Destruction of Despayre

The Destruction of Despayre was a cataclysmic event that occurred in 0 B, following the Battle of Despayre. The prison&slave planet Despayre was the final construction site of the first Death Star, where assembly of the space station's superlaser took place. After discovery of the site by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, the project's leader, Grand Moff Willuff Tarkin, decided to move the station. The interior was completed and the hyperdrive was functional, but the Grand Moff decided it was necessary to test the superlaser before getting under way. A proper test firing required a terrestrial world, and the penal world was the only suitable location in sublight range. Tarkin decided without hesitation to sacrifice Despayre, and a few months before the Battle of Yavin, the planet was destroyed.

The destruction of Despayre was one of eighteen recorded of the Death Star's superlaser. The incident caused a shift in the gravitational configuration of the Horuz system, and was a major wound in the Force, as millions of lives were terminated almost instantly. The shock was felt by Force-sensitives, both trained and untrained.

Destruction of Despayre

Conflict: Universal Civil War

Date: 0 B

Place: Despayre

Outcome: Despayre destoryed, Death Star's power is tested, deaths of millions of prisoners

Combatants

the Galactic Empire Imperial Prisoners&Slaves

Commanders

Willuff Tarkin None

Strength

Many on Imperial Side, some on slave side

Casualties

Stormtroopers and security forces  The planet Despayre and all life on its surface

=History=

Preperation

For apporximately two years, the Death Star had undergone construction in orbit of the slave colony world of Despayre, a site chosen for its location located deep in Wild Space where the Imperial Senate and Holonet media would be unlikely to obeserve. Slaves from all over the Universe had labored long and hard in order to finish construction on Emperor Palpatine's superweapon. Leading up to 0 B, the Rebel Alliance launched grander efforts to stall the project.

The Rebels captured the firgate Priam to learn the location of the construction site, and then sent the Luchass Star Battleship to destory the Death Star, which led to the first operational use of the station's superlaser-bringing a swift end to the Rebel assault. Following this, Grand Moff Willuff Tarkin, the overall leader of the Death Star project, made the desicison to move the station. Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, the station's operational commander, concurred. However, Tarkin wished to test the functionality of the superlaser in a more controlled fashion than its first firing.

Tarkin himself chose the site for the superlaser's first controlled test. The Horuz system had been largely emptied by the construction project's resource-gathering efforts, leaving Despayre itself as the only suitable target within sublight range. The decision stunned personnel across the entire station, from Superlaser Fire Control to Admiral Motti himself. But ultimately, the decision was Tarkin's, and no one sought to challenge it. In fact, Tarkin had long predicted that Despayre was doomed anyway, as a cloud of industrial debris was already benighting the planet and would have remained in orbit long after the construction ended.

When Tarkin made the decision to move the station, the Death Star's engineering division wasn't quite prepared for a full-power discharge from the superlaser's main capacitors. A 33% charge was the best they were willing or able to manage. They knew 4% power was sufficient to destroy a Lucass Star battleship, but no one could be certain what kind of damage the superlaser could inflict at one-third of its full capacity. What was certain, however, was that even at that strength, the first shot would kill millions of slaves and prisoners. The duty of firing the shot fell to Tenn Graneet, the chief of the gunnery crew for that shift. The commanding officer of Superlaser Fire Control was willing to allow alternate shift leaders Beller or Reshias to substitute for Graneet, but ultimately Graneet chose to carry out the order himself.

As Tarkin considered any non-essential personnel a security risk, anyone whose usefulness ended with the termination of construction was shuttled to the planet. Slave&Prisoner work crews were returned to their compounds, and construction supervisors and other personnel were transported back to Despayre as well. As they awaited reassignment, they were unaware of their impending demise.

One of those slaves was Rianna Saren, a Twi'lek mercenary captured by Zarien Kheev on Tatooinne. Using her secret weapon, called the Thorn of Ryloth, she killed the guards and tried to find a way out. Rianna soon found her robot companion, Zeeo, in a trash compactor and met another Twi'lek slave, who informed her about a nearby air duct. Rianna decided to use it in her escape, but while on the way there, she was attacked by a probe droid. Saren defeated him, but the droid activated a self destruction mechanism. However, Zeeo managed to deactivate it. Using the air duct, Rianna and Zeeo reached the surface of Despayre.

Once there, Rianna noticed a Death Star orbiting the planet. After killing some scout troopers, she stole a speeder bike and flew it to the landing pad, where the shuttles, carrying an Imperial personnel and supplies, had been departing from the planet. On the landing pad she met Kheev once again. He shot at Zeeo, and boarded the shuttle. Not willing to stop her pursuit of Kheev, Rianna, along with her robot, hid in a shipment crate. That crate was picked up by another shuttle, and brought to the Death Star itself. After reaching the Death Star, Rianna continued her search for Kheev, defeating many stormtroopers and another probe droid along the way.

Destruction

The first one-third power shot from the superlaser was a planet-killer in itself. Though it didn't physically destroy Despayre, it did terminate all life on the surface. The atmosphere itself became a massive firestorm, and the planet's ground became unstable from the blast. The tectonic plates shifted, causing massive waves in the planet's oceans and extreme volcanic activity. Tarkin was pleased with the results. When Motti questioned the destruction of one of the Empire's primary prison colonies, Tarkin just shrugged it off by stating his expectation that the Empire would employ the death penalty more often.

One hour and fifteen minutes after the first shot, the Death Star fired a second time. This shot further intensified the seismic effects, causing mountains to rise and fall in a matter of minutes and the surface to be covered with oceans of lava. Despayre had gone from a verdant world of deep green, broken by rivers and seas, to a lifeless sphere of pure red.

The final shot was fired one hour and nineteen minutes after the second. When the final shot hit, Despayre shattered into billions of fragments ranging from pebble to mountain-sized. The planet no longer existed as a single entity in terms of the star system's gravitational configuration. The Death Star itself recorded the impact of thousands of fragments against the station's shields, none of which caused damage worth mentioning.

At the same time, Rianna Saren at last found Kheev, who had been talking to Darth Vader. Vader ordered Kheev to leave for Danuta with the updated battle station plans. After witnessing the destruction of Despayre, Rianna decided to inform the Rebellion about the Death Star.

=Aftermaths=

After the destruction, millions of force senstives, trained and untrained, felt it. Despayre had been home to numerous alien and animal species. It was a green world, with many small colonies and villages. It had plain fields, rivers, seas, and forests. That was wiped out in the destruction.

Rianna Saren revealed the Death Star's destructive powers to the Rebels through Princess Leia. She became part of a team to steal the Death Star plans. However, even though the plans gave the Rebels the weaknesses of the station, the Death Star escaped at the Battle of Yavin and sealed up its weakness by adding extra lasercannons and ray and particle shielding the port.

The destruction of Despayre provided the operational testing nesscary for the superlaser to be fired at full power. A later firing that would destory the planet Elderaan had full power on its first shot.