T5 Nightshade-class Stealth Transport
(Caption: the T5 as it would appear without it's stealth armor).
Name/Type: T5 Nightshade-class Light Transport
Designer/Manufacturer: Kashan Defence Industries
Combat Role: Long-range Stealth Transport
Crew: 1 + 1 astromech Droid
Length: 16 Meters
Speed: 70 MGLT, 900 Kph (120 MGLT with SAS)
Acceleration: 16 MGLT/s
Maneuverability: 90 DPF
Hyperdrive: x0.6
Shield Rating: 100 SBD
Hull Rating: 50 RU
Weapons: 3 Front Fire-linked KDI C-L7.4 Laser Cannons, 2 KDI D-R4.2 Shadow Torpedo Launchers, 1 Hull-Cutting Ring.
Passengers: 12
Cargo Space: 25 Metric Tons.
Other: Partial Vanish 2 Sensor Mask, SAS.
Description: The T5 Nightshade-class Light Transport is the first KDI stealth transport, designed for use by the highest special units within the Coalition. It is a slender, sleek vessel with lines reminiscent of many high-speed starfighters. However, unlike those craft, the T5 is designed to infiltrate enemy planets, ships, and facilities. And to this end, the Nightshade is equipped with top-of-the-line stealth technology developed by Kashan Defence Industries, including a new development utilizing Di-crome. Knowledge of the craft is limited to the upper levels of the Kashan Defence Forces, Kashan Defence Industries, and the highest echelons of the Coalition. Those who use and work on the craft are sworn to secrecy about it’s existence. Officially, the T5 does not exist at all.
R&D explanations (O.O.C.)
Engines: The Nightshade carries four fusial-thrust ion drives in the rear of the fuselage. Because of the arrangement and computer coordination, they actually work like a Quad Ion engine, giving the ship exceptional maneuverability, speed, and redundancy for its size.
Because stealth was a key concern in designing the craft, the normal ambient glow of the engines could not exist to prevent its detection. As such, the engine’s exhaust, controlled by electromagnetic plates, is actually channeled through several areas to both the disperse the ion trail and leave no engine glow with which to visually trace the craft. Like the Deathsaber Mk II, the transport incorporates many more smaller vents to vent the exhaust quicker,in smaller amounts, and over a wider area. As such, the smaller and diluted amounts of the trail disperse in the stellar wind in a matter of milliseconds. This ensures that there is no ion drive trail with which to detect or follow the craft.
Kashan Hyperdrive: The Hyperdrive found on the Nightshade is derived from that of the Acclamator-class Military Transport. While the design team did not have an actual Acclamator hyperdrive available to them, they did have several engineers and mechanics who worked on them during the Clone Wars. To the best of their abilities, it was reconstructed. Nonetheless, it still was slower than that of the Acclamators. In the end, the hyperdrive’s rating was raised to Acclamator levels by brute force engineering. It was modified to accept more power. In order to prevent the engine from overheating and melting, it was made with Dallorian Alloy and given an advanced cyro-cooling system.
Shield Rating: KDI took great pains to make the craft easily fixable if the craft was damaged on a hostile world. As such, the ship’s shield generators (like many of the ships systems) are not KDI equipment at all, but rather exact copies of CEC parts used in their YT-series in order to allow the ship to be easilier repaired.
Airframe: Like other KDI craft, the Nightshade uses a unique construction meant to improve its atmospheric qualities. Part of this is met by the use of a Ferrocarbon-Carbon airframe. Ferrocaron is used to build the initial airframe and is then laminated with multiple carbon fibers, which heavily reinforces the frame, making it structurally sound even in high-g maneuvers that would be impossible for other ships or airspeeders to perform.
Stealth: Stealth is the Nightshade’s key advantage over other craft and it’s best defence against it’s foes. The Nightshade’s stealth is based on that developed for the Kashan Stealth Fighters. The Transprot has been equipped with cutting edge stealth technology that ranges from Kashan designed stealth armor to devices manufactured originally by Fabritech. Combined with the ship’s non-angular hull, these systems make the craft all but invisible to any sensor system around; except the careful watching of an organic eye.
Passive Stealth Armor
The T5 is completely plated with Nutorium-Neuranium Reactive Composite Armor. Each plate is made by liquefying the metals with ion fusers and flash-freezing it by the vacuum of space or any number of cooling agents. This process makes the metal abnormally dense and therefore stronger. Nutorium, which makes up 93% of the armor, is a specialized hull plating material that was developed to defeat sensors systems, allowing a ship to move about with relative stealth (CUSWE). On the S9, when Nutorium was liquefied, it was bombarded by Neuranium particles for added protection and stealth. Neuranium is one of the heaviest, densest metals found in the galaxy. Some gravity-sensitive species claimed to be able to feel a small warping of the space-time fabric of gravity when close to a large piece of neuranium. Among its most useful properties was the fact that even a millimeter-thick piece of neuranium was impervious to sensors (CUSWE). Unfortunately, Neuranium is also relatively heavy, which in turn reduced the vessel’s speed. As such, only a minimal amount for its effects was used on the Nightshade. For increased strength, the backs of the plates facing into the craft are laminated with carbon fibers for increased durability and tensile strength.
Unlike all Kashan Stealth Starfighters, the T5 does not use either reflec or a gloss paint to disguise the craft. These two previous methods are very effective in space as things moves, but not at all useful in disguising a craft in the atmosphere which the T5’s design required. Instead, it completely plated with a thick overlay of Di-crome: this reflective material is often used on camouflage coverings, such as tents and shelters. When inert, a fabric impregnated with di-crome reflects all light around it. When electrically charged, however, the di-crome coating absorbs ambient light. The fabric then appears to take on an exact duplicate of the environment around it, blending in and becoming almost imperceptible (CUSWE). As such, the T5 is exceptionally difficult to detect visually in any environment, and combined with the other stealth systems of the craft, is rather hard to detect at all.
For concealment purposes, all viewports and canopies on the transport have external retractable di-crome plating for camouflaged use. While these are extended, passengers and crew can still fly the craft by navigation via sensors and holo-projectors. Otherwise, the dark canopy of the transport is covered in nano-Nutorium-Neuranium threads, making it as effective in stealth as the rest of the craft.
Vanish 2 Sensor Mask: This sensors countermeasure was developed and manufactured by Fabritech, this device combined electromagnetic and holographic transmissions to "hide" a starship from most sensors. This device didn't absorb sensor beams but, rather, disrupted them by sending back information on the environment surrounding a starship. The Vanish 2 made a ship virtually disappear by sending back sensor data about the starfield around it (CUSWE). The Vanish 2 system is always engaged to enhance the ship’s already formidable stealth properties. The main benefit to the T5 compared to its other systems is its ability to disguise the energy readings from raised shields and powered up weapons. Kashan personnel did not see the benefits of using holographic transmissions to visually disguise the craft because of its armor. As such, in order to conserve power and space, the holographic overlay normally in the Vanish 2 has been omitted when in use by the S9.
Weapons:
KDI C-L7.4 Laser Cannon: The KDI C-L7.4 shares many of the same components with the R-S4.3, including a particle accelerator and an advanced rapid-pulse energy module. However, the C-L7.4 uses a new prismatic crystal simply labeled Isotope Se23. Se23 was developed during the frenzy of Kashan stealth work as an artificial version of stygium. While it failed in its plan for a cloaking device, when a light beam was focused through it, Kashan researchers noticed the beam came out with a translucent effect with a slight dark gray tinge. Thus, the bolts from the C-L7.4 are hard to spot visually, making it perfect for use as a stealth weapon. Unfortunately, Se23 crystals are larger than normal, which forces the laser cannon in turn to be larger. The fact that the laser bolts can’t be seen also makes targeting harder for the user, because he or she will not be able to see where they went or if they hit the target except through their targeting computer.
KDI D-R4.2 Shadow Torpedo Launchers: The Shadow Torpedo is a stealth version of the Arakyd 315 used by the Sentinel-class Medium Tank. The stealth systems are based on the widespread Starflare-class used by the Gestalt Colonial and Kashan Defence Fleets. Each Arakyd 315 is built using ferrocarbon instead of the typical durasteel, making it’s composition to appear to be that of a common micro-meteorite. Complementing this, the small engine of the missile has been built in the same way as this transport’s engines, making it difficult to detect via normal methods. Lastly, the entire weapon has been coated in the gloss paint used on the Deathsaber Mk I. While the Arakyd 315 has many warhead options, the D-R4.3 has only one: a simple proton torpedo warhead.
Sudden Acceleration System (SAS): The SAS temporarily boosts the speed of the starfighter by rapidly transferring energy from the craft’s four laser cannons into an Ion Scramjets based in all of the craft’s four engines. The engine scramjet thus provides extra thrust, and consequently higher acceleration and speed. While this greatly increases the performance of the ship, it drains power from the laser cannons making the weapons less power and with a slower rate of fire. The ion scram-jets use the same engine stealth systems and pre-cautions as normal.