Load'em Up

A work crew loads a Heavy Lander wit cargo bound for an orbiting Starship.

Landers, sometimes refereed to as "Lighters' these rugged craft are workhorses, carry hundreds of tons of cargo between orbit and surface when a starship is not capable of making a controlled lading in an area.they are simple craft with strong drives and large cargo bays meant to do little more than shuttle cargos back and forth over short distances.

They are also used for Insystem transport delivering goods between nearby worlds or carrying cargo and supplies to destinations such as asteroid mining facilities, or deep space habitats further way from the main world of the system.

Since they often venture outside of the patrolled area of a system they are usually armed and armored to protect themselves from an attack by opportunistic criminals loitering in the outer system looking for easy targets. Twin pulse lasers, and defensive sand casters give the ship enough firepower to defend against armed small craft, and lightly armored converted commercial ships.

Military , and local security forces may use the Lighters as armed transports, or assault craft to deliver vehicles and supplies to a combat area after the initial landing area is secured . they are too slow and too lightly armored t0 serve as first wave assault craft. However can survive against limited attack by aerofighters and other small craft they might encounter in follow up landings..