Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide the Mandalorian Covenant with a modernized Basilisk War Droid
- Image Source: here, modified by yours truly
- 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: Karran-series Basilisk War Droid
- Modularity: Highly - modular weapons & aesthetics
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Durasteel chassis, ferrocarbon armor, Flexisteel conduit tubing, Psyhke-series Droid Brain, various droid and vehicle components
- Classification: Basilisk War Droid
- Role: Personal Combat Transport
- Size: Average
- Weight: Average
- Armaments: Average
- 4 Vaapad-class Laser Cannons
- Shockwave Generator Rod Cluster
- 2 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers (concealed behind armored panels)
- various appendages
- Defenses: High
- Maneuverability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: High
- Propulsion: Repulsorlift / Ion Engines / Legs
- Minimum Crew: 1
- Optimal Crew: 1
- Passenger Capacity: 2
- Cargo Capacity: Very Small
- Mechanical Mount: The Karran works more like a mount than a traditional vehicle - the droid brain autonomously takes care of much of the most basic function maintenance of moving around, but it has to be coaxed and guided. Much like an organic mount, it does have automatic self-preservation functions and can fight autonomously without input from its rider.
- Flight: Like the classic Basilisk design, the Karran is capable of flight thanks to a combination of repulsorlifts and ion engines. Designers put an emphasis on speed because of the frequent use of Basilisks as part of the shock forces in surprise attacks. Consequently, the Karran is capable of excellent speeds, especially in dives, despite its unorthodox appearance. Armor plates on the mechanical beast can be angled to increase aerodynamic performance or to help protect the rider during atmospheric reentry. While capable of suborbital flight, the Karran's best performance is typically under several hundred meters above the ground on most planets.
- Moveable Armor: The Karran has a band of armor plates around its midsection that move via servo-motors. These can be angled to improve aerodynamics, to assist with steering, or to better protect the rider.
- Autonomous: The Karran is capable of acting entirely autonomously, in which case it acts like a typical battle droid or automated war vehicle. While the droid brain does allow the Karran to learn, and while each droid brain does have a slightly different personality, Karrans tend to have fairly similar tactics when operating autonomously without direct command input, preferring to "hunt" in packs with surprise diving attacks before jetting away to hide in safety to coordinate their next ambush.
- Well Armored: The Karran-series closely follows one of the more common Basilisk War Droid patterns present during the Great Sith War, including the use of thick armor panels that have the ability to retract and extend to better protect the rider.
- Fast: The Karran-series uses very powerful servo-motors as well as a quartet of ion thrusters, giving it excellent speed both in the air and on the ground with performance roughly equivalent to a good civilian airspeeder.
- Bare Necessities: Much like the original basilisk design, the cargo space on the Karran is pretty much an afterthought. Some are able to attach a few small bags or packs to their mounts around the "saddle", but that's it.
- Exposed: The rider is very much exposed on a Basilisk compared to most vehicles despite the Karran's retractable armor plates.
Mandalorians have been famous for riding Basilisk War Droids for centuries. With the Mandalorian Covenant having proven to be reliable partners of the Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Labs set about to providing the Covenant with their own source of Basilisk War Droids since much of traditional Mandalorian space was under the control of the New Imperial Order. Because of their inexperience with such a complex droid/vehicle, Lucerne Labs closely followed one of the more common variants of the droid used during the Mandalorian Wars and largely modified the design to use more modern components already produced by the company.
The resulting Karran-series unsurprisingly looks like the ancient models to all but the aficionados of Mandalorian martial culture. Input from the mandalorians showed a preference for a simple, rugged design that was more easily repaired in the field. Following that direction, Lucerne Labs actually simplified as many of the components as possible and didn't use some of its higher-end, proprietary technology, especially when it came to locomotion systems and external armor plating - areas which would likely need the most repairs. While this does not quite give the Karran the typical polish and adaptability typical of Lucerne Labs, it is extremely simple to maintain and repair even in austere field environments with some basic tools. This simplicity has also made the Karran fairly unremarkable in performance, with its outstanding features largely being a result of simple design choices: thick armor makes it fairly resilient against many weapons while oversized engines and servo-motors have made it fairly fast.
A jack of all trades design, the Karran is very much an experiment by both the Mandalorian Covenant and Lucerne Labs to potentially build off into more advanced and specialized designs. Covenant members have largely been involved in adopting several on Wayland for extended field trials while Lucerne Labs works out kinks to better enable the design for easier mass production. Thus far, Karrans have only seen action in relatively small numbers in local conflicts. While reasonable performers, their unorthodox nature has made it hard for both the users and observers as to how effective they will come to be in the future.
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