Part 3: The Asteroid Field

Courtesy of nine-gear crow.

Imperial Star Destroyer

The Mac Daddy. The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer is perhaps the most ubiquitous starship currently in service in the Imperial fleet. At over 1,600 meters long, it is also the largest starship in the Imperial fleet outside of the Star Dreadnought, also referred to as a “super” Star Destroyer.

Despite what the name implies, a lone Star Destroyer lacks the necessary firepower to actually destroy a star, and certainly lacks the firepower to completely destroy a planet. However, fleets of Star Destroyers have been used to decimate Rebel-allied or even sympathizing planets through orbital bombardments.

Manufactured by the hundreds by the Empire’s private starship manufacturing firm Kuat Drive Yards, the Imperial IIs were rolled out shortly after the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the dreaded Death Star battlestation, sporting a suite of upgrades gleaned by Imperial R&D after their defeat over Yavin IV. The Empire is currently in the process of retiring its fleet of aging Imperial I-class and Victory II-class Star Destroyers with the newer Imperial IIs.

Much like the Victories and Interdictor cruisers, which share a similar chassis design, Imperial Star Destroyers have two docking ports on their undersides around the mid-ship area which are capable of housing up to corvette-sized craft, as well as providing nesting and launching space for the Star Destroyer’s TIE Fighter compliment. An Imperial II-class Star Destroyer has a standard compliment of 72 TIE Fighters, consisting of six squadrons composed of 12 fighters each (four squadrons of TIE/LN fighters, one squadron of TIE Interceptors, and one squadron of TIE Bombers). Imperial Star Destroyers also house eight Lambda-class shuttles, 15 stormtrooper transports, five Assault Gunboats, and a varying number Skipspray Blastboats and Gamma-class assault shuttles. They also house up to 20 AT-AT walkers, and 30 AT-ST support units.

Most impressive of all however, is the Imperial II’s crew compliment of roughly 37,000 officers and enlisted men, as well as a standing compliment of OVER 9000 Stromtroopers for internal security and ground assault/starship boarding operations.

Cinematic Trivia: The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer came into being as a means of explaining the subtle design changes in the Star Destroyer production models built by Industrial Light and Magic for A New Hope and those built for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Personally, I’ve never been able to tell the difference between them on film.

Also of note, the odds of a YT-1300 transport surviving a direct assault on an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer are currently unknown, as C-3PO was interrupted by Han Solo and Leia Organa before he could state the exact figure.


TIE Fighter

If the Star Destroyer is the most ubiquitous starship in the Imperial fleet, then the TIE/LN Fighter is the most ubiquitous starfighter. With no shields, minimal armor, no hyperdriver, a depressurized cabin, and slower than average engines, Seinar Fleet System’s Twin Ion Engine starfighter is an interstellar deathtrap roughly on par with Incom’s flying coffin, the Z-95 Headhunter in terms of material longevity. TIE Fighter pilots who survive more than one sortie in these craft are quickly branded ‘aces’ and are often promoted and assigned better craft such as the TIE/IN Interceptor, the Cygnus Spaceworks Alpha Xg-1 Assault Gunboat or Missile Boat, or even the rumored top secret skunkworks fighters such as the TIE/D Defender or TIE Phantom starfighters.

Smart Star Destroyer tactical officers will often offset the TIE Fighter’s individual weaknesses by deploying them in large numbers and overwhelming an enemy force with sheer combined might. This is why TIE Fighter squadrons usually consist of 12 ships, as opposed to four or five ships per Alliance fighter squadron.

TIE Fighters are equipped with two forward-facing twin-linked laser canons, and … an ejector seat. Yeah, there’s not really all that much to say about the TIE Fighter that’s positive. Their lighter weight from having no additional equipment and being made from incredibly cheap materials does make the TIE/LN incredibly maneuverable, however. So maneuverable, in fact, that TIE pilots have been known to kill themselves in basic training by overcompensating with the TIE/LN and crashing into things. So… Uh…

Trivia time: ILM originally painted the TIE Fighter production model blue, but after doing footage tests with it against a blue screen, they were horrified to discover that the ship was chromakeyed out of film along with the background. They then painted it bright white for A New Hope and then a lighter gray colour for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.


TIE Bomber

The Magikarp of the Imperial starfighter fleet. TIE/SA Bombers are big, slow, and stupid-looking, and capable of devastating surface environments and blowing up Rebel capital ships with minimal effort thanks to their high-yield space bombs. The “SA” in their official designation stands for “something awful” “surface assault.”

TIE Bombers feature a unique cylindrical dual fuselage design, with the second compartment being specifically dedicated to housing its entire heavy weapons arsenal. It is also one of the only TIE starfighter craft designed to be operated by two people, a pilot and a bombardier. They also feature the same concave angular solar panel layout as seen on Darth Vader’s personal TIE Advanced starfighter and the TIE/AD Avenger production model starfighter which was based off of it.

There’s really not that much to say about the TIE Bomber without going down the Expanded Universe rabbit hole. The one bit of interesting behind-the-scenes trivia I could find on them states that they were originally designed by ILM to be ship-to-ship transport craft like what the Lambda-class shuttles ended up being. Indeed, you can even see that very briefly in Empire Strikes Back when Captain Needa takes a shuttle that looks very much like a TIE Bomber from his Star Destroyer to the Executor to choked out by Vader. Other than that, Wookieepedia says that they were originally intended to have been featured in A New Hope, but got cut, instead making their debut in a cheezy 1970’s Star Wars comic book.

There’s also something called the TIE Heavy Bomber, which has three fuselages, and looks absolutely ridiculous. You should laugh at it.


REPEAT OFFENDERS
● The Outrider





Dash Rendar - 3

Han Solo - 3



Here's another image from the Brother's Hildebrandt (the previous being the image of Dash punching his starship's control panel). These fellows are responsible for providing art for the entire Topps Shadows Of The Empire card line. There are one-hundred cards in total, each with a hand-painted image and a small blurb that retells the SOTE storyline in brief. A handful of the cards were foil character cards, a few dealt specifically with starships in the media project, and a few were inspired by scenes from the SOTE game and comic book.

The Asteroid Field card portrait:



EDIT: aw yiss!