Directorate Officer
Image Source: Sato Dragon concept art modified by yours truly
Affiliation: Lucerne Labs, open market
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: LL-1300 Shuttle
Modularity: warheads, designed to easily accept aftermarket upgrades (generally requires separate submission per individual ship)
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel frame, Trimantium hull plating, ceraglass viewports, standard starship components
Classification: Shuttle
Length: 17 meters
Height: 4 meters
Width: 8 meters
Armament: Rating 8
2 Forward Laser Cannons
1 Ventral Twin Blaster Cannon Turret
1 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launcher[/url
Defense: 14
Squadron Count: 6
Special Features:
Basic Warheads Countermeasure Launcher (10 Chaff bursts or 7 Flares)
Standard Communications Array
Standard Communications Array
Redundant Deflector Shield Generators
Standard Ion Engines
Standard Life Support Systems
Standard Navigational Systems
Standard Sensor Array
Standard Targeting Systems
Two escape pods
Can Enter Atmosphere and Land
Carries 16 passengers & 20 metric tons of cargo or other equivalent
Manoeuvrability Rating: 4
Speed Rating: 4
Hyperdrive Class: 1
Strengths:
Easily Modified and Repaired: Lucerne Labs carefully emulated CEC's YT-series of freighters in its interior architecture to ensure that the shuttle can be easily modified by its operators. To help ensure that its parts would be easily acquired anywhere. Not only is the shuttle designed to accept a variety of parts from different manufacturers, but its stock version includes components from other companies, rather than using model specific parts.
Enhanced Shielding: The LT-1300 has slightly more powerful shields for its size. But perhaps more importantly, it borrows from the mon calamari practice of using several smaller and less powerful shield generators and projectors rather than one central system. The advantage with this system is one shield generator is burnt out damaged, or destroyed, power can be diverted to the other remaining shield generators to provide additional protection (albeit it will be less than its normal shield strength). This makes the LT-1300 more difficult to destroy by continual grinding attacks.
Weaknesses:
Lightly armed: The LL-1300 is slightly underarmed compared to many ships its size, whether it's an X-wing or a Lambda-class Shuttle. However, many owners consider this a reasonable tradeoff for the shielding that makes its occupants more likely to survive combat and other environmental hazards.
Subcontractor Construction: In an effort to cut down on construction cost and to appeal to independent operators, most of the basic starship systems (such as life support, various computers, etc) were supplied by a variety of other companies at a bid contract basis. Because of this, it's not unusual for various glitches to occur between these systems or to find occasional subpar components that somehow managed to pass through the contractor's quality control measures.
Description: The LL-1300 is Lucerne Labs's shuttle entry for their new LL line, which is intended to provide highly adaptable and affordable starships in the vein of CEC's classic designs. While it uses a frame derived from the the LL-1200, unlike that ship, the LL-1300 is specifically designed as a passenger vessel first, with a small secondary emphasis on providing some cargo space for their belongings. LL-1300s are typically configured to carry 16 people in several rows of seats for short hops, but the modular internal architecture easily allows the passenger bay to be divided up into cabins for a smaller number of people to take a longer journey. But this feature is but one of several that make the LL-1300 a superb people mover.
The most immediately noticeable feature is the inclusion of multiple [url=http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ceraglass]Ceraglass viewports on the ships ceilings and sides, which works with the openness of the internal architecture to reduce claustrophobia and the sense of confinement on long journeys. A pair of holo-projectors mounted on the ceiling can project entertainment holovids, conference calls through the ship's holo-transceiver, or connect to a variety of computers for other tasks. Like most other shuttles, the LL-1300 also has other basic amenities including a refresher, an autochef, and lockable storage compartments.
In terms of performance, the LL-1300 benefits from its relatively small size to engine output, making it reasonably agile and fast for a ship its size. Most shuttle pilots tend to compare it to the Svelte-class Shuttle conceptually, though such comparisons tend to turn discussions between the merits of the heavier armament of the Svelte compared to the improved defenses of the LL-1300. While the stock LL-1300 was not designed as a combat craft, it can be pressed into the role of a light combatant or dropship. It's pair of forward-facing laser cannons and a single general purpose warhead launcher are controlled by the ship's pilot, making it reasonably effective in head-to-head attack runs. A single ventral turreted twin laser cannon is usually controlled by a dedicated gunner to provide protection from rear attacks or to attack ground targets. The LL-1300 also has a slot for a dorsal turret, but this remains unfilled on the stock model in order to sell it as a civilian craft. It's not unusual to see end users add extra weaponry to this slot to make the ship's firepower competitive with the average starfighter.
The first production batch of LL-1300s was mixed between providing for Lucerne Lab's own corporate fleet and various companies and organizations based on Hast. Since then, LL-1300s have begun to appear further and further from Wild Space in a variety of hands. Many are small time intra-orbital shuttle services, but a noticeable amount also see use as tramp freighters and as combat support craft in the hands of pirates and militias.
Development Thread: No
Intent: To provide Lucerne Labs and the galaxy at large with an easily modified shuttle
Who Can Use This: Anyone
Primary Source: N/A
