So this is my first crossover fic. As the summary indicates, it introduces Grand Admiral Thrawn, everyone's favorite villain from the Expanded Universe, into RWBY's world of Remnant.

The story starts around the time of the events of Volume 2, Episode 1. Though I'll be using the Gregorian Calendar as far as days and months are concerned within Remnant, since it does have the same four seasons we have on Earth.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this story!

Disclaimers:

I own neither RWBY nor Star Wars.

Special thanks to TheDarkDeceiver for inspiring me to write this story with his crossover fic The Dark Headmaster.


Update Log:

-(5/13/17): Changed airship classes to names of Star Destroyer classes (Victory, Imperator, etc.). Why? Because with a few changes, such as removal of deflector shields, hyperdrives, and other space technology, these fine ships will be comprising the Atlesian Air Fleet. Also made a few changes to Thrawn's history.

-(5/16/17): Changed the name of Ironwood's flagship to Protector, the name of a Victory I-class Star Destroyer in the Star Wars canon.

-(6/5/17): Minor alterations. Added the Devastator to Thrawn's fleet (Darth Vader not included).

-(7/26/17): Added details to the description of Thrawn's uniform. Also gave him Lars Mikkelsen's accent.


September 24th, 80AGW (After Great War)
1027 hours
Outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale

The Victory-class destroyer was the mainstay of the Atlesian Navy's famous Air Fleet. Boasting highly-advanced weapons and fire control systems and the ability to carry and rapidly deploy ground troops, it was the perfect symbol of Atlas' technological might.

Though it was slowly being replaced by the newer Imperators, the class still made up most of the fleet's order of battle, and numerous refurbishment and overhaul programs were being undertaken to prolong the life of these aging vessels.

Also, while just one of these airships made for an intimidating sight, owing in no small part to the wedge shape of its hull (a trait echoed in all following airship designs), the presence of three would surely strike fear into the hearts of even the most experienced opponents.

At least that was what General James Ironwood thought.

Which was why he was currently standing at the bridge of one such vessel, the ANV Protector, as it cruised through the sky, 15,000 feet off the ground, towards the kingdom of Vale with two of its sister ships, Stalwart and Sceltor, in tow.

As the appointed Head of Security for the upcoming Vytal Festival, and in light of the recent rise in White Fang activity, Ironwood felt a show of force was necessary in order to deter any possible threats to the festival, its participants, and the kingdom itself.

He was confident that the three destroyers and the soldiers they carried would show the White Fang and any other criminals that Atlas meant business.

"General, we're entering Valean airspace," the Protector's captain announced, "ETA to Vale City is approximately twenty minutes."

"Very good, Captain." Ironwood acknowledged, "Inform me once we've arrived."

"Of course, General."

The General of the Atlesian Ground Forces then left the bridge and made the long walk back to his personal quarters, returning the salute of any wayward crewman he happened across.

Upon arriving at his quarters, he immediately sat down at his desk. It was hardly anything to brag about, containing only the essential stationary and a large LCD touchscreen to which he could connect his Scroll.

Speaking of his Scroll, Ironwood felt it vibrate in the pocket of his jacket, indicating that someone was calling him. He removed the device and plugged it into the monitor.

The General felt his brow furrow as he saw the name that appeared on the screen.

Thrawn.

There was hardly a single soldier, sailor, or officer in the entire Atlesian Military who didn't know that name, owing to the fact that its owner was the first Faunus to serve in the upper ranks of any branch of the military. A remarkable achievement, considering both Atlas' history of poor relations with the Faunus and the blatant racism that some within the military, even after the sweeping changes that followed Thrawn's rise to power, tended to display.

Ironwood's relationship with the man was complicated to say the least. On one hand, Thrawn was the most outspoken critic of the General's plans to replace human soldiers with androids like the Atlesian Knights. He argued that human intelligence at all levels was irreplaceable, and could often prove the key to winning not just battles, but wars as a whole.

Perhaps it was because the idea of a naval officer lecturing a General on ground warfare seemed ludicrous, but the disagreement generated both indignation and resentment towards Thrawn on Ironwood's part. It didn't help that the other eleven Grand Admirals in the Navy shared Thrawn's sentiments on the matter.

And yet despite his animosity towards the Faunus officer, Ironwood respected his approach to military strategy. Like him, Thrawn chose to focus primarily on the bigger picture, placing greater emphasis on winning an entire war rather than a single battle.

He also stressed knowing his enemies, whether human or Grimm, as the key step to defeating them, and would go to great lengths to gather as much knowledge about them from as many different sources, particularly art, as he could.

Ironwood had long considered having Thrawn join Ozpin's inner circle, as his tactical and strategic prowess would certainly prove useful against the Queen's machinations. And if Qrow's warning was anything to go by, they would need all the help they could get.

For now, however, the General let out a sigh as he pushed the "accept" button.

A tall man appeared on the screen, his ghostly white uniform and gold pauldrons signifying his place as a high-ranking officer in the Atlesian Navy. The rectangular insignia plaque over his heart, the Atlesian military's standard form of rank ID (which Ironwood found distasteful and thus kept his own plaque hidden under his jacket), displayed three blue and three yellow squares above a row of three blue and three red squares, identifying the one who wore it as a Grand Admiral.

Though the man held the physique of a human, his pale blue skin and neatly-cropped blue-black hair gave him an almost otherworldly appearance, as though he were one of the "aliens" that the tabloids often harped on about.

Equally disconcerting were his red eyes, whose intensity sharply contrasted with his otherwise suave, calculating demeanor. Each eye bore the slit pupil of a snake, distinguishing their owner as a Faunus.

This was Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the Atlesian military's most seasoned commanders and arguably one of, if not its, foremost tactician.

His origins lay hidden behind a smokescreen of rumors and conspiracy theories. Some claimed he was a battle-hardened veteran of the Great War or the Faunus Rights revolution. Others spread the more outrageous tale that he had originally been a subject of some inhumane experiment that the Schnee Dust Company had conducted on some of its Faunus laborers.

While many military officers would mount a concerted effort to dispel slander about themselves, Thrawn did nothing of the sort, and his obscurity thus also seemed to heighten his aura of intimidation.

But those within the military, regardless of whatever opinion they held about him, all agreed on one fact: Thrawn possessed an incredibly sharp aptitude for strategy and tactics that not even the most xenophobic of officers could ignore.

This aptitude had earned him promotion after promotion within the Navy's hierarchy, command of the Navy's 7th Air Fleet, now known as "Harbinger Fleet," and prime responsibility for combating the White Fang cells that were operating in Atlas, a task he had been most eager to take on.

Were it not for his history with Thrawn, Ironwood would have felt absolutely unnerved by his presence, as he most certainly had been upon first encountering him.

"General Ironwood," the Grand Admiral coolly greeted his Ground Forces colleague. He spoke with a slight yet sophisticated accent.

"Thrawn," Ironwood stiffly nodded.

After a few seconds of silence, the General decided to move things along.

"How goes your campaign against the White Fang?"

"Splendidly," the snake Faunus hissed, "Our deep reconnaissance team has finally located their headquarters in Atlas. They're hiding on the outskirts of Mantle."

Of course they would be hiding there. Mantle was a city known for its heavy Faunus population and had recently fallen on economic hardships, making it a hotspot for embittered men and women wishing to overthrow a government they believed had actively oppressed them and treated them unfairly.

"I trust you've already got a plan for eliminating them?" Ironwood questioned.

"Of course," Thrawn replied smoothly, "My plan is being executed as we speak."

Always a step ahead.

"While this is good news, Thrawn, I hope you've called me for a more important reason."

If the Faunus admiral felt insulted by Ironwood's dismissive remark, his collected stance didn't show it.

"As a matter of fact, I have. I wish to pass along a warning to you."

"A warning?"

Thrawn nodded and pushed a few buttons, pulling up a picture of an airship that was burning in several locations as it drifted through the sky.

"Two days ago, White Fang operatives attacked one of our prison barges, the Tzoah, as it was traveling back to Atlas. While the casualties among the crew were relatively light, the infiltrators that had not been subdued managed to escape with one prisoner."

Though he was a little unsure of why Thrawn would give him this information, Ironwood humored him.

"Why would they free only one prisoner?"

"In order to answer that question, I suggest you look at the prisoner himself."

A mugshot promptly appeared on the General's screen, showing a man in his mid thirties with short, brown hair and glasses that covered his blue eyes. Ironwood read the prisoner's name.

"Astor Neumann."

"A notorious hacker in the criminal underworld," Thrawn supplemented, "He specializes in data theft, planting viruses in the CCT system that allow access to any Scroll or online database in Remnant."

"And the White Fang need to hack into the CCTS, so they've gone to him?"

"Precisely."

Ironwood hummed, "Do you have the Tzoah's position at the time of the attack?"

"Yes. I'm pulling it up now."

Neumann's mugshot and the picture of the Tzoah disappeared from the screen and were replaced with a map of Remnant. As Ironwood watched, a pair of crosshairs appeared and zeroed in on a relatively large island just north of Vale.

"The Island of Centrum."

"Note its close proximity to Vale, the kingdom that has seen a large increase in White Fang activity over the past month."

"So what you're theorizing is that the White Fang are planning to sneak into Vale's CCTS tower and introduce a virus into the system."

The snake Faunus nodded once more.

"Considering the speed with which they've been operating lately, they may already be in position to strike. It is now a question of when they intend to do so."

"They'll think twice once they see our destroyers over Vale," Ironwood declared confidently, "The White Fang wouldn't dare try anything under our watch."

Thrawn's cool expression became one of skepticism as he raised an eyebrow.

"I hope your gaze doesn't falter then."

Ironwood felt his mouth twitch slightly at the insinuation. He took a breath in an attempt to clear his head.

"Anything else you wish to tell me?"

"Just one more thing," Thrawn's blue lips curled into a sneer, making the General feel a bit wary of what he had to say next.

"Do be more careful with your toys, General," the Faunus chided, "We can't have them fall into the wrong hands."

Ironwood clenched his fists as the connection closed.

Of course he would bring up the missing Paladins!


Hundreds of miles north of Ironwood's current position, aboard the Imperator-class destroyer Chimaera, Thrawn turned his attention back to the White Fang propaganda posters he'd been studying in his office.

In accordance with the group's shift towards aggression, the posters each depicted, and thereby encouraged, violence towards humans.

One showed a Faunus laborer, the White Fang's flag billowing in the background, crushing a tiny, cowering caricature of the SDC's CEO Jacques Schnee, Dust containers, and other such paraphernalia with his boot while also raising a sledgehammer above him. The caption read, "Thoroughly smash the oppressive Schnees! Join the fight today!"

Another featured two White Fang members. One was strangling miniscule depictions of Atlesian councilmen, while the other was jamming the barrel of a rifle into one member's mouth. "Overthrow the tyrants!" It urged.

The posters clearly tried to empower the Faunus, either through portraying humans as cowardly or through showing that laborers could take up arms. They also played to their grievances, particularly concerning the SDC, making it all the more easier to gain recruits eager to fight for "justice."

Justice, Thrawn mused, If ever there was a word with a more ambiguous and distorted meaning

He heard someone knock on his door. Though he felt a twinge of annoyance at being disturbed, he kept his cool façade.

"Come in."

A young Petty Officer entered the room, his pauldrons bearing a stylized Chimaera as a sign of allegiance to Thrawn.

"Sir, we just received a message from the Devastator," the officer informed him, "Schatten Squad reports that Phase 1 of the operation is complete."

"Excellent," Thrawn declared.

Schatten Squad, derived from the Old Atlesian word for "shadow," was one of the commando teams that served under the military's Advanced Operations branch. Each team had been given a name of this type that pertained to symbols of death, owing to the all-black armor that the commandos wore.

However, some within the military, and even within the White Fang, had recently begun referring to them by a somewhat more sinister moniker.

"And the saboteurs?" Thrawn questioned the Petty Officer.

"Ready to cut the power on your command, sir."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Yes, sir. Captain Pellaeon has requested your presence on the bridge to oversee the next phase."

"Very well. I shall head there now."

After dismissing the officer, Thrawn rose from his chair and strode to the door. He cast one last glance towards the White Fang posters before switching off the light and closing the door.

As he walked to the Chimaera's bridge, his black boots clicking against the floor, the snake Faunus' eyes blazed with a fierce determination. The White Fang had been a blight on society for too long, their violent methods serving only to threaten what little peace and stability had come out of the bloody years of war and revolution.

The time for their eradication had come.


Whew! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of my first crossover! I've already started work on the next chapter, though it may take some time due to my hectic college life.

If you have any suggestions for how you want this story to pan out (Within the realm of reason, though. I don't plan to include anything pertaining to the Jedi or the Force, as this fic is focused on Thrawn), either include it in your review or PM me.

Finally, if there's anything wrong with my portrayal of Thrawn, besides the fact that he isn't a Chiss (because the Chiss don't exist on Remnant!), please let me know.

So a few notes:

The Chimaera shares its name with the Imperial Star Destroyer that serves as Thrawn's flagship in both the Rebels cartoon show and Timothy Zahn's "Legends" novels. Since I included the Chimaera, I thought it would only make sense to also include her famous skipper: Captain Gilad Pellaeon.

The name I gave for the prison barge, Tzoah, is derived from the Hebrew phrase "Tzoah Rotachat," which refers to a place in the valley of Gehenna (the Jewish analogue of hell) where a Jew who has committed particularly heinous sins is sent for excruciating punishment. As I'm not Jewish, this description may not be accurate. If that is the case, then I sincerely apologize.

The White Fang propaganda posters are inspired by Chinese Communist Party posters created during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

Old Atlesian is pretty much Remnant's version of German.

As always, constructive criticism is welcomed, and I'll see you all next chapter.