Droch-class boarding ship/Legends

Droch-class boarding ship "We must keep our position secret. Send out the hunters. I want all of those lifepods destroyed."

- Count Dooku to General Grievous

The Droch-class boarding ship, also known as the pod hunter and the Separatist boarding craft, was a model of boarding craft used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Characteristics


The Droch-class was named after the Droch insect, and its Colicoid makers based its design on the toothspike raptor of Colla IV.

The Droch-class was armed with a large set of four spikes arranged around the cockpit, that were used to crush an object trapped inside the array. It usually carried a few Hunter battle droids. The pilot sat on top of the vehicle, and it could be used as a local transport for several troops, which entered and exited from a central passenger compartment.

The versatile troop transport could be used to capture enemy starships relatively intact, to be later used in covert missions.

History


Pod hunters were used at the Battle of Abregado, where they hunted down escape pods from Plo Koon's Triumphant, crushing them and killing their passengers. One of these pods was Pod 1977. Not long after, a squad of BX-series droid commandos used one to land on the Rishi moon under the cover of a meteor shower, attacking the Republic listening post there in preparation to invade Kamino. Later, Asajj Ventress and a squad of B2 super battle droids used three ships to board the Tranquility, carrying Luminara Unduli, Ahsoka Tano, and their captive Viceroy Nute Gunray, in an attempt to free the captive Gunray.

Notes and references
Enter-Stachel