Darksaber (superweapon)

The Darksaber, also referred to as the Darksaber Project, was a colossal battle station and superweapon conceived by Durga, the Hutt, and engineered by Bevel Lemelisk, the engineer. It was designed as a streamlined version of the first Death Star battlestation, which Lemelisk had also created. After joining Durga's service, Lemelisk modified the Death Star's plans to meet the Hutt's specific requirements. Durga desired only the primary superlaser weapon capable of destroying entire planets. Consequently, Lemelisk eliminated all non-essential elements from the original Imperial design, including the extensive superstructure, turbolasers, surface defenses, personnel quarters, TIE fighter hangars, and docking ports. He also scaled down the project, making the superlaser the focal point, with only the necessary structure built around it. Essentially, the Darksaber was the superlaser encased in a kilometers-long cylindrical shell constructed from durasteel. Lemelisk also repositioned the superlaser's focusing lens to allow the beam to exit directly from the weapon's end, creating a straight path through the superlaser. This design enabled greater energy conversion, potentially resulting in increased firepower and a faster recharge rate compared to the Death Star's superlaser. The Darksaber was more agile and easier to operate, requiring only a fraction of the computer systems used by the original Death Star. However, the Darksaber's computer cores were outdated and did not function correctly.

Despite the superlaser being the core component, Lemelisk's design incorporated a small outer ring of living quarters capable of accommodating up to one hundred Hutts and their entourages. The superweapon was also equipped with essential propulsion systems, consisting of several large engines located at the rear and separated from the interior by a thick shielding wall. Behind the wall were specialized engine sections housing the Darksaber's guidance computers, protected by a thin, transparent, flexible mesh. These guidance computers comprised massive banks of circuit boards cooled by supercooled air circulating through the hot circuitry. The computers were also connected to the security alarm system, which responded to any security breach. Lemelisk personally designed the alarm's sound to be jarring and attention-grabbing. However, the system was prone to false alarms due to poor construction. This shoddy workmanship also resulted in dangling wires, darkened glowpanels, malfunctioning computer terminals, and steam leaks from reactor cores throughout the Darksaber.

Other systems on the Darksaber included a waste heat exhaust system, an internal communications network, a network of external sensors, and a life support system capable of sustaining a minimal crew. It featured a turbolift system for easy movement throughout the massive structure. Lemelisk maintained a personal office aboard the superweapon, which was sparsely furnished. There were at least two docking bays: a construction access bay and Lemelisk's private launch bay. A small, one-person spherical scooter was kept aboard and could be launched from either bay. The entire project was managed from a central control deck on its bridge, where crew members operated computer consoles from their stations while strapped to booby-trapped chairs. These chairs were linked to Durga's personal levitating platform, allowing him to execute any crew member he disliked by sending a lethal electrical charge through their body, instantly killing them.

The Darksaber originated from the mind of Durga Besadii Tai, a crime lord of the Hutt species and member of the Besadii kajidic. Following the deaths of Jabba Desilijic Tiure and Prince Xizor, two prominent figures in the criminal underworld, Durga consolidated control over the remaining Hutt clans for the Besadii and secured a leadership position within the Black Sun criminal syndicate. Emboldened by his newfound power, Durga sought to expand his influence further, surpassing the legacy of the legendary Hutt conqueror Kossak Inijic Ar'durv. To achieve this, he aimed to construct a planet-destroying superweapon that would allow him to extort entire worlds and eliminate his enemies as part of his expansionist agenda. Through the Bothan Spynet, Durga located Bevel Lemelisk, the designer of the first and second Death Stars and other Imperial superweapons, and recruited him for the project.

Durga had also discovered the hive-minded Taurill species, controlled by a collective consciousness known as The Overmind. The Overmind sought to spread individual Taurills throughout the galaxy to facilitate its own growth. Durga promised to assist The Overmind in achieving its goals in exchange for thousands of Taurills, whom he trained as his pets and intended to use in the superweapon's construction. The Hutt also formed an alliance with the self-proclaimed Imperial "General" Sulamar, a low-ranking technician who exaggerated his military exploits and pledged to supply the Hutt with computer cores for the project. Durga then established Orko SkyMine Asteroid Processing Corporation, a front organization ostensibly for exploiting the natural resources of the Hoth asteroid field's. In reality, all of the corporation's funds were directed toward the weapon's construction, which began inside the asteroid belt in 12 ABY. Lemelisk developed the Automated Mineral Exploiters, machines designed to extract minerals from the asteroids and convert them into construction materials. Four such vessels were produced, although two of them—Exploiters Alpha and Beta—were accidentally destroyed due to a programming error.

To initiate construction, Lemelisk required the plans for the original Death Star, which were stored by the New Republic in the former Imperial Information Center on the galactic capital of Coruscant. Durga knew that the late Jabba had stored the passwords to the Center's secret databanks in his palace on Tatooine, so he organized expeditions to Jabba's former residence to retrieve them. Under the guise of negotiating with New Republic Chief of State Leia Organa Solo, Durga traveled to Coruscant to obtain the plans. While the Hutt distracted Organa Solo, his Taurills accessed the files in the Information Center and copied the Death Star's schematics onto a data cylinder, which the Hutt safely delivered to Lemelisk upon his return to the asteroid field. After analyzing the plans, Lemelisk made the necessary adjustments to the design to meet the Hutt's requirements. The resulting cylinder-shaped structure resembled the weapon of the Jedi Knights, the lightsaber, inspiring Lemelisk to choose the equally fitting name, the Darksaber.

The Darksaber project was ambitious, but its execution was flawed. The Taurills were intelligent and diligent but were easily distracted by passing asteroids or smuggler ships, and each individual was unable to see beyond their specific task. This resulted in haphazard construction, with parts of the weapon built incorrectly, out of order, or omitted entirely, requiring rework. On one occasion, the Taurills' distraction led to an entire section of the Darksaber's outer framework being assembled incorrectly: girders were welded to the wrong counterparts, the computer core receptacle was connected to the waste-heat exhaust, and superlaser anchor points were offset by ninety degrees, a completely erroneous configuration. Lemelisk was forced to rebuild the section from scratch, further delaying the overall construction. Fearing Durga's wrath, Lemelisk concealed the delay from him. Durga, however, did not personally oversee the project, delegating responsibility to Sulamar, who was too preoccupied with enjoying his authority to notice the errors.

Furthermore, the metal plating for the Darksaber's durasteel hull was purchased from low-bid contractors and contained millions of microscopic holes. Another factor complicating construction was the fact that Sulamar's computer cores were outdated and malfunctioning. Lemelisk initially hoped to make them operational but found himself constantly reprogramming and backing them up. As Lemelisk witnessed these flaws, he began to doubt the project's viability. Despite these challenges, the project eventually neared completion. The New Republic eventually heard rumors of the Darksaber's creation, and General Crix Madine was assigned to investigate. While Durga met with Organa Solo on Nal Hutta, Madine planted a tracking device on the Hutt's private yacht. When Durga returned from the meeting to the Darksaber, Madine and a two-man commando team followed him to the Hoth asteroid belt in A-wing starfighters.

One commando, Korenn, died when his ship collided with an asteroid, but Madine and the other team member, Trandia, reached the Darksaber. Clinging to the weapon's exterior in their survival suits, they peeled off a loose plate and infiltrated the Darksaber. Attempting to sabotage the weapon, they reached its engine section. Madine tried to plant explosives on the guidance computers, hoping to immobilize the Darksaber until a New Republic fleet could arrive and destroy it. However, Madine's intrusion triggered an alarm, and guards appeared. The two saboteurs hid, but Trandia suddenly revealed herself and detonated her explosives, hoping to destroy the engines and buy Madine time to escape. Her attempt failed, as the thick containment wall protected the engines from the explosion. Madine tried to escape but was captured and brought before Durga on the Darksaber's bridge. Upon his capture, a transmitter implanted in his body sent a distress signal to the New Republic fleet. Following the transmission, General Wedge Antilles led a strike force from his flagship, the Nebulon-B frigate Yavaris, to the Hoth asteroid field to rescue Madine and destroy the Darksaber.

Antilles arrived in the Hoth system too late to rescue Madine, who was executed by Durga. The Hutt then decided to activate the Darksaber. Lemelisk advised against it, noting that the weapon had not been tested, but Durga was confident that nothing could go wrong. Lemelisk, disagreeing, quickly escaped aboard his private inspection scooter under the pretense of monitoring the superlaser. Soon, the Darksaber's sensors detected the approaching New Republic fleet. Durga ordered Sulamar, whom he had forced to pilot the superweapon, to evade pursuit in the asteroid belt while charging the superlaser to prepare for an attack. Sulamar, fearing Durga's threats of execution, complied and navigated through the asteroid field. However, the New Republic forces soon caught up with the Darksaber and attacked it, gradually penetrating its weak armor with each shot. To evade the attack, Durga ordered Sulamar to fly the Darksaber into the most dangerous part of the asteroid field, where two moon-sized asteroids blocked the way. Durga ordered Sulamar to fire the superlaser to clear the path, but the weapon malfunctioned. The Darksaber was crushed by the asteroids, killing everyone aboard.

Lemelisk was the sole survivor of the Darksaber Project and was captured by Antilles's forces shortly afterward. He was subsequently tried for war crimes and executed four years later. The destruction of the Darksaber was considered the end of the era of superlaser-based superweapons. However, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, rumors spread that the smuggler Booster Terrik had purchased a secret weapon from the Hutts and installed it on his personal Star Destroyer, the Errant Venture. The weapon was supposedly located at the Star Destroyer's central axis and possessed enough firepower to destroy anything within a light-year radius. Engineers who had worked on the weapon were heard whispering the name "Darksaber," although Terrik himself maintained that he was unaware of such a superweapon's existence. Information about the Darksaber was preserved in the Jedi Archives on Coruscant. In 25 ABY, Jedi Knight Daeshara'cor accessed the information—as well as similar data on other recorded superweapons—in an attempt to find a way to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong invaders.

After Durga's death, Borga Besadii Diori, another Hutt crime lord, claimed leadership of the Besadii clan. The Darksaber Project was generally considered a failure by the Hutts, and references to Durga's superweapon were used to insult the Besadii kajidic by members of other clans. Similarly, the Hutt species as a whole suffered ridicule from other species due to their association with the Darksaber. When Nawara Ven jokingly asked if Talon Karrde was interested in buying the Errant Venture from Booster, Karrde replied that doing so would be preferable to letting such a powerful ship fall into the hands of the Hutts. Ven quipped that it would be amusing to watch the Hutts try, given Durga's mismanagement of both the Darksaber and the World Devastators used to construct it.

Although the Darksaber was designed to accommodate up to one hundred Hutts and their entourages, it never reached that capacity during its brief operational lifespan. At the time of its destruction, the Darksaber only held a skeleton crew and security force, consisting of Gamorreans, Weequays, Niktos, and Aqualish, as well as a large number of Taurill workers, who were semi-sentient individually but collectively part of the Overmind. Aside from these crew members, the only beings aboard were Lemelisk, Sulamar, and Durga himself. The battlestation's sensor chief was an unidentified Devaronian male. An unidentified Twi'lek male served as the security chief, whom Durga intended to execute upon learning of Madine's attempted sabotage, but he accidentally executed the Darksaber's Weequay navigator instead.

Sulamar was a Human male, a low-ranking technician in the Galactic Empire who was frequently transferred between posts due to his incompetence. On one occasion, Sulamar was stationed on the Mendicat mining station. However, a programming error he made caused Mendicat to fall into a nearby star. Sulamar narrowly escaped and eventually came to work for Durga. While serving the Hutt, Sulamar claimed to be a general and boasted of numerous Imperial victories in which he had participated, including the so-called "Massacre of Mendicat." Durga simply accepted his stories as true without verifying them with his intelligence network. Although Durga did not consider Sulamar a particularly capable commander, he entrusted him with overseeing the construction of the Darksaber. In this role, Sulamar relished his newfound power and acted authoritatively toward Lemelisk and the workers. When Madine, who had previously served the Empire before defecting to the Rebel Alliance, was captured and brought before Durga, he immediately recognized Sulamar. After Madine exposed Sulamar's lies, Durga ordered Sulamar to take the position of the deceased Weequay pilot. Strapped to the booby-trapped chair, Sulamar piloted the Darksaber during its fateful maiden voyage and, as his final act, attempted to fire the superlaser, but to no avail.

Durga Besadii Tai, born to the crime lord Aruk Besadii Aora, spent the initial century of his life on Nal Hutta. He was constantly mocked by other Hutts due to a conspicuous dark birthmark that marred his right eye. This lasted until he succeeded Aruk as the leader of the Besadii kajidic. Durga later became a member of the Black Sun organization, serving as one of Prince Xizor's vigos. The deaths of both Jabba the Hutt and Xizor presented Durga with opportunities to amass considerable power, yet his ambitions extended even further. He believed that the Darksaber would grant him control over the entire galaxy, a notion that so consumed him that he failed to recognize the weapon's obvious deficiencies. Durga had no regard for his subordinates, readily executing them without hesitation. He even personally executed the captured General Madine, fatally shooting him in the chest with a blaster. His life, however, was cut short soon after when his Darksaber superweapon was destroyed.

Bevel Lemelisk, a highly skilled and esteemed engineer, was the mastermind behind numerous superweapons for the Empire, most notably the two Death Stars. Following the destruction of the first Death Star by the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Yavin, an event caused by a design flaw inherent in Lemelisk's creation, the engineer was summoned to face Galactic Emperor Palpatine himself. Dissatisfied with Lemelisk's performance, Palpatine carried out his execution, but instead of allowing him to die permanently, he transferred the engineer's consciousness into a clone body. As Lemelisk continued his work for the Empire, he was repeatedly executed for even the smallest errors. Initially optimistic about the prospect of creating the Darksaber, Lemelisk's hopes gradually diminished as the disastrous construction progressed, to the point where he doubted its functionality. Consequently, Durga's command to activate the Darksaber filled the engineer with dread, prompting him to immediately flee, only to be captured by Antilles's forces. Weary of the endless cycle of death and rebirth, Lemelisk's sole request to his captors was that they kill him permanently this time.

The Darksaber made its debut appearance in Kevin J. Anderson's 1995 eponymous novel. Its creation and subsequent destruction formed one of the two primary storylines within the novel, with the other revolving around Admiral Daala's efforts to re-unify the fractured Empire. In the years that followed, the Darksaber received mentions in several later novels and reference works. While some older sources, such as the Expanded Universe timeline featured on the Star Wars: Behind the Magic interactive CD-ROM and in Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised, situated the events of Darksaber in 13 ABY, more recent sources have established the date as 12 ABY. This was supported by Lucas Licensing's Holocron continuity database keeper Leland Chee in his blog on StarWars.com. Rough and Tundra, a 2004 web supplement for Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game, listed the Hoth asteroid field as a potential location for adventures. If the adventure is set in 12 ABY, the players must consider the presence of the Darksaber within the system.

The eleventh issue of the Star Wars Adventure Journal, released in November 1996, featured the ongoing Fragments from the Mind's Eye section. This consisted of a single-page humorous illustration created by Pablo Hidalgo, depicting various superweapons being sold at B'hob's Discount Superweapons. Accompanying the depicted weapons was a sign announcing that the Darksaber was "coming soon," serving as a humorous commentary on its unfinished state in the novel. In 2008, Hidalgo included the Darksaber in his StarWars.com article Checklist: 10 Star Wars Superweapons at number eight, pointing out its operational issues and suggesting alternative names such as the "Hutt Hammer," the "Girth Star," or the "Bootleg." He also proposed that the Darksaber could be used to cook vast quantities of food for the Hutts.

Kevin J. Anderson stated in an interview that the Darksaber is, in essence, an allegory for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the real world: "That's the point of Darksaber: once you have these weapons, they start to proliferate and get out. So it was based on something I was working on, something that's realistic in politics, not "let's build a new toy that dominates the last big new toy!", also asking, "...what happens when Russian mobsters, Middle Eastern terrorists get control of nuclear weapons?"