Shadow Raptor

The ***Shadow Raptor***, formerly known as the ***Eccentric Lad*** while under command of the Empire,was an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate in service of the early rebellion against the Galactic Empire as a deep space communications and analysis ship. Widely considered a "ghost ship", the *Shadow Raptor* was solely responsible for the rebel intelligence collection operations of the entire Trans-Hydian Borderlands, serving as a communications relay for multiple rebel cells scattered throughout the region. Months after three rebel agents saved the doomed frigate from being completely taken over by Imperial sabotage droids, it fought in the Battle of Peldaasa, aiding the three rebel agents who the crew owed their lives to and helping destroy the *Prosecutor*.

## History

Originally the Imperial escort frigate *Eccentric Lad*, the *Shadow Raptor* was liberated from Contruum Shipyard by Airen Cracken and his crew of resistance fighters when he fled his homeworld. When Cracken's Crew began fighting the Empire on a galactic scale, the rechristened *Shadow Raptor* was put into service coordinating intelligence operations throughout the thirty-plus sectors of the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, with Cracken acting as captain and senior intelligence officer. When Cracken left to meet with other leaders of various rebel cells, he turned over command of the *Raptor* to Captain Hylo Sortuli.

In 3 BBY, members of Rancor's Fang ventured to the *Shadow Raptor* to fulfill their end of a mission to retrieve a shipment of stolen Imperial droids. After receiving a full briefing from Cracken over a holocomm, the rebels left the ship and traveled to Port Tooga, where they bought the droids from the pirates that stole them. Shortly after they returned, however, the droids revealed their hidden programming, revolting and taking over the frigate. Imprisoning the crew and locking down the access hatches, the droids began attempting to retrieve the vital information onboard, and it was up to the three rebels; Kel Forsec, Korvas Noth, and Exleire, to recover the ship and prevent the Empire from stealing vital rebel intelligence.

Years after the near-disasterous events aboard the frigate, the *Shadow Raptor* continued to serve as a deep-space Rebel intelligence asset. It kept its place as a communications relay and analysis ship in the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, and was called into service after the Battle of Yavin to search for Imperial facilities and gather intelligence on all Imperial military movements reacting to the Death Star's destruction, as the Yavin system and the Gordian Reach were part of its assigned area of operation.

When an Imperial facility began sending a distress beacon on the edge of the Gordian Reach, Captain Sortuli ordered her crew to bring the frigate to its position to uncover just what exactly was happening. She was surprised to learn that the exact spy base her crew had been searching for had been taken over by a team of Alliance Special Forces soldiers, and spoke with the squad's leadership; Sergeant Bex Kolus, Sergeant Sorin Diram, and Sergeant Vessk about their presence. She offered them a deal: if they would share what intelligence they could glean from the facility, she would transport them to Yavin 4 to complete their mission. Unfortunately, the space station opened fire before they could arrange their deal, and the *Shadow Raptor* withdrew to a safer distance while the SpecForce operators descended into the cave networks of the asteroid to sabotage the generators powering the turbolasers.