World Devastators

No sooner was the original Death Star destroyed than the Emperor, from his throne on Coruscant, decreed
another should be built. Most who heard this mistook it for posturing: an attempt to deny the Rebel Alliance any satisfaction from their triumph. As time passed and appropriations charters arrived, they realized that he was all too serious.

Even as this second Death Star was being assembled, Umak Leth, Chief Engineer to the Emperor, came to his master with a new design for a molecular furnace that could break down the physical structure of matter. There had been devices of this type for years, on Coruscant in particular. On this ancient world, these machines razed older buildings, recycled the crumbling masonry and transparisteel, and left gleaming new spires in their places. The technology had also been incorporated into mining droids for many centuries. Leth's model was different. It had a much more sophisticated way of magnetically separating matter into constituent elements, then shaping them with sophisticated force beams and automata.

Pleased with this development, the Emperor agreed to fund further study with one caveat: a way must be found to harness this device to handle the industrial needs of the Empire. After months of work, Leth perfected a design concept that would take hold of an object with tractor beams and draw it into the molecular furnace. Shattering chemical bonds with intrinsic force negators, the materials could be stored in force bubbles of thallium, cadmium, impervium and other metals.

Presenting this idea to the Emperor, he was pleased with the reaction. The second Death Star project was proceeding well and plans were made for the Emperor to personally supervise its completion. Palpatine gave specific orders to begin work on a weapons platform to be constructed around the molecular furnace. It was to be self-sustaining and capable of enormous destruction.

In funding Leth's project, Palpatine cleverly exploited his engineer's ambition to exceed the great Bevel Lemelisk. Since he replaced Lemelisk as Master of Imperial Projects, he craved the opportunity to make a lasting mark of his own; the shadow of Lemelisk's Death Star had to be overcome. To succeed where the Death Star had failed would be quite an achievement and earn him a place in Imperial history. In doing so. he was also fulfilling long held and secret plans of the Emperor himself.

Of course, the Emperor's presumed death might have been expected to slow the work or kill the project out right. But, armed with irrevocable funding writs. Leth was determined to see just how far his talent could take him. No matter the cost.

The Design

The amount of coordination needed to run and maintain a World Devastator's myriad functions is a challenge to the most able crew. Rather than rely on countless individual droids, Leth opted for a sole high-functioning droid brain, reaching a level of automation unparalleled in any previous Imperial vessel. Even the Old Republic had never created a vehicle of this level of complexity. A new generation of highly advanced computers handled the major functions of the World Devastators.

The secret of these titanic weapons is that they are not vehicles in the traditional sense at all. All higher systems, like life support and defense, function in the same manner as standard Imperial craft, with weapons crewed by organics. However, the factories arid production systems are controlled by artificially intelligent computer brains. The World Devastators are enormous droids: the crew, technicians and slaves live in special compartments inside. They perform the programming and feed information to the central brains, but once this is done, the Devastators operate freely within their designated parameters.

When armed and shielded, a World Devastator would be virtually immune to attack. Even as the enemy
threw their resources at it, it would take them up and devise new weapons to hurl at its targets.

The first such Devastator, the Silencer-1, began construction in secret at the newly reopened shipyard in orbit around Thomork. Closed years ago because of a new strain of contagious hive virus, the system had taken on the dark reputation of a massacre site. The Emperor's agents had to kill over 450 people to make their story hold, but the area was soon as infamous as the fabled Dagobah system. In fact, the whole station was undamaged and, with the colony abandoned, perfect for a top secret project such as this.

The Master Control Signal

Considering the awesome destructive capability of these weapons, they would be a formidable threat if one were to go haywire or fall into enemy hands. Some previous Imperial combat droids had done just that. One memorable example was an assassin droid that killed most of the audience at a swoop tournament while pursuing a single target (this incident led to assassin droids being "officially" outlawed). Obviously, precautions had to be taken. Therefore, a special coded override circuit, the Master Control Signal, is hardwired into the main system computer of each World Devastator.

This circuit responds only to a special HoloNet hyperchannel frequency originating from Byss.

This Master Control Signal utilizes new HoloNet frequencies and is broadcast at all times. It is responsible for coordinating the functions of all the Devastators in a single battle group.

The Master Control Signal is the most highly guarded secret in the entire Imperial arsenal because with it one can override all commands from the bridge. In case of emergency, it is possible to temporarily shut down the entire mechanism long enough for repairs to be made.

Of course, the Master Control Signal was the downfall of the Empire at Calamari. Luke Skywalker retrieved the codes for the Rebellion, and R2-D2 was able to command the World Devastators to shut down and turn their weapons upon each other.

Construction

While standardization and interchangeability are hallmarks of Imperial technology policy, the World Devastator is unique among Imperial war machines in that no two of them are identical. This is because they are not assembled by droids and techs: they assemble themselves. In effect, they build themselves while in operation.

All World Devastators begin as virtually identical machines. They have a basic brain core, although individual machines may have specialized programming for specific functions. Each World Devastator has sensor webs, factory maintenance subsystems and cognitive defensive subroutines. Once these powerful processors are brought on line, they are attached to the fabrication units and molecular furnaces.

The fabrication units include machining scanners, robotic lathes and automated assembly lines to turn the raw materials into weapons, droids and combat vehicles. The computer and the initial fabrication units are supported by a framework, called an endoskeleton, which determines the Devastator's final shape. The molecular furnace and its attendant software, which is responsible for breaking down raw materials, is also attached to the endoskeleton in the initial construction phase.

Once the endoskeleton is assembled, the proto-Devastator is allowed to run under supervision for a few weeks. Fed a steady supply of slag metals and raw ores, it atomizes them all and begins churning out parts, including additional body sections, weapons for the Devastator and larger assembly lines. While the endoskeletons of all Devastators look identical during this early phase, subtle differences become apparent as the machines build themselves.

After the first stages of construction, the World Devastator is normally only a few hundred meters at a side; it is in its "adolescence." The World Devastator will now be sent into battle, where all further development will occur.

At this stage, the Devastators are at their most vulnerable. The new machines attack in groups to maximize battle effectiveness and gather enough materials to increase their size and produce vehicles, starships and other vital weapons. This is where the self-improvement programming comes into play. The longer a Devastator functions, the more it improves and modifies itself, growing larger and more lethal.

As individual units grow larger, the battle squadron splits into smaller and smaller groups. Theoretically, a single Devastator could eventually become large enough to strip a planet unaided in a few weeks or even days. Neither Umak Leth nor his technicians have any idea what the upper limit to a Devastator's growth is.

Functions

Perhaps nothing so characterized the nature of Palpatine's New Order as much as the Tarkin Doctrine. It is still one of the underlying principles by which the Empire governs. While both Death Stars were destroyed, this in no way invalidates the Tarkin Doctrine that spawned them. The World Devastator actually improves its effectiveness by virtue of its self-contained nature. Cannibalizing what it needs and refining the materials to make new vehicles and fighters, Devastators are excellent weapons. The amount of time it takes to lay waste to a planet may be quite long compared to the instantaneous destruction of a planet with the superlaser, but the World Devastator wastes nothing.

Raw materials are molecularized and siphoned off to the fabrication plants deep in the bellies of these behemoth constructs. Subsidiary computers hold design specifications for dozens of different robot fighters, battlespeeders and automated tanks. Based on priorities assigned by the commander, the master technicians set production levels and assembly schedules. With so many interconnected computer systems, a realignment of assembly priorities can take several hours. Once the computers have the designs on-line, the great internal factories can begin working on the fabrication.

As the first of the elements and alloys are channeled by force field into the forming chambers, they are shaped and formed, molded by robot manipulators and welded, cut, stamped and tooled into the necessary parts. The parts are then moved to the assembly lines, where droids, workers and slaves begin assembling the new machines to correspond to the selected patterns.

The two most important individuals in the on-board factories are the Calibration Engineer, who maintains the furnace temperature and force field siphons, and the Assembly Commander, who must oversee the actual production to peak efficiency.

During a battle situation, the commander may either rely on the built-in turbolasers, ion cannons or other weapons, or he may begin charging up the battle craft the Devastator manufactures. Many of these are automated craft that are controlled by combat technicians from the bridge. Alternatively, the Devastators work in tandem with heavily armored military transports that ferry the many pilots and crew members necessary to operate any manned vehicles that are built. The World Devastator uses a series of tractor beam projectors to direct materials into the maw of the molecular furnace, which has a layer of plasma shields around it to protect the World Devastator itself.

The sun-hot maw of the molecular furnace at the front, bottom or rear of a World Devastator can break down any structure, from bare mountainside to starship to gleaming city. Even starships aren't immune to the effect, as demonstrated by the fate of the Rebel Star Destroyer Emancipator. World Devastators can also devour barren planetoids and asteroids, destroyed vehicles and ships or any other source of metals, plastics and other components.

Depending on the mineral wealth of the victim planet, the World Devastator's factories may create a surplus of finished goods; these are shipped to other warships or industrial worlds for processing. The World Devastators are not currently capable of reproducing the computer cores and fabrication equipment it takes to make more Devastators, but in time, even that problem could be surmounted.

Structure

While the specific layout of each Devastator is different, there are certain features common to all of them. The control bridge, usually located on the top of the Devastator, houses the centralized computers in a command module. The upper three levels are usually arranged as quarters and recreation areas for the commander, his crew and all troops and technicians aboard the vessel.

The main computer cortex is directly attached to the endoskeleton, underneath the command module and living quarters. The cortex is at the heart of the endoskeleton, which stretches between the four support and thruster columns, which house the sunlight and hyperspace engines. The central computer core occupies nearly 20 levels, with additional minor computing stations (for various functions) scattered throughout the vehicle, including at each weapon emplacement, on the assembly lines and at the molecular
furnaces.

The various assembly lines, hangars, armories and power cores are built around the computer core and placed throughout new levels. The interior of each World Devastator is unique, so exact placement of components varies from machine to machine.

All levels directly above the computer cortex will remain unchanged as the machine modifies itself. However, as the machine grows, additional customized levels are added below and behind the computer core — what results is a thoroughly unique war machine.

When materials are funneled through the molecular furnaces, the molten materials travel into the separation lattices. Selective ionizing grids filter specific elements and particles out and condense and purify them. The materials are then cooled and stored in force field spheres (which can be transferred to cargo ships) or transferred directly to the fabricators. Finished goods are hauled up to storage areas adjacent to launching decks and hangar bays.

Overall, the World Devastators are among the most devastating weapons ever created by the Empire. They combine the horrors of modern weaponry with the efficiency of mass production, giving the Empire almost unlimited potential for weapons manufacture.

World Devastators

Source: Dark Empire Sourcebook