Ithullian ore hauler

The Ithullian Ore Hauler was a large starship in used 4,000 years by the Nessies before the rise of Palapatine's Galactic Empire. It is not one of your standard starships, since it is not manufactured but are built out of Ithullan colossus wasps which are over a kilometer in length. This unquie shape makes them distinguishable from any other type of ship. The Nessies are a humanoid species from the Stenness Node systems which is a valuable mining region in the Galactic Frontier. The Nessies began using these Ithullan wasps because they were huge and were aboundant in the Stenness Node systems.

When the wasps die, the Nessies convert their bodies into ore haulers. Their shell is also strong enough to repel blaster bolts so all the engineers have to do is carve out room for decks and equipment like: computers, electronics, sensor systems, weapons, and power generators. The rest of the space is used to carry the valuable mutonium ore. They can carry as much cargo as the largest bulk freighters used in the Galactic Core. The two ion engines are mounted on the outside of the wasps to save space inside the ship. The wasps legs have had stabilizers and manuvering jets installed on them to provided the ship with manuverability. The ship has low power defensive blasters mounted along the exterior of the ship though its main weapons are a pair of heavy turbolasers mounted in the foward section area of the thorax.

The wasps are like standard insects with a head, thorax, and abdomen, and the head houses the command area and the computers, sensors, and weapon control systems. The thorax area has the ore modules, and the abdonem contains additional bays for ore, and the ships power generators, and drive control systems, but the fuel pods take up most of the abdomen. The Nessies insist that they only make there ships out of wasps that die of natural causes, but it is well known that some of the mining colonies will pay a heavy price for a wasp carapace. This has led to Ithullan wasp poaching in the asteroid fields. Unfortunately, the Ithullan wasps are capable of defending themselves, and many poachers are often killed during hunts.

One of these ships appeared in one of the Tales of the Jedi comics where it was attacked by two pirates ships: the Marauder Starjacker and the Stenness Raider led by Finhead Stonebone who had been raiding Ithullan ore haulers. Unfortunately, Finhead had incurred the wrath of Bogga the Hutt who captured both ships by using his mighty Enforcer One.