Ithullian ore hauler



The Ithullian ore haulers were large starships in use circa 4,000 BBY. Unlike standard starships, it was not manufactured, but built out of Ithullian colossus wasp corpses, giant insectoids over a kilometer in length. This unique design easily distinguished them from any other type of ship. These ships were used by the humanoid Nessies of the Stenness Node systems, a valuable mining region in what was then the galaxy's frontier.

Ithullan wasps were abundant in the Stenness Node systems, which gave the Nessies a ready source of hulls. When a wasp died, the Nessies converted its carapace into an ore hauler. The Nessies insisted that they only made their ships out of wasps that died of natural causes, but it was well known that some of the mining colonies would pay a high price for a wasp carapace. This led to Ithullan wasp poaching in the asteroid fields. Unfortunately for the poachers, the Ithullan wasps were quite capable of defending themselves, and many poachers were killed during hunts.



Their shell was sealed from the vacuum of space, and strong enough to repel blaster bolts, so all the engineers had to do was carve out decks and cargo holds, and connect equipment like computers, sensors, weapons, and power generators. The cargo holds of these behemoths could carry as much valuable mutonium ore as the largest bulk freighters of the Core Worlds. Two ion engines were mounted on the outside of the wasps to save space inside the ship. The wasp's legs had stabilizers and jets installed on them to provide the ship with maneuverability. The ship had low power defensive blasters mounted along the exterior of the ship in addition to its main weapons, a pair of heavy turbolasers mounted in the forward section of the thorax.

Like standard insects, Ithullan wasps had a head, thorax, and abdomen. After conversion into an ore hauler, the head housed the command area, the computers, the sensors, and the weapon control systems. The thorax contained the ore modules, and the abdomen contained additional bays for ore, the ship's power generators, the drive control systems, and the fuel pods which took up most of the abdomen.



Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic