This starship was a Heraklon-class transport that served the Zhug brothers, a bounty hunter organization that operated during the Dark Wars period. Back in 3951 BBY, the Exchange crime syndicate hired them to capture Meetra Surik, a former Jedi Knight, for a bounty. While the Zhugs were pursuing Surik with their vessel towards Onderon, damage from an Onderon separatist fleet that was blockading the planet forced both Surik and the bounty hunters to make an emergency landing on Dxun, Onderon's moon. The crash completely destroyed the ship, and Surik and her allies subsequently killed the crew.
This vessel was a Heraklon-class transport frigate, a type of starship produced by Sadon Shipwrights that was widely used by the Republic around the time of the Jedi Civil War.
Prior to the conclusion of the Dark Wars, the Zhug brothers, a Duros bounty hunter group, came into possession of this Heraklon-class starship. In 3951 BBY, G0-T0, a crime lord affiliated with the Exchange operating in the Y'Toub system, placed a bounty on Meetra Surik, a former Jedi Knight also known as the Jedi Exile. The Zhugs accepted the assignment to claim the bounty.
When Surik arrived on [Nar Shaddaa](/article/nar_shaddaa-legends], the moon, to investigate the bounty placed on her, the Zhug brothers twice attempted to collect it. Both attempts failed, resulting in the death of Azanti Zhug, one of their leaders. Following these failed attempts, they pursued the Jedi's small freighter, the Ebon Hawk, as it departed the moon using their starship.
As the Ebon Hawk and the Zhug brothers' starship approached the Onderon system, they encountered an Onderon separatists blockade that was preventing Republic merchant ships and the military fleet from entering the planet Onderon's capital city, Iziz. Shortly after, under the command of Colonel Tobin, the separatist fleet initiated the first battle of the Onderon Civil War by firing upon the blockaded Republic vessels. The Zhugs' starship sustained damage from the barrage, causing it to plummet from the sky and crash in the jungles of Dxun, Onderon's moon, while transmitting its ID signature. Dezanti Zhug and two other Zhug brothers survived the crash, which destroyed their starship. Surik's freighter landed nearby. The Zhugs then confronted Surik and her companions, but their attempt to claim the bounty on the former Jedi Knight failed, leading to the Zhug trio's demise at the hands of the Exile and her allies.
The destruction of the Zhug Ship led to a decrease in sales of Heraklon-class transports because of the damage to its reputation. A marketing shift that emphasized the vessel's safety in the event of an accident eventually restored sales to a profitable level, ensuring that production would continue.
The Zhug Ship made its debut in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, a video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment that was released in late 2004. The game allows the player, controlling the Jedi Exile, to explore several planets after departing from Telos IV. This article assumes that the Jedi Exile visits Nar Shaddaa before traveling to Onderon's moon Dxun, as presented in the game's Prima Official Game Guide. Several ships of the same class were briefly visible in the cutscene that played when arriving on Onderon, waiting in the planet's blockade. The Zhugs' ship is later found as wreckage on Dxun's surface. Although the game does not officially name the ship, the game model is labeled as "Zhug Ship" in the game dialogue file.
The Zhug Ship was assigned its class, technical specifications, and history in "Message to Spacers 9," an article authored by Patrick Stutzman and published in 2010 as an online supplement for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by Wizards of the Coast. The article also provided details about the events leading to the Zhug brothers' crash landing on Dxun, identifying the Onderon separatist forces under Colonel Tobin's command as the cause of the damage.