Governor's Gambit - Star Wars SI into Imperial Governor

[Civil Reader]

Yo. For those wondering about the link to the Harrower-Class redesign, its because of a reader on Spacebattles who loves the ship so much he wrote a three part thesis on it

Click to shrink...

Here is a link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/thr...rial-governor.1212506/page-374#post-113242712

 

[Constructor3000]

In way, i pity mommy Mola, even if be wrong methods, she tried to give her children what she thought was best as street rat, not understanding that her children aren't street rats too thanks to her, but because of it, they didn't develop the same outlook as she, plus her horrible communication was just oil into fire.

And gosh, the moment mc runs, there will be sector wide manhunt just tu put him back into that chair..

Nice ship, though I have question, do star fighters have missiles?

Click to shrink...

I agree. I am a sucker for a good Redemption arc.
She doesn't seem like an evil mother, just a bad one. She clearly wants what she considers best for the family, but she can't seem to communicate it, or take other peoples desires into consideration.
Still, I would love to see her more, not climbing the imperial ranks, but reconnecting with her family and trying to mend their relationship, whilst growing as a person.

 

[Wratus]

Nice to see the Harrower II just hope they forgo the big ass bridge and instead go for the other one with the smaller and flatter bridge, cuz why would anyone in their right mind design such a big target?

 

[Yacov]

The Verndari on Vylos would likely start producing profit given some time. Of course, considering the entire species numbered around 300 million or so planet wide, it would be quite alot.

Although, to be honest, the entire situation on Vylos was quite unbalanced. The places the Empire initially landed on got the best deals. But on other continents, with much larger nations? Suffice it to say it took some Imperial warships time to demonstrate the military difference by turning a few mountains into rubble. And as such, the population was far more fearful, making integration difficult.

Click to shrink...

There is also the fact that a vast majority of their society is probably still in subsistence agriculture. Transitioning from that to a society where they only require a fraction of the population to meet their dietary needs is going to be a journey.

Still, progress remained slow but steady. My insistence on doing things peacefully instead of just killing everyone in sight and extracting the resources was not beneficial in the short term, but in the long term meant everyone got to get out both alive and wealthier.

Click to shrink...

Average Core Worlder Imperial mentality: "Just shoot the peasants, we can always get more."

Las' Outer Rim reality mentality: "Don't shoot the peasants, we need those for long term growth!"

In Ife's opinion, there were no real threats in the sector that would require the firepower or intimidation factor of walkers like the AT-AT and AT-ST, and that by instead using smaller armored vehicles like repulsorlift tanks and a few of the cheaper AT-DP's for walker versatility, one could increase the amount of fighters and gunships on board and increase the ships effective range of power projection.

Click to shrink...

Yeah at this point the ground war is currently being won. Space was always where the Rebellion was the strongest.

The AT-AT is frankly overkill in most cases. The Mid Rim Offensive and the Battle of Hoth were the two real cases I can think of where deploying an AT-AT was warranted. Outside of that the Empire is mostly dealing with small, isolated areas where the AT-AT is just one giant target not worth the risk of losing it to the Rebels getting a lucky shot.

 

[Abba is the best]

Yo. For those wondering about the link to the Harrower-Class redesign, its because of a reader on Spacebattles who loves the ship so much he wrote a three part thesis on it, and so I decided to include it in the story. I don't know what to call it though, nor what its armaments or complement will truly look like, though I think a more starfighter heavy complement makes sense because, realistically, you don't need heavy walkers and ground forces to fight pirates in the Outer Rim.

Also, the 92 starfighter thing was taken from the Harrower-Class statistics

Click to shrink...

I think there was multiple types of harrower unofficially due to the discrepencies in their presentation across multiple media, so you could likely increase that fighter count since the 92 was for the standard harrower who was a battleship first and a carrier second, also the harrower's compliment of supremacy starfighters took far more horizontal space compared to the current galactic empire's starfighters in terms of width and length (not height though), so you could likely increase the size by half again if you are going with a primary carrier doctrine based design.

Also just for clarification, when you said that the harrower is a smaller ship that is easier to produce, did you mean in total volume and tonnage? Or simply in how much easier and faster it is to produce due to standardised design?

Also i got a question about his production of warships, has he managed to get a licence to produce carrack class light cruisers, because those ships are low key the best pound for pound warships in starwars. And the only thing they really need to be improved in its standard variant is more anti starfighter weaponry and a hanger to get bolted on somewhere to hold afew ships, and that would make them the perfect scouting in force warship with a relatively small crew compliment for a ship the same size as an arquitens light cruiser.

Edit: i decided to google it instead of relying purely on my memories, so the standard harrower holds 95 fighters and 32 bombers.

Also my memory on light cruisers was interesting because i looked them up and their discrepencies between the EU and disneyverse are quite big. As in my memories of hearing the carrick could function with less than 1/10 of its standard compliment was understating it since it can aparently run with only 2 people crew due to extensive automation in the disney canon... otherwise in the EU its got a decent minimum crew of 500, while the arquitens is at 100, so yea ignore me

 

[Watching]

new standard TIE variant with inbuilt shields and missiles

Click to shrink...

Where did the put the missiles?

I can see the hologram of the proposed ship shining above

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I hate it. It looks like you took a Harrower and bolted a ISD conning tower thing onto it. They could have at least mounted guns onto the ISD part of it.

Wonder if the ship will get a reaction out of our sith gamer girl for being a harrower but wrong?

At the same time, the projected statistics put its total potential starfighter count at 92

Click to shrink...

Why does it have a smaller strikecraft carry capacity? doesn't the actual Harrower carry around 160 small craft (35 of which would be shuttles).

I can't wait for the document to leak and Mola to accidentally declare for the rebellion

Click to shrink...

Hope it doesn't leak, like the old one, the new republic didn't really care much for the outer rim so there's not really much of a benefit in his sector joining.

 

[systemfailure]

Where did the put the missiles?

Click to shrink...

My guess are new hard point on the inside of the wings.

 

[Lokabrenna]

Meh, I'm unimpressed with the Harrower, both the original and this redesign. And I'm not sure what the point is, when Las could have just invested in more Vindicators. They're simple, reliable, have a very reasonable crew requirement, they're incredibly modular (depending on configuration, they could carry anywhere from 24 - 72 starfighters, and the armament could be adjusted as needed), they would raise zero eyebrows among other Imperials, and they're too tough and powerful for all but the biggest and best equipped pirate fleets to handle (and that's if it's alone against them, with no other ships backing it up). They're also smaller, lighter, and a well-established design, making them much easier and cheaper to produce. On top of that, some of them can be built as Interdictors, which are wildly useful for just about any effort to control territory across a sector. For Las' purposes, it's basically perfect, and they were literally designed from the keel up for precisely the kind of operational environment and situation Las is dealing with.

Instead, he's pouring resources into this Frankensteined monstrosity based on an already critically flawed design from ancient times, for no particular reason. In the year or so before he has a working prototype, he could instead be churning out whole squadrons of Vindicators. This is one of those times when this story seems to make decisions purely to advertise some neat ship or vehicle render you guys found. Yeah, those can be cool to look at, but sometimes trying to shoehorn it into the story ends up being nothing but a showcase of style over substance, just kind of dumb and pointless.

 

[Hadrian.Caeser]

It might be good for their orphanages, if relatively wealthy mandalorians come to his sector in increasingly higher numbers

 

[EzordCyborg45]

I don't know what to call it though, nor what its armaments or complement will truly look like, though I think a more starfighter heavy complement makes sense because, realistically, you don't need heavy walkers and ground forces to fight pirates in the Outer Rim.

Click to shrink...

Potential Name: Hydra-Class Heavy Carrier
Armaments: A decent mix of light and medium turbo lasers for star fighter and smaller capital ship coverage. Sprinkle in one or two heavy turbo lasers for heavier threats (the complement of star fighters might make the use of heavy turbo lasers obsolete)
Star Fighters: Maybe a three way split for interceptors, bombers and heavier craft (depending on mission profile)

 

[Inbredmartian]

I don't know what to call it though, nor what its armaments or complement will truly look like

Click to shrink...

Honestly just calling it the Harrower would work. Especially of our pet time displaced sith see it and asked why we are building a harrower and that led to questions being asked and eventually a designer admiring to being a military historian with a hard on for the class.

 

[Andrew1993]

Meh, I'm unimpressed with the Harrower, both the original and this redesign. And I'm not sure what the point is, when Las could have just invested in more Vindicators. They're simple, reliable, have a very reasonable crew requirement, they're incredibly modular (depending on configuration, they could carry anywhere from 24 - 72 starfighters, and the armament could be adjusted as needed), they would raise zero eyebrows among other Imperials, and they're too tough and powerful for all but the biggest and best equipped pirate fleets to handle (and that's if it's alone against them, with no other ships backing it up). They're also smaller, lighter, and a well-established design, making them much easier and cheaper to produce. On top of that, some of them can be built as Interdictors, which are wildly useful for just about any effort to control territory across a sector. For Las' purposes, it's basically perfect, and they were literally designed from the keel up for precisely the kind of operational environment and situation Las is dealing with.

Instead, he's pouring resources into this Frankensteined monstrosity based on an already critically flawed design from ancient times, for no particular reason. In the year or so before he has a working prototype, he could instead be churning out whole squadrons of Vindicators. This is one of those times when this story seems to make decisions purely to advertise some neat ship or vehicle render you guys found. Yeah, those can be cool to look at, but sometimes trying to shoehorn it into the story ends up being nothing but a showcase of style over substance, just kind of dumb and pointless.

Click to shrink...

Same, frankly it would have been probally easier to just use the victory class series as the base sector Star destroyer. I honestly see the harrower design more as a specialty thing, or a small production batch. Especially the exposed frontal hanger between the spurs.

 

[Havalt300]

I would like to have an updated ATTE version.

 

[Andrew1993]

Spoiler: Tank design

 

[sperance]

She doesn't seem like an evil mother, just a bad one. She clearly wants what she considers best for the family, but she can't seem to communicate it, or take other peoples desires into consideration.

Click to shrink...

Dude, have you forgotten she was going to kill Las if he disappointed her? Like, straight up get him killed in some god-forsaken battlefront because of the crime of not being as useful to her as she wanted him to?

Where the hell is all this Jir apologism coming from?

 

[Kilvanya]

Wonder how many on that design team still have their ancestors old armor from a few thousand years ago

 

[Nisiris]

Dude, have you forgotten she was going to kill Las if he disappointed her? Like, straight up get him killed in some god-forsaken battlefront because of the crime of not being as useful to her as she wanted him to?

Where the hell is all this Jir apologism coming from?

Click to shrink...

Was that anywhere in fic? Truthfully I don't remember, wasn't that just Las fantasy or idea? I mean, wouldn't be firs parent throwing it's child to war in hopes it will shape it or just make grow it, for what I remember Las before mc became him wasn't exactly good guy too.

 

[cmrdpm]

Hope it doesn't leak, like the old one, the new republic didn't really care much for the outer rim so there's not really much of a benefit in his sector joining.

Click to shrink...

Real talk, historically the nature of the new republic has fluctuated wildly depending on the needs of whichever writer is at the helm. Depending on how much we feel like Legends is canon, the Hutts might be a threat, or maybe your various Thrawns and warlord Zsinjs are out there rolling up imperial remnants. Lots of reasons to have friends with fleets. And that's before the less immediately strategic gains like access to a well-regulated pharmaceutical industry, streamlined immigration processes, really anything that benefits from a formalized access point to an economy of scale.

 

[sperance]

Was that anywhere in fic? Truthfully I don't remember, wasn't that just Las fantasy or idea? I mean, wouldn't be firs parent throwing it's child to war in hopes it will shape it or just make grow it, for what I remember Las before mc became him wasn't exactly good guy too.

Click to shrink...

Literally all of Las' sisters said him being made governor was just an excuse to use his failure to get him killed.

Here's Alvi:

While governor was a good position, to be the governor of an outer-rim system was basically asking to either stagnate or get killed by pirates.

Click to shrink...

But to threaten him with infantry service? She shuddered. To fight in the Imperial Infantry front lines was to be part of an unstoppable force that would toss as many bodies into a pit just to walk over the corpses instead of going around.

Click to shrink...

Here's Zyx:

While governor was a good position, to be the governor of an outer-rim system was basically asking to either stagnate or get killed by pirates.

Click to shrink...

But to threaten him with infantry service? She shuddered. To fight in the Imperial Infantry front lines was to be part of an unstoppable force that would toss as many bodies into a pit just to walk over the corpses instead of going around.

Click to shrink...

The fear of death in the Infantry had led him to actually work hard in his new duties because he had no choice.

Click to shrink...

Here's Shal:

Finally, it led to this. Exile, a death sentence in all but name. If he wasn't killed by pirates or rebels, then when he inevitably failed he would be sent to the frontlines. A way for their mother to rid the family of a stain on its banner.

Click to shrink...

So, no, Jir isn't some poor misunderstood woobie who only wants what's best for her family. She's a fucking monster and her having a sad past doesn't change that. She'd kill any one of her kids without a second thought the moment they stopped being useful to her.

 

[Nisiris]

Literally all of Las' sisters said him being made governor was just an excuse to use his failure to get him killed.

Here's Alvi:





Here's Zyx:







Here's Shal:




So, no, Jir isn't some poor misunderstood woobie who only wants what's best for her family. She's a fucking monster and her having a sad past doesn't change that. She'd kill any one of her kids without a second thought the moment they stopped being useful to her.

Click to shrink...

Again, that is just point of view from his siblings that have somehow same bad relationship with Jir, not saying it isn't possible but really there are easier ways than making him Governor of backwater planet.

I will not fight you on it, just saying that my own view of it is more towards bad mother not evil one.

 

[Heidao]

Man, that sector is gonna be so valuable by the end of the civil war

•Stable economy
•Stable government
•Vital shipyards
•Standard TIEs are shielded and more heavily armed
•Newer vessels modernized with lower crew dependency
•Surrounding space and shipping lanes secured by an ever growing security and merc presence
•Mandalorians flock there, bringing their combat and tech knowledge
•Muuns clans are seeing the security there good enough to invest in the area
•People are too content to allow Rebel forces to set up shop

Boi accidentally created a little Ultramar if he can grab more uncharted worlds under his belt

 

[Notsae66]

Also, the 92 starfighter thing was taken from the Harrower-Class statistics.

Click to shrink...

Blech, either round down to 90 or up to 100, logistics runs better on solid numbers! You can easily file a form to order ten batches of ten tie fighters, but nine batches of ten plus two extra? No good, round those squares, level out that number!

 

[Lokabrenna]

Same, frankly it would have been probally easier to just use the victory class series as the base sector Star destroyer. I honestly see the harrower design more as a specialty thing, or a small production batch. Especially the exposed frontal hanger between the spurs.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, get ahold of a dozen or so Victory-IIs to serve as the backbone of the Sector Fleet in the event of an outright invasion (Victory-Is can be useful too, but they're ammunition hogs and are too slow for most anti-piracy duty). They would get you something like 1/3rd the capability of an Imperial-I for 1/3rd the price and ~1/7th or so of the crew (going with the Legends figures, anyway; Canon lore for the Victory-I and -II is much wonkier, with much heavier armament, but a lot of mechanical and design issues that the Legends version didn't have). Tack on a single Imperial-II or Tector to serve as deterrent and fleet flagship for the really serious jobs, and you've got a solid heavy line of battle. Then all the day-to-day drudge work of the Sector could be pawned off onto the lighter multi-role cruisers like the Vindicator, Gladiator, Strike Cruiser, and so on.

This whole thing with recreating the Harrower is a boondoggle being done purely for SWTOR nostalgia. In-universe it makes no sense. They already have ships that do everything the Harrower could do, but better and cheaper. All while being more accessible, less conspicuous, and less likely to have serious mechanical and technical issues that will take years to iron out completely.

EDIT: Hell, as much as I despise the Venator design, even investing in a few Venators makes more sense than building Harrowers from scratch. They're ridiculously fast, and if you only expect to use them for patrol and anti-piracy duty, they're reasonably capable. Put them up against literally any other Star Destroyer and they'll fall flat on their faces, because they are absolute dogshit as line combatants. But for chasing down pirates, smugglers and slavers? They're not a bad option at all.

 

[Andrew1993]

Yeah, get ahold of a dozen or so Victory-IIs to serve as the backbone of the Sector Fleet in the event of an outright invasion (Victory-Is can be useful too, but they're ammunition hogs and are too slow for most anti-piracy duty). They would get you something like 1/3rd the capability of an Imperial-I for 1/3rd the price and ~1/7th or so of the crew (going with the Legends figures, anyway; Canon lore for the Victory-I and -II is much wonkier, with much heavier armament, but a lot of mechanical and design issues that the Legends version didn't have). Tack on a single Imperial-II or Tector to serve as deterrent and fleet flagship for the really serious jobs, and you've got a solid heavy line of battle. Then all the day-to-day drudge work of the Sector could be pawned off onto the lighter multi-role cruisers like the Vindicator, Gladiator, Strike Cruiser, and so on.

This whole thing with recreating the Harrower is a boondoggle being done purely for SWTOR nostalgia. In-universe it makes no sense. They already have ships that do everything the Harrower could do, but better and cheaper. All while being more accessible, less conspicuous, and less likely to have serious mechanical and technical issues that will take years to iron out completely.

EDIT: Hell, as much as I despise the Venator design, even investing in a few Venators makes more sense than building Harrowers from scratch. They're ridiculously fast, and if you only expect to use them for patrol and anti-piracy duty, they're reasonably capable. Put them up against literally any other Star Destroyer and they'll fall flat on their faces, because they are absolute dogshit as line combatants. But for chasing down pirates, smugglers and slavers? They're not a bad option at all.

Click to shrink...

Victory I's make exceptional garrison/ system defense ships since thier slow speed isnt an issue there, having a few venators as dedicated heavy carriers wouldnt be bad. The venators problem was it was really more of a heavy carrier with a heavy punch in its guns and shields (shields are victory class equivalent in most sources) but got forced into frontline roles due to a lack of ships like the victories to serve as the frontline. A pair of victories with a venator is a really nasty force, plus the 50-57 mill each for the 2 vics and the ven is 59 mill so slightly more expensive than an impstar 1 but a much tougher battlegroup with more capability overall.
Edit- it may also be possible to get older venators and maybe victory 1s from mothballs cheaper as well.

 

[Lokabrenna]

The venators problem was it was really more of a heavy carrier with a heavy punch in its guns and shields (shields are victory class equivalent in most sources) but got forced into frontline roles due to a lack of ships like the victories to serve as the frontline.

Click to shrink...

Th Venator's real issue is that its designers were trying to do too much. They made a passable carrier which badly underperforms in that role for its size, tonnage and cost, because it forced everything into a thin, narrow hull-frame designed for direct combat. And because so much of its internals had to be gutted to make room for the main hangar, it's actual frontline armament is only barely better than a Dreadnought-class, and even then it's only better because it has more robust reactors to draw from; the Dreadnought actually outclasses the Venator in terms of on-paper firepower otherwise. And that doesn't even touch on how the main hangar makes the ship completely spineless, with zero internal cross-bracing and compromised hull armor from needing the hangar doors to slide open on demand. Combined with the big open secondary hangar on the ventral hull, practically the only thing holding the two halves of the ship together is the deck plating of the hangar itself, which is thin and weak enough to be carved apart with lightsabers quite quickly and easily.

Plus, the ship simply does not have the physical space in its hangar to fit the 420 fighters it claims to be capable of carrying, even if you removed all ground vehicles from the hangar. In-universe it was probably some corporate advertising ploy where KDY failed to mention that the only way in hell you would ever fit that many fighters in the thing is if they were disassembled and stored in stacked shipping crates. Given the size of its interiors, I would be shocked if the Venator could even approach 200 fighters carried in such a way that they are accessible to maintenance crews and have room to actually deploy. Plus, most of its hangar space is incompatible with the TIE line, even the new ones Las is using, making them an iffy choice in many ways.

But, they would do quite well against pirates, smugglers and slavers, all groups who typically lack access to the kind of firepower that can stand up to even the weakest of the Star Destroyer line, and whose ships are likely slower than a Venator, both in sublight and hyperspace. And yes, you can pick up used Venators on the cheap, especially since Las is a Moff and can bypass all the restrictions on who the things could be legally sold to. Officially, used Venators go for 50 million credits on the black market. That number comes from the old Wizards of the Coast ttrpg, in which buying something on the black market applies a 5x cost penalty, meaning that someone like Las who can legally buy them would probably only pay about 10 million a piece.

 

[TheManW/oAPlan]

Dude, have you forgotten she was going to kill Las if he disappointed her? Like, straight up get him killed in some god-forsaken battlefront because of the crime of not being as useful to her as she wanted him to?

Where the hell is all this Jir apologism coming from?

Click to shrink...

We do have to keep in mind, that this is told from a point of view that is not...completely reliable regarding familial relations. He thinks his sister hates (or at least thinks lowly of him), when we see in an interlude that is not the case.

His mother did not really have good relationships with any of his siblings, and dollars to donuts their parents were dong some back-door politicking to get their offspring promotions, because you need connections to succeed in the Empire. While it is on Mrs. Mola for not explaining why she did any of this to anyone, it is unlikely in the extreme a parent wants their child killed/exiled. If he was really that big of an embarrassment, he probably would have been kept under some kind of glorified house arrest and married off to someone for political reasons, like the old nobility used to do. Las probably would have been fine with this judging from the early descriptions of the character. Instead though,. he was given a non-trivial task to prove his worth and succeeded beyond all measure though. Misunderstood intentions can kill any relationship, especially when they lead to some erroneous assumptions.

 

[Sire-alien]

He might just be putting a new ship in production so he d oesnt have to pay royalties for the older designs, i recon the popular ships can cost a lot if you want to put it in production.

 

[bloodyparty]

Nice to see the Harrower II just hope they forgo the big ass bridge and instead go for the other one with the smaller and flatter bridge, cuz why would anyone in their right mind design such a big target?

Click to shrink...

Throwback to EP 4 and a whole ISD dying to a random asteroid because of the exposed bridge.

 

[Rustic]

Chapter 92

So I was tagged and came back to this chapter. Was trying to figure out why I was tagged. Then realized I hadn't left any messages behind for free fallen.

So my thought on this chapter. Well to be honest the chapter was a relief and such a nice twist I enjoyed it.
On the other hand. After reading the comments and hearing the mothers back story. I actually felt bad about what happened. It reminded me of the moon goddess from Naruto who was not evil just misunderstood and a bit mudery. Her son's where the true evil. The sage of six paths was the real devil in that world.

In this fiction. I would like to see a repairing of the mcs family. Truly the mother I think is actually a good parent. It was as if Tanya the evil was the mother. Hitting all the goal post of being a successful human being without being a decent human being.

 

[Orangeduke38]

With the new Harrower the size it is they can probably recycle a lot of components from the Acclamator class into it.