Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To provide a Mobile Defense Unit in Lucerne Lab's product line-up
Image Source: Spartan Games Trojan-class Cyber Tank concept rendering (company website now defunct)
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: Kaadu-class Mobile Defense Unit
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Modularity: Kaadu Modules as detailed below
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Argentum-series Matrix Armor Plating, Beskar frame, ceraglass viewports, standard vehicle components
Classification: Mobile Defense Unit
Role: Multipurpose Vehicle
Size: Average
Weight: Average
Minimum Crew: 2
Optimal Crew: 4 (1 pilot, 1 mechanic droid, + 2 module operators)
Propulsion: Tracks
Speed: Fast (200 km/h)
Maneuverability: Average
Armament: None (stock & most module variants)
High (with weapons modules listed below)
Anti-Air Module
2 Repeating Laser Cannons- 2 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers
[*]Artillery Module
[*]Munitions Launcher
[*]
Defenses: Average
[*]
Squadron Count: Average: 12
[*]
Passenger Capacity: 0 (Up to 20 with APC module)
[*]
Cargo Capacity: Average (up to Large with APC Module)
SPECIAL FEATURES
Environmentally Sealed: Kaadus have environmental sealing and full internal life-support for three days of continual operation, allowing the tanks to be deployed in hazardous environments such as vacuum or toxic atmospheres and to enable limited submersion in water.
Kaadu Modules: Like the Mobile Defense Units before it, the Kaadu can accept a variety of modules that allow it to fulfill ancillary roles on the battlefield, from a basic APC to an advanced mobile shield generator.
Modular: The Kaadu can fulfill a large number of roles depending on how it is outfitted, giving users a wide array of abilities.
Unarmed: Stock Kaadus are unarmed, and even many of those with their modules are lightly armed or too specialized to be a threat to many opponents. Even those Kaadus that do possess weapons aren't equipped to handle enemy infantry at an infantryman's typical engagement range.
Technical Explanations:
Crew: The Kaadu has a small forward crew cabin that has room for two people, typically a driver and a communication's operator/gunner. Directly behind them is the mission module, which may or may not contain more crewmen or passengers.
Engine Systems: The Kaadu moves about on two continuous tracks which use overlapping road wheels. Each track is powered by a separate hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell engine derived from the Lab's previous Myrmidon-class APC. This drive system provides the Kaadu with a robust drive system that is capable of navigating through many terrains, though it is not as fast nor as capable of maneuvering around objects as many repulsorlift vehicles. The trade off is that the Kaadu's drive system is more resistant to electromagnetic fluctuations, making it more resistant to EMP attacks and allowing it to work on worlds with unusual magnetic fields, such as Jabiim. Additionally, with its sealed hull, this allows the Kaadu to crawl underwater at the depths of a typical continental sea shelf.
Defensive Systems: The Kaadu's most basic defense its reinforced beskar frame, which is then covered in a thick layer of Argentum Matrix Armor plating that is carefully designed to act as sloped armor from most attack angles. Thus the actual arrangement of plates combined with its frame is designed to resist kinetic weaponry, while the plating composition itself is designed to resist a wider variety of attack types.
Hull: Kaadus have a pretty conventional layout for a MDU, with a base chassis and a forward crew cabin. Like the company's Howlrunner Tank and many older Baktoid Armor Workshop products, the Kaadu has most of its more vulnerable components placed in the rear, including the power generator, in order to better protect them against incoming fire. The internal hull itself is split into a crew cabin for the driver and his assistant, and secondary module holding bay, which sometimes carries additional crew or passengers based on the module carried. Both crew areas are entirely separate and discrete compartments that are individually environmentally sealed.
Weapons Systems: The Kaadu in its stock form does not carry any weapons, making it largely reliant on accompanying forces and vehicles to defend it. However, several Kaadu Modules can provide the Kaadu with weapons as detailed in the module section below.
Kaadu Modules System: The rear section of the Kaadu is designed to accept various modules much like the Mobile Defense Units used by the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire during the early stages of the Galactic Civil War. This allows the Kaadu to fulfill a variety of roles as needed, from anything from a basic personnel transport or tank-like munitions launcher platform to a mobile theater shield generator or a combat engineering vehicle. This wide diversity has made the Kaadu widely seen across a variety of groups and roles.
- Anti-Air: The main feature of the anti-air module is a turret with a pair of fire-linked Repeating Laser cannons augmented by a pair of LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers. Typically, the LLT-7s are equipped with advanced concussion or flechette missiles to destroy enemy aircraft at range, while the laser cannons are used at closer ranges to down low-flying aircraft or oncoming missiles. Below the turret and its gunner, the rest of the module holds spare ammunition as well as the bulk of the sensor equipment and a sensors operator, who aid in targeting/selecting enemy aircraft for the gunner to fire upon. While not designed for ground attack use, sometimes Anti-Air Kaadus are pressed into service to attack lightly armored opponents or large groups of infantry.
- Artillery: The artillery module contains a semi-automated proton cannon and links it with modern sensors including an omniprobe for improved fire control. The proton cannon is actually a copy of the J-1 proton cannon used during the Clone Wars. This powerful weapon can destroy many vehicles and positions in a single hit, while combined in battery fire can threaten capital ships and significant fortifications. Using the omniprobe allows the Kaadu to target enemies that are not within its direct line of sight. The artillery Kaadu most often finds itself bombarding static or area targets because of the relatively slow tracking capability of its weapon.
- Command/communications: This module turns the Kaadu into a miniature command post, much like the LAVr QH-7 Chariot, with a central holo-projector, extensive communication array, and several wireless data terminals. It is typically only advanced and large enough to handle the tactical and logistical flow of at company or smaller level of military elements. The Comm's Kaadu also has enough communication's power and bandwith to jam many enemy comlinks and other communication's devices. This often used to only jam select frequencies in order to allow friendly communications to continue unhindered.
- Electronic Warfare: This module contains a Miradyne 4-x Phantom sensor jammer, famous for its use on the A-wing, a sensor blind, and a signal interceptor. The sensor jammer blatantly distorts sensor signals in the area by flooding the area with false readings. While it is exceptionally easy to detect such jamming, it usually takes a while for opposing sensors to properly cut through the jamming to accurately discover what the jamming is hiding. The sensor blind takes an opposite approach. Instead of attempting to overpower opposing sensors by overwhelming them with additional signals, the sensor blind attempts to co-opt any sensor scans it detects into the area and adds subtle additional signals to disguise the true nature of what it's hiding as something more natural to the environment. For example, a platoon of infantrymen would still show up as organic life, but would instead appear to be various wildlife. In a more urban area, several large allied vehicles might appear to be civilian speeder trucks according to distant scans. It's important to note that the blind only works at a distance and does nothing to visually disguise them. Additionally, the environment typically is the deciding factor if the blind's attempt is successful. It's fairly easy to disguise where there are a lot of objects present giving off other readings, such as animals in a forest or normal life in a city. However, in the middle of desert wasteland, there typically isn't much to scan or confuse it for. The sensor blind typically is not effective in those types of environments. The signal's interceptor is a long-range comm scanner combined with a decryption programming for listening in on enemy communications and data feeds.
- Combat Engineer: This module contains semi-automated machinery, such as a J-7b plasma beamdrill and cutting saws, and droids (including a 11-17 mining droid) to build rough structures, and clear obstacles such as mines. Kaadus using this module are typically used to hastily throw up fortifications such as earthen trenches or clear areas such as thick forests for rough roads and starship landing sites. Occasionally, the Engineer is used in a more offensive role to lay down landmines or to help demolish existing structures. Sometimes work begun by Engineer Kaadus are further refined for more permanent use later on by dedicated construction crews and equipment.
- Medical: This module turns the Kaadu into a level 2 critical care platform (much like a mobile ER), complete with a small bacta tank, 2-1B droid, and beds for up to eight patients. Typically the medical module is only successful in stabilizing critical patients or fully treating more minor injuries. Once a more critical patient is stabilized, the patient is moved to dedicated care facilities for their full recovery, such as a physical therapy facility or an intensive care unit in a full-fledged hospital. Medical Kaadus are also commonly used as field ambulances.
- Munitions Launcher: This module gives the Kaadu six LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers, allowing the Kaadu to fulfill a similar role the old Zann Consortium MDUs equipped with rocket pods. In this role, the Kaadu can be used as indirect artillery piece, an anti-aircraft vehicle, or special purpose asset depending on the general purpose warhead launcher's payload.
- Repair: This module is an adaptation of the module of the same name on the Rebel Alliance's MDU. The embedded repair droid is used to fix vehicles, battle droids, and other equipment as needed. Several repair droids, including the automated repair droid used on the original Alliance MDU model, as well as LE-series repair droids, provide the labor and skills to keep vehicles running. Rather than lugging around a supply of various parts that may or may not be used for any number of items, the module contains a fabrication station with a miniature lathe, mill, and welder to precisely manufacture spare parts as needed. Typically, if a Kaadu is assigned to support a particular unit, it will often manufacture commonly needed spare parts ahead of time and store them until they get used.
- Scout: This module adds a copy of the Neuro-Saav 9954/I sensor array and a sensor mask to the vehicle to turn it into a forward scout. The Neuro-Saav sensor array provides highly detailed information about the environment, with its scans even capable of reaching low orbit. This is linked to a basic fire control computer to provide targeting information for friendly forces. The sensor mask helps hide the vehicle from enemy observation by using a series of electro-magnetic and holograph transmitters to blend the vehicle into its environment.
- Mobile Shield Generator: This module consists of a smaller hypermatter generator powering a top-mounted copy of the Merr-Sonn Guardian-class shield generator, allowing it to act as a mobile shield generator. This allows the Kaadu to project a shutter-type deflector shield that can adjusted to either increase or decrease its field (and correspondingly decrease and increase its shield strength) in order to provide extra protection to the area nearby, typically from long-range artillery strikes, orbital bombardment, or air strikes. As with all deflector shields, the area shielded by the module usually disrupts energy sensors like DERs from seeing exactly what is underneath the shield, albeit units under the umbrella of the shield can still be identified and targeted visually. As with the original Guardian-class shield generator, this light capital-grade shield generator requires two more additional crewmen to effectively operate it.
- Transport: This module turns the module bay into a heavily armored room with collapsible benches on the sides of the wall. Up to twenty people with their personal equipment can be comfortably transported like this at time. Alternatively, the Kaadu can fit up to 200 metric tons of cargo in its hold if no passengers are being carried. Occasionally, the transport module is used to transport various combinations of passengers and cargo, but this is rarely done because it typically is uncomfortable to the passengers and its harder for them to escape the vehicle in something happens to it.
