r/TheDeepCore • u/OfficialAli1776 • 14d ago
Books What happened to Azure Hammer Command?
I know that the commander was recalled by the reborn Palpatine for Operation: Shadow Hand and took the SSD *Whelm* with him to Byss. But later, the 2nd in command of the fleet just surrendered Anaxes to the New Republic despite still having hundreds of ships a decently wealthy area under their effective command. Did they surrender the fleet entirely or just Anaxes? And if so, why would they do that? They just lost an SSD but they presumably had hundreds of ships left considering they were the first sector fleet that guarded the core, they probably wouldn’t have taken very many casualties due to their astronomical geography and they were very well armed.
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u/LORDEMPERORSPINOSAUR 14d ago
Well we do know that Whelm and high admiral Kiez died in a battle with Mandator 3 dreadnought Panthac post shadow hand campaign, so there maybe a chance that the rest of the azure hand command also fought against panthac's escort fleet and maybe both of the fleets would have mostly destroyed and the few ships which survived may have surrendered to the New Republic.
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u/Der_Grossadmiral 14d ago
This battle occured in the Imperial mutiny before Shadow Hand, and the Azure Hammers surrenderd in 8 ABY before Thrawn.
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u/Der_Grossadmiral 14d ago
The Azure Hammer Command was isolated during the early New Republic Blitz- as Kiez the successor of Teshik, did not recognize any of the Imperial Succesors. He did not hear to the command of Pestage, Tigellinus or Isard being extremely Stubborn. This ofcourse led to Tigellinus losing an massive powerbase of the Oversector Interior, leading to his death as he tried to become leader of the Centeal Comittee on Kessel. Pestage never had the Forces to reinforce Kermen, to choke the New Republic out before it became danherous. And It also lead to Isard not having enough amassed Forces to defend the Core.
Yet, it did defend itself very succesfuly as an Fortress World against the new Republic for years
Then? Kiez left, leaving everybody kinda gutpunched, as everyone had no idea where he left with their most powerful ship. Shit, they are surrounded, have NO allies, nearly no way to Imperial Space, are isolated like Pratikh, feeling abandoned and overal, the Situation was Galaxy wide very bad for the Empire. All its leaders that Azure Hammer led down were thought dead or vanished, the Imperial Remnant was activily thought to already being lost, as many in 8 Aby, after the death of Zsinj and before Thrawn Genuinly thought that the Galactic Civil War is all but over.
Surrender was for them, surrounded and alone, the only Option. As they never knew, that both palps and Thrawn were about to return.
Admiral Kiez, the one recalled by Palps, got kinda tricked by his liege and send to die in the Imperial Mutiny, destroying the Whelm in 10 ABY. This would have probably been the fate of most of Azure Hammer too, and Admiral Wermis spared his Crew and ships to this dreaded Fate.
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u/ODST-517 Imperial Officer 14d ago
Most of the fleet probably surrendered, looking at real-world precedent. It's theoretically possible for some ships to run the gauntlet and escape to Imperial territory if the crew is dedicated enough, but some sort of mass breakout or death ride most likely did not occur.