How secret was the death star?

Darktrayn · Post by **Darktrayn** » 2003-04-21 12:31am

The death star was a very secret project, but even so, would there have been rumors or sitings of its construction and operational service throughout the Imperial Navy? It would seem to me that this would be likely, unless it was a project under such secrecy that once you were assigned to the death star, you never left. Surely, I would think, some things leaked, at least to the rebels...

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-04-21 12:36am

Darktrayn wrote:Surely, I would think, some things leaked, at least to the rebels...

Given that the Rebels launched and operation to steal the plans to it, I think so, it was the plot of the ANH after all.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-04-21 12:43am

Probably a hidden project in the budget. After all, it was mostly completed before the Senate had been dissolved. And it isn't likely they would have agreed with it.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2003-04-21 12:59am

neoolong wrote:Probably a hidden project in the budget. After all, it was mostly completed before the Senate had been dissolved. And it isn't likely they would have agreed with it.

To the subject

How many people knew about the Stealth Program?

How was it funded? That's right a black project provision in the budget. I'm sure Palpitine could have been much more creative. The Serve the Emporer fund or the planets reclamation fund

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-04-21 01:22am

I don't think it could have been to quiet. Sure, a few million people might not be much compared to the possibly trillions living in the Galaxy, but it only takes one to blow the whistle on an uber-WMD

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-21 01:26am

the majority could just be told its a big space station.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-04-21 09:25am

It would have been easy to skim some funds from the Navy. Wait a few years and that's a LOT of money.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-04-21 09:50am

Also the Death Star project was built in secret. Imperials actually used convicts and Wookie slave labour to build it in the middle of nowhere. It was actually in the Death Stars construction yard that Ackbar was set free from Tarkins service.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-21 10:25am

Just listen to the ANH radio drama. It was secret enough an Imperial officer was willing to kill Lehia just because she knew the name and nothing else.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-21 03:24pm

Darth Pounder wrote:Also the Death Star project was built in secret. Imperials actually used convicts and Wookie slave labour to build it in the middle of nowhere. It was actually in the Death Stars construction yard that Ackbar was set free from Tarkins service.

Its also possible enslaved Geonosians were also used.

Ackbar was liberated before Tarkin's shuttle was about to hype to the Horuz System to tour the DS project.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-04-21 03:28pm

It was`nt so secret cause we all know about it.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2003-04-21 03:34pm

Montcalm wrote:It was`nt so secret cause we all know about it.

Sure WE know about it we are the omnicient observer!

Mitth`raw`nuruodo · Post by **Mitth`raw`nuruodo** » 2003-04-21 08:07pm

Alyeska wrote:Just listen to the ANH radio drama. It was secret enough an Imperial officer was willing to kill Lehia just because she knew the name and nothing else.

I have the original script of the ANH radio drama. I bought it at books-a-million a few years ago. Too bad I have never heard the radio drama itself... Probably have it at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.cmo or something...

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-04-21 08:20pm

Mitth'raw'nuruodo wrote:
Alyeska wrote:Just listen to the ANH radio drama. It was secret enough an Imperial officer was willing to kill Lehia just because she knew the name and nothing else.
I have the original script of the ANH radio drama. I bought it at books-a-million a few years ago. Too bad I have never heard the radio drama itself... Probably have it at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.cmo or something...

You can download it on most p2p networks.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2003-04-21 09:51pm

Which is more likely?

The EU idea that the DS was built in total secrecy over a prison labour planet,that was later wiped out{thus suggesting that such immense engineering and labour projects was capable of being constructed at a presumably low-tech facillity} or that the DS was billed as something else.In other words,the 1 million dollar screw-driver,and the project was billed as the mining machine we see in the EU propgranda?

Frankly,I tend to believe the second variant.Sure,V2 rockets have been developed by slave labour,but then,we're talking about a Death Star here.Furthermore,the idea that the Death Star blew up Despraye{sp} when the canon suggests that Alderaan was the first planet the DS blew poke holes in that story

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-21 10:14pm

PainRack wrote:Which is more likely?

The EU idea that the DS was built in total secrecy over a prison labour planet,that was later wiped out{thus suggesting that such immense engineering and labour projects was capable of being constructed at a presumably low-tech facillity} or that the DS was billed as something else.In other words,the 1 million dollar screw-driver,and the project was billed as the mining machine we see in the EU propgranda?

Frankly,I tend to believe the second variant.Sure,V2 rockets have been developed by slave labour,but then,we're talking about a Death Star here.Furthermore,the idea that the Death Star blew up Despraye{sp} when the canon suggests that Alderaan was the first planet the DS blew poke holes in that story

No direct confirmation means that's what happened.

They never say that Alderaan was the first to be blown up. No one knew about it--that's WHY they built the DS there, and thus blowing it up amounted to no real show of force.

The DS was constructed from raw materials on site--it had no real shipyard. Thus the low-tech nitpick (w/out evidence, I'll add) is irrelevent.

The slaves just helped process raw materials and due simple droid-supervision and special jobs--no matter how much automation, there would always be some menial sentient labour that a couple million slaves and criminals would do well for.

Furthermore, your arguement is based on false-premises. The fact it was built at a penal colony never means it was built without high cost, which the EU is quite frank about. Not having to pay some workers wouldn't make it cheap by far. Regardless of how it was built, it would have to be hidden in budget anyway.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-04-21 10:17pm

There are a lot of rumors in the US armed forces, but that doesn't mean that everyone knows whats going on. If nothing else, the Imperial Navy could have had a "Death Star" cover project, then hidden the real Death Star funds elsewhere.

Admiral Johnason · Post by **Admiral Johnason** » 2003-04-23 04:09pm

Isolder74 wrote:
neoolong wrote:Probably a hidden project in the budget. After all, it was mostly completed before the Senate had been dissolved. And it isn't likely they would have agreed with it.
To the subject

How many people knew about the Stealth Program?

How was it funded? That's right a black project provision in the budget. I'm sure Palpitine could have been much more creative. The Serve the Emporer fund or the planets reclamation fund

i think that the Manhatten Projest is a much better analogy.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-04-23 05:06pm

I do believe someone says the DS will be fully operational by the time they reach Alderaan or something.

Mitth`raw`nuruodo · Post by **Mitth`raw`nuruodo** » 2003-04-23 05:32pm

The world Despraye (im not sure of spelling, i'd have to get out Darksaber) was destroyed before it went underway to Alderaan, so it must have been pretty close to fully operational even before then.

Hrm, now that I think of it, I have a question. How the hell did Princess Leia get to the Death Star? I always assumed Darth Vader's Star Destroyer just ferried them both, but i haven't read anything either way.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-23 05:45pm

Mitth'raw'nuruodo wrote:I have a question. How the hell did Princess Leia get to the Death Star? I always assumed Darth Vader's Star Destroyer just ferried them both, but i haven't read anything either way.

You see Vader's Star Destroyer flying toward the Death Star in ANH.

Admiral Johnason · Post by **Admiral Johnason** » 2003-04-23 05:50pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:I do believe someone says the DS will be fully operational by the time they reach Alderaan or something.

The firing on Alderaan was supposed to commerate the DS becoming operational. It was sometime between the famous meeting scene and the firing sequence.

Aaron2 · Post by **Aaron2** » 2003-04-23 05:56pm

The Star Wars Technical Journal states about the DS that "For nearly two years, every resource of the Empire was directed towards the completion of the project.". That doesn't sound like a "hidden in the budget" kind of thing to me. It wasn't so much that the Empire was building a battlestation that was so secret, it was what it was capable of.

As to the destruction of planets pre-Alderaan, In the novel there is a scene where Vader is pondering the destruction of Alderaan. "Interestingly, the first use of the most powerful destructive machine ever constructed had seemingly no influence at all on that map [of the galaxy]." So unless Vader was uninformed (unlikely), the desctruction of an alledged slave planet is just more Rebel propaganda (very likely).

Aaron

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-04-23 06:01pm

And unless the Empire hugely expanded in a few years, that's bullshit. They completed 60% of a vastly larger station in 6 mounths in total secrecy.

Aaron2 · Post by **Aaron2** » 2003-04-23 06:21pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:And unless the Empire hugely expanded in a few years, that's bullshit. They completed 60% of a vastly larger station in 6 mounths in total secrecy.

Either that or once the Senate was disolved, they were finally able to nationalize the entire economy. Similarly, if the US federal goverment assumed complete control of all state and local taxes, they could grow enormously without actually gaining more territory. Since we see that during the Old Republic times (pre-Clones), the Republic didn't even have an army (and local planets such as Naboo did), we can assume that the Republic government only controls a small portion of the galactic economy. The change from Old Republic to Empire probably happened in small steps (we won't know for sure until EP4) and the elimination of the Senate removed the last roadblock to complete Imperial economic control.

Maybe eliminating all those pesky social programs (and drafting the poor into the Army or labor camps) freed up some extra military spending.

I don't see where the two facts are automatically mutually exclusive.

Aaron (the rationalizer)

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How secret was the death star?

How secret was the death star?

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