User:Cavalier One/Drawing Board

This is my page to work on a rewrite and expansion of the FarStar article. This is a work in progress. Please do not edit it without permission. Any comments, queries, ideas or suggestions are welcome! - Cavalier One 12:19, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

FarStar

The FarStar was the Corellian corvette that the New Republic used in their hunt for Moff Kentor Sarne. During its operational lifetime, it served the Chandrilan government and the Galactic Empire before entering service with the New Republic. For several weeks, the FarStar and its crew tracked Sarne across the Kathol Sector until facing his forces in the Battle of Kathol.

Freedom's Messenger
The FarStar was commissioned circa 52 BBY as a diplomatic vessel by the Chandrilan government. Constructed at the Corellian Engineering Corporation shipyards, it was originally named the Freedom's Messenger. The Freedom's Messenger was a luxurious vessel with palatial decorations and catered to every need of its passengers. Servant droids were regularly cleaned and maintained, live professional entertainment was provided every night, and Human attendants served each and every delegation.

The Freedom's Messenger became a symbol of peace for the Galactic Republic. The treaty inducting the Marzoon Confederation into the Republic was signed onboard the ship, and delievered a dozen Jedi to quell the Vaykaaris Uprising.

Darker times forced the Freedom's Messenger to change roles. The corvette was extensively refitted for military service. Diplomatic suites were replaced by weapons mounts and storage bays. Recreation halls became barracks and droid bays housed weapon repair stations and recharge points. The Freedom's Messenger served the Republic admirably as a warship, and its hull bore the scars to prove it.

The Freedom's Messenger led a fleet of ships during the Battle of Ord Torrenze. The planet was blockaded by enemy warships, and an orbital bombardment rained down on the surface. Millions tried to escape, but the escape route was blocked, and thousands of evacuation ships were helpless before the tubolasers of enemy ships. The Freedom's Messenger led its fleet into battle, driving straight for the enemy with all turbolasers blazing. The assault caused enough confusion for the evacuation ships to escape the planet. During the battle, the Freedom's Messenger suffered a power core overload near the end. With its crew dying of radiation poisoning, the Freedom's Messenger fell out of orbit and crashed into the planet below. It was remembered as a proud ship that had saved millions of lives.

Renegade
Years after the Battle of Ord Torrenze, during the Empire's military build-up, the wreck of the Freedom's Messenger was recovered from its resting place. Renamed the Renegade and refitted for combat duty, it was assigned to the 15th Deep Core Reserve Fleet under the command of Kentor Sarne. The ship distinguished itself in a half dozen campaigns against pirates, and hit-and-run attacks against Rebel Alliance supply depots.

The Renegade continued to serve in the 15th Deep Core Reserve Fleet until 2 BBY until it was transferred to the Kathol Sector fleet at the request of Moff Sarne. It played a prominent role in the subjugation of Charis, and enforced Sarne's will across the sector. After the death of Emperor Palpatine, the Renegade was used to terrorize and intimidate the population of the sector.

In 7 ABY, the Renegade was transferred out of active service and sent to Sarne's private dockyard in the Sorbiss Valley on Kal'Shebbol. It underwent an extensive refit, intended for use as a long-range exploration vessel to retrieve DarkStryder technology from across the sector. The ship was almost completed when the New Republic liberated Kal'Shebbol. Sarne was forced to retreat from the planet, and left the ship behind.

FarStar
The New Republic discovered the location of the ship in the wake of the liberation of Kal'Shebbol due to former Imperial officer Jessa Dajus. Lieutenant Judder Page authorized a mission to hunt Sarne down, but due to lack of New Republic resources, was forced to use the modified corvette. Renamed as the FarStar, the ship was captained by Keleman Ciro, and crewed with a mixture of New Republic personnel, and civilians and fringers from Kal'Shebbol. The new crew had barely twenty-eight hours to ready the ship, and converted much of the interior space into storage bays for the long-range assignment. Days after launching from Kal'Shebbol, the ship fought the Imperial escort carrier Kathol Protector in the Battle of Kolatill. During the engagement, Captain Ciro was captured by the Empire, and First Officer Kaiya Adrimetrum assumed command of the ship.

Modifications
The FarStar underwent several modifications during its lifetime. From diplomatic vessel to warship, from symbol of peace to weapon of terror. The biggest changes to the ship were instigated by Moff Sarne during the refitting of the ship at the Sorbiss Valley dockyards.

Armor
The armor of the FarStar was increased, making it tougher and having a better chance of surviving an assault. The armor was increased by at least two meters throughout the ship.

Communications
Sarne outfitted the FarStar with a high-powered subspace transceiver, boosted for a broadcast range of nearly one hundred light-years. The unit was installed to allow the crew of the ship to send regular updates to the Moff. A similiar transceiver was located on Kal'Shebbol to allow Sarne to monitor the ship without linking to military and civilian networks.

Landing bay and docking tubes
During Sarne's refit, he decided he wanted the corvette to have an internal flight deck to carry shuttles and TIE Interceptors. By the time of the liberation of Kal'Shebbol, the main deck, airlock and magnetic field generators had been installed. However, Imperial engineers had not fitted the necessary racks to hold the TIE Interceptors. Below the flight deck was the maintenance bay that would be used to service ground vehicles and starfighters.

A main airlock large enough to transfer ground vehicles and large cargoes was situated on the starboard side of the ship, and three docking tubes allowed freighters and small ships to dock with the FarStar. The engineers adjusted the corvette's hyperspace signature in the engines to accommodate the new configuration.

Sensors
Sarne's technicians outfitted the corvette with an enhanced tracking suite which effectively doubled the range of the ship's sensors. The FarStar could detect ships at longer ranges and learn about them before they were aware of the existance of the ship. The downside to the system was that it took up more space and drew more power than a regular suite.

Weapons
The turbolasers on the FarStar were upgraded with a new "predict and pinpoint" system to assist the gunners. However, the FarStar's gunners disliked the new system, and had trouble adjusting to the new routine. The technicians insisted that the system would improve the hit-to-miss ratio, but the gunners wanted the standard targeting system reinstated.

Operating conditions under New Republic control
Forced to launch on short notice on a mission of undetermined length, the FarStar was forced to operate below the normal operating conditions expected of a New Republic ship.

Droid complement
To assist in the operation of the FarStar, the ship had over one hundred droids assigned to it.

Duty shifts
The crew of the FarStar operated in two shifts of twelve hours. Each crew member had a twelve hour "on duty" post, and, theoretically, twelve hours off for sleep, recreation, and personal time. Most "on duty" posts were full-time positions, while others were part-time posts where crew members split their time between one or more duties. Part-time posts were generally maintenance or checking performance levels. In addition to these posts, several "alert" posts were only manned during emergency situations, such as when the ship was reverting from hyperspace, entering orbit of a new world, or about to engage the enemy.

Despite the oversized crew, the FarStar still had duties that had to be performed, but could not be handled during regular duty shifts or by droids. To combat this, Captain Ciro created "off-duty" posts that were manned during a crew member's "off-duty" time. Arranged in four hour shifts, they were generally menial tasks and rotated equally among the crew. Because of this, crew members continually faced sixteen hour shifts, or a twelve hour shift, four off-duty hours followed by a four hour off-duty post, then another four hours off-duty.

Engineering
Much of the FarStar's internal circuitry was jury-rigged and hardware underwent custom modification to fit. A lot of the refit had to be done by the New Republic and civilian technicians, and given the twenty-eight hour launch window, the results were far from pretty. Cables, pipes and conduits criss-crossed the corridors, and the FarStar engineers continued to string wire and conduit wherever it was convienent. Everything was located in easy to access places so the technicians could get at them in an emergency.

Oversized crew
The uncertain nature of the FarStar's mission called for a large crew, which included extra engineers and technicians, as well as scientists, computer specialists, pilots, and ground troops. The crew numbered around one hundred and twenty beings. With only thirty standard crew rooms, many crew members were forced to share bunkspace, a process known as "hot-bunking". Some crew, unable to adjust to this arrangement, decided to sleep on mats on the floor.

Power conservation
Due to the need to conserve resources, many of the FarStar's systems were operated at reduced capacity. Storage bays and non-vital areas were sealed off, and crew quarters were at half-lighting, and corridor lighting was reduced to utilizing every other glowpanel. Heating ducts across the ship were closed off to conserve power; the droid repair bays, service bays, and food storage bins were cold enough cause crew members to see their own breath when they breathed.

Storage
Many living quarters were hastily converted to storage areas to carry the vast supplies required by the FarStar. Any suitable open area was used to stack crates. The majority of stored components were technical items, such as computer components, spare parts for the support vehicles and vessels, engine parts and weapons. Food rations were also carried, but since the FarStar could reasonably expect to replenish their food and water stores, they were given lesser priority. High technology, on the other hand, was almost impossible to replace once the ship passed out of civilized space. The supplies were organized and regulated by a dedicated quartermaster droid.

The FarStar also had several cold storage bays for the preservation of meat and liquids, and several fresh water tanks. Each fresh water tank had several baffles to reduce water motion during spaceflight. Standard procedure when landing on a planet was flushing out the water tanks and refilling them with a fresh supply to ensure water didn't go stale.

Starfighter complement
The FarStar carried twelve starfighters, the equivalent of a full squadron. Two different types were used; eight Incom Corporation T-65B X-wings, and four Republic Engineering Corporation Defenders. The unit was commanded by Lieutenant Ranna Gorjaye. Six pilots were on duty during each twelve hour shift. Two pilots were on patrol duty - either in space, or in the hangar with their fighters. The other four pilots were in the ready room. Patrols usually consisted of a two ship element of either X-wings or Defenders. Different ships were rarely mixed for patrol duty.

Shuttles and transports
The FarStar carried two support ships to assist in its mission. The New Republic supplied a Telgorn Corporation Aegis-class combat shuttle, and mechanic Brophar Tofarain supplied his own ship, the Muvon for use during the mission. The Muvon would later be stolen by the treacherous Secutiry Officer, Gorak Khzam, and a replacement ship, a battered YT-1300 freighter was recoved from the Q'Maere Research Facility. Tofarain restored it and named it the Muvon II.

Ground vehicles
The FarStar carried several ground vehicles for reconnaissance duties and ground missions. They were usually transported to the surface using the Aegis shuttle, or deployed from the FarStar via the ship's vehicle ramp. The corvette carried six Mobquet Overracer speeder bikes, modified with sound dampeners, sensor bafflers and a light laser cannon. They were primarily used for recon and perimeter patrol of temporary bases. Two Aratech SRV-1s were used by the crew as troop transports and cargo haulers during ground missions. Finally, four ULAVs were used for limited combat missions and fire support.

Sarne's secrets
Since Sarne never intended to command the ship himself, he had several "back-doors" incorporated into the ship's systems as security measures to ensure he had control over the ship at all times.

Droid programming override
A small routine was written into the astromech droid interface that was capable of rewriting a droid's basic programming. R2 and R3-series droids were the most likely affected units, and they were capable of acts of sabotage.

Communications "deeplink"
Sarne knew that the delicate nature of the ship's mission would be tempting for any ship commander, and knew better than to trust any commanding officer. Consequently, Sarne added a program to the communications system to broadcast the ships' location during each and every downshift. At a random time between 2200 and 0330 hundred hours, it sent a blip of data to Sarne informing him of the ship's location and heading, allowing the Moff to track the FarStar throughout the Kathol Sector.

Computer system
The FarStar's computer system was bugged with several programs designed to cause minor and major problems to the crew of the ship. The malfunctions ranged from simply turning off lighting in certain areas, to initiating a power surge in the hyperdrive engines, rendering them useless. Fearing that the ship might be used against him by a treacherous Imperial commander, he had them installed to enforce control over the vessel. The programs were designed to activate if the ship didn't receive a command code from Sarne every ten days. With the ship in New Republic hands, Sarne failed to send the code at the correct time, and the programs became active during the hunt for the Moff.

Command crew

 * Captain Keleman Ciro
 * First Officer Kaiya Adrimetrum
 * Security Officer Gorak Khzam
 * Lieutenant Darryn Thyte
 * Lieutenant Jessa Dajus
 * Loh'khar the Finder
 * Lieutenant Ranna "Wing-Ripper" Gorjaye
 * Kl'aal
 * Doctor Akanseh
 * Sergeant Brophar Tofarain
 * Sergeant Lofryyhn

Support crew

 * Dasha Defano
 * Cobb Unser
 * Noell Ciro
 * Krudar
 * Boom
 * Rizzal
 * Vizzal
 * Nizzal
 * Brandis Turgah
 * T'achak T'andar
 * Gunthar
 * Tanner Carzyn
 * Qesya Vth'naar
 * Edly "Pot-Shot" Fasalk
 * Scoryn
 * "Gammer" Firdaaz
 * Unda Lagor
 * Genna Seedar
 * Vegath Tist
 * Dann Drugah
 * Thanis Gul-Rah

Droids

 * One Bossikan/Rendili R-97 Quartermaster droid
 * R-97
 * One Ubrikkian DD-19 Overseer droid
 * DD-19
 * Four Drendan Load-Lifters
 * Six Rim Securities K4 security droids
 * Three Industrial Automaton 2-1B Surgical Droid
 * Ten Industrial Automaton R2 astromech droids
 * Forty Industrial Automaton R3 astromech droids
 * R3-K8
 * Ten Industrial Automaton SE4 servant droids
 * SE-4-17
 * SE-4-TQ5
 * Six Arakyd Viper probe droid
 * Twelve Veril Line Systems EG-6 power droids
 * Seven Cybot Galactica WED-15 Treadwell droids
 * Three Roche J9 worker drones
 * J9-B4
 * J9-R1
 * J9-K6-24

Behind the scenes

 * As the Freedom's Messenger, the ship underwent an extensive refit to upgrade it to a military status. This may have been in line with the CR90 upgrade that the Tantive IV received.  Although not explicitly stated, the "darker times" that caused the ship to be refitted into a military vessel was probably the Clone Wars.
 * Far Star is the name of two ships in the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov.
 * FarStar is also the name of a server - or "Galaxy" - in Star Wars Galaxies.