Unreviewed Jen'kar-Class Wraithglider

[Darth Caedes]

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PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Materials:
  • Reinforced Quadaniam, Durasteel, and Impervium plating
  • Laminanium Shell
  • Sarrassian Iron
  • Sith Tombstone Plating (colloquially called Ossium)
  • Various Starship components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Interceptor / Bomber
• Length: 9.3 meters
• Width: 4.9 meters
• Height: 2.1 meters
• Armament: High
  • Null-burst Projectors
  • Power Crystal weaponry
  • Shield Leech weaponry
  • Heavy Torpedo Launcher
    • Total Ordnance Capacity: 10 Torpedoes
      • Heavy Proton Torpedo
      • Heavy Flechette Torpedo
      • Heavy Disruptor Torpedo
  • Universal Swarm Missile Launcher (underside)
    • Total Ordnance Capacity: 10 Missiles
      • FAE/WH-02 Variable Payload Missile - Light
      • Missile-deployed Micromines
  • 2x Yaret-Kor Plasma Cannons (forward-facing)
  • 2x Ion Cannons (forward-facing)
  • 1x Bomblet Generator (underside)
    • Recharging Energy Bombs
  • 1x Gravity Bomb Launcher (single-shot payload, underside)
  • Necrothermic Reactor Deathburst (see Advanced Systems)
• Defenses: Low
  • Alusteel Skeletal Frame
  • Phase III "Force Avenger" Energy Shield - 150 SBD
  • Light Hull Plating - 15 RU
    • Animated Metal Sealant
    • AR-0B Damage Reduction Armor Component
  • FAE/S-03 Inclusive Countermeasure Module
  • FAE/S-05 ECM Array
• Squadron Count: Extreme: 24
• Hyperdrive: N/A

STANDARD FEATURES

• Standard features
• Slave Circuit System
• Cooperative Engagement Network
• Individual Disruption Field

ADVANCED SYSTEMS

• Internal Ship Systems
  • Crew-to-Ship Integration
    • Necrotic Cognition Thrones & Tall-Yor Cognition Hoods
    • Bio-engineered, necrotic Cognition Thrones
• Necrothermic Detonation Core
  • A standardized feature in all Jen'kar-Class Wraithgliders, the self-primed Detonation Core houses a sorcerous power cell connected to the ship's primary reactor, rendered inert through enduring glyphs and subtle sorceries. When armed by the pilot, the system activates a volatile chain reaction protocol that causes the starfighter to detonate upon critical failure or manual trigger. The resulting explosion is roughly equivalent to a heavy proton torpedo, capable of damaging adjacent starfighters and lightly damaging capital ship hulls or subsystems. This feature is typically used in kamikaze strike runs or to deny enemy salvage operations. As with many of this ship's systems, the resulting craft is a marriage of technological advancement and innovative Dark Side sorcery.
    
    Interestingly, the Wraithglider's considerable explosive payload is also tied to the priming of this craft's detonation core, rendering it inactive and inert in the case of the glider's sudden/unforeseen destruction. One result is a rather anticlimactic death, Wraithgliders merely blowing apart like so much old stone and metal shrapnel. Another result is the protection of the swarm in the case of a single glider's untimely destruction. Until primed, a glider's demise is like the breaking of porcelain pottery, any expected explosions suppressed by the sorcery inherent in the ship's ancient craft.
• Howl EmitterArray
  • An integrated psychological/electronic warfare suite, the Howl Emitter Array is a dedicated comms disruption system designed for short-range tactical interference. Upon activation, the system locates and slices into (or else floods) local comms bands using algorithmic brute force paired with rapidly adaptive machine learning, frequency modulation, and signal amplification. Once a link is established to enemy craft, the system injects high-volume audio signals resembling screams, static-laced chants, and corrupted simian hooting or other strange vocal signatures into enemy comm channels. This causes operational disarray, breaks squadron cohesion, and in organic crews, often triggers panic responses. While non-lethal, the emitter is highly effective at breaking through enemy firewall encryptions, especially when deployed in swarms.

STRENGTHS

• Kamikaze Terror Weapon: The ship's self detonating reactor makes the Wraithgliders highly dangerous, even/especially in death.
• Psychological Warfare: Onboard Howl Emitters disrupt enemy communications and morale, causing chaos across communication channels.
• Bomblet Generator: Wraithgliders have sustained bombardment potential without need for external rearmament.
• Capital-Killer Utility: Gravity bombs provides a strategic threat to large vessels despite the ship's small size.

WEAKNESSES

• No Hyperdrive: Cannot operate independently without carrier support.
• Minimal Durability: With light shielding and fragile armor, these starfighters are extremely susceptible to enemy fire when hit, intending to overwhelm with sheer numbers rather than with the quality of each independent starfighter.
• Minimal Pilot Protection: No ejection systems; hull integrity compromised in ways considered lethal to any organic pilot operating in the vacuum of space.
• Living Crew Incompatibility: The interior environment is unshielded and often lethal to living pilots, nor can it be piloted except by Jen'kaar, owing to their specialized systems.
• Screech of the Dead: What with unmistakable vapor trails and the signal flurry of the Wraithglider's Howl Emitters, once active, these ships are loud in every sense of the word, and therefore largely unfit for active stealth operations.

DESCRIPTION
The Jen'kar-Class Wraithglider is the Corpse Fleet's signature interceptor and sacrificial bomber, designed to instill fear and chaos on the battlefield through noise and ritualized death. Its silhouette resembles a skeletal spear or open coffin, with forward raked wings and exposed reactor coils which vent black exhaust into space.

Tiny fighters made to resemble bone sarcophagi, Wraithgliders are each just large enough for one undead pilot. These pilots jack their limited consciousness directly into their ships' sensors and controls through use of "undead" perversions of technologies like the cognition throne or the cognition hood, allowing them to recline in eerie repose as they direct the ships by thought alone. Typically, a Jen'koshū Dreadlord will draw upon one of their kind's inherent abilities and link with the hordes of the undead Wraithgliders, allowing the cunning ghuls to enact cruel and clever maneuvers with the swarm.

A notable project of Korriban's King, himself, Darth Caedes , the fighter is designed to be flown by Jen'kaar undead pilots bound to the ship via alchemical grafts and old Sith Imperial sorcery. Caedes, and indeed some of his closest retinue, was notably fascinated by the union of arcane technology and Dark Side sorcery. Naturally, these pilots feel no fear, nor pain, and have no expectation of return. They exist merely to kill and to sow dread. Equipped with a modular bomblet generator, Jen'kar Wraithgliders can hover over battlefields or carrier ships and unleash volleys of energy bombs, while retaining a single (low powered) gravity bomb for catastrophic damage to capital vessels. In death, the fighter erupts in an explosive burst.

Deployed from the Corpse Fleet dreadnoughts' bone-rack launchers, Wraithgliders are rarely encountered alone. They fly in tightly, short-to-midrange, coordinated swarms controlled by Jen'koshū Dreadlords, executing flawless attack patterns and overwhelming horde tactics. Wherever they appear, they bring with them the howling and cold certainty of death.