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Post #1326155

Author
NeverarGreat
Parent topic
Episode IX: THE SHATTERED SWORD - DETAILED SUMMARY COMPLETE
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1326155/action/topic#1326155
Date created
22-Feb-2020, 1:30 AM

I’ve moved the Thrawn scene to the end of my current place in the script, since I don’t want too much time to pass between him convening the Knights of Ren and it actually happening. The story continues:
Rey walks the hallways back to the bridge, passing groups of helmetless Stormtroopers and officers in the halls, talking and lounging in ready rooms to either side.
She enters the bridge, where the gathered leadership of the Resistance is discussing strategy. Finn greets her warmly, gushing about the changes he plans to make with this crew, which he says have taken to calling themselves the Rebels since they think ‘Resistance’ is too wordy. As he gushes there’s a disturbance by a far terminal, and a Rebel officer reports that a TIE Intercepter has just launched. They all look out the window at the swirling clouds of their nebula refuge and see a small fighter silhouetted against the soft pink and blue of the gas. Poe turns to Rey, asking if that is Ben. She responds that she can’t tell, and it might be one of their newly minted Rebels gone traitor. Poe reassures everyone that a ship that size won’t get far, but Rose rejoins that it wouldn’t take long for it to be within transmitting distance of the nearest First Order base. The Rebel commander reminds them of the tractor beam, but by the time they get it online the ship is already disappearing through the clouds of gas. Poe orders a launching of TIEs to track it down while Finn simultaneously orders the Destroyer to follow the TIE at full speed. The Rebel and Resistance bridge crew looks at them in confusion. Finn looks at Poe. ‘Sorry…Admiral.’ Poe responds ‘No, go ahead…Captain. The bridge is yours.’ Finn nods, and orders the Destroyer to follow the TIE into the nebula.
In the nebula all is murky and distorted. Finn orders a sensor overlay be pulled up in front of the window to track the ship. Sensors can just make it out at the edge of range, pulling them further into the cloud. Suddenly a much larger shape begins to resolve itself in front of the fighter and the TIE’s signal is obscured by the massive object in front of them. The Rebel commander shouts at Finn that it is another Destroyer, and it’s launching TIE Intercepters of its own. Finn yells that it’s a trap, Poe curses ‘Thrawn!’ Finn orders evasive maneuvers and a TIE launch and after an interminable delay they finally launch towards the wave of enemy fighters still only visible on the sensor screen. Finn orders the shields up, double front. Even as their TIEs streak through the nebula at the enemy fighters, there comes a new set of signals, this time from behind. TIE bombers emerge from the cloud at close range, unleashing a wave of missiles streaking towards the exposed engines. There is no time to alter shields, and everyone braces for impact.
A second passes, then another. Rose dares to open her eyes, which had been shut tight in anticipation of disaster. Poe realizes that Finn has taken his hand in panic. They disengage with an embarrassed shifting of eyes and clearing of throats. Suddenly the bridge is rattled by the passage of a single TIE Intercepter sweeping its wings inches from the windows. The radio crackles to life. Ben’s voice appears on the com, dryly stating that their ship has been blown to atoms. Poe stares in confusion and starts to ask how Ben could have controlled that simulation from a TIE, but then sees Rey in the corner of the room nonchalantly leaning against a console. R2 retracts his data arm and trundles past Threepio, chirping innocently. Rey airily informs Poe that she trained on one of these things a lot on Jakku, though it wasn’t in nearly as good condition. Ben continues flying circles around the Destroyer’s bridge, giving them a good dressing-down. This is Thrawn’s modus operandi, he says, drilling and testing his crews every spare minute of the day, and it’s what the Resistance will need to do if it wants to survive even a minute against him.

Thrawn gazes down upon the Destroyers of Kylo’s fleet as they float in dock on the orbital shipyards of Corellia. Hux breaks off his conversation with a gaggle of technicians and officials and dismisses them. After they file out of the conference room he joins Thrawn at the expansive window overlooking the sweep of the docking ring as it disappears behind the curve of the planet to their right. Hux asks Thrawn if he believes that Kylo is still alive, and Thrawn nods. Hux informs Thrawn of the Resistance sabotage devices, and snidely remarks that they were more effective than Thrawn’s methods. Thrawn disagrees, believing that the only reason they would have failed is if they were deactivated by the Resistance. He lets this sink in, then says it is for this reason that he believes that the Resistance hasn’t killed Kylo and indeed would try to recruit him. Hux nods. He sneers of the softness of the Resistance that they aren’t capable of destroying their enemies, but Thrawn cautions Hux over assuming that this is mere weakness. He believes it is a governing philosophy and more than that a viable strategy which has won them a ship with its commander and crew, but they can use this to their advantage. They have crews quarantined on board these ships, crews tainted by Resistance propaganda and shaken by the possible return of their old Supreme Leader.
As for how to deal with the crews, Thrawn lays out two possibilities. The first is to play the Resistance game better than they do, to allow these fine soldiers and officers to go free and return them to their families in an unprecedented act of kindness. Hux shakes his head, knowing full well the damage that even a single tainted soldier can cause. Thrawn nods in agreement. He suggests that it would be a waste to destroy these fine ships however, and asks that after the technicians finish repairs that they call the crews to the main hangars and let the ships air out for a while in the vacuum of space. Hux replies that they will need new crews for the ships, and will need to increase the harvest of children from somewhere. Thrawn says that there is a way to kill two Mynoks with one blaster, and ends by saying that it is time to convene the Knights of Ren.

JEDIT: Obsolete