New (hopefully) weekly article - Vehicle of the Week #1 - The Devastator

Firstly an introduction. This is my attempt to get a regular weekly article on this blog utilising the creative talents of all it's members. To begin with the topic I have chosen is "Iconic Vehicles" spaceships, tanks, fighters and anything that you instinctively think of when you think about a particular Sci-Fi world. So let's dive right in with my first choice from Star Wars

The Devastator

Imperial 1 Class Star Destroyer
Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards
Length: 1,600 metres
Speed: 60 MGLT/ Class 2 Hyperdrive
Weaponry: Multiple turbolasers and ion cannons
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
Captain: Mulchive Wermis (under Darth Vader)



I guess most people would think of the Millenium Falcon when they think of Star Wars, but for me it has to be the big ol' Star Destroyers, and more specifically this one. Why the Devastator? Because after seeing Princess Leia's ship shoot across screen all guns blazing this behemoth fills the screen with twice the amount of guns all blazing! Immediately you know that this ship belonged to the bad guys, immediately you knew these bad guys were powerful and straight away you knew that the other ship didn't stand a chance!! I was totally blown away when I first saw that ship and I soon fell in love with Star Wars. Apart from being exceedingly cool, this ship is a powerful symbol and core element of the Star Wars universe. This ship represents the power to do whatever you want, the ship shows the power to weild authority by force. The simple yet intricate combines elaborate technology with brute force. For me, this will always be the ship of Star Wars.

Imperial 1 Class Star Destroyers (formerly known as Imperator class) are manufactured by and at Kuat Drive Yards for the Galactic Empire and later the New Republic. A combination of size and firewpower meant that these ships could take on an entire fleet and be used to patrol a sytar system on their own, they also had full ground assault capabilities with a fully equipped army and starfighter compliment in their holds. Their power and versatility led them to become the staple of the Imperial Navy, these large ships could hold their own against virtually any threat imaginable. The ships were a continuance of the smaller Acclamator and Venator designs used by the Old Republic in the Clone Wars, the new Empire quickly created these monster to combat any threat and secure their hold on the galaxy. The power in these vessels meant that the Rebel Alliance couldn't engage the Empire in open warfar because they just didn't have anything strong enough to battle them. It wasn't until they were able to capture some Star Destroyers by subterfuge and later gain the larger warships of the Mon Calamari that they could consider fighting the Empire. After the Empire fell Star Destroyers were still produced for the New Republic and they were still in use at the time of the Galactic Alliance, with a few upgrades here and there.

The Devastator was the flagship of Darth Vader before he aquired the Super Star Destroyer Executor. It participated in an orbital bombardment on Falleen, earning Vader the emnity of Prince Xixor of the Black Sun criminal organization. It again used bombardment to subjugate Ralltir. After that it was replaced as a flag by the Executor, but it remained in the fleet and was present at the battle of Hoth and later at the battle of Endor, where it was destroyed.

Well there you go, my first weekly article - i'm sure there was something else I wanted to talk about but there it is. See you next week I hope.