Alliance Assault Craft

The LAAT/i Alliance Assault Craft was a large, heavy-duty space transport used by the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. It was exactly identical in appearance and arsenal to the earlier LAAT/i gunship of the Clone Wars, as well as troop capacity and crew. The Alliance Assault Craft was used as a troop transport for space atmospheres, ferrying boarding parties between space cruisers. While it was extremely slow and and maneuvered poorly in combat, its heavy armor was able to withstand multiple beatings from laser cannons and missiles, and saw every one of this assault craft's numbers through many a thick firefight.

History
The LAAT/i assault craft first saw action under the command of the Republic at the Battle of Geonosis, where numbers of Clone Troopers and walkers were deployed onto the battlefield. Throughout the long years of the War, the LAAT/i--then known as a Republic gunship or "larty"--continued its role in the Republic's fleet as both a planetary vehicle and a space transport. Numerous were the occasions where the Republic gunship braved the vaccum of space and rounds of enemy fire to deploy Clone Marines into enemy hangars to destroy CIS capital ships from the inside.

Upon the birth of the Galactic Empire, the use of the LAAT/i assault craft transferred into the command of the Rebel Alliance, which used them for similar purposes. As with the earlier pilots of the old Galactic Republic, Rebel troopers and marines boarded multiple assault crafts in the many battles of the Galactic Civil War, entrusting their survival to the pilots of each LAAT/i and the craft's own armor.

Arsenal
The Alliance Assault craft and the earlier Republic Gunship both shared the same arsenal: twin forward-facing cannons, thirty-six proton torpedoes, two beam cannons, and guided missiles. All of these were used as defensive weapons to ensure that the boarding party within would make it through space to the targeted hangar. Even within an enemy hangar, the Assault Craft was not entirely safe: all of its weapons would be deactivated, making the LAAT/i's sheer armour its sole protection against enemy blasters and bombs.

The LAAT/i did have one other defense once it was parked in an enemy hangar. Even when all of its boarding crew had exited the craft, it could still spawn marines of its faction into the hangar as long as one crew member remained in the vehicle. These marines would then begin to target all enemy units within the hangar, providing a possible diversion of attention from the LAAT/i from enemy fire.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Battlefront II