C-9979 landing craft/Legends

"It's an invasion army."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, to Qui-Gon Jinn upon seeing landing crafts being loaded

The C-9979 landing craft, also known as the Trade Federation landing ship or the Separatist landing craft, was a large-sized landing craft built by Haor Chall Engineering for the Trade Federation's military forces, and later for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. When the Trade Federation began planning to create its military forces, Haor Chall Engineering produced a design for a landing craft that would carry troops and ground vehicles from warships down to planets.

Characteristics
The C-9979 configuration was chosen due to its close resemblance to the commercial barges used by the Federation's merchant fleet. The ship had four wings with a wingspan of 370 meters. These wings were removable so that they could be stored away easily aboard the massive battleships. They were bound by powerful tensor fields to the fuselage when the craft was assembled for use. Even the strongest metal alloys were unable to bear the immense cargo weight inside the wings, thus making tensor fields essential for the craft.

A series of maintenance and repair stores were located along the front of these wings and service the assault force components, particularly battle droids needing servicing after battles. Forward tensor fields connected the wing mounts firmly to the fuselage and wing-mounted tensor fields prevented the span of the wings from collapsing under pressure.



These wings were used to carry vehicles racked in garage channels for maximum loading capacity. Each carried 11 MTTs that carried troops on the frontlines, 28 PAC for deploying troops reasonably behind the frontlines, and 114 AATs for vehicular support. When deployed, these vehicles were guided along repulsor tracks to a staging platform. Since the maneuvering equipment on-board was not precise enough to negotiate the cramped confines of the garage zones without causing damage, they required the assistance of the repulsor tracks. At a staging area, the vehicles were rotated into position and grabbed by transport clamps, which brought them aft and lead them down the deployment ramp in the landing craft's foot.

C-9979 landing craft could also function as carriers, holding Scarab droid starfighters or bombers. One carrier, which worked with Vana Sage in the Eos system, was equipped with a hyperdrive.

Because of its heavy cargo, the landing craft had a huge antigravity lifting capacity. The landing craft was manned and operated by B1 battle droids. Landing craft were stored in the hangars of warships where they were assembled, serviced, and repaired. When ready for deployment, they were loaded with ground vehicles. Landing craft were always stored in an unloaded condition to prevent structural stress and so that their vehicles could be serviced and repaired.

History
During the Invasion of Naboo, the Trade Federation deployed large numbers of C-9979 landing craft to transport troops and equipment to the major cities of Naboo. Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were able to sneak down to the planet on C-9979s. The craft were deployed in a pattern of groups of three to cut off cities from one another.

Two carriers guarded Nod Kartha, but were destroyed when the Lok Revenants attacked the Trihexalon factory there.

During the Clone Wars, when the Trade Federation pledged its forces to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, they were used to transport troops and equipment from orbiting Lucrehulk-class battleships, or other large Separatist ships, down to countless battlefields such as Rhen Var and Thule. 3 of the landing crafts were transported clamped to the bottom of Recusant-class light destroyers.

They were later used during Confederate campaigns on Teth and Rugosa.

One was also seen on Maridun, when Lok Durd tested a new Separatist weapon. This variant of the ship was equipped with a mobile command center, a base that could be taken apart and be rebuilt, which fitted into the landing craft. This does decrease the craft's cargo capacity enormously.

Later in the war, during the massacre on Dathomir, General Grievous, under orders from Count Dooku, ordered a Separatist landing craft to be sent down to the planet packing a huge army. When landed, the landing craft deployed battle droids and AATs. The droid army easily eliminated the small band of Nightsisters.

During the Battle of Coruscant, large numbers of C-9979 landing ships participated in the raid on the capital world of the Republic that saw the kidnapping of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. There, they unloaded hundreds of millions of battle droids. Some were destroyed by Yoda using the Force.

These ships were also deployed on Kashyyyk by invasion force during the Battle of Kashyyyk. There, they were seemingly initially camouflaged with netting.

The only known variant of this landing ship was the C-9969 landing craft.

Behind the scenes
C-9979 landing craft made their first appearance in the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novel.