96th Task Force

The 96th Task Force, also known as the Ninety-Sixth Task Force, served as a specialized task force focused on counter-insurgency operations within the Imperial Navy. Its primary mission involved suppressing rebellious activities within the Empire's territories located in the Outer Rim Territories. The unit comprised six principal starships under the leadership of Admiral Thrawn. These included his designated flagship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer named Chimaera. This arrangement persisted until Thrawn's departure to assume leadership of the Seventh Fleet, at which point he also took the Chimaera with him. The Task Force also included three Arquitens-class light cruisers—specifically, the Flensor, the Shyrack, and the Tumnor—along with a complement of two frigates.

On one instance during his tenure as admiral of the 96th, Thrawn presented Morgan Elsbeth, his new ally, with a display of three Imperial-class Star Destroyers, characterizing them as merely a fraction of his personal fleet. On a smaller scale, the Ninety-Sixth Task Force incorporated a substantial number of TIE fighters, in addition to assault boats. Thrawn also utilized the Slipknot, a YT-2400 light freighter, for intelligence gathering purposes concerning the activities of the Batonn insurgents. Moreover, Thrawn had access to a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle.

During the Imperial Era, the Imperial Ninety-Sixth Task Force was under the command of Admiral Thrawn. Initially, the Chiss admiral commanded the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, Chimaera, as an independent warship for the Empire during his service as a commodore. However, upon his promotion to lead the Ninety-Sixth Task Force, the Chimaera was designated as the task force's flagship.

At a certain point, Fleet Admiral Jok Donassius summoned Thrawn to the planet Coruscant, alongside Admirals Durril and Kinshara of the One Oh Third and One Twenty-Fifth task forces, respectively, to address the escalating threat posed by various allied insurgent groups operating within the Batonn sector in the Outer Rim.

Initially, Thrawn was tasked with assaulting the planet Batonn first, identified as the primary hub of rebel activity within the sector. His specific target was Scrim Island, a fortified facility holding approximately one hundred hostages seized by insurgents five days prior to the meeting. Thrawn expressed concerns regarding the three ion cannons and the energy shield defending the facility, prompting a confrontation with Durril, who dismissed Thrawn's proposed aerial breach in favor of a low-altitude incursion using assault boats carrying stormtroopers.

Thrawn considered this approach but deemed the island's shoreline defenses capable of repelling such an attack. Consequently, he requested additional time to further assess the situation. However, Donassius denied this request, demanding immediate action, including the potential destruction of the island. Thrawn opposed this option due to the presence of the prisoners, leading Donassius to reassign the attack on Scrim Island to Durril's One Oh Third Task Force, while the Ninety-Sixth was redirected to attack the planet Sammun.

Following the meeting, Thrawn and his aide, Commander Eli Vanto, voiced their conviction that Durril's assault on Skrim Island would be unsuccessful due to his overconfidence. Nevertheless, Thrawn insisted that the One Oh Third be permitted to proceed with the battle. After examining Sammuni art on a datapad, Thrawn contacted Commander Karyn Faro, the Chimaera's captain, informing her that he and Vanto would not be returning to the Star Destroyer and that she would assume command of the task force against the Sammuni insurgents.

Thrawn instructed the relatively inexperienced commander to enter the [system](/article/star_system] at a distance and then promptly disperse the remaining units of the task force. Subsequently, the Chimaera was to approach Sammun and demand the insurgents' surrender, utilizing its turbolasers to penetrate their shields and bunkers if necessary, with the objective of drawing them out of their defensive positions. The rest of the task force would then be able to capture the fleeing enemy ships, with the destruction of only a few of them necessary, as Thrawn predicted their instinct would be to flee to the safety of space.

Before Faro departed for Sammun, Thrawn also requested that the Arquitens-class light cruiser Shyrack be dispatched for his personal use. Subsequently, the admiral contacted Brento, the Shyrack's captain, instructing her to observe the battle on Batonn and prepare to rescue the One Oh Third Task Force upon its anticipated failure to capture Scrim Island. Thrawn and Vanto also departed for Batonn aboard the freighter Slipknot, acquired from a recently defeated smuggler gang, to observe Durril's attempts to defeat the insurgents.

At Batonn, Thrawn's hypothesis regarding Durril's attempt was validated, as a significant portion of the One Oh Third was rendered inoperable by Scrim Island's ion cannons and turbolasers. The insurgents alternated their firing patterns by temporarily contracting a small area of their energy shield. This tactic proved effective against Durril, who failed to recognize the patterns in his enemy's attacks. Thrawn and Vanto witnessed these events from aboard the Slipknot and transmitted an emergency distress signal on behalf of the task force upon its defeat. The pair then pursued a freighter fleeing from the island into space, while the Shyrack observed seven other enemy vessels escaping to various strongpoints on Batonn's main continent. After the Slipknot departed, the Shyrack coordinated the remaining functional ships of the One Oh Third Task Force, whose tractor beams were then utilized to extract Durril's command ship, the Judicator, from danger.

Later, Thrawn and Vanto returned to the Chimaera after successfully gathering information on the insurgents' leader, Nightswan. In Batonn's orbit, on the Star Destroyer's bridge, Thrawn, Vanto, and Faro participated in a hologram conference with the various commanders operating in the sector. During the conference, Thrawn reported on the success of Commander Faro and the Ninety-Sixth at Sammun, which resulted in the destruction of two enemy ships, the capture of four more, and the acquisition of a substantial quantity of small-arms ordnance. Although Fleet Admiral Donassius noted Thrawn's absence from the battle, he was not concerned, being more preoccupied with Durril's failure to capture Scrim Island. He ordered the One Oh Third to undergo repairs and granted Thrawn permission for a second assault on the island, which Thrawn accepted, having acquired additional intelligence on the insurgents.

For the capture of Scrim Island, Thrawn devised a strategy intended to catch the insurgents off guard. After ordering a final inspection of the task force's ships, the admiral took the risky decision to order the Flensor, Shyrack, and Tumnor to advance towards the planet while the Chimaera maintained its position, placing the light cruisers in a vulnerable position. The trio then initiated a turbolaser bombardment of the island facility. Although initially ineffective against the energy shield, the cruisers' blasts gained power as they approached the surface, potentially stressing the shield and overloading the generator. This risk compelled the insurgents to react, which they did when the Ninety-Sixth's ships were in the upper atmosphere. They simultaneously contracted their shield from the entire shoreline, allowing all three of their ion cannons to fire upward at the approaching craft.

Thrawn then instructed the three light cruisers to redirect their targeting vectors from the center of the shield towards the newly exposed targets. However, Thrawn was surprised by the exposure of a fourth ion cannon on the southeast shore, which had not been utilized during Durril's assault. The Shyrack attempted to adjust its firing vector to focus on the new target but was too slow and was struck by the ion blasts, disabling its sensors and weapons. Before the Flensor and Tumnor could shift their aim, the fourth ion cannon targeted them as well, also silencing their weapons.

Although Thrawn had not been aware of a fourth cannon from observing Durril's attack, he had anticipated complications, and so the presence of the weapon did not pose a threat to his plan, or dissuade him. Although the light cruisers had lost primary weapons and main drives, their communications, select secondary weapons, and auxiliary drives were still operational. So, Thrawn then commanded the Flensor, Shyrack, and Tumnor to one by one move to assigned positions via auxiliary drive. The admiral then contacted the latter cruiser, asking its captain, Yelfis, on the condition of the fourth ion cannon, as the Tumnor had been hit last. Yelfis reported it had been spluttering, with their engineering officer saying that was a sign of the cathtron tube emitter being in the process of burning out, which rendered that ion canon expended.

With the three cruisers in position, Commander Faro maneuvered the Chimaera into the atmosphere, positioning it behind the cruisers as it approached Batonn's surface. As the Flensor's captain warned that the northern ion cannon was about to fire, Thrawn and Faro adjusted the Chimaera's position, successfully concealing it behind the smaller craft so those could be hit with the ion fire instead. Brento then alerted the Star Destroyer to the western cannon, prompting the ships to modify their positions again to keep the Ninety-Sixth's flagship protected. As they continued to move inward, the light cruisers continued to block all ion fire targeted at the Chimaera, although this meant the Chimaera could not fire on the island targets, as they were blocked by the cruisers. However, once the Chimaera had reached optimum firing distance from the island, Thrawn ordered his turbolasers to fire, not at the island, but at Target One in the ocean surrounding it, which was not protected by the shield.

The Ninety-Sixth's two frigates, which were flying observation high over the battle zone, reported tsunami-scale waves hitting the western shoreline, which had been caused by Thrawn's initial bombardment of Target One, making contact with that shore's ion cannon. Then, the admiral ordered his guns at Target Two, which resulted in a more severe swamping at the site of the island's turbolaser. Thrawn then alternated fire between the two targets, just as the shield started to retract over the turbolaser to let it fire. However, second tsunamis then hit both targets, flooding the west ion cannon and causing an explosion at the turbolaser, disabling it.

Having demonstrated his advantage, Thrawn opened a transmission to the island, ordering them to lower their shield and surrender, or have the remainder of their defenses destroyed. When no response came, the admiral ordered alternate fire between targets Targets One and Three, and alerted his assault boats for imminent action. Just as the two new tsunamis hit the island, and a fire stated at the already destroyed insurgent turbolaser, the shield fell and the Chimaera's comm officer reported the insurgent leader was formally asking for terms. Thrawn ordered he and his men to leave their weapons in the buildings and to await Imperial assault boats outside, threatening deadly force at any further resistance or harm to the hostages.

Thrawn, heading back from his position at the front of the Chimaera's command walkway, told Vanto he could inform Coruscant of their victory. He then instructed Faro to oversee the tractoring the three cruisers out of Batonn's gravity well once the island had been fully retaken, so they could receive repairs.

Several days after Thrawn was assigned to take Scrim Island, Imperial Security Bureau Colonel Wullf Yularen and Governor Arihnda Pryce, both of whom were allies of the admiral, met with him on the Chimaera above Batonn. In its meeting room, Thrawn explained how the insurgents' main stronghold was located at the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex outside Paeragosto City, which Vanto had deduced by tracking the shipping vectors of the freighters that escaped Scrim Island. Thrawn planned to attack the facility in force as, like Scrim, it possessed a shield preventing orbital bombardment. Furthermore, there was a strong civilian presence around the facility, totally roughly thirty-thousand.

Pryce proposed she go down to the city herself, as her parents lived there, which would allow her to inspect the insurgents' weapons and defences, giving Thrawn an insight into his enemy, and perhaps allowing her to deactivate the shield. Yularen arranged for the governor to enter the combat zone with his agent, Gudry, under the pretence of looking for a friend mixed up in the mining situation. Although Thrawn did not approve of the plan on safety and effectiveness issues, he had to concede the issue, as he had little authority due to Batonn and Paeragosto City not yet being considered full military zones.

Before Yularen and Pryce's departure, the colonel handed Vanto the necessary comms card to keep in contact with the governor. Vanto then told him Thrawn had already been in contact with Imperial ground forces and they were coordinated to attack when needed. However, before he left, Yularen expressed his concern to the young aide at Thrawn's positioning of the Ninety-Sixth. After sustaining heavy damage at Scrim, the three light cruisers were assembled at the corners of an equilateral triangle nearly a hundred kilometers on a side, away from the Chimaera, being affixed to heavy maintenance tugs and repair barges. This made them extremely vulnerable to attack from space, which Admiral Kinshara's prisoners had suggested the insurgents were capable of. Thrawn had said previously that the ships were in that formation so the barges would not get in each others' way. However, the true, secret reason for the seemingly illogical layout was that the repair barges were hiding TIE fighters borrowed from the One Oh Third, which could jump out and flank passing enemy ships.

Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, more widely recognized as "Thrawn," was the commanding officer of the Ninety-Sixth Task Force during the Batonn sector insurgency. As the leader of the task force, Thrawn routinely sought input from lower-ranking officers, while also challenging them to understand the rationale behind his military strategies. However, despite his rank as admiral, Thrawn lacked proficiency in political matters, relying on allies such as Colonel Yularen and Governor Pryce for guidance in navigating the intricacies of politics.

Assisting Thrawn on the Chimaera's bridge were his aide, Commander Eli Vanto, and the Star Destroyer's captain, Commander Karyn Faro. Senior Lieutenant Lomar served as the senior communications officer on the bridge. Captain Brento commanded the light cruiser Shyrack, and Yelfis was the captain of the Tumnor. They frequently communicated with Thrawn during combat, providing observations and relaying their ship's progress. Captain Gilad Pellaeon also served among Thrawn's officers at one point. Additionally, Rukh, his personal assassin, was at Thrawn's disposal.

The Ninety-Sixth Task Force made its debut in the 2017 novel Thrawn, authored by Timothy Zahn. On June 13, 2018, it was first depicted in Thrawn 5, a Marvel comic adaptation of the original book written by Jody Houser, and illustrated by Luke Ross.