Sith Star

Overlord-class War Galleon (modern)

''"Takariak, my boy, this is the Sith Star. She can obliterate worlds and destroy entire fleets without assistance." "I'll be more impressed if she can move, Master..."'' —Khrado Ragnos and Tak Sakaros

The Sith Star was the flagship of Khrado Ragnos, and later his apprentice Tak Sakaros. A refitted and repeatedly remodeled Overlord-Class War Galleon, the Sith Star saw service during the tenure of the Old Republic, through the Empire, and into the time of the New Republic and beyond.

Early Service
During the buildup of his fleet in the 90s BBY, the Dark Lord Khrado Ragnos realized that the grandeur and glory of the Overlord class was a value perhaps greater than the actual military efficiency of his frontline warships. He set to amending the ancient Sith designs for the ships, which were hopelessly outdated, slow, and defenseless against modern weapons. The majority of his fleet was prepared while the schematics were still undergoing revision, and the Sith began his conquests in Wild Space with what he had. However, his dreams for an all-powerful command ship did not die, and further work on the potential ship consumed most of his spare time.

By 83 BBY, the ship class was finally redone to Ragnos's satisfaction, and he set his Massassi servants to actually building it. It took another four years, but in 79 BBY the Sith Star finally entered service. The benefits of the massive war galleon were instantly apparent; the next three planets the Sith attacked surrendered without a fight when faced with the gargantuan craft. The ship became the flagship and the crown jewel of the fleet, and Ragnos commanded his armies from it. Even when he acquired his apprentice, Tak Sakaros, who preferred to fight in a Hadrago, the Dark Lord only rarely ventured into combat away from the bridge of his prized Star.

Given its size and extreme arsenal, the Sith Star had extreme power demands, but the quick and extensive conquests of the Sith allowed them to loot captured worlds which had resisted their rule, keeping the entire fleet powered. Ragnos's unusually great command of the Force allowed him to use the focusing chamber on the bridge, which drew on his power to personally control much of the ship's operation.

During the disastrous Battle of Khar Delba in 61 BBY, the Sith Star was only lightly damaged by enemy fire, due to its ability to route most of its enemies. However, enough of the rest of the fleet was damaged that Ragnos was forced to retreat. He left his fleet in a dormant state, charging his Massassi servants to maintain it, and vanished on his own errands of exploration into the Core.

Dormancy
Sithmaster's absence lasted a very long time, and many of his Massassi died off due to malnutrition, age, or adverse effects of the Sith cloning procedures which had birthed them. However, Kartok and other senior commanders were able to keep them in line and obedient, dutifully awaiting the return of a master who all appearance suggested had abandoned them.

Ragnos did, however, return in 25 BBY, intent on upgrading and rearming his forces so as to slaughter his way toward the Core. The instability of Chancellor Palpatine's government made it clear that threats on the Rim would go unheeded, especially with the growing Separatist Crisis. The depletion of his manpower forced Ragnos to grow more clones, which he quickly put to work. However, shortly after the fleet was fully rearmed and prepared for war, word reached the Dark Lord that war had erupted.

Pleased with the eruption of the Clone Wars, Sithmaster went ahead with his planned conquest. In its decline, the Republic might have only mustered token opposition to him; embroiled in a civil war, it ignored him entirely. Feeling confident that he could dispatch Count Dooku if the need arose, Ragnos simply mopped up the pirates and local defense forces which opposed him, acquiring more Outer Rim systems as he gradually crept toward Republic space. However, when Palpatine proclaimed himself Emperor of the galaxy, with a so-called Dark Lord of the Sith at his right hand, an incensed Ragnos went to the core to personally dispose of the men he considered usurpers, assuring Kartok that he would return immediately to finally begin the swing into the Mid-Rim.

He never returned.

The Sith Star remained the command center of the Sith fleet, given its size and prominence. Kartok kept his master's last wishes, though after a few years of stagnant isolation, he suspected from experience that they might be waiting quite some time. With the fleet's commander dead and knowledge of the fleet's location lost with him, the Sith Star was forgotten for another two decades.

Rediscovered
In the first decade after the Battle of Yavin, the long-lost Tak Sakaros, guided by the Force, discovered his brother's fleet. Revealing Sithmaster's death to Kartok, the Sith Lord assumed command of the fleet and the loyalty of the Massassi, and immediately took over the Sith Star as his flagship.

Under Sakaros's leadership, the fleet embarked on a series of conquests along the Rim. Opting not to test the New Republic and its reborn contingent of Jedi Knights, the Sith Lord kept his conquests to systems outside the Republic's sphere of control. Tak's son Khrado also tried his hand at commanding the fleet, and unlike his father and brothers, was strong enough to use the Star's Force-powered control system.

After the Sith ground forces were decimated at the Battle of Dorian IV, Tak and Tariun Sakaros escaped in the Sith Star with what remained of their fleet. It remained their main base while in hiding at the Denarii Nova, and was the Sith command ship during the entire war against the Yuzzhan Vong. The Star was badly damaged during the Battle of Coruscant, and nearly destroyed in the course of the Nar Shaddaa Rescue, and accordingly it spent months in dry dock both times being repaired. However, due to financial backing from Arba the Hutt and the Alliance military, much of this expense was taken of the shoulder of Sakaros, and the Sith Star's guns remained active, slaughtering countless Vong ships.

In the decades that followed, throughout all of his adventures, Tak Sakaros continued to use the Star as his command ship, though day-to-day command of the ship and the fleet around it sometimes devolved on his son Tariun. When Rin Sakaros came under her father's active protection, she was often kept secure in the ship, which Tak considered nearly impregnable and one of the safest places in the galaxy. When the Sith fleet took over defensive duties at Naboo, especially during the time when Tak Sakaros served as that system's Senator, the Sith Star took on the added role as flagship of the system defense force.

Rin
Following her duel with her father, Rin Sakaros assumed command of the Ta'asyak Za'vek and took the Sith Star as her command ship. She moved the Force control system to her personal quarters, where she was able to better focus on pinpoint use of the Force without external distractions, though she kept a video link to the bridge in case it proved necessary. Rin also had several ships in the fleet, including the Star, updated again to match modern technology, though many of the details were left to her brother.

Special Features

 * The Sith Star was painted jet black with red streaks down the hull, which Ragnos thought made it look more frightening (and, when running lights were dimmed, could cause it to blend in to the black of space).
 * Tak Sakaros installed an arboreal retreat near the center of the ship, in which he kept a small colony of ysalamiri. Sakaros occasionally preferred to meditate without the Force, to remind himself of where he would be without it. He and his sons also practiced martial arts here.
 * The command deck, like that of all Overlord Galleons, featured a focusing chamber, in which the entire ship could be controlled by a single powerful Sith Lord. Both Khrado Ragnos and Khrado Sakaros are known to have used it for this purpose. Rin Sakaros used it as well, though she moved the chamber to her personal quarters.
 * The Star was equipped with a two-part slave-rig system.
 * The ship could be networked to and controlled from the bridge, effectively providing an alternative to the focusing chamber for less powerful commanders (like Tak Sakaros and his son Tariun).
 * Alternatively, the entire surrounding fleet could be rigged to the Sith Star, so all ships could be commanded to jump to hyperspace at once.