Directorate Officer
- Intent: To provide a well-armed and defended dropship in Lucerne Labs product catalogue
- Image Source: Here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
- Model: NovaLift-class Assault Dropship
- Production: Mass-Produced.
- Material: Mirrsteel frame, Argentum Matrix Armor plating, Transparisteel canopy, Biolux Organoform Circuitry, standard starship components
- Classification: Heavy Dropship
- Length: 45 meters
- Width: 25 meters
- Height:16 meters
- Armament: High
- 2 Chin-mounted Reaper Mag Cannons
- 2 Wing-tip swiveling Repeating Laser Cannons
- 2 Repeating Laser Cannons in dorsal turret
- 2 LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers
- 2 H9 Turbolasers in ventral turret
- Defenses: Extreme
- Squadron Count: Very Low: 4
- Maneuverability Rating: Very Low
- Speed Rating: Average
- Hyperdrive Class:Average: x1
- Standard Communications Array
- Unbreakable Ion Engines
- Standard Life Support Systems
- Standard Navigational Systems
- Standard Repulsorlift Engines
- Standard Sensor Array
- Standard Targeting Systems
- Can Enter Atmosphere and Land
- HU-OC Deflector Shield Generator (x2)
- Biolux Organoform Circuitry
- Calor series Bio-Computer
- Modular Auxiliary Systems Turret (x3)
- Impressive Armament: The NovaLift carries a pretty substantial armament for its size, allowing it shoot its way through to the drop destination to unload its passengers and cargo in hot combat zones.
- Impressive Defenses: NovaLift uses a pair of redundant shield generators to promote the odds of it constantly having shielding. Combined with thick armor plating and overcharge shield mode, the NovaLift is an exceptionally durable craft, which enables it to perform its job of unloading troops, vehicles, and other cargo in hot combat zones.
- Large Carrying Capacity: The NovaLift is one of the larger dropship classes available, with its two deck design capable of holding a company's worth of men, their equipment, and some vehicles.
- Poor Maneuverability: The NovaLift is fairly boxy, in order to accommodate all of its passengers and cargo, which along with substandard maneuvering jets makes it about as maneuverable as a brick.
- Large Size: Being almost as large as some small capital ships, the NovaLift is a pretty large target that's hard to miss at short ranges. Its size also means that it takes up a lot of space in a capital ship's hangar, giving it a small squadron size.
The NovaLift is large, heavily armed and armored dropship intended to quickly and safely deliver large amounts of troops and vehicles into hot landing zones. To survive in these condtions, the NovaLift sports double-layered shields with an overcharge mode, thick armor plating, and a handful of active defense turrets. On a more proactive note, the NovaLift is exceptionally well-armed, allowing it to break through many defense lines and provide powerful suppressive fire as it lands to disengorge its payload. The NovaLift is designed to transport a company of troops along with their equipment and vehicles. Dozens of men and a handful of large vehicles can file out of the vehicle in only a few minutes thanks to its multiple large doors and landing ramps. Once its passengers and cargo is dispensed, NovaLifts can either return to their carriers or provide additional fire support based on the situation at hand.
Technical Explanations
Flight Control Systems: While the NovaLift can be piloted by a single person in emergencies, it performs bests with pilot and a co-pilot to handle its sometimes complex load of systems, with the co-pilot often handling communications and navigation. Both stations are set next to each other and are identical, allowing one person to immediately take control of the dropship if the other is killed or disabled. Like other Lucerne Labs designs, most of the pilot's controls are modeled on legacy Incom airspeeder designs and the X-wing. This allows the dropships to easily be piloted by people used to flying those craft. However, the NovaLift also sports several refinements from other Lucerne Labs craft, including an inertial compensator has been integrated into the ship's sensor suite. This allows the field to expand or contract automatically based on stimuli, whether it's a tumultous asteroid or a dovin basal, allowing the many passengers typically carried onboard a smooth ride and not disrupting their cargo. The NovaLift also has five gunners to handle the ship's multitude of weapons, with a gunner in each turret controlling those weapons. The other three gunners sit in the main cabin with the pilots and control their weapons remotely.
Sublight Engines: The NovaLift uses modernized copies of the Unbreakable Engine System, providing it efficient but low levels of speed. Four these engines are mounted on separate gimball mounts which allows some of the engine nozzles to point downwards, providing the ship with a means to levitate in areas where repulsorlifts are unreliable. This system is also used to break the steep falls that many NovaLift pilots prefer to use when making quick orbital insertions. Additionally, the Unbreakable engine's can siphon off excess harvested energy to its HU-OC shield systems, where it is typically used to boost its overshield ability.
Hyperdrive: The NovaLift uses a typical hyperdrive for its size, giving it average performance.
Hull: The NovaLift is a fairly boxy design designed to increase internal volume in order to carry many troops and their equipment. However, it does have some atmospheric stabilizers which almost make it look aerodynamic. A Mirrsteel frame provides the ship with plenty of structural durability while thick layers of Argentum-series Matrix Armor make it fairly durable against most threats.
Shields: The NovaLift is equipped with two HU-OC shield systems, which provides the assault dropship with excellent shield strength at the cost of a slower regeneration rate. Perhaps more importantly, HU-OC's implementation was planned with the introduction of the ship's Unbreakable engine system, allowing the shield system to take full advantage of the shield's ability to form an overshield. This ability is frequently used as the dropships make their final approach to land at hot combatzones, where their risk of getting hit by surface to air fire is the greatest, and where their slowing speed makes them easier targets for other aircraft. Due to the double-layered effect of this shielding, it usually takes sustained fire or heavier ordinance to break through this craft's exceptionally durable shielding.
Weapons: The NovaLift has an exceptional amount of armament designed to allow it to punch through enemy lines to land its passengers and cargo and then if situation permits, provide them additional fire support. The starship's largest weapon is a ventral turbolaser turret, which is typically used to clear landing zones of groups of small enemies or destroy enemy vehicles and structures. These are fairly slow tracking weapons, which limits their air to air use – many times these weapons are locked forward if used in that role. For general use against both ground and air targets, the NovaLift has a pair of chin-mounted Reaper Mag Cannons and wing-tip mounted repeating cannons, both of which are mounted on swiveling mounts. These are most typically used to attack other enemy aircraft making runs on the assault transports or to assist in clearing the ground of infantry and small enemy vehicles. A dorsal turret with a dual repeating laser cannon provides the transport with protection against airborne threats that attempt to attack the transport from up top or the rear. Lastly, the NovaLift does have a pair of forward-facing general purpose warhead launchers, which are usually outfitted with concussion missiles to attack enemy aircraft, ground vehicles, and defensive structures. While NovaLifts do have a fairly good set of fire arcs which cover most approaches towards the transport, they do have a blindspot when approached from behind and below. In order to combat this issue, most NovaLifts fly in staggered formations with other NovaLifts or are accompanied by smaller escorts.
Countermeasures: NovaLifts are equipped with a trio Modular Auxiliary Systems Turrets (MASTs). Two are located in the fore, with one on the dorsal side and the other on the ventral side. The third is located ventral aft to provide some additional protection in its blind weapons firing spot. Typically, MASTs are equipped with sensor jammers or directional particle shields in order to provide additional protection against threats like surface to air missiles as they make their approach in and out of hot zones.
Passenger / Cargo Capacity: The NovaLift is roughly as large as the Y-85 Titan or MT/191 dropship, and thus has a similar payload capacity thanks to its two-deck design. This typically amounts to a company's worth of troops along with their supplies and vehicles. The upper deck resembles that of a typical troop lander, with cramped, spartan rows of seats for troops to sit on during their brief voyage to the ground. The lower deck is significantly taller in order to allow it to carry several large armored vehicles like heavy walkers and tanks. The NovaLift has several large doors to rapidly embark and disembark this payload. Either side has a large sliding door, typically used by its passengers while a large, rear ramp is used to quickly disembark vehicles. The NovaLift also has a ventral sliding door designed to hold a ferrocarbon-tekonite pallet to which heavy vehicles like exceptionally large walkers, tanks, or prefabricated buildings can be lashed to. When the NovaLift lands, this pallet falls through the door, and the NovaLift rises up to leave the vehicle and the pallet (much like Y-85s deposit AT-ATs). It's worth noting that this ventral door can also used to release vehicles midflight that can operate in atmospheres, such as airspeeders or Lucerne Lab's own Balyeg-class Heavy Repulsor Tank.
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