The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Hawk-bat

Description
The freighter Hawk-bat was one of the most influential ships for the Force exiles. Though not nearly as famous to the greater galaxy in its era as, say, the Millennium Falcon, the Hawk-bat was the ship that brought the Force exiles together, the vessel that set a Jedi Knight named Selusda Kraen and his companions out on a quest to unify and protect the Force-users of the galaxy from the scourge of the Empire. Records newly recovered have provided key insights into the history of this ship and its travels, including the freighter's origins.

The ship was approximately forty meters long and had a wingspan of roughly fifty meters. As its later owner, R'hask Sei'lar noted, it did somewhat resemble a Coruscanti hawk-bat, though its stern was curved instead of tapering into a point. The ship's bridge, some of its sensors, and primary weapons system was located at the fore of ship and contained four seats, though early in ownership of R'hask Sei'lar, only two were typically used. The three positions were sensors, piloting, navigation, and then the captain's chair, which also contained flight controls.

The bridge of the Hawk-bat was connected to the rest by a slender neck that also contained the ship's primary boarding hatch and airlock. The aft of the ship contained the ship's engines, cargo bay, and the crew's living space. The starboard side of the aft section was devoted to three small crew cabins, a refresher station, and a small crew lounge. The port side was largely devoted to cargo space and also had a cargo hatch with an elevator loading freight packages. The very rear of the ship was filled with the ship's engines, reactor, shield generator, and fuel cells. The gunnery stations were also located in the aft of the ship, near the neck. There was also a dorsal airlock located above the cargo hold near the ship's midline.

The wingtips of the ship were retrofitted in 40 BBY by one of the ship's owners to mount wingtip cargo pods. These pods added to the ship's cargo capacity and were intended to be easily jettisoned. They were later modified by R'hask Sei'lar to be permanent additions. Another modification Sei'lar made, this one during the Clone Wars, was the addition of a forward proton torpedo launcher scavenged from the hulk of an ARC-170 starfighter, heavily concealed, with six warheads in its magazine.

The ship had three maintenance hatches. One was located in the ship's neck, near the bridge, and allowed access to the ship's controls, the forward laser cannons, and the forward sensor cluster. The other two were in the aft of the freighter's wings, near the engine room. The Hawk-bat ' s escape pods were located in the ship's wings, one on the crew side and one on the cargo bay side.

The exterior of the ship was dotted with protrusions, sensor nodes, and other various surface irregularities. Three drive nozzles from the freighter's three Novaldex JV-73 ion engines dotted the stern of the ship, and whenever the ship set down, it was held up a tricycle-style landing gear with two struts at the rear of the ship and a forward landing claw on the underside of the hose. Four blisters, two on the dorsal side of the wings and two on the ventral side, were prominent on the ship's exterior, and, after a refit by R'hask Sei'lar, each mounted a remote-controlled laser cannon turret.

History
The Hawk-bat was originally a MandalMotors design, part of the Gauntlet-class freighter. First conceived as a swift courier ship with powerful engines and defensive systems, the class was supposed to double as a nondescript but armed transport for Mandalorian commandos, as the Mandalorians were a big customer for MandalMotors. Four concealed turrets mounted on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of each craft, meant that the ship could make hard landings and handle insertions under fire. However, only a few years after the launch of the ships, the Mandalorians, already weakened by infighting, were crushed by the Jedi Order at Galidraan.

MandalMotors moved quickly in light of the loss of its largest client. The Gauntlet class vessels that weren't completed were hastily converted into a high-end light freighter or personal transport dubbed the MandalMotors Gauntlet transport. The ship did not sell very well, except in certain well-to-do Outer Rim worlds such as Bespin, where the ship's combination of spaciousness and defensive capabilities were appreciated. However, the ships were more expensive than similar models by Corellian Engineering Corporation and Sorosuub, and did not sell well. The Gauntlet wasn't classy enough for Core and Colonies buyers and wasn't cheap or utilitarian enough for most of the Outer Rim. The gunship-turned-freighter that became the Hawk-bat bummed around from various illicit users for ten years until it eventually was seized by the Republic after being used for glitterstim smuggling. It was then sold at auction and bought by the Sei'lars, a middle-class Bothan merchant clan centered on Bothawui. The dealer that sold it to them had claimed it was a Gauntlet freighter, but in actuality, the Sei'lars had been sold an old refurbished Gauntlet-class transport with the laser cannon turrets removed. However, the heavy shielding and reinforced hull plating had been disguised; only the weapons themselves were removed, meaning that the mounts for them were still present. While originally intended by the Sei'lars to join the family's small fleet of shipping vessels, their second son, R'hask, was possessed by a strange wanderlust early in his second decade, circa 30 BBY, five years after they acquired the ship. The young R'hask had taken a liking to the ship and learned to fly it, accompanying its crew on several runs. The life of a spacer enthralled him, and he decided to start adventuring on his own. With the reluctant permission of his father, the prodigal Bothan took the ship as part of his inheritance and decided to ply the spacelanes.

Working with a Corellian friend of his, Jorgesoll Knrr, the two relatively inexperienced pilots set out to see the galaxy, working as independent shippers. The spacers quickly found that the ship, which they dubbed the Hawk-bat, took a lot more work to run than they had first thought. The expenses required to pay for two loadlifters and a cleaning droid numbered in the thousands of credits, though the droids saved the owners a lot of drudgery over the years. As it turned out, they found that four crew were usually needed to fly the ship. While Jorge and R'hask were able to hold down the piloting, the ship, which had been tinkered with during its career as an outlaw ship, needed a competent engineer, as well as a cargomaster. After spending hundreds of credits in engine repairs, the two hired a veteran space mechanic, Eregas Yonmek, to serve as the ship's engineer. The grizzled Duros served them well for the next several years, although they went through numerous cargomasters. The entrepreneurial spacefarers even managed to turn a profit running cargos&mdash;most of them legitimate. However, after a run to Af'El, they decided that they could make more credits if they took the occasional smuggling job. Contracting Defel metalsmiths, they had the inner hull lined with defelite, a material unique to Af'El that would deflect passive sensor scans. Finding that the gun mounts and turret controls were still in place, Eragas also reinstalled the laser cannon turrets, but covered them with heavy blisters that disguised them as sensor modules. Unlike on some freighters, the turrets were on remote mounts, meaning that the gunner did not have direct visual control of the turret&mdash;all aiming and operation of each turret was done from a simple station inside the ship. In combat, a simple control would fold down the blister covers, allowing the weapons to fire. However, the guns were hard to efficiently operate, as they needed four crew just to man the turrets. Originally, the guns were supposed to have been operated by Mandalorian warriors of the landing party while the crew piloted the ship to the surface, but on a freighter, the arrangement was cumbersome and no more than two could be manned at once.

In 20 BBY, while being pursued by Separatist fighters, the Hawk-bat took a laser cannon hit that caused significant damage to the stern quarter. Eragas Yonmek was slain by a power conduit explosion, and Jorge suffered a severe injury to his hand. Though R'hask, who'd taken to being called "Cap'n R'hask," rushed Jorge to the nearest medcenter and he received the best treatment that the Bothan could afford, there was still some permanent damage to his right hand. Jorge still had use of the limb, but placing a strain on it for long periods of time caused agonizing pain to shoot up and down his arm, limiting his usefulness as a pilot. Cap'n R'hask was unwilling to part ways with his old comrade, especially since Jorge could still fly for a few hours at a time. Instead, he expanded the ship's crew to add an Arkanian pilot, Daryn Drake, and also hired another engineer, a young Commenorian man named Sarth Kraen, who proved to be a technical genius, as well as a Twi'lek cargomaster, Hoph'nesi. In the next two years, Kraen upgraded the ship's shields and laser cannons, using his expertise from working at a military laboratory and his own advanced understanding of power systems and focusing arrays to create a laser blast of increased intensity. The result of this modification was that the Hawk-bat ' s laser turrets fired purple bolts of energy instead of red. Kraen also solved the turret control program by adding targeting and gunnery modules to the ship's computer core, giving it a personality that he called "Spark" when in combat mode. As such, the computer was capable of controlling all four turrets if it needed to.

The Hawk-bat continued to ply the spacelanes for another four months after that with the same crew. It was on Coruscant shortly before the rise of the Empire on an illegitimate cargo run. During that run, Cap'n R'hask and Jorge, as well as the cargomaster and pilot, took the ship across the galactic capital to meet with their business partners, some Black Sun officials. After learning of their destination, Drake quit, refusing to be associated with Black Sun and leaving R'hask without a pilot. Still, the deal had to be finalized. They left Sarth behind at a hotel, as the engineer was unaware of their occasionally disreputable activities. However, the negotiations quickly soured when Hoph'nesi revealed himself to be a spy for a rival gang. Though R'hask and Jorge were absolved of blame by an arrogant boast from the Twi'lek, the resulting shootout saw them both beat a hasty retreat. During their escape, they were saved by the quick thinking and spaceport savvy of a young woman named Cassi Trealus. Impressed by her linguistic abilities and her knowledge of bargaining, R'hask hired her as his new cargomaster.

Free of Black Sun entanglements, they reunited with Sarth, who suggested that Cap'n R'hask hire his "cousin," a man named "Micor Kraen." Since Sarth vouched for him, R'hask hired him, not knowing that his name was actually Selusda Kraen, a fugitive Jedi Knight. The Hawk-bat then departed Coruscant with a cargo of textiles, headed for Bespin. For the moment at least, Cap'n R'hask preferred to keep things aboveboard, given his new crew and the scare he and Jorge had received by dealing with Black Sun. Bespin proved to be a lucrative stop for the crew of the Hawk-bat, as they were able to sell their cargo at a hefty profit. From there, their next stop was Corellia. En route, the Hawk-bat was attacked by Corellian pirates. However, some fancy flying by Micor, as well as judicious use of two proton torpedoes, allowed the freighter to defeat the pirates, despite sustaining damage, including hull breaches in the ship's neck. A Corellian Security Force cruiser later towed them to a repair yard where the reward on the pirates helped cover the costs of making the ship spaceworthy again.

Nearly a year passed, and the Hawk-bat kept the same crew complement, though their cargo runs weren't always as profitable as they might have liked. On one run, the cargo containers of nerf meat provided by their supplier weren't sealed properly, costing them thousands of credits. Looking for cash, the crew took on a supply of scrap metal from the world of Duro and headed to Commenor. While they were there, a group of Mistryl Shadow Guards, a vicious group of female warriors, attacked Sarth and Selu, and though they were defeated, Selu sustained numerous injuries. As a result, Cap'n R'hask and Jorge took the injured crewman on the Hawk-bat to New Holstice, which was famed for its medcenter. However, they were also concealing the fact that the scrap metal they had picked up was actually an arms shipment for a group of Naboo freedom fighters, and they were supposed to meet their contact on New Holstice.

However, there were complications with the shipment, and though the arms were delivered safely, it was about two weeks before anyone returned to the Hawk-bat, adding to the docking fees. There were further complications when Imperial troops crushed the Naboo insurrection and located the partisans on New Holstice. There was a brief firefight, but R'hask Sei'lar was slain by the Empire. Not long after, Selu Kraen, accompanied by a fugitive Jedi Master named Quinlan Vos, dealt with the Imperial pursuit. Selu, Vos, and Jorge quickly decided to leave New Holstice, but Selu wanted to first check on the Hawk-bat before they lifted off.

Upon doing so, he found a runaway Thrysus Sun Guard onboard the ship, as well as a group of ship thieves who were preparing to steal the freighter. Allying with the stowaway, Milya Tayrce, Selu defeated the ship thieves. However, he also felt they needed a diversion to get the Hawk-bat away safely. As such, Selu, Milya, and Vos launched an attack on a group of Imperial troops, seizing their ships and making the run into orbit past an Imperial cruiser while Jorge took the Hawk-bat into space. After a brief tussle with the Imperial ship, they were able to slip past it and rendezvous at the edge of the system. Milya Tayrce joined the ship's crew, at least temporarily, and Selu and Vos were able to dock their stolen starfighters in the wingtip cargo pods.

The Hawk-bat ' s next destination was Nar Shaddaa, where Vos took his leave of Selu and the others to go in search of his family, guided by Devaronian rogue Vilmarh Grahrk. In light of Jorge's unwillingess to become captain due to the guilt he felt over Sei'lar's death, Selu Kraen took temporary command of the ship, returning to Commenor to reunite with Sarth and Cassi. Upon his return, he learned that the Mistryl had captured a friend of Sarth's, Annita Daowot, and were threatening to kill her unless he surrendered. Selu disguised himself as Sarth and took his brother's place, bringing a sizable computer core along with him that he had obtained from the Car'das Syndicate, a powerful underworld organization. The Syndicate wanted him to plant the core inside the Mistryl defense network in order to cripple their planetary defenses and force a surrender, and Selu had agreed to the deal while on New Holstice.

After learning what Selu had done, Jorge, Sarth, Cassi, Milya, and a new member of the crew, an ex-ARC trooper named Spectre, took the Hawk-bat and journeyed to the Mistryl homeworld of Emberlene in an attempt to rescue him. They tried to bluff their way through by posing as a pirate ship interested in working for the Mistryl, but came under attack. However, the arrival of a war fleet diverted their pursuers. They were able to pass themselves off as a courier ship and, escorted by Spectre and Milya in the two stolen starfighters, reached the surface of the planet just in time to rescue Selu. The ship took off in a hurry after that, as the computer core Selu had brought was actually a fission bomb disguised as a computer core and it was nearly ready to detonate. The Hawk-bat then escaped Emberlene as the hostile fleet began its attack on the vulnerable planet, returning to Commenor.

On Commenor, after he recovered from injuries sustained on Emberlene, Selu Kraen was chosen unanimously as the new captain, as Jorgesoll Knrr had decided to retire from the spacer's life. Selu took the Hawk-bat into the Outer Rim, saying that the crew would probably make more illegal runs. He also planned on arming the ship sufficiently that the crew could take small escort jobs in a pinch, if need be. In the Outer Rim, he had the ship upgraded by outlaw mechanic Klaus Vandangante and also purchased a pair of starfighters to permanently install in the wingtip pods for protection.

Selu and his new crew, which included veteran members Sarth and Cassi, as well as new additions Spectre and Milya, continued to make trading runs for the next two years. However, on a cargo run to Zhar with a cargo of industrial explosives, they were intercepted by an Imperial Victory-class Star Destroyer, the Corrupter, which attempted to board them. The Hawk-bat shot down several starfighters, but was caught in a tractor beam. Selu managed to break the lock by throwing their cargo into an escape pod and jettisoning it towards the Imperial ship, then firing a proton torpedo at the pod. The resulting explosion was enough to allow him to get away, though the Corrupter was in hot pursuit, guns blazing. With nowhere else to run, Selu made a blind jump into hyperspace that took the ship into Wild Space.

They emerged near a nebula with a single planetoid. Selu set the ship down there for repairs, but sensed a disturbance in the Force, which the crew eventually investigated. They found a habitable refuge there, along with spirits of eleven ancient Jedi, who trained them in the ways of the Force over the next several months and sent them out on a quest to unite and protect several groups of Force-users who were in danger of being exterminated by the Empire.

The arrival of an Imperial scout ship to the remote nebula forced the crew to take the Hawk-bat into space and seize the ship. Based on a Force vision from Milya, as well as data seized from the scout ship, Sarth and Cassi took the Hawk-bat to the remote world of Tokmia in order to contact the Jal Shey, one of the endangered sects of Force-users. They set the ship down on the peaceful world and were ultimately successful in convincing the Jal Shey to join with them. The Force-users had a ship of their own, a GR-45 medium transport, and it followed the Hawk-bat to the Hoth system for a planned rendezvous with Selu, Spectre, and Milya, who had gone on missions of their own.

Reaching the Hoth system, they reverted from hyperspace in the middle of a battle between the Empire and some pirates. Selu, Spectre, and Milya, in the captured Imperial scout ship, were detected by their old nemesis, the Corrupter, and decided to fly through the battle to give the Imperials the slip. Sarth took the Hawk-bat in after them after sending the Jal Shey ahead to the new Force exile refuge on Yanibar. However, the scout ship took damage, causing Selu to attempt a risky boarding action against an experimental Imperial ship, the Griffin, which had already been boarded by the pirates. Sarth landed the Hawk-bat inside as well, and the boarding team was able to seize the Imperial ship and headed to Yanibar after the defeat of the pirates and the crippling of the Corrupter.

Arriving over Yanibar, the Griffin destroyed an Imperial base from orbit, granting the Force exiles their new refuge. However, before the crew of the Hawk-bat could begin to settle in to their new lives, they returned to Commenor in the Hawk-bat for one last thing: the wedding of Jorgesoll Knrr and Annita Daowot. The wedding, however, was overshadowed by Imperial suspicion of both Jorge and Annita, whom were suspected to have helped harbor Jedi. As such, a number of precautions were taken, including having Spectre stand by in the Hawk-bat in case a quick extraction was needed. The precautions proved to be prudent, as the Empire did attempt to interrupt the wedding forcibly, provoking a sizable skirmish. While most of the wedding party fled through a secret tunnel, Spectre brought the Hawk-bat in to get the other crewmembers, the bride and groom, the elder Kraens, and several others who had actively fought against the Empire out of there. Although the rescue was nearly disrupted by a Dark Jedi, the ship was able to get away safely and Annita Daowot, operating one of the turrets, managed to kill a high-level Imperial advisor named Kinman Doriana who had been present at the scene.

From then on, the Hawk-bat flew a number of runs for the Yanibar colony in its early days, both across the planet and to other words. The ship was in high demand and the crew was kept busier than ever, often flying only two to three members per trip. It was also technically part of the Yanibar Guard Fleet, as Selu was the head of the overall Yanibar Guard and Milya was the Director of Yanibar Guard Intelligence. One mission offworld was conducted on Ord Cestus, where Milya had had a vision of several fugitive Jedi. The Hawk-bat was able to land and Selu, Spectre, and Milya successfully met with the Jedi, bringing them along. However, an Imperial landing force and the presence of Sith Lord Darth Vader meant that exfiltration was difficult, but thanks to a local ally who decided to join them, a woman named Sheeka Tull, most of the Jedi were successfully evacuated.

By the time the Yanibar colony had been in existence for four years, the Hawk-bat was in less demand than it previously had been. The ship had been released from Yanibar Guard service to become the personal craft of Selu and Milya, who were engaged during that time frame. It also ferried them to their honeymoon destination on Bespin after their marriage in 11 BBY. Following that, the ship remained in their possession, though a refit conducted by the defense company Kraechar Arms, founded and owned by Sarth Kraen, added countermeasures and reinforced hull plating to help protect the ship, as Selu and Milya occasionally took the ship on somewhat hazardous missions. However, their trips offworld, especially Milya's, lessened after the birth of their daughter Rhiannon. After that, the Hawk-bat spent more time in a carefully concealed and furnished hangar near the Kraen residences than out in space.

Behind the scenes
The Hawk-bat was named after the nickname for the lightsaber form Ataru, also known as the Way of the Hawk-bat. The writer of the Force Exile Series and creator of the Hawk-bat employed the moniker "Atarumaster88" on various internet sites pertaining to Star Wars, which was what influenced that particular choice of name. After the ship was named, he decided to model its external appearance on that of the canonical hawk-bat.

The Hawk-bat and its crew's adventures were inspired by the travels of the Ebon Hawk in both Knights of the Old Republic games, as well as by the Millennium Falcon. The author felt that the Force Exile Series needed a unique ship of its own to accompany the principal characters and ferry them from place to place. As such, the freighter has become a more or less permanent fixture in the series.

The name of the ship's first engineer, Eragas Yonmek, is an anagram of the slang phrase "grease monkey," which refers to a mechanic. The name of the duplicitous cargomaster, Hoph'nesi, is derived from the biblical figures Hophni and Phineas.

As stated, the appearance of the Hawk-bat was inspired by the canonical hawk-bat, though the Wraith fighter from Starcraft was also a design influence. The first depictions of the Hawk-bat were drawn using AutoCAD software and were two-dimensional drawings that contained a top view. Using layering techniques, Atarumaster88 was able to create a fully-colored exterior drawing, a deck plan, and a black and white exterior view. All three views were drawn from a top view of the ship. However, Atarumaster88 quickly became dissatisfied with the poor quality of the images and decided to instead construct a virtual 3-D model of the ship using a program called SolidWorks. Though it took months to complete, the model was eventually finished and released.

Appearances

 * Force Exile I: Fugitive
 * Force Exile II: Smuggler
 * Force Exile III: Liberator
 * Crossroads
 * Hand in Hand