Marauder Starjacker

"Ore pirates, Captain Gruna! They're attaching to the hull!"

- A crewmember of Gruna's ore hauler, during the Marauder Starjacker attack

The Marauder Starjacker was a modified E-2 asteroid mining vehicle captained by pirate Finhead Stonebone in the years leading up to the Great Sith War. Originally an ordinary mining ship, the Starjacker and its sister ship, the Stenness Raider, were captured some time before 4,000 BBY by Stonebone's pirate gang and modified extensively to make them more suitable for ore raiding. In 4,000 BBY the Marauder Starjacker was involved in an attempted attack on an ore hauler commanded by the Nessie captain Gruna. The Marauder Starjacker destroyed the hauler's defenses and began to siphon the ship's valuable mutonium ore, only to be captured by the Enforcer One, the dreadnaught flagship of local crime lord Bogga the Hutt, who was protecting the ore hauler. The captured pirates were brought before Bogga on Vo Dasha, where Bogga enlisted Stonebone to go to the desolate planet of Ambria in order to retrieve a lost shipment of Adegan crystals from Bogga's sworn enemy, Jedi Master Thon. Stonebone, along with a gang of pirates and Hutt enforcers, went to Ambria in the Marauder Starjacker; however, they were defeated by Thon and his Jedi trainee, Nomi Sunrider.

Description
"Dreebo to Enforcer One&hellip; we've got two ore-suckers on the whitebeam run."

- Dreebo

The Marauder Starjacker was an E-2 asteroid mining vehicle manufactured by Byblos Drive Yards. The ship had mechanical pincers that could grapple asteroids and plasma drills that could blow them into smaller chunks, alongside suction tubes that could suck up what remained, which made it an excellent mining vessel. However, as the ship was under the ownership of the pirate Finhead Stonebone, the Starjacker was used for criminal purposes, particularly siphoning ore from ore-hauling ships. To this end, the pincers were used to grab and immobilize targets, the drills used to rip open the hull, and the tubes to suck out the ore. The Marauder Starjacker measured out to be 110 meters long, and could carry 200 tons of cargo. To increase his chance of success in his raids, Stonebone replaced the Starjacker normal engines with Corellia StarDrive microthrusters. These were not the only modifications that Stonebone made to the ship; after taking possession of the Starjacker, his engineers moved the plasma drills to the front of the ship to use as weapons, with a trio of power generators feeding each drill. Also, the prismatic drill crystals were modified to give the weapons a longer range. Although the drills lacked the range of laser cannons, they were more than powerful enough to punch through the hulls of Ithullian ore haulers.

Stonebone made several other modifications to the layout of the ship as well. His engineers reinforced the tips of the Starjacker digging claws with monomolecular slicers, making the claws capable of slicing through thick armor plating. He also removed the ship's filtering system, as the ship would only be sucking in pure ore&mdash;this action also increased the ship's cargo space by a third. Another modification made to the Marauder Starjacker was the removal of the ship's mining stations, allowing for enough space to contain more than one hundred raiders for boarding missions. Two maneuvering thrusters were located on top of the ship near the engines at the rear. The bridge was directly at the front of the Starjacker, with a rectangular-shaped viewport.

History
"Start suckin' up the ore!"

- Finhead Stonebone

The Marauder Starjacker and her sister ship, the Stenness Raider, began service as ordinary E-2 mining vessels. When Captain Finhead Stonebone set out to begin raiding Ithullian ore haulers, made from the carapaces of colossus wasps, he knew that E-2s could be useful, so he decided to obtain some to help with his ore-raiding endeavor. Stonebone subsequently attacked a mining operation near the Varl system and stole both the Marauder Starjacker and the Stenness Raider, after which his engineers modified them extensively to make them more suitable for ore raiding. Both E-2s were then used in raids on the ore haulers. In 4,000 BBY, the Marauder Starjacker was involved in an attempted attack on one particular Ithullian ore hauler, commanded by the Nessie captain Gruna. Although the vessel was protected by local crime lord Bogga the Hutt, the Starjacker had no problem reaching the hauler and attaching to its hull. One of Bogga's enforcers, Dreebo, attacked the Marauder Starjacker in his light tactical fighter, but a well-placed shot by Stonebone's gunner C'borp destroyed the starfighter.

Finding the ore hauler defenseless, the Marauder Starjacker went to work, puncturing the ship's hull. The Starjacker suction tubes were deployed to suck up the valuable mutonium ore, while a group of boarding troops, including Stonebone and his first mate Roko, descended down into the gutted ore hauler to take possession of what remained. However, their success was short-lived; Bogga's flagship, the dreadnaught Enforcer One, appeared and caught both the Marauder Starjacker and the Stenness Raider in its tractor beam. The ships were brought into the Enforcer One hangar, where Bogga's enforcer Grimorg took the pirates prisoner. The pirates were brought to Bogga's estate on the moon of Vo Dasha, where Bogga brought the marauders before him. Bogga enlisted the pirates to travel to the desolate planet of Ambria to retrieve a lost shipment of Adegan crystals from Bogga's sworn enemy, Jedi Master Thon. Bogga sent a contingent of his own men to accompany with Stonebone and the pirates, and the group took the Marauder Starjacker and the Stenness Raider to the desolate planet of Ambria, where Thon waited. The pirate and enforcer gang parked the ships in low orbit, and took sail barges onto the planet's surface. However, in a confrontation with Thon and his Jedi trainee Nomi Sunrider, the group was decimated and defeated, and the few survivors forced to flee.

Commanders and crew
"That's it, cap'n! We're all rich!"

- Roko

Although originally an ordinary E-2 asteroid mining ship, upon its theft pirate captain Finhead Stonebone became the Marauder Starjacker captain. Stonebone ordered the many modifications performed on the Starjacker in order to make it a more suitable raiding ship. Stonebone was assisted on the Marauder Starjacker by his first mate and good friend Roko, who often joined the boarding team which would descend into targeted ships. The Marauder Starjacker had a crew of fourteen, with four gunners: one of these was C'borp, Stonebone's chief gunner. The Marauder Starjacker also maintained a team of more than 100 raiders reserved for boarding missions.

Behind the scenes
The Marauder Starjacker first appeared in Tales of the Jedi: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, the second story arc of the Tales of the Jedi comic book series, written by Tom Veitch and released over late 1993-early 1994. The Starjacker appeared in both the second and third and final issues of the arc. In these appearances the Marauder Starjacker was illustrated by David Roach. Further information on the Marauder Starjacker was given in Bill Smith's 1996 reference book The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels and later that same year in George R. Strayton's Tales of the Jedi Companion. The ship was also mentioned in an article in Star Wars Insider 26, and garnered entries in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the third edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe,, and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi 4: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, Part 2
 * Tales of the Jedi 5: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, Part 3