>>7035
>>7036
>people actually want this to continue
Well, OK then. I thought about it a little more and tried to square it with established lore, but it would need a bigger group of posters here to develop it in detail, especially somebody who's better at naval tactics than I am. I'm imagining it being somewhat like BSG or Star Trek Voyager. Having it be an Imperial officer after Endor creates a BSG-like scenario where the officer's government was just dealt a deathblow and is falling apart. This creates tension that you wouldn't get with a New Republic ship captain because you know the Republic is on the rise at this point. But you don't know what's going to happen to Admiral Chud and his fleet.
He'd start by spending a while after Endor losing ships to New Republic battle groups and Imperial rivals (but always in meaningful and frequently awesome ways) as he makes a name for himself fighting pirates and helping people, and trying to find out what happened to his family that he lost contact with as the galaxy descended into chaos. He'd have to rely on tactics similar to Rebel fighter tactics because he can't spam ships at enemies. Every so often he'd get new ships to partly replace his losses by capturing or salvaging them, and his fighter complement especially would become much more powerful. All of his standard TIE fighters would eventually be lost, but he'd get more TIE interceptors by looting them from other breakaway Imperials, and also some TIE defenders and other high-quality fighters to replace them. He'd upgrade all his unshielded TIEs with shields and his fighter wing would come to rival Rogue Squadron in skill and reputation. Maybe an escort carrier should be part of his fleet to increase his power by adding to his fighter wing, without giving him too many heavy hitting capital ships that he can't afford to maintain anyway. He'd also have a smattering of prequel-era ships and a few New Republic ships from captures or defections. His fleet would eventually come to look something like what the Old Republic fleet might have been if it never became the Empire. It's designed to be a twist on the frequently seen Imperial defector storyline, where despite adopting many elements of Rebel tactics, he never actually defects to the New Republic. He'd establish the Raxus base and hold it for a little while, but eventually he's forced to abandon Raxus.
He'd flee into the Unknown Regions or Wild Space during the Thrawn campaign to keep him from stepping on the toes of existing storylines; this helps Thrawn inadvertently because a bunch of New Republic guys are chasing him as he evacuates, providing a distraction so Thrawn's initial strikes on the New Republic can land. He'd encounter some crazy shit out there, like ancient aliens and Force cults nobody's ever heard of before, and get trapped there for several years. He'd add a new alien ship to his fleet and upgrade his flagship with alien technology that makes it far more powerful than a standard Star Destroyer. He eventually returns to known space, but the galactic situation has changed, and instead of having an admiral's fleet, he now commands a small but elite strike force of hardened veterans flying super-ships.
While he's in unexplored territory he'd also get some Force training, but most of his abilities aren't about direct personal combat; they're mainly focused on improving his ability as a commander. He never becomes a traditional Jedi or Sith. He's never going to beat a Sith in direct battle and when he's forced to fight in person he never uses a lightsaber. He has to outsmart hostile Force users like Thrawn did, because he can't outfight them traditionally. But he doesn't have Thrawn's resource base or star power because he was never a Grand Admiral, so he needs the extra boost of having the Force himself, if only in a limited capacity.