Star Wars: The Most Ridiculous “Ship” In The Galaxy – The Darksaber Breakdown
Star Wars has had some…interesting…ships through the years, but none match the sheer, phoned in “design” of the Darksaber.
For a galaxy originating the belief that the power to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the Force, there sure are a lot of planet-killing weapons across the many worlds of Star Wars. And the Darksaber battlestation might be the worst of the lot. Not to be confused with an ancient mandalorian blade, the Darksaber battlestation is one of the most infamously bad superweapons ever designed.
Designed by Durga the Hutt in 12 ABY, for the express purpose of holding entire planets ransom, the Darksaber is just as ridiculous as it sounds. The logic behind it makes…a sort of sense, if you can approach it from the scheming, but also greedy (and therefore cost-cutting) mind of a Hutt crime lord.
Because the Dark Saber was based on the set of plans for the original Death Star battlestation. Durga the Hutt stole these at one point from the Imperial Information Center on Coruscant, and even went so far as to “commission” the original designer of the Death Star (and other superweapons) to manufacture a planet-killing superlaser with Hutt ingenuity.
The results? A stripped down superlaser encased in a cylindrical durasteel shell. Durga had the “Imperial padding” stripped away, and removed unnecessary features like fighter docking bays and crew quarters. As well as extraneous “luxuries” like surface defenses, a superstructure, turbolaser turrets, docking ports for larger ships–all that remained was what was necessary to house the weapon. It gained the name “Darksaber” because the battlestation, little more than a superlaser encased in a kilometers-long durasteel shell, bore striking resemblance to a Jedi’s lightsaber.
As designed, the Darksaber might have been a formidable weapon. The engineer who designed it, realized you could focus the beam further inwards, allowing for a greater buildup and conversion of energy. This would give the Darksaber greater firepower and recharge times than the Death Star’s superlaser. It was also intended to be more maneuverable and easier to operate, needing only 1/1000th of the computer systems that the original Death Star required.
That was what was intended. However, Durga’s greed was legendary, and he couldn’t pass up any opportunity to skim some money off the top. To that point, Durga’s own company the Orko SkyMine Asteroid Processing Corporation financed the construction of the superweapon, but the company’s practice of cutting costs at every opportunity meant that, shockingly, the superweapon’s construction was plagued with difficulties. From low-quality materials, to outdated computer cores, to an oft-distracted hive-minded species that worked for cheap, and proved why by making many careless errors.
Durga, however, unwilling to hear of any flaws or problems with his pet project, encouraged his engineers to complete the weapon. Without the superstructure of the Death Star to build engines, on, the engineering team compromised, strapping engines to the back of the superlaser, which caused no degree of problems as the rear of the superlaser was also where the Darksaber contained its guidance computers.
These computers needed to be cooled quite frequently, and being near the engines (separated only by a thick shielding wall [shoddiily made]) meant that they were often malfunctioning. Which is important, since the Darksaber’s computer alarm system was designed to be as annoying and loud as possible to alert teams to any malfunction. Which meant that the construction in this area was particularly sloppy.
A team of Republic infiltrators would later report that dangling wires, darkened glowpanels, and random clouds of vented coolant exhaust would plague the area around the engines.
Through it all, Durga feared that insubordination might result in his crew stealing the superweapon. So Durga designed booby-trapped chairs, and mandated that all crew members be strapped to them with the understanding that Durga could execute any crewmember with whom he was displeased by causing their chair to surge with a fatal level of electricity, burning its occupant to death.
Needless to say when delays hit the Darksaber, nobody mentioned the delays to Durga. Nor did they mention the millions of micro-fractures in the durasteel hull, nor did they mention the malfunctioning computer cores. When Republic forces, led by Wedge Antilles, led a strike force to take out the Darksaber, the first time its superlaser was fired, it malfunctioned and the Darksaber was destroyed by asteroids killing everyone aboard.
Perhaps there’s a lesson somewhere in this ship about the importance of infrastructure. Who can say?
