Star Wars: Special Technology
SunCrusher | World
Devastators | Galaxy Gun | Cloaking
Shields | Centrepoint Station
Orbital Nightcloak | Construction
Droids | Gun of Command |
Transparisteel | Bacta
Spaarti Cylinders | Visual
Enhancers | Holocrons | Light
Sabres | Holo-shrouds | Vibro-blades
Bioscanners | Organic
Gills | Ssi-Ruuvi Entechment Rigs
Written: 1998.10.04
Last Revised: 1999.12.30
The
SunCrusher was a small six-man ship capable of destroying stars. It
was developed by Qwi Xux, a member of Admiral Daala's scientific
research team at the Maw Research Facility. It was a remarkable
piece of technology; the Sun Crusher was a cone-shaped vessel which
flew with its "point" downwards (as perceived by the
pilot). A dish-shaped resonance projector was attached to its point,
and at its very top was a 360-degree rotating laser cannon. A number
of other laser cannons were arrayed slightly lower on the vessel,
and the pilot's cockpit windows were just below the top cannon. The
ship incorporated two important technical innovations: quantum
crystalline armour, and the resonance torpedo (ref. SWEGVV).
The quantum crystalline armour allowed the Sun Crusher to shrug off turbolaser blasts from Star Destroyers and it even allowed it to survive the blast wave of a supernova. Its resonance torpedoes travelled at near-lightspeed and were capable of triggering a chain reaction that would detonate a star (even a low-mass star which would not normally go nova). Although it normally carried up to 6 crewers, it could be effectively controlled by as little as one man (ref. SWEGWT).
The SunCrusher was lost twice. It was cast into the depths of the Yavin gas giant after it was stolen from the Maw Research Facility by Durron and his cohorts, and after Durron went berserk he retrieved it from the depths of Yavin by using the Force. He then went on a homicidal rampage, destroying the entire stellar cluster at the heart of the Cauldron Nebula as well as the Carida system. He eventually flew the Sun Crusher into one of the black holes in the Maw, and it was lost forever (ref. SWE).
In spite of its strengths, the SunCrusher ultimately proved to be a failure and a poor idea. Because it could be controlled by a single person, it had the potential to give a single deranged individual enough power to destroy several star systems (as happened with Kyp Durron). This creates a serious imbalance; the individual piloting the SunCrusher is simply given too much power for any individual (save the Emperor) to handle safely. Because of this, there are no plans to initiate any research programs to develop the SunCrusher technology again.
The World Devastators are unique superweapons which were first used by one of Emperor Palpatine clones shortly following the death of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Unlike the Death Star, World Devastators don't destroy planets; they consume them. Incredibly powerful tractor beams disintegrate planetary matter and draw it into huge elemental furnaces. In these furnaces, the planetary matter is broken down into its base elements and fed to the World Devastator's vast internal droid-controlled production facilities. These facilities could create hordes of "TIE/d" droid-piloted TIE fighters, starships, and even Star Destroyers and other World Devastators (ref. SWEGVV).
A World Devastator's internal factories also perform a secondary function; they augment and upgrade the World Devastator itself. As a result, World Devastators are not static; they grow as they consume planets, asteroids, and starships. Each World Devastator's computer core has a unique identity and creates these customized additions and alterations based on its own decisions. The result is that no two "mature" World Devastators are identical, and given enough time a World Devastator could potentially become large enough to dwarf even the largest starships (ref. SWEGVV).
The Silencer-7 was the largest World Devastator at 3,200m long and 1500m tall. It had a crew of 25,000 and it was heavily armed with 125 heavy turbolaser cannons, 200 blaster cannons, 80 proton torpedo tubes, 15 ion cannons, and 15 tractor-beam projectors. During the Battle of Calamari, it demonstrated the ability to consume heavily armed starships as well as planetary matter when it consumed the captured Rebel Star Destroyer Emancipator. However, it was destroyed along with the other World Devastators when the Rebels used a stolen control code to disable the massive war machines (ref. Dark Empire)
In conclusion, the World Devastators were a highly effective weapon because they combined industrial weapons-production facilities with planetary destruction capabilities. Emperor Palpatine discarded them in favour of the Galaxy Gun in Dark Empire 2, but their dual-role functionality makes them highly appropriate for an invasion force into Federation territory where we have neither mining facilities, shipyards, or existing recruitment programs. In such an environment, World Devastators can rapidly build vast droid-controlled fleets by consuming the Federation's worlds. This will allow us to build overpoweringly large fleets in Federation territory at minimal cost and effort to ourselves or our local shipbuilding programs.
The Galaxy Gun is perhaps the ultimate expression of long-distance lethality. It fires unique intelligent projectiles which navigate through hyperspace at incredible speeds (a Galaxy Gun missile can travel through hyperspace from the Deep Core to anywhere in the Outer Rim within a few hours). These projectiles are more than mere missiles; they boast energy shielding, heavy armour, and defensive laser cannons. Upon their re-emergence in realspace they can penetrate planetary shields and strike any target (ref. SWEGWT).
When a Galaxy Gun missile strikes, its particle disintegrator warhead triggers massive nucleonic chain reactions (similar to the NDF chain reactions caused by Federation phasers but on a far more massive scale). At the missile's full power setting, the nucleonic chain reaction can destroy an entire planet in a few seconds (ref. Dark Empire 2). At lower settings, the missiles can destroy precisely metered regions of a planet, space station, or even a vessel. The Galaxy Gun is a planet-destroying superweapon like the Death Star, but it does not need to travel to the target system to inflict its damage; it can be stationed in a heavily defended location and destroy its targets with impunity from long range.
As with the World Devastators, the first Galaxy Gun was destroyed through cowardly Rebel infiltration rather than a direct military confrontation. The Rebel droid R2-D2 infiltrated the Emperor's command ship, the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse-II. The droid seized control of the vessel's navigation system and flew it directly into the Galaxy Gun before anyone could react, and the resulting impact caused the Galaxy Gun to misfire, launching a missile into the planet Byss. The resulting explosion destroyed the Galaxy Gun and much of Emperor Palpatine's fleet (ref. SWE). The Empire languished for years after this defeat, until the time of the Resurgence.
After Emperor Solo restored the Imperial forces to their former glory, he made the construction of a new Galaxy Gun a top priority. The weapon has been deployed already, but its current location is highly classified and cannot be discussed in this document. Although we don't feel it will be necessary, we plan to use the Galaxy Gun to subdue any potential allies of the Federation, should they attempt to interfere with our operations.
Imperial cloaking devices use a massive gravitic spatial distortion field to warp the fabric of space-time completely around a cloaked vessel. This makes the vessel effectively invisible since all electromagnetic radiation and matter will be re-directed around the ship. However, the comprehensive nature of this cloak brings with it a major deficiency: since all incoming matter and energy are directed around the vessel, the ship is completely blind. It is impossible to communicate with the vessel, and inside the vessel nothing can be detected on sensors but a black emptiness around the ship (ref. SWEGWT, SWE)
Cloaking devices were mentioned during TESB, and unbenownst to the bridge officers in TESB (who reacted incredulously to the Millenium Falcon's disappearance and said "no ship that small has a cloaking device!"), these devices had been miniaturized by the time of ROTJ so that Emperor Palpatine's personal shuttle carried a cloaking device. The existence of this cloaking device was top-secret however, and to the best knowledge of most Imperial officers, the only working model was lost when the second Death Star was destroyed (ref. SWEGWT).
Enter Grand Admiral Thrawn: years after the destruction of the second Death Star, he discovered complete technical plans for functional cloaking devices in one of the Emperor's many secret technology warehouses on Wayland and immediately implemented this technology in his fleet. He deployed cloaked vessels during surgical strikes at Sluis Van and Ukio, and he used cloaked asteroids to blockade Coruscant during his counter-offensive against the New Republic (ref SWEGWT, SWE). After his death, cloaking devices became common equipment on Imperial starships. In Spectre of the Past we see cloaking devices being used routinely on Star Destroyers (note that the Star Destroyer Chimaera actually dropped out of hyperspace while cloaked), and in Rebel Assault 2 we see cloaking devices being used to conceal objects as small as V38 starfighters and as large as the Executor-class Star Destroyer Terror, in orbit around the moon of Imdaar Alpha. Cloaking shields were even used to conceal large docking bases such as the Imdaar Alpha station in Rebel Assault 2, which was quite large as can be seen from the Imperial Star Destroyers docked at its tower. Imperial cloaking shields extend a significant distance away from the vessel, and it is possible to fire through the cloak-shield, as seen in Spectre of the Past:
"Pellaeon took a step closer to the viewport and looked down along the Chimaera's sides. The faint blasts of low-level fire were visible, lancing a short distance out from the Star Destroyer and then disappearing as they penetrated the spherical edge of the Star Destroyer's cloaking shield. Blinded by the very device that was now shielding it from it's opponents' view, the Chimaera was firing wildly in an attempt to destroy those opponents." pg. 4
In conclusion, our cloaking technology is superior to Federation cloaking technology in most aspects. They have only one working model of the Romulan cloaking device and only one unused prototype of the phasing-cloak, while we have cloaking devices already installed on most of our Star Destroyers. Their cloaking devices leave them totally shieldless, while we retain full functionality while cloaked; we can fire weapons, make hyperjumps, use tractor beams, and maintain shields (ref. Vision of the Future). However, they can still see while cloaked, while our sensors are completely blinded (so we must navigate and fire using pre-programmed co-ordinates).
Centrepoint Station is an ancient device which was used to move planets through hyperspace. It uses a combination of extremely high-powered gravitic repulsors and hyperspace technology to accomplish this feat, and its extreme control over gravity was found to have an unexpected alternative function: Centrepoint Station can be used to destroy stars from light-years away.
Centrepoint Station is located at the balance point between the twin worlds of Talus and Tralus in the Corellian system. It was built in ancient times, before the dawn of the Old Republic and before the invention of artificial gravity. It spins on its axis to provide centrifugal gravity, and it was used to transport the five inhabited Corellian planets into their current locations from an unknown remote location.
Centrepoint Station is 350 km long, and its central sphere structure is 100 km in diameter. After the Saccorian Triad discovered that its hyperspace tractor-repulsor gravitic burst could be used as a weapon, they used it to destroy two stars. The interior of the central sphere, which had been colonized and named HollowTown, was incinerated by the energy flares in the station's central reactor. After the slaughter, several rebellions flared on nearby planets and a group of rebels seized the station and used it throw a massive gravity interdiction field over the entire Corellia star system (ref SWE).
The orbital nightclock is a psychologically devastating siege weapon that blocks out all sunlight from the surface of a planet. It consists of hundreds of orbiting satellites, which deploy into a vast network that encircles the planet. The satellites create energy absorption fields which completely prevent EM radiation in the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet spectra from reaching the planet's surface. These fields also block sensors and communications, completely isolating the target world. It is a truly terrifying sight to primitive species who do not understand the technology, and it is profoundly disturbing even for those who do know what it is.
Once the nightcloak is deployed, massive environmental devastation begins. Surface temperatures drop rapidly, with no source of external heating whatsoever. Plant life withers and dies in the absence of sunlight. Within three weeks, the entire planet has been plunged into an ice age. The planet's inhabitants will be forced to huddle in heated structures, and without sensors or communications they will have no way of knowing when (or if) a rescue or reprieve is coming. The nightcloak does not stop ships, but starships attempting to flee the planet have no idea how many starships are in orbit outside, and they will have to fly through the cloak before they know what they are facing. If the blockade fleet is powerful enough to obliterate any exploratory flights, the planet's inhabitants will only know that ships fly through the cloak and never return.
The former Imperial Warlord Zsinj used an orbital nightcloak on Dathomir, but his fleet was attacked by Hapan forces and the hated Luke Skywalker destroyed a large percentage of the nightcloak satellites. Up to ten percent of a nightcloak's satellites can be destroyed before the cloak fails, and current cloak satellites carry defensive auto-targeting laser cannons to defend themselves against starfighters. The nightcloak is an excellent weapon for planetary conquest rather than outright destruction. Superweapons are awe-inspiring and destructive, but there are many in the Imperial command hierarchy who do not believe in the use of superweapons. A weapon of pure psychological terror like the nightcloak is more effective in conquering planetary populations, since it does no damage to the planet that cannot be repaired (ref. SWEGWT).
Construction droids are massive machines which are used to rapidly construct cities, or renovate existing cities. Many of them are used heavily on Coruscant, moving through the cities and replacing aging structures with gleaming new buildings (ref. Star Wars Illustrated Universe). They were used in the aftermath of the destructive civil wars which devastated Imperial City on Coruscant, and they consumed the wreckage and ruined buildings, feeding the raw materials to elemental furnaces and factories which manufactured vast, gleaming new buildings in their wake (ref. SWE, Star Wars Illustrated Universe).
The operating mechanism of construction droids is not well publicized. They might function in a manner similar to duplicators (ref. Han Solo and the Lost Legacy) which rapid-fabricate components at the molecular level (much like Federation replicators), or they might use an altogether different concept. However, while Federation cultists tend to be fascinated with endless technical discussions of how their technology works, we insist on pointing out that the exact mechanism is entirely irrelevant. The point is that construction droids automatically construct multi-kilometre tall skyscrapers by consuming the elements in existing skyscrapers.
Construction droids have no particular tactical relevance to our planned war with the Federation. They are mentioned only because their existence refutes the nonsensical claims of Federation cultists that we do not possess rapid-fabrication technology like their replicators. They should be able to determine this simply from the existence of molecular duplicators and the fact that we constructed most of DS2 in less than six months (ref. Shadows of the Empire) from raw materials shipped to the Endor construction site, but they tend to require multiple proofs before they accept anything.
The Gun of Command is a specialized hand weapon which paralyzes the target's higher brain functions and renders the victim completely susceptible to direction from others. This weapon was developed by the Hapes Consortium, and Imperial tacticians adopted this weapon for our own use during the Imperial Resurgence (ref. SWE).
It releases a seemingly harmless spray of blue sparks, but after the weapon has been discharged at an enemy, the enemy's brain functions are altered in such a manner that he will stand motionless until he is given an order. Soldiers who have been immobilized in this manner generally follow any orders that they are given, so they can be instructed to turn on their own comrades. The tactical effectiveness of this weapon cannot be overstated. It has the ability to rapidly nullify a numerical disadvantage, and there is no way to quantify the psychological effect of seeing your own comrades firing back at you.
Optic-filterable transparisteel is a specialized type of transparent steel which acts as a waveguide for light. Light which enters optic-filterable transparisteel can be redirected in any desired direction, and the transparisteel can also be directed to selectively remove certain images from the transmission. This has numerous applications: among them, optic-filterable transparisteel can be used to conceal a ship from visual sighting (although active sensors would still detect it, active sensors are not always used because they merely broadcast a ship's location to the enemy). Optic-filterable transparisteel was first described in Slave Ship.
Bacta
is the most flexible and effective biological curative agent
available to our medical professionals. It is a bio-engineered
healing agent that "interacts with traumatized tissues to
promote rapid healing while blocking infections" according to
the SWEGWT. It can rapidly regenerate muscles, nerves, tendons,
skin, and other tissues without permanent scarring. Patients can
recover from nearly fatal injuries within a week of bacta immersion,
and in TESB, Luke Skywalker was immersed in a bacta tank to undo the
effects of severe lacerations and exposure in time for the Battle of
Hoth.
Bacta was originally a naturally derived product from the Vratix species, but it is now synthetically produced by numerous large corporations such as Zaltin and Xucphra (ref. SWEGWT).
Spaarti cylinders are a left-over from the Clone Wars. They are used to clone adult human beings. Normally, human beings cloned in less than a year's time tend to suffer from a syndrome known as "clone madness". This syndrome is caused by the effect of the Force upon the growing clone, so a Ysalimiri-shielded cloning cylinder can be used to grow clones to adulthood in as little as one week's time. This process was first described in The Last Command, in which Grand Admiral Thrawn cloned armies of soldiers, and the psychotic Joruus C'Baoth cloned Luke Skywalker.
A related technology is flash-learning and mind imprints, which are required to create clones that are fully functional adults rather than babbling infants in adult bodies. Again, these processes were described in The Last Command, and they involve the extraction of a complete memory print from the subject, followed by the duplication of this print into the clone body.
Visual enhancers are an application of optic-filterable transparisteel technology. They are computerized systems built into starfighters and other vessels with transparent cockpits, which improve the visibility of distant objects that would not normally be discernible to the naked eye. This technology was described in X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Iron Fist.
Holocrons are ancient Jedi teaching tools which were first seen in the Dark Empire series. They are small, palm-sized crystalline cubes which have various unique activation methods: some are activated by contact, some are activated by a push-button, and some are activated by a spoken phrase or word. In the case of Master Bodo Baas' holocron, it was activated by the touch of a Force-adept.
Without a visible energy source, these holocrons can remain fully functional for centuries and when activated, they project holographic images and sound into the area around the holocron itself. Important historical events and ancient Jedi techniques are often documented in holocrons (ref. SWEGWT). Emperor Palpatine destroyed many of the ancient Jedi holocrons during his rule, but it is widely believed that countless more holocrons are scattered about the galaxy, hidden away in Jedi strongholds and hidden fortresses.
The light sabre is the signature melee weapon of a Jedi Knight. It projects a vibrant blade of pure energy from its base, and this blade can cut through virtually any substance without significant resistance. Light sabres also incorporate some aspects of force fields; when light sabres clash, they block one another although a beam composed of pure energy would normally be expected to pass harmlessly through another such beam. They can also block blaster bolts (ref. ANH, TESB, ROTJ, SWVD, SWEGWT).
The
holo-shroud is a black-market device used for simulating the
appearance of another life form. it is small enough to be worn on a
user's belt, and it projects a hologram that completely disguises
the wearer. Holo-shrouds are often used to disguise assassins or
hide criminals from capture, but they carry certain limitations. The
most important limitation is that they must project an image which
is physically larger than the wearer, or the wearer's body may "show
through" in places (ref. SWEGWT).
Vibro-blades are the standard melee enhancement to all bladed weapons in the Empire. Everything from bayonets to daggers, axes, and knuckle-blades is routinely enhanced with a high-frequency vibration generator, which creates short-wavelength vibrations in the blade. These vibrations greatly enhance the pain and injury inflicted by any vibro-enhanced blade (ref. SWEGWT). Vibro-axes were seen in ROTJ, being carried by Jabba the Hutt's Gammorean guards.
Bio-scanners, such as the ubiquitous Athakam/RSMA bioscan system, are simple panel-shaped devices which are normally fitted in hallways or ceilings leading to sensitive areas of starships or buildings. Any entity passing near the scan-panel is automatically scanned for injuries, diseases, species, sex, heartbeat and respiration rate, muscle-tone index, height, weight, body temperature, metabolism anomalies, chemical and hormone levels, and viral infections. Higher-end models can detect cybernetic implants of any kind, energy cells, weapons, and even energy emanations from from hidden micro-transmitters. Standard bio-scanners can distinguish between more than 86,000 different alien species, with extra room in the database for new species as they are encountered (ref. SWEGWT).
These devices are employed in all sensitive installations as a matter of routine protocol, since unlike the Federation, we already have indigenous shape-shifters in our own territory (ref. Star Wars Illustrated Universe) and our security measures have always had to take their existence into account. Dominion infiltration attempts would not be as successful in Imperial territory as they were in Federation territory, thanks to this equipment.
The organic gill is a Mon Calamari invention that allows non-water-breathing life forms to comfortably move around underwater without the need for primitive, bulky oxygen tanks or life-support suits. It is a bio-engineered blob that moulds itself to the wearer's face. Once attached, it removes breathable oxygen from the water and supplies this oxygen to the wearer. This allows the wearer to survive underwater indefinitely with no support equipment. The gills are remarkably flexible, and can accept numerous non-organic implants, such as cybernetic transceivers for two-way voice communications (ref. SWEGWT).
The Ssi-ruuvi entechment rig is a diabolical piece of technology first created by the reptilian Ssi-ruuvi species in their attempt to attack the human race, both New Republic and Imperial, during the battle of Bakura (ref. Truce at Bakura). It is a bed to which a person is forcibly strapped, and through its unique technology, the life force is literally drained away from a victim. This life force is converted to energy and stored in battery coils for use in weapon or shield technology.
The Ssi-ruuvi reptiles discovered that Force-adepts were capable of enteching victims from thousands of kilometres away once captured in an entechment rig, and so they attempted to capture Luke Skywalker for this purpose. However, he escaped his bonds and began slaughtering Ssi-ruuvi aboard their flagship. He single-handedly captured their flagship, and forced their retreat from Imperial territory.
These entechment rigs have obviously been outlawed in all civilized regions of the galaxy, and the Ssi-Ruuvi homeworld was recently obliterated as part of Emperor Solo's grand plan to restore order and security to the galaxy. However, some Ssi-ruuvi still survive, and several entechment rigs have been stored in Imperial science facilities. Although we have no plans to use these entechment rigs at present, we have research scientists working on the possibility that an entechment rig might be used to potentially drain the life force from the entire Borg collective.
The Borg collective is inter-connected in a manner that transcends mere data transmission. As we saw when Commander Chakotay was healed by being joined with a small Borg mini-collective, the Borg actually share life energy through their collective network. This shared life energy is a source of great strength but it can potentially be a source of great weakness if a single Borg drone is subdued and forced into an entechment rig. Although this avenue of research holds great promise as an economical method of quickly eliminating the Borg presence in Federation space (an act which might actually be welcomed by the locals), the subject is still under research.
Acknowledgements
Aaron Parsons, who pointed out the Imdaar Alpha cloaked base.