Fantom

The starship Fantom is a Bayonet-class light cruiser in the service of the Hutts. It is known as the "Mid-Rim Menace" for its voracious speed, balanced and powerful armament, and propensity for interdicting wayward merchantmen and cargo haulers. While it is known as a Hutt vessel, it is crewed by Vodrans, Niktos, Klatooinians, and a slew of other varied indentured species.

Fantom is a former Imperial warship, rumored to be "acquired" by a Hutt clan in an unscrupulous arrangement. It has a "scorched" hull, blackened by passing the ship through one of the Si'Klaata Cluster's more radioactive sections and allowing it to be bombarded with radiation which caused the outer skin to blacken and slightly melt. This procedure also irradiated the skeleton crew on board, but the Hutts got their desired effect. Several other atypical weapons systems were installed on the 200-meter cruiser after this, primarily for the purpose of overwhelming and disabling any cargo vessels that may catch the eyes of its handlers.

One of its trademark tactics is to lurk at the outskirts of popular, busy shipping hubs – such as Bimmisaari – and send in a small, nondescript skiff to gather gossip regarding the travel plans of any merchantmen traveling through the region. Once its picked out a quarry, Fantom then goes on ahead to lie in wait at a likely realspace zone, then pounce on the unsuspecting ship soon after it has dropped out of hyperspace.

The ship is rather well-known amongst Centrality crews, but is especially reviled by Caspians because of its habitual haunting of Kasputin Yar, Ngor Nghal, and other systems at the "bottom end" of Union territory. It is more than a match for a single Lightning-class sloop, and is near the top of the "hitlist" carried aboard roving Shearwater frigates, eager to corner Fantom in a fight.