Post
by 2046 » Sat Mar 01, 2014 6:50 pm
The turbine-powered guns bit is something I'm using soon, so I've been pondering it a little.
Obviously, that weapon is not being supplied power by an electrical cable from the ship's mains. It is possible that the required voltage is simply too high and Imperial transformer technology isn't of adequate efficiency, or else it requires AC or DC whereas the ship runs off the other, or some other such thing.
Whatever the case, there is a disconnect between ship's power and weapons. This was made pretty obvious to most by virtue of the shells in RotS but there are still holdouts who insist that the Republic and Empire's weapons are hooked to ship's power, even pointing to hoses or cables of unknown purpose and insisting they are electrical wires, with no evidence provided.
But, by virtue of the fact that the weapons have their own power generator, this is obviously not true.
What runs the turbines for power generation is left a mystery. We surprisingly often hear of steam aboard Imperial vessels or as a part of other Star Wars technology. The droid foundry on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones had enormous steam exhaust vents, and if we are to assume that like the droid foundry of "Weapons Factory'{TCW2] and the AotC version are similar then both had their own reactors. The hangar of the Invisible Hand is said, in the RotS script, to have extensive steam piping. The rebel base on Hoth had broken steam pipes, per the script and TESB novelization, and Cloud City seemed to be full of steam in the engineering areas. The Return of the Jedi script and novelization features a boiler room in Jabba's palace, with the latter describing "deafening machine sounds - wheels creaking, piston-heads slamming, water-hammers, engine hums -and a continuously shifting haze of steam", and when on the Death Star II the situation turns against the Empire, the chaos is described as "Electrical fires, steam explosions, cabin depressurizations, disruption of chain-of-command."
However, we also have some alternate points. First, there is specific reference to smoke rather than steam. Second, as seen on Separatist Munificents in "Cargo of Doom"[TCW2], there are large fuel pipes along the wall in rooms dedicated to broadside guns.
Of course, having fuel near the shell based weapons doesn't exactly fit the point, but then it hardly makes sense to have fuel lines running along that room unless they have a purpose there or at other guns nearby.
Personally, I rather like the steam idea, with the fuel itself being tibanna ammunition. The belched smoke could be from overheated lubricant or any other such thing. But, it's still a bit of a mystery.
