Coruscant Defense

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2005-03-28 11:40pm

I'm watching Chapter 23 of the Clone Wars cartoon and something just struck me. Coruscant is supposed to have a double layer of planetary shields in panel formation. It seems apparent that in the PT from this alone that there are no such defenses. Was this installed during the Empire's time prior to SotE, where it's mentioned having to go through such devices?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-03-28 11:46pm

Actualy in SOTE no shields were mentioned. Courscant was surounded by Star Destroyers and Frigates, but not shield. Not to mention when they ran like hell away from Courscant, they just burned for orbit, no shield issues.

Its more then likely Courscant didn't get a shield until after the Emperors Death. Before then it was probably a statement of ego and power, they didn't even NEED a shield, no-one could attack them. Aftewards, with the Empire tearing itself appart, they took more 'active' measures.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-03-28 11:48pm

The shields were present according to LoE. They weren't raised in time, IIRC. And besides, the whole battle is a setup by Sidious and Tyranus in the first place.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2005-03-28 11:54pm

The shield was probably open wide in SOTE due to all the military traffic moving in-out. Same thing in DE with Byss.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2005-03-28 11:55pm

Well I figured as much with Sidious talking about it in the cartoons, but it seeme odd not to be mentioned, and the Seperatists just unloading thier ground forces in such a manner that Yoda lifted the shades and the sky was literally flowing with them. I'm assuming LoE is one of the newer CW books. I haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet. Didn't know if they'd be the quality Shatterpoint was.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-03-29 12:11am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:The shield was probably open wide in SOTE due to all the military traffic moving in-out. Same thing in DE with Byss.

In SOTE there was no major military traffic moving. Further in the X-Wing series, the shields were up 24 hours a day, probably because the sectional twin layer system let traffic keep moving while they were up.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-03-29 01:19am

Vympel wrote:The shields were present according to LoE. They weren't raised in time, IIRC. And besides, the whole battle is a setup by Sidious and Tyranus in the first place.

Good point. The Chancellor himself arranged the battle, he could have the shields down for maintenence or something.

Another possibility- there hadn't been a war in thousands of years, right? Perhaps Coruscant didn't have a shield until after the Clone Wars.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2005-03-29 01:42am

It would be fucking stupid not to have a sheild even if there was no military need.

What if a meteor comes barreling in?

What if theres an accident and a huge ships reactor explodes?

What if some guy goes psyco and decides to ram his freighter into corruscant at a high fraction of C ?

Hmmm?

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-03-29 02:43am

If someone went nuts and tried to ram his freighter in, or a meteor were coming, i suspect ships would be deployed to shoot them down. Their warships can melt planet surfaces so unless the meteor is a MOON it wont stand up too long and a tiny ship would just splash against their ship's shields probably. As for a reactor explosion, i dont think SW reactors go up like that, their ships appear far more stable.

Just my observation, but with proper defenses a planetary shield isnt nessesary for survival. In fact with a large enough defense fleet it could be a moot point.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2005-03-29 03:54am

Well i am inclined to agree with the meteor point.

As for the ship, i kind of meant 1km long starfreighters, a billion ton mass going at 99% of C is going to do lotsa dammage, anyone wanna calculate the yeild?

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-03-29 05:04am

I'm sure, if it came to it, and a ship really was endangering Coruscant millions of ground based guns would spring to life. I'm certain it's defenses are exceedingly heavy, there probably is simply no need for a shield as almost anything can be blasted out of space with a sufficiently large defense force and heavy guns on the ground.

Plus i dont think big ships have been shown to go that fast anywhere. Fighters maybe, i think in the New Jedi Order books.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-03-29 05:06am

Capital ships do go that fast when they impact immediately after exiting Hyperspace.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-03-29 07:54am

Well LoE there's third shield layer in "surface" of the buildings themselves (probaly due to massive civilian traffic going on in Corusant on daily basis there would "low" level force field protecting the building from accidents).

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-03-29 12:35pm

18-Till-I-Die wrote:If someone went nuts and tried to ram his freighter in, or a meteor were coming, i suspect ships would be deployed to shoot them down. Their warships can melt planet surfaces so unless the meteor is a MOON it wont stand up too long and a tiny ship would just splash against their ship's shields probably. As for a reactor explosion, i dont think SW reactors go up like that, their ships appear far more stable.

Just my observation, but with proper defenses a planetary shield isnt nessesary for survival. In fact with a large enough defense fleet it could be a moot point.

A few points-
1) The planet is so covered in cities built on top of the ruin of cities on top of cities, according to the EU, that the planet's crush is still KILOMETERS below durasteel and ferrocrete, and the buildings start on top of that. Essentially, the whole planet is *armored*.
2) Good sensors should detect an incoming asteroid from halfway across the system