Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a small aerial transport in the Lucerne Labs product line-up
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Labs customers
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Farlus Hawk-class Jump Ship
- Modularity: Ammunition, Pintle weapons, MAST Turret, cargo hold configuration
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Argentum-series Matrix Armor Plating, Beskar frame, ceraglass viewports, standard airspeeder components
- Classification: Airspeeder
- Role: Military Transport
- Size: Average
- Weight: Average
- Armaments: Very Low
- 1 Ventral turreted Juyo-class Ripper Cannon
- 1 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launcher
- 2 pintle-mounted crew-served weapon mounts from the passenger bay(one of the following options each):
- Defenses: High
- Maneuverability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: High
- Propulsion: Repulsorlifts / Ion Thrusters
- Minimum Crew: 1
- Optimal Crew: 2
- Passenger Capacity: 36
- Cargo Capacity: Average
- Partially Automated: Farlus Hawks contain a droid brain used to process sensor and targeting information, communicate with other Lucerne Labs military vehicles, and provide diagnostic information to the vehicle's crew.
- Environmentally Sealed: Farlus Hawks have environmental sealing and full internal life-support for three days of continual operation - this is almost a necessity in some atmospheres especially at higher altitudes. It also allows Farlus Hawks to reach high orbits to bring forth personnel and material from large warships to the ground and vice versa.
- Modular Hold: The Farlus Hawk's center hold is a relatively giant, empty space not unlike that of the famous LAAT. Various hooks, brackets, and other fastening devices built into the hold most commonly allow it have simple holding straps dangling from the ceiling for quick transports, but it also allows seats, vehicle retention straps, boxes, stretchers, and other items to be easily secured, making it a multipurpose transport.
- Heavy Defense: Farlus Hawks are largely concerned with getting their carried troops and cargo to their destination safely. Given that most combat zones aren't safe by definition, the Farlus Hawk sports moderately thick armor backed by a shuttle-grade shield generator.
- Fast: Farlus Hawks are reasonably fast for airspeeders thanks to a pair of large, gimball mounted ion drive units at the back.
- Weak Armament: Farlus Hawks aren't really designed as frontline combatants against other vehicles. Its weapons can briefly deter other aircraft and tend to be useful for some ground support roles, but almost any fighter or gunship is going to be a far superior combatant that will soon tear it apart unless the transport is escorted.
Resembling a wingless LAAT, the Farlus Hawk is one of the newer aerial transports that sees common use within Silver Jedi Concord space, usually ferrying troops and cargo back and forth between different bases or even from starships to the ground and back again. To that end, the key feature of the Flarus Hawk is its highly modular center cargo hold, which can a platoon of soldiers, a handful of small ground vehicles, or any mixture of crates and drums of simple bulk cargo. But it is more well-liked by its crews because of its reasonable speed and good shielding while many troops have a soft spot for it simply because of its side door weapons mounts. Farlus Hawks are commonly found with troops that have need of swift aerial transport or lots of vertical mobility, whether its expeditionary marines assigned to large warships or local militias in the Core Worlds.
Technical Explanations:
Crew: Like the famed LAAT, the Farlus Hawk has a tandem cockpit at the front of the craft with a bubble canopy that provides them with excellent visibility. While the Farlus Hawk can be piloted by a single person in emergencies, it performs bests with pilot and a co-pilot to handle its sometimes complex load of systems, with the co-pilot often handling communications and weapons. Both stations are set tandem to each other and are identical, allowing one person to immediately take control of the airspeeder if the other is killed or disabled. Like other Lucerne Labs designs, most of the pilot's controls are modeled on legacy Incom airspeeder designs and the X-wing. This allows the transports to easily be piloted by people used to flying those craft.
Engine Systems: Although the Farlus Hawk has a number of ion engines and a high performance repuslorlift array, it primarily uses a pair of oversized ion engines mounted on gimball mounts at the craft's stern which provide it with reasonably good speed. These engines can rotate to point the engine nozzles downwards, providing the craft with a means to levitate in areas where repulsorlifts are unreliable. This system is also used to break the steep falls that many Farlus Hawk pilots prefer to use when making quick orbital insertions.
Defensive Systems: The Farlus Hawk's most basic defense its beskar frame, which is then covered in a thick carapace of Argentum Matrix Armor plating. The sliding doors on the Farlus Hawk are made of the same Argentum Matrix Armor and can slide shut to fully protect the passengers from outside threats. A Buckler deflector shield generator provides most of the vehicle's protection. Like many Lucerne Labs vehicles, it also sports a MAST turret, which is typically controlled by the co-pilot. These are typically outfitted with a sensor jammer or directional particle shield, providing the Farlus Hawk with a more active means of defense. Some rapid response Farlus Hawk use the tractor beam projector to help rescue people or recover cargo.
Hull: The overall hull configuration largely resembles that of a wingless LAAT. It's fairly aerodynamic and compact, but the lack of wings means that it's entirely dependent on repulsorlifts and supplemental ion drives for stability. Aside from the tandem cockpit and the rear engine block, most of the hull is simply a large, open space which lends itself equally well to carrying troops or cargo. The entire hull is capable of being atmospherically sealed (a necessity when travelling in low orbit), which means that its passengers can move through hostile environments without need of wearing special, personal protective equipment.
Weapons Systems: The Farlus Hawk isn't designed as an anti-vehicle combatant, and it largely only carries weapons to defend itself or support ground operations. It's primary weapon is a chin-mounted Juyo Ripper Cannon, which while in and of itself isn't likely to destroy anything the Farlus Hawk's size, is fairly effective at destroying enemy ordnance and small ground vehicles like landspeeders and speeder bikes. Just above the autocannon is a single LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launcher, which typically is armed with concussion missiles to provide the Farlux Hawk with a limited but powerful punch to get through hostile defenses to land their troops. A crew-weapon mount is located on either side of the craft. These weapons are usually carried by the passengers and taken with them whenever they get on and off the craft, but it provides them with a more stable firing platform when on the move.
Carrying Capacity: Unsurprisingly for a transport craft, the Farlus Hawk's hold is reasonably spacious and largely equivalent to that of the old LAAT upon which it is loosely based on. Most platoons can usually fit upon on a single Farlus Hawk, though that does vary if the platoon has extra equipment or comes with vehicles. Because it is smaller than most shuttles, the Farlus Hawk can typically only carry several small vehicles such as speeder bikes and landspeeders, Panthac-class CAVs or Varactyl-class light walkers. Farlus Hawks are often pressed into simple cargo transports too, carrying a wide variety of supplies to wherever they're needed.
