Range

Now it was Nova's turn to shrug. "He's not wrong. Word I got was that a Rebel carrier ship popped out of hyper a couple of thousand klicks away and kicked out a load of X-wings, presumably to come and shoot at us. According to my source, they turned the superlaser at the carrier and blew it all the way back to Imperial Center."

 She blinked in astonishment. "It's that powerful?"  Nova said, "Oh, yeah. A ship is nothing. The power to the beam was only in the single digits-cranked up full, anything within half a million klicks isn't safe, including asteroids, moons, even planets."

 "No!"

 "Yes. Why else would they spend all that time and money on this"-he swung one arm to encompass the entirety of their surroundings-"if it couldn't produce some major damage? Why else would they call it 'the Death Star'?"

***

Star Wars: Death Star Part 2 Chapter 53