Thermal detonator/Legends

"..he's holding a thermal detonator!"

- C-3PO

A thermal detonator was a highly unstable grenade-like weapon popular with criminals, bounty hunters and mercenaries since at least 4,000 BBY. It was made to be thrown or dropped by a vehicle. The style and purpose of thermal detonators varied widely, and despite the legal restrictions of many governments, were in widespread use across the galaxy.

The name was descriptive of the process by which the device explodes. Inside the shell, which was generally made of thermite or axidite, was a sample of baradium, a highly volatile substance. A trigger emitted a short burst of fusion energy that forced the baradium into a state of fusion reaction. The result was an expanding particle field that could atomize any material within the fixed blast radius - typically eight meters, though some had an even greater radius. Uniquely, a thermal detonator's blast would only go as far as its blast radius. After that, the blast field would collapse, and anything even slightly beyond the blast radius would be left unharmed.

For use as thrown explosives, thermal detonators used a thumb-operated trigger and a timed detonator to ensure the weapon bearer did not destroy himself. When used as gravity or inertial explosives by starfighters, speeders or mortar units, thermal detonators used a range sensor to determine the appropriate trigger time.

By the late days of the Galactic Republic, thermal detonators had become very common and more practical than the aging frag grenade and the plasma grenade, despite the fact that the Republic had outlawed them.

Most thermal detonators had fixed field yields and radii, although some, such as those used by Imperial stormtroopers, featured adjustable settings.

Luke Skywalker once used a Class A thermal detonator to bargain with Prince Xizor. The Class A was a very powerful version of the weapon with a larger blast radius, easily capable of destroying several floors of a large building. In this way, several grades of thermal detonators exist, differentiated by payload capability.

Shortly before the Battle of Endor, a Class A thermal detonator was used by a disguised Princess Leia Organa to help free Han Solo from his carbonite prison inside Jabba Desilijic Tiure's palace.



Luke Skywalker and the Jedi used thermal detonators in their assault on the Gorog nest ship during a battle against the Killiks in the Utegetu Nebula.

Types

 * Merr-Sonn Munitions Class-A thermal detonator, a powerful military model
 * Merr-Sonn Munitions Class-E thermal detonator, a small radius model
 * Merr-Sonn Munitions V-1 Thermal Detonator, a military model

The different types of thermal detonators varied in power greatly. Although typically used as a grenade, many were far deadlier. The mayor of Sernpidal used a large one capable of destroying a massive Dovin Basal