STAR WARS
Novel References


Darksaber

PAGE QUOTATION COMMENTS
0prologue
0

Grand Admiral Thrawn and the resurrected Emperor have been defeated and their forces scattered, leaving only bickering warlords to fight over the scraps of Imperial war machinery deep in the Core Systems, far behind enemy lines. The renegade Admiral Daala is believed dead, but with her lone remaining Star Destroyer she has limped back to the shelter of the tattered Empire, where she hopes one day to return to the fight for lost Imperial territory....

continuity: This statement explicitly proves the Imperial remnants to be in the Deep Core, at this point in galactic history. Contrast this with some of the less specific but implicit references in later novels, which sometimes seem to suggest placement in a more remote part of the galaxy.

1Chapter 1 Tatooine
9Chapter 2
18Chapter 3
23Chapter 4 Hoth Asteroid Belt
28Chapter 5
35Chapter 6 Coruscant
47Chapter 7 Yavin 4
50Chapter 8
57Chapter 9 Core Systems
57

True night was impossible in the Core Systems. Stars clustered so closely together that even the blackest regions of space were a symphony of stellar flares and hot ionised gas clumped in regions once considered uninhabitable. In a navigation hell like this, remnants of the Empire hid among uncharted systems where they could wait and recover -- and war upon each other.

location: Deep Core, and the appearance of the sky in part of this region.

58

In orbit, giant solar smelters provided energy and processed raw materials to construct Harrsk's personal fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Upon arrival here, Daala's loyal second in command, Kratas, had gone aboard the flagship Shockwave to inspect the weaponry. Harrsk had completed construction on twelve of the Star Destroyers so far, using whatever resources he could scrape together by bullying all the systems within reach.

Supreme Warlord Harrsk has established a facility capable of constructing star destroyers, and he is presently building ships of the Imperator-class (colloquially called Imperial or Impstar).


His flagship, Shockwave is not one of these smaller ships. It is a different design.
58-59

Daala had given up everything to limp back to the Empire, surviving in the battle scarred wreck of her last Star Destroyer, the Gorgon. Reaching sanctuary, she had been unimpressed with the weak and childish warlords who now held the future of the Empire in their hands. Imperial authorities commandeered Daala's remaining troops, scattering them among other ships in other fleets. They had scrapped the Gorgon, taking away the few usable components to rebuild other ships.

Daala, though, did not give them the chance to reassign her to a fighting group, preferring instead to act as a freelance ambassador, a peacemaker visiting the far-flung warlords. Each of them had concocted increasingly ridiculous titles for themselves, trying to top their nearest competitor--from Grand Admiral to High Admiral, to Supreme Commander, to Omnipotent Battle Leader. Admiral Daala had retained her own simple rank...

Admiral Daala contemplates the decadent condition of the rogue Imperial warlords of the Deep Core.

60

Harrsk had been nearly killed in an explosion during the battle of Endor. His Star Destroyer was crippled, but he managed to escape with part of the fleet to a rendezvous point in the Core Systems just after he had seen the Death Star explode.

Supreme Warlord Harrsk was present at the Battle of Endor, aboard a star destroyer. The name of this star destroyer is presently unknown, but Harrsk's scars indicate that the destroyer suffered damage to at least one of its bridges.

62

...Daala caught her breath as she recognized the fleeting forms of seventy-three Victory-class Star Destroyers, smaller warships each about half the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer. But these ships were fast, agile, and bristling with weaponry. Their hulls were made of a crimson alloy so that the Victory ships looked like bloody fangs clamping around Harrsk's Star Destroyers.

63

Kratas took Warlord Harrsk's flagship to the point of a phalanx formation. The Shockwave was larger than the other Star Destroyers, more heavily outfitted with high-energy weapons. The Shockwave targeted and fired, obliterating a sixth Victory ship.

The Shockwave is not an Imperator-class star destroyer. It is a distinctly larger design, and more heavily armed. At the same time, it cannot be quite as large as an Executor-class command ship, since Daala betrayed surprise at the scale of the Night Hammer when she inspected it a few weeks later. Shockwave could belong to any of the classes which is greater than Imperator and less than Executor. [Some are detailed in Warships of the Empire.] There is a slight possibility that it is the first of a new class invented by Harrsk's forces, but this kind of innovation seems unlikely since the development of new naval hardware designs must take years, and the post-Dark Empire warlords have scarce and dwindling resources.

Although Harrsk might bully the surrounding systems into scrounging for raw materials for the construction of his ships, the development of original warship designs is a lengthy process requiring very specialised engineering teams. The warlords of the Deep Core are cut off from the best starship design facilities, shipbuilding corporations and the most talented engineers of the galaxy. Furthermore, continual feuding makes the warlords insecure enough that they probably wouldn't bother to invest in several years' worth of research and development required before even a bare prototype is produced.

66Chapter 10
66

[Imperial Star Destroyer Firestorm]

Admiral Daala's lead ship in Supreme Warlord Harrsk's retaliation against High Admiral Teradoc.

67

[Imperial Star Destroyer Whirlwind]

Supreme Warlord Harrsk's destroyer in his counterattack against High Admiral Teradoc.

68

A rocky swath of planetoids orbited in a disk around a lavender-and-white gas giant. The crumbling, ice-laden ring system looked beautiful from far away, reflecting distant gold sunlight -- but Daala saw it as a tactical challenge.

location: The site of warlord Teradoc's base.

73

Seated in the cramped bridge station of the Victory-class Star Destroyer 13X, Vice Admiral Pellaeon studied this unexpected new development, both pleased and perplexed. His cap fit snugly against his gray hair. He tugged at his long pale mustache...

This little destroyer has not even been dignified with a descriptive name. At the peak of Palpatine's power, there must have been hundreds of thousands of vessels of this size throughout the galaxy. Not all of them could bear unique names, though each would have a registration number. "13X" is probably an abbreviation of such a number.


Vice Admiral Pellaeon has grown a moustache. In the comic versions of Heir to the Empire and Dark Force Rising he does not have any significant facial hair. Have his habits changed? Yet in illustrations in the RPG sourceboks about the Thrawn crisis, Pellaeon did have the growth.
74

[Pellaeon] looked about him on the small control deck of a Victory-class ship, the smallest craft he had commanded in a long time. He did believe in High Admiral Teradoc's plan of building up a huge fleet of smaller, more versatile ships--but still he missed the grandeur of commanding the Chimaera.

Three years after the defeat of Grand Admiral Thrawn, Pellaeon has risen to the rank of Vice-Admiral. He is also serving in the Deep Core, despite his earlier decision to take refuge in the Unknown Regions [see The Last Command Sourcebook]. Perhaps he was drawn to Byss when Palpatine's mad clone came briefly to power. Pellaeon has lost his old destroyer, a circumstance which hints at numerous adventures in the intervening years. Pellaeon's reflections hint that he might have commanded even larger ships at one time. Perhaps he had a crusier or battlecruiser in the remnant Byss fleet?

70

"I am siphoning off all power from the turbolaser batteries," she said, "and concentrating our entire first strike on the ion cannon." ... The Firestorm's weapon belched out a disruptive blast that washed over the bridge tower of Warlord Harrsk's Star Destroyer Whirlwind. Lightning bolts traved a thousand wicked fingers across the hull, shutting down his command systems, his computers, his weapons.

starship: It seems that this star destroyer has only a single large ion cannon. Furthermore Daala demonstrates that power can be redirected from completely separate weapons systems of different kinds.

71

"Drop back. We will parallel the Whirlwind. Harrsk's ship is dead in space, so increase our shields to protect him in case any of Teradoc's ships come after us."

technology: It seems that the shields of a star destroyer are able to extend to provide some protection to an object of similar size, if it is close enough. But does this depend on the target being shield-capable itself? Does this apply to ray shielding or particle shielding, or both? If both, is one type shared more effectively than the other?

77Chapter 11 Yavin 4
83Chapter 12 Coruscant
89Chapter 13 Hoth Asteroid Belt
92

"The Death Star will have planetary shielding, surface-to-air turbolasers, 360 degree sensor capability, powerful multidirectional tractor beams, and heavy ion cannons."

"...It may be enormously expensive to build," Tarkin continued, "but this single Death star alone will be worth a thousand Star Destroyers."

Gross features of the first Death Star, according to Bevel Lemelisk, the chief engineer of the project.

Tarkin's assessment of the value of the battle station is surprising if it is taken literally. The mass of the Death Star is greater than a star destroyer by many orders of mangitude, and the surface area (which provides the sites for turbolasers and other deadly complements) is also much more than a thousandfold greater. Either this is a profound understatement of the station's value and effectiveness, or else the efficiency and cost of manufacturing an objewct of this size is only weakly dependent on the total mass.

94Chapter 14
99Chapter 15 Mulako Corporation Primordial Water Quarry
103Chapter 16
112Chapter 17 Khomm
119Chapter 18 Core Systems
122

"I believe Teradoc will be reluctant to open fire. But if I'm wrong..." She glanced down at the chronometer. "According to my estimate, the Whirlwind has had suficient time to complete repairs. In fact, Harrsk has already had an additional six minutes."

It was indicated on p.70 that the self-destruct was to take place in 15 minutes. On p.122, Daala said Harrsk had an additional 6 minutes. This means that it takes a minimum of at least 21 minutes to recover from a singularly powerful ion cannon blast like Daala's.

123

"If we pooled all available ships, our military would at least be comparable to the hodgepodge fleet the Rebels have managed to assemble."

Comparison between the naval strengths of the Imperial warlords and the New Republic. But does Daala refer to the present fleet of the New Republic, in control over most of the galaxy and probably numbering tens of thousands of vessels of at least destroyer size (numbers typically needed by the pre-ROTJ Empire to ensure galaxy-wide security)? Or does she refer to the smaller former fleets of the Rebel Alliance before their major victories? If the comparison is with the present New Republic starfleet then the Imperial remnants are still a Force to be reckoned with.

127Chapter 19
127

Tsoss Beacon transmitted its blind signal into the fiery soup of stars and gases hear the heart of the deep core. The automated station had been constructed by droids and suicide crews on a planetoid scoured clean by an edless wash of radioactive storms and solar flares that swept the region.

Before sending her own Star Destroyer into the hostile region, Daala had dispatched a Gamma assault shuttle crewed by worker droids ...

location: Tsoss Beacon, a space station in a hostile region of the Deep Core. Another demosntration that these warlords are in the Deep Core, not the rimward sector portrayed on the Vector Prime map/cartoon.

Establishes a qualitative lower limit on the durability of shielded star desatroyers and shuttles. This observation will become useful if we can determine what the radiation density is in terms of real units. In any case, it means that the Deep Core is not impassable due to the hostility of local conditions; as explained in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, it's a matter of astrogation in poorly charted space.

130

Following [Superior General] Delvardus came an endless string of High Moffs, Honoured Overlords, Supreme Leaders, and other commanders with similarly pompous yet meaningless titles.

Conference of the thirteen most powerful remaining Imperial warlords at the remote and desolate Tsoss Beacon in the Deep Core.

136Chapter 20
140-141

Daala squinted out the viewport, and suddenly she saw a whirlwind of tiny lights appear, marking deck after deck on a breathtakingly huge ship. The immense wedge shaped shadow was a single vessel, larger than anything she had ever seen before.
"I can't believe it," Pellaeon said beside her. "Only the Executor was this big -- and that one ship practically bankrupted the Empire."
"What is it?" Daala asked.
Cronus smiled, his expressive face showing his obvious enjoyment at her reaction--but it was Pellaeon who answered. "It's a Super Star Destroyer," he said.
Cronus nodded eagerly. "Worth twenty Imperial Star Destroyers," he said, his eyes flashing with pride. "It is eight kilometers long, can carry a crew of up to a hundred thousand--and is plated with stealth armor.
That's why it appeared as only a black shadow as we approached. Though gigantic, it is virtually invisible to enemy forces."
He lowered his voice as if imparting a precious secret. "We named it the Night Hammer."

Pellaeon seems unaware of the actual bundance of Executor-class command ships, and he greatly exagerrates the expense of building them Each of these vessels is very much smaller than a Death Star, which the Empire casually constructed without significant economic impact.


Cronus seems culpably unaware of the fact that the ship is actually closer to 18km long, not a mere 8km. Perhaps this is pardonable, since he is an Army officer and not experienced or knowledgable in naval matters.
143Chapter 21 Coruscant
149Chapter 22 Nal Hutta
155Chapter 23
159Chapter 24
168Chapter 25
171Chapter 26 Dagobah
179Chapter 27 Hoth Asteroid Belt
185Chapter 28 Hoth
195Chapter 29 Nar Shaddaa
201Chapter 30
208Chapter 31
213Chapter 32
217Chapter 33 Hoth
227Chapter 34 Nal Hutta
231Chapter 35 Core Systems
233

Pellaeon sat down at the table while Daala continued to pace. He called up numbers on his datapad. "We now have one hundred twelve fully functional Victory-class Star Destroyers." ...
"We also have forty-five Imperial Star Destroyers -- and of course we have the Night Hammer."

The forces available to Admiral Daala were negligible in comparison with the former Imperial Starfleet. Pellaeon's failure to mention cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships and command-ships (apart from the Knight Hammer) hints that she has little more than a collection of destroyers. This is equivalent to only a handful of territorial fleets typical of the Outer Rim Territories under Palpatine's reign.

236Chapter 36
237

Kyp watched with growing horror as he realized just how far along the Empire's plans had already progressed. They have seen weapons depots, giant factories that spewed out TIE fighters by the hundreds, construction yards with skeletal frames of Imperial Star Destroyers in progress.

245Chapter 37 Hoth Asteroid Belt
251Chapter 38
255Chapter 39
261Chapter 40
261Chapter 40
267Chapter 41
273Chapter 42
279Chapter 43 Khomm
289Chapter 44 Nal Hutta
294Chapter 45 Yavin 4
294

The seventeen Star Destroyers under the command of Vice Admiral Pellaeon sliced out of hyperspace in a well-ordered fleet.

295

As her last order before launching, Daala took the time to rechristen her dark ship, adding a letter to call the Super Star Destroyer the Knight Hammer...

The name of this Executor-class ship is a pun on words of the English language. Accepting that the speech heard in the STAR WARS films is merely a translation of the "real" language of humans in the Galactic Empire, this raises some interesting puzzles. Are the Basic words for "knight" and "night" homophonous just like the English words?

296Chapter 46
309Chapter 47
312Chapter 48
317Chapter 49 Hoth Asteroid Belt
322Chapter 50 Yavin 4
331Chapter 51
340Chapter 52 Hoth Asteroid Belt
343Chapter 53
349Chapter 54 Yavin 4
354Chapter 55
363Chapter 56
366Chapter 57
371Chapter 58
373

"Outer hull breaches reported in decks 293, 181, and 75."

starship: The Knight Hammer has at least 293 decks. The ship is supposed to be the same class as Executor, but its stated length makes this problematic and controversial.

375

...Lornoar Strike Cruisers, Carrack-class gunships -- an overwhelming force.

It is interesting to see the Carrack vessels (from The Imperial Sourcebook) described as gunships rather than "cruisers." A cruiser is supposed to be a vessel larger than a destroyer, and the relatively tiny dimensions and the anti-fighter role of the Carrack make "gunship" a much more justifiable designation.

377Chapter 59
381Chapter 60
385Chapter 61 Hoth Asteroid Belt
388Chapter 62 Yavin 4
393Chapter 63 Coruscant


Return to STAR WARS Novel References.
Return to STAR WARS Technical Commentaries.
Return to Curtis Saxton home page.
Original content is © copyright Curtis Saxton 1999.
Last updated 11 December 1999.
Online since 1 January 1997.

This page was constructed and is maintained by Curtis Saxton <swtc@theforce.net>.
This page is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd.
Illustrations included in or linked from this page are copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. and are used here under Fair Useage terms of copyright law.
This site is kindly hosted by TheForce.net.