Guardian (Executor-class)

The Guardian was an Executor-class Star Dreadnought. Originally under the command of Fleet Admiral Gaen Drommel, it was stationed at Coruscant when news of the Battle of Endor arrived. Drommel took the Guardian to his homeworld of Oplovis, where he became a warlord. He was defeated, and the Guardian badly damaged, at the Battle of Tantive V in 5 ABY. The Guardian was withdrawn to Soullex, where the New Republic eventually captured it, assigning it to the New Republic Third Fleet.

It became a New Republic Defense Fleet command ship, and was stationed at Kashyyyk during the early parts of the Yuuzhan Vong War. After the formation of the Galactic Alliance, the Guardian was redeployed to Mon Calamari to serve in the Galactic Alliance First Fleet. It later fought in the liberation of Coruscant and returned to Mon Calamari following the end of the war.

Description
The Guardian was one of the 19 kilometer Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts. Holding over 280 thousand crew normally, this number declined in the decade it sat over Soullex, down to 250 thousand&mdash;including the nearly 40 thousand soldiers aboard. The vessel was equipped with a number of prefabricated garrison bases, which its commander Gaen Drommel used to subjugate the Fardon system after the Guardian ' s escape from New Republic forces at the Battle of Tantive V. It was normally armed with 250 each of turbolaser, heavy turbolaser, and concussion missile emplacements, as well as 40 tractor beam installations; however, after Tantive V, these numbers were greatly reduced, in some cases over half of the emplacements having been taken out of commission. The hyperdrives, too, normally classing 2.0 and a class 10 backup, were rendered inoperative until their repair by Drommel's forces. The ship held a complement of a number of Lambda-class T-4a shuttles, which Drommel used in the Guardian ' s downtime as the main mode of transportation to gather materials for the vessel's repair.

The Guardian possessed a cavernous command deck, near which the Admiral's quarters were located. The vessel had a detention block as well, to hold its prisoners; under Drommel's command, many of these were New Republic personnel who had inadvertently found the Guardian. Interrogation rooms were available for the questioning of these individuals. The ship's hyperdrive was accessible from the engineering room; coordinates could be input directly through there, bypassing the navigation computer.

Under Drommel's command
At the time of the Battle of Endor, the Guardian was under the command of Admiral Gaen Drommel of the Galactic Empire and stationed near Coruscant. The battle saw the death of Emperor Palpatine and the defeat of the Imperial fleet there; when Drommel learned of this, he fled Coruscant in the Guardian for the region of his homeworld Oplovis, where he intended to use his fleet to set up a personal empire of his own. Under Drommel's command, the Guardian and three Imperial-class Star Destroyers set out shortly after Endor on a campaign of terror against the safeworlds and bases of the New Republic, with devastating effect on the fledgling government.

Drommel's campaign soon came to an end, though. The New Republic had been studying the weaknesses of Imperial Star Destroyers, and in 5 ABY at the Battle of Tantive V, they were able to use this to their greatest advantage. Two of the Star Destroyers were destroyed, the third was taken, and with the Republic targeting the weapon and shield systems of the Guardian, and crippling the hyperdrive, the vessel was heavily damaged and forced to retreat. The Super Star Destroyer was able to make the leap to hyperspace, but it did not arrive at its intended destination, instead emerging into the Fardon system of the Outer Rim. With its hyperdrive inactive, the crippled vessel stationed itself above the planet Soullex, where it was barely able to maintain orbit. Drommel subjugated the system, deploying three prefabricated garrison bases to the world below. He set to work repairing the Guardian, dispatching Lambda-class shuttles to Imperial-controlled worlds for assistance. Drommel intended to conduct his repairs as quickly as possible, but with the remnants of the Empire falling to the New Republic, they were unable to spare any aid for him. Drommel intended to use the Guardian as the centerpiece of a campaign to destroy the New Republic, and he therefore kept his search for parts and assistance as quiet as possible. Around 7 ABY, Drommel began receiving the necessary parts to repair the vessel's hyperdrive, but the ship would remain where it was for over a decade. In the course of that time, a number of New Republic personnel unknowingly hyperjumped into the Fardon system, only to be detained by the Guardian. Others such as New Republic Intelligence operative Shandria L'hnnar intentionally sought to find the vessel, and were captured as well.

Appearances

 * Destiny's Way
 * The Unifying Force
 * The Unifying Force

Notes and references
Guardian