Death Star II
Craft: Custom Deep Space Battle Station
Type: Deep-space mobile battle station
Scale: Death Star
Length: 160 kilometers (diameters)
Skill: Battle station piloting: Death Star
Crew: 485,560, gunners: 152,276, skeleton 127,850/+15
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D+1, battle station piloting 6D, capital ship gunnery 5D, starship gunnery 4D+2
Passengers: 1,295,950 (troops), 127,570 (stormtroopers), 75,860 (starship support staff), 334,432 (support ship pilots and crew)
Cargo Capacity: Over one million kilotons
Consumables: 3 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x20
Nav Computer: Yes
Space: 2
Hull: 18D
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
- Passive: 350/1D
- Scan: 1,500/2D
- Search: 7,500/3D
- Focus: 60/4D+2
Weapons:
- Superlaser
- Fire Arc: Forward
Crew: 168, skeleton 48/+10
Scale: Death Star
Skill: Capital ship gunnery: superlaser
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-20/40/100
Damage: 2D-16D *
- 15,000 Turbolaser Batteries
- Fire Arc: Turret**
Crew: 3
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Body: 3D (capital scale)
Fire Control 1D
Space Range: 1-20/40/100
Damage: 5D
- 15,000 Heavy Turbolasers
- Fire Arc: Turret**
Crew: 4
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Body: 4D (capital scale)
Fire Control:
- 7,500 Laser Cannons
- Fire Arc: Turret**
Crew: 3
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Body: 4D (capital scale)
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-5/10/15
Damage:7D
- 5,000 Ion Cannons
- Fire Arc: Turret**
Crew: 4
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Body: 4D (capital scale)
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/7-10
Damage: 4D
- 768 Tractor Beam Emplacements
- Fire Arc: Turret**
Crew: 6
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Body: 5D (capital scale)
Fire Control 1D
Space Range: 1-5/10/25
Damage: 5D
Capsule: The Death Star II was the second Death Star battlestation to be constructed by the Galactic Empire. It was much larger than its predecessor, measuring over 900 kilometers wide, and was built after the destruction of the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. Emperor Palpatine insisted on the reconstruction of the battlestation, as it was an integral part in his plan to destroy the Rebel Alliance, leaving the galaxy in the hands of the Empire.
The Death Star's superlaser was revealed to be operational before the construction of the station was completed, surprising the Alliance attackers during the Battle of Endor. This was Emperor Palpatine's plan all along, and it nearly led to the loss of the Rebels. The Alliance ground forces on the forest moon of Endor managed to deactivate the energy shield surrounding the battlestation, and the Rebel fleet proceeded to destroy the station from within, signifying the beginning of the downfall of the Empire.
Characteristics
Like its predecessor, the Death Star II was made of quadanium steel and equally divided into two hemispheres, which were in turn subdivided into 12 zones. The newest incarnation of this dreaded superweapon, however, had a monstrous diameter of over 900 kilometers, demonstrating the intellectual and physical evolution of the Death Star I. If completed, the planetoid would have likely boasted a hyperdrive system similar to the original, comprising 123 (or more, given the larger size) individual generators.
The second iteration of the battlestation was also designed by engineer Bevel Lemelisk, the original Death Star's designer. Lemelisk was executed for the design flaws in the final version of the destroyed Death Star I, but was cloned by Emperor Palpatine in order to redesign the superweapon, eliminating the flaws of the former battlestation. In the newest version, he added thousands of turbolasers while removing any external weaknesses.
The most important revisions to the Death Star design made by Lemelisk were made to take into account and eradicate the technical flaws of the original battlestation which had enabled it to be destroyed during the Battle of Yavin. The first major change made in this redesign was the elimination of the two-meter-wide thermal exhaust port that was used to ignite a chain reaction in the main reactor of the first Death Star, destroying it. This was greatly improved, from a defensive standpoint, in the new revision. Instead of venting gases out of a single port, millions of millimeter-wide exhaust ports were scattered over the surface of the station, each of which propelled a small amount of the excess heat and gases into the vacuum. The new system also took advantage of new highly-advanced protections and safe-guards that would seal the small exhaust ports in the event of any unexpected excess of heat or energy.
The second main advancement in the second Death Star battlestation was the improvement of its superlaser. Still located in the northern hemisphere of the battlestation, the much improved superlaser equipped in the second Death Star was much more powerful than its predecessor, and took only three minutes to recharge, in comparison to the 24 hour recharge required for the first Death Star's superlaser. In addition, while the first Death Star only had the capabilities to fire on very large targets, such as planetary bodies, the improved superweapon was upgraded with additional lower-power weapon fire options and targeting systems that were more suited for fine-tuned accuracy, while still maintaining great destructive power, in order to fire the powerful weapon on enemy capital ships. The increased external surface area of the new station also allowed for larger amounts of conventional armaments, such as turbolasers and other defense batteries, to be placed, further increasing the already impressive Death Star's defenses.
History
Unlike the Empire's first Death Star, which, as a result of supply and design problems, took twenty-one years to be considered an operational battlestation, this much larger Death Star took far less time, approximately two to four years, to construct. Methods of faster construction had been developed in the years since the original station's conception, added to the fact that Imperial engineers made sure to allocate enough space on the station for the maximum possible amount of self-replicating construction droids.
The second Death Star's building location remained secret from the Alliance, unlike the first station's construction site at Despayre. After the initial stages of construction, the station was put under the command of Darth Vader during its relocation to a new construction site in the Endor system. Endor was selected due to the massive concentration of strategic metals on the planets Dor, Eloggi, and Megiddo in the system, but the actual construction site was in geosynchronous orbit around the forested Sanctuary Moon, protected by a powerful shield generator on the moon's surface.