The Star Destroyer's fire took out both of their shields, and Hera then fired upon the Chimaera 's sensor array before flying through the resulting smoke cloud. She lured Skerris into the line of fire of Thrawn's flagship, the Chimaera. Skerris shot down two pilots, Cleat and Duke, but was outmaneuvered by Hera Syndulla, who was leading the attack. He did so during the Rebel Alliance's attack on Lothal. Skerris was given a new Defender Elite, painted with yellow highlights, to fly in battle. Bridger and Wren escaped into the wilderness with the flight recorder and the Elite's hyperdrive, which they intended to install on Ryder Azadi's UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft as a replacement for the ship's non-functional one. The Elite lost two of its wings, but Wren managed to prevent the third one from detaching, and the fighter crashed on it. However, Wren had discovered the switch while she was deactivating the Elite's homing beacon, and immediately told Bridger to land. Thrawn then allowed Governor Arihnda Pryce to activate the kill switch, causing the fighter to crash. Bridger, flying the prototype, managed to shoot down all three pursuers, which Thrawn saw as a validation of the fighter's capabilities, given that Bridger was a relatively unskilled pilot, in the Grand Admiral's opinion.

Grand Admiral Thrawn decided to use the theft as an opportunity to test the prototype's flight capabilities, and had Vult Skerris send three of his TIE Interceptors after the stolen fighter. Unbeknownst to Wren, who thought of using the Elite's hyperdrive to get the stolen data recorder to Yavin 4, the drive had been deactivated.

Wren used the Elite to destroy most of the other ships at the airfield before she and Bridger escaped. Ī TIE/d Defender Elite was stolen by Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren when they were caught attempting to steal the flight data recorder of the prototype while it was at the Lothal Imperial airfield for a planned test flight. The grand admiral transmitted the instructions to the Lothal facility in charge of the project. Vader also gave input on improvements that Thrawn that could implement in the fighter, which included that it needed to be faster, more heavily armed, and that controls should be made simpler. Vader went as far as telling the Chiss that he would put in a good word about the project with the Emperor. ' If someone of Ezra Bridger's modest skill can best three trained pilots, our new fighter will give us an overwhelming advantage against the rebels.' ―Grand Admiral Thrawn on the TIE Defender Elite Ī TIE Defender Elite docked at the Lothal Imperial airfieldįollowing the battle against Grysk forces, in which Darth Vader operated a TIE/D Defender, the Dark Lord conveyed to Grand Admiral Thrawn his support of the ship.

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