Orbital nightcloak

Orbital nightcloak
Production information
Manufacturer	Imperial Department of Military Research
Type	Siege weapon Superweapon
Usage and history
Affiliation	Galactic Empire Zsinj's Empire

"On its brightest day, Dathomir is a shadow world. But the infernal nightcloak filled our skies with black blood and swallowed the moon we worshiped."

―Ute Raek, Singing Mountain Clan priestess

The orbital nightcloak was a siege weapon deployed by the Galactic Empire. It consisted of a network of hundreds of satellites orbiting a targeted planet. When placed in orbit around a world, the satellites would prevent all sunlight from reaching the surface, creating utter darkness and eventually turning the world to solid ice, killing all life.

Description

"The Orbital Nightcloak intercepts visual light and other EM wavelengths, plunging a planet into a night that never ends... until you decide it can."

―Bevel Lemelisk

The schematics for the orbital nightcloak

The orbital nightcloak was one of the many superweapons designed by the Imperial Department of Military Research for the Galactic Empire. The IDMR took their visual electromagnetic intensifier design, made adjustments to it and relaunched it as the orbital nightcloak. Where the VEI was intended to focus visible light onto a planet and effectively burn the surface, the nightcloak was designed to perform the opposite function.

Intended as a siege weapon, the superweapon was an array of hundreds of individual satellites that were deployed into the orbit of a target planet. Orbital nightcloak satellites were transported to a planet via starship, usually nothing smaller than a Star Destroyer. Once at a target world, the satellites were released and used deployment thrusters to move into a precise predetermined position in low orbit as part of the larger network.

When active, each satellite deployed a large dish that was comprised of electromagnetic absorption panels. These panels were capable of absorbing and distorting light waves, preventing any light energy reaching the surface of the planet, including visible, infrared, and ultraviolet. When off-line, these panels formed a dome over the satellite's Discharge Focusing Rod and Discharge Modulator. A long stem projected from the underside of the panels, containing the rest of the satellite's systems. A Discharge Adjuster sat at the top of the stem just underneath the absorption panels. A reactor provided power to the deployment thrusters, and other systems included a subspace transceiver, a sensor array, and a Telemetry Node at the very bottom of the stem. Each satellite was powered by solar energy stolen from its target; once in place, the orbital nightcloak was completely self-sufficient and remained in perpetual operation.

Each nightcloak satellite was equipped with an array of sensor jammers designed to block all sensors and methods of communications. Residents of the planet were unable to call for help, and they could not receive information from the outside in return. The nightcloak did not prevent physical passage, and starships could move freely through nightcloak's effects. The Empire deployed warships outside the cloak to intercept any vessels attempting to flee or assist the world.

A pair of Orbital Nightcloak satellites

From the surface of the planet, the inhabitants viewed the deployment of the nightcloak as areas of impenetrable darkness that steadily grew to blot out the sun. Without the warming light of its star, a planet shrouded by an orbital nightcloak was plunged into neverending darkness. The effectiveness of a nightcloak resulted in complete compliance from the inhabitants of the planet. On primitive worlds, the population almost immediately swore obedience to the Empire as they had no understanding of the technology behind used against them. More civilized worlds held out longer, but eventually the climatic changes to the planet caused by the nightcloak became too much for them to bear. Even knowing what was happening, the inhabitants of the world were unsettled and frightened.

The impact on the planet's climate began immediately; surface temperatures began dropping immediately, with snow beginning to fall in areas that had recently been temperate. Four days was long enough for the temperature to drop low enough to kill off the majority of life on the planet, and after as little as three weeks, the temperature of the entire planet was freezing. Plant life began to die off, eventually causing a collapse in the entire food chain.

Deployment of the orbital nightcloak into position took several standard days, involving the direction of hundreds of satellites. The main weakness of the orbital nightcloak was that it could be easily disabled by the destruction of just a few of the satellites, as the control systems were interdependent. The satellites themselves were not equipped with defensive measures, and relied on orbiting Imperial vessels to protect them. Starfighters were capable of destroying the satellites, and they were also vulnerable to anti-orbital defenses. Imperial technicians also introduced "dummy" satellites into the network. These were decoy units that could be destroyed that would have no effect on the rest of the network.

The Imperial Remnant made improvements to the nightcloak design after the Galactic Civil War. The array was redesigned with an advanced routing system that allowed the nightcloak to remain operation with ninety percent of its satellites operational. The improved satellites, designated Mark II satellites, were also armed with short-range laser cannons and targeting computers.

History

"The planet Dathomir holds many Force users of great power. However, the Emperor found it before we did and he has blockaded the planet."

―Urai Fen

Nightcloak satellites surround Dathomir

The orbital nightcloak was designed by the Imperial Department of Military Research to fulfil the goals of the Tarkin Doctrine. The Doctrine outlined that the most effective weapons used against the enemy not only killed them, but subjected them to fear and hopelessness at the same time. Due to the network's limitations, the orbital nightcloak was intended for deployment against unarmed and non-technologically advanced planets. Once a target planet had capitulated or all life had been killed off, the Empire would remove the nightcloak and then exploit the world's resources.

Orbital nightcloaks were deployed around the planet Dathomir after the Battle of Yavin as part of the Imperial blockade of Dathomir.

Warlord Zsinj used an orbital nightcloak in an unorthodox manner. Deploying a number of satellites to create a corridor of impenetrable darkness, Zsinj used the sensor deadzone to hide the escape of his Executor-class star Dreadnought, Iron Fist during the Battle of Selaggis. Zsinj detonated a skeletal structure of wreckage from the Razor's Kiss to fool the New Republic into believing the Iron Fist had been destroyed.

In 8 ABY, the orbital nightcloaks were activated by Zsinj over Dathomir, holding the planet hostage until the inhabitants handed over New Republic General Han Solo. Solo escaped Zsinj's clutches and succeeded in disrupting the chain of the nightcloak satellites, saving the planet from being frozen.

At some point, Rogue Squadron took down an entire network of orbital nightcloak satellites utilizing one T-65 X-wing firing a single proton torpedo. Wedge Antilles made note of the accomplishment in a heavily annotated copy of the Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide possessed by Alliance forces, underscoring a section that stated the nightcloak's vulnerabilities. Another comment, left by General Crix Madine, asserted that a starfighter assault was not even needed. A commando armed with a homing missile could lock on and destroy a satellite in orbit from the surface of the planet.

Appearances

• Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (Model only, cut from actual game)
• X-Wing: Solo Command (and unabridged audiobook)
• The Courtship of Princess Leia (and unabridged audiobook) (First appearance, in book)

Sources

• Imperial Sourcebook (First mentioned)
• Planets of the Galaxy, Volume One
• Dark Empire Sourcebook
• Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition
• The Star Wars Planets Collection
• Cracken's Threat Dossier
• The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology
• The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
• The Essential Guide to Droids
• The Essential Chronology
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Official Star Wars Fact File 35 (ORB 1-2: Imperial Orbital Nightcloak)
• The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology
• The New Essential Chronology
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide

Notes and references

In other languages

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