The Longrunner was a Kazellis light freighter with improved hyperdrive that passed through several owners during the time of the Empire.
History
Kazellis Corporation designed the Kazellis-class light freighter and built the Longrunner as one of the first ships of the line. Wanting to use this individual ship to perform runs for goods to remote locations, the ship had an improved hyperdrive from the factory. It was assigned to Captain Duan Zorn. Kazellis Corporation was bankrupted, nationalized and dissolved soon afterward. Zorn then stole the Longrunner and began a life as a trader. Zorn installed a slave circuit so that he could remotely control the Longrunner from a distance of up to 100 kilometers. As Zorn had no experience working on his own, he lost the ship in the planet Nigel III: Local port authorities impounded it because Zorn was unable to pay docking fees. When the ship was discovered to be stolen, Zorn was sent to jail.
As Kazellis did not exist any longer and its creditors did not want to travel to Nigel III and claim the ship, the local Bureau of Ships and Services auctioned the ship. It was bought by Dav Kathis, a former Imperial Naval officer. Kathis used the Longrunner as his family home, sharing it with his wife Leanna Carella and their young son. He also traded on his own through the Enarc Run, and achieved a reputation as a good-natured person.
Eventually, Kathis was kidnapped by agents of COMPNOR who mistakenly believed him to be an informer to the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Kathis was kept for interrogation and torture purposes while Carella traveled through her husband's usual routes in the Longrunner, looking for him and trying to earn some money. At the same time, Zorn managed to leave prison and began searching for the Longrunner, intending to use the slave circuit to recover it.