Vehicles

MT-AT

(Mountain Terrain Armored Transport)

The Mountain Terrain Armored Transport (MT-AT) was a late-model Imperial walker designed at the Empire's testing and manufacturing grounds on Carida. These eight-legged machines were designed specifically for sheer inclines, with independently articulated legs and clawed footpads to allow the walkers to secure themselves to sheer rock faces. It was derived from a smaller vehicle known as the MT-ST. The transports were first used when Caridan Ambassador Furgan ordered on attack on a New Republic facility on the world of Anoth. 

The MT-AT consists of a central drive pod housing the engine and drive motors that run the eight legs. A platform attached to the bottom of the drive pod holds both the forward pilot compartment and a rear cargo pod. This platform can spin 180 degrees, allowing instantaneous changes of direction. The vehicle has exceptional stability.

The forward command pod has sufficient operating space for a pilot and a gunner, while the aft cargo pod is used to carry repeating blasters and supplies for use by ground troops. The aft pod is elevated during movement but lowers to the ground and retracts its protective shell in order to unload cargo. Each leg has an independently rotating double laser cannon with an advanced computer interface to assist the gunnery officer. The MT-AT's driver has two laser cannons that can be used to shoot down attacking starfighters.

MT-AT's can be deployed to a planetary surface through standard transports, landing barges, and drop ships. For the mission to Anoth, MT-ATs used an experimental thermal-resistant cocoon. Each such cocoon encases a single walker in a fluid gel that secures the walker for the fiery descent to the planet. A droid brain controls the cocoon's direction and speed, activating emergency braking thrusters shortly before impact. Upon impact, the cocoon's bistate gel hardens and absorbs the kinetic energy from the outside surface of the cocoon, all the while protecting the walker inside. Once the impact energy had been bled away, the cocoon breaks open, enabling the MT-AT walker to move into battle.

Caridan Ambassador Furgan used eight MT-AT walkers for the attack on Anoth. The Anoth sanctuary's defenses destroyed half the walkers, while two more were destroyed through the efforts of New Republic operatives who arrived on the scene shortly after the invasion had been launched. The final two were destroyed when the Mon Calamari named Terpfen used one of the walkers to push Furgan's walker over the edge of a cliff, Furgan died, but Terpfen was rescued by Admiral Ackbar.

With the destruction of Carida by the Sun Crusher, the only known MT-AT manufacturing facility was destroyed, but it is safe to assume that Imperial warships evacuating the planet managed to bring the design plans with them. New Republic strategists believe that the Imperials may be developing a larger MT-AT model to transport larger numbers of troops into battle.

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