Forager

The Forager was a custom-built thorilide collector designed by Count Denetrius Vidian. In 11 BBY, the Forager was deployed to Cynda, the moon of Gorse, to collect the thorilide contained within the moon. It was destroyed at the conclusion of the Gorse Conflict.
==Description==
The Forager was a custom-built thorilide harvesting ship that had seven bulging black spheres connected on a long axis. According to the Imperial Captain Rae Sloane, the Forager resembled a segmented insect. It was equipped with sixteen electrostatic towers which spanned the entire length of the vessel and resembled antennae. During thorilide mining operations, the Forager fanned out its electrostatic towers to pick up the thorilide molecules, which were drawn to the spokes and shunted inside the vessel. The Forager had seven automated processing centers in each of these pods. The tail-end pod was also equipped with landing bays for shipping the processed thorilide out. It was capable of churning out pure thorilide within an hour.
The Forager was based at Denetrius Vidian's headquarters at the Calcoraan Depot. While the ship was protected by a powerful deflector shield, it had a weak point around its rear which could be breached by a starship traveling at a high speed. The Forager was crewed by several crew who wore cybernetic headsets which allowed them to keep updated with mining operations across the galaxy. The ship was also equipped with a transmission tower that allowed Vidian to remotely control a Detonation Control Uplink, which the Imperial Navy also had access to.
==History==
In 11 BBY, the Forager served as a purpose-built thorilide harvesting vessel for the Imperial industrialist Count Denetrius Vidian. It was housed at his personal headquarters, the Calcoraan Depot, which orbited the planet Calcoraan. During the Gorse Conflict, Vidian had the ship outfitted for a thorilide harvesting mission in the Gorse system. In order to meet the Emperor's new thorilide production quota, Vidian had decided to destroy Gorse's moon Cynda in order to increase the rate of production. While visiting the Calcoraan Depot, the Imperial science officer Lieutenant Kanna Deltic marveled at the sight of the starship and talked about its capabilities to her superior officer Captain Rae Sloane.
After Count Vidian's mining fleet had picked up their supplies of baradium-357, the Forager accompanied the fleet back to the Gorse system. From his command center aboard the ship, Vidian planned to initiate the detonation of Cynda. While the cargo fleet was unloading their cargo onto Cynda, a small rebel cell consisting of Hera Syndulla, the underground Jedi and freighter pilot Kanan Jarrus, the dissident miner Skelly, and the former surveillance operator Zaluna Myder harried the freighters and their TIE fighter escorts. Kanan managed to breach the Forager shields and land his freighter Expedient in one of the Forager rear hangar.
The four rebels fought their way through the ship's orbital refineries. While Skelly was separated, the other three rebels managed to reach the command centre. Zaluna tried to send a distress message but was cornered by Vidian. Kanan and Hera then attacked the cyborg Count but were no match for him. Unwilling to let anything stand in his way, Vidian was determined to proceed with the detonation. However, his plan was stopped by Captain Sloane, who had received orders from the Emperor ordering a halt to the planned detonation of Cynda. Thanks to the rebels, the Empire had learned that Vidian had falsified his test results to conceal the fact that detonating Cynda would damage the moon's thorilide crystals. Vidian had planned to detonate Cynda as part of a complex plot to discredit his business rival Baron Lero Danthe. Since Vidian's actions would have damaged Imperial assets, Sloane ordered his immediate arrest.
When Vidian revealed that he could still remotely control the Detonation Control uplink, Captain Sloane ordered the stormtroopers aboard the Forager to kill Vidian's crew. She also gave orders for the Imperial fleet to bombard the Forager. The Imperial bombardment destroyed the ship's transmission control, severing access to the Detonation Control link. Vidian tried to destroy Cynda with the rebels' freighter Expedient, which was loaded with explosives, but was killed by Skelly, who blew himself and Vidian up. Hera, Kanan, and Zaluna managed to escape the derelict Forager in an escape pod. The destruction of the Forager ended the Gorse conflict and Vidian's bid for power.
==Appearances==
*A New Dawn 
==Notes and references==
Category:Mining starships
Category:Starships of the Galactic Empire