Around 36 BBY, skirmish took place in the Chiss Ascendancy's Kinoss system between the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet and pirates of the Lioaoin Regime. Prior to the skirmish, Junior Commander Mitth'raw'nuru "Thrawn" of the Expansionary Defense Fleet believed he could prove that the Regime was supporting piracy against the Chiss and other peoples of the region. As such, he undertook a mission to the Lioaoin heartworld under the guise of a merchant, loudly broadcast that he had discovered pirates, and baited Lioaoin security ships to attack his vessel.
Thrawn and the Lioaoin pirates were both navigating using Pathfinder navigators, who had the special ability to track each other through hyperspace using the Force. Thrawn used it to his advantage, baiting the Lioaoin corsairs to pursue his freighter through hyperspace to the Kinoss system, where Mid Captain Irizi'ar'alani of the Chiss patrol cruiser Parala lay in wait. The corsairs fell into Thrawn's trap and were destroyed by the Parala upon arrival. Following the skirmish, the Chiss officers were promoted.
Junior Commander Thrawn (pictured) sought General Ba'kif's permission to identify the pirates.
In the time after the Chiss Mitth'raw'nuru "Thrawn" attained the military rank of Junior Commander in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, pirates attacked the merchant vessels of the Chiss Ascendancy for a span of several months. Until culpability for the attacks could be proven, the Ascendancy's preemptive-strike laws prohibited military action against suspected perpetrators; even if members of the Chiss Syndicure and Ascendancy military suspected a faction.
On a diplomatic mission to the Scofti homeworld of Bardram Scoft, Junior Commander Thrawn observed Lioaoin ships resembling the pirates ravaging freighters at the Ascendancy's edges and believed he could prove the Lioaoin Regime was supporting the pirates. Thrawn had also learned that the Pathfinders of the Navigators' Guild had the ability to track and pursue each other through hyperspace.
Around 36 BBY, shortly after a pirate raid that Thrawn suspected involved the Lioaoi and Pathfinder navigators, he approached the Expansionary Fleet's Supreme General Ba'kif for permission to undertake a mission to the Lioaoin heartworld. There, Thrawn would either prove his theory or take no action, following the Ascendancy's preemptive-strike laws. Thrawn hoped to conduct his mission promptly, before the Regime's hired Pathfinders could return to Navigators' Guild stations. If Thrawn was correct, he would lure Lioaoin Regime forces or their pirate proxies into attacking the Chiss, proving his theory and allowing the Lioaoin pirate campaign to begin in earnest. Ba'kif granted him permission to perform the mission, assigning two freighters to pose as Chiss merchants seeking trade with the Lioaoin heartworld and a Chiss patrol cruiser to lie in ambush at an agreed-upon destination.
Thrawn hired the Pathfinder navigator Qilori to navigate his freighter to the Lioaoin heartworld under the guise of being a Chiss merchant. Another Chiss freighter, navigated by another Pathfinder, accompanied Thrawn on the mission. Thrawn correctly suspected that the Lioaoin pirates hired Pathfinders to navigate their vessels. He planned to utilize the Pathfinders' ability to follow each other through hyperspace to lure Lioaoin Regime forces or pirates into a trap, which would prove beyond doubt that the attacking pirates were sanctioned by the Lioaoin Regime.
Qilori could sense some of his Pathfinder colleagues aboard Lioaoin pirate vessels through the Force and warned Thrawn that searching for pirates would be dangerous. Qilori insisted that if the Regime suspected he and Thrawn were hunting pirates, they would be in danger. Thrawn interrupted Qilori's warning, realizing that the Lioaoin Regime might only suspect that he was hunting pirates and opted to remove all doubt. He thus broadcast that he had discovered pirates in Minnisiat, a trade language known to the Lioaoi, urging the other Chiss freighter to "report back." Thrawn then retreated to the Kinoss system through hyperspace, pursued by the pirates he sought to ensnare, whose Pathfinders followed him by sensing Qilori.
Shortly after Thrawn and Qilori arrived in the Kinoss system, four Lioaoin corsair starships followed them out of hyperspace and prepared to attack. However, Mid Captain Irizi'ar'alani "Ziara" of the Chiss patrol cruiser Parala lied in ambush above the planet Kinoss and quickly destroyed all four Lioaoin pirate vessels. To Qilori's horror, that included killing the Pathfinders aboard the corsairs.
Mid Captain Ziara (pictured) was promoted to Senior Captain following the skirmish.
In the aftermath of the Kinoss operation, Thrawn was promoted two ranks, rising from the rank of Junior Commander to Senior Commander, skipping Mid Commander entirely. Mid Captain Ziara was promoted to Senior Captain. The skirmish marked the start of the Chiss' campaigns against the Lioaoin pirates.
Just before his promotion, Thrawn sought permission from Ba'kif to strike at the Lioaoin heartworld. Ba'kif angrily told Thrawn that they could absolutely not attack the heartworld without ironclad proof of the Lioaoin Regime's culpability, per the Ascendancy's non-aggression protocols. Ba'kif believed Thrawn had neutralized the Lioaoins as a threat to the Ascendancy. However, Thrawn was not satisfied leaving them as a threat to others in the Unknown Regions. Thrawn's desire to protect other nations from the pirates eventually led to the Stivic incident, in which he discreetly told Garwian defenders at their colony world of Stivic how to defeat attacking Lioaoin pirate vessels.
A few years later in 19 BBY, Thrawn returned to Guild Concourse 447 to hire Qilori for his planned raid on Rapacc. Qilori was surprised that Thrawn, who was a Junior Commander during the events at Kinoss, had achieved the rank of Senior Captain so quickly. However, the navigator then reflected that it should not be a surprise because of Thrawn's performance during the skirmish in the Kinoss system.
The skirmish in the Kinoss system appeared in flashbacks in the 2020 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn, the first installment in Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy.
- Star Wars: Timelines