The Wookiee Rufarr was the owner of the Jaunty Cavalier, a YT-series freighter. He commanded it with a team of six individuals. This vessel was a frequent sight in the vicinity of the planet Bakura, which is located in the Outer Rim Territories, during the conflict between the inhabitants of the galaxy and the invading Yuuzhan Vong from beyond the galactic boundaries. In the year 28 ABY, the crew of the Jaunty Cavalier accepted a contract from Molierre Cundertol, the Prime Minister of Bakura. The job was to transport a Human replica droid that looked exactly like him to Lwhekk, the Ssi-ruuk homeworld. They then orchestrated a fake kidnapping of Cundertol to get him to the same destination.
Cundertol had secretly allied himself with the Ssi-ruuk. This reptilian species resided in a star cluster not far from Bakura. Following a previous unsuccessful invasion of Bakura twenty-four years prior, the Ssi-ruuk were planning to make another attempt. Cundertol's part in the deal was to assist them in conquering the planet, in exchange for the Ssi-ruuvi using their entechment technology to transfer his consciousness into the Human replica droid, effectively granting him immortality. Once the transfer was complete, the Jaunty Cavalier transported Cundertol back to Bakura. However, to maintain the secrecy of his newfound immortal state, Cundertol murdered the entire crew of the Jaunty Cavalier and sabotaged the vessel. The ship was destroyed shortly after it emerged from hyperspace above Bakura, but the Prime Minister managed to escape in an escape pod. After his rescue, he fabricated a story about being kidnapped by the crew of the Jaunty Cavalier, escaping, overpowering them, and then turning the ship around to return home.
The Jaunty Cavalier was an asymmetrically designed YT-series freighter manufactured by the Corellian Engineering Corporation. By 28 ABY, the ship was in a dilapidated condition, despite regularly operating with a crew of seven and having at least one escape pod on board.
The Wookiee Rufarr owned and captained the YT-series vessel, the Jaunty Cavalier, alongside a crew of six beings. By the year 28 ABY, the Jaunty Cavalier was a common sight in the Outer Rim Territories near the planet Bakura, and it frequented the planet. During one of these visits, Rufarr incurred a debt in credits to an operator working for Bakura Orbital Control.
During the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, invaders from beyond the galaxy, Prime Minister Molierre Cundertol of Bakura hired Rufarr and the crew of the Jaunty Cavalier to transport a Human replica droid that looked just like Cundertol to Lwhekk, the Ssi-ruuk homeworld. The arrangement also included the Jaunty Cavalier crew secretly transporting Cundertol himself to the same location.
Cundertol had secretly made a deal with the Ssi-ruuk, a reptilian species from a nearby star cluster who had previously attempted to invade Bakura twenty-four years earlier. He promised to aid their second invasion attempt in exchange for them using their entechment technology to transfer his life force into the Human replica droid, effectively granting him immortality.
Rufarr and his crew on the Jaunty Cavalier faked the Prime Minister's abduction and secretly transported him to the location where the transfer was successfully carried out. This implicated them as radical members of the Freedom resistance movement, an anti-New Republic group advocating for a more independent Bakura free from external influence. The Jaunty Cavalier was then used to bring Cundertol back to Bakura. However, the Prime Minister couldn't risk the crew of the Jaunty Cavalier contradicting his fabricated story, so he murdered them and sabotaged the ship.
As the Jaunty Cavalier came out of hyperspace above Bakura, it began spinning uncontrollably, and its drive units fired randomly. Its orbital insertion took it close to the Lancer-class frigate Pride of Selonia, a Galactic Federation of Free Alliances ship that had arrived at Bakura to re-establish contact with worlds isolated by the Yuuzhan Vong advance. Since the Jaunty Cavalier was out of control and dangerously close to the Pride of Selonia, Jagged Fel, the commander of the Alliance frigate's starfighter squadron, tried to hail the vessel, instructing them to alter course or face consequences.
When there was no response, and with the risk of the Jaunty Cavalier colliding with the Pride of Selonia, Fel sought and obtained permission from Bakura Orbital Control to nudge the errant freighter away from the Pride. Fel, along with four other fighters from Twin Suns Squadron, moved in close, using their shields to gradually move the Jaunty Cavalier away from both the Pride of Selonia and Bakura's atmosphere. During this maneuver, the Jaunty Cavalier's engines suddenly flashed and stopped working.
Fel, recognizing the signs of an impending explosive drive failure, ordered his fellow pilots to immediately disengage from the freighter. The drive unit exploded, destroying much of the ship. Only a portion of the forward structural chassis remained identifiable. Despite the force of the Jaunty Cavalier's explosion, Fel and his pilots managed to avoid the blast wave.
Just before the explosion, Cundertol launched from the Jaunty Cavalier in an escape pod. Fel rescued him, and the Prime Minister was brought aboard the Pride of Selonia. There, he told Captain Todra Mayn, the frigate's commander, a story about being kidnapped by the crew of the Jaunty Cavalier inside the Bakuran Senate Complex and smuggled out of the spaceport disguised as a box of records. He told those gathered in the medical bay—which included Fel—that he believed he had been kidnapped to be interrogated and then killed. Because of this, Cundertol decided to escape and managed to break free from his restraints. He fabricated a tale of overpowering the crew, turning the ship around to return to Bakura, where the Jaunty Cavalier developed "system rot" and began falling apart, forcing him to barely escape the vessel in time.
Eventually, Cundertol's involvement in the later Ssi-ruuvi invasion of Bakura was uncovered, and the truth about the Jaunty Cavalier's mission and its subsequent destruction was revealed.
The Wookiee Rufarr owned and commanded the Jaunty Cavalier. In addition to Rufarr, the vessel was crewed by six other individuals—four Humans and two Rodians.
The Jaunty Cavalier made its debut in the 2003 novel The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic II: Refugee, which is the second book in The New Jedi Order's Force Heretic trilogy, authored by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. The entry for the Jaunty Cavalier in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia stated that the ship exploded shortly after exiting hyperspace near Bakura due to Cundertol's sabotage. While Cundertol's sabotage did lead to the ship's destruction, it did not occur immediately after reverting to realspace.