#seventh fleet

-Thrawn (Captain to Admiral)-

“The Empire is a magnificent construct. However, it's not without its vulnerabilities.

While many of my colleagues think on a grand scale, they often overlook where problems begin, and they always start small.

Many in the Empire will trade lives for profit. Over time, this will create a weak and disillusioned military.

The Empire will slowly crumble.”

When it comes down to colors and symbolisms, Thrawn's been very consistent with his color of choice: both in Legends and Canon, anything burgundy means Thrawn.

In heraldy, the tincture gules (red) symbolizes a warrior or martyr, and denotes military strength and magnanimity. Pretty fitting 🙂‍↕️

In both Canon and Legends, burgundy is the Mitth family color and as it is tradition for warriors belonging to a ruling family, Thrawn wears a burgundy patch on his uniform in Outbound Flight and in Alliances:

«His eyes were glowing red, his skin blue, his hair blue-black. He was dressed in a black military-style uniform with a burgundy patch on one shoulder and silver bars on his collar.» Timothy Zahn, Thrawn Alliances, 2018

«He wore the same black as their escorts, but with a larger burgundy patch on his shoulder and a pair of elaborately tooled silver bars on his collar.» Timothy Zahn, Outbound Flight, 2006

But Thrawn's association with the color actually dates back to 1998 as it is the color of the uniform of Thrawn's Household Phalanx, and later becomes the color denoting members of the Empire of the Hand.

«Five meters beyond that, right at the room's back wall, were six more of the blue-skinned aliens, all wearing the same tight-fitting burgundy patchwork-design outfits as the ones who had escorted her here from the slideway.» Timothy Zahn, Vision of the Future, 1998

Interesting how the Phalanx's warriors wear a "patchwork-design outfit", just how in Canon Night Troopers' armors are patched together by burgundy strips of fabric. Captain Enoch himself wears burgundy garments and red gloves:

Even before his Peridea exile, Thrawn has used burgundy in the symbol of the Seventh Fleet:

It's interesting to note how Thrawn basically adopted it as his own color despite not being in good terms with his family... not in Canon and especially not in Legends.

It also happens that those associating with him already wear a shade of red of their own. This is particularly evident in Canon, as red is the color that identifies the Nightsisters and it holds a very strong connection with anything Dathomirian. It is wore by the Nightsisters, by Morgan Elsbeth, the Great Mothers and I would add Captain Enoch too.

In Legends, bloodred is the color of Soontir Fel and the 181st Fighter Wing. A red stripe is found on their fighters' wings and on the pilots' uniform a uniform Fel kept wearing during his service in the Empire of the Hand.

Canon Thrawn, just as his Legends counterpart, likes setting himself apart. He heavily customized the Chimaera, his men wear his own personal symbol on their uniform, and since his first years in the Empire, he's been building a very exclusive and unique faction not necessarily linked to the Empire or the Ascendancy by meticulously hand picking his followers.

He knew about Thrawn's crew, of course. In general, they did not come planetside and preferred to spend their money at the Imperial depot's commissary and PX. He knew about Thrawn's SWO, possibly the only officer in the Navy who could shoot. Of course, that was a joke, as the Seventh didn't seem to tolerate inefficiency or (Kassius Konstantine exempted) incompetence. Now that he was Back, it seemed that Thrawn's officers had blown through the galaxy and taken root like scatterpuff seeds. Faro, Marinith, Hammerly, Barlin, Agral, Lomar, Yve, and Pyrondi were now everyone's flag-ranked problems.

Pyrondi - the Dragon - in particular.

He couldn't pull off the Purgill again.

The Third Fleet followed Grand Admiral Pyrondi as the Seventh had Thrawn. The Chimaera's etched ventral was matched by Pyrondi's dragon on the Imperial lll classed Audacity. It was her name, her flagship, and her reputation. Even the fleet patch carried the motto, "Firing Solution: The Shortest Distance between Two Points.' It also seemed that nobody much wanted to talk about her. Her entire file including planet of origin was redacted, but there were still clues. He matched images of her in civilian to some of tribal members hundreds of years old - she was more than likely from a place named Jegsziv. A world that was also redacted, and did not appear on any map, anywhere unless you went back to a half-millennia old TaggeCo survey reporting a 'recovered colony' world named Dzeghsziv.

Mothma and others from Before the Empire led with keeping their mouths shut, and a circle of misdirection that made Ezra feel he was a supporting cast member in a clown show. To be fair, the New Republic did not leave him with the sweet taste of victory. If this was what the Old Republic was like, no wonder it fell. The New Republic just seemed to be the Empire in new clothes. The planets with fewer resources and further from Coruscant got the shaft while the richer systems cut the pie for themselves.

The Trident Fleet - the Eleventh, Seventh, and Third - held a huge section of the Outer Rim, Wild Space, and strategic parts of the Mid-Rim, having brought the Seswennas into the fold recently, and offering protection for resources. The Trident Fleet contained more than that from massive numbers of defectors. Two other fleets defected almost intact. The Sixth was primarily an engineering fleet, and the Twelfth an expeditionary and supply fleet. Other disaffected personnel made it to the Trident Fleet from every other fleet as well. Some even made it from the survivors of Death Squadron and the First Fleet - all but obliterated at Endor. From everything he could find, the Tridents ran their territories well, if with military efficiency.

He spoke with Zeb, Hera, and Kallus.

"You can't argue with someone on the other side of a closed blast door, Ezra, and all of the principal actors had their reasons for joining." Kallus would spend the rest of his life under house arrest, despite his defection and work for the Alliance after that. "A lot of them remember the CIS talking points being similar to what the Republic says now. They backed the GAR when it was them and wanted to go back to the old rules after everyone paid in blood to take out Dooku and Grevious."

Hera and the others watched him and Ezra reflected that everyone else had moved on, but he was still who he was when he left.

"Pyrondi... the Intel Committee has limited what I can say."

"Why?"

Kallus looked at his hands, then made a washing motion. "It's okay if we do it."

"Do what?" Ezra looked at his friends, angry. "When we do what? What have 'we' done that nobody talks about?"

He stormed out after evasive answers, went back to his room overlooking the Amnesty Lodging and went to bed. In the middle of his sleeping shift, Ezra woke up with a thought banging him in the frontal lobes.

Why do you have to wash your hands? Because they're dirty.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43568481/chapters/170489350

Alright, next chapter is up! Took a bit longer than expected, but we are finally getting to the fun part: Admiral Piett and Cool Ranch Vader meet Grand Admiral Thrawn.