“Rogue One”, the first “Star Wars” anthology film, zeroes in on the crew that stole the plans to the Death Star, with a focus on the Erso family. While the story of Jyn and her father Galen will guide the narrative, one silent, constant character hovers over all: the Death Star.
Inspired by legends of a Sith superweapon (similar to the one mentioned on the planet of Malachor in the “Star Wars Rebels” special, “Twilight of the Apprentice”), the Death Star was the most fearsome weapon in the galaxy, capable of destroying entire planets in the blink of an eye.
Count Dooku stood at the head of the initial operation, conducting it right under the Jedi’s noses (or above, as it were: right over Geonosis following “Attack of the Clones”) as the Clone Wars raged on between the Separatists and the Republic.
The battle station served many purposes, but at its core, there was only one: destruction. According to novels like E.K. Johnston’s “Ahsoka” and the official Star Wars databank, it was powered by kyber crystals, which were strong in the Force and — when destroyed — erupted in huge explosions. More on that part in a bit.
As fans might learn from the pages of Claudia Grey’s novel, “Lost Stars”, it took more than the simple push of a button to activate that gigantic laser: Hundreds of crew members and active droids kept the space station efficient. This was all part of its grand design, and the process from pushing the button to firing the laser cannon was much more complicated than one might think.
Kyber crystals, like the one seen in the latest international trailer for “Rogue One,” start out clear. But a crystal changed color when a Jedi bonded with it, or a Sith corrupted it (this gets even more complicated in “Ahsoka”). The power the crystals emit created the blade of a lightsaber.
Needless to say, when you mine the entire galaxy for every single kyber crystal in existence (which the Empire did, using the biggest ones for their purposes), you can power a pretty big weapon. Or, in this case, a giant world-destroying laser.
The main characters of “Lost Stars” served on the Death Star among 300,000 other military personnel, along with 2 million other occupants of “varying combat eligibility.” The first Death Star had 357 different internal levels and its entire center hemisphere was composed of countless docking stations and hangars. It also had bars and other commissaries, because it was meant to function as a livable base for the Empire’s best.
Despite all of those functions and cogs turning at once, the bulk of the station’s manpower went toward building and maintaining the laser.
The superlaser was powered by a hypermatter reactor, charged by gigantic kyber crystals. When fired, the energy would erupt upwards through the large satellite in the northern hemisphere of the station. After this, though, the large weapon needed 24 hours to recharge. It was only fired once.
Outside of the super laser, the battle station was crawling with other weapons, powered by 15,000 turbolaser batteries. On defense were 768 tractor beam emplacements, which were built to take on large-scale fire. This fatal flaw provided an opening exploited by a few scrappy Rebels.
“Rogue One” will lend to the tense opening sequence of “A New Hope” by telling the story of the Rebels who put the Death Star’s plans in the hands of Princess Leia. But it will also tell the story of the first Death Star, the most stubborn and intricate piece of craftsmanship the galaxy would ever see. (At least until the creation of Starkiller Base.)