What trek ships could be hit by the death star superlaser

[bilateralrope]

Lately I've been woundering if any star trek ships are slow enough so that the death star can hit them with the superlaser without slowing them down first (say with a tractor beam).

Basically this comes down to 2 questions:

How fast can the death star change where the superlaser is pointing ?

How fast is the slowest trek ship, asuming that it doesn't go to warp ? (if it can move under its own power at a noticable speed it counts as a ship)

I know that the many tubolaser turrets on the death star would make short work of any trek vessels, but thats not what I'm asking here

[Plushie]

Well, we know the DS2 being able to target capital ship sized objects (SW capships, of course, not the smaller ST ones) was a "big" thing, so it is quite possible that nothing short of an asteroid with a chemical rocket engine thrown on the back would be targetable by the superlaser we know.

Then again, there's always the possibility that the DS2's superlaser can be targeted arbitrarily so that it can hit literally anything and the power expenditure is just viewed as a waste for anything short of a full sized MonCal cruiser.

As a sort of tangent, the mention of the DS' turbolaser's makes me curious: Why didn't the DS2 simply disassemble the rebel fleet with its turbolaser compliment? I mean, something millions of times the mass of a star destroyer has to have hundreds of thousands of turbolasers. The thing could take down the entire rebel fleet by itself, un-finished as it was.

Unless, of course, the entire project was rushed to the point where the superlaser and little else was operational, which opens some interesting avenues for the effect the building of the DS2 in secret has on estimated industrial capacity of the Empire. If it was nothing more than a shell for the superlaser it carried, than the feat is certainly less impressive, though still enormous, than the estimates people have made of just how freaking able to Empire must have been to mostly complete a new Death Star in secret in so short a time.

[althornin]

Lately I've been woundering if any star trek ships are slow enough so that the death star can hit them with the superlaser without slowing them down first (say with a tractor beam).

Basically this comes down to 2 questions:

How fast can the death star change where the superlaser is pointing ?

How fast is the slowest trek ship, asuming that it doesn't go to warp ? (if it can move under its own power at a noticable speed it counts as a ship)

I know that the many tubolaser turrets on the death star would make short work of any trek vessels, but thats not what I'm asking here

Well, first off, its a laser, so it wouldn't hurt the Trek ships anyways.


As for the TL question - DS2 was uncomplete - the outer hull wasn't even finished, so I'd imagine most of the turbolasers were not even mounted or active.

[General Zod]

As for the TL question - DS2 was uncomplete - the outer hull wasn't even finished, so I'd imagine most of the turbolasers were not even mounted or active.

Turbolasers on Star Destroyers have been shown to take down enemy fighters though. So it would stand to reason they'd be more than capable of taking out a Fed starship were they fully active. Given they're more than powerful enough to do serious damage to a Fed ship, whether or not the SuperLaser could hit one is rather moot. Since it seems to be meant to target large stationary objects.

[Lord Poe]

Lately I've been woundering if any star trek ships are slow enough so that the death star can hit them with the superlaser without slowing them down first (say with a tractor beam)

No need to use a tractor beam. Have you seen "Generations", or "First Contact?" These ships aren't zipping around space when in npn-warp combat.
They were lumbering around listlessly, especially when they were attacking the Borg cude. The DS2 would have zero problems picking off Trek cap ships.

[Lord Revan]

Firepower wise any ST ship, Accuracy wise we would need date on how hard target the Liberty was, but since the Suncrasher (a fast fighter sized craft) was hit by a prototype DS (the Maw prototype) and most ST ship are nowere that small and DS1/DS2 probaly better targeting systems then the prototype.

[Sea Skimmer]

As a sort of tangent, the mention of the DS' turbolaser's makes me curious: Why didn't the DS2 simply disassemble the rebel fleet with its turbolaser compliment? I mean, something millions of times the mass of a star destroyer has to have hundreds of thousands of turbolasers. The thing could take down the entire rebel fleet by itself, un-finished as it was.

Well the weapon systems weren't support to be fully operational, and while that clearly wasn't the case for the main battery, it possible that all the surface turbolasers weren't installed. As we see in the movie the DS2 had some working surface guns, but the workers might have concentrated on smaller anti fighter weapons, since they represent the only real threat to the vessel.

[nightmare]

As a sort of tangent, the mention of the DS' turbolaser's makes me curious: Why didn't the DS2 simply disassemble the rebel fleet with its turbolaser compliment? I mean, something millions of times the mass of a star destroyer has to have hundreds of thousands of turbolasers. The thing could take down the entire rebel fleet by itself, un-finished as it was.

Unless, of course, the entire project was rushed to the point where the superlaser and little else was operational, which opens some interesting avenues for the effect the building of the DS2 in secret has on estimated industrial capacity of the Empire. If it was nothing more than a shell for the superlaser it carried, than the feat is certainly less impressive, though still enormous, than the estimates people have made of just how freaking able to Empire must have been to mostly complete a new Death Star in secret in so short a time.

I recall that at least some of the surface turbolasers were firing, though not on the rebel fleet. However, the the Battle of Endor was a showcase, a stage to convert Luke above all. Eliminating the rebellion in the process was merely a positive sideeffect.

[Jalinth]

As a sort of tangent, the mention of the DS' turbolaser's makes me curious: Why didn't the DS2 simply disassemble the rebel fleet with its turbolaser compliment? I mean, something millions of times the mass of a star destroyer has to have hundreds of thousands of turbolasers. The thing could take down the entire rebel fleet by itself, un-finished as it was.

Palpy's arrogance had a fair amount to do with it. He personally gave the order to start the using the main cannon to turn the rebel fleet into dust. He might have only wanted "big booms" from his orbiting moon of doom.

[Knife]

It would be a matter of if ST ships are smart enough to zig and zag through the theater rather than straight lining it. If all they do is keep a constant course, the DS would have little problem picking them off with the Super Laser of Doom.

The real question is, how far away does a ST ship have to be to survive a near miss?

[Augustus Caesar]

I'm not sure if the DS can do it, but since it's just a really big turbolaser, can't it just fire a giant flakburst and wipe out half the fleet its facing?

[darthdavid]

Well, first off, its a laser, so it wouldn't hurt the Trek ships anyways.

Please tell me that the indicates sarcasm and that we don't have another no limits wanker on board...

[Firefox]

I'm not sure if the DS can do it, but since it's just a really big turbolaser, can't it just fire a giant flakburst and wipe out half the fleet its facing?

The current consensus seems to be moving against a flak burst mechanism for TLs. The DS would be better off if other ships were caught by the beam or were destroyed from proximity to the blast.

[NRS Guardian]

Well, first off, its a laser, so it wouldn't hurt the Trek ships anyways.

Please tell me that the indicates sarcasm and that we don't have another no limits wanker on board...

Yes, he's being sarcastic.

[darth korte]

Lately I've been woundering if any star trek ships are slow enough so that the death star can hit them with the superlaser without slowing them down first (say with a tractor beam).

Basically this comes down to 2 questions:

How fast can the death star change where the superlaser is pointing ?

How fast is the slowest trek ship, asuming that it doesn't go to warp ? (if it can move under its own power at a noticable speed it counts as a ship)

I know that the many tubolaser turrets on the death star would make short work of any trek vessels, but thats not what I'm asking here

super laser contains so much energy, that if it misses 1-10 meters (10-50 meters ) it can destroy borg´s cubes

[Kamakazie Sith]

It's also likely that the emperor wanted to pick them off one by one using the super laser.

Lord Revan - Sun Crusher!

[RThurmont]

Setting aside the psychological power of the superlaser, and the technical books...for a moment...it's also possibile that the DS2 had a fundamentally different design philosophy than DS1.

The first Death Star was designed to repel capital ship attacks, but never had to face a single capital ship in battle. Instead it was destroyed by starfighters that slipped through its defences.

The DS2 on the other hand seems to have been designed largely to repel starfighter attacks. The super laser was mainly an anti-planetary weapon on the DS1, but on the DS2 it clearly has become much more of a general-purpose weapon with both a lot of power and strong psychological impact.

So whereas DS1 would fire its turbolaser batteries on capital ships to keep them out of its hair while it prepared to fire on a planet, the DS2 would instead user the superlaser directly, perhaps relying only on its turbolasers to repel starfighter attacks and to fire on capital ships only in emergency situations.

Alternately, it is possible that a large amount of the DS2's weaponry was not operational at the time of the battle of Endor. It's interesting that the Death Star 2 was surrounded by an Imperial fleet including the Executor, whereas the original operated as a stand-alone vessel. Perhaps the DS2 was designed to operate with a shield of capital ships to keep other capital ships at bay.

There is a lot of realm for speculation here, clearly, but I'd be fascinated to see more ideas on this.

Regarding the effectiveness of the Death Stars against Federation ships, setting turbolasers aside, I think the big question is how quickly can the Death Stars rotate on their axis? Do they have the ability to quickly spin around to assume a targeting position as needed? If not, then the DS1's superlaser probably wouldn't be much of a threat to Federation ships, by virtue of its sheer inflexibility. The DS2 superlaser might be more of a threat, as if memory serves the accuracy was increased substantially in order to allow efficient use of the weapon on capital ships.

[Dakarne]

Setting aside the psychological power of the superlaser, and the technical books...for a moment...it's also possibile that the DS2 had a fundamentally different design philosophy than DS1.

Either way mate, a planet still gets blown into a miniature asteroid field.

The first Death Star was designed to repel capital ship attacks, but never had to face a single capital ship in battle. Instead it was destroyed by starfighters that slipped through its defences.

Yes, it was, obvious design flaw from a fascist mind.

The DS2 on the other hand seems to have been designed largely to repel starfighter attacks. The super laser was mainly an anti-planetary weapon on the DS1, but on the DS2 it clearly has become much more of a general-purpose weapon with both a lot of power and strong psychological impact.

I think its surface weaponry was enhanced to encompass both Star Fighters and Capital Ships personally, it would have been a smart thing to do.

So whereas DS1 would fire its turbolaser batteries on capital ships to keep them out of its hair while it prepared to fire on a planet, the DS2 would instead user the superlaser directly, perhaps relying only on its turbolasers to repel starfighter attacks and to fire on capital ships only in emergency situations.

Maybe, It's plausible, here's my opinion:

The Death Star 2 uses Turbolasers to keep Cap ships and Fighters out of its hair until it blows up the planet.

It then uses the Superlaser to pick off each and every capital ship, the psychological aspect is possibly more than the enemy can bear...

Alternately, it is possible that a large amount of the DS2's weaponry was not operational at the time of the battle of Endor. It's interesting that the Death Star 2 was surrounded by an Imperial fleet including the Executor, whereas the original operated as a stand-alone vessel. Perhaps the DS2 was designed to operate with a shield of capital ships to keep other capital ships at bay.

Maybe, I'd take the fleet whether it was a standalone vessel or not, I like overwhelming enemies to the point of insanity...

and I think the DS2 Was a Standalone Vessel, just unfinished.

Regarding the effectiveness of the Death Stars against Federation ships, setting turbolasers aside, I think the big question is how quickly can the Death Stars rotate on their axis?

Ten minutes at least... out of sheer visual practicality on my part probably.

they have the ability to quickly spin around to assume a targeting position as needed?

On planets or slow moving capital ships: Maybe.

If not, then the DS1's superlaser probably wouldn't be much of a threat to Federation ships, by virtue of its sheer inflexibility.

Federation ships are small, and could, given the right incentive, move out of the way of the death star... unlikely, but plausible.

The DS2 superlaser might be more of a threat, as if memory serves the accuracy was increased substantially in order to allow efficient use of the weapon on capital ships.

The actual practicality of this is actually hard to concieve of.

The Federation would probably do the smart thing (for once) and get behind the deathstar, away from the Superlaser, and this is where the Large amounts of turbolasers come in.

Either way, the Feds have no chance.