Star Wars: How ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ Gave Us the Greatest Ship of All Time – The Ebon Hawk Breakdown
Star Wars: Knight Of The Republic was a great game with iconic ships. And among those ships, the Ebon Hawk stands out as a star.
In a galaxy full of iconic ships, it takes a lot to stand out. And yet one ship from an even longer time ago in the galaxy manages to stand out, even among the ships of the age of the Empire and the Galactic Civil War. And that’s where all the cool ships are. Mostly.
But back in the days of the Old Republic, one ship stood out as perhaps the greatest ship of all time. That ship is the Ebon Hawk.
Now, the Hawk wasn’t necessarily much to look at. But Star Wars if full of ships that are, from the outside, little more than a bucket of bolts. The Millennium Falcon. The Moldy Crow. All these are repurposed freighters, and the Ebon Hawk is no exception. The Ebon Hawk began life as a Dynamic-class freighter. It helped that its owner was an infamous crime lord. And that smugglers modified the ship to make it the fastest ship in the Outer Rim.
But even with those qualifiers, the Ebon Hawk might have languished in relative obscurity. That is, if not for the intervention of the powerful Force Using figure Revan.
Revan was once a Jedi, then a Dark Lord of the Sith, then redeemed himself. It’s one of the most harrowing tales in galactic history, and it all begins with the Ebon Hawk.
The Ebon Hawk’s Design
The Ebon Hawk is proof that a humble ship can have a great impact. The Millennium Falcon‘s freighter design was doubtless influenced by the Dynamic-class freighters of the Old Republic. Similarly, the Ebon Hawk was swift and curved.
It was built to travel the galaxy. The interior of the ship was designed to accommodate crew, cargo, and even swoop bikes in relative comfort.
The cockpit could hold a pilot, copilot, and navigator, while the main weapons batteries were gunner-operated. In the center of the main hold, a large round console served as the primary access for any crew.
The Ebon Hawk was littered with a number of secret passages and compartments. In many events, stowaways from droids to children to more exotic life-formed managed to conceal themselves within.
Technical Specs
Two sublight drive engines give the Ebon Hawk its vaunted speed. Upgrades throughout the ship’s lifespan certainly help, too. At its peak performance, the Ebon Hawk was capable of reaching 1,100 km/h in the atmosphere. With its class 1 Hyperdrive and upgraded navigation computer, the Ebon Hawk could traverse the galaxy.
With military-grade deflector shield generators and a reinforced hull, the ship was no slouch in combat either.
The Hawk was equipped with dual turbolaser turrets mounted dorsally and ventrally. Plus it had two sets of dual heavy quad laser cannons and a proton torpedo launcher. For smaller-arms fire, the ship also boasted an anti-personnel repeating blaster, used to repel would-be boarders.
History of the Ebon Hawk
The Hawk has featured in some of the most pivotal events in galactic history. Without the intervention of the ship, the Republic might not exist today. And to think that in 3956 BBY the ship was docked in the spaceport of the gangster known as Davik Kang.
Kang ruled the spice trade out of the planet Taris, among other things. But Kang is only a footnote. All that matters is that he possessed the only ship capable of breaking a blockade by the Sith Empire.
When an amnesiac Revan came along, they stole the Ebon Hawk. They fled Taris just in time to escape the planet’s devastation by orbital bombardment.
The Ebon Hawk was instrumental in Revan’s search for the Star Forge. The Forge is a device built by the Rakata, an ancient civilization that, according to legend, was the first to develop hyperspace travel.
It played a pivotal role in the Jedi and Sith Civil War. The ship destroyed the dreadnought known as the Leviathan.
In the aftermath, the Ebon Hawk fell into the possession of Meetra Surik, better known as the Jedi Exile. Under Surik’s command, the Ebon Hawk found its way to the forsaken world of Malachor V. There, it was used to stop a tear in the Force from destroying life in the galaxy.
So much impact for so small a ship!
