Class VI bulk freighter

The Class VI freighter was a type of cargo hauler built by the Corellian Engineering Corporation, considered antiquated by the time of the Galactic Civil War.

The Class VI was 180m in length, and with a cargo capacity of 2,000 metric tons, and a class three hyeprdrive. In standard operation, she carried a crew of four, with provision for two passengers, and supplies for six months, but at a minimum, she could operate with a pilot and navigator.

During the initial stages of the Thrawn Crisis, Grand Admiral Thrawn used an old freighter of this class as part of a ploy to capture Luke Skywalker, simulating a routine stop-and-search manoeuvre with Chimaera and an Interdictor Cruiser. Another ship of the same class was the Hearst, launched in around 70 BBY, and used as the headquarters of the independant newsfeed Freedom Galactic News.

Images are also extant showing a ship of the same class in the Republic fleet during the Exar Kun War, several thousand years earlier.

Behind the Scenes
The name and statistics of this class derive from the entry for the Hearst in the September/October 1995 issue of the French RPG journal Casus Belli, where that ship is identified as a cargo classe VI. The illustration of the Hearst is by Fred Blanchard, artist on the Heir to the Empire comic adaption, and it clearly represents a variant of the same freighter type that would appear a few months later in December 1995's issue 3; alongside the Hearst, this issue of Casus Belli also presents the Black Lotus, a PCL 27 freighter like the ship used by Thrawn in the Sluis Van ambush in issue 6.

However, it should be noted that an earlier illustration of the ambush of Luke's X-wing in The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook shows a different freighter design - and it seems that the comic artists were aware of this image, inasmuch as they copied the distinctive twin-well interdictor from it.



Appearances

 * Heir to the Empire
 * The New Essential Chronology