Intent: To create an awesome-looking space station capable of realistically creating warships and other items at swift speeds, in the guise of the ancient Star Forge.
Image Source: Here.
Canon Link: N/A
Restricted Missions: N/A
Primary Source:
The Star Forge - Precursor Rakatan Artifact
The Foundry - See Above
Imperial Leviathan - To show that the old Galactic Empire did it as well
World Devastator - See Above
The Freedom - Unknowingly got me thinking about making this sub, putting this here so I don't get accused of plagiarism
Manufacturer: The Galactic Empire
Model: N/A
Affiliation: The Galactic Empire & its Allies
Production: Semi-Unique
Material:
Quadanium-lined Durasteel Hull
Titanium-reinforced Alusteel Frame
Transparisteel Viewports
Turadium Blast Doors/Shutters
Classification: Deep Space Manufacturing Station
Length: 7,500 meters
Width: 7,500 meters
Height: 10,000 meters
Armament: None
Defenses: Extreme
Advanced Space Station Deflector Shield
Redundant Space Station Deflector Shield
Redundant Space Station Deflector Shield
Reinforced Hull
Hangar: None
Various Non-Combat Starships
Frieghters
Shuttles
Tugs
Fleet Tenders
Maneuverability Rating: Very Low
Speed Rating: Very Low
Hyperdrive Class:
Class 12.0
Class 20.0 - Back-Up
Command Spire - Sitting at the top of the massive space station is a large tower that houses the command decks and most importantly the bridge of the entire foundry. An entire shield generator was constructed underneath the foundation of the spire, dedicated to protecting the 'brain' of the operation from enemy attack should there be one.
Docking Bays - Three hangar bays adorn the sides of the space station, all of them capable of supporting a regular Imperial star destroyer (max. 1,600 meters) moving into it for repairs. Blast doors are featured on the sides of each hangar, where newly-constructed vessels can leave the shipyards through the hangar bays. These bays are modular and can be changed to fit anything from a freighter to the aforementioned star destroyer.
Foundries - Down in the 'fins' of the space station; there are enormous foundries that are used to take raw materials such as ore and melt them down to be cast into durasteel and the like for construction. Also in these foundries is where the vast majority of armor, weapon, vehicle, and general technology manufacturing takes place, the finished products being sent up to the docking bays to be loaded onto freighters.
Shipyards - While also located in the 'fins', much of the starship construction that this station can commence is carried out in the mid-section of the leviathan. Workers and droids alike create ships from the ground up, where everything up to the primaire warship of the Third Galactic Empire is within the realm of possibility. These finished vessels are then funneled through monumental blast doors into the modular bays of the station, where they are crewed by the Empire's finest and launched into service.
Solar Harvesting Array - Featured at the bottom of the 'fins' as well as the 'panels' on the absolute sides of the station are tremendous machines capable of harvesting solar energies, and should the station be close enough to a star; funnel the fiery nuclear flares into the station itself through the bottom. This serves as the primary means of power generation for the space station, feeding the infinite assembly line and further fueling the Imperial War Machine.
Reactor Module - Should the space station find itself in deep space without a strong enough source of solar energy, a powerful reactor has been installed in the ventral portion of the station where the energy from a star would be normally harvested. Using standard hypermatter-annihilation, it can fill the countless power cells effortlessly, but less efficiently than the solar harvesting method.
Structural Foundation - When the prototype station was in the early stages of construction, Imperial engineers decided to adopt a honeycomb foundation in order to maximum strength while minimizing weight, materials, and required space. In essence it gives the hull strong reinforcing while allowing for more space for construction areas and material storage.
Heavily Shielded - The Imperium-class Orbital Factory, while bearing no weaponry, features three impressive layers of advanced shielding; much like the that of the Imperial flagship, the super star destroyer Pellaeon. This grants it significant protection against bombardment by an enemy fleet, buying it enough time for a proper fleet to arrive or to retreat into hyperspace.
Mobile - Equipped with a hyperdrive which is quite unusual for a station of this size, the forge station can relocate itself to virtually any part of the galaxy, even daring to hover over stars as to collect nigh-infinite energy from these stellar bodies. This bodes them well should an enemy discover the station's whereabouts and require them to move back into hiding.
Machine of War - The Imperium-class Orbital Factory, as you guessed it, is a massive space station designed to manufacture all of the objects that make up the Imperial war machine. Constructing a star destroyer at other shipyard stations could take weeks, but through the advanced engineering and automation techniques; the Empire has cut this down to mere days. This goes for other items such as walkers, portable garrisons, and other starship classes.
Semi-Automated - Instead of requiring a crew of possibly hundreds of thousands, the Imperium-class Orbital Factory makes use of thousands of droid workers including many robotic arms that work the assembly lines. On the other hand, the factory maintains a good portion of organic workers including an armed contingent of stormtroopers to protect the station from infiltration.
Unarmed - The station is, after all, not built for military operations even though it constructs the items for the operations; It has absolutely no armament on the exterior that can be set against the enemy, requiring either a fleet to come protect it or to set its creations against its adversary. Although, the station itself has many internal turrets as well as an impressive garrison.
Power Hungry - The sheer power that this construct requires is nigh-immeasurable, it uses all of it to fuel the foundries and not to mention the countless droid workforce that the station employs. Its massive reactor is still less than enough energy required to operate, necessitating the harvesting of
stars to keep the lines rolling and the warships pumping out.
Over-sized Target - The station at its maximum is ten thousand meters, or ten kilometers, and it doesn't help that the other dimensions measure at seven and a half kilometers as well. All in all, the station is a massive target to those who wish to bombard it; especially should the entire network of shielding fall and give leeway for an enemy force to completely and utterly destroy this amazing piece of Imperial technology.
Costly - To craft a station of this size is impressive, to create several is monumental, especially for the Galactic Empire. The sheer cost and time involved in the entire project would go to waste should a single station be destroyed; not to mention the countless tonnes of resources lost that were diverted to fuel the station's need to create.
It was thought that the Empire had finished creating gargantuan stations when the second Death Star was eradicated over Endor at the twilight of the civil war between them and the despicable rebel forces. It was also thought that this era's incarnation of said Empire had reached their limit with the completion of one of the first super star destroyers produced since the dreaded Gulag Plague. Neither of these accounted for the fact that the Empire needed to expand its military as fast as possible as they had scientists on Kamino cloning soldiers by the millions already, but their shipyards just could not keep up with the demand for an entire navy's worth of warships in just around a year's time after the disastrous Omega War.
The Empire had the materials and they had the designs, but they required something to bolster their production capabilities. Travis Caalgen, Director of the Advanced Weapons Research military division was asked to do the impossible by the government, to create something that could in turn create a ship in perhaps just a handful of days at minimum. He had created the
Conqueror-class Star Destroyer, proficient in obliterating entire starships in a single blast; the
Admonitor-class Star Dreadnought, the flagship of the Imperial Navy and the most powerful command ship in the Outer Rim.
The project was doomed until records, dating back to over four thousand years ago, spoke of a machine that could do the exact thing they were asking for: the Star Forge. Unfortunately, the Empire had neither the time nor the methods to be able to seek out information on this already-destroyed Rakatan artifact, but they did believe they were able to create a smaller-version from scratch using the information they had gathered so far. And thus the
Imperium-class Orbital Factory was created, through grueling hard work that surpassed that of the creation of the INV
Pellaeon.
As close as a spitting image as possible to the Rakatan Star Forge, the
Imperium-class was a massive station that was capable of shortening the construction times of nearly everything a successful war machine could need; vehicles, ships, droids, weapons, In no way capable of creating these things out of thin air, or stellar energy, the station requires the exact same amount of materials that is used to make these items
