Wulfen Superfighter


Craft: Shuumar Central Command Wulfen 1.0 Fighter
Type: Heavy Fighter
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 14 meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting; Wulfen (see below)
Cost: 2,150,000 credits (see below)
Crew: 2
Passengers: 1
Cargo Capacity: 40kg
Consumables: 2 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyper Backup: None
Nav Computer: Limited to 3 jumps
Maneuverability: 5D+2 (see below)
Space: 11
Atmosphere: 450; 1,300 kph
Hull: 3D+2
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 45/2D
Search: 65/3D
Focus: 4/4D
Weapons:
3 Heavy Laser Cannons (fire linked)
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: Pilot
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300m/1.2km/2.5km
Damage: 6D+2
2 Ion Cannons
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: Pilot
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-3/7/26
Atmosphere Range: 100-300m/700km/2.6km
Damage: 4D
1 Proton Torpedo Tube
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Arc: Front
Missile Loadout: 5
Crew: Pilot
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 30-100m/300m/700m
Damage: 9D

Designed with the special abilities of the Shuumar in mind, the Wulfen fighter is of a rather unusual appearance. A pair of X shaped wing struts extend from the main body of the ship, one extending in each direction. These struts house four ion engines each, with the rear engines mounted toward the rear and the forward engines toward the front. All of the other systems are located in the somewhat spherical central capsule.

Because of the Wulfen's unusual configuration, it is far more maneuverable than the standard ships, and is also capable of a number of tricks that even the most sophisticated of New Republic or Imperial craft cannot even attempt. It can reach a full stop in milliseconds, and accelerate to full speed in little more time. In addition, the Wulfen is just as fast and maneuverable in reverse as it is in forward, and it can slam from full forward to full reverse without any great difficulty.

Because of it's special abilities, the Wulfen lends itself to truly remarkable tactics. A favorite among Wulfen pilots is to stay just out of laser cannon range of the target, and disable it with their ion cannons. This requires a delicate touch, as the ion cannons only outrange standard lasers by a single meter, but the Wulfen can usually duck back out of the range of the opponent craft when they feel threatened, and once one of these ships get behind a target, they are almost impossible to shake. In addition, the Shuumar have modified a fair number of their ships to include a pair of long range lasers instead of the ion cannons. These weapons have the following stats:
2 Long Range Laser Cannons (fire linked)
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: Pilot
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-7/17/36
Atmosphere Range: 100-700m/1.7km/3.6km
Damage: 4D+1

With these weapons mounted, they have a few meters to play with while baiting enemy fighters, and as such have proven nearly invulnerable against small groups of enemy fighters.

The one reason that the design of the Wulfen has not been copied by any other power is the tremendous stresses that it places on it's pilots. Even the most modern inertial dampers can't do much against the sort of g-forces that the sudden stop and go motions of the Wulfen put out. Even with full modern inertial dampers, a full speed in and out reverse puts up to 12g of pressure on the pilot for short times, enough pressure to knock out or kill a human pilot. Other maneuvers have been known to put even more pressure on the pilots, and Shuumar have been known to travel at double normal speed (two move actions), reverse (one action), and head back at full speed (a final action) all within a 5 second interval, putting nearly 24g worth of pressure on the pilot, pressure that would be great enough to crush a human skull flat. Only the Shuumar, with their high gravity adaptations can survive a combat mission in a Wulfen.

The Shuumar are attempting to build a combat cruiser with similar capabilities. Known as the Wrath of Heaven Cruiser, this ship would easily be able to destroy just about any capital ship in existence, especially in it's current form, where it mounts a planetary defence level Ion Cannon modified for additional range. However, the Wrath of Heaven project has met with a number of setbacks, and after the three prototypes constructed were lost with all hands in an accident that appeared to have been sabotage, the project has been put on hold until the agent or agent responsible can be apprehended. The Shuumar people do not have enough spacemen to risk loosing any more to accidents of that sort.

Note: In playtesting, the Wulfen proved substantialy more effective than X and B wings, knocking them out without noticable difficulty. A-wings and TIEs were somewhat more difficult, but still couldn't really challenge them, as they can simply sit still, spin around real fast, and blast anything that comes in range. In order to keep things balanced, it is important to remember that the Shuumar do not have that many fighter pilots, and as they are a long lived, slow breeding race, they do not expect any great numbers to grow up any time soon. Still, with the Wulfen fighters, they have become a military power, and if they ever would complete the Wrath of Heaven, they would be a power of the first rank, as that ship can drop ISDs like flies. (the prototypes were destroyed by Black Serpent agents, who have left a series of clues leading back toward the New Republic. The Shuumar investigators, with the aid of several NR operatives discovered the deception, but have still been unsuccessful at tracking the saboteurs back to their source.) Also, it is important to note that the Shuumar are not particularly mechanically inclined, and do not make the best pilots, though their veteran pilots are improving fast.
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