Directorate Officer
Intent: To provide Lightside factions with a capable repulsor tank
Image Source: Spartan Games Nightgaunt Tank modified by ours truly (originally found here) & concept art found here
Canon Link: N/A
Restricted Missions: N/A
Primary Source: N/A
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: Howlrunner-class Repulsor Tank
Affiliation: Galactic Alliance, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Modularity: Ammunition
Production: Minor
Material: Chimera-composite armor plating, Alusteel frame, ceraglass viewports, standard vehicle components
Classification: Main Battle Tank
Role: Attack Tank
Size: Average
Weight: Average
Minimum Crew: 2
Optimal Crew: 4 (1 pilot, 1 gunners, 1 mechanic droid, and 1 commander)
Propulsion: Repulsorlift
Speed: 400 km/h / Very Fast
Maneuverability: Average
Armament: High
one turreted 90mm Railgun cannon- two hull-mounted Repulsor Ball Launchers
- four turret-mounted Caltrop-5 chaff guns
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Defenses: Average
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Squadron Count: Average: 12
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Maneuverability Rating: Average
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Passenger Capacity: 0
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Cargo Capacity: Very Small
SPECIAL FEATURES
Partially Automated: Howlrunners contain a droid brain used to process sensor and targeting information, communicate with other Huntsman tanks, and provide diagnostic information to the vehicle's crew.
Omniprobe: Howlrunners use a less powerful version of the Omniprobe sensor array originally found on the Heavy Tracker. This allows it to use indirect fire to attack targets that not within direct line of sight.
Nordoxicon-38 Anticoncussion Field Generator
Chimera-composite armor plating
PulseScreen Quick Recharge Shield
Networked Vehicle: Lucerne Labs took their experience with the IX-6 combat droid and designed the partially automated Howlrunner's droid brains to collectively process and share sensor and targeting data..
Long-Range Hitter: The Howlrunner uses a high-velocity railgun and an omniprobe sensor array, which makes it an exceptionally dangerous at long ranges.
Agile: The Howlrunner is unusually fast for a repulsortank and it has a decent flight altitude of up to 3 meters, though it is still somewhat slower than the legendary S-1 Firehawke.
Vulnerable Rear: The tank's turbofans, which provide almost all of the tank's thrust, are easy targets if the tank is attacked from the rear.
Poor Conventional Fighter: Howlrunners are not well optimized to fight in close-quarters or prolonged combat situations, especially against infantry and other small targets.
Technical Explanations:
Crew: Howlrunners have a pretty typical crew for a repulsor tank, with a driver and gunner needed to operate the tank at a bare minimum to have any sort of combat value. But to obtain normal combat performance, the Howlrunner needs a full crew, including having a commander and a mechanic/communication's operator (typically a droid). The driver and mechanic are housed in the main chassis right underneath the turret, while the gunner and commander have their places in the Howlrunner's mass turret. All stations have small ceraglass viewports, normally covered by retractable plating, which provide the crew with very limited vision. Because the field of view from these is actually quite poor in order to better protect the crew, miniature photoreceptors located across the hull provide the visual feed for driving the vehicle and firing its weapon.
Engine Systems: Howlrunners are kept aloft by a pair of KD57 3-chamber repulsorlift engines, which allow the Howlrunner to reliably hover up to 3 meters over a variety of terrain types, from simple dirt roads to shifting sands and shimmering seas. A bank of rear-mounted turbofans provide ample thrust to the tank, making it one of the faster vehicles around for its size.
Defensive Systems: Howlrunners use a system of individually weak, layered defenses to protect them. The most basic of these are its Alusteel frame covered by a moderately thin layer of Chimera Composite plating. This layer is capable of protecting it from most handheld and crew-served weapons, along with light vehicular fire, bu provides subpar protection individually from anti-tank weapons and starfighter-grade weaponry. This plating is backed by a starfighter-grade PulseScreen Quick-Recharge Shield and a light Nordoxicon-38 Anticoncussion Field Generator, which bring the vehicle's defenses up to an average level. These passive defenses are back by a quartet of Caltrop-5 chaff guns, which are typically used to break the sensor locks of guided warheads or intercept incoming projectiles. Howlrunners tend to not do well under heavy or sustained fire especially against their peers, relying more on their mobility for most of their protection.
Hull: Howlrunners have a pretty conventional layout for a repulsor tank, with a base chassis and a turret. Like the recent Wavecrest and many older Baktoid Armor Workshop products, the Howlrunner has most of its more vulnerable components placed in the rear, including the power generator and turbofans, in order to better protect them incoming fire. Internally, the tank has a single, environmentally sealed working space that encompasses the entire turret and the driver and mechanic/communications operator stations just beneath the turret.
Weapons Systems: The Howlrunner's primary weapon is a variable power 90mm railgun optimized for velocity rather than delivering a heavy payload. Because the rails in this cannon induce such strong magnetic fields, it cannot fire any ordinance that incorporates any electronics. This leaves the gun with three basic ordinance types: Solid depleted baradium slugs, iridium scattershot, and detonite-filled filled shells. Baradium slugs make use of the cannon's high velocity and the slug's density to make a powerful armor-piercing shell. Iridium scattershot is used to attack groups of smaller targets, while detonite filled shells are used a basic high explosive shell. The railgun can vary its charge time in order to obtain either low or high velocities based on the situation. This main cannon is supplemented by a pair of repulsor ball launchers similar to the ones originally found on the Fromm Tower Droid. These are typically used to engage targets too small or fast to engage with the tank's main gun, such as speeder bikes. The Howlrunner also incorporates a quartet of Caltrop-5 Chaff guns mounted on its turret. While not designed as weapons, they can be pressed into service as light fragmentation weapons in the right circustances. Since they are primarily oriented upwards to face aerial attacks, they tend to have poor fire arcs the lower and closer the target is to the tank.
Carrying Capacity: Howlrunners are dedicated vehicle hunters, and consequently have little carrying capacity. There is no room inside the tank for passengers, albeit a few daring individuals can elect to ride on top the tank, if they can hold on. Cargo space is similarly small, with scattered internal compartments within the tank having only enough room for a few of each crewmember's personal effects. These are typically blaster pistols, rations for a few days, and other like items. For prolonged operations where the tank needs to carry more supplies, it's not unusual to see bags and other containers fastened externally to the tank's forward prongs, though this noticeably impacts the tank's maneuverability when done.
Electronics: Howlrunners has a basic droid brain not unlike those found in many tramp freighters. Like those brains, the Howlrunner's brain is primarily used for basic diagnostic and information processing. Taking a cue from the IX-6, the droid brains between Howlrunners communicate and interact with each other to form a shared, collective understanding of the environment and tactical situation around them. They most notably pool information gathered by their omniprobes to collectively map out their surroundings. Because each miniaturized omniprobe only has a range of about two kilometers (and frequently an imperfect picture the further away the tank is), it's not unusual for droids to share interpretation processing or rely on previously gathered information to help its crew navigate through terrain at high speeds. Perhaps also somewhat unusually for a manned tank, the Howlrunner's droid brain usually also controls the chaff guns, allowing collective groups of Howlrunners to not only react individually to emerging threats, but to collectively produce cohesive chaff clouds to hamper massed fire attacks.
