The Shadowblade, also known by its code name Starkiller, represented a formidable superweapon of the Separatist forces during the Clone Wars.
Functioning as a cruiser for the Separatist, the Shadowblade was outfitted with a devastating hyper-point destablizer. This vessel, classified as a superweapon, was perceived by the Galactic Republic as holding the potential for killing hundreds of billions of individuals. Its design was characterized by a streamlined, angular form, featuring a black-colored steel hull, and it derived its power from multiple shielded thrusters.
Additionally, the vessel carried a secondary arsenal comprising numerous turbolasers, discreetly positioned behind steel panels integrated into the hull. Boasting substantial shielding, the cruiser also incorporated an advanced cloaking suite capable of projecting a field that disrupted sensor detection around the warship. However, this sensor-blocking field experienced a reduction in effectiveness when the ship prepared to fire its turbolasers. A hyperdrive was also integrated into the Shadowblade, granting it the capacity for hyperspace travel.
During the Clone Wars, a period of conflict between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic, the Shadowblade was brought into existence by the Confederacy. Given the codename "Starkiller", its construction began on Kromus, which is the fourth planet of the Kro'eval system within the Esuain sector. This superweapon was housed within a spacious docking bay located in a six-winged research station that was at the heart of Kromus's largest city.
Around 20 BBY, the Shadowblade was nearing its final stages of completion; its weapon systems were fully functional, and it was merely days away from active service, with only a few panel sections left to install. Upon learning of the superweapon's existence, the Republic dispatched a fleet, under the command of Jedi Master Darrus Jeht, with the mission of destroying both the Shadowblade and the facility housing it. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the Republic's leader, intended to exploit this mission to manipulate Jeht into committing a massacre of Kromus's population. To achieve this, he arranged for the sensors of Jeht's command ship, the Maelstrom, to transmit deceptive signals concerning the Shadowblade's status. Based on falsified reports from Republic spies indicating that the Starkiller was being assembled in a remote research facility far from any population centers on Kromus, Jeht planned to obliterate the vessel through an orbital bombardment of the construction site.
Upon arriving in the system, the Republic forces approached Kromus and engaged a Confederate fleet that was guarding the planet. After scanning the facility housing the Shadowblade, Darrus Jeht realized that the intelligence he had received was inaccurate and that the cruiser was actually being constructed within a major city. Consequently, the Jedi altered his strategy, opting for a ground operation to neutralize the superweapon and minimize civilian casualties. However, the almost-finished Shadowblade activated its systems and prepared for launch, attempting to escape to safety. Fearing the vessel's escape, Jeht instructed all surviving ships to open fire, targeting the research facility where the superweapon was being built.
The Shadowblade avoided destruction during the ensuing bombardment because the Republic forces, misled by Palpatine's tampering with the Maelstrom's sensors, targeted the wrong location. Darrus Jeht, presuming the superweapon to be destroyed, ordered his fleet to withdraw from Kromus. The bombardment of the planet led to tectonic instability and a thermal shift in the atmosphere, resulting in the deaths of billions and ultimately the extinction of all life on the planet. Following the event, agents of Palpatine remained in the Kro'eval system to observe the world's destruction and were instructed to report their findings to Palpatine's apprentice, Count Dooku, information that the Chancellor believed would be valuable for another weapons project.
Haunted by the billions of deaths he had caused on Kromus, Jeht experienced a dream about the battle featuring the Shadowblade. Eventually, the Shadowblade became operational, and in 19 BBY, shortly before the Clone Wars ended, the Separatist cruiser located Jeht and the Maelstrom, which were on a mission to attack the Confederate-controlled world of Corlax 4. The Maelstrom then diverted its course toward the Cularin system in the Thaere sector, with the Shadowblade in pursuit.
The Separatist cruiser arrived at the edge of the Cularin system shortly after the Maelstrom, discovering the Republic warship damaged from a brief battle with the Republic ships Primal and Undaunted. Ignoring the crippled Maelstrom, the Shadowblade proceeded toward the Cularin asteroid belt, intending to attack Cularin, the system's primary planet. On Jeht's command, the Maelstrom pursued the Separatist cruiser, attempting to destroy it before it could reach Cularin, and the Republic warship launched torpedos at the Shadowblade.
The Shadowblade altered its course to intercept the Republic vessel, unleashing its turbolasers and inflicting further damage on the weakened Maelstrom. However, Darrus Jeht lured the cruiser into a trap, and while the Shadowblade's cloaking shield was at its weakest as the turbolasers acquired their targets, the Maelstrom ensnared the cruiser with a tractor beam. The previous activity of the Darkstaff, a powerful Sith artifact, had created several temporal rifts in the Cularin asteroid belt, and the Maelstrom pulled the disabled Shadowblade into one of these temporal anomalies. Both vessels vanished and were never seen again.
August and Cynthia Hahn were the creators of the Starkiller, which made its debut in Dark Soul, a supplementary short story for the Living Force roleplaying campaign published on Wizards.com in 2005. The vessel reappeared in the final Living Force short story, Living Force: Last Stand, in 2007, also authored by the Hahns, marking the first instance of the vessel being identified as the Shadowblade.
The superweapon's codename, "Starkiller," pays homage to the early drafts of the script for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, where it served as the surname for several characters and later influenced the surnames of the Star Wars protagonists Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker.