Ranat

The Ranats were a small, rat-like race which was originally native to the planet Rydar II, they appear at first to be a harmless race of rodents. They are, in fact, an intelligent race of ruthless killers. The name Ranat was given to the race by the humanoid Rydans, but they prefer to call themselves the Con Queecon, which means "the Conquerors".

Several hundred years before the Galactic Civil War, Ranats were found to be stealing and eating Rydan infants. They were all but wiped out on Rydar, but three Ranats managed to stow away on a smuggling ship. The starship crashed on the planet Aralia after the three Ranats devoured the crew, and the Ranats were left there. They eventually consumed much of Aralia's native lifeforms, including the porcine roba. Ranats don't understand the concept of surrender, and will fight an opponent to the death. Any Ranat defeated in battle and left alive will return to its home and organize a vengeance party, attacking its attackers in order to restore its honor. They often sabotaged the construction of the Project Aralia amusement park, digging tunnels beneath support pylons and destroying buildings and attractions.

The Empire attempted to eradicate the Ranats by hiring "pest controllers", but environmentalists protested that this violated Imperial laws against harming sapient races. The Empire decided to add the Ranats to a list of semi-intelligent species, which meant that they had no rights to property and could be killed in self-defense, and made it illegal to arm a Ranat. However, the Ranats were never destroyed, and several Ranats found their way to Tatooine, where they took over Jabba's palace following the Hutt's demise. At one time during the New Order, Palpatine drugged Ranats with hallucinogens, then made the visions permanent with the Dark Side of the Force, and used the paranoid creatures as vicious guards. This freed up stormtroopers for more secret operations. More scientific experiments were also conducted by the Imperial Military to determine a way to use the Ranats against the Alliance.