De acordo com a romancização oficial do filme, a 'energia escura' da estrela local é canalizada em gigantescos " colecionadores " na parte de trás do planeta da Base Starkiller. É armazenado dentro do núcleo e depois disparado pela grande arma na frente:
Having been gathered in stages by an immense array of coupled collectors located on the other side of the planet, a tremendously compact volume of a type of dark energy known as quintessence had been accumulated at the center of the planet. Held in place inside a roiling molten metal core by the frozen world’s powerful magnetic field, augmented by the weapons system’s own containment field, it grew until there was nothing like it—nothing natural like it—in this corner of the galaxy.