Eye of Palpatine

Eye of Palpatine "The biggest, most dangerous, most secret vessel of them all, a supership, a dreadnaught, a battlemoon. One the enemy wouldn't see coming until it was too late."

- Triv Pothman

Eye of Palpatine was a colossal, asteroid-shaped super dreadnought constructed at the behest of Emperor Palpatine during the second year of the Galactic Empire.

Characteristics


This deadly warship was the Emperor's first superweapon. It was referred to as both a "dreadnought" and a "battlemoon." Similar to a Torpedo Sphere, Eye of Palpatine was armed with a lot more weaponry and built on a much larger scale. The amount of firepower it carried could basically do the work of an entire fleet by orbital bombardment.

It was equipped with many TIE squadrons (presumably T.I.E. starfighters) as well as Beta-class ETR-3 escort transports and Skipray Blastboats. Much of the ship's onboard equipment was supplied by SoroSuub Corporation.

History
Emperor Palpatine ordered this giant Imperial battlemoon built eighteen years before the Battle of Yavin. He had one main goal in mind for the heavily armed space station: wipe out a Jedi enclave that had been established decades earlier in the Plawal rift on the planet Belsavis. The Eye of Palpatine was supposed to pick up contingents of stormtroopers who had been scattered on several planets to keep the mission secret. The ship never arrived, however, and a small backup force of TIE interceptors was quickly defeated by Belsavis planetary defenses. The Emperor imprisoned many of those responsible for the design of the highly automated ship named after himself, and the Eye of Palpatine disappeared for nearly thirty years.

Palpatine intended to use the Eye to destroy Belsavis's Plawal rift, where many Youngling survivors of the Great Jedi Purge were being sheltered by the Ho'Din Jedi Master Plett in 18 BBY. This rift was a lush, steamed-filled geothermal vent gouged into the planet's icy wastes and covered by a transparisteel dome. Since this action would have caused outrage in the Imperial Senate, he scattered the vessel's contingent of troops across the Outer Rim Territories to await pickup.



Emperor Palpatine sent the battlemoon to Belsavis to destroy the Jedi but it failed to arrive and complete its mission, thanks to sabotage by two Jedi Knights, Geith and Callista Ming. Plett and the children were able to leave Belsavis and escape as a result of this heroic act.

Later service
The Eye remained dormant until 12 ABY, when the Emperor's Hand Roganda Ismaren located it. She used her son Irek Ismaren&mdash;who had been implanted with a sub-electronic converter that allowed him to control any machine by thought&mdash;to "summon" the dormant ship to Belsavis in her attempt to revitalize the Empire.

Upon activation, Eye of Palpatine attempted to fulfill its programming by picking up its stormtrooper contingent. But, after so many years, the troops were just a distant memory.

Undaunted, the Eye went after any sentient beings found in the appropriate locations. It began grabbing groups of prisoners from various species located on many worlds. Soon the Eye was filled with numerous species including Talz, Affytechans, Jawas, Kitonaks, Tusken Raiders, Tripods, and Gamorreans. They were all brainwashed into thinking they were Imperial stormtroopers.

Later, the Eye was destroyed by Nichos Marr. Although no evidence could be found in any of the surviving Imperial records recovered by the New Republic, Qwi Xux believed that the Eye had a sister ship; that ship's mission or final fate, if it even existed, is unknown.

Appearances



 * Children of the Jedi
 * The New Rebellion
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee

Notes and references
Palpatines Auge