A Hammerhead-class cruiser was in service during the times of the Old Republic. Its wreck was found thousands of years later on the planet Mustafar.
History[]
- "Today we located a crashed vessel of that appears to be Old Republic in origin. All the ships systems seem to be off line but functional which have our engineers baffled as to the cause of the crash. The only occupant that we were able to find of the ship was a droid of unknown design. Surprisingly, after all this time, the droid seems to be in excellent condition and our engineers are confident that they will be able to reactivate it. Maybe it will have some clues about the origin of the vessel."
- ―A Neimoidian separatist
At an unknown point in time during or after the Galactic War,[7][8][9] during the Old Republic era, the cruiser crashed on the volcanic world of Mustafar. Due to the heavy volcanic activity and evershifting landmasses, the wreck was buried underneath layers of lava, rock and ash.[10]
Thousands of years later, a huge earthquake brought the remains of the cruiser back to light.[10] It was the time of the Clone Wars and the planet was under the control of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. When the wreck was discovered, Neimoidians separatists immediately closely examined it.[2] They were very protective of the crash site and did not allow any Mustafarian the chance to examine the wreckage.[3] No records of the crash were found aboard the ship and no engineer who had examined it could explain why it crashed. Inside the wreckage, the Neimoidians found the deactivated body of an very old assassin droid. When they reactivated the droid, it went on a rampage, killing several Neimoidians and the battle droids that were supposed to protect them. The droid turned out to be none other than HK-47,[2] a rogue assassin droid that had once served Jedi Knights Revan and Meetra Surik thousands of years earlier.[11][12] The Separatist experts were amazed by the technology used in this droid, but were unable to perform a memory wipe due to its incomprehensible thought matrix. As a solution, the engineers transferred HK-47's memory and thought patterns into a functioning sub-system of the crashed cruiser and took the empty chassis with them. While the Separatist scientists studied HK-47's body in their new droid factory, the droid's AI managed to meld with the ship and took over its operational systems, forcing the scientists to seal up the ship and disconnect its uplink.[2] The cruiser was left abandoned, leaving valuable salvage behind.[3]
At the time of the Galactic Civil War, a gang of Salvage bandits had moved onto the site to claim any valuable piece of technology for their own. They were very intent upon keeping everyone else away from their prize.[3] Twenty years after the defeat of the Separatists,[2] in 1 ABY,[13] a group of spacers working for Mensix Corp explored the wreckage of the Hammerhead-class cruiser to salvage power rods[6] and to search for valuable technology. HK-47 thus used the systems of the ship to contact and trick the spacers.[10] HK-47 instructed the spacers to aid in transferring his artificial intelligence from the ship to an abandoned research facility nearby,[14] and then to an old Separatist droid factory on Mustafar.[15] This eventually allowed HK-47 to be reunited with his body and to begin the production of a large droid army.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
The wreckage of this Hammerhead-class cruiser appeared in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts,[5] prior to its closure on December 15, 2011.[16] The wreckage of Hammerhead cruiser was added to the game with the release of the expansion pack Trials of Obi-Wan on November 1, 2005. The ship could be found on the central island near the Central volcano and was surrounded by many Salvage bandits.[5] It was part of a quest surrounding the assassin droid HK-47. During this quest, the player entered the ship and accessed the ship's computers to talk to HK-47[10] and transfer him to the droid factory[15] where he was eventually reunited with his body.[2]
Appearances[]
- Exploring Mustafar on the official Star Wars Galaxies website (content now obsolete; backup link) (First appearance)
- Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Quest: "The Trouble with HK-47" on Mustafar
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Loading Screen: "Old Republic Cruiser" on Mustafar
- ↑ The New Essential Chronology
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Point of Interest: "Crash Site Excavation" on Mustafar
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Quest: "Salvage or Die" on Mustafar
- ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic — Flashpoint: "The Foundry"
- ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic — Flashpoint: "The False Emperor"
- ↑ HK-47 appears in the videogame Star Wars: The Old Republic, placing the crash during or after the events of the game
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Quest: "The Downed Ship" on Mustafar
- ↑ Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- ↑ Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
- ↑ According to its opening crawl, Star Wars Galaxies was set sometime after Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The only precise time indication in the game was given by the character Ruwan Tokai, who referenced the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin as occurring one year earlier, placing the game sometime around 1 ABY. Later, multiple elements confirmed the placement of the game storyline in 1 ABY. First, The Essential Reader's Companion established that the tie-in novel Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine took place in 1 ABY. Furthermore, the game expansion Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees was set during the Blockade of Kashyyyk, one year after the Battle of Yavin according to The Star Wars Holiday Special. Additionally, the main scenario of The Nightsister's Revenge from the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game was set over a year before the Battle of Hoth (3 ABY), so around 1.5 ABY. Finally, the reference book Strongholds of Resistance placed the events of Star Wars Galaxies's Chapter 9: "The Fury of Exar Kun" one year after the Battle of Yavin. Of note, Galaxies's Chapter 11: "The Battle of Echo Base" introduced the Battle of Hoth in the game. However, the developers were quite clear that this was only intended to be a completely isolated "Star Wars Moment" without any effect on continuity for the rest of the game.
- ↑ Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Quest: "The Transfer of the AI" on Mustafar
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan — Quest: "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" on Mustafar
- ↑ IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT STAR WARS GALAXIES™ on the official Star Wars Galaxies website (content now obsolete; backup link)
External links[]
- Crash Site Excavation on the SWG Wiki