Tarkin-II Command Cruiser
Era: The first Tarkin-II was put into service 30 years after the Battle
of Endor
Starship: the Grand Admiral Thrawn
Craft: Kuat Drive Yard's Tarkin-II Class Star Dreadnought
Type: Oversector Command Cruiser
Scale: Capital
Length: 50,000 meters
Skill: Capital Ship Piloting
Crew: 1,502,352; Gunners: 22,248; (Skeleton: 120,000/+10)
Crew Skill: Astrogation: 7D, Capital Ship Gunnery: 6D+2, Capital Ship
Piloting: 6D+1, Capital Ship Shields: 7D+1, Capital Ship Repair: 8D+2,
Capital Ship Weapons Repair: 8D, Communications: 7D, Sensors: 6D+2, StarshipGunnery:
6D
Passengers: 175,000; Troops: 300,000; Phoenix Legionnaires: 400
Cargo Capacity: 750,000 metric tons
Consumables: 20 years
Cost: 250 quadrillion credits (Support craft cost an additional 8,747,960,000
credits)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x6
Nav Comp: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: N/A
Hull: 27D+2
Shields: 12D+1, 8D of back-up shields (Shield generators are considered
to have a hull rating of 10D and have their own shield system that provides
6D of protection with 4D of backup shields)
Sensor Masking: +6D to difficulties to detect with sensors
Sensors:
Passive: 1,000/4D
Scan: 1,500/4D+2
Search: 2,000/5D+1
Focus: 300/6D
Weapons:
1 Bow-Mounted Two-Wave Grav-Shock Bombard
Scale: Death Star
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 48
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 6D
Space Range: 8-40/120/240
Atmosphere Range: 16-80/240/480 km
Damage: Gradational output can fire
once every minute at 3D damage. Can build a 12D damage charge over the
course of 4 minutes. Reactor can generate a total of 96D of damage per
day. Damage can be varied in severity and area of effect from Starfighter
Scale up to Death Star Scale and from a radius of 100 meters to a radius
of 100,000 kilometers thus allowing for the destruction of a single building
or the shredding of an entire gas giant.
20 Gravity Well Projectors
Scale: N/A
Fire Arc: 5 Front, 5 Left, 5 Right,
5 Back
Crew: 10 Each
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 2-10/30/60
Atmosphere Range: N/A
Damage: Blocks All Hyperspace Travel
2,000 Heavy Concussion Missile Launch Tubes
Scale: Capital
Fire Arc: 1,000 Front, 300 Left, 300
Right, 400 Back
Crew: 1 Each
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 3-18/36/66
Atmosphere Range: 6-36/72/132 km
Damage: 15D (15D/10D/5D/2D in an atmosphere)
Blast Radius: 0-2/8/12/20 km
Ammunition: 200 Missiles per Tube
4,000 Heavy Quad Laser Cannons
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Arc: 1,400 Front, 800 Left, 800
Right, 1,000 Back
Crew: 2 Each
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 6D
Space Range: 2-6/24/50
Atmosphere Range: 200-600/2.4/5 km
Damage: 8D
2,000 Super Heavy Turbolaser Batteries
Scale: Capital
Fire Arc: 750 Front, 400 Left, 400 Right,
450 Back
Crew: 2 Each
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 4-20/40/80
Atmosphere Range: 8-40/80/160 km
Damage: 12D
2,000 Heavy Ion Web Projectors
Scale: Capital
Fire Arc: 500 Front, 500 Left, 500 Right,
500 Back
Crew: 3 Each
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 2-15/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 4-30/60/120 km
Damage: 15D Ionization damage.
Blast Radius: Net is 500 meters in diameter
Ammunition: 200 net canisters per projector
2,000 Tractor Beam Projectors
Scale: Capital
Fire Arc: 500 Front, 500 Left, 500 Right,
500 Back
Crew: 1 Each
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 6D
Space Range: 2-10/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 4-20/60/120 km
Damage: 10D
Support Craft: 120 Squadrons Mandalore-Class Strike Fighters
48 Squadrons Tulwar-Class Assault Bombers
30 Squadrons Dragonfly-Class Dropship/Support Fighters
300 Colossus-Class Tank Droids
300 Trailblazer-Class Command Transports
3,000 Shepherd-Class Armored Personnel Carriers
3,000 Ibliton-Class Infantry Fighting Vehicles
6,000 Stormfire-Class Armored Aerospace Gunships
20,000 Avenger-Class Power Armor Units
20 Hydra-Class Attack Submersibles
12 Citadel-Class Planetary Assault Cruisers
Note: The each Citadel carries a portion of the support craft in it's
own hangar bays. The tank droids, command transports, APCs, IFVs, gunships,
and powered armor are distributed evenly between each of the 12 Citadels.
These vehicles make planetfall with the Citadels.
Capsule: The Tarkin-II Class Star Dreadnought is most notable, aside
from it's unprecedented size and firepower, for the fact that there was
no Tarkin-I Class Star Dreadnought. This is because the government which
contracted with Kuat Drive Yards for the warship's construction delivered
plans and work orders for the inclusion of the Gravshock Bombard during
the initial construction phases of the Tarkin and rather than simply rename
it or issue a new construction contract for it, Kuat Drive
Yards, with the consent of the purchasing government, the Keltarrin
Protectorate, instead released it as the Tarkin-II Class Star Dreadnought.
The New Republic has so far avoided purchasing any of the massive battlecruisers
both because of the enormous expense involved and the possible outcry that
would be caused by the use of a craft named after so hated a historical
figure as the late Grand Moff Tarkin and thus far no other government has
commissioned one to be built either. This is likely due to the immense
cost involved in purchasing and equipping one. The support craft alone
cost more than an entire squadron of Victory-Class Star Destroyers. The
Tarkins themselves are technological marvels. Measuring fifty kilometers
long, twenty kilometers wide, and over ten kilometers high, the Tarkin-II
has not only displaced the venerable Executor-Class Star Destroyer as the
largest warship ever built, but has taken that title to an extreme that
many would have thought impossible. With over twelve thousand conventional
weapons spread over its fifty kilometer length and more than thirty-four
thousand support craft ranging from starfighters and airspeeders to tank
droids and attack submersibles, the Tarkin-II carries more firepower than
a dozen Executor-Class Star Destroyers and the equivalent of an entire
army in troops and air and ground assault vehicles. Twelve Citadel-Class
planetary assault cruisers line the underside of the vast warship in two
rows of six, one on each side. Each assault cruiser is capable of dropping
to a planet's surface with its payload of over twenty-five hundred assault
vehicles and support personnel. All three hundred thousand troops carried
aboard ship can be dropped to a planet's surface in approximately five
hours. Once the assault cruisers have landed they function as garrison
bases and command centers for the troops with each being capable of handling
twenty-five thousand soldiers. For truly daunting or exceptionally special
combat mission each Tarkin carries four hundred Phoenix Legionaries along
with a suit of Avenger-Class power armor for each warrior. The main weapon
of the Tarkin is its enormous Two-Wave Grav-Shock Bombard which gapes from
the front end of the ship like an immense maw. This devastating weapon
works by sending out an intense gravitic wave which causes the target's
intrinsic gravity to increase a thousand-fold and localize in a single
spot. Then a second wave is produced which pulls the gravity point a variable
distance from that spot decimating the area with tremendously powerful
shearing force. The gravity point can be used to shatter a single building,
crush a city block, smash a city, or reduce an entire mountain range to
powder. If the gravity point is directed violently enough the tidal forces
of a planet's own magnified gravity ripping through its core can completely
shred it rendering the planet a lifeless, floating cloud of rubble in mere
seconds. This horrifying weapon is also useful against
Capital Ships and space stations. Since all things have a an intrinsic
gravity field, no matter how weak, the bombard can shred a Star Destroyer
as easily as it can a planet. In addition to devastating weaponry, the
Tarkins have a hull that averages twenty meters thick, sometimes reaching
as much as fifty meters, and is no less than five meters thick at its thinnest
point. Areas of traditional vulnerability in Star Destroyer designs have
been given special attention on the Tarkins. Sections like the main bridge,
the hangar bays, and the shield generators have been completely reworked
from the traditional stylings. The main bridge is located deep inside the
ship instead of exposed on a vulnerable bridge tower. Visual and sensory
information is fed to the bridge by a variety of multiply redundant systems
that weave in and out of the hull of the ship. Identifying a sensor pod
is well nigh impossible due to the immense stretches of hull that need
to be searched. This level of examination is impractical in combat and
near-impossible at other times due to the powerful sensor masking systems
that sheath the ship at all times. The hangar bays have been redesigned
from older models so that instead of a central docking chamber which gapes
open to any and all suicide attacks that might come its way there are rows
of launch bays lining the edges of the centerline trench. Each launch bay
consists of six launch chutes which can accommodate ships of up to medium
freighter size. Each launch chute is large enough to allow two Mandalore
or Tulwar fighter to launch simultaneously or one Dragonfly dropship. This
allows an entire squadron of fighters to be launched at once and yet makes
assaults on the vulnerable insides of the Tarkin difficult to attempt.
Four launch chute clusters, arranged in a box formation, are set in ten
kilometer intervals along each side of a Tarkin so that there are a total
of ten clusters on each side. This allows a Tarkin to launch nine hundred
and sixty fighters at once and potentially launch its entire complement
of over two thousand fighters in just under a minute. This launch time
is actually an improvement over conventional hangar bays in terms of launch
time and is much safer against enemy attack. There is a structure about
ten kilometers from the very back portion of the ship which corresponds
to the traditional bridge tower but this is actually an armored bunker
containing the shield generators. This hardened fortress-like emplacement
contains the massive power reactors that feed energy to the various shield
points around the ship. While its semi-exposed location might make it a
tempting target for attackers who are used to punching a quick hole in
the shields and feeding the generators a barrage of proton torpedoes, this
would be a fool-hardy move at best. The hull plating in this area is over
forty meters thick and the generators have their own independent shield
system protecting them. The Tarkin-IIs are also equipped with a full-scale
holonet system which is fully as powerful as anything to be found in the
New Republic Core Worlds. This allows for oversector-level coordination
with thousands of different civilian and military stations. It also is
the only way that a vessel this enormous could sustain a sensor masking
system. Without a planetary-scale holonet system a Tarkin would be just
as easily detected as any other craft. But by using the holonet together
with the sensor systems and the main computer a Tarkin can generate a near-perfect
illusion of empty space around itself. This masking system is almost never
used since the Keltarrin Protectorate would prefer to keep this little
capability secret. While no special precautions are taken to keep crew
members away from the areas where the stealth systems are located, all
personnel who are considered for assignment to the stealth systems are
thoroughly screened to weed out possible spies. Those who are suspected
of actually being spies are assigned elsewhere without ever being told
of the stealth systems at all. Only after it has been determined that a
crewmember is completely loyal is the person transferred to the Special
Sensory Array Division, which is the euphemism for the stealth systems.
Even then the equipment they work on is so enormous that few ever guess
what its true purpose is. While the Protectorate knows that someone will
eventually find out about the sensor masking systems, if someone hasn't
already, Grand Protector Skolaris feels that the effort is worth the trouble.
One other unusual feature of the Tarkins is that unlike many military vessels
there are enough escape pods for every single crewmember serving aboard
ship. The escape pod system actually utilizes the vast turbolift system
that fills the vessel. Each turbolift car is an escape pod. The pod controls
and survival gear is built into concealed panels in the walls of the lift
car and are designed to be completely inaccessible until the pod is actually
launched. This prevents infiltrators from acquiring gear and equipment
as they go throughout the ship by simply ransacking a lift car. Any attempt
to access the survival gear not only sets off alarms on the bridge and
the nearest guard station, it also seals the car and releases a gas into
the car which can render most carbon-based lifeforms unconscious in under
five seconds. However, when the evacuation order is given from the bridge,
or when the proper launch sequence is entered into the destination panel,
the pod starts a thirty second countdown to launch during which time the
concealed controls and shock couches emerge from the wall. The shock couches
are actually heavily padded recesses into the walls that a person straps
in to standing up. At the end of the countdown the pod, which has its own
separate power supply activated in such emergencies, sends a powerful pulse
to the electromagnetic rail system that the lift cars run on which sends
the pod screaming down the most direct route out of the ship at approximately
fifteen hundred kilometers per hour.There are handholds concealed in the
floor that can be uncovered and grasped if the car is overloaded during
emergency evacuation, though the supersonic rush to safety is anything
but safe for those not strapped into the shock couches. Once clear of the
ship the escape pod's maneuvering thrusters automatically move it to a
location at least seventy-five spacial units from any other object over
eight meters in length except for another escape pod. The pod has a rudimentary
sensor system that scans for proximity and adjust course accordingly. Once
it reaches the minimum distance from other objects the pod engages a single-use
micro-hyperdrive which is programmed to take it directly to Alderaan Secundus,
the Capital World of the Keltarrin Protectorate. There are only nine Tarkin-IIs.
The first of these, the Grand Moff Tarkin is the official flagship of the
Keltarrin Navy and is under the command of Lord Joran Tigellinus, the grandson
of the late Grand Admiral Rufaan Tigellinus. Lord Tigellinus serves as
Supreme Commander for all of the naval forces of the Keltarrin Protectorate.
The ship listed above, the Grand Admiral Thrawn, is the unofficial flagship
of the Keltarrin Navy, being Grand Protector Skolaris' personal vessel.
All of the Tarkins are named great historical military or historical figures.
Each ship was personally named by Grand Protector Skolaris who made no
attempt to champion any one political ideology or military philosophy when
assigning names. He merely chose the names of those men and women who he
personally felt had changed the galaxy the most for good or ill over recorded
history. This has caused quite a bit of consternation within the New Republic
since several of the huge battlewagons are named after heroes and martyrs
of the New Republic. Skolaris, however, cares not one bit what the New
Republic thinks of him, his warships, or his choice in names for those
ships. The other seven Tarkin-II Star Dreadnoughts are the Xim the Despot,
the Empress Teta, the Senator Bail Organa, the General Obi-Wan Kenobi,
the Senator Garm Bel Iblis, the Field Marshal Crix Madine, and the Prince
Xizor. This last name was given under a firestorm of controversy since
it is now well-known that the Falleen Prince Xizor was for many years the
mastermind of the Black Sun galactic criminal organization. Many within
the Protectorate itself balked at the idea of naming one of their mightiest
warships after a gang boss but Grand Protector Skolaris would hear none
if it. When asked about his naming choice at a press conference Skolaris
merely smirked and said "For better or for worse, Prince Xizor changed
the galaxy. In his time he revolutionized organized crime, maintained dozens
of highly profitable and legitimate businesses, managed to play the Empire
against the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and did all this from a palace
not fifty miles from the palace of Emperor Palpatine. Besides, Xizor and
I had similar tastes in enemies." This rather cryptic statement was followed
by an uncharacteristic broad grin and chuckle after which the Grand Protector
changed the subject. Regardless of the reasons behind the naming of the
Prince Xizor, the mighty warship that bears that name is, like it's sister
ships, a marvel and a wonder to behold.