Third Person

Above the planet Mandelore

Revan stared out at the Imperial fleet that had come out of hyper space, a fleet whose sole purpose was to destroy everything Revan was building before it truly got a chance to gain strength and momentum. Revan was no fool. He may have a fleet now, and he may even have the Infinite Engine, but what he has isn't enough. A few dozen outdated capital ships and frigates, as well as a few ships from the Hutt Cartel, could never hope to match the thousands of Imperial Star Destroyers the Empire had at its disposal. At least, he couldn't match it in a power struggle.

Of course, the Empire hadn't sent thousands of ships. No single planet was worth the entirety of the Empires fleet. However the fleet they had sent was nothing to scoff at to be sure. If he was right, he counted about a dozen Imperial Star Destroyers and twice as many victory class frigates. The odds were not in Revans favor.

In total his fleet had about thirty assorted capital ships, frigates, and screening ships. The Empire on the other hand, had sent a fleet of 36 capital ships and heavy frigates. The Empires fleet had more firepower overall, however the Victory class ships wouldn't be holding a great amount of fighters, and the Imperial Star destroyers wouldn't be either. Not to mention they had no ships for the purpose of screening enemy fighters. This meant he had the advantage in both fighter and bomber quality, quantity, and defense.

Revan turned away from the window and went to the large holoterminal in front of the door of the bridge. He turned it on and sent a transmission to the captains of the rest of the ships, bringing them all up on the terminal as he began to tell them his plan.

The Admonitor Bridge

Thrawn frowned at the enemy fleet as it changed its formation. Three ships with a strange design were placed behind and slightly above the rest of the fleet, while the venators were placed up front. The screening ships were placed between and in front of the venators while the fleets frigates formed up behind the outdated capital ships.

He couldn't help but be slightly impressed with the actions the enemy was taking. It was clear that he recognized that the frigates would only serve as fodder if they stayed in front, so he placed them behind the venators which could take a beating. He placed the screening ships in a way that his fighters would not be able to get past the capital ships, making it so that he would have to engage the capital ships head on with the rest of his ships before he could move on to the frigates and the planet below.

He nodded to himself before he started to give out his orders, "Launch all fighters, send forward half of our capital ships and half of our victories. Make sure the fighters hang around the capital ships before they engage any enemy fighters."

He watched with cold eyes as the ships advanced. Thrawn had no issue with overpowering the enemy fleet if he had to. Not to mention while the enemy admiral seemed to know what he was doing, that didn't make him any more dangerous than any other admiral. He defeated a smaller fleet that was commanded by a moron. It wasn't a great achievement. And while it was smart, the formation the fleet was in wasn't particularly amazing either.

No, the chiss grand admiral was quite confident in his abilities to completely crush his opponent. He had the numbers, he had the fire power, and he had the intellect as well as experience necessary to deal with such a fleet. Hopefully if he crushed this fleet fast enough, the Emperor would send him on a task that was far more important.

The Retribution

Revan smirked as he noticed that half of the enemy fleet was sent forward to engage him. He wished the admiral had sent a few more ships, but what he sent should still be more than enough to work for his plan, "Take all power from the weapons and non essential systems and put it into the shields! Send a message to the screening ships to put all power from nonessential systems into shields but to keep their weaponry online and to shoot down bombers first! Send a message to the Aggressors, fire their ion cannons at the star destroyers when ready!" He turned away from the window and walked past his crew, and as he did so he gave them one more order.

"And prepare my ship."

The Admonitor

Thrawn narrowed his eyes as his ships made contact with the enemy fleet, the unknown ships behind the fleet coming into play. He couldn't say he liked the massive hole that was now in three of his Star Destroyers, half the capital ships he sent forward being disabled in the beginning of the engagement.

He was frustrated at the fact that he had made such a mistake and had not taken into consideration the fact that those three strange ships could have some hidden weapons on board, or rather that the entire ship may be a weapon. However he was still confident in the fact that the ships he had sent could deal with the fleet defending Mandalore, especially considering the fact that the venators weren't firing back. He wasn't going to send in any more ships in just in case the enemy had more capital ships and frigates up their sleeves and wanted to blindside his flagship.

One of the many things that concerned him however was the very fact that the venators weren't firing back. If they just sat their and kept taking fire they would eventually be destroyed. If they fired back they would have a better chance of beating back the large portion of the Imperial fleet that had been sent to attack.

'So why do they still do nothing?' He thought to himself. It wasn't to draw attention away from other ships, they would've been detected by now. And in the case that they hadn't been, they would have already attacked. The more he thought about it, the less since it made, 'Its possible they could be waiting for those three ships in the back to charge up and fire another shot, the only issue with that is that it would at least take thirty minutes for a ship of that size to recover the power it lost in firing off massive ion shots and explosive shots. So what are they waiting for?'

The grand admiral was shaken from his thoughts as one of his remaining star destroyers was engulfed in fire. The resulting explosion damaged the star destroyer to its right while lowering the power of the Admonitors shields significantly. Thrawn braced himself on the console in front of him as the ship shook from the force of the explosion. A few of the crew on the bridge fell down while a few others were able to brace themselves.

Before he could have the chance to really think about what had just occurred he heard the sound of the doors to the bridge opening behind him. He turned when he heard the pain filled screams of the crew, and what he saw made him feel something he had not felt in a very long time, something he thought he wasn't even capable of feeling anymore.

Fear.

Revans Tie Advanced

Revan knew that in order to win this fight he couldn't afford to just use brute force. He was going to have to fight smart if he wanted to defeat the Empire for a second time, especially considering the fact that the enemy had more ships and greater firepower. Luckily that was something Revan excelled in doing.

He knew his fleet would be able to hold off the Imperial fleet for a short time, but not for a full hour, the time it would take for the aggressors to fire off another ion shot and another explosive blast. He knew the key to this battle was once again the flagship, which he identified as the one ship that hung a bit further back from the rest of the remaining un-engaged star destroyers.

He planned to board the enemy flag ship and to fight his way to the bridge before forcing the admiral to submit. He could attempt to destroy the ship of course, but he would rather not. Not if he could make the ship his own.

Of course, taking the flagship would not be enough to win the fight. So he sent his apprentices on the Rogue Shadow to one of the Imperial Star Destroyers to destroy it, damaging morale of the enemy as well as instilling fear into the enemy admiral, which would hopefully make him much more agreeable to his terms of surrender.

Of course, in the event that he failed and he couldn't get the enemy to surrender, he would have his fleet launch all their bombers. He knew the combination of anti-fighter ships as well as superior fighters would make quick work of the tie fighters, allowing the bombers that had been left in their hangers to come out and destroy the ships that had been initially been sent forward. They would then be able to come and destroy the rest of the fleet, prompting the Imperials to surrender.

There was a few things wrong with this plan of course. It relied on the fact that the enemy admiral would split up his forces instead of keeping them all together. If they had sent all their ships his venators would've been destroyed quickly and if they stayed still and didn't come forward, the enemy fighters would notice him and come after him.

Luck had played a small part in this battle, however Revan had been counting on one thing. And that one thing was Pride. Most of the Imperial officers were incredibly prideful, and it seemed the grand admiral was no different. He was foolish for not sending his entire fleet to destroy him. And he was now going to regret taking Revan lightly.

The Admonitor

Revan landed his Tie in the flagships hanger, now empty except for some storm troopers and some of the maintenance crew. Upon landing his ship the imperials initially thought one of their tie fighters had returned from the fighting for some reason, only to be proven wrong when the hatch of the fighter opened and a man in black with a red mask and red armor jumped out. The stormtroopers aimed their blasters at him and opened fire, only for him to stop the plasma bolts half way across the room before he sent them right back to the soldiers who shot at him, sending them all crashing down to the floor with burning holes in their chest or head.

Revan couldn't help but smirk, his mask hiding it as he advanced on the crew. Some of the crew were frozen in fear, while some of the more brave and reckless men and women went for the dead soldiers blasters to try and defend themselves. They knew it was hopeless however, and this was only confirmed when a lightsaber decapitated some of those who had been daring enough to try and fight back. Those who were frozen in fear snapped out of it too late, being gripped by the force and raised into the air before being suddenly slammed into the floor, loud snaps coming from each of the bodies as several bones were shattered.

Revan couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. He had barely been able to do any kind of fighting since he had awoken. First it had been that pitiful inquisitor, and then it was that mandalorian. After that he hadn't had anyone to fight. Now he was being given the perfect opportunity to slaughter an entire ship of enemies, an opportunity to actually use some of his power. And the Sith knew that without a shadow of a doubt it was gonna be the most fun he had in ages.

He forced open a door using the force, and upon seeing a squad of stormtroopers on the other side he released a torrent of force lightning on them. He listened to their agonizing screams as smoke began to curl off their armor, the armor helping to cook the people inside it. The armor went from being their protection, to being an oven made to kill them.

He cut off the lightning the moment the last stormtrooper stopped screaming. He moved past the now charred bodies, the formerly white armor having been turned black in many places from the powerful force lightning. As he continued on towards the bridge Revan would switch up the ways he killed those who were in his path, either breaking their bodies with the force, cutting them to pieces with his lightsaber, using mind tricks to make them kill each other, frying them with lightning, and on occasion not bothering to use the force or a weapon, simply going up close and personal before he snapped their necks or broke their spines using his own strength, though slightly enhanced by the force.

By the time he reached the bridge a massive trail of death had been laid in his wake. He felt the ship shake and heard an explosion before he opened the door of the bridge, and it didn't take long for the ancient Sith to figure out that his apprentices had succeeded in their mission to destroy the star destroyer. He sighed in content as he opened the door to the bridge and ran a blade through the chest of a crew member before he moved on to the rest of the nearby crew. He then set his sights on the chiss Grand Admiral.

"You gave me thirty minutes to decide what action I would take, Grand Admiral. You gave me far too much time to decide how I would crush you." Revan told him, before he began to slowly move towards him. To Thrawn, Revan seemed like a beast, like a predator that was on the prowl. And he could tell that Revan had set his eyes on him as prey.

Thrawn wasn't used to feeling terror. And he certainly wasn't used to being the one who was being hunted. In a few minutes this Mandalore had completely turned the tables on him, despite his inferior numbers and firepower. The guards on the bridge aimed their weapons at Revan, however the Sith paid them no mind. He simply flicked his left hand at the troopers to his left and slammed them into the wall, before he did the same thing to the soldiers to his right.

Revan picked up Thrawn by his throat and slammed him against the window on the bridge, his grip tightening on the Grand Admirals neck and choking him slightly, "Now, I think its about time we discuss the terms for your surrender. Your to recall the ships you had sent to attack my fleet, and your to order the men to surrender. You will then allow my men to board the ships and to imprison the crews in the detention area."

Thrawn began to think of what he could do in this situation, before he then began to think of the man who had managed to fight his way to the bridge and capture him. No one had made him feel fear like this, not even Palpatine despite his immense power. And that was because he was a political leader, not a military one. He was greedy and the simple truth of the matter was, he made a lot of mistakes that prevented the Empire from being the best he could be. The more he thought about it, the more he came to the one choice he had. The one choice that would not only allow him to survive, but allow his people to get the strongest ally possible.

He loosened his grip on Thrawns throat to give him a chance to speak, the chiss taking in deep breaths of air before he shook his head slowly. A grin begin to spread across his face as he thought about what he was about to do as he began to speak, stopping Revan from choking him again, "Oh I can do much more than that for you, Mandalore. I can do more than order them to surrender. I can order them to surrender, and then I can join you."

Yo! Been a while, sorry about that. I couldn't think of how I was going to do this, before I eventually decided to just do it. Some of you may be confused by the choice Revan made to combat Thrawn instead of just destroying his fleet with bombers as well as Thrawns choice to join Revan, so I'll do a brief explanation.

As Revan thought earlier, he doesn't have the numbers or firepower to fight back against the Empire. Give him every crime syndicates ship and soldier, every independent systems fleet, and he still wouldn't have enough. Not against the thousands of capital ships the Empire has, not even thinking about ships like The Executor, as well as other executor class SSD's and Mandator class SSD's the Empire has.

So what option is he left with? Capturing any ship he can. He needs more ships to bolster the numbers of his fleet as well as the strength these star destroyers will add a lot of fire power. One person at first asked why Vader didn't join Thrawn before they had then said they realized it was a wise choice, and this is why I think it was a wise choice. While according to canon Vader doesn't have his Executor, Galens own timeline is past the point the Executor was built, so I feel I can add it in. The Star Wars timeline is all kinds of fucked up already, I'm sure it won't matter much if I make the construction of Vaders SSD come around earlier. Imagine Death Squadron with the executor and Thrawns fleet attacking Mandalore. They would stand no chance. (Plus Vader and Thrawn don't exactly get along so it wouldn't make since to send them both.)

His plan also relied on something that he knew Thrawn had: His pride. Pride can make even the greatest general fall.

Now as for why Thrawn joined Revan. He joined Sidious due to the Chiss Empire needing powerful allies for the future, and Thrawn thought that Palpatines vision of an Empire would be a grand ally indeed. However he has been with the Empire long enough to know its flaws, as well as Palpatines. However upon meeting Revan he is outmaneuvered, and he is forced to feel fear. Thrawn knows that a faction with someone like Revan at the helm will be truly formidable, far more formidable than the Empire Palpatine has constructed. Palpatine is a man of politics, while Revan is a military genius on the same or even higher level then Thrawn.