Corsair (Derriphan-class)

The Corsair, a Derriphan-class battleship, was a well-armored capital ship that could sustain a large amount of damage despite its lack of shielding. Its heavy armor allowed the ship to concentrate its fire on individual enemy ships, although its small complement of six starfighters forced it to rely on its point-defense weapons for most of its anti-fighter protection. 215 meters long, the Corsair required a crew of only twenty-five but could hold up to 850 passengers, 5,000 tons of cargo, and one year's worth of consumables. Able to contain two shuttles alongside six starfighters, the battleship was armed with a battery each of point-defense laser cannons and heavy concussion missile launchers, which each had a payload of sixty missiles. The ship had several antenna-like protrusions extending from its roof, and two blocks of six engines each on its stern. The Corsair put into use a navigation computer, and had a Class 4 hyperdrive. The Corsair had a sort of cone shape, with the bridge located at the top and several jagged spires at the bow. There were similar appendages located at the bottom of the ship.

Surrounded by viewports, the command deck was where many of the ship's crewmembers worked, monitoring the ship's systems and weapons. The bridge also contained at least one laser cannon. The ship had light-green plating. The Corsair was rather nimble for its size, even able to navigate between stars in tightly packed clusters. These characteristics all were standard for the Derriphan-class battleship. However, the Corsair was no ordinary battleship. Within the Corsairs command deck, a platform with many Force-enhancing Sith magic crystals rose from the ship's floor. These crystals had immense, nigh-unimaginable power; they were able to interfere with stars themselves, the scope of their abilities ranging from creating solar flare activity to tearing out the star's core. However, the incredible power of these crystals was very hard to control by individuals not trained in their use.

The Corsair was one of the battleships that served Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow during his rule over the Sith Empire in a secluded region of the Outer Rim, around 5000 BBY. However, the Corsair was different from the other Derriphan-class warships employed by the Sith during that time, as it was equipped with powerful Sith magic crystals that were potent enough to wrench out the heart of a star. That year, due to the arrival of two explorers from the Galactic Republic, Human siblings Gav and Jori Daragon, the expansionist Dark Lord learned the location of Republic space and began preparations to invade. The Corsair was selected as one of the main flagships of Sadow's invasion fleet. After amassing a sizable force, the Sith armada jumped through hyperspace and began their attack on the Republic. But toward the end of the war, Gav Daragon, who by that time had become one of Sadow's highest-ranking generals, started to doubt if he was doing the right thing by serving the Sith.

After an encounter with his sister during a battle at their home planet Koros Major, Gav decided to rebel against the Dark Lord. Daragon confronted Sadow at the star Primus Goluud, where Sadow was sequestered while he commanded the war effort, and fired upon his Sith Meditation Sphere. The ever-devious Sadow tricked Daragon into meeting him face-to-face on the Sith craft, but by the time Daragon reached the Meditation Sphere, Sadow had escaped. A Republic fleet soon arrived on the scene; when Gav offered to help them battle the Dark Lord, Sadow recalled what was left of his forces and returned to Primus Goluud in the Corsair. A brief skirmish ensued between the two sides, a battle that ended when Sadow used the power of the Corsair to trigger solar flares in Primus Goluud, killing Gav Daragon and covering the Sith retreat back to their worlds.

After fleeing the Republic fleet at Primus Goluud, the Corsair and the rest of Sadow's battered invasion fleet returned to Sith Space. However, they were promptly greeted by an old nemesis, Ludo Kressh, a Sith Lord and rival of Naga Sadow's who was believed dead. As it happened, Kressh had faked his death and built a massive fleet, claiming the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and awaiting Sadow's return from the war. After some verbal sparring between Sadow and Kressh, a battle broke out. Sadow, commanding his forces from the Corsair, eventually won the battle after ordering a damaged vessel to crash into Kressh's flagship, killing the self-proclaimed Dark Lord. Unfortunately for him, Sadow's forces received very little time to recover, as shortly after they were attacked by a Republic fleet led by Empress Teta of the Koros system, who had followed coordinates given to them by Gav Daragon to reach the Sith worlds.

The Corsair was damaged heavily during this second battle, with its systems failing and weapons spent. The battle was lost, but Sadow had one more trick up his sleeve. Ordering his remaining ships to form a barricade, Sadow maneuvered the Corsair in between the twin stars of the Denarii Nova and used the ship's power to create massive solar flare activity and destroy any pursuing ships. Teta's forces departed, thinking he was dead, but Sadow had escaped in the Corsair. Now the only remaining ship from the invasion fleet, the Corsair jumped into hyperspace and limped to Yavin 4, an isolated moon in the Outer Rim. Sadow landed the Corsair in a burned clearing on the forested moon and began life anew with his Massassi followers. The exiled Dark Lord built the Temple of Fire around the Corsair, where it would remain for over a thousand years.

In 3997 BBY, the Corsair was rediscovered by a young Human and former Jedi named Exar Kun. Kun had been sent to Yavin 4 by the spirit of former Dark Lord Freedon Nadd, who sought to turn the powerful Force-user to the dark side. However, Kun used his newfound dark powers to dispel Nadd's spirit, claiming the title of Dark Lord for himself. Curious about the secrets of the dark side, Kun began research into Yavin 4's mysteries, leading him to discover the Corsair in the Temple of Fire in which it had resided for a thousand years. It was a fortunate turn of events for Exar Kun, as his personal starship, the Starstorm One, had been destroyed by hostile Massassi upon his arrival on Yavin 4, leaving him stranded.

Even after a thousand years of disuse, the Corsair was still perfectly preserved—although it needed maintenance before it was fully spaceworthy again—and Kun soon set out on a mission aboard the mighty warship. Before Kun destroyed the spirit of Freedon Nadd, he felt Nadd contact other students to warn them of Kun's power; therefore, Kun resolved that he would find these other students of Nadd and kill them. Kun flew the Corsair to the planet Empress Teta, where Human Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma, another trainee in the dark ways, was staying. However, Kun did not kill Qel-Droma; instead, on orders from the spirit of dead Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos, he took the Jedi as his Sith apprentice and pledged to wage war on the Republic and the Jedi Order.

By the next year, the Great Sith War between Kun's forces and the Republic was in full swing. However, after a failed assault on the Republic capital of Coruscant, Ulic Qel-Droma was taken prisoner and put on trial in the Galactic Senate chamber. Upon learning of Qel-Droma's detainment, Mandalore the Indomitable, leader of the Mandalorian warrior clans that had pledged allegiance to the Sith cause, flew to Yavin 4 to inform Kun of the development. The two discussed the recent matter beside the Corsair, and they agreed that they needed to fly to Coruscant and free Qel-Droma. They did so in the Corsair, along with a large Massassi force, and succeeded in their mission. With Qel-Droma safely delivered from Republic custody, Mandalore the Indomitable revealed that Qel-Droma's lover, the Human Aleema Keto, a skilled Sith magician and ruler of the Empress Teta system, had betrayed him and allowed him to be captured. After the group's return from Coruscant, Kun and Qel-Droma devised a plan to rid themselves of Keto and Crado, a Cathar Dark Jedi who had failed the Sith Lords too many times.

Assigning their targets to lead an attack on the outpost of Kemplex Nine, Kun and Qel-Droma gave Keto and Crado the Corsair to command, as Kun taught Keto how to use the ship's dark power. The Corsair traveled to Kemplex Nine and assaulted the station, luring a Republic fleet and a team of Jedi to investigate. Meanwhile, Keto and Crado hid the Corsair in the heart of the Cron Cluster, a dense group of stars located close to Kemplex Nine. When the Jedi arrived, Aleema Keto used the ship's ancient power to tear out the core of one of the Cron Cluster's stars and use it as a weapon, utterly destroying the joint Jedi/Republic force. However, it was then that Keto and Crado realized that they had been tricked. Just as Kun and Qel-Droma wanted, the star imploded, even after Keto shut down the weapon's power source. The incident created a massive supernova, which obliterated the ancient Corsair and killed both Keto and Crado. Around the era of the Treaty of Coruscant, Kel Dor Jedi Master Gnost-Dural mentioned the Corsair during one of his video logs about the history of the galaxy, recorded in the Jedi Archives.

The original captain of the Corsair was the Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow, who used the vehicle as one of the flagships of his invasion fleet during the Great Hyperspace War. Sadow used it as his personal battleship, and, after seeing action in several major battles under Sadow's command, it ended up being the sole remaining ship from the Sith fleet. One thousand years later, the Corsair became the possession of Exar Kun, who used the ship in his own war on the Republic. The Corsair was also commanded on its final mission by Aleema Keto and Crado, who were on board when the ship was destroyed by the Cron Supernova. The Corsair required a crew of twenty-five individuals; during both the Great Hyperspace War and the Great Sith War, the crew was usually comprised of Massassi.

The Corsair first appeared in Dark Lords of the Sith, a story arc of the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series, written by Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson and released in 1994 and 1995. The Corsair was initially shown in a flashback in the arc's first issue and later appeared in the main storyline of the fifth issue. It was also featured in the Dark Lords of the Sith audio adaptation. After appearing in Dark Lords of the Siths follow-up arc, The Sith War, the ship's background and history was fleshed out in The Fall of the Sith Empire, an arc written by Kevin J. Anderson. Further information on the Corsair was given in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide and several other sources, including The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. In total, the Corsair was drawn by two different artists, Chris Gossett and Dario Carrasco, Jr.

• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Chronology
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
• The Official Star Wars Fact File90
• The New Essential Chronology
• Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia