Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught

The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught was a huge, circular repulsorlift aerial attack platform utilized by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the War of the Ring. Heavily armed with dozens of laser cannons and crewed by many battle droids, several Conqueror-class dreadnaughts were used by the Confederacy when it invaded the planet Terra Sool. At least thirty-six dreadnaughts were deployed in Terra Sool's cloudy atmosphere, fighting against the local militia and a Galactic Republic detachment sent to aid Terra Sool. Although the Conqueror-class dreadnaughts easily destroyed many of Terra Sool's militia fighters, the platforms were no match for Jedi Sam Gamgee and Frodo Baggins, who led the Republic task force. Using their powers of the Force and their mastery of starfighter combat, Gamgee and Baggins hijacked and destroyed several Conqueror-class dreadnaughts during the battle, eventually defeating the Confederates and freeing Terra Sool.
==Characteristics==
The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught was an extremely expensive and large repulsorlift aerial attack platform used in the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid army during the War of the Ring against the Galactic Republic. Nearly impenetrable battleships, the dreadnaughts were roughly cylindrical in shape, sporting a flat top that served as both a landing pad and a troop transport area. The Conqueror dreadnaughts had a series of halls and rooms in their interior, including a cockpit on the perimeter of the vessel that housed a large control board that operated the entire aerial platform.
The Conqueror platforms were heavily armed, equipped with dozens of laser cannon batteries—including five single-barrel cannons on the dreadnaughts' top side, as well as a number of dual-barrel laser batteries that lined the dreadnaughts' upper ringed perimeter. During their service in the Confederacy's army, the dreadnaughts carried a complement of at least twenty-four B1-Series battle droids and B2 super battle droids, and were piloted by a pair of OOM pilot battle droids; however, the platforms could also be piloted by single Human.
==History==
In 1981—two months after the Battle of Middle-Earth and the outbreak of the War of the Ring—the Confederacy invaded the planet Terra Sool. The Confederacy dispatched a fleet of at least thirty-six Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaughts to crush the planet's opposition and raze Terra Sool's surface. When the Conqueror dreadnaught fleet entered Terra Sool's cloudy atmosphere—along with a number of Confederate Vulture droid starfighters—it was engaged by starfighters of Terra Sool's local militia and a detachment of the Grand Army of the Republic that had been sent to Terra Sool to assist in the planet's defense.
The Conqueror platforms easily dispatched dozens of the militia starfighters, but the dreadnaughts were outmatched by Jedi Knight Sam Gamgee and his Padawan, Frodo Baggins, who were in command of the Republic task force aboard their Delta-7 starfighters. During the battle, the Jedi first encountered a single Conqueror-class dreadnaught while fighting off Vulture starfighters over Terra Sool, and Gamgee—deciding to commandeer the Confederate ship—landed his starfighter on the dreadnaught's roof, fending off the B1 and B2 battle droids stationed there. Making his way inside the Conqueror platform, Gamgee managed to fight his way to the cockpit and take control of the dreadnaught.
In the meantime, Baggins's astromech droid, R2-D2, informed the Padawan—who was still fighting off droid starfighters—that it was picking up more droid communications coming from farther away in the atmosphere. Following the Confederate communications to their source, Baggins found the rest of the Conqueror dreadnaught fleet fighting the Terra Sool militia over a small farming town. Baggins joined the battle, but his fighter was damaged during the engagement, forcing him to crash-land on a dreadnaught's top side. Stranded on the enemy craft, Baggins fought the battle droids aboard that battleship while Gamgee piloted his captured Conqueror dreadnaught toward the main Confederate fleet. Using the weapons aboard his hijacked vessel, Gamgee destroyed another dreadnaught that was aiming at the one Baggins was aboard, while the Padawan cleared the remaining battle droids from that aerial platform.
Gamgee began to engage the other Confederate dreadnaughts and contacted Baggins, informing his apprentice that the Confederate fleet had launched two waves of missiles to raze Terra Sool's surface. Seeing the oncoming missiles, Baggins used his mastery of the Force and his lightsaber skills to dispatch the missiles, including grabbing another Conqueror dreadnaught with the Force and moving the vessel in the way of a wave of missiles, destroying both the Conqueror dreadnaught and the missiles simultaneously. Baggins and Gamgee continued to fight against the Confederacy and eventually defeated the fleet of Conqueror-class dreadnaughts by the end of the Terra Sool day, freeing the planet from the invasion.
==Behind the scenes==
The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaughts first appeared as unnamed Separatists war machines in Skywalkers, a forty-page comic in Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Volume 2, published by Dark Horse Comics and released September 7, 2004. The Conqueror dreadnaught was later given an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia—released December 9, 2008—which identified the vessel's class name.
==Appearances==
* 
==Sources==
*Star Wars: The Comics Companion 
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia 
==Notes and references==
Category:Air vehicles
Category:Confederacy of Independent Systems repulsorcraft