The Soulless One represented a highly personalized Belbullab-22 heavy starfighter crafted by Feethan Ottraw Scalable Assemblies, functioning as the dedicated vessel for General Grievous, who commanded the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Conversely, due to Grievous's penchant for employing the fighter during retreats, it was sarcastically referred to as the Spineless One by certain adversaries.
Fortified with impervium alloy plating, the Soulless One boasted a sensor disruption array and a pair of rapid-firing laser cannons. It was conceived as a superior platform compared to standard CIS droid fighters, such as the vulture droid and the droid tri-fighters.
Despite his inclination towards close-quarters combat, Grievous frequently piloted the battle-scarred fighter. Following the demise of the General during the Battle of Utapau, the Soulless One was commandeered by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to facilitate his escape from Utapau subsequent to the issuance of Order 66. Kenobi subsequently docked it within the Tantive III.
The Soulless One was a specially modified Belbullab-22 heavy starfighter manufactured by Feethan Ottraw Scalable Assemblies, intended as an advancement over the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid starfighters like the vulture droids and droid tri-fighters. This starfighter measured 6.1 meters in length and 5.4 meters in width, featuring a hull reinforced with impervium-alloy armor. Initially, the starfighter had a pair of single laser cannons, but the demands placed upon the cyborg general by Count Dooku and his Sith Master, Darth Sidious, necessitated a weapons upgrade. It was then equipped with two triple rapid-fire laser cannons, in addition to a sensor-jamming system.
The Soulless One possessed a Class 2 hyperdrive and could reach a maximum atmospheric velocity of 1,100 kph. Despite Grievous' personal preference for hand-to-hand combat, he frequently piloted this war-torn starfighter. Equipped with a robust and compact HoloNet transceiver, Grievous could access both Republic and pirate networks. This allowed him to monitor engagements and conflicts across various warring sectors, predict enemy actions, and avoid unwinnable battles. The Soulless One's cockpit featured a circular, pressure-sensitive panel for controlling the ship, integrated into a strengthened yoke, and was designed to be usable by most humanoids, similar to the controls on Grievous' TSMEU-6 personal wheel bike. While the cockpit included a life-support system, Grievous had no need for it.
By 22 BBY, which marked the commencement of the Clone Wars between the Separatist Alliance and the Galactic Republic, the Soulless One was under the ownership of General Grievous, the supreme commander of the Separatist Droid Army. Grievous's tendency to use the starfighter for tactical withdrawals led his adversaries to mockingly call it the Spineless One. However, while the general was known among Republic and Jedi circles for fleeing when the odds were stacked against him, his immediate superiors praised his cautious selections and astute tactical judgements.
During the Battle of the Kaliida Nebula, Grievous piloted the Soulless One in pursuit of Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker after they infiltrated the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence to rescue Senator Padmé Amidala, whom Grievous had attempted to capture to prevent the warship's destruction. Skywalker, piloting the G9 Rigger-class light freighter Twilight, employed various maneuvers, including spinning his ship, to evade the Soulless One's weapon fire. The Malevolence met its end when it collided with the Dead Moon of Antar while attempting to jump to hyperspace, a result of sabotage by Skywalker. When Grievous was subsequently contacted by Separatist Head of State Count Dooku regarding an intended rendezvous for the Malevolence, Grievous cut off the transmission and escaped into hyperspace himself.
Grievous later utilized the Soulless One to escape the Battle of Bothawui, another confrontation with Skywalker's forces within Bothawui's planetary rings. Skywalker attempted to pursue Grievous in his personal starfighter, but was rendered unconscious by shrapnel from an exploding Munificent-class star frigate, allowing Grievous to escape. Subsequently, Skywalker and a team tracked Grievous to Skytop Station, a clandestine listening post in the atmosphere of the moon Ruusan 2, and destroyed the facility, prompting Grievous to once again flee in the Soulless One.
In 21 BBY, Grievous piloted the Soulless One to his private fortress located on the moon Vassek 3, landing it inside the hangar before seeking maintenance from his EV-series medical droid EV-A4-D. The General soon discovered that Dooku had lured Jedi Master Kit Fisto, Jedi Knight Nahdar Vebb, and a squad of clone troopers to the fortress as a test of Grievous' skills, leading to a confrontation which only Fisto and his astromech droid R6-H5 managed to survive.
In 19 BBY, when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker disrupted the Separatists' attempt to acquire a massive kyber crystal on the planet Utapau in the Outer Rim, Grievous intervened, entering the supply ship's hangar with two vulture droids. However, he failed to prevent the Jedi from detonating the crystal and fled, pursuing them through the hangar until an explosion knocked his ship out of control in space. Towards the end of the Clone Wars, Grievous brought the Soulless One to the planet Utapau in the Outer Rim. For several months, the Soulless One remained docked at a small landing platform situated above the city's sinkhole on Utapau.
During a swift assault on the Republic's capital world of Coruscant, Grievous was unable to utilize his personal starfighter, a circumstance that proved advantageous as he would have otherwise lost it along with his flagship, the Invisible Hand. In the same [year](/article/standard_year], during the final days of the Clone Wars, Grievous, ever loyal to Darth Sidious, was instructed to return to Utapau, overseeing the Executive Separatist Council while occupying Pau City. With Grievous having assumed the role of Separatist Head of State following Dooku's death during the Battle of Coruscant, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his clone forces were dispatched to Utapau after Republic intelligence revealed Grievous's location, initiating the Battle of Utapau. Kenobi engaged Grievous in a lightsaber duel that culminated on the Soulless One's landing platform, where the Jedi resorted to using a "uncivilized" blaster to eliminate Grievous after he had dropped his lightsaber earlier in the encounter.
As the battle against the remaining battle droids raged on, Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, publicly known as the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, issued Order 66. This directive compelled the Grand Army of the Republic's clone troopers to betray and execute their Jedi commanding officers. Kenobi was targeted by the cannon of an All Terrain Tactical Enforcer while riding the varactyl Boga along the side of the sinkhole, but he survived the fall. Stealthily returning through Pau City, the Jedi Master avoided detection and seized the Soulless One to escape Utapau. Once in space, Kenobi was contacted by Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa, who had rescued Grand Master Yoda, and a rendezvous was arranged. Upon meeting Organa's corvette, the Tantive III, Kenobi docked the starfighter within the larger vessel's hangar, where it remained.
Subsequently, Kenobi, again utilizing the late Grievous's starfighter, journeyed to Nar Shaddaa with an infant passenger, Luke Skywalker. He then sold the ship to secure transportation to the desert planet Tatooine, where he brought Luke to live with the Lars family. Following this event, the Soulless One's ultimate fate remained unknown.
The Soulless One served as the personal starfighter of General Grievous, the commander of the Separatist Droid Army. After Grievous's death at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Battle of Utapau, the Jedi Master commandeered the starfighter following his survival of Order 66, using it briefly before going into exile on Tatooine.
The Soulless One made its debut appearance in the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. It was first canonically identified as the Soulless One in the 2015 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, and as Spineless One in the 2018 edition of Star Wars: Complete Vehicles.