Executor

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Executor

TheSuper Star DestroyerExecutor was the personalflagship of theLordDarth Vader, the premiercommand ship of theImperial Navy, and the first of theExecutor-class Star Dreadnought line. Designed bystarshipengineerLira Wessex as a successor to the originalImperial-class Star Destroyer, theExecutor, at a monumental 19,000meters in length, represented the largest traditionalwarshipthe galaxy had ever seen by thetime of its completion. TheExecutor bristled with more than 5,000 weapon emplacements, enough firepower toblast anyplanetary surface to slag inhours, and a military complement capable of annihilating any ground installation. TheExecutor's presence alone, however, was enough to frighten an entirestar system into submission.

Construction on theExecutor began under complete secrecy in the secludedScarl system, where Vader raised and trainedGalen Marek, his secretdark side apprentice, in a failed plan to overthrowEmperorPalpatine as galactic ruler. By0 ABY, theExecutor was transferred to theStarship Yards of Fondor for the final stages of construction, under the overall direction ofAdmiralAmise Griff. AtFondor, theExecutor became the failed target of internalsabotage by a group of traitorousImperial admirals, who hoped to destroy Vader's project to prevent their own decline in power. Once completed, theExecutor made forYavin 4, site of theRebel Alliancebase. Vader hoped to crush the Rebellion once and for all with his new weapon, but theExecutor failed to stop the Rebelevacuation from Yavin, and Griffdied in the process.

For threeyears after Yavin, under the command of AdmiralKendal Ozzel, theExecutor led Vader'sStar Destroyerfleet, theImperial Death Squadron, in the Empire's hunt for the Rebellion's secretheadquarters as part of Vader's personal mission to locate his son,Luke Skywalker. In3 ABY, theExecutor led the Imperial victory at theBattle of Hoth, but due to the tactical blundering of Ozzel, Skywalker and the Rebellion leadership escaped, and Vader executed Ozzel for his failure. TheExecutor's admiralty immediately passed toCaptainFirmus Piett, under whom theExecutor chased theMillennium Falcon fromHoth toBespin'sCloud City in continued pursuit of Skywalker. TheExecutor again failed to capture Skywalker at Bespin, however, and so Vader's search for his son continued.

For a time, with the search for Skywalker on hold, theExecutor returned with Vader toCoruscant, where, in 3.5 ABY, tensions between Vader andPrinceXizor of theBlack Sun crime syndicate came to a head. Inorbit above the Imperialcapital, theExecutorobliterated Xizor'spersonal skyhook, killing Vader's nemesis and ending Black Sun's threatening influence on the Empire. Immediately afterward, theExecutor was assigned to protect the construction site of the incompletesecond Death Star in the remoteEndor system.

In4 ABY, theExecutor's relatively short life came to a crashing end above theForest Moon of Endor. During theBattle of Endor, theExecutor led a massive Star Destroyer armada in trapping theRebel Fleet between itself and theDeath Starbattle station. However, the Rebels turned the tables on the Empire by attacking theExecutor at point-blank range. A concentrated assault on theExecutor at the climax of the battle brought down the massive Super Star Destroyer'sbridgedeflector shields, before a waywardA-wing starfighter,piloted byArvel Crynyd, crashed into theExecutor's command bridge. With navigation failing, theExecutor was sucked into thegravity well of the Death Star and collided with the battlestation, disintegrating on impact.

Description

Design

TheExecutor was the first of theExecutor-class Star Dreadnought line^[3] and the premierflagship of theImperial Navy.^[17] Measuring a colossal 19,000meters long, theSuper Star Destroyer marked a crowning achievement instarshipengineering for both theImperial Navy andKuat Drive Yards, thewarship's designer.^[3] Nearly twelve times as long as the 1,600-meter-longImperial I-class Star Destroyer,^[2][44] theExecutor represented the largest traditional starship ever constructed by the Imperial Navy at thetime of its completion—only thefirst Death Star and selectTorpedo Spheres were larger.^[1]

Following the same recognizabledagger-shaped design of theImperial-class Star Destroyer, theExecutor's superstructure resembled an arrowhead from above.^[3] A smoothtitanium-reinforcedalusteel hull^[7] surrounded a massive island of habitable volume in the center of theStar Dreadnought,^[3] which accommodated the command, control, operation, and habitat decks.^[20] In the blackness ofspace, theExecutor's interior lighting enshrouded the warship in a cerulean glow,^[34] though theExecutor's exterior was in fact a grayish hue,^[22] darker than the traditional "Star Destroyer White" typical of theImperial-class line.^[45]

Rising above the dorsal technoscape of theExecutor, supported by a thick axis, stood the 285-meter-wide trapezoidal command tower—a veritable ship unto itself. In a true testament of theKuat Drive Yards' design philosophy of "terror styling," the command tower was deliberately positioned in prominent view of any vessel bold enough to dare an attack. The command tower housed several key components of the Star Dreadnought,^[2] including the dual geodesic KDYISD-72x deflector shield generator domes^[9]—an enlarged version specially developed from those aboardImperial-classStar Destroyers^[10]—which doubled as communicationssensor globes; as well as theofficers' quarters;^[2]naviation computer;^[11] briefing rooms;escape pods for theExecutor's upper-echelon commanders; and, most importantly, thebridge.^[2]

In accordance with theExecutor's standard command tower module found on many KDY-constructed warship classes, the bridge design mirrored that of theImperial-class Star Destroyer. A gleaming command walkway, separating twin crewman pits, led to a series of two-meter-talltransparisteelviewports that offered an unobstructed view of space beyond. Although the command tower stood arrogantly exposed above theExecutor's superstructure, the ship'sshielding system, which matched the power output of a mediumstar, kept it sufficiently protected from attack, making such Imperial pretentiousness a possibility.^[2] TheExecutor's shielding system was among the most powerful ever conceived for a warship.^[9]

The underside of theExecutor contained the engineering sections;^[3] the enormous primaryhangar bay, which was large enough to dock an Imperial Star Destroyer^[46] and thousands ofstarfighters;^[5] and countless secondary docking bays and staging areas^[47] located near the bow of the ship.^[1] Thirteen immensely powerful,bloodred-glowing^[3] KDYExecutor-50.xsublight driveengine thrusters^[8] propelled the warship forward at a maximum speed of 1,230 G,^[6] or fortymegalights.^[7] The thruster exhaust bells created an energy wash so powerful that an unshielded ship traveling too close to theExecutor's wake would be instantly destroyed by theradiation.^[20] TheExecutor was outfitted with a Class 2.0hyperdrive engine forhyperspace travel^[7] and a Class 10backup hyperdrive.^[5] It had supplies for 300,000 individuals.^[7]

Armament

Aside from the Star Dreadnought's unprecedented size, theExecutor's awesome offensive capabilities set it apart from other warships,^[1] bristling with more than 5,000turbolaser batteries andion cannons.^[3] With 2,000 turbolaser batteries, 2,000 heavy turbolaser batteries, 250concussion missile batteries, each armed with thirtyheavy concussion missiles, 250 heavy ion cannons, 500laserpoint-defense cannons,^[12] and fortyQ7 tractor beam projectors^[7] along itscity-like surface, theExecutor was capable of reducing anyplanetary surface to slag^[7] in a matter ofhours.^[47] The warship's mere presence in an engagement alone was enough to frighten an enemy force into submission.^[1]

While the incredible mass of theExecutor proved an advantage in terms of its firepower and the power of its defensive shields, it likewise proved a disadvantage in keeping the warship supplied—theExecutor could hold far more resources than the Empire normally had available to provide. More than 100 times as massive as theImperial-class Star Destroyer, theExecutor nevertheless boasted quite a formidable complement of support vessels and instruments of ground warfare.^[5]

Standard practice set theExecutor with twowings,^[5] or twelvesquadrons,^[48] of varyingTIE Series starfighters, for a total of 144 ships,^[5] the fighter equivalent of twoImperial-class Star Destroyers.^[7] These two wings primarily comprisedTIE/LN starfighters,TIE/sa bombers, andTIE/IN interceptors.^[4] By theyear3 ABY,^[49] the starfighterfleet expanded to includeTIE/D Defenders^[13] andTIE/ad starfighters.^[14] TheExecutor also routinely hostedDarth Vader's TIE Advanced x1.^[13][15]

Additionally, theExecutor regularly maintained 200 miscellaneous combat and support ships in secondary docking bays,^[6] includinggunships,^[20] such asGamma-class ATR-6 assault transports fortroop deployment;^[14] and armedshuttles,^[20] such as theLambda-class T-4a shuttle,^[4] used to transport seniorofficers and dignitaries.^[20]

Likewise, as a standard theExecutor carried a massivearmy that included threeprefabricated garrison bases;^[1] a fullcorps ofstormtroopers andArmy troopers;^[18] 38,000 ground troops;^[1] and hundreds of assaultwalkers for planetary warfare,^[5] typically including thirtyAll Terrain Armored Transports,^[7] fiftyAll Terrain Scout Transports,^[6] andAll Terrain Personal Transports, deployed byY-85 Titan dropships^[2] and otherlanding craft.^[4] A small armada ofspeeder bikes andlandspeeders completed the ground arsenal.^[6] In theory, theExecutor could hold far more starships and troops, though such resources were never available.^[5]

Facilities and accommodations

Darth Vader had theExecutor specially equipped with a spherical hyperbaricmeditation chamber for his own use within his personal suite. Inside the chamber, which opened by splitting in two, like the gaping maw of some beast, a supermedicated^[50] high-pressure gas mix allowed Vader to safely rest free of hisbreathing mask, aiding his badly damagedlungs in the absorption ofoxygen, so that his scarred head and face could feel fresh air.^[2] The pod's pressurized atmosphere enabled Vader to relax into a meditative state,^[51] providing a sanctuary from the rigors of command.^[52] While within the chamber, a series of high-bandwidth communications consoles^[2] and a large visual display screen^[50] allowed Vader to communicate directly with his commanders on theExecutor's bridge.^[34] Just beyond the chamber within the suite rested aHoloNet transceiver^[53]projection pod with which Vader could immediately communicate with theEmperor directly from throughoutthe galaxy.^[34]

TheExecutor's onboard facilities included the central Engineering section, which managed the various systems that kept the titanic vessel running. The Star Dreadnought's powerful engines vibrated through the deckplates of Engineering. Ship security was maintained centrally within a large security office, equipped with various control panels and monitoring stations, including a ring of primary panels positioned in the middle of the office.Security cameras provided the office with feeds of various portions of the ship. A centraldroid pool maintained and serviced theExecutor's many droids. The droid pool's facilities could only be accessed by logging into the system'scomputer network.^[54]

Further crew accommodations aboard theExecutor included at least one sparsely furnished, nondescript conference/briefing room near the middle of the ship; dining galleys^[54] and an officers' mess hall in the command tower;^[2] at least one recreational facility in the middle of the ship, populated with games, such asdejarik, programs playing on video screens lining the walls, and dining tables; and an infirmary, with an adjacent reception area, furnished with chairs andcouches for waiting patients. The infirmary offered a level of cleanliness surpassing the rest of the ship to meet the needs and desires necessary for theExecutor's medical staff to perform its duties well.^[54]

Located in the levels immediately above the command bridge within the central command structure was a series of suites designed for theExecutor'sadmiral. Adjacent to the suites was a special escape pod for the admiral's specific use.^[2] Small cabins and personal quarters accommodated the rest of theExecutor's crew^[54]—higher-ranking officers were typically afforded solitary quarters within the command structure,^[2][54] while lower-ranking personnel shared cabins with a roommate.^[54] Another area contained theExecutor's troop quarters.^[55]

TheExecutor's brig comprised detention^[56] and interrogation cells,^[35][57] which were roughly four paces in length and large enough to hold at least two individuals.^[56] The cells had cots to accommodate slumber^[57] and ceilings that disappeared into darkness, while the walls had a barren black-gray finish intended to impress upon a captive the hopelessness of the situation.^[56] Alternatively, the Super Star Destroyer hosted civilian vessels within its many secondary docking bays, directed by a nearby launch control center. TheExecutor charged civilians by the day to keep their vessels docked in its storage bays.^[55] A cavernous cargo storage area allowed for another 250,000 metric tons of material in addition to theExecutor's military complement. Six years' worth of consumables kept theExecutor's crew members well supplied.^[20]

Like allImperial-class andSuper-class Star Destroyers, theExecutor was constructed with a specialthrone room set aside for exclusive use by theEmperor. From this throne room, theEmperor could take control of the Empire in whole and contemplate thedark side of the Force.^[58]

History

Design origins

TheExecutor's origins could be traced back to the final days of theClone Wars. Starship engineerLira Wessex, daughter of famedGalactic Republic engineerWalex Blissex, designed theImperator-class Star Destroyer, a massive 1,600-meter-long warship with an intimidation factor as great as its firepower,^[44] which saw limited use in Republic task forces.^[59] Following the Republic'stransition into the Galactic Empire^[44] in19 BBY,^[49] theImperator, since renamed theImperial-class Star Destroyer, became the iconic staple of the Imperial Navy—a terrifying symbol of the Emperor's might.^[44] Recognizing the immense size of the Star Destroyer was largely responsible for its ability to intimidate, Wessex began to design a new warship that would dwarf even the enormous Imperial Star Destroyer.^[17]

The Empire's initial attempt at realizing a larger Star Destroyer class began in the early years of theNew Order with theSarlacc Project, a top-secret initiative to construct a twelve-kilometer-longprototype Super Star Destroyer. However, the Empire's project suffered repeated delays^[49] and was eventuallysabotaged byinsurgent elements loyal toSenatorBail Organa ofAlderaan before it could be completed.^[60] Still, the destroyed prototype would prove to be the forerunner to an even larger Imperial warship.^[49]

Wessex's efforts to improve upon the design of the originalImperial-class Star Destroyer eventually resulted in the conceptualization of an unprecedented nineteen-kilometer-long Super Star Destroyer,^[17] the final product of the Sarlacc Project.^[49] This new starship class was designed to be a terror weapon like the galaxy had never seen.^[5] With construction authorized by the Emperor,^[17] the finished product, the first of a new generation of Super Star Destroyers, would serve as the personal flagship of theLordDarth Vader.^[5]

However, the term "Super Star Destroyer" was by no means an official label. The Imperial Navy initially listed the vessel as a "Super-class Star Destroyer" in budget requests to mask the true destructive nature of the warship from theImperial Senate. The Imperial Navy even went so far as to incorrectly report the size of the new ship to keep oversight committees from discovering its purpose. Such measures would create naming confusion in attempts at officially classifying theExecutor in the future.^[12]

Manufacturing contract

Although Kuat Drive Yards served as the primary manufacturer of the Empire's Star Destroyers, theExecutor's manufacturing contract was unexpectedly granted to theStarship Yards of Fondor. The Empire demanded total secrecy for theExecutor project, closing off theFondor system to all nonmilitary traffic. No longer able to meet the needs of their most valuable civilian clients, theFondor executives were enraged. Still, the massive project took up virtually all of Fondor's resources, and they knew better than to test Vader's anger. They also reasoned that if they met the Empire's expectations, they might very well be able to steal future lucrative military contracts from their Kuat competitors.^[61]

In reality, the Empire awarding theExecutor contract to Fondor opened up the KDYshipyards for a new project. Having lost theExecutor job, Kuat executives made sure that all futureSuper-class Star Destroyers would bear their logo,^[61] which only further angered Fondor.^[49] In fact, Kuat would be simultaneously constructing a duplicate Super Star Destroyer for the Empire along with Fondor.^[61] The Empire provisionally named both ships "Executor" to make it seem as if only one ship was being constructed.^[62] By attributing all expenses of thesister ship to the trueExecutor, the Empire kept the existence of the second Super Star Destroyer a secret from the galaxy at large.^[5] Under this ruse, both Kuat and Fondor publicly laid claim to having produced theExecutor, Darth Vader's flagship.^[62]

Starkiller's base of operations

TheExecutor first began construction at a top-secretshipyard facility in the secludedScarl system, located on the restricted ImperialGandeal-Fondor Hyperlane—which the Empire had secretly forged in accordance with theExecutor project—mereparsecs from Fondor. Coupled with the Scarlsystem's anonymity, theExecutor's Scarl labor force at first consisted entirely of droids, which concealed the Super Star Destroyer's construction quite effectively.^[49] By3 BBY,^[63][64] thousands of construction droids^[65] continued to labor on theExecutor in complete secrecy,^[66] and construction had proceeded such that the ship's superstructure was largely completed, and the traditional dagger-shaped hull of a Star Destroyer was recognizable. The command tower had been erected almost in full, with the two shield/sensor globes intact, and the engines were operational. Substantial sections of the hull, including the defined voluminous center, nevertheless remained incomplete, leaving portions of theExecutor's interior exposed.^[25]

During this time, Vader utilized his uncompleted Super Star Destroyer as a training ground and home for a secret dark side apprentice—Galen Marek, who, unknowing of his true name or identity, operated only under the codename "Starkiller." Vader took great steps to keep the existence of the apprentice hidden from the Emperor, as his taking of an underling was paramount to the betrayal of his own master. The Scarl system provided a location away from the Emperor'sspies, who perpetually monitored Vader's every move. Aboard theExecutor, Vader frequently sparred with the apprentice, training him inlightsaber combat and othertelekinetic measures ofthe Force. The DarkLord also provided his apprentice with aholodroid namedPROXY. Programmed with a variety of highly efficientlightsaber duel programs, thedroid was similarly capable of engaging the apprentice in what effectively served as combat training, although PROXY, by definition of Vader's programming, truly intended to kill the apprentice each time. Vader planned to eventually overthrow the Emperor and succeed him as ruler of the galaxy with the apprentice at his side.^[63]

While living aboard the uncompletedExecutor, Vader and his apprentice occupied a concealed level in the underside of the Super Star Destroyer that had long since been removed from the original floor plans and would go unnoticed by the future crew. The level, while sparse, consisted of an inner sanctum for Vader, a meditation chamber, a droid workshop, sleeping quarters large enough for one, and a hangar deck. Vader's inner sanctum was lined with a wide angular viewport.^[63]

At some point during the next year, Vader dispatched the apprentice on a series of missions designed to test his skills in preparation for deposing the Emperor. To aid the apprentice, Vader secretly assigned thefemale ImperialpilotJuno Eclipse to theExecutor tocaptain theRogue Shadow, the apprentice's starship, under the stipulation that anyone learning of her assignment would mean herdeath. Eclipse had personal quarters on the forty-first deck of theExecutor.^[63]

After the apprentice succeeded in his appointed mission, killing three fugitiveJedi, thus proving his readiness, Vader ordered him to return to theExecutor, where together they would finalize their plan to take control of the galaxy. Upon the apprentice's return to the Scarl system, however, Vader discovered that the Emperor's spies had followed him to theExecutor's hidden location—the Emperor's personalfleet of threeImperial-class Star Destroyers and a dozen smaller vessels exited hyperspace and surrounded theExecutor. Aboard the Super Star Destroyer, the apprentice believed the time had come to strike against the Emperor, but Vader insteadimpaled the apprentice with hislightsaber, his plan to move against the Emperor a failure. Having learned of Vader's treachery of taking on an apprentice of his own, the Emperor, watching viahologram through PROXY, ordered the Dark Lord to kill the apprentice or be killed himself. Vader obeyed by telekinetically throwing the apprentice through one of theExecutor's transparisteel viewports, out into space.^[63]

Vader in fact rescued the apprentice from certain death soon thereafter, treating his grievous injuries over a period of sixmonths, and once more setting him loose upon the galaxy under the guise that he was to organize an armed rebellion against the Empire. With the Emperor distracted with an alliance of rebel dissidents, the apprentice believed, Vader and he would finally strike. In reality, Vader and the Emperor manipulated the apprentice into bringing together the Emperor's greatestpolitical adversaries in one location where they could be eliminated in one fell swoop. On the planetCorellia^[63] in2 BBY,^[67] the apprentice joined with Imperial Senator Bail Organa and former senatorsMon Mothma andGarm Bel Iblis todiscuss the formation of an official rebellion against the Empire.^[63] TheExecutor interrupted the clandestine meeting, however. With the Super Star Destroyer looming in the upperatmosphere^[25] alongside severalImperial-class Star Destroyers,^[68] Vader and asquad of stormtroopers seized the three senatorial conspirators, revealing to the apprentice that he had been used all along.^[63]

Vader took the three imprisoned senators to theHoruz system, the construction site of the incomplete firstDeath Star, where the Emperor could execute his enemies personally. In a finalconfrontation with Vader and the Emperor, the apprentice died but liberated his allies nevertheless, freeing them to continue their rebellion. Having become the impetus behind the first significant armed resistance movement against Imperial forces in the galaxy by way of the Emperor's machinations, in a sense the apprentice's efforts staged from theExecutor marked the advent of theAlliance to Restore the Republic.^[25]

Imperial admirals' plot to sabotage theExecutor project

As the Death Star project neared completion in0 BBY, construction on theExecutor had stalled in turn. The planet-destroyingbattle station had become the new symbol of Imperial power, and the Death Star was draining much needed resources from theExecutor and other projects.^[49] Nevertheless, AdmiralConan Antonio Motti promised the Super Star Destroyer line's imminent introduction to active service in authoring the Imperial Navy chapter of theImperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, a tactical manual distributed just prior to theBattle of Yavin. Motti noted the Super Star Destroyer's intended role as the Imperial Navy's primary TIE fightercarrier, trooptransport,battleship, andplanetary bombardment platform, declaring also the Empire's ultimate vision to have one Super Star Destroyer persector as acommand ship forImperial forces. TheImperial Handbook included an image of the still-under-constructionExecutor.^[69]

Yet following the Death Star's sudden destruction at the Battle ofYavin, theExecutor became the Empire's top priority. The nearly completed Super Star Destroyer was hastily towed from the secrecy of the Scarl system to the Starship Yards of Fondor and a living construction crew, who redoubled their efforts to speed up theExecutor's stalled progress. Although the Empire hadnationalized Fondor around the time of the Battle of Yavin, it still left theFondor Guild of Starshipwrights, the planet's ancient rulers, in power to oversee theExecutor project.^[49]

Construction entered the final stages at Fondor^[66] under the utmost levels of security. A fleet ofImperial-class Star Destroyers patrolled Fondor, ordered to destroy any unauthorized civilian craft attempting to gain access to the shipyards. The sheer number ofbulk freighters delivering materials to the shipyards as a result of theExecutor project prompted Fondor to add additional shipping lanes not indicated on standard star charts to accommodate the heavy construction traffic. AdmiralAmise Griff supervised theExecutor's overall construction at Fondor.^[26]

Following the sudden emergence of the Rebellion in the wake of the Battle of Yavin, work slowdowns and sabotage reached critical levels at Fondor's shipyards. Fearing punishment from the Emperor if theExecutor was not completed according to schedule, the Fondor system'sgovernor loosened security restrictions on the shipyard's workers and extended more generous benefit packages tonon-Human laborers. Although the governor's measures quelled the unrest, the lighter security only left theExecutor project vulnerable to external saboteurs^[70]—namely, a group of five traitorous Imperial admirals.^[26]

After Vader's return toCoruscant following the Imperial disaster at Yavin, the Emperor ordered him to Fondor to personally oversee the final stages of construction of theExecutor.^[71] Before reaching Fondor, Vader rendezvoused with the group of Imperial admirals, including Amise Griff, to dictate his decided war policy against the Rebellion. Vader planned to use theExecutor to single-handedly destroy the Alliance, thus taking absolute control of the Imperial war effort, much to the admirals' disgust,^[26] who viewed theExecutor's construction as little more than grandstanding.^[22] They loathed the favor Vader courted from the Emperor, and feared that with the completion of theExecutor, they would suffer a great loss of influence and stature.^[26] Whereas the Death Star had previously eclipsed the Imperial Navy as the Emperor's preferred weapon of terror, the battlestation's destruction at Yavin returned the admirals to their original position of prominence.^[17] TheExecutor, however, threatened to once again steal that dominance away and place it solely in Vader's command.^[26]

During the meeting, Vader telekinetically lifted Griff out of his seat in a Force choke in response to the admiral raising an objection against his outlined course against the Rebellion, as well as to intimidate the other admirals into adherence. Vader and Griff in fact staged the entire scene to make it seem as if Griff truly sympathized with the admirals' concerns, when he was actually in league with Vader. The two planned to use theExecutor project to weed out those who sought to undermine Vader in the Emperor's eyes by bringing the project to ruin.^[26]

Griff anonymously contacted theAlliance High Command onYavin 4, leaking to them the existence of Vader's secret project at Fondor aimed at the Rebellion's destruction. He explained that he and his fellow Imperial admirals wished to halt Vader's rise in power and therefore had used their influence to keep open a position in the droid maintenance section of the project, which the Alliance could in turn use to their advantage by inserting a spy into that position.Luke Skywalker volunteered for themission, having droid maintenance experience, and, along with the droidsC-3PO andR2-D2, he journeyed to the Fondor Shipyards to collect any information he could on Vader's project.^[26] In addition to Skywalker, the Alliance also dispatched a team of agents to destroy the project.^[72] Only upon arriving did Skywalker discover that Vader's undertaking was nothing less than the largest starship he had ever seen.^[26]

Skywalker's maintenance duties included moving all along theExecutor, often repairing droids in zerogravity. While he kept up the ruse of droid repair, R2-D2 compiled detailed information on theExecutor's schematics. During his masquerade, Skywalker befriendedTanith Shire, a woman who had also infiltrated theExecutor project in order to steal one of the shipyard'sdrone barges.^[26]

With the Rebel spy in place, Vader used the Imperial admirals' ambition to sabotage theExecutor to lure them to Fondor to meet with the spy—planning to destroy them all at once. After Vader purportedly left the Fondor system to briefly attend to other matters, in actuality remaining on Fondor waiting to strike, Griff and the admirals secretly convened with Skywalker to supply him with explosive weapons necessary to sabotage theExecutor. Although Vader's plan to capture the Rebel spy failed when Skywalker sensed the Dark Lord's presence through the Force and escaped the scene, Vader's stormtroopers nevertheless rounded up the traitorous admirals, bringing their scheme to sabotage theExecutor project to an end.^[26]

Simultaneously, Vader succeeded in uncovering the team of Alliance saboteurs, foiling their sabotage mission as well.^[72] Skywalker eventually returned to theRebel base on Yavin 4^[73]—the only member of the Alliance team to survive the failed sabotage mission^[72]—with a great deal of information on theExecutor stored within R2-D2, his own mission largely a success.^[73]

Construction completed

In the interim between the Death Star's destruction and the imminent completion of theExecutor, Vader initiated a large-scale, if highly ineffective,blockade of theYavin system.^[22] Vader also reassigned Griff away from Fondor to take command of the blockade as theExecutor project neared completion.^[74] Vader did not want to crush the Rebel base immediately, using the blockade as a means to keep the Rebel command in place on Yavin 4 until theExecutor itself was ready to lead a full-scale planetary assault.^[75] He planned to use theExecutor as personal retribution for the embarrassment he suffered at Yavin. As the months wore on, however, the blockade situation angered local fleet commanders^[22] and even Griff himself, who urged Vader to strike.^[75] Consequently, Fondor accelerated theExecutor's construction.^[22]

Around two months after the Battle of Yavin,^[76] theExecutor was transferred to the remoteEndor system, the secret construction site of thesecond Death Star battlestation. Along with a number ofImperial-class Star Destroyers, theExecutor patrolled the construction site,^{[77][78][79][80][81]} where the new Death Star's progress fell short of the Emperor's expectations.^[77] Still incensed with Vader over his failure at Yavin, the Emperor relieved Vader of his command of the primary Imperial Fleet and reassigned him to administrative duties atEndor^[77] to ensure the Death Star's continuing progress.^[78] Vader's reassignment included relinquishing command of his flagship,^[76] theImperial I-class Star Destroyer^[16]Devastator, to the upstartColonelKell Bircher.^[76]

TheExecutor played host to the Emperor's eventual arrival at the Endor construction site. The Emperor discovered, much to his disgust, that Vader had appointedBirra Seah,^[80] a Kuat Drive Yards systems engineer serving as a liaison to the construction project,^[78] as actingMoff in command of the Death Star's construction.^[79] However, to save Seah,^[80] whom Vader discovered to have a strongconnection to the Force,^[78] from the Emperor's wrath, he instead surreptitiously placed her in an officer's position aboard theDevastator^[80] as his spy to keep tabs on Bircher.^[81] From aboard theExecutor's bridge in the Endor system, Vader remained in regular contact with Seah as she served on theDevastator.^[81][82] Seah reported to Vader that Bircher captured two Rebels aboard his Star Destroyer,Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker, the latter being of intense interest to the Dark Lord. Vader commanded Seah to detain Skywalker and bring the Rebel immediately to him.^[82] Eventually, theExecutor returned to Fondor.^[27]

Finally, six months after the Battle of Yavin, theExecutor reached completion^[22] on schedule.^[72] The first Super Star Destroyer ever constructed, theExecutor represented the most powerful starship in the Imperial Navy inventory^[27] and, for the matter, the largest and most powerfulcapital ship in the entire galaxy.^[18][72] TheExecutor, which replaced the Star DestroyerDevastator as Vader's flagship,^[83] would become the most famous of all the Empire's Star Destroyers,^[46] and held the mantle of Imperial Command Ship.^[19] By time of completion, theExecutor's official designation was changed from the colloquial Super Star Destroyer to theExecutor-class Star Dreadnought. Nevertheless, the term "Super Star Destroyer" stuck and many continued to borrow superlatives from the Clone Wars era and simply classify theExecutor as aSuper-class Star Destroyer.^[3][12]

By purely military standards, the completedExecutor was somewhat impractical, since a smaller ship could fulfill its mission duties. Instead, theExecutor served as physical proof of the unlimited resources and might of the Emperor. Indeed, Wessex's design succeeded where theImperial-class Star Destroyer had left off—theExecutor could conquer an enemy through sheer intimidation without even firing a shot,^[1] capable of demoralizing a planetary population merely by appearing inorbit and even subduing an entire star system.^[20]

TheExecutor project had taken years to complete,^[84] and the incredible cost to fund the construction of such a large warship—an estimated 1,143,350,000credits^[4]—had practically bankrupted several star systems.^[85] In fact, years later in12 ABY,^[86] Imperial AdmiralGilad Pellaeon once remarked that theExecutor alone had practically bankrupted the entire Empire.^[87] The Imperial treatment afforded Fondor during theExecutor's construction—namely locking out all civilian traffic from the Fondor system and awarding subsequent Super Star Destroyer contracts to theirKuati competitors—would erode support for the Emperor at Fondor and eventually lead to the Empire losing the planet to the Rebellion, reportedly with inside help, in the years following.^[49]

TheExecutor's completion paved the way for the introduction of the new warship line. Three Super Star Destroyers would enter service in the three years following, with several more under construction.^[1] At the same time that Fondor completed work on theExecutor, Kuat Drive Yards likewise finished theExecutor's sister ship.^[5] Rechristened theLusankya, the duplicate Super Star Destroyer was interred on Coruscant as the Emperor's private escape vessel,^[61] while Vader pressed theExecutor into immediate active military service.^[27]

Maiden voyage and approach to Yavin 4

Vader's impatience barely allowed surroundingspace tugs andequipment barges time to scatter out of the way as the finishedExecutor blasted out of the Fondor Shipyards. Vader ordered his commanders to set course for the nearest Rebel installation to christen his new warship by testing its destructive power. TheExecutor's maiden voyage saw itannihilate the Rebel outpost atLaakteen Depot with little resistance, a stronghold the Rebellion had fought nearly a year to win.^[27] While a minor skirmish, theExecutor's destruction of Laakteen Depot served both a military and political purpose, demonstrating to the Rebel Alliance and the galaxy that the Rebellion's victory over the Death Star was by pure chance and that the new Super Star Destroyer, of which there would be many more, was unstoppable.^[3] With the outpost left a smoldering ruin, theExecutor continued on toward the Rebel base on Yavin 4.^[27]

En route to Yavin 4, theExecutor soonfell under attack at the planetSkorrupon by a Rebel task force^[49] consisting of anEF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate and twoCR90 corvettes trying to slow the Super Star Destroyer's advance. Rather than taking immediate action against the attackers, Vader ordered theExecutor to stand down momentarily, allowing the Rebel ships a strafing run across theExecutor's prow, which inflicted minimal damage against its shields. TheExecutor'sacting admiral at first worried at Vader's delay, but the Dark Lord was simply toying with his ship's prey. After a moment longer, theExecutor easily destroyed the three Rebel ships. Vader acknowledged that his hesitation was to allow the Rebels time to report back to the Rebel base theExecutor's advance toward Yavin 4, before ordering the Super Star Destroyer onward with no delay.^[21]

Knowing theExecutor inexorably neared Yavin 4, the situation at the Rebel base turned desperate. TheExecutor threatened to wipe out the Rebellion's top starfighter pilots, including Luke Skywalker and a core group that would eventually form the eliteRogue Squadron, if the base was destroyed.^[22] AllianceGeneralJan Dodonna had no choice but to therefore order a fullevacuation of the base despite the Imperial blockade waiting to ensnare the fleeing Rebel transports,^[28] but he still held out hope for one last remaining chance of stopping theExecutor's approach.^[21]

Using the detailed information Skywalker collected during his spy mission of the uncompletedExecutor at Fondor, Dodonna and the Rebellion previously discovered several possible exploitable weaknesses in the Super Star Destroyer. First, however, they would need to break through theExecutor's powerful deflector shields, a near impossible task only an entire fleet would likely be able to accomplish—resources the Rebellion certainly did not have at their disposal.^[88] Instead, they planned to use apower gem—a raremeteorite particle once used by thePirates of Iridium during the days of the Old Republic that could disable any starship's energy shields—to knock out theExecutor's own shielding system and inflict enough damage to stop the approaching warship. The inherent risk was that the gem's power was rapidly deteriorating and time was of the essence. If the power gem failed to disable the Super Star Destroyer's shields, it would be a suicide mission, and theExecutor would be clear to destroy the Rebel base.^[21]

Both Skywalker andVrad Dodonna, Jan Dodonna's son, volunteered for the mission. The younger Dodonna had participated in the Rebellion's previous failed attack on theExecutor at Skorrupon, except the monstrous Super Star Destroyer had broken the man's spirit entirely and had sent him running back to Yavin 4 with deliberate, personally inflicted damage to hisscout ship to mask his cowardice. Completely disillusioned with the Rebel Alliance, Dodonna planned to sabotage the mission to stop theExecutor and use the power gem to bargain with the Empire for his life.^[21]

Stopped by Rebel power gem attack

TheExecutor encountered Skywalker and Dodonna in their specialpower-gem attack ship in theFeswe Corridor, an uninhabited star system filled with densely packed, tumblingasteroids,^[49] the cover of which provided a perfect spot for theRebel attack. TheExecutor'ssecond acting admiral derided the attack as foolhardy, believing a single small vessel could do no harm, especially since the Rebels' capital ships had so easily been defeated previously at Skorrupon. Vader, however, remembered how a single starfighter had destroyed the Death Star. Taking no chances, he ordered the admiral to maintain full shields and for thegunners to open fire on the Rebel craft.^[21]

Dodonna wildly maneuvered the vessel away from theExecutor but purposely vectored close enough for the power gem to nearly penetrate the Super Star Destroyer's shields, hoping the Empire would detect the anomaly, which would then allow him to purchase his own safety. Vader instantly realized that the Rebel attack ship was indeed equipped with such a power gem, but the craft had come close enough to theExecutor that Vader had also sensed the Force in one of the ship's pilots. Believing the sensation to be emanating from none other than his own son, Luke Skywalker, Vader ordered theExecutor to reverse its course heading away from Yavin 4 to pursue the Rebel craft, which had disappeared from sight.^[21]

Once the Rebel ship reappeared, after landing on a nearbyplanetoid where Dodonna expelled Skywalker from the craft, theExecutor continued pursuit. The primary acting admiral, concerned that theExecutor's battle schedule did not allow for such a deviation from its course toward Yavin 4, voiced his concerns to Vader, but the Dark Lord silenced his commander by momentarily closing his windpipe with the Force. Vader considered a chance at capturing Skywalker worth delaying the attack on the Rebel base. He ordered theExecutor to capture the Rebel ship bytractor beam in order to take Skywalker alive.^[21]

However, Vader grew concerned when he could no longer sense the presence of the being whom he believed to be Skywalker aboard the Rebel ship, since Skywalker had indeed disembarked. Only when Dodonna suddenly changed course to attack theExecutor head on in a suicide maneuver as part of a change of heart did Vader realize he had indeed lost Skywalker. With shields transferred fully forward, theExecutor suffered little damage as the Rebel craft slammed into the Super Star Destroyer at full force. Although the power gem's strength had weakened enough to have no effect on theExecutor, setting the shields forward left theExecutor's entire aft section unshielded and vulnerable.Han Solo and Skywalker in theMillennium Falcon took advantage of the momentary lapse by firing off one brief shot at theExecutor's engines, disabling its gyro-control system. Once more drawing a parallel to the Death Star's destruction, Vader saw nothing extraordinary in that the Rebels succeeded in hitting one of the few vulnerable spots on theExecutor with a single shot.^[21]

The attack left theExecutor temporarily unable to turn and resume its approach to Yavin 4. Having successfully slowed theExecutor, the Rebellion bought enough time to complete the evacuation of Yavin Base. Vader allowed responsibility to subsequently fall upon the shoulders of Griff, in charge of the blockade, to stop the Rebels fleeing from Yavin 4 until theExecutor could complete repairs. Griff hoped to reap the full accolades of the opportunity placed before him by crushing the Rebellion himself, not Vader.^[21] Meanwhile, theExecutor fell back from the Feswe Corridor to the nearby planetToprawa for repairs.^[49]

Race to destroy the Rebel Fleet

Vader soon learned, however, that the Rebels had indeed evacuated Yavin 4, though he still trusted Griff, in charge of the Imperial blockade, to stop the escapingRebel Fleet while theExecutor continued repairs at Toprawa. To help effect the fleet's escape, the Rebels orchestrated a three-pronged simultaneous attack at different points along the Imperial blockade, including adiversionary strike in theVallusk Cluster, which succeeded in drawing enough of the blockade away to open up a small hole leading to a hyperspace escape corridor. Griff quickly figured out that the Rebel strikes were designed to do nothing more than divert his attention from their true course, and he ordered the threeImperial-class Star Destroyers under his command to make all haste to cut off the Rebel Fleet, but he refrained from informing Vader and theExecutor of the Rebels' actions or location.^[28]

What Griff failed to realize was that the Rebels had discovered an alternate escape corridor away from Griff's waiting Star Destroyers,^[28] albeit an extremely dangerous one that passed perilously close to the erupting stellar flares of the unstablered giant star of theFeswe Prime system.^[49] Although theExecutor's admiral feared that Griff would steal the glory away from theExecutor by destroying the Rebels himself, Vader carefully bided his time, knowing that if Griff hounded the Rebel Fleet hard enough, Luke Skywalker would eventually use the Force to try and help his allies escape, which Vader would be able to sense. When Vader did, theExecutor would arrive to annihilate the Rebel Fleet.^[28]

TheExecutor's admiral's constant whining about Griff soon exhausted Vader, and the Dark Lord executed his ship's commander by choking him to death. After several hours, theExecutor finally completed repairs, although Vader refrained from rushing his ship into action. He patiently continued to wait for Skywalker's Force signature to reveal the Rebel Fleet's location.^[28]

Vader's instincts proved correct when Skywalker began using the Force to sense when the Feswe Prime sun's stellar flares would erupt, safely guiding elements of the Rebel Fleet past the danger during intermittent lulls. Detecting Skywalker's tapping into the Force, Vader immediately ordered theExecutor to make for the Rebel Fleet's escape route past the unstable sun. Meanwhile, having learned that theExecutor's damage had been repaired and that the Rebel Fleet had begun escaping into hyperspace at the alternate escape corridor at Feswe Prime, Griff desperately ordered his three Star Destroyers to execute a quick hyperspacemicro-jump, hoping to bring his ships out on the far side of the unstable sun where they would intercept the remainder of the Rebel Fleet. It would be a race to the finish between theExecutor and Griff's Star Destroyers to see which ships arrived first to wipe out the Rebel Fleet.^[28]

TheExecutor exited hyperspace on the far side of the unstable sun first, ahead of Griff, just as the final element of the Rebel Fleet approached its hyperspace jump point. As theExecutor moved around the sun, the Rebel Fleet's approach brought its ships right into theExecutor's path. With still no sign of Griff, Vader ordered theExecutor to open fire with all guns on the Rebel Fleet, but the Super Star Destroyer never had the chance. At that moment, Griff's three Star Destroyers suddenly emerged from hyperspace right on top of theExecutor. Although theExecutor's powerful shields protected the ship from sustaining any significant damage, Griff and his Star Destroyers were instantly obliterated in the collision. The Star Destroyers' inaccurate hyperspace jump stopped theExecutor's pursuit cold, allowing the last remnants of the Rebel Fleet to escape safely into hyperspace. Once more, Vader and theExecutor had failed to capture Luke Skywalker, but the Dark Lord vowed that the time would come when he would confront his son.^[28]

Following the Rebels' evacuation from Yavin, Vader discussed the Empire's misfortunes with the Emperor via his privateholographic chamber aboard theExecutor, ensuring his master that their destiny would be fulfilled.^[89] Around this time, Vader's personal chambers aboard theExecutor continued to play host to further holographic communications between Vader and the Emperor regarding the Imperial quest for dominion. The Dark Lords reassured themselves of the Rebellion's impending doom despite the defection of Imperial pilotTycho Celchu to the Rebellion and his theft of certain Imperial intelligence, which resulted in the escape of Rebelscientists on the planetRalltiir.^[89]

Shortly after taking possession of theExecutor, Vader conducted a holographic conference from the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer with the Emperor and theDark PrinceXizor, the secret head of theBlack Sun crime syndicate, in theImperial Palace on Coruscant to discuss Xizor's plan todestroy theBounty Hunters' Guild. The success of the plan, which splintered the Guild into disparate factions, allowed Vader to frequently hire these free-agentbounty hunters in the future for his own ends.^[83]

Formation of Death Squadron

The destruction of the Death Star forced the Empire to consider the Rebellion a far greater threat than ever before imagined. The Emperor offered Vader a free hand in hunting down the elusive Rebel High Command, which had disappeared since their escape at Yavin, and theExecutor was the Emperor's gift to Vader to achieve that end. Vader took this liberty to call together a fleet of his favored and, indeed, some of the best, Star Destroyers of the Imperial Navy to assist him in his hunt.^[17] They primarily included theImperial II-class Star DestroyersAvenger andStalker,^[7] and theImperial I-class Star DestroyersDevastator,^[17]Conquest,Accuser andTyrant,^[7] though they were all merely ornamental compared to the might of theExecutor.^[17]

The code-named ImperialDeath Squadron, elements of which had originally been formed under Griff during his command of theExecutor prior to his death and failure to stop the Rebel evacuation from Yavin 4, represented the most powerful fleet of warships ever assembled in the history of the galaxy. Accordingly enough, the fleet epitomized typical Imperial overkill and inefficiency, much like theExecutor itself.^[17] Death Squadron's official insignia featured anExecutor-class Super Star Destroyer against the backdrop of the Imperial emblem.^[91]

Death Squadron's formation became a public event, for the Emperor no longer considered it necessary to keep the threat of the Rebellion a secret.^[17] A reminder to the galaxy of the Empire's power,^[7] Death Squadron had but one goal: locate the Rebel Alliance and destroy it. Still, Vader had a more specific goal in mind—namely, the capture of Luke Skywalker.^[17]

Following Death Squadron's formation,Imperial AdvisorArs Dangor issued aholomessage to the Imperial Military hierarchy and the Empire'sGrand Moffs on behalf of the Emperor, announcing the fleet's creation and theExecutor's mission to hunt down the Alliance High Command. Dangor stressed that those receiving the message were to do whatever Vader and theExecutor required in the completion of their task.^[11]

Shelkonwa blockade

In 0 ABY,^[64] after the Rebels' evacuation of Yavin 4, theExecutor returned Vader to Coruscant, seat of power for the Empire.^[19]

TheExecutor later continued to orbit the Imperialcapital while Vader conducted archival research concerning the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Another opportunity for Vader to capture his son came in the form of a message Chief AdministratorVilim Disra of the remoteShelsha sector in theOuter Rim Territories sent to Vader on Imperial Center, informing him that the fugitive PrincessLeia Organa was present on the planetShelkonwa, the sector capital. Knowing Organa was the key to locating Skywalker, Vader and theExecutor set course for Shelkonwa.^[19]

Under commanding officer AdmiralBentro, theExecutor initiated alockdown of Shelkonwa, disallowing any ships landing clearance at thepalace of sector GovernorBarshnis Choard withinMakrin City, the planetary capital, while Vader's elite personal stormtrooper contingent, the501st Legion, conducted a search for Organa. During the blockade, theExecutor intercepted an approachingSuwantek SystemsTL-1800 freighter, theMelnor Spear, carrying five renegade Imperial stormtroopers—the self-titledHand of Judgment—as well as the Rebels Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and theWookieeChewbacca, the latter of whom had come to Shelkonwa to extract Organa from Imperial danger. After theMelnor Spear provided a legitimate clearance code for passage under a faketransponder code, masking its true identity as anImperial Security Bureau vessel commandeered by the rogue stormtroopers, theExecutor permitted the ship to land.^[19]

TheExecutor just as soon intercepted a second vessel, aZ-10 Seeker piloted by none other than the youngEmperor's HandMara Jade, a rival of Vader's for the Emperor's favor, who had come to Shelkonwa to administer her brand of Imperial justice to the traitorous Barshnis Choard. Much to the befuddlement of theExecutor'scontroller, Jade identified herself as the Emperor's Hand, demanding to see Vader himself aboard the flagship, hoping to ensure Vader's presence on Shelkonwa didn't interfere with her mission. After a few moments, Vader personally granted her permission to come aboard, and theExecutor'scaptain directed her to his personal hangar bay. Vader met with Jade in a small conference room, quickly coming to the rash assumption that she intended to capture Leia Organa as part of her own mission. The Dark Lord ignited hislightsaber, fully determined to destroy her rather than allowing her to ruin his chance at seizing Organa and thus destroying the opportunity to capture Luke Skywalker. But after realizing that Jade's target was in fact Choard and not Organa, Vader relaxed, recognized her duty to deal with Choard, and left her with the strict caveat not to get in his way.^[19]

During Vader's meeting with Jade, theExecutor intercepted yet a third vessel, the freighterHapper's Way, a stolen ship piloted by theBloodScarpirateCaaldra, carrying a cargo of fifty likewise stolen Imperial AT-STs. In league with Choard, Caaldra was delivering the walkers to Shelkonwa to facilitate the independence of the Shelsha sector from Imperial authority for his group's own end. Once Jade returned to her ship, she noted the freighter ahead of her veering off the course theExecutor had allowed for incoming vessels and soon recognized the freighter for who and what it was. Learning from theExecutor'scontroller that the Super Star Destroyer had granted the freighter special permission to land at the governor's palace, Jade exercised her authority as Emperor's Hand to order Bentro to redirect theHapper's Way back to its original landing zone, to which theExecutor complied. Bentro asked whether she required ground troops or air support from theExecutor, but she declined, not wanting to elbow Vader twice in the same day, to the quiet relief of the admiral. Jade would handle Choard and Caaldra herself.^[19]

The three parties theExecutor allowed into Shelkonwa converged upon one another within Makrin City. The Rebels rescued Organa from Imperial capture and Jade eliminated Caaldra. Vader and the 501st Legion stormed upon the governor's palace and arrested Choard, before taking him aboard theExecutor for prisoner transfer to Coruscant. Jade ordered theExecutor to allow clearance for the five stormtroopers of the Hand of Judgment safe passage off Shelkonwa, protecting their identities as fugitives of the Empire, though she did not realize that the stormtroopers were secretly transporting the Rebels from Shelkonwa as well. TheExecutor's scanners detected only the five lifeform signatures of the stormtroopers as their Suwantek freighter exited the system, leading Jade to later believe that Organa couldn't have possibly stowed away aboard the ship and that her purported presence on Shelkonwa was just a ruse Vilim Disra fabricated to attract Vader to Shelkonwa to eliminate Choard. Of course, Organa and Luke Skywalker were in fact aboard the Suwantek, once again escaping capture from Vader and theExecutor.^[19]

Kendal Ozzel takes command

With Griff dead, the position offleet admiral in command of theExecutor and of Death Squadron remained vacant. The Imperial Navy hierarchy expended much consideration as to who should lead theExecutor, command ship of the entire Empire. With some reluctance, the Imperial Navy decided to grant the position toKendal Ozzel,^[92] formerly of theImperial-class Star DestroyerReprisal.^[19] The reasoning being that not even Ozzel would be stupid enough to argue with Vader, the true commander of Death Squadron, as he hunted down the Rebel base.^[92]

Speculation abounded as to the reasoning behind Ozzel's promotion. Many believed that Ozzel's bloodline and ties to the Imperial Military were responsible for his appointment to theExecutor;^[17] others believed he was a casualty of clerical oversight, one of many officers of lesser ability promoted to fill the vacancies of the Imperial Navy's finest lost in the Death Star's destruction;^[92] still others thought Death Squadron needed a military commander besides Vader to appease high-ranking members of the Imperial Navy's general staff.^[17] The truth was a bit different. After the Shelkonwa skirmish, Mara Jade requested that Vader keep an eye on Ozzel, whom she believed had tried to kill her to prevent her from hurting his chances at becoming an admiral. Vader agreed, arranging Ozzel's promotion.^[19]

Many officers in Death Squadron at first viewed Ozzel as Vader's equal as the new commanding officer of theExecutor. However, the fleet in fact belonged to Vader.^[17] Ozzel served only as a figurehead as the fleet admiral, a mere puppet whose strings Vader pulled.^[72] Ozzel soon came to resent the Dark Lord as result.^[17] He had finally gained his long sought-after admiralty, but he wielded little real power.^[92]

One of theExecutor's first assignments under Ozzel's command was to patrol theBlack Widow Nebula, an immense field of impenetrable interstellar dust, in search of theImperial-class Star DestroyerEradicator and an Imperial courier corvette commanded by one CaptainSodarra, an Imperial deserter. Along with the Star DestroyerAvenger, theExecutor intercepted theMillennium Falcon, piloted by Han Solo, who was passing through the sector. After ordering theMillennium Falcon to standby in preparation for acustoms inspection, theExecutor dispatched four TIE Fighters and a shuttle holding a squad ofZero-G assault stormtroopers to board the freighter. Eventually, theExecutor impounded theMillennium Falcon and took Solo and Chewbacca captive.^[56][93]

Solo spent several hours in theExecutor's brig before Ozzel summoned him to the bridge to interrogate him personally concerning his involvement with the traitorous Sodarra. During the brief questioning, Solo alluded to knowing about Sodarra's corvette in thenebula, which prompted Ozzel to formulate a plan: he would allow theMillennium Falcon to escape from theExecutor in the hope that it would lead him to Sodarra. Solo, however, had lied about knowing about the corvette and had seen right through Ozzel's ruse—which he found less than clever.^[56][93]

When a group of stormtroopers later arrived at Solo's cell to take him to his execution, he and Chewbacca dispatched their guards and boarded theMillennium Falcon with little trouble, per Ozzel's plan. TheMillennium Falcon conveniently slipped through its impound hangar's hyperspace doors just as they were closing and escaped from theExecutor into the nebula with no pursuit, leaving Ozzel with nothing. Reports of the incident concerning Solo's brief imprisonment aboard theExecutor varied, however.^[56][93]

Defense of Poln Major

In 0 ABY,^[64] theExecutor and Death Squadron came to the aid ofSenior CaptainThrawn in a campaign against the^[29]Storm-hair^[94]warlordNuso Esva, whose amassed power in theUnknown Regions of the galaxy had begun threatening the fringes of Imperial territory. Thrawn, whose own local forces had been spread too thin to respond, first turned to the Emperor to request a minimum of six Star Destroyers to crush Esva, but the Emperor instead suggested he appeal to Vader for the military support he required. In doing so, Thrawn and his personal pilot,Jorj Car'das, traveled aboard theDeepWater-class light freighterLost Reef to meet with Vader, and a deal was struck: Vader would provide theExecutor and the fleet where and when Thrawn needed in exchange for Thrawn delivering the Rebellion leadership into Vader's hands.^[29]

Thrawn's where and when proved to be the remote double planetaryPoln system—consisting ofPoln Major, capital world of theCandoras sector, and the smallerPoln Minor—at the culmination of a carefully crafted plot to reel in and smashNuso Esva's battle fleet. The Storm-hair warlord targeted Poln Major, at the edge ofWild Space and the Unknown Regions, as his next conquest intoImperial space by kidnapping thefamily of its occupying Imperial governor,Bidor Ferrouz, and forcing him to committreason. By kidnapping Ferrouz'swife anddaughter, Esva forced the otherwise loyal Ferrouz to make overtures to the Rebellion, offering them sanctuary on Poln Minor to establish a new base following their evacuation from Yavin. Likewise, by simultaneously attempting toassassinate the governor and pinning it on the Rebels, Esva attracted to Poln a sizable Imperial presence—Thrawn, specifically, his nemesis—which he planned to destroy. Nevertheless, Thrawn adeptly anticipated the Storm-hair's scheme and had theExecutor and Death Squadron waiting to strike when the warlord'snaval forces finally moved on Poln Major.^[29]

At Thrawn's predetermined signal—cherek,esk,krill—theExecutor and Death Squadron, including the Star DestroyersDevastator,Accuser,Stalker,Adjudicator,Tyrant, andAvenger, emerged from hyperspace into the Poln system in the middle of an already escalatingbattle. A small Imperial task force consisting of the Imperial Star DestroyersAdmonitor andChimaera, supported by a handful ofcruisers, were opposed by Esva'sEastern Fleet, totaling twenty-eightFirekiln warships—five of which equaled a Star Destroyer's firepower—fiftyWhisperlike fighters, and nearly a hundredescort ships, hopeless odds for the Imperials by any measure. But theExecutor's intervention, for which Nuso Esva had been totally unprepared, turned the battle into a resounding victory for the Empire, smashing Nuso Esva's fleet and driving the warlord back into the Unknown Regions. Afterward, Thrawn made good on his end of the deal to deliver the Rebellion leadership by providing Vader with a manifest of war matériel the Rebels had collected during their time on Poln Minor before escaping the system, much of which was designed to operate with the greatest tactical effectiveness on a cold, uninhabited world, thereby providing Vader with both an excellent lead in his search for Luke Skywalker and intelligence to tailor his eventual attack for quick victory.^[29]

Ambushing the Rebel Fleet

Three months after the Rebel evacuation from Yavin 4, and nine months following the Death Star's destruction, opportunity offered Vader and theExecutor another chance at destroying the Rebel Fleet and finding Luke Skywalker. Vader previously detained the Rebel strategistJorin Sol,^[96]torturing him into revealing the Rebel Fleet's coordinates^[97] atTingel Deepspace Besh^[49] and its hyperspace protocols.^[97] Almost simultaneously, ImperialLieutenantJanek Sunber, a childhood friend of Skywalker who had recently learned of the latter's involvement in the Death Star's destruction, offered to Vader his information on his friend.^[96]

Sunber rendezvoused with theExecutor and Death Squadron in orbit around a verdant planet. After Sunber boarded theExecutor, Ozzel escorted him to Vader's personal suite, where he provided the Dark Lord with a complete history of his background with Skywalker.^[96] Sunber volunteered to infiltrate the Rebellion, masquerading as a defector, to deliver Skywalker into Vader's hands.^[97] Armed with the Rebel Fleet's location and with Sunber embedded among the Alliance High Command, Vader called together a mammoth task force of several dozen Star Destroyers to support theExecutor in finally crushing the Rebellion and capturing Skywalker.^[30]

TheExecutor and its many dozens of accompanying Star Destroyers soon emerged from hyperspace on all sides of the Rebel Fleet at its hidden coordinates at Tingel Deepspace Besh, completely surrounding and heavily outgunning the Rebels.^[30] Even if the Rebel Fleet escaped into hyperspace, the Empire knew from their obtained hyperspace protocols where their next rendezvous point would be. As the Star Destroyers beganripping into the Rebel Fleet, inflicting extremely heavy losses, the Rebel ships began escaping into hyperspace with little choice, just as the Empire expected. But rather than moving on to the next prearranged rendezvous point, the Rebel Fleet instead scattered among random hyperspace vectors at the urging of Jorin Sol, the same man who had sold out the Fleet's location, in an attempt to redeem himself.^[95]

Although Ozzel joyously remarked to Vader as the two watched on from theExecutor's bridge that the end of the Rebellion seemed near if the Rebel Fleet was indeed jumping to their rendezvous point where the Empire awaited them, Vader offered his admiral no such congratulations. His thoughts instead rested on the Alliance command shipRebel One, where his true prize awaited him—Luke Skywalker.^[95]

With theRebel One on the verge of destruction, Jorin Sol initiated the ship's jump into hyperspace at the last moment, taking Skywalker along with it. In what was becoming an uncomfortably familiar trend for Vader, the Dark Lord could only watch on helplessly from theExecutor as he again lost his son, as well as the surviving elements of the Rebel Fleet. Despite Skywalker's escape, theExecutor and its task force heavily decimated the Rebel Fleet, scattering it in all directions.^[95]

Vader's annoyance with Ozzel began to take shape at that time when the admiral interrupted the Dark Lord's brooding following the Rebel escape to make a report. Ozzel's life was saved only by the consolation that theExecutor's sensors detected nearby the escape pod that had been intended for Sunber's escape from theRebel One.^[95]

Nearly twelve standard months after the Battle of Yavin, Vader met with the notoriousbounty hunterBoba Fett within a dark chamber aboard theExecutor. Vader contracted him to hunt down theShi'idoMammon Hoole and the twoHuman childrenZak andTash Arranda for their efforts to sabotageProject Starscream, an Imperial research initiative to create an army of supersoldiers. Although Fett failed to capture his targets, Vader nevertheless called off the hunt for Hoole and the Arrandas midstream, instead directing Fett to return to theExecutor for a much more important assignment: to track down theMillennium Falcon, the ship of Han Solo, friend of Luke Skywalker.^[98]

Dark Trooper Project

Vader wielded theExecutor as a tool of near unlimited power as his flagship and Death Squadron scoured the spacelanes in the continued hunt of the Rebellion,^[72] a search that would prove long and tiresome before its eventual end. Vader led the hunt from theExecutor's bridge, running down leads on the planetJazbina and a number of other scattered worlds.^[99] TheExecutor destroyed the remaining Rebel bases over the period of months following the Rebels' escape from Yavin 4.^[72]

After the Battle of Yavin, theExecutor oversaw the destruction of one such installation, the Rebellion'sTak Base on the planetTalay. This assault held greater significance than a run-of-the-mill obliteration of a helpless Rebel outpost, however. The Empire chose Talay as the location for GeneralRom Mohc to demonstrate the effectiveness of his brainchild, theDark Trooper Project,^[32] a new breed ofbattle droid that would effectively serve as a "super stormtrooper."^[100]

With Vader on hand to oversee the first implementation of the new Imperial military project with the Emperor's approval, Mohc joined the Dark Lord on the bridge of theExecutor to monitor theTalay operation from orbit. TheExecutor waited alongside severalImperial-class Star Destroyers and theArc Hammer, the titanic dark trooperproduction vessel, as a group of dark troopers launched from theArc Hammer and made planetfall on Talay. The dark troopers wiped out Tak Base in a matter ofminutes. Pleased with the successful demonstration, Vader approved the project's continuation.^[32]

During the Dark Trooper Project's progression, theArc Hammer made periodic hyperspace jumps across the galaxy for security reasons. Only theExecutor knew theArc Hammer's location at any given time. Mohc employedsmugglers to deliver the vitalminedphrik alloy for use in the dark troopers' construction, but the Empire required each smuggler to rendezvous with and deliver Mohc's raw goods to theExecutor, which served as a liaison for the refined phrik. TheExecutor would then hyperspace to theArc Hammer's secret location and make the delivery itself.^[32]

The dark troopers' incredible effectiveness at Talay proved a great concern to Rebel AllianceCommander-in-Chief Mon Mothma, who tasked themercenaryKyle Katarn with investigating and shutting down the Imperial project. Katarn followed the trail of smuggler ships under Mohc's hire to the ImperialFuel Station Ergo, where he hijacked a cargo shiprefueling in preparation for a rendezvous with theExecutor. Posing as a smuggler himself, Katarn docked the cargo ship in one of theExecutor's hangars andinfiltrated the Super Star Destroyer to wait for its rendezvous with theArc Hammer.^[32]

Katarn stowed away aboard theExecutor while it traveled through hyperspace and, once the ship reached theArc Hammer's secret location and began transferring over its cargo allotment, he made his move. Katarn tore his way through theExecutor's lower engineering and docking sections looking for one of the cargo containers being transported, which he planned to sneak inside and ride to theArc Hammer. TheExecutor's security detail quickly became aware of the intrusion, shutting down the cargo transfer, but Katarn muscled his way past threePhase II dark troopers, restarted the cargo transfer, and hid inside a cargo container, before it delivered him aboard theArc Hammer.^[32]

While aboard theArc Hammer, Katarn proceeded to eliminate Mohc himself and destroy the dark trooper production vessel, bringing an end to the Dark Trooper Project once and for all. So enraged at the loss of theArc Hammer was the Emperor that he ordered all research into battle droid stormtroopers ceased. Thus, theExecutor's role in the development of the Imperial military project came to an end as well.^[32]

Probe droids launched and Circarpous V

To greater facilitate the hunt for the hidden Rebel base and Luke Skywalker, Vader commissioned the creation of a modified version ofArakyd Industries's successfulViper probe droid model, a spy droid specifically designed to discover Rebel installations, on thefactory world ofMechis III,^[101] sometime around 1 ABY.^[22] When Vader personally visited Mechis III to inspect the progress of his newprobots, the Dark Lord earned the admiration of theIG-seriesassassin droidIG-88A, who had covertly taken over the planet's droid manufacturing factories in preparation for a galacticDroid Revolution. IG-88A considered Vader to be the perfect synthesis of biological being and droid, and so, when IG-88 tapped into the droids he had infiltrated into the Empire for information on Vader, he learned of the existence of theExecutor. Intrigued by theExecutor's massive size and powerful onboard computers, IG-88A reflected on how he might use the Super Star Destroyer to further his droid conquest of the galaxy.^[85]

Once Mechis III completed the construction of these probe droids, IG-88A shipped them to Death Squadron. Soon, theExecutor and the rest of the fleet began dispatching the probe droids by the thousands into the remote corners of the galaxy to uncover the location of the Rebel base.^[85]

Vader's long-awaited confrontation with Skywalker finally came in2 ABY.^[64] Imperial governorBin Essada ofGyndine forwarded to the Dark Lord information concerning the presence of Skywalker and Leia Organa being held in Imperial captivity on the planetCircarpous V,^[102] in theExpansion Region.^[103] Operating at peak efficiency during this time, theExecutor was a twenty-seven hour and forty-two minute hyperspace jump fromCircarpous IV's orbit, by the ship'snavigator's estimate. Vader ordered theExecutor and Death Squadron to make for theCircarpous system with haste, warning that any delay came at the expense of the navigator's life. He greatly anticipated enacting his dark vengeance on Skywalker and Organa, as well as collecting the Force-enhancingKaiburr crystal from Circarpous V, which would greatly increase his powers.^[104]

After theExecutor delivered Vader to the Circarpous system, the Dark Lord caught up with Skywalker and Organa in theTemple of Pomojema on Circarpous V. Skywalker defeated Vader in alightsaber duel with the aid of the Force-magnifying influence of the Kaiburrcrystal, despite being far from a match for Vader's might, and he escaped once again.^[17] Nevertheless, the encounter intensified Vader's determination to find and capture his son, and the Empire would soon be tightening the noose on the elusive Rebellion.^[72]

Kuat commissioning ceremony

Despite being in active military service for nearly two years,^[72] theExecutor was not officially commissioned until around 2.5 ABY.^[24] The Empire held a grandiose unveiling ceremony for the Super Star Destroyer at the Kuat Drive YardsImperial Transfer Post. The Emperor himself presided over the ceremony, with Vader at his side, along withGrand AdmiralRufaan Tigellinus and Admiral Thrawn. Also present were members of the Imperial Navy's general staff, including AdmiralsTandres,Tavares, and Ozzel.^[18] The Imperial Navy gathered a fleet of warships numbering in the thousands, including three dozen Star Destroyers, to welcome theExecutor as it slowly pulled into the transfer post.^[23]

TheImperial Defense DailyNewsNet covered the ceremony in a release on 37:10:23, reporting a number of factual errors contradictory to theExecutor's history. The report claimed that theExecutor's commissioning marked the Super Star Destroyer first joining Death Squadron at Vader's request and the formal dispatching of Death Squadron to hunt down the Rebellion,^[18] despite theExecutor and Death Squadron having been jointly searching for the Alliance High Command for nearly two years.^[17] Similarly, the report claimed that Ozzel, already in command of Death Squadron, was expected to transfer his flag to theExecutor,^[18] when the Imperial Navy had placed him in command of theExecutor a year and a half previously,^[19][92] as well as noting that theExecutor had just completed a six-month shakedown cruise five weeks prior,^[18] when the Super Star Destroyer had first left the Fondor Shipyards two years before.^[22] TheExecutor and Death Squadron would be departing for the Outer Rim in a month following the ceremony to begin their search of the Rebellion, according to the report.^[18]

Simultaneous with the ceremony, Vader tasked Imperial Security BureauCentral CommanderSollaine with delivering to him a Rebel deep-cover spy embedded within the Empire,Rivoche Tarkin, the niece of the late Grand MoffWilhuff Tarkin, though Vader did not know her identity. Rather than delivering Tarkin to Vader and allowing the Dark Lord to take credit for her capture, Sollaine planned to deliver the prize directly to the Emperor, which he believed would allow him to supplant Vader at the Emperor's side and take command of the newly commissionedExecutor himself.^[23]

Following the ceremony, theExecutor was scheduled to deliver Vader to the planetCorulag in time for him to attend the engagement ceremony ofVastin Caglio, eldest son of MoffJamson Caglio of theBormea sector, and Rivoche Tarkin, the very Rebel spy he had assigned Sollaine to detain. TheExecutor arrived at Corulag as scheduled, exiting hyperspace directly in front of theHelix-class light interceptorG Cat, pursued closely by the Imperial Star DestroyerDevastator, under Sollaine's command. TheG Cat was desperately ferrying Tarkin to safety away from Sollaine's forces on Corulag, and when theExecutor emerged from hyperspace directly in the midst of theskirmish, the Super Star Destroyer's massive presence proved to be the perfect obstacle for theG Cat to evade theDevastator's tractor beams and escape into hyperspace. TheExecutor's sudden arrival inadvertently cost Vader the Rebel spy.^[23]

By late 2 ABY,^[105] in the months immediately following its Kuat unveiling ceremony, theExecutor was again mentioned in a NewsNet report on 38:1:9 by theIndependent Traders' Infonet, regarding Imperial boarding actions onfree-traders operating in remote Outer Rim regions. Several free-traders reported being apprehended by and interrogated aboard patrolling Imperial Star Destroyers after traveling lesser-knownhyperlanes and thereby being suspected of working for the Rebellion. The Imperial Star Destroyers responsible were reportedly elements of Ozzel's Imperial Death Squadron.^[106]

At some point between 2 ABY and 3 ABY,^[107] Vader and theExecutor, along with anImperial-class Star Destroyer, aLambda-class T-4a shuttle, and a host of TIE fighters, traveled to the desolate planetZaloriis. The Dark Lord was desperate for any clues to find the hidden Rebel base and chose to pay the planet a visit after Zaloriis missed its monthly tribute to Coruscant. On Zaloriis, theZalorians revealed theirdefection to the Rebel Alliance and turned on Vader. In the ensuingassault, Vader's forces wiped out the Rebel presence on Zaloriis and freed Imperial ColonelMaximilian Veers from captivity, who brought with him aprototype AT-AT walker.^[33] Afterward, Vader reassigned Veers to his flagship and arranged his promotion to general, placing him in command of theExecutor's ground forces.^[108]

Discovering Echo Base

3 ABY^[64] saw theExecutor visiting the thriving^[109]Mid Rim^[22]port world ofOrd Mantell^[109] on a scheduled stop to receive supplies^[110] while Vader conducted business on the planet below. The Dark Lord met briefly with the bounty hunter Boba Fett while hisshuttle took on supplies^[109] for the waitingExecutor in orbit.^[110] Fett suggested the idea of using Han Solo, whose lucrative bounty he was hunting, to lure Luke Skywalker into Vader's hands, which would prove mutually beneficial for both, since Fett could then collect on Skywalker as well. Intrigued, Vader endorsed the proposal before departing the planet for theExecutor. Little did Vader or Fett realize that a bounty hunting team associated with Fett was delivering the captured Skywalker and Solo to Ord Mantell at that very moment.^[109]

As theExecutor departed from Ord Mantell's orbit, Vader contacted the Emperor from his personal holochamber, reporting that Death Squadron's search for the new Rebel base began. Vader also introduced his plan to use Boba Fett to bring in Skywalker, which likewise intrigued the Emperor.^[109] The bounty hunter plan failed when Skywalker and Solo escaped Fett on Ord Mantell, but Vader had a contingency plan.^[111]

Vader deployed a Viper probe droid to the jungle planetVerdanth, knowing its presence would attract a Rebel investigation team. The probe was specially designed to emit a laserwave transmission back to acybernetic chamber aboard theExecutor. Through the cybernetic link, Vader could reach out with the Force using the probe as a vicarious means of interrogating whomever had decided to investigate into revealing the location of the Rebel base.^[111]

The probe droid attracted none other than Luke Skywalker, who soon fell prey to Vader's Force probing back aboard theExecutor, but the plan failed when Han Solo destroyed the probe before Vader could force Skywalker to reveal the Rebel base's location. The failure did not perturb Vader, however. The Dark Lord ordered theExecutor to continue launching probe droids into the expanses of the Outer Rim in search of Skywalker and the Rebellion, hoping another probe might succeed where the one on Verdanth had not.^[111]

Not long after Verdanth, theExecutor's search for the Rebel base came to an end after nearly three years. Vader often received insights, seemingly from the Force, into his son's whereabouts while in quiet moments of meditation in his hyperbaric chamber. After one such meditation session, Vader's intuition paid off. At his order,^[99] the Star DestroyerStalker launched a Viper probe droid to the remote Outer Rim ice planetHoth, where it discovered the Alliance High Command's headquarters ofEcho Base.^[7] The probe droid relayed audio and visual sensory data of Echo Base's shield generator^[17] and Rebelsnowspeeders^[49] via HoloNet transceiver to theExecutor.^[17] When CaptainFirmus Piett reported the probe's findings to his superiors, Ozzel believed the data fragment to be nothing more than smugglers, but Vader overrode his admiral, knowing he had finally found the Rebellion—and where the Rebels were, he would find Luke Skywalker. Vader ordered theExecutor and Death Squadron to theHoth system in preparation for the impending destruction of the Rebellion.^[34]

TheExecutor and Death Squadron were near theQeimet system,^[49] far from Hoth,^[112] at the time of the Echo Base discovery. Vader's fleet first made its way to theFarstine system before jumping on the nearest major hyperlane, theHydian Way, and proceeding to the planetEriadu, at the junction of the Hydian Way and theRimma Trade Route. From there, theExecutor traveledCoreward toYag'Dhul, where the Rimma intersected theCorellian Trade Spine, which theExecutor and the fleet then used to travel Rimward out toward Hoth.^[49]

Battle of Hoth

Arrival

While theExecutor approached the Hoth system, the Viper probe on Hoth continued to transmit strategic data concerning Echo Base, including troop movements and positions,artillery emplacements, and even the size, model, and location of the base'sV-150 anti-orbital ion cannon. This information would prove invaluable to theExecutor's ground forces as they prepared for battle.^[17]

TheExecutor and the fleet exited the Corellian Trade Spine at theIndellian system and continued traveling Rimward down theIson Corridor before finally arriving in the Hoth system.^[49] Upon reaching the Hoth system, Ozzel purposely brought theExecutor and Death Squadron out of hyperspace directly on top of Hoth, the system's sixth planet. Standard naval procedure called for the fleet to enter the system far enough away from the hostile planet so as not to be detected, but Ozzel completely failed to observe protocol. Because his pride had been hurt by Vader's order to follow up the Hoth lead, Ozzel decided for himself that sudden surprise was the best tactic,^[92] despite even having the coverage of the nearbyHoth asteroid field at his advantage.^[17]

Ozzel's highly visible maneuver broadcast the fleet's presence across Echo Base's system monitors as soon as it emerged from hyperspace, allowing the Rebels time to raise their planetary shield, as theExecutor detected viacom-scan, and to charge up their ion cannon. The blunder rendered a direct planetary bombardment impossible. Enraged, Vader ordered General Maximilian Veers, commander of Death Squadron's ground forces, to prepare theExecutor's troops for a planetary assault. Moreover, the Dark Lord had had enough of Kendal Ozzel.^[17][34]

Ever since taking command of theExecutor three years before, Ozzel had constantly been at odds with Vader.^[17] Ozzel's tenure in command of Death Squadron had been filled with public criticism of the Dark Lord,^[92] and he preferred to follow up any substantial leads in the hunt for the Rebel base personally, which often resulted in sending Death Squadron off on unproductive forays. Vader began to restrict Ozzel's involvement so that he became a mere figurehead to relay orders to the rest of theExecutor's crew.^[17] After questioning Vader's decision to investigate the Hoth system, followed by his latest tactical blunder, Ozzel's career had come to an end. Having tired of Ozzel's persistent stupidity, Vader telekinetically executed his admiral, before promoting Piett to fill the vacancy.^[34]

Chasing theFalcon

Left with no alternative but a planetary invasion, Vader ordered Piett to deploy theExecutor and the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron so that nothing escaped the planet.^[34] TheExecutor assumed a position in low Hoth orbit^[34] as it began to deploy an assault force of AT-AT and AT-ST walkers to the surface via Y-85 Titan dropships—the eliteBlizzard Force, under Veers's command. TheBattle of Hoth had begun.^[2]

While Veers led theExecutor's ground forces in the assault against the Rebels' defenses, theExecutor and Death Squadron worked to intercept Echo Base's fleeing escape transports.^[34] The Imperial fleet succeeded in destroying seventeen of thirty RebelGR-75 medium transports blasting away from Hoth.^[2] TheExecutor participated in the destruction of at least one such Rebel vessel, the medium transportBright Hope, the final escape transport to leave the planet.^[113] Once Veers destroyed the Echo Base shield generator, Vader landed on the planet himself, in search of Skywalker, but he arrived in time only to see theMillennium Falcon blasting away from the base. Although the Empire routed the Rebel defenses in a crushing victory, overtaking Echo Base, Luke Skywalker had escaped. Still, Vader's hunt had begun anew.^[34]

When Death Squadron notified Vader that theMillennium Falcon was still in the Hoth system and had not yet jumped into hyperspace, Vader knew the ship was disabled.^[114] From the planet, he immediately ordered theExecutor and the fleet to pursue the fleeingMillennium Falcon as their primary objective, caring little for the base's other escaping transports,^[53] a move that proved to be a tactical blunder in itself. Vader's obsession with Skywalker diverted Death Squadron in search of theMillennium Falcon, allowing much of the Alliance High Command core to safely evacuate and regroup.^[2] Remembering his meeting with Boba Fett months before on Ord Mantell and the bounty hunter's suggestion, Vader hoped to capture Skywalker's friends aboard theMillennium Falcon to use them as bait to lure Skywalker himself into his trap.^[53]

Aftermath of Hoth

As theMillennium Falcon raced away from Hoth, theExecutor intercepted and captured theJumpMaster 5000scout shipPunishing One, piloted by the rogue Imperial assassinDengar, who had come to Hoth to capture Han Solo's bounty. ThePunishing One fell prey to a blast from Echo Base's ion cannon after emerging from hyperspace in the midst of the battle. Just as theExecutor gripped thePunishing One by tractor beam and began reeling in the disabled vessel, theMillennium Falcon rocketed past, firing at theExecutor's gun emplacements and dodging blasts from the Super Star Destroyer. TheMillennium Falcon evaded theExecutor for the moment, but three other Star Destroyers doggedly pursued the freighter toward the fringes of the Hoth system.^[57]

After theExecutor pulled thePunishing One into one of its many docking bays,launch bay twelve, a stormtrooper force boarded the ship and incapacitated Dengar, dragging him to an interrogation cell. The Empire questioned Dengar about his Rebel ties and his past history of assassinating Imperial agents, before sentencing him to death.^[57]

TheExecutor waited for Vader to return aboard before pulling out of Hoth's orbit, flanked by two other Star Destroyers and a squadron of starfighters.^[115] Vader soon received reports from the Star Destroyers pursuing theMillennium Falcon that their tactical analysis suggested the Rebel ship did not appear have a functioning hyperdrive. The welcome news,^[99] however, soon changed. While the Dark Lord rested within his hyperbaric chamber, Piett reported that the fleet had lost theMillennium Falcon in the Hoth system'sasteroid field, warning of the danger the asteroids presented to the Star Destroyers if they were to continue pursuit. But Vader cared little for inconsequential excuses. He ordered theExecutor to proceed head on into the rocky maelstrom in search of theMillennium Falcon.^[34]

In apropaganda message delivered through theImperial HoloVision NewsNet, Imperial AdvisorAlec Pradeux publicly released details on the Battle of Hoth and of theExecutor's participation in the engagement. Pradeux outlined the key points of the battle, including the crushing ground assault led by Veers, and listed Ozzel among the battle's casualties. Rather than revealing Ozzel's execution at the hands of Vader, however, Pradeux explained that he died when a ground-based energy weapon fired upon and disabled theExecutor, which subsequently allowed several Rebel ships to escape past the Imperial blockade. Pradeux also noted Piett assuming theExecutor's admiralty and that Death Squadron was planning to deploy in search of the many fleeing Rebel ships from Hoth, though of course the truth was drastically different. Pradeux finished by noting that NewsNet reporters were denied direct contact with Vader's fleet.^[116]

Search for theMillennium Falcon

All of Vader's Star Destroyers, including theExecutor, were diverted into the asteroid field in pursuit of theMillennium Falcon.^[99] A hail of enormous asteroids bombarded Death Squadron, inflicting heavy casualties, as Vader's fleet moved through the asteroid field, though, incredibly, theExecutor itself remained unscathed.^[117] Vader held a holographic conference on theExecutor's bridge with the Star Destroyer captains of the fleet, who briefed Vader on the pursuit's progress. CaptainLorth Needa of the Star DestroyerAvenger believed theMillennium Falcon to have been destroyed respective to the damage Death Squadron had sustained, but Vader insisted they were alive,^[34] well aware of the reputation of Solo and theMillennium Falcon. He ordered theExecutor to continue searching, despite further imminent damage to the enormous Super Star Destroyer.^[115]

At the conclusion of the meeting, Piett notified Vader that the Emperor demanded an audience with him. Vader quickly ordered theExecutor out of the asteroid field to ensure a clear transmission with his Master.^[34] Within his holochamber, Vader spoke first withSate Pestage, the Emperor'sGrand Vizier, who warned Vader that the Emperor was in a foul mood. Vader reported the Empire's victory at Hoth to Pestage, before the Emperor appeared.^[118] Together, Vader and the Emperor privately discussed the growing threat of Luke Skywalker to theirSith dominion of the galaxy. The Emperor revealed to Vader for the first time that he was indeed aware of Skywalker's existence and identity as Vader's son, warning that if Skywalker were to ever become aJedi Knight, he could destroy them both. Rather than destroying Skywalker, Vader offered an alternative: to turn him to the dark side of the Force, for Vader secretly harbored no intention of actually killing his son. The Emperor approved Vader's suggestion, relishing the idea of such a powerful asset.^[34][72]

TheExecutor dispatched waves of TIE Fighters and TIE bombers to sweep the asteroid field, hoping to chase theMillennium Falcon out of its hiding place. But Vader quickly grew tired of the fleet's inability to locate its prey. He therefore decided to send out a general call for bounty hunters to help with finding theMillennium Falcon but also to demonstrate his extreme disappointment with the performance of theExecutor's crew. Soon, some of the galaxy's most notorious underworld figures would be convening aboard theExecutor.^[17]

The response to Vader's call was staggering. From the horde of applicants who arrived aboard theExecutor at the edge of the asteroid field to join the hunt for Han Solo, Vader's personal staff weeded out all but a motley group of six elite hunters.^[17] They included the notorious Boba Fett, the first to board after having beaten theExecutor to the Hoth system while responding to an Imperial hyperspace message announcing a reward for any Rebels fleeing from the battle;^[119] the already-captured Dengar, to whom Vader extended a reprieve from his death sentence to join the hunt;^[57] the assassin droidIG-88B;^[85] theTrandoshanBossk, who berthed hisvessel inDocking Bay Six;^[55] and the duo of theprotocol droid4-LOM and theGandZuckuss.^[113] Other applicants rejected by Vader's screening crew included theChadra-FanTutti Snibit; the WookieeChenlambec, partnered with the Human femaleTinian I'att, both of whom purposely arrived aboard theExecutor too late to be considered for the hunt, only showing up on a private mission to foil Bossk's involvement;^[55] aBosph hunter; and anotheralien hunter.^[120] The bounty hunterNariss Siv Loqesh was also invited to join the hunt for Solo, but he refused, earning him his own Imperial bounty on his head as punishment.^[121]

Vader's choice to call upon bounty hunters was an unsettling surprise to many.^[70] TheExecutor's crew, Piett foremost among them, was outraged that Vader would choose to deal with such unsavory characters,^[114] but Vader did not care. He had lost his patience with theExecutor's crew, who had failed him time and time again, and so he was pulling out all the stops to capture theMillennium Falcon.^[70] Piett regarded the move as a threat to himself, knowing the bounty hunters' involvement symbolized his own failure and the jeopardizing of his life. He believed theExecutor would in fact capture theMillennium Falcon.^[122]

On theExecutor's bridge, Vader announced a substantial reward for the bounty hunter who captured Solo and the crew of theMillennium Falcon, but, knowing Fett's reputation for disintegrating his targets, he included the stipulation that they be brought in alive. No sooner had Vader briefed the hunters than Piett notified him that the Star DestroyerAvenger had found theMillennium Falcon leaving the asteroid field. But, after a short chase, theMillennium Falcon had once again disappeared from the Imperial fleet, much to the vexation of Captain Lorth Needa. When Vader demanded an update on theAvenger's pursuit, Needa traveled to theExecutor to personally apologize for losing theMillennium Falcon. Vader summarily executed Needa, as he had Ozzel, for his failure.^[34]

TheExecutor had traversed the length of the asteroid field, emerging on the far end within theAnoat system with nothing to show for its efforts. TheMillennium Falcon gone from sight, Vader ordered Piett to disperse Death Squadron along every possible hyperspace trajectory the ship may have taken to escape, before calmly yet sternly warning his admiral that further failure would not be tolerated.^[34]

However, where theExecutor had failed, Boba Fett had not. The hunt for theMillennium Falcon was over before the bounty hunters even departed theExecutor. Fett knew that theMillennium Falcon's hyperdrive was disabled, or Solo would have jumped into hyperspace as soon as possible. When Fett looked out theExecutor's viewports, he confirmed what he had suspected—Solo had attached theMillennium Falcon to the backside of theAvenger's command tower, an area invisible to the Imperials' sensors. After leaving theExecutor, Fett placed hisship, theSlave I, near theAvenger's waste chutes and watched expectantly as Solo detached theMillennium Falcon from the Star Destroyer and silently drifted away in theAvenger's garbage.^[17]

As Fett tracked theMillennium Falcon's course out of the Anoat system along the Ison Corridor, he deduced that Solo could only be heading for one location: the nearby planetBespin, home of the mining facilityCloud City.^[17] Several hours after theAvenger had first lost theMillennium Falcon in its garbage, Vader received a transmission from Fett,^[53] and theExecutor rendezvoused with the bounty hunter atKinyen, further Coreward up the Corellian Trade Spine.^[49] Vader learned from Fett of Solo's destination,^[53] and, together with theSlave I,^[99] theExecutor set course for theBespin system, easily beating theMillennium Falcon there.^[53] Solo's trip fromAnoat to Bespin took weeks on theMillennium Falcon's backup hyperdrive.^[49] Fett's suggestion to Vader to use Skywalker's friends to lure him into a trap made months before was finally coming to fruition.^[53]

Before theExecutor had departed the Anoat system previously, IG-88B hacked into theExecutor's central computer core while still aboard, bypassing ship security with the assistance of several on-board Imperial droids who had received specialsentience programming as part of their inclusion in IG-88A's Droid Revolution. After downloading theExecutor's entire database of information, including Darth Vader's personal code-locked files, IG-88B discovered the existence of the still-under construction second Death Star. Armed with the Imperial shipping schedule for the battlestation's computer core from the information stolen from theExecutor, IG-88A decided to upload himself into the Death Star—the ultimate step in his planned conquest of the galaxy.^[85]

Occupation of Bespin

TheExecutor assumed a holding pattern well out of Bespin's scanning range,^[53] with Death Squadron waiting elsewhere in the system,^[49] in preparation for theMillennium Falcon's arrival.^[53] Additionally, the Super Star Destroyer dispatched a number of TIE Fighters for sentry duty around Cloud City, instructed to herd any vessels attempting to escape toward theExecutor.^[123] Meanwhile, Vader, Fett, and a stormtroopergarrison from theExecutor secretly occupied Cloud City. The Dark Lord manipulated cityBaron AdministratorLando Calrissian, an old friend of Solo's, into cooperating with the capture of theMillennium Falcon's crew in exchange for Vader's promise that the Empire would not occupy the city once he had Skywalker.^[34] TheExecutor was sent to the far side of Bespin as theMillennium Falcon finally touched down.^[99] Once Solo arrived, the Empire captured he and Leia Organa, which eventually drew Skywalker to Cloud City, as Vader planned. The Dark Lord failed to convert his son to the dark side during alightsaber duel that raged through Cloud City's lower levels, in which Vader finally revealed to Skywalker his true family heritage. Nevertheless, Skywalker escaped Vader's grasp.^[34]

After Vader turned Solo over to Fett, theExecutor and Death Squadron granted the bounty hunter and theSlave I safe passage through the Imperial blockade, as well as a TIE Fighter escort, on his departure from Bespin.^[47] Soon thereafter, having temporarily lost Skywalker, Vader returned to theExecutor, confident that theMillennium Falcon's crew would be back in his custody.^[53] Calrissian had helped Organa to escape the city after turning the tables on Vader's stormtroopers,^[34] rather than delivering the Rebels to theExecutor as the Dark Lord commanded.^[124] With Cloud City in chaos as residents rushed to escape the Imperialsubjugation, theMillennium Falcon rescued Skywalker from the city as well. As the Rebels fled from Bespin, theExecutor's TIE sentries chased theMillennium Falcon toward theExecutor waiting in orbit,^[34] as directed.^[47]

Little did the Rebels know, Vader's men had deactivated theMillennium Falcon's hyperdrive upon first arrival at Cloud City. Only when theExecutor came in visual range of the fleeing ship did the Rebels realize the trouble they were in. Vader planned to capture theMillennium Falcon in theExecutor's tractor beam and complete his conversion of Skywalker.^[34] The Dark Lord trusted that his crew was capable of closing this simple trap.^[99]

On the bridge of theExecutor, Vader observed as the TIE Fighters herded theMillennium Falcon directly into the massive Super Star Destroyer's path, while theExecutor simultaneously moved to cut them off. The Dark Lord telepathically called out to Skywalker aboard the Rebel ship, urging him once more to give in to the dark side's temptations.^[34] However, theExecutor's tractor-beamtechnicians found the fleeing Rebel ship a difficult target to lock onto.^[125] They managed to position the ship within the targeting crosshairs,^[99] but with onlyseconds remaining before theExecutor activated its tractor beam, the Rebel ship made the sudden jump into hyperspace and assured freedom, courtesy of quickly performed maintenance by R2-D2 on board, leaving a defeated Vader to stare dejectedly off into space through the bridge viewport. Never had Vader come so close to capturing his son. TheExecutor had chased theMillennium Falcon from Hoth to the Bespin system, finally capturing the Rebel ship before luring Skywalker himself in a carefully orchestrated trap, but the Rebels were gone.^[34] TheExecutor's bridge crew collectively watched in anticipated fear as Vader stalked away from the viewport, but Vader refrained from executing another one of his admirals, knowing Piett was not at fault this time.^[53]

Even though the Rebels had escaped, Calrissian's abandonment of Cloud City left the facility in the hands of the Empire. Vader left a garrison behind to subdue the populace, just as he had warned Calrissian he would, completing theExecutor's subjugation of Bespin. Following the Bespin fiasco, Piett officially promoted LieutenantVenka to theExecutor's captaincy, filling the position that had been left vacant since his own promotion upon Ozzel's execution.^[17]

With Skywalker gone, Vader retreated to his personal meditation chamber to reflect upon his failure. In the middle of a lengthy meditation, Vader received a signal from members of hisNoghri honor guard, informing him that they had discovered among Cloud City's lower depths the severedhand andlightsaber lost by Skywalker during his duel with Vader earlier that day. Departing from theExecutor, Vader returned to Cloud City aboard his shuttle to retrieve the trophy items from a group ofUgnaughts. With both items secured in hand, Vader returned to theExecutor, only to receive direct orders from the Emperor to deliver the trophies to hispersonal vaults on the planetWayland.^[99]

Murder investigation

At some point prior to the Imperial discovery of the Rebel base on Hoth, a Rebel spy,Malkor Trel, infiltrated the crew of theExecutor. Posing as a droid technician with the rank ofpetty officer, Trel obtained a position working in theExecutor's droid pool. During his masquerade, Trel secured strategic information regarding Imperial Fleet deployment throughout the galaxy, which would prove vital to the Rebellion's own planned fleet movements and determining optimal locations to strike against the Empire. However,Lieutenant CommanderTanith Sorn, one of theExecutor's bridge officers, eventually discovered evidence that pointed to Trel being a Rebel spy and arranged a clandestine meeting in a secluded section of the Super Star Destroyer's Engineering section with one of the ship'ssecurity officers to confirm her suspicions. But Trel likewise learned that Sorn was onto him and reprogrammed four of theExecutor'sASP-7 labor droids to silence her from jeopardizing his mission. The night before the Battle of Hoth, thelabor droids ambushed and murdered Sorn in Engineering before her meeting could take place.^[54]

By the next morning, as theExecutor and Death Squadron first approached Hoth, the mystery behind Sorn's murder had come to fore. Vader himself chose a team of six of his flagship's crew members to investigate the crime:Zurel Hoban, a bridge pilot;Noa Endac, a security crewman;Lilit Arranda, amedic;Iaco Shild, a droid technician;Ariq Melvar; andAnya Foravis, an intelligence analyst assistant. While the Battle of Hoth raged on the planet below, the team began its investigation of the murder aboard theExecutor, tasked with bringing the perpetrator in alive to face justice.^[54]

The investigation first led the team to Engineering, the scene of the murder, where Sorn's body had been found in a secluded storage locker. The crime scene was left intact, except for the removal of Sorn's body. Evidence there suggested to the team that Sorn had been attacked from multiple angles at close range. More tellingly, the presence of a bloody footprint and a damaged droid part confirmed the involvement of Imperial labor droids in Sorn's death. After questioning crew members working in Engineering at the time of the incident, the team eventually discovered someone who witnessed three labor droids follow Sorn through the area and then return minutes later requesting to report to the droid pool for maintenance. The team also spent some hours in theExecutor's central security office reviewing security camera footage of the corridor leading to the crime scene, which confirmed the witness's testimony and also revealed that one labor droid actually entered the storage room ahead of Sorn. About a minute later, all four labor droids exited the area, two of them splattered with blood.^[54]

The team tracked the four labor droids, their primary suspects, to theExecutor's droid pool, where they found them scheduled to undergo amemory wipe. But just as the team arrived, a skirmish broke out in the droid pool—the reprogrammed labor droids went berserk and murdered a couple technicians to prevent anyone from tampering with their mission. The team neutralized all four renegade droids, eventually confirming that while these droids did murder Sorn, someone else went to the effort of reprogramming them to draw Sorn to Engineering and then ambush her in private. Judging from the droid pool's computer records, the team narrowed their list of suspects down to three people who were logged into the droid pool's maintenance system at the time the droids were reprogrammed:SergeantLandin Thyte, an Engineering technician; LieutenantEin Truminn, a bridgeflight officer; and Malkor Trel, the droid technician on duty at the time.^[54]

Interviewing their suspects netted the team little information at first other than Thyte visited Engineering only to research his hobby of building small droids, and, according to Trel, he performed no droid programming whatsoever while on duty—a lie to maintain his cover. Tracking down Truminn proved more difficult. The team eventually elected to visit theExecutor's bridge to question the crew who worked alongside Truminn, arriving around the same time Vader's bounty hunter recruits arrived aboard theExecutor to join the search for Han Solo. On the bridge the team learned of a suspiciously bitter rivalry that existed between Truminn and Sorn, and were subsequently directed to the hangar bay, where Truminn was welcoming the arriving bounty hunters and arranging their escort to the bridge. Before departing, the team passed the bounty hunter Dengar being escorted to the bridge.^[54]

The team reached the hangar bay at the same time a distracted Truminn received aGhtrocClass 720 freighter, theOnderian Raptor, aboard theExecutor, carrying a group of three Human bounty hunters, led by another heavilyarmored individual identifying himself as "Bail Antilles," all of whom claimed to have arrived for the bounty on Solo. However, as Truminn began registering the new arrivals, the team received acomlink call from abridge commander warning them that the bounty hunters' ship was transmitting a known Rebel code, and that orders had come down from Vader himself to apprehend the hunters. Indeed, Antilles and his henchmen were in fact Rebel agents who had come to extract Trel from theExecutor. After a shootout in the hangar, the team neutralized the four Rebel agents, confirming their true identities and their mission to rendezvous with a Rebel spy aboard. Antilles' ship was also impounded in the hangar. Amidst the melee Antilles shot Truminn at point-blank range, critically wounding him. As he lay on the brink of death, Truminn informed the team that he knew who murdered Sorn.^[54]

Truminn barely survived the encounter with the Rebels and was taken to theExecutor's infirmary to recover. Although barely conscious, he was able to tell the team from hisbedside that, despite their hostile relationship, Sorn confided in him moments before her death in Engineering that she was looking into the presence of a Rebel spy aboard the ship named Malkor Trel. Truminn also explained that at the time of the murder he was at his post on the bridge, which was confirmed by the bridge's terminal logs, thus eliminating him as a suspect. After checking adatapad recovered from Antilles, the team discovered a dossier file further confirming Trel was indeed the Rebel spy and the murderer they sought. Upon checking Trel's quarters, which was in complete disarray, the team also discovered a small flashingsignal locator tuned to the same frequency broadcasting from Antilles' ship—Trel was making his getaway.^[54]

Trel had made his way down to Antilles' impounded Ghtroc 720 and had secretly deactivated the hangar's tractor beam systems to effect his escape from theExecutor, but the team arrived in the hangar just in time to see him board the freighter, followed by two allies disguised as stormtroopers. The team quickly boarded the ship and found Trel in thecockpit, preparing for departure, when the Rebel spy turned to face them. Before explaining that he had no choice but to kill Sorn for the sake of his mission, Trel offered the investigation team the chance to escape theExecutor with him and join the Rebel Alliance. The team was faced with the choice of arresting Trel for his crimes or abandoning the Empire.^[54]

Invasion of Mygeeto and quelling Rebel convoy raids

In 3 ABY,^[49] the Outer Rim planetMygeeto,^[126] one of the Empire's currency reserves, was briefly seized by the Rebellion.^[49] At Vader's order and under Piett's command, theExecutor led an invasion fleet ofImperial-class Star Destroyers to retake Mygeeto,^[13] where the Empire had discovered a strong Rebel presence operating. In order to ensure Vader's expectations that theelimination of the Mygeeto Rebel presence went smoothly, the Imperial Navy's best pilots transferred to theExecutor to participate in the assault. Among the pilots transferring was the "Imperial Ace."^[13]

Upon reaching Mygeeto's orbit, Piett dispatched the Imperial Ace's TIE Fighter squadron on a reconnaissance mission. Piett discerned from the TIEs' collected reconnaissance data that a number of Rebel scout ships had discovered theExecutor's presence, forcing him to proceed with the invasion at maximum speed. Nevertheless, the Imperial Ace prevented the Rebel scouts from reporting theExecutor and the Imperial fleet's presence, ensuring the invasion would proceed with the element of surprise.^[13]

Soon, a Rebel fleet consisting of EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates, CR90 corvettes, and GR-75 medium transports conducted a counterattack on theExecutor and the Imperial fleet, but the Imperial Ace helped engage and defeat the Rebel offensive. With Mygeeto's orbit under Imperial control, Vader led a ground force from theExecutor to the planet below, where they succeeded in destroying the Rebels' headquarters. TheExecutor proceeded to help crush the remaining Rebel forces, leading to a resounding Imperial victory.^[13]

In approximately 3 ABY,^[127] also, a small Rebel force staging from the planetoidAnnamar began raiding Imperialconvoys along the Corellian Trade Spine. After one particularraid, in which the Rebels captured a vital component of the weapons system of the under construction second Death Star, effectively rendering the battlestation useless, the attacks attracted the attention of the Emperor, who called upon Vader to eliminate the raiding Rebels and retrieve the stolen weapons component. Vader took theExecutor to the site of the raid, at the edge of a vastasteroid field, wherein the Empire believed the Rebels were hiding. Upon arrival, Vader ordered CaptainHolt, on duty aboard the bridge at the time, to ready theExecutor's fighters to enter the asteroids in pursuit. At that moment, Holt announced that theExecutor's sensors detected another vessel—theYT-2000 light freighterFaithless—entering the asteroid field nearby. On Vader's command, theExecutor captured the freighter and brought it aboard via tractor beam.^[35]

Within one of theExecutor's hangar bays, Holt and a large stormtrooper contingent took into custody the detained freighter's lone occupant, a smuggler namedLuca, who had been attempting to deliver supplies to the Rebels on Annamar. Finding Luca to be extremely sarcastic and defiant, Holt sent the man to one of theExecutor's interrogation rooms to await Vader's personal questioning. During the ensuing heated interrogation, Vader eventually determined from Luca's defiance the truth of his supply mission and that he was able to infiltrate the asteroid field, where so many Imperial fighters had failed previously, with the application of set of command codes that overrode the Rebels' automatic defenses within the field. From there Luca knew the location of the Rebels' base within anabandoned droid factory on the surface of Annamar, at the heart of the field.^[35]

Armed with Luca's intelligence of how to reach the Rebel stronghold, Vader formulated a plan to infiltrate the asteroid field. The Dark Lord and Luca departed theExecutor aboard the smuggler's freighter, leading a squadron of TIE Fighters and bombers into the asteroid field—at the appropriate time Luca would input the command codes to disable the Rebel defenses, allowing theExecutor's fighters to then descend upon Annamar. However, Luca quickly betrayed Vader, resulting in the destruction of the entire TIE squadron. Nevertheless, Vader proceeded to successfully fulfill his task,destroying the Rebel base on Annamar and reclaiming the lost Death Star weapons component for his master.^[35]

Sometime shortly after the Battle of Hoth, Vader, from his holographic chamber aboard theExecutor, discussed the continuing developments of the Imperialstorm commandoSarkli with the Emperor. Sarkli, a one-time Rebel pilot, became a valuable Imperial agent after he defected to the Empire, feeling his abilities were being wasted with the Rebellion.^[89]

Return to Coruscant

Not long after the Rebels' escape from Cloud City, theExecutor received notification of a possible sighting of therendezvoused Rebel Fleet. An ImperialStrike-class medium cruiser had indeed stumbled upon the Rebel Fleet's hidden location, but Rebel forces destroyed the Imperial ship before a proper transmission could be sent.^[128]

The Emperor contacted Vader aboard theExecutor in the Dark Lord's meditation chamber to discuss Vader's failed conversion of Skywalker at Bespin. Vader assured his angered master that the seeds of change had been sewn in Skywalker's mind and that he had redoubled his efforts to locate his son with the possible sighting of the Rebel Fleet, but the Emperor had more pressing concerns. He ordered Vader and theExecutor to return to Coruscant to attend to the construction of the Empire's new Death Star, which was proceeding apace. Vader was to negotiate construction shipping rights withXizor Transport Systems, led by Prince Xizor himself,^[128] Vader's longtime nemesis.^[22]

With Vader's search for Skywalker temporarily on hold, the Dark Lord summoned Piett to his chambers to reassign his admiral while theExecutor was pulled from Death Squadron. Piett feared that the discussion was intended to be his execution for his failure to capture theMillennium Falcon at Bespin, but his time had not come yet. Vader instructed Piett that he would continue the fleet's search for Skywalker and the Rebels from aboard the Star DestroyerAccuser and that he would be reassigned back to theExecutor once Vader's duties on Coruscant concluded. Meanwhile, CaptainKallic would assume temporary command of theExecutor.^[42]

TheTarkin superweapon and Shira Brie

A few weeks removed from the Imperial occupation of Cloud City,^[36] Vader's duties took theExecutor and Death Squadron to thePatriim system in the Outer Rim, above the garrison planetHockaleg, the construction site of a new Imperialsuperweapon, theTarkin.^[129] Vader had come to inspect theTarkin,^[36] a scaled-down version of the first Death Star similarly equipped with a planet-crackingsuperlaser.^[129]

During theExecutor's approach to the Patriim system, Vader received word from aMajorKuhru of a failed Imperial attempt to capture a live Rebel subject for interrogation at his order, for which Vader executed Kuhru by mentally compelling him to walk out of one of theExecutor'sairlocks. What Vader did not know was that the Rebel who had eluded capture was none other than Luke Skywalker, who was simultaneously being sent to the Patriim system as well as part of a Rebelcommando team assigned to destroy theTarkin.^[129]

TheExecutor and the fleet maintained orbit above Hockaleg, just beyond theTarkin's own defensive web of Star Destroyers, while Vader boarded theTarkin itself to assume command of the project.^[129] Skywalker indeed slipped onto theTarkin shortly after along with Leia Organa, who succeeded insabotaging and destroying the superweapon in a massive explosion. The Rebels escaped the system aboard theMillennium Falcon before a pursuing Vader could confront his son,^[130] leaving the Dark Lord stranded in space aboard his own crippled TIE interceptor, floating among theTarkin's debris.^[36]

Positioned several kilometers away from theTarkin upon its destruction, theExecutor remained intact, though the blast instantly consumed two nearby Star Destroyers and a dozen smaller vessels. The resulting explosion filled the area with electromagnetic interference, rendering Vader unable to signal his flagship to pursue theMillennium Falcon as the Rebels made their getaway. Although stranded in his TIE, Vader presumed theExecutor's crew, who had been aware that he had been aboard his fighter when theTarkin blew, would already be sending out a search party for him, though he knew any search team would be unable to use its sensors to discover his position aboard the mass of debris. Still, he figured his men would find him sooner rather than later, for they knew the price of failing him. Vader was eventually rescued by aveteran stormtrooper from the Hockaleg garrison below. When the stormtrooper offered to return Vader to theExecutor, the Dark Lord instead instructed the trooper to take him to the garrison and to leave adistress strobe on his fighter, not caring what the search team might suspect when it found the fighter empty.^[36]

Vader's continuing search for Skywalker eventually brought the crippled body ofImperial Special Forces agentShira Brie aboard theExecutor.^[37] Masquerading as aRebel pilot, Brie had previously infiltrated the highest tiers of the Rebellion on a personal mission for Vader, tasked with either eliminating Skywalker or discrediting him in the eyes of the Rebellion, which Vader hoped would thus drive his son back to him.^[131] Brie accomplished her objective, although at the expense of herself—during a Rebelmission, Skywalker shot Brie's fighter down after believing her to be an enemy target.^[132] Nevertheless, Skywalker became a pariah among the Rebellion after evidence surfaced showing him to have killed a fellow pilot, and he left his comrades to seek answers.^[133]

Skywalker's own search led him to Brie's purportedhomeworld ofShalyvane, where he inadvertently caught Vader's attention by triggering Brie's secretholoprojector with which she communicated with her master while encamped with the Rebellion. The deviceself-destructed upon Skywalker's tampering, which sent an immediate termination signal to theExecutor, just as Vader had planned.^[37]

Simultaneous with Skywalker's Shalyvane expedition, Vader received Imperial AdmiralMils Giel within his private meditation chamber aboard theExecutor. Vader rebuked Giel for failing to stop the destruction of the one-of-a-kindteezl, anon-sentient creature that could have allowed the Empire to communicate across the galaxy instantaneously, during the same Rebel raid in which Skywalker shot down Brie. Although Vader spared Giel's life, he demoted him to lieutenant. But just as Giel departed the Dark Lord's presence, Vader received word of the termination signal from Shalyvane. Realizing that Skywalker had triggered the device as he expected, and knowing that his son's next move in his quest for answers on Shira Brie would lead him to theImperial data vault onKrake's Planet, Vader ordered theExecutor to reset course immediately to intercept his son.^[37]

TheExecutor and Death Squadron reached Krake's Planet too late, however, arriving in the midst of askirmish at the Imperial data complex, during which Skywalker retrieved the background history on Brie for which he was searching. Before theExecutor could dispatch and land a ground force, Skywalker destroyed the entire complex. Seeing the resulting explosion from orbit, Vader quickly instructed theExecutor'sbosun to track the imminent escaping Rebel vessel, but Skywalker escaped the system aboard theMillennium Falcon. TheExecutor had lost Skywalker again, to Vader's silent but great agitation.^[37]

Despite losing Skywalker, Vader had not lost Shira Brie. Vader's agents had rescued her body from the Rebel raid and delivered her to a secret medical lab aboard theExecutor, where she slowly recuperated from her substantial injuries suffered at Skywalker's hands.^[37][131] Assigning Imperial scientists to work round-the-clock to restore Brie to operational state,^[134] the Dark Lord closely monitored her recovery process as Brie's body was rebuilt^[131] using prosthetic limbs and alife-support suit.^[134] Eventually, Brie emerged from recovery a changed woman. Taking on the new identity of the Dark Lady Lumiya, she honed her already considerable Force abilities under Vader's tutelage.^[131] Pleased with his creation, Vader presented Lumiya to the Emperor as an Emperor's Hand.^[134]

Later, Vader ordered Giel to return to theExecutor to deliver a report concerning intelligence gathered from an abandonedRebel base on the planetGolrath. However, Giel'stroop transport was destroyed in the base'sdestruction by Rebel saboteurs before Giel could ever reach theExecutor.^[135]

At some point after the Battle of Hoth, Vader spoke with the Emperor from his private holographic chamber aboard theExecutor concerning the Rebellion'sdestruction of aSuper Star Destroyer equipped with acloaking device under construction at the Fondor Shipyards. The Emperor reassured Vader that the Empire's loss of the cloaking device would only instill a false sense of confidence within the Rebellion, for even then the Emperor was drawing them into a trap.^[89]

Assault on the Vergesso Asteroids

The growing prominence of Xizor at the Emperor's side in the Imperial Court proved a great threat to Vader. Xizor's position as leader of the Black Sun crime syndicate—a truth Vader heavily suspected but could not prove—greatly concerned Vader, who did not trust the Dark Prince. The Emperor enjoyed pulling the strings of the rivalry between the Dark Lord and Xizor, both of whom jockeyed for their master's favor. In truth, Vader's suspicions of Xizor proved profoundly correct. Xizor hoped to supplant Vader as the Emperor's right-hand man by killing Luke Skywalker before Vader could convert his son to the dark side.^[15]

To improve his standing with the Emperor, Xizor reported the presence of a large Rebelshipyard in theVergesso Asteroids, in theLybeya system of theBajic sector, in the Outer Rim. When reports of the Rebel base were confirmed, the Emperor ordered Vader to take part of the Imperial Fleet there to crush the facility. Vader offered that Imperial AdmiralLedre Okins handle the expedition in his stead, but the Emperor wanted Vader to personally oversee the operation. Okins nevertheless temporarily joined theExecutor as the Super Star Destroyer's acting admiral for the battle.^[15] Also joining theExecutor for the assault was a task force comprising the Star DestroyerAvenger and theVictory II-class Star DestroyersVictory 1 andVictory 2.^[14]

TheExecutor's task force carried more than enough firepower to crush a single shipyard, but the Emperor had instructed that too much was better than too little. Coupled with the fact that the Vergesso shipyard was little more than a repair yard, albeit housing hundreds of ships ranging from starfighters to transports, Vader expected a simple operation.^[15]

A week after Vader's meeting with the Emperor, theExecutor exited hyperspace in the Lybeya system. Okins joined Vader on theExecutor's bridge to manage the operation. However, the surprise attack did not proceed as simple as expected, much to Vader's satisfaction, who relished a fight over a slaughter. Once theExecutor closed in on the giant asteroid base housing the shipyard, two Rebel Nebulon-B escort frigates, theCruuz andFox, came around from behind the asteroid to meet the Imperial force, simultaneously launching a dozenT-65 X-wing starfighters.^[15] They were soon joined by several other capital ships, including three CR90 corvettes and thebulk cruiserFairfax.^[14]

Okins responded by launching theExecutor's TIE Fighters and TIE bombers, preferring not to waste his capital ships' firepower on such small targets. Seeing that the Rebels were going to put up a fight, Vader took the opportunity to join the battle directly in his personalTIE Advanced x1 starfighter, leaving theExecutor's destruction of the shipyard to Okins.^[15]

Thebattle lasted a short duration despite the Rebels' efforts.^[15] Okins positioned the Star Destroyers in a triangular attack formation, with theAvenger at the point position and the Super Star Destroyer occupying the rear, flanked by theVictory Destroyers. TheExecutor helped to destroy both of the Nebulon-B escort frigates and the bulk cruiserFairfax without difficulty, before pounding and obliterating the asteroid shipyard itself.^[14] TheExecutor's task force destroyed hundreds of ships and thousands of accompanying pilots and troops in a crushing victory for the Empire.^[15]

During the midst of the battle, the YT-2000 light freighterOtana, piloted by Rebel fighter pilotAce Azzameen and hisdroidMK-09, entered the fray virtually unnoticed, exiting hyperspace behind theExecutor. After slipping past the Imperial task force and boarding the asteroid to rescue Azzameen's sister,Aeron Azzameen, from the besieged facility, theOtana survived a near-suicide escape run across the length of the massiveExecutor to flee safely into hyperspace once more.^[14]

Xizor's revealing of the Rebel shipyard in the Vergesso Asteroids was in fact a ruse to get Vader away from Coruscant as part of his own political machinations. Suspecting as much, Vader wasted no time returning with theExecutor to Coruscant. Vader reported the base's destruction to the Emperor via the HoloNet even as theExecutor made its return trip, during which he was humiliatingly forced to openly thank Xizor for his contribution in front of his master.^[15]

Chasing Luke Skywalker at Kothlis

Sometime after theExecutor had returned to Coruscant, Xizor succeeded in manipulating Vader away from the Imperial capital once more. At Xizor's suggestion, the Emperor had deliberately allowed the top-secretconstruction plans to the new Death Star tofall into Rebel hands as part of a grand scheme to crush the Rebellion once and for all. Simultaneously, a group of bounty hunters, reacting to the price Vader had placed on Luke Skywalker's head, had captured the young Rebel on theBothan colony world ofKothlis—where the stolen Death Star plans were being held—after Skywalker himself had participated in the plans' capture.^[15]

And so, over Vader's objections, the Emperor ordered theExecutor to Kothlis as a blunt show of force to make it appear as if the Empire was truly concerned over the loss of the Death Star plans. If Vader himself led the attack, he explained, the Rebels would be convinced that the Empire's concern was legitimate. Further, the Emperor instructed Vader to collect the imprisoned Skywalker while he was at Kothlis.^[15]

After a several hour-long hyperspace trip from Coruscant,^[15] theExecutor, once more supported by the Star DestroyerAvenger, arrived at the edge of theKothlis system,^[14] with Vader's primary concern being Skywalker. However, just as Vader had disembarked from theExecutor and made planetfall on Kothlis to capture his son, Skywalker had escaped from his captors and the planet with Lando Calrissian in theMillennium Falcon. Realizing he had just missed his son, Vader hastened to return to theExecutor in orbit, hoping there was still time to catch him.^[15]

TheMillennium Falcon had detected theExecutor early enough during its departure from the planet to afford enough time, because of hyperdrive malfunction, to take refuge in a nearbyasteroid field in parabolic orbit around Kothlis that hid the Rebel ship from theExecutor's sensors. Once back aboard theExecutor, Vader nevertheless detected a presence in the Force emanating from the asteroids, which he suspected to be no less than Skywalker. TheExecutor's captain suggested that the Super Star Destroyer dispatch TIE squadrons to ferret the ship out rather than barging forward and risking the great strain colliding asteroids would put on theExecutor's shields, to which Vader agreed.^[15]

Before the TIE Fighters could reach theMillennium Falcon, however, the Rebel ship escaped safely into hyperspace, although Vader had received confirmation that theMillennium Falcon had indeed been the source of the Force signature, meaning his suspicions of his son's presence were correct. Vader dejectedly wished to return with theExecutor to Coruscant, but he knew the Emperor had sent him to Kothlis for another reason.^[15]

Feigning pursuit of the Death Star plans

With Skywalker gone, theExecutor and theAvenger turned back toward Kothlis, executing a small hyperspace jump toarrive near two Rebel space stations in orbit in pursuit of the Death Star plans. Indeed, the Super Star Destroyer's presence alone upon initially arriving in the Kothlis system convinced the Rebels that the data they possessed was of utmost value to the Empire, as the Emperor had foreseen, and they scrambled to escape. Just as theExecutor had arrived to collect Skywalker, the RebelLambda-class shuttleFey'lya's Pride had departed Kothlis carrying the plans. The Rebels hoped to transfer asupercomputer holding the plans to the CR90 corvetteRazor waiting in orbit, which would then deliver the computer into safe hands elsewhere.^[14]

Immediately after emerging from their small hyperspace jump, theExecutor and theAvenger opened up concentrated turbolaser fire on the RebelGolan II defense platformSentinel, which they handily destroyed in a matter of minutes, simultaneously deploying flights of TIE series starfighters and at least twoGamma-class ATR-6 assault transports, theTalon 1 andTalon 2, to attack theRebel outpostKothlis II and theRazor itself. Later stages of the battle also saw theExecutor deploy several of the Empire's new TIE/ad starfighters, or TIE Avengers. After destroying the Sentinel, theExecutor and theAvenger began exchanging fire with the Kothlis II outpost while the Rebels desperately rushed to whisk the plans to safety.^[14]

Soon enough, theFey'lya's Pride completed its transfer, and theRazor escaped into hyperspace, out of immediate danger, with the Death Star plans in tow. Nevertheless, theExecutor and theAvenger continued their assault, destroying the Kothlis II outpost and three GR-75 medium transports, and unleashing fire on theMon Calamari Star CruiserLiberty, before it too escaped into hyperspace.^[14]

TheExecutor remained in the Kothlis system for a short time after the assault, while theAvenger proceeded to chase theRazor and the Death Star plans to a point elsewhere in the system. TheAvenger caught up with theRazor while trying to rendezvous with and transfer the computer holding the plans to theMon Calamari Star CruiserIndependence, commanded by Rebel FleetSupreme Commander AdmiralGial Ackbar himself. With the transfer interrupted and theAvenger bearing down, however, theRazor was forced to jettison the plans aboard anescape pod, which was in turn picked up by the civilianDreadnaught-class heavy cruiserMercury. TheMercury again whisked the plans away into hyperspace to theIndependence rendezvous point elsewhere, but there it encountered theExecutor.^[14]

While theMercury released the escape pod to send it off to the waitingIndependence, theExecutor and theAvenger once more emerged from hyperspace in the midst of the transfer. From several kilometers away, theExecutor immediately began firing upon theMercury, forcing the civilian vessel to escape into hyperspace with minimal damage, and unleashing waves of TIE interceptors and TIE bombers to destroy the escape pod en route to theIndependence. The Rebels succeeded in holding off theExecutor's TIEs long enough to allow the escape pod to reach safe haven, and theIndependence too jumped into hyperspace, escaping further engagement with theExecutor, and finally securing the Death Star plans for good.^[14]

Half of theExecutor's mission had been a success. TheExecutor and theAvenger delivered a display of destruction and pursuit convincing enough that the Rebels believed they had genuinely secured the supercomputer during the Imperial assault. But, Vader had arrived too late to catch Skywalker. Despite missing his son, Vader had stumbled upon a far more urgent truth during the Kothlis trip—Xizor had been behind an assassination attempt on Skywalker's life. With Vader anxious to return to his domestic issues, theExecutor set course for a return to Coruscant.^[14][15]

During theExecutor's return trip, Vader received a brief holographic report aboard his Super Star Destroyer fromWrenga Jixton, an agent he had implanted in thepalace of theHuttcrime lordJabba Desilijic Tiure on the planetTatooine to wait for the inevitable arrival of Skywalker, who would eventually journey there to rescue thecarbonite-frozen Han Solo. Jixton's report only confirmed Vader's suspicions that Xizor was trying to manufacture his ruin.^[136]

Destruction ofFalleen's Fist

Upon returning to theCoruscant system, theExecutor remained in orbit over the Imperial capital while Vader returned to the planet below.^[15] Xizor's efforts to kill Skywalker had driven Vader over the edge,^[22] and, once the Emperor had left Coruscant on a personal matter, Vader challenged the Dark Prince directly.^[15]

Skywalker, coincidentally, had also come to Coruscant from Kothlis, freeing the captured Leia Organa from Xizor's clutches anddestroyingXizor's Palace in the process.^[15] As Skywalker and theMillennium Falcon fled Coruscant, theExecutor intercepted a transmission originating from Xizor's personalstarship,^[137] theVirago, en route to the Dark Prince'sskyhookFalleen's Fist in high orbit, in which Xizor ordered thecommander of hisnavy to destroy the fleeing Rebel ship. Once the transmission's contents reached Vader, he knew he finally had the evidence needed to convict Xizor of conspiring to kill his son. Quickly, he boarded his shuttle to make for theExecutor.^[15]

TheExecutor occupied an orbital position on the opposite side of Coruscant from Xizor's skyhook. Once reaching the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer, Vader ordered theExecutor around the planet to make contact with theFalleen's Fist as soon it came in range. The Dark Prince's machinations had come to an end.^[15]

On the other side of Coruscant, theExecutor and a giantflotilla of warships^[22] prevailed upon abattle between Xizor's navy ofStarVipers and X-wing starfighters of the Rebellion's Rogue Squadron. Immediately, Vader ordered theExecutor to deploy its TIE squadrons, but not in pursuit of the Rebels or theMillennium Falcon—the Imperial Navy began firing on Xizor's starships.^[15][22] During the congested battle over Coruscant, theExecutor suffered explosions on its dorsal technoscape.^[137]

As theExecutor neared theFalleen's Fist, Vader opened up direct communication with Xizor to demand his surrender, for he had warned him to stay away from Skywalker. Vader offered Xizor a very direct ultimatum: recall his navy and offer himself into Vader's custody in two minutes, or theExecutor would destroy the skyhook. To Vader's great satisfaction, the two minutes expired with no word from Xizor, who believed Vader was bluffing, and theExecutor opened up fire.^[15] Several punishing rounds of turbolaser fire smashed into theFalleen's Fist^[137][138] before a single powerful beam from theExecutor destroyed the skyhook in a blinding explosion, killing Xizor.^[15] Xizor's death crippled Black Sun, throwing the criminal organization into a fragmented internal power struggle from which it would never fully recover.^[139][140]

Some weeks after the Coruscant battle,^[141] theExecutor, escorted by a fleet ofImperial-class Star Destroyers, delivered Vader to the planetGamandar to oversee the progress of the Imperialsubjugation of theIskalon system. The Empire had kept a close watch on the water worldIskalon itself for signs of Rebel activity, where the Rebel spyTay Vanis had previously fomented such rebellion, and who had also acquired a set of plans to the new Death Star project in addition to those the Emperor had allowed the Rebellion to have.^[142]

Vader held a conference with three Imperial officers aboard theExecutor's bridge to bring him up to speed with the Iskalon situation. While discussing the progress of the Imperial search for Vanis, who had gone missing, Vader was interrupted by a transmission from his droid agent on Gamandar,K-3PX, who notified him that Imperial AdmiralGriggor Tower haddevastated theIskalonian populace with a missile attack in an attempt to assassinate Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa after learning they were present on the planet. Angered that Tower had overstepped his bounds and jeopardized his son's life, Vader ordered K-3PX to arrest Tower.^[142][143]

From aboard theExecutor in orbit above Gamandar, Vader held a brief holographic communication with the thus detained Tower, condemning his attack on Iskalon that may have killed Skywalker. Although reports of survivors on Gamandar quickly came in, meaning that perhaps Skywalker had in fact survived, Tower's insolence had cost him his life. Vader ordered Tower's execution before departing from theExecutor in his shuttle to visit Iskalon personally.^[142] Eventually, after Vader resolved the Vanis situation, theExecutor returned to Coruscant.^[22][53]

Protecting the Death Star construction site

As the year4 ABY^[64] dawned, Imperial interests turned fully to the Death Star project, under construction in the remote Endor system. For some time, the Death Star's construction schedule had been lagging,^[53] and so the Emperor assigned Vader to the project personally to pick up the slack.^[144] His duties on Coruscant completed, Vader reassigned Piett back to theExecutor while the Super Star Destroyer was still in Coruscant's orbit, and under the admiral's command theExecutor entered hyperspace for the Endor system,^[53] traveling by way of theCorellian Run, the Corellian Trade Spine, and theSanctuary Pipeline hyperlanes.^[49]

While in his meditation sphere aboard theExecutor during the trip from Coruscant to Endor, Vader pondered the course of his life and the events that had transpired to bring him to his current situation, trying to turn his son to the dark side. By the time theExecutor entered the Endor system—one year since his encounter with Luke Skywalker on Bespin—Vader knew that a final confrontation drew near between himself, his son, and the Emperor, and that one of them would have to die.^[53] TheExecutor remained in Endor's orbit above the incomplete Death Star^[145] while Vader departed in his shuttle to board the battlestation.^[53][146] TheExecutor also regrouped with the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron at Endor.^[7]

Shortly after Vader's arrival, theExecutor also played host to the arrival of the Emperor himself at the Death Star. TheExecutor led a massive formation of varying warships and smaller TIE starfighter escorts as theEmperor's shuttle departed from the Super Star Destroyer's central hangar bay, accompanied by four squads of fighters, and approached the Death Star.^[145] The Emperor had come to orchestrate the final steps of the intricate plan to crush the Rebel Alliance in one final blow first put into motion months earlier when he allowed the Death Star plans to fall into the Rebellion's hands at the recommendation of Xizor. He had used the plans as bait to draw the entirety of the Rebellion to the Endor system under the guise that the Death Star was inoperable, when in fact its powerful superlaser was very much operational, where theExecutor would help trap and destroy them.^[22][38]

In preparation for the Rebellion's arrival, the Empire gathered a huge armada^[85] of several dozenImperial-class Star Destroyers at Endor, all under the command of theExecutor. Knowing that Luke Skywalker would eventually be drawn to Endor, the Emperor instructed Vader to position the Imperial Fleet out of sight on Endor's far side, where it would wait in ambush. Meanwhile, he ordered Vader back to theExecutor to await further instruction.^[38]

TheExecutor and twoImperial-class Star Destroyers maintained a deceptively small defensive perimeter around the Death Star's construction site. Periodically, theExecutor orbited the area, all the while surveying the construction progress from all angles and monitoring the ingress and egress of thousands of construction vessels through the Death Star's powerful deflector shieldprojected from the moon below.^[145] In light of the first Death Star's debacle at Yavin, the Emperor placed a premium on the security of his new superweapon.^[147] From theExecutor's bridge, a constant stream of codes, orders, and diagrams were transmitted and received between the ships moving through the construction site, and the process ran with maximum efficiency.^[145]

Once a certainLambda-class shuttle, theTydirium, entered the congested construction site, however, theExecutor's efficiency came to a stop.^[145] Claiming to be technicians bound for the Forest Moon and requesting the deactivation of the Death Star's deflector shield for passage, the shuttle's crew was none other than Skywalker and aRebel strike team who had come to sabotage the shield in preparation for a massive assault on the Death Star itself. Indeed, the Emperor's allowance of the Death Star plans to fall into Rebel hands previously was coming to fruition, and Skywalker had arrived as planned. Immediately, Vader sensed the proximity of his son through the Force from aboard theExecutor—as did Skywalker his father—and questioned Piett as to the shuttle's destination, to learn that it did have a proper code clearance, albeit an older code. But rather than holding up the Rebels, Vader permitted the shuttle through the shield, and he soon departed his flagship for what would prove to be the final time to confront his son himself.^[38]

Battle of Endor

Skywalker's arrival meant the Rebel Fleet was not far behind, and theExecutor took up position with the rest of the Imperial Fleet on the far side of Endor to wait. The whole of the Rebel Fleet emerged from hyperspace in the Endor system to find a completely undefended Death Star. When the Rebels' starfighters moved in to attack the battlestation, they discovered that the Empire wasjamming their sensor readings of the Death Star's deflector shield, which they grimly determined to mean only that they had walked into a trap—the shield was still up and the Empire knew they were coming.^[38]

At that moment, the massive Imperial armada moved out from the far side of the Forest Moon with theExecutor leading the charge at the forefront of the Fleet, in perfect regimental formation.^[145] TheExecutor and its dozens of accompanying Star Destroyers, taking up position close to the Forest Moon,^[20] effectively had the Rebel Fleet sandwiched between themselves and the Death Star's shield in an inescapable vise,^[38][145] and they immediately launched a swarm of hundreds of TIEs, mostly TIE interceptors, that overwhelmed the Rebel fighters. Dozens ofdogfights erupted among the trapped Rebel Fleet's capital ships, which simply had nowhere to run. The decisiveBattle of Endor was underway.^[148]

The Imperial Fleet began hammering the ambushed Rebel armada, but only the Empire's TIE fighters were attacking at first, which proved disquieting to the Rebels. TheExecutor and the mass of Star Destroyers hung back, maintaining their distance and refraining from jumping into the fray. Once theExecutor reached attack position, Piett gave the order for the Super Star Destroyer and the entirety of the Fleet to hold position, which also surprisedFleet CommanderGherant, serving with him aboard theExecutor's bridge. Piett explained that his orders to hold position came down directly from the Emperor, for he had something special in store for the Rebels. TheExecutor's only responsibility was to keep their prey from escaping.^[38]

The Emperor's surprise was nothing less than a shattering realization for the Rebel Fleet. The Death Star unexpectedly opened fire with its superlaser to obliterate theMon Calamari Star CruiserLiberty in a single blast, and suddenly the truth dawned upon the Rebels as to the gravity of their situation—the Death Star was in fact operational despite what their intelligence had claimed, and they were caught in its web. TheExecutor and the Imperial Fleet had only set the stage for the Empire's final act.^[38]

The Death Star began systematically picking off the Rebel Fleet's capital ships with its superlaser one by one.^[47][148] What neither the Empire nor the Rebellion knew, however, was that the assassin droid IG-88A was secretly in control of the Death Star's superlaser, after uploading his consciousness into the battlestation's computer core, the fruits of IG-88B's endeavor of hacking into theExecutor's central computer core a year previously during the Hoth campaign to steal the Super Star Destroyer's information database. IG-88A still admired the mightyExecutor as he had upon first discovering the Super Star Destroyer's existence back on Mechis III, but his intrigue for controlling the giant warship had been surpassed by his usurpation of the Death Star.^[85]

In desperation, and on suggestion from Lando Calrissian, the Rebel Fleet turned to attack the Star Destroyers directly at point-blank range, hoping that the Death Star wouldn't be able to fire its superlaser without hitting Imperial ships in the process,^[47] and that by doing so might open up a hole in the Imperial Fleet through which the remaining Rebel ships could escape. Specifically, the Rebel Fleet concentrated on theExecutor, knowing that simply disabling the command ship, much less destroying it, would devastate Imperial morale.^[14]

The unorthodox Rebel tactic proved incredibly effective. By engaging the Star Destroyers in ship-to-ship combat, the Rebels succeeded in using the Imperial Fleet as a shield to all but negate the Death Star's destructive capabilities. During the close-quarters fighting, Calrissian, eagerly piloting theMillennium Falcon, inadvertently chased a pair of TIE interceptors up toward the underside of theExecutor, right below its massive central hangar bay, so close to the ship that attempting to retreat would have only brought theMillennium Falcon into range of more of the Super Star Destroyer's blazing guns. With little alternative of where to run, Calrissian sent theMillennium Falcon straight into the overhead hangar bay, into the very interior of theExecutor.^[47]

Safe from theExecutor's external fire for the moment, Calrissian shot theMillennium Falcon forward at full throttle through a tight access corridor running through the massive Super Star Destroyer's countless secondary hangar bays before the ship's command crew had figured out what had become of them. Eventually, theMillennium Falcon entered a staging area, sending theExecutor's ground crew scattering before crashing through a repair gantry and wiping out several technicians who were working on it. However, time was running out before TIEs entered the hangar after them. In a single instant, Calrissian ordered theMillennium Falcon's crew to open up fire, raking the unarmored interior of theExecutor withconcussion missiles and the ship's dualquad laser cannons. The blasts created a massive inferno large enough to allow theMillennium Falcon to escape the hangar back out the way it had come and to obscure the targeting of theExecutor's gunners long enough for the Rebel ship to get out of range.^[47]

Death of a giant and Imperial Fleet fallout

Although the Imperial Fleet outnumbered the attacking Rebel ships ten-to-one^[149] and had them significantly outgunned, engaging the Star Destroyers at point-blank range—nose-to-nose fire between such massive vessels asImperial-class Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers—was a tactic never before tried,^[145] and the Rebels turned the tables on the Empire by targeting theExecutor.^[14] Piett believed that the Rebels were doomed from the beginning, and so once the Rebel Fleet first advanced upon theExecutor and the Star Destroyers in response to the Death Star firing, he was already beaten.^[47] Piett did not expect the Rebels' close-range tactic, and theExecutor fell victim to repeated barrages from Rebel ships.^[150]

Soon enough, the Rebel strike force succeeded in bringing down the Death Star's deflector shield from the moon below, opening the way for the Rebels' starfighters to target the battlestation'sreactor core. Several TIEs doggedly pursued the attacking Rebel ships into the Death Star's exposed superstructure, however, prompting Admiral Gial Ackbar at the forefront of the Rebel Fleet to press the attack on theExecutor in order to buy his fighters more time by drawing the TIEs away from the Death Star. He ordered the entirety of the Fleet to concentrate all fire on theExecutor,^[38] which was already experiencing difficulty with its guidance system.^[145]

The remaining Rebel cruisers and starfighters,^[148] led byB-wing starfighter pilotTen Numb fromBlue Squadron,^[151] began pummeling theExecutor mercilessly,^[2] which rapidly engulfed the Super Star Destroyer's entire stern in flame, and the command ship began listing badly to starboard.^[145] Eventually, concentrated fire against the front of theExecutor broke through its powerful forward shields, exposing the Super Star Destroyer's command tower to attack.^[14] Immediately, RebelRZ-1 A-wing interceptors fromGreen Squadron moved in to strafe the bridge on Ackbar's orders, and two A-wings destroyed theExecutor's port-side deflector shield generator dome^[38] with aproton torpedo salvo,^[145] knocking out the bridge's shields.^[38]

Watching theExecutor's mounting damage inflicted by the pressing starfighter attack from aboard the bridge, Piett ordered his Super Star Destroyer to intensify its forward firepower upon learning that the bridge's shields were down to prevent anything from penetrating the window of opportunity, but it was too late.^[38] Already, the A-wing ofGreen LeaderArvel Crynyd had been irreparably damaged by theExecutor's turbolaser fire while making itsattack run on the command tower and was sent careening wildly. Crynyd purposely steered his wayward A-wing fighter on a suicidal run directly toward theExecutor's bridge.^[47] Seeing the approaching fighter barreling toward him, Piett screamed once more for his bridge crew to intensify the forward batteries, but to no avail.^[38] With theExecutor's navigation suite in ruins and its defensive guns losing coordination,^[2] Crynyd's A-wing smashed into the bridge's viewports.^[38]

The collision's resulting explosion, largely caused by the A-wing's wedge-shaped design and explosive fuel system,^[6] instantly killed Piett and destroyed theExecutor's main navigation complex, tearing through the bridge and into the rear of the command tower, enabling the damage to spread.^[2] A series of explosions set off a chain reaction from power station to power station along the middle third of the massive Super Star Destroyer, producing another set of colossal explosions that buckled theExecutor at right angles and sent it spinning toward the Death Star. With its flight systems gone^[145] and damage-control crews failing to regain command of the ship from auxiliary control centers, theExecutor was pulled into the Death Star's powerfulgravity well and began one final, long descent toward the battlestation.^[148] TheExecutor wiped out ten more starfighters, two cruisers, and an ordnance vessel before smashing bow-first into the side of the Death Star in an enormous, cataclysmic fireball powerful enough to rock the battlestation, which set off a further series of severely damaging explosions through the Death Star's interior network.^[145] All hands onboard died with theExecutor.^[108]

TheExecutor's destruction marked the climax of the Battle of Endor^[47] and the beginning of the end for the Imperial Fleet. The loss of the command ship—a horrifying spectacle to the crews of surrounding Star Destroyers^[148]—proved a significant demoralization,^[152] and the remaining Star Destroyers fell into disarray.^[149] Moreover, the accuracy of Imperial fire dropped off—not by a substantial margin, but to a noticeable degree. Several TIEs from theExecutor stationed aboard the Death Star to protect the exposed superstructure began making crucial errors once their command ship and source of coordination was gone. The Rebel fighters targeting the battlestation's reactor core succeeded in slipping through the TIEs' defensive perimeter and destroyed the Death Star.^[152]

After the destruction ofExecutor and thebattlecruiserPride of Tarlandia, the command of Death Squadron^[67] and the confused remnants of the Imperial Fleet passed from theExecutor to theImperial II-class Star DestroyerChimaera,^[149] the next communications ship in line,^[67] which ordered an official withdrawal. The Fleet escaped with whatever they could, though the Imperial Navy as a whole would never recover from the Endor fiasco.^[149] Many of the Imperial Navy's best, brightest, and most experienced young officers died along with theExecutor, which made the Rebellion's eventual victory over the Empire that much easier.^[1] In a battle orchestrated to crush the Rebellion, not the Empire, Endor saw the loss of four super icons: the Emperor, Vader, the Death Star and theExecutor, marking the end of the New Order.^[152]

Endor aftermath

In the hours following the Imperial retreat from Endor, the Rebel Fleet encountered theImperial-class Star DestroyerUnrepentant engaging in hit-and-run tactics in an effort to gauge the strength of the Rebels' remaining defensive forces, a maneuver simply prohibited by Imperial military doctrine. The strange Imperial behavior led MajorBreslin Drake ofAlliance Intelligence to conclude that theExecutor and the Death Star shared a unified system-command over Imperial forces in the region due to the remoteness of the Endor system, and that theUnrepentant's hit-and-run maneuver was evidence of the state of confusion the Imperial command hierarchy fell into following theExecutor's destruction.^[152]

What was left of theExecutor's wreckage came to settle in a large canyon on the Forest Moon of Endor. Three days after the Battle of Endor, Rogue Squadron X-wing pilots Wedge Antilles,Wister, andKirst inadvertently stumbled upon the wreckage while pursuing TIE fighters during subsequent cleanup operations, only to find many of the Super Star Destroyer's turbolasers very much in functioning order. Remaining Imperial forces in command of theExecutor showered the three Rebel fighters with laser fire as soon as they entered the canyon, destroying Wister's X-wing, before Antilles and Kirst escaped.^[154]

After the Battle of Endor, the former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, still reeling from the death of the Emperor, stumbled upon an old sensor recording of theExecutor while on theRebel-held planetKintoni. She discovered that theExecutor and a fleet ofImmobilizer 418 cruisers were the last group of ships to visit the backwater world, nevertheless the site of anImperial garrison housing a long-range communications/sensor nexus, while still under Imperial control. Although she couldn't fathom what might have drawn Vader all the way out to Kintoni, Jade copied theExecutor sensor recording from the comm nexus and fed it into the garrison's main sensor feed, which duped the Rebel forces present into believing a Super Star Destroyer had descended upon the planet. The ruse allowed Jade to escape with the traitorous ex-Imperial GovernorBarkale, who was being held at the garrison, while the Rebels soon learned their threat was nothing but a ghost ship of theExecutor.^[153]

Executor's legacy

The threat theExecutor posed to the Rebellion continued to manifest itself against the New Republic vicariously through the otherSuper-class Star Destroyers Kuat Drive Yards produced in succession to theExecutor. The Rebels knew that destroying theExecutor at Endor happened more by sheer luck than any amount of skill,^[155] and the emergence of additional Super Star Destroyers following the Empire's collapse—namely, theExecutor's sister ship, theLusankya^[62]—proved more than alarming and prompted many to draw comparisons to the original.^[155]

In7 ABY,^[156] de facto Imperial leaderYsanne Isard took command of theLusankya, which the Emperor had hidden beneath Coruscant's surface as his private escape vessel upon theExecutor's completion following the Battle of Yavin, to utilize as her flagship in theBacta War, a campaign to destroy the New Republic. Rebel Alliance and, later,New Republic Intelligence had not known of theLusankya's existence until its sudden emergence in Isard's hands. Once theLusankya revealed itself by literally blasting out of Coruscant, the revelation of theExecutor's convoluted construction history, intertwined with theLusankya's to mask the sister ship's existence, dawned upon the New Republic.^[62] Eventually, the New Republic defeated Isard and theLusankya entered New Republic service.^[5]

Three years after the Battle of Endor, New Republic starfighter pilotStarter, a man regarded for telling overly embellished tales of his past, recounted to agroup of friends one story of his adventures while fighting with the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War in which he supposedly escaped from Darth Vader aboard theExecutor. Starter claimed he was captured by the bounty hunter Boba Fett after stealing secret Imperial data and taken to theExecutor, where he resisted the efforts of five Imperialinterrogation droids overseen by Admiral Ozzel. At the Emperor's direct order, according to the story, Vader had Starter brought to his chambers in an attempt to personally extract the location of the stolen data from him with the dark side of the Force. Starter responded by using a stolenblaster to fire a shot into the command console of Vader's meditation sphere, forcing it closed, trapping the Dark Lord inside. Starter claimed he then blasted his way through theExecutor to one of the main docking bays, where he stole theLambda-class shuttleTydirium to escape from Vader's flagship, which is how, he claimed, the Rebellion obtained theTydirium for use in the Endor operation. Starter's friends, however, disregarded his tale as complete fallacy.^[157]

The images of theExecutor crashing into the Death Star continued to haunt Imperial Captain Gilad Pellaeon years after the Endor defeat. He mourned the loss of so many of the Imperial Navy's best officers.^[149] By9 ABY,^[158] upon Grand Admiral Thrawn's return to assume command of the Empire's fragments, Pellaeon often wondered how the Battle of Endor's outcome might have been different if it had been Thrawn commanding theExecutor, rather than Vader. Thrawn later revealed to a flustered Pellaeon that the Imperial Fleet's defeat at Endor and theExecutor's destruction partially was a result of the death of the Emperor, who had been controlling the outcome of the conflict throughuse of the Force, not from battle stress, as he had believed.^[159]

In 12 ABY,^[86]Imperial Remnant leader AdmiralNatasi Daala led a failedassault on New Republic forces on the moon Yavin 4, home of Luke Skywalker'sJedi Praxeum, from aboard the Super Star DestroyerKnight Hammer. Upon sighting theKnight Hammer during the defense of Yavin 4, former Jedi KnightCallista Ming recalled having once studied schematic sketches of theExecutor as she considered how to cripple the nearly invulnerable Imperial warship bearing down on her.^[87]

Amidst the New Republic-Imperial Remnant struggle to annex the planetAdumar in13 ABY,^[64] Wedge Antilles and Imperial AdmiralTeren Rogriss discussed the widely theorized reasoning behind the Emperor's choice to apply such malevolent names to his Star Destroyers, such as "Executor." Luke Skywalker believed that the Emperor enjoyed the internal struggle many Imperial officers faced, readily accepting corruption by serving aboard the aptly namedExecutor, among other vessels, yet clinging to honorable motives.^[160]

The difficulty the Rebel Fleet had with destroying theExecutor at Endor convinced Admiral Gial Ackbar that the Empire's remaining Super Star Destroyers were the greatest threat posed to the New Republic, since there was nothing in the New Republic's arsenal to combat such a massive warship. In response, Ackbar convinced the New Republic to begin manufacturing theViscount-class Star Defender, a seventeen-kilometer-long vessel powerful enough to take on a ship as formidable as theExecutor, though these new ships would not enter New Republic service until^[5]25 ABY.^[161]

The Essential Chronology, a book published by the New Republic'sHistorical Council, gave information on the history of theExecutor, including its destruction at the Battle of Endor.^[162]The New Essential Chronology, another book the Historical Council's incarnation under theGalactic Federation of Free Alliances published after36 ABY, also gave information on theExecutor.^[22] Shira Brie's healing on theExecutor that led to her becoming Lumiya was also mentioned inJedi historianTionne Solusar's publicationJedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, published in40 ABY.^[163]

At some point after104 ABY, more than acentury after the destruction of theExecutor,^[164] a painting calledExecutor Executes was created, depicting theExecutor and eight otherImperial-class Star Destroyers attacking an artificial ring around an orange astronomical object.^[165]

Commanders and crew

As the premier flagship of the entire Imperial Navy and the personal vessel of the Lord Darth Vader, earning a command position aboard theExecutor naturally became the Empire's highest military accolade. TheExecutor was staffed with officers of wealth and prestige, many of whom earned their position via the political connections they had forged along the way.^[17] Vader originally brought his personal staff from theDevastator, his former flagship, with him to theExecutor.^[166] Many in the Imperial Navy considered assignment to theExecutor to be the fast track to promotion.^[1] Whereas promotion within the ranks of the Imperial Navy was slow and almost always politically motivated, promotion aboard theExecutor instead primarily came by way of attrition through failure and execution.^[17] TheExecutor's officer corps was rife with fierce internal competition and devious political calculating, and those officers naïve to the promotion-scheming of their peers were doomed to failure.^[167]

Vader demanded nothing less than success from the officers under his command, and those who failed him routinely met the Dark Lord's wrath.^[70] While theExecutor's crew represented the cream of the Imperial Navy, the risk of serving under Vader offset that honor,^[20] and those ensnared in theExecutor's prestigious yet deadly promotion race competed reluctantly.^[168] Vader did not entirely trust any member of theExecutor's crew, but he knew the powerful effect of motivation by fear.^[36]

TheExecutor functioned with a crew of 279,144,^[7][17] far less than might be expected for a ship of its size.^[85] It could operate with a skeleton crew of 50,000,^[17] and a gunnery crew of 1,590 rounded out the onboard personnel.^[17]

Admiralty line of succession

TheExecutor presented a unique command hierarchy. Vader, the Emperor's personal representative, was superior to the standard Imperial military structure, and, while he did not claim a true title, he formally outranked all those who did. Vader possessed absolute power over his crew. Still, the duty of carrying out the Dark Lord's orders fell to a fleet admiral in command of theExecutor and the entire Death Squadron, whose sole responsibility was the annihilation of the Rebellion.^[17] Vader had little use for the Emperor's Grand Admirals and instead gathered the Empire's best officers to command theExecutor without regard to political standing.^[108]

More than one admiral in command of theExecutor would suffer summary execution at Vader's hands for their failure, a fate that perpetually threatened the admiral who served the Dark Lord.^[28][34] Because of Vader's well-known proclivity for punishing his officers, theExecutor's junior crew members formed betting pools on their new admiral's life expectancy.^[108]

Amise Griff

TheExecutor's entire post-Yavin construction phase at the Starship Yards of Fondor fell under the command of Amise Griff,^[3] theExecutor and Death Squadron's first admiral.^[70] Griff worked under Vader for the sake of his own career, helping the Dark Lord to ferret out a group of traitorous Imperial admirals who wished to destroy theExecutor before it was completed in order to halt Vader's rise to power in the Imperial Navy. Griff made arrangements for a Rebel spy, Luke Skywalker, to infiltrate theExecutor construction site in a grand scheme to expose the Imperial admirals, which succeeded, although Skywalker escaped Fondor and Vader with theExecutor's construction data.^[26]

Later, as theExecutor neared completion, Vader reassigned Griff to oversee the Yavin blockade in preparation for Vader to crush the Rebel base on Yavin 4 with theExecutor himself. Tired of living in Vader's shadow, Griff jumped at the opportunity to advance his own position after learning theExecutor had been disabled in the Feswe Corridor during its maiden voyage en route to Yavin 4.^[21] His forces rushed to annihilate the Rebel Fleet, which was in the middle of a rushed evacuation from Yavin, before theExecutor could arrive. Griff's ambition got the better of him when he ordered three of his Star Destroyers to perform a risky hyperspace micro-jump he hoped would beat Vader. Rather than intercepting the Rebels along their escape corridor at Feswe Prime, the Star Destroyers emerged from hyperspace directly on top of theExecutor's shields, obliterating the three ships, killing Griff, and momentarily crippling theExecutor long enough for the Rebel Fleet to escape.^[28]

Interim admiral

During theExecutor's maiden voyage, command fell on an interim basis to another admiral in Griff's absence. This admiral oversaw the destruction of Laakteen Depot and the subsequent approach to Yavin 4, during which theExecutor fell under a series of Rebel attacks that eventually succeeded in stopping the Super Star Destroyer's relentless march.^[27][21]

During the Yavin approach, this admiral's persistent skepticism became an annoyance to Vader. He doubted theExecutor's ability to take on an attacking Rebel capital ship task force at Skorrupon, while Vader purposely allowed them an opportunity to attack theExecutor at close range before obliterating them to send the Rebels a message of hopelessness; he believed that after no subsequent attacks befell theExecutor after Skorrupon that the Rebels had given up trying to stop the Super Star Destroyer, which Vader knew to be foolhardy; and he later questioned Vader's delaying the attack on Yavin 4 in order to seek out Luke Skywalker following the Rebels' power-gem attack on theExecutor in the Feswe Corridor, for which the Dark Lord threateningly Force-choked him before easing off.^[21]

When Rebel pilot Vrad Dodonna made a suicide attack run on theExecutor with the power gem, the admiral impatiently pleaded for Vader to allow him to take action, while Vader instead continued to probe for Skywalker's presence aboard Dodonna's ship with the Force. An aggravated Vader Force-choked the admiral a second time after he declared theMillennium Falcon's subsequent disabling of theExecutor's gyro-control system remarkable, which Vader knew instead to be only a result of the Force.^[21]

Vader's patience with the admiral ran out soon thereafter, when the admiral doubted Vader's decision to allow Griff to move on the Rebel Fleet first. Vader Force-choked the admiral for the third and final time, killing him, after the admiral disturbed the Dark Lord's meditation with further criticism concerning Griff. This admiral was the first commander of theExecutor to be executed by Vader.^[28]

Bentro

In 0 ABY,^[64] Bentro served as theExecutor's admiral in command of the blockade of Shelkonwa, during Vader's attempt to apprehend Princess Leia Organa. Bentro offered theExecutor's military forces to assist the Emperor's Hand Mara Jade in handling complications on the planet, but he was quietly relieved when she declined, meaning he would not have to interfere with Vader's own operations. After Shelkonwa, Bentro would be replaced when Jade suggested to Vader that the Dark Lord keep an eye on the devious Kendal Ozzel.^[19]

Kendal Ozzel

For nearly three years, Kendal Ozzel commanded theExecutor and Death Squadron in search of the new Rebel base, a tenure marked with being at constant odds with and public criticism of Vader.^[92] After Ozzel tried to kill Mara Jade to prevent her from spoiling his rise to an admiralty position, Vader agreed to install him as theExecutor's admiral to keep him under watch.^[19] Meanwhile, rumors swirled concerning the reasoning behind Ozzel's prestigious promotion, ranging from family ties to appeasing the Imperial Navy's general staff,^[17] although the latter was partially true—Ozzel's presence aboard theExecutor paid lip service to the established chain-of-command.^[92] Still, Ozzel found out the hard way that while he commanded theExecutor in name, Vader was actually pulling the strings.^[72] Although the belief was that not even Ozzel would be stupid enough to chafe with Vader's orders, he frequently did,^[92] and relations between the two soon deteriorated to where Vader relegated Ozzel's position to mere figurehead status to relay orders to theExecutor's crew.^[72]

Ozzel was responsible for theExecutor's search of the Black Widow Nebula for a group of Imperial deserters shortly after taking command, although his bumbling of the situation resulted in failure.^[56] A few months later, Ozzel failed to destroy the Rebel Fleet after theExecutor and a massive Imperial armada surrounded and trapped it. Ozzel's token flattering and cheeriness throughout the battle did nothing to ingratiate himself with the Dark Lord.^[95]

Ozzel later attended theExecutor's public unveiling ceremony at Kuat and the ship's official dispatching to the Outer Rim to search for the Rebel base^[18] in 2.5 ABY.^[24] However, Ozzel's resentment toward Vader's preferential position in the Imperial Navy as the Emperor's enforcer grew. Ozzel frequently took it upon himself to follow up any substantial leads concerning the Rebels personally, diverting Death Squadron on pointless journeys, much to Vader's annoyance.^[17] When in 3 ABY^[22] Ozzel learned from Captain Firmus Piett that a probe droid in the Hoth system had a fragment of information suggesting the Rebels' possible location, he dismissed it as nonsense, lacking the common sense not to argue with Vader over the point, who overruled Ozzel and ordered the fleet to Hoth.^[17] Ozzel was so furious that his opinion had been ignored, he decided to do things his own way, bringing theExecutor and the fleet out of hyperspace too close to the planet Hoth, a direct violation of standard operating procedure, such that the Rebels immediately detected the Imperial presence, necessitating a costly ground invasion. Ozzel had failed Vader for the last time, and the Dark Lord executed him for his blunder, at least the secondExecutor admiral to receive such a punishment.^[92]

Firmus Piett

Firmus Piett held the distinction of being the last officer Vader appointed admiral of theExecutor.^[108] However, while he was in many regards the polar opposite of his predecessor, Ozzel,^[169] his arrogance, a breeding trait of Imperial command, would result in his own downfall, much like Ozzel.^[125]

Piett's rise through the ranks of the Imperial Navy came by way of a stellar military record, not because of his background.^[169] Vader selected Piett as one of the original elite group of commanders assigned to Death Squadron,^[17] appointing him captain of the Star DestroyerAccuser, under the overall command of Admiral Griff.^[108] Piett served aboard theExecutor during the Super Star Destroyer's maiden voyage, opportunistically being on hand to congratulate Vader when his tactics succeeded in stopping the power-gem attack of Vrad Dodonna, whereas theExecutor's interim admiral had only doubted Vader.^[21][122] Upon Griff's death during the Rebel evacuation of Yavin 4, Piett took over as captain of theExecutor, under the command of Admiral Ozzel.^[22]

Piett participated in theExecutor's search for the Imperial deserter Sodarra in the Black Widow Nebula, leading a Customs boarding party of a dozen spacetroopers aboard theMillennium Falcon. Piett interrogated Han Solo concerning his ship's cargo and, when Solo thought he detected Piett trying to bribe him, he subtly offered to pay Piett off. Angered, Piett ordered Solo's and Chewbacca's arrest. Ozzel later refused to believe that Piett would indeed ask for a bribe, since he was too well paid.^[56]

In 2 ABY,^[64] Piett served aboard theExecutor's bridge during the journey to Circarpous IV as part of Vader's hunt for Luke Skywalker, reporting to Vader that theExecutor was operating at peak efficiency.^[104] Prior to the Battle of Hoth, Piett reported to Vader that a special probe droid, cybernetically linked with theExecutor and installed on the planet Verdanth, had attracted a Rebel presence into its trap, which turned out to be Skywalker, although Vader lost his quarry.^[111]

Piett's first assignment aboard theExecutor had been to monitor telemetry data received from the thousands of probe droids dispatched throughout the galaxy in search of the Rebel base.^[17] By 3 ABY,^[22] a probe droid discovered the Rebel base in the remote Hoth system, and the time had come for Piett to step into theExecutor's limelight. When Ozzel first took command of theExecutor, many viewed him as Vader's equal, but Piett knew better, vowing not to become a victim of Vader's anger.^[17] Moreover, he had quickly learned how to get around his new commanding officer.^[122] When reporting the Hoth probe droid's findings, Piett made sure to wait to inform Ozzel until Vader was on the bridge so that the Dark Lord would overhear the news, a tactic that worked just as Piett had planned. Ozzel rejected the data as trivial, as Piett knew he would, but Vader ordered the fleet to Hoth anyway, making Piett look sharp and attentive and Ozzel the fool.^[17] Vader promoted Piett to admiral immediately after executing Ozzel for the Hoth blunder, and Piett's first command was to order the disposal of his predecessor's corpse.^[122]

Although Piett's detractors pointed to theExecutor's high officer turnover rate as ammunition for his own unfitness for the position,^[108] Piett, unlike Ozzel, understood perfectly theExecutor's command arrangement, knowing to follow Vader's orders implicitly. However, Piett was outraged that Vader called in a group of bounty hunters aboard theExecutor during the search for theMillennium Falcon following the Battle of Hoth, believing the move to be denunciatory of his own command performance. Still, he did not voice his disapproval to Vader directly, as Ozzel had done. Miraculously, Piett avoided execution after Skywalker and theMillennium Falcon escaped theExecutor at Bespin. Vader had left his admiral with a stern warning that further failure would not be permitted after Death Squadron lost theMillennium Falcon in the Hoth asteroid field, but this time around Vader simply left the bridge, too shaken from his encounter with Skywalker on Cloud City. Piett had escaped his fate where Ozzel had not.^[122]

Not long after Bespin, Piett oversaw theExecutor's assault on the Rebel forces on Mygeeto, working closely with the so-called "Imperial Ace"TIE pilot.^[13] In 3.5 ABY,^[22] Piett's service aboard Vader's flagship came to a temporary hiatus after Bespin's occupation, when theExecutor was recalled to Coruscant so the Emperor could personally debrief Vader of his encounter with Skywalker. Vader placed theExecutor under the temporary command of Captain Kallic, while Piett transferred Death Squadron's flag to the Star DestroyerAccuser to continue the hunt for the Rebels.^[42]

Piett would return to theExecutor in time for the Battle of Endor^[38] in 4 ABY,^[22] but his fortune had run its course. Taking up position with theExecutor and the Imperial Fleet to trap the Rebels between the Death Star as the Emperor commanded,^[38] Piett believed unequivocally the Rebels were doomed.^[47] Thus, Piett was caught completely off-guard by the Rebels' tactic of attacking theExecutor at point-blank range.^[150] Furthermore, he and his tacticians discounted the threat of Rebel starfighters during the battle, and he died with theExecutor when an A-wing smashed into the Super Star Destroyer's bridge. Piett's error of arrogance had doomed him, as it had Ozzel.^[125]

Ledre Okins

While not formally a part of theExecutor's admiralty lineage, Admiral Okins commanded theExecutor during the Vergesso Asteroid operation^[15] of 3.5 ABY^[22] in Piett's absence. Vader hoped that Okins might handle the Vergesso Rebel presence himself so that he could remain on Coruscant to keep watch over the devious Xizor, but the Emperor wished Vader to handle the situation personally. Still, Vader took Okins along anyway. During the battle, Okins initially dispatched theExecutor's TIEs, preferring not to use the Super Star Destroyer's heavy guns on inferior targets, and the operation proceeded flawlessly.^[15]

Secondary commanders

At times throughout theExecutor's relatively short life, a second admiral served aboard the ship in addition to the primary acting admiral. During theExecutor's maiden voyage, a second admiral aside from the interim admiral serving in Griff's absence was present on the bridge for Luke Skywalker and Vrad Dodonna's power-gem attack.^[21] Likewise, AdmiralChiraneau served as Piett's personal advisor during the Battle of Endor, before he was killed when theExecutor was destroyed.^[40]

Much of the operation of theExecutor rested on the shoulders of the Super Star Destroyer's captain.^[17] During the intrigue on Shelkonwa in 0.5 ABY,^[64] a captain served aboard asfirst officer to Admiral Bentro, directing Emperor's Hand Mara Jade to land her ship in his personal hangar bay upon her demand to speak personally with Vader.^[19] After Piett's promotion to admiral following Ozzel's execution, the flagship's responsibilities fell to Lieutenant Venka. However, Piett denied Venka a corresponding promotion to captain, stating that the Hoth campaign would be a test of his command abilities. Once theMillennium Falcon escaped theExecutor at Bespin, Piett relented and granted Venka his promotion to captain.^[17] Eventually, theExecutor's captaincy passed on to Captain Kallic, who assumed command of the flagship to escort Vader back to the Imperial capital of Coruscant following the Dark Lord's duel with Skywalker on Cloud City, while Piett remained with Death Squadron aboard the Star DestroyerAccuser.^[42][122]

In approximately 3 ABY,^[127] Captain Holt served aboard theExecutor during Vader's mission to the Corellian Trade Spine to stop Rebel raids on Imperial convoys.^[35] Later, anothercaptain would serve under Vader during theExecutor's pursuit of Skywalker at Krake's Planet in the aftermath of Vader's Shira Brie-infiltration initiative.^[37] By 3.5 ABY,^[22] anothercaptain commanded theExecutor during Vader's search for Skywalker near Kothlis, and subsequently overseeing the Super Star Destroyer's show of destructive power in feigned pursuit of the Death Star plans.^[15]

Other commanding officers during theExecutor's history included anofficer who assumed command during theExecutor's maiden voyage, following Vader's execution of the interim admiral. This commander served under Vader aboard the bridge, only to be present when Griff's three Star Destroyers crashed into theExecutor, allowing the Rebel Fleet to escape from Yavin 4.^[28] Later that year, anothercommander served on the bridge at Shelkonwa under the command of Bentro,^[19] while yet anothercommander oversaw theExecutor's destruction of Prince Xizor's skyhook,Falleen's Fist, over Coruscant^[15] in late 3 ABY.^[15] During the Battle of Endor, Gherant served alongside Piett aboard theExecutor's bridge as the Fleet Commander of the large Imperial armada amassed at Endor to crush the Rebellion.^[148] Gherant had originally been hand-picked to his position aboard theExecutor by then-Captain Piett before the Battle of Hoth. He was responsible for preventing unauthorized access to the flagship's sensitive areas.^[41] Gherant died with Piett when theExecutor was destroyed.^[38]

Bridge officers and crew

The command bridge served as theExecutor's nerve center, where a permanent team of controllers,^[20] flight data officers, tracking systems specialists, and combat supervisors^[170] worked alongside high-ranking officers, operating the Super Star Destroyer's navigation, shield, and weapons systems in shifts, perpetually under Vader's withering scrutiny.^[20] The bridge crewmen working in the two crew pits on either side of the command walkway were able to focus on their consoles without distraction because the location of their stations prevented their looking through the bridge's viewports.^[170]

Vader purposely instilled fear into his flagship's crew members, believing that fear was the best motivating factor.^[17] He had heard that the junior officers serving aboard theExecutor had become so frightened of him that they drew lots when the time came to deliver messages to him, and that the loser would have to go.^[15] However, that fear proved a detriment to the overall performance of theExecutor and Death Squadron during the Hoth campaign. Fear of Vader became nothing but a distraction, creating pressure and tension, which led to a series of mistakes and failure.^[17]

Vader's decision to enlist bounty hunters in the search for theMillennium Falcon was an unpopular move among theExecutor's officers,^[70] Piett especially. Vader did so partly to demonstrate his extreme dissatisfaction with the performance of his crew.^[17] The bounty hunters' involvement sent a public message to Vader's officers that they had failed in their assigned duties.^[99] The very presence of the six bounty hunters on the bridge created great consternation among theExecutor's ranks, who despised their unwanted guests.^[113] After theMillennium Falcon's escape from Bespin, theExecutor's crew witnessed a thoughtful distance in Vader's mannerisms, as the Dark Lord's encounter with his son had rekindled what traces of humanity still existed within him. The crew welcomed Vader's feelings distracting him from their own failings, and they eagerly directed his attention to outside threats, such as Prince Xizor.^[16]

Because theExecutor was Vader's flagship, a disproportionate fraction of the Imperial Navy's best young and mid-level officers and crewers manned the Super Star Destroyer. When the Rebels destroyed theExecutor at Endor, these officers were irreplaceably lost.^[149]

Other rankingExecutor bridge officers includedCommanderMerrejk,^[171] who served during the Battle of Endor, responsible for notifying Piett that the Super Star Destroyer had reached attack position during the early stages of the engagement. Anotherofficer, stationed in one of the bridge's crew pits during the Battle of Endor, anxiously reported to Piett that theExecutor had lost its bridge deflector shields, moments before Arvel Crynyd's A-wing smashed through the bridge's viewports.^[38]

During the Hoth campaign,^[34] Lieutenant CommanderArdan served as the commander of theExecutor's pit crews.^[172] Another bridge officer served on the bridge amidst the Hoth campaign, during the Tanith Sorn murder investigation, alerting the investigation team that a group of bounty hunters who had arrived aboard theExecutor were in fact Rebel agents.^[54]ChiefsRetwin^[173] andHurdiss also served on the bridge during the Hoth campaign,^[34] the latter of whom was a communications specialist responsible for coordinating Star Destroyer fleet movements during challenging tactical situations.^[174] He was present when Vader ordered Death Squadron to disperse in search of theMillennium Falcon after losing the ship in the Anoat system.^[34]Warrant OfficerBachenkall was one of severalhelmsmen operating in the bridge's crewman pits^[175] during the Hoth campaign under Ardan.^[34] Zurel Hoban served aboard theExecutor as one of the bridge's pilot crewmen. Hoban participated in the Tanith Sorn murder investigation.^[54]

Lieutenant Commander Tanith Sorn, a bridge officer, and Lieutenant Ein Truminn, a flight officer assigned to bridge operations, worked together on the bridge during the time leading up to the Battle of Hoth. A bitter rivalry existed between the two, as they competed against each other nearly every day. Sorn, whose death prompted a detailed murder investigation aboard theExecutor concurrent with the Hoth battle, gained the upper hand in one of their final contests before she was killed. The incident utterly shamed Truminn in front of both the bridge officer on duty at the time and Vader himself, although the bridge officer allowed Truminn to continue serving on the bridge following a scolding. The rivalry marked Truminn as a murder suspect, although he was eventually exonerated. Truminn later helped welcome the bounty hunters aboard theExecutor during the hunt for Han Solo, narrowly avoiding death himself during a hangar skirmish with Rebel operatives masquerading as bounty hunters.^[54]

In 3 ABY,^[22] a bosun served on the bridge during theExecutor's journey to Krake's Planet, failing to catch Skywalker as he departed the planet in theMillennium Falcon.^[37] In the same year,^[22] acorporal boldly interrupted a conference Vader was holding with three Imperial officers aboard the bridge concerning the political situation in the Iskalon system, notifying him that circumstances in the area required his immediate attention. He narrowly avoided Vader's wrath by doing so.^[142]

During the Shelkonwa situation of 0 ABY,^[64] a crisp-voiced controller was responsible for directing incoming traffic through theExecutor's blockade of the planet. He was flustered first by Mara Jade's demand to speak with Vader aboard his flagship and later by her demand to redirect the inbound civilian vesselHapper's Way, which she knew to have illegal cargo aboard.^[19] ControllerJhoff later fulfilled this responsibility shortly before the Battle of Endor, speaking with the Rebel strike team board the shuttleTydirium as it approached the Death Star, before Vader ordered him to allow the shuttle to pass through the Death Star's deflector shield.^[38] AnotherImperial controller served aboard theExecutor during the Battle of Hoth, communicating with the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM aboard their vessel, theMist Hunter, to rendezvous with the flagship within the Hoth asteroid field to join Vader's hunt for Han Solo.^[113]

One particularjunior officer narrowly avoided strangulation by Vader^[15] in 3.5 ABY.^[22] Following theExecutor's destruction of the Rebel shipyard in the Vergesso Asteroids, this officer attempted to speak with Vader, who, angry because of his situation with Xizor, cut him off mid-sentence by telekinetically choking him before he could voice more than three words. However, Vader spared the man's life, warning that he did not wish to be disturbed.^[15]

Ground forces

TheExecutor's ground forces operated under the overall command of a general.^[43] Between 2 ABY and 3 ABY,^[107] theExecutor'scommanding general at the time suddenly "retired." At the recommendation of Grand Admiral Thrawn, Vader arranged the promotion of then-Colonel Maximilian Veers, reassigning him to theExecutor to assume command of the armies of Death Squadron, replacing the general who had resigned one month prior—an unorthodox promotion that went unchallenged.^[108] Veers led the elite Blizzard Force in the rout of the Rebellion during the Battle of Hoth^[34] in 3 ABY.^[22] During his tenure aboard theExecutor, Veers blocked CommanderNahdonnis Praji from earning an assignment to Vader's flagship. Praji had served with Vader while aboard theDevastator, the Dark Lord's previous command ship, but Vader, focused on his search for Luke Skywalker, was disinclined to waste time overruling his general.^[166]

LieutenantCecius, a specialist in boarding operations and taking control of enemy starships, served as a bridge officer aboard theExecutor during the Hoth campaign. Cecius was to be responsible for the boarding of theMillennium Falcon and the capture of Skywalker following Vader's encounter with his son on Cloud City, but the Rebels escaped theExecutor before Cecius had an opportunity.^[34][176]

During the Battle of Talay after the Battle of Yavin, a CaptainNonam served in theExecutor's port-side bridge crew pit, directing the dark troopers dispatched from theArc Hammer factory ship. Nonam was attached to General Rom Mohc, who was aboard theExecutor to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Dark Trooper Project to Vader.^[31]

The 501st Legion stormtrooper unit, known colloquially as Vader's Fist, was also attached to theExecutor. The 501st saw action in conjunction with theExecutor during Vader's search for Princess Leia Organa on Shelkonwa six months after the Battle of Yavin,^[19] and later during the Battle of Hoth.^[177]

TheExecutor also boasted Zero-G assault stormtroopers to complement its ground troops. Captain Piett led a squad of spacetroopers in the boarding and capturing of theMillennium Falcon in the Black Widow Nebula in the months after the Battle of Yavin.^[56]

Specialty and security

Among Vader's crew were several security officers, including LieutenantSuba, theExecutor'schief of security andpolitical officer, who was responsible for ensuring the loyalty of his fellow officers.^[178] During the Hoth campaign, Suba stayed by Piett's side throughout theExecutor's pursuit of theMillennium Falcon.^[34]

Suba also assisted the Tanith Sorn murder investigation team by granting them access to the victim's personal quarters.^[54]

TheExecutor's dedicated security personnel maintained ship security from a specialized security office, manned by officers, stormtroopers, and other security personnel. During the Tanith Sorn murder investigation, asecurity officer allowed the investigation team to review theExecutor's security recordings. Noa Endac, anExecutor security force crewman, and Anya Foravis, an intelligence analyst assistant, both participated in the murder investigation.^[54] AnExecutor lieutenant commander was responsible for issuing the assignment orders, passed down from Vader, to the investigation team to uncover and apprehend the perpetrator responsible for murdering Sorn. Crewman Ariq Melvar also participated in the investigation.^[54]

Other security personnel specially assigned to theExecutor^[179] by 3 ABY^[119] includedCorporalVandolay, the Super Star Destroyer's Imperial Security Bureau attaché, who served as aDetention Officer and a political liaison forCOMPNOR, or the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order. Vandolay was responsible for all of theExecutor's prisoner transfers.^[179] CorporalDerdram, a member ofImperial Intelligence, was assigned to theExecutor by Intelligence'sInternal Security Branch. He was responsible for the physical safety of Imperial personnel against Rebel sabotage.^[180]

Imperialtrooper guardDainsom was among theExecutor's naval guard contingent^[181] during the time of the Hoth campaign.^[34] Various stormtrooper squads were further responsible for maintaining security throughout theExecutor.^[54] Nine months after the Battle of Yavin, a contingent of theEmperor's Royal Guard was present aboard theExecutor concurrent with the meeting between Vader and Lieutenant Janek Sunber.^[96]

Following Vader's briefing of the six bounty hunters on the bridge of theExecutor during the search for theMillennium Falcon in the Hoth asteroid field^[119] in 3 ABY,^[22] alow-ranking Imperial officer escorted Boba Fett from the bridge back to his docked starship. During the several-minute walk through theExecutor's corridors, this officer, although visibly uncomfortable in Fett's presence, was eager to know of the bounty hunter's past history with the Rebel fugitive Han Solo.^[119]

MoffTiaan Jerjerrod, the supervisor of the construction of the second Death Star, was present aboard theExecutor during the Imperial takeover of Bespin's Cloud City^[182] in 3 ABY^[22] to issue a report to Vader on the battlestation's progress.^[182] Jerjerrod^[183] was on hand to greet Vader as the Dark Lord first arrived aboard theExecutor on his shuttle immediately following his lightsaber duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City.^[34]

TIE operations

TheExecutor's two wings of TIE starfighters were managed by a TIE operations officers. One suchoperations officer served at the Battle of the Bajic Shipyards^[15] in 3.5 ABY,^[22] under the command of Admiral Okins. Okins ordered the operations officer to scramble the Super Star Destroyer's fighters rather than wasting firepower to destroy the present Rebel ships.^[15]

CommanderBrandei^[48] served aboard theExecutor's bridge, in one of the twin crewman pits, during the search for theMillennium Falcon following the Battle of Hoth.^[34] Brandei, aTechnical Services Officer of the Imperial Navy'sFleet Support Branch, was responsible for keeping theExecutor's twelve TIE squadrons serviced and combat ready. Shortly after the Hoth campaign, Brandei would receive a transfer from theExecutor.^[48]

Individual TIE pilots who served aboard theExecutor included the "Imperial Ace," an elite pilot who Vader had specially transferred to his flagship to ensure the success of the Mygeeto operation^[13] in 3 ABY.^[49] The pilot known as"Wampa" flew the TIE FighterBlack 11 while stationed aboard theExecutor^[184] by 4 ABY.^[22] Wampa often escorted Vader's personal shuttle.^[184] The TIE pilotOS-72-10 also had a stint aboard theExecutor.^[185]

Other TIE series starfighters stationed aboard theExecutor included the TIE FighterEX-4-9^[186] in 3 ABY.^[22]

Support personnel

TheExecutor's Engineering crew typically numbered in the hundreds during a routine work shift, technicians who ran diagnostics on and monitored various systems to keep the titanic vessel running.^[54] CaptainGodherdt, an elite fleet engineer, served aboard theExecutor as asensor monitor, maintaining data on the Super Star Destroyer's hull integrity.^[187] Sergeant Landin Thyte, a technician assigned to Engineering, was present there during the time surrounding the murder of Tanith Sorn, and thus was targeted as a possible suspect during the ensuing murder investigation. Thyte was eventually exonerated. Other technicians and dockhands serviced theExecutor's hangar bays.^[54]

Atechnician maintained the cybernetic chamber aboard theExecutor that Vader used prior to the Battle of Hoth, as part of his continuing search for the hidden Rebel base. Vader attempted to capture Skywalker on the planet Verdanth using the chamber's cybernetic link that enabled him to reach out with the Force across space through the machine. The technician's chamber failed to net Vader Skywalker, however.^[111]

Medical staff aboard theExecutor operated in the Super Star Destroyer's infirmary. Lilit Arranda, who participated in the Sorn murder investigation, served her first military tour of duty aboard theExecutor as a medic. During the murder investigation, anurse tended to the critically wounded Lieutenant Ein Truminn in the infirmary. Also on duty at the time, afemale receptionist supervised the infirmary's waiting area.^[54]

Droid pool

TheExecutor boasted a droid pool^[55] of 10,000.^[18] By the time of the Battle of Hoth, many of these droids in fact had been manufactured on the factory world Mechis III after the planet's takeover by the assassin droid IG-88, as part of his galactic Droid Revolution. Thus, these droids aboard theExecutor had been installed with IG-88's special sentience programming that would allow the assassin droid to override their Human programming and adapt them to his will.^[85]

Droid technicians worked in the droid pool, responsible for performing droid maintenance and programming duties. TheExecutor's droid pool technician roster included Iaco Shild, who participated in the Tanith Sorn murder investigation, and Petty Officer Malkor Trel, who was in reality a Rebel spy and the one responsible for the Sorn murder. Anotherdroid technician on duty during the time of the murder investigation was critically wounded when the four ASP-7 labor droids Trel had reprogrammed to murder Sorn went berserk in the droid pool and killed other technicians.^[54]

Rebel mercenary Kyle Katarn encountered several different droid types during his infiltration aboard theExecutor. Aside from battling Viper probe droids andIT-O Interrogator droids, Katarn destroyed three Phase II dark troopers.^[32] TheExecutor also used Viper probes in the search for the new Rebel base following the Battle of Yavin by dispatching them throughout the galaxy.^[111] Admiral Kendal Ozzel also used an IT-O interrogator's intimidating presence to force Han Solo to talk while the smuggler was incarcerated aboard theExecutor during the Super Star Destroyer's mission in the Black Widow Nebula.^[56] Other droid types aboard theExecutor includedmaintenance droids,^[2]courier droids,^[85]service droids,^[55]MSE-series mouse droids,^[38] and labor droids, many of which assisted the crew in Engineering.^[54]

Vader ordered the requisitioning of aTC-series protocol droid from the droid pool for the purpose of greeting the bounty hunters arriving aboard theExecutor to join in the hunt for Han Solo and theMillennium Falcon during the Hoth campaign. ThisTC-series droid was on hand alongside Lieutenant Ein Truminn during the arrival of a group of bounty hunters who were revealed to be Rebel agents.^[54]

In the aftermath of Vader's duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City in 3 ABY,^[22] during which he suffered a minor lightsaber wound on his right arm, Vader trained withASP-19 battle droids equipped with lightsabers to hone his own lightsaber dueling skills in an effort to recover from his injury in preparation for an eventual second encounter with his son.^[15] Vader kept some of these battle droids aboard theExecutor. Shortly following the Cloud City duel, Vader was interrupted while training with one of the battle droids to learn he had received a communication from the Emperor recalling he and theExecutor back to Coruscant for domestic Imperial duties.^[188]

TheFX-series medical assistant droidFX9 supervised the extensive recuperation of special agent Shira Brie in a secret medical lab aboard theExecutor^[37] in 3.5 ABY.^[22] TheV-series droid supervisorAV-6R7 served aboard theExecutor's bridge during the time of the Battle of Endor.^[38]

Behind the scenes

Overview

TheExecutor, Darth Vader's flagship, was created for^[34] theMay 21,1980^[189] second installment of theStar Warsoriginal trilogy,Star Wars: Episode VThe Empire Strikes Back.^[34] Vader's flagship first appeared in theApril 12, 1980 simultaneous release ofThe Empire Strikes Back novelization andThe Empire Strikes Back Storybook, written byDonald F. Glut andShep Steneman, respectively.^[115][190] However, the formal name of Vader's flagship was not officially revealed until theJune 1980 release ofThe Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook, which identified the starship as theExecutor.^[189]

Originally,The Empire Strikes Back called for theExecutor to only be seen briefly in a few establishing shots. However, once the finished Star Destroyer model was created and placed in front of the camera, the film's production team was so impressed that additional storyboards were created to accommodate Vader's ship, and theExecutor became one of the primary focal points of the film.^[7][191] In2023,Lucasfilm creativePablo Hidalgo stated he could not give a final answer on how to pronounceExecutor other than supplying his personal preference.^[192]

Designing a Super Star Destroyer

During the production stages ofThe Empire Strikes Back, model makers atIndustrial Light & Magic planned to realize theExecutor simply by painting an existing Star Destroyer model a different color, although this plan was abandoned in an effort to retain as many of the original Star Destroyers as possible for the film.Star Wars creatorGeorge Lucas and art director of visual effectsJoe Johnston then designed a longer, thinner starship to be Vader's Star Destroyer, although this created a problem for model makers, who were required to construct a lightweight yet durable model well over eight feet long but only seven inches wide at its thickest point.^[7]

To solve the problem, visual effects artistLorne Peterson innovatively designed theExecutor model's infrastructure out of lightweight honeycombed aluminum,^[7] the first starship to be made in such a way. The finished model was essentially two thin layers of aluminum skin sandwiching a honeycombed sheet, measuring an eighth of an inch thick and ten feet long, with full detailing, including tiny glued-on balconies to create the impression of structure.^[194] Plastic model kits were used to create the superstructures of otherStar Wars ship models, but ILM model makers handcrafted individually made pieces to create the fine mosaic pattern seen on theExecutor.^[7] The finishedExecutor measured 92 x 282 x 33 centimeters.^[194]

While previously constructed Star Destroyer models were lit by bundles of delicate fiber optics, theExecutor featured an internal illumination system of neon tubes. A complex photographic etching process created small, pinprick holes through brass plates to form an estimated 25,000 windows on the model through which the neon lights were seen.^[7][194]

A great deal of time and money went into producing theExecutor model, which cost a total of $100,000 to construct, the most expensive model created for the Original Trilogy. After the decision was made to give theExecutor a more prominent role inThe Empire Strikes Back due to the great impression the model made on the production team when filmed, ILM constructed three additional models.^[7]Star Wars technical researcherCurtis Saxton points out in his self-createdStar Wars Technical Commentaries that a toy soldier figure with arm raised is located on one of theExecutor models' external port-side superstructure, visiblehere andhere.^[195]

Filming

Most of the internalExecutor shots forThe Empire Strikes Back were filmed on two sets^[7] designed byNorman Reynolds^[191] and constructed atElstree Studios inEngland, one for the command bridge and another for Vader's personal meditation chamber. Conceptual artistRalph McQuarrie created matte paintings, which completed the rest of theExecutor's interior shots.^[7]

The bridge set, constructed on Elstree's Stage 5, featured star-filled panoramic windows to reflect Vader's insatiable desire for power. Additionally, the bridge's two crew pits were reminiscent of slave ship galleys, with enlisted men toiling at the feet of their superiors.^[191]

For the1997Special Edition reissue ofThe Empire Strikes Back, new scenes were specially created to depict Vader's return to theExecutor aboard his personal shuttle after the duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City.^[7][191] The establishing shot of theExecutor's hangar bay during Vader's arrival was a digitally created matte painting. In fact, a portion of theExecutor hangar scene is actually reused archival footage of Vader's arrival on the second Death Star fromStar Wars: Episode VIReturn of the Jedi, showing the same group of officers, including Moff Jerjerrod, on hand to greet Vader.^[183]

To create theTydirium-Executor scene fromReturn of the Jedi, numerous elements were combined to create a seamless illusion. TheExecutor and the other ships within the scene, including the Death Star, were all models filmed separately on a blue screen and later composted with a starfield background, along with a matte painting and half-sphere model of Endor's forest moon.^[7]

In order to simulate the A-wing starfighter crashing through theExecutor's bridge at the end of the film, a flaming automobile was sent through the set. To create theExecutor's destruction, a detailed deflector shield dome was specially created for the scene, and the explosion of theExecutor colliding with the Death Star was carefully planned using videomatic storyboards.^[7]

Script changes

The Empire Strikes Back originally included a scene aboard theExecutor in which Vader speaks withSate Molock, later named Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier to the Emperor, through hologram from his personal chamber while in pursuit of theMillennium Falcon in the asteroid field. Pestage warns Vader that the Emperor is in a foul mood, before Vader speaks with the Emperor himself concerning the threat of Luke Skywalker, as seen in the film. The Pestage scene dated as early as the script's second draft^[196] but was cut by the fifth draft.^[197] Nevertheless, the scene remained as part of the film long enough to be included in the shooting schedule, which indicates that the scene was in fact filmed onJune 18,1979, as scene 286.Kenner Products toys even released a"Darth Vader's Star Destroyer" action playset in 1980 that features a simulated hologram evidently intending to mimic the deleted Pestage scene.^[198] The release of the 1980The Empire Strikes Back: Official Collectors Edition magazine, however, establishes the PestageExecutor scene ascanon.^[118]

Another scene shot forThe Empire Strikes Back aboard theExecutor but cut from the final version of the film included General Veers waiting to enter Vader's private quarters to speak with the Dark Lord, prior to the Battle of Hoth. TheStarWars.comHyperspace feature "Photoreceptor" released a never-before-seen still of this scene, entitled "Warranted Trepidation," seenhere.^[199] The Photoreceptor feature also released an image entitled "Holo Booth," showing a hologram booth prop never seen in the film that Vader was intended to use while on the bridge of theExecutor to communicate with the officers of his fleet during the Battle of Hoth.^[200][201]

The rough drafts ofReturn of the Jedi feature several scenes aboard theExecutor that drive a heated Vader-Jerjerrod rivalry subplot that was changed in subsequent versions of the script. In the rough draft, Skywalker surrenders to Imperial forces, and General Veers begins to transport him to theExecutor via shuttle. However, the shuttle's captain argues that Skywalker must be taken to the Emperor, but Veers, whose loyalty lies with Vader, refuses and takes Skywalker to theExecutor as planned. Vader confronts his son aboard theExecutor, but they are interrupted by Jerjerrod, who is furious that Vader has disobeyed his orders. In response, Vader kills Jerjerrod. In the revised rough draft, Vader instead takes Skywalker to the Emperor.^[7]

Later in the rough draft, after Princess Leia and CaptainJode destroy the Imperial communications dish onHad Abbadon, Admiral Piett detects the sudden loss of communications aboard theExecutor and notifies Vader. Vader orders General Veers to take reinforcements to theGreen Moon—an early name for Endor—and for theExecutor and the Imperial Fleet to protect the Empire's twin Death Stars while he transports Skywalker to the Emperor.^[7]

Earlier in the script in the revised rough draft, as part of his rivalry with Vader, Jerjerrod activates a private communication chamber aboard theExecutor to secretly meet with the Emperor alone. The Emperor orders Jerjerrod to capture Skywalker without alerting Vader.^[7]

An earlyReturn of the Jedi storyboard, included inReturn of the Jedi: The National Public Radio Dramatization,^[202] depicts a scene in which theExecutor delivers the Emperor to the incomplete Death Star above Endor. Although omitted from the final version of the film,^[195] the scene still appears in theReturn of the Jedi novelization, with the Emperor's shuttle departing from theExecutor before arriving aboard the battlestation. Therefore, this article still includes this scene in the canonical history proper.^[145]

Length discrepancies

The exact canonical,in-universe length of theExecutor has been a hotly debated topic for years amongStar Wars fans. Dozens of officially licensedStar Wars reference books have provided varying lengths for theExecutor for over twenty years.^[195] According to chief model maker Lorne Peterson, theExecutor was meant to be sixteen miles long, with theImperial-class having been intended to be 2.5 miles in length, though subsequent material would change this number.^[193]

8 kilometers, 1984–1998

InDecember1984, four-and-a-half years after the release ofThe Empire Strikes Back,Raymond L. Velasco'sA Guide to the Star Wars Universe was the firstStar Wars source to provide a hard figure for theExecutor, which clearly dominated all other starships seen in the trilogy, naming the Super Star Destroyer to be "approximately five times larger than any Star Destroyer in the Imperial fleet." The book also provides a precise length of 1.6 kilometers for theImperial-class Star Destroyer, meaning theExecutor was approximately eight kilometers long.^[203]

West End Games repeated and specified the eight-kilometer length explicitly with the release of theImperial Sourcebook inOctober1989 as part ofStar Wars: The Roleplaying Game. TheImperial Sourcebook also identified theExecutor as "the largest warship ever constructed" and provided an "Imperial Capital Ship Recognition Guide," which showed a detailed, to-scale comparison of numerous Imperial warships in relation to a Super Star Destroyer.^[204]

As a result of West End Games' contribution, the eight-kilometerExecutor length would be perpetuated through subsequently released sources for the next fifteen years, including the second editions ofA Guide to the Star Wars Universe,^[58] theImperial Sourcebook,^[11] and theStar Wars Technical Journal from1994, the latter of which specified a somewhat differing length of "more than four times the length of a standard Star Destroyer";^[205] the West End Games second edition ofGalaxy Guide 5: Return of the Jedi in1995;^[47]Kevin J. Anderson's anthology bookTales of the Bounty Hunters in1996;^[85] the West End GamesStar Wars Adventure Journal 12^[18] andStar Wars Galaxy Magazine 11 magazine in 1997;^[52] theStar Wars Encyclopedia in1998;^[39] the third edition ofA Guide to the Star Wars Universe in2000;^[206] and as late as2004, with the release ofThe Empire Strikes Back junior novelization.^[117]