Chrysalis blinked once, then once more. She cocked her head to the side, stunned by Thrawn’s abrupt and unusual question. When she found the courage to speak, she shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I don’t know who this... Ezra is. Is he an acquaintance of yours?”
Thrawn looked out the window, staring across the snowy waste land as he held his hand to his chin. “In a manner of speaking, yes. Ezra Bridger is the reason we are here. He must have escaped during the crash.” The Grand Admiral turned to an officer, who quickly saluted and snapped to attention. “Captain Cavi, have all available units search the ship from top to bottom. I want to make sure the Jedi is not still onboard before we commit to a wider search.”
Never before had Chrysalis felt smaller. All around her, strange creatures moved about like bees. She was in a nest, their nest, and she was the one who had kicked it. The changeling felt that she was no longer welcome on the destroyer. Thrawn was on the move, and her mind was racing just to keep up with him.
Briefly, she wondered if she had made the right choice, aligning herself with somebody that was far out of her league. “Chrysalis...” The changeling jumped, quickly spinning around to face Thrawn. After realizing she had been lost in her thoughts, she quietly got herself back together and retreated from the window, following him back into the ship. “This is where you play your part, Chrysalis.”
Together, they walked into a small room, and the door closed behind them. With the press of a button on the wall, the room began to move, traveling downward at an alarming speed. Still unsure of what Thrawn was talking about, Chrysalis fired him an uneasy look and shifted her wings. “Me? What could I possibly do? You seem to have things well in hoof.”
The room suddenly came to a stop, and the door slid to the side, opening up into great chamber. On the farthest side, directly ahead, the entire wall was open to the Frozen North. Only a magical barrier of sorts stood between them and the raging blizzard outside. Without making eye contact with her, Thrawn stepped forward, leading her into the cavernous room. “You are my informant on this new world, Chrysalis. I want you to take a detachment of storm troopers and lead them through the blizzard.”
The changeling looked ahead, at the glowing wall that kept the snow out. “What your asking for is impossible. Nothing can survive out there.”
Thrawn finally turned to look at her, making eye contact. “You survived, did you not?” Chrysalis remembered the cold. She remembered coming into conflict with every snowy beast she came into contact with. It wasn’t an environment she was especially eager to get back to. “Everybody serves someone else, and now, you serve the Empire.” Thrawn gestured to a group of armored soldiers, possibly the ‘storm troopers’ he mentioned before. “You are to lead them through the wilderness and ensure their safe return, and if you should encounter the Jedi, kill him.”
Chrysalis’s ears tingled at hearing the blue alien’s orders, and her chest felt a little bit heavier. She had no idea who this... Ezra was or what business he had with Thrawn, but she didn’t want anything to do with it. The changeling faced the armored soldiers and let out a long sigh. The Frozen North was infinite, anyway. What were the odds of her running into the one being she didn’t want to find in the vast, snowy wasteland?
Lost in her thoughts again, she didn’t notice that Thrawn had left her, nor did she see the trooper in front of her waving his hand to get her attention. “Commander?”
Chrysalis came back around and looked down at the trooper, narrowing her eyes as she looked down her snout. “What did you call me?”
The trooper took a nervous step back where he was reassured by the others behind him. “Yo-You’re leading this operation, ma’am. The Grand Admiral made his orders clear.”
Chrysalis looked over all of the troopers before her, eyeing each and every one of them briefly before moving on to the next. After a quick count, she realized there was a total of ten armored warriors before her. “You’re under my command...” The trooper that had spoken earlier nodded his head. “... and you’ll do whatever I say?”
All ten troopers snapped to attention, holding their weapons against their armored chests. “Whatever’s out there, ma’am, we’ll follow you through it.”
A smile forced its way onto Chrysalis’ lips, and she held her head higher, puffing her chest out. “Hmm... Every queen needs her subjects. The lot of you will suffice.”
She brushed past them, walking towards what she presumed to be a door. “Uh, ma’am...” The trooper followed after her, jogging to keep up with her longer stride. “Commander, wait! That’s the airlock!”
He spoke too late. Chrysalis had already ignited her horn and pushed open the first door. By the time her squad of storm troopers had caught up to her, she forced the second door open, and the full force of the Frozen North sucked them out of the destroyer and out into the blizzard. Chrysalis let out a terrified scream as she sailed through the air as ice barraged her from every direction.
Several of the troopers came sailing after her, one cheered with delight before landing head first in a mountain of snow. Chrysalis herself fell far from the door the jumped through. She groaned loudly as she rolled from side to side, fearing she’d broken something important.
The troopers were on her in an instant, and one of them extended his arm to help her up. “Commander, are you alright?” Normally, she hated accepting help from anybody, but this occasion was an exception. She huffed and ruffled her wings as the troopers worked together to get her back on her hooves. “Ma’am, we should keep moving. We won’t last long standing out in the open like this.”
Chrysalis nodded her head. “I agree... Let’s go.”
***Up Next: Cold Hooves***