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The Eclipse-class dreadnought, also known as the Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer or Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, was a Class of capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. Served in the Galactic Empire were a Line class of the Super star Destroyers(SSD) Project manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards and mainly used around 10 ABY. Nearly six years after the Battle of Endor. Like the Sovereign-class dreadnought, they were regarded as a new generation of Super Star Destroyer.

Characteristics

Size

The Eclipse-class vessels are among the largest dreadnought-scale ships/Super Star Destroyers to ever be fielded within Galactic history. Although technically being dwarfed in length only by both the Executor-class Star Dreadnought and the Vengeance-class dreadnought by 1.5 kilometers, the Eclipse-class vessels nonetheless outrank even the Executor-class overall in terms of mass and overall size. Its size in addition is also large enough for it to also be classified as a space station if docked. The Eclipse, alongside its sister ship, the Eclipse II began construction early in the Galactic Civil War, around 0 ABY. The Eclipse was built above Kuat, whereas the Eclipse II was being built over Byss. Both ships' hulls were derived from ancient naval warships. While the lead ship was being built, the original Eclipse-class prototype vessel was converted to become the battle station Tarkin. The Tarkin was destroyed by a Rebel sabotage team in 3 ABY.

Offensive and defensive systems

The most deadly weapon carried by Eclipse-class ships was an axial superlaser, similar to but significantly less powerful than one of the component beams used in the Death Star's Concave Dish Composite Beam Superlaser. This superlaser was the pinnacle of Imperial destruction in their fleets.

An Eclipse's superlaser easily had the power to destroy other Super Star Destroyers, as the Executor Class Super star Destroyer found out when Tyber Zann seized the Eclipse's incredible power above Kuat.

Destroying other ships however, doesn't show the extent of the Eclipse's superlaser's power. These weapons were capable of slashing through any planetary shield to crack open a planet's crust and sear entire continental landmasses. The massive superlaser was more widely used to destroy enemy capital ships and space stations during combat.

The class benefited from the most significant weaponry-improvements of the last few decades. This included gravity well projectors and improved ion cannons. Additionally, these behemoths were armed with hundreds of heavy laser and turbolaser mountings.

In addition to its firepower, the Eclipse-class's armor and shields were so powerful that it could ram enemy ships without any risk of taking damage, and without hesitance.

Propulsion systems

The Eclipse-class was more mobile than the Death Star, being equipped with both an enhanced hyperdrive and fast Sublight drives engines.

Complement

An Eclipse-class vessel carried 600 TIE interceptor and 96 TIE bomber|, divided into 58 squadrons; for ground assault, they carried 150,000 Imperial soldiers, 100 AT-ATs, and five Prefabricated garrison Bases.The hangars were located at the sides of the vessel, with the fore and aft launch bays closely spaced underneath this area, towards the middle of the ship.

Each ship of the class was crewed by over 700,000 personnel, and Eclipse II also carried a complement of Shadow Droid starfighters. Troop quarters were located on the lower frontal section of the vessel, in front of the hangar areas.

Bridge tower

The bridge tower contained the main communications array and sensor array, located on the port side and starboard side, respectively. In addition to containing the main command station for the ship on the lower portion of the tower, it also housed the deflector shield command center, on the top area.

Variances

There were several variances between the two known vessels of this class, the Eclipse I and the Eclipse II: The Eclipse I possessed six engines on the back, whereas the Eclipse II possessed eight. In addition, the Eclipse I had the engines being separate from each other and more to the sides, whereas the Eclipse II are grouped together in a manner similar to other Star Destroyers. Lastly, the Eclipse II has a command bridge tower directly over the superlaser weapon that the Eclipse I lacked.

Fictional History

By 4 ABY, both the Eclipse and the Eclipse II had its superlaser main weapon installed and in functional condition. However, both ships ended up significantly delayed in terms of completion thanks to Palpatine's demise and the power vacuum that ensued. In addition, the crime lord Tyber Zann wanted to access records on the ship, and if possible steal the ship, so he attacked Kuat and took control of the ship, and used to it to damage an Imperial and rebel fleet. Afterwards, Zann had no further use for the vessel, finding its size to be more cumbersome for laying low to even the Rebel Alliance, and left it adrift.

Later on, this ship was completed and became the reborn Emperor Palpatine's flagship, with its sister ship Eclipse II assuming the same role after the original's destruction.

Approximately 17.5 kilometers long on the keel, these jet-black battleships were among the largest Super Star Destroyers ever built, and among the most heavily armed warships of all time. In terms of scale, they were the successors to dreadnoughts like Eye of Palpatine and the Kuati Star Dreadnoughts that preceded the New Republic era.

Eclipse took almost as long to construct as either of the Empire's Death Star battlemoons, and for most of her career, she served as an orbital battlestation at Byss. At some point later, the Eclipse came out of hyperspace, to which its black hull caused some New Republic forces to initially believe that it was a ghost ship, although they quickly realized that the ship was in fact real when it opened fire to which only the information officer, Nara Dun, survived and managed to inform New Republic forces about the attack.

She was destroyed along with the reborn Emperor in 10 ABY, during an Imperial attack on Pinnacle Moon in the Da Soocha system, when Luke Skywalker and his sister, Princess Leia Organa Solo, managed to disrupt the Emperor's control of a titanic Force storm (wormhole)|Force storm, a massive conflagration of dark side energy that the Emperor had summoned in order to wipe out the massed New Republic fleet.

After this catastrophe, the Eclipse II replaced the original. It was slightly different than its predecessor, with different thrusters. Above the planet Onderon, Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles led a small boarding party against the mighty battleship, and R2-D2 was able to override Eclipse II's computer banks. The astromech droid then sent Eclipse II hurtling through hyperspace on a collision course with the superweapon Galaxy Gun. Eclipse II rammed the Galaxy Gun, destroying both. One last projectile was pulled by Byss's gravity and impacted the planet, the resulting explosion annihilating Byss.

Depiction

The Dark Empire Sourcebook states that Eclipse was 17.5 kilometers long; this contradicts the description given in Dark Empire, where the ship is said to reach "ten miles from stem to stern", or 16 kilometers. The author of the Dark Empire Sourcebook has apparently suggested that an additional 1.5 kilometers was added to the first ship of this class. This is supposed to indicate that particular ship's customization and personalization, with the standard design being only 16 kilometers long. Alternatively, "ten miles from stem to stern" might be merely a vague, rhetorical figure, or the discrepancy may be the result of the long and spasmodic construction period, or it may represent a difference between Eclipse and Eclipse II. To add to the confusion, the Eclipse entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia states a length of 17.5 kilometers the Star Destroyer entry has the length at 16 kilometers, which could be a typo since the Star Destroyer is 1,600 meters long.

Regardless of size, considering the initial statements of the size of Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts, it's clear that the Eclipse was intended to be much larger than them. With later statements about the size of Executor ships, the Eclipse is actually shorter, though still likely more massive.

There is also an apparent contradiction in the information on for Eclipse's construction. According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, design work on Eclipse was begun after the Battle of Hoth, while Byss and the Deep Core claims that she was under construction for as long as either Death Star, hinting a timeframe of decades (it should be noted that, at the time Byss and the Deep Core was written, the timescale of Death Star construction was believed to be much shorter, on the order of years).

Byss and the Deep Core further hints that Eclipse was parked in orbit at Byss before the Battle of Endor, as it is only in this timeframe that she could have served as a rendezvous point for meetings of the Grand Admirals as claimed in the text (although the Grand Admirals referred to may be a new group that postdates the original 12); but The Essential Chronology says that she was built at Kuat and only moved to Byss four and a half years after the Battle of Endor, when she was stolen in a partially-completed state by Lira Wessex and her design team shortly before the shipyards surrendered to the New Republic.

There are several ways of explaining these perceived discrepancies, but it is possible that, as with Executor and her sister-ship Lusankya (also originally named Executor), Eclipse and Eclipse II were constructed simultaneously in two different shipyards, with the existence of each being kept secret from the people working on the other. The potential discrepancies in timeframe may be a matter of in-universe error, with the fictional authors who serve as the real-world writers' proxies being unaware of the true length of construction.

Some fans regard the stated power of Eclipse's superlaser as paradoxical. It is described as not powerful enough to destroy a planet, but as capable of overpowering planetary shields and as 2/3rds the power of the Death Star's prime weapon; but some fan calculations suggest that a weapon of such power would be more than sufficient to destroy a planet, and some fans believe that planetary shields are actually harder to destroy than planets. Those who wish to reconcile these beliefs with the canon statements suggest that the "2/3rds" figure refers instead to the magnitude of the energy release as opposed to the total value; this would put the main weapon below the threshold necessary to destroy a planet.

Another possibility, as the Death Star's superlaser consisted of eight individual beams which combined into a single larger beam after firing, is that the Eclipse-class' superlaser had 2/3rds the power of one of the Death Star superlaser's component beams. Alternatively, it may be that the fan-calculations are in error; the exact destructive mechanism of a hypermatter-fueled superlaser isn't fully understood other than it being a direct energy transfer weapon. With The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels mentioning it as being made to penetrate a planet's crust, this is still far less than what either Death Star was capable of, which was pulverizing an entire planet.

Another suggestion is that perhaps Eclipse could destroy a planet, but not if the shot's power is depleted by having to travel through a planetary shield.

References

1. Star Wars: A New Hope script "Star Wars: Databank: Super Star Destroyer". Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2013-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
2. "Star Wars: Databank: Super Star Destroyer". Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
3. "Star Wars Wikia: Databank: Eclipse-class_dreadnought". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
4. "Star Wars Wikia: Databank: Eclipse_II". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
5. "hangarbay.tripod.com/td-Eclipse-class_dreadnought". hangarbay.tripod. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
6. "theforce.net". theforce.net. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
7. "Palpatine persona Carrier ". http://galactic-voyage.com. Retrieved 2013-03-06. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
8. "Weapons of Eclipse class Super Star Destroyer ". www.moddb.com. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
9. ^ Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
10. "Star Wars Wikia: Databank: Eclipse_(starship)". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
11. "Star Wars Wikia: Databank: Eclipse Superlaser". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
12. ^ Dark Empire
13. "Star Wars Wikia: Databank: Eclipse_(starship) TIE/IN interceptor". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
14. ^ Empire's End
15. Children of the Jedi
16. "Dark Empire 2: Devastator of Worlds". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
17. "Dark Empire II". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
18. "Star Wars Wikia: Byss". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
19. "Dark empire 1". starwars wikia. Retrieved 2013-03-06.

External links

• Imperial Star Destroyer in the StarWars.com Databank
• Star Destroyer on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Super Star Destroyer on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Venator Star Destroyer on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Category:Star Destroyers on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki

• Star Wars spaceships
• Fictional motherships