Jade Shadow

"By the time we're through with her, the Jade Shadow will put the Falcon to shame."

- Lando Calrissian

The Jade Shadow was a heavily modified SoroSuub Horizon-class Star Yacht owned by Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker, which replaced her previous ship, Jade Sabre.

History
After her previous ship Jade Sabre was destroyed on Dantooine during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of that planet, Mara Jade Skywalker found herself without a ship&mdash;but that situation didn't last long. Within a few months of the attack on Dantooine, Lando Calrissian gave Mara the gift of a SoroSuub space yacht that he had recently purchased from spice merchants. Lando's wife, Tendra, dubbed the ship Jade Shadow because of its non-reflective gray hull.

Like thousands of star yachts that cruised the galaxy, the Jade Shadow was built around a sturdy frame that was fairly wide at the engines and tapered off until it reached the narrow, triangular cockpit. While most star yachts were used for pleasure, in the chaos of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Mara and her friends joined forces to transform an ordinary, utilitarian vessel into a powerful tool for the New Jedi Order.

A pair of retractable Corellian Engineering Corporation AG-1G laser cannons were installed with the help of Lando and Talon Karrde. The cannons were mounted on turrets which allowed them to have a wide firing arc. They also equipped the vessel with two concealed Dymek HM-8 concussion missile launchers. The launchers carried magazines of eight high-yield missiles. The ship also sported a retractable blaster cannon. All of the weapons systems onboard the Shadow were connected to a central targeting computer that was configured with many different options and settings. One of the most notable was the "shoot-back" setting, which directed the ship's targeting computer to automatically shoot down any craft that opened fire on the Shadow.

Han Solo worked to increase the ship's speed, fine-tuning the twin ion drives and reworking the hyperdrive to allow the Shadow's speed to be on par with Han's own Millennium Falcon, though her yacht-class drive units limited the Jade Shadow's towing capacity. Han also added an advanced long-range sensor suite, complete with port and starboard visual scanners, jamming devices, sensor decoys and false transponder codes, which allowed the ship to slip through defenses without revealing who her true owner is. Like her previous ships, the Jade Shadow was equipped with a remote-controlled slave circuit, that could summon the starship over short distances.

Mara also added a powerful, but costly holographic communications array that had enough range to send and receive messages from Coruscant to the Outer Rim Territories. With help from her husband Luke Skywalker, Mara installed a tractor beam projector and reconfigured the aft docking bay to contain her modified Z-95 Headhunter starfighter or even carry an entire X-wing, which usually belonged to Luke. Husband and wife also added an autopilot system, which was programmed with a variety of evasive maneuvers. The Jade Shadow also allowed for an astromech droid to plug into and fly the ship at a droid station located on the flight deck. Many of the systems on board were voice-activated. When piloting the craft, system data was displayed on unobtrusive holograms synced to a retinal tracker, which positioned these readouts just outside the pilot's forward line of sight.

Although the Jade Shadow was equipped with several support features to allow Mara to operate the starship alone, the bridge was designed for a pilot, copilot, and navigator. Above the cockpit was a large, transparisteel canopy that provided breathtaking views of space, and a crystal clear image of enemy starships.

Behind the scenes
In the Fate of the Jedi series the beginning of each chapter contains a picture of the Jade Shadow, possibly due to the fact that Luke and Ben Skywalker are traveling in it throughout the series.

Appearances

 * Balance Point
 * Recovery
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force
 * Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Outcast
 * Omen
 * Abyss
 * Backlash
 * Allies
 * Vortex
 * Conviction
 * Ascension
 * Crucible