In 27 BBY the Galactic Republic sent out an expedition known as the Outbound Flight Project in attempt to spread outside the galaxy. The ship was intercepted and destroyed by Force Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Expansionary Fleet when it was still in the area called the Unknown Regions. After the battle, the badly damaged ship limped to a star cluster the Chiss called the Redoubt, where it crash-landed on a small planetoid.
Fifty years after the disappearance of the Outbound Flight, a Chiss patrol mapping the Redoubt came across the planetoid, where the ship had found its final resting place. After scanning the wreck and understanding what they had found, the Chiss contacted the Empire of the Hand—a renegade faction of the Galactic Empire created by Mitth'raw'nuruodo, who had been known in the Empire as Thrawn—asking them to pass a message to the New Republic and the New Jedi Order to request their presence in the expedition team Chiss wanted to sent to furhter investigate the old ship.
Admiral Voss Parck, de facto leader of the Empire of the Hand, forwarded the Chiss message to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his wife Mara Jade Skywalker, with whom he had been in contact with few years earlier. Before it reached the Jedi the message was stolen by Dean Jinzler, an employee of Jade Skywalker's friend, information broker Talon Karrde. Jinzler's sister, Lorana had been killed on the Outbound Flight, and having learned of the ship's rediscovery Jinzler was eager to visit it.
The expedition was put together in Crustai system, where it boarded the Chaf Envoy, a vessel commanded by Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano of the Fifth Ruling Family and General Prard'ras'kleoni of the Chiss Defense Fleet. In addition to the two Jedi and Jinzler, a group of Empire of the Hand stormtroopers and several aliens calling themselves Geroon joined the party. The Geroon, however, were a fraud, and in truth they were species called Vagaari, who had long harbored ill will toward the Chiss, but had not so far acted aggressively against the Ascendancy.
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Essential Reader's Companion