NationStates Jolt Archive


Data Thread: New Thelasi Fighters

Thelas
16-09-2004, 14:45
OOC: All of this is secret, but the existance is confirmed, and basic numbers are avalible, but specs and so forth are secret.

IC (SemiSecret):

AF-1 ‘Hornet’

When the third variation of the Zero Fighter was proposed Thelasi High Command was at first skeptical of the monetary cost involved to developed, and produce, a new fighter. Yet as rearmament continued the Thelasi found that often times their fighters were not as powerful as they had been when first developed. The realization of this lead to the research and testing of the ‘Mark Zero AF-1’.

The new AF-1 variant was designed as a pure anti-fighter weapon, in fact, it was designed with idea that the Thelasi could not, and would not be able to go head to head with forces like the Dark Eldar. So the Mark Zero AF-1 was designed with special criteria, namely, the ability to stay in space for long periods of time without the need for refueling, and the ability to safely make a round trip of up to four SUs (Solar Units, half the distance of the sun’s orbital diameter) with an extra time of an hour.

The AF-1 was designed like most Mark Zero craft, an inverted ‘Y’ (lambda) wing structure in the back, with a long, thin, fuselage coming from the intersection point. Because the AF-1 was designed as a defense fighter that could be launched from space, or from a planet, the cock-pit was mounted on a gyroscopic system, able to compensate for any rolls the pilot may choose, while still keeping the pilot up-right. This also lead to the ability to land the craft on any of its three sides.

Armed with three missile mounts, on each of its wing tips, each mount capable of carrying a cluster of four missiles, and with three mass-driver cannons in each wing, the AF-1 was given a considerable amount of fire-power, more so than the Mark Zero.

Shielding systems within the fighter were at first considered unnecessary, but later, as it was seen that the armor on the fighter was too weak to stop most small projectiles, a magnetic shielding system was included on the fighter. The shielding system itself is not enough to actually stop any fast moving projectiles, but it is enough to either slow down projectiles, or divert them.

The armor on the fighter itself was more designed to deflect glancing shots, and to allow some protection against small particles, space dust and the like. The most important component on these new Thelasi variants is a new Inertial Canceling system, much like the systems on the Eldar fighters.

LRAPF-1, ‘Tornado’

The next variant of the Zero Fighter was the LRAP-1, or Long Range All Purpose Fighter-1. The LRAPF-1 was the all purpose Thelasi Fighter, again designed for a particular purpose, a long range strike fighter, designed with the ability to carry a pair of ‘DHPs’, Disposable High-drive Pod, enabling the fighter to hyper-jump.

The LRAPF-1 was again an inverted ‘Y’ shape , with the same basic structural components of the AF-1. Armed with the same three missile mounts of the AF-1, the LRAPF also has eighteen missile/torpedo mounts, three on each side of the wings. Added onto the nine small caliber mass-drivers were six medium cannons, designed to rip through soft to medium targets.

With a slightly stronger shielding system, and heavier armor, the LPAPF-1 was designed to take more hits than the AF-1. Its mission being to harass attacking fighter groups, or even to make incursion raids across borders, into limited areas of enemy space, it probably would take more hits than the AF-1.

HAFB-1, ‘Stallion’

Next off was the HAFB, Heavy Assault Fighter-Bomber 1, with a crew of two, the HAFB-1 was designed to be based launched and to target orbital installations or enemy fleets, larger than the LRAPF-1, or the AF-1, this was to make more room for three bomb-bays, one on each of the fuselage sides, and three light mass-driver turrets, controlled by the weapons officer, mounted on the bomb-bay doors.

With even more armor than the LRAPF-1, the HAFB-1 is definitely not an easy fighter to down, with a slightly larger silhouette, the HAFB-1 counterbalances its larger size with the fact that it not only has more armor, but also is able to defend itself against enemy fighters.

With an even more powerful shielding system, the HAFB-1 is able to completely deflect most small ammunition, and significantly slow larger ammunition. Its armor was designed to deflect small shells, much like the armor on Thelasi Capital ships.

With inbuilt hyper-drives, the HAFB-1 is able to complete deep penetration missions, yet this is somewhat limited by the fact that the longest range Thelasi fighter, the LRAPF-1, or the ‘Tornado’ as the pilots calls it, does not have the same range as the HAFB-1, meaning that after longer ranges the fighter escort is forced to turn back, leaving in the bomber unit undefended.

LRHB-1 ‘Fortress’

An even larger craft, the LRHB-1 ‘Fortress’ was designed as the longest range of the Thelasi fighter, deserving of its name, the Fortress was armed with seventeen light mass-driver turrets, four along each side of the body, one on each of the wing tips, one on the front of the fuselage, and one on the tail, and heavily armored.

A very long range craft, the Fortress is in some ways more vulnerable and in some ways less vulnerable than the Stallion, HAFB. With more armor and weapons, the Fortress is able to fight its way through most situations, yet it is more vulnerable to missiles, and flack fire than the Stallion is.

AELF-1 ‘Shadow’

The ‘Shadow’ AELF-1, Advanced Experimental Long Fighter, is the Thelasi answer to their lack of long range escort. With a new, experimental, small, hyper-drive and an, experimental, efficient, Fusion Torch Drive the Shadow is capable of escorting an LRHB fleet on a round trip to a target.

Not much is known about the Shadow, except for the fact that the AELF-1 is not a standard shape, but is more like a flying wing and is armed with Rapid Medium Mass-drivers, and a Rapid Heavy Cannon. It is unknown whether the Shadow can carry any missiles, but it also is known that the Shadow has two RMM turrets, one rear dorsal, one rear ventral. It is theorized that the Shadow has two pilots, unusual for a Thelasi Escort.

OOC Knowledge:

In fact the Shadow has a crew of only one pilot, instead of a Weapons Officer the Shadow uses a highly advanced Direct Neural Interface, combined with a new EA system, in fact during ‘integration’ the pilot and the EA are almost the same, such is the power of the new DNI system.

This amazing integration has lead to odd circumstances where entire squadrons ‘think’ as one, in the ‘platform’ fleet, a test-bed fleet for new designs and technologies, an entire wing of fighters were integrated in this fashion, after several hours of flight testing it was clear that these pilots had become ‘cells’ of the same ‘organism’.

The Shadow’s power system is unique, unlike most of the new fighters, which use Fusion Torch drives to power the fighters, both providing energy, and thrust, the Shadow uses a Zero Point Energy Module, the exact mechanics of this are still unknown, even to most of the scientists.

The ZPEM provides energy to a Dependant Fusion Torch Drive, that is, a FT Drive which requires energy to sustain itself. In this case the torch system does not require energy at low levels, but uses the energy from the ZPEM to force the Torch drive to create a higher intensity Fusion reaction, and therefore generate more thrust.

Because of this the Shadow burns more fuel than a normal fighter, so much more, that the Shadow usually carries drop pods when escorting a Fortress group, not because the Shadow needs the extra fuel to complete its mission, but it uses the drop-pods to extend its combat time.

Another of the great strengths of the Shadow is the fact that there is only one variant, the same Shadow that launched from a planetary base can fly up into space, meet up with a bomber group, jump to a target system, fly with the group to the target, jump back, separate from the bomber group, land on a carrier, refuel, load with torpedoes, jump to a different system to make an incursion raid against an enemy fleet, then fly back to the carrier group, reload with bombs, and then make a strike against a planetary target.

There are very few Shadow Squadrons in operation.