Superweapons

[Master_Xan]

There certainly are plenty of them in the Star Wars universe. Here's a list of a few I can think of off the top of my head, my thoughts on them, and (lastly), a cool superweapon I came up with just today.

 

1. Death Star. Obviously, its pretty useful to be able to destroy a planet or a ship in one shot. Unfortunately, its slow to build, slow to travel, takes a lot of resources, and has a serious problem fending off star fighters.

 

2. Sun Crusher. The ability to destroy a star, in a small and mobile ship like this, is incredible. So much so that I don't like this one; its too powerful. Quick, agile, with a nearly indestructable hull, but not capable of doing much to capital ships and with vulnerable turrets.

 

3. NR project, whos name I've forgotten. Several ships align themselves and channel energy into one focusing ship, which then fires a superlaser similar to that of the Death Star. Much easier to hide, more mobile and cheaper, but harder to defend, more prone to technical problems and harder to fire in battle. Does have a nice range to it though...

 

4. The superweapon I just thought up today, when contemplating possible ways the NR could have escaped BS scenario in his Empire Rising thread. Several capital ships, lets say six, align themselves in a ring around one central vessel. These ships then channel energy into the center vessel, which channels the energy through a central "firing chamber" in the center of the ship, firing it off in one concentrated burst through the nose of the ship. Not intended for planet-killing, but rather for ship combat. The shields of said vessels would continue to operate (except maybe for the center ship...?), and because its seperate ships they are more mobile and easier to hide, along with cheaper, then a DS. They are also easier to defend, as they are capital ships with turbolasers and quad lasers, not to mention stronger shields. I'd guess around the size of a Carrack ship, or some other light cruiser. (I thought them up in an attempt to deprive the Imperial fleet of its four admirals/grand admiral for SB's story; simply line it up, fire off one of these blasts at a SSD's bridge, and watch the admiral die. Though the laser wouldn't be powerful enough to destroy the ship in one blow, I think taking down the forward/bridge shields should be possible, even on something like a SSD.) Thoughts on this one?

 

I feel like I'm missing a few superweapons, but I'm too tired to go look them up. Anybody know what I missed?

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

3. NR project, whos name I've forgotten. Several ships align themselves and channel energy into one focusing ship, which then fires a superlaser similar to that of the Death Star. Much easier to hide, more mobile and cheaper, but harder to defend, more prone to technical problems and harder to fire in battle. Does have a nice range to it though...

That one was something Wedge and his group cooked up to distract the Vong. It wasn't actually a superweapon, just an elaborate ruse.

 

My list of superweapons is as follows. (This is no where near complete as I'm typing it off the top of my head and not looking up anything that I think/know I'm missing. I'm not offering explanations at this time. I'm also omitting Xan's 2.)

Galaxy Gun

Eye of Palpatine

Hand of Thrawn (This on is debatable. I'm including it because in the right hands it COULD be a super weapon. [The space there was intentional...])

Eclipse

 

I'm drawing a blank. Help us out Def.

[DarthTex]

Another was DarkSaber (basically the DS superlaser with the DS superstructure surrounding it).

 

Centerpoint station (as used by Thracken Solo and Anakin Solo)

 

Torpedoe Sphere (I don't know if this is a superweapon, but it is a powerful one)

 

There was another (I think it was a concept only, maybe a ruse by the Empire in the X-wing series, but I can't remember the name), it was basically a mini-DS with a gravity well and loads of laser/turbolasers for starfighters and capital ships (Hey Tofu, you have a young memory and like correcting people, what's the name?) Pulsar Station? or something like that.

 

Master_Xan wrote:

 

2. Sun Crusher. The ability to destroy a star, in a small and mobile ship like this, is incredible. So much so that I don't like this one; its too powerful. Quick, agile, with a nearly indestructable hull, but not capable of doing much to capital ships and with vulnerable turrets.

 

In the hands of a truly "evil" person it's devasting, in the hands of the Empire or NR, it would be just a waste. Destroying entire solar systems (planets, people, resources, etc) is a total waste. Using said resources (captured) would definitely would be better than throwing them away. The Suncrusher is a neat idea, it just needed better handicaps (no sun destroying torpedoes or short range or technical problems or gremlins , etc).

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

Torpedoe Sphere (I don't know if this is a superweapon, but it is a powerful one)

I think that one has been mentioned before in another thread. It was decided that it wasn't a superweapon, but just a nice platform for destroying planetary shields.

 

There was another (I think it was a concept only, maybe a ruse by the Empire in the X-wing series, but I can't remember the name), it was basically a mini-DS with a gravity well and loads of laser/turbolasers for starfighters and capital ships (Hey Tofu, you have a young memory and like correcting people, what's the name?) Pulsar Station? or something like that.

Now that I think about it there was something by that name. I can't remember what it did though.

[DarthTofu]

There was another (I think it was a concept only, maybe a ruse by the Empire in the X-wing series, but I can't remember the name), it was basically a mini-DS with a gravity well and loads of laser/turbolasers for star fighters and capital ships (Hey Tofu, you have a young memory and like correcting people, what's the name?) Pulsar Station? or something like that.

 

Er, are you thinking of the "Pulsar Skate"? Or else the Yag Dul station which Rogue Squadron steals in "The Bacta War"? Booster Terrik takes the station over, and outfits it with some ridiculous number of targeting systems for torpedoes and turbolasers. It includes a gravity well, and causes whoever is commanding a ship in the immediate area to wet himself... Or herself.

 

My favourite superweapon was Stackpole's idea.... I forget what it was called, but the idea was to hollow out a moon, then fill it up with Death Star super-laser technology, but on a far lower scale. It still has the ability to blow up an SSD on tap, just not a planet... Plus there's no little access shoot to dump torpedoes down!

 

There's also the gravitational anomaly generator from "The Phantom Affair"... Generates a miniature black hole and sucks ships into it. Would work great against the Vong

[SOCL]

What's the point of the thread? Are we debating the usefulness of superweapons, what defines a superweapon, what were superweapons...?

 

In my personal opinion, I have grown tired of superweapons and there ever-present "evil" throughout Star Wars continuity. It seems every time the writers can't come up with where another bad-guy-Jedi-not-Sith could have been hiding this whole time or another from-the-galaxy-but-not-really-more-of-from-right-outside-the-galaxy aliens invade, they come up with a stupid superweapon. Okay, in ANH, I get it--good guys versus bad guys, bad guys have huge destructive force (Death Star), good guys have to destroy--got it. Death Star in A New Hope represented the total evil of the Empire as a supplement for showing a galaxy-wide evil. In other words, Lucas used Death Star as the ultimate bad-guy-weapon to show how truly evil the Empire was without going around the galaxy showing all the little evils that add up into a big evil (not to mention he didn't have the budget). But Death Star II?

 

Ergh...okay. Classical trilogy, so it's more-or-less excusable. But wait! Another trench-style run?! Right, right, inside Death Star II, but what the hell? Two proton torpedos and a few laser shots? Dammit, it takes more than that to destroy a mere Star Destroyer!!! But fine, I get it. Lucas is trying to say the Empire is SO evil, they not only wanted to build a second Death Star, but had the means to do so.

 

Wait, what?! Sun Crusher. Eclipse. Eclipse II. Galaxy Gun. Darksaber. Centerpoint Station. Jedi trainees who can throw an entire fleet of Star Destroyers across a star system. A stereotypical Corellian ex-cop turned fighter pilot, turned Jedi, turned good father, turned best friends with high-ranking government officials, turned rogue, turned...

 

COME ON, ALREADY! It's stupid and boring!

 

No more superweapons, whether it be in the literal sense or in the Stackpole bad-writing sense (esp. Corran Horn)! NO MORE SUPERWEAPONS!

[Master_Xan]

I got tired of superweapons as well. But they are fun to criticise, don't you think?

 

That one was something Wedge and his group cooked up to distract the Vong. It wasn't actually a superweapon, just an elaborate ruse.

Really? I was under the impression they fired it at a worldship or something else rather large, managing to burn through half the ship in the split second before a void appeared for protection. It was decided that with the technical problems and rather large upkeep for the ships, it wasn't worth such a small payoff... but I could be wrong.

 

I've got another superweapon. Ganner

[BadSamaritan]

All known superweapons:

 

~Death Star

~Death Star II

~Death Star Prototype

~Sun Crusher

~Galaxy Gun

~World Devestators (Arguable, but what they were capable of doing bring them close)

~Eclipse I, II

~Soveirgn

~Darksaber

~Tarkin

~Code Red

 

Did I miss any?

[SOCL]

Hey, Bad Samaritan, whatever happened to the sexually-explicit stormtrooper avatar you used to have?

 

 

Do the Sovereign-class warships really count as superweapons? I mean, clearly they were intended to be something along the lines of mini-Eclipses, but because they were never finished, do they count?

 

Oh, and what about that whole Shadow Academy thing in the Young Jedi Knights series? I have two of the compilation books in a box somewhere, but I could have sworn I heard somewhere it was some form of superweapon.

 

Did I miss any?

Eye of Palpatine

[Master_Xan]

What's Code Red? I can think of Alpha Red, not a superweapon, but that's still the only thing that comes to my mind...

[DarthTofu]

I got tired of superweapons as well. But they are fun to criticise, don't you think?

 

That one was something Wedge and his group cooked up to distract the Vong. It wasn't actually a superweapon, just an elaborate ruse.

Really? I was under the impression they fired it at a worldship or something else rather large, managing to burn through half the ship in the split second before a void appeared for protection. It was decided that with the technical problems and rather large upkeep for the ships, it wasn't worth such a small payoff... but I could be wrong.

 

I've got another superweapon. Ganner

 

Damn, that spoiled one of the books for me! As for the gun that "Burned through half a worldship" Burned through the outer wall of a worldship in orbit around Coruscant. Read Behind Enemy Lines again....

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter. Wasn't ever put into production. It was one of Maw Installations weapons. It was used to destroy a corvette in one shot, and that was just an untested prototype.

 

As far as the Tri-fighters (I think that's what they were called anyway...) go I think it was explained later on in the book that there was another ship sitting just outside of the Coruscant (I know that's not the actual name of the system, but I can't remember the real name...) system that fired at the worldship. I don't remember the particulars, but I'm 98% certain that it was a ruse. I don't have any NJO books at school w/ me, but I can make a run to the library tonight. I'll look it up.

[Master_Xan]

... that spoiled one of the books for me!...

Read it anyway. Trust me, its worth it. And if you haven't read the book where Jacen escapes from imprisonment (wish I remember which one that was...), then read that too and you'll think he could classify as a superweapon as well...

[DarthTofu]

I read the whole damned thing... And it ruined the whole damned book for me... I hope you're happy ... ... ...

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

(wish I remember which one that was)

Traitor.

[budious]

You forgot one!

 

SpaceballOne which can transform into MegaMaid, a superweapon of gross magnitude capable of draining the atmosphere from a Class M planet.

[Master_Xan]

What would I do without you guys and your photographic memories?

 

Those two were my favorite NJO battles, with the Shimrra battle a close third. Oh, and the one where Anakin dies is good too...

 

I hope you're happy

Er, I mean, sorry, didn't mean to spoil anything for ya.

[BadSamaritan]

Hey, Bad Samaritan, whatever happened to the sexually-explicit stormtrooper avatar you used to have?

 

 

Do the Sovereign-class warships really count as superweapons? I mean, clearly they were intended to be something along the lines of mini-Eclipses, but because they were never finished, do they count?

 

Oh, and what about that whole Shadow Academy thing in the Young Jedi Knights series? I have two of the compilation books in a box somewhere, but I could have sworn I heard somewhere it was some form of superweapon.

 

Did I miss any?

Eye of Palpatine

 

I still have it, just never use it.

 

Considering they were designed to have a superlaser built into them, I would say they counted. Also, I think one of them was completed, in the Dark Empire series. The rest were believed to have been scrapped after the final death of the resurrected Emperor, to help maintain the dwindling Imperial warfleet.

 

Never read the YJN series, so I wouldn't know.

 

I refuse to count that as a superweapon, as all it was was a massive asteroid with a insane amount of weapons, and a droid brain bent on wiping out a single colony of Jedi that had vanished years before. Which brings up the question: Where the hell did they go?

[SOCL]

Which brings up the question: Where the hell did they go?

Didn't the novel say they simply died off? Or, wait, didn't they intermarry into the "normal" population, delluding, if you will, the Jedi powers into near non-existance...

 

Dammit, and I just read that one, too...

 

I refuse to count that as a superweapon, as all it was was a massive asteroid with a insane amount of weapons, and a droid brain bent on wiping out a single colony of Jedi that had vanished years before.

I agree with you, the Eye of Palpatine is just as much a superweapon as is Corran Horn and his apparent invulnerability. I guess I mentioned it because everyone else seems to mention it everywhere else I go.

 

Also, I think one of them was completed, in the Dark Empire series.

According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, the class was only planned and construction was begun on the first one--Sovereign--at about the time of the reborn Emperor's bid for power. It fails to mention whether any were completed, but it does mention they were all either destroyed or scrapped by the subsequent warlords of the Deep Core.

 

 

I think I need Scath present to begin such an interesting and, probably, long discussion, but:

This brings up the important question: What defines a superweapon? What, if any standards make a weapon a superweapon? Obviously destructive power has very much to do with this, but how much destructive power? A regular Star Destroyer can lay total waste to a planet, but can't destroy. So apparently the ability to make a planet inhospitable does not count, but clearly making a planet disappear is not the minimum requirement.

 

Thoughts? Please, it's been a while, let's have a relatively meaningful and insightful discussion.

 

This is so exciting!

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

Wookieepedia defines a superweapon as "A superweapon was a weapon capable of destroying entire planets or systems." I think that is a good definition. I think the introduction on this page provides a good way of looking at them based on real-life. Then there is Wiki's superweapon page.

 

SO, the real question, SOCL, is "Do you want to talk about real, fictional, or both kinds of superweapons?" A possible follow-up question is "If fictional, SW only or do you want to discuss other series'?"

[Krytos]

In my personal opinion, I have grown tired of superweapons and there ever-present "evil" throughout Star Wars continuity. It seems every time the writers can't come up with where another bad-guy-Jedi-not-Sith could have been hiding this whole time or another from-the-galaxy-but-not-really-more-of-from-right-outside-the-galaxy aliens invade, they come up with a stupid superweapon.

 

I agree totally with this SOCL. It's the same old tiring routine.

 

As far as the Tri-fighters (I think that's what they were called anyway...) go I think it was explained later on in the book that there was another ship sitting just outside of the Coruscant (I know that's not the actual name of the system, but I can't remember the real name...) system that fired at the worldship. I don't remember the particulars, but I'm 98% certain that it was a ruse. I don't have any NJO books at school w/ me, but I can make a run to the library tonight. I'll look it up.

 

Yup, that's correct - it was the tri-fighter, and it was all a ruse. The four fighters were being used to bait the YV into attacking the planet (Borellias, spelt better though), and the real attak came from a Star Destroyer hidden near Coruscant .

This begs the question though, what was that SD armed with to both inflict a relatively ample amount of damage to the World Ship and at such a great range?

 

You forgot one!

 

SpaceballOne which can transform into MegaMaid, a superweapon of gross magnitude capable of draining the atmosphere from a Class M planet.

 

The most feared of them all

 

I think I need Scath present to begin such an interesting and, probably, long discussion, but:

This brings up the important question: What defines a superweapon? What, if any standards make a weapon a superweapon? Obviously destructive power has very much to do with this, but how much destructive power? A regular Star Destroyer can lay total waste to a planet, but can't destroy. So apparently the ability to make a planet inhospitable does not count, but clearly making a planet disappear is not the minimum requirement.

 

Thoughts? Please, it's been a while, let's have a relatively meaningful and insightful discussion.

 

This is so exciting!

 

Well, the obvious answer is raw firepower. Though I'd say it's more than just that, looking at games that utilise Super Weapon classes (What comes to mind for me is the Command and Conquer series (Ion Cannon, Multimissile, Scud Storms and Nukes) and Earth 2140 annd 2150 series(Nuke, Long Range Plasma cannons, Meteor or weather storm)) and the real world.

I'd define it a weapon that has a huge advantage over your opponent in some form, whether it be firepower, range, accuracy (as a combined feature) or accesability to the target.

And finally, there's the awe and fear factor. All of these super weapons also have a presence, not just for the unfortunate soul on the recieving end - but also the one pressing the button. Half the purpose of the Death Star was fear, and the same goes for real world equivalence such as Nuclear weapons, Air Fuel Bombs, Crusier Missiles etc.

 

I'd argue that a hyperspace capable, cruiser missile style weapon, in the SW universe could be an apt super weapon - as long as it also carries the capablility to destroy a cruiser in one shot or so. Sort of like a Galactic Gun, just without blowing up a planet in the process:wink:

 

Also, in the case of the Eclipse and Sovereign being super weapons - I'd use a real world equivelence a warship or submarine carrying ICBMs, where the boat is just a carrying vessel - but the missile is the super weapon.

[DarthTofu]

What was the Eye of Palpatine? What did it do? I never read whichever book its in, and I'm too lazy to go on wookiepedia or wikipedia....

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

It was to go and pick up stormtroopers stationed throughout the galaxy. After that it was to deliver them to the Valley of the Jedi.

[SOCL]

What was the Eye of Palpatine? What did it do? I never read whichever book its in, and I'm too lazy to go on wookiepedia or wikipedia....

It's in Children of the Jedi.

[Defender_16]

Yay! My internet is working again!

....

 

ZOMG! I've been missing out on a SUPERWEAPON descussion?!

 

What was the Eye of Palpatine? What did it do? I never read whichever book its in, and I'm too lazy to go on wookiepedia or wikipedia....

It's in Children of the Jedi.

 

A book that you'll find in the worst novels thread. I don't think it got worst but I'm fairly certain it was in the top 5. Deffinitely in the top 10 worst.

 

You have done well to avoid it. (Actually it wasn't that bad, but *Spoiler* Luke falls in love with a ghost ok? That's bound to ruin any Star Wars book. Especially when you read it already knowing Luke and Mara get married.

 

On to superweapons!

The eye of Palpatine doesn't count despite it's plasma weapon... thing. I never really understood what it was.

 

The missing X-Wing series super weapon that you guys have been trying to remember is the Pulsar Station which was never built.

 

Between Darkhorse Comics and Kevin J Anderson there's enough superweapons floating arround for any ten sci-fi series.