Siege of the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex The Siege of the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex was the second battle of the Batonn insurgency , a campaign of the Batonn sector insurgency . Following the Battle of Scrim Island , the Batonn insurgents led by Nevil Cygni ( or " Nightswan " ) relocated to the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex near Paeragosto City . Admiral Thrawn ' s attempts to end the siege peacefully were rebuffed by Nightswan , who distrusted the local Governor Restos and wanted to overthrow the Empire . Thrawn ' s management of the siege was also complicated by an Imperial Security Bureau operation by Agent Gudry to plant explosives inside the mine . The siege came to an end when the Lothal ian Governor Arihnda Pryce remotely blew up the mine ' s explosives and deflector shield generator to conceal Gudry ' s murder . The explosion destroyed the complex and ended the Batonn sector insurgency but killed many civilians . Prelude . During the Imperial Era , the former pirate Nevil Cygni , who adopted the persona " Nightswan " , led an insurgency against the Galactic Empire . His nemesis was the Chiss Admiral Thrawn , a rising star in the Imperial Navy . Nightswan became the leader of the Batonn insurgents , an insurgent group in the Batonn sector that opposed the Galactic Empire and the corrupt Governor Restos . Nightswan engineered the Battle of Scrim Island in an attempt to destroy Thrawn ' s career . However , Thrawn outmaneuvered the Batonn insurgents and neutralized their ion cannon s and turbolaser , forcing them to surrender . Despite the surrender of the insurgents on Scrim Island , many of the insurgents managed to evacuate with their weapons and equipment on eight freighters . Using Captain Brento ' s information , Commander Eli Vanto managed to track the shipping vectors to the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex near the Paeragosto City on Batonn ' s main continent . The mining complex was home to 30 , 000 civilians including Governor Arihnda Pryce ' s parents Talmoor and Elainye Pryce , who worked at the mine . Nightswan chose to evacuate his forces to Creekpath since the complex was protected by a DSS - 02 regional shield . He gambled that the Empire would no longer consider his insurgents a threat following Scrim Island ' s recapture . However , Thrawn realized that the Batonn insurgents had gone into hiding and did not withdraw his 96th Task Force from Batonn . Nightswan ' s forces were able to set up base inside Creekpath ' s mine because Governor Restos had neglected to send soldiers to secure the mine ' s checkpoints . Restos instead requisitioned the soldiers for his own personal protection and provided the mine management with a used DSS - 02 regional shield . This allowed the insurgents to secure the shield generator and expel the operators . The Batonn insurgents established a checkpoint at the edge of Creekpath ' s shield . Nightswan ' s forces included several police gunships and skim fighters . In response , the Empire deployed Imperial Navy Trooper s and Batonn Defense Force soldiers to set a roadblock on the main road leading from Paerogosto City to the Creekpath mining complex . Since the Empire did not consider Batonn and Paerogosto City to be full military zones , Admiral Thrawn found his authority over the military forces limited . The siege . Imperial entanglements . The Siege of the Creekpath complex was complicated by two other factors . First , Governor Arihnda Pryce wanted to rescue her parents from the Creekpath complex out of her love for her family . Second , the Imperial Security Bureau wanted to send one of their agent s Gudry into the mine to collect intelligence on the insurgents ' defenses and equipment for a planned Imperial orbital strike . Agent Gudry however also had a secret mission to attach remotely - controlled explosives to the insurgents ' weapons and deflector shield . Though Pryce was only a civilian , she managed to convince the ISB Colonel Wullf Yularen that she could help get Gudry into the mine and spy on the insurgents ' defenses . For the mission , Agent Gudry posed as " Mattai Daw " and adopted the cover story that he was entering the mine to find his friend " Blazye Jono " who had gotten mixed up in the " mine situation . " To hide her true identity , Pryce donned a long blonde wig and contact lenses . To avoid arousing suspicions , Colonel Yularen with Thrawn ' s approval arranged for Gudry and Pryce to travel from Dennogra aboard a regional planet hopper and land at Paeragosto City . Their travel from Thrawn ' s Imperial Star Destroyer " Chimaera " to Dennogra and back to Batonn took twelve hours . Meanwhile , Thrawn ordered that repairs be made to the three damaged Imperial light cruisers " Flensor " , " Shyrack " , and " Tumnor " , which had taken part in the Battle of Scrim Island . The ships orbited Batonn and were supposedly in a vulnerable state . However , Thrawn had secretly equipped the repair barges with a complement of TIE fighters loaned by Admiral Durril . When Colonel Yularen queried about Thrawn ' s unusual positioning of the light cruisers in a 100 km equilateral triangle above space , Command Vanto told Yularen to trust Thrawn ' s decision - making . Behind enemy lines . A disguised Pryce and Gudry managed to travel through the insurgents ' checkpoint and reunited with Talmoor and Elainye at the couple ' s home . Having found her parents , Pryce and " Mattai Daw " managed to convince Talmoor to lead them into the mine under the pretext of finding " Blayze Jonoo " , who was purportedly a weapons expert in the mine . Talmoor revealed that the Batonn insurgents had holed themselves up in the mine . He expressed sympathy for the rebels and claimed they were fighting for peoples ' rights against a " repressive and dangerous government . " While publicly supporting Daw ' s plan to find his friend , she secretly swapped her mother ' s comm for her own since she planned to escape the mining complex with her parents before the Empire attacked . Meanwhile , Thrawn contacted the insurgent leader Nightswan from orbit to arrange a face - to - face meeting . The two agreed to meet at a field two kilometers northeast of the Creekpath facility . Thrawn had chosen the site because it included a ridge of low hills that blocked casual observation , but was still easily accessible from the insurgent camp . Thrawn traveled to the site in a disguised freighter . Talmoor managed to convince the second ring of insurgents guarding the mine to let him , Pryce , and Gudry through . While Gudry was walking with Talmoor , Pryce hid inside a speeder truck and used her mother ' s comm to contact her father . Pretending to be her mother , Pryce called Talmoor and claimed that Elainye was ill and needed him at home . Gudry reluctantly allowed Pryce to leave the mine with her father so that he could spend the next hour completing his mission . Before leaving , Gudry reported that Nightswan had police gunships and skim fighters . Pryce in returned alerted him to the presence of a speeder truck carrying Makrid String crates , a wire explosive . Parleying with Nightswan . Meanwhile , Thrawn and Nightswan met at the empty field . Nightswan admitted that he was behind the earlier insurgent encounters with Thrawn . Nightswan also revealed that the Empire was siphoning off large amounts of doonium , iridium , and other metals for an unknown project , which turned out to be the Death Star . While Nightswan had envisioned bringing all the insurgent and rebel groups together under one roof , he abandoned the idea due to the paranoia , distrust , and squabbling among the various rebel cells . Seeking to end the siege peacefully , Thrawn discussed his motivations for joining the Empire . He explained that his people the Chiss Ascendancy had sent him to forge an alliance with the Empire due to the presence of mysterious " evil things " in the Unknown Regions . While Thrawn acknowledged the the Empire was indeed corrupt and tyrannical , he regarded the Empire as preferable to the threats in the Unknown Regions and a chaotic galaxy . While Nightswan believed that the rebellion would bring justice , mercy , and freedom , Thrawn believed that the fall of the Empire would bring chaos and lawlessness as in the Clone Wars . Despite serving Emperor Palpatine , Thrawn recognized the Emperor ' s flaws and hoped to use his authority to influence the appointment of a more worthy successor in the event of the Emperor ' s death . Thrawn then offered Nightswan a place among the Chiss Ascendancy if he would abandon his people and insurrection . Despite Thrawn ' s reassurances that he would ensure that Nightswan ' s followers could return to their homes and jobs without reprisals , Nightswan believed that Governor Restos and Thrawn ' s superiors would not honor the deal . Despite being unable to break the siege , Nightswan extracted a promise from Thrawn to protect the civilians of Creekpath . Thrawn agreed and also offered clemency if they surrendered . After parting company , Thrawn was picked up in an airspeeder by Colonel Yularen , who expressed anger that Thrawn had been talking with the enemy . While the two were close friends , Yularen warned that others could misconstrue Thrawn ' s meeting with Nightswan as a sign of treason . Thrawn also reassured Yularen that the light cruisers were in safe hands . In return , Yularen informed him that Gudry had managed to attach explosives to the shield generator and explosives cache at Creekpath base . Pryce ' s escape and Thrawn ' s trap . Upon returning to the Pryce home , Arihnda told her parents that they needed to get away from Gudry . Unaware of Thrawn ' s plans , Pryce claimed that Thrawn ' s task force was going to bomb Creekpath and that they needed to flee . Before they could leave , Pryce was confronted by Gudry , who discovered her deception . He chided her for abandoning their search and revealed that his mission was a " search and destroy mission . " Gudry by then had attached four triggers to an explosives cache and the shield generator . He planned to used his comm to remotely trigger the explosives . Pryce insisted on taking her parents but Gudry responded that they would only draw attention . Before Gudry could shoot them , Pryce flung a stack of datacard s at him . Pryce managed to fight him in unarmed combat and broke his elbow . Pryce also managed to snatch his blaster and shot him in the chest three times . While her parents fetched their medpac and suitcase , Pryce took the opportunity to search Gudry ' s clothes for the trigger . Meanwhile , Yularen attempted to contact Pryce and Gudry but was unable to reach them . Still , he refused to trigger the explosives until there was clear evidence they had been captured or kill . Commander Faro had also deployed the " Chimaeara " TIE fighters on patrol duty around Batonn . Based on Gudry ' s intelligence about the Batonn insurgents having gunships and skim fighters , Thrawn planned to use the " Chimaeara " to bombard the insurgent ships once Creekpath ' s shield had been taken down . While preparing for ground assault , Thrawn convinced Yularen to loan him a special - duty squad to rescue Pryce and Agent Gudry ; unaware of what had happened on the ground . Thrawn also ordered the ground commanders on the west and north to harass the Creekpath insurgents . However , he added that they were not to enter the complex until the shield was down or he gave new orders . Shortly later , the " Chimaera " bridge crew reported that three attack squadrons consisting of thirty ships had emerged out of hyperspace to attack Thrawn ' s task force . Thrawn had in fact presented the damaged light cruisers and the " Chimaera " as bait to lure the Batonn insurgents into launching their attack . While Vanto was alarmed , Thrawn remained calm and ordered Senior Lieutenant Lomar to order the light cruisers to detach from the barges . The barges then deployed three squadrons of TIE fighters which attacked the insurgent ships . With the tables turned on the insurgents , Thrawn unleashed the " Chimaeara " turbolasers on the insurgent fleet . The Conflagration . As the Pryce family made their way towards the insurgents ' outer picket line , the Imperial forces began opening fire on the north and west of the complex . While Talmoor dealt with a sentry , Pryce blew up a bulldozer - type machine with a comm - triggered blasting cap . She was cornered by another guard but managed to shoot him while the bulldozer exploded . When her parents noticed the fallen insurgent , she claimed that he had been hit by shrapnel fire . At Arihnda ' s urging , she and her parents reached the Imperial picket lines where they were greeted by two Imperial Navy troopers . They informed her that Colonel Yularen had sent a rescue team to her parents ' home . The troopers brought the Pryces to their commanding officer Major Talmege . In attempt to prevent the special squad from reporting Gudry ' s dead body , Pryce used Gudry ' s comm to blow up the second remote , which set off Nightswan ' s cache of explosives . The explosion destroyed the entire Creekpath complex within the boundaries of the deflector shield . When the surviving insurgent ships in space learnt about the bombing , they abandoned their attack and fled into space . Thrawn allowed them to escape in order to demoralize the other rebels . The entire Batonn insurgent movement holed up at Creekpath complex including Nightswan were killed during the bombing , along with numerous civilians . Imperial forces found Nightswan ' s body in one of the outer areas , where the damage was less extensive . As a result , the insurgents in the Batonn sector were eliminated . Aftermath . The bombing of the explosions cache in the Creekpath mining complex ended the siege in the Empire ' s favor . While many believed the insurgents had blown themselves up , Arihnda knew that she was responsible for the bombing . When Elainye criticized the Empire for the bombing , Pryce blamed the rebels . Pryce then arranged for her parents to be ferried on the transport " Duggenhei " to Lothal , where she made arrangements to host them in one of the guest suites at the governor ' s mansion . Admiral Thrawn ordered Colonel Yularen and the ground commanders to embark on a search and rescue operation for many survivors . He also summoned Pryce and Yularen for an audience aboard the " Chimaera " . Colonel Yularen expressed outrage at the high fatality rate and the deaths of civilians . Pryce claimed that Gudry had been captured by the insurgents and ignited the explosives in order to avoid capture . However , Yularen expressed skepticism that Gudry would have ignited the explosives first but acknowledged there was insufficient evidence to question Pryce ' s account . Yularen also blamed Pryce for the deaths of the troopers that he had sent to rescue her . Despite the high civilian death rate , the Emperor was pleased with Thrawn ' s pacification of the Batonn insurgency . While Thrawn shared Yularen ' s distaste for collateral damage , he took credit for the victory at Batonn at the urging of Pryce , who became his informal political adviser . In private , Thrawn and Vanto confided that Pryce somehow had a hand in the explosion . Following the siege , Thrawn met with his benefactor Emperor Palpatine , who promoted him to the rank of Grand Admiral and gave him command of the Seventh Fleet . At the request of Governor Pryce , Thrawn was dispatched by Governor Wilhuff Tarkin to deal with the rebel insurgency in the Lothal sector . While the ISB Agent Alexsandr Kallus expressed concerns about the high civilian death rate , Pryce responded that the casualties were within " acceptable margins " since the rebel presence in the Batonn sector had been eradicated . Behind the scenes . The Siege of the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex was first indirectly mentioned in " " , which premiered at Celebration Europe on July 16 , 2016 . The siege was later explored and developed in Timothy Zahn ' s 2017 novel " Thrawn " , which serves as a canon ical origins story for the eponymous character .