Thermal detonator/Legends

"You may have me outnumbered and outgunned, but if I'm going down, you're coming with me. This thermal detonator will blow all of us to pieces!"

- Calo Nord to Canderous Ordo and his two aides, meters away from them

A thermal detonator was a highly unstable grenade-like weapon popular among criminals, bounty hunters, and mercenaries since at least 4,000 BBY.

Technical information
It was made to be thrown or dropped by a vehicle. It would then stick to any vehicle until it exploded. The style and purpose of thermal detonators varied widely, and despite the legal restrictions of many governments, were in widespread use across the galaxy.

The name was descriptive of the process by which the device explodes. Inside the shell, which was generally made of thermite or axidite, was a sample of baradium, a highly volatile substance. A trigger emitted a short burst of fusion energy that forced the baradium into a state of fusion reaction. The result was an expanding particle field that could atomize any material within the fixed blast radius&mdash;typically five meters, though some had an even greater radius. Uniquely, a thermal detonator's blast would only go as far as its blast radius. After that, the blast field would collapse, and anything even slightly beyond the blast radius would be left unharmed.

Types

 * Merr-Sonn Munitions Class-A thermal detonator, a powerful military model
 * Class-C thermal detonator
 * Merr-Sonn Munitions Class-E thermal detonator, a small radius model
 * Merr-Sonn Munitions V-1 Thermal Detonator, a military model
 * Baradium-core code key thermal detonator
 * Thermal detonator tape, used for breaching sealed doors

The different types of thermal detonators varied in power greatly. Although typically used as a grenade, many were far deadlier. The mayor of Sernpidal used a large one capable of destroying a massive Dovin Basal.

Uses
For use as thrown explosives, thermal detonators used a thumb-operated trigger and a timed detonator to ensure the weapon bearer did not destroy himself. When used as gravity or inertial explosives by starfighters, speeders, or mortar units, thermal detonators used a range sensor to determine the appropriate trigger time.

By the late days of the Galactic Republic, thermal detonators had become very common and more practical than the aging frag grenade and the plasma grenade, despite the fact that the Republic had outlawed them. Ironically, the Republic would use them in its army.

Most thermal detonators had fixed field yields and radii, although some, such as those used by Imperial stormtroopers, featured adjustable settings, typically ranging from 6 to 18 seconds.

Notable users



 * Luke Skywalker: Luke once used a Class A thermal detonator to bargain with Prince Xizor. The Class A was a very powerful version of the weapon with a larger blast radius, easily capable of destroying several floors of a large building. In this way, several grades of thermal detonators exist, differentiated by payload capability.


 * Leia Organa Solo: Shortly before the Battle of Endor, a Class A thermal detonator was used by a disguised Princess Leia Organa to help free Han Solo from his carbonite prison inside Jabba Desilijic Tiure's palace.


 * Jedi: Luke Skywalker and the Jedi used thermal detonators in their assault on the Gorog nest ship during a battle against the Killiks in the Utegetu Nebula.


 * Aurra Sing: Aurra Sing, under the alias Nashtah, attempted to use a Class-C thermal detenator to assassinate Allana. Jacen Solo foiled the bounty hunter's plan by sliding back the safety catch of the detonator.


 * Calo Nord, the infamous bounty hunter some four thousand years before the Battle of Yavin always had a couple of thermal detonators attached to his belt. On one occassion, after a rather short fight against Canderous Ordo and Revan, Calo Nord was apparently subdued. Although the duo could not deliver a final fatal blow as the bounty hunter was holding a thermal detonator, which could have killed all three of them should it fall to the ground.

Behind the scenes

 * In most computer games, the thermal detonator's blast radius and efficiency was pulled down due to game mechanisms. In the Dark Forces series of games, thermal detonators were used and potrayed as ordinary grenades, used extensively by the player's character and his enemies, despite its extraordinary price of 3,000 credits and value in other canonical sources. The only game in which thermal detonators are represented as truly rare and destructive weapons is the game adaptation of The Phantom Menace. In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, thermal detonators are still used as anti-personnel grenades, but they are far more powerful than other grenades. In Movie Battles II&mdash;a modification for Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy&mdash;the thermal detonator's power is increased. It is thus able to destroy all objects and individuals inside the radius instantly, while leaving objects even slightly out of the radius unharmed.

Notes and references
Imperialer Thermaldetonator