn played the role of a former crewman reminiscing and wondering where the ship could be now, while Dani seduced Imperial officers and pumped them for information, and Den and Bey went through port authority records. Together, they discreetly gathered intelligence about the Admonitor's movements, and attempted to extrapolate a predictable pattern.