Rhydonium

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"It's a fuel mostly been mined out on Abafar. It's volatile and dangerous."

―Gregor^[1]

Rhydonium was a volatile starship fuel. Highly explosive, it was dangerous to salvage and its fumes were harmful to human health. It could be found on Abafar, Morak, Saracor, and Tralgaria.

Description[]

"Are you seriously shooting a blaster near rhydonium!?"

RhydoniumCanister-MIA — A rhydonium canister

When poured out of its container, rhydonium appeared like spilled chrome. It could be scraped up and salvaged, but only under a high degree of safety measures, as rhydonium was dangerous to exposed skin.^[4] Inhaling rhydonium fumes could damage human vocal cords, potentially rendering someone mute. Exposure could also cause brain damage.^[5] Rhydonium was highly explosive, the explosions produced typically being extremely colorful,^[1] though the explosions caused by rhydonium mined near an Imperial refinery on Morak were only orange in color. The fuel's volatile nature meant that it was tricky to transport at ground level, necessitating a low speed otherwise the fuel would become agitated and explode.^[2]

History[]

High Republic Era[]

During the High Republic Era,^[5] around 231 BBY,^[7] the Wyke Town settlement on Loreth was attacked by^[5] a Greta, one half of a mated Gretalax pair whose Lax had been captured by town founder Layton Wyke and his followers.^[8] During the incident, Wyke's niece Pela^[5] attempted to get the creature to leave peacefully, but her uncle instead fired at the Greta while it was near multiple fuel canisters, causing an explosion which released rhydonium fumes.^[9] Pela inhaled the fumes, which affected her mind and rendered her completely mute. When Wyke later hired the monster hunter Ty Yorrick to deal with the Gretalax, he claimed the creature had been responsible for the release of the rhydonium,^[5] leaving out his own culpability in Pela's injuries.^[9] Yorrick discovered the truth during her hunt and was able to reveal the information to the settlers and reunite the Gretalax, after which it healed Pela's rhydonium-related injuries completely.^[8]

Clone Wars[]

The desert planet Abafar was heavily mined for its rhydonium, but by the time of the Clone Wars, the resources were largely played out. The remaining reserves attracted the attention of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which began extracting the fuel from a secret mining installation near the town of Pons Ora,^[10] loading it onto a captured Venator-class Star Destroyer, the Renown, as part of a plot to destroy the Galactic Republic space station Valor while it was hosting a strategy conference attended by some of the Republic's most crucial military minds.^[6]

Carida Incident — A rhydonium explosion destroys a *Venator*-class Star Destroyer.

While the mining was going on, the Republic's specialist D-Squad crash-landed on Abafar^[11] and stumbled upon the plot without initially knowing what was going on. Borkus, a local diner owner, believed the Separatists were mining the rhydonium to destroy the Venator. The D-Squad found and recruited Gregor, a clone commando who had wound up on Abafar with amnesia, so they could get past the battle droids at the spaceport and escape on a stolen Rho-class transport shuttle. During the escape, while the members of D-Squad were able to make it to the shuttle, increasing numbers of enemy droids prevented Gregor from reaching them, and he told the group to escape before detonating a massive rhydonium explosion to destroy the droids.^[10] Although Gregor survived the explosion, he was left with permanent injuries, including to his vocal cords and brain.^[12] The D-Squad discovered the Separatist plot after arriving on the Venator, and faced down Separatist droids while trying to figure out a way to stop it. While the rest of the team evacuated the Venator when it arrived in the Carida system, the astromech droid R2-D2 prematurely detonated the flying bomb, preventing the destruction of Valor. Although he was destroyed, R2's remains were recovered and he was completely rebuilt.^[6]

Imperial Era and beyond[]

"Allow me to introduce you to one of my oldest and most explosive friends, rhydonium."
"It's good to have friends."

―Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla^[13]

Around 10 BBY,^[source?] Jabba the Hutt started rhydonium mining on Abafar, Saracor, and Tralgaria.^[3]

Fourteen years after the end of the Clone Wars,^[14] rhydonium was present in Fort Anaxes, a base abandoned by the Republic, and which had become a smuggling outpost. During a supply pickup, rebels Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla used the leftover rhydonium canisters to kill fyrnocks which were threatening the two after damage to the VCX-series auxiliary starfighter Phantom had left them stranded at the base during an eclipse, the darkness of which allowed the ravenous creatures to attack them.^[13]

Rhydonium was still being used as starship fuel by the time of the Battle of Jakku. The crashed ships on Jakku's surface released rhydonium and other fuels, making the sands dangerous to scavenge, although scavengers would still search for the valuable fuel.^[4]