Sleek Blade (Swiftwind-class courier)

Sleek Blade (modified Swiftwind-class courier)

Manufacturer: Alderaan Royal Engineers
Product Line: Swift-type armed-fast courier
Model: modified Swiftwind-class
Class: armed-fast courier
Length: 31 meters
MGLT: 100
Engines: 3xprimary 4xsecondary
Hyperdrive/Backup Rating: 2.5/7.5
Shielding: equipped
Sensor System: equipped
Navigation System: equipped
Targeting Computer: equipped
Armament: 2xdouble laser cannon turrets, 2xfire-linked ion cannons
Crew: 1-3
Passengers: 6 passengers, 4 prisoners
Cargo Capacity: 75 tons
Consumables: 3 months
Roles: personal/prisoner transport
Special Equipment: cockpit escape pod, cold locker for corpses, holocomm transceiver

Special Notes: the fire-linked ion cannons are mounted beneath the chin of the craft. The laser turrets are mounted forward of the engine block, one ventral, one dorsal. The three primary engines are mounted horizontally in a row and the four secondary engines mounted vertically, two on either side of the center engine.

Description: Before the Clone Wars and Alderaan's subsequent disarmanent thereafter, Alderaan's Royal Engineers were well known for their capital ship and fighter production. However their designs grew less and less competative as other major shipwrights had increasing success in marketing their products to buyers in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. Because of this, Alderaan's Royal Engineers began to move away from dedicated combat ships and started producing luxury and civilian craft. They created several lines of transport and frieghter, in addition to yachts and pleasure cruisers. One of their more successful models was a line of armed-fast couriers called the 'Swift' series. There were several sub-designs in the series of varying sizes, all of them widely popular for their high speed and sturdy construction.
The Swiftwind-class was the third type in the series, following on the heels of the original Swift and the Swiftsure designs and proved the most popular during the years prior to the Clone Wars when a fourth Swift-type, the Swifthind was produced. Perhaps the most notable operator of the Swiftwind was the bounter hunter and later GAR commander Aira-ty Nokta who acquired the craft shortly after she married Jango Fett. After a few superficial modification—specifically the addition of holding cells for prisoners and a specialized cold locker for cadavers—the Sleek Blade was ready for duty. Aira-ty operated the craft throughout her years as a bounty hunter and she was away on a job and aboard the Sleek Blade when Jango took his final job with Count Dooku and was killed on Geonosis.
When the Clone Wars commenced and Aira-ty enlisted with the GAR to revenge herself against the Separatists—who she blamed for her husband's death—and protect Jango's legacy, the clone troopers, she stored the Sleek Blade aboard the Venator-class star destroyer Guardian which served as the flagship of the 13th Assault Corps which Aira-ty acted as second in command under Jedi General Kahan. Once Order 66 was issued, Aira-ty used the Sleek Blade to desert her post and seek out Master Kahan. Following their reunion and subsequent marriage, she kept the Sleek Blade throughout their new careers as bounty hunters, however after the destruction of Alderaan replacement parts became increasingly difficult to find.
The final ship to bear the Swift-type designator was the Swifthound, the seventh craft in the design line, by this time the Swift-type was no longer armed but it had been made even faster than its predecessors. Alderaan Royal Engineers main branch was destroyed when the Death Star destroyed Alderaan and the company dried up shortly thereafter when its offworld assets were divied up between Kuat Drive Yards and Sienar Fleet Systems by the Empire. Neither company chose to pursue ARE's designs and gradually the ships of the Royal Engineers began to vanish from the spacelanes.