Arc Hammer

The Arc Hammer was an Imperial spacefaring production facility used to supplement the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps with dark troopers, a new generation of battle droid stormtroopers to be used in the Galactic Civil War against the Rebel Alliance.
==Characteristics==
The Arc Hammer was a factory ship of a unique design. Like many other Imperial starships, the Arc Hammer had a long, narrow, dagger-shaped hull; however, it also had four large columns surrounding a central one that protruded from below and a small, flat bridge structure in front of the columns on its dorsal side.
The Arc Hammer served as a primary testbed of the Dark Trooper Project, a brainchild of General Rom Mohc which was to create larger, more powerful robotic versions of stormtroopers. The Dark Troopers were developed inside the vessel. Construction lines filled the interior and four large ventral hangars were responsible for receiving cargo vessels and loading batches of dark troopers into transports or deploying them directly above a target world.
Though not its purpose, the Arc Hammer was equipped with enough weaponry to defend itself against attack from space. The inside of the Arc Hammer contained crewed sections that were visually similar to that of other Imperial ship designs. However, unlike the Empire's dedicated warships, a significant portion of the Arc Hammer's interior was occupied by maze-like industrial production facilities, including automated component fabrication, assembly lines, conveyer belts, and other such machinery, as its primary purpose was construction of Dark Trooper droids and powered exoskeletal armor suits.
Defense of its interior against boarders or saboteurs was composed of more common Imperial troops like stormtroopers, but this was augmented by the presence of active Dark Trooper units.
The Arc Hammer is known to have cost billions of credits to construct.
==History==
The Arc Hammer was a titanic space faring construction facility constructed at Kuat Drive Yards and was classified as a dreadnaught. After the destruction of the newest Imperial superweapon, the Death Star in 0 BBY, the Empire started to share General Rom Mohc's views, who considered that all soldiers should be given a chance to face each other in a one-on-one combat. Mohc eventually persuaded the Imperial officials to greenlight the Dark Trooper Project, which involved creating droid versions of Imperial stormtroopers. To this end, he was provided with the Arc Hammer.
In order to ensure secrecy of the project, the factory frequently made jumps to hyperspace, and only one ship, the Supreme Commander Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer Executor, knew its exact position at any given time. The Dark Trooper project proceeded quickly, and by 0 ABY the first working prototypes were made. To demonstrate the power of the Dark Troopers to the Dark Lord, it was arranged to attack the Rebel Tak Base on the planet Talay. The demonstration was successful; only one Rebel ship managed to escape from the planet, although it was boarded by a Dark Trooper as well, who then killed all crew aboard. The base itself was destroyed with all hands. However, before its destruction, Admiral Toka managed to send a distress signal.
Rebel-allied mercenary Kyle Katarn was assigned to investigate the loss of Tak Base. While exploring the destroyed base, Kyle discovered a large blaster weapon, much too bulky to be wielded by a regular stormtrooper. This investigation trail led to several different Imperial weapons research centers and industrial facilities spread throughout the galaxy, eventually leading the Rebel agent to discover the Dark Trooper Project. Ultimately, Katarn infiltrated the Arc Hammer by stowing away on a materials cargo transfer, and sabotaged the ship by placing sequencer charges on several power couplings within the ship, leading to its destruction.
==Behind the scenes==
The length of the Arc Hammer is not explicitly given, but can be determined from visuals by comparing it to Executor and several escorting vessels of known length in the Dark Forces cinematics. It is shown clearly to be about half the length (and slightly smaller) than the Executor, albeit being further away from the camera than the Star Dreadnought.
Another way to calculate it more precisely is to compare it with the Imperial-class Star Destroyers that are closer to the camera than it. The Arc Hammer is at least 6 times the size of a Imperial-class Star Destroyer that is closer to the camera; therefore, the Arc Hammer has a length that is definitely greater than 9.6 km.
Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption has the Arc Hammer contradictorily portrayed at a much smaller fraction of the Executor size, roughly the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The reasoning behind this is that the ship's role is as a factory and research facility and would therefore not need to be as big as the Executor.LucasForums' post by Darth_Torpid-PG, Petroglyph developer The game's Prima guide claims the ship is the size of a Star Destroyer, but since the term "Star Destroyer" (without a specific class designation) has been used to describe ships in size from the Demolisher to the Executor, this provides no clear estimate.
"Sand Blasted" shows a different and inconsistent version of the factory, which resembles the traditional wedge-shaped Star Destroyer profile, albeit with two column-shaped structures protruding from the hull.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
*Star Wars: Dark Forces 
*Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster
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==Sources==
* 
*Dark Forces Official Player's Guide
*Star Wars Encyclopedia
*The Essential Guide to Droids
*The Essential Chronology 
*Rebellion Era Sourcebook
*The New Essential Guide to Characters
*
*
*The New Essential Guide to Droids
*Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption Expansion: Prima Official Game Guide
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
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*The Essential Guide to Warfare
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*Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide
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==Notes and references==
Category:Droid factories
Category:Kuat Drive Yards products
Category:Starships of the Galactic Empire
Category:Super Star Destroyers