Darth Voracitos
Chaos-God of Gluttony
Defense Platform configuration DAS "Spore" Starfighter after launching it's built in Ion Point-Defense Cannon...
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION- Intent: To update and pretty up the droid starfighter submission intended to be carried by the Girth of Gluttony, and perhaps make it more unique and useful.
- Image Source: http://de.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Die_Ausdehnung
- Canon Link: N/a
- Restricted Missions: N/a
- Primary Source: http://starwarsrp.net/topic/18616-spore-class-droid-starfighter/
- Manufacturer: The original Sith Empire (835 BBY)
- Model: Droid Adaptive Swarm (DAS) Starfighter
- Affiliation: The Girth of Gluttony
Production: Limited- Material: Quadranium Steel
- Classification: Defense Platform
- Length: 8m
- Width: 8m
- Height: 8m
- Armament: Extreme (One f-9 Heavy Ion Cannon, Four Seeker Mine Launchers [2 Seeker Mines Each]
- Defenses: Extreme (Quadranium Steel Hull, Quadranium Steel Armor Plating, Sensor Decoy, and Sensor Scrambler)
- Squadron Count: Low: 7 (Larger Mass/Volume)
- Maneuverability Rating: Very Low (May rotate for efficient firing positions, or to change orbit to dock more efficiently)
- Speed Rating: None (Set to orbit Girth of Gluttony, docks via tractor beam)
- Hyperdrive Class: N/a
- Quadranium Hull
- Droid brain
- Navigation system
- Targeting systems
- Seeker Mine friendly transponder code
- Heavy Ion Cannon - The Defense Platform makes use of an incredibly heavy heavy ion cannon for a ship of its class, and it backs it up with rather disabling firepower. It took some measure of engineering ensuring the cannon fit and was reasonably powered by this vessel, but once this was accomplished however, the small heavily defended platforms would act almost in substitution for armament on the Girth of Gluttony.
- Sensor Decoy/Scrambler - In order to mitigate the issue of immobility, the Defense Platform employs the use of Sensor Scramblers to make it more difficult to target, and in the case of missiles and torpedoes, uses launch-able sensor decoy's in order to distract any incoming guided projectiles.
- Powerful Defense Platform - With a Heavy Ion Cannon well worth its salt taking up most of the available space on the vessel, this defense platform is a buoy of death ill-advised to cross with a starfighter in its sights. This coupled with Seeker Mine launchers, creates a defensive aura ill-advised to cross.
- Highly Modular - Each ship is essentially the same as the Interceptor, except with extra ship components attached to it in increasing layers, by the Girth of Gluttony, equipped to modify the DAS Starfighter mid-battle. It can serve a variety of roles in a relatively short period of time, starting as an starfighter with its modest armament, serve most of the battle as a Defense Platform, and finish the battle as a bomber. The process of exchanging chassis mid-battle mostly depends on how its docking, and how far down "the chain" of upgrades it is going. For example, it will take a while (approx. 5-7 minutes) for a Defense Platform to dock via tractor beam as opposed to an interceptor (between 1-4 minutes depending on position). It will also take longer to turn an Interceptor into a Defense Platform, with an average of 5 minutes per layer that needs to be added (15-20 minutes), although it is slightly shorter at 3 minutes per layer that would need to be removed from a Defense Platform, into an interceptor (9-12 minutes). Any sort of battlefield damage will extend the process further, meaning it could potentially take as long as half an hour to change a damaged Defense Platform into another configuration.
- Seeker Mine Transponder Codes - Transmitting these codes, this vessel will not be targeted by friendly Seeker Mines, allowing it to traverse the defensive aura of Defense Platforms, giving the other configurations of the DAS Starfighter cover to pass through unharmed that prevents enemy pursuit.
- Immobile Defense Platform - Set in orbit around the Girth of Gluttony it is intended to protect, it follows a set trajectory with little variation, making it much easier to target from a distance, even with its sensor scramblers, and countermeasures.
- No Hyperdrive - If the Girth of Gluttony ever needs to retreat, all ships deployed will immediately be left for dead, as there is no way for any of the ships to jump to Hyperspace. Additionally, it is a strictly space-borne craft, and is unable to enter atmosphere.
- Seeker Mine Bypass - The mines deployed by the Defense Platform configuration are a special variety that target and move towards ships that enter within a targeting radius. However, since so many friendly ships would be operating around these mines, the DAS Starfighters were outfitted with "Friendly" Transponder Codes to exclude them from the mine's targeting parameters. However, since these codes are not overly secure, it would be conceivable for a starfighter pilot to receive this codes, and transmit them the same DAS Starfighters, thus rendering the Seeker Mines inert and useless against them.
With multiple form-factors with vastly different roles, and a ship that could change them relatively quickly on the fly, one became unlikely to see the same fleet composition twice, and what worked once to counter it may not counter it a second time. With multiple chassis that could be added on top of old ones, or easily removed, the DAS Starfighter is the ultimate proprietary starship, allowing a fleet full of them to change and adapt on the fly as the needs of a battle changes.
If the enemy is fielding formidable capital ships with little starfighter compliment, there will be many more bombers than is typical with fewer escorts. If the enemy fields a great deal of starfighters or powerful starfighter squadrons, more starfighters, interceptors, and defense platforms will be present. Perhaps the enemy started out with a healthy compliment of starfighters, which dwindled as time went on, allowing the bulk of the DAS Starfighter forces to take the opportunity to risk more bombers to take out the bigger fish. Or perhaps the Girth of Gluttony is looking to retreat from a battle but is not yet ready to withdraw, it could "hunker down" with a great number of Defense Platforms and hopefully mitigate any daring pilots from approaching for risk of overwhelming destruction.
The changes of course, despite their easier modularity, still take some amount of time, which may take longer if a starfighter docks with considerable damage. Such damage may penetrate through multiple chassis types, and would be forced scrap nearly all of them before applying a new desired chassis type. Since this is subject to time, not all starfighters can be deployed at once all of the time, and their numbers may be reduced due to a need for repairs or chassis changes, or by casualties that could not make it back to a hangar. The loss of casualties is slightly mitigate by the Girth of Gluttony's large host of Tractor Beams dragging debris into its cargo holds for molecular processing, but on any other vessel without similar support it may struggle to field a full compliment for long.
The DAS Starfighters are more known more colloquially as "Spores", considering their appearance flooding out of the Girth of Gluttony's spherical hull and spreading out around it like a web of stellar mycellium.
Author's Notes:
- This is not "exactly" a new ship. This submission is intended to be an update to the original submission found here: starwarsrp.net/topic/18616-spore-class-droid-starfighter/. I've kept to the spirit of the submission, but I have taken some major liberty to make changes to this that I did not like about the original, and added some unique changes that make the design more useful.
- I've added some pretty unique and likely unprecedented features to this modular starfighter, so I understand completely if work needs to be done to acquire them, though I do think this is fairly balanced on its own with the drawbacks I've created.
