There are workhorses in the galaxy, ships and vehicles that just don't seem to die that can be seen in the most luxurious of spaceports to the slummiest of improvised landing fields. The caterpillar is one such workhorse.
Here pictured skimming the caustic gas-ocean of Ganyon-V. A popular tactic to shake off pirate vessels, the pilots of which often opt to abort a raid instead of risking the paintjob of their ship.
The caterpillar itself is a rather simple design, four motors for thrust at the back, eight for lift. A vaguely banana shaped body and a thoroughly un-aerodynamic layer of heavy plating layered over triple-redundant systems. The caterpillar can take a beating and remain functional after other ships fail.
This particular caterpillar is hauling containers in system, the goods in the containers will be responsible for two marriages (One golden ring and one fondue set in the blue container), five injuries (A renovated aircar with a leaky fusion jet in the brown container. And a chunk of metal that will be repurposed into a shank ten years later.) and a broken finger (A nice new bicycle in the red container.) She journeys through deep space and the depths of gas giants with little issue to deliver her cargo.
A welcome sight for resource starved colonists. Not pictured is the cloud of dust that the heavy liftjets kick up. Many older caterpillars adopt a shining bare metal finish on the underside from countless tons of dust slowly sanding away the paint. Superstitious freighter crewmen say its a sign of good luck to serve on a 'greybelly' and so the paint is rarely reapplied.
The Caterpillar often pack two light gun turrets for defense against raiders and pirates, the most common configuration places them on the front. This says a lot about the stereotypical Caterpillar captain...
Four Heedlock deflector drives power the ship. These are slow and heavy drives that have one key advantage, they have no moving parts.
Caterpillars can be outfitted for a variety of roles. This particular example carries water and fuel. There may also be a few hundred liters of beer in there too.
Though cumbersome and primitive, a caterpillar has a charm all of its own. They are often the first truly large freighter a captain owns and are thus remembered fondly.
This is a cargo-pallet that is slung under the belly of a caterpillar. It holds several containers.
Well that's all for now. I hope you liked the creation!
