Mauer
Iron Warden
- Intent: A Confederate dropship
- Image: Image | Source: LimonTea
- Canon Link: N/A
- Primary Source: Imperial Dropship Transport, LAAT/i, Trade Federation Dropship, Trandoshan Dropship, Delta-class JV-7 Escort Shuttle
- Manufacturer: Confederacy of Independent Systems
- Model: Tithon Dropship
- Affiliation: The Confederacy
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Durasteel and Armorplast Composite Armor Plating
- Classification: Dropship
- Length: 18 meters
- Width: 38 meters
- Height: 26 meters
- Squadron Count: 8 Unpacked and Ready to Deploy (Low), 12 Packed (Average)
- Laser Cannons (4)
Two bow-mounted laser cannons underneath the cockpit in ball turrets - Two stern-mounted laser cannons in ball turrets
[*]Defoliator Bomb Launcher
- Installed to clear landing zones of organic life, whether that be the environment or hostile, living combatants. The launcher is supplied with (2) Defoliator Bombs.
DEFENSIVE RATING: High
- Hull: Heavy, durasteel and armorplast composite plating
- Shielding: Standard Deflector Shielding System
SPEED RATING: Average
- Ion Drives (2)
- Hyperdrive Class: 2 (Average)
- Backup Hyperdrive Class: 10
- Standard Navigation System
- Standard Communications System
- Standard Sensor Suite
- Slave Circuitry
- Data Goggle Integration or Droidbrain Link-up
- Basic Life Support Systems
Although the dropship is equipped with a basic life support system, most of the pilot and crew are either droids themselves or wear their own personal life support systems. Life support systems were of lower priority, and thus, they are often one of the first systems to be destroyed, de-powered or damaged.
[*]Crew: 1 OOM Pilot Battle Droid, 2 Engineer Battle Droids, 4 OOM Pilot Battle Droid Gunners
[*]Hangar: (Standard Options Listed Below)
- 1 Multi-Troop Transport, 8 Single Trooper Aerial Platforms, 30 B-1 Battle Droids
- 1 Armored Assault Tank, 8 Single Trooper Aerial Platforms, 8 B-2 Super Battle Droid
- 3 Armored Assault Tanks, 8 Single Trooper Aerial Platforms
- 280 B-1 Battle Droids (Packed) with Automated Unpacking System
- Defoliator Bomb Launcher
Ammunition can be exchanged with Weed Cutters with 4 total bombs or Trihexalon with 2 total bombs.
- Stalwart Lander: The first noteworthy aspect of this particular dropship is its special composite armor plating, allowing it to endure a significant amount of punishment. The special armor is comprised of inner ceramic-based armorplast layers with outer durasteel plating, and it efficiently dampens the damage inflicted by kinetic and laser weapons by dispersing the energy throughout the entire hull.
- Defoliator: Aligned with the Confederacy's principle of utilizing droid armies over organic ones, the Tithon Dropship is equipped with two defoliator bombs that it can use to clear landing areas of organic life while leaving mechanical units undamaged.
- Lightly Armed: Due to the vessel's strong armor, the need for heavy weaponry was seen as unnecessary. And so, weapons were reduced to the minimum number of laser cannons so that the vessel could not be completely defenseless.
- Clunky: Maneuverability was also sacrificed, as the vessel was meant to simply serve as a front-line deployment vessel. Although the speed is on-par with other starfighters, it is unable to handle sharp turns or evasive maneuvers at all and is limited to slow parabolic turns or straight forward. Not that it really needs to do otherwise.
Although the Confederacy had access to larger deployment vessels and carriers such as the C-9979 Landing Craft and Diamond-class Cruiser, a smaller and mass-produced troop transport option was not available. And so, the Tithon Dropship was designed by Tithon Designs, a small, yet brilliant Harch think-tank. Approving of the tough and durable design of the AAT and MTT, Tithon Designs decided to mimic the heavy armor vehicles by creating an equally tough dropship. The sizes of comparable dropships were deemed to be too small for the Confederacy's needs, and thus, the size of Tithon Dropship is double of other conventional dropships.
One key feature, other than its bulky armor, was for the dropship to be easy stored like the AAT and MTT, such that it could either be stackable or broken into individual components that could be stored separately and reassembled when needed, also making modular fit-outs logistically simpler and viable. It was eventually decided that the latter would the appropriate course of action, and thus, the two side wings and the main cargo hold are able to be detached and reattached. C-9979 Landing Craft can be modified accordingly, so that its staging area can reassemble Tithon Dropships from these components (main body, main cargo hold, and two side wings) and deploy them quickly on the field.
Each of the two side wings are able to hold up to 20 B-1 Battle Droids or 4 Single Trooper Aerial Platforms (or the same number of other similarly sized droids or speeders). The main cargo hold can house 80 organic soldiers, 280 packed B-1 Battle Droids, 3 Armored Assault Tanks or other medium sized vehicles, 1 Multi-Troop Transport or large vehicle, or finally, any mixed combination of organic soldiers, droids, and vehicles.
All in all, the Tithon Dropship is a cheap, easily mass-produced, and simple design that sacrifices superior systems in exchange for sheer efficiency.
