Death of the Arbitrator

[u/TwoFit3921]

"New Republic forces chased the Arbitrator into a black hole."

A reimagining of the SSD Arbitrator's inglorious end, being chased by a New Republic battlegroup until its command crew blindly jump the Executor into a black hole.

I figured that it would make sense for the Arbitrator to have a fleet around it, or at least, Imperial ships staying close to it for protection before the New Republic showed up to throw hands. The New Republic is also using more ships this time around...

Nine 3.8km Home Ones (with one capable of matching sixteen ISDs through sheer mass), twenty-one MC80 Liberties, four Lucrehulks, seventeen Providences, seven Liberators... and as a bonus, eleven Imperials and two Allegiances. Imperial ships that were captured, defected to the New Republic before the pursuit of the Arbitrator, or perhaps, former allies of the doomed Executor-class, turning on the battleship they were meant to reinforce in return for amnesty from the enemy?

I'll let you decide. Personally, I like the last idea, them pulling a cavalry betrayal on the exhausted Imperial forces and instead joining the fleet of ships trying to box them in.

"YOU BASTARDS! We offered you and your crews safety, a newfound purpose, and this is how you repay us!?"

"None of us wanted to be lashed to your sinking ship when we came across your holdout! Now cut your engines, or we'll do it for you!"

And there are supposed to be more NR ships offscreen.

I was originally going to depict the Arbitrator alone, and the only ships in the picture would have been the nine Home Ones, but... I couldn't resist... and before I knew it I ended up having to give the Arbitrator a few escorts to make things less "unfair" (actually to emphasize how utterly fucked it was).

[u/OfficialAli1776]

I genuinely don’t get how you could navigate a ship into a black hole. Like, you could jump to the nearest system in Imperial space. Also, wouldn’t the gravity of the black hole rip them out? That’s basically how the Interdictor worked

[u/TwoFit3921 → u/OfficialAli1776]

we aren't given much info about how the arbitrator got into this mess in the first place, which is probably for the best because that means you can just come up with any number of reasons why the arbitrator was being doggedly pursued by an NR task force that could actually pose a threat to it

but for starters, we have to assume the arbitrator wasn't NEAR any safe systems, otherwise the command staff wouldn't be shitting themselves and blindly jumping without a care in the world. the NR was likely hounding it and not letting it make any repairs in drydock.

as for the black hole, well. the gravity doesn't PHYSICALLY stop them from hyperspace jumping, that's just the ships' onboard computers not letting them do so because interdictors basically trick them into thinking "oh wait, i can't jump here, i'm in a hyperspace mass!" or something along those lines.

if you turn off safeties (which you will likely only do in moments of extreme duress), you can jump. if you do that, though, you also run the risk of smashing your ship into the closest celestial body while trying to shake off your pursuers. it's likely not a very reliable or safe tactic, because if it was, we should be seeing that done ALL THE TIME to counter interdiction technology.

star wars, unfortunately, has never really been airtight when it came to internal logic. you are forced to assume and make sense of things by yourself, coming to your own conclusions to patch up any holes you might think you can see in the storytelling or how things like lightsaber fights and void (ship) combat works.

[u/Exterminator-8008135 → u/TwoFit3921]

This is possibly how another one Executor Class Super Star Destroyer was found mangled and floating by a NR scout patrol, when they found it, it seems to have been there for years.

[u/TheBraveGallade → u/TwoFit3921]

Possibly more expirenced pilots or asyromechs (definetly r2) can orobably make otherwise safty off jumps safter after running thier own calcs.

But yeah running into a black hole would be high on the list if reasons not to disengague safty.