When the reptilian Ssi-ruuk assaulted the remote Imperial planet Bakura, the Shriwirr was the lead attack cruiser.
A Shree-class battle cruiser, the Shriwirr was a formidable ship. Around nine hundred metres long, the ship was littered with weapons emplacements. The ship had the Ssi-ruuk equivalent of twenty-four ion cannons, twelve concussion-missile launchers, twenty-four heavy turbolasers, and twelve tractor-beam projectors. Instead of starfighters, the Ssi-ruuk used battle droids, and the Shriwirr carried five hundred of them. Normally only the ion cannons and tractor beams were used. The Ssi-ruuk set great store by capturing enemy fighters, as they saw their destruction as a complete waste. The actual craft they capture and drag into their huge landing bays are pretty useless; in fact the Ssi-ruuk want the pilots.
The Ssi-ruuk use a process called entechment to draw the life-force out of beings, and the transfer this force into their droids and computers. ‘Lucky’ ones are placed inside battle droids. The Shriwirr had a large entechment lab on board, and saw many prisoners turned into Ssi-ruuk slaves. Thirty more of the labs were being constructed on board the ship at the time of the Battle of Bakura. The Ssi-ruuk thought that if they could entech Luke, a Jedi, then they might be able to entech humans from light years away, and not have to bother sending huge invasion fleets to systems.
Since the Ssi-ruuk are very tall, the ceilings on the Shriwirr were built to five metres high. The P’w’ecks, a smaller species conquered by the huge reptiles and now used as slaves, used the countless access tunnels and crawlways to get around the ship and perform their day-to-day operations. If a P’w’eck decided to become curious, they were usually caught in the numerous stun traps placed around sensitive areas of the ship. For the P’w’eck, these were merely uncomfortable and shocking; for a human it meant death. Curiosity could literally kill the human. Conductive nets were used to stop energy surges and to maintain a stabilised gravity, as the reptiles were not intelligent or sophisticated enough to install artificial gravity systems on board their ships.
The force that invaded Bakura was just a preliminary fleet, but it easily overwhelmed the small Imperial force stationed on the planet. The Shriwirr led a fleet made up of one Sh’ner-class planetary assault cruiser, which carried twelve D’kee-class P’w’eck landing ships; one Lwhekk-class manufacturing ship; four Wurrif-class light cruisers, each measuring four hundred metres in length; twenty Fw’Sen-class P’w’eck picket ships; and over 1,300 battle droids. This force was led by Admiral Ivpikkis, and was stopped only by the Rebel fleet, commanded by Luke.
During the battle, Luke was captured, but broke free of the entechment lab, and disabled the engineering control station. Although he was weak, and had been infected with a parasite, the Ssi-ruuk abandoned the Shriwirr, rather than facing a Jedi Knight in battle. The ship was captured by the Rebels, who then outfitted it and made it part of their own fleet. They renamed it the Sibwarra, after Dev Sibwarra, who had given up his life so that the Rebels could succeed. Although it was given this name, some technicians called it the Flutie, a derisive name given to the Ssi-ruuk because of the way they talked.
The nickname may have been funny to the techs, but it was not to the men and women who had given their all against the Ssi-ruuk. They may have talked funny, but they were one of the most formidable opponents the galaxy had ever faced.