Interdictor Cruiser (Old Republic)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

in-t&r-'dikt-t&r 'krü-z&r : "a class of fast warships of medium tonnage with a long cruising radius and less armor and firepower than a battleship that forbids in an authoritative manner"

The Old Republic Interdictor Cruiser was a 600-meter long hyperspace interdiction heavy cruiser that was used in the Sith Wars. The most famous of them was the Leviathan, the pride of the Republic fleet until its commander, Admiral Saul Karath, defected to the Sith armada.

The Sith Interdictor Leviathan firing at the freighter Ebon Hawk over the planet of Telos.

After the flagship Leviathan defected to the Sith, Darth Malak was able to program the Star Forge, a giant and ancient shipbuilding station orbiting over the star of the Rataka Prime System, to construct identical copies. There were at least two Sith Interdictors defending the Star Forge from Revan and the Old Republic fleet of Admiral Dodonna at the Battle of Rataka Prime (also known as Battle of the Star Forge) during 3,956 B.B.Y. that led to the ending of the Jedi Civil War and the collapse of the Sith Empire.

Two Sith Interdictors over the Star Forge exchanging fire with a far smaller group of Republic warships.

Interdictor Cruisers built by both the Republic and the Sith possessed 20 quad laser cannons for short range defense, 4 turbolasers, 2 ion cannons, a tractor beam projector, and 4 gravity well generators. That was an inordinately large amount of firepower for a vessel of that size and classification and of that era. An Old Republic Interdictor Cruiser could outgun the Interdictor-class heavy cruiser built in the Galactic Civil War by Kuat Drive Yards.

The defensive capabilities of an Interdictor Cruiser are unknown. However, in the Battle of Telos IV, two Sith Interdictors held off an Old Republic defense fleet composed of three Old Republic medium cruisers and eight Old Republic light cruisers. This would probably give it deflector shielding and armor plating equivalent to Old Republic norms, but firepower far superior than typical Old Republic warships.

However, the primary purpose of the Interdictor Cruiser was not to be the backbone and powerhouses of both the Old Republic and Sith fleets, but to be a hyperspace interdictor. Its quartet of gravity well generators created the distortion of a large mass in the spacetime continuum, a ripple where spacetime was curved negatively or downward. Any vessel travelling in hyperspace that met this simulated gravitic mass would be forced out of hyperspace to realspace. Therefore, any vessel or group of vessels travelling in hyperspace by an Interdictor Cruiser, whether Old Republic, Sith, or Imperial, would be cut out of hyperspace, hence its name: the interdictor.

One of the two Sith Interdictors escorting the Ravager of the Battle of Telos IV.

They were deployed amongst hyperspace routes, commonly travelled pathways through hyperspace that were the safest and most reliable and explored. When enemy fleets came by, they would be pulled out of hyperspace parsecs from their destination, and subsequently ambushed.

Two Sith Interdictors were escorting Darth Nihilus's proto-Star Destroyer flagship, the Ravager, over Telos IV in the Battle of Telos IV.