Sidewinder wrote:Honestly, wouldn't a warship based on the Darksaber, from the EU novel of the same name, be a better choice? Just add shield generators, turbolaser and blaster batteries for medium and short range defense, and several hangers for shuttles, fighters, and bombers. You can probably build two to three Darksabers for the price of one Death Star-- more bang for the buck.
Precisely the idea i had.
For the expensive of a single DS, the Galactic Empire could easily build fleets of
automated Darksaber weapons fitted with ISD scale shields and defensive weapons, and like the World Devastators slaved to Palpatine's commands. Instantly you have an armada of world killers capable of extending the hand of the Empire further than a single massive battleship (like the Death Star) could. Being more numerous, also, if the Rebels manage to destroy one or two or ever a dozen, there would be dozens more waiting. In fact, if they ever found a way to replicate SunCrusher technology, the next step would be outfitting them to be system-killers.
The main folly of the Death Star was that it was a one hit wonder. At that size and capacity only one or two could ever be built. In fact, for the billions of ISDs and SSDs that could be built for ONE Death Star (or so i've been told) it would have been more intelligent to simply build those ships and win through sheer numbers of conventional weapons instead.
The Darksaber, however, was a failiure not because of the concept, but because it was built by the Hutts who cut every corner they could. Had teh Empire built it, surely it would have been done far better.
And as i said in an earlier post, all well within the industrial capacity of the Empire.
Aaaand...ramble...OFF!