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 designer. 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, which accommodated the command, control, operation, and habitat decks. 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 Executor ' s shielding system was among the most powerful ever conceived for a warship.

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 thruster exhaust bells created an energy wash so powerful that an unshielded ship traveling too close to the Executor ' s wake would be instantly destroyed by the radiation. 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 in a matter of hours. 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, including gunships and armed shuttles used to transport senior officers and dignitaries, 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.

A cavernous cargo storage area allowed for another 250,000 metric tons of material in addition to the Executor ' s military complement. Six years' worth of consumables kept the Executor ' s crew members well supplied.

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 supermedicated high-pressure gas mix allowed Vader to safely rest free of his breathing mask, aiding his badly damaged lungs in the absorption of oxygen, so that his scarred head and face could feel fresh air. 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 HoloNet transceiver projection pod 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 Super Star Destroyer. At an unprecedented 19,000 meters long, the new starship class was designed to be a terror weapon like the galaxy had never seen. With construction authorized by the Emperor, the finished product, the first of a new generation of Super Star Destroyers, would serve as the personal flagship of the Lord Darth Vader.

However, the term "Super Star Destroyer" was by no means an official label. The Imperial Navy initially listed the vessel as a "Super-class Star Destroyer" in budget requests to mask the true destructive nature of the warship from the Imperial Senate. The Imperial Navy even went so far as to incorrectly report the size of the new ship to keep oversight committees from discovering its purpose. Such measures would create naming confusion in attempts at officially classifying the Executor in the future.

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 Super Star Destroyer 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 behind 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.

Imperial admirals' plot to sabotage the Executor project
"Lord Vader advances himself at the expense of me and my fellow officers!&hellip;If Darth Vader's project succeeds, my fellow officers and I lose prestige and power. Rather than see that happen, we've paved the way for your Rebel Alliance to intercede."

- Admiral Amise Griff

By 0 ABY, the Executor reached the final stages of construction under the utmost levels of security at the Starship Yards of Fondor. A fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers patrolled Fondor, ordered to destroy any unauthorized civilian craft attempting to gain access to the shipyards. The sheer number of bulk freighters delivering materials to the shipyards as a result of the Executor project prompted Fondor to add additional shipping lanes not indicated on standard star charts to accommodate the heavy construction traffic. Admiral Amise Griff supervised overall construction.



Following the sudden emergence of the Rebellion in the wake of the Battle of Yavin, work slowdowns and sabotage reached critical levels at Fondor's shipyards. Fearing punishment from the Emperor if the Executor was not completed according to schedule, the Fondor system's governor loosened security restrictions on the shipyard's workers and extended more generous benefit packages to non-Human laborers. Although the governor's measures quelled the unrest, the lighter security only left the Executor project vulnerable to external saboteurs &mdash;namely, a group of five traitorous Imperial admirals.

After Vader's return to Coruscant following the Imperial disaster at Yavin, the Emperor ordered him to Fondor to personally oversee the final stages of construction of the Executor. Before reaching Fondor, Vader rendezvoused with the group of Imperial admirals, including Amise Griff, to dictate his decided war policy against the Rebellion. Vader planned to use the Executor to single-handedly destroy the Alliance, thus taking absolute control of the Imperial war effort, much to the admirals' disgust, who viewed the Executor ' s construction as little more than grandstanding. They loathed the favor he courted from the Emperor and feared that with the completion of the Executor they would suffer a great loss of power and prestige. Whereas the Death Star had previously eclipsed the Imperial Navy as the Emperor's preferred weapon of terror, the battlestation's destruction at Yavin returned the admirals to their original position of prominence. The Executor, however, threatened to once again steal that dominance away and place it solely in Vader's command.

During the meeting, Vader telekinetically lifted Griff out of his seat in a Force choke in response to the admiral raising an objection against his outlined course against the Rebellion, as well as to intimidate the other admirals into adherence. Vader and Griff in fact staged the entire scene to make it seem as if Griff truly sympathized with the admirals' concerns, when he was actually in league with Vader. The two planned to use the Executor project to weed out those who sought to undermine Vader in the Emperor's eyes by bringing the project to ruin.

Griff anonymously contacted the Alliance High Command on Yavin 4, leaking to them the existence of Vader's secret project at Fondor aimed at the Rebellion's destruction. He explained that he and his fellow Imperial admirals wished to halt Vader's rise in power and therefore had used their influence to keep open a position in the droid maintenance section of the project, which the Alliance could in turn use to their advantage by inserting a spy into that position. Luke Skywalker volunteered for the mission, having droid maintenance experience, and, along with his droids C-3PO and R2-D2, he journeyed to the Fondor shipyards to collect any information he could on Vader's project. In addition to Skywalker, the Alliance also dispatched a team of agents to destroy the project. Only upon arriving did he discover that Vader's undertaking was nothing less than the largest starship he had ever seen.

Skywalker's maintenance duties included moving all along the Executor, often repairing droids in zero gravity. While he kept up the ruse of droid repair, R2-D2 compiled detailed information on the Executor ' s schematics. During his masquerade, Skywalker befriended Tanith Shire, a woman who had also infiltrated the Executor project in order to steal one of the shipyard's drone barges.

With the Rebel spy in place, Vader used the Imperial admirals' ambitions to destroy the Executor to lure them to Fondor to meet with the spy&mdash;planning to destroy them all at once. After Vader purportedly left the Fondor system to briefly attend to other matters, in actuality remaining on Fondor waiting to strike, Griff and the admirals secretly convened with Skywalker to supply him with explosive weapons necessary to sabotage the Executor. Although Vader's plan to capture the Rebel spy failed when Skywalker sensed the Dark Lord's presence through the Force and escaped the scene, Vader's stormtroopers nevertheless rounded up the traitorous admirals, bringing their scheme to sabotage the Executor project to an end. Simultaneously, Vader succeeded in uncovering the team of Alliance saboteurs, foiling their sabotage mission as well. Skywalker eventually returned to the Rebel base on Yavin 4 &mdash;the only member of the Alliance team to survive the failed sabotage mission &mdash;with a great deal of information on the Executor stored within R2-D2, his own mission largely a success.

Construction completed
"Gentlemen&hellip;a toast! To celebrate completion of the most powerful new craft in the Imperial fleet!"

- The Executor ' s first commanders congratulate themselves

In the interim between the Death Star's destruction and the imminent completion of the Executor, Vader initiated a large-scale, if highly ineffective, blockade of the Yavin system. Vader also reassigned Griff away from Fondor as the Executor project neared completion to take command of the blockade. He did not want to crush the Rebel base immediately, using the blockade to keep the Rebel command in place on Yavin 4 until the Executor itself was ready to lead a full-scale planetary assault. Vader planned to use the Executor as personal retribution for the embarrassment he suffered at Yavin. As the months wore on, the blockade situation angered local fleet commanders and even Griff himself, who urged Vader to strike. Consequently, Fondor accelerated the Executor ' s construction.

Finally, six months after the Battle of Yavin, the Executor reached completion on schedule. The first Super Star Destroyer ever constructed, the Executor represented the most powerful starship in the Imperial Navy inventory and, as Vader's command ship, held the mantle of flagship of the Empire. By time of completion, the Executor ' s official designation was changed from the colloquial Super Star Destroyer to the Executor-class Star Dreadnought. Nevertheless, the term "Super Star Destroyer" stuck and many continued to borrow superlatives from the Clone Wars era and simply classify the Executor as a Super-class Star Destroyer.

By purely military standards, the completed Executor was somewhat impractical, since a smaller ship could fulfill its mission duties. Instead, the Executor served as physical proof of the unlimited resources and might of the Emperor. Indeed, Wessex's design succeeded where the Imperial-class Star Destroyer had left off&mdash;the Executor could conquer an enemy through sheer intimidation without even firing a shot, capable of demoralizing a planetary population merely by appearing in orbit and even subduing an entire star system.

The Executor project had taken years to complete, and the incredible cost to fund the construction of such a large warship had practically bankrupted several star systems. The Executor ' s completion paved the way for the introduction of the new warship line. Three Super Star Destroyers would enter service in the three years following, with several more under construction. At the same time that Fondor completed work on the Executor, Kuat Drive Yards likewise finished the Executor ' s sister ship. Rechristened the Lusankya, the duplicate Super Star Destroyer was interred on Coruscant as the Emperor's private escape vessel, while Vader pressed the Executor into immediate active military service.

Maiden voyage and approach toward Yavin 4
"The Executor performed magnificently, Lord Vader! The destruction is complete!" "No, Admiral&hellip;it is just beginning!"

- The Executor ' s interim admiral and Darth Vader, following the destruction of Laakteen Depot

Vader's impatience barely allowed surrounding space tugs and equipment barges time to scatter out of the way as the finished Executor blasted out of the Fondor Shipyards. Vader ordered his commanders to set course for the nearest Rebel installation to christen his new warship by testing its destructive power. The Executor ' s maiden voyage saw it annihilate the Rebel outpost at Laakteen Depot with little resistance, a stronghold the Rebellion had fought nearly a year to win. While a minor skirmish, the Executor ' s destruction of Laakteen Depot served both a military and political purpose, demonstrating to the Rebel Alliance and the galaxy that the Rebellion's victory over the Death Star was by pure chance and that the new Super Star Destroyer, of which there would be many more, was unstoppable. With the outpost left a smoldering ruin, the Executor continued on toward the Rebel base on Yavin 4.

En route to Yavin 4, the Executor soon fell under attack by a Rebel task force consisting of an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate and two CR90 corvettes trying to slow the Super Star Destroyer's advance. Rather than taking immediate action against the attackers, Vader ordered the Executor to stand down momentarily, allowing the Rebel ships a strafing run across the Executor ' s prow, which inflicted minimal damage against its shields. The Executor ' s acting admiral at first worried at Vader's delay, but the Dark Lord was simply toying with his ship's prey. After a moment longer, the Executor easily destroyed the three Rebel ships. Vader acknowledged that his delay was to allow the Rebels time to report back to the Rebel base the Executor ' s advance toward Yavin 4, before ordering the Super Star Destroyer onward with no delay.

Knowing the Executor inexorably neared Yavin 4, the situation at the Rebel base turned desperate. The Executor threatened to wipe out the Rebellion's top starfighter pilots, including Luke Skywalker and a core group that would eventually form the elite Rogue Squadron, if the base was destroyed. Alliance General Jan Dodonna had no choice but to therefore order a full evacuation of the base despite the Imperial blockade waiting to ensnare the fleeing Rebel transports, but he still held out hope for one last remaining chance of stopping the Executor ' s approach.

Using the detailed information Skywalker collected during his spy mission of the uncompleted Executor, Dodonna and the Rebellion previously discovered several possible exploitable weaknesses in the Super Star Destroyer. First, however, they would need to break through the Executor ' s powerful deflector shields, a near impossible task only an entire fleet would likely be able to accomplish&mdash;resources the Rebellion certainly did not have at their disposal. Instead, they planned to use a power gem&mdash;a rare meteorite particle once used by the Pirates of Iridium during the days of the Old Republic that could disable any starship's energy shields&mdash;to knock out the Executor ' s own shielding system and inflict enough damage to stop the approaching warship. The inherent risk was that the gem's power was rapidly deteriorating and time was of the essence. If the power gem failed to disable the Super Star Destroyer's shields, it would be a suicide mission, and the Executor would be clear to destroy the Rebel base.

Both Skywalker and Vrad Dodonna, Jan Dodonna's son, volunteered for the mission. The younger Dodonna had participated in the Rebellion's previous failed attack on the Executor, except the monstrous Super Star Destroyer had broken the man's spirit entirely and had sent him running back to Yavin 4 with personally-inflicted damage to his ship to mask his cowardice. Completely disillusioned with the Rebel Alliance, Dodonna planned to sabotage the mission to stop the Executor and use the power gem to bargain with the Empire for his life.

Approach stopped by Rebel power gem attack
"I&mdash;It's remarkable that with time for only one brief shot&hellip;the Rebels were able to hit one of our few vulnerable spots, Lord Vader!" "Is it, Admiral? Those who served on the Death Star might disagree&hellip;if they were still alive!"

- The Executor ' s admiral and Darth Vader

The Executor encountered Skywalker and Dodonna in their special power gem-equipped vessel in a star system filled with densely-packed planetoids, the cover of which provided a perfect spot for the Rebel attack. The Executor ' s second acting admiral derided the attack as foolhardy, believing a single small vessel could do no harm, especially since the Rebels' capital ships had so easily been defeated previously. Vader, however, remembered how a single starfighter had destroyed the Death Star. Taking no chances, he ordered the admiral to maintain full shields and for the gunners to open fire on the Rebel craft.

Dodonna wildly maneuvered the vessel away from the Executor but purposely vectored close enough for the power gem to nearly penetrate the Super Star Destroyer's shields, hoping the Empire would detect the anomaly, which would then allow him to purchase his own safety. Vader instantly realized that the Rebel attack ship was indeed equipped with such a power gem, but the craft had come close enough to the Executor that Vader had also sensed the Force in one of the ship's pilots. Believing the sensation to be emanating from none other than his own son, Luke Skywalker, Vader ordered the Executor to reverse its course heading away from Yavin 4 to pursue the Rebel craft, which had disappeared from sight.

Once the Rebel ship reappeared, after landing on a nearby planetoid where Dodonna expelled Skywalker from the craft, the Executor continued pursuit. The primary acting admiral, concerned that the Executor ' s battle schedule did not allow for such a deviation from its course toward Yavin 4, voiced his concerns to Vader, but the Dark Lord silenced his commander by momentarily closing his windpipe with the Force. Vader considered a chance at capturing Skywalker worth delaying the attack on the Rebel base. He ordered the Executor to capture the Rebel ship by tractor beam in order to take Skywalker alive.

However, Vader grew concerned when he could no longer sense the presence of the being whom he believed to be Skywalker aboard the Rebel ship, since Skywalker had indeed disembarked. Only when Dodonna suddenly changed course to attack the Executor head on in a suicide maneuver as part of a change of heart did Vader realize he had indeed lost Skywalker. With shields transferred fully forward, the Executor suffered little damage as the Rebel craft slammed into the Super Star Destroyer at full force. Although the power gem's strength had weakened enough to have no effect on the Executor, setting the shields forward left the Executor ' s entire aft section unshielded and vulnerable. Han Solo and Skywalker in the Millennium Falcon took advantage of the momentary lapse by firing off one brief shot at the Executor ' s engines, disabling its gyro-control system. Once more drawing a parallel to the Death Star's destruction, Vader saw nothing extraordinary in that the Rebels succeeded in hitting of the few vulnerable spots on the Executor with a single shot.

The attack left the Executor temporarily immobile and unable to resume its approach to Yavin 4. Having successfully slowed the Executor, the Rebellion bought enough time to complete the evacuation of Yavin Base. Vader allowed responsibility to subsequently fall upon the shoulders of Griff, in charge of the blockade, to stop the Rebels fleeing from Yavin 4 until the Executor could complete repairs. Griff hoped to reap the full accolades of the opportunity placed before him by crushing the Rebellion himself, not Vader.

Race to destroy the Rebel fleet
"Three of our own cruisers! Dropping out of hyperspace right into us, Lord Vader!"

- One of the Executor ' s commanders

Vader soon learned, however, that the Rebels had indeed evacuated Yavin 4, though he still trusted Griff, in charge of the Imperial blockade, to stop the escaping Rebel fleet while the Executor continued repairs. To help effect the fleet's escape, the Rebels orchestrated a three-pronged simultaneous attack at different points along the Imperial blockade, including a diversionary strike in the Vallusk Cluster, which succeeded in drawing enough of the blockade away to open up a small hole leading to a hyperspace escape corridor. Griff quickly figured out that the Rebel strikes were designed to do nothing more than divert his attention from their true course, and he ordered the three Imperial-class Star Destroyers under his command to make all haste to cut off the Rebel fleet, but refrained from informing Vader and the Executor of the Rebels' actions or location.

What Griff failed to realize was that the Rebels had discovered an alternate escape corridor away from Griff's waiting Star Destroyers, albeit an extremely dangerous one that passed perilously close to an unstable sun's erupting stellar flares. Although the Executor ' s admiral feared that Griff would steal the glory away from the Executor by destroying the Rebels himself, Vader carefully bided his time, knowing that if Griff hounded the Rebel fleet hard enough, Luke Skywalker would eventually use the Force to try and help his allies escape, which Vader would be able to sense. When Vader did, the Executor would arrive to annihilate the Rebel fleet.

The Executor ' s admiral's constant whining about Griff soon exhausted Vader, and the Dark Lord executed his ship's commander by choking him to death. After several hours, the Executor finally completed repairs, although Vader refrained from rushing his ship into action. He patiently continued to wait for Skywalker's Force signature to reveal the Rebel fleet's location.

Vader's instincts proved correct when Skywalker began using the Force to sense when the sun's stellar flares would erupt, safely guiding elements of the Rebel fleet past the danger during intermittent lulls. Detecting Skywalker's tapping into the Force, Vader immediately ordered the Executor to make for the Rebel fleet's escape route past the unstable sun. Meanwhile, having learned that the Executor ' s damage had been repaired and that the Rebel fleet had begun escaping into hyperspace at the alternate escape corridor, Griff desperately ordered his three Star Destroyers to execute a quick hyperspace micro-jump, hoping to bring his ships out on the far side of the unstable sun where they would intercept the remainder of the Rebel fleet. It would be a race to the finish between the Executor and Griff's Star Destroyers to see which ships arrived first to wipe out the Rebel fleet.

The Executor exited hyperspace on the far side of the unstable sun first, ahead of Griff, just as the final element of the Rebel fleet approached its hyperspace jump point. As the Executor moved around the sun, the Rebel fleet's approach brought its ships right into the Executor ' s path. With still no sign of Griff, Vader ordered the Executor to open fire with all guns on the Rebel fleet, but the Super Star Destroyer never had the chance. At that moment, Griff's three Star Destroyers suddenly emerged from hyperspace right on top of the Executor. Although the Executor ' s powerful shields protected the ship from sustaining any significant damage, Griff and his Star Destroyers were instantly obliterated in the collision. The Star Destroyers' inaccurate hyperspace jump stopped the Executor cold, allowing the last remnants of the Rebel fleet to escape safely into hyperspace. Once more, Vader and the Executor had failed to capture Luke Skywalker, but the Dark Lord vowed that the time would come when he would confront his son.

Formation of Death Squadron
The destruction of the Death Star forced the Empire to consider the Rebellion a far greater threat than ever before imagined. The Emperor offered Vader a free hand in hunting down the elusive Rebel High Command, which had disappeared since their escape at Yavin. Vader took this liberty to call together his favored and, indeed, some of the best, Star Destroyers of the Imperial Navy to assist him in his hunt. They primarily included the Imperial II-class Star Destroyers Avenger, Accuser, and Stalker, and the Imperial I-class Star Destroyers Devastator, Adjudicator, and Tyrant, though they were all merely ornamental compared to the might of the Executor.

The code-named Imperial Death Squadron, elements of which had originally been formed under Griff during his command of the Executor prior to his death and failure to stop the Rebel evacuation from Yavin 4, represented the most powerful fleet of warships ever assembled in the history of the galaxy. Accordingly enough, the fleet epitomized typical Imperial overkill and inefficiency, much like the Executor itself. Death Squadron's formation became a public event, for the Emperor no longer considered it necessary to keep the threat of the Rebellion a secret. A reminder to the galaxy of the Empire's power, Death Squadron had but one goal: locate the Rebel Alliance and destroy it. Still, Vader had a more specific goal in mind&mdash;namely, the capture of Luke Skywalker.

Shelkonwa blockade
"I guess you ground-thumpers don't need to keep up with Fleet news. The Executor just happens to be the brand-new flagship of the Lord Darth Vader."

- Renegade Imperial stormtrooper Joak Quiller

Within a month after the Rebels' evacuation of Yavin 4, the Executor returned Vader to Coruscant, seat of power for the Empire. The Super Star Destroyer orbited the Imperial capital while Vader conducted archival research concerning the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Another opportunity for Vader to capture his son came in the form of a message Chief Administrator Vilim Disra of the remote Shelsa sector in the Outer Rim Territories sent to Vader on Imperial Center, informing him that the fugitive Princess Leia Organa was present on the planet Shelkonwa, the sector capital. Knowing Organa was the key to locating Skywalker, Vader and the Executor set course for Shelkonwa.

Under commanding officer Admiral Bentro, the Executor initiated a lock down of Shelkonwa, disallowing any ships landing clearance at the palace of sector Governor Barshnis Choard within Makrin City, the planetary capital, while Vader's elite personal stormtrooper contingent, the 501st Legion, conducted a search for Organa. During the blockade, the Executor intercepted an approaching Suwantek Systems TL-1800 freighter, the Gillia, carrying five renegade Imperial stormtroopers&mdash;the self-titled Hand of Judgment&mdash;as well as the Rebels Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and the Wookiee Chewbacca, the latter of whom had come to Shelkonwa to extract Organa from Imperial danger. After the Gillia provided a legitimate clearance code for passage under a fake transponder code, masking its true identity as an Imperial Security Bureau vessel commandeered by the rogue stormtroopers, the Executor permitted the ship to land.

The Executor just as soon intercepted a second vessel, a Z-10 Seeker piloted by none other than the young Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, a rival of Vader's for the Emperor's favor, who had come to Shelkonwa to administer her brand of Imperial justice to the traitorous Barshnis Choard. Much to the befuddlement of the Executor ' s controller, Jade identified herself as the Emperor's Hand, demanding to see Vader himself aboard the flagship, hoping to ensure Vader's presence on Shelkonwa didn't interfere with her mission. After a few moments, Vader personally granted her permission to come aboard, and the Executor ' s captain directed her to his personal hangar bay. Vader met with Jade in a small conference room, quickly coming to the rash assumption that she intended to capture Leia Organa as part of her own mission. The Dark Lord ignited his lightsaber, fully determined to destroy her rather than allowing her to ruin his chance at seizing Organa and thus destroying the opportunity to capture Luke Skywalker. But after realizing that Jade's target was in fact Choard and not Organa, Vader relaxed, recognized her duty to deal with Choard, and left her with the strict caveat not to get in his way.

During Vader's meeting with Jade, the Executor intercepted yet a third vessel, the freighter Happer's Way, a stolen ship piloted by the BloodScar pirate Caaldra, carrying a cargo of fifty likewise stolen Imperial All Terrain Scout Transports. In league with Choard, Caaldra was delivering the walkers to Shelkonwa to facilitate the independence of the Shelsha sector from Imperial authority for his group's own end. Once Jade returned to her ship, she noted the freighter ahead of her veering off the course the Executor had allowed for incoming vessels and soon recognized the freighter for who and what it was. Learning from the Executor ' controller that the Super Star Destroyer had granted the freighter special permission to land at the governor's palace, Jade exercised her authority as Emperor's Hand to order Bentro to redirect the Happer's Way back to its original landing zone, to which the Executor complied. Bentro asked whether she required ground troops or air support from the Executor, but she declined, not wanting to elbow Vader twice in the same day, to the quiet relief of the admiral. Jade would handle Choard and Caaldra herself.

The three parties the Executor allowed into Shelkonwa converged upon one another within Makrin City. The Rebels rescued Organa from Imperial capture and Jade eliminated Caaldra. Vader and the 501st Legion stormed upon the governor's palace and arrested Choard, before taking him aboard the Executor for prisoner transfer to Coruscant. Jade ordered the Executor to allow clearance for the five stormtroopers of the Hand of Judgment safe passage off Shelkonwa, protecting their identities as fugitives of the Empire, though she did not realize that the stormtroopers were secretly transporting the Rebels from Shelkonwa as well. The Executor ' s scanners detected only the five lifeform signatures of the stormtroopers as their Suwantek freighter exited the system, leading Jade to later believe that Organa couldn't have possibly stowed away aboard the ship and that her purported presence on Shelkonwa was just a ruse Vilim Disra fabricated to attract Vader to Shelkonwa to eliminate Choard. Of course, Organa and Luke Skywalker were in fact aboard the Suwantek, once again escaping capture from Vader and the Executor.

Kendal Ozzel takes command
"I don't know if the man's disloyal, easily manipulated, or just plain stupid. But I think he bears watching." "Leave him to me. I believe I can arrange something."

- Mara Jade and Darth Vader

With Griff dead, the position of fleet admiral in command of the Executor and of Death Squadron remained vacant. The Imperial Navy hierarchy expended much consideration as to who should lead the Executor, command ship of the entire Empire. With some reluctance, the Imperial Navy decided to grant the position to Kendal Ozzel, formerly of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Reprisal. The reasoning being that not even Ozzel would be stupid enough to argue with Vader, the true commander of Death Squadron, as he hunted down the Rebel base.

Speculation abounded as to the reasoning behind Ozzel's promotion. Many believed that Ozzel's bloodline and ties to the Imperial Military were responsible for his appointment to the Executor; others believed he was a casualty of clerical oversight, one of many officers of lesser ability promoted to fill the vacancies of the Imperial Navy's finest lost in the Death Star's destruction; still others thought Death Squadron needed a military commander besides Vader to appease high-ranking members of the Imperial Navy's general staff. The truth was a bit different. After the Shelkonwa skirmish, Mara Jade requested that Vader keep an eye on Ozzel, who she believed had tried to kill her to prevent her from hurting his chances at becoming an admiral. Vader agreed, arranging Ozzel's promotion.

Many officers in Death Squadron at first viewed Ozzel as Vader's equal as the new commanding officer of the Executor. The fleet in fact belonged to Vader. Ozzel served as a figurehead as the fleet admiral, a mere puppet whose strings Vader pulled. Ozzel soon came to resent the Dark Lord. He had finally gained his long sought after admiralty, but he wielded little real power.

Talay dark trooper demonstration
Although Yavin 4 fell to the Empire, the core group of the Rebel Alliance escaped to fight another day. Nevertheless, with Griff out of the way, Vader wielded the Executor as a tool of almost limitless power in the hunt of the Rebellion. Vader utilized the Executor to destroy the remaining Rebel bases over the following months.

Within a month of the Rebels' evacuation of Yavin 4, the Executor oversaw the destruction of one such installation, the Rebellion's Tak Base on the planet Talay. This assault held greater significance than a run of the mill obliteration of a helpless Rebel outpost, however. The Empire chose Talay as the location for General Rom Mohc to demonstrate the effectiveness of his brainchild, the Dark Trooper Project, a new breed of battle droid that would effectively serve as a "super stormtrooper."

With Vader on hand to oversee the first implementation of the new Imperial military project with the Emperor's approval, Mohc joined the Dark Lord on the bridge of his flagship to monitor the Talay operation from orbit. The Executor waited alongside several Imperial-class Star Destroyers and the Arc Hammer, the titanic dark trooper production vessel, as a group of dark troopers launched from the Arc Hammer and made planetfall on Talay. The dark troopers wiped out Tak Base in a matter of minutes. Pleased with the successful demonstration, Vader approved the project's continuation.

Personnel
During the Executor ' s maiden voyage, command fell on an interim basis to a primary and secondary admiral while Griff oversaw the Yavin blockade.

Nonam

Appearances

 * The Force Unleashed novel
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comic
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars Missions 18: Rogue Squadron to the Rescue
 * Darth Vader Strikes
 * The Serpent Masters
 * Traitor's Gambit
 * The Return of Ben Kenobi
 * The Power Gem
 * Revenge of the Jedi
 * Doom Mission
 * Race for Survival
 * Allegiance
 * Star Wars: Dark Forces
 * Sand Blasted
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Non-canon appearances

 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Scoundrel's Luck
 * Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi

Image repository