TIE Boarding Craft

The TIE Boarding Craft was a variant of Sienar Fleet Systems's TIE fighter series. An armored shuttle, it was used by the Galactic Empire for troop transportation and boarding.

The design of the TIE Boarding Craft was similar in overall appearance to the earlier TIE/sa bomber: both consisted of a pair of elongated pods positioned side-by-side between a pair of "bent" wings. However, with a length of 7.6 meters, a width of 9.9, and a height of 5.9, it was slightly taller and wider than the TIE/sa bomber, but slightly shorter in length. More importantly, while the port-side pod of the bomber carried ordnance, that of the Boarding Craft was designed to carry passengers (six seated and four standing, using ceiling- and wall-mounted handgrips to keep their balance). In addition to a retractable boarding ramp, the front of the portside pod featured a large, also retractable docking claw with a military-grade laser cutter, which allowed the crew to breach and rush into a captured or disabled vessel. The starboard pod featured a transparisteel viewport and housed the cockpit, which was manned by a single pilot. Like the port-side pod, it could hold ten passengers. The elongated wings provided power to the upgraded lift support systems.