Mercy (hospital ship)

The Mercy was a medium-sized spaceship, appropriated by the Rebel Alliance while still under construction, and put in service by them as a hospital ship as of 5 ABY.

Characteristics
It is possible that Mercy was some sort of purpose-built medical frigate, originally constructed for the Imperial Navy, but this is not certain from current evidence.

What is known is that Mercy was more than two kilometers long and 250 meters across, and she could accommodate around 5000 patients, with 4250 bacta tanks&mdash;although even that was far from sufficient to meet the casualties of the Galactic Civil War. The ship was often crammed with injured and possible dying Rebels.

The ship's Ward 114 was reserved for members of Alliance Intelligence and special forces.

Mercy's chief medical officer was Lieutenant Commander Nidifer.

History
Kyle Katarn was healed in Tank 23 located in Ward 114, after sustaining a serious injury on Nar Shaddaa. After the stay at Mercy, Kyle and Jan Ors went on to Sulon to find the map to the Valley of the Jedi.

The ship was part of the fleet stationed at Milagro when a damaged Imperial-class Star Destroyer entered the system with a convoy of transports, and was defeated by the Rebel Dreadnaught New Hope.

Behind the scenes

 * The related scene from Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight shows the (unnamed) Mercy to be a Nebulon-B, but that conflicts with the information given on the ship in the novelization.
 * There is a possibility that Mercy may be named after a United States Navy hospital ship of the same name, USNS Mercy (T-AH-19). This has not been confirmed but it is a likely possibility given that William C. Dietz, the author of Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, served in the US Navy.
 * Some confusion has arisen from a line in Dark Forces: Rebel Agent where a Rebel squadron is said to consist of "The hospital ship Mercy, an antiquated Dreadnaught, two assault frigates, a squadron of Corellian gun ships, and assorted support vessels". Some fans have mistakenly read "an antiquated Dreadnaught" as a description of Mercy, but subsequent references in the novel show that the Mercy "had been 'liberated' while still under construction", and was thus a new ship, while the "Dreadnaught" must be the command ship New Hope, which is certainly part of this squadron, but does not match any of the other descriptions.

Appearances

 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight