User:Toprawa and Ralltiir/Zev Senesca

Description
"I&mdash;it looks like a battle cruiser, sir&hellip;the largest one I've ever seen!&hellip;" "&hellip;The biggest thing this side of the Death Star, Threepio&hellip;"

- C-3PO and Luke Skywalker, upon first sighting the Executor

The Executor was the first of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought line. Measuring a colossal 19,000 meters in length, the Super Star Destroyer marked a crowning achievement in starship engineering for both the Imperial Navy and Kuat Drive Yards, the warship's developer. Nearly twelve times as long as the 1,600-meter-long Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, the Executor represented the largest traditional starship ever constructed by the Imperial Navy at the time of its completion&mdash;only the first Death Star and select Torpedo Spheres were larger.



Following the same recognizable dagger-shaped design of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the Executor ' s superstructure resembled an arrowhead from above. A smooth titanium reinforced alusteel hull surrounded a massive island of habitable volume in the center of the Star Dreadnought. In the blackness of space, the Executor's interior lighting enshrouded the warship in a cerulean glow, though the Executor ' s exterior was in fact a grayish hue, darker than the traditional "Star Destroyer White" typical of the Imperial-class line.

Rising above the dorsal technoscape of the Executor, supported by a thick axis, stood the 285-meter-wide trapezoidal command tower&mdash;a veritable ship unto itself. In a true testament of the Kuat Drive Yards' design philosophy of "terror styling," the command tower was deliberately positioned in prominent view of any vessel bold enough to dare an attack. The command tower housed several key components of the Star Dreadnought, including the dual geodesic deflector shield generator and communications sensor globes, officers' quarters, briefing rooms, escape pods for the Executor ' s upper-echelon commanders, and, most importantly, the bridge.

In accordance with the Executor ' s standard command tower module found on many KDY-constructed warship classes, the bridge design mirrored that of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. A gleaming command walkway, separating twin crewman pits, led to a series of two-meter-tall transparisteel viewports that offered an unobstructed view of space beyond. Although the command tower stood arrogantly exposed above the Executor ' s superstructure, the ship's shielding system, which matched the power output of a medium star, kept it sufficiently protected from attack, making such Imperial opulence a possibility.

The underside of the Executor contained the engineering sections and the primary landing bay, located near the bow of the ship. Thirteen immensely powerful, blood red-glowing KDY Executor-50.x sublight drive engine thrusters propelled the warship forward at a maximum speed of forty megalights. The Executor was outfitted with a class 2.0 hyperdrive engine for hyperspace travel.

Aside from the Star Dreadnought's unprecedented size, the Executor ' s awesome offensive capabilities set it apart from other warships. Bristling with more than 5,000 turbolaser batteries and ion cannons, 250 heavy turbolaser batteries, 250 heavy concussion missile batteries, and forty Q7 tractor beam projectors along its city-like surface, the Executor was capable of reducing any planetary surface to slag. The warship's mere presence in an engagement alone was enough to frighten an enemy force into submission.



While the incredible mass of the Executor proved an advantage in terms of its firepower and the power of its defensive shields, it likewise proved a disadvantage in keeping the warship supplied&mdash;the Executor could hold far more resources than the Empire normally had available to provide. More than 100 times as massive as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the Executor nevertheless boasted quite a formidable complement of support vessels and instruments of ground warfare. Standard practice set the Executor with two wings of varying TIE series starfighters, for a total of 144 ships, the fighter equivalent of two Imperial-class Star Destroyers, 200 miscellaneous combat and support ships, as well as three prefabricated garrison bases, a full corps of stormtroopers, 38,000 ground troops, and hundreds of assault walkers for planetary warfare. In theory, the Executor could hold far more ships and troops, though such resources were never available.

As the premiere flagship of the entire Imperial Navy, the Executor was staffed with officers of wealth and prestige. The Star Dreadnought functioned with a crew of 279,144, far less than might be expected for a ship of its size. A gunnery crew of 1,590 rounded out the onboard personnel.

Darth Vader had the Executor specially equipped with a spherical hyperbaric meditation chamber for his personal use. Inside the chamber, which opened by splitting in two, like the gaping maw of some beast, a high-pressure gas mix allowed Vader to rest free of his breathing mask so that his scarred head and face could feel fresh air. The chamber aided his badly damaged lungs in the absorption of oxygen. While within the chamber, a series of high-bandwidth communications consoles and a viewing screen allowed Vader to communicate directly with his commanders on the Executor ' s bridge. Just beyond the chamber rested a holographic communications projection pad with which Vader could immediately communicate with the Emperor directly from throughout the galaxy.

Like all Imperial-class and Super-class Star Destroyers, the Executor was constructed with a special throne room set aside for exclusive use by the Emperor. From this throne room, the Emperor could take control of the Empire in whole and contemplate the dark side of the Force.

History
"Vader's on that ship."

- Luke Skywalker

Design origins
The Executor ' s origins could be traced back to the final days of the Clone Wars. Starship engineer Lira Wessex, daughter of famed Galactic Republic engineer Walex Blissex, designed the Imperator-class Star Destroyer, a massive 1,600-meter-long warship with an intimidation factor as great as its firepower, which saw limited use in Republic task forces. Following the Republic's transition into the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, the Imperator, since renamed the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, became the iconic staple of the Imperial Navy&mdash;a terrifying symbol of the Emperor's might. Recognizing the immense size of the Star Destroyer was largely responsible for its ability to intimidate, Wessex began to design a new warship that would dwarf even the enormous Imperial Star Destroyer.

Wessex's improved design resulted in the conceptualized Executor-class Star Dreadnought. At an unprecedented 19,000 meters long, the new starship class was designed to be a terror weapon like the galaxy had never seen. The finished product, the first of a new generation of Super Star Destroyers, would serve as the personal flagship of the Lord Darth Vader.

Manufacturing contract
Although Kuat Drive Yards served as the primary manufacturer of the Empire's Star Destroyers, the Executor ' s manufacturing contract was unexpectedly granted to the Starship Yards of Fondor. The Empire demanded total secrecy for the Executor project, closing off the Fondor system to all nonmilitary traffic. No longer able to meet the needs of their most valuable civilian clients, the Fondor executives were enraged. Still, the massive project took up virtually all of Fondor's resources, and they knew better than to test Vader's anger. They also reasoned that if they met the Empire's expectations, they might very well be able to steal future lucrative military contracts from their Kuat competitors.

In reality, the Empire awarding the Executor contract to Fondor opened up the KDY shipyards for a new project. Having lost the Executor job, Kuat executives made sure that all future Super-class Star Destroyers would bear their logo. In fact, Kuat would be simultaneously constructing a duplicate Star Dreadnought for the Empire along with Fondor. The Empire provisionally named both ships "Executor" to make it seem as if only one ship was being constructed. By attributing all expenses of the sister ship to the true Executor, the Empire kept the existence of the second Super Star Destroyer a secret from the galaxy at large. Under this ruse, both Kuat and Fondor publicly laid claim to having produced the Executor, Darth Vader's flagship.

Starkiller's base of operations
"The historical records will claim that the Rebel Alliance was born on Corellia. That is a documented fact. But the truth is this: The Rebel Alliance was born somewhere in the Scarl system aboard Darth Vader's personal starship, the Executor."

- PROXY's historical analysis

By 3 BBY, construction on the Executor had proceeded such that the ship's superstructure was largely completed, the traditional dagger-shaped hull of a Star Destroyer recognizable. The command tower had been erected almost in full, with the two shield/sensor globes intact, and the engines were operational. Substantial sections of the hull, including the defined voluminous center, nevertheless remained incomplete, leaving portions of the Executor ' s interior exposed.

During this time, Vader utilized his uncompleted Super Star Destroyer as a training ground and home for a secret dark side apprentice&mdash;Galen Marek, who, unknowing of his true name or identity, operated only under the codename "Starkiller." Vader took great steps to keep the existence of the apprentice hidden from the Emperor, as his taking of an underling was paramount to the betrayal of his own master. Aboard the Executor, Vader frequently sparred with the apprentice, training him in lightsaber combat and other telekinetic measures of the Force. The Dark Lord also provided his apprentice with a holodroid named PROXY. Programmed with a variety of highly efficient lightsaber duel programs, the droid was similarly capable of engaging the apprentice in what effectively served as combat training, although PROXY, by definition of Vader's programming, truly intended to kill the apprentice each time. Vader planned to eventually overthrow the Emperor and succeed him as ruler of the galaxy with the apprentice at his side.

While living aboard the uncompleted Executor, Vader and his apprentice occupied a concealed level in the underside of the Super Star Destroyer that had long since been removed from the original floor plans, and would go unnoticed by the future crew. The level, while sparse, consisted of an inner sanctum for Vader, a meditation chamber, a droid workshop, sleeping quarters large enough for one, and a hangar deck. Vader's inner sanctum was lined with a wide angular viewport.

At some point by 2.5 BBY, Vader had moved the Executor and his apprentice to the secluded Scarl system, away from the Emperor's spies, who perpetually monitored the Dark Lord's every move. While in the Scarl system, a multitude of construction droids continued work on the incomplete Executor. Free from the Emperor's far-reaching grasp, Vader dispatched the apprentice on a series of missions designed to test his meddle in preparation for deposing the Emperor. To aid the apprentice, Vader secretly assigned the female Imperial pilot Juno Eclipse to the Executor to captain the Rogue Shadow, the apprentice's starship, under the stipulation that anyone learning of her assignment would mean her death. Eclipse had personal quarters on the forty-first deck of the Executor.

After the apprentice succeeded in his appointed mission, killing three fugitive Jedi, thus proving his readiness, Vader ordered him to return to the Executor, where together they would finalize their plan to take control of the galaxy. Upon the apprentice's return to the Scarl system, however, Vader discovered that the Emperor's spies had followed him to the Executor ' s hidden location&mdash;the Emperor's personal fleet of three Imperial-class Star Destroyers and a dozen smaller vessels exited hyperspace and surrounded the Executor. Aboard the Super Star Destroyer, the apprentice believed the time had come to strike against the Emperor, but Vader instead impaled the apprentice with his lightsaber, his plan to move against the Emperor a failure. Having learned of Vader's treachery of taking on an apprentice of his own, the Emperor, watching on via hologram, ordered the Dark Lord to kill the apprentice or be killed himself. Vader obeyed by telekinetically throwing the apprentice through one of the Executor ' s transparisteel viewports, out into space.

Vader in fact rescued the apprentice from certain death soon thereafter, treating his grievous injuries over a period of six months, and once more setting him loose upon the galaxy under the guise that he was to organize an armed rebellion against the Empire. With the Emperor distracted with an alliance of rebel dissidents, the apprentice believed, Vader and he would finally strike. In reality, Vader and the Emperor manipulated the apprentice into bringing together the Emperor's greatest political adversaries in one location where they could be eliminated in one fell swoop. On the planet Corellia in 2 BBY, the apprentice joined with Imperial Senator Bail Organa and former senators Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis to discuss the formation of an official rebellion against the Empire. The Executor interrupted the clandestine meeting, however. With the Super Star Destroyer looming in the upper atmosphere alongside several Imperial-class Star Destroyers, Vader and a squad of stormtroopers seized the three senatorial conspirators, revealing to the apprentice that he had been used all along.

Vader took the three imprisoned senators to the Horuz system, the construction site of the incomplete first Death Star, where the Emperor could execute his enemies personally. In a final confrontation with Vader and the Emperor, the apprentice died but liberated his his allies nevertheless, freeing them to continue their rebellion. Having become the impetus of the first significant armed resistance movement against Imperial forces in the galaxy by way of the Emperor's machinations, in a sense the apprentice's efforts staged from the Executor marked the advent of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Appearances

 * Scoundrel's Luck
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back