Torpedo Sphere / Legends The Torpedo Sphere was a massive mobile battlestation manufactured by Loronar Defense Industries , a subsidiary of Loronar Corporation . Role . The Torpedo Sphere was constructed by Loronar Corporation , under their subsidiary imprint Loronar Defense Industries . It was designed to accomplish one objective ; to neutralize and knock out a planet ' s planetary shields . Planetary shields prevented the use of soldiers in invading a planet , unless the shields could be taken down first . Planetary shields also protected planets from orbital bombardment from Star Destroyers . The Torpedo Sphere was produced to overcome these obstacles . Torpedo Spheres were not available for sale , but cost 327 , 830 , 000 credits to construct . Design . Layout . Measuring 1 , 900 meters in diameter , the Torpedo Sphere was a massive , nearly spherical , mobile battlestation with an equatorial trench . The outer hull of the Torpedo Sphere was covered with thousands of dedicated energy receptor s that were programmed to scan and analyze power emissions from a target planet ' s shield , looking for a weak point to exploit . All planetary shields suffered from power fluctuations like any mechanical device , and the Torpedo Sphere ' s DERs constantly scanned to find a weak spot of around a twenty percent power drop . Offensive and defensive systems . Each Torpedo Sphere was armed with five hundred proton torpedo tubes , arranged in an inverted cone in the center of the vessel ' s equatorial trench . The tubes were designed to fire simultaneously in a single salvo . Because all the tubes had to be calibrated and coordinated to fire by teams of technicians , the launchers could not be automatically fire - linked , and therefore could not be synchronized to fire at targets less than planet - sized . It was possible to link up to fifty tubes together using fire - link controls taken from other weapons to target and fire at normal starships . The tubes were surrounded by a ring of ten heavy turbolaser batteries . To accomplish its primary mission , the Torpedo Sphere arrived in orbit of a target planet , and scanned the shields to determine its weak point and to locate the deflector shield generators . A hundred heavy weapon technicians took several hours to calibrate and coordinate the proton torpedo launchers once the weak spot had been identified , and fired the salvo at a target of no more than six square meters to open a hole in the shield . The hole was , in actuality , a power surge that barely lasted for a few microseconds , and the turbolaser batteries fired through the hole to destroy the planet ' s shield generators . If the turbolasers failed to fire in time to take advantage of the shield weakness , the entire process had to be started over . The hardest part of the Torpedo Sphere ' s mission was to determine the location of the target planet ' s shield generators . On board sensors were unable to penetrate the shield to locate the shield generators on the surface ; as such , technicians aboard the Sphere analyzed the shield ' s power waves to determine where the power was entering the shield from to determine the location of the generating source . At least two Loronar DS - 13 projector deflector shield generators were employed to shield the vessel . Propulsion . Torpedo Spheres could reach relative speeds of 930 kilometers an hour , and were equipped with a Class 3 hyperdrive , with a Class 18 as a back - up . The Sphere ' s sublight drive s were located in the equatorial trench at the rear of the vessel , directly opposite to the proton torpedo launchers . The hyperdrive was located just above the sublight engines . The navigation computer was a Sienar Fleet Systems model . Each vessel had a cargo capacity of 3 . 8 million metric tons , and carried consumables for a duration of four years . Torpedo Spheres did not carry any supporting starfighters , instead relying on an escort of a Star Destroyer or other capital ships . It did , however , have hangar space to carry cargo shuttles , " Lambda " - class T - 4a shuttles , and MT / 191 drop - ship s . The reactor core chamber was a huge metallic Sphere with coolant conduits and heat sinks . A metallic platform ran around the reactor wall some one hundred and fifty meters above the actual reactor , which was a twenty meter Sphere covered in coolant coils . Ultraviolet purple light emanated from ports along the reactor ' s sides . The entire core was warm and unpleasant to be in due to the radiation being emitted from the core . Command and control . Torpedo Spheres required a crew of 63 , 275 to operate ; 61 , 245 regular crew and 2 , 030 dedicated gunners . If needed , the Torpedo Sphere could be operated by a skeleton crew of only 20 , 415 . In addition to the crew , 8 , 540 troops were transported aboard . The main bridge was located at the tip of the Torpedo Sphere ' s northern pole . The front of the bridge was dominated by a huge viewport which offered the command crew an actual view of target , and a tactical display off to the starboard side depicted battle information . Systems operations was located on the port side , and two crew pits were located just in front of the viewport where technicians analyzed and updated tactical and systems operation data . Computerized console seats were available for the Sphere ' s captain , first officer , and tactical officer on a raised command platform located in the center of the bridge , and a holobooth to send and receive holocomm transmissions was located at the port rear . Across from the bridge on the starboard side was the navigation nook , which was dedicated to operating and maintaining the sublight and hyperspace engines . At the rear of the bridge were two separate rooms , the general meeting room for conferences equipped with a small holoprojection unit , and the captain ' s office . Twenty - four technicians were required to operate the bridge at full capacity , with another eight technicians manning the navigation nook . Twelve stormtroopers were assigned to the bridge as security . The captain commanded the day shift , while the first officer ran the night shift . Torpedo Spheres had a dozen separate hangar bays , located along the Sphere ' s equatorial trench . Each hangar had a sixty - meter opening to space which was sealed with a magnetic field to prevent the atmosphere from escaping . Each hangar had enough space for four mid - sized shuttles to land , and lower storage bays were accessible by a pair of vehicle lifts . Two walls were studded with power cell rechargers , and each bay was sealed off from the rest of the Sphere with a pair of blast doors . Two cargo skiffs were assigned to each bay to help to move cargo . The bay ' s control room was located fifteen meters above the hangar floor , accessible by a turbolift . A transparisteel viewport overlooked the hangar , and the technicians in the control room were responsible for the activation of the magnetic field , the opening of the blast doors , and the vehicle lift controls . Crew quarters were a collection of five separate areas . In the center was a communal circular chamber that housed a mess hall , along with consumables storage and droid - staffed kitchen . Four corridors ran off the central chamber leading to crew quarters . Each spoke contained four separate crew quarters with refreshers , clusted around a central common area . Five crew sprawls were referred to as a Crew Cluster . Twenty security stations were scattered around the Sphere with barracks and sanitary facilities for Imperial Navy trooper s and stormtroopers . The armories were stocked with blasters , blast helmets and blast vests , and offices for security personnel . The command station was located in the center of the security station , and the computer system was tied into the Sphere ' s holocam network . Technicians working in the computer pits controlled the Sphere ' s blast doors and security features . Generally , the security stations were manned by twenty - four soldiers and twelve security technicians . Some of the security stations were reserved for use by the Imperial Security Bureau . Gun - metal gray corridors provided access throughout the Sphere with glowrods spaced fifteen meters apart . Clusters of turbolifts were set every one hundred meters , with blast doors every twenty . Maintenance Access Shafts ran throughout the volume of the Sphere . They were typically two hundred and fifty meters long , and twenty meters in diameter . Each access hatch from the maintenance bays was flanked by pair of ladders up and down the shaft . Torpedo Spheres contained one hundred and twenty DER targeting control room s . Each control room contained four computer stations dedicated to targeting and launching the Sphere ' s primary weapons . Two computers were dedicated to targeting and tracking the energy output of the target planet ' s planetary shields . The third computer analyzed the information collected by the other computers and saved the information onto the system database , which was the fourth computer . The computers were linked to their own dedicated power generators , which were located in separate rooms off the control room . A holoprojector dominated the center of the room , displaying a hologram of the target planet . Each DER targeting control room was connected to four torpedo launching station s , for a total of four hundred and eighty in the Sphere . The launching stations were responsible for the targeting and firing of the proton torpedoes . Maintenance hatches in both locations linked to the torpedo launch tubes that ran from the outer rim of the Sphere to the torpedo storage center . A retractable ladder in the tube allowed manual access from the control room down the tube . Turbolifts from the launching stations led to the loading area of the torpedo storage centers . At one end of the chamber was a cluster of twenty - five launch tubes . And the other end was a set of retractable blast doors leading to the torpedo storage . The storage chamber took up most of the storage center , which was made up of quadruple strength walls containing six racks loaded with thousands of proton torpedoes . The strengthened walls were to prevent collateral damage from an accidental explosion . Twenty - five B - 1 worker droid s staffed the storage center , and were responsible for retrieving and loading the proton torpedoes into the launch tubes . History . Early Galactic Civil War . The Torpedo Sphere was a precursor to the Death Star , and it was rumored that the Yaga Minor weapons range was the location for early tests of the Torpedo Sphere prototype . In the Imperial Navy Order of Battle , a torpedo line was comprised of two Torpedo Spheres . Two torpedo lines and a pursuit line constituted a bombard squadron , with three bombard squadrons and a light squadron making up a system bombard . Two system bombard s and two force escort s equalled a bombard fleet . Despite this organization , around 0 BBY only six Torpedo Spheres were in service , though the Empire had laid down hundreds more . Due to the fact that it was a mobile , spherical battlestation , members of the Alliance took to calling them " pocket Death Stars . " The Imperial superweapon known as the two - wave gravshock was housed in the shell of a Torpedo Sphere . During the Galactic Civil War , an Alliance team hijacked the Field Secured Container Vessel " Black Ice " and took it to the Mortex sector HQ at Fangol . Unfortunately , automated systems aboard the " Black Ice " broadcast a distress signal that called Imperial forces to Fangol . Over the course of a week , the Imperial forces blitzed the Alliance base in several waves until a Torpedo Sphere arrived in orbit . The " Black Ice " was used to ram and destroy the Torpedo Sphere . During the Galactic Civil War , a Torpedo Sphere was undergoing an upgrade at the Tallaani Shipyards . It was temporarily disarmed , and only had a crew of 1 , 200 security personnel — eight hundred navy troopers and four hundred stormtroopers — were aboard , along with 13 , 000 work crew personnel . Various factions , including the Justice Action Network and the Pelagia Freedom Force , worked to destroy the Torpedo Sphere . The incident gave the Empire the justification it needed to take a stronger hand in ruling the Tapani sector . Starlyte Station , a space station in orbit of Tshindral III , was constructed in the same spherical pattern as the Torpedo Sphere . Post - Endor . By the time of the Battle of Endor , a Torpedo Sphere was being used defensively to guard the major shipyards at Corellia . A few months after Endor , this Torpedo Sphere was commandeered by Grand Admiral Danetta Pitta , who bribed the Corellian Diktat to become the protector of the Corellian sector . Pitta took the Torpedo Sphere as his flagship , and it engaged the forces of Grand Admiral Josef Grunger at the Battle of Tralus . Pitta was winning the battle through masterful use of the Torpedo Sphere ' s combat capabilities , and in a fit of spite , Grunger rammed his own flagship , the " Executor " - class Star Dreadnought " Aggressor " , into the Torpedo Sphere , destroying both vessels . Another Torpedo Sphere was stationed at Chasin at the time of the Imperial Civil War , and was destroyed when the captain of the " Vengeance " - class dreadnought " Javelin " rammed his ship into it during the fighting . In 10 ABY , New Republic historian Arhul Hextrophon recognized that , due to Super Star Destroyers and Torpedo Spheres , it had been impossible to estimate the power of the average Sector Group in the past . He made this observation in a guest lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy on Chandrila shortly after the Battle of Calamari .