Charkarr Heavy Shuttle

Description:
The Charkarr is a design by TransGalMeg intended to fill the role of heavy shuttle, and takes its name from a flying species native to Kashyyyk. Theoretically it's a good addition to the complement of an exploration ship, but with TransGalMeg's usual customer base being somewhat less reputable, it's also theoretically good for mercenaries and smalltime smugglers. The Charkarr has a number of interesting features, but none of them are ultra expensive, or at the bleeding edge of technology. Instead the design favors tried and true methods, and puts emphasis on keeping things simple and hard to break. If a Corellian light freighter is the kind of ship that'll get you past the heaviest blockade in one piece, then the Charkarr is the kind of ship that'll get you on the ground and back off again, even after taking heavy abuse.

The frame of the Charkarr is made out of duranium for its durability. Specifically around the cockpit, and the aft compartment, it forms a cage like structure enhancing the ability of the main body of the ship to keep going after a hit, and and not suffer from catastrophic structural failure. Over the frame are plates of reinforced duraplast, primarily intended to take advantage of the ion and EMP protection offered by the material. The level of protection against ion weaponry, is enough to allow the Charkarr to resist the effects of ion based small arms. It can also resist the effects of light and medium ion cannons, although they will deplete the shields, and start to do damage as a result of cumalitve hits. Only around the cockpit and aft compartment are the plates thick enough to provide some of the other advantages the material is known for. The whole of the craft is proofed against most kinetic small arms fire, save for areas like the engines where a good shot will still do some damage. The panels over the shroud rotors are particularly vulnerable, having to be thinner by necessity, and a large caliber rifle, or continuous fire from a machine gun will rip them apart. Additionally anti-matériel rifles will still be able to punch through many portions of the ship, save the areas around the cockpit and aft compartment.

Only the cockpit and aft compartment are protected better, able to resist heavy machine guns, and some smaller RPG's. But against dedicated AA/AT weapons, mass drivers, anything heavier in the kinetic category, heavy ion weaponry, and all levels of sonic weaponry the Charkarr is as vulnerable as any other ship. Likewise without its ray shields, it fairs poorly against energy weaponry, even small arms, due to to the treatment and reinforcement used to make the duraplast better against ion weaponry. Against something like a lightsaber trying to cut through a section of the ship, it'll go through like a hot knife through butter except for sections of the duranium frame which might take slightly longer to get through.

The windows are made of ceraglass rated against small arms fire, save for anti-matériel rifles, dedicated machine gun fire, and energy weapons. The designers of the Charkarr consider the cockpit to easy to compromise compared to the aft compartment, and thus discarded the idea of using it as an escape pod early in the design. All in all the ship is too small to really have a dedicated escape pod, but the aft compartment can serve as something of a lifeboat as it contains the life support systems, and in case the cockpit is compromised, limited control of the rear can be gained by accessing the display on the starboard just inside the aft compartment. This limited level of control includes access to an emergency beacon, the repulsors on the bottom of the main body, and some of the ships maneuvering jets. the aft compartment isn't invincible however, as a bubble window extends over the area where it attaches to the cockpit, which also acts an escape hatch should the loading ramp become stuck or blocked.

The interior of the ship is divided between the aft compartment and the cockpit. The cockpit has seating for two, the pilot and copilot, and can be sealed off from the aft compartment. The HUD isn't especially fancy, simply a holographic display over the windows. The graphics of the display are incredibly basic, two dimensional, and look like they came out of the Galactic Civil War. Most all aspects of flying the Charkarr are aided in some way by the droid brain, but the pilot can change the level of aid, allowing more experienced pilots a greater degree of control if they so choose.

The aft compartment has seating for nine, with four seats along both starboard and port sides. Above the seats are racks that allow for passengers to store their gear, and additional equipment. The ninth seat is on the starboard side, and is front of the display that allows access to emergency controls. When not being used for such a purpose the display can be tied in to the ship's visual sensors, and allows for direct communication with the cockpit section should it be sealed off from the aft. Depending on the needs of the owner, the aft compartment can easily be covered into a bunk area for one or two, or a dedicated cargo compartment.

Access is normally granted via the rear of the ship where a large ramp is. The entirey of the interior is sealed against the vacuum of space, and the ship can carry enough consumables to allow a single occupant to utilize it for two weeks continuously. Via converting the aft compartment into more of a living space for the pilot this can be extended to a month. The ship has an old school landing gear setup so it can still be moved around even if the repulsors are offline for whatever reason. As far as accommodations go, the ship is pretty spartan. It has a basic life support system, artificial gravity, seating, and what have you. But it's not going to be filtering the air to perfect, and adding in lavender scented micro-particles.

The Charkarr is only armed with a single gun, due the energy needs of the shield and engine systems. The engines in particular take up a lot of power to move the small, heavy, ship around. Owners are mostly discouraged from trying to modify these systems, as it will have a negative effect on the energy distribution, but some small ones are possible. Particularly the rotary blaster could be replaced with a slugthrower design of equivalent size, but the ship cannot be significantly upgunned, get better shields, or better engines with serious re-engineering.

In general many of the ships systems function on par with galactic standards, and TransGalMeg has gone out of its way to avoid using complicated or expensive parts. This allows the Charkarr to easily be repaired, even by those that tend to stay on the fringes of space. Maintenance work is rather easy, even for those who aren't mechanically gifted. This comes at the cost of performance in some areas, particularly the hyperdrive which can only manage 5.0. This in turn limits the range of the Charkarr, as it takes longer to go even shorter distances. The shuttle shouldn't travel nonstop from point A to B over long distances, but should make several stops along the way to avoid overtaxing the engine.

The Charkarr's stealth systems are less designed to totally hide the ship from any and all sensors, but more to reduce its profile on the more common and average ones. The shuttle can easily get lost in heavy traffic, or in the middle of a battlefield, which is nice when you're trying to get away or dropping people/stuff in a hot zone.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Charkarr are its shroud rotors, which almost seem like an anachronism among the high tech ion drives and repulsors. But the ducted fans offer benefits that TGM felt warranted their inclusion. Key among them is that the rotors are unaffected by the effects of repulsorlift jammers, don't set off repulsor sensors, allow the repulsors to focus on keeping the ship in the air as opposed to moving it around, and allow for a greater level of movement in situations where the the maneuvering thrusters would be overkill. The fans themselves are a weakpoint in the design however and focused fire (even from heavier small arms) will damage, and possibly destroy them.

But overall the Charkarr is a rugged design. It's able to take a good deal of punishment, doesn't require a large logistical investment, making it easy for a single person not looking for a starfighter or light freighter to take care of. Depending on sales, TGM is considering a gunship variant for dedicated military use at some point in the future.