Lit Super Star Destroyer Loose Ends (Legends)

Wow, I'm always amazed at just how much you're able to keep track of.

Minor question- would an Executor need to survive to fight a Viscount? At the time of the Viscount artwork (from WotC I think), the Viscount was 17km, as WotC had it as the New Republic equivalent of an Executor. After the Warfare guide though, it was only 3km, Bounty wasn't finished until after the Vong War I think, and not like Krakana did much other than be destroyed by the Vong en route to Kuat. Speaking of that, not sure why they needed to send a star dreadnought from one major shipbuilding world to another (aside from the historical reference to a... Japanese WWII warship I think?). Or maybe it was just more Kuat sabotage (you'd think Shesh was bad, but then FotJ had an even more annoying Kuati Senator).

I'm sure a 3km Viscount could hold its own against an Executor, what with Mon Calamari shields and a skilled enough commander (Mon Remonda survived combat with Iron Fist several times, though those were usually fleet vs fleet engagements, and Iron Fist might have only been counted as 8km at the time).

Random question- the Black Fleet crisis trilogy mentioned that fleet might have had three Super-class vessels. The Intimidator became the Yevethan flagship, then later ended up fighting in the Unknown Regions, but not sure if the other two SSDs were ever accounted for. Though they could easily have just been part of Palpatine's Dark Empire, given how many ships were hidden over the years. Like even in Crimson Empire III, there was still a sizable hidden fleet of Venators out there.

Too bad the Viscount (whether 3km or 17km) probably wasn't ready by Orinda, or else then we could have pinned down that Viscount vs. Executor-class battle as part of the Orinda campaign. Though considering Ackbar was commanding from the Guardian SSD at the conclusion, the Viscount was probably still in development.

Then there's that SSD at Bastion in Destiny's Way, the book implies its an Executor, but that can be retconned into a Mandator, probably Megador or Dominion, unless the Remnant built a new Executor-class (unlikely) or found and repaired another (maybe?). Guardian plays a role in the last stages of the Vong War, but the Remnant doesn't contribute any dreadnoughts, or at least none mentioned. But then those would probably be reserved for defending their own territory, and neither side wanted the big final battle to happen at Mon Calamari/Dac, but the Vong had to listen to their crazy Supreme Overlord.

 

It also fits very neatly with Delvardus being based originally at Eriadu - the capital of the old Night Hammer oversector - perhaps he named the ship after the oversector?

We know that after the BFC the class was named Sorannan-class - but I suppose it could originally have been called the Rakehell-class, with the first of the line being the Rakehell - renamed the EX-F for the duration of its time as a testbed - and then regaining its Rakehell name once it arrived in the Imperial Remnant.

Given that it is exceedingly rare for ships to be named after living people - I would guess Sorannan died leading his forces to the Remnant, and the class was renamed to commemorate him.

 

Sinrebirth, I've made my case about the Megador years ago - the reference to it having "five times the firepower of an ISD-II" was obviously a callback to the similar statement about the Executor-class. We already know there are physical differences in the later Executors - the in-universe Fleet Junkie mentions the 'third shield generator' for instance in the BFC trilogy, so the engines being different aren't issue. I'd call it an Executor-II- class.

The original Black Fleet was said to have three SSDs. Let's not forget that the Black Fleet was thought destroyed at the 'disaster at Cal Seti' - something was destroyed there, certainly. The Intimidator was only in the Koornacht Cluster because it was being finished up (I should also point out that it was not built in the Koornacht Cluster - it was expressly stated to have been constructed elsewhere, at the command's home ship yard, which I would postulate would be at Cal Seti).

The EX-F is described as being a Sorannan-class Star Destroyer in the EGW.

There is also the assumption that some of these ships were at Byss when it was destroyed - certainly the Eclipse II, and the JAT sourcebook heavily implied that the Sovereigns were all there as well (if any of them were even completed). One of the SSD shipyards in the galaxy was located orbiting Byss.

As far as Night Hammer goes, the "Imperial Warlords" online article states that Delvardus spent all his credits in the construction of the ship, so it is unlikely to be a refit of an old one. (That would also imply that he didn't have any SSDs of his own, since he was willing to bankrupt himself to get one).

Actually it is suggested it was named after the love of his life, or at least circumstances involving her. Read the article, it's great.

 

Sinrebirth

You'll love Life Debt then...

--Adm. Nick

 

Given all the "alleged"s and "rumoured" in the description - there's room for either or both.

 

Well, yeah; it probably was primarily named after the old oversector. But it's still an interesting background.

 

The writers of Warfare probably named the oversector as a sly nod to the ship, before the Despoilers of the Empire article was created.

 

would fit with "just over 20" as the total number - one for each oversector, plus a few for special projects. Vader's Executor, for example, would be "roving" rather than assigned to a specific oversector - and of course the Lusanyka is the Emperor's getaway vehicle.

 

The Essential Guide to Warfare - I think they totalled the number that existed - and found it was over 20 - and chose not to specify any further.

http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/24881617404/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-11


The Executor: A lot in here for fleet junkies to chew on, from the mysterious Mandators to the various-sized Executor prototypes to the refit of the slang term “Super Star Destroyer” and the debate within the Empire about the right mix of capital ships to police the galaxy. I left the exact number of Executor-class ships vague on purpose, and hope the discussion of black budgets and intelligence uncertainty makes that seem like a convincing in-universe assessment rather than a cowardly out-of-universe punt.

 

The Lusankya was completely unaccounted for until it ripped its way out of Coruscant, so you never know just how many were built or where they went. I wonder how many ships were sent out to the Unknown Regions too. The Intimidator ended up there somehow, damaged beyond repair. Knowing Thrawn though, he probably could have done a lot with just old Clone Wars era ships too.

I wonder where Razor's Kiss was meant to go, unless it was intended for Kuat's defense fleet. When Kuat eventually fell to the New Republic, they had quite a few large ships. Though after Zsinj's raid, they probably beefed up security too.

Iron Fist was stationed at Dathomir for a while, undergoing repairs after Zsinj faked its destruction. Not sure if that was a big enough shipyard or just a place to lay low for a while. Though there was that strange reference to Zsinj using a Sovereign once, but that originated from a mistranslaton, but then kept popping up in sources, something like that?

Hm, I think WotC mentioned the Nebula-class Star Destroyers could survive against SSDs, but by the time they were finally built, not much SSDs left. The Endurance carrier was built on the same hull, but it didn't last long (though partially due to bad luck, ambush, and incompetence of its commander).

 

It was. One of the translations of the audiobook apparently couldn't conceive that the Iron Fist was at the Dathomir shipyards when it was supposedly destroyed at Selaggis, so they renamed it the Sovereign. The original SWE entered as "A Star Destroyer under Zsinj" with the source listed as COPL (of course, there's no mention in the actual novel). The CSWE just combined it with the entry for the Sovereign-class.

Ultimately, it was supposed to be a Death Star per oversector, with an Executor in each sector. But indeed, the original proposal may have been one per (original) oversector.

 

Imperial Handbook mentioned that as one of two proposals - the other was the larger second Death Star. I would guess that the first proposal was turned down in favor of the second (with them doing test work on the second Death Star component prototypes in advance of the proposal being accepted).

 

While a SSD is an impressive show of firepower....you would get more flexability and functionality taking all that expense and buying a lot of smaller ships. For the cost of 1 SSD how many Vindicator-class cruisers could be bought? a dozen? 4 dozen?

 

There's a later quote from Cracken's Threat Dossier (at the time of the BFC trilogy) that states "The Super-class Star Destroyer was designed to be a sector-level command base, and the Death Stars were to be the center of regional commands."

 

So 1 DS per Oversector and 1 SSD/Executor per Sector? That would take some serious bank. Whole worlds worlds...even whole systems...would be bankrupted.

 

Here is a list I had made up a while back, 100% could have mistakes, but I got 47 possible Dreadnought/SSD's. I should have put in the reference for each, maybe one day. Then I also had a list of some other maybes.





Very much enjoying the of the mentions of SSD's in Life Debt and the book itself thus far, though the number of Imperial Dreadnoughts is disappointing in the new universe. Never a big fan of total numbers, but oh well.

 

I'd always interpreted that quote as a reference to the Region/Regional command level- below the Imperial level and above the Oversector level. Not really sure what, if anything, would be the command ship/ ace in the hole at the Oversector level, or if there even would be anything permanent for them, as Oversectors and Priority Sectors were intended to be flexible and deal with hot spots of rebellion, rather than remain permanent like Regions or regular Sectors. Just my take on that.

 

Just wanted to add in a bit of reasoning I've had for a while now about the Enforcer, and its role as the flagship of Admiral Kohrin and his second fleet: the second fleet could easily be a reference to an Imperial Second Starfleet commanded by an Admiral Kohrin, rather than being one of at least two fleets that happen to have Super Star Destroyers as their flagships and are under command of this Admiral Kohrin. This really works when the existence of the First Naval Fleet/ First Fleet is taken into account:

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

...which was also known to have a large flagship, and whose existence hints at the possibility of other numbered, pan-Empire fleets. Thus, the large flagship of the First Fleet could easily account for one of the above-mentioned Dreadnaughts, and and a known Executor, the Enforcer, can be more easily integrated into the larger EU as the flagship of the Second Fleet/Second Naval Fleet/Second Starfleet.

 

While the term 'oversector' gets abused in later years (i.e. the 'Grand Moff' created when Tapani Sector was split into a whopping two sectors), I assume that the 'regions' would be essentially resembling the original oversectors from the Clone Wars. But that still works out to about 12 Death Stars and over a 1000 Executors.
But I like your take on them as simply indicators of their function, rather than an indicator that every sector/region has to have a ship. That seems to be a more realistic take on usage of the ships/stations, much like an ISD coordinating Imperial forces in one star system but not necessarily permanently stationed there.

 

That could fit into the fluff that a portion of the entire Navy was kept in the core as central reserve units.