Starstorm One

"Computer, new heading. Maximum speed. Set course for Korriban."

- Exar Kun, directing Starstorm One to fly to Korriban

Starstorm One was the personal starship of Jedi Knight, and later Dark Lord of the Sith, Exar Kun during the period of the Great Sith War. A curious young man who was fascinated by the ancient powers of the Sith, Kun set out in Starstorm One on a quest to learn forbidden secrets in 3,997 BBY. His search led him and Starstorm One to Onderon, where he found two dark side cultists to guide him to the tomb of the dead Dark Lord of the Sith Freedon Nadd. The cultists, Nebo and Rask, traveled aboard Starstorm One and directed him to the tomb, where Kun found two Sith scrolls that gave him directions to the Sith homeworld, Korriban. Kun flew the ship to the lost planet, where the spirit of Nadd converted Kun to the dark side.

Nadd directed Kun to fly Starstorm One to the moon of Yavin 4 to continue his Sith training at the place where Dark Lord Naga Sadow had experimented in Sith alchemy a thousand years before. Upon landing on Yavin 4, Starstorm One was destroyed by primitive Massassi warriors, the descendants of Sadow's followers. At some point over the next year, the ship was repaired, however; by that time Kun was a full-fledged Dark Lord of the Sith and had launched a war against the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order. Starstorm One returned to Kun's service and flew a group of Jedi Knights from Ossus to Yavin 4, where they were converted to the dark side by Kun. Later that year, after a supernova prompted an evacuation of Ossus and its Great Jedi Library, Starstorm One was used to transport as many stolen Jedi artifacts as Kun's ship was able to carry. He returned on Starstorm One once more to Yavin 4, where he used Sith magic to shed his mortal body to flee Jedi pursuers.

Description
Starstorm One had a rather unorthodox appearance; in flight, the ship resembled the Aurebesh letter Trill and consisted of one straight structure with two perpendicular wings extending from the tip that were curved in relation to the main mass of the vessel. When the ship landed, the different protrusions folded on top of one another. Although the ship could be operated by just a single pilot, the cockpit, located at its center, was able to hold as many as three humanoids. The entire ship could hold many more&mdash;in 3,996 BBY, it held an entire battalion of Massassi warriors. Within the cockpit, a joystick controlled the ship, with several viewports that surrounded the pilot, and a targeting computer located behind the control stick.

Starstorm One had significant cargo space and was able to hold hoards of Jedi treasures looted from the Great Jedi Library in 3,996 BBY. Hyperdrive-equipped, the ship had three engines located along its main straight mass. Starstorm One contained an electronic translator, capable of translating even the ancient Sith language; the translator also doubled as the ship's navigation computer. Voice-activated, the device displayed information about different planets on command. The ship was not armored enough to withstand direct assault by primitive weaponry, as evidenced by its destruction by the primeval Massassi people of Yavin 4.

Kun's quest
"Make your ship ready.''" "Yes. I am going to Yavin Four. But unlike you, I will never'' be seduced by the dark side."

- Freedon Nadd's spirit and Exar Kun

Starstorm One was the personal starship of the Human male Jedi Knight Exar Kun during the era of the Great Sith War. Kun became interested in the dark side of the Force, and, in 3,997 BBY, he began a quest to learn the forbidden mysteries of the Sith. Kun soon learned of a trove of Sith artifacts discovered in the lair of darksider King Ommin of Onderon and set out in Starstorm One to learn about them. Posing as a Jedi archaeologist, Kun landed Starstorm One on a landing pad near a derelict starship being converted into a Jedi outpost and met with the Jedi Cay Qel-Droma and Tott Doneeta, who had helped to find the artifacts. However, Jedi Master Arca Jeth discerned that Kun had lied about his occupation as an archaeologist and recognized his fascination with the dark side, and Kun was barred from examining the artifacts.

Kun left in a huff, flying Starstorm One to the Onderonian capital city of Iziz. Kun wanted to learn more about Onderon's dark side past and soon found two dark side cultists, Nebo and Rask, to fly him to the tomb of former Dark Lord of the Sith Freedon Nadd on the moon Dxun. The three returned to Starstorm One, and Kun's new associates guided him to the site of the mausoleum. Kun brought the ship down some distance away from the structure, breached its Mandalorian iron walls, and found a scroll within that contained the location of the Sith homeworld, Korriban. Nebo and Rask attacked Kun upon his emergence from the tomb, as the two zealots thought him a tomb desecrator, but Kun swiftly killed them both and departed the moon in Starstorm One. Using the ship's electronic translator to examine the scrolls, Kun followed their directions to Korriban.

Kun landed Starstorm One on a fallen column at the entrance to Korriban's fabled Valley of the Dark Lords, where the ancient Dark Lords of the Sith were buried. Deep within the Valley, Kun was turned to the dark side of the Force by the spirit of Freedon Nadd and was told to prepare Starstorm One and travel to the moon Yavin 4, a place with a long Sith history, to complete his dark side training. Yavin 4 was the place where the ancient Dark Lord Naga Sadow fled with his followers after being attacked by the Republic during the Great Hyperspace War, and, although he was long dead, he left behind the primitive descendants of his Massassi followers and the laboratories of his Sith alchemy. After a journey in hyperspace, Starstorm One reached Yavin 4 and was brought to rest in a clearing in the moon's forests. As Kun left the ship to explore the Yavin 4 wilderness, the Massassi attacked him. Kun tried his best to fend off his attackers, but dozens of Massassi swarmed over Starstorm One and stripped it of brightly colored parts to use as bodily decorations. The ship was rendered inoperable as a result, but Kun was able to survive and use his newfound dark power to establish dominion over the Massassi.

Wartime missions
"We have arrived, Exar Kun.''" "''Yes, Ulic&mdash;Ossus is ours for the taking."

- Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun

Despite its destruction by the Massassi upon landing on Yavin 4, Starstorm One was eventually repaired and returned to the service of Kun. In the meanwhile, Kun had ascended to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and taken Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma as his apprentice. Together, and with an army of Massassi and Mandalorian warriors that had pledged service to their cause, they began a war against the Republic and the Jedi Knights. In 3,996 BBY, Kun flew Starstorm One from Yavin 4 to the Jedi world of Ossus, hoping to recruit other Jedi to his budding Sith movement. Withholding his status as a Sith Lord, he lured several Knights to his cause by promising to teach them powerful Force techniques forbidden by the Masters of the Order. Kun brought the Jedi to Yavin 4 onboard Starstorm One, intending to turn them to the dark side. The wayward Jedi Knights were successfully seduced by the Dark Lord and possessed with the spirits contained inside an ancient Sith holocron. Kun then gave the new Sith acolytes a mission to kill their Jedi Masters.

Later in the war, Starstorm One was called into action yet again. During a battle between the Sith and the Republic at Kemplex IX, the use of Sith magic caused a supernova in the Cron Cluster star group. The shock wave headed directly toward Ossus, which contained countless Jedi artifacts and the greatest repository of Jedi knowledge in the galaxy, the Great Jedi Library. Seeing his chance to raid the planet of its treasures, Kun set out for Ossus in Starstorm One, with Qel-Droma accompanying him in his own ship. They arrived during a large-scale evacuation of the planet, as thousands tried to flee while the Jedi below attempted to save as much precious knowledge as they could. Kun and Qel-Droma were flanked by a large Mandalorian assault force, which created havoc while the two Sith Lords sneaked down to the planet's surface and began their treasure hunt.

Kun landed Starstorm One in a busy Ossus square, and he and the Massassi guards he brought with him searched the Great Jedi Library, taking whatever they could find and loading Starstorm One with stolen artifacts. His job done, Kun departed the doomed planet in his ship and returned to Yavin 4 to study his new possessions. Kun was followed by a large group of Jedi, and, knowing he could not defeat the large number of assembled Knights, Kun decided to use ancient Sith magic to shed his mortal body and become a Force spirit. However, although he succeeded in leaving his body behind, he was trapped inside his temple for thousands of years.

Commanders and crew
Starstorm One was the personal starship of Exar Kun, who used it during his quest to discover the mysteries of the Sith and also during the Great Sith War. He usually flew the ship alone, but not always; Nebo and Rask were used aboard the ship as guides during Kun's search for Freedon Nadd's temple. A number of Massassi also served aboard the ship during the Great Sith War. Although Starstorm One was destroyed during Kun's tenure as the ship's owner by the Massassi on Yavin 4, he eventually had it repaired.

Behind the scenes
Starstorm One first appeared in Dark Lords of the Sith, a story arc of the Tales of the Jedi comic book series, written by Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson, and released from late 1994 to early 1995. Starstorm One appeared in the second, third, and fourth issues, and was also mentioned in the fifth. The ship also appeared in the second and fifth issues of Dark Lords of the Sith sequel arc, The Sith War. During its appearances in Tales of the Jedi, Starstorm One was illustrated by two different pencillers, Christian Gossett  and Dario Carrasco, Jr.  Starstorm One additionally appeared in the Dark Lords of the Sith audio adaptation. The ship also garnered entries in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the third edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, and in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith audio drama
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 2: The Quest for the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 3: Descent to the Dark Side
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 4: Death of a Dark Jedi
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 5: Sith Secrets
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War 2: The Battle of Coruscant
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War 5: Brother Against Brother