Restricted Ship Station TS-1 "Torpedo Sphere" Orbital Siege Platform

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TS-1 TORPEDO SPHERE

AFFILIATION
Open market.

MANUFACTURER
Loronar Corporation.

CLASS
Battlemoon.

ROLE
Planetary bombardment platform.

COMPOSITION
Doonium and transparisteel.

DIMENSIONS
Diameter - 2 kilometers.CREW
20,000-64,000.

PASSENGER CAPACITY
10,000.

CARGO CAPACITY
4 megatons.

HANGAR CAPACITY

• 96x starfighter/light starbomber.
• 36x shuttle/light freighter.

CONSUMABLES
4 standard years.

SPEED/MANEUVERABILITY
The TS-1 Torpedo Sphere has a top speed of 15 MGLT and has sluggish maneuvering characteristics.

ARMAMENT

• 10x quad heavy turbolaser turret.
• 40x quad medium laser turret.
• 500x proton torpedo launcher, 100x projectile in magazine, 50,000x total.
• 10x tractor beam projector.

EQUIPMENT

• 2x hyperdrive, 1x class 4 primary, 1x class 10 backup.
• 1x navicomputer.
• 1x heavy deflector screen generator.
• 1x high-resolution sensor suite.
• 1x high-precision targeting computer.
• 1x long-range communication suite.
• 1x onboard munitions factory.
• Many x docking ring with integrated docking tube.
• Many x escape pod.

DESCRIPTION​

The TS-1 "Torpedo Sphere" orbital siege platform is a monstrously powerful weapons system developed during the darkest days of the old Galactic Empire. Classified as a "battlemoon," it was the most powerful mobile battle station ever constructed until the advent of the DS-1 orbital battle station some years later. Though not nearly as powerful as a Death Star, which had the power to reduce an entire planet to rubble with a single blast from its prime weapon, the Torpedo Sphere was still one of the most feared weapons in the Imperial arsenal, and for good reason.

Unlike the larger, more heavily armed Death Star, the Torpedo Sphere is not designed as a "planet killer," although it can certainly wreak devastation upon the surface of a targeted world. The Torpedo Sphere is indeed intended as a siege-breaking weapon, meant to deal with the large planetary-scale deflector screens used by many worlds to defend against orbital bombardment and invasion. It accomplishes this with the use of an enormous array of proton torpedo launchers, located in the crater-like polar basin. These torpedo launchers are slaved to a single high-precision targeting computer, which is in turn linked to an array of high-resolution sensors, which scan the targeted planetary shield for weak spots in its coverage. Once a dip in shield coverage of at least 20% below standard is identified, the targeting computer locks on, firing a coordinated salvo of 500 proton torpedoes at an area as small as 2 meters across. The simultaneous detonation of enough proton explosives to vaporize a small moon is usually sufficient to collapse any planetary shield, allowing for ground assault or orbital bombardment to commence at the besieging force's leisure.

Bombardment and invasion are usually carried out by a supporting fleet around the Torpedo Sphere, but the Sphere itself is still an enormously potent weapon against most ground targets. Simultaneous massed torpedo strikes can reduce large cities to nothing more than deep craters in the blink of an eye, and even the deepest subterranean bunkers can be dug out with repeated strikes. Given approximately 4 standard days, and sufficient raw materials to feed its onboard munitions factory for the production of torpedo reloads, a single Torpedo Sphere can perform a Base Delta Zero operation by itself.

Torpedo Spheres, though incredibly powerful in a planetary bombardment role, do have their weaknesses. Primarily designed to launch huge salvos of torpedoes, they have only scant anti-ship and anti-starfighter defenses, with those defenses they do have being primarily centered around the polar basin, with a ring of 10 quad heavy turbolaser turrets meant to fend off enemy capital ships and bombers making a run at the launchers. 10 quad medium laser turrets are present around the basin as anti-starfighter weapons, with a further 30 located in the various longitudinal trenches, and in the large equatorial trench. The Sphere's systems are also somewhat vulnerable to sabotage; the high-precision targeting computer has no backup, for example, and should it be disabled or destroyed, the Sphere's prime weapon - its mass simultaneous torpedo launch capability - is rendered nonfunctional. Likewise, starfighters could destroy its array of high-resolution sensor antennae located in the equatorial trench, rendering the Sphere functionally blind.

The Torpedo Sphere does incorporate a large starfighter compliment for its own protection, some 8 squadrons worth, but is primarily meant to operate with the support of at least a small fleet to fend off enemy vessels while it does its grisly work. The logistics of supporting a Torpedo Sphere in the field are also very high, equivalent to approximately 4 Imperial-class star destroyers.

Unlike the Death Star, of which only 1 completed example was built, plus an incomplete enlarged variant, the Torpedo Sphere design entered serial production, with several dozen being completed before the end of the Galactic Civil War. They were used to subdue - and occasionally sterilize - rebellious worlds, and each Sector command was theoretically provided with at least 1. They were, of course, popular targets for the Rebel Alliance, which made it a priority to hunt down and destroy every one they could find. By the end of the war, the Torpedo Sphere was believed to be all but extinct. Those few examples captured intact by the New Republic were flown on autopilot into the nearest star as a matter of policy, save for one, which was slated for use as a Death Star facsimile and used to test bombing tactics by Starfighter Command - using live munitions - until it was reduced to debris. A request by the Historical Battleship Preservation Association that one be disarmed and preserved as a museum ship was summarily denied.

This was not the end of the Torpedo Sphere, however. After war's end, rumors persisted for decades that at least 1 functional Torpedo Sphere was preserved by an unknown Post-Imperial Warlord deep in the Outer Rim. Given the logistical capabilities possessed by most Imperial holdouts, the chances of this rumor proving true were and are considered only a very remote possibility, and regardless, no credible evidence for it has yet surfaced.

It is also rumored that several private residential space stations above Coruscant are in fact conversions of incomplete Torpedo Sphere hulls. Efforts to verify this rumor have been discouraged by the stations' owners.

LEGALITY​

Restricted. TS-1 Torpedo Spheres are classified as superweapons under Galactic law, and are tolerated by no civilized system. By law and custom, they may not be operated by civilians, and any faction which openly operates one would find itself proscribed.

INTENT​

To create an example of a sub-Death Star superweapon, and to bring a vessel from Canon into our site's fanon.

RESTRICTIONS​

TS-1 Torpedo Spheres are superweapons, and cannot be owned or operated by individual characters. The acquisition of such a weapon by a faction must be approved and thoroughly vetted by - and coordinated with - staff, and possession is subject to being revoked for any reason.