The Seventh Fleet, also known as the 7th Fleet, functioned as a fleet within the Imperial Navy throughout the Galactic Empire's era. Prior to the Galactic Civil War's commencement, this fleet was esteemed as a formidable and effective unit, having successfully resolved significant conflicts on behalf of the Empire over the years. Initially, Fleet Admiral Sartan held command, but around 2 BBY, Grand Admiral Thrawn replaced him. Around this time, Governor Arihnda Pryce from Lothal sought the Seventh Fleet's assistance in addressing the rebel Phoenix Cell threat.
Thrawn deployed the Seventh Fleet to establish a blockade around Lothal, where his TIE Defender production facility was located. He later utilized it to expel Phoenix Group from their base situated on Atollon. In 1 BBY, during the Liberation of Lothal, the fleet suffered a defeat when the Jedi Ezra Bridger summoned purrgil to overwhelm the fleet above Lothal. Subsequently, he directed Thrawn's flagship, the Chimaera, with both himself and the Grand Admiral on the bridge, into hyperspace.
As a fleet within the Imperial Navy, the 7th Fleet's flagship was initially the Chimaera, succeeded by the Dark Omen. Its composition included capital ships, featuring over nine Imperial I-class Star Destroyers. During the Liberation of Lothal, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Harbinger was integrated into the fleet. The fleet also employed a minimum of three Interdictor Cruisers, notably the Retention, alongside at least two Interdictor-class heavy cruisers, namely the Constrainer and Kassius Konstantine's Interdictor. Additionally, it incorporated support vessels, encompassing at least ten Arquitens-class command cruisers, upwards of nine Gozanti-class cruisers, and a minimum of four Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers. During the fleet's operations on Lothal, a minimum of five ICM-092792 construction modules were positioned in the planet's orbit.
The Seventh Fleet encompassed a variety of organizational structures and units. One such unit was a squadron of 5 Star Destroyers, commanded by the Dark Omen, which participated in the Battle of Atollon. The 7th Fleet deployed a task force to the planet during the Skirmish over Mykapo. The Chimaera's analysis group functioned as the tactical analysis unit stationed on the Chimaera. During the Lothal campaign, Grand Admiral Thrawn held them in high regard, entrusting them with analyzing gralloc movements, cargo shipments, and associated data. Despite this, Colonel Brierly Ronan, the Assistant Director of the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research, asserted that the analysis group lacked access to sensitive information pertaining to Project Stardust. The Defender program, a TIE fighter series initiative spearheaded by Grand Admiral Thrawn and under his direction, also fell under the purview of the 7th Fleet.
Given Thrawn's rapport with Emperor Palpatine, he was allocated a contingent of death troopers. The 7th Fleet employed ground forces, with Major Carvia overseeing the Chimaera's stormtrooper complement. Furthermore, the 7th Fleet maintained an armored division that saw action during the Battle of Atollon.
The Seventh Fleet of the Galactic Empire possessed considerable firepower and participated in several significant conflicts. Fleet Admiral Sartan served as the fleet's commanding officer until Grand Admiral Thrawn took over, following a recommendation from Governor Arihnda Pryce of the 96th Task Force for the former-admiral to volunteer for the position after his victory at Batonn. Upon Thrawn's arrival, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, named after a creature with same name, became the fleet's new command vessel. A stylized depiction of the chimaera adorned both the ship's hull and the fleet's insignia.
Following the battle of Batonn, Governor Arihnda Pryce of Lothal requested assistance from the Seventh Fleet to quell the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire, a request approved by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. After a group of rebels journeyed to Mykapo to extract another group of rebels, the Chimaera deployed to the planet to support Admiral Kassius Konstantine, though the rebels managed to evade capture.
In pursuit, Thrawn dispatched E-XD-series infiltrator droids to locate the rebel base. One of these droids infiltrated the base but was reprogrammed by the rebels to self-destruct upon its return to the fleet. After Imperial weapons technicians discovered the sabotage, the droid detonated its proton bomb, destroying the Imperial-class Star Destroyer it had docked with. Agent Kallus boarded the Chimaera to inform Thrawn of this development. The Grand Admiral remained relatively unfazed, noting that the sabotage merely narrowed his search from a thousand systems to ninety-four.
As the Seventh Fleet maintained its blockade of Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn summoned numerous Imperial officers to identify the Rebel spy known as Fulcrum. Agent Kallus, the spy in question, attempted to be rescued by Ezra Bridger. However, Kallus ultimately declined, realizing he could frame Lieutenant Yogar Lyste, already under suspicion, and continue providing information to the rebellion. Thrawn, however, uncovered Kallus's carefully constructed deception, confirming his true allegiance.
After apprehending Agent Kallus while he was warning the rebels, Thrawn deduced the location of Chopper Base by analyzing the trajectories of both General Jan Dodonna's Massassi Group and Fulcrum's transmissions. Thrawn directed Admiral Kassius Konstantine to deploy the Seventh Fleet to Atollon. During the Battle of Atollon, Thrawn's fleet inflicted significant casualties on the Phoenix Cell and the Massassi Group, destroying numerous ships and starfighters. This enabled Imperial ground forces to invade Chopper Base. However, the Imperials also lost two Interdictor vessels, allowing the remaining rebel forces to escape into hyperspace.
Despite Thrawn's setbacks at Atollon, Emperor Palpatine did not relieve him of command of the Seventh Fleet, as the factors contributing to the failure were beyond his control. Nevertheless, the Emperor summoned Thrawn to Coruscant aboard the Chimaera, after which he was dispatched to Batuu alongside Darth Vader to address a disturbance in the Force detected by Palpatine. During Thrawn's absence, Commander Woldar oversaw the fleet, collaborating with Grand Moff Tarkin to track down the rebels who had escaped Atollon, until his next assignment was prepared.
Eventually, Thrawn and the Seventh Fleet returned to Lothal, where the fleet resumed its blockade of the planet, which was undergoing extensive mining for resources. Despite the blockade, Rebels managed to infiltrate it, intending to disrupt Thrawn's plans. Some attempted to evade the fleet aboard a UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft. Despite bombardment from three Imperial I-class Star Destroyers, including the Chimaera, the ship successfully escaped by jumping to hyperspace through an Imperial construction module.
Following the ship's escape, the Rebels returned with a force of T-65B X-wing starfighters and BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bombers to attack the fleet in order to bomb the Imperial Armory Complex on the surface. They initially gained an advantage, destroying a TIE Defender Elite, its pilot Vult Skerris, an Arquitens-class command cruiser, and an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. However, Thrawn, from the bridge of the Chimaera, allowed the Rebels to enter the planet's atmosphere, where a large force of concealed TIE/ln space superiority starfighters shot down the squadron. Subsequently, Thrawn dispatched his agent Rukh to capture the Rebel leader, Hera Syndulla, from her crashed ship, which he accomplished.
After Hera Syndulla's assault on the Lothal Factory and during her interrogation, Grand Moff Tarkin informed Thrawn that Director Orson Krennic had successfully advocated for diverting funds to his Stardust project, the initial Death Star, which had been under construction for approximately two decades. He also arranged a meeting between Thrawn and the Emperor. Thrawn departed immediately, returning to Coruscant aboard the Chimaera.
En route to his meeting with the Emperor, Tarkin instructed Thrawn to rendezvous with him in the Sev Tok system aboard the ISD Firedrake, the flagship of the Third Fleet, commanded by Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit. There, he met with Krennic, Tarkin, Savit, and Palpatine, who participated via hologram. Stardust faced a supply issue due to Grallocs attacking power cables and couplers at equipment transfer points for the Project. Tarkin and the Emperor agreed that if Thrawn resolved Krennic's Gralloc problem, funds would be allocated to Thrawn's Defenders; otherwise, they would go to Stardust, and Thrawn's value to the Empire would be questioned.
The Chimaera, flagship of the 7th Fleet, participated in the Skirmish against the Third Fleet, an attempt to apprehend Savit, the orchestrator of Stardust's supply issues. Commodore Karyn Faro successfully led the operation, as Thrawn was aboard the Firedrake with Assistant Director Brierly Ronan. Thrawn had educated Faro about Savit's musical compositions, which he considered art. Shortly before Savit could shoot Thrawn, Ronan shielded Thrawn by covering Savit's face with his Assistant Director cape, causing Savit to lose control of his blaster and saving Thrawn. ISB's Dayja Collerand boarded the bridge shortly afterward, arresting Savit by stunning him and his stormtroopers. He then temporarily transferred command of the Third Fleet to Captain Boulag.
Shortly thereafter, Tarkin and Krennic contacted Thrawn and Ronan, a staunch supporter of Stardust and Krennic. Ronan informed Tarkin and Krennic that Thrawn had not fully fulfilled his part of the agreement, as he had not technically eliminated the Grallocs, despite successfully apprehending the traitorous Grand Admiral Savit.
Grand Moff Tarkin requested Thrawn's presence on Coruscant to directly present his case to the Emperor regarding the future of the TIE Defender program, given increasing competition from Director Orson Krennic and his Death Star project. Thrawn immediately departed for Coruscant aboard the Chimaera.
During Thrawn's absence, Governor Pryce killed the Jedi Kanan Jarrus during the rescue attempt of Syndulla, although the remaining Spectres escaped and the Lothal City fuel depot was destroyed, halting TIE Defender production. Soon after, Pryce launched an attack on the rebels' base to avoid execution by Thrawn. Despite the attack nearly succeeding, the rebel ship Ghost infiltrated the Seventh Fleet's blockade by attaching itself to a class four container transport, allowing it to destroy Pryce's forces. The rebels then captured the governor and aimed to seize Lothal's Imperial complex. However, Rukh survived and alerted Thrawn to the rebels' plans.
The group successfully infiltrated the facility and initiated Protocol 13, summoning all Imperial forces to the complex for evacuation. The rebels then planned to launch the Imperial Planetary Occupation Facility into the air and activate its self-destruct mechanism to eliminate all Imperials aboard. However, before they could execute this plan, Thrawn returned from Coruscant in the Chimaera and positioned it directly over the complex, forcing the rebels to abort their launch to prevent crashing into the Star Destroyer and destroying Capital City.
Thrawn then contacted the rebels, revealing that they had inadvertently enabled him to commence an orbital bombardment of the city without risking damage to Imperial assets, as they were all within the Imperial complex. Although the rebels attempted to activate the facility's city-wide shield, Rukh had already deactivated it. To demonstrate his power and force the rebels to surrender, Thrawn initiated an attack on Capital City from the Chimaera.
However, the Grand Admiral ceased firing upon Commander Ezra Bridger's surrender, contingent upon him boarding the Chimaera alone. Once Bridger was escorted to Thrawn's Office, the Grand Admiral revealed that he never intended to completely destroy Lothal, although it had become inevitable. Following their discussion, Thrawn presented Bridger with a hologram of the Emperor, who attempted to lure the Jedi to the dark side of the Force. Upon Thrawn's return to the Chimaera's bridge, he ordered the continuation of the bombardment of Capital City. However, the rebels within the Imperial Complex had eliminated Rukh and activated the city-wide shield, rendering Thrawn's attack ineffective.
Meanwhile, having evaded the Emperor, Bridger successfully gained access to the Chimaera's bridge. He neutralized Thrawn's death trooper guard and held the remaining crew members at gunpoint. At that moment, an officer reported to Thrawn that several unidentified objects had entered orbit. Thrawn insisted that the Seventh Fleet would intercept them, but the officer informed him that the blockade had been obliterated, adding that the Imperial vessels had simply vanished. Subsequently, Thrawn contacted Captain Gilad Pellaeon, who was seeking assistance from the Third Fleet, and Pellaeon confirmed that the objects had emerged from hyperspace. These objects turned out to be purrgil, a species of space-dwelling creatures capable of hyperspace travel. Mart Mattin had summoned them in the Ghost, which was spearheading the attack. As the purrgil began to demolish the Chimaera's two accompanying Star Destroyers in Lothal's lower atmosphere, Thrawn warned Bridger that their fates were now intertwined. Suddenly, the purrgil's tentacles crashed through the forward viewports, toppling several stormtroopers and ensnaring Thrawn. Despite this, he managed to shoot Bridger in the back, causing the Jedi to use the Force-push to hurl him against the wall. Following this, three purrgil latched onto the Chimaera's hull, and the vessel was pulled into hyperspace.
With the Seventh Fleet's departure from Lothal, the remaining rebels succeeded in destroying the Imperial Complex, thereby eliminating the Imperial presence on the planet entirely. The Empire never returned, as the Battle of Scarif, which escalated the Galactic Civil War that ultimately led to the Empire's defeat, occurred shortly after Lothal's liberation.
Following the Battle of Yavin, Supreme Commander Grand General Cassio Tagge elevated Captain Corf Ferno, a participant in the Battle of Atollon, to the rank of Vice Admiral. He then assigned Ferno command of the surviving elements of the Seventh Fleet, tasking him and the fleet with patrolling the Outer Rim Territories. Ferno's Star Destroyer, the Dark Omen, became the flagship of the Seventh Fleet.
Prior to the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, the Rebel Alliance had been using the Derra system in the Outer Rim to transport vital supplies. These Alliance convoys were carrying a variety of weapons, equipment, food, and medicine needed by various Rebel Alliance cells across the galaxy. After Imperial Vice Admiral Rae Sloane and the Seventh Fleet managed to compile a list of likely rebel shipping routes in the Expansion Region, Imperial forces converged on Derra and located a rebel convoy. As it was Sloane's plan, the admiral and the ISD Vigilance were placed in command, and were capably supported by the Dark Omen and the Interdictor cruiser Retention. Retention was instrumental in isolating the convoy, which led to its destruction during the ambush.
Morgan Elsbeth, an industrialist, harbored intense resentment due to the massacre of her coven during the Clone Wars. She channeled this fury into the construction of the Imperial Navy. In 9 ABY, former Jedi Ahsoka Tano located Elsbeth and initiated a solo insurgent campaign against her forces, aiming to liberate the oppressed people of Corvus and uncover Thrawn's whereabouts. During the liberation of Calodan, Elsbeth's HK-87 assassin droids displayed the Seventh Fleet's insignia on the sides of their heads. In the same year, Captain Pellaeon, leading his own delegation in the Shadow Council, wore the Seventh Fleet's insignia on the left shoulder of his uniform.