Zhug Ship

This ship was a Heraklon-class transport ship utilized by the Zhug brothers, a bounty hunter group during the years of the Dark Wars. In 3,951 BBY, they took a job to collect the bounty on a former Jedi Knight, the Jedi Exile, set by the Exchange. As the Zhugs were chasing her on her way to Onderon, both the Exile and the bounty hunters were forced to land on Onderon's moon Dxun after taking damage from a blockading Onderon separatist fleet above the planet. The ship was destroyed in the crash-landing and its crew was killed by the Exile and her companions soon afterward.

Description
This ship was a versatile Heraklon-class frigate-type transport starship, a model manufactured by Sadon Shipwrights that saw a wide use in the Republic during the time around the Jedi Civil War.

History
Some time prior to the end of the Dark Wars, a Duros bounty hunter group the Zhug brothers obtained the Heraklon-class ship. In 3,951 BBY, the Exchange crime lord G0-T0 set a bounty on a former Jedi Knight, the Jedi Exile. The Zhugs took a job to collect the bounty.

When the Jedi Exile arrived on the moon Nar Shaddaa in order to find out the source of the bounty on her head, the Zhug brothers made two attempts to claim the bounty. Their failure in both attempts resulted in the loss of Azanti Zhug, one of their leaders. After the attacks, they pursued the Jedi's small freighter, the Ebon Hawk, with their ship on her way off the moon.

When the Ebon Hawk and the Zhug brothers' ship arrived in the Onderon system, both parties encountered an Onderon separatist blockade, prohibiting them from entering the planet Onderon's capital city, Iziz. Soon after, the separatist fleet opened fire on the blockaded Republic ships in the opening of the first battle of the Onderon Civil War. The Zhugs' ship took its share of the shots and the inflicted damage caused the ship to fall down from the sky, crash-landing into the jungles of the Onderon's moon Dxun. Two Zhug brothers, following Zhug leader Dezanti Zhug, survived the crash-landing that wrecked their ship, while the Jedi Exile's freighter landed nearby. Soon the Zhugs encountered the Jedi and her party, only to fail in claiming the bounty on the Jedi Exile, as their attack on her resulted in the death of the Zhugs trio by the Exile and her companions.

As a result of the destruction of the Zhug brothers' ship, sales of Heraklon-class transports decreased due to its damaged reputation. Eventually the change in the marketing to focus on the safety in case of an accident returned the sales to profitable level, ensuring the continuation of production.

Commanders and crew
In the ship's final mission, it was operated by three Zhug brothers, including the leader, Dezanti Zhug.

Behind the scenes
The Zhug brothers' ship was first introduced in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, a video game released by Obsidian Entertainment at the end of 2004. In the game, the player controlling the Jedi Exile is allowed to visit several planets after leaving Telos IV. This article assumes that the Jedi Exile visits Nar Shaddaa before traveling to Onderon's moon Dxun, as presented in the game's Prima Official Game Guide. Several ships of the same class were briefly seen in the cutscene when arriving on Onderon, waiting in the blockade. Soon after, the Zhugs' ship is found as a wreckage on the surface of Dxun. Although the game doesn't name the ship, the game model is labeled as "Zhug Ship" in the game dialogue file.

The Zhug brothers' ship received its class alongside the technical description and history of the model in Message to Spacers 9, an article written by Patrick Stutzman and released in 2007 as an online supplement for Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The article also contained details of the events that led to the Zhug brothers crash-landing on Dxun, identifying that the damage had been caused by Onderon separatist forces under Colonel Tobin's command.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords