Star Wars: The Empire’s Best, Experimental Scout Ship Was Stolen Almost Immediately – We break Down The Star Herald
The Star Herald was a top of the line prototype scout ship designed and built for the Galactic Empire. It was stolen almost immediately.
Of all the prototype ships and secret designs of the Galactic Empire, the multirole prototype scout ship known as the Star Herald may hold any number of Imperial advances in ship design. But we may never know how many, because it was stolen almost immediately by one Visler Korda, a former Imperial Officer who was on the outs with the Empire and forced to work in the spice mines of Kessel. Still, the prototype Star Herald remains a curious high point in Imperial ship design.
Star Herald – Design And Capabilities
The Star Herald was a scout ship commissioned by the Galactic Empire on behalf of the Imperial Navy. Chief among the design innovations developed by thee ngineers at Sienar Fleet Systems, was the long, arrowlike hull that supported so much more than just the ship’s formidable weaponry. It also supported a tractor beam projector, a rack of probes capable of air, space, and even underwater travel, as well as an experimental hyper drive, of course.
Backing up the scout capabilities brought about by the probes and experimental hyper drive, the Star Herald also boasts an impressive amount of weaponry for a “scout shp.” Starting with a pair of blaster cannons, mounted within the Herald’s signature hull. All of which came in handy during the daring “rescue mission” that saw the Star Herald depart Imperial service.
The Star Herald – A History That Starts With A Getaway
The Herald was originally commissioned around 18BBY. The Empire was in need of a good scout ship to send out on secret missions – most notably finding new hyperlanes and investigating smuggling activities. However, before the vessel could launch, it as stolen by Visler Korda.
Vizler Korda was a former Imperial officer who was once respected and rewarded by Imperial High Command. It is said that Korda had caught the attention of Darth Vader, the Dark Lord oft he sith and Palpatine’s right hand man. Korda took orders directly from Vader – though this ends about as well as can be expected: with Visler stripped of his rank and exiled to Kessel. There, the spice mines awaited.
But there, also, awaited RX-48, a manumitted piloting droid who helped Korda steal the experimental vessel. Together, the pair traveled to the Xala system in pursuit of a pair of young cartographers, Auric and Rhyssa Graf, whose children, Lina and Milo, were the target of Korda’s campaign of vegeance. However, before Korda could exact revenge, the ship was shot down on the planet Agaris, and the Graf family came to the rescue.
The Graf family repaired the ship and managed to get it away from the planet Agaris. From Agaris, the Graf family begins to turn up almost at random throughout the Galactic Civil War. Lina Graf worked alongside Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Lor San Tekka. When Skywalker needed help, Graf took the Star Herald to the Adelphi New Republic staging outpost, where Skywalker, the Grafs, and Lando Calrissian worked to save an entire family from Sith.
It was eventually used to start exploring and cataloguing Wild Space. Where it remains to this day.
May the Force be with you!
