Charkarr Heavy Shuttle

Class
 Owned By
* Resherani Farzoneh
* Enfali Tragat
 Produced By
 Availability
 Role
 Width
 Height
 Speed
 Hyperdrive Rating
 Armaments

## Description:

The Charkarr is a design by TransGalMeg intended to fill the role of heavy shuttle, and takes its name from a flying species
 native to Kashyyyk. Theoretically it's a good addition to the
complement of an exploration ship, but with TransGalMeg's usual customer
 base being somewhat less reputable, it's also theoretically good for
mercenaries and smalltime smugglers. The Charkarr has a number of
interesting features, but none of them are ultra expensive, or at the
bleeding edge of technology. Instead the design favors tried and true
methods, and puts emphasis on keeping things simple and hard to break.
If a Corellian light freighter is the kind of ship that'll get you past
the heaviest blockade in one piece, then the Charkarr is the kind of
ship that'll get you on the ground and back off again, even after taking
 heavy abuse.

The frame of the Charkarr is made out of duranium
 for its durability. Specifically around the cockpit, and the aft
compartment, it forms a cage like structure enhancing the ability of the
 main body of the ship to keep going after a hit, and and not suffer
from catastrophic structural failure. Over the frame are plates of
reinforced duraplast,
 primarily intended to take advantage of the ion and EMP protection
offered by the material. The level of protection against ion weaponry,
is enough to allow the Charkarr to resist the effects of ion based small
 arms. It can also resist the effects of light and medium ion cannons,
although they will deplete the shields, and start to do damage as a
result of cumalitve hits. Only around the cockpit and aft compartment
are the plates thick enough to provide some of the other advantages the
material is known for. The whole of the craft is proofed against most
kinetic small arms fire, save for areas like the engines where a good
shot will still do some damage. The panels over the shroud rotors are
particularly vulnerable, having to be thinner by necessity, and a large
caliber rifle, or continuous fire from a machine gun will rip them
apart. Additionally anti-matériel rifles will still be able to punch
through many portions of the ship, save the areas around the cockpit and
 aft compartment.

Only the cockpit and aft compartment are protected better, able to
resist heavy machine guns, and some smaller RPG's. But against dedicated
 AA/AT weapons, mass drivers, anything heavier in the kinetic category,
heavy ion weaponry, and all levels of sonic weaponry the Charkarr is as
vulnerable as any other ship. Likewise without its ray shields, it fairs
 poorly against energy weaponry, even small arms, due to to the
treatment and reinforcement used to make the duraplast better against
ion weaponry. Against something like a lightsaber trying to cut through a
 section of the ship, it'll go through like a hot knife through butter
except for sections of the duranium frame which *might* take slightly longer to get through.

The windows are made of ceraglass
 rated against small arms fire, save for anti-matériel rifles, dedicated
 machine gun fire, and energy weapons. The designers of the Charkarr
consider the cockpit to easy to compromise compared to the aft
compartment, and thus discarded the idea of using it as an escape pod
early in the design. All in all the ship is too small to really have a
dedicated escape pod, but the aft compartment can serve as something of a
 lifeboat as it contains the life support systems, and in case the
cockpit is compromised, limited control of the rear can be gained by
accessing the display on the starboard just inside the aft compartment.
This limited level of control includes access to an emergency beacon,
the repulsors on the bottom of the main body, and some of the ships
maneuvering jets. the aft compartment isn't invincible however, as a
bubble window extends over the area where it attaches to the cockpit,
which also acts an escape hatch should the loading ramp become stuck or
blocked.

The interior
 of the ship is divided between the aft compartment and the cockpit. The
 cockpit has seating for two, the pilot and copilot, and can be sealed
off from the aft compartment. The HUD isn't especially fancy, simply a
holographic display over the windows. The graphics of the display are
incredibly basic, two dimensional, and look like they came out of the
Galactic Civil War. Most all aspects of flying the Charkarr are aided in
 some way by the droid brain, but the pilot can change the level of aid,
 allowing more experienced pilots a greater degree of control if they so
 choose.

The aft compartment has seating for nine, with four seats along both
starboard and port sides. Above the seats are racks that allow for
passengers to store their gear, and additional equipment. The ninth seat
 is on the starboard side, and is front of the display that allows
access to emergency controls. When not being used for such a purpose the
 display can be tied in to the ship's visual sensors, and allows for
direct communication with the cockpit section should it be sealed off
from the aft. Depending on the needs of the owner, the aft compartment
can easily be covered into a bunk area for one or two, or a dedicated
cargo compartment.

Access is normally granted via the rear of the ship where a large ramp
 is. The entirey of the interior is sealed against the vacuum of space,
and the ship can carry enough consumables to allow a single occupant to
utilize it for two weeks continuously. Via converting the aft
compartment into more of a living space for the pilot this can be
extended to a month. The ship has an old school landing gear setup so it
 can still be moved around even if the repulsors are offline for
whatever reason. As far as accommodations go, the ship is pretty
spartan. It has a basic life support system, artificial gravity,
seating, and what have you. But it's not going to be filtering the air
to perfect, and adding in lavender scented micro-particles.

The Charkarr is only armed with a single gun, due the energy needs of
the shield and engine systems. The engines in particular take up a lot
of power to move the small, heavy, ship around. Owners are mostly
discouraged from trying to modify these systems, as it will have a
negative effect on the energy distribution, but some small ones are
possible. Particularly the rotary blaster could be replaced with a
slugthrower design of equivalent size, but the ship cannot be
significantly upgunned, get better shields, or better engines with
serious re-engineering.

In general many of the ships systems function on par with galactic
standards, and TransGalMeg has gone out of its way to avoid using
complicated or expensive parts. This allows the Charkarr to easily be
repaired, even by those that tend to stay on the fringes of space.
Maintenance work is rather easy, even for those who aren't mechanically
gifted. This comes at the cost of performance in some areas,
particularly the hyperdrive which can only manage 5.0. This in turn
limits the range of the Charkarr, as it takes longer to go even shorter
distances. The shuttle shouldn't travel nonstop from point A to B over
long distances, but should make several stops along the way to avoid
overtaxing the engine.

The Charkarr's stealth systems are less designed to totally hide the
ship from any and all sensors, but more to reduce its profile on the
more common and average ones. The shuttle can easily get lost in heavy
traffic, or in the middle of a battlefield, which is nice when you're
trying to get away or dropping people/stuff in a hot zone.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Charkarr are its shroud rotors,
which almost seem like an anachronism among the high tech ion drives and
 repulsors. But the ducted fans offer benefits that TGM felt warranted
their inclusion. Key among them is that the rotors are unaffected by the
 effects of repulsorlift jammers, don't set off repulsor sensors, allow
the repulsors to focus on keeping the ship in the air as opposed to
moving it around, and allow for a greater level of movement in
situations where the the maneuvering thrusters would be overkill. The
fans themselves are a weakpoint in the design however and focused fire
(even from heavier small arms) will damage, and possibly destroy them.

But overall the Charkarr is a rugged design. It's able to take a good
deal of punishment, doesn't require a large logistical investment,
making it easy for a single person not looking for a starfighter or
light freighter to take care of. Depending on sales, TGM is considering a
 gunship variant for dedicated military use at some point in the future.