Imperial II-class Star Destroyer

"Imperial Two-class. They're trying to hail us now."

- Carklin Ryoon, upon seeing three Imperial II-class Star Destroyers emerge from hyperspace

The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, also known as an Impstar-Deuce, was a Star Destroyer model manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards for use by the Imperial Navy. Part of the Imperial-class line, the class served as successor to the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. Armed with a plethora of weapons, including turbolasers and ion cannons, the 1,600-meter-long capital ship could be used to subjugate a planet or serve as a command ship for other vessels.

Following the death of Emperor Palpatine in 4 ABY, the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Torment was dispatched to Naboo as part of Operation: Cinder, an order from the late Emperor to destroy Imperial planets with satellites. However, the attack was thwarted by the Rebel Alliance and the Torment was destroyed before it could withdraw.

Later in the Contingency, in 5 ABY, three Imperial IIs from an Imperial remnant took part in the Battle of Jakku against the New Republic, although the Star Destroyers fled from the battle. They were later destroyed by the Sovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya's Executor-class Star Dreadnought Liberty's Misrule.

General characteristics
Part of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer line, the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer was a capital ship model built by Kuat Drive Yards for the Imperial Navy to replace the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. Like its predecessor, the Imperial II-class measured 1,600 meters in length, was painted a light shade of gray, was wedge-shaped and had a raised bridge tower. However, it featured a communications tower between its two deflector shield generator domes, whereas standard ships of the Imperial I-class had a tractor beam targeting array in the same location. Imperial II-class Star Destroyers were powered by a solar ionization reactor located on the ventral hull.

Propulsion
Ships of the class were propelled by three KDY destroyer-I ion engines, and they also had four backup Cygnus Spaceworks gemon-4 ion engines. This allowed for speeds of sixty MGLT in realspace and nine-hundred and seventy-five kilometers per hour in an atmosphere. A hyperdrive was also equipped, allowing the ships to travel in hyperspace.

Weapons systems and complement
"The Impstar-Deuce has a complement of seventy-two TIE fighters, princess."

- Shara Bey, to Leia Organa, upon their approach to the Torment

Like all Imperial-class vessels, Imperial II-class Star Destroyers were armed with sixty turbolaser batteries, sixty heavy ion cannon emplacements, and ten tractor beam projectors. The ships carried with them seventy-two TIE/ln space superiority starfighters, at least eight Lambda-class T-4a shuttles, at least twenty All Terrain Armored Transports and thirty All Terrain Scout Transports, the latter two of which were transported to planetary surfaces by at least two Gozanti-class cruisers. All these vessels were stored in the ships' two large hangar bays, which were located side by side in the anterior wall of an indentation in the ventral hull.

9,700 stormtroopers crewed the Star Destroyer, along with various other Imperial Military personnel such as TIE fighter pilots and Imperial officers. MSE-6 series repair droids were also present in the ship's corridors. Two years worth of consumables were kept on the vessels to maintain the crew.

Bridge
"Clear the bridge."

- Captain Lerr Duvat, upon the arrival of the messenger

Organized almost identically to that of the Imperial I-class, the Imperial II-class had a command bridge with a central command walkway and two pits where Imperial officers operated their console stations, which were arranged perpendicular to the central walkway.

Role
An Imperial II-class Star Destroyer was capable of commanding an assault on an entire planet, which could include controlling smaller siege vessels or using its large carrying capacity to deliver a surface assault force. The ship could also form part of a fleet.

Early history
By 5 BBY, Kuat Drive Yards had started manufacturing the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer after the run of the Imperial I class ended with the Devastator, a ship which would go on to become the flagship of Darth Vader, Imperial enforcer and Sith apprentice to Emperor Palpatine. Some Imperial Is, including the Devastator, were upgraded to feature bridges with communication towers, like Imperial IIs.

In or before 0 BBY, at least four Imperial II-class Star Destroyers were amongst roughly twenty ships in an Imperial Navy fleet above the planet Scarif, home of the Death Star battle station.

The Torment attack
"I've got an Imperial-class Star Destroyer at two-two mark six&hellip;''" "&hellip;Looks like a Deuce." "''Well, we knew this wouldn't be easy&hellip;"

- Shara Bey, Leia Organa and Sosha Soruna discuss the Torment

Seventeen days after the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, which had seen the Rebel Alliance defeat the Galactic Empire with the death of Emperor Palpatine, and subsequent retreat of remaining Imperial forces, the Imperial Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Torment was visited by a messenger droid. The droid delivered a posthumous message from the Emperor, ordering the ship's captain, Lerr Duvat, to scour the planet Naboo using weather-altering satellites, as part of the Contingency's Operation: Cinder, an Imperial plan to ensure both the Empire and its enemies would fall following the Emperor's death.

Assisted by Lieutenant Gulin, Duvat immediately set course for Naboo. Upon the Torment arrival at the planet, he deployed the satellites in order to create massive storms across Naboo. However, a group of N-1 starfighters from Naboo, piloted by the rebels Shara Bey, Leia Organa and Sosha Soruna, attacked the satellites. In retaliation, the Star Destroyer's complement of TIE fighters was deployed to engage the attackers.

Just as the three starfighters were about to be destroyed by the TIEs, the Rebel Alliance arrived with the MC80 Star Cruiser Restoration and Danger Squadron, a squadron of X-wing starfighters. Together with the Naboo starfighters, they destroyed the remainder of the satellites and the Torment, despite an attempt by the Star Destroyer to withdraw. Before its destruction, however, the Torment managed to deploy part of its planetary assault force, which briefly attacked Naboo's capital of Theed before being neutralized by an ion pulse from the Theed Royal Palace, and then captured.

Eleodie Maracavanya's find
"These ships are running. Look at the battle damage&mdash;they've taken fire, and recently. And behold those hyperspeed vectors&mdash;they're coming from near to the Unknown. They're coming from Jakku. We do a little cleanup here for the New Republic, then we send them the bill."

- Eleodie Maracavanya explains the plan to destroy the three Imperial II-class Star Destroyers to the Liberty's Misrule crew

In 5 ABY, three Imperial II-class Star Destroyers were part of the last major Imperial remnant, which fought in the Battle of Jakku against the New Republic, the Rebel Alliance's successor state. However, the Star Destroyers fled from Jakku, and after jumping out of hyperspeed in Wild Space, their captains attempted to seek solace with a small fleet of ships led by the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Liberty's Misrule, which they thought was another Imperial remnant.

However, the fleet was actually under the command of pirate Eleodie Maracavanya of the Sovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya. Maracavanya deduced that the ships had come from Jakku, and ordered the destruction of the vessels, much to the surprise of crew member Carklin Ryoon. Maracavanya then elaborated on the decision to the Liberty's Misrule crew, citing that the New Republic could grant the group some legitimacy if they destroyed the vessels, as it was likely they would appreciate the cleanup following their battle. All vessels then opened fire on the three Star Destroyers, with Maracavanya believing they stood no chance of survival.

Notable appearances
The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer debuted in the Star Wars canon in Shattered Empire, Part II, a 2015 comic written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Marco Checchetto, Emilio Laiso and Angel Unzueta. Although the Torment class was not mentioned in the issue, it would later be identified as an Impstar-Deuce in the next issue of the series, Shattered Empire, Part III, which was also written by Rucka. The class' full name was revealed in the 2016 reference book Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, written by Pablo Hidalgo.

The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer was originally created for the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, although it is only confirmed to have appeared in that film in the Star Wars Legends continuity. This is because, in the new canon, it is not known if the class appears in content that features Imperial-class Star Destroyers with communications towers, such as The Empire Strikes Back. The reason for this is that some Imperial I-class Star Destroyers, which normally featured a tractor beam targeting array, were upgraded to have a communications tower. As Imperial II-class Star Destroyers also had communications towers, the two classes could have been indistinguishable.

In Legends, the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer first appeared in the The Empire Strikes Back novelization, written by Donald F. Glut, which was released in the same year as the film itself. However, the ship's class was not revealed until the term ISD II was used by the 1989 supplement The Star Wars Rules Companion, and the term Imperial II Star Destroyer was used by the Imperial Sourcebook, also released in 1989.

Inconsistencies
On the first page of Shattered Empire, Part II, illustrated by Emilio Laiso, the Torment was mistakenly depicted with the targeting array of an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. This was rectified in the last page of the same issue, this time drawn by Marco Checchetto, as well as in its later appearances in Shattered Empire, Part III and Star Wars Battlefront II.