Trade Federation Battleship

The Trade Federations once mighty battleships caught the unsuspecting world
of Naboo by great surprise. The blockade of Naboo would prove to be a major
turning point in galactic history, helping to pave the path of then Senator
Palpatine's rise to emperor.

While nearly twice the size of the later Imperial Star Destroyers, the Trade
Federation's battleships were really nothing more than converted container
ships boasting less than adequate armament for its size.

Armed with a mere forty-two short-range retractable quad laser batteries,
the impressive looking vessels stood little chance in combat against the much
smaller Dreadnaught heavy cruisers which made up the bulk of the Republic
Fleet.

What made these battleships lethal was its impressive complement of combat
oriented droids. Standard battleships carried nearly 265,000 ground oriented
battle droids as well as 1,500 droid starfighters (lethal in both the vacuum
of space as well as on the surface of a planet).

Attacking starships faced massive swarms of droid starfighters working in
waves - the droid starfighters could only operate in flight mode for 35 minutes
before exhausting its fuel cell.

However, with roughly 1,500 droid starfighters operating for only 35 minutes
each, there were problems. Fighters running low on fuel would have to return
to the battleship for refueling. This created a great hazard. Droid fighters
would have to avoid collisions with each other as backup fighters were being
launched from the same hangars the returning fighters were docking in.

Massive racks along the ceiling of the hangars provided storage for the fighters.
They would hang from these racks in much the same way a bat would hang from the
ceiling of a cave. The racks would refuel and power the droids constantly. It
is widely rumored that the soon-to-be introduced TIE starfighter was designed
as a "storage saver" after the great success of the Trade Federation's droid
fighter racks.

For surface assaults, entire legions of battledroids, tanks, transports and
STAPs could be ferried to a planetary surface with the utmost haste via the
fifty C-9979 landing ships carried on board. These landing ships could be
broken down for deep storage and reassembled during the loading process just
prior to launch.

Crewed almost entirely by droids, performance of the battleships during the
most dire of times was very efficient. That is, of course, if the commanding
Neimoidians were able to remain calm and give sound orders to their droid
crew.

Craft: Modified Hoersch-Kessel Drive's Container Ship
Type: Battleship
Scale: Capital
Length: 3,170 meters (diameter)
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Trade Federation battleship
Crew: 12,520 (mostly droids); gunners: 134 (droids); skeleton: 200/+15
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D, capital ship piloting 5D, capital ship
            gunnery 4D, capital ship shields 4D, sensors 4D
Passengers: 264,450 (battle droids)
Cargo Capacity: 20,000 metric tons (750,000 metric tons unloaded)
Consumables: 4 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x28
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 0D
Space: 2
Hull: 7D
Shields: 5D
Sensors:
        Passive: 25/1D
        Scan: 55/1D+2
        Search: 120/2D+1
        Focus: 3/3D
Weapons:
42 Quad Laser Batteries (retractable)
        Fire Arc: 18 front, 12 left, 12 right
        Crew: 3
        Scale: Starfighter
        Skill: Starship gunnery
        Fire Control: 4D
        Space Range: 1-5/17/45
        Atmosphere Range: 100-500/1.7/4.5 km
        Damage: 6D
4 Tractor Beam Projectors
        Fire Arc: Front
        Crew: 4
        Skill: Capital ship gunnery
        Fire Control: 3D
        Space Range: 1-5/15/30
        Atmosphere Range: 2-10/30/60 km
        Damage: 4D

Starship Complement:
        1,500 droid fighters
        50 C-9979 landing ships

Ground/Air Complement:
        550 MTTs (large transports)
        6,250 AATs (battle tanks)
        1,500 troop carriers