The Firedrake was a Star Destroyer belonging to the Galactic Empire. It functioned as the flagship for Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit and the Imperial Navy's Third Fleet. Captain Boulag held the position of commanding officer. The Firedrake, along with the Third Fleet's forces, participated in a campaign targeting pirates operating in the Esaga sector. This campaign, however, served as a clandestine operation for Savit's theft of resources from Project Stardust.
After Grand Admiral Thrawn uncovered Savit's treason, he orchestrated a skirmish between Savit's forces and his own flagship, the Chimaera, which was under the command of Commodore Karyn Faro. Simultaneously, Thrawn personally confronted Savit on the bridge of the Firedrake. Following Thrawn's directives, Faro successfully countered the attacks from Savit's other Star Destroyers, compelling the grand admiral to commit the Firedrake to the battle. Despite being outnumbered by the Third Fleet, Thrawn and Faro's combined efforts inflicted damage on the Firedrake's turbolasers.
Thrawn masterminded a staged mutiny onboard the Firedrake, with his operatives seizing control of Savit's TIE fighters and preventing any external communications from the Star Destroyer. When Savit attempted to kill Thrawn using his blaster, Major Dayja Collerand of the Imperial Security Bureau stunned him and relieved him of command. Captain Boulag then assumed control of the Firedrake and transported Savit back to the planet Coruscant for a formal hearing.
As a Star Destroyer, the Firedrake incorporated a hyperdrive and powerful engines. This capital ship was heavily armed, featuring turbolasers alongside point-defense lasers. It also possessed a communications system and a short-range transmitter. A complement of TIE fighters was carried onboard.
The vessel included a bridge equipped with a command walkway and a hangar bay that offered multiple docking positions, one of which was designated Number Seven. Aboard the Firedrake was a command conference room designed as a duplicate of the one present on the Chimaera, an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, though it featured more modern and elaborate furnishings. The conference room's table was equipped with a holopad.
During the Imperial Era of the Galactic Empire, the Firedrake functioned as the flagship of Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit and his Third Fleet. It was commanded by Captain Boulag. From the Firedrake, Savit, along with the Third Fleet (including Captain Gilad Pellaeon's Harbinger, Captain Rasdel's Misthunter, and Captain Lochry's Stormbird), organized a campaign targeting pirates within the Esaga sector. However, this operation concealed Savit's collaboration with pirates to steal components from the Empire's Project Stardust at the Kurost sector transfer point.
Shortly before the Liberation of Lothal in 1 BBY, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin arranged a meeting between Grand Admiral Thrawn and Director Orson Krennic. Emperor Palpatine then moved the meeting, initially planned on Coruscant, the capital planet, to the Firedrake, which was located in the Sev Tok system at that time. This change was supposedly to reduce travel time for the participants. Savit, suspecting political motivations, was unhappy with the sudden change in schedule and the disruption to his ship, but he complied with the Emperor's order.
As Krennic's shuttle arrived in the Firedrake's hangar bay, Savit and Tarkin spoke on the bridge. Following Thrawn's arrival aboard his flagship, the Chimaera, the four attendees convened in the Firedrake's conference room, where the Emperor joined them via hologram. The Imperials discussed the delays in Krennic's Stardust project and his request to divert funds from Thrawn's TIE Defender program. They reached an agreement: if Thrawn could resolve the issues with Stardust within a week, his Defender project's funding would be restored. As Savit escorted Thrawn back to his shuttle, Krennic instructed Assistant Director Brierly Ronan, who was to oversee Thrawn's progress, to download the Imperial Navy's file on the Grand Admiral using a terminal on the Firedrake. Ronan then joined Thrawn on his shuttle, departing the Firedrake for the Chimaera.
Following a successful pirate suppression operation by the Third Fleet, Krennic contacted Savit and requested that he investigate Thrawn's actions. Savit included Tarkin in the conversation, but the grand moff declined to support Krennic's request. After the conversation ended, Savit contacted the Firedrake's comm officer on the bridge to request information from a contact of Rasdel's in Tarkin's office and to send a transmission to the Harbinger, inviting Pellaeon and his first officer to discuss their next pirate-hunting mission. Later, Krennic contacted Savit again, insisting that he send forces to protect the Kurost transfer point, believing it was under threat. Savit instead chose to deploy the Third Fleet's ships to the Esaga sector assembly locations that supplied resources to the transfer point.
Some time later, aboard the Firedrake, Savit received contact from Captain Lochry and Governor Haveland. The Stormbird had captured the freighter Brylan Ross, which contained evidence of the theft from Stardust's supply lines, along with Assistant Director Ronan and Imperial Security Bureau agent Dayja Collerand, who was undercover. Deciding against handing the prisoners over to Haveland, the grand admiral privately instructed Lochry to meet him in the Sev Tok system to deliver the freighter and its passengers to the Firedrake, hoping to eliminate the evidence of his treason.
Grand Admiral Thrawn later contacted Savit on the Firedrake's bridge, requesting the return of Ronan and the freighter. Thrawn asked Savit to rendezvous in a star system that contained evidence of the threat posed to the Empire by the Grysk species, and Savit reluctantly agreed. Savit prepared to enter hyperspace, placing the Firedrake on high alert and transmitting the location to the rest of the Third Fleet. The vessels arrived far from the system's center, near an abandoned Grysk observation post. As Savit sent the Harbinger to the space station, a Lambda shuttle approached from the Chimaera.
Unbeknownst to Savit, Thrawn had deduced his treachery. Thrawn was aboard the shuttle, secretly accompanied by his death troopers and several pilots. As the shuttle landed in the Firedrake's hangar, Savit went to retrieve Ronan, discovering that the other prisoner had vanished. Collerand had escaped, creating the impression that the drifter he had been posing as had been taken for interrogation. While Savit escorted Ronan to the hangar, Thrawn proceeded to the bridge, forcing Savit to return to meet him. On the bridge, Thrawn confronted Savit about his theft from Stardust. Simultaneously, the Chimaera, under the command of Commodore Karyn Faro following Thrawn's instructions, approached the Firedrake. Faro ordered Savit to surrender, sending evidence of his treason to the other officers of the Third Fleet.
Despite Faro's accusations, the Misthunter and Stormbird moved to support the Firedrake. Unwilling to commit his own ship immediately, Savit directed the other two Star Destroyers to fire ion cannons in an attack on the Chimaera. When the Chimaera neutralized the attacks, Savit ordered the Stormbird to launch its TIE fighters, which Faro managed to disable. With the Chimaera having countered all his previous maneuvers, Savit finally ordered Boulag to bring the Firedrake into the fray and fire upon Thrawn's flagship with its turbolasers. As the Firedrake began firing, several undetected TIEs launched from the Chimaera began destroying the turbolaser targeting sensors on the Firedrake's port side. Savit then had his gunners fire upon the Chimaera, but their reliance on computerized targeting systems caused them to miss.
When the Chimaera moved to the Firedrake's port side and ascended above the plane of battle, Savit's Star Destroyer angled its bow upward, rotating to bring its starboard turbolasers to bear on the enemy vessel. As the Star Destroyer maneuvered, Thrawn's death troopers incapacitated the Firedrake's TIE commander, allowing his pilots to commandeer four TIE fighters and depart the hangar alongside the shuttle. The stolen TIEs began eliminating the Firedrake's starboard turbolasers, while the shuttle landed on the vessel's short-range transmitter, jamming its outgoing signals. Additionally, a Grysk gravity well projector, previously launched at the Firedrake by Faro, landed in the Star Destroyer's hangar bay due to its upward tilt, striking the aft racks and preventing any further TIEs from launching.
Commodore Faro then contacted the vessels of the Third Fleet, citing the actions of the stolen TIEs as a mutiny against Savit's attack and ordering the grand admiral's other vessels to similarly defy his orders. With Thrawn's shuttle jamming the Firedrake's transmissions and Hangar Master Llano having lost control of the hangar to Thrawn's operatives, Savit was unable to contact the rest of his fleet. He ordered Boulag to resume the attack on the Chimaera, but the captain refused, deeming it unwise to continue their course of action. Simultaneously, Pellaeon moved the Harbinger to assist Faro, ordering Savit to surrender.
Realizing he could no longer win, Savit drew his blaster on Thrawn, intending to kill the grand admiral. However, Collerand stunned Savit, citing a regulation requiring blasters on capital ship bridges to be set to stun. With Savit relieved of duty pending a hearing, Collerand placed Boulag in command of the Firedrake. Boulag returned the Firedrake to Coruscant, where Savit would face an inquiry.
The Firedrake served as the flagship for Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit, with Boulag serving as the vessel's captain. Llano held the position of Chief Hangar Master, stationed in the Firedrake's hangar bay. Other crew members included its comm officer, Savit's TIE commander, and the chief warder. The Firedrake was also staffed by numerous officers and navy troopers, and had stormtroopers stationed on its bridge. Savit's preference for automated targeting systems for his turbolasers left the Firedrake's gunners unprepared for sudden combat. The vessel carried TIE fighter squadrons designated Squadron One and Squadron Two.
The Firedrake made its appearance in Timothy Zahn's novel, Thrawn: Treason, which was released on July 23, 2019. Prior to the novel's publication, it received its initial mention in an excerpt featured on StarWars.com on June 26 of the same year.