Gorgon The Gorgon was an " Imperial I " - class Star Destroyer and the flagship of Admiral Natasi Daala . Constructed by Kuat Drive Yards over Kuat in 1 BBY along with its sister ships " Hydra " , " Basilisk " , and " Manticore " , these Star Destroyers were part of the Maw fleet , stationed at Maw Installation , a secret asteroid research facility under Admiral Daala ' s command . With her second - in - command , Commander Kratas , Daala drilled the crew of the " Gorgon " until the vessel became , in Daala ' s opinion , one of the best performing Star Destroyers in the Imperial Fleet . Daala and the " Gorgon " were stationed at Maw Installation without any outside contact for a decade before a lone 500 - X shuttle entered the Maw after departing from Kessel and was captured by the " Gorgon " tractor beams . From the shuttle ' s crew , Daala learned that the Empire was near defeat following Emperor Palpatine ' s death in 4 ABY , and took it upon herself to launch a guerrilla war against the New Republic in 11 ABY . Intent on destroying the New Republic , Daala engaged the opposition in battles such as the attack on Mon Calamari , where she was soundly defeated , and soon forced to retreat . Daala fled back to the Maw with the " Gorgon " , her lone remaining Star Destroyer , where she encountered New Republic forces . In an effort to prevent the New Republic from gaining top - secret Imperial data , the " Gorgon " destroyed the Installation by firing upon its unstable reactor core . The New Republic believed that Daala had crashed the ship into the Installation in a suicide effort , although the " Gorgon " had actually fired upon the facility with its turbolasers before jumping to hyperspace under cover of the explosion . The irreparably damaged " Gorgon " jumped to the Deep Core . There , Daala met up with the Imperial warlords , highly - ranked officials who had assumed control of what was left of the Empire . The Star Destroyer was later dismantled by the warlords for use in the construction of newer vessels . Description . The " Gorgon " was 1 , 600 meters long , the standard length for an " Imperial I " - class Star Destroyer . Heavily armed , with sixty turbolaser batteries and sixty ion cannons , Natasi Daala considered her vessel powerful enough to lay an entire planet to waste . The Star Destroyer also possessed ten tractor beam projectors and a sizable hangar . For support craft , the " Gorgon " was capable of carrying up to six full squadrons of TIE / LN starfighter s and two " Gamma " - class assault shuttles , one of which was the shuttle " Edict " , used personally by Daala , who often piloted it herself . The " Gorgon " was unusual in that it possessed a smaller complement of assault and support craft than was standard for a Star Destroyer . Similarly , the " Gorgon " did not carry any TIE / sa bombers . The Star Destroyer also held twenty AT - AT walkers and thirty AT - ST walkers for ground warfare . The " Gorgon " was crewed by less than 45 , 000 men , the standard crew . Daala once described her ship as being run by a skeleton crew . Finally , the " Gorgon " had been designed with a special throne room aboard for explicit use by the Emperor , in accordance with all " Imperial " - class Star Destroyers . History . Construction and deployment . The " Gorgon " was commissioned by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin in 1 BBY , and constructed over Kuat alongside three other " Imperial I " - class Star Destroyers : the " Hydra " , the " Basilisk " , and the " Manticore " . Tarkin intended these vessels to guard his secret military research facility , Maw Installation , where superweapons such as the Death Star , Sun Crusher and the World Devastator s were designed . The " Gorgon " and the rest of the Maw fleet were put under the direct command of Tarkin ' s mistress , Natasi Daala , the first female to become an admiral under the Galactic Empire . Daala personally oversaw the construction of the " Gorgon " , which would serve as her flagship , from its early stages and was bent on turning it into a model of Star Destroyer perfection . Tarkin placed the Maw fleet in a gravitational island at the center of the Maw , a cluster of black holes , with no outside contact and a strict mandate to remain and guard the facility at all costs . Known only to Tarkin and the Emperor , the Maw Installation was unknown to the outside galaxy and the Empire at large . Therefore , Tarkin chose individuals with no ties to the outside galaxy for Daala ' s fleet , so that they would not be missed from isolation in the Maw , and no one would raise questions . He and Daala also took into consideration the skill of the crewers they picked for service on the " Gorgon " , choosing those whom they believed to be highly qualified . However , Daala feared that a lack of active service would cause her crew ' s skills to deteriorate . This , and the fear that her crew would resent being commanded by a woman , led her to drill her crew constantly , and she executed several officers to show her crew that she would stop at nothing to keep them in line . In the depths of the Maw , the " Gorgon " sat at full battle readiness , waiting for a chance to prove itself , its crew constantly put on edge by its relentless commander and her second - in - command , Commander Kratas . But as the crew slowly grew bored over the next decade , despite their commander , they yearned for a chance to break free of the Maw and return to active duty . Having exhausted the entertainment libraries and with no opportunities to transfer to a new station or advance in rank , discontent was rife . Furthermore , with a ten - year - long deployment , the crew began to age , with the reflexes of some of the stormtroopers and fighter pilots beginning to dull as they moved beyond the typical age threshold for those positions . Leaving the Maw . The " Gorgon " departure from the Maw came in 11 ABY , when a lone 500 - X shuttle , " Endor " , entered the Maw . When its crew , New Republic personnel Han Solo , Chewbacca , and Kyp Durron , failed to provide the correct security code , the " Gorgon " used its tractor beam projectors to pull the shuttle into one of its hangar bays . Because of the inability to transmit signals through the HoloNet from the Maw due to the ionized gases around the black holes , the crew of the " Gorgon " , especially Daala , was unprepared for the news the outsiders brought with them . While the " Gorgon " was in isolation , Grand Moff Tarkin had died on the first Death Star , and Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had both perished on a second Death Star . Due to the latter two deaths , the Empire was tearing itself apart in a civil war , while the Rebel Alliance had transitioned into the New Republic and had become a dominant power in the galaxy . Dumbstruck by the news , Daala decided that since Tarkin was dead , she was no longer held down by his orders and could fight her own guerrilla war against the New Republic . Imprisoning the shuttle ' s crew and declaring to the Maw scientists that she was leaving , Daala scrambled her forces and prepared to depart . During the departure preparations , the prisoners escaped with the Installation ' s latest project , the Sun Crusher superweapon , aided by Maw scientist Qwi Xux . The four Star Destroyers scrambled to stop the escapees from leaving the Maw . However , since the Sun Crusher ' s hull was practically invulnerable to harm , the most the fleet could do was physically smother the superweapon with TIE Fighters . Meanwhile , the " Hydra " positioned itself to block the Sun Crusher from escaping through the only direct route out of the Maw . Undaunted , the Sun Crusher sped out of the TIE Fighter swarm and through the " Hydra " bridge . The crippled Star Destroyer was drawn in by the gravitational force of a nearby black hole . The way cleared , the Sun Crusher fled into hyperspace . Vowing that the Sun Crusher had to be recovered at all costs , Daala ordered the " Gorgon " and its two remaining sister ships to follow the superweapon out of the Maw . The " Gorgon " caught up with its quarry as it exited the Maw but ran straight into the mercenary fleet of Moruth Doole , which was looking for friends of Han Solo , who had been searching for him and Chewbacca since their disappearance from Doole ' s prison on Kessel in the " Endor " . The confused fleet fired on the imposing Star Destroyers , but their shots failed to significantly harm the Imperial warships . Daala ' s fleet quickly mopped up the rag - tag force , albeit with losses , and the " Gorgon " sustained minimal damage . With the latest unexpected threat out of her way , Daala ordered the " Gorgon " to conduct a campaign of piracy on New Republic shipping . War against the New Republic . Their first merchant target was a small CR90 corvette . After firing several shots at the ship before it surrendered , the " Gorgon " pulled the corvette into its hangar . From the captured captain , T ' nun Bdu , Daala learned that the vessel was delivering relief supplies to a " peaceful " colony on Dantooine . The " Gorgon " crew , however , found a large cache of high - grade weapons and communications equipment aboard . Daala had thermal detonators placed among the corvette ' s engines , and then ordered the ship to be released . After it sent out a distress call , which Daala was sure would distract the New Republic , the thermal detonators were triggered , destroying the vessel . The " Gorgon " then set course for the colony on Dantooine . Despite Dantooine being a vital communications outpost , the " Gorgon " sensors showed that the small colony possessed few means of defense . Nevertheless , the " Gorgon " launched several AT - AT walkers with which to obliterate the colonists . The operation succeeded and , recalling her men to the " Gorgon " , Daala set her eyes on the vital shipyards of the ocean world of Mon Calamari . Daala laid out what she considered a fool - proof plan , based on a tactic created by Tarkin himself . The battle would start with the " Gorgon " and " Basilisk " opening fire and launching an attack on the floating cities of the Mon Calamari , thus drawing forces away from the shipyards , while the " Manticore " would come out from the shadow of the planet ' s moon and destroy the helpless starship construction facilities . The plan was going well until a former slave of Tarkin ' s , retired New Republic Defense Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar , recognized the tactic and , using a Mon Calamari code , remotely took control of the half - finished MC90 Star Cruiser " Startide " and used it to crash into the " Manticore " . Accepting her first major defeat in her guerrilla offensive , Daala ' s two remaining Star Destroyers fled to the safety of the Cauldron Nebula . While there , Daala made plans to use " Basilisk " in a suicide crash attack on Coruscant , the capital planet of the New Republic . However , just prior to the launch of the assault on Coruscant , Kyp Durron , one of the escaped Maw prisoners , arrived with the Sun Crusher and attacked the " Gorgon " . Daala rushed to reclaim her lost prize , but she soon realized that it was just a stall tactic , and Durron had already instigated a supernova in several of the nebula ' s stars . Daala ordered the " Gorgon " and the " Basilisk " to make an emergency hyperspace jump . As the burst of energy radiated out from the supernova explosions , the " Gorgon " barely escaped the nebula . The " Basilisk " was not so lucky , however , and it was incinerated . Final battle . With the " Gorgon " severely damaged by the destruction of the Cauldron Nebula , Daala realized that she should have never abandoned her station at the Maw , and in disobeying her mandate , she had caused the deaths of many of her best soldiers . She then commanded the " Gorgon " to retreat to Maw Installation , where she realized two things . First , she saw that the Death Star prototype , a semi - permanent fixture around the installation , was missing . Second , a small New Republic fleet was now orbiting the asteroids comprising the installation . Realizing that the New Republic had seized Maw Installation , Daala vowed to destroy the facility , or die trying . The " Gorgon " unleashed a punishing turbolaser volley on the station from its remaining gun emplacements . The New Republic fleet scrambled to meet the " Gorgon " . Soon , to add to the mounting confusion , the Death Star prototype , under the command of Maw Installation administrator Tol Sivron , entered the Maw . Despite the fact that Sivron would not fire the prototype ' s superlaser , the looming threat of his weapon made the New Republic frantic . Daala took advantage of the situation by using the " Gorgon " computers to extract information from Maw Installation ' s archives . With the vital schematics in hand , she ordered the " Gorgon " to fire on the installation ' s by - now unstable reactor core . As a bright explosion filled the viewports of the New Republic ships , the " Gorgon " made its escape and fled to the remnants of the Empire in the Deep Core , seeking refuge . However , the New Republic believed that Daala had crashed the " Gorgon " into the facility in a suicidal effort to prevent them from gaining top - secret information contained in the Installation . It was not until a year later that the New Republic would learn she had survived . Damaged nearly beyond repair , the " Gorgon " was seized by the various Imperial warlords who had domains in the Deep Core and dismantled in 11 ABY , using the parts for construction of other warships . Daala ' s remaining crew was scattered across the Deep Core . Daala herself , along with Kratas , roamed from warlord to warlord in an attempt to unify the fractured Empire , an effort that ultimately succeeded in gaining Daala command of a unified Imperial war machine . Behind the scenes . The " Gorgon " was one of four Star Destroyers created by Kevin J . Anderson for the " " , and it recurred throughout the series as Admiral Daala ' s flagship . The " Gorgon " was mentioned briefly in the novel " Darksaber " , where its final fate was explained .