Incom Z-95 Headhunter on patrol at Calamari
(photo: Quackodile, 1/95)
Incom Z-95 Headhunter on patrol at Calamari
(photo: Quackodile, 1/95)
The following memorandum was posted on the Imperial HoloNet regarding the Mon Calamari shipbuilding abilities and their danger to the Empire. It was taken from The Star Wars Source Book (West End Games, Bill Slavicsek & Curtis Smith, 1987, pp. 34 to 36).
The Mon Calamari are quickly gaining a reputation throughout the Galaxy for their skill
at starship design. As befits their cultural heritage, each ship is designed for efficiency
, structural strength, and aesthetic appeal. Though their planet is in open rebellion
against the Empire, many Imperial Nobles have secretly purchased Calamari vessels as
pleasure yachts. Such action is, of course, treason, but high-born citizens can get away
with much that would get normal people in very deep trouble indeed.
One of the most striking features of the Mon Calamari ship design is that no two Calamari vessels are precisely alike. Each vessel in a particular class is subtly different from its sister ships, not pressed from a standard mold but handcrafted as an original work of art. While aesthetically pleasing, this eccentricity causes large headaches for non-Calamari maintenance personnel.
While the Mon Calamari excel in creating small and mid-sized vessels, they have from time to time built very large vessels. Recently, they have begun producing warships for the Rebellion, but, as these will take several years to complete, the Calamari have concentrated upon converting already-built vessels into combat warships.
One of their first ventures into ship conversion was the MC80 Star Cruiser, a long, almost cylindrical ship built to carry Calamarians to the stars in search of peaceful coexistence with other beings. The vessels have a long and honorable history and are held in reverence by all Calamarians - now, because of the desperate needs of the Rebellion, many have been retrofitted for war.
The MC80 appears almost organic, as if it were grown, not built: it is covered with pods, bulges, and bumps arranged in a seamingly haphazard pattern. These pods contain sensor arrays, recessed weapons batteries, shield generators and observation decks.
Originally, the ship was literally covered with transparent viewports that allowed those within to look upon passing stars. While this certainly made the Star Cruiser a pleasant ship in which to ride, it had a rather detrimental effect upon the vessel's survivability in combat. Thus many of the ports have been covered over with pieces of hull, heavy blast doors, or anything else available to provide extra protection. (Needless to say, this doesn't improve the MC80's appearance any. This rather pains the artistic Calamari, but they recognize that, in wartime, sacrifices must be made).
An integral part of the Calamari ship design theory is system redundancy. For example, the MC80 has three times as many shield generators as an Imperial ship of comparable size. Each generator is weaker than an Imperial shield unit, but together, they provide equivalent protection. Although this makes the MC80 difficult to service and maintain, it also makes it much more reliable in combat. If one system goes down, the MC80 simply shuts it off and rechannels power through the remaining links in the chain. A rechanneled shield is less powerful than a complete chain, but at least the shield remains intact. An Imperial Star Destroyer that loses a shield, loses a shield. It cannot divert power to backup systems, but must refocus its remaining shields to compensate.
the abundance of multiple systems requres constant maintenance to keep the MC80 at peak efficiency. Mon Cal spacers work continually to keep their ships in top-notch shape. Their dedication, combined with their love of the stars, makes them a spacefaring race rivalled only by the Corellians.
Unfortunately for the Empire, the bulk of the Mon Calamari fleet - including its MC80 Star Cruisers - has joined the Rebellion. Crewed by some of the most worthy spacefarers in the galaxy, Mon Calamari ships are a real threat to the Imperial Navy. Under its revolutionary government, the Mon Calamari homeworld itself is devoting great efforts to the production of additional warships, and as Mon Calamari engineers learn more of Imperial technology and adapt it to their own purposes, the quality and striking power of these ships improve. The Imperial Navy has not seen fit to divert a fleet from other duties to crush these traitors; until they do, the MC80 Star Cruiser in Alliance service will continue to be instrumental in Imperial defeats.
Wing Commander's Note:
In order to crush the Mon Calamari Shipyards on Calamari once and for all, Grand Admiral Thrawn has petitioned Emperor Palpatine to utilize the unique capabilities of the Emperor's Hammer Strike Wing in the destruction of these facilities. In response to this request, Emperor Palpatine issued the following Imperial Memorandum to Grand Admiral Thrawn which is now posted for all Members of the Emperor's Hammer and crew of the ISD Avenger:
IMPERIAL MEMORANDUM
TO: Grand Admiral Thrawn
FROM: Emperor Palpatine
RE: Mon Calamari Shipyards
Your recent Holo-request to use the Emperor's Hammer Strike Wing to destroy the nuisance of the MC80 Shipyards all appeals to me. Therefore, I hereby approve your request...You are commanded to propose a Combat Plan to achieve this end...However, if the Mon Calamari Leader, Ackbar, is found at the Shipyards, he is not to be harmed and is to be immediately brought directly to to Coruscant City.
Serve me well...
Emperor Palpatine
It should be noted that no specific schedule of operations, other than those posted in the
Office of the Wing Commander area of this Newsletter, has been posted for this upcoming
Battle. Members of the Emperor's Hammer will be updated once the Wing Commander has more
briefings with Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The following statistics for the MC80 Star Cruiser were posted in the Stele Chronicles that were released with TIE Fighter (LucasArts, 1994).
NAME/MODEL#: MC80a
DESIGNER/MANUFACTURER: Mon Calamari
COMBAT DESIGNATION: Capital Starship
LENGTH: 1,200 meters
CREW: 5,402 (668 Officers, 4734 enlisted)
WEAPONS: 48 Taim&Bak XV9 Turbolasers
20 ArMek SW-7 Ion Batteries
6 Phylon-Q7 Tractor Beam Projectors
STARFIGHTER SQUADRONS: 2 X-wing, 3 Y-wing, 1 A-wing
Newsletter No. 7 will post specific Imperial Planetary DataNet information on the Mon Calamari and their mysterious brother race, the Quarren.