MTT046 Cormorant Dropship

The Typhon Dynamics Military Troop Transport 046 Cormorant dropship is critical asset to the Imperial Star Republic as it's primary troop transport. It is crewed by a pilot and co-pilot, and has the capability to transport a full platoon of soldiers in it's troop bay at once, as well as several light, or a single medium combat vehicle beneath it's tail. The Cormorant can also carry a single Fenrir Main Battle Tank, though the troop bay must be entirely empty to do so. The Cormorant has a very large range of motion with it's two main Multi-Directional Engines as well as it's four smaller MDEs that provide precision station keeping and rapid lift. The Cormorant is capable of operating in space, orbit to surface and surface to orbit. It is unarmed save for a single turret located on the far rear of it's tail, which is to provide covering fire for disembarking troops and can, in a pinch, be used in a fire support or self defense role against enemy interceptors or other dropships. Due to it's heavy armor, the Cormorant can also be fitted with a dual use FTL pod, allowing it to engage in long range operations on it's own for a limited time. Onboard, the Cormorant's troop bay is configurable for different mission types, and contains a pressurized atmosphere and life support systems, as well as a extensive array of sensor, communication and ECM suites.

The Cormorant has served in the IStaR military for decades, and has remained almost virtually unchanged since it's inception. It's airframe is, while slightly larger than other dropships, is a solid and stable and it's MDEs give it a decent top speed. However, the Cormorant is not intended to serve on the front line directly without close air or ground support due to it's lack of weapons. Instead the Cormorant is designed to land in semi-secured or at least well fortified areas and use it's array of ECM suites and flares to wave off enemy fire why it lands in contested areas. To general IStaR infantry, the Cormorant is considered a welcome sight, but has still ended up with negative nicknames such as 'Shags' 'Big Birds' 'Fat Momma' and 'Wide Loads' due to the dropship's somewhat bloated appearance.

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Not happy with the picture or description, so both subject to editing or change.

That said, really proud of the ship itself. The design came to me while I was in the shower, and I practically dove out of the shower in order to put together the bones of the model before coming back to it a few hours later to sit down and truly work on it. I've gone a long time without having a dropship of my own, instead doing the typical thing of saying 'my dropships look like this' and then linking to a Pelican from Halo. So it's nice to have my own. I did start off trying to mimic the Pelican from Halo 3 (the best design of the franchise, in my opinion), but I also ended up pulling inspiration from Starship Troopers Invasion, Starcraft, Aliens and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (underrated game). I wanted something that could carry a larger amount of troops than a Pelican into battle, as well as some light attack vehicles. I was on the fence about how many troops I wanted it to carry at once, but imagine my surprise when I was doing research to find out that the Starship Troopers dropship from the original film can carry a full platoon of soldiers, and the Cheyenne dropship from Aliens can carry sixty personnel PLUS an APC on top of being loaded out with missiles. So I feel capping at a full platoon plus light vehicles is more than justified.

Total approximate time on this thing is probably around eighteen hours.

Cormorant, IStaR, Vocians belong to me.

Model made in DOGA L3.

Background from Space Engine.