Privately owned Venators

This is my first post, so if it is in the wrong area, please don't kill me. I am working on a bit of private fanfic, and am wondering if there is any mention anywhere about privately owned or extensively mod'ed Venators? What I am working on would be around the time of the Yuuzon Vong invasion (specifically the fall of Yavin 4).


Also, as a sidenote/sidequestion, how much would a SBD that was upgraded to the tech levels of the YV timeframe sell for on the open market? Or, how much would a YVH droid sell for? I am still trying to get a feeling for the economic scale of the Credit. I know that there are alot of variables in this question, but are we talking 500 credits, 2,500 credits, 10,000 credits????

Thanks alot for anything you guys have to offer!

(ETA: SBD= Super Battle Droid).

 

SBD???

Do you mean Super Battle Droid?

 

Yep. Edited for clarification.

 

Well, Wookieepedia tells us that most of the Venator-class Star Destroyers were abandoned after they became obsolete next to newer Star Destroyer models. It also tells us that the Mandalorians, the Zann Consortium, and various pirate groups were able to get their hands on the starship. So basically, it was groups and organizations with less then respectable reputations.

 

maybe somebody can verify this for me.... i could have sworn that it is in a book somewhere (weg rpg?) that battle droids (retgardless of type) were considered illegal through large swaths of the galaxy post clone wars....

i'm not sure of this though.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Orange_Panthacs

Doesn't really answer any of your questions, but it's semi-relevant.

EDIT: Oh spelling..

 

I was planning on a character/organization stumble upon a few (probably 3) venators that were abandoned and repair/consolidate them into one ship and then customize it from there. The end goal would be to then have the proud new star destroyer owners (who by the way know that the Venator was the best SD) pledge themselves to help the Jedi. From there, it would obvoiusly be an Infinity, but hey, its not like anyone but me is ever going to read it! Anyone have thoughts on this? Or suggestions?

 

battle droids were generally illegal, but the Empire itself could still use them. The Empire more or less took over the Separatist Droid Army. Last of the Jedi has shown the Imperial Stormtroopers supplemented by both DSD-1 dwarf spider droids and B1 battle droids.

 

If there can be a privately owned ISD...there can be Venators in private ownership.

Just don't overestimate your beloved Venator too much.

As far as credits go...good luck with that...the rhyme and reason of credits in the galaxy are a continual flux from one author to the next. Trust your feelings and be consistent and you'll be fine.

 

It;s strange how fast the Venator became obsolete. I mean, it's arguably more powerful than a Victory-class due to it's massive starfighter attachment.

 

But without the fighters...it's nearly useless.

Likely with the advent of the TIE as the starfighter standard, and the drop-rack launch system...a more traditional hangar ship wouldn't work as well.

Additionally, with Vics and Imps, the idea of the ship being able to fend for themselves takes on higher importance. Fewer fighters, fewer fighter loses as the fighters needed in reserve to defend the ship aren't required.

(pure spec of course, given a new ship of the line in a time window that make ridiculously little sense...but it's one plausible explanation)

I believe at the end of the day, the speed with which the Venator got the boot will come down to A) economics B) politics C) secondary tech (like the fighters); rather then any technological

 

There was a Droideka in Survivor's Quest I believe.

And what happened to that Venator from Republic Commando? Did they recover it or is it still floatin derelict somewhere out there? (And filled with the corpses of dead Trandoshans... )

-The Rebel Gungan

 

That was an Acclamator

 

Was it? I'm no fleet junkie and the general EVERY Capital Imperial Ship has to have the same ship and designation has really thrown me off.

-The Rebel Gungan

 

A Venator in truly private ownership would be rather unlikely. Cracken was going absolutely nuts over the outrageous prospect that the Errant Venture would be in private hands. And of course, that was an incredibly rare case. It's possible some Venators could be sold off to private fleets, like some Vicstars were, but those were rare instances of highly-regulated government-allied corporations and government-controlled local defense fleets getting them, not really "private" owners.

 

That was when the New Republic was on the rise (ah, the good old days), so while a single Imperial Star Destroyer (class II, on top of that) wouldn't turn the tide of the war... it would still help a lot. And leaving it in the hands of a smuggler was a problem. Of course, said smuggler doesn't have the crew for it as the entire crew is being procesed by the New Republic, but Booster still had a legal claim to it.

Venators... given that the Victory-class is still in service years after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, I don't think the Venator is too obsolete. Well, at least in terms of weaponry. With TIE Fighters, the Venator isn't really meant for that as Clone War fighters were more along the lines of the later Wing fighter, not the wings of TIE fodders favored by the Imperial Navy. Anyway, Star Destroyers, even old ones like the Victory and Venator are still a bit out of the price range for most independent groups. Or even if there are lots of derelict ones lying around (which I find strange, given how the Imperial Navy loved Star Destroyers), then repairing one and maintaining one is still a major burden. Imperial Star Destroyers are very hard to maintain without government support, so while Venator and Victory Destoyers are older, they probably still require a lot of money.

Vicstars have turned up over the years in other than Imperial hands, I remember a Corporate Sector Authority Victory class Star Destroyer (even if that was one from the extremely old Han Solo Adventures, or something like that), but the CSA is still essentially part of the Empire.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Venators show up again somewhere, I liked their design, though I still like the old Victory class design as well. Too bad they didn't bother putting Venators in Empire at War though. (I know they can be modded in, but its just not the same.) I almost sometimes wish we could see a Venator in a Rebellion fleet, but that's probably still way out of their price range or their ability to steal/salvage. Though it still seems possible for the early Rebellion to get their hands on old Confederacy ships, but the art was so bad during the first Rebellion arc, I couldn't tell what was what anyway. Anyway, Mon Calamari Star Cruisers are probably still better (and those are hard to get as is).

 

Depends on if you define pirates as private owners. Leonia Tavira owned the Invidious, for one. IIRC, Corran also says that there are a couple more Imperial Star Destroyers in the hands of pirates when Booster was obtaining the Venture, so Venators and Victories are hardly out of the question.

 

Ah, but the point was that Booster having a Star Destroyer was pretty much an unheard-of thing. No other individual had a Star Destroyer to just cruise around in. They were all in the hands of militaries -- galactic, local, megacorporate, or illegal (pirates with warlord Impstars) -- and not genuine private individuals.

 

It depends what you mean by "privately-owned".

If you mean legitimate civilian ownership, then it only be allowed a very limited armament - and as people have pointed out, the idea of a legitimate civilian Imperial-class Star Destroyer caused apoplexy in 7 ABY.

However, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer is a much larger, more capable and more heavily-armed warship than the Venator-class attack cruiser. It's possible that a few VenStars could have been de-militarized to civilian control - but, as I noted, they'd only be allowed a light armament. The Errant Venture appears to carry around one-sixth of her military armament.

On this parallel, a genuinely "civilian" VenStar might be allowed: two of her ten main emplacements, one of her six tractor beam projectors, one of her four torpedo tubes (maybe with a reduced magazine of 11 rather than 16 missiles), and maybe just eight of her 52 light point-defense lasers, if these are included in the guns that have to be removed.

The easiest way to have a "private" VenStar - and to have it fully-armed! - would be to have it either controlled by a planetary government, or by pirates. Neither is unprecedented.

Star Destroyers sometimes appeared in local fleets, even under the Empire - one or two of the noble houses in Tapani Sector had Victory-class ships, while, at least after Endor, Kuat even had Imperial-class ships. By 18-19 ABY, the Bakuran Defense Force, right out on the Outer Rim, has built three 850m Star Destroyers of its own, based around salvaged ISD drive systems, while the Diamala have bought more than one Nebula-class Star Destroyer, considered the most effective and advanced type in NR fleet service.

Pirates also acquired Star Destroyers, such as the Demolisher in the DROIDS cartoon, Crimson Jack's cruiser in the old Marvel comics, and Leonia Tavira's Invidious.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Kuat having ISDs was part of a deal with the Empire that they would provide for their own defense. That went up pretty quickly after Endor and Kuat of Kuat's likkle breakdown. Soon after the Empire stationed their own ships in the sector for defense.

 

They sure didn't look like Trandoshans to me. Then again, I assume all Trandoshans look exactly like Bossk ( as depicted in Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy ).

 

Well, in this case the person in question would be in charge of a mining/alloy production corporation displaced by the Yuuzhon vong. The basic premise is that he evacs the planet that he is mining with as many of his people and ships/eq as he can. When he gets to his rally point (a short distance from the planet he was escaping), his ship picks up a few of the old, abandoned Venators floating along on the long range scanners. SInce he would happen to a have a few hundred people there with him, the goal would be for him to salvage the ship there, then loosely join up with Talon Karrdes group a bit later. I was even thinking that he if he found say 4, he could donate 2 to the New Republic on the condition that he would be allowed the use of battle droids and a capital ship or two as a sort of private militia.

Another angle that may be useable is that the mining corp he is in charge of has full rights to an entire uninhabited system, so would he then be considered a planetary gov't?

 

Flying around in one of those during the YV era would be like driving around in a 60's Hippy bus nowadays, or something like that, so just scale that to newer cars

 

During the NJO? I doubt the NRFFA is going to be too worried about a single Venator, unless it goes pirate or razes a planet.

As to finding them, why not make them part of a battle debris field? There are tons of them with workable items, as referred to in BFC. Not all of them are likely to have been picked over yet.

 

Source?

The Ruling Council deployed a Star Destroyer fleet to Kuat after Endor - fifteen, which is a lot of ships - but I don't think the source (SWAJ #2) mentions anything about their own ISDs.

And in Iron Fist, didn't they have their own ISDs again?

That's a different issue: I thought you were looking for a way to have Venator-class ships still operating legally in private hands, comparable to the Errant Venture (ISD) or Omze's Incredible Travelling Starport (600m heavy cruiser, even if it is a cheap one ).

if they're abandonned on an old battlefield or in a dumping-ground, and found by refugees in wartime, that's a different matter.

As AdmiralWes said, I think a lot of people in the NR would be happy to have that sort of force fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, regardless of niceties; thouh they DO have some bureaucrats who might find it hard to deal with.

If you're looking for a way to make then "legitimate", then certainly, if the mining corp is technically a planetary/system government, then it would be entirely logical to have them as a local defense forces.

An alternative would be for the NR to recognize them as privateers - privately-owned warships licensed by the government, which are allowed to sell enemy ships/cargos when they capture them (real-world and Star Wars summaries if you need them).

- The Imperial Ewok