Beluga-class dropship

Beluga-class dropship The Beluga-class dropship was a  and. It was designed by TITAN Technologies and used by the Titaniate, as well as the automated armies of the Brotherhood of Raiskus.

Characteristics
The Beluga was so named for its predominantly color scheme and reinforced bow section. Like other TITAN Technologies vehicles, the Belugas had sleek lines, soft curves, and detailing. The upper portion of the ships were somewhat boxy, with a curved underside. On the outside, the ship lacked any semblance of a and had no s. The sublight and repulsorlift engines were at the rear of the craft. Four retractable landing gear "claws" were on the underside of the ship, used only when making planetfall.

As troop transports and dropships, Belugas had hatches on the port and starboard sides that opened to deploy its complement of soldiers. The interior cabin had specialized racks to hold and deploy Blackguard-series battle droids; a single Beluga dropship could hold 40 of the droids at a time. They were designed exclusively for droid transport and as such lacked or other systems crucial for organic life.

They relied mostly on speed, armor, and shielding to ferry troops to destinations but were armed enough to defend themselves. Belugas were equipped with limited sublight engines, enabling them to be deployed from space and break atmosphere, but they lacked s. Their engines made a characteristic low, droning hum sound.

The ships were in fact specialized droid starfighters, absent of organics or crew of any kind, powered by s. While usually given specific coordinates, programming, or directives, Belugas were capable of.

Variants
The Beluga had a single variant, known as the High Altitude Beluga-class Dropship. Unlike the standard configuration, this variant was designed to never make planetfall. Instead, it lingered in the farthest reaches of a 's and used twelve - six on each side - specialized  launchers to launch troops to a planet's surface. As the High Altitude variant lacked the internal transport racks and landing gear of the base model, they could carry sixty droids.

Behind the scenes
Beluga is the name of a species of white whales. It is also the name of a species of sturgeon. As with other TITAN Technologies vehicles, the ships follow a naming scheme of aquatic animals and fish.