Rae Sloane

Rae Sloane was a human female dedicated to serving the Galactic Empire as a naval officer. She was instrumental in its survival in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. While an Imperial cadet at the Defiance Flight Training Institute, she foiled a plot by Commandant Pell Baylo to assassinate Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. Sloane went on to rise through the ranks of the Imperial Navy.
Despite only filling in for the actual captain, Yale Karlsen, who was on assignment to a construction committee, she was proud to have achieved captaincy of a capital ship by the age of thirty, an Imperial Star Destroyer called the Ultimatum. She was charged with escorting Count Denetrius Vidian to the planet Gorse and was subsequently drawn into the Gorse Conflict. During her tour of the Gorse system, Sloane foiled a plot by Vidian to destroy Gorse's moon Cynda and its thorilide reserves in order to enrich himself. Due to her efforts in saving Cynda and its thorilide reserves, Captain Sloane was given permanent command of the Ultimatum.
Later, Sloane tried to capture the rebel Kanan Jarrus by using his old friend Morfizo to lure him into a trap but failed. During the Battle of Endor, Rae Sloane served as a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Navy and commanded the Star Destroyer Vigilance. Following the Empire's defeat at Endor, she organized a secret Imperial meeting on the planet Akiva. After the New Republic liberated Akiva, Sloane fled offworld. In the following months, Sloane attained the distinguished rank of Grand Admiral, bestowed unto her by the mysterious Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. While Sloane served as the public face of the Empire, Rax ruled from behind the scenes.
At the instigation of Rax, Sloane initiated faux peace talks with the New Republic. While visiting the New Republic capital of Chandrila, Sloane turned against Rax after learning that his attack on Chandrila involved using mind-controlled former prisoners from Ashmead's Lock to assassinate New Republic officials. When Sloane objected to Rax's methods, her attache Adea Rite tried to assassinate her. After escaping Chandrila, Sloane joined forces with the former rebel Brentin Lore Wexley to hunt down and kill Rax. With the help of Brentin and the New Republic operative Norra Wexley, Sloane managed to stop Rax from destroying Jakku along with the Imperial and New Republic fleets. After executing Rax, she fled into the Unknown Regions with Brendol Hux, his son, Armitage Hux, and several child soldiers. Whilst in the Unknown Regions, her remnant eventually reformed into the First Order with Sloane as its initial leader.
==Biography==
===Childhood===
A human female, Rae Sloane was born on the Core planet Ganthel around 41 BBY. Her family was not wealthy and the young Sloane longed to live in a richer and greener world. One night while her parents slept, Sloane ran away from her home and made her way to the nearest ship dock with the hope of sneaking aboard a freighter and traveling across the galaxy. Sloane managed to make her way to the ship dock and hide between two crates of kelerium. At that point, Sloane experienced "cold feet" and decided to return home.
However, Sloane encountered four members of a local criminal gang called the Kotaska, who dealt in spice and slaves. They trapped her and attempted to abduct her. Fortunately for Sloane, a passing astromech droid saw the commotion and set himself off as an alarm. A nearby dock constable managed to chase off the Kotaska and Sloane took the opportunity to flee home. Sloane never told her parents about the incident but never gave up her desire to leave Ganthel. When the Galactic Empire cleared out the Kotaska and other criminal groups on her world, this convinced Sloane that it was a force for good and order in the galaxy. In order to avoid being employed at a shipyard or loading dock, Sloane left Ganthel and enrolled in the Empire's naval academyTarkin on Prefsbelt.
===Naval cadet===
During her time at the Prefsbelt Academy, Sloane competed in Naval Corps Boxing. Despite never winning "the belt," she nevertheless was skilled at it, and always ranked. Sloane graduated high in her class at Prefsbelt, and ended up studying navigation as a Lieutenant on board the Defiance Flight Training Institute, a facility run by Commandant Pell Baylo based on board the Defiance cruiser. During her time on the starship, Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine was invited by Baylo to hold meeting with several chiefs of the Imperial Navy which aimed to decide how the military schools the Empire had inherited from the Galactic Republic could be incorporated into the Imperial academies. The Emperor and his apprentice Darth Vader boarded the Defiance in the Denon system where Baylo started running Sloane and the other cadets through drills and simulations on the ship's bridge for the Emperor and Vader. Palpatine remained only a short time but ordered Vader to stay and observe, which he did for several hours as Baylo constantly berated his cadets as they worked.
When Vice Admiral Tallatz—the last of the Naval chiefs—arrived on the Defiance, Sloane programmed a course from the Denon star system to the planet Christophsis, where Palpatine and Vader were transferring from the Defiance to the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Perilous in order to travel to the planet Ryloth and quash the insurgency there. Baylo then gave the order for the course to be plotted, and when Sloane showed that she had already done it, Baylo claimed her course would send them into Wild Space and changed it.
Sloane's course had in fact been correct, but Baylo was planning to kill the Emperor and Vader and had changed the course to take the Defiance into the heart of the sun. Once the course was set, the Commandant left the bridge, and Sloane looked over her calculations to find where she had gone wrong. Vader then approached her and stopped her from jumping the ship to hyperspace, changing the course back to Sloane's original. Vader then left and executed Baylo in his office in front of the Emperor. Shortly after the Defiance arrived at Christophsis, Sloane entered the office and found Baylo's body. After questioning what happened, the Emperor said Baylo finally died of old age. After the Emperor informed Sloane that the vessel was to be renamed Obedience as a final, subtle jab at Baylo and a not-so-subtle hint at Vader to remember his place, the two Sith Lords disembarked and traveled to Ryloth.
===Promotion to Captain===
Rae Sloane later became a Commander in the Imperial Navy and served as the executive officer aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Executrix, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's new flagship. During the voyage to the Inner Rim world of Gilvaanen to investigate stormtrooper armor production, Sloane researched Count Denetrius Vidian's background on Tarkin's orders. She described the cyborg as a "miracle worker" who had gotten the Gozanti freighter program launched on time and under budget. Before Tarkin left, she informed the Grand Moff that this was her last flight to Executrix since she had been promoted to Captain and was due to return to Coruscant.
When Tarkin remarked that it was admirable for a young officer to be promoted to captain, Sloane admitted that she did not know where her next posting was due to the shortage of postings. Sloane also told Tarkin that she did not want any favors. Tarkin ruefully replied that those who did not accept favors did not have to owe any. After Count Vidian exposed Thetis Quelton's plot to sabotage stormtrooper armor, Tarkin assigned the efficiency expert his own personal Star Destroyer. Since Vidian recommended a green captain with no past baggage, Tarkin presumably appointed Sloane as the ship's commanding officer.
===The Gorse conflict===
====Escorting Count Vidian====
Upon her promotion to captaincy, she was assigned to the Imperial Star Destroyer Ultimatum and was present during the events of the Gorse Conflict. During that tour, Sloane was tasked with escorting the Emperor's efficiency expert Count Vidian on a mission to speed up the production of thorilide in the Gorse system. Vidian was a cyborg who had overcome Shilmer's syndrome to become one of the galaxy's most respected management gurus. Most of the thorilide was extracted from Gorse's moon Cynda and then transported to Gorse for refining and export. At that time, Sloane's captaincy of the Ultimatum was originally intended as a temporary position since the ship's nominal Captain Yale Karlsen was away on business in Corellia.
Upon entering the Gorse system, Captain Sloane ordered the mining traffic between Gorse and Cynda to stay clear within a kilometer of the Ultimatum per Imperial Navy procedure. Vidian then intervened and convinced Sloane to back her ship away from the mining traffic in order to avoid slowing down production. Sloane and her crew including Commander Nibiru Chamas were present when Vidian ordered the Ultimatum to open fire on a damaged laggard freighter called the Cynda Dreaming in order to "speed" up the traffic. Sloane stayed aboard the Star Destroyer while Vidian conducted his tour of the mines on Cynda. While patrolling the mining fleet, Sloane had a brief but hostile exchange with a "cheeky" freighter pilot named Kanan Jarrus, who made snide remarks about her appearance. Unknown to Sloane, Kanan was a Jedi Padawan who had survived the Great Jedi Purge.
After Vidian returned from his tour of Cynda, Captain Sloane informed him that the recent blast within Cynda's mines had been deliberately planted by a dissident miner named Skelly, who had been apprehended by a blasting team. Vidian then told the Captain that he needed to change his itinerary and visit the refineries on Gorse. The Count's original plan had been to correspond with the planetary managers by hologram. In truth, Vidian's real motive for visiting Gorse was to destroy the medcenter in Gorse City in order to conceal his past as the safety inspector Lemuel Tharsa. Nonetheless, Sloane complied with her superior's orders. Officially, Tharsa was listed as a free-lance mining consultant who worked for Vidian.
On the day before Vidian's scheduled tour of Gorse, Sloane and Commander Chamas privately discussed their impressions about Count Vidian. Besides commenting on Vidian's efforts to increase economic productivity and security crackdown on the planet, they also noted his personal habits including his frequent calls to his main office on Calcoraan Depot and the damage to Vidian's personal quarters. Chamas told Sloane that he suspected that the Count had a temper; in fact, the Count had flown into a rage after learning from his rival Baron Lero Danthe that the Empire had doubled Gorse's thorilide quota. The two also questioned Vidian's official biographical account that he was a disgruntled ship-building engineer who had rebuilt himself as a successful managing tycoon. Sloane and Chamas agreed to keep an eye on Vidian's activities while protecting him from the "rabble" during the tour.
The following day, Captain Sloane accompanied Vidian on his tour of Gorse City. Their first stop was the Moonglow Polychemical refinery, where Vidian was hosted by the company's chief operating officer Lal Grallik and her husband Gord Grallik, the head of ground security. Despite the best precautions put in place by Sloane and Gord, Vidian's tour did not go as planned. The dissident miner Skelly, who had escaped with the help of the rebel Hera Syndulla, attempted to convince Vidian not to destroy Cynda. The count instead assaulted him, but he escaped into the factory conveyor-belt system.
Sloane and her men were unable to apprehend the fugitive but instead caught another intruder who turned out to be the same Kanan she had encountered earlier. Kanan claimed that he was a bus driver but Sloane found his explanation unsatisfactory since he had been found loitering in the security zone. Sloane also recognized Kanan as the cheeky pilot whom she had encountered earlier in the Gorse system. Sloane was also about to detain Kanan's friend Hera for unauthorized entry but decided to let them go after receiving new orders from Vidian to return to the Ultimatum immediately. Vidian claimed that he had come up with a new strategy that would serve the Emperor. Sloane reluctantly released Kanan and Hera.
Sloane's efforts to ferry Vidian back to the Ultimatum was fraught by danger and hostility. Skelly blew up two Imperial shuttles that Captain Sloane had diverted from the Star Destroyer to pick up Vidian. She and the Count survived but several stormtroopers were killed. The Imperials' problems were complicated by a vengeful Gord seeking to confront Vidian for callously murdering his wife, Lal and Skelly being helped by the rebel Hera and her friend Kanan. Despite dispatching Imperial Troop Transports and two TIE fighters after the fugitives, the rebels managed to escape on a hoverbus which they dumped on a quarry. Sloane was forced to divert a third shuttle Bastinade to pick up Vidian.
====Thwarting Vidian's conspiracy====
Once safely aboard the Ultimatum, Captain Sloane and her science officer Lieutenant Kanna Deltic were present when Count Vidian outlined his "new strategy" which involved destroying Cynda so that his thorilide collection vessel could harvest the moon's thorilide reserves. Vidian proposed using the baradium-357 stored at his Calcoraan Depot. When Lieutenant Deltic expressed her concerns that destroying the moon would cause the thorilide crystals to dissolve, Sloane demanded that Vidian conduct a test to prove the viability of the test since it would have severe repercussions for Gorse. However, Vidian was prepared for this and produced fake test results under the pseudonym Lemuel Tharsa which supported his arguments that destroying the moon would not damage Cynda's thorilide crystals. In truth, Vidian wanted to discredit Sloane and his rival Baron Danthe in order to secure favor with the Emperor.
As part of the test bombing, Vidian with the tacit approval of Captain Sloane bombed the Moonglow mining facilities on Cynda, killing many workers. The explosion was blamed on Moonglow's management and was later used as a pretext by the Empire to nationalize the company. Despite the loss of lives involved, Sloane accepted Vidian's arguments that alerting the miners would lead to unrest in the Gorse system. The captain was also satisfied by Lemuel's report, which supported Vidian's claims that the resulting asteroid field would continue to yield thorilide for the next two thousand years. This would more than fulfill the Emperor's recent decision to triple Gorse's thorilide quota.
Putting Vidian's plan into action, Sloane ordered Gorse Space Traffic Control to divert all mining cargo ships in the system to pick up shipments of baradium-357 from the Calcoraan Depot. The Imperial captain and her ship traveled to the Calcoraan system, where they supervised the loading of the mining freighters. Captain Sloane was skeptical of Deltic's figures that the debris resulting from Gorse's destruction could continue to supply a hundred interstellar Empires for a century. Shortly thereafter, Chamas informed Sloane that Baron Danthe wanted to talk to her. During their conversation, Danthe expressed concern that Vidian had not informed him of his latest venture and asked her to inform him if she needed any help.
Sloane later visited the Calcoraan Depot, where Count Vidian gave her a tour of the facility. She noticed his employees reverse-engineering Baron Danthe's heatproof mining drones. While touring the baradium depot, she learned that Vidian's mechanized lungs were capable of filtering out poison. Sloane encountered a disguised Kanan, who had created a blockage in the tramcar tube by shoving a maintenance droid inside. Sloane believed Kanan's report that there was a blockage, which enabled Kanan and his rebel friends Hera, Skelly, and the Sullustan Zaluna Myder to infiltrate Vidian's personal quarters.
The rebels managed to incapacitate the Count with a sleeping serum and then downloaded his mind into a computer. As a result, the rebels learned that Vidian was actually Lemuel Tharsa and that he had faked the test results for his own personal enrichment. In order to halt Vidian's plan, they decided to send the original test results to the Emperor. The rebels found an unlikely ally in the form of Captain Sloane. Kanan lured Sloane into Vidian's personal chambers and trapped her in a stasis field. Sloane quickly recognized Kanan as the mouthy pilot, but Kanan managed to convince her that he was an "agent of the Emperor." He told her about Vidian's falsified results and asked her to send the original results to the Emperor via a secure channel on her Star Destroyer. Despite her dislike of Kanan, Sloane complied with his request due to her loyalty to the Empire.
After Vidian awoke, Sloane feigned loyalty and claimed that she had been accosted by the same rebels who had attacked him. After alerting security, Vidian ordered Sloane to make the Ultimatum ready for departure to the Gorse system. He also ordered that Sloane deploy TIE fighters and Gozanti-class freighter carriers. Believing Sloane to still be loyal, Vidian offered to support her career advancement in the Imperial Navy if she agreed to take part in the detonation of Cynda.
Back aboard the Ultimatum, Sloane and Chamas contacted Baron Danthe over a secure channel and passed the original test results to him. While Danthe was a civilian, Sloane and Chamas approached him because he was one of the few people who could directly approach the Emperor and his highest officials. Upon arriving in the Gorse system, Sloane dispatched TIE fighters to intercept the rebels' freighter Expedient, which she termed "Renegade One." However, the rebels eliminated all the TIEs and managed to make a forced landing aboard Vidian's harvesting vessel Forager.
Despite being boarded, Count Vidian insisted on continuing the countdown. At that point, Commander Chamas informed Sloane that she had received a priority-message from the Emperor himself. While Sloane dealt with the Emperor, Chamas announced that the linkup to Detonation Control was live and that it was only ten minutes prior to the final charges being planted. After confirming Vidian's falsified results and identity with Emperor Palpatine, Sloane realized the full depth of Vidian's deception including his conspiracy to frame her and Baron Danthe for the loss of thorilide yield in the Gorse system. With Chamas and Baron Danthe watching, Sloane ordered her crew to severe the detonation link to Forager and issued orders for Vidian's immediate arrest.
Vidian then revealed that he had a final trick up his sleeve: he was still able to remotely control the injection towers and logistical systems from the Forager. In response, Sloane ordered the stormtroopers aboard the Forager to kill Vidian's cybernetic crew. She also ordered the Ultimatum gunnery crew to bombard the Vidian's ship's transmission tower and energy shields. The Forager was badly damaged during the bombardment. Vidian himself was personally killed by Skelly, who detonated a bomb that destroyed the vessel. Meanwhile, Kanan, Hera, and Zaluna managed to escape in a life pod. The death of Vidian and the destruction of his ship ended his plans to destroy Cynda.
Due to her role in stopping Vidian, Sloane was made the permanent Captain of the Ultimatum. She subsequently learned that Commander Chamas had been working for Baron Danthe all this time by supplying him with information about Vidian's phantom consultant. Baron Danthe himself was granted control over the thorilide mining operations in the Gorse system. Danthe ended all mining operations on Cynda and restored the moon to its former status as a tourist destination. He also embarked on mining operations in Gorse's sunward side using heat-resistant drones. Following a debriefing with one of the Emperor's intermediaries, Sloane came to rightfully suspect that Kanan was no agent of the Emperor and endeavored to discover his true identity.
===Career advancement===
In the years following the Gorse conflict, she ascended to the rank of Vice Admiral, but in her spare time she tried to learn more about the history of Kanan Jarrus, who she had met during the Gorse conflict, following his trail from the planet Gorse to Moraga where it ended. There she captured the rebel Morfizo, who was an old friend of Jarrus, and used him to lure Jarrus. She tried to capture him, but he knocked her down and escaped with Morfizo. After Jarrus's escape she was approached by the Grand Inquisitor, who told her to tell him everything she knew about Jarrus.Kanan 12 After being demoted to commodore for failing to capture Jarrus at Lahn, Sloane commanded a fleet. After the destruction of Alderaan and while she was serving as commander of the Imperial Star Destroyer Vigilance, she tasked Captain Lindon Javes, the commanding officer of Helix Squadron, with hunting down a convoy of Alderaanian refugees.
According to the historian Beaumont Kin, at a point when Sloane had climbed back to the rank of Vice Admiral, she worked with remnants of the 7th Fleet, who, like her had been partially exiled from mainstream Imperial operations, Sloane and the Fleet were able to deduce the most likely candidates for Rebel shipping routes in the Expansion Region, tracking them to Derra IV. There, the Vigilance—a vessel Kin claimed was under Sloane's command—took the lead, with the Dark Omen and Retention providing support to isolate and destroy a supply convoy near Derra IV whilst also ambushing Renegade Squadron. The action was deemed a near-perfect victory by the Imperial fleet, fully-crediting Sloane and the 7th Fleet for their singular initiative. As a result, Sloane was promoted to full Admiral status, with her and other members of the military being reincorporated back into mainstream Imperial operations. Sloane was also granted a position in the joint chiefs.
In reality, however, Sloane was still a commodore during that time. In the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, as reward for Sloane's discovery of the prior whereabouts of the Millennium Falcon, she was awarded command of the Vigilance, the same ship Sloane had commanded in the aftermath of Alderaan's destruction and, according to Kin, at Derra IV. The Vigilance had been originally intended for Firmus Piett's nephew but was changed to Sloane's command by Vader.
===Battle of Endor===
During the Battle of Endor, Sloane was returned to command the Imperial Star Destroyer Vigilance. Recalling Commandant Baylo's lessons, Sloane remained stoic and impassive on the bridge of the Vigilance to maintain the morale of her subordinates. After the Alliance Fleet accelerated to launch their attack along the line, Sloane ordered Lieutenant Habbel to dispatch Sapphire Leader Maus Monare and his TIE fighters to defend the perimeters and to send targeting solutions to the turbolaser crew. Sloane resented having to work under the oversight of the Imperial Security Bureau loyalty officer Emarr Ottkreg.
As the Alliance Fleet charged the Imperial Death Squadron, Ottkreg questioned Sloane's orders and advocated attacking the advancing rebels. Sloane countered that it was unnecessary to waste Imperial lives when it was better to let the rebels burn themselves out while the second Death Star picked them off one by one. While they were speaking, the second Death Star destroyed an MC80 Star Cruiser. To assert her authority, Sloane stressed that she received her orders from Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett, who was obeying the Emperor's strategy.
When three Alliance CR90 corvettes approached the Vigilance, Sloane ordered Habbel to instruct Sapphire Leader to intercept the enemy ships if they kept on their current course. When Ottkreg objected again, Sloane had controller Springbuck activate the holotank, which showed that the rebel ships were not retreating but were attacking the Imperial ships in order to avoid being fired upon by the second Death Star. While Ottkreg was confident in the second Death Star, Sloane regarded the superweapon as a colossal waste of funds.
After losing contact with the Endor garrison, Sloane ordered her crew to hail them on priority channels. As the battle continued, Sloane learned that the Endor garrison was under attack from Ewoks. A further report indicated that the base's shield generators had taken significant damage but were still holding up. As the Imperial fleet began to sustain serious casualties, Sloane ordered her crew to prepare for either a mopping-up operation or pursuit. However, this defense was rendered moot when the Death Star's shield generator was destroyed by rebel forces on Endor, turning the tide of the battle decisively in the rebels' favor.
Despite Ottkreg's objections, Sloane ordered her starfighters to retreat and to avoid chasing rebel fighters into the second Death Star. Undaunted by Ottkreg's threats of a court martial, Sloane ordered the Vigilance to flank position on the Super Star Destroyer Executor, the flagship of the Imperial fleet. Despite her efforts, a rebel A-wing starfighter managed to ram into the Executor bridge, causing the Super Star Destroyer to crash into the second Death Star's surface. After losing contact with the Emperor, Sloane realized that the battle was lost.
As the highest ranking officer, Admiral Sloane ordered the surviving captains to recall their TIE fighters and to form up around the Vigilance. When Ottkreg objected, Sloane had enough and shot him dead with her pistol. With the rebels victorious, Sloane ordered the surviving Imperial ships to retreat to the Annaj system. Sloane and her bridge crew witnessed the explosion of the second Death Star. While her executive officer Nymos Lyle was distraught, Sloane reassured them that they would continue fighting as long as the Empire still existed.
===Summit on Akiva===
====The rebel pilot====
Following the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance transformed itself into a new rival galactic government called the New Republic. Several months after the events on Endor, Sloane came into the service of a mysterious individual known as the Operator, the pseudonym of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. Under the instructions of Rax, she organized a secret Imperial meeting on the planet Akiva. The meeting was the start of the Imperial Future Council, the goal of which was to plan the future of the Empire after the death of the Emperor and his apprentice, Darth Vader. Sloane traveled to the Outer Rim world in her flagship Vigilance.
Before the meeting started, she encountered the New Republic starfighter pilot Wedge Antilles while he was scouting the system. Wedge tried to pretend that he was a Devaronian pilot named Gev Hessan, but Sloane revealed that Hessan had died in Imperial custody. Her crew trapped Wedge's HH-87 Starhopper with the Vigilance tractor beam, but Antilles detonated the ship inside the Star Destroyer's hangar bay. Several stormtroopers were killed, but Admiral Sloane survived the explosion. Wedge also survived the blast and managed to infiltrate the Vigilance.
While Sloane's men hunted down the rebel pilot, she received word from Lieutenant Nils Tothwin that the other Imperial delegates, Grand Moff Valco Pandion and General Jylia Shale, had arrived on Akiva in their Star Destroyers Vanquish and Ascent. As Sloane prepared to depart for Akiva on her shuttle, she received news that the Imperial financier and slaver Arsin Crassus and Adviser Yupe Tashu had arrived above the planet on their ships. Soon, Sloane and her men captured Wedge in the communications room. However, the rebel still managed to send a distress transmission that was picked up by the New Republic pilot Norra Wexley.
====A tense banquet====
After capturing Wedge, Admiral Sloane traveled in her shuttle to Myrra, the capital city of Akiva. While Sloane manned the navigator' seat, her pilot Morna Kee helmed the shuttle. She was accompanied by the archivist Februs Temmt, her Corellian assistant Adea Rite, several stormtroopers, and their prisoner Wedge. As the ship headed towards the Satrap's Palace where the conference was to take place, she spotted a Zabrak bounty hunter named Jas Emari zip-lining across a nearby comm tower. Realizing that the Zabrak was an intruder, she opened fire on Jas, who fell off the tower and was captured by the Sullustan crime lord Surat Nuat.
Upon entering the Satrap's Palace, Admiral Sloane and her entourage attended a banquet hosted by Satrap Isstra Dirus. When Grand Moff Pandion asked about the sound of gunfire, Sloane told him that she had engaged a local insurgent. When Tashu queried further, she reassured him that the New Republic had not learned of their meeting. Sloane then informed the other Imperial delegates that the rebels had begun to disseminate propaganda holovids. Shale disagreed with Sloane's view that the rebel holovids were lies and suggested that the Empire were the ones lying to themselves. Sloane responded that the Empire had been betrayed by various sector heads and governors. She added that the rebels had attacked Imperial freighters and transports. Finally, Sloane stressed that they were meeting to resolve the lack of leadership in the Empire.
When Pandion asked her about the rebel prisoner she had taken in space, Sloane quickly realized that she had a spy aboard the Vigilance. Sloane then informed the other Imperial delegates that she had captured Captain Wedge Antilles, a hero of the Rebellion who had participated in both of the Death Star attacks. However, she took pains to assure the other Imperials that the rebel had not been part of a concerted attack and that he would be a good source of intelligence. Tashu asked Sloane whether he could interrogate Wedge while Pandion expressed dismay that the Empire had been reduced to mere hostage takers. In response, Sloane reiterated that the summit to decide the future of the Empire would begin tonight. She instructed Temmt to designate the summit the Imperial Future Council. When Pandion inquired whether Sloane's Super Star Destroyer Ravager was the last of its kind, Sloane claimed that the Fleet Admiral had perished.
====Imperial Future Council====
Before the meeting could commence, Sloane was informed by Adea that the Vigilance had engaged and destroyed two New Republic A-wing scout ships. Upon entering the conference chamber, Sloane informed her comrades that her ship had encountered and destroyed two rebel fighters. As a precaution, she proposed that the Imperials move their Star Destroyers to hyperspace to keep them out of optic and sensor range. When Crassus protested, Sloane responded that if the rebels found nothing, they would move along since they did not have the resources to patrol Akiva's sector.
Pandion derided Sloane as a coward and then proposed that she move the last Super Star Destroyer Ravager to Akiva. However, General Shale came to Sloane's defense and likened the Ravager to an important chatta-ragul token they could not afford to lose. Shale added that the rebel Grand Admiral Gial Ackbar was a genius tactician who would send a drone ship, an argument that Sloane shared. When Crassus sided with Pandion, Sloane derided him as a merchant. Fortunately for Sloane, Tashu sided with her and quoted a Sith mantra that it was not cowardice to hide in the shadows and to strike at a passing enemy.
Having a slim majority of three to one, Admiral Sloane issued orders that they move the three Star Destroyers into hiding despite the protests of Pandion. Later, Sloane was present when Adviser Tashu tortured Wedge in an attempt to gain information from the rebel pilot. Later, Sloane addressed her fellow Imperial delegates after Imperial forces downed a rebel transport above Myrra. While Sloane believed that the rebel ship had been neutralized, one soldier Sergeant Jom Barell managed to escape and infiltrate the streets of Myrra. Crassus and Pandion disagreed with Sloane's view that the rebels no longer posed a threat with the former urging the Imperials to dispatch a fleet led by the Ravager. Before an argument could break out, Sloane reminded the other delegates that they were hear to discuss a greater purpose: the future of the Galactic Empire and the galaxy.
After restoring order, Sloane then ordered the meeting to commence. While the other Imperials were debating the merits of using a body double to pose as Emperor Palpatine, Sloane received news from Adea that rebel elements had leaked information about the Imperial Future Conference to the Akivan public. She summoned Satrap Isstra and ordered him to show her a window facing the front. Sloane witnessed a crowd gathering on the Avenue of the Satrapy to assail the Satrap's Palace. Realizing that the Akivan public knew about the Imperial Future Council, she ordered Adea to prepare an evacuation of the Imperial fleet above Akiva.
====Rebellion on Akiva====
Shortly, the rebel pilot Norra Wexley commandeered a TIE fighter and used it to shoot down several Imperial TIE fighters. Sloane managed to shoot down the stolen TIE with a turbolaser cannon despite Adea's protests. The turbolaser destroyed the TIE but also damaged the easternmost tower in the Satrap's palace. After ejecting from the fighter, Wexley sent the stricken vessel on a collision course with three parked Imperial shuttles. Sloane's pilot Morna was also wounded during the explosion. The explosions at the Satrap's Palace only emboldened the crowd, which attempted to storm the palace.
The recent explosions threw the Imperial Future Council into panic. When Pandion expressed outraged at the minimal Imperial presence on Akiva, Sloane defended her actions on the grounds that they could not make the conference look like a total occupation. Pandion then suggested summoning the Star Destroyers back so that they could escape. In response, Sloane pointed out that their shuttles had been destroyed and that they were being besieged by a population that had long been abused by the satrapy. Satrap Isstra then tried to shift blame to the Empire and castigated Sloane for damaging his palace. Reasserting her authority, Sloane reiterated that they would not be dispatching the fleet in order to avoid provoking the New Republic.
She then ordered Crassus to lend his yacht Golden Harp so that the Imperial delegates could escape. When Crassus protested, she derided him as an opportunist and fired a blaster above his head to silence his protests. To complicate Sloane's problems, Adea informed her that their rebel prisoner Wedge had escaped. In the midst of the chaos, Wedge managed to overpower Adea before falling onto the bottom floor of the place. Despite being knocked out, he managed to send a distress signal to the New Republic Defense Fleet with her holoscreen. Sloane managed to recapture the unconscious Wedge only to learned that he already alerted the rebels.
Despite the chain of disasters, Admiral Sloane received solace in the form of the local crime lord Surat Nuat. The Sullustan criminal had earlier made a secret deal with Temmin Wexley, the teenage son of Norra, to trade the bounty hunter Jas Emari and the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus in return for giving him, Norra, and his droid Mister Bones safe passage offworld. However, Surat made another deal with Sloane and offered to sell Norra, Sinjir, and Jas to the Empire. Sloane accepted the deal and assembled troops to meet the intruders outside the Satrap's Palace. Sinjir's plan to enter the building was to use his ISB code to contact the palace security and trick the guards into opening the door. Instead, the five rebels were met by Admiral Sloane and a dozen armed stormtroopers, who swiftly took them into custody.
====Escaping Akiva====
After capturing the rebels, Admiral Sloane had a brief verbal exchange with Norra. When Norra told her that the Empire was coming to an end, Sloane responded that the comet had not struck them yet. Once inside the Satrap's Palace, Sloane contacted Surat via hologram. When Temmin demanded that the crime lord honor his deal, Surat revealed that he had double-crossed the boy. As compensation, Sloane allowed the boy to leave but took his companions into custody. When Temmin protested and order Mister Bones to save them, Sloane and her stormtroopers disintegrated the droid with their blasters. Sloane personally fired six rounds into the B1-series battle droid and then ordered her men to throw the boy off the roof of her palace.
Sloane, her fellow Imperial delegates, and their prisoners then departed on the Golden Harp for the Vigilance. She also brought the captive Wedge with them, seeking to use his as a bargaining chip. When the Satrap demanded refuge from the baying crowd, she killed two of his guards and told him that he had outlived his usefulness. As they prepared for departure, Morna informed Sloane that she had locked Crassus' pilot in one of the bedrooms and that they had received news that the Star Destroyers had returned to orbit from hyperspace. As the yacht ascended into the skies, Temmin, who had survived his fall, managed to climb onto the outer hull.
In the cockpit, Sloane and Morna sensed some movement on the hull. They sent a stormtrooper to check the maintenance hatch. However, Temmin threw the stormtrooper out of the ship and then climbed aboard the vessel. Before they could reach the safety of the fleet, the Golden Harp was hit by turbolaser fire from the New Republic soldier Jom Barell, who had commandeered the turbolaser. The turbolaser blast punched a hole in the ship and sucked out several stormtroopers and an Emperor's Royal Guardsman. The Imperials' problems were further complicated when a New Republic fleet emerged from hyperspace and proceeded to bombard the Vigilance.
With much difficulty, Sloane and Morna managed to land the stricken Golden Harp aboard the Vigilance. The crash-landing killed Crassus, several stormtroopers, and knocked out Adea, Tashu, and Shale. The rebel prisoners managed to escape with the help of Temmin. With the Vigilance falling apart, Sloane and Morna then commandeered an Imperial shuttle and fled to Pandion's Star Destroyer Vanquish. However, Pandion had managed to survive the crash and attempted to force Sloane to hand over command of the Ravager to him. During a brief verbal exchange, she revealed that the Fleet Admiral known as the Operator was still alive.
Following a brief struggle, Sloane expelled Pandion from the cockpit. With Norra pursuing them in another stolen TIE fighter, Sloane and Morna then jettisoned the main body of the Imperial shuttle, which collided with Norra's fighter. Sloane and Morna then sought refuge aboard Pandion's Star Destroyer and escaped while the New Republic fleet destroyed the Vigilance and the Ascent. In Sloane's absence, the New Republic liberated Akiva. Norra survived the battle while her son and companions took Sloane's aide Adea, Tashu, and Shale captive.
Narrowly surviving the events on Akiva, Sloane returned to the Ravager. There she met face to face with her superior, the mysterious Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who revealed that it was indeed he who orchestrated the Battle of Akiva, tipping off the New Republic of the presence of the Imperial summit meeting in order to purge the incompetent Imperial Military leadership. Sloane proved herself to indeed be competent, and so Rax promoted her to the rank of Fleet Admiral, and later Grand Admiral, and made her the de facto leader of the Imperial Navy, also promising to give her a bid for empress in time.
===Grand Admiral===
====Public face of the Empire====
Sometime after, Grand Admiral Sloane began hiring bounty hunter Mercurial Swift to eliminate rogue Imperials like former Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde. Since she controlled the largest faction of the Imperial Navy left, Sloane became the public face of the Empire. From time to time, Sloane sent propaganda transmissions to the rest of the galaxy in order to sway public opinion in the Empire's favor. These transmissions were made on behalf of the Office of Imperial Promotion, Galactic Truth, and Fact Correction (OIP), which was headed by Ferric Obdur, Sloane's new chief information officer. The OIP also produced propaganda posters likening the New Republic to the Hutts. Despite her involvement in Imperial propaganda, Sloane disagreed with Obdur falsifying the facts in order to cast the Empire in a positive light.
Following her propaganda broadcast, Grand Admiral Sloane attended a meeting with Fleet Admiral Rax. Despite their cooperation, Sloane distrusted the Fleet Admiral due to his rapid advancement during his career in the Imperial Navy. Sloane's suspicions were reinforced by the fact that much of the records on his origins had been redacted. After chatting about opera, Rax emphasized that their goal was the resurgence of a stronger, leaner Empire. Despite the purge that had occurred on Akiva, Rax was working on establishing a new Shadow Council to guide the Empire.
Rax charged Grand Admiral Sloane with rescuing Commandant Brendol Hux and his illegitimate son Armitage Hux from the besieged planet of Arkanis. The meeting with Rax only reinforced her distrust of the Fleet Admiral. She disagreed with Rax's idea of ruling the Empire like a cult. Nevertheless, Sloane complied with the Fleet Admiral's orders. She tasked her aide Adea Rite, whom Rax had rescued from Akiva, with hiring Mercurial Swift to recover Brendol Hux and his son. Having grown frustrated at the Empire's inaction and fearful of Gallius, Sloane decided to journey to Coruscant in order to find more information on the mysterious Fleet Admiral.
====Meeting with Mas Amedda====
After rearranging her schedule, Rae soon left for Coruscant under a false identity so she would not arouse suspicion, especially with Gallius. She arrived at old Hall of Imperial Register and began her search for information on Gallius Rax. During this time Rae looked at records concerning Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts and Gallius's service history. She discovered that the Emperor's personal Super Star Destroyer Eclipse last known location did not match up with records stating where it was destroyed. Finding this suspicious Rae decided to spend more time in the archives. Hours later Rae was about to leave until a droid brought a data crystal. She examined it and witnessed footage where a small boy emerged from a shuttle in front of prominent Imperials, like Colonel Wullf Yularen, Mas Amedda, and most importantly, the Emperor himself.
Since most of the people in the video were dead, Rae decided to go to the only person still alive from the video, Mas Amedda. On the way to Amedda, Rae was caught up in an insurgent attack and taken prisoner. Since the insurgents did not know who she was they debated what to do with her while Rae debated revealing her identity. However she was rescued by Mercurial Swift before any action could be taken. Rae then informed him of his mission to rescue Brendol and Armitage from Arkanis before it fell. He then dropped Rae off at the Imperial Palace where she sneaked in and took Amedda's hidden blaster before he arrived. Amedda discovered her before he was about to commit suicide and panicked, thinking she was there to assassinate him. Rae however showed him the video she took from the archives.
He informed her that the shuttle from the video had arrived from Jakku with an unexpected passenger, a small boy. Amedda quickly realized that Gallius Rax was still alive and that Rae served him. He then made a deal with Rae in exchange for more information on Gallius. If he told her where to find more information then he would have a place in her Empire. He did this by drawing similarities between them, that they were both trapped by their life. After she agreed, Amedda told her about the wreckage of the Emperor's personnel yacht, the Imperialis, which was located on Quantxi, the junk moon of Ord Mantell.
====Shadow Council====
Several days after her return from Coruscant, Grand Admiral Sloane convened the inaugural meeting of the Shadow Council over dinner. The Shadow Council consisted of Brendol Hux, Grand Moff Randd, General Hodnar Borrum, and the Imperial propagandist Ferric Obdur. With the other men not according her due respect, Obdur asked Sloane to tell her childhood story of how she joined the Empire. Instead, Sloane decided to take a snipe at Brendol by asking him about his illegitimate son. Obdur advised his fellow Imperial delegates to cultivate the image of the Empire as the underdog to combat the appeal of the New Republic.
Pleased with Obdur's remarks, Fleet Admiral Rax entered the room and announced that the Shadow Council would serve as his veritable brain trust to rebuild the Empire. Rax then informed Sloane and the other Shadow Council members that their fleet in the Vulpinus Nebula was not all that remained of the Imperial Navy. Rax revealed that he commanded more Imperial fleets hidden in five other nebulae: the Almagest, the Recluse's Nebula, the Queluhan Nebula, Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata. Sloane was upset that Rax had withheld this information from her but kept silent in order to maintain a semblance of unity.
Maintaining this facade, Sloane spoke up and supported Rax by claiming they had withheld this information to protect the Empire from opportunistic individuals like the late Grand Moff Pandion. Sloane's words pleased Rax and the delegates. When Borrum lobbied for more soldiers and armor, Rax informed them that they had lost key manufacturing worlds like Kuat, Xa Fel, Anadeen, and Turco Prime to the New Republic. Instead, Rax proposed that the Empire used its three remaining holdouts in the Outer Rim—Zhadalene, Korrus, and Belladoon—to tie a cord around the New Republic. Rax intended to use these worlds to manufacture war machines for the Empire. Sloane left the meeting to attend to the destruction of the Imperial Star Destroyer Scythe.
Following the meeting, Grand Admiral Sloane's suspicions of Fleet Admiral Rax only grew after uncovering evidence that Rax had blocked an incoming message from the Scythe, which had been attacked by New Republic forces at the edge of Wild Space. Sloane was dismayed at Rax's efforts to maneuver the Empire into cannibalizing itself, which gave the New Republic an edge. Sloane realized that Rax had sacrificed the Scythe in order to eliminate a rival, Commander Valent. While reflecting on Rax's actions, Sloane was visited by Ferric Obdur, who wanted her to prepare a statement regarding the loss of Arkanis and to discuss plans for the Empire's future. Rax soon learned that Sloane had discovered this information and ordered Adea Rite to spy on her.
====Smoke and mirrors====
Later, Grand Admiral Sloane met privately with Gallius Rax aboard the Ravager to kill him. When Rax asked if she despised him, Sloane professed to respect him. Rax responded that she both respected and despised him. Rax then revealed that he had known she had secretly visited Mas Amedda to inquire about his past. He also told Sloane that he knew that she had come to kill him. At that stage, Rax claimed that he would tell her about his true plan.
Sloane told Rax that she was tired of him being the puppet master controlling her from behind the scenes. Rax then offered to support her candidacy for Emperor and to serve as her adviser. Rax was evasive when Sloane asked him about his origins and identity. However, Rax settled down for business and told her that he was planning to attack Chandrila. When Sloane queried about the details, Rax told her that all the pieces were almost in place and told her to wait. Rax then pleaded with Sloane to trust him on this matter.
Later, Sloane was contacted via hologram by Rear Admiral Urian Orlan, who was stationed on the Star Destroyer Dominion above the Imperial holdout Kashyyyk. Orlan informed her that two suspicious ships had traveled to the Imperial prison Ashmead's Lock using a clearance code that had purportedly been authorized by her. Since Sloane did not recall sending ships to the Kashyyyk system, she ordered Orlan to send a team to investigate.
However, Rax countermanded her order and instructed Sloane to contact Orlan again and tell him that the Empire had authorized the repairs at Ashmead's Lock. Rax recognized the ships as belonging to Norra Wexley's team of Imperial hunters and the Rebellion hero General Han Solo. Without giving away any details about his planned attack on Chandrila, Rax reassured her that the Empire had to feign weakness. Despite her discomfort with Rax's secret agenda, Sloane complied with his orders and contacted Orlan to tell him that the Empire did approve the repairs on Kashyyyk. However, Sloane then secretly contacted an unknown ally and told the individual to go to the Kashyyyk system on her behalf.
Accepting Rax's course of action, Grand Admiral Sloane posed as the Operator and contacted the New Republic leaders Chancellor Mon Mothma, Princess Leia Organa, and Fleet Admiral Ackbar via hologram. While the New Republic leaders were skeptical of her claims that she was the Operator, they agreed to hear a request to initiate peace talks between the Empire and the New Republic, a matter made pressing by the planet Kuat and its shipyards.
Sloane was unable to offer the Empire's surrender due to the resistance of the remaining Imperial leaders. Mon Mothma explained that she had to raise the matter of peace talks with the Galactic Senate on Chandrila. Sloane agreed to Mothma's request and proposed having the peace talks on Chandrila with minimal guard as a concession of trust. Mothma agreed to Sloane's terms, and the two agreed to keep in touch on the same HoloNet channel.
A month later, the Galactic Senate agreed to Sloane's offer for peace talks between the Empire and the Republic. On the eve of the meeting, Rax reassured her that her mission to Chandrila would cement her role as Emperor. Without giving away any details of the attack, he reassured her that she would not be in any meaningful danger and that the attack would give her plenty of opportunity to escape. Despite Rax's reassurances, she suspected that it could be trap or one of his tests. While trying to sleep, she listened to a phono-play about a droid detective named ADAM and the opera The Cantata of Cora Vessora. Deep down, Sloane found herself unable to trust Rax.
====Mission to Chandrila====
Grand Admiral Sloane traveled to Chandrila on an Imperial shuttle accompanied by her attache Adea Rite, the shuttle pilot ensign Karz Damascus, and two Imperial Royal Guards. Upon exiting hyperspace above Chandrila, Sloane's shuttle was escorted by four Y-wing starfighters to Hanna City spaceport. Upon landing, she was greeted by Chancellor Mon Mothma and several New Republic soldiers, guards, generals, and admirals. The Chancellor invited Sloane and her party to attend the Liberation Day celebrations, something that had been arranged by Adea at the instigation of Fleet Admiral Rax.
Sloane disliked the idea of attending the New Republic celebration but complied for the sake of her hosts. She regarded the free-spirited and colorful Liberation Day festivities as a display of madness compared to the restrained and somber Imperial parades. When Sloane likened Gabdorin music to a chorus of animals caught in various sharp-toothed traps, Chancellor Mon Mothma replied that the Liberation Day show showcased the diversity of the galaxy. When Sloane inquired about the absence of Princess Leia, Mothma claimed that the senator was ill. In secret, Leia had departed on a rescue mission to aid her husband Han Solo and Chewbacca in the liberation of Kashyyyk.
Sloane and Adea were present at the Old Gather-House building when Wedge Antilles, the rebel pilot they had encountered on Akiva, arrived to inform Chancellor Mothma about Leia's mission to Kashyyyk. Later, Sloane and Adea remained at the building when Chancellor Mon Mothma gave a speech praising the prisoners who had been liberated from Ashmead's Lock. Before she could finish her speech, the former prisoners began to involuntarily attack Mothma and other New Republic officials and military officers. Chancellor Mothma narrowly escaped assassination due to the efforts of the pilot Norra Wexley, another adversary of Sloane. The attack had been orchestrated by Fleet Admiral Rax with the aid of the disillusioned New Republic Senate Guard Windom Traducier, who had used a transponder to activate the inorganic chips inside the prisoners' heads.
At that point, Grand Admiral Sloane realized that Gallius Rax had planned to assassinate the New Republic political and military leadership. Disgusted that Rax had programmed the rebel prisoners into killers, she likened Rax's tactics to those of the rebels, which she despised. At Sloane's signal, her Royal Guards killed the Senate Guards guarding them. Sloane ordered her subordinates to secure her ship so that she could execute Rax for his unethical tactics. When Sloane denounced Rax's tactics, Adea attempted to assassinate her. Following a struggle, Sloane managed to shoot her in the chest.
Amidst the chaos, Sloane attempted to escape the Old Gather-House but was pursued by Norra, who mistakenly believed that Sloane was the instigator behind the attack on Chandrila. Norra was the wife of Brentin Lore Wexley, one of the prisoners from Ashmead's Lock who had attempted to assassinate the Chancellor herself. Sloane and Norra engaged in a fistfight. Sloane gained the upper hand and managed to bang Norra's head against a wall several times. Before she could kill the New Republic pilot, several Senate Guards arrived and opened fire on her. Sloane escaped on a skybridge leading to a landing platform. However, Norra managed to shoot her in the back, and she fell off the skybridge.
Despite her injuries, Sloane managed to land on another bridge. To fool her New Republic pursuers, she threw her jacket down into the sea, where it was caught on some fisher-droid's net. Sloane managed to steal a Chandrilan HHG-42 Bulkstar and fled offworld. Her ruse did not fool the vengeful Norra Wexley, who discovered that a small cargo ship had escaped. Meanwhile, Fleet Admiral Rax alleged that the Grand Admiral was dead and took advantage of her death to appoint himself Counselor to the Empire. He then ordered the Shadow Council to marshal the remaining Imperial ships for a showdown with the New Republic.
===Fighting Gallius Rax===
====An unlikely ally====
Following the attack on Chandrila, Grand Admiral Sloane took the stolen HHG-42 Bulkstar into hyperspace. She soon discovered that the former Ashmead prisoner Brentin Lore Wexley had smuggled himself aboard. Seeking vengeance for being turned into a "killing machine," Brentin confronted Sloane with his graphene blaster. Despite a hostile initial exchange, Sloane managed to calm him by telling Brentin that their true target was Gallius Rax. Despite being enemies, Brentin saw that Sloane was hurt and attended to her blaster wound by using a bacta patch gun to seal her wound.
While Brentin wanted to confront Rax, Sloane told him that getting to him would be tricky. When Brentin asked about the bounty hunter Mercurial Swift, Sloane told him that he was a bounty hunter that worked for her. Mercurial Swift then contacted her by hologram to inform her about his trip to Quantxi. While searching the wreckage of the Imperialis, Swift had discovered that Rax had come from the planet Jakku in the Western Reaches. The two then traveled there to find information on Rax.
Upon landing, Sloane and Brentin visited a local bar to find information about Rax. The bartender Corwin Ballast was unable to help them. Shortly, Sloane witnessed the Super Star Destroyer Ravager and a fleet of Star Destroyers exit hyperspace above Jakku. Sloane quickly realized that Rax had returned home with the Empire for a showdown with the New Republic.
====Guests of Niima====
For several months, Sloane and Brentin continued their search for information on Rax's origins. During the course of their travels on Jakku, Sloane and Brentin met the Anchorite Kolob, an old man who had once run the orphanage where Gallius Rax had come from. He revealed that Rax's true name was Galli and that the boy had been guarding a mysterious site in the Valley of the Eremite, near the Plaintive Hand plateau. Kolob also revealed that Rax had been kidnapping local orphans for an unknown purpose. From Kolob, the Imperial and former rebel learned that Niima the Hutt was guarding the way to the Plaintive Hand.
With Brentin's help, Sloane rigged up a crude listening device, which she used to tap into radio transmissions and conversations between Imperials. Sloane and Brentin befriended a disillusioned stormtrooper named RK-242. Sloane told the distraught trooper that Rax had committed a coup and was going to lead the Empire to destruction. In return, RK-242 told Sloane and Brentin that Rax had brought the Imperials to Jakku in order to test, train, and harden them. The trooper also told Sloane that the self-proclaimed Counselor Rax had established a base to consolidate the Imperial presence on Jakku but was unable to impart any information about the mysterious facility in the Valley of the Eremite. After the trooper had divulged all that he knew, Sloane shot him dead with her blaster to put him out of his misery and to conceal their presence. When Brentin protested, Sloane replied that they were unable to help him.
In order to reach the Plaintive Hand plateau, Sloane and Brentin met with Niima the Hutt outside her temple disguised as prospective slaves seeking an audience with the crime mistress. Identifying herself as Grand Admiral Sloane, she sought permission to travel to the Plaintive Hand plateau. However, Niima revealed that she had already struck a deal with Gallius Rax and ordered her slaves to subdue the two visitors. After learning that Niima did not know what Rax was hiding in the plateau, Sloane claimed that the site was hiding a weapon and that she could have it if she broke her deal with Rax. She claimed that the weapon was bigger than any of the Empire's Death Stars and that it would be a valuable weapon in the hands of the Hutts. Niima accepted the deal and informed her guests that they would be leaving at dawn.
====Journey to the Plaintive Hand====
The following day, Rae Sloane and Brentin accompanied Niima's caravan on their journey to the Plaintive Hand plateau. After a week of traveling, the caravan entered a valley that was surrounded by anvil-shaped plateaus. While Sloane was impatient, Brentin tried to remain optimistic. Growing impatient, Sloane argued with Brentin about stealing a wheel-bike in order to hasten their journey. Brentin refused to support his plan and told her to be patient. When Sloane derided Brentin for not being motivated by vengeance, Brentin countered that she did not understand what it meant to have a family.
Unaccustomed to not being in control of the situation, Sloane countered that she was trying to retake control of their situation. Putting her plan into action, Sloane knocked out a guard and stole his blaster. She tried to hijack a wheel-bike but the driver saw her attacking the guard and turned back. This alerted the other slaves who alerted Niima. Sloane was forced to fight the other slaves with her stolen blaster. Brentin entered the fight and tackled the slave behind her. Niima then charged at Sloane and Brentin, intending to crush them with her large serpentine body. Before Niima could attack them, Imperial turbolasers began bombarding the convoy from afar.
Unknown to Sloane and Brentin, Counselor Rax had been alerted to their presence by one of his sentinel droids. In order to prevent Sloane from reaching the Jakku Observatory, Rax had ordered the facility's turbolasers to bombard the caravan. Sloane and Brentin managed to escape destruction by seeking refuge in the eastern pillar of the Plaintive Hand plateau. For an hour, Sloane and Brentin hid behind the eastern pillar of the Plaintive Hand, seeking refuge from both the turbolasers, Niima, and the surviving slaves.
While bidding their time, the two discussed what Rax was hiding in the Valley of the Eremite, unaware of the existence of the Jakku Observatory and the Contingency. Sloane spotted a Corellian shuttle approaching them and told Brentin that they were going to take the ship. Unknown to both Sloane and Brentin, the shuttle was carrying Brentin's wife Norra and the bounty hunter Jas Emari, who were hunting for Sloane.
====Reunion with Gallius Rax====
The Corellian shuttle was spooked by three approaching Imperial shuttles, which landed outside the eastern pillar. Sloane and Brentin were promptly taken prisoner by Counselor Gallius Rax and a contingent of stormtroopers. Rax greeted his former underling and expressed his amazement that she had survived. When Sloane responded that she had come to retake the Empire, Rax claimed that the Empire had moved on and that he had brought them to Jakku to fulfill their destiny. The reunion was interrupted by an enraged Niima, who demanded that Rax tell her what he was hiding in the Plaintive Hand plateau. Niima fought Rax's stormtroopers and damaged a shuttle before being wounded.
After Rax's troops had subdued Niima, Sloane tried to reassert her authority over the stormtroopers and ordered them to arrest Rax for treason. However, Rax had gained influence over the troops and invited Sloane to be his guest for his "show." Rax was about to execute Brentin, but Sloane insisted that he come with her. She told Rax that Brentin had been one of his mind-controlled prisoners. Satisfied with her explanation, Rax ordered his troops to bring them back to base. As she passed Rax, Sloane took care to spit on his white uniform as a gesture of insult.
Sloane and Brentin were brought into Rax's base on Jakku. She was displeased when she witnessed Rax's stormtroopers manhandling Brentin, regarding it as sloppy, cruel, and not representative of her Empire. Rax brought his unwilling guests to a hangar where he presented his child soldiers, who had been trained by the former Commandant Brendol Hux. As a demonstration of his secret conspiracy to tear down the "old Empire," Rax ordered his new child soldiers to kill the stormtroopers in the presence of Sloane and Brentin. The child soldiers rapidly killed the stormtroopers with knives and blasters. Sloane and Brentin were horrified by Rax's bloodlust and cruelty.
Rax then had his child soldiers bring Sloane and Brentin to a tent on the roof of the Imperial command building. He then gave a rousing speech announcing that the Battle of Jakku was the Empire's final struggle against the New Republic. Sloane regarded Rax's speech as base, dull, and full of pompous rhetoric. Following Rax's speech, New Republic forces entered Jakku's orbit and engaged the Empire. Sloane longed to command the Imperial fleet but realized that Rax had taken over and ruined "her Empire."
====The enemy of my enemy====
While Sloane had resigned herself to despair, Brentin managed to break free of his magnacuffs by rubbing them against the dust. Brentin then freed Sloane and the two set out to find a ship to intercept Rax. They decide to seek out Rax in the Valley of the Eremite. Before they could find a ship, the two were accosted by Norra Wexley and the B1 battle droid Mister Bones. Norra was Sloane's perennial rebel adversary and the husband of Brentin. While Norra had come to seek revenge against Sloane for her alleged crimes, Sloane managed to convince Norra to help her and Brentin stop Rax, the true mastermind behind the Liberation Day attack and the Battle of Jakku.
After some contemplation, Sloane decided that the Empire that she loved was gone and accompanied the Wexleys for their mission to stop Rax. Following some argument, Norra allowed Sloane to fly the shuttle. As they traveled through the skies of Jakku, Sloane witnessed the stricken Ravager crashing on Jakku's surface. This generated a massive dust cloud, but Sloane and her companions were able to reach the Jakku Observatory safely. During the flight, Mister Bones disembarked from the shuttle to find his master, Temmin Wexley, Norra's son, whom Sloane had encountered earlier.
Upon arriving at the Jakku Observatory, Sloane and the Wexleys discovered that the facility was built over a deep borehole which led down into Jakku's core. They discovered that Rax planned to detonate the planet and both the Imperial and New Republic forces. Sloane was unaware that Rax was carrying out the late Emperor's Contingency plan, which called for the destruction of the Empire in the event of the Emperor's death. Palpatine had tasked Rax with destroying the Empire prior to his death at the Battle of Endor. While Brentin and Norra tried to seal the borehole in the control center, Sloane went to confront Rax in the Observatory's bowels.
====Stopping Rax's apocalypse====
Sloane chastised her former ally Rax for destroying the Empire and vowed that she would not let him leave the Observatory alive. Sloane punched Rax in the nose, and a fistfight broke out. While Sloane was trained in unarmed combat, Rax had honed his fighting skills since childhood. As they fought, the ground began to quake since Rax had already initiated Jakku's detonation. Rax eventually gained the upper hand over Sloane and proceeded to break several of the fingers on her left hand. Her cries drew Norra and Brentin, which had been Rax's intention.
A wounded Sloane tried to warn Norra, but Rax ambushed her. Brentin entered the fight, and the husband and wife took on the Counselor. Rax killed Brentin by shooting him in the chest. However, Norra wounded him by shooting the Counselor in the shoulder. As Rax fled, Norra gave Sloane her blaster so that she could kill Rax once and for all. Despite the earthquake, Sloane eventually caught up with Rax and shot him in the shoulder. As he pleaded for mercy, Sloane shot him in the stomach several times.
As the dying Rax succumbed to his wounds, he told Sloane that she now served the Contingency. With his dying breath, he instructed her to take a replica of the Emperor's yacht Imperialis with Hux into the Unknown Regions. Rax also told her that he had sent the Emperor's dreadnought Eclipse ahead. Before he died, Rax told Sloane to rebuild the Empire. Sloane then reunited with Norra and her deceased husband Brentin. She told Norra that she would seal the borehole and to reunite with her son. The two former adversaries then made peace and parted company.
After Norra's departure, Sloane shut down the self-destruct mechanism at the Jakku Observatory. Her actions saved the planet and both the New Republic and remaining Imperial belligerents on Jakku from destruction. Sloane toyed with the idea of remaining on Jakku and surrendering herself to the New Republic. However, after some contemplation, Sloane decided to take a chance to rebuild a purer and more refined version of the Empire. Heeding her adversary Rax's words, she decided to head into the Unknown Regions and start a new Empire.
===Exodus to the Unknown Regions===
Following the Battle of Jakku, Sloane boarded the Imperialis and left for the Unknown Regions with the former Commandant Brendol Hux, his son Armitage, and a group of orphans. At the beginning of the voyage Sloane feared that Brendol Hux would have the orphans attack her in her sleep. Seeing as how the orphans listened to Armitage Hux, she struck an accord with him. Sloane promised to protect the younger Hux from his father if Hux told the orphans to leave her alone.
Afterwards, Sloane confronted the elder Hux and told him about the death of Rax. When Hux tried to attack her, she beat him into submission and forced him to agree to obey her orders and to stop harming his son. Sloane also ordered Brendol to teach Armitage everything he knew about the Empire. For the duration of the trip, Sloane kept away from the children and bid her time studying its history, its flight time, its communication, and weapons. Sloane discovered that the Imperialis had transmitted a set of path coordinates to a dozen different sources. Sloane consulted the ship's sentinel droid and discovered that these path coordinates had been transmitted to other Imperials deemed loyal.
The journey through the Unknown Regions took several months and involved taking several hyperspace jumps through a maze of black holes and superstorms. Sloane also found that the blaster wound in her abdomen had not fully healed. During her solitude, Sloane resolved that she would build a new Empire that was not given to the backstabbing and incest of Palpatine's former Empire which Rax had destroyed. After months of flying through the Unknown Regions, the Imperialis rendezvoused with the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Eclipse. When Hux addressed her as Grand Admiral, Sloane remarked that the process of building a new Empire was to begin, and that it would be done right this time.
===The First Order===
Eventually the Unknown Regions Imperial remnant would become the First Order, with Sloane serving as its first leader.Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy In 34 ABY,Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Phasma to 34 ABY. First Order Captain Cardinal recalled a time long before Captain Phasma joined the First Order in 24 ABY,The novel Phasma establishes that Phasma joined the First Order ten years before the events of the book, which take place in 34 ABY per Star Wars: Timelines. Therefore, Phasma joined the First Order in 24 ABY. when Brendol Hux had been preparing for a big meeting with Sloane and the other First Order leaders. Not long after Cardinal recalled the incident, he went to speak with Armitage Hux about Phasma killing Brendol. During the conversation, Cardinal mentioned Sloane, starting to say what she would do if she were there. The young Hux cut him off, responding that she was not and asked if he had any other threats he'd like to hold over his head. Though Sloane was seen as a potential candidate to lead the First Order,Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition rule of it eventually fell to Supreme Leader Snoke, a mysterious figure secretly controlled by the reborn Emperor Palpatine.
==Personality and traits==
Rae Sloane was an ambitious and loyal Imperial Navy officer who was devoted to serving Emperor Palpatine and his Galactic Empire. She chose to center her life on the Empire instead of having a wife or husband or becoming a mother. She was a tall, muscular human woman with brown skin and black hair. A meritorious officer, Sloane joined the Imperial Navy in order to escape having to work in a shipyard or loading dock in her homeworld of Ganthel. While staunchly loyal, Sloane did not hesitate to question orders which she deemed treasonous and counterproductive to the Empire's interests. As an Imperial cadet at the Defiance Flight Training Institute, Sloane chafed under Commandant Pell Baylo, a harsh but effective instructor who constantly berated his cadets. Using her mathematical skills, Sloane foiled a plot by Baylo to assassinate the Emperor and Darth Vader during a visit to her ship-based academy.
Sloane was a diligent Imperial officer who did not expect any favors. Recognizing her dutiful nature, Tarkin appointed her as the captain of Count Vidian's Star Destroyer. As Captain of the Ultimatum, Sloane saw herself as a servant of the Galactic Empire. She had a tenuous working relationship with her superior Count Denetrius Vidian, the Empire's efficiency expert. While sharing Vidian's belief in the Empire, Sloane was uncomfortable with his volatile and narcissistic personality, micromanagement, and also observed discrepancies in Vidian's official biography. Sloane confided her concerns about Vidian with her fellow officer Commander Nibiru Chamas, who was secretly working for Vidian's rival Baron Lero Danthe. While Sloane expressed concerns about the repercussions of Vidian destroying the planet Gorse's moon Cynda, she complied with his plan after Vidian produced fake results claiming that the moon's detonation would not affect thorilide yields. After discovering Vidian's deception and alerting the Emperor, she did not hesitate to order Vidian's arrest and the destruction of his ship Forager.
While Captain Sloane had no qualms about using force and harsh measures to impose Imperial order on the people of Gorse, she was still disturbed by her science officer Lieutenant Deltic's willingness to consider detonating Cynda just for the thrill of witnessing its destructive effects on Gorse. Regarding Deltic as an "embarrassment," Sloane toyed with throwing her out through her Star Destroyer's airlock and was relieved when Deltic was excluded from the party that accompanied Baron Danthe's promotion ceremony on Gorse.
As a loyal Imperial official, Sloane also disliked the former Jedi Padawan and rebel Kanan Jarrus due to his cheeky remarks about her appearance. Despite missing an opportunity to arrest him, Sloane was still able to forge an "alliance of convenience" with Kanan after he appealed to her loyalty to the Empire in order to sabotage Vidian's plan to destroy Cynda. Her willingness to work with her nominal enemy was motivated by the rationale that Vidian's actions endangered Imperial strategic assets. Nevertheless, Sloane would resume her hunt for Kanan once Vidian's threat had been eliminated.
As Admiral, Sloane was unwilling to waste Imperial lives and resources in reckless tactics. While she realized that the Empire had lost the Battle of Endor, she believed that the Empire would fight as long as it existed. Sloane also despised the rebellion and its successor state, the New Republic. However, she still made sure that the rebel pilot Wedge Antilles received medical treatment for his injuries. An intelligent and rational woman, Sloane was able to see the flaws in the Empire's policies and strategies. As a senior Navy officer, Sloane was well-versed in military tactics. Cognizant of the Empire's weakened position following the events of Endor, Sloane advocated a cautious policy of not engaging the New Republic and instead building up the Empire's depleted resources.
Following the Battle of Endor, Sloane came to realize that the Empire had been wrong to rule by terror. She also disagreed with the idea of enslaving alien species since it turned people against the Empire. Sloane smiled upon learning that Kashyyyk had been freed from Imperial territory G5-623 because slavery had never been part of her conception of a perfect Empire. Despite her critical appraisal of Imperial policies, she thought that the Rebellion and the New Republic would only bring chaos and disorder to the galaxy. She disagreed with the idea of misrepresenting facts for the sake of propaganda. Sloane also regarded the Mon Calamari as a squid people and likened Gabdorin music to a "chorus of animals" caught in various sharp traps.
While Sloane recognized the importance of leadership, she disagreed with Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax's cult-like leadership style and secrecy. She resented the fact that he had withheld vital information from her about Imperial military forces and his willingness to sacrifice many Imperial lives in order to eliminate rivals. Sloane fell out with Rax after he resorted to the underhand tactic of using microchip-implanted captives to assassinate New Republic officials. Rax also seduced her loyal attaché Adea Rite and ordered her to assassinate Sloane. However, Sloane managed to fight back and kill her would-be assassin. Killing Adea deeply hurt Sloane because she had regarded the younger woman as an exemplary Imperial officer and her own would-be daughter.
Sloane's desire for vengeance against Rax led her to work with the rebels Brentin Lore Wexley and Norra Wexley. Despite being outmatched and outnumbered by Niima, she managed to convince the Hutt crime lady to break her deal with Rax in return for getting access to the Jakku Observatory. Sloane's unwavering patriotism for the Empire led her to work with her nominal rebel enemies in order to prevent Rax from destroying Jakku and the orbiting New Republic and Imperial forces. Despite her hatred for Rax, she heeded his call for her to venture into the Unknown Regions to rebuild a stronger and purer Empire.
Sloane developed a protective relationship with the young Armitage Hux and forged a deal to protect the boy from his abusive father Brendol Hux in return for him keeping her safe from Rax's child soldiers. Despite her hostile relationship with Brendol, the two forged an alliance to rebuild the Empire. Sloane viewed herself as a pioneer who would rebuild the Empire in the Unknown Regions. While she publicly portrayed herself as a selfless devotee to the Empire, Sloane harbored ambitions of reforging the Empire in her idealized image.
==Skills and abilities==
As a senior Imperial Navy officer, Rae Sloane was familiar with unarmed combat and fought with rebels and New Republic personnel on several occasions. She was also trained to wield a blaster and managed to kill an assassin on one occasion. Sloane was also able to fool her New Republic pursuers by leaving behind evidence which suggested that she had fallen to her death. In addition, Sloane also knew how to pilot a cargo ship which she used to escape Chandrila.
Due to her martial-arts training, Sloane was able to engage Gallius Rax in unarmed combat. However, she was outmatched by Rax, who had honed his combat skills during his rough upbringing on Jakku. With the help of Norra and Brentin, Sloane managed to kill Rax and end his short-lived rule over the Empire. As a leader, Sloane knew how to identify potential allies such as Brentin and Armitage Hux. She also used her combat training to force Brendol Hux into submission.
==Behind the scenes==
===Development===
Rae Sloane was created by author John Jackson Miller and first appeared in his 2014 novel A New Dawn. She was later featured in Chuck Wendig's 2015-2017 Aftermath trilogy, which revealed the character's whereabouts after the 1983 film . In the 2020 video game Star Wars: Squadrons, Rae Sloane is voiced by Dionne Audain. On March 18, 2021, StarWars.com announced that Star Wars comic books released by Marvel Comics in June will have Pride Month variant covers that feature LGBTQ+ artists paired with LGBTQ+ characters. The artwork was revealed on May 7, and includes Sloane on the Darth Vader (2020) 13 variant cover by J.J. Kirby.
John Jackson Miller had studied the changes that took place in Russia as the communist-ruled Soviet Union replaced the Tsarist Russian Empire through the October Revolution of 1917, including how existing institutions were incorporated from one autocracy to another. Thus, Miller realized that there had to be a number of people within the Galactic Empire who were not evil but actual believers in the order that it brought, conceiving the character of Rae Sloane. While writing A New Dawn, Miller also wanted Sloane to be relatively new at her job so she could learn about Emperor Palpatine's minions, their shenanigans and everyone else. As he felt that the character could be used in future works, Miller had Sloane survive the events of A New Dawn, allowing Chuck Wendig to later use Sloane in his Aftermath novels.
===Contradictions===
====Promotions and command====
The exact rank of Sloane at the time of the Battle of Endor has been a point of contention. The video game Star Wars Battlefront II,Star Wars Battlefront II the comic Star Wars Adventures: Destroyer Down and the reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy refer to Sloane as a Vice Admiral,Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy whereas the novel Aftermath, the short story "The Levers of Power," and the reference books Star Wars: On the Front Lines,Star Wars: On the Front Lines Star Wars: Galactic Atlas,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas and Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy all refer to Sloane as being an Admiral.Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy This article sides with the majority of sources and says she is a full admiral at Endor.
The book Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall states that Sloane held the rank of Vice Admiral for some time in the period prior to the Battle of Hoth and that her actions in ambushing a rebel convoy at Derra, in which she commanded the Vigilance, managed to earn her the rank of full Admiral status. However, she is stated to be a commodore during the events of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back in the short stories "The Final Order" and "Lord Vader Will See You Now." This article assumes The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, due to its nature as an in-universe text, is incorrect. "Lord Vader Will See You Now" also establishes that she only was given command over the Vigilance during its events, occurring in the post-Battle of Hoth period. The video game Star Wars: Squadrons, however, did depict Sloane in command of the ship years prior.
====Battle of Jakku comics====
The comic series Star Wars: Battle of Jakku features many contradictions with the Aftermath novels. Firstly, the comic Battle of Jakku — Republic Under Siege 2 features Sloane and Rax during their period together as Imperial leaders, with Rax using the title of "Counselor" and Sloane addressing him as "Counselor Rax."Battle of Jakku — Republic Under Siege 2 However, the novel Aftermath: Life Debt establishes that Rax only named himself Counselor to the Empire after parting ways with Sloane due to the attack on Chandrila, with General Hodnar Borrum noting that it is the first counselor title in Imperial records. Furthermore, in subsequent novel Aftermath: Empire's End, Sloane thinks to herself that she has never heard the man referred to as "Counselor Rax" before that point. As such, Rax using that title around Sloane and the Grand Admiral calling him "Counselor Rax" is a contradiction, and this article ignores its usage.
Furthermore, the issue Battle of Jakku — Last Stand 2 features Sloane aboard the Vigilance and speaking with Rax in the aftermath of the Chandrila attack,Battle of Jakku — Last Stand 2 which is not possible according to the Aftermath series. Firstly, the Vigilance is destroyed during the events of Aftermath before the Chandrila attack. Next, Sloane is separated from the Empire during the Chandrila attack and is disgusted by Rax's actions, convincing her to kill the man once she rejoins the Empire. Last Stand 2, meanwhile, depicts Sloane still working with Rax despite noting she disagreed with the tactics used, even referring to it as "our attack." Sloane only reunites with the Empire and Rax during the events of Empire's End, within which he notes he assumed Sloane was either killed or taken prisoner during the attack. Sloane also again uses the title of counselor for Rax in Last Stand 2. As these contradictions cannot be rectified, this article assumes Last Stand 2 is incorrect and disregards Sloane's appearance within that scene.
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Death Squadron personnel
Category:Executive officers
Category:Females
Category:First Order admirals and generals
Category:Fleet admirals
Category:Grand Admirals of the Galactic Empire
Category:Humans
Category:Imperial Navy captains of the Galactic Empire
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:Joint Chiefs of the Imperial Military
Category:Leaders of the First Order
Category:LGBTQIA+ individuals
Category:Members of the Unknown Regions Imperial remnant
Category:Personnel of the Imperial remnants
Category:Shadow Council members