X-wing
From USSArcadia
Contents |
Design Lineage and Specifications
The Incom T-65 X-wing starfighter has become a symbol of the Rebellion's starfighter corps. Pressed into service time and again, the typical Alliance X-wing shows the scars from previous engagements, though the fact that it still performs as an advanced vessel of space superiority is indication of the ruggedness of the craft.
The sleek fuselage of the X-wing starfighter is 12.5 meters long. The long, narrow spaceframe is flanked in the aft quarter by four massive realspace engines. Each engine has an aerodynamic S-foil mounted on it. The wings not only serve as stabilizer surfaces in air travel, but also distribute deflector shield energy and serve as weapons mounts. The surface of each S-foil bears squadron and fighter markings.
Located midway through the ship is the X-wing's cockpit module. Behind the X-wing's cockpit is an astromech socket. The astromech droid provides astrogation data for the fighter's hyperdrives, and serves as a co-pilot and technician during flight. Three landing gears extend when the fighter is docked.
The X-wing starfighter became the premiere Alliance weapon when the Empire nationalized the Incom Corporation. Technicians and suppliers in the employ of Incom were secretly sympathetic to the Alliance, and during a daring Rebel raid, they defected to the Rebellion, bringing the X-wing fighter prototypes with them. Like its predecessor, the Incom/Subpro Z-95, the X-wing fighter has a reputation for being able to absorb damage, but is also quite fast and maneuverable. In response to the X-wing fighter threat, the Empire designed the new TIE interceptor to be its space superiority fighter. The X-wing would become the mainstay fighter for the Alliance for much of the Galactic Civil War.
The X-wing fighter has a compact life support system of compressors, temperature regulators, and oxygen scrubbing filters. A series of acceleration compensators help isolate the pilot from deadly g-forces generated by high speed maneuvers. There is enough oxygen, fuel and power in an X-wing for a week of non-combat operations. Additional consumable tanks can be affixed to the S-foils at a cost of performance.
Behind the cockpit, accessible from both behind the pilot's chair and a belly hatch, is the cargo compartment. It has a capacity of two cubic meters, and is rated for 110 kilograms. Pilots generally store survival and repair gear in this compartment.
In emergencies, the X-wing's Guidenhauser ejection seat can throw the pilot clear of the fighter. Separator charges blast the cockpit canopy free, and also launch the astromech unit from the socket.
A fully integrated Torplex Rq8.Y flight computer translates flight data from control surfaces to engine performance. Like most starfighters, X-wings don't come equipped with slave circuits. Power for the X-wing is generated by a centrifugal vapor fusion and ionization reactor housed behind the astromech socket. The generator's initial spins are powered by Novaldex O4-Z cryogenic cells housed in the ship's aft engineering section. These power cells are recharged through a super-conducting port. Once powered, the four Incom 4L4 fusial thrust engines propel the starfighter. Some models were equipped with Incom 4j.4 engines rated at 300 KTU. Maneuverability is afforded by a system of etheric rudders that change thrust vectors.
In an atmosphere, the X-wing's Incom RDA repulsorlift drive adaptor provides an airspeed of 1,050 kilometers per hour. The fighter handles nearly identical to a T-16 skyhopper in an atmosphere.
For hyperspace transit, the X-wing is equipped with an Incom GBk-585 motivator HCU (hyperspace control unit). The motivators on each engine provide a class one performance.
The X-wing's main fuselage houses most of its essential electronic components. The nosecone contains the primary sensor array, consisting of a Fabritech ANs-5d "lock track" full-spectrum transceiver, a Melihat "Multi-imager" dedicated energy receptor and a Tana Ire electrophoto receptor. An alternate configuration typically contained a long range Phased Tachyon Detection Array model #PA-9r, and a short range Primary Threat Analysis Grid model #PG-7u. The array feeds information through a shielded multiplexer relay to the ANq 3.6 sensor computer. The unit can track up to 1,000 moving sublight objects, acquire 20 possible targets, and can be programmed for extra sensitivity to 120 specific sensor signatures. At the very rear of the craft is a Fabritech k-blakan mini sensor providing the pilot a view of the ship's rear arc. One of the X-wing's primary weaknesses is a blind spot at the rear of its belly.
A Bertriak "Screamer" active jammer is the standard sensor jammer employed by X-wing fighters. The Screamer isn't powerful enough to jam capital-scale sensor systems, but it can interfere with homing warheads and jam starfighter sensors.
Four identical Taim & Bak KX9 laser cannons are mounted on each S-foil wingtip. During combat situations, the S-foils split into attack position, deploying in an "X" configuration. This increases the fighter's field of fire, and ensures that all lasers target in to a specific "zero" point, typically half a kilometer from the fighter. The lasers are powered by the engine power converters and are fed by dynoric energy lines that run the surface of the S-foils. A number of X-wings used Taim & Bak IX4 laser cannons instead.
For long range targeting, the fighter has two Krupx MG7 proton torpedo launchers housed in the main fuselage. Each launcher fires from a three-torpedo magazine for a total payload of six warheads. For added accuracy in bombing runs, a targeting computer screen mask extends on a mechanical arm to assist the pilot with precise firing data. The refitted X-wing recon fighters have had the proton torpedo launcher removed and replaced with high-gain long range sensors, processors and high-speed hypertransceivers.
Some X-wings were equipped with decoy and carbon-fiber chaff mines that could be fired in dogfight situations. The decoys would broadcast a sensor signature similar to the X-wing, confusing enemy scanners. The carbon-fiber chaff mines would create dangerous clouds of sensor-opaque debris that could damage pursuing vehicles or prematurely detonate incoming warheads.
The X-wing's deflector shield generator is in the aft section of the vessel. It produces basic shield matrices through a catalyzation process, and then feeds deflector ducts scattered along the fighter's surface. The Chepat "Defender" projectors along the S-foil surfaces generate the starboard and port shields. This supplements the hardened titanium armor alloy of the X-wing. The expensive and high-strength alloy sedrellium is used to reinforce the X-wing's hull.
Throughout the Galactic Civil War, the Alliance always had precious few X-wing fighters compared to the Empire's seemingly endless arsenal of TIE craft. As a result, the Alliance X-wings were often in a state of constant use. A "new" X-wing is a rare sight, as the starfighters showed the wear and tear that their pilots would subject them to. Common models of fighters in the Galactic Civil War included the T-65B and the T-65C-A2.
Hyperspace capable and with a top speed of 1050 km/h, X-wings have pairs of wing-like strike foils, or S-foils, mounted at the rear of the craft; normally the foils on each side are locked flush against each other, but during combat the foils are folded out to increase the spread coverage of the laser cannons mounted at the tips of the foils, to improve maneuverability, and to better dissipate waste heat. This gives the craft its distinctive "X"-like profile when viewed from the front or rear. The cannons on some earlier models cannot be fired with the S-foils in locked position, a safety mechanism that helps to avoid S-foil damage from the laser cannons' intense heat. An attempted jump into hyperspace with the S-foils open will also likely cause extreme damage to the ship.
Weapons
Though it is very maneuverable, the X-wing is best known for carrying four powerful laser cannons, along with launcher tubes for proton torpedoes. The lasers are so powerful that crescent shaped shields had to be fitted behind the barrel tip to reflect energy and thus prevent the weapon from damaging itself. Other warheads such as concussion missiles can be fired from the launchers, but this requires a considerable amount of time and effort on the part of the technical crews, and the overall versatility of the proton torpedo is ideally suited to the X-wing's varied mission profile. The X-wing's fire control systems provide various settings:
- Single fire, where each laser cannon fires individually but in a constant sequence. This setting provides the pilot with the highest rate of fire but generally will lack the high impact of having all the X-wing's lasers strike at once. This mode was most likely the best for Rebel pilots when dealing with the agile Imperial TIE fighter, considering the TIE's well-documented fragility and complete lack of shielding, or with ground forces, in which quantity of fire superceded quality of fire.
- Dual fire, (or dual-offset fire as it is known by pilots) where two laser cannons, one on each side, pair up and fire in an alternating sequence. While decreasing the overall rate of fire, dual fire mode naturally increases the damage potential of each attack due to a damage intensifying effect all projectiles have when they impact at roughly the same location.
- Quad fire, where all four laser cannons (one at each foil-tip) fire together. This fire mode greatly reduces the rate of fire but gives the X-wing's lasers their greatest punch. While the X-wing's laser cannons adjust for distance on every setting, it is most visible in this mode.
Errata
Blue One, an X-wing that was "given" to Lt. Marx during the Rebel evacuation of P3X-991 (aka Midbar), has been modified to accept Federation mini photon torpedoes. This was done, given the scarcity of proton torpedoes on the Arcadia and in Federation space. The internal magazine retains the capacity of six mini photon torpedoes.
