I'ee 'Six-shooter' Multi-purpose Gunship

The most maneuverable combat vessel designed by the Ith'ee family, the so-called Six-shooter earns its nickname from its six primary weapons mounted upon a circular structure. It is the only strike craft currently in use by the I'ee's military forces, designed with the sole purpose of destroying the strike craft of alien species.

Developed as the culmination of the Ith'ee family's laborious attempts to reverse engineer and perfect fighter space craft, the gunship attempts to solve the problem of enemy fighters not by copying them, but by developing a craft specifically designed for destroying them.

• Maneuverability
• High firepower relative to size

• Escort Duty
• Fighter Killer

The craft has a vaguely similar appearance to its prototype predecessors, despite its much larger size. It's chassis has a roughly box-like shape to it, with a spherical cockpit attached to the front. Surrounding the central mass is a circular weapons platform, containing ammunition and six gun mounts with freedom of rotation. At the rear of the vessel is the I'ee's staple particle drive with the characteristic metal prong extending from it. At the top and bottom of the craft's aft section, behind the circular weapons platform, are double-barrelled turret mounts to protect the rear.

When the I'ee first encountered NMX scouting patrols, they took the form of small flotillas of battlepods; small, maneuverable fighter craft. Having never encountered a combat vessel on such a small scale before, the I'ee took disproportionate casualties against the aggressive intruders.

The Ith'ee, morbidly fascinated by the combat effectiveness of the NMX battlepods, scavenged what few pieces of wreckage the Thi-Thi's military managed to recover, and even attempted to capture 'live' specimens of the enemy craft to study. Thus began the I'ee's attempts to reverse engineer the technology for fighter craft in an attempt to build their own weapon against the NMX incursions, which were gradually growing bolder.

Unfortunately, the tiny size of fighter craft presented several problems for the insects. The small size of the vessels meant only the smallest of crew could be used; a dampener on the affectionate insects' morale. Second, the I'ee's ironic befuddlement when faced with a weightless, three-dimensional environment made controlling an immensely fast and maneuverable space craft almost impossible, let alone effectively aim its weapons.

In the end, the Ith'ee's research culminated in a compromise of sorts, combining what they had learned of fighter craft into a ship designed specifically to kill fighters rather than imitate them. The gunship they designed was about half the size of an I'ee corvette, with enough space and weapon mounts to necessitate a comfortable crew of five. While no-where near as fast as the nimble battlepods, its flexible weapon mounts and maneuverability allow it to track and annihilate targets with its primary weapons. The first I'ee strike craft was pushed into production.

• Class: N/A
• Type: Escort
• Designers: Ith'ee
• Manufacturer: Ith'ee
• Fielded by: Ith'ee, Thi-Thi, Ith'it and Ee'thie

Crew: 1 pilot and 4 gunners.

• Length: 44.5 meters (145.9 feet)
• Width: 25 meters (82 feet)
• Height: 20 meters (65.6 feet)

• Sublight Engines: 0.075 c
• Range: Five Earth days.
• Lifespan: Three Earth years.
• Refit Cycle: Six Earth months.

• Hull: 8 SP

• Tyranitum Alloy

• I'ee Standard Particle Drive

• Hex-linked Coil-guns: 6, Tier 4, Light Anti-Armor
• Double-barrelled Coil-gun Turrets: 2, Tier 4, Light Anti-Armor

Littlewasp created this article on 2016/03/22 07:27.