Recusant-class light destroyer

The Recusant-class light destroyer, also known as the Recusant-class Commerce Guild destroyer, Recusant-class warship, or Commerce Guild warship,Tarkin was a model of destroyer manufactured by Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps for use by the Commerce Guild, and later, the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. Separatist naval commanders such as General Grievous often employed Recusant-class starships as their flagship. They saw extensive service in numerous battles of the Clone Wars, such as Saleucami, Kamino, and Coruscant. Despite being slower and less maneuverable than similar Republic vessels, they continued to see service with the Separatist navy as late as the Battle of Coruscant.
The true effectiveness of the ship was shown when it was deployed in large numbers. Four to six Recusant-class starships could outgun the Galactic Republic's Venator-class Star Destroyer or the Victory-class Star Destroyer. However, about one thousand Recusant-class ships were needed to take on the Mandator-II Star Dreadnaught.
==Characteristics==
The Recusant-class light destroyer was a model of destroyer manufactured by the Quarren-based Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps for usage by the Commerce Guild and later the naval forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and was equipped with a hyperdrive generator. The Recusant was also equipped with a docking tube, and was armed with laser cannons, that provided enough firepower to larger numbers of four to six craft to outgun the Galactic Republic's Venator-class Star Destroyer or the Victory-class Star Destroyer. However, a total of one thousand Recusant-class ships possessed enough firepower to outgun the Mandator-II Star Dreadnaught. The vessel had two variants of different sizes; the larger was capable of ferrying at least one C-9979 landing craft on its outer hull.
==Role==
Within the Confederacy navy, the Recusant-class light destroyer served as the command ship of naval commanders, but was also used as a support ship. Controlled by a droid brain, the Recusant was slow on its reaction time, and gained a reputation for colliding with friendly ships as a result.
==History==
===Assorted deployments===
The Recusant-class light destroyer was produced in great numbers by the Commerce Guild and, in time for the beginning of the Clone Wars waged between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and Galactic Republic, added to the ranks of the CIS Navy. Reinforcing that navy's daunting ranks, countless Recusants would be built, destroyed, and replaced over the course of the war, with new numbers of the craft always being constructed by zealous Techno Union workers, who were granted materials from Commerce Guild worlds and overseen in the mass-production effort by Union foremen. The ship was most clearly effective when fielded in large numbers, but single Recuscants were often seen raiding the Republic's commercial shipping network. Furthermore, a single Recuscant could also take the command ship role in a fleet.
At one point during the ship model's service to the CIS, the Recusant-class ship Nova Defiant—which was not painted in the standard blue of the CIS like other Rescusants—took part in a battle over a green astronomical object. The Recusant Gilded Aegis was once deployed over an aquatic astronomical body alongside a number of Trident-class assault ships. A Recusant-class Support Destroyer once sat in orbit over a green celestial body, where it was stationed alongside two automated vulture droid deployment stations.
===Capturing Eeth Koth===
In 21 BBY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates the events of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Landing at Point Rain" to 21 BBY, and dates the death of Ponds, as seen in the episode "Lethal Trackdown," to the same year. Since places "Grievous Intrigue" between "Landing at Point Rain" and "Lethal Trackdown," its events must take place in the same year. Kaleesh Separatist General Grievous utilized a Recusant-class light destroyer as his flagship against the Venator-class Star Destroyer Steadfast, the flagship of Jedi General Eeth Koth, in the Saleucami system. There, Grievous used the light destroyer as a means of boarding the Star Destroyer, where he would make his way to the Steadfast command bridge with four IG-100 MagnaGuards to engage Koth in a brief duel, resulting in the Jedi's subsequent defeat and imprisonment aboard the Recusant.
Not long after, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant received a message from Grievous about his capture of Koth, however, after the transmission ended, Clone Commander Wolffe of the 104th Battalion discovered a hidden message from the captive Jedi, which gave coordinates to sector J-19, the Saleucami system. Thus, Generals Adi Gallia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker decided to leave for the planet Saleucami to rescue Koth.
===Battle above Saleucami===
Arriving in the Saleucami system, Kenobi commanded a Republic fleet of three Venator-class Star Destroyers and three Consular-class cruisers from an Arquitens-class light cruiser against Grievous's Recusant and its accompanying three Munificent-class star frigates, to which the Kaleesh's T-series tactical droid TV-94 advised caution, as the Republic vessels were more maneuverable than their own. There, Kenobi would lure the Kaleesh away from his flagship and onto the Surrogator to allow Skywalker and Gallia to board the Recusant and rescue Koth.
However, Grievous, who had anticipated the Republic's plan, stationed several BX-series droid commandos aboard the command bridge with TV-94 guarding the captive Jedi. Despite the defenses, Skywalker and Gallia managed to destroy the commando droids and the tactical droid, where they subsequently freed Koth and proceeded to their Eta-class shuttle docked on the destroyer's underbelly. Grievous however, who had escaped Republic captured, returned to his flagship where he briefly locked blades with Gallia, managed to escape once more and retreated from his exploding destroyer to the planet below aboard a C-9979 landing craft, where he was later trailed by Kenobi, but not before the Jedi returned Koth safely to the Republic fleet.
===Attack on Kamino===
Despite the failure of their first attempt earlier in the war, Grievous and the Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress planned to launch a second invasion attempt on the cloning planet of Kamino, where they hoped to destroy the cloning facilities all across the aquatic world. However, the Republic subsequently managed to intercept a transmission between the two Separatist commanders, which detailed their planned invasion, and resulted in Republic forces under Generals Kenobi and Skywalker being deployed to assist in the planet's defense.
Arriving in the Kamino system, Grievous, aboard his flagship, ordered his fleet of three Recusant-class destroyers and eleven Munificent-class frigates to move into attack formation Echo-3 in order to protect the flagship. Not long after, Skywalker, in his personal starfighter, proceeded to engage the fleet alongside Kamino's planetary blockade, causing damage to the Recusants in the process.
===Battle of Sullust===
In 20 BBY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas during the Battle of Sullust, Ventress commanded a Separatist fleet against a Republic fleet commanded by Generals Kenobi and Skywalker in the space around the planet Sullust. The fleet, flagged by a Separatist dreadnought, consisted of two Recusant-class destroyers, one of which was commanded by the T-series tactical droid TJ-912, as well as six Munificent-class frigates.
During the battle, however, Separatist leader Count Dooku was contacted by his Sith Master, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, on the planet Serenno. Sidious, in belief that the Serennian was training Ventress as his own apprentice to kill him, ordered Dooku to kill her to prove his loyalty to him.
Afterwards, Dooku sent a transmission to Ventress, who had crashed aboard the Separatist flagship and was cornered by the two Jedi Generals, where he proceeded to inform her that she had failed him for the final time and that she was no longer his apprentice. The Serennian then ordered TJ-912 aboard the Recusant to begin firing on the flagship in order to kill the assassin, to which the Separatist fleet followed its orders and proceeded to fire on the flagship, destroying it in the process, and seemingly killing Ventress along with it.
===Battle of Umbara===
During the Republic invasion of the planet Umbara, the Separatists sent a sizeable fleet to help the Umbarans defend their home and supply them with arms needed to repel Republic forces. During the battle, several Recusant-class warships battled alongside Munificent-class frigates, Providence-class Dreadnoughts, and Umbaran support ships to repel the Republic fleet and defend a supply ship that was supplying arms to the Umbaran defenses.
===Massacre on Dathomir===
Later, after Ventress's failed attempt to kill her former master, the Confederate Head of State Count Dooku, and the following betrayal of his second apprentice, the former Nightbrother Savage Opress, Dooku had learned that his former assassin had returned to the planet Dathomir. Afterward, the Sith Lord summoned Grievous to Serenno, where he proceeded to order the launch of an invasion of Dathomir with the intent of exacting revenge on Ventress and Mother Talzin and wiping out the entire Nightsister clan.
Commanding his fleet, which consisted of two Recusant-class warships, four Munificent-class frigates, two Separatist supply ships, and a Providence-class Dreadnought, Grievous and his forces traveled to the Dathomir system. Upon their arrival, the fleet proceeded to launch Hyena-class Droid Bombers escorted by several droid tri-fighters on a bombing run of the Nightsister lair's perimeter. After, Grievous ordered his forces to begin their landing, where they managed to wipe out the Nightsister clan.
===Battle of Coruscant===
Hundreds of Recusant-class light destroyers, including the vessel Patriot Fist, took part in the Battle of Coruscant. Several Recusants formed the line that defended the Invisible Hand. Because the ships were controlled by droid brains and only carried a crew made up of droids lacking any sense of self-preservation, many of them rammed into Venator-class Star Destroyers and other Republic ships upon being shot down during the battle. One Recusant accidentally collided with a Munificent-class frigate while Obi-Wan Kenobi was being chased by discord missiles. By the end of the battle, a third of the Confederacy Naval Forces had been destroyed, implying that many Recusant-class warships were destroyed in the battle. 
===Imperial Era===
After the end of the Clone Wars and the transition of the Republic into the Galactic Empire, the majority of Recusant-class light destroyers were decommissioned, like other Separatist warships. In 2 BBY,Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of to 2 BBY the Spectres hid in the wreckage of a Recusant-class warship waiting for the arrival of Gold Squadron escorting Senator Mon Mothma, who had just renounced the Empire. However, at least one Recusant-class light destroyer would go on to serve in the naval forces of the Alliance to Restore the Republic where it would partake in a battle against star destroyers of the Imperial Navy alongside a modified Providence-class Destroyer and newer Mon Cala warships.
==Behind the scenes==
The Recusant-class light destroyer first appeared in the 2005 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. The starship was later first identified in the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Complete Vehicles, published by Dorling Kindersley.
==Appearances==
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*Darth Maul — Son of Dathomir 1
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*Tarkin 
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==Sources==
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*Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia 
*Star Wars: On the Front Lines
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*Star Wars: Complete Vehicles
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*Rise of the Separatists 
*Collapse of the Republic
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*Star Wars Complete Vehicles, New Edition
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*Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy 
==Notes and references==
Category:Destroyer classes
Category:Droid vehicle models
Category:Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps products
Category:Hoersch-Kessel Drive, Inc. products
Category:Starship classes of the Commerce Guild