Ychna

Ychna were massive, bioengineered, space slug-like creatures that had mouths over eighty meters wide. Long enough to coil around an orbital city, ychna were used during the Yuuzhan Vong War by the sentient Yuuzhan Vong species to mainly assault space stations and other orbital structures. One ychna was deployed in 26 ABY over the planet Duro, where it practically ate the orbital city of Orr-Om. In the last year of the war, another was part of an attack on Caluula Station.
==Biology and appearance==
Bioengineered by the sentient Yuuzhan Vong species, ychna were massive creatures that resembled space slugs. Ychna possessed a wedge-shaped head with a mouth over eighty meters in width and had a pouch over its blow hole that clung to its dorsal area, which Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker suspected was for life support. The mouth of the ychna was incredibly powerful and could easily crush the metal used to construct space stations. Ychna also had a thick hide, allowing them to survive in the vacuum of space, and they had the capacity to suck out every bit of energy that a space station's deflector shield generator could produce. Ychna sometimes had to rely on gravity-manipulating dovin basals to tow them into position in a vacuum. Despite the creature's immense size, a ychna could be killed if a proton torpedo was launched into its mouth.
==Behavior==
Used to attack space stations and other orbital platforms, ychna would gorge on their mechanical targets and fatten themselves until they were bloated; a ychna's hunger was hard to satisfy. They sometimes ripped parts off a station and ate the bits that they had separated from the superstructure. Ychna also occasionally went after enemy starships that flew near them and, while attacking space stations, liked to wrap around the orbital platforms to crush them.
==History==
Bioengineered into existence by the year 25 ABY,The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime ychna were used by the Yuuzhan Vong in their invasion of the galaxy controlled by the New Republic. The Yuuzhan Vong mainly utilized ychna to help destroy the New Republic's mechanical space stations. For the Yuuzhan Vong attack upon the planet Duro in 26 ABY,The Essential Reader's Companion dates the events of The New Jedi Order: Balance Point to 26 ABY. Warmaster Tsavong Lah used a ychna to destroy the orbital city of Orr-Om. Lah also threatened the defenders of Duro that the ychna would destroy them if the Yuuzhan Vong forces were attacked. However, Jedi Anakin Solo destroyed the ychna by firing a proton torpedo down the monster's throat with his X-wing starfighter, though the Yuuzhan Vong took the planet nonetheless.
In the last year of the war, in 29 ABY,The Essential Reader's Companion dates the events of The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force to 29 ABY. a ychna was used in an attack on Caluula Station, which was orbiting the world of Caluula. The ychna took down the station's deflector shields before rending a hole in the station's exterior, which Yuuzhan Vong warriors used to board and overtake the facility.
==Behind the scenes==
Ychna first appeared in The New Jedi Order: Balance Point, a 2000 novel from The New Jedi Order series, written by Kathy Tyers. It also later appeared in James Luceno's 2003 novel, The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force, the final book in the series. Twice within The Unifying Force, ychna is misspelled as "yncha."
==Appearances==
*The New Jedi Order: Balance Point 
*The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force
==Sources==
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
==Notes and references==
Category:Creatures of unspecified diet
Category:Invertebrates
Category:Species of undefined sentience
Category:Yuuzhan Vong creatures