swan2swan wrote:Venator wrote:Weedle McHairybug wrote:Good work on that scaling regarding the various ground vehicles (plus the Chi-class heavy dropship and Lambda-class T-4a shuttle). I must admit, though... I wonder how that All-Terrain Siege Platform is going to fit in the dropship?
Far be it from me to impose on FS's canon, but I could personally see some kind of carryall clamp on a lander just dropping them straight into action.
The logistics of loading bay height would be a pain, however.
Considering the fact that Gozanti freighters are capable of carrying two AT-AT walkers on their undercarriages, I'd say that monster there would be more than capable.
Also, an AT-SP would probably be loaded into a more dedicated transport vessel than an ISD. Maybe some of them could sit aboard the Executor, but I'm guessing that these things would be the sorts of monsters a general would have to order weeks ahead of a campaign. You don't pull these things out when you want to hit a common Rebel installation or respond to a planetary crisis, you bring them out when you intend to crack a fortress world, secure a major operations site, or end an assault that has been raging on one of your worlds for a month. In those situations, you ask the nearest Grand Admiral to dispatch the
Deathbringer from deepdock, he gives the command and the transport is loaded up with three AT-SPs and the landing craft, she males her rendezvous with the fleet, the Star Destroyers dispatch AT-ATs and Juggernauts for escort and uses their bombers to clear the landing zone, the three AT-SPs make landfall, and thus the real battle begins.
I think that's broadly correct. The Chi can load 8xAT-AT, and they can all walk off. The AT-SP is a very specialized vehicle. There's no currently known ISD variant that can take that kind of vehicle. For that matter, there is no known ISD variant that can unload an A6 Juggernaut. Anything much taller than an AT-AT has to use specialized transport.
AT-SPs, because of their monumentally low tactical mobility, are essentially old I-tanks. They waddle up at roughly the speed of infantry and crush fortifications. They also shrug off lighter vehicle attacks, allowing for an under-shield bridgehead to be expanded and not simply hurled back by waves of defending skimmers or the like. The walkers are so immobile that they do need dedicated transport. I think a variant of the Titan dropship can be made to carry an AT-SP, but it would only be able to deploy from things like the Consolidator/
Evakmar or Impellor. AT-SPs might be carried by Acclamator variants, but the entire ship itself is the dropship.
So there's a need for a big dedicated dropship to handle AT-SPs, and a smaller carry-all to re-position the smaller walkers quickly. Bonus points if the carryall can itself walk under a shield (dual configuration a la Vulture fighter droid). Hmmm....that gives me an idea