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The ultimate weapon in the Empire's arsenal, It was a top secret battle station the size of a small moon and armed with more destructive power than the combined Imperial fleet. It was designed to end any remaining opposition to the Emperor and his New Order. Once it was fully operational, the Emperor ordered the Imperial Senate disbanded and decalred that the Empire would keep local star systems in line.

The Death Star was the culmination of the Tarkin Doctrine, a plan and course of action proposed by Grand Moff Tarkin. It called for rule through fhe fear of force, using a battle station of such destructive magnitutde that fear alone would keep the member worlds in the Empire in line. Imperial space station designer Bevel Lemeisk was charged with bringing Tarkin's terrible vision to fruition.

Measuring 120 kilometers in diameter, the battle station was constructed over the penal colony world Despayre in the remote Horuz star system. The completed Death Star's personel complent included more than a million officers, troops, pilots, support personel, and stormtroopers. It carried assault shuttles, blastboats, strike cruisers, dropships, land vehicles, and various support ships in it's massive holds and seven thousand TIE fighters. It's surface was protected by thouands of turbolaser batteries, laser cannons, ion cannons, tracor beam projectors, and it's primary weapon -- a planet destorying superlaser.

In addtion, the outer shell was covered with navigation trenches, docking bays, and turbolaser emplacements to fend off capital ship attacks. Artificial mountains and canyons were formed from rising docking ports and command complexes. Though the Death Star showed it's relentless power by destroying the planet Alderaan, Rebel agents were able to discover a weakness when they stole the technical readouts for the battle station. The Battle of Yavin ended with the destruction of the Death Star.