Enslaver-class Star Destroyer

The Enslaver class Star Destroyer began its life as a concept idea for a warship of the Galactic Empire. It was hoped that it would one day be the successor to the incredibly versatile Imperator-class Star Destroyer. It was planned to be an improvement of the Imperator Mark II design, with the terrifying addition of a miniature Death Star Superlaser. It was with near child-like glee that Sith spies in the Galactic Empire learned of this proposal, and transmitted the early technical schematics and read-outs back to Sith space.

Sith Command leapt at the opportunity presented by the Enslaver, and two Imperator-II's that were begining production were changed in accordance to the Enslaver's plans, and a further trio began. While the superstructures began to take shape, the plans were handed over to the Sith Military Research Division to study the readouts and begin calculations for what kind of requirements the first superlaser produced would have. Unfortunately for the Sith Empire, the enormity of the project was not realized until construction was too far along to simply scrap the project. Simply stated the Sith Empire lacked the immense technical expertise that such a project would require, not to mention the cost associated with building even a prototype superlaser, let alone miniaturizing it for use aboard a Star Destroyer.

Sith High Command reluctantly admitted the fact that constructing an Enslaver per those specifications would be an impossibility. There were then left with the problem of the five ships nearing completion. The outer hull, armor, and structural supports were all in place, and construction had paused until precise details could be provided regarding the ship's interior. Designers faced a serious problem: they had four Star Destroyers with too much work done to scrap, but that couldn't be built to their original specs. They couldn't turn them into Imperator class Star Destroyers, because the extra 150 meters of length had already been added, and the Enslaver's armament surpassed even an Imperator-II class vessel by a fair margin. They could try and make larger Star Destroyer-class ships from the hulls, but they still had to find some purpose for the split prow design the superlaser would have necessitated.

Luckily though, one of the Enslaver's designers had had an idea to alter the placement of a Star Destroyer's hangar bay for more efficient launching. He proposed that the hangar bay be moved foward into the enormous cavity which would have housed the superlaser apparatus. The wider exit port would allow more craft to be deployed in the same amount of time, not to mention how much the Enslaver's fighter complement would benefit from having the ship's extensive forward weaponry array providing covering fire. Sith Command was still disappointed about the loss of the superlaser weaponry, but reluctantly agreed to try.

What resulted was a very successful design for the Sith Empire. The ships were larger than an Imperator class Star Destroyer, and more heavily armed, with a great emphasis on space combat, over ground warfare. Taking advantage of the extra space generated by removing nearly half the troops and ground vehicles, as well as its pre-fabricated garrison and the natural enlarging of the hull, the Sith decided to install prototype shield generators that had been first developed for use on the Imperator-II class Star Destroyer. They provide nearly twice the shield strength as the regular generators, but were hideously complex and expensive, making them uneconomical for mass-production, and the Empire dumped the project in favor of cost-cutting. The Sith however wanted a heavily armed and armored battleship that would dominate the space lanes, and were not intended to be the mainstay of fleets, like the Imperator. They larger generators and secondary reactor they necessitated fit with the Enslaver beautifully, making the Enslaver the most heavily-shielded craft short of a Super Star Destroyer, in the Sith arsennel. The prow launch bay arrangement also gave it a great advantage in terms of speed over enemy craft, for launching its fighter complement. No new Enslavers have been truly built since, merely recommissioning one of the Enslavers nearly lost at the disastrous Battle of Teta for service again (the Teta's Defiance), and a second assembled out of the scrapped remains of the captured Anari Alliance battleship Judication. Nonetheless, they continue to serve as commandships for prestigious fleets, and have become a symbol of Sith starship engineering.

All known Enslaver-class Star Destroyer were lost after the destruction of Korriban and the death of Norik Kun.