Lusankya

Lusankya was an Executor-class Star Dreadnought. It was built by the Kuat Drive Yards in the yards around the Kuati homeworld. It served as Ysanne Isard's private prison, then as the primary Imperial support vessel during Isard's time on Thyferra. The ship was subsequently captured by the New Republic, and served in the New Republic Starfleet for a number of years until its destruction. It was possibly named after the Lubyanka, the famous KGB prison.

Construction and Placement on Coruscant
The Lusankya was built at the same time as the Executor and was also named Executor during the construction process. After its completion, it was taken to Coruscant, where it was placed in a repulsorlift cradle, and buried beneath the surface of the planet. The cityscape was rebuilt over the ship. Either by having all witnesses killed, or using the Force to command witnesses to forget what they saw, the Emperor hid the ship so well that very few people on Coruscant even knew of its existence.

Ysanne Isard's Private Prison
Following the ship's burial, 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 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. She used torture, drugs, and psychological conditioning to turn people - usually captured Rebels - into sleeper agents.

These sleeper agents would then be returned to their families, friends, and colleagues. Ysanne Isard would use them to spy on the Rebellion, perform sabotage, and assassinate the Empire's 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. The aide was returned in order to perform this assassination. After he had committed the murder, the aide repeated the word Lusankya over and over.

Lusankya came to be known as Ysanne Isard's private prison. Rebel Alliance General Jan Dodonna was sent there following his capture. Tycho Celchu was also sent there following his capture over Coruscant. Isard tried to condition Celchu into one of her agents, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Instead, the conditioning rendered him catatonic. He eventually got well enough to be transferred to Akrit'tar. Celchu eventually escaped from that facility and returned to the Rebellion.

However, because Celchu didn't remember his time on Lusankya very well, he was treated with suspicion because of what Isard had done to others. Isard used this to turn Corran Horn against Celchu. Horn was preparing to launch his own investigation into Celchu's past when he was captured by Isard. Horn was believed killed when the craft he was flying went down. Although Imperial mole Erisi Dlarit was responsible for Horn's capture, the Alliance blamed Celchu, and put him on trial for Horn's murder.

Ysard attempted to use psychological conditioning - namely by allowing Horn to participate in flight simulations to turn Horn into an Imperial agent. However, Horn saw through the conditioning, and Isard realized that her efforts to turn Horn had failed.

Horn was placed with the other prisoners on Lusankya. He met Jan Dodonna at the prison, as well as other prisoners. 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 an inconsistency, that rocks in the main cavern where the prisoners worked would fall up if thrown high enough. This was because the artificial gravity was rotated so that prisoners were in effect standing upside down. Anyone who tried to escape would actually go deeper into the prison, and be easier to capture.

Eventually, Horn was able to escape from the prison complex. He found a library complex on the Lusankya and discovered that not only did he wash out of the indoctrination process, but Celchu had as well. Corran was able to find out who the real traitor was during this time. He also found a blaster in the library's copy of The Complete History of Corvis Minor, and a private tunnel shuttle (similar to a subway) that allowed him to leave Lusankya. The shuttle took him to the closed off section of the Galactic Museum. Horn then learned that he had never left Coruscant. He was able to get to the court where Celchu was being held, and convinced the court that Celchu was not a clandestine agent, nor was he the traitor. Erisi Dlarit was revealed as the traitor.

Unfortunately, where Isard had failed with Horn and Celchu, she had suceeded with Diric Wessiri, the husband of Horn's former partner Iella. She was using him to spy on a number of people, including Celchu. Her conditioning of Diric was so successful that no one realized that he was a Lusankya agent until it was too late. Isard, believing that former Imperial General Derricote had escaped from the prison, sent Diric to kill Derricote, who she thought to be the surprise witness that the Republic was bringing in. However, it turned out to be former Imperial intelligence agent Kirtan Loor who was the surprise witness. Diric was able to kill Loor. Iella, not realizing it was her husband, shot the assassin in self defense. She then realized it was her husband. He was finally able to reveal that Isard had broke him down and turned him into a sleeper agent. Diric was thankful that he was dying, he would no longer be Isard's tool. Diric soon died of his injuries. No one saw him as anything but another victim of Isard. In addition to the grief over loosing her husband, Iella also felt an enormous amount of guilt over her actions, which she would continue to wrestle with for years.

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. It started with massive ground quakes on the surface of Coruscant. The New Republic learned that a Star Dreadnought named Lusankya was leaving the planet.

The New Republic finally figured out where the repulsorlifts obtained during a massive Imperial operation had gone. They had gone into a repulsorlift cradle that would float the ship clear of the planet.

While leaving Coruscant, the Lusankya caused massive damage to the surface of Coruscant. Breaking free of the planet, the ship devastated over 100 square miles (259 km&sup2;) of the planet surface. Millions of people were killed in the lift-off. More people died when Lusankya gunners used a skyhook - a floating platform - as target practice. Not only did the people on the skyhook die, but people below were injured or killed when parts of the skyhook crashed on the planet surface. Also TIE fighters from the ship that were shot down caused further damages and injuries.

The Lusankya blasted its way through the two planetary shield levels. It then exchanged fire with an orbiting Golan defense platform before jettisoning the lift cradle. The ship soon departed the Coruscant system. It was later learned the ship went to Thyferra.

The Battle for Thyferra
After leaving Coruscant, the Lusankya traveled to Thyferra. There Imperial forces helped stage a revolution on the planet. Isard was named the new leader of Thyferra. Because the New Republic was unwilling to take any action against Isard, Corran Horn, Wedge Antilles, and the other members of Rogue Squadron decided to resign to fight 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 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 quarrantine 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 seculsion. 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
The Lusankya entered regular New Republic service after Isard's death. One of its missions was to act as a medical research facility in the event that Imperials attempted further biological warfare. The ship was designed with new quarrantine facilities. The ship even had a containment zone. No living thing was allowed into this zone. It was serviced strictly by droids so that, if necessary, the containment zone could be destroyed. When the surviving original prisoners of the Lusankya were freed, they, along with Rogue Squadron were held on the Lusankya quarrantine facilities so that medical experts could confirm that neither the prisoners or the Rouges were carrying any biological weapons within them.

The New Republic was able to reduce the crew requirement for the ship. 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 space available.

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