- "It's beautiful. I've never seen anything like it."
- ―Luke Skywalker
Shadow Chaser was a unique shuttle produced by the Second Imperium, for use by the Shadow Academy. Though she was a unique prototype, the Shadow Chaser was of a recognizably Imperial design, probably standing in the same lineage as the Theta-class and Lambda-class shuttles. Before she was stolen by Luke Skywalker and his students, Brakiss considered the Shadow Chaser to be the Shadow Academy's finest small ship.
Characteristics[]
- "The Shadow Chaser is state-of-the-art. At the moment she's the only one of her kind."
- ―Garowyn
Shadow Chaser was a small, compact ship, capable of carrying perhaps a dozen people. She had a sleek hull sheathed in nearly indestructible quantum-crystalline armor, a technology pioneered in the Sun Crusher, which gave her a distinctive oiled-silver gleam.
In the bow was a narrow cockpit with seats for two pilots and other flight crew, and the stern of the ship enclosed a small engine room, but most of the hull was taken up by a single main cabin, which contained passenger seating, with a series of escape pods in the aft bulkhead. Each of these could carry one person, but for security reasons, their homing beacon signals were encoded in a way that only the Shadow Academy could decrypt.
Other onboard amenities included several sleeping bunks and a small galley area, which were either located in the rear part of the main cabin, or else along the corridor leading aft to the engine room. There may also have been a separate cargo hold, though it is possible that the main cabin served this function as well.
The ship was armed with laser cannons in retractable turrets, and she had deflector shields in addition to her nearly impregnable hull armor.
History[]
- "But we brought the Shadow Academy's best ship back with us. And you should see the design. State-of-the-art. Not like any of the models in the manuals, Dad!"
- ―Jaina Solo
The Shadow Chaser was originally piloted by a Nightsister named Garowyn, who used it to ferry Imperial supplies to the Great Canyon Clan on Dathomir, as well as to transport new Force-sensitive recruits from her homeworld to the Shadow Academy. However, the ship was stolen when Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka, posing as promising new recruits for the Shadow Academy, threw Garowyn into one of the Shadow Chaser's escape pods and jettisoned it.
Skywalker and Tenel Ka planned to use the ship to gain access to the Shadow Academy and rescue Jacen Solo, his twin sister Jaina, and Lowbacca the Wookiee, who had been unwillingly recruited as students there. When the Shadow Chaser came out of hyperspace on the course pre-programmed in by Garowyn, the Shadow Academy de-cloaked in front of her.
Skywalker and Tenel Ka guided the craft into one of the Shadow Academy's docking bays and encountered the Solo twins, Lowbacca, and a reprogrammed M-TD. After a confrontation with Brakiss and Tamith Kai, they escaped aboard the Shadow Chaser and brought it to the Jedi Praxeum at Yavin 4. After expressing her thanks to Skywalker for rescuing her children, Chief of State Leia Organa Solo allowed Skywalker to keep the shuttle, telling him that he deserved it, and reasoning that the Academy could use a fast ship.
Subsequently, the Shadow Chaser was used as a transport by the Jedi Academy. Garowyn would later try unsuccessfully to recover her "one joy" from Jaina Solo and Lowbacca on Kashyyyk, but the shuttle did not see action during the Second Imperium's attack on Yavin 4, due to being trapped inside a hangar bay.
The Shadow Chaser was later used by Luke Skywalker to transport Raynar Thul to his family's merchant fleet.[2]
Appearances[]
- Young Jedi Knights: Shadow Academy (First appearance)
- Young Jedi Knights: The Lost Ones
- Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers
- Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
- Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege
- Young Jedi Knights: Diversity Alliance