A brief history of the last time Star Wars dealt with extragalactic ambition

Ahsoka blew Star Wars wide open last year with the revelation that The great return of Grand Admiral Thrawn required a round trip trip to a completely new galaxy– the first time contemporary Star Wars canon had considered the universe beyond the far, far away place we had already explored. But while Thrawn has knowledge of worlds beyond Star WarsWhile the regular line of sight was a shocking bit of new information in the modern continuity, the Grand Admiral had more than a few run-ins with the idea in the old Expanded Universe.

What was the outbound flight project?

Conceived by Jedi Master Jorus C’boath, the Outbound Flight Project was a collaboration between the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to develop and fund an expeditionary mission beyond the borders of Republic space, through the ‘Unknown Regions’ ‘ – an unknown, albeit populated area. part of the Milky Way that the Galactic Core did not consider the center of interstellar civilization – and beyond the known edge of the Milky Way. First conceived about three years after the events of The phantom menacethe project involved the recruitment of 50,000 civilian colonists and a large number of Jedi, as well as the purchase of six dreadnaught-class cruisers linked around a primary hull, creating the company’s titular ship, Outbound flight.

Though ostensibly a joint task force at the behest of the Republic and the Jedi Order, in reality the Outbound Flight Project was shrouded in a fabric of ulterior motives beyond its exploratory intentions. The Jedi Council hoped that this excursion might locate the missing Fosh Jedi Vergere, who had been abducted by agents of a then-unknown extragalactic civilization who were eventually revealed to be early agents. of the Yuuzhan Vong. Palpatine, now Chancellor of the Republic after the expulsion of Finis Valorum, ostensibly supported the Senate’s hopes that the excursion could lead to the establishment of Republic colonies in the Unknown Regions and possibly beyond the known galaxy, expanding its reach enlarged.

However, in his true form as Darth Sidious, Palpatine also saw the project as an opportunity to kill a large number of Jedi away from prying eyes, while preventing the discovery of the Vong’s extragalactic threat before the Galaxy was ready to take them to face. . In addition, there was also Master C’boath himself, increasingly obsessed with the Jedi as a ruling class, who secretly prioritized the selection of Force-sensitive colonist candidates secretly trained in those skills, in an effort to cultivate new forces. Jedi outposts and colonies under his own influence.

After several years of planning – and the project itself was almost thwarted without a pact between Palpatine and C’Boath – Outbound flight departed Yaga Minor, a world on the edge of the Outer Rim in 27BBY. Almost immediately, however, it faced problems. Two of the Jedi assigned to the mission, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (last-minute additions intended to keep an eye on C’boath), were removed from the expedition at Palpatine’s insistence before this one left. Shortly afterwards, C’boath took command Outbound flight from its civilian captain, who issued harsh regulations that harshly undermined the freedom of non-Force-sensitive personnel and colonists. That would ultimately prove to be the least of the mission’s problems.

How was Thrawn connected to Outbound flight?

Palpatine never meant that Outbound flight to get through the unknown regions. Acting as Darth Sidious, he ordered a secret task force of Trade Federation ships to intercept Outbound flight and destroy it by any means necessary. However, while operating in the unknown regions, the Task Force was confronted by a patrol of the Chiss Ascendancies Expansive defense force. Commanded by a young Thrawn, the patrol destroyed all but a single ship in the ensuing battle, negotiating with the surviving commander to be put in touch with Sidious, who further explained the threat. Outbound flight posed if it would expose the existence of the Vong, who had already become known to the Ascendancy through arrangements with exploration parties in Chiss space.

Thrawn agreed to Sidious’ request to use his patrol unit to investigate the Outbound flightsetting up a trap that ultimately kills the Flight and killed almost every Jedi and eventually most of the colonists on board, except C’Boath and his apprentice Lorana Jinzler. Driven to the dark side by the destruction, Thrawn eventually killed C’boath, and Jinzler was forced to sacrifice himself (alongside Thrawn’s brother, Mitth’ras’safiswhich the Outbound flight while investigating his brother’s battle against Trade Federation agents dispatched by Sidious) by crash-landing the ship on a planetoid at the edge of Chiss space, saving only 57 remaining colonists.

What happened Outbound flight in the expanded universe?

With the ship believed to have been lost to the Republic and the Jedi Order, the surviving colonists attempted to survive in the remains of the ship, which was hidden from the Chiss and the wider galaxy for nearly 50 years. By the time Chiss agents discovered the existence of the remaining colony that had grown from the ruins of Outbound flightthe Galactic Republic had transformed into the Empire, which itself had fallen and been replaced by the New Republic, alongside a new Jedi Order founded by Luke Skywalker.

The Chiss offered the existence of Outbound flightSkywalker’s ‘survival’ to make up for their role in its destruction, but the colony rejected contact with the New Republic, scarred by their association with the Jedi after C’boath’s harsh rule, and eventually joined a faction of imperial remnants known as the Empire of the Hand – itself founded by none other than now Grand Admiral Thrawn, who had died years earlier Outbound flight‘s rediscovery in his attempts to destroy the New Republic. Which itself was even more related to the Outbound Flight Project: during his campaign against the New Republic, Thrawn had recruited the deranged dark Jedi. Joruus C’boath (note the extra ‘u’): a clone of the Jedi Master who had died on board Outbound flight. Little galaxy!

Can the Outbound Flight Project return to? Star Wars Canon?

As we are setting up a major new storyline in Star Wars between the events of Return of the Jedi And The power awakens which is about a resurgent Imperial remnant led by Thrawn, it is clear that many of the events covered in Timothy Zahn’s iconic Heir to the Empire trilogy will get at least some nods, but this story will unfold in series like Ahsoka season two, and the upcoming movies The Mandalorian and Grogu and Dave Filoni’s self-titled “Mandoverse” team-up film. But the version of Outbound flight that we know is unlikely to be adapted in any substantial way in the Expanded Universe – the connections to the original C’boath and its clone, Thrawn’s past before joining the Empire, or the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong also made it messy to completely loosen.

But that doesn’t mean no attempts have been made. Zahn’s return to Star Wars continuity for two separate ones Thrown new trilogies – one set during the rise of the Empire and chronicling his rise through the Imperial ranks to become Grand Admiral, the other a prequel series set during his career in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet – canonized elements of the fight against the Outbound flight which heavily referenced the stories Zahn had previously told in the Expanded Universe. While the ship is never explicitly mentioned in those canon novels, details such as Thrawn encountering a human ship and using it to set a trap and battle the Vagaari, a rival civilization in the Unknown Regions, are and the death of his brother Mitth’ras ‘safis’ are all still part of Thrawn’s canonical background.

Whether that ship will ever be revealed as the Outbound flight– and whether or not a link can be made to its legacy Star Wars continuity’s current extragalactic stories with Peridea and the original Nightsisters– remains to be seen. Stranger things have certainly happened.

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