A few STE ships arrive alone to smaller mining colonies, and drop their atmospheric pods, full of shock lance troops to their surfaces
before any shots can be fired, the ships leave to regroup, both with themselves and Thrawn's ships.
The shock lancers have personal shields, blocking smallarms, and bouncing a few larger calibre guns before having to recharge, however you cannot fire out of them, hence them using Electrified lances.
Basically, the perfect thing to drop on a small weakly armed mining base on a asteroid.