One of two ore-raiding ships under the command of captain Finhead Stonebone, the Marauder Starjacker, and her sister ship the Stenness Raider, were modified Byblos Drive Yards E-2 asteroid miners. During the time they were in actual service, the E-2s offered a cheaper alternative to using tractor beams for moving asteroids.
With a length of over one hundred metres, the insectoid ships appear deceptively small. Their rugged claws dig through the solid rock of the asteroid, and then lock into place. The rocks are then moved via thruster jets, which are found on the claws; these allow the asteroid to be moved to any specific location. One attached and moved, E-2s use plasma drills to drill through unnecessary rock. A central suction tube is then deployed which sucks up material into the ship’s filtration system. This system serves two purposes: it sorts out the valuable ores, which are placed into cargo bays; the waste material is used for fuel, which is placed in the E-2’s thrusters. An E-2 usually has a crew of over one hundred and fourteen. This is made up of four command crew, ten bridge crew, and over one hundred miners.
Finhead came by his miners when he destroyed a mining operation near Varl. During the confusion, he made off with two E-2s, which he then had modified. His main goal was to attack Ithullian colossus wasps, which had tough hulls. In order to penetrate these hulls, Stonebone had the plasma drills moved to the front of the ship. These would be the weapons, although they would need to be upgraded in order to accomplish their mission. Therefore Finhead had the drills fed by a trio of power generators, and their prismatic drill crystals were upgraded to give them a longer range. They were not as good as laser cannons, but they were powerful enough to puncture the wasp hulls. Extra weapons was added in the form of monomolecular slicers being added to the digging claws. These allowed the claws to penetrate the wasp carapaces.
The motors were replaced with Corellia StarDrive microthrusters, which enhanced the ship’s speed. Knowing that the ship would only be taking in pure ore, Finhead dispensed with the filtration system. This had the effect of increasing the cargo space by a third, and he also ripped out the mining stations to allow space to carry over a hundred raiders. These would be used for boarding actions, since he always wanted to take the wasp ships in one piece if possible.
Stonebone usually used one tactic when attacking the wasp ore haulers: he would use the Marauder Starjacker to cut through the wasp hull, thus exposing the cargo area to space. Any ore modules and wasp crews were then sucked into space via the vacuum that this tactic caused. Once done, Finhead would have his raiders enter the wasp to finish off any crew members still alive and steal whatever there was left.
Finhead turned quite a tidy profit from this, but in the end he incurred the wrath of Bogga the Hutt. The Hutt captured the Maruader Starjacker and Stonebone, and in the end they were forced to work for Bogga.