Regarding EU:NJO

[Mr. Oragahn]

I thought the skippers weren't damaged because they weren't that much hit... because bolts were swallowed into a mini frontal black hole or something.

On the other hand, they fired some kind of hot sticking matter at a ship that would drain a fighter's shields in like one or two shots, maybe a little bit more.

[l33telboi]

I thought the skippers weren't damaged because they weren't that much hit... because bolts were swallowed into a mini frontal black hole or something.

Yupp.

On the other hand, they fired some kind of hot sticking matter at a ship that would drain a fighter's shields in like one or two shots, maybe a little bit more.

And they were into it thick, with enemy fighters swooping all about them, firing projectiles out of forward and side cannons that looked more like strange, miniature volcanoes. To their credit, the Dozen-and-Two were handing out most of the hits, many taking chunks off enemy vessels. But those vessels usually went into a spin and then came back out of it, leveling and heading fast to rejoin the battle.
“They can take a beating,” Miko remarked.
“But they can’t hand one out,” Kyp noted, seeing several projectiles slam against a B-wing’s shields, only to be repelled. “All right, Dozen-and-Two,” he called. “Our shields’ll beat them. Let’s get organized and knock them off one at a time.” He turned back to his droid. “Elfour, try to call them, all channels. Let’s see if they’ll surrender.”
Even as he finished, a cry came back, from the B-wing. “My shields are down!”

“No shield!” Miko cried.
Kyp looked at his wingman, perplexed. How was that possible? Miko hadn’t even been hit, for he and Kyp weren’t in the thick of it yet.
“Gravity well! I felt a tug, like a dozen g’s pulling me out of my seat,” Miko tried to quickly explain. “And then a hole in the shield, and then, nothing. My droid’s babbling about magnetic fields, but I don’t know!”

No mention of the black-hole thingies in this chapter, but they are established to exist later on in the novel.

[Praeothmin]

To their credit, the Dozen-and-Two were handing out most of the hits, many taking chunks off enemy vessels. But those vessels usually went into a spin and then came back out of it, leveling and heading fast to rejoin the battle.

That seems pretty resistant to me...

[l33telboi]

To their credit, the Dozen-and-Two were handing out most of the hits, many taking chunks off enemy vessels. But those vessels usually went into a spin and then came back out of it, leveling and heading fast to rejoin the battle.

That seems pretty resistant to me...

Sure, but like i said, there was no mention of those defensive black-hole thingies in this instance. So we can't really know how much of the damage was absorbed by them.

I'd much rather rely on another quote where things are more clear.

[Enterprise E]

While the Dovin Basals (the micro-singularity generators that generate the mini black holes that suck in lasers and torpedoes) were effective early on in the war, new tactics were made to counter the advantages of the Dovin Basals, such as stutter fire (firing a large series of low-powered bursts to tire out the basals) or firing a quad burst of lasers at a certain position so that even if three blasts got sucked up, one would curve around and hit the Coralskipper. Once the main advantages of the Skips were negated, the Coralskipper and the starfighters of the New Republic/GFFA were far more effective against them.

[Mr. Oragahn]

While the Dovin Basals (the micro-singularity generators that generate the mini black holes that suck in lasers and torpedoes) were effective early on in the war, new tactics were made to counter the advantages of the Dovin Basals, such as stutter fire (firing a large series of low-powered bursts to tire out the basals) or firing a quad burst of lasers at a certain position so that even if three blasts got sucked up, one would curve around and hit the Coralskipper. Once the main advantages of the Skips were negated, the Coralskipper and the starfighters of the New Republic/GFFA were far more effective against them.

Never went beyond the second or third novel. It seems that even an old X-wing's quad lasers, with a bit of customisation, could have been perfect there.

[SailorSaturn13]

paetorite Vong FIGHTERS could not use the black hole tech, as they weren't skilled enough. Only bigger vessles could do so, when one flied and another soldier steered the dovin basals.

[l33telboi]

Chapter 14:

Jacen closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Everything is moving in, toward the plinths, along the vines.” His jaw hung open for a second, then he looked at his uncle. “These plants are like a big solar collector. They’re channeling energy and the nutrients they’re sucking up back into the valley, toward the things. That sand is black because of a nectar the plants are flooding into it.”

“That’s what I sensed.” Luke pointed a finger at the plinths. “Unless I miss my guess, I’d say those plinths are coralskippers in their infancy. We’re looking at a shipyard. They’re growing a squadron right down there, and they’re using slave labor to help do it.”

The youth studied the valley again, then shook his head. “Growing fighters? How efficient can that be?”

Luke accepted the macrobinoculars back from him and opened a small compartment on the device. He snaked out a small cable and connected it to his comlink, then focused on the plinths. “The ships look fairly well along, and Belkadan has been under Yuuzhan Vong control for less than a month. That output would rival an Incom factory turning out X-wings, and since these ships are living and can heal, the wastage rate is lower than we get with our machines. What’s stunning here is the speed with which they’re able to grow these ships. This is serious trouble.”

So, we not only get a little more info on the coralskippers and how they are produced, but we also get a comparison to the production-rates for X-Wings. All in all quite an interesting piece of information.

It's also interesting to note how these 'factory-worlds' are created. They release a bio-agent into the atmosphere that kills much of the native life and prepares the world for 'xenoforming'. Then, a little while later, the planet is ready to start churning out fighters.

Once Jacen got the sample, they continued their reconnaissance mission and discovered a small lake with water thickened by the presence of brown algae. On the water, which lapped weakly at the shores, floated plants with three large blue triangular leaves. From the center grew a stalk, and from it hung two round berries, about the size of a human’s head. Some plants did have more than just two, and by the far shore, Luke spotted a different species with slightly smaller berries growing in bunches.

Jacen frowned. “Villips? Their communications devices?”

“I think so. Different sizes for different needs, I suppose.” Luke sighed quietly. “So much to learn about them.”

A little more info on their communications devices. Nothing all that interesting though.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Chapter 14:

Jacen closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Everything is moving in, toward the plinths, along the vines.” His jaw hung open for a second, then he looked at his uncle. “These plants are like a big solar collector. They’re channeling energy and the nutrients they’re sucking up back into the valley, toward the things. That sand is black because of a nectar the plants are flooding into it.”

“That’s what I sensed.” Luke pointed a finger at the plinths. “Unless I miss my guess, I’d say those plinths are coralskippers in their infancy. We’re looking at a shipyard. They’re growing a squadron right down there, and they’re using slave labor to help do it.”

The youth studied the valley again, then shook his head. “Growing fighters? How efficient can that be?”

Luke accepted the macrobinoculars back from him and opened a small compartment on the device. He snaked out a small cable and connected it to his comlink, then focused on the plinths. “The ships look fairly well along, and Belkadan has been under Yuuzhan Vong control for less than a month. That output would rival an Incom factory turning out X-wings, and since these ships are living and can heal, the wastage rate is lower than we get with our machines. What’s stunning here is the speed with which they’re able to grow these ships. This is serious trouble.”

So, we not only get a little more info on the coralskippers and how they are produced, but we also get a comparison to the production-rates for X-Wings. All in all quite an interesting piece of information.

It's also interesting to note how these 'factory-worlds' are created. They release a bio-agent into the atmosphere that kills much of the native life and prepares the world for 'xenoforming'. Then, a little while later, the planet is ready to start churning out fighters.

Depending on how much surface of the world was turned into shipyards, how big they were in general, and how big was the one Luke and Jacen were staring at - which was growing a squadron of skippers -, we'd know how much a single Incom factory can release per month.

This can largely swing from one extreme to the other.

[l33telboi]

Depending on how much surface of the world was turned into shipyards, how big they were in general, and how big was the one Luke and Jacen were staring at - which was growing a squadron of skippers -, we'd know how much a single Incom factory can release per month.

This can largely swing from one extreme to the other.

I think what they consider more impressive there is that it takes somewhere around a month to create a fighter from scratch. Luke didn't know how many ships were being created in total on that planet, in fact, all they saw was a valley filled with them. So i doubt he was refering to the actual number of fighters produced.

But we'll undoubtedly learn more as thing progress.

[l33telboi]

Hmm, i should really think of a new way to sort all this info. I understand it could be quite confusing when one quote talks about one thing and then the next quote jumps to something completly different.

Chapter 15:

The new sensor database package on the X-wings allowed them to target the coralskippers, but not very easily. Since each ship was grown in a different environment, it had different characteristics. Not all of them had the same chemical composition in the hull, nor the same shape exactly. The computers had to account for a wide range of variables, and Gavin couldn’t be certain that his computer might not lock onto some chunk of rock and designate it a target.

The coralskippers seem to be able to shield themselves quite well against standard sensors.

A quick glance at his secondary monitor did show a gravitic anomaly, which confirmed that the coralskipper had somehow created a small black hole, which it used to swallow the missile. The energy from the explosion couldn’t escape the void; hence the coralskipper remained undamaged. Being able to generate black holes wasn’t the same as having shields, but in some cases could be even more effective.

A brief description on the black hole defense the coralskippers use.

Gavin rolled to starboard and away from the dying ship, then felt a jolt run through his fighter. Another gravitic anomaly had hit him and tugged at his shields. That’s how they strip shields off ships. He punched a button on the life-maintenance system controls. “Boost it to 100 percent and expand the field to thirteen meters, Catch.”

The droid did as commanded, and the shiver that had gone through the X-wing quit. Gavin smiled broadly. To avoid the wear and tear of gravity and inertia on the pilots and fighters, each X-wing came with an inertial compensator built in. It allowed the X-wings to perform very high-speed, high-inertial maneuvers without structural damage to the ship and physical damage to the pilot. By expanding the area covered by this field to thirteen meters—putting it out beyond the shields—the compensator treated the Yuuzhan Vong gravity beams like anything else stressing the fighter.

A few interesting things revealed. The black hole projectors can be negated by expanding the shielding. Both the pilot and the ship is protected with the inertial dampening field.

Alinn Varth’s voice came through heavy with emotion. “Lost two, Lead. The one that almost got you dropped that big black hole on his tail as Eleven was closing. Dinger flew into it and never knew what hit him. Twelve got ripped up by it. Tik is extravehicular, negative life signs.”

The black holes projected from coralskippers can be used offensively as well as defensively.

He flicked his weapons over to laser fire and quadded them up, so all four would fire at once.

And yes, like someone said earlier, many low-powered shots at a high ROF seems to be the best way to counter these black holes. I quoted such a small part of the text because to get a full description of what happened, i would've had to quote several paragraphs.


Chapter 17:

The week of storms did allow Corran to learn more about the Yuuzhan Vong body and artifacts the team had discovered. At his suggestion they looked at the artifacts and confirmed that the weapons and armor were, or once had been, living creatures.

Nothing more then a little more fluff on the personal gear of the Vong.


Chapter 18:

The lightsaber’s bladedid fend off the strike, but didn’t have quite the effect Jacen had expected. My parry should have sheared thirty centimeters off that staff! The young man came to his feet, parried another attack low and to the left, then twisted his wrists and brought the lightsaber up in a slash that should have opened the Yuuzhan Vong from right hip to left shoulder.

Sparks exploded and smoke rose from the alien armor. The warrior stumbled back a step or two, then lunged with his amphistaff. Jacen batted that attack wide, then cut down at the Yuuzhan Vong’s right wrist. More sparks and smoke, and even a sizzling sound to go with it, but the hand didn’t come off.

Even more fluff. Seems the armor the Vong carry is good enough the deflect lightsabres.


Chapter 20:

A Yuuzhan Vong warship drifted slowly down from the asteroid belt, with little coralskippers buzzing around it like flies on carrion. The ship itself would have matched an Imperial Star Destroyer in length, but, being something of an ovoid shape, certainly massed a great deal more. The ship’s flesh alternated in strips of smooth, glassy, black rock and rougher, craggier patches that housed pits, which she assumed were weapons emplacements and homes for the dovin basals that propelled the ship.

Near the nose, along the spine, and at the aft of the ship grew huge, long coral arms of deep red and dark blue. Coralskippers dotted these arms like buds on a plant. Jaina assumed that some of the larger, unoccupied holes in the arms housed plasma projectors, and judging from their size compared to the coralskippers, a blast from one of them could easily burn a snubfighter from the sky.

A little fluff on something refered to as a 'warship'. Length seems to be similar to an ISD, something like 1.6km in other words.

Emperor’s black bones, we’re going after the warship. In an odd way, ordering an attack by a group of snubfighters against a capital ship made sense. The Empire’s big ships had always been vulnerable to close-in actions by small fighters. The New Republic’s tactical commanders knew that and employed snubfighters very effectively against their enemies.

Fighters seem to be effective against the Vong capital-ships, just as long as they can manage to get past the black-holes. What's more interesting is that this paragraph implies that sending fighters against cap-ships seems like a good idea, even when talking standard SW tech.

The Yuuzhan Vong warship just kept growing bigger and bigger as the X-wings sped toward it. The big ship’s aft end came up, allowing it to point its dorsal spines forward, along its line of travel. Golden light blossomed at their tips, then boiling gold balls of plasma shot out, arcing out toward the ships in the convoy.

The shots, taken at ranges of over five kilometers, were not terribly accurate for hitting small freighters. Even so, each of the ships in the convoy had a set flight path if it was going to escape the system. With the Yuuzhan Vong fire cutting across that flight path, a collision was inevitable.

Apparently, the shots from a 'warship' aren't all that accurate.

Then something shook her ship. She glanced about, fearing a dovin basal had somehow locked onto her shields, but there were no fighters anywhere near her. Her secondary monitor did show a gravitic anomaly in the system, but the readings were well beyond that which any of the coralskippers could have generated. In fact, the only time I’ve seen readings like this was when I’ve simmed against an Interdictor cruiser!

Her heart immediately sank into her belly. The Yuuzhan Vong warship had shifted its dovin basals away from driving the ship and instead had them create a narrow gravity well that blocked theRalroost and a half-dozen other ships from entering hyperspace along the route to Agamar.We’ll just have to find another route out.

The dovin basals can either be used as a form of propulsion or to create interdictor fields. It would be interesting if we can get something more quantifiable on these later on. Just to learn what it takes to stop hyperspaceing.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Chapter 15:

The new sensor database package on the X-wings allowed them to target the coralskippers, but not very easily. Since each ship was grown in a different environment, it had different characteristics. Not all of them had the same chemical composition in the hull, nor the same shape exactly. The computers had to account for a wide range of variables, and Gavin couldn’t be certain that his computer might not lock onto some chunk of rock and designate it a target.

The coralskippers seem to be able to shield themselves quite well against standard sensors.

I'd rather think it doesn't talk well about sensors.

Apaprently, a fighters' computer will happily lock on a target it can recognize, but anything that's new or a bit extravagent will elude it. Like the environment in which those plant ships grew in, which would ultimately alter their organic composition.

A quick glance at his secondary monitor did show a gravitic anomaly, which confirmed that the coralskipper had somehow created a small black hole, which it used to swallow the missile. The energy from the explosion couldn’t escape the void; hence the coralskipper remained undamaged. Being able to generate black holes wasn’t the same as having shields, but in some cases could be even more effective.

A brief description on the black hole defense the coralskippers use.

Being able to manipulate gravity that way is impressive. It's like a bottled sac of gravitons or whatever.

Gavin rolled to starboard and away from the dying ship, then felt a jolt run through his fighter. Another gravitic anomaly had hit him and tugged at his shields. That’s how they strip shields off ships. He punched a button on the life-maintenance system controls. “Boost it to 100 percent and expand the field to thirteen meters, Catch.”

The droid did as commanded, and the shiver that had gone through the X-wing quit. Gavin smiled broadly. To avoid the wear and tear of gravity and inertia on the pilots and fighters, each X-wing came with an inertial compensator built in. It allowed the X-wings to perform very high-speed, high-inertial maneuvers without structural damage to the ship and physical damage to the pilot. By expanding the area covered by this field to thirteen meters—putting it out beyond the shields—the compensator treated the Yuuzhan Vong gravity beams like anything else stressing the fighter.

A few interesting things revealed. The black hole projectors can be negated by expanding the shielding. Both the pilot and the ship is protected with the inertial dampening field.

It's not the shielding that negated the artificial gravitation, but the systems on the ships creating themselves artificial gravity, notably to compensate for the Gs.
It's quite logical in fact, just like a ship, or a Death Star, is able to "nullify" the attraction of a large body mass, while generating its own gravity inside the structure.

Alinn Varth’s voice came through heavy with emotion. “Lost two, Lead. The one that almost got you dropped that big black hole on his tail as Eleven was closing. Dinger flew into it and never knew what hit him. Twelve got ripped up by it. Tik is extravehicular, negative life signs.”

The black holes projected from coralskippers can be used offensively as well as defensively.

And apparently equals to instagib.

He flicked his weapons over to laser fire and quadded them up, so all four would fire at once.

And yes, like someone said earlier, many low-powered shots at a high ROF seems to be the best way to counter these black holes. I quoted such a small part of the text because to get a full description of what happened, i would've had to quote several paragraphs.

Those blackholes are more efficient against magnitude than frequency, obviously.

Chapter 17:

The week of storms did allow Corran to learn more about the Yuuzhan Vong body and artifacts the team had discovered. At his suggestion they looked at the artifacts and confirmed that the weapons and armor were, or once had been, living creatures.

Nothing more then a little more fluff on the personal gear of the Vong.

Armour that can stop lightsabres IIRC. Not a bad thing, for a once living organism. The facial mimicking masks YV infiltrated agents wear are still living, and burn like hell. They fuse into each pore of the skin.

Chapter 18:

The lightsaber’s bladedid fend off the strike, but didn’t have quite the effect Jacen had expected. My parry should have sheared thirty centimeters off that staff! The young man came to his feet, parried another attack low and to the left, then twisted his wrists and brought the lightsaber up in a slash that should have opened the Yuuzhan Vong from right hip to left shoulder.

Sparks exploded and smoke rose from the alien armor. The warrior stumbled back a step or two, then lunged with his amphistaff. Jacen batted that attack wide, then cut down at the Yuuzhan Vong’s right wrist. More sparks and smoke, and even a sizzling sound to go with it, but the hand didn’t come off.

Even more fluff. Seems the armor the Vong carry is good enough the deflect lightsabres.

At least that Sith Lord, more than a century later, has actually been smart wearing a YV armour. Just as tough as Vader's.

Chapter 20:

A Yuuzhan Vong warship drifted slowly down from the asteroid belt, with little coralskippers buzzing around it like flies on carrion. The ship itself would have matched an Imperial Star Destroyer in length, but, being something of an ovoid shape, certainly massed a great deal more. The ship’s flesh alternated in strips of smooth, glassy, black rock and rougher, craggier patches that housed pits, which she assumed were weapons emplacements and homes for the dovin basals that propelled the ship.

Near the nose, along the spine, and at the aft of the ship grew huge, long coral arms of deep red and dark blue. Coralskippers dotted these arms like buds on a plant. Jaina assumed that some of the larger, unoccupied holes in the arms housed plasma projectors, and judging from their size compared to the coralskippers, a blast from one of them could easily burn a snubfighter from the sky.

A little fluff on something refered to as a 'warship'. Length seems to be similar to an ISD, something like 1.6km in other words.

Jaina thinks the larger holes, assumed to be related to weapons, can burn a snubfighter from the sky. Well, is that the maximum they can do?
Seems like we're facing a ship that has more to do with a TPM era Trade Federation core ship than a real vessel geared towards the destruction of other capital ships.
After all, the TF droid control ship's biggest cannons were only worth exploding starfighters, and not even boldly vaporizing them.

Emperor’s black bones, we’re going after the warship. In an odd way, ordering an attack by a group of snubfighters against a capital ship made sense. The Empire’s big ships had always been vulnerable to close-in actions by small fighters. The New Republic’s tactical commanders knew that and employed snubfighters very effectively against their enemies.

Fighters seem to be effective against the Vong capital-ships, just as long as they can manage to get past the black-holes. What's more interesting is that this paragraph implies that sending fighters against cap-ships seems like a good idea, even when talking standard SW tech.

It would seem that in that case, once more, frequency has an advantage over magnitude. The other point is that it's possible many warship designs fail at providing any good "DCA", though that seems a bit odd.

The Yuuzhan Vong warship just kept growing bigger and bigger as the X-wings sped toward it. The big ship’s aft end came up, allowing it to point its dorsal spines forward, along its line of travel. Golden light blossomed at their tips, then boiling gold balls of plasma shot out, arcing out toward the ships in the convoy.

The shots, taken at ranges of over five kilometers, were not terribly accurate for hitting small freighters. Even so, each of the ships in the convoy had a set flight path if it was going to escape the system. With the Yuuzhan Vong fire cutting across that flight path, a collision was inevitable.

Apparently, the shots from a 'warship' aren't all that accurate.

Not accurate to aim at small freighters. But possibly more efficient against large targets. However, they couldn't aim for specific spots then, and just fire a barrage of shots towards a target.
That's very poor, especially when looking at the range.
How did that kind of enemy represent a danger to the New Republic and the Empire remnants combined?

I guess the whole deal was to swarm enemy ships with coralskippers, while the bigger ships were mainly serving as carriers. At best, they could sit in orbit of a planet and bombard a relatively immobile target, shielded or not.

Then something shook her ship. She glanced about, fearing a dovin basal had somehow locked onto her shields, but there were no fighters anywhere near her. Her secondary monitor did show a gravitic anomaly in the system, but the readings were well beyond that which any of the coralskippers could have generated. In fact, the only time I’ve seen readings like this was when I’ve simmed against an Interdictor cruiser!

Her heart immediately sank into her belly. The Yuuzhan Vong warship had shifted its dovin basals away from driving the ship and instead had them create a narrow gravity well that blocked theRalroost and a half-dozen other ships from entering hyperspace along the route to Agamar. We’ll just have to find another route out.

The dovin basals can either be used as a form of propulsion or to create interdictor fields. It would be interesting if we can get something more quantifiable on these later on. Just to learn what it takes to stop hyperspaceing.

[/quote]

We have an idea about the range of that anomaly, namely that it originated from coordinates way beyond what a skipper could do.

Maybe a gravity field akin to the moon's one (1.62 m/s²) would suffice to cast a large zone of interdicted hyperspace transit.

[l33telboi]

So, i've finished the novel and moved on to the next one. So, here are the last few things i found interesting in the novel.

“No, Jacen, it’s just that . . .” Luke’s chest heaved with exertion. “It’s just that using that much of the Force, using it that directly, is exhausting. A Jedi may be able to control and use a great deal of the Force, but there is a price, a fearful price. Hurry, we have to go, quickly.”

I found this quite odd. Luke seems to be quite tired because he used his force powers. But he didn't use them that excessively. He killed a few Yuuzhan Vong and even used a fancy trick involving repeatedly bashing (via TK) the Vong with a number stones. I would've thought that Luke would have been able to do more.

Anakin touched the stone behind which he crouched, and nudged it with a fraction of the Force flowing through him. The five-hundred-kilogram stone ripped itself free of the ground and hurled itself at the Yuuzhan Vong. Dirt flew off it in clumps as it spun through the air. It hit the ground again, five meters from its targets, then bounced up and caught the staff wielder in his flank. A crunching, crackling sound came from beneath the stone, then the Yuuzhan Vong’s arms and legs beat out a furious but slackening death tattoo.

This seems like a far more impressive feat then what Luke did.

The thunder crack from above had faded just enough for Anakin to catch the whirring buzz of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon arcing in at him. He pulled his right shoulder back and twisted his face to the left. He felt the fist-size disk whirl past him, barely missing his cheek. It make a solid thud as it slammed into the bole of a tree.

A flash of lightning burnished a silver edge on the thing. Legs sprouted from the body and began to push the right edge of its carapace out of the divot it had chopped into the wood. As Anakin had learned through experience in his flight from Yuuzhan Vong hunters, the bug would free itself, then fly off, returning to the hand of the warrior that had thrown it at him.

Another Vong weapon. And on a sidenote, it's very surprising that the Vong don't seem to use ranged weapons during combat almost at all. They seem to rely on their amphistaffs to clobber or poison people.

“This won’t even be close to a fair fight. Once we scrape fighter cover off the ground troops, we’ll be slaughtering them as fast as we can. Scatter shots from the lasers may only burn paint from a fighter, but they’ll broil a warrior in a second. It will not be pretty. What it is, though, is necessary .”

Something that might be considered quantifiable when it comes to fighter-mounted weaponry.

Out there, five to six kilometers distant, reddish ground fire reached up toward the fighters. They were able to avoid it fairly easily and still managed to report back what they saw. “Multiple contacts, command. Ground troops on foot, as well as two large vehicles and twelve smaller ones. Gravitic anomalies and plasma cannons on the big ones, plasma cannons on the smaller ones. Air contacts coming on now. We’re scooting.”

Some info on the vehicles employed by the Vong.

Fire blossomed from the X-ceptor’s nose as a proton torpedo squirted out. Jaina bounced her ship up after the launch and gained a bit of altitude. Below her the torpedo streaked straight at the first moving mountain shadow, then it exploded into a brilliant silvery ball that lit up the night.

The X-wing’s canopy flash suppressor engaged immediately, cutting out most of the glare but still allowing her to see what was going on at the point of the attack. The torpedo had detonated shy of the target by about one hundred meters, and a void had gobbled up a lot of the energy, but what little it didn’t consume wrought havoc on the ground. The energy evaporated soldiers, eliminating whole companies in the blink of an eye. Others it scattered like toys beneath a vengeful child’s feet. The shock wave toppled several of the smaller vehicles, which looked to Jaina like bony armored domes mounted on brush-bristle cilia. Several rolled onto their backs, with their little legs waving in the air, while others that had their cilia flash-fried ground to a halt.

The Proton torpedoes seem quite powerful. Perhaps even kiloton-level yields?

Most impressive, however, had been the larger vehicle at which T-sev had aimed. Like the smaller creatures, it had a bony-plate armor. Along its spine, and at points on the flanks, hornlike growths jutted out. Plasma bolts shot from these horns, and while she couldn’t tell if the horns could swivel, enough of them pointed in any one direction to be able to scour the skies of fighters.

She shuddered, as the whole thing looked to her like one giant, armored slug sprouting thorns.

More info on the vehicles.

“Now the hard part.” Corran extended his left forearm toward Ganner, with his hand open and palm up. “One of the other Force abilities I have is pretty rare. I can, under certain circumstances, absorb a certain amount of energy without much damage to myself. To get the pain I need, I want you to press your lightsaber against my forearm. Not too hard—I like the limb just fine. Just hold it out, maybe, and I’ll move my arm up into it.”

An interesting force power.

Luke could feel the frayed troops coming in, only five hundred meters distant. Beyond that line, fighters made strafing runs on the ground troops. Hails of red and green splinter shots flickered through the night, vaporizing soldiers.

Vaping a soldiers, something that could be considered quantifiable. Though we can't know for sure what these soldiers are made of. Humans are around 80% water, so that's simple enough to calculate. But can one do the same in this case?

At a hundred meters the Yuuzhan Vong troops began to run forward, so the troopers’ firing became more hurried. They still struck their targets, but gaps in the lines filled immediately as the wave of Yuuzhan Vong soldiers rushed ever closer. Smaller and stockier than the Yuuzhan Vong warriors Luke had fought, these troops looked reptilian, like Trandoshans but more compact. They did sprout a pair of calcifications from their foreheads, more domes than horns, and Luke suspected it was through these that the Yuuzhan Vong controlled them.

The Vong seem to use some form of mind-control thingies to make their slaves fight for them.

The Yuuzhan Vong took a step forward, and Corran cranked his right wrist around. The throttle assembly twisted, swapping a diamond for an emerald in the lightsaber’s interior assembly. The energy beam narrowed and went from silver to purple, then more than doubled in length. The blade’s tip stabbed deep through the younger Vong’s left eye socket.

And Ganner ridiculed me for having an old-style, dual-phase lightsaber. Corran returned the blade to its normal length and nodded to the elder Yuuzhan Vong.

And interesting modification to the lightsabre.

R2-D2 keened sharply and fed the proton torpedoes a new set of data. The torpedoes twisted in flight and arced toward the sky, flying up and over the void. Then they turned again and fell toward the ground, aimed at the vehicle’s spine.

Torpedoes can be guided remotely.

Then the proton torpedoes detonated. One after another the four missiles slammed into the ground and exploded. Their blasts scattered Yuuzhan Vong warriors and lit the night. They gouged a huge canyon across the Yuuzhan Vong line of advance, and the shock waves were such that the ground rippled even into the refugee compound. Soldiers fell on both sides of the battlefield, and ramparts collapsed.

The Torps seem quite powerful indeed.

Bleeding from the nose and mouth, with his left eye slowly swelling shut, Jacen regained his feet. He extended his right hand, drawing his lightsaber to it, and in a second, thumbed the green blade to life. “That thing, that vehicle, must have been a warmaster, a command and control center. The slaves have gone mad.”

The mind-controlled slaves are apparently linked to a vehicle.

The droid shrilled, and Jaina looked out her viewport. Coming up over the edge of Dantooine’s disk, sitting in the outbound vector for Agamar, was a Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. Jaina couldn’t be certain that it was the one they’d already damaged, but some of the spines were broken. Worse yet, as the secondary monitor showed, the cruiser was again employing its dovin basals to create a gravitic anomaly strong enough to prevent any ship from making the jump to hyperspace.

Nothing really interesting here, except that the warship class we saw earlier is apparently designated as Cruiser.

The black Bothan weapons-control officer snarled orders into a comm unit. Golden streaks of turbolaser fire flashed out at the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. Blue bolts of ion cannon beams lanced down. A tremor ran through the Ralroost as the twenty proton torpedo launchers on board spat out their deadly missiles.

The Corusca Fire, which was an old Victory -class Star Destroyer, likewise launched all the concussion missiles it had available. Eighty rockets spiraled in at the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser, with each target evenly spaced around the enemy ship so no one void could capture more than one missile.

The gravitic anomaly that had dragged the New Republic ships prematurely from hyperspace evaporated as the dovin basals broke off to stop the incoming missiles and laser fire. Whether because the assault just overwhelmed the available dovin basals, or the creatures had exhausted themselves creating the interdiction field, they failed to intercept all the lasers and missiles. Proton torpedoes pulverized yorik coral hull panels. Turbolasers melted plasma spines and scored long furrows in the ship’s hull. More than one spine broke off and floated free in space.

The Yuuzhan Vong cruiser fired back with its plasma cannons. Red-gold gouts of energy slammed into the Ralroost ’s shields, nibbling away at them. The golden energy coating faded, and drained away 20 percent of the shields’ power as it did so, but the shields still held.

What i found most interesting in this quote is that protorps seem to be effective against cap-ships. The torps could of course be bigger and have a greater yield, but still. We would probably be talking something like megaton level weaponry scoring damage against cap-ships.

[SailorSaturn13]

“This won’t even be close to a fair fight. Once we scrape fighter cover off the ground troops, we’ll be slaughtering them as fast as we can. Scatter shots from the lasers may only burn paint from a fighter, but they’ll broil a warrior in a second. It will not be pretty. What it is, though, is necessary .”

Compare with "The phaser was set on maximum.The man just... incinerated". We see that SW fighter lasers are on par with ST phasers.

The X-wing’s canopy flash suppressor engaged immediately, cutting out most of the glare but still allowing her to see what was going on at the point of the attack. The torpedo had detonated shy of the target by about one hundred meters, and a void had gobbled up a lot of the energy, but what little it didn’t consume wrought havoc on the ground. The energy evaporated soldiers, eliminating whole companies in the blink of an eye. Others it scattered like toys beneath a vengeful child’s feet. The shock wave toppled several of the smaller vehicles, which looked to Jaina like bony armored domes mounted on brush-bristle cilia. Several rolled onto their backs, with their little legs waving in the air, while others that had their cilia flash-fried ground to a halt.

Again, a Photon torpedo would vape aeveryone not in the shield of anomaly, and the ground beneath. It would give way, and huge holes in the ground would gape...

[SailorSaturn13]

Vector Prime chapter sixteen - fight between Mara and Carr. Mara, being a jedi, cannot score a blaster hit on the FACE of Carr, which is unprotected.

Ch 18. p 286

Insects... Huge turfhopper creatuers, boring through titanium-alloy hull of the shuttle...

Ships in SW have titanium hulls. Good, but not THAT good.

p288.

...enemies. They came in hot and angry firing small, molten projectiles. Luke didn't have any shields

Unlike ST hulls, which can sustain a ride against rock ("Generations", "once upon a time"), SW craft can be damaged by such projectiles.