Shadowblade The Shadowblade , code - named the Starkiller , was a Separatist superweapon crafted during the Clone Wars . Description . The " Shadowblade " was a Separatist cruiser that was armed with a hyper - point destablizer . Regarded as a superweapon , the vessel was considered by the Galactic Republic to be capable of killing hundreds of billions of people . The warship was sleek and angular in shape , with a black - colored steel hull , and the ship was powered by a number of shielded thrusters . The vessel possessed a secondary armament of several dozen turbolasers that were concealed behind steel panels on the hull . The cruiser was heavily shielded and it possessed an impressive cloaking suite that generated a sensor blocking field around the vessel , though the sensor field weakened when the ship targeted its turbolasers while preparing to fire . The " Shadowblade " was also equipped with a hyperdrive and was capable of hyperspace travel . History . The " Shadowblade " was developed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars , a conflict between the Confederacy and the Galactic Republic . Codenamed the " Starkiller " , construction of the vessel commenced on Kromus , the fourth planet in the Kro ' eval system in the Esuain sector , where the superweapon was houseed inside a large docking bay in a six - winged research station situated at the centre of Kromus ' largest city . By around 20 BBY , the " Shadowblade " was nearing completion ; the vessel ' s weaponry was operational and the ship was only a few days from being ready to enter service and missing only a few sections of panelling . The Republic learned of the existence of the superweapon and a fleet led by Jedi Master Darrus Jeht was dispatched to destroy the " Shadowblade " and the facility that housed it . Supreme Chancellor Palpatine , the leader of the Republic , sought to use the mission to manipulate Jeht into massacring the population of Kromus and to that end he had the sensors of Jeht ' s command ship Maelstrom rigged to emit false signals regarding the status of the Shadowblade . Informed by false report reports from Republic spies that the Starkiller was being built inside a remote research facility far from Kromus ' population centers , Jeht conceived to destroy the vessel via an orbital bombardment of the construction site . On arrival in the system , the Republic force approached Kromus and attacked a Confederate fleet that guarded the world . Darrus Jeht scanned the facility that housed the " Shadowblade " and on realizing that the intelligence that he had received was flawed and that the cruiser was being built within a major city , the Jedi revised his plan of attack and sought to take out the superweapon through a ground operation to spare civilian casualties . However , the near - complete Shadowblade powered up and prepared to launch , to attempt to flee the world to safety . Concerned that the vessel was about to escape , Jeht ordered all of his surviving ships to open fire and destroy the research facility where the superweapon was being built . The Shadowblade evaded destruction in the resolved in the resulting bombardment due to the Republic forces firing on the wrong target as a result of the rigging of the " Maelstrom " s sensors by Palpatine . Darrus Jeht assumed the superweapon to have been destroyed and ordered his fleet to retreat from Kromus . The bombardment of the planet caused tectonic instabilities and a thermal shift in the atmosphere of the world that killed billions of people and went on to result in the loss of all life on the world . In the aftermath , some agents of Palpatine remained in the Kro ' eval system to monitor the world ' s destruction and were ordered by to report to Palaptine ' s apprentice Count Dooku their findings , which the Chancellor believed would be useful to another weapon project . Jeht was troubled by the billions of deaths that he had caused on Kromus and the " Shadowblade " featured in a dream that the Jedi Master had about the battle . The " Shadowblade " eventually entered service and in 19 BBY , shortly prior to the conclusion of the Clone Wars , the Separatist cruiser tracked down Jeht and the " Maelstrom " , which was on mission to attack the Confederate - held world Corlax 4 . The Maelstrom subsequently changed course for the Cularin system in the Thaere sector and the " Shadowblade " followed in pursuit . The Separatist cruiser arrived on the edge of the Cularin system shortly after the Maelstrom , to find the Republic warship damaged from a brief battle with the Republic ships " Primal " and " Undaunted " . Ignoring the stricken " Malestrom " , the " Shadowblade " instead headed towards the Cularin system asteroid belt , with its crew intending to attack Cularin , the system ' s primary planet . On Jeht ' s orders , the " Maelstrom " set out after the Separatist cruiser in an attempt to destroy it before it could make it to Cularin and the Republic warship opened fire on the " Shadowblade " with torpedo s . The " Shadowblade " changed course to intercept the Republic vessel and opened fire with its turbolasers , inflicting further damage onto the weakened " Maelstrom " . However , Darrus Jeht lured the cruiser into a trap and while the " Shadowblade " s cloaking shield was at it ' s weakest while the turblolasers were setting their targets , the " Maelstrom " caught hold of the cruiser with a tractor beam . The previous activity of the Darkstaff , a powerful Sith artifact , had left a number of temporal rifts in the Cularin asteroid belt and the " Maelstom " dragged stricken " Shadowblade " into once such temporal disturbance . Both vessels then disappeared and were never seen from again . Behind the scenes . The Starkiller was created by August and Cynthia Hahn and first appeared in " Dark Soul " , a short story supplement to the " Living Force " roleplaying campaign that was published on Wizards . com in 2005 . The vessel when on to make a further in appearance in the final Living Force short story " " in 2007 , which was also written by the Hahns and was the first source to identify the vessel as the " Shadowblade " . The superweapon ' s codename " Starkiller " is a reference to the earliest drafts of the script for " " , where it was the surname for a number of characters and was later used to derive the surnames of the Star Wars protagonists Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker .