Approved Starship Eightgun-class Assault Fighter (Revised)

[Onrai]

Image Source: https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/GTF_Ezechiel - Imperial colors

STANDARD FEATURES

• Deflector Shields
• Class 0.5 hyperdrive
• Class 4 primary backup hyperdrive
• Class 12 secondary backup hyperdrive

ADVANCED SYSTEMS

• Power distribution system (allows power to be distributed between shields/engines/weapons)
• Diatium Capacitance Array
• Electronic Countermeasures Suites
• Missile Deactivation Transmitters
• Shrouds
• Chaff
• Hyperspace tracker
• SubLight Acceleration Motor (SLAM)
• Full Sensor Suite
  • Hyperwave Comm Scanner
  • Rear Warning Sensor
  • Dedicated Energy Receptor
  • Gravitic Sensor
  • Universal Transceiver Package
• Full Targeting System
  • Target-Aggressor Resolution Software
  • Ranging Laser
  • Target Identification Network
  • Acquisition and Tracking System
  • Holographic Imaging System
• Full Communications Suite
  • Specialized Subspace Transceiver
  • Subspace High-Definition Image Transmitter
  • Communication Descrambler
  • Auxiliary Hyperspace Transceiver Pod
  • Standard Ion Scramblers
  • Short Range Frequency Jammers
  • Bio-Hexacrypt Modules
• Squadron Count: 12

STRENGTHS

• Has extreme firepower for a starfighter, significantly greater than any comparable ship (still).
• Can track escaping ships and fighters through hyperspace.
• The power management system allows for energy to be directed to a given system in a fight, allowing greater weapon power, shield strength, or speed.
• The SLAM system supercharges the engines and allows the ship to rapidly thrust out of danger.
• Redundant hyperdrives allow the Eightgun to escape the field of battle even with severe systems damage.

WEAKNESSES

• Lacks in maneuverability compared to other ships, making it quite vulnerable in dogfights with more agile craft (snubfighters, dedicated interceptors, etc).
• The spaceframe is ultimately an aging design that's been overhauled as opposed to a new build, and thus may be inferior in some ways to newer enemy ships.
• As expected, providing more power to one system takes power away from the other two systems.
• The Eightgun cannot shoot while using the SLAM system.
• Is a bit larger physically than other fighters.

DESCRIPTION
The Eightgun-class Assault Fighter was originally designed by the Subach-Innes Corporation under the project identity of STRONGARM. At the time, the idea of creating a fighter with tremendous primary armament, including Subach's own HL-7 xaser cannons - rapid-fire weapons capable of whittling down shields, hulls, and subsystems - was unheard of. Early-generation matter-antimatter reactors and small-scale hypermatter annihilation reactors meant that most ships capable of carrying comparable armament were bomber-sized, if not larger. Refinement of the old Mir reactor design eventually allowed for power systems that were able to generate the energy needed to sustain long-term primary fire with eight guns.

The resulting fighter, the Eightgun, proved to be a nightmare for pilots of the New Republic - a squadron partially comprised of early-model Eightguns, working in concert with conventional TIEs and Forge-class interceptors, were responsible for killing off their iteration of Rogue Squadron, a monument to which still remains on Nathema to this day. The Eightgun's excessive primary firepower and effective use of ordnance, including the deadly seeker cluster missile, saw the fighter remain in service post-Empire with a myriad of organizations the head of Subach/Emeritus/DCMM, Vanessa Vantai, was affiliated with. Upon the transition of the Void Irregular Fleet to Otherspace during and after the Second Great Hyperspace War, the old Eightguns were still in use among her Mawite pilots, having been deployed during operations on Kinoss and Ool. The lethal Eightgun-Forge combination was still effective decades after one of its first skirmishes in years during an engagement between Dark Empire forces comprised of Vanessa's Mawite remnants against the Mandalorians of Clan Gargon, as well as battles in Otherspace against the infamous Charon Cult of Death.

With a push by the Dark Empire for the use of more modern technology, and a desire by DCMM to remain competitive, cast duranium frames of Eightguns that had been placed in storage due to a lack of resources to sustain them were taken out of mothballs and stripped to their bare subunits. Courtesy of Ord Mantell's terraforming, the resources were once more available to upgrade the ships - increasing their ordnance capacity and integrating modern software and tech suites, including a SLAM engine booster and a power management system, along with more advanced countermeasures against concussion missiles, one of the banes of the Eightgun during their long existence. These performance enhancements significantly increased the ability of the respective spaceframes, further increasing their danger - though the ships are still somewhat lacking in maneuverability compared to their forebears. The Eightgun in Dark Empire service is mostly found in the hands of those with decades of experience as starfighter pilots, though almost every former-Mawite fleet operated by Vanessa Vantai still uses it. Key roles are typically ambushes in concert with bomber intercept missions, shadowed by more maneuverable fighters. The excessive overhaul and upgrade to the Eightgun design will keep it competitive for decades to come against whatever the Alliance or other enemies of the Empire choose to bring out.

 

[MANIAC]

Onrai

Looks good!

• The image link is broken to me, I found a different site, I would like to ask you to use this link as image source.
• I see in the strengths, the Armament has Extreme rating, I would like to ask you to add this to the Armament field too.
• And it is not on the list, but for the future subs, I would like to ask you to add the Squadron Count to the template.

 

[Onrai]

Edited MANIAC

 

[MANIAC]

Onrai

Thank you! And I see the squadron is Average then.

Approved.