Coalition Ships






Coalition Starfighters and Capital Ships


The Rim World Coalition did not have the benifit of ready-made, proven starships in their confrontation with the Union; they were unable to obtain starfighters or battleships due to the heavy Union restrictions placed on such weapons.

However, the peoples of the Outer Rim are known for their ingenuity. And since they were unable to obtain the weapons they would need to wage their war, they opted to create them instead.





Weapons:
  • 4 Lasers
  • 2 Ion Cannons
  • 2 Warhead Tubes
    • Capable of mounting any warhead.
    • Incapable of mounting any beam weapon.

Coputer Core: Astromech droid

Engine Type: Quad ion-particle drive engine w/Hyperdrive

Data:

With any private or non-authorized ownership of armed, starfighter-class ships prohibited, the Coalition turned to their considerable engineering skills to obtain the starfighters their revolution would so desperately need, and simply built them from scratch. The first of these ships, meant really as only a temporary solution until the F-106 Piranha project was completed, was the Galaxy Gunship.

The Galaxy Gunship is actually a standard Galaxy-class light freighter which has been overhauled to perform like a heavy starfighter. Its single turret has been removed, replaced with an array of four fixed laser cannons, and its freight engines have been replaced with an ion particle drive based roughly on the twin-ion engine design employed in the Empire's TIE series of fighters. Most of the extra workload that had been handled by the remainder of the freighter's three-man crew are dealt with now by an astromech droid, which is connected not through a "perch" as in the Union X-Wing or Y-Wing, but via a small, R2-sized co-pilot's chamber within the middle quarter of the ship, itself. The result is a craft as strong and durable as a freighter which can be manned by a single pilot, and deliver unprecidented punishment to a target. However, the Galaxy is also one of the slowest, most sluggish craft in the starfighter class; it's roots as a transport craft show readily.




Weapons:
  • 4 Lasers
  • 2 Warhead Tubes
    • Capable of mounting concussion missiles or proton torpedos.
  • Capable of mounting the tractor beam weapon (at the expense of half its missile load)

Computer Core: Astromech droid

Engine Type: single ion particle-accelerator engine; No hyperdrive

Data:

While using the quickly-completed retrofit of the Galaxy Gunship to reinforce their lines and arm their sector defense bases, the Coalition was also at work developing a totally original starfighter design, meant to serve as the backbone of its infant fleet. This fighter, a symbol of the Coalition's resolve much as the X-Wing embodied the Rebel Alliance, is the F-106 Piranha.

The Piranha was designed along the same mission role parameters as the Z-95 Headhunter and the T-65 X-Wing; it's performance statistics fall somewhere between these two craft, nearing but not quite matching the X-Wing in most areas. The Piranha's sturdy fixed S-foils each mount a single laser, while an additional pair of lasers are fixed beneath the nose--this provides the ease of targetting derived from having weapons mounted on the nose of a craft (directly along the line of the HUD crosshair), while also retaining the advantage of having weapons extended to a strike possition. An astromech perch is situated directly behind the cockpit--much like the Incom X-Wing, the Piranha requires an astromech droid to operate. The craft's biggest disadvantage is that its lack of a hyperdrive restricts its long-range strike capacity. The Piranha's basic framework is a sturdy and dependable one, mirroring its X-Wing half-cousin in this way.




Weapons:
  • 2 Lasers
  • 2 Warhead Tubes
    • Capable of mounting concussion missiles
    • Capable of mounting an extended warhead cartridge (doubling its warhead count)
  • Capable of mounting the jamming beam weapon

Computer Core: Integrated Logic R2 core

Engine Type: Daul Ion Particle-Accelerator Engines; no hyperdrive

Data:

The Arrow is another strong example of Coalition ingenuity, but in a way totally different from that of the Piranha. The Arrow was developed by technitions at the isolated Beta Aquilae platform simply from watching footage of the Union's A-Wing in action. From this data alone, the Arrow thinktank developed a reasonable facsimile, which became the Arrow interceptor (which sports no series number for this reason).

Any further description of the Arrow fighter must be prefaced with the statement that the fighter is only a reasonable facsimilie of the A-Wing. The Arrow is slightly slower and less agile than the Union A-Wing, but holds up under punishment much better. Its weapons systems and power plant, however, fall short of its arch-nemesis; its lasers discharge much quicker and recharge much slower. Also, the Arrow's engines are not compact enough to allow physical space to include a hyperspace velocity motivator, grounding the craft only to operations involving carrier ships. Therefore, despite its high potential as a long-range interceptor, the Arrow is usually restricted to base or ship defense, where its speed can be put to use intercepting incoming bombers who can't contend with the Arrow's speed.

A major innovation first introduced with the Arrow fighter was the Integrated Logic system: rather than dedicate precious design space to the inclusion of an astromech perch, the development team simply used a standard R2 unit's logic and processing components for the ship's on-board computer. The Arrow (and all subsequent Coalition fighters, as well) can therefore also be considered a droid as well as a fighter, and can act independently if without a pilot. In this way the Arrow outclasses its A-Wing cousin by extreme degrees--its on-board automation is much more advanced and adaptive.




Weapons:
  • 4 Lasers
  • 2 Ion Cannons
  • 2 Universal Warhead Tubes
    • Capable of mounting any warhead
  • Capable of mounting a decoy beam weapon

Computer Core: Integrated Logic R2 core

Engine: 3-point ion-drive engine array w/Hyperdrive

Data:

The F-124 Dragon was a victory for the Coalition, as it was developed in the midst of the escalating war with the Union of Galactic Peoples. The Dragon was designed to fill every gap that the current Coalition fighters possessed: it encorporated a hyperdrive, high maneuverability, a high degree of warhead compatibility, the Coalition's Integrated Logic system, and a strong power plant--granting the Coalitoin, at last, the means to make their strikes completely via starfighter. The Dragon's primary variant also encorporates the completed decoy beam, an advanced electronic cloaking device capable of rendering the craft undetectable by any electronic means.

While offically a heavy fighter/bomber, the F-124 is capable of fullfilling nearly any mission role with ease. It is perfect to serve as starfighter escort for heavy bombers, or to serve as a long-rage heavy bomber with no escort. Even engaging fighters twice as fast, the Dragon can be expected to prevail. This also, however, brings to light perhaps the craft's only weakness: its speed. While extremely agile, the Dragon is slow for the high degree of advancement which went into its development. A Dragon can blow up anything--but only if it can catch it.




Weapons:
  • 4 Lasers
  • 2 Universal Warhead Tubes (condensed)
    • Capable of mounting any light or medium warhead
    • Capable of mounting any heavy warhead, with 50% reduction in warhead count
  • Capable of mounting any beam weapon

Computer Core: Integrated Logic R2 core, with optional astromech droid

Engine: Dual 2-point ion-drive engine arrays w/Hyperdrive

Data:

The Vampire was actually designed from the same basic technical scheme as the F-106 Piranha (hence the similar framework), but encorporates advanced fighter technology from no less than three different factions. The Vampire is developed from the pinacle of Coalition research and development, hyperdrive technology pilfered from Union facilities, and advanced engine schematics and technology derived from the Imperial-area TIE Advanced starfighter. Incredibly agile, insanely fast, and unbelievably durable, the Vampire is the ideal superiority fighter.

The F-109 design was shaped originally to develop a hyperspace-capable variant of the Piranha, meant to escort Dragons on long-range bombing missions, but soon grew into a full-fledge starfighter advancement project aimed at pushing the Piranha series to the next level of technical innovation. The Vampire can perform interception, recon, indentification, hit-and-fade, and superiority missions with equaling degrees of ease; it outclasses every other Coalition light and medium fighter. Its ability to carry limited heavy ordinance also gives it potential as a light bomber, able to act as a support force for a full heavy bomber strike group.

The Vampire encorporates the Coalition's Integrated Logic system, using a disembodied R2 brain center as the ship's computer core, but also retains an optional astromech perch. This feature is more of a carry-over from its Piranha forebearer, but has proven to be useful on missions where a high degree of senser or computational accuracy is required, as the extra astromech can be dedicated solely to processing sensor-based data while the ship's integrated computer can focus on ship control. However, this system has proven to have an Achilles' Heel, in that in some cases, the two astromech brains decide they dislike one another, and refuse to cooperate.




The preliminary plans for the Midway were recovered from the classified Maw Installation and sealed away from general access by the Union. Garm Bel Iblis managed to retrieve these plans and convey them to the Coalition. Coalition R&D refined and completed the design, and constructed a fully-functional destroyer-carrier, the Midway. Currently, two additional Midway-class carriers are under construction, to see completion sometime within the next year.

The Midway is larger in size than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and equally if not superiorly armed. She can carry three times the starfighter and troop compliment of an ISD2—this is her true value, her ability to carry stammering numbers of forces into battle. The Midway carries a veritable armada of starfighters, bases platoons upon platoons of soldiers, and possesses the firepower and armoring to challenge an ISD. Aside from the long-since-lost SSD Executor, the Midway is the largest capital ship ever to be fielded by a military power.

The Midway employs a unique shielding system which takes a departure from conventional shielding technology. The Midway generates a refraction field around its hull, bending light around the field. Effectively, this causes most laser or warhead attacks to seemingly "go right through" the Midway, when in fact they are being refracted around the Midway's form. The shield is not all-encompassing, however, and a large portion of its midsection is vulnerable to conventional attacking power.




Aside from the Midway, the Coalition fleet's capital ship strength is primarily composed of older pre-Civil War era war cruisers such as the Dreadnaught and more readily available ships like the Nebulon-B Frigate and the Strike Cruiser. The Coalition does command a scarce few MC-80 Battlecruisers, either salvaged from derilects at Endor or purchased off the military black market.




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Pages coded by Scott "Draegos" Thompson. Images generated by Scott Thompson, often using ship models built by others--mainly Michael "Steele" Boewes, Andreas Kroell, and Michael Anderson.