Vector (Star Destroyer)

Vector was an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer of the Imperial Navy in service prior to the Battle of Yavin.

History
At an undetermined point in 1 BBY, the ship's crew, under orders from Darth Vader, arrived at the planet Meglumine to retrieve materials related to the Blackwing virus, and take them to a testing facility at the planet Khonji Seven. However, one of the tanks containing the virus breached as the ship traveled into the Mid Rim, infecting the majority of the crew and mutating them into mindless creatures. Traveling onboard the Vector had been at least 46,700 Imperial personnel (including the 9,700 stormtroopers on board). Almost all of this number were killed by the virus. 30 men managed to seal themselves off in one section of the ship, including Commander Gorrister, and took refuge on the shuttle Freebird.

Ten weeks later, the prison barge Purge happened across the vessel, having suffered damage to its engines. A team from the barge, led by Captain of the Guard Jareth Sartoris, boarded Vector to salvage components from the ship's engines. Within hours of the crew returning to Purge, however, the majority of the barge's population would also contract the virus and fall victim to it. Following these events, the survivors on-board Purge, with no chance of escape on the barge, boarded Vector in an attempt to utilize it as an escape vessel. Of the six survivors who left the Purge and entered the Star Destroyer, only four escaped.

Behind the scenes
Vector is one of the primary settings of the novel Death Troopers, written by Joe Schreiber. The ship is unnamed in the actual novel, but is mentioned in the in-universe Twitter account of an Imperial Stormtrooper set up prior to the book's release, detailing his life on-board the Vector prior to the events described in the novel.

Appearances

 * Stormtrooper TK 329 (TK329) on Twitter
 * Death Troopers