Thermal oscillator

Deploy Squadron EaW — Blue Squadron approaches the thermal oscillator on Starkiller Base.

"The idea was to take out a thermal oscillator built into the planet's superstructure. Starkiller Base drew power from its system's sun, and it had to store all that energy somewhere. Blow up the oscillator, all that energy gets released."

―BB-8, to R2-D2^[1]

A thermal oscillator was a component found in various vehicles and machines.^[2] A large thermal oscillator was on the Starkiller Base superweapon. This prevented the planet from destabilizing. Starkiller Base used the power of a star to collect dark energy, which then was used to destroy distant star systems. In order to store this energy, the thermal oscillator generated an oscillating containment field which allowed the installation to expend considerably less power than normal at containing the vast amounts of dark energy it required to run.^[3]

History[]

An engineer named Kelad invented plans for a thermal oscillator during his time under contract with the Galactic Empire. But after the defeat of the Empire at the Battle of Endor, he soon found himself in need of further funds. He stowed away on the Halcyon with the aim of selling his plans to an investor on Synjax once the ship arrived there. Kelad was later enlisted to help the moon of Madurs, which was on the brink of destruction due to attempts by Imperials to drill towards the moon's core. Kelad proposed to use his thermal oscillator design be installed directly on the moon's core, stabilizing the core and preventing the moon's destruction. Kelad's plans met with success for the initial stages, allowing them time to fully stabilize Madurs for the coming year in Kelad's long-term plan. After negotiating with Kelad, Leia Organa became curious about the ramifications of why the Empire had contracted him to create such a component, speculating that there was likely Imperial involvement from Kelad's would-be investor on Synjax as well.^[4]

One large thermal oscillator was located in Precinct 47 of Starkiller Base, where an attack was led by the Resistance to disable and destroy it before the weapon could fire on D'Qar. The attack was successful, preventing the firing of the superweapon and causing the planet to implode as the containment field failed.^[5]