Liquidator-class gunship

Liquidator-class Gunship

The Liquidator-class Gunship was a Sith warship, originally designed for rapid engagement of small capital ships. When the schematics were rediscovered by Khrado Ragnos approximately a century before the Battle of Yavin, the Liquidator Gunship was far too small to engage modern capital ships like dreadnaughts. Instead, Ragnos modified them heavily, replacing their heavy cannons with lasers and employing them as anti-starfighter ships. When his fleet passed to Tak Sakaros, the younger Sith Lord made additional modifications.

Characteristics and Capabilities
The Liquidator-class ships, though less bulbous and insectoid than other Sith ships, featured a number of large "bumps" along its hull, leading many enemy commanders to assume they were oddly-placed escape pods. In fact, they were durasteel-covered maneuvering engines, which could unshield and be used for complicated maneuvers at strange angles. As such, the Liquidator series could literally fly circles around other capital ships, and had the maneuverability to track enemy fighters. To make room for the complex engine arrays and the laser batteries, the Liquidator carried no fighters.

Talented and experienced commanders could use the complex maneuvering engine system to perform incredible twists and turns, surprising enemies who expected the archaic-looking ship to be slow and clunky. It was estimated that a pair of Liquidator Gunships working in tandem could bring down an entire enemy fighter wing. It was a common Sith tactic to deploy fighters forward to clash with enemy fighters, followed closely by a line of Liquidator Gunships to carve apart whatever fighters got through the Sith starfighter attack.

Trivia

 * During his brother's initial conquests, Tak Sakaros would occasionally command the anti-fighter element of the battle from the Crusader, a Liquidator-class Gunship.