A Little Something Extra

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The target was an old derelict victory-class Star Destroyer purposefully salvaged and refitted for the purpose. It was amazing just how many of the things were floating around if you knew where to look. Whatever the various media sources in the galaxy today said about war and how violent the universe was apparently didn't follow history very closely. Records may well have been sparse (though with all the Jedi and Sith masters floating around who had managed to fall into a time paradox or get cryo frozen that was probably more negligence than anything) but if you really dug deep the scale of warfare fought before the Gulag Plague put even Cyrus' grandest campaign to shame.

What a time it must have been.

He turned his attention back to the display, where a unit of 10 prototype strike craft were shown in formation, heading towards the old ship. Time to give the Sith a fighter-bomber that wasn't designed to simply combust on contact with the enemy. Really, that was a horrible concept to begin with, maybe one day the bad guys would stop making stuff out of explodium.

Until then you did what you could on your own.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The fighters themselves were a mix of new and old. The venerable Xg-1 Star Wing design updated with new technology, the basic concept was to make a solid all-rounder with an emphasis on anti-capital ship strikes. It brought back fond memories of being a a Strike Commander, organizing the efforts of an entire fleet's fighters and bombers to make coordinated strikes on enemy formations. The highest form of art, it could be said, pulling on invisible strings, manipulating a hundred or more individual vessels at a time to put warheads on foreheads at just the right place at just the right time. Scale it up from there and eventually you ended up with warfare on a strategic scale, the ultimate expression of challenge and skill.

But this test was none of that. There was no doctrine being re-written here, this was a technical test, not a tactical one. A simple run in, missiles away, run out. Timing of the run and the effectiveness of the missile barrage were the main objects of the operation. If all went well, there would be one hulk of a former Victory-class SD and a squadron of 10 prototypes with ample time on the clock. If one or more of those things didn't happen, it was back to the drawing board.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The fighters crossed the imaginary line, and kicked throttles up to maximum to make their run. The clock started and ticked by ever so slowly as the fighter-bombers closed the target. It was a rapid approach, but not quite fast enough, Cyrus didn't need to see the technical data to be able to notice that. Too much time to get picked off by escort fighters or lit up by defense guns. Heavy shields could help with some of that, but speed was better armor (or a better weapon, depending on how you looked at it) for an attack run.

One of the vessels launched early, at maximum range. A second test running simultaneously, to check the guidance package on the ordnance and see just how effective the targeting system was. If nothing else, at least that was working as intended, the volley of six missiles flew true, streaking ahead of the formation of fighters, impacting on the restored shields of the old derelict in a brilliant display. The explosions wrapped around the previously invisible deflector arrays, which flared up as the heat and energy dissipated across them. Not enough to crack them, but that wasn't the point.

The prototype that had launched broke formation and peeled off back towards start. The other nine raced on.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The fighters reached the assigned launch point several seconds behind Cyrus' desired schedule. There weren't precise measurements yet, of course. Those were being calculated by an entire division of engineers, technicians, and scientists associated with the development process. It was more of a gut feeling, the sort that you develop when you've planned and watched similar missions be conducted dozens of times.

The attack itself was textbook. What the issues with the One Sith's Starfighter Corps, they had plenty of good pilots. It was nice when you had most of the Republic's core military worlds to draw replacements from. Sith rule was harsh and unforgiving but also tended to be orderly, and ideology had a habit of taking a backseat to the reality of steady wages and a decent pension program. Self-interest was always the greatest motivator for humanity (and many of the near-human aliens). You could make noise about atrocities and evil religions all you wanted, but when push came to shove and it's your family vs. 'their's,' well that's no choice at all.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

They launched in ripple fire style, a concession to the design of the launchers. It made for a more interesting picture on the display, the trajectory of the shots displayed in flashing red. The ability to launch all at once would have allowed a single fighter to dump its entire payload on a single run, but the mechanics of pulling that off had eluded the engineers, and they were over-budget and over time as is.

In sequence, the missiles struck, the first couple volleys detonated on the shields, then those suddenly failed in a blinding flash and the remaining volleys struck home on the ship itself. The impacts followed, one after another, the fireball growing to envelop the ship in its entirety. The pilots didn't even watch their own show, no sooner had they finished shooting they were pulling a hard-G turn and accelerating outbound, as fast the somewhat sluggish fighter could take them.

Even before the explosion had faded Cyrus was reworking the design. They needed something to give them an edge.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

There weren't a lot of options. You simply couldn't add more engines, as that would increase overall size, which would mean you needed a larger frame, more armor, a large powerplant, etc. It became a whole new class of ship at that point, and not necessarily any faster. An advanced drive system or power core might work to fix the problem, but that would inevitably have a limited supply and thus prevent the fighter from becoming mass-produced, which was a key part of the project.

So you were left with either some software or hardware magic. Which interestingly enough, there was historical precedent for, in the very ship that had inspired these prototypes. Not the Xg-1 itself, but its successor, the Missile Boat. More of a gunship than a fighter, it nevertheless remained competitive against advanced Republic interceptors by use of an innovative system which simply modified the drive system via power redistribution.

SubLight Acceleration Motor, they called it. It was worth a look.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

There were drawbacks to the system. You could only put so much power out of a fighter-sized plant. The excess would have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was almost certainly weapons and maybe shields. It all worked in concept, you darted in with weapons powered down, relying on speed to keep clear of enemy fighters, then launched your missiles and boosted out again. Really, if everything always worked as written, they didn't even need guns.

Of course that's never how things worked, so laser cannons were a necessity.

A report came through, indicating 'moderate success' on the part of the test. Cyrus took the moment to review footage of the Victory-class, which was now little more than a gutted hulk pockmarked with holes and surrounded by a field of wreckage and debris. So concussion missiles could still blow stuff up, great. Like that was ever in doubt.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

There were other applications for the SLAM as well. In a dogfight it could be used in short bursts to get clear from an enemy fighter or make a quick turn. Sure you couldn't shoot during that time and there was the potential for your shields to be shorted out as well, but if it meant a comparatively slow bomber could get the drop on an enemy fighter that was worth it. It would only take a couple hits from the powerful laser cannons to destroy your average fighter anyway, whereas the Xg-5 could take several volleys.

Armor materials could be shifted around as well. Less Quadanium Steel, for example, would rapidly lower the overall weight of the design. There was some innovative stuff out there to make up the difference, generally all rediscovered pre-Gulag Plague tech, but it the job and quite well.

Hell, in a dogfight the large missile magazine also gave the Xg-5 an advantage in beyond visual targeting. Granted, the system properly track a full volley of 12 missiles fired at a single fighter, but that would be overkill anyway.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The next test run was several weeks later, with the SLAM system mounted and the modified prototypes now making their attack run on a shielded asteroid (it took a while to get a derelict rigged up properly). Anyway the point was timing, not the self-evident destructive capability of a karking pile of concussion missiles hitting the same target. There were better things to use a derelict cruiser for than a target dummy.

As before, the squadron of ten started their run just outside the optimum firing range. This time there was no secondary test, all 10 fighters continued their approach in formation. They reached the point, let their computer calculate the firing solution, and fired. The display was just as impressive as before, a volley of 10 missiles, one from each fighter, fired in sequence and then repeated 11 more times until every launch tube was emptied. No sooner was the last missile away than the prototypes activated the SLAM and and turned outbound, clearing the target area in half the time as before. Shields flickered on several of the craft and all reported abnormal power fluctuations, but it was all within parameters and could be sorted out with training. Any serious errors on that system woudl be operator error, not an engineering fault.

The asteroid vanished in a fiery explosion somewhat larger than anticipated. Probably a result of the armor-piercing design of Concussion Missiles. All in all a successful run.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

These were the fifth iteration of the prototype since the design process had started, and were the first to meet all the mandated project requirements. Military nomenclature being the arcane science it is, the designation ended as the Xg-5, Omega-class, or more simply the Star Wing II. It was even more durable than the original (thanks to better armoring), while being somewhat faster and more maneuverable thanks to the SLAM system. There were trade offs, of course, a smaller missile magazine with reduced capability being the first and foremost, but all in all a worthy successor.

And finally a fighter-bomber for the One Sith that Cyrus wouldn't feel was totally outmatched by his opponents.