Gridrunner

First seen in Legion of Lawndale Heroes 11.4, the Gridrunner is the hypersonic transport craft built by the Quest Corporation as their response to NASA’s ‘Hyper-X’ program.

Officially categorized as the 'Quest Corporation Global Rapid Infantry Deployment Craft, Mark II', the Gridrunner is a ultratech recon/transport craft with V/STOL/trans-atmospheric capability, a top-rated speed of Mach 10 and a cruising speed of Mach 7. It is able to place or retrieve troops anywhere on the planet within ninety minutes.

With a estimated cost of one billion dollars per craft, the Gridrunner can carry (in its original configeration) one hundred troops and their equipment, or forty and a support vehicle. The Gridrunner has a special interior modular design that allows ground crews to quickly swap out interior sections according to specific mission profiles.

The specialized avionics package aboard the Gridrunner is priced at roughly $300 million dollars: this includes a liquid-based, onboard artificial intelligence hardened against outside interference and EMP’s, which can act as an autopilot and complete a flight without a pilot (but optimally requires a passenger in the pilot seat to give simple instructions). The designers were able to circumvent several major problems in the design process (such as metal fatigue and temperature variants in flight causing extreme wear on aircraft parts) by using Secondary Adamantium for the craft's outer skin, many of the aircraft parts, and as a coating for many other aircraft parts (to increase their lifespan). As part of the deal which allowed the Quest Corporation access to the creation process of Adamantium (among other things), The U. S. Government recieved eleven of the aircraft free of charge; four of those aircraft have been turned over to DELPHI for the organization's needs.

There are five variants of the Gridrunner in existance:

• Mark I - the prototype (three in existance).

• Mark II - standard transport.

• Mark III - heavy transport; can carry two hundred men and two support vehicles.

• Mark IV - multi-role assault craft; modified with a specialized weapons-bay that can be deployed at trans-sonic speeds (not above Mach 6). Can carry strategic ordinance if required.

In addition, the Gridrunner tasked for Legion use is an advanced version of the Mark II. At an estimated cost of 2.4 billion dollars, she is faster (cruising speed of Mach 8), has a more advanced onboard A.I., sensory/communications-electrical countermeasures and electrical warfare package, and comes with the capability to operate outside the Earth's atmosphere. Among the enhanced capabilities of the advanced Gridrunner:

• it has the capability to carry 2 conformal fuel tanks, allowing it to achieve low Earth orbit. Unlike most CFT systems, the Gridrunner's CFT's can be ejected once orgit has been achieved.

• An exotic 'power conversion chamber' has been created for installation, which will allow a Legionnaire with the appropriate ablities to act as a 'booster rocket' and carry the Gridrunner into geostationary orbit.

• The craft has inertial dampening field generators, which can counteract 90% of the force imparted upon the craft's occupants due to accleration. The IDF generator uses a great deal of energy, and thus is used only when necessary (ex. on takeoff, landings, and in case of emergency manouvers).

• The craft also has a small Salazarium-based artificial gravity generator installed aboard. The AG-generator works by artifically stimulating the Salazarium inside the device to generate a localized field of graviton particles that act to simulate a near-Earth normal gravitational field throughout the craft. As with the IDF generator, the energy drain is such that it is used only when needed. (Because of the nature of her powers, Quinn Morgendorffer can interface with a modulator cuff attached to the generator and provide the device with a conditionally unlimited energy source; also, the cuff allows power to be absorbed from Quinn even when she is asleep or unconscious.)

• The craft can carry a 'universal transfer chamber' - a chamber the size of a subcompact car, which can either allow the Gridrunner to connect with a spacecraft or the International Space Station, as well as serve as a 'lifepod' that can be attached to the distressed craft so that up to five persons can be rescued and brought aboard the Gridrunner.

• The Gridrunner has two additional coats of Secondary Adamantium coating over the hull to further protect the craft from the heat of re-entry caused by friction, and a single-use force-screen emitter designed as the craft's primary heat during re-entry. (In addition, the on-board systems are all hardened against EMP so that if necessary, Jane Lane could use her own magnetic force-fields to protect the ship - although, in such a circumstance, she has the ability to return the craft to Earth under her own power. Likewise, Michael Mackenzie (Mack') solar powers could easily absorb or dissipate the heat build-up during re-entry.)

• Unlike any other models, the Advanced Gridrunner is armed with two forward-mounted internal dual maser emitters (which can be used even at trans-sonic speeds). The masers have an effective radius of 6000 meters.