Battle Lance

The Battle Lance was a 1,600 meter–long Imperial II-class Star Destroyer manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards that served in the Imperial Navy. Sometime before the Battle of Yavin, the warship was selected to test an improved prototype hypermatter reactor. Due to a malfunction, the null-point energy produced by the drive became unstable and vaporized the Battle Lance in a microsecond, killing the ship's entire crew of 37,000. Hora Graneet, the nephew of Imperial gunner Tenn Graneet, served on the ship and died during the accident.

Sometime between 3 BBY and 0 BBY, Graneet mentioned the Battle Lance destruction to explain to Chief Petty Officer Mekkar Doan why he had doubts about the functionality of the Death Star battle station. Doan, who had been smiling, grew somber and stated that he had known multiple personnel aboard the Battle Lance. After the conversation, Graneet felt unsettled as he compared the power of that Star Destroyer's reactor with the power of the Death Star's superlaser.

Text and facts from the “Battle Lance” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.