Unreviewed Skarnath-class Sith Legion Lander Mk. I

[Darth Prazutis]

• Intent: To create a heavy Sith legion lander for the Kainate capable of delivering full strength assault elements into contested landing zones while tanking incredible fire and providing brutal close support.
• Image Source:
  
  • Click - ChatGPT by Me
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer:
  
  • Malsheem Hypernautics and Manufacturing
• Affiliation:
  
  • The Kainate
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Skarnath-class Sith Legion Lander Mk. I
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  
  • Alchemized Sarrassian Iron
  • Bloodwrought Plating
  • Bloodpane
  • Crucivane Hull Frame
  • Blackcore Laminate Hull Liner
  • Umbricore Hull Liner
  • Sith Blackstone Crystalline Reinforcement

• Classification: Legion Assault Dropship
• Length: 46 Meters
• Width: 34 Meters
• Height: 16 Meters
• Armament: High
  
  • Twin Abyssal Lash Cannons Mk. I [1] (Fore Port-Mounted)
  • Twin Abyssal Lash Cannons Mk. I [1] (Fore Starboard-Mounted)
  • Twin Qorrak Heavy Lash Cannons Mk. I [1] (Chin-Mounted)
  • Twin Abyssal Lash Cannons Mk. I [1] (Aft Port-Mounted)
  • Twin Abyssal Lash Cannons Mk. I [1] (Aft Starboard-Mounted)
  • Shriekfang Swarm Pods Mk. I [1] (Port-Mounted)
  • Shriekfang Swarm Pods Mk. I [1] (Starboard-Mounted)
  • Hexpulse Point Defense Spines Mk. I [2] (Dorsal-Fuselage)
  • Hexpulse Point Defense Spines Mk. I [2] (Ventral-Fuselage)
  • Painwave Emitter Mk. I [2] (Fore-Mounted)
  • Painwave Emitter Mk. I [1] (Aft-Mounted)
• Defenses: Very High
  
  • Aegis of Shadows Shield Generator Mk. I
  • Nullheart Core Mk. I
  • Reinforced Bloodwrought Plating
  • Gravebind Hull Mesh Mk. I
  • Bloodlock Transponder Mk. I
  • Specterfield Null Mantle Mk. I
  • Carrion-Key Counter-Mechu Hardening Mk. I
  • Black Veil Egress Weave Mk. I
  • Bloodshroud Veil Projector Mk. I
• Squadron Count: Low (8 per Squadron)
• Maneuverability Rating: Average
• Speed Rating: Average
• Hyperdrive: Yes (Class 0.33)

• Sith Life Support Grid: The Skarnath's life support spine is built to keep a packed troop bay combat-effective, not just alive. Layered Sarcostel life webbing, particulate scrubbers, and battlefield toxin filters keep air clean even when the ramp drops into burning cities or chemical-saturated trenches. Pressure buffers and grav-cushioning ensure embarked legionaries can ride out brutal evasive maneuvers in armor without blacking out or vomiting into their helmets.
• Legion-Scale Troop Bay Architecture: The central bay is a long, armored cavern designed to swallow entire forces and their kit. Staggered deck-plates, overhead harness rails, and crush-resistant anchor-points keep 100+ armored Sith legionaries locked in place until ramp release. Shock-absorbing Spall-Quench lining and Gravebind-backed bulkheads bleed off blast and shrapnel, turning what should be a kill box into a survivable staging deck even under artillery and flak impact.
• Modular Interior Conversion System: The Skarnath's mission bay is a cavernous, alchemically adaptive compartment built to reshape its interior architecture on demand. Rail-mounted bulkheads, retractable decks, suspended load-gantries, and rune-keyed floor plates allow the lander to reconfigure itself between several operational modes, each designed to support a different arm of the Kainate War Machine:
  
  • Assault / Legion Lift Configuration: The standard mass-deployment mode, optimized for delivering overwhelming infantry force into a hostile LZ.
    
    • Carries up to 144 Sith legionaries in secured shock-racks.
    • Wall-mounted arms lockers, void-sealed wargear racks, and armor recharge stations.
    • Overhead grav-slings accommodate 12 speeder bikes, jump sleds, or light scout skiffs.
    • Bay geometry narrows into assault lanes that guide troops straight toward the ramp under cover of the Bloodshroud.
    • This mode is the beating heart of the Skarnath's identity: Pure, brutal mass insertion.
  • B. Armor Spearhead Configuration: Designed for mechanized shock assaults where infantry must follow armor into fortified terrain. Bay expands into two reinforced armor lanes, each with collapsible gantry hooks and magno-clamps.
    
    • Can carry:
      
      • 2 Heavy walkers, or
      • 1 Heavy tank + 1 Medium walker, or
      • 3 Medium vehicles (APCs, IFVs, siege crawlers, etc.)
    • Remaining infantry capacity: up to 72 legionaries, embedded as the vehicle's escort element.
    • Gantries brace vehicles against turbulence, hard insertions, and hover-drop impacts.
    • This mode turns the lander into a mechanized fist, dropping armor and troops in the same heartbeat.
  • C. Heavy Logistics / Siege Freight Configuration: The Skarnath becomes a rolling war-flooder instrumental in conveying war material to the battlefield. Deck plates flatten into continuous freight lanes with locking rails.
    
    • Designed to carry:
      
      • 500-650 metric tons of munitions, prefabs, barricades, or siege components.
      • Field power cores, shield generators, prefab command bunkers, or breach engines.
    • Rune-braced stanchions prevent cargo drift during re-entry or evasive maneuvers.
    • Minimal personnel: 12-24 logistics crew / loader troopers.
    • This is how the Kainate builds staging areas, beachheads in minutes instead of hours.
  • D. Heavy Armor Command / Mobile Strongpoint Configuration: For planetary invasions or entrenched operations. The bay converts into a hybrid command-and-armor hub.
    
    • Can carry:
      
      • 1 Super-heavy walker, or
      • 1 Siege tank, or
      • 2 Heavy tanks.
    • Rear half of the bay becomes a forward command node with:
      
      • Tactical holotables
      • Whisperstone-linked comms spines
      • Medical alcoves
      • Theater coordination consoles
    • Escort space remains for 20-30 legionaries.
    • This is the mode the Kainate lands when the planet's resistance is about to end.
  • E. Command / Support Hub Configuration: The mobile brain of a battlefield. Bay reshapes into a rolling tactical command post.
    
    • Features:
      
      • Ritual-grade holo-dais
      • Shadow Mind-compatible comms
      • Medical triage niches
      • Drone coordination pits
      • Barracks alcoves for a reduced escort
    • Capacity: 24-32 elite personnel, including command staff and specialists.
    • Often used for:
      
      • Sith warlords
      • Legion command teams
      • Forward operational nodes
    • This is the mode that carries the generals, overseers, and ritual tacticians.
  • F. Massive Vehicle / Walker Deployment Configuration: The bay expands into a single enormous, armored cavity.
    
    • Can carry:
      
      • 1 Massive walker, or
      • 2-3 Siege-grade heavy crawlers, or
      • A full multi-carriage artillery system
    • Ramp deployment is reinforced with:
      
      • Heavy-lift thrusters
      • Hydraulic anti-crush braces
      • Exterior anchoring claws
    • Escort: 12-18 legionaries, typically engineers or walker crew.
    • This configuration is for when the Kainate wants the enemy to see the thing walking off the ramp and lose the will to fight.
• Reinforced Drop-Ramp & Dread-Umbilicals: The Skarnath's primary ramp is a slab of armor backed by shock-hinges and blast-baffles, able to shrug indirect hits and still cycle. Flanking the ramp are dread-umbilical ports, armored docking collars that can clamp directly onto fortress breaches, starship hull rents, or hardened doors, allowing troops to storm straight into enemy structures under cover. Thermal curtains and breach seals at the lip of the ramp keep hostile atmospheres and vacuum outside until the moment of assault.
• Assault-Grade VTOL Repulsor Grid: A massively overbuilt Umbral Grav-Repulsion array and vectored ion thruster web give the Skarnath the ability to hover and translate laterally while fully loaded with armor and troops. It can brake hard into hot LZs, hover over uneven terrain, or "sit" in the mouths of canyons and urban killboxes while disgorging its bay, its lift envelope is tuned for weight, not elegance.
• Integrated Flight Stabilization & Hard-Impact Dampers: The lander's control lattice uses bloodsteel-threaded auto-trim actuators, micro-thrusters, and occult-balanced reaction wheels to keep the hull steady even during brutal atmospheric insertion or while taking fire. Internal hard-impact dampers and floor-run grav-cushions soften touchdown shocks and near-miss concussions so that troops can hit the ground running instead of staggering out of the bay.
• Sith Communications & LZ Coordination Array: A hardened, whisperstone-backed comms spine links the Skarnath to carrier groups, ground commanders, other landers, and close-air assets. The lander can act as a local LZ coordination node, integrating drone feed, orbital overwatch, and legion telemetry to assign lanes, deconflict drops, and coordinate supporting fire from gunships and bombers as troops hit dirt.
• Sith Navigation & Insertion Plotter: Its navigation system blends standard nav data with dark-augury insertion plotting, mapping kill-zones, flak fields, SAM envelopes, and terrain chokepoints in real time. For void drops, it computes re-entry corridors and burn profiles that minimize exposure; for atmospheric runs, it picks low-level ingress routes that hug terrain and mask under clutter, delivering troops where the enemy least wants them.
• Reinforced Sensor & Threat Mapping Suite: A large-aperture sensor block sweeps ground, air, and void space for AA emplacements, armor concentrations, massed infantry, and battlefield sorcery. The data is pushed straight into troop HUDs and internal tacticals, painting exit vectors, danger arcs, and rally points before the ramp even drops. The Skarnath doesn't just deliver forces, it tells them where to hit first.
• Magno-Clamp Undercarriage & External Carriage Spines: Heavy-duty magno-clamps and armored underslung spines allow the Skarnath to carry external armor elements, walkers, tanks, or prefabricated strongpoints, on its belly or flanks when doctrine demands it. These clamps are braced against recoil and re-entry stress, allowing the lander to slam into atmosphere hauling additional war machines without shearing them off.
• Data Blackout & Malediction Lattice: If capture becomes likely, the Skarnath's lattice can purge mission logs, troop manifests, and Shadow Mind telemetry in a cascading dark-side burn. Consoles misreport, cores slag, and encrypted bloodlocks fuse. Any would-be salvager walks into a poisoned machine maze rather than a prize; the transport's secrets die with it.
• Atmospheric Entry & Sealing System: Layered ablative plating, re-entry hardening, and adaptive seals allow the Skarnath to punch through ion storms, ash clouds, burning atmospheres, or chemical haze and still arrive drop ready. Once in LZ hover, environmental seals lock down until the Bloodshroud blooms and the ramp cycles, ensuring the hostile outside stays out until the exact moment of assault.
• Structural Blast Baffles & Spall-Quench Troop Protection: Internal bulkheads, angled baffles, and spall-quench liners are arranged specifically to protect the troop bay from below and frontal blasts, the directions most likely to be hit during approach and landing. Fragment and overpressure are directed away from racks and staging lanes, increasing the odds that a packed platoon survives the landing long enough to fight.
• Emergency Egress Runes & Crash Survival Protocols: In catastrophic scenarios, engines crippled, shields collapsing, the lander's egress runes auto-fire: sealing compartments, dropping crash harnesses, deploying inert gas against fires, and aligning internal structure to keep as much of the troop bay intact as possible. Even in a "hard arrival", hatches and ramps prioritize a controlled blowout path so survivors can spill into cover rather than die in a sealed coffin.

• Control & Pilot Integration Systems:
  
  • Bloodpane Spectral HUD and Strike Scriptor Mk. I
  • Pain Link Coordination Suite Mk. I
  • Wraith Command Casket Mk. I (Lander Variant)
  • Oblivion Cortex Relay Mk. I
  • Wraith Sense Threat Processing Unit Mk. I
  • Malediction Co-Processor "Familiar" Core Mk. I
  • Nightfang Targeting Visor Mk. I
  • Trazkhaal Harmonizer Mk. I
  • Vrahlgeist Symbiote Node Mk. I
  • Shadow Mind Auxiliary Control Core Mk. I
  • Graveslit Aligner Mk. I
• Cybersecurity Systems:
  
  • Vyraksh Ward Casket Mk. I
  • Noctucrypt Mindveil Network Mk. I
  • Mazkyr Anomaly Scrambler Node Mk. I
  • Ironveil Ghost Cortex Mk. I
  • Pyrekhaz Containment Halo Mk. I
  • Eclipsion Seal Protocol Mk. I
  • Ravager Loop Inflection Trap Mk. I
• Electronic Warfare & Disruption Systems:
  
  • Nazrûl Disruption Core Mk. I
  • Nightshatter Field Disruptor Mk. I
  • Runesliver Harmonics Array Mk. I
  • Reaper Shroud Countermeasure Suite Mk. I
  • Shadow-Phase Countermeasure Suite Mk. I
• Habitation & Crew Quarters Systems:
  • Noctuary Modular Quarters Mk. I
• Life Support Systems:
  
  • Sarcostel Life Preservation System Mk. I
• Networking & Sensor Systems:
  
  • Ebon Psicom Array Mk. I
  • Nether Eye Combat Sight Network Mk. I
  • Shadowlink Omni-Resolution Array Mk. I
  • Sovereign Link Command Array Mk. I
• Power, Biology, & Dark Systems:
  
  • Soulfire Reactor Node Mk. I
  • Hemophage Conductor Web Mk. I
  • Onslaught Surge Drive Mk. I
  • Fleshcoil Maintenance Web Mk. I
  • Gloomcore Thermal Dissipation Grid Mk. I
  • Scream-Sink Resonance Dampers Mk. I
  • Ashen Seal Isolation Grid Mk. I
• Propulsion & Hyperdrive Systems:
  
  • Voidflare Ion Engines Mk. II
  • Eclipse Pattern Maneuvering Jets Mk. I
  • Nightcloak Emissions Veil Mk. I
  • Umbral Grav-Repulsion Grid Mk. I
• Psychological Warfare Systems:
  
  • Fear Broadcast Projector Mk. I
• Support & Recovery Systems:
  
  • Bone-Latch Recovery Hooks and Void-Sled Skids Mk. I
• Weapons & Ordnance Systems:
  
  • Bloodhail Ordnance Conductor Mk. I
  • Nightcoil Vector Matrix Mk. I

• Legion Scale Lift Capacity: In its Assault / Legion Lift and Armor Spearhead configurations, the Skarnath can move an entire strike platoon (Up to 144 Sith legionaries) plus bikes, sleds, or walkers, or pivot into hauling 500+ metric tons of war materiel in Heavy Logistics mode.
• Assault Fire Support Platform: With multiple Abyssal Lash cannon mounts, a chin-mounted Qorrak heavy lash cannon, dorsal and ventral Hexpulse point defense spines, and Shriekfang swarm pods, the Skarnath doesn't just deliver troops, it actively shapes the LZ with direct fire, suppression, and anti-missile coverage.
• Breach & Foothold Specialist: Dread-umbilicals, ramp fields, Crucible Sunder Charges, and the Bloodshroud Veil / obscuration systems let the lander punch into hardened LZs, crack defenses, and give disembarking troops a moving wall of cover and chaos instead of a naked, exposed ramp.
• Fortress Grade Protection: Bloodwrought Plating, Crucivane framing, Gravebind internal mesh, high-tier shielding, and Nullheart-style decay fields make the Skarnath extremely difficult to swat out of the sky, especially during the most vulnerable phase, final approach and offload.
• Modular Interior Conversion System: The bay doesn't lock the lander into one job; by shifting to Assault, Armor Spearhead, Heavy Logistics, or Command / Support modes, it can be re-tasked between campaigns instead of requiring multiple hull types for each role.
• Doctrinal Integration with the Shadow Armada: Shadow Mind linked control, Kainate standard comms, and compatibility with Sith systems mean the Skarnath plugs directly into established Sith battle doctrine, coordinating with Xarûl/Gorvahn screens and Velakorr strikes as a natural part of a larger kill-chain.

• Large, Obvious Target: Even with its defenses, the Skarnath is a big target compared to starfighters; once it commits to an LZ, most will concentrate AA, ion, and heavy fire on it. It expects to be shot at.
• Escort & Suppression Dependent: The lander is designed to arrive under a prepared umbrella, fighter cover, and gunship support. If committed without that support, it can be overwhelmed by interceptors, massed SAMs, or clustered AA before it can offload.
• Heavy Handling / Limited in Tight Terrain: Its mass and footprint make it poorly suited for tight urban canyons, dense forests, or confined landing zones. In marginal terrain, it's forced to set down farther from the objective and rely on its passengers or attached vehicles to close the distance.
• Force Nullification: While subject to Force Nullification, many of its signature edges degrade, Painwave suppression, Nullheart optimizations, and veil-logic lose bite, leaving it "only" as a very tough conventional lander.
• High Maintenance & Ritual Overhead: The Skarnath's layered alchemy, veil systems, and integrated dark tech demand specialized Kainate technicians and industrial systems.

The Skarnath-class Sith Legion Lander was born from a core strategic reality of the Kainate: a legion is meaningless if it cannot reach the battlefield intact, together, and terrifying. Gunships strike. Fighters contest. Bombers annihilate. But the Skarnath delivers the war itself. Developed in the forges of Malsheem under the direction of the Shadow Hand to create a lander fit to deliver the Kainate's forces to battle, the Skarnath was engineered by the Shadow Mind to replace the patchwork of aging transports and improvised assault craft that had long plagued the Shadow Armada. The directive was absolute, create a lander capable of hurling large amounts of forces onto a hostile world under fire, sustaining them through the breach, and lifting off again to repeat the devastation elsewhere. The result is a vessel that feels less like a spacecraft and more like a descending siege engine.

The Skarnath's body is built around a Crucivane hull frame wrapped in Bloodwrought Plating and reinforced internally by Gravebind Mesh, allowing it to shrug off concentrated anti-air fire long enough to complete its mission. Layered shielding folds across its surface in patterned arcs of Sith geometry, strengthened further by a Nullheart decay lattice that erodes incoming kinetics and energy as they approach. The lander does not evade threats, it endures them, burns through them, and lands anyway. During the descent, the Skarnath establishes battlefield dominance through overwhelming firepower: Twin Abyssal Lash Cannons, a chin-mounted Qorrak Heavy Lash Cannon, rear guns for extraction assaults, and dorsal and ventral Hexpulse defense webs.

At the core of the vessel lies the Modular Interior Conversion System, the engine of its adaptability. Instead of a single intended use, the Skarnath's mission bay reshapes itself through rail-mounted bulkheads, retractable platforms, and alchemically keyed floor plates. In its assault configuration, it maximizes troop density and ready-rack layout to carry up to 144 Sith legionaries with arms lockers, recharge stations, and grav-slung racks for speeder bikes or sleds. Armor spearhead mode widens the floor into reinforced lanes designed to lift medium walkers or light tanks, while still carrying a close-support escort of seventy-two infantry.

For large-scale supply operations, the bay transforms into a hardened cargo deck capable of transporting over five hundred metric tons of munitions, prefabs, siege gear, or field generators. In command and support configuration, a section of the bay becomes a forward command node outfitted with holo-tables, comms spines, medical alcoves, and tactical coordination stations, while preserving enough space for a compact but elite protective escort. These conversions are not conveniences, they are the embodiment of Kainate doctrine: A legion's transport must be its own lifeline, reinforcement, and foothold in hostile territory.

The Skarnath's descent is a doctrine of terror in its own right. True to the Kainate's philosophy of atmospheric dominance, the lander deploys the Bloodshroud Veil Projector, drowning its landing zone in a rolling crimson-black fog that blinds enemy sensors and reduces hostile sightlines to mere guesswork. Beneath this manufactured storm, Painwave Emitters and the Dreadfall ramp field destabilize enemy coordination and create a fifteen-to-twenty-meter suppression bubble in which Sith legionaries emerge as silhouettes of death. Combined with the vessel's brutal firepower, the Skarnath turns its landing zone into a screaming, disoriented kill-field before any boots touch the ground.

Integrated into the Shadow Mind infrastructure of its carrier and battlegroup, the Skarnath operates as part of a seamless kill-chain. Velakorr tactical bombers rake the landing zone. Gorvahn heavy fighters crush interceptors and air-defense platforms. Nyctophage clouds harass and tear down SAM nests from above. Once the battlefield has been reduced to a smoking ruin, the Skarnath descends through fire and turbulence, delivering the infantry, walkers, war machines, and supplies necessary to secure the breach and expand the foothold.

The Skarnath is not subtle. It is not elegant. It is the lander that appears when a world is meant to fall. It drives through ion storms, artillery curtains, and psychic shockwaves with equal indifference. It hits the ground like a hammer, disgorges a black tide of Sith soldiers and armored war engines, and lifts off shrouded in fog and flame, already searching for its next drop zone. Where the Skarnath lands, the Kainate arrives in full.