Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand, also known as the Sunrise confrontation, and the Sunrise battle, was a battle between a Chiss Ascendancy fleet led by the Chiss Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn" and the Grysk operative "Jixtus"'s fleet. As Jixtus attempted to instigate a civil war in the Ascendancy after two previous attempts to destroy the nation, Thrawn realized that if the Grysk's fleet was not destroyed, its commander would be able to use it to destroy the Ascendancy. The senior captain and his colleagues formed a large fleet and brought it to the Sunrise system, where they deactivated it, making it seem as if it was dead.
Once Jixtus's fleet and the Kilji war cruiser Whetstone arrived at Sunrise, Jixtus's Grysk warships moved toward the Chiss; however, that separated the vessels and surrounded them with enemy ships that "revived" and attacked the Grysks shortly afterward. As the Grysk StoneCrusher-class WarMasters and Prism-class BattleChiefs were destroyed by Thrawn's forces, fifteen starships of the Garwian Unity and Vak Combine nations arrived and attacked the Grysk forces, destroying many of Jixtus's warships. The operative's flagship, the Shatter-class WarMaster, then tried to flee. As the FateSpinner could destroy the Whetstone before fleeing so that there were no non-Chiss witnesses to the Sunrise confrontation, the war cruiser's navigator, Pathfinder navigator Qilori of Uandualon, instructed the cruiser's crew—the Kilji vassals of the Kilji Illumine nation—to destroy the WarMaster before it could kill him.
The vassals then fired all of the vessel's weaponry at the Fatespinner, destroying the Grysk warship's starboard aft flank. The Kilji attack prompted Jixtus to activate the self-destruct mechanisms aboard his seven remaining vessels, destroying all of them but his flagship. After telling Thrawn that the Grysks would return, the Grysk destroyed the FateSpinner, killing himself.
In 18 BBY, after two of his client species—the Agbui and the Nikardun—failed to destroy the Unknown Regions Chiss Ascendancy, the Grysk operative known as "Jixtus" allied himself with the Kilji Illumine nation. He and the Illumine's ruler, Generalirius Nakirre, attempted to sow discord among the Ascendancy's Chiss families and provoke a civil war before Jixtus's fleet—which was a part of the Grysk armada—launched a final assault on an Ascendancy weakened by a civil conflict.
To prevent a final assault, the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, core name "Thrawn," traveled to the Ascendancy's planet of Sposia, where he obtained a Vagaari gravity well projector, which he wished to use to prevent Jixtus's fleet from escaping a battle over the Unknown Regions planet "Sunrise." The senior captain subsequently gathered his colleagues' support, gaining a fleet of fifteen Chiss warships. Expansionary Defense Fleet Supreme General Ba'kif granted him several light cruisers, and Admiral Ar'alani did likewise, giving Thrawn the Chiss light cruisers Whisperbird and Stingfly.
The Chiss fleet assembled in the Sunrise system, where nine of the Paccian Governance's gunboats joined Thrawn's fleet—which included Thrawn's Nikardun blockade frigate Aelos, six Chiss patrol cruisers, and Chiss heavy cruiser Springhawk. Senior Captain Irizi'in'daro "Ziinda," commander of the Chiss heavy cruiser Grayshrike, stayed in an asteroid field, where she briefed the commanders of the Chiss vessels. Ar'alani—who dubbed the coming battle against Jixtus "Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand"—and Thrawn practiced for the upcoming battle, and fifteen warships of the Garwian Unity and Vak Combine nations joined the Paccian Governance forces' commander, Commander Uingali foar Marocsaa. Thrawn instructed the Garwian commander, Second Defense Overlord Frangelic, and the Vak commander to join the battle against Jixtus's fleet halfway through the conflict.
Senior Captain Thrawn sought to destroy Jixtus's fleet at Sunrise.
Thrawn deactivated his fleet so that it appeared dead once Jixtus arrived, with scrap and Chiss vessels floating in the inner Sunrise system. In the outer system, Jixtus arrived aboard Nakirre's Kilji war cruiser Whetstone, with his fleet following shortly afterward. The Grysk sought to speak with Thrawn alone, and journeyed to the inner Sunrise system aboard the Whetstone.
There, Jixtus saw Thrawn's "dead" fleet and spoke with the senior captain. The Chiss claimed that two beings the Grysk sought, Sunrise's ruler, the Magys, and the Magysine, who could see into the future, were safe on Sunrise. Jixtus attempted to induce Thrawn to give him the Magys and the Magysine, sending his fleet to Ar'alani's Nightdragon man-of-war Vigilant and other Chiss vessels that held the most survivors. Thrawn refused, and told Nakirre that the Paataatus Hiveborn nation had destroyed the Kilji's battle fleet, the Illumine Kilhorde. Viewing Nakirre as useless without the Kilhorde, Jixtus murdered his ally, with the generalirius's Kilji vassals going catatonic.
After Nakirre's death, Thrawn brought his fleet back to "life" and asked Jixtus to surrender; the Grysk refused and fled the Whetstone aboard an escape pod. As the Grysks had broken their battle formation when moving toward the Vigilant and the other Chiss ships, they were alone and surrounded by enemy ships, giving Thrawn the initiative in his last stand.
The Springhawk and the gunboat Paccian Four attacked one of Jixtus's three StoneCrusher-class WarMasters, the Armageddon. The former vessels launched a spectrum laser on the Grysk warship, which responded by firing a salvo of missiles at the heavy cruiser and attacking Paccian Four with smaller dibber missiles. However, the Springhawk disabled the dibbers with plasma sphere weapons, resulting in their explosion. With the weaponry's explosion, the Armaggedons commander was unable to see that Paccian Four was attacking one of the StoneCrusher's flanks. After the Paccian attack, Thrawn commanded his primary forces to begin their attack and his secondaries to keep Jixtus's fleet occupied.
Chiss heavy cruisers (a Chiss heavy crusier pictured) engaged Jixtus's fleet during Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand.
The Chiss Clarr light cruiser Orisson engaged the StoneCrusher SkySweep alongside two light cruisers, attacking with breacher missiles. The Grayshrike and the patrol cruisers Bokrea and Parala attacked a Grysk Prism-class BattleChief with breachers, crippling the BattleChief. In response, Jixtus's StoneCrusher Emery retaliated against the Grayshrike and the two cruisers, prompting Ziinda to jump into hyperspace with the Vagaari gravity well projector before dropping out of hyperspace and destroying the Emery.
Meanwhile, Jixtus's escape pod boarded the FateSpinner and assumed command of his forces, sending his WarMaster to the Chiss Vigilant and Thrawn's Aelos. The light cruiser Stingfly and the Vigilant used their tractor beams to send an asteroid behind Jixtus's ship while firing plasma spheres and breachers at the ship. Jixtus destroyed the asteroid, but the breachers and plasma spheres damaged his warship significantly, prompting him to retreat to a high orbit over Sunrise—near the planet's atmosphere. While Jixuts could not join the battle, he could still direct his forces while the atmospheric effects prompted the Chiss to avoid engaging the FateSpinner.
While Jixtus's fleet had disabled eight Chiss vessels, the operative was not satisfied. He did not know how the Chiss could use their hyperdrives to jump into hyperspace while his ships could not, and asked Pathfinder navigator Qilori—the Whetstones navigator—to give him an answer. The navigator claimed that the Chiss could have obtained a gravity well projector, and the Grysk realized that a Paccian gunboat—commanded by Mid Captain Csap'ro'strob "Apros"—was carrying the device, sending two BattleChiefs to destroy it. While the vessels traveled to their destination, the Orisson destroyed much of the SkySweeps hull. The Clarr cruiser then moved to attack the Armageddon alongside the Springhawk and the Grayshrike, with the StoneCrusher being destroyed by the Chiss.
Starships of the Chiss Ascendancy fought in Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand.
As Jixtus's two BattleChiefs approached Apros's gunboat, Ziinda's heavy cruiser moved to assist while Apros tried to flee. Immediately, the Garwian and Vak vessels arrived near the BattleChiefs, firing at all the Grysk ships. While the Springhawk finished off a BattleChief, the FateSpinner attempted to flee. Apros and Ziinda's vessels prepared to run in parallel while the Grayshrike stayed between the WarMaster and the gunboat, exchanging fire with Jixtus's WarMaster.
Aboard the Whetstone, Qilori realized that while Jixtus left Sunrise, it would pass in front of the Kilji war cruiser, allowing the operative to destroy the Kilji ship and leave no non-Chiss witnesses to his defeat. To prevent this, Qilori promised Nakirre's vassals that he was their new master, promising to lead them until he could return them to their home. A Kilji vassal fired the Whetstones weaponry at Jixtus—whose fleet had been reduced to six BattleChiefs and his flagship—at Qilori's command. The Kilji attack destroyed the FateSpinners entire starboard aft flank, and Jixtus's resignation.
Thrawn attempted to state his terms of surrender and offer medical aid for Jixtus's soldiers; however, the Grysk refused, activating the self-destruct mechanisms his fleet's warships were equipped with, destroying all of them but the FateSpinner. After discussing the Garwians, Vaks, and the Magys with Thrawn, Jixtus announced that the Grysks would be back, destroying his warship.
The Chiss senior captain reached out to Qilori, asking what his status was, and the Pathfinder reported Generalirius Nakirre's death and that he was the Kiljis' new master. Thrawn instructed Qilori to wait until he disarmed the Whetstone and to bring fellow Pathfinder Sarsh to his and Qilori's home, Navigators' Guild Concourse 447.
Thrawn recounted the incident to Eli N. Vanto when the Empire found him.
The Chiss Syndicure, the Ascendancy's ruling body, sent Admiral Dy'lothe's Venturous to assess the situation at Sunrise after the the Sunrise confrontation. As Thrawn violated Chiss law that prohibited fighting if an enemy had not attacked the Ascendancy, the Syndicure removed the senior captain from the Expansionary Defense Fleet and turned Thrawn into a member of his family, the Mitth family, without rank.
As Captain Roscu had survived several Grysk attempts on her life and the Sunrise battle, the people of the Clarr homeworld of Rhigar dubbed her "The One They Could Not Kill." For her performance at Sunrise, Ziinda received a commendation and—as the senior captain suggested to General Ba'kif—Apros was promoted to the rank of senior captain, gaining command of the Parala.
Although the Syndicure sought to press charges against everyone who fought at Sunrise, they only pressed charges against Thrawn, who was exiled. While the Chiss ruling body intended to punish Thrawn for his attack on the Grysks, exiling him to a world in Wild Space, Ba'kif and Thrawn viewed the exile as a way to send the senior captain to the region beyond the Unknown Regions known to the Chiss as "Lesser Space." Thrawn was to contact the Galactic Empire and determine if the government could help the Ascendancy fight the Grysks, whose threat Thrawn believed was not over. When the Empire arrived at his place of exile around 15 BBY, Thrawn told Imperial cadet Eli N. Vanto that the Ascendancy had exiled him because he had attacked "evil, nomadic pirates" before they attacked his people.
In the current Star Wars canon Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand was mentioned in Timothy Zahn's 2017 novel Thrawn, the first installment in the Thrawn novel series, before it appeared in the 2021 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, the final installment of Zahn's Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy. In the Star Wars Legends continuity, Thrawn's raid on an enemy ground installation was first mentioned in the biographical capsule written by Peter M. Schweighofer that accompanied Zahn's short story Mist Encounter, which was published in Star Wars Adventure Journal 7 in August 1995.
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