Civil War Casualties

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2003-01-28 02:40am

There is no real reason why the DS or any Imperial ship couldn't be droid run, but that doesn't appear to be the way they do it in SW, possible ill-feeling left over from the Clone Wars and the fighting against the Trade Federation, maybe combined with automation fuck-ups like the Katana fleet.
And If you give Alderaan a population of 100 billion, then the crime rate that would undoubtably result would make Leia's "Peaceful Planet, We have no weapons" crap even more of a blatant lie than it already was.
And you forgot the deaths of hundreds of millions of Ewoks from the Endor holocaust in your initial post.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-28 04:49am

consequences wrote:And you forgot the deaths of hundreds of millions of Ewoks from the Endor holocaust in your initial post.

You're right. This is getting to be quite the death toll.

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2003-01-28 05:03am

Also the tragic loss of all of the ships enroute in hyperspace to Alderaan who ran into the debris field before they could be informed, and the Hyperspace Navigation Safety Bureau could begin cleanup operations.
Also however many people died when the Lusankya ripped out of Coruscant's surface. In addition to that, the widespread devatation on Coruscant after it was attacked during Dark Empire. Add several Billion more for the destruction of Byss.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-01-28 04:47pm

I can't see the Empire employing more Droids than necessary. Imperial Humans traditionally detest droids and treat them the same as a "Southern Gentleman" would have treated his slaves before slavery was abolished. Even Han Solo a reformed Imperial Officer didn't like Droids. Even Obi-Wan made an Anti-Droid slur "If droids could think then none of us would be here" in Dexies Midnight Diner tm

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2003-01-28 08:38pm

Anti-droid sentiment, mistrust of robots? This is getting to be like Dune!

Heh, we saw droids on the Death Star, protocol droids and those "toaster" droids (called "mouse droids" in the games).

There seems a predjudice against considering droids as "persons" (although the Empire had no problem hiring droid bounty hunters to go after the Millennium Falcon in ESB), but they make heavy use of them.

Remember the imperal "remotes" that were used for training purposes, the inquisitor droids for torture, and the sentry drones for assasination or guard duty?

Battle droids were used heavily in Dark Empire, in addition to automated fighters (and cyborg spacecraft).

The use of battle droids in TPM and AOTC doesn't seem to have had a huge impact on the use of droids in the galaxy. We're only lead to believe that Clone troopers are superior in terms of tactics and overall combat effectiveness than battledroids (which are widely used and not limited to the Trade Federation).

I don't see why a huge battlestation like that couldn't have similar levels of automation. Otherwise, yes, you are going to be forced to have insane numbers of crewmen to run everything and keep the place clean (see "Clerks" for details on that theory). ; )

How do they get supplies? You'll need a steady stream of shuttles going back and forth with resources.. or indoor gardens and holding pens for animals. Then you need to dispose of all of that waste... heck you've got a huge thing to deal with any way you look at it.

But I think that some of that could be made simpler by having a large droid population onboard.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2003-01-28 08:39pm

And it seems that Droids are much faster and cheaper to produce than fully trained human soldiers (especially clones, even with growth acceleration).

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-01-29 01:42pm

Would you trust a man-made robot to run your mega-million battleships? Or a human being with rational capabilities.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-01-29 04:39pm

The Death Star HAD to be heavily automated, at least since IG-88A's "consciousness" at least thought it was possible to control the station personally, AND because while Palpatine might not have trusted droids, he trusted the crew and their commanders a lot LESS.

Furthermore, the Galaxy Gun projectiles were controlled by AI.

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-01-29 07:22pm

In Mr Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Shield of Lies (Bantam Books, 1996), is the following passage:

With no ready answer, Luke turned his gaze back toward the flyway ahead. It wasn't until years after the Battle of Yavin that Luke had first become aware that the Death Star he had destroyed at Yavin had a complement -- officers, crew, and support staff -- of more than a million sentients.

In retrospect, it was something he should have realized without prompting. But it tooka new Battle of Yavin display at hte Museum of the Republic on Coruscant to point it out to him. When Luke thought of hte Death Star, he associated it with Vader and Tagge and Grand Moff Tarkin, with the stormtroopers who'd tried to kill him in its corridors and the TIE pilots who'd tried to kill him above its surface, with the superlaser gun crews who had obliterated defenseless Alderaan.

But the signs at the massive cutaway model of the Death Star in the museum had spelled out the numbers in its table of specifications, and Luke could still recite them: 25,800 stormtroopers, 27,048 officers, 774,576 crew, 378,685 support staff --

"One million, two hundred five thousand, one hundred nine," Luke said quietly. "Not counting the droids."

Knowing General Tagge was aboard is an academic matter. But given that he never met the man, and had never encountered him or his handiwork, why does Master Skywalker associate him with the Death Star in the same terms as he does Lord Vader and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin?

Publius