Murk (planetoid)

Murk was a planetoid located in the Murk system of the Outer Rim Territories' Moddell subsector. It was an airless, barren rock with low gravity. When the Galactic Empire established the Sanctuary Pipeline, a hyperlane meant for the transportation of construction materials and components to the Death Star II battlestation in the Endor system, the Murk system became the penultimate stop on the hyperspace route.
On the planetoid, an Imperial cargo-transfer station was established, where cargoes arriving via the Sanctuary Pipeline were unloaded for subsequent shipment to the Endor system. Following the Battle of Endor, the Shell Hutt Tagoonta escaped to the Murk transfer station from troubles in Hutt Space.
==Description==
Murk was a terrestrial planetoid located within the Murk system. It lay within the Outer Moddell systems area of the Moddell subsector, one of the subsectors making up the Inner Zuma Region within the Outer Rim Territories' Zuma sector.
The innermost planetoid of its star system, Murk had a rotation period of eleven standard hours and took ninety-eight local days to complete an orbit around its sun, the red dwarf–type star of the same name. Murk was an airless, frigid, barren rock, the gravity of which was fifty percent of standard.
==History==
During the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire began the construction of the Death Star II battlestation over the Forest Moon of Endor, in the Endor system. To allow for expeditious—and secret—transportation of the necessary materials and components to Endor, the Empire artificially extended the Silvestri Trace hyperlane from the Brema sector — Based on corresponding data for Sullust system planetThe Essential Atlas Sullust directly to Endor, with the Murk system becoming a penultimate stop on the new hyperspace route, known as the Sanctuary Pipeline.
To add another layer of secrecy to the Death Star project, an Imperial cargo-transfer station was established on Murk, used to unload shipments arriving via the Sanctuary Pipeline for further transportation to the Endor system. Following the Imperial defeat by the Rebel Alliance at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY,The New Essential Chronology the Sanctuary Pipeline became largely unnavigable, and the Murk transfer station was abandoned. By the time of the reign of the New Republic, the Shell Hutt Tagoonta and his retainers found refuge at the transfer station from troubles in Hutt Space.
==Inhabitants==
Prior to the Battle of Endor, Imperial crews stationed at the Murk cargo-transfer station unloaded cargoes of raw materials and components from deep-space haulers and superfreighters traveling along the Sanctuary Pipeline. Following the abandonment of the transfer station, it became inhabited by the band of retainers of the Shell Hutt Tagoonta, and exact data on Murk's population was not available during the New Republic's rule.
==Locations==
An Imperial cargo-transfer station was located on Murk, being equipped with a landing field and having facilities both on the planetoid's surface and in its orbit. Following the Battle of Endor, several of the transfer station's more valuable components were looted by scavengers.
==Behind the scenes==
The planetoid Murk was first mentioned in the article "Endor and the Moddell Sector," which was authored by Craig Robert Carey, Daniel Wallace, and Jason Fry, and was published in Star Wars Gamer 9 on February 22, 2002. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas placed the Murk system, and therefore the planetoid, in grid square H-16.
==Sources==
* 
*The Essential Atlas
==Notes and references==
Category:Galactic Empire astronomical objects
Category:Moddell sector astronomical objects
Category:Outer Rim Territories planetoids
Category:Terrestrial planetoids