Yautja Encyclopedia: Ships

• Radar blanketing. Though not cloaked like the hunters, all Predator ships have radar shielding. They cannot be seen by any scanning system with the exception of gravity sensors.
• Ghost Imager. All ships can confuse missile-targeting systems.
• Turbocharger. All ships can boost their systems. This doubles speed and number of attacks. This can only be done once per hour.
• Reflective coating. All Lasers do half damage. This does not apply to Plasma weapons.
• Environment Protection. Predator ships can travel in any environment including flying to almost to the chronosphere of the sun and even underwater.
• Remote Operation. They can autopilot in an atmosphere and in orbit as well as between systems. They cannot fire automatically but can dodge an their own. They can drop a Hunter on a planet then retreat into orbit and wait for the signal to pick up.
• Mass Destruct Sequence. Similar to the self-destruct sequence, this is a major scramming of the reactor that results in a major thermonuclear reaction. The Hunter must arm this system by remote or directly on the ship. The explosion will destroy EVERYTHING within 1-km radius and will cause 20 K the next 100-m dropping by one K every 100-M past that.
• Self-Destruct. If set by the Predator or if he/she dies, the ship automatically disintegrates. Some form of chemical reaction occurs which eats away at all components. The ship does not explode, but simply vaporizes, leaving no remains.
• Targeting Analyzer. Predator ships can scan enemy craft with extreme detail. This involves specifying weapon systems, life sensors, etc.

The ships have no airlock or antechamber between the opening and the ship's actual interior. The air inside is a heavy, oily smell, and is thick with warm fog reducing human visibility. The light is a dull red-orange glow that comes from the red walls covered in elaborate, incomprehensible patterns and kiande amedha armor.

The ships itself are fully automated, though the Yautja do know how to work them.

It is unknown if forcefields or some other device keeps the inside air in while the door is open.

The curving corridor opens out into a large chamber' patterned red pillars joined floor to ceiling; while other curving passages or rounded bays opened off every side. The ships are mazes.

NER'UDA (STANDARD SUTTLE)

The Standard Yautja Shuttle is a small, dropship-craft designed for a quick, atmospheric interception and insertion of a single hunter looking for honor. They are short-range craft and cannot travel outside of the system they are dropped in. Shuttles drop almost exactly like Marine dropships with the exception that Shuttles offer very little in atmospheric maneuverability. They have no visible power source. The vehicle drops into the atmosphere and does not even begin breaking thrusters until 2000 feet above sea level. Predator drops occur twice as fast as Marine drops.

The Shuttles are also significantly smaller. They hold air and food for one Hunter with extra capacity for a comfortable number of trophies. The shuttle, after a completed mission, launches out of the atmosphere in less than two minutes. Other than that, the shuttle is not much use. The ship is very clunky with few armaments. It lands and can then bury itself in the ground or launch into orbit, invisible to sensors, awaiting the order to self-destruct or retrieve its hopeful successful hunter.

NOTE: The Shuttle is that small craft that broke away from the larger vessel at the beginning of the first Predator film.

MAN'DACA (STANDARD CASTE VESSEL)

The Hunter Families move around the systems usually in these ships of varying size and design. It is rumored that each group customs their own craft. Over generations, the ships become more distinct from the original format.

The Standard vessel is what the hunters usually employ but they do not often land in hunting zones unless larger groups leave. Members from all castes live inside the craft. Lower decks for lower castes are damp, humid, and unkempt. Fires are used for cooking and hunters sleep on floor. Upper castes have their own quarters and get the best food. Fights rage between the castes in an attempt to move up the ranks. Those who have earned it rise. The most honored command the vessels to their new hunt. If they do not find one, they can also start one.

These vessels are equipped with shuttlecraft to drop Predators in a hunt but they also have a dozen egg-droppers. These drones can travel up to a half a light year to enter an atmosphere of a planet. There, they search out well-populated areas and then soft land and wait for curious investigators. The drones then blossom to reveal from 6- 12 eggs, ready to strike. The eggs are kept in isolation and cannot open accidentally unless removed from the pod. The aliens can then spread and start their own hives. The droppers follow the progression of the infestation. When a large enough infestation occurs, the dropper transmits a homing beacon to its mothership, alerting of the sprouting hive. The vessel can now arrive for the hunt. The vessels themselves sometimes contain chained alien queens as a source of their eggs.

Standard vessels have an effective unlimited range but must stop and charge its engines for one week after its range is used up. It is unsure how long these vessels travel between service checks or even if they require service checks at all. All evidence points that these vessels maintain themselves somehow. Even the variety of weapons seems maintenance free.

The bottom decks are slums. Upper decks are command and upper castes. The mid-decks form the core of operations. Fights rage, trophies are displayed. Weapons are fashioned. Whole communities rise and fall in the decks of a Hunter Vessel.

JAG'D'JA ATOLL (STANDARD MOTHERSHIP)

The monstrous Hunter motherships are mobile bases rumored to exist but which no human has ever seen. They are totally independent craft where a variety of smaller vessels can dock, move around, interact, and fight. These ships hardly ever move into direct fighting with any other force, but is rather used a mobile town where Hunters can dock with and gloat about their trophies.

Like the other craft, they are invisible to all sensors, making it virtually impossible to find in the expanse of space unless you fly another Hunter vessel. These vessels all have beacons to locate a nearby Atoll. It is rumored that handfuls of these bases are even located in Terran space but outside normal spacelanes. Like Man'Dacas, the Atolls have slums and upper castes separated between decks, there is just a lot more of them. Here, warriors can seek out mates, fight for honor, and acquire new devices and weapons.

Atolls do not often move but often drift when they need to between systems. They hardly ever enter systems on fear of being located. They never initiate hunts. They let the smaller vessels do that. Atolls only contain a handful of their own craft and operating crew but most that wander through the systems can have up to 500 people moving in and out at any time. Some have several of the homeless dishonored with no place to go. They wait until the moment they can gain the strength to return to the hunt or they wait for their death.

Atolls do not often have Egg-Drones but do usually have live queens on board to distribute the eggs to whoever needs them. Although sometimes-smaller vessels fight among themselves, no honor can be achieved from attacking an Atoll.