[Thrawn] The serpent and the bird

[LucasLaughing]

On a small planet, in the far edge of the outer rim, a group of Nediji mercenaries looking to make a name for themselves have seized an important tibanna gas refining facility.  

Imperial ground forces have assaulted the facility twice – and twice have been beaten back.  The Empire would prefer to keep the facility, and its gas, intact, so rather than ordering a TIE Bomber strike, the sector governor requests the help of master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn.

  Tell me captain, are you familiar with the Nediji species?
  No …

Thrawn:  I am not surprised; they rarely stray too far from their home system.

Captain:  Well, they seem to have strayed this time.  Sir.

Thrawn:  So they have, Captain.  The Nediji are a fascinating species.  They are avian, and although they are no longer capable of true flight, they are astonishing jumpers and use their wings to glide great distances.  They hunted every other flying predator on their planet to extinction thousands of years ago – and most of the land based ones as well.  But there is one adversary they have never been able to defeat.

Thrawn: This is a replica of one of the oldest known works of Nediji art – it depicts an unnamed hero, capturing a serpent in its talons.  A serpent, the ancient enemy, who slithers into the nest at night to take the eggs.  The Nediji have been fighting this battle since the dawn of their species.

The message of this piece is clear, but look – see how detailed the snake carving is.  The Nediji hate the serpent, but they also know him intimately.

Thrawn:  Here, we have another telling look into their psychology.  Most primitive species create gods in their own images, and most of them create devils in their images as well.  True, the devil figure is often a grotesque caricature of the species, but the species is almost always recognizable behind the mask.  Not the Nediji, though.  Their devil is a serpent, through and through.  

Thrawn:  Finally, lest we think that this obsession lies solely in the past: a few years ago there was a Nediji film maker who saw some success making holofilms for human audiences.  Her first hit was a monster holo.  And her imagined monster?  

  Not some winged beast.  Not a tentacled space alien.  The same ancient enemy.

  This is all very fascinating, Grand Admiral, but I fail to see what it has to do with our current situation.

Thrawn:  You fail to see, and that is why you fail militarily.  Of course the Nediji defeated your ground troops.  They have spent the last several millennia fighting, fearing, and studying the serpent.  The serpent that slithers on the ground, and is killed from a perch.

The Nediji are unprepared for an enemy that flies as well as they do.  Send in your jump troopers.  Have them deploy from a drop ship at medium altitude and attack the facility from above.  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Sir, we’ve defeated nearly all the mercenaries.  

  A few are making a “last stand” at the top of the refinery, but our second wave of jump troopers are 30 seconds out.  

  Our ground troops just landed unopposed on the beach, and have started clearing the refinery's interior.  

We’ll have control of the facility shortly.

 

Spoiler

 

Thanks for viewing!  Full size pics on my flickr.

Gas refinery overall shots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

I could have spent literally 3-4 more hours on the refinery, adding little pipes and details, but I'm leaving town tomorrow so, alas, my pipes are not as intricate as I had hoped.

The Nediji are part of the "old cannon" - they were described as having light bluish skin/feathers, so the Chima heads were perfect.

As you can probably tell, I don't have a Thrawn minifig, but I thought this one worked pretty well from behind.  

I only have one blue hairpiece, but when I tried it, the results were ... suboptimal.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by LucasLaughing

[VaderFan2187]

GREAT build!

Just now, LucasLaughing said:

I only have one blue hairpiece, but when I tried it, the results were ... suboptimal.

Haha!

[Evolved Turtle]

Wow, I love the forced perspective. Plus everything else, of course.

[greg3]

Great couple of builds... I love the gold/black piece of artwork and the story idea is excellent too (Classic Thrawn... I can just imagine it coming from one of the Zahn novels) A well deserved prize winner!!