How Did Thrawn Find the Katana Fleet?

By the time that the Galactic Empire had fallen apart after Endor—50 years after the Katana Fleet launched—the fleet, as with many things in a galaxy where historical record is often short lived, had become legend. But when a smuggler crew rediscovered a handful of the lost fleet, interest in it from the New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and various Warlord states saw the potential of the Fleet as a tipping point for the uneasy balance between galactic powers.

It would take another five years after Endor for the fleet to be found, when the returned Admiral Thrawn made locating the fleet a priority for his campaign. Able to secure information from one of the smugglers that found the missing ships, Talon Karrde, Thrawn and the New Republic—both sides already spread thin by losses incurred during the early days of the Thrawn Campaign—chased after the fleet, culminating in an engagement in the Halm Sector for control of the vessels.

Although the Battle of the Katana Fleet was a tactical victory for the New Republic—with the combined efforts of Rogue Squadron, the New Republic, and the resistance fleet of Garm Bel Iblis driving off Thrawn’s forces—it was already over even before the skirmish began. One dreadnaught was destroyed in the battle, and just 15 more remained to be recovered by the New Republic, combined with the six in Iblis’ own fleet. Thrawn had already managed to secure the remaining 178. With the revelation that Thrawn had managed to uncover Spaarti cloning cylinders from Palpatine’s reserves at Mount Tantiss on the planet Wayland, the New Republic’s initial belief that it would take Thrawn months or even years to train a crew to use the Katana Fleet dissipated what little hope the Republic had. Thrawn used his bolstered arsenal to immediately launch a string of assaults across New Republic space, the decades-old ships still overwhelming any Republic counteroffensive through sheer strength of numbers.