ST 321

"Inform the commander that Lord Vader's shuttle has arrived."

ST 321 was the comm unit designation of a Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle belonging to Supreme Commander Darth Vader. The transport most notably ferried the Dark Lord of the Sith in 4 ABY to the second Death Star, which was undergoing construction above Endor.

Characteristics[]

Shuttle1080i — ST 321 in the *Executor*'s hangar

ST 321 was equipped with sensor jammers, specialized tactical displays, and other modified features, such as advanced targeting systems.^[3]^[4] The "ST" in the shuttle's designation stood for "space transport."^[5] It was escorted by a contingent of TIE/LN starfighters, which included Black 11.

Darth Vader's shuttle featured a meditation chamber aboard similar to the one on his flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor.^[6]

History[]

"Command station, this is ST 321. Code clearance blue. We're starting our approach."

―Captain Yorr, approaching the second Death Star^[2]

One of ST 321's earliest uses was in 18 BBY, where it was returning Emperor Palpatine and the Supreme Commander,^[7] Darth Vader from Yinchorr. It was boarded by six stormtroopers cloned from Sa Cuis's genetic template led by the treacherous Emperor's Hand Sheyvan, alongside Lieutenant Erv Lekauf and cloned stormtroopers derived from the latter's template. During the journey, the ambitious Dark Jedi made his bid to usurp the two reigning Sith Lords, resulting in a skirmish; the engagement ended with Vader killing Sheyvan in a quick duel. The loyal Lekauf, however, was severely burned from the fires aboard the vessel.^[8]

ColonelJendon-SWM — Colonel Jendon was co-pilot with Captain Yorr prior to the Battle of Endor.

Throughout the Imperial Period and the Galactic Civil War, the Supreme Commander utilized the shuttle when he needed to make a personal appearance to motivate the Imperial forces.^[9] In 1 ABY,^[10] Vader—accompanied by a unit of Triumphant-class dark troopers—used this shuttle during the operations Molecular Clamp, Sieve, Lumberjack, Overlord, Green Light, Take Down, Clenched Fist and Dark Glory to travel to the cities of Bestine, Coronet and Theed, respectively.^[11] In addition, he used the shuttle to travel to Theed during Empire Day Festivities to personally present several dedicated Imperial officers with awards for acts of service and loyalty to the Empire.^[12] A year later, Lord Vader used the shuttle to travel to Bespin during its occupation by Imperial forces to coerce its administrator, Lando Calrissian, who was also a former acquaintance of Captain Han Solo, into delivering him, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca to him. After losing young Jedi trainee Luke Skywalker during their duel, he used the shuttle to return to his flagship, the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor.

Shortly before the Battle of Endor, the ST 321 ferried Lord Vader from the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Avenger to the second Death Star.^[13] Luke Skywalker used this shuttle to escape the battlestation along with his deceased father.^[14] The Jedi Knight got to the late Sith Lord's shuttle relatively easily, as the Imperials were in the middle of an evacuation at the time.

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Behind the scenes[]

The Return of the Jedi radio dramatization states that Luke escaped the second Death Star in Emperor Palpatine's shuttle. The novel The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader counters this by stating that the escape was made in Vader's shuttle. This is supported by Starships of the Galaxy, which states that Palpatine's shuttle was destroyed with the second Death Star.

The shuttle later reappeared in the 1997 re-releases of The Empire Strikes Back when Vader returned to the Executor during the film's climax, largely due to their reusing the scene of Darth Vader's arrival on the Death Star II from Return of the Jedi.^[15]