AhsokablewStar Warswide candid last year with the revelation thatGrand Admiral Thrawn ’s grand returnrequired a trip there and back toa completely raw Galax urceolata — the first time contemporaryStar Warscanon had consideredthe universe beyondthe far , far off berth we ’d already explored . But while Thrawn ’s knowledge of world outsideStar Wars ‘ regular view was a shameful piece of new information in innovative continuity , the Grand Admiral had more than a few brush with the idea in the sure-enough Expanded Universe .
What Was the Outbound Flight Project?
Conceived by Jedi Master Jorus C’boath , the Outbound Flight Project was a coaction between the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to develop and fund an expeditionary mission beyond the fringes of Republic space , through the “ Unknown Regions”—an uncharted , albeit populated discussion section of the galaxy that did not look to Galactic Core as the center of interstellar civilization — and beyond the galaxy ’s love interference fringe . First conceived around three years after the events ofThe Phantom Menace , the labor require the enlisting of 50,000 civilian colonists and a big number of Jedi , as well as the leverage of six dreadnaught - division cruisers link up around a primary fuselage , make the titulary watercraft of the endeavor , Outbound Flight .
Although on the face of it a joint taskforce commissioned by the Republic and the Jedi Order , in actuality the Outbound Flight Project was roll in a weave of subterraneous motive beyond its explorative intent . The Jedi Council hoped that excursion could settle the missing Fosh Jedi Vergere , who had been kidnapped by agents from a then - unsung extragalactic civilization who were finally let out as betimes agentsfrom the Yuuzhan Vong . Now Chancellor of the Republic after the ouster of Finis Valorum , Palpatine ostensibly backed the Senate ’s promise that the excursion could conduct to the founding of Republic colony throughout the Unknown Regions and potentially beyond the known galaxy , expound its reach .
However , in his true guise as Darth Sidious , Palpatine also see the project as a luck to defeat a bombastic phone number of Jedi away from pry eyes , while also preventing the discovery of the extragalactic menace of the Vong before the galaxy was prepared to confront them . On top of that , there was also Master C’boath himself , more and more obsessed with the Jedi as a reign class , who on the QT prioritize the selection of Force - sore campaigner for colonists , trained in those abilities in secret , in an attempt to further new outposts and settlement of Jedi under his own influence .
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After several years of planning — and the project itself almost being scuppered if not for a pact between Palpatine and C’Boath — theOutbound Flightdeparted from Yaga Minor , a world on the periphery of the Outer Rim in 27BBY . Almost straightaway however , it confront issues . Two of the Jedi assign to the missionary work , Master Obi - Wan Kenobi and his apprentice , Anakin Skywalker ( last hour additions intended to keep an oculus on C’boath ) , were pulled from expedition before it leave alone at the behest of Palpatine . Shortly thereafter , C’boath usurped bidding ofOutbound Flightfrom its civilian captain , enact harsh rules that snap down on the freedom of non - Force sensitive personnel and settler . That , at long last , would demonstrate the least of the mission ’s problems .
How Was Thrawn Connected toOutbound Flight?
Palpatine had never signify forOutbound Flightto make it through the Unknown Regions . Acting as Darth Sidious , he commissioned a cloak-and-dagger chore force out of Trade Federation vessels to interceptOutbound Flightand ruin it by any means necessary . However , in operate in the Unknown Regions , the Task Force was confronted by a patrol fromthe Chiss Ascendancy’sExpansionary Defense Force . Commanded by a young Thrawn , the patrol put down all but a single ship in the result struggle — negotiating with the surviving commander to be put into contact with Sidious , who further explain the threat theOutbound Flightposed if it exposed the existence of the Vong , who had already become known to the Ascendancy through date with exploratory survey party into Chiss place .
Thrawn agree to Sidious ’ request to practice his patrol building block to ruin theOutbound Flight , setting up a trap that ultimately nearly scuttled theFlightas well as stamp out nearly every Jedi and in the end most of the colonist on board , save for C’Boath and his apprentice Lorana Jinzler . Driven to the saturnine side by the destruction , Thrawn at long last shoot down C’boath , and Jinzler was force to sacrifice herself ( alongsideThrawn ’s brother , Mitth’ras’safis , who had encountered theOutbound Flightwhile investigating his brother ’s struggle against the Trade Federation operatives dispatched by Sidious ) by clangour - land the vessel on a planetoid at the edge of Chiss space , saving just 57 remain colonists .
What Happened toOutbound Flightin the Expanded Universe?
With the ship presume lost by the Republic and the Jedi Order , the outlast colonist eked out survival in the remnant of the vessel , hidden away from the Chiss and the wider Galax urceolata alike for almost 50 year . By the prison term Chiss agent observe the existence of the live colony that had grow out of the ruins ofOutbound Flight , the Galactic Republic had been transform into the Empire , which itself had fallen and been supervene upon by the New Republic , alongside a novel Jedi Order established by Luke Skywalker .
The Chiss offer the universe ofOutbound Flight‘s “ survival ” to Skywalker to make up for their role in its destruction , but the colony rejected touch with the New Republic , marred by their connexion with the Jedi after C’boath ’s rough rule , eventually align with a faction of purple remnants have a go at it as the Empire of the Hand — itself established by none other than now Grand Admiral Thrawn , who had perished years prior toOutbound Flight‘s rediscovery in his attempts to destroy the New Republic . Which , in and of itself , had a further connection to the Outbound Flight Project : during his campaign against the New Republic , Thrawn had recruit the craze saturnine JediJoruusC’boath ( notice the extra ‘ u’):a clone of the Jedi Masterwho had give out aboardOutbound Flight . Small galaxy !
Could the Outbound Flight Project Return toStar WarsCanon?
give that we ’re setting up a major unexampled plot line inStar Warsbetween the effect ofReturn of the JediandThe Force Awakensthat deals with a resurgent regal remainder lead by Thrawn , it ’s exonerated many of the events touched upon in Timothy Zahn ’s iconicHeir to the Empiretrilogy will at least get some nods in however this fib comes to unfold across series likeAhsokaseason two , andthe upcoming filmsThe Mandalorian & Groguand Dave Filoni ’s ungentle “ Mandoverse ” team - up film . But the variant ofOutbound Flightthat we know of in the Expanded Universe is unconvincing to be adapted in any substantial means — its connexion to either the original C’boath and his clone , Thrawn ’s yesteryear prior to aligning with the Empire , or the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong making it too messy to entirely untangle .
But that does n’t mean an effort has n’t been gesture at . Zahn ’s return toStar Warscontinuity for two separateThrawnnovel trilogies — one set during the rise of the Empire touching on his ascendancy through Imperial ranks to become a Grand Admiral , the other a prequel series set during his vocation with the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet — canonized elements of the battle against theOutbound Flightthat heavily referenced the stories Zahn had antecedently told in the Expanded Universe . While the ship is never explicitly named in those canon novel , details like Thrawn encountering a human vas , and using them to set a trap and enlist with the Vagaari , a rival refinement in the Unknown Regions , and the demise of his comrade Mitth’ras’safis , are all still parts of Thrawn ’s sanctioned background .
Whether that ship will ever be revealed as theOutbound Flight — and whether or not its bequest could be link up toStar Warscontinuity ’s current extragalactic storytelling withPeridea and the original Nightsisters — remains to be seen . Stranger thing have certainly hap .
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