Coruscant's Shield

There are several references to Coruscant's shield I can think of, and alot of them don't seem to jive with one another too well. Here's what I can think of, based off of what I've read:

Labrynth of Evil: Coruscant at the time of the Battle of Coruscant has no single planetery shield. Instead it has a bunch of theater shields that are overwhelmed by capship fire and then suicide droids.

Clone Wars Cartoon: No sign of any shielding, although given the nature of the cartoon this probably isn't a big deal.

Revenge of the Sith (novelization): no mention of a shield

Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross Sections: the fleet battle takes place under the shield, resulting in the close-quarters battle seen in the movie trailers/cartoon.

Bit of a discrepancy in these descriptions, but it could be easily argued that Coruscant's shield were down because Palpatine wanted to be captured and because they aren't up most of the time due to the huge amount of traffic around the planet, especially in this pre-Empire era. However, the ICS actually says that the shield was up, so that makes Labrynth of Evil's theater sheilds seem odd, unless they were just an extra layer of protection. These discrepancies really aren't a big deal though, compared to:

X-Wing Series: Coruscant has two huge overlapping shiedls made up of individual shield components that spacecraft can slip between, allowing the shields to be raised at all times and vessels to enter and exit even if they are up provided they follow set flight plans.

Shadows of the Empire: no mention of a shield whatsoever, although it's easy to just say it wasn't raised at this time since the Rebellion wasn't as much of a threat as after Endor.

and here's the big one:

The Last Command: Coruscant has a shield, but unlike the one in the the X-Wing books, it's a single one that ships cannot enter without it being lowered, and individual parts of the shield cannot be lowered, only the whole thing.


So what gives? If the overlapping segmented shield from the X-Wing series was still in use, it should be a simple matter for vessels to enter or exit while keeping it raised to stave off the asteroids. Thrawn's plan would never have worked.

I suppose it could be argued that the rebels replaced the shield system for whatever reason between the first and second (civil war) Battle of Coruscant, but the X-wing series shows that they were going through great pains to keep the system intact for later use.

And what was up with a nasty thunderstorm and single crashed TIE bringing down the whole planet's shield system, anyway?

 

In answer to your question about the TIE owning the entire shield, you have to remember this is the EMPIRE we're talking about here, they weren't exactly the smartest people when it came to construction. Basically, they make every system essential with the idea that nothing can destroy it, so yeah, they don't take any freak accident into effect when they build this stuff.

 

General kludge - there's an inner layer of theatre shields, and an outer planetary shield... it's possible that the outer shield was constructed during the Clone Wars, though it may have been earlier; and it's certainly likely that the Empire upgraded the old inner shield to planetary-protection level...

The reason they can't lower either shield in TLC is that they simply can't risk an asteroid slipping through - for all they know, Thrawn's asteroids are synchronized with the traffic lanes...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

What crashed TIE? If a TIE hit the shield it would be obliterated?

I'm thinking that the attack on Coruscant was so fast, they didn't have enough time to get the shield up, or it was due to Palpatine's finagling. It was then popped up so the CIS ships couldn't escape.

Then I guess being obsessed with security in the wake of Palpatine's death, the two shields made of octagons was installed so that the shields could be up while space traffic went on as normal.

 

As I read the X-wing novels first the overlapping sheilds has always been what I think of as Courascant's sheild, the Thrawn books always confused me in that respect. As the XW novels state no two portions of the sheild that were directly above or below each other open so that no attack could sneak through, now as they can stave of planetary bombardment you'd think they could absorb random metorite hits as long as they wern't concentrated (wasn't this the reason for not droping 'them' so metors couldn't get through).

 

Perhaps the NR just went back to the standard shield to conserve energy?

 

RogueWompRat posted on 4/7/05 3:01pm

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I'm thinking that the attack on Coruscant was so fast, they didn't have enough time to get the shield up, or it was due to Palpatine's finagling. It was then popped up so the CIS ships couldn't escape.
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LoE states that the shields were activated, but went down because the Separatists had the codes and (IIRC) others collapsed because of direct assault. Furthermore, the RotS novelization stated that the Separatists could leave at any time, but Dooku and Palps were waiting for Anakin and Obi-Wan to arrive (if that's a spoiler, I'm a tap-dancing hippo).

 

In Rogue Planet the planetary shield appears to be up all the time.

And that's before the Clone Wars.

 

In answer to your question about the TIE owning the entire shield, you have to remember this is the EMPIRE we're talking about here, they weren't exactly the smartest people when it came to construction. Basically, they make every system essential with the idea that nothing can destroy it, so yeah, they don't take any freak accident into effect when they build this stuff.

Sounds like you?ve been listening to too much Rebel propaganda, Chirpa.

General kludge - there's an inner layer of theatre shields, and an outer planetary shield... it's possible that the outer shield was constructed during the Clone Wars, though it may have been earlier; and it's certainly likely that the Empire upgraded the old inner shield to planetary-protection level...

That?s pretty much what I figured.

The reason they can't lower either shield in TLC is that they simply can't risk an asteroid slipping through - for all they know, Thrawn's asteroids are synchronized with the traffic lanes...

But in the X-Wing books, incoming vessels have to slip through a gap in not only the outer shields, but also the inner shields, both of which are rotating in opposite directions. The chances of even a guided asteroid making it through are pretty much nil. Although the could always have been concerned about ships colliding with the asteroids while in orbit?

What crashed TIE? If a TIE hit the shield it would be obliterated?

In Wedge?s Gamble, they Rogues brew up a big thunderstorm that causes power outages, then trick a TIE Interceptor into crashing into a power conduit, severing it? and taking down the shield planetwide.

I'm thinking that the attack on Coruscant was so fast, they didn't have enough time to get the shield up, or it was due to Palpatine's finagling. It was then popped up so the CIS ships couldn't escape.

Then I guess being obsessed with security in the wake of Palpatine's death, the two shields made of octagons was installed so that the shields could be up while space traffic went on as normal.

Yeah, that all makes sense.

As I read the X-wing novels first the overlapping sheilds has always been what I think of as Courascant's sheild, the Thrawn books always confused me in that respect. As the XW novels state no two portions of the sheild that were directly above or below each other open so that no attack could sneak through, now as they can stave of planetary bombardment you'd think they could absorb random metorite hits as long as they wern't concentrated (wasn't this the reason for not droping 'them' so metors couldn't get through).

Yeah, that?s what I thought.

Perhaps the NR just went back to the standard shield to conserve energy?

Perhaps the NR simply decided to use only one shield after they took the planet,t o conserve energy and resources required to fix the ones they took down.

Maybe? but you?d think a city-wide planet would have energy to spare. Plus, they made a big deal IIRC in Wedge?s Gamble about keeping the shields intact. Zsinj and other rogue warlords were a big worry during this time period.

If you recall, I think they used some replacement computer cores to get into the Central Computer and convince the system to become hypersensitive to power losses. That way, they could hack into the Central Computer and deprioritize the overlapping defense shields.

I think I remember something about that? it?s been awhile since I read the books. Was that what the whole computer cores thing was about?

In Rogue Planet the planetary shield appears to be up all the time.

And that's before the Clone Wars.

Well, that?s something of a problem?

 

The ICS book's allusion to the shield being up doesn't jive too well with the novelization of Episode III.

*Edited to read as follows*

Apparently, spoilers aren't allowed--even blacked out ones. Suffice it to say that the shield must've been down altogether in certain areas.

 

Obviously, under Imperial dominion, Coruscant became more fortified.

As of Wedge's Gamble, 3yrs post Endor, the situation was getting dangerous, and the Rebs were coming. It was raised 24/7, it appears.

That a single shield is seen in Last Command doesn't mean it wasn't the double. No other book, not even SBS, makes mention of the double since. It's possible the Imp reconquest of Big C did damage to it.

 

"Obviously, under Imperial dominion, Coruscant became more fortified."

yeah dont forget the xwing stuff happens far latter than the episode 3/clone wars events

 

The way that I look at the whole thing is as follows. As time went on with the empire things got better for there defense until they lost the planet. As near as I can figure the NR would install all new shielding systems so that there is no chance the empire left themselfs a back door. That way the NR new they had complete controll over the shield.

 

wot about that short story thing (I cant remeber who wrote it) the one which follows a courier ship when Coruscant is evacuated by the nr. The sheild is a single/normal one in that- i never really understood how that fitted in with the rest of the stories.

 

As near as I can figure the NR would install all new shielding systems so that there is no chance the empire left themselfs a back door. That way the NR new they had complete controll over the shield.

A good point, that. Perhaps the Empire could've dropped Coruscant's shields with the touch of a button.

 

Sounds like the idea that the rebels overhauled the system makes the most sense. Well... it doesn't make sense, since they installed an inferior system, but given that it's the rebellion we're talking about it fits.

 

Another thing to keep in mind was that the planet suffered horrific damage after the loose cabal of warlords conquered it in Dark Empire.

 

I always thought that there must be something seriously wrong with the shield that the Vong could just keep ramming and overload the shield.

Honestly, there should have been more redundancy built into the damn shield, since it is the last line of defence.

Of course, we have Borsk to thank for for not speeding up rearmnament. The Neville Chamberlain of NJO.

 

The Peace Brigadiers may have had a hand in the failure of Coruscant's shields.

 

perhaps it is important to consider the difference between ray shields & particle shields, and that the various shield layers may have had only ONE type or shielding rather than both (as in most cases)? Come to think of it, though... that still doesn't really address the issue.


Oh, and fyi - Ray shields repel energy while particle shields repel physical objects. The shield which the gungans set up in TPM were clearly ray shields, since the droids managed to get through while the droid tanks' weaponry did them no harm. (then again, what if the tanks had fired projectile weapons and missiles? the gungans would've been pretty screwed then, no?)