The Gamma-class assault shuttle was an Imperial shuttle used to ferry spacetroopers into battle.
Most Imperial-class Star Destroyers and other large warships carried at least one Gamma-class assault shuttle as well as the corresponding spacetrooper platoon. Additional assault shuttles were given out as needed and available.
In 1 BBY, a Gamma-class assault shuttle pursued a Rebel freighter carrying stolen Imperial fuel slugs from the jungles of Oulanne to the space city Pellezara station in the Duro system. The seventeen-year-old Tarrin Datch took control of the fugitive Rebel ship, outmaneuvering the shuttle through heavy traffic until it could escape into hyperspace.
Gamma-class assault shuttles were first described in the West End Games publication Imperial Sourcebook. A similar but distinct ship, the Gamma-class ATR-6 assault transport, appeared in the X-wing series of computer games. At first, it was unclear whether the assault transport was intended to be the same thing as the assault shuttle, because the games were known to use alternate models and statistics for a number of ships. However, both the assault shuttle and assault transport appeared in Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, proving that they were separate ships. Unlike the Gamma shuttle, the ATR-6 has not been seen in sources outside the X-wing games.
X-wing Alliance also depicts the Gamma-class shuttle using an ion cannon in a cutscene. It is not known if this is an error, or if this is a variant or retrofit.
The original Imperial Sourcebook did not give the ships any backup hyperdrives. The second edition of the Imperial Sourcebook called the weapons on the assault shuttle «KT6 heavy blaster cannons» and gave the ships Class 18 backup hyperdrives.[6] Starships of the Galaxy redesignated their guns into «turbolasers.»