Vote Snaplaunce Vote Snaplaunce was a TIE / sh shuttle owned by Snaplaunce , the Ithorian mayor of Hweg Shul on the planet Nam Chorios . The shuttle was originally part of a collection of restored vehicles owned by a retired mechanic in the Imperial fleet who settled on Nam Chorios around 29 ABY , after which the shuttle was purchased by the Ithorian and renamed eponymously , a point expressed in red lettering over a vivid yellow paint job . " Vote Snaplaunce " was modified while in possession of its namesake , during which time it was converted from military to civilian use . Snaplaunce used the shuttle as a traveling campaign advertisement , and had a tendency to loan it to prominent visitors to his city . In 44 ABY , Snaplaunce loaned the shuttle to visiting Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his traveling companions . Master Skywalker , his son Ben Skywalker , and their erstwhile Sith ally Vestara Khai had made their way to Nam Chorios in pursuit of a dangerous entity known as Abeloth . " Vote Snaplaunce " then fell victim to sabotage , unbeknownst to its owner , and the shuttle was soon afterward attacked by Abeloth ' s allies in pursuit of the Jedi . A series of calculated malfunctions combined with the ship ' s disarmament for civilian usage resulted in its near destruction , and forced its occupants to reconstruct the crashed shuttle into a makeshift landspeeder to complete that leg of their quest , and then to abandon " Vote Snaplaunce " in the desert outside Hweg Shul . Description . " Vote Snaplaunce " was originally a standard TIE / sh shuttle of the Imperial Navy . A standard TIE shuttle had a 7 . 8 meter - long hull based on the twin - cylinder design of the TIE / sa bomber . The starboard cockpit of a TIE shuttle held one pilot , and the port compartment could accommodate two passengers , one seated in front of the other . The front passenger seat had access to a secondary sensor board , and the rear seat had access to a secondary communications interface . With its twin ion engines , a standard TIE shuttle could reach 1 , 050 kilometers per hour in atmosphere but had no hyperdrive . Though armed with a single laser cannon , the TIE shuttle lacked deflector shields . Although the TIE shuttle was a starfighter - sized craft , it was less maneuverable than many other fighters , such as the T - 65 X - wing starfighter . By the time it was acquired by Mayor Snaplaunce of Hweg Shul on the planet Nam Chorios , the shuttle had been disarmed , making it suitable for civilian use without a special weapons permit from the Bureau of Ships and Services , though the support systems for the cannon were not physically removed . When he purchased the ship , Snaplaunce proceeded to repaint it bright yellow , as opposed to the standard off - white color of most TIE series vessels , and emblazoned the ship with red lettering proclaiming an election motto , which was also registered as the shuttle ' s new name : " Vote Snaplaunce . " The vessel was assigned a registration number of XV 119 . An emergency kit was stowed aboard which contained repair tools such as an arc welder , and food rations were carried that would sustain one average Human for two days . By 44 ABY , " Vote Snaplaunce " was still operational , but the shuttle ' s port engine had ten percent greater thrust than the starboard . " Vote Snaplaunce " suffered significant damage from both sabotage and a crash in 44 ABY during Jedi Master Luke Skywalker ' s pursuit of the entity known as Abeloth . Following the crash , the other members of Master Skywalker ' s party , Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker and Sith fugitive Vestara Khai , rebuilt " Vote Snaplaunce " from a wrecked starship into a jury - rigged landspeeder . Ben Skywalker was largely responsible for the design , which made use of the remaining functional components of the craft in a new physical configuration . The repulsorlift systems still functioned , and the wiring from the laser support systems was used to restore the port ion engine , while the starboard engine remained inactive . The wing arrays were partially dismantled and rebuilt into a wind rudder system controlled by pulley cables that ran through holes cut in the passenger compartment with an arc welder . Lacking the help of the damaged onboard computers , navigation was achieved with a datapad and overhead star patterns . The shuttle ' s intercom system was used to coordinate steering , and the shuttle - turned - landspeeder could achieve fifty kilometers per hour over flat ground . It was in that configuration that " Vote Snaplaunce " was abandoned by Skywalker ' s party and recovered by Hweg Shul authorities . History . Acquisition . Around 29 ABY , approximately fifteen years before Luke Skywalker ' s second visit to the world , a mechanic who had left the Imperial fleet settled on Nam Chorios . He proceeded to sell several vehicles he had carefully restored . Among them was a TIE shuttle which had been disarmed . Though the class was not normally available for public sale , an Ithorian named Snaplaunce purchased the shuttle from the ex - Imperial , painted it bright yellow , and emblazoned it with a slogan for his campaign for mayor of the Chorian city of Hweg Shul , " Vote Snaplaunce . " Identified by the registry number XV 119 , " Vote Snaplaunce " was also registered as the vessel ' s official name . Turbulence . Luke Skywalker returned to Nam Chorios in 44 ABY , pursuing the being known as Abeloth . Now the Grand Master in exile of the New Jedi Order , he was accompanied by his son , Ben Skywalker , and Vestara Khai , a Sith of the Lost Tribe who had reluctantly accompanied the Skywalkers on their quest . In the course of their search for Abeloth , they were led to believe that the disappearance of a local researcher , Doctor Cagaran Wei , could be related to Abeloth ' s presence . At Wei ' s residence , they met with Mayor Snaplaunce . As a former member of the Hweg Shul municipal police , Snaplaunce had met Master Skywalker on his prior visit to Nam Chorios , and as mayor he now chose to be involved in investigating a possible crime against a prominent Newcomer — a non - native resident of the planet — and to meet with prominent visitors to his city . Investigation of Wei ' s residence and the logs of his landspeeder provided a lead on the doctor ' s whereabouts , indicating that he regularly traveled to a point four hundred eighty - three kilometers outside the city . Snaplaunce used the resources of his office to locate any points of interest at that distance , and Skywalker ' s team soon found themselves in need of transportation to an abandoned rock ivory processing plant northwest of Hweg Shul . Time was an important factor to the investigation , and a landspeeder would take hours to make the journey . Returning to the orbiting Koval Station to either retrieve their vessel , the " Jade Shadow " , or charter a shuttle from Koval Transport , would also take time . Snaplaunce thus decided to provide " Vote Snaplaunce " as a faster alternative . When the group reached the location where " Vote Snaplaunce " was parked , Master Skywalker was stunned , both by the presence of a weapon of his former enemy and the incongruity of what he considered to be its cheerful paint scheme and its sinister origins . He suppressed his dismay and held back some sarcastic comments as Snaplaunce explained the ship ' s history , briefed the Jedi on its eccentricities , and explained the flight restrictions in effect over Nam Chorios . The elder Skywalker took the controls , though he did not don a TIE pilot uniform , the younger Skywalker and Khai boarded the passenger pod , and the team set out to find Dr . Wei . Despite aerobatics being prohibited by the weapons platforms in orbit and the shuttle ' s own limited handling characteristics , Master Skywalker enjoyed traveling at a fair velocity while operating starfighter - style controls again . His enjoyment did not last long , however , as trouble came from behind the mountains . As the flight continued , " Vote Snaplaunce " was chased down by Ship , a semi - sentient Sith Meditation Sphere in the service of Abeloth . Ship was faster and , unlike the shuttle , was heavily armed . Using its mass - driver cannon , Ship attacked " Vote Snaplaunce " . Though the ferrous projectiles Ship hurled at the shuttle were detectable in space by the shuttle ' s sensor suite , in atmosphere the ship automatically reconfigured its detection to the smaller and lighter debris commonly found near the surface . Master Skywalker was therefore unable to detect the projectiles without a distracting amount of effort . He was further hindered by " Vote Snaplaunce " inherently poor maneuverability , and the battle soon attracted the attention of Nam Chorios ' s orbital control . Degradation . Koval Station Control hailed " Vote Snaplaunce " to command the ship to cease deviating from its flight plan . The elder Skywalker ' s lack of a TIE pilot helmet and its voice - activated communications , combined with his lack of familiarity with the shuttle ' s control systems , delayed his response to Koval Station . As the younger Skywalker managed to initiate a reply , the shuttle ' s electronics began to fail , and Koval Station began raining turbolaser fire in the shuttle ' s direction while Ship continued its pursuit . As Master Skywalker attempted to maneuver in such a way that the orbiting station could hit Ship , one of Ship ' s shots grazed the starboard wing of " Vote Snaplaunce " . The elder Skywalker struggled to retain control of the damaged craft , but he was suddenly assaulted through the Force by the death of a sentient being . The disturbance in the Force caused Master Skywalker to lose control of " Vote Snaplaunce " . " Vote Snaplaunce " plummeted and spun until Master Skywalker regained control and activated the shuttle ' s repulsorlift system . He dropped " Vote Snaplaunce " into a dust storm and Koval Station lost its weapons lock . Ship was stunned by the same Force trauma that affected Skywalker ' s team and fled . Although he briefly hoped that Koval Station had destroyed Ship , Master Skywalker realized that the death agony came from the destruction of a Tsil , the sentient crystal lifeforms that dotted the surface of Nam Chorios . Now that the team was relatively safe , the younger Skywalker plotted a course to their original destination . Although they had not been hit by weapons fire , the shuttle ' s engines continued to falter as they closed in on the rock ivory processing plant . Master Skywalker resolved to compensate Snaplaunce for the damage to his ship — unless , of course , Snaplaunce himself had arranged for Ship ' s ambush , or had sabotaged the ship . Within three hundred meters , the engines failed entirely , and Master Skywalker was forced to land the shuttle to prevent being blown away from their destination by winds . At the plant , Skywalker ' s team located Dr . Wei ' s body , and the trio reasoned out the probable sequence of events leading to his death . They determined that Wei had been used as bait to draw them out to the site and set them up for an ambush , and that either Snaplaunce was a conspirator or the sabotage was performed by someone who knew Snaplaunce had a tendency to loan " Vote Snaplaunce " to important visitors . The team inventoried their resources and evaluated the feasibility of repairing " Vote Snaplaunce " , which did not look promising . Ben Skywalker examined the shuttle and located the nature of the sabotage , a powerful capacitor set up to direct a surge into the ship ' s systems as soon as the ship received any lengthy signal from orbital control . Though it took only minutes to install , the system - wide damage it caused could take weeks to repair , and the younger Skywalker could not help admiring the saboteur ' s efficiency . As Khai was contesting his opinion , she realized that while the laser cannon was removed , its support systems had only been detached from the internal circuits . That fact provided the key to restoring any functionality to " Vote Snaplaunce " . Rebirth . While Master Skywalker communed with the Tsils to continue the hunt for Abeloth , his son and Khai redesigned " Vote Snaplaunce " into a unique wind - steered landspeeder . Master Skywalker approved of his son ' s sketch but amended the repair plan to include moving the shuttle downhill from the rock ivory plant to avoid detection by Ship . They pushed it under a rocky overhang and covered it in sand , which successfully concealed it from an overflight by Ship . Skywalker ' s team could not affect repairs during the day due to the windstorms that regularly battered the wilderness on Nam Chorios during daylight , so they shared the old but still edible rations stored aboard " Vote Snaplaunce " and rested until dark . The Skywalkers shared the passenger pod , and Khai slept alone in the pilot pod — the Sith believed that Master Skywalker arranged this to protect Ben from succumbing to any impulsive acts that could further complicate their group dynamic . After dark , the trio resumed their repairs . Activating the repulsors , they removed the sand that they had used for camouflage by taking advantage of the repulsors ' vibration combined with manual sweeping . They turned the remains of the shuttle ' s wing arrays into wind rudders controlled by a set of pulleys made from the shuttle ' s hatch - closing wheels and cables run through holes cut into the hull with an arc welder that was stored in the shuttle ' s emergency toolkit . The port ion engine was restored to life with the wiring salvaged from the decommissioned laser cannon . Ben Skywalker took a moment to take holocamera shots of their creation with his datapad , then the team planned their next move . Through his communion with the Tsils , Master Skywalker learned that the native Theran Listener s had been subverted ; thus , much of the planetary population may have been turned against his team . They plotted a course back to Hweg Shul that avoided Human contact and stuck to flatlands — " Vote Snaplaunce " could not navigate hills or mountains in its new configuration . Though steering was difficult , the shuttle ' s new configuration could achieve a speed of nearly fifty kilometers per hour . Steering adjustments had to be coordinated by intercom to control the port and starboard rudder pulleys , with the Jedi shouting until they were both hoarse . Lacking the help of the shuttle ' s computer , Master Skywalker had to plot their course by celestial navigation , comparing the stars overhead with a map on his datapad . At the end of another night , " Vote Snaplaunce " was parked against a hilly ridge and the team rested through another day cycle . Though the group had not been able to restore the shuttle ' s communication systems , they were finally close enough to Hweg Shul for their personal comlinks to pick up broadcasts . They learned that Force storms were ravaging the city and Snaplaunce had been assaulted before the daily dust storms cut communications off again . The shuttle remained parked until nightfall . When darkness fell once more , they were able to drive " Vote Snaplaunce " the remaining distance to Hweg Shul . Just before dawn , Skywalker ' s team parked " Vote Snaplaunce " for the last time and powered it down just outside Hweg Shul . Completing their journey on foot , the group learned from public broadcasts that they were suspected of attacking Snaplaunce to steal his shuttle . As their hunt for Abeloth progressed , the team found themselves in need of transport once more , but " Vote Snaplaunce " was left alone as they stole a modified T - 47 airspeeder parked outside a tapcafe . When Snaplaunce recovered from his injuries , he cleared the Skywalkers and Khai of suspicion for his attack . His own recollection of the incident corroborated official city telemetry of the shuttle flight , proving the group had been in the air by the time he was attacked on the ground . While Skywalker ' s team was continuing to track Abeloth , holojournalist Kandra Nilitz arrived on Nam Chorios with the Jedi Valin and Jysella Horn , who were still under the influence of Abeloth and had been compelled to find and assist her . After being abandoned by the Horns , she tried to track Master Skywalker ' s movements on the world . The reporter noted that " Vote Snaplaunce " was recovered outside Hweg Shul shortly before the theft and destruction of a T - 47 airspeeder . Nilitz located the wreckage of the T - 47 and found Master Skywalker and his team nearby . In exchange for her cooperation in his quest , Master Skywalker offered to tell her about Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith , or a detailed story about how his party got " Vote Snaplaunce " running again . The reporter accepted Skywalker ' s first story offer and declined the second . Commanders and crew . After being released from the Imperial Navy , the TIE shuttle went through a short succession of commanders . It was owned and operated by an ex - Imperial mechanic for some time before it was sold by the mechanic to Snaplaunce , the Ithorian mayor of Hweg Shul on Nam Chorios . Snaplaunce had a tendency to offer the shuttle to distinguished guests , and used it as a traveling campaign advertisement , naming it " Vote Snaplaunce " . Snaplaunce became familiar with the shuttle ' s various eccentricities , and briefed Luke Skywalker on them when he loaned the shuttle to the Jedi . Luke Skywalker , exiled Grand Master of the Jedi Order , borrowed the shuttle in 44 ABY during his hunt for the entity known as Abeloth . A distinguished starfighter pilot , Skywalker initially enjoyed his command of the shuttle , but a lack of extensive experience with the shuttle ' s particular control layout led to some difficulty in using its communication systems , though the issue was soon rendered moot by sabotage . During Master Skywalker ' s command of " Vote Snaplaunce " , he was backed up in the passenger pod by the other members of his team on the hunt for Abeloth . Master Skywalker ' s son , Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker , accompanied his father on his search for Abeloth after the Master ' s exile from Coruscant by the Daala administration . Ben Skywalker attempted to assist the Jedi Master with the secondary systems aboard " Vote Snaplaunce " during the battle with Ship , and was largely responsible for the shuttle ' s redesign into a landspeeder after its forced landing due to battle damage and system failure . Also accompanying him was Vestara Khai , a Sith of the Lost Tribe from the planet Kesh . Khai joined the Skywalkers ' party on the hunt for Abeloth , initially as a prisoner , then as a fugitive from her own people after she was forced to kill a superior when he began to transform into another being of Abeloth ' s like . Khai won an argument with the younger Skywalker over control of the front seat in the passenger pod of " Vote Snaplaunce " and was therefore in charge of the secondary sensor board . She later assisted Ben Skywalker in the repair effort after the shuttle ' s landing , and took control of one of the wing pulleys as they flew back to Hweg Shul . Behind the scenes . The first and only appearance of " Vote Snaplaunce " is in " " by Aaron Allston , the seventh book of the " " series , published in May 2011 . Although TIE shuttles have been featured in numerous reference books , " Vote Snaplaunce " is the first TIE shuttle featured in a work of " Star Wars " fiction since the publication of " Dark Knight ' s Devilry " in January 1982 .