Battle for Outbound Flight

Force Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo's Picket Force Two waited in an area that was along Outbound Flight's vector, as well as in between the Geroon homeworld and Crustai. With the Whirlwind's gravity well projector running, Outbound Flight was yanked from hyperspace. Thrawn attempted to negotiate with the fallen Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth to convince him to either return to the Galactic Republic or continue along a different vector, as their current destination was where the Yuuzhan Vong were rumoured to be. C'baoth refused, so Thrawn was forced to keep Outbound Flight trapped here.

Meanwhile Jorj Car'das went to the Vagaari fleet in order to convince them to attack Crustai. He was successful by giving a gift of battle droids and droidekas. Unknown to both Car'das and the Vagaari, the droids were programmed to kill the Vagaari crew at Thrawn's command. The Vagaari departed with their entire fleet, only to be brought out of hyperspace as well.

The Vagaari immediately broadcast hostile messages, which caused the Jedi to paralyze the entire fleet with the Force. Thrawn used this opportunity to launch the droid starfighters against the Vagaari, as well as to activate the "gift" battle droids in order to kill the Miskara. The droid starfighters attacked close enough to get in between the living shields of the Vagaari, and destroy the hull itself.

The deaths of thousands of Vagaari caused the Jedi to become weakened. Thrawn then ordered his forces to attack Outbound Flight. They hit the weapons blisters and shield generators, but left the rest of the vessel alone. Unfortunately, this killed most of the Jedi, as they were manning the weapons at this time. Thrawn again asked Outbound flight to return home, but in response, Jorus C'baoth turned to the dark side and began to choke Thrawn. With the Chiss unable to stop C'baoth's attack, Kinman Doriana activated a switch that caused a change in the droid starfighters programming. The droids stopped their attack on the Vagaari and rammed into Outbound Flight, opening it to space. Ten pairs of fighters were equipped with radiation bombs and detonated inside Outbound Flight, killing nearly everybody, including C'baoth. The remaining Vagaari vessels, no longer under attack, fled from the area and into hyperspace.

Darth Sidious' original objective to destroy Outbound Flight succeeded, although in an unexpected way. Thrawn would regret the result, as none of the civilians needed to die, and the Vagaari escaped. Three hours later, a Chiss fleet under the Fifth Ruling Family lead by Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano arrived to take possession of the Vagaari fleet (and later Outbound Flight). A series of delays and diversions allowed Lorana Jinzler and Mitth'ras'safis, Thrawn's brother, to escape with Outbound Flight, thus preventing a critical imbalance in Chiss society.

On top of losing his brother, many in the Ruling Families still saw Thrawn's actions as tantamount to murder. Although Thrawn was able to convice the Ruling Families to keep his position in the fleet during a meeting held on Chiss Ascendancy's capital planet of Csilla, from that point on, his actions were watched carefully.

• The Essential Chronology
• "The University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Chiss" — Star Wars Gamer 5
• The New Essential Chronology
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Atlas
• The Unknown Regions
• The Essential Guide to Warfare
• The Essential Reader's Companion