There is perhaps no greater symbol of the Empire’s dominance, no greater argument
for the futility of defiance, than the colossal flagship of its mighty fleet, the Tarkin doctrine
epitomised, the Executor Class Super Star Destroyer.
Larger by a factor of ten than most Imperial Warships and wielding the firepower of an
entire fleet of Star Destroyers, a single Executor Class was more than capable of engaging
entire hostile battlegroups, and conducting full scale planetary invasions without reinforcements.
Even without engaging in combat, the mere terrifying presence of the Executor Class
has been known to inspire the immediate retreat or surrender of hostile forces, and as a means
of maintaining order and security through fear the ship was second only to the Death
Star.
19,000 Meters in length and approximately 4000 Meters across, the Executor Class was
the largest starship in the galaxy at the time of its commissioning, and one of the
largest in recorded history.
Over 280,000 officers, gunners and crewmen served aboard each vessel, with personnel
and cargo being ferried throughout its vast interior by rail-jet carriages and turbolifts.
The Executor class was designed by the brilliant Lira Wessex of Kuat Drive Yards, who had previously
designed the extremely successful Venator and Imperial Class Star Destroyers, Wessex
had intended for the Executor to represent a quantum surge in starship design, exceeding
all of KDY’s previous works.
The Executor Class carried an enormous array of weaponry, in excess of most imperial fleets,
included in this arsenal were 2000 turbolaser cannons supplemented by a further 2000 heavy
turbolaser cannons.
The ship also boasted 250 ion cannons, 250 concussion missile batteries and a huge array
of point defence weapons.
The Executor class was also capable of carrying thousands of TIE Series Starfighters, as well
as five full legions of Stormtroopers, amounting to 38,000 troops.
In order to support this massive infantry force during planetary invasions, the vessel
also carried 30 AT-AT’s and 40 AT-ST’s as well as 2 prefabricated garrison bases
and 200 assault shuttles.
The Command Tower of the Executor Class was almost twice as wide as the length of a CR90
Correlian Corvette and required its own dedicated shield generators and life support system.
The tower played host to the bridge, officers’ quarters, mess halls, Starfighter coordination
centres and holonet communications suites.
The Command Tower’s shaft was lined with massive heat-sink panels and radiators intended
to dissipate the heat built up by the ship’s gargantuan hypermatter reactors.
These reactors provided the massive amounts of energy needed to power the vessel’s 13
engines, each the size of a small starship in their own right.
At least one Executor Class vessel, the Terror, was known to have been outfitted with a Stygium
Crystal fuelled cloaking device, allowing the ship to become fully invisible to both
sensors and the naked eye.
This feature increased the already massive monetary cost of constructing an Executor
Class to a level even the Galactic Empire could not reasonably sustain, for this reason
the Terror remained the only Super Star Destroyer ever to be outfitted with cloaking technology,
and the ship was assigned as a carrier for the Empire’s wing of Prototype TIE Phantom’s
until it’s destruction by the Rebel Alliance in 3 ABY.
Construction of the first Executor Class vessels began on the order of Emperor Palpatine in
3 BBY, initially two of the vessels were built simultaneously, the Executor, the first of
the class was constructed at Fondor Shipyards, while her sister ship the Lusankya was assembled
at Kuat Drive Yards.
The Executor would go on to become easily the most well-known ship of its class, striking
fear into the galaxy as the personal flagship of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Though the Empire built several more Executor Class vessels across the course of the Galactic
Civil War, Vader’s flagship was always the most famous, at the head of the huge battlegroup
known as Death Squadron, the Executor was involved in several crucial engagements with
the Rebel Alliance across the course of the Galactic Civil War, including the Blockade
of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth.
The Executor would finally meet its end in the pivotal battle over Endor in 4 ABY, having
been expressly ordered to remain at station keeping outside of the main engagement zone,
and with its fighter complement out of position engaging alliance forces, the Executor was
left vulnerable to rebel Starfighter attacks, and suffered damage to one of its command
tower’s sensor domes, overloading the bridge deflector shields.
In a moment of tremendous luck for the Alliance, the brief loss of shielding on the Executor’s
bridge coincided with Alliance A-Wing pilot Arvel Crynyd suffering serious damage to his
craft and electing to sacrifice his life by ramming the Executor’s Bridge.
The small fighter penetrated the Super Star Destroyer’s command deck and exploded, instantly
killing Admiral Firmus Piett and his entire command staff.
With control completely lost in the middle of a battle manoeuvre, the mighty executor
slammed into the surface of the second Death Star and was completely obliterated.
Though the loss of the Executor at Endor would be serious blow to the Imperial Remnant in
the years following the battle, other Executor Class vessels such as the Lusankya, Reaper,
Intimidator and Knight Hammer would go on to serve in several conflicts years after
the Galactic Civil War, some in service to the Imperial Remnant, some at the command
of rogue Imperial Warlords, and some even sized by the New Republic to serve in their
growing Starfleet.
Regardless of their masters however, the terrifying presence of the Executor was never diminished,
and the massive vessels continued to be one of the most feared sights in the galaxy, even
decades after the Emperor’s death.