Darksaber (superweapon)



The Darksaber was a superweapon built by the Hutts, primarily Lord Durga Besadii Tai, during the New Republic era. Durga dreamed of constructing a weapon powerful enough to allow him, and through him, the Hutts, to rule the Galaxy.

Design
The Darksaber was essentially a cylindrical spaceframe built around a superlaser similar to the one mounted on the Death Stars. Based on a set of blueprints that Durga stole from the former Imperial Palace on Coruscant, the new design dispensed with the hangar facilities, living quarters, turbolaser emplacements, and other features which had occupied the spherical portion of the Death Stars. Durga was only interested in the main weapon, although the cylindrical body still had space to house several hundred Hutts.

Viewing a hologram of the finished weapon with the superlaser firing, General Sulamar remarked that it looked like a Jedi lightsaber. The weapon's name was conceived as a pun.

Construction


Durga recruited Bevel Lemelisk, one of the Death Star's designers, to design and oversee the construction of the Darksaber. He had previously also designed the Tarkin, another stripped-down variant of the Death Star. It was constructed in secret in the Hoth asteroid field. Lemelisk also designed and built a set of Mineral Exploiters to harvest minerals from the asteroids and convert them to construction supplies.

The construction was carried out by the Taurill, a hive-minded race.

Flaws
The Darksaber was an ambitious project, but doomed to failure from the start. The Taurill were clever and hard-working, but often distracted, and each member was unable to see beyond the particular part they were working on. This resulted in shoddy construction, with parts of the weapon being built in the wrong place, or the wrong way, or left out altogether. Even worse, the weapon was controlled by a set of old, outmoded computer cores located by General Sulamar.

Lemelisk chose to abandon ship before the Darksaber embarked on its maiden voyage, reflecting that Durga's mistake had been trying to build a superweapon at minimum cost.

Destruction
When the New Republic learned of the Darksaber's location, a small commando team lead by General Crix Madine was able to infiltrate the weapon's interior, though Madine would be captured and executed by Durga himself. When a New Republic task force arrived, the Darksaber was chased into the Hoth asteroid field. Even without a test-firing, Durga was completely confident that the weapon would function as planned.

Drawing close to a pair of moon-sized asteroids, Durga gave the order to fire. Predictably, the superlaser malfunctioned and died with a fizzle. The Darksaber was crushed between the two asteroids, ending the lives of Durga, Sulamar, and those few others on board.

Lemelisk was the only survivor, and was captured shortly afterwards.

Despite the Darksaber's destruction, rumors later spread that Booster Terrik had bought the superweapon from the Hutts and installed it on his Star Destroyer Errant Venture.

Appearances

 * Darksaber