User:Thefourdotelipsis/Workbench

"At least make sure you do it right this time."

- Bevel Lemelisk, referring to his last death

Bevel Lemelisk was one of the chief designers of the Death Star as well as several other superweapons.

Early career
At some stage, Bevel Lemelisk had been instructed by Professor Nasdra Magrody. He also worked with the Geonosians in the production of their attack craft, before working directly for the Galactic Republic in its waning years, aiding Walex Blissex in the development of the Victory I-class Star Destroyer.

Death Star
A well-respected architect, Lemelisk found himself constantly in the employ of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire. At some time, he ascended to the position of Master of Imperial Projects. In his Imperial service, Lemelisk designed many of the Empire's more sophisticated space stations. Eventually, he was called upon to design the Death Star, a battlestation with the power to destroy planets. The Death Star was the brainchild of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin&mdash;a visionary, but a man with little real understanding of engineering. Despite Tarkin's close association with the project however, it had originated with Raith Sienar several decades beforehand. With the help of many subordinate architects and engineers, Lemelisk, as chief engineer, forged a more practical form for the station from Tarkin's initial ideas at the Maw Installation think-tank. Amongst Lemelisk's colleagues in the Death Star development were Frap Radicon, Umak Leth, Qwi Xux, and Tol Sivron. He also served as something of a mentor to some of the less senior participants, such as the Omwati Xux. Although his colleagues worked in different branches of engineering, Lemelisk outranked them all.

At first, Lemelisk started to design a prototype, drawing his plans on reusable durasheet scrolls. After a short period, the blueprints would fade away, preventing the information from falling into the wrong hands. The Death Star prototype, was built and refined initially at the Maw Installation, guarded by Admiral Natasi Daala. When that had been appropriately tested and construction on the Death Star itself came to fruition, Tarkin and Lemelisk began moving the project from site to site to avoid sabotage attempts from the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Eventually, construction was taken to the Horuz system, where Tarkin kept constant watch over his pet project. Palpatine, hoping to keep the project running, began diverting funds into the top secret project from space exploration and public works faculties.

To better oversee the progress of the battlestation's development, Tarkin had the architect extracted from the Maw Installation. Even as the building of the weapon ensued, research continued, with Lemelisk doing some of his work at a facility in Trid, Danuta. Though the station was powered by the largest hypermatter reactor ever built, Lemelisk advised Tarkin that sacrifices would have to be made to things such as shielding strength if the superlaser or Class 3 hyperdrive was to work properly. The Grand Moff was disappointed with the revelation, but relented, heeding the architect's advise. Despite the compromise, the Death Star wars still virtually impervious to a frontal assault by capital ships.

Flight
The station was completed, and Lemelisk was on board to observe the Destruction of Alderaan. Before the Tarkin took the station to hunt down the Rebels however, he and his fellow designers were dropped off at Carida. This was fortunate for Lemelisk, since the Death Star was subsequently destroyed at Yavin. The Alliance had found a design flaw, in the form of the station's two-meter wide exhaust port and had exploited it by having one of their pilots fire a proton torpedo down it. The station exploded causing Tarkin's death in the process. Fearing for his life, Lemelisk went into hiding, taking refuge in his private retreat on Hefi. Despite his best efforts, agents from Imperial Intelligence located him, but to the architect's surprise, Palpatine did not want him executed.

Death Star II
"The only way for a Rebel to reach the power core is for him to fly to it before we finish construction. And even that won't be an option in a few more weeks, once we seal the armor hull."

- Bevel Lemelisk

What Palpatine did want was a new Death Star, one that would not possess a single design flaw. Amazed at the fact that he was allowed to live, Lemelisk set about his task, making sure the new station fit Palpatine's requirements perfectly. Instead of the comparatively large thermal exhaust port that had allowed the Rebels to destroy the original Death Star, Lemelisk designed millions of milimeter-wide heat dispersion ducts. The ducts served the same purpose as the exhaust port, but were virtually invulnerable to blaster or torpedo attack, due to the addition of emergency baffles that would dissipate the energy of any successful hit.

With the flaws eradicated, Lemelisk set himself about improving on the original Death Star in other ways. He enhanced the station's superlaser targeting system and rate of fire. This allowed it to target and destroy moving targets, such as capital ships. The architect also made the station significantly larger in size, to accommodate the larger power supply units needed to operate the enhanced weaponry and systems. To fend off starfighter attack, Lemelisk inserted several batteries that could create a blanket of anti-starship fire. When completed and carrying its full TIE Fighter complement, Lemelisk believed that the new battle station, dubbed the Death Star II, would be invincible.

Presenting his new designs to the Emperor, Lemelisk boasted that the Death Star II could only be destroyed while it was under construction. Palpatine believed him, but so did Mon Mothma, leader of the Alliance, who launched an attack on the station while it was being built over Endor. In the resulting battle, the station was destroyed, and Palpatine died his first death. Palpatine would later return in a clone body, and replace Lemelisk as Master of Imperial Projects with Umak Leth.

Final execution
By the time his career as a scientist and architect had ended, Lemelisk had created no less than six superweapons&mdash;the Death Stars, the Eclipse, the Tarkin, and the Darksaber&mdash; that carried the ability to destroy planets. He became one of the few individuals to be executed by the New Republic for war crimes.

Personality and traits
Well-respected for his work, Lemelisk was proud of technical achievements he had made, especially breakthroughs in things such as superlaser technology. Though he feared Palpatine, he was confident enough to make boasts about the vulnerability or lack thereof concerning his improved Death Star II. He was not a perfectionist however, and could afford not to be due to his connections to high-ranking Imperial officials.

Appearances

 * Death Star
 * Star Wars Missions 19: Bounty on Bonadan
 * Jedi Search
 * Children of the Jedi