StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Posted: **2017-02-06 09:04pm**

For anyone who's interested, the newest novel set after ROTJ and before the Battle of Jakku finally gives us solid information on what happened to each of the thirteen (13!) SSDs that were in service at the time of the Battle of Endor:

She starts with the Dreadnoughts—the Super Star Destroyers.

Thirteen were in service before the revivified Death Star was destroyed above Endor. One of those is the Ravager, the SSD from which Sloane rules the Empire (and which, strictly speaking, is now Gaelan’s command). One of those is the Executor, Vader’s command ship. The Executor was lost that day, plunging into the surface of the Death Star. Taking hundreds of thousands of the best Imperials with it.

Sloane shudders as she thinks of it.

That leaves eleven others.

Three are now in the hands of the New Republic. Two of those were from admirals willingly surrendering the ship and its people. One was taken forcibly by New Republic forces while it underwent repairs over Kuat.

Five were destroyed outright in battles across the galaxy with the New Republic—the ships were understaffed, underprotected, and on the run. (The Dreadnoughts are home to massive batteries of fleet-killing weapons, yes, but are also slow, unwieldy beasts—they hang there in the sky like bricks, and without adequate protection it is an inevitability that enemy forces could erode the ships until obliteration ensues.)

One was taken by pirates: the Annihilator. Tagge’s old ship. But who controls the Annihilator now? The reports don’t say.

Another, the Arbitrator, made a bad hyperspace calculation to escape pursuing NR ships. It evaporated when it was sucked into a gravity well.

That leaves Palpatine’s own command ship:

The Eclipse.

Records show that it, too, was destroyed by a fleet of New Republic vessels—Ackbar’s own frigate, Home One, firing the ship-killing shot.

Ah, but there’s the catch, and it’s why Sloane is here: The ships dumped data across the stars, transmitting pulses of information to this location. That provides a black-box recording of information so one could discern what exactly happened before a ship was destroyed, captured, or surrendered. All the other tracking data adds up to the known fates of each SSD. Their stories match the data for all of them—except one.

I think that's enough for now. I don't want to spoil any more than I already have.

Posted: **2017-02-06 09:17pm**

That doesn't add up. If Palpatine had his own command ship, surely it would have been at Endor where he was.

Posted: **2017-02-06 09:35pm**

It adds up if you want me to quote more and spoil it.

As for not being at Endor: meh. I guess they figured one was enough since they were just trying to prevent the rebel fleet from escaping.

Posted: **2017-02-06 10:36pm**

Interesting that they just throw in the Eclipse with all the others. Does this imply that the Eclipse is just another Executor class, not a distinct class in the new canon?

Edit: I also hope the mystery around its fate isn't foreshadowing that they're going to bring the resurrected Palpatine back into canon. God that would be a bone-headed move.

Posted: **2017-02-06 10:41pm**

It doesn't specify if all SSDs are the same class or not. At least, not so far as I've read.

However, what I expected to be another boring entry in this Aftermath series has turned out to be refreshingly informative and interesting.

Posted: **2017-02-06 11:03pm**

Well, from context, Ravager must be the one that went down on Jakku, so that should tell us its class at least.

Posted: **2017-02-07 01:37pm**

Three of them surrendered or captured by the Republic? I wonder if we'll see them brought out of mothballs in EpVIII or IX to fight the First Order. That would make quite a sight, especially if Eclipse has been brought back into the fold, maybe it was were Snoke was based and where he formed the FO. I want to see two Dreadnoughts slugging it out damnit!

There's a pirate band with a freaking Executor? Damn!

Also, five outright killed by NR forces. I really hope those don't fall into the Legends trope of dying to massed fighter attacks (Iron Fist (sorta), Razor's Kiss, Lusankya (twice!), Dominion, though she was a different class).

Posted: **2017-02-07 01:39pm**

Well, the text says that officially, Home One fired the kill shot on Eclipse, so maybe some of the others went down to capital ship fire too.

Although, get enough torpedo-armed fighters/bombers together, and they should be able to do it, particularly if, in the chaos of the collapsing Empire, the SSD lacks a proper escort and/or is flying with less than its full fighter contingent.

Edit: And yes, Dreadnought vs. Dreadnought would be excellent. The Star Wars films have always been rather lacking in capital ship vs. Capital ship engagements (only three films out of eight, not counting the Clone Wars animated film, feature one, and even then, the focus is usually more on the fighters anyway).

Posted: **2017-02-07 02:13pm**

If they used those captured Executors to go SSD-hunting...

And I'm glad they were able to capture an Executor from Kuat before they threw all those Kuati nobles out of the airlock and/or into the sun.

Posted: **2017-02-07 03:17pm**

I'm glad Kuat is back in canon. I thought the descriptions of the vast orbital ship yards were really cool, and still hope to see them done justice on screen someday.

Posted: **2017-02-07 03:45pm**

I wouldn't be surpriced if Tagge's ship (the Annihilator) is only marginally in operating conditions and is really more of a spacedock/homebase for the pirates that relocate if need be then it being used as a active combat ship (since I suspect that either the Empire or the Republic would have taken down a SSD that used in active combat).

Posted: **2017-02-07 04:39pm**

I wonder if the NR even still has their SSDs. I think with how boneheaded the NR acted with regards to their military in canon they would have probably sold them for scrap or just destroyed them like it was implied what originally happened to the Lusankya in the X-Wing novels before somebody realized that was dumb and said the NR just repaired it in secret. Such ships would be massive drains on resources even mothballed and with the NR completely gutting their military I can't see them bothering to pay the cost.

Perhaps they offloaded them to a member world or allied group but thats probably it.

The story of their capture sounds damned interesting though. I wonder if the Admirals who surrendered their ships defected or just plain surrendered, like they saw which way the cards were turning and willingly joined the NR with enough of the crew going along with it to make it happen.

The ship captured from Kuat sounds even more interesting, I wonder if it is a something like that story of a Y-Wing squadron in the Bounty Hunter novels who were at Kuat during Endor and took some ships when the owner of KDY tried to wreck the place. With plenty of stories of the old canon being re-imagined in the nu-canon I'd like that being made canon again, I always kinda appreciated that story showing the the Alliance was foreword thinking and wasn't just the all the stuff at Endor.

The pirate SSD reminds me a bit of the Invidious or the Eclipse temporarily used by the Zann Consortium (and funny enough destroyed the old canon's version of the Annihilator). Tavira's ship was supposed to be not in the greatest condition and only escaped NR for as long as it did because of her force users giving her advance warning. Zann abandoned the Eclipse because he knew it would be too large of a target. I'd be interested in how the pirates are keeping the Annihilator in working order and away from the NR, Empire (if it still exists as a military force or even still exists, the nu-canon as far as I know hasn't confirmed either way), or the First Order.

Posted: **2017-02-07 04:54pm**

Lord Revan wrote:I wouldn't be surpriced if Tagge's ship (the Annihilator) is only marginally in operating conditions and is really more of a spacedock/homebase for the pirates that relocate if need be then it being used as a active combat ship (since I suspect that either the Empire or the Republic would have taken down a SSD that used in active combat).

That and it would take a very large pirate force to fully man (much less maintain/supply) an SSD.

Posted: **2017-02-07 05:33pm**

Also, I think the thread title is misleading, we're short 8 names (the ones killed or captured/surrendered) and I'm curious as to their fate beyond "killed/captured."

Posted: **2017-02-07 05:34pm**

Honestly, their's a lot of potential story material their. Taking down an SSD is a small epic in and of itself, and the variety of fates they experienced creates a lot of possibilities.

Posted: **2017-02-07 05:36pm**

I'd edit the title if I could.

Posted: **2017-02-07 05:48pm**

So which one had its shield domes bashed in by Dash Rendar's shoulderpads?

Posted: **2017-02-07 06:05pm**

The Romulan Republic wrote:
Lord Revan wrote:I wouldn't be surpriced if Tagge's ship (the Annihilator) is only marginally in operating conditions and is really more of a spacedock/homebase for the pirates that relocate if need be then it being used as a active combat ship (since I suspect that either the Empire or the Republic would have taken down a SSD that used in active combat).
That and it would take a very large pirate force to fully man (much less maintain/supply) an SSD.

What's the difference between pirate lord (a pirate would definitely be a lord when s/he gets an SSD) and a warlord ala Zinj? AND... if I was the Imperial Remnant or First Order I'd Green Man the fuck out of vital Empire assets and make them disappear.

Posted: **2017-02-07 06:08pm**

Shroom Man 777 wrote:
The Romulan Republic wrote:
Lord Revan wrote:I wouldn't be surpriced if Tagge's ship (the Annihilator) is only marginally in operating conditions and is really more of a spacedock/homebase for the pirates that relocate if need be then it being used as a active combat ship (since I suspect that either the Empire or the Republic would have taken down a SSD that used in active combat).
That and it would take a very large pirate force to fully man (much less maintain/supply) an SSD.
What's the difference between pirate lord (a pirate would definitely be a lord when s/he gets an SSD) and a warlord ala Zinj? AND... if I was the Imperial Remnant or First Order I'd Green Man the fuck out of vital Empire assets and make them disappear.

Pirates don't tend to have more but a few ships, and don't tend to actually rule planets. Zsinj had a decent chunk of the Empire under his control, a fleet, and an organized military. Frankly, his claim towards being a legitimate successor of the Empire was pretty solid.

Admittedly many of the 'warlords' we see aren't very far from pirates...

Posted: **2017-02-07 06:12pm**

Hurm... what about those Berber states, historically speaking? I mean if pirates = criminals then we've seen lots of times where criminals and criminal orgs are de facto rulers of large territories/areas.

SPACE PABLO ESCOBAR! Space Los Zetas!

The Blaster Club! With Keni Omega!

Posted: **2017-02-07 06:37pm**

Shroom Man 777 wrote:So which one had its shield domes bashed in by Dash Rendar's shoulderpads?

The Arbitrator. Dash's shoulderpads are what generated the gravity well that evaporated it.

Posted: **2017-02-09 10:48pm**

You know, considering the difficulties a pirate force would likely have in operating an SSD, I wonder if they didn't just loot it/sell it for parts/scrap.

Posted: **2017-02-09 11:33pm**

They didn't.

Posted: **2017-02-09 11:45pm**

Eh, arguably would have been the smarter move. Think of everything you could sell aboard an SSD (without painting a huge, difficult to maintain target on your back). Consumables, fuel, computers, various pieces of equipment, personal arms and body armour, heavy armaments, ground vehicles, small space craft, fighters...

You could probably fully equip a good-sized planet's armed forces for some time. Lot of people looking to buy that shit in the chaos of the Empire's collapse, most likely, and probably some of them not terribly picky about where it comes from.

Posted: **2017-02-10 05:02am**

The Romulan Republic wrote:Eh, arguably would have been the smarter move. Think of everything you could sell aboard an SSD (without painting a huge, difficult to maintain target on your back). Consumables, fuel, computers, various pieces of equipment, personal arms and body armour, heavy armaments, ground vehicles, small space craft, fighters...

You could probably fully equip a good-sized planet's armed forces for some time. Lot of people looking to buy that shit in the chaos of the Empire's collapse, most likely, and probably some of them not terribly picky about where it comes from.

You probably could, but I doubt you would get much money out of it (comparatively speaking). Not with all the other imperial warships to salvage and equipment depots to plunder. I wouldn't be surprised, if prices for such items dropped sufficiently during that period.

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Re: Names and fates of all the SSDs in the new EU (spoilers)

Re: Names and fates of all the SSDs in the new EU (spoilers)

Re: Names and fates of all the SSDs in the new EU (spoilers)

Re: Names and fates of all the SSDs in the new EU (spoilers)