Lusankya

The Lusankya was an Executor-class Star Dreadnought, built by the Kuat Drive Yards. It served as Ysanne Isard's private prison, then as her flagship during the coup d'etat and subsequent insurrection on Thyferra. Following the 'Bacta War' on that planet, the ship was captured by the New Republic, and served in its starfleet for more than two decades.

Specifications
Lusankya was the second Executor-class Star Dreadnought to be constructed. It was 19,000 meters long, almost twelve times the length of an Imperator-class Star Destroyer. It carried more than 5,000 weapons, at least 12 TIE fighter squadrons, at least 200 other combat and support ships, two prefabricated garrison bases, and enough stormtroopers and AT-ATs to impose the Empire's will on any star system.

Construction and Placement on Coruscant
The Lusankya was built at the same time as her sister-ship the Executor, and during that time was also provisionally named Executor, to make it seem as though there was only one Executor being constructed. After its completion, the Lusankya was taken to Coruscant (then Imperial Center), where it was placed in a repulsorlift cradle and buried beneath that planet's surface. The cityscape was rebuilt over the ship so as to hide its location. It is not known exactly how the Empire kept this massive project a secret, but it is assumed that either all witnesses were executed, or Emperor Palpatine used the Force to command witnesses to forget what they saw. It has been theorized that the Lusankya was initially placed on Imperial Center in order to provide the Emperor a secure means of escape. Its location, use, and existence was known by only a select few.

Ysanne Isard's Private Prison
A portion of Lusankya served as a private prison for Imperial intelligence chief Ysanne Isard. Isard was able to travel back and forth to Lusankya by a network of private tunnel shuttles (similar to subways) that were connected to the ship. One of these shuttles went to the Galactic Museum, another to a 43rd floor foyer in the Imperial Palace, and another went to an old subcommittee room in the former Imperial Senate Building. In interrogating Lusankya's prisoners, Isard was ruthless, employing any means necessary--including torture, drugs, and psychological conditioning--to learn what she desired and even turn prisoners--usually captured Rebels--into sleeper agents.

These sleeper agents would then be returned to their families, friends, and colleagues, where Isard would use them to spy on the Rebellion, perform sabotage, and assassinate enemies.

Corran Horn first learned of the prison when the Corellian Diktat's greatest rival was murdered by his aide. The aide had been taken to Lusankya and turned into a sleeper agent and returned to perform the assassination. After he had committed the murder, the aide repeated the word "Lusankya" over and over.

Though no one outside Isard's circle knew of the Lusankya's location, it regardless came to be infamously known as Ysanne Isard's private prison. Rebel Alliance General Jan Dodonna was sent there following his capture shortly following the Battle of Yavin. Tycho Celchu was also sent there following his capture over Coruscant. Isard tried to condition Celchu into one of her agents, but the efforts rendered him catatonic. He was eventually transferred to Akrit'tar, but escaped from that facility and returned to the Rebellion.

Following Horn's capture during an espionage mission to Coruscant, he was placed aboard Lusankya and met Jan Dodonna. From him, Horn learned that many people washed out of Isard's indoctrination process, and were rendered catatonic in the process--the other prisoners referred to them as "sleepers". Horn also learned of a suspicious inconsistency within the prison: In the main cavern where the prisoners worked, a rock would "fall up" if thrown high enough. This was because the artificial gravity of the Star Dreadnought was rotated so that prisoners were in effect standing upside down, a tactic employed by Isard so if anyone tried to escape by digging "up", they would actually go deeper into the prison, making them easier to capture.

Eventually Horn was able to escape from the prison complex, during which he found a library complex on the Lusankya and discovered that not only had he washed out of the indoctrination process, but so had Celchu. In addition to this information, he was also able to find out who was the real traitor within Rogue Squadron. After further searching, he also found a lightsaber in the library's copy of The Complete History of Corvis Minor, and a private tunnel shuttle that allowed him to leave Lusankya. The shuttle took him to a closed-off section of the Galactic Museum where Horn then learned that he had, in fact, never left Coruscant.

Breaking Free of Coruscant
After Horn escaped, Isard knew that the New Republic would soon find Lusankya and capture her if she remained. Isard had the crew break the ship free of the planet. While leaving Coruscant, the Lusankya caused devastated over 100 square miles (259 km&sup2;) of the planet surface, killing millions instantly.

The Lusankya blasted its way through the two planetary shield levels, pausing to exchange fire with an orbiting Golan defense platform before jettisoning the lift cradle and departing the Coruscant system.

The Battle for Thyferra
The Lusankya traveled to Thyferra, where Imperial forces helped stage a coup d'etat that ultimately installed Isard Isard as planetary leader. Because the New Republic was unwilling to take any action against Isard, Corran Horn, Wedge Antilles, and the other members of Rogue Squadron resigned their commissions in the New Republic fleet and surreptitiously began gathering resources to continue fighting Isard.

Upon arriving at Thyferra, the Lusankya was joined by the Imperator-class Star Destroyers Avarice and Virulence and the Victory-class Star Destroyer Corrupter.

Over the next few months, the Rogues slowly worked to build up their forces, while whittling down the Imperial forces to the point where the two forces could engage each other. The Corrupter was destroyed at Alderaan when an automated Alderaanian war cruiser, the Valiant, joined the Rogues. Commander Antilles was able to talk Sair Yonka - the Captain of the Avarice - to take his ship and leave Isard's service. That left the Lusankya and the Virulence.

Once Isard's forces discovered the Rogue's space station base at Yag'Dhul, the Lusankya and Virulence were sent to destroy it. But when they arrived, the Rogues were gone, and the station appeared to be very heavily armed. The Lusankya retreated from the system, but the Virulence was caught in the station's tractor beam. Lusankya was unable to retrieve her fighters before leaving.

The captain of the Lusankya, Joak Drysso, returned to Thyferra expecting a battle. However, when the ship slowed to sublight, there was nothing but normal traffic. Shortly after the Lusankya arrived, a Star Destroyer arrived in the system. It was the Avarice, now renamed the Freedom. The Freedom had carried the Rogues to Thyferra.

Suddenly, a large salvo of torpedoes and missiles hit the Lusankya. The salvo had come from the freighter traffic in the system. Antilles had convinced a number of freighters to join the effort. They were equipped with heavy torpedoes, but were not given targeting sensors. Instead, the freighters weapons were slaved to Rogue Squadron's targeting computers.

The Freedom and Valiant also concentrated their firepower on the Lusankya. The Freedom was severely damaged, however the Valiant escaped serious damage. Soon the Virulence appeared in the Thyferra system. But it was no longer under Imperial control. A squadron of A-Wings led by Pash Cracken had come upon the Virulence during its standoff with the Yag'Dhul station. The Virulence now turned its weapons on the Lusankya.

Commander Antilles then decided to ask the Lusankya to surrender, seeing as how the starship would not last much longer. Drysso refused to surrender and seemed driven to insanity by the events of the past several days. He was preparing to ram Thyferra with the Lusankya itself, against the wishes of the crew, when he was killed by his aide. His aide, Acting-Captain Waoren surrendered the ship to Antilles. Isard had appeared to have died when Captain Celchu destroyed a shuttle that was believed to have been carrying her.

After the Bacta War
Lusankya was severely damaged after the battle for Thyferra. The area where the prison was had in fact been breached. Fortunately, Isard had shipped the prisoners to other facilities after Horn had escaped, because in her mind he had ruined the prison by his escape.

As the ship had been surrendered to him, Wedge Antilles was the acting commander of the Lusankya. In that capacity, he married Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik, with Tycho and Iella Wessiri as witnesses. Antilles, Horn, and the rest of the squadron rejoined the New Republic armed forces, when an "error" had occurred where the resignations were not formally logged to the squadron member's files. The council passed a resolution approving what the Rouges had done, making the entire operation fait accompli for the Republic.

Lusankya then left the Thyferra system. It was taken to a secret location, where repairs and upgrades were made to the ship. Rumors were spread that the ship was destroyed - that either the damage was such the ship couldn't be repaired, or that the Lusankya was broken up for parts. While Grand Admiral Thrawn was carrying out his campaign against the New Republic, the ship was still undergoing repairs. The ship's sharp lines were restored, and two large Rebel crests were painted on the ship. The original prison complex was removed from the ship, and a medical quarantine complex was installed in its place. The secrecy over the repairs was such that even some members of the council were unaware of the Lusankya's continued existence until the military made the council aware of that fact.

Ysanne Isard, who had slipped away from the Thyferra system at the end of the Bacta War, had spent several years in seclusion. She finally reappeared when she tried to take control of the Lusankya back from the New Republic. Isard finally died when Iella Wessiri cornered her in her old stateroom, and Wessiri was forced to shoot her in self defense.

New Republic Service
After Isard's death, the Lusankya entered regular New Republic service. One of its missions was to act as a medical research facility in the event that the Empire attempted further biological warfare. The ship was designed with new quarantine facilities which included even had a containment zone where no living creature was allowed to enter. This area was serviced strictly by droids so that, if necessary, the containment zone could be destroyed with minimal loss of life. When the surviving original prisoners of the Lusankya were freed, they, along with Rogue Squadron, were held on the Lusankya quarantine facilities so that medical experts could confirm that neither the prisoners or the Rogues were carrying any biological weapons within them.

In addition to refitting it for biomedical operations, the New Republic also succeeded in reducing the crew requirement for the warship. Further, Lusankya was refitted with better armor than Star Dreadnoughts still in Imperial service. Several other systems were also redesigned to take advantage of having more available space.

The Lusankya served in the New Republic fleet for nearly twenty years. She was finally destroyed during a suicide mission against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Behind the Scenes
It is speculated that the Lusankya was possibly named after the Lubyanka, the famous KGB prison.

Appearances

 * X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-Wing: The Krytos Trap
 * X-Wing: The Bacta War
 * X-Wing: Isard's Revenge
 * Crimson Empire
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand