The Rebel Faction

TNO - Nightstalker class shuttle

Name: Nightstalker class shuttle

Designation: NSS

Mission Profile: safely transport small attack units to their destination

Dimensions:
Length: 12.5 meters
Width: 25 meters (including wingspan)
Height: 12 meters

Crew: 3 (pilot - copilot - navigator)

Consumables: 2 week (emergency ration kit)

Cargo Capacity: 0.25 metric tonnes

Armament:
1 Longblaster Sniper Cannon

Troop/Passenger Capacity: 13

Protection:
Light Durasteel alloy armour
Battery charged shield projector
Shield Rating: 25 SBD
Hull Rating: 10 RU

Propulsion:
2 Vector-Thrust Ion Engines
1 small hyperdrive motivator
Sublight Speed: 100 MGLT
Atmospheric Speed: 75 MGLT
Hyperdrive Rating: 1.0 Past Lightspeed

Description:

The Nightstalker class shuttle is designed as the next generation of Imperial shuttlecraft. This ships is designed to convey squad sized assault teams to their targets, whether that be in a space or atmospheric enviorement. The shuttle's fuselage is reminiscent of the front half of an A-wing fighter, and contains the cockpit forward, and the main hold where the troops reside in the center. On either side of the hold are the battery powered shield projectors and the small engine drives. Finally in the rear of the fuselage is located the engines and the tail fins, used for manuevering in atmospheric conditions.

In addition to the fuselage and tail fins, the shuttle has two low delta wings, the idea behind these particular wings is that they, covered with non-reflective dull plating, will lightly reflect a sensor or signal bounce. In other words, it will still reflect a sensor signal, but it would reflect it in a upwards or at an angle direction. The only sure way to detect the craft is to be right above it or below it when the sensors are sending out signals. The shuttle is normally painted a dark grey color, to help it blend in with the colors of outer space or the nightime sky of a planet.

The shuttle is largely not armed, the only weapon is a retractable sniper rifle turret, called a longblaster. The rifle is unique in that a commando onboard uses a smaller version of the weapon, linked by cable, to aim it at it's target. Once locked on, the commando "fires" the rifle. The rifle is reminiscent of the Nightstinger weapon, although the slightly cheaper gases fires a slightly more visible bolt. The bolt has a maximum range of fifty kilometers, with an armour piercing range of twenty five meters, i.e., able to pierce a tank to kill it's driver. The rifle is mainly used in a planet assault to cover a landing, or to provide high in the sky sniper support for the troops.

The commandoes themselves can each carry up to one hundred pounds of provisions with them aboard the shuttle, and have two methods of leaving the shuttle. There is ramp in the forward section beneath the cockpit, and there is a small chute in the rear of the shuttle beneath the engines where the commandoes can either descend via ropes or simply jump out to deploy their mini-repulsors, jet packs, or chutes. Inside the cramped cabin, the commandoes sit on thirteen seats, seven on one side, six on another, with their gear stowed either above them or between their legs.

The Nightstalker's engines are of a standard and at the same time unique variety. The ion engine is standard, but the thrust units are lined with small nozzle sprayers that emit sprays of cold air directly into the thrust wash. This conceals the assault shuttle from heat sensors, both in space and in the atmosphere. In addition, the thrusters are able to be vectored in any direction, not only allowing the shuttle to hover, but also allowing it to perform a wide variety of manuevers, espically in the atmosphere, to escape enemy opposition. Note that the commandoes also have crash webbing in their seats.

For protection, a very light alloy of durasteel covers the entire craft, excluding the cockpit, that gives the shuttle some protection against weaponry. In addition the shuttle is shielded, but the shield projector runs on battery powered, which means once the shields are gone, they aren't coming back up.

The nightstalker, with it's stealthy features, high atmospheric as well as deep space manueverability, and high speed, are an valued asset that will ensure that many more commando or troop teams will survive insertion and extraction than with using normal or even modified existing of the line Imperial shuttles.