Pegasus Trans-atmospheric Dropship, Cargo shuttle

Originally designed for use as a cargo vehicle for trans-orbital use, the Pegasus has easily adapted to it's current role in the DA military. It is used in much the same fashion as the CS Death's Head Transport.

This ship is an imposing sight to see, being about 70 feet longer than a CS Death's head transport. It only carries about the same amount of cargo since the bulk of the rear of the ship is filled with it's nine engines (needed to achieve escape velocity). It only uses 4 of the Nine engines for atmospheric flight. This gives it amazing survivability since if one engine is destroyed, the crew can start up another. Some members of the Military think this large amount of engines is excessive at the present time (since they're not able to use the space travel capability yet) but the pilots wouldn't have it any other way.

The main drop procedure involves getting the ship to a height of 50-100 ft and a speed of 120 -200 mph, then opening the doors and dropping out the hovercraft and any other flight capable PA's. Once those are out and advancing the ship lands and the remaining APC's, Tanks, Robot Vehicles, and non-flying Power Armor disembark.

The heads-up display is a special holographic projector that displays the area around the aircraft in a 250m grid with friendly and hostile forces marked and displayed in real-time. The pilot sees a holographic image of the terrain with his aircraft in the center at either 2, 5 or 10km diameter ranges. Anything at a greater range than 10km is displayed on the radar screen. The radar on the Pegasus is extremely powerful and accurate. this high power and accuracy is needed to see vehicles and objects while flying in the heavy sandstorms that affect the DA's domain on a regular basis. The sensor system on all aircraft in the DA's airforce are very similar to the SNARLS sensor system from Rifts(R):World Book 8 - Japan (page 116), due to the supernatural nature of some of their enemies. The major difference is the range for the Pegasus sensors are 500 meters.

extra note: 90% of all the pilots in the DA are equipped with a headjack for piloting their vehicles.

Model Type : Pegasus
Class : Trans-atmospheric Dropship, Cargo shuttle
Crew : Ten, pilot, co-pilot, Navigator/Heavy weapons officer, communications, four gunners for turrets, and two cargo chief's
Troop Transport Capabilities : Standard troop transport capabilities are 4 Mercury Class hovercraft with 50 infantry GB's Mk16 (coming later), or 2 Mercury, 4 APC's and 100 Infantry GB's Mk16. The rest of this will be filled in latter once I have all my vehicles finished

M.D.C. By location :

*Main Body - 1700

Reinforced Pilots Compartment - 250

**Main Wings (2) - 300 each

***Canard Wings (2) - 170 each

***Tail Wings (3) - 175 each

****Landing Gear (3) - 275 each

*****Engines (9) - 150 each

******Bay Doors (2) - 200 each

Front Turret Lasers (2) - 150 each

Side Turret Lasers (2) - 150 each

Cruise Missile Launchers (4) - 350 each

*Destroying the main body knocks the Dropship out of the sky and turns it into smouldering wreckage.
**Destroying one of the main wings will cut the handling by -10% for each of the two main wings.
***Destroying one or more of the small wings cuts the handling by -10% for each of the five wings.
****if the gear is destroyed the dropship can only drop it's cargo by hovering, loading cargo in this way is impossible.
*****if more than 6 engines are destroyed the aircraft's speed is reduced by 40% and handling by -30% (the pegasus can remain airborne with only 2 engines running - It usually only flies with 4 engines running)
******if the cargo bay doors are destroyed the dropship's speed is reduced by 30% and handling by 15%
...GM's discretion (and common sence) as to which targets are small and hard to hit...

Speed :

Driving on the ground : only possible when using the hover mode

Flying : Sea Level (0-50 feet)

-Mach 0.95 unloaded

-Mach 0.75 loaded

Combat level (0-20,000 ft)

-Mach 1.0 unloaded

-Mach 0.95 loaded

Max ceiling (unlimited when using all engines, 80,000 ft when only using atmospheric jets)

-Mach 2.0 unloaded with jets

-Mach 8.5 with all engines engaged (for achieving atmospheric escape velocity only)

Standard cruising speed varies depending on the situation But is generally around 550 mph

Attack speed for ground level attacks is between 150 to 350 mph

Range :

Nuclear powered, giving it continual energy. The engines are liquid cooled and are capable of operating for weeks. This was done for the long periods of space travel that the dropship will eventually be operating in.

Height : 85 feet gear extended - 65 feet gear retracted
Width : 150 feet
Length : 310 feet
Weight : 2000 tons loaded
Cargo : See above in vehicle information.
Power System : Nuclear, 50 year life span
Features of Note : Enhanced Sensors and radar. The Dropship's radar and sensor system can track and identify up to 200 targets in clear sky conditions and 100 targets in sandstorm conditions.
Black market cost : Not available, Desert Alliance military only.

Weapon Systems :

1. Turret Mounted Rotary Laser Cannons (4) -

Primary purpose : Anti-air

Secondary purpose : Anti- armor

Damage : burst - 2d4 x 10 +10 M.D.

Strafe (ground attacks only) - 1d6 x 10 M.D. To a 10m x 500m path

Rate of fire : burst or strafe

Effective range : 3000 feet (900m)

Payload : unlimited (connected to aircraft power source)

2. Cruise missiles (4) -

Primary purpose : Anti-armor

Secondary purpose : anti-fortification

Damage : varies on type of missile

Rate of fire : single missile or in volleys of 4

Effective range : varies on type of missile

Payload : 4 (2 per missile pod)

3. Main Wing mounted Missile pods (4) - Not shown in image

Primary purpose : Anti-vehicle

Secondary purpose : Anti-fortification

Damage : varies on type of missile

Rate of fire : single missile or in volleys of 4

Effective range : varies on type of missile

Payload : 8 (4 per missile pod)

Notes: Used primarily for destruction of enemy vehicles and fortifications with Plasma or HE warheads.

See The Revised Missile and Bomb Tables done by Mad Dog (axtellc@pr.erau.edu) and Chris Curtis (c-curtis@tamu.edu) for stats on the missiles