Katana fleet

The Katana fleet, also known as the Dark Force, was a starfleet launched by the Galactic Republic in 46 BBY as part of its attempt to restore the Republic Navy to its long-gone glory. The fleet was named for its flagship, Katana. Other ships in the fleet included the Braxant Brave, Harrier, and Peregrine.

Highly advanced for the time and equipped with state of the art automation systems, but was lost in space on its first voyage. The fleet consisted of 200 modified Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers, all carrying experimental AT-PT walkers. The ships controls could be slaved to the controls of Katana.

The fleet fell victim to a hive virus (possibly caused by carsunum spice) that wiped out the crew after driving them insane. The Dark Force was undiscovered until smuggler Captain Hoffner and his ship stumbled upon it in 6 BBY. Hoffner and his navigator, Talon Karrde were the only ones aboard aware of the find, but neither realized the other person knew the secret. They concealed the fleet's location until the right time to make use of it. Hoffner later arranged to sell individual Katana Dreadnaughts to Garm Bel Iblis, who eventuntually accumulated a strike force of six of the ships, including his command ship, Peregrine.

By 6 ABY, the balance of power between the New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and warlord forces was so precarious that, despite their age, it was believed that any faction that recovered the fleet would immediately become the dominant force in the Galaxy. The enormous potential value of the Katana fleet was used to draw the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Eviscerator away as a prelude to the Second Battle of Borleias.



In 9 ABY, nearly fifty-five years being lost, Grand Admiral Thrawn became interested in the fleet. However, the Grand Admiral's treachery turned Mara Jade against the Galactic Empire and she, along with Luke Skywalker, rescued Karrde from Thrawn's forces and brought him to the New Republic. Thrawn was nonetheless able to acquire the information from Hoffner, and though both sides secured some of the fleet in the Battle for the Katana fleet, Thrawn had acquired all but twenty-two of the Dreadnaughts. These remaining vessels became part of the New Republic fleet, along with the AT-PT walkers later used in the campaign against Thrawn. Initially, the New Republic believed Thrawn would not be able to take advantage of his new vessels, since he would require over three hundred thousand crewers for the Katana fleet&mdash;2,000 each of the 178 ships. However, Thrawn proved to be more resourceful, using clones produced from Spaarti cloning cylinders in the Emperor's storehouse on Wayland to crew his ships.

Behind the scenes
It was stated by Talon Karrde that the fleet was lost in 32 BBY (at the time of The Phantom Menace), but Captain Gilad Pellaeon set it at fifty-five years prior to the date of the story (which is set in 9 ABY.) The New Essential Chronology sets the fleet's launch at 46 BBY, but does not implicitly state it was lost the same year, although the implication is that it was lost before 44 BBY. It is far more likely that a high-ranking Imperial officer has the correct date than a smuggling chief, especially because it was stated by Karrde as being "about ten years before the Clone Wars".

Appearances

 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command