Tuesday 19 June 2007

Vehicle of the Week 5

Hell's Anvil


Well I was inveitably going to do some vehicle from Star Wars, though this one is drawn from the expanded universe, specifically the computer game Bounty Hunter and its novelistation. The game follows Jango Fett as he progressess from his usual bounty hunting to compete in the 'ultimate hunt', a hunt for the wayward dark Jedi known as Komari Vosa, former student of Count Dooku and now leader of the mystical alien assissns known as the Bando Gora. Jango's arch rival and fellow Mandalorian is Montross and where Jango has Slave 1 (after replacing Jaster's Legacy) Montross has the Hell's Anvil.
I chose this vessel because, well, its cool and was something of a turning point in slave circuit technology in the star wars universe. The vessel is 50 meters long and roughly 80 meters wide which is huge for a vessel piloted by a single being. One of Correllian Engineering Corporation's KR-TB 'Doomtreader' line, the vessel was originally designed as a freighter of sorts with minimal crewing needs. Montross, after aquiring the vessel customized the vessel with CEC's latest 'upgrades', a slave circuit system that enabled a single computer to run the entire vessel and the beck of its master. For its size the vessel is incredibly fast (evident by the size of the engines) and sports unique weaponry. Rather than standard laser weaponry, KR-TB's were eqipped with low yield solar ionization cannons (in the case of Hell's Anvil, these armaments were modified to increase their energy output tenfold). These weapons bypassed standard deflector shields and melted durasteel, they were in essence weaponised welding torches with great range.
Montross was killed on the moon of Bogden, home of the Bando Gora and what became of this vessel is unkown. Few were aware of the existence of the moon (as was seen with the diffuclty Jango had of locating it) and the Bando Gora were left crippled and aloof with the loss of their leader and did not employ advanced technologies themselves. It is likely the vessel is still sitting the graveyard-esque environment the makes up the moons surface which is littered with the ruins of an ancient civilization and constant darkness. Regardless, the vessel marks one of the earliest applications of slave circuits to small vessels. Becon calls had been employed as far back as the sith wars, however the intelligence of the system in Hell's Anvil and its abilitiy to think was so advanced it begs the question was this truly a starship or had it become a droid of sorts?

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