The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Juyo-class battlecruiser

Soresu-class Fleet Defender

Description
The imposing flagship of the Yanibar Guard Fleet, the Juyo-class was originally an Imperial warship that was painstakingly salvaged in 3 ABY. Over the next eight years, the ship was rebuilt and extensively modified such that it barely resembled its original form. While the original plans for the Yanibar Guard Fleet had not called for such a ship, its inclusion into the fleet was assured after protracted lobbying by the heads of the Yanibar Guard Fleet. By far the largest ship in the Yanibar Guard Fleet, it was also the most expensive and the most powerful, possessing more firepower than any two other Yanibar Guard Fleet ships.

By the time its prolonged refit was complete, the Juyo-class bore only a faint resemblance to the arrowhead-shaped wedge that it had originally began as. The entire power generation system was gutted and replaced and approximately an additional kilometer of length added. Wide wings protruding amidships bore half of its main armament, imposing w-65 planetary turbolasers mounted on giant ball turrets, as well as the auxiliary hangars. As the largest project of Kraechar Arms, it was also the most complex. Automated systems helped reduce the crew size down to 8,000, but their programming took years.

Numerous redundant systems were built into the Juyo-class. There were five separate bridges with full command systems built into it. Extensive work also went into multiple redundant sensor and targeting arrays, along with fire control directors. Lessons observed at the Battle of Endor and subsequent fleet engagements revealed that loss of control over such a large warship even temporarily could prove disastrous. To assist in its defense, the Juyo had three layers of shields each on independent power grids. The complexity of the redundant power systems consumed vast portions of ship space and energy, but meant that vital systems could function even in the event of severe damage.

The primary weapons on the Juyo-class were the largest carried on a Yanibar Guard Fleet vessel. The giant w-65 turbolasers were originally designed for planetary defense and their inclusion meant the creation of 300-meter round turrets to accommodate them, an engineering feat that required three years to come to fruition. The secondary armament was arranged into batteries, contrary to typical Yanibar Guard practice. This allowed the ship to concentrate its fire more effectively at the cost of close-in-defense. Given that the Juyo was never intended to travel alone, this was considered an acceptable tradeoff. However, on its own, simulations showed that the Juyo-class could easily defeat a pair of Imperial Star Destroyers and would prevail, albeit with heavy damage, over a third. The Yanibar Guard finally had their answer to Imperial capital ships.

The Juyo-class had three hangars. The main hangar was located along the ventral centerline of the ship and contained most of its fighter complement. An additional two squadrons along with some support craft were contained in each auxiliary hangar, located in the ships' wings. In addition to a large complement of fighters and support craft, the Juyo-class also carried a full regiment of Yanibar Guard Marines, the largest formation carried on any Yanibar Guard Fleet vessel.

As the flagship of the Yanibar Guard Fleet, the Juyo-class always carried at least three Elite Guardians capable of Battle Meditation. Though it was rarely called upon in combat due to its sheer size, it was expected that if YGF ever conducted a major offworld operation, it would ferry either the head of YGF or the overall head of the Yanibar Guard, or both.

History
The sole member of the Juyo-class, the Lightbearer, began life as a 2-kilometer long Imperial battlecruiser dubbed the Extinguisher. At some point, it fell into the hands of the pirate Crimson Jack, who operated it around the time of the Battle of Yavin. It was severely damaged over Drexel during a violent dispute in 0 ABY and was left to float derelict for several years.

It was found by Yanibar Guard ships in early 3 ABY and, after careful investigation and observation, was selected for salvage, if nothing else than for raw materials and weaponry. Over the next eight months, a large portion of the Yanibar Guard Fleet was assigned to restore the abandoned warship to a moveable state. At all times, a Niman-class cruiser-carrier, two Makashi-class frigates and two Ataru-class gunships were assigned to protect the salvage operation, which was coordinated from a pair of Shii-Cho-class transports. Going was slow due to the sheer size and condition of the Extinguisher, but the heavy guard proved to be a prudent countermeasure when the wreck was discovered and attacked by the Victory-class Star Destroyer Suppressor. The Imperial ship was defeated, however, and the Yanibar Guard hastily completed the salvage operation, moving the Extinguisher to the Yanibar shipyards.

The ship was in no state to participate in the Battle of Yanibar in 4 ABY. After the battle, there was long debate over what to do with the ship&mdash;many on Yanibar's Ruling Council were in favor of scrapping it. However, Sarth Kraen, the head of Kraechar Arms, submitted a design plan that called for extensive modifications and refit of the ship to serve as the flagship of the Yanibar Guard Fleet. While the Ruling Council was initially unimpressed, YGF was able to influence them by pointing out that it would give them a capital ship capable of defeating Imperial Star Destroyers. Equipping it with 8 planetary turbolasers acquired by Yanibar Guard Intelligence afforded the design with a substantial edge in firepower at tremendous range. In the end, the Ruling Council was swayed and the lengthy refit process began. First, Kraechar Arms had to build a series of docks and shipyard gantries large enough to service the mammoth warship. The very existence of the Juyo-class was used as an argument to cut short the production of Soresu-class Fleet Defenders and cancel the Djem So-class in favor of the smaller Jar'Kai-class carrier.

Numerous alterations were made to the design during its refit. First off, a gravity well projector was acquired from the smuggler Booster Terrik in 8 ABY and was quickly reverse-engineered for inclusion. A cloaking device was also obtained in 9 ABY and also worked into the design. The auxiliary hangars changed size several times and the location of the main bridge was shifted on multiple occasions. The ship was finally launched in 11 ABY, only to return to spacedock in 17 ABY to have its entire anti-starfighter battery replaced with the new Starfire point defense battery. The ship also received extensive modification in 23 ABY for a lengthy refit. Its planetary turbolaser turrets, power reactor, engines, and shields were replaced in 22 ABY, along with extensive changes to the hull layout and improvements to its armor. In particular, this latest refit allowed the planetary turbolasers an impressive degree of motion and increased their firing rate by fifteen percent, a substantial improvement.

As the flagship and most powerful weapon, its primary value was in defending Yanibar, but its size meant that sightings of it over nearby worlds would draw undue attention to the sector&mdash;for decades, no larger warship could be found within 300 light years. For that reason, the Juyo-class was rarely used, in order to preserve the secrecy of the refuge. It often lurked nearby Yanibar Guard ships sent to handle offworld combat missions, hiding behind its cloaking device unless absolutely needed.

Ship listing

 * Lightbearer

Appearances

 * Force Exile V: Warrior