Imperial espionage operation Prior to the attack on the " Sempre " , a large espionage operation was conducted by members of the Higher Skies Advocacy Group and Yinchom Dojo on the galactic capital of Coruscant . This operation involved collecting information on Imperial projects and targets on behalf of the insurgent leader Nevil Cygni , who harried the Galactic Empire . This spy network was exposed by the Lothalian expatriate Arihnda Pryce , who became a double agent under the guidance of future Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Imperial Security Bureau Colonel Wullf Yularen . As a reward for her services , Pryce was made Governor of Lothal by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin . History . Under the advice of the mysterious Nightswan , Driller MarDapp of Higher Skies instructed employees , including his friend Arihnda Pryce , to create political connections of high - ranking Imperial government officials and use data - thief programs on their computer s to steal valuable information . The information would then be used to blackmail the officials . Meanwhile , Juahir Madras and other members of the Yinchom Dojo , who trained bodyguard s of Imperial senator s and other officials , blackmailed them in order to turn them into spies for the dojo . The spying operations eventually resulted in an attempted assassin ation of Senator Evidorn . While Colonel Wullf Yularen and Captain Thrawn conducted an investigation to uncover the identify and motivations of Nightswan , they eventually were led to Yinchom Dojo after Thrawn discovered that Nightswan was involved in several political protests , including one in Nubia . Following this thread , Yularen and Thrawn were able to deduce that political upsets would be effective if they began in training dojos , leading them to Yinchom Dojo with Thrawn discovering that the dojo may be part of a conspiracy and was involved with Higher Skies . After meeting secretly with Thrawn , Pryce decided to turn on her friends and employer in return for immunity . Under Thrawn and Yularen ' s direction , she copied the database of Higher Skies . Using the information obtained and her secret recordings of Moff Ghadi , a political rival of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin , Pryce was able to bargain the information for the title of acting governor , and in one or two years , gain the permanent title of Governor of Lothal . As a favor to Thrawn , Pryce convinced the Grand Moff to promote his friend Ensign Eli Vanto , who had been denied a promotion through Ghadi ' s machinations . Pryce returned to meet her former friend , Juahir , and with the help of Yularen , arrested her . At the same time , ISB agent s and officer s arrested other members of Yinchom Dojo and Higher Skies , including Driller . Since Thrawn had ascertained that the Yinchom Dojo ' s Togorian owner H ’ sishi was not involved , she was spared . Aftermath . The disruption of the Imperial espionage operation dealt a blow to Nightswan ' s campaign against the Empire . As a reward for her services , Pryce was appointed Governor of Lothal . After a year of training , she returned to Lothal and presided over the expansion of Imperial industrial projects , mining , and military facilities on the pastoral Outer Rim world . In addition , Grand Moff Tarkin arranged for Thrawn to be promoted to Commodore and Vanto to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander . Pryce and Thrawn ' s partnership to disrupt the spy ring led to the formation of a durable alliance between the Governor and promising Imperial Navy officer . Meanwhile , Pryce ' s former friend Juahir was imprisoned at the Oovo IV detention center . While Juahir had been spared the death penalty , she had been sentenced to imprisonment . Knowing that Pryce had become Governor of Lothal , she wrote twenty messages petitioning Pryce to help her . Still bitter over her friend for " exploiting " her , Pryce ignored those messages . Behind the scenes . The Imperial espionage operation first appeared in Timothy Zahn ' s 2017 novel " Thrawn " , which serves as a rebooted Canon origins story for the titular character . The espionage operation serves as a plot element to explain the tritagonist Arihnda Pryce ' s rise to the Governorship of Lothal , linking the novel to the animated Disney XD television series " Star Wars Rebels " .