The A-vek Iiluunu had a flat, ovoid hull, which was usually encircled around its outer rim by a number of spindly, branch-like appendages designed as docking arms for its coralskippers, although some vessels appear to have carried their fighters directly on the central hull.
Where they differed from other Yuuzhan Vong war vessels was their ability to carry a very large number of fighters. A typical carrier analog was expected to carry over two hundred coralskippers, and one particular example had fifteen separate docking arms that could carry at least a squadron each.
The trade-off for this impressive fighter force was a limited capability in close combat. The fighter carrier's armament of twenty plasma cannons was the same as a much smaller corvette analog, and like most Yuuzhan Vong ships its dovin basals could act as projectors to snare attacking starfighters, or as deflectors to defeat enemy weaponry, but if these were evaded, its relatively fragile central hull could be obliterated by half a dozen well-placed proton torpedos. After releasing its starfighter wings into combat, the A-vek Iiluunu would usually retreat to the edge of the battlezone, to the rear of more rugged and well-armed war vessels, where it would provide support for them, then recover its coralskippers, and any additional fighters whose own carriers had been destroyed.
As with all Yuuzhan Vong capital ships, the size of individual carrier analogs varied, but a full-sized A-vek Iiluunu was 800 meters in length.. On some ships, the complement consisted almost entirely of fighter pilots, with only a minimal command crew in addition, and hold space that could be used for the transport of several hundred prisoners; it is not clear exactly how this correlated to the theoretical complement of of 320 crew, plus 480 passengers, and 280 metric tons of cargo.
In the Yuuzhan Vong War, carrier analogs were first deployed against the New Republic at the Battle of Fondor. Equipped with new coralskippers which they had picked up in Hutt Space, and protected by a strong screen of picket vessels, a formation of a dozen carriers advanced ahead of the main Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and launched their fighters in ramming attacks against the spacedocks of the Fondor Shipyards, the associated battle stations and the defending Capital ships of the First Fleet.
Subsequently, a carrier played an important role at the Battle of Duro, confronting the Mon Calamari cruiser Poesy with several waves of fighters, while four cruiser analogs and a dozen gunships attacked other targets. A single carrier was once again present at the Battle of Talfaglio, as one of the two major war vessels in the Yuuzhan Vong fleet along with the warship Lowca, four cruiser analogs and fifteen smaller frigate analogs. Although the Lowca served as the fleet's yammosk carrier, and all the other vessels were more suited to close combat, the carrier was regarded as the most threatening warship of the force. At the Battle of Selvaris in 30 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong fleet consisted of two carrier analogs, one of them serving as command ship in the absence of a yammosk carrier, with just three smaller gunships for protection.
The A-vek Iiluunu designation does not appear in the New Jedi Order novels, but was introduced in the accompanying New Jedi Order Sourcebook.
Inconsistent statements are given about the total number of fighters which a carrier analog can deploy. The New Jedi Order Sourcebook asserts a force of "up to four" wings, each consisting of 36 coralskippers, implying a maximum of 144 and creating a curiously precise symmetry with the compliment of a New Republic Endurance-class fleet carrier; but in the novel Star by Star, Luke Skywalker believes that a vessel of this class will carry "at least two hundred" fighters, and this higher total was subequently repeated in The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels.
Although the novels Jedi Eclipse and Star by Star and the New Jedi Order Sourcebook all depict the fighters being carried on projecting launch arms around the outer circumference of a disk-shaped hull, the two carrier analogs which appear in The Unifying Force are described as carrying "clusters of coralskippers affixed like shellfish to their bone-white hulls", at least some of which deploy "from the undersides", phrasing which suggests that these vessels carry their fighters directly on the hull. These two carriers are described as carrying two broods of starfighters apiece, though the total number of coralskippers indicated by this designation is not specified.
- The New Jedi Order Sourcebook
- The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia