Vehicles of the Empire

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jemDconqueror
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Vehicles of the Empire

Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:07 am

In response to what E3lipse did in the episode III forum, I thought people would like to see this, perhaps in the classic trilogy section...This page covers Imperial starships and vehicles within the Trilogy (excluding items from comics,novels,etc)...If I have missed out any, please do the honours of helping me fill up this "archive"...
Last edited by jemDconqueror on Fri May 12, 2006 10:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:10 am

Image


Imperial Star Destroyer



Size:
1,600 meters long

Manufacturer:
Kuat Drive Yards

Type:
Cruiser

Affiliation:
Empire

Associations:
Imperial Navy







The triangular silhouette of an Imperial cruiser has come a long way since its Republic-inspired design. While vessels of the Jedi order were met with feelings of pride and relief as they came soaring to solve galactic strife, the Imperial Star Destroyer's gargantuan size cleary inspires both awe and terror.
The wedge-shaped capital ship is bristling with weapons emplacements. Turbolasers and tractor beam projectors dot its surface. Its ventral bay can launch TIE fighters, boarding craft, land assault units, hyperspace probes, or be used to hold captured craft. Its bustling bridge is staffed by the finest crewers in the Imperial starfleet.

The Star Destroyer is recognized as the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet. Its presence in a system marks matters of extreme Imperial import. Though, as is typical of the Empire, not even the Star Destroyer was enough to sate the Imperial hunger for displays of power. Larger vessels, such as the Super Star Destroyer, dwarf even these giants.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:15 am

Image







Super Star Destroyer


Homeworld:
Fondor

Size:
19,000 meters

Manufacturer:
Kuat Drive Yards

Type:
Cruiser

Affiliation:
Empire



The Super Star Destroyer is one of the largest, most powerful Imperial vessels ever created. It follows the same basic dagger-shaped design of the Imperial-class Star Destroyers, but magnified to much larger scale. A smooth hull presents an arrowhead shaped profiled when viewed from above. Resting in the center of this hull is an "island" of habitable volume. Weapons emplacements bristle on the layered city-like surface. The trapezoidal command tower stands near the aft end of this island, capped with two geodesic communication and deflection domes. The underside is a busy network of engineering and superstructure. Thirteen colossal engine thrusters glow blood red as they push the immense craft through space.

The first four Executor-class ships were constructed in the months following the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the first Death Star. Before the Battle of Yavin Imperial Navy engineer Lira Wessex designed these sleek, dark, immense vessels to inspire dread in any possible opponent. It is claimed that they are larger than any previously constructed warship, with the exception of the Death Star.
Though there are several command ships, the most distinguished of the Super Star Destroyers is Lord Vader's flagship, the Executor. This vessel led the Imperial Death Squadron after the Battle of Yavin. It also served as the command ship at the Battle of Endor.

At that critical engagement, its officer, Admiral Piett, was tasked with preventing Alliance warships from escaping the battle. He did not expect the unorthodox Alliance strategy of engaging the Imperial Fleet at point-blank range. The Executor was a prime target for repeated barrages from Alliance vessels. Eventually, the Rebel ships were able to penetrate its powerful bridge shields. A wayward A-wing starfighter, crippled and out of control, spun directly into the Executor's bridge. Its control systems destroyed, the Executor was embraced by the second Death Star's gravity well, and the two collided in a colossal explosion that destroyed the flagship.
Last edited by jemDconqueror on Fri May 12, 2006 10:47 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:18 am

Image

TIE Fighter

Size:
6.3 meters long

Manufacturer:
Sienar Fleet Systems

Type:
Starfighter

Weapon:
Laser cannons

Affiliation:
Empire



Bursting from Imperial hangar bays in gnat-like clouds are the standard starfighters of the Imperial arsenal -- the Twin Ion Engine craft known as the TIE starfighter.
The single-seater short-range vessel lacks a hyperdrive, and as such requires deployment from launch bases and capital ships. It features two fire-linked laser cannons chin-mounted on the ball-shaped cockpit.

TIE fighters were typically employed en masse to make up for their shortcomings. Speedy and maneuverable, these fighters are nonetheless fragile. Though hard to hit, even a glancing blow can destroy a TIE.

Though TIEs presented a formidable challenge to pirates and civilian craft, the skilled pilots of the Rebel Alliance made short work of them in combat. The Alliance workhorse, the T-65 X-wing starfighter, continually bested the TIE in numerous engagements. As the Galactic Civil War raged on, the standard TIE arsenal was supplemented with more advanced and specialized craft, such as the fearsome TIE interceptor and the dedicated TIE bomber.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:21 am

Image

TIE Bomber


Size:
7.8 meters long

Manufacturer:
Sienar Fleet Systems

Type:
Starfighter

Weapon:
Laser cannons, proton bombs and ordnance bay

Affiliation:
Empire



Using the standard TIE fighter as a starting point, Imperial engineers designed a dedicated craft to deliver explosive payloads through bombardment. Showing its TIE roots, the TIE bomber's fuselage is bracketed by a pair of solar gather panels. For its increased power requirements, the bomber boasts elongated panels with greater surface areas than the standard starfighter.
The TIE bomber has twin cylindrical hulls between its panels. The starboard cylinder houses the pilot, while the port pod contains the fighter's explosive cargo, which is delivered to its targets via a ventral bomb chute.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:23 am

Image


TIE Advanced


Size:
9.2 meters long

Manufacturer:
Sienar Fleet Systems

Type:
starfighter

Weapon:
Twin laser cannons

Affiliation:
Empire



Faced with a daring attack on their seemingly unstoppable Death Star battle station by tiny Rebel starfighters, the Empire was willing to trust the technological giant to crush the smaller foe. Yet for all its power, the Death Star's ponderous turbolaser cannons could not track the swift Rebel fighters. One person saw the pride in the Death Star as misplaced -- Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. Unwilling to underestimate the Rebel threat, Vader personally commanded a hand-picked squadron of TIE fighters into battle. As the Imperial fighter craft screamed into space, Vader sat at the controls of his own customized fighter. Unlike the standard TIE, Vader's had larger, angular wings. The rear engine was considerably longer, and the support struts connecting the cockpit ball to the wings were much thicker than standard.
Vader was responsible for the death of many Rebel pilots in the assault. A well-placed shot from the Millennium Falcon's laser cannons destroyed one of Vader's wingmen. In the confusion that followed, the remaining wingman collided with Vader's ship, sending the Dark Lord spinning out of control into space.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:25 am

Image

TIE Interceptor

Size:
9.6 meters long

Manufacturer:
Sienar Fleet Systems

Type:
Space superiority fighter

Affiliation:
Empire



A later addition to the TIE starfighter arsenal, the TIE interceptor sports a jagged pair of dagger-like wings, giving it an ultrasleek profile that hints at the blinding speed the fighter possesses. Like the standard TIE, the interceptor has a ball-shaped single-pilot cockpit suspended between a pair of bracing arms. The arms terminate in solar gather panels that power the craft. Unlike the TIE fighter, the interceptor has four powerful laser cannons mounted on the tips of the dagger wings. TIE interceptors figured prominently in the Battle of Endor.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:28 am

Image

First Death Star

Height:
120 kilometers in diameter

Weapon:
Prime weapon: superlaser

Affiliation:
Empire



The Death Star was the code name of an unspeakably powerful and horrific weapon developed by the Empire. The immense space station carried a weapon capable of destroying entire planets. The Death Star was to be an instrument of terror, meant to cow treasonous worlds with the threat of annihilation. While the massive station is evidence of the evil that was the Galactic Empire, it was also proof of the New Order's greatest weakness -- the belief that technology and terror were superior to the will of oppressed beings fighting for freedom.
The Death Star was a battle station the size of a small moon. It had a formidable array of turbolasers and tractor beam projectors, giving it the firepower of greater than half the Imperial starfleet. Within its cavernous interior were legions of Imperial troops and fightercraft, as well as all manner of detention blocks and interrogation cells. The Death Star was spherical, and dark gray in color. Located on the Death Star's northern hemisphere was a concave disk housing the station's main laser weapon.

The technical schematics for the Death Star were developed by the cutting edge technologists of the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. With the defeat of the Separatists and the Republic's transformation into Empire, the Death Star project fell under the command of Grand Moff Tarkin, one the Empire's preeminent governors. The Death Star was developed in secret, through many difficulties over a span of almost 20 years. Rebel Alliance spies were nonetheless able to learn of the weapon's existence, and stole vital technical schematics from guarded Imperial vaults. These desperate spies transmitted this data to Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa, who stored the plans in R2-D2's memory systems.

In a brutal display of the Death Star's power, Grand Moff Tarkin targeted its prime weapon at the peaceful world of Alderaan. Leia Organa, an Imperial captive at the time, was forced to watch as the searing laser blast split apart her beloved world, turning the planet and its populace into orbital ash and debris.

Using the stolen technical data, Alliance tacticians were able to pinpoint a crucial flaw in the Death Star's design. A small ray-shielded thermal exhaust port led directly from the surface of the station into the heart of its colossal reactor. If the port could be breached by proton torpedoes, then the resulting chain reaction would destroy the station.

The Rebel Alliance boldly launched its available starfighter forces against the station. The Imperials were so confident in the Death Star's might that they never considered the Rebel fighters a viable threat. After all, the station was designed to withstand a full frontal assault from large capital ships. At first, the Empire didn't even launch TIE fighters to counter the attack.

With the aid of Han Solo, the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the power of the Force, Luke Skywalker was able to successfully hit the small target, and triggered the Death Star's demise.

Over three years later, the threat of the Death Star returned, as the Alliance discovered a second, larger Death Star under construction over the remote forest moon of Endor.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:30 am

Image

Second Death Star


Height:
160 kilometers in diameter

Weapon:
Superlaser

Affiliation:
Empire



Within three years of the Death Star's demise, the Galactic Empire again proved its evil nature with the construction of a second Death Star in a remote region of space. Fortunately for the galaxy, the Empire never completed this monstrosity. Word of its construction was spread through the Rebel ranks by Bothan spies. The Alliance was able to pinpoint the exact location of Death Star's construction, and mount a pre-emptive strike to destroy the station.
The leaked information was all a ruse. The scheming Emperor Palpatine engineered the Rebellion's discovery of the Death Star in the hopes of trapping the growing Rebel fleet. The second Death Star would not be as vulnerable as the Rebels believed.

To ensure that the Death Star would destroy the lured Alliance fleet, Palpatine entrusted the supervision of its final phase of construction to his Sith apprentice, Lord Darth Vader. Vader motivated the Death Star's commander, Moff Jerjerrod, to see that the battle station was operational when the Emperor arrived for his inspection tour.

The second Death Star was not a complete sphere. Though much of the battle station's recognizable shape was visible, there were huge sections of exposed superstructure and visible skeleton. To protect the half-completed and immobile station during its construction, the Empire projected an immense deflector shield from the nearby forest moon of Endor. The shield was strong enough to protect any breach from both capital and starfighter-class ships.

The Alliance sent a commando team to land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator while the Rebel fleet emerged from hyperspace to destroy the station. Unlike the previous Death Star, whose reactor core was accessible only from a two-meter wide exhaust port, the second Death Star's heart had to be destroyed by actually flying into the superstructure and detonating the collosal power plant.

The commando team was waylaid by Imperials and the Rebel fleet arrived to find the deflector shield intact. Worse yet, the superlaser was operational, and began destroying Rebel Mon Calamari cruisers with each blast. General Lando Calrissian came up with a daring and foolhardy tactic to engage the Imperial fleet at point-blank range, thus limiting the Death Star's available targets.

Aided by the native Ewoks of Endor, the Rebels were able to infiltrate and destroy the shield generator complex. With the shield down, General Calrissian led the Alliance starfighters into the inner recesses of the Death Star. There, he and Wedge Antilles loosed a volley of ordnance that began an immense fireball that tore apart the station.

Emperor Palpatine's body was consumed in the explosion. The Imperial fleet never recovered from the fiasco. What was to be the Rebel Alliance's demise instead turned into the death of the Empire. As firey fragments of the battle station burned away in Endor's atmosphere, the celebratory cheers of freedom rang throughout the forests, and indeed, the entire galaxy.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:33 am

Image

AT AT


Size:
15.5 meters tall

Manufacturer:
Kuat Drive Yards

Type:
walker

Affiliation:
Empire



The All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker, is a four-legged transport and combat vehicle used by the Imperial ground forces. Standing a towering 15 meters tall, these walkers are intimidating, and are used as much for psychological effect as they are for tactical effect.
An AT-AT has blast-impervious armor plating, and resembles a gigantic beast as it moves across the battlefield. An AT-AT's head carries the main armaments, a pair of light blasters located on the walker's "temples," and heavier, twin laser cannons mounted on the walker's "chin."

The command crew pilots the AT-AT from the walker's head, which is connected to the main body by a flexible neck. The crew consists of a commander, a gunner, and a pilot. Additional crews and troops can be carried in the walker's main storage bay.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:36 am

Image

AT ST

Size:
8.6 meters tall

Manufacturer:
Kuat Drive Yards

Type:
Scout walker

Weapon:
Laser cannons, concussion grenade launcher

Affiliation:
Empire



While not as imposing as its larger AT-AT walker cousin, the AT-ST nonetheless served as a significant addition to the Imperial side of battlefields in the Galactic Civil War. The two-man craft is lightly armed with chin-mounted laser cannons, and side-mounted weapon pods. The two-legged craft, dubbed the scout walker by many, serves as a reconnaisance and patrol vehicle, often flanking approaching AT-ATs and mopping up infantry that sneaks past the larger walkers. The Imperials used AT-STs in both the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:40 am

Image

Imperial Speeder Bike

Size:
4.4 meters long

Manufacturer:
Aratech

Type:
74-Z speeder bike

Affiliation:
Empire



Soaring at amazing speeds on reconnaissance and patrol duties, the Imperial speeder bike is a slim, single-person repulsorlift conveyance. The lightweight bike can attain speeds in excess of 500 kilometers per hour. A quartet of small directional steering vanes on twin outriggings afford the speeder its maneuverability. Imperial biker scouts use two shoulder-level handgrips to control elevation and direction; a pair of rocker-pivoted pedals controls acceleration.
Located just fore of the speeder's saddle is a panel of toggle switches and knobs that control communications and other vital systems. Slung beneath the speeder's frame is a single laser cannon.
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Post by jemDconqueror » Thu May 11, 2006 11:44 am

Image

Imperial Shuttle

Size:
20 meters long

Manufacturer:
Sienar Fleet Systems

Type:
Multi-purpose shuttle

Weapon:
Five double laser cannons

Affiliation:
Empire



An elegant example that stands apart from typical brutish Imperial engineering, the Lambda-class shuttle is a multi-purpose transport used in the Imperial starfleet. The Empire pressed the shuttle into service for both cargo ferrying and passenger duty. Even the Empire's elite, like Darth Vader and the Emperor Palpatine used Lambda-class shuttles.
With a trihedral foil design, the craft bears a strong resemblance to Incom's popular T-16 skyhopper. It has three wings: a stationary center foil and two articulated flanking wings. When in flight, the side wings fold out for greater stabilization. When landing, the wings fold in, shrinking the vessel's silhouette.

Prior to the Battle of Endor, the Rebellion managed to steal a small Imperial shuttle, the Tydirium. Refitted and filled with a squad of Rebel commandos, the Tydirium breached the security screen around the second Death Star to start the events that would lead to the Battle of Endor.

The well-armed vessel has two forward-facing double laser cannons, two wing-mounted double cannons, and a rear-facing double laser cannon. It is equipped with a hyperdrive.
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