Katana fleet The " Katana " fleet was a task force of two hundred " Dreadnaught " - class heavy cruisers launched by the Galactic Republic during its final decades of existence , as part of an attempt to restore the Republic Navy to its long - gone glory . The fleet , however , was lost on its maiden voyage when a hive virus drove its crews insane and the task force ' s captain jumped the ships blindly into hyperspace . Five years after the Battle of Endor , Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Galactic Empire convinced smuggler Captain Hoffner into providing the location of the long - lost task force . Having learned of Thrawn ' s target , the New Republic entered the race for the lost fleet as well . However , the Empire managed to escape with 178 of the prized ships before the Republic arrived . History . Creation . In its waning decades , the Senate of the Galactic Republic threw money at many grandiose projects . One of them , which was completed in 46 BBY , was the " Katana " fleet , a task force of two hundred " Dreadnaught " - class heavy cruisers , all carrying experimental AT - PT walkers . It was named after its flagship , the " Katana " . To counter the high - staffing requirements of such vessels , the fleet was extensively modified with full - rig slave circuit ry , reducing the requirements to only about 2 , 200 per ship ( instead of upwards of 16 , 000 ) . To further distinguish the " Katana " fleet , Rendili StarDrive redesigned the entire Dreadnaught interior for the occasion , from the equipment and interior decor right down to the dark gray hull surfacing . The fleet earned the unofficial moniker " the Dark Force , " partly because of the hull color , and partly because of the reduced need for interior lighting allowed by the smaller crew complements . With its advanced slave - rig technology , the " Katana " fleet was positioned to herald a new era for military warships . Disappearance . However , what should have been a demonstration of efficiency turned into a complete fiasco . One or more of the ships ' crewmen picked up a hive virus at one of the ports of call on the fleet ' s maiden voyage . Said virus , which had the particularity of driving its victims insane just before it killed them , was spread throughout all two hundred Dreadnaughts while in dormant state . When it suddenly flared up , the virus took down nearly everybody at once . The infected crewers , instead of calling for help , slaved their ships together . Because of that , the " Katana " command crew also descended into insanity and jumped blindly into hyperspace , taking the entire fleet with them . Following that debacle , the Katana project became an embarrassment to the military echelons that had commissioned the fleet , and although that incident did not actually start the movement toward decentralization in automated ship functions , it certainly sealed its outcome . The incident made headlines for a time , with some journalists making sarcastic word - plays on the " Dark Force " name . For a few years , many enthusiastic salvage teams hunted after it , but to no avail , as trying to find a ship that had misjumped to some random location in the galaxy was practically impossible , and even two hundred ships could easily be lost within the vastness of space . By the time of the Clone Wars , the Republic ' s Senate Bureau of Intelligence surmised that the mastermind behind the hive virus had been Zeta Magnus , a genetic terrorist affiliated with the Confederacy of Independent Systems , who was himself the result of a freak experiment by the techno - lords of the Arkanian Dominion . The fleet eventually became a legend , to the point that some people believed it had never existed in the first place . Rediscovery . The Dark Force remained undiscovered until smuggler Captain Hoffner and his ship stumbled upon it in 6 BBY . Hoffner and his navigator / sensor officer , Talon Karrde were the only ones aboard aware of the find , but neither realized the other person knew the secret . They each concealed the fleet ' s location until the right time to make use of it . Hoffner later arranged to sell individual " Katana " Dreadnaughts to Garm Bel Iblis , who eventually accumulated a strike force of six of the ships , including his command ship , " Peregrine " . By 6 ABY , the balance of power between the New Republic , Imperial Remnant , and warlord forces was so precarious that , despite their age , it was believed that any faction that recovered the fleet would immediately become the dominant force in the galaxy . The enormous potential value of the " Katana " fleet was used to draw the " Imperial II " - class Star Destroyer " Eviscerator " away as a prelude to the Second Battle of Borleias . In 9 ABY , nearly fifty - five years after the fleet ' s disappearance , Grand Admiral Thrawn became interested in obtaining the fleet . However , the Grand Admiral ' s actions turned Mara Jade against the Galactic Empire and she , along with Luke Skywalker , rescued Karrde from Thrawn ' s forces and brought the smuggler to the New Republic . Thrawn was nonetheless able to acquire the information from Hoffner , and though both sides secured some of the fleet during the Battle for the " Katana " fleet , Thrawn had acquired all but twenty - two of the Dreadnaughts before the New Republic forces arrived . These remaining vessels , except for the one Dreadnaught destroyed during the battle , became part of the New Republic fleet , along with the AT - PT walkers later used in the campaign against Thrawn . Initially , the New Republic believed Thrawn would not be able to take advantage of his new vessels , since he would require over three hundred thousand crewers for the " Katana " fleet — 2 , 000 for each of the 178 ships . However , Thrawn proved to be more resourceful , using clones produced in days ( instead of the years ) from Spaarti cloning cylinder s in the Emperor ' s storehouse on Wayland to crew his ships . Luke Skywalker and Talon Karrde estimated that Thrawn ' s clones were ' grown ' to maturity in fifteen to twenty days instead of the typical year to three years . Clones grown this quickly were generally known to be mentally unstable , but due to the use of Ysalamir i and their Force - neutralizing abilities , Thrawn ' s clones could be grown to perfection in a fraction of the typical time without this side effect . Thrawn ' s acquisition of the Katana Dreadnaughts augmented his fleet ' s ability to the point that it was able to immediately attack more than twenty New Republic systems . Behind the scenes . It was stated by Talon Karrde that the fleet was lost in 32 BBY ( at the time of " " ) , but Captain Gilad Pellaeon set it at fifty - five years prior to the date of the story ( which is set in 9 ABY . ) " The New Essential Chronology " sets the fleet ' s launch following the Stark Hyperspace War , but does not implicitly state it was lost the same year , although the implication is that it was lost before 44 BBY . It is far more likely that a high - ranking Imperial officer has the correct date than a smuggling chief , especially because it was stated by Karrde as being " about ten years before the Clone Wars " . However , Jorus C ' baoth was listed as having been killed on board Outbound Flight in the computer archives of the flagship , " Katana " . Since the novel , " Outbound Flight , " lists the deployment of Outbound Flight as being in between " The Phantom Menace " and " Attack of the Clones " in 27 BBY , this means the " Katana " fleet either was lost after the Outbound Flight , or that the information in the " Katana " computer about C ' boath was automatically updated after the " Katana " fleet was lost .