The Xenodens “Baby Dragon” Army Transport represents a divergence in design philosophy. Rather than a convention transport spacecraft supported by orbital landing vessels, the Xenodens itself is intended to land on the planet’s surface.
The vessel was named for a small Mosasaur, but acquired its nickname quite early in development. Reputedly, it was first coined by a spouse of the lead designer, who on seeing an image of the vessel’s plans for the first time on a work-screen remarked that it looked “like a baby dragon” and nickname stuck.
The physical features which gave rise to this sobriquet are all present in other Grand Terran Sovereign Republic spacecraft. Whereas there, the features combine to give an impression of a stylised mosasaur or pliosaur, in the Xenodens, these features make the Xenodens seem more draconic. But in practice, this is simply due to the modifications made to suit the Xenoden’s purpose.
The front module – the “head” of the “dragon” appears oversized in proportion to the rest of the hull. This unintentionally plays on the common perception of a juvenile creature having larger heads. It is this that gave rise to the “baby” portion of its nickname. In actuality, this is simply because the forward module houses the Xenoden’s troop compliment. A single Xenodens is capable of quartering an estimated twelve companies; which, for instance, would allow it to carry an entire armoured regiment all by itself.
The reason the forward module was chosen for this and not further along in the main hull is likely combination of two factors. Firstly, by concentrating the mission-module in one section, it allows the remainder of the hull to be fitted in a more standardised fashion, which for the modular-based design of the GTSR fleet would be a valuable benefit. It would mean that a new design would only have to modify this forward module. Secondarily, it likely assists with air resistance. While a starship of this size in atmosphere is always a case of brute for over aerodynamics, there is still something to be said for some level of streamlining. The larger “head” will thus deflect some of the flowing air over the far-less streamlined hull structures. At bare minimum, it allows the shields to be slightly tighter to the hull when used as atmospheric baffles.
The forward module further enhances the head comparison by the deployment ramp, which drops very much like a jaw. The top of the ramp is seven metres above the ground on a level surface, and is 76 metres long. Reinforced with starship armour, the ramp is bulky: 47.2 metres wide at the base, tapering to 26 metres wide at the tip and six metres thick. A 20m-wide groove runs down the centre, lowering the thickness to a mere four metres. When deployed, a smaller, lighter ramp can be unfolded from the tip to cover these last four metres to the ground.
The channel provides cover to infantry and even to armoured vehicles – but this is somewhat incidental. The ramp’s thickness is partially mandated by being part of the external hull and not being a weak point. But the sheer mass makes the ramp a near-80m bludgeon, which crushes terrain and buildings beneath it which might otherwise prevent the ramp from dropping. Further, it allows the ramp to solidly imbed into the terrain beneath, and thus reduce the height from the ground the front edge of the channel is, and thus shorten the distance the secondary ramp had to extend. In ideal conditions the ramp can easily hammer in to its full four-metre thickness, meaning the secondary ramp isn’t required at all.
Even with the taper to somewhat reduce the mass, it still requires the three huge engines to power the ramp’s deployment. These engines can work both ways, and so can actually supplement the weight of the ramp if necessary to further enhance the impact when mere gravity would not be enough.
To compensate for moving the vessel in atmosphere, the Xenoden’s two General Electric FD5162 engines grant the vessel an atypically higher amount of power for a transport vessel, providing 16.2mc acceleration. The vessel’s agility is rated at 172 MEUs, which is good for a cruiser, let alone a military transport. The engines are mounted higher on the hull than typical for GTSR vessels, to reduce the amount of distance that ramp would have to fall to reach the ground. The two rear landing pads are mounted sturdily on the base of the engines.
The four claw-like landing pads are the only feature of the Xenodens not typically found on other GTSR ships, for obvious reasons. While it would have been possible to make them fully retractable, as noted, streamlining a large vessel only goes so far and the extra volume this would have required would not have been worth it for that benefit alone.
By the time the landing pads were being designed were added, the Baby Dragon observation had already been made. However, even here, the landing pads were not solely designed to fit the emergent aesthetic, though that is likely to have been a minor factor. The pads are articulated like claws, with three forward “toes” and one rear “toe” to allow landing on terrain which may not always be as conveniently level as a spaceport. Furthermore, the outside “toes” are capable of swining up to 90° from centreline. This provides the Xenodens with sufficient stability to allow it withstand the loss of at least one landing pad and be able to maintain balance. If the deployment ramp is functioning as a fifth point of balance, the Baby Dragon could even withstand the loss of two landing pads, provided they were not adjacent.
The radiator tail-fluke of the GTSR fleet would have posed some significant problems on the Xenodens. In atmosphere, it would have provided additional drag in manoeuvring, and would have been detrimental to the stability of the vessel when landed. Instead, the radiators were split and made into wings. This has only a minor effect in lift – they are strictly not big enough to act as lift on their own under standard atmospheric pressure. But by moving the weight to a position more central to the landing pads, it meant that the vessel was more stable, especially in a landing-pad failure situation. This is what ultimately lead to the more draconic shape; the “stump” of the tail further reinforcing the impression of a hatchling.
The Baby Dragon also shares akin to the protection of its namesake’s hide. Despite its smaller size, the Xenodens mounts armour comparable to the Varanus, with an Armour Integrity Capacity of 1190TXq. It is also heavily shielded, rated to the same as a typical heavy cruiser at 1240TXq.
The armament is somewhat lighter, however. The Xenodens only mounts point-defence weapons systems. Sixteen emplacements ensure that at all aspects of approach are covered. Six are mounted on the forward module. Four of these are mounted on the underside of the hull, where they can provide support to the ground troops debussing. Covering the area where these cannot, four more emplacements are positioned around the engines at the rear. Each wing mounts a pair of emplacements, and the final pair of these are mounted on towers either side of the head. These last somewhat give the impression of ears or perhaps horns. This is a convergence of purpose and aesthetics, since this position gives them unrestricted arcs of fire over a wider area of the hull, since the top of the head is the highest point aside from the bridge-tower.
Interestingly, all these emplacements appear to be given over to light ion cannons, with a combined output of an estimated 1760TXq. This seems an unusual choice, though it makes the Xenodens capable of running down and boarding smaller craft. The lack of ability to strip shields would make this problematic. However, there is more than sufficient space inside the Xenodens to replace the troop quarters with a hangar – presumably deploying through the ramp as easily as a standard hanger bay. This would make the Xenodens a quite capable pocket carrier. No carrier versions have yet been spotted thus far, but given the GTSR’s penchant for modular designs, the evidence that it only a matter of time is mounting.
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Range: Grand Terran Sovereign Republic
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