Death Star

Name/Model# : | Death Star <<Stats taken from WEG, BTM, TJ, EG>>
Designer/Manufacturer : | Bevel Lemelisk / Constructed by the Galactic Empire
Combat Designation : | Deep Space Mobile Battle Station
Scale : | Death Star
Length : | 120 km in diameter (Equivalent to a Class IV Moon)
Commanding Officer : | Grand Moff Tarkin
Construction Site : | In orbit of Despayre, in the Horuz System, Outer Rim Territories
Crew : | 322,951 Crew 265,675 + Gunners 57,276 [Note that over 400,000 Droids serve aboard the Death Star (not included in crew numbers)]
Skeleton Crew : | 56,914
Cost of Vessel : | Not available for sale
Nav Computer : | Yes
Sublight Speed : | 1 Space Unit
Hyperdrive Rating : | Class 4
Hyperdrive Backup : | Class 24
Atmospheric Speed : | Cannot Enter Atmosphere
Manoeuvrability : | 0D
Cargo Capacity : | Over 1 million kilotons
Consumables : | 3 Years
Weapons : | 1 Superlaser Fire Arc: Forward Crew 168 Gunners Skeleton Crew: 48 Gunners Scale: Death Star Body: 12D Capital Scale Space Range: 1-20/40/100 Space Units Range in km: 47,060,000 km Damage: 12D (Note that 2D of damage can be generated per standard hour. The Superlaser can only fire at maximum power.) 5,000 Turreted Heavy Turbolasers Crew: 4 Gunners per turbolaser Scale: Starfighter Body: 4D Capital Scale Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 1-7/15/30 Space Units Damage: 7D 5,000 Turreted Turbolaser Batteries Crew: 3 Gunners per battery Scale: Starfighter Body: 3D Capital Scale Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 1-5/10/15 Space Units Damage: 5D 2,500 Turreted Laser Cannons Crew: 4 Gunners per cannon Scale: Capital Body: 4D Capital Scale Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 1-5/10/15 Space Units Damage: 7D 2,500 Ion Cannons Crew: 4 Gunners per cannon Scale: Capital Body: 4D Capital Scale Fire Control: 1D Space Range: 1-3/7/10 Space Units Damage: 4D 768 Turreted Tractor Beam Emplacements Crew: 6 Gunners per emplacement Scale: Capital Body: 3D Capital Fire Control: 3D Space Range: 1-5/10/25 Space Units Damage: 5D (Note that all of the Heavy Turbolasers, Turbolaser Batteries, Laser Cannons, Ion Cannons and Tractor Beam Emplacements are equally divided into 24 distinct zones due to the immense size of the Death Star. Only weapons within the specific zone adjacent to an attacking ship can be brought to bear at any given time; often, the actual number of weapons that can be brought to bear is significantly lower.)
Sensor Equipment : | SFS Txs-431 Flight Control Console (Used by hanger bay personnel to direct TIE fighter launches and handles docking and boarding duties). Console can normally access wide range of sensors such as: electro-photo, dedicated energy receptors and full spectrum transceivers to identify incoming vessels and scan for evidence of damage or charged shields and weapons and to determine how many life-forms are aboard.
Sensor Jammers : | Hundreds of KDY 220-SIG Tactical Combat Jammers. Each jamming emplacement's directional dish allows for concentrated jamming along specific vectors, creating narrow zones of interference while leaving most of the Death Star's sensor arrays clear to gather data.
Sensors : | Passive : 250 Space Units/0D Scan : 1,000 Space Units/1D Search : 5,000 Space Units/2D+2 Focus : 40 Space Units/4D
Hull Composition : | Quadanium Steel Hull
Shield/Hull Rating : | Shields 2D. Hull 15D
Starfighter Squadrons : | 7,200 TIE Fighters (600 Squadrons)
Troop Capacity : | 607,360 Troops 25,984 Stormtroopers 42,782 Starship Support Staff 167,216 Support Ship Pilots and Crew Total of 11,016 Combat Vehicles Includes: 1,400 AT-ATs 1,400 AT-STs 4,843 Juggernauts 1,420 Imperial-class Repulsortanks 1,420 Repulsorcraft 355 Floating Fortresses 178 Mobile Command Bases
Support Craft : | 4 Strike-class Cruisers 3,600 Assault Shuttles 2,840 Skipray Blastboats 1,860 Drop-Ships 13,000 Support Craft (Not including the above)
Special Notes : | 84 Levels (Each 1,428 Metres Tall. Each Level contains 357 Sublevels) Sublevels (Each 4 Metres Tall)

The Death Star was the Imperial code name for the Empire's new mobile battle station. Dominating its design was a superlaser which had the firepower to destroy an entire planet in a single shot. Constructed in secret, the penal world of Despayre located in an unoccupied and isolated sector of the Galaxy was chosen as the construction site. For nearly two years, every resource of the Empire was directed towards the completion of the station. The Empire's new super weapon drew on concepts pioneered at many secret military installations. Grand Moff Tarkin, the man who conceived of and was the project supervisor for the Death Star was awarded its command.

The Death Star's defences were designed to repel a capital ship attack, as starfighters were considered "insignificant" by Imperial military strategists at the time. Although the Death Star was impervious to capital ship onslaughts, there were "seams" in its shields that would allow small starfighters to pass through. The tractor beam emplacements were capable of capturing virtually any ship and, when working in conjunction with one another, could reel in even an Imperial Star Destroyer. The superlaser, the centrepiece of the battle station once thought to be beyond the capability of Imperial military science was used only twice during the Death Star's short existence. It was first used to destroy its construction site, the planet of Despayre and later the planet of Alderaan. When the superlaser is fired eight individual laser stations produce beams of super-charged energy that is converged at the central nexus (called the amplification nexus) in front of the massive focus lens, to combine into a single beam which shoots out at the Death Star's target. The resulting energy beam had fire power greater than half of the Imperial starfleet. Four back-up laser stations existed in case one of the main stations malfunctioned.

An equatorial trench some 376 km long encircles the Death Star's design. Housed in the trench are the station's primary hanger bays, drive thrusters, heat exhausts, primary sensor arrays and tractor beam systems. Fully half of the Death Star's interior was occupied by the hypermatter reactor core, the sublight and hyperdrive systems and the superlaser housing. The station came complete with parks, shopping centres and entertainment establishments, as those who served onboard were to generally serve an average of six years with no outside shore leave. The immense power generated within the station, combined with its great mass, gave it both magnetic and artificial gravitational fields equal to those of a natural body many times its size.

Hundreds of thousands of "city sprawls" covered the Death Star's surface. These manned stations were primarily dedicated to defence, and the majority of the station's shield projectors and communications arrays were located there. A sprawl was a city with a complete array of sector-dedicated facilities such as medical facilities, mess halls, troop barracks, computer facilities, sensors, weaponry, security stations, all of which together composed an entire community. Within each sprawl, command, general, military, security, and service/technical sectors provided all necessary functions to the community, as well as co-ordinated activities throughout the Death Star. Many of the sprawls were specialized, emphasizing one particular sector, and through co-ordination with all other sprawls in the zone, a complete network of information exchange and unified activity was established. All the "below surface" facilities within the crust of the Death Star were considered part of the "city sprawl". The interior decks unlike the surface decks were stacked. The surface decks were concentric, meaning that they encircled the station, being forever continuous decks like a surface of a planet. The majority of the "habitable" areas in the Death Star were either on the surface or within two to four kilometres from the surface.

Realspace propulsion was handled by an external array of powerful ion engines. However, as a result of the massive ion engines, they became highly radioactive. No other system of propulsion could provide the directional control necessary for the massive battle station. Thus Engineering personnel assigned to monitor the ion vent operations usually wore radiation suits. To propel the Death Star into hyperspace 123 individual Imperial Star Destroyer hyperspace generators all tied into a single navigational matrix were necessary to accomplish the feat.

At the exact north "pole" of the station was the single most highly shielded tower on the surface. The 100 storey tower was impervious to outside attack, and at its top was the Emperor's private observation chamber and command post, from which he could oversee all Death Star operations. This Death Star was destroyed before the Emperor ever set foot on board. The Overbridge, the primary control centre of the Death Star was situated on the top edge of the superlaser dish. With all of the strength in the Death Star, it suffered from a few small fatal flaws. A two metre wide thermal exhaust port which led directly to the main reactor. Interconnected subsystems were taken a step further by the Death Star, those subsystems were also all connected to the main reactor system in order to provide maximum power to all them at all times. If it were not for the interconnections, the destruction of the main reactor would have merely just crippled the Death Star, as there would have been no chain reaction. And it was those flaws that was found and exploited by the Rebels, and brought them victory and continued life at the Battle of Yavin.

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