Project RAGING SPACE COWBOY 531, is one of Terra's many responses, post-Liberation, to the starfighters (also occasionally referred to as 'snubfighters') of the various Galactic powers. Most notably, especially considering their first contactcwith them was the massively produced TIE series, was the Terrans outright contempt for the design. By the same token, for all that Terrans flocked to the Rebel Alliance, they also had less than glowing comments about the 4 primarily used ones (the famed X-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing, and, if to a much lesser extent, the A-Wing).
BackgroundOne of the first 'prototypes' for the project technically preceded it's existence, and in fact, preceded Liberation Day. While later being given the term ASX-1, it was known in the Rebellion as X-Wing 'Green 6'. One of the original production runs by Incom, it unfortunately experienced a very short combat lifespan before being heavily damaged in 4 BBY. Further exacerbated following that fight, it experiencing a loss of power limping back to base, just as it landed, which snapped the nose.
Due to upgrades in later runs, the Alliance was originally going to strip the entire craft for parts to keep the newer/better units in working order. This however was sidestepped when various Terran personnel were allowed access to it. After coming up with an intriguing alternative plan that was authorized by no less than Admiral Ackbar, they went to work converting it into an 'Ugly', the slang term for starfighters built from mixed together wrecks.
The upper laser cannons, the only two to survive the crash completely intact, were moved to positions between the wings. Which, themselves, had the S-Foil actuators removed as the Terrans viewed it as unnecessary. Pulling parts from a damaged A-Wing, and with former Apache (see also: AH-64 Apache, AgustaWestland Apache) maintenance crews that were familiar with turret systems, fixed the issues plaguing them, even after installing the far larger/more power cannons. A fixed rotary blaster cannon, source unknown but believed to be a Firespray, was fitted into the space left after removal of the ruined portside proton torpedoes launcher, although the starboard one was able to be repaired.
The greatest changes however, and where the first signs of just how ingenious Terrans could be at upsetting combat paradigms that existed for millenia, was refitting the tips of all four wings with small ion engines, 4 per wing, for a total of sixteen. Ironically, many of these were taken from civilian sources, and not even remotely considered 'military grade'. Lastly, with the help of several freed Quarrian & Wookie slaves whom had not only joined the Alliance, but also had experience with small rapid open/close airlocks, developed several cheap cannister 'pods' to be mounted under each wing. One each for the upper wings, two below the lower wing pair. Each pod carried, side-by-side, two proton torpedoes or concussion missiles, on boosters, but no reloads. Alliance personnel were quite puzzled at the lack of endurance but shrugged at the adamant support the Terrans were pushing for the changes.
The results however, spoke for themselves the moment the newly christened 'Green Meanie' - if still technically Green Six - had to engage an Arquitens-class' entire TIE complement while acting as rearguard for a medical supply convoy whom had a hyperdrive malfunction. While the lone fighter had been launched as a kind of last stand to stall for time, to the growing disbelief of Alliance personnel - and to the horror of the Imperial crew - said 'Ugly' not only could fight as well as a deliberately designed starfighters, but was winning. At 9 to 1 odds, 11 if counting the TIE Bombers that desperately joined in later, the 'Green Meanie' simply outclassed the TIEs in every conceivable fashion as it performed maneuvers previously only believed possible by spacesuited personnel. Victoria sideways with no warning, vertically as well, along with 180 spins within the length of its wingspan, and more, it literally out-flew the TIEs. To add insult to injury, the turreted lasers, running off jury-rigged software, were able to easily track targets during said maneuvers and then adequately predicted the positioning of a locked-on target to know when and where to fire them to ensure hits. While the system was still buggy, and was closer to a cone for accuracy in spraying laser bolts across the wings of the TIEs as it landed instant kill shots, it still showcased the sheer deadliness of the combination. The rapid firing blaster also made quite the showing as the fight reached its halfway point, when two of the TIEs panicked in their dodging the lasers, rolled back across the X-Wing's nose ,and were immediately torn to pieces by a torrent of rapidly fired bolts. From the start of the first fired shot to the last, the engagement was over in less than four minutes.
Then, very likely to the shock of all, the Terran pilot turned towards the Arquitens. Now deluded of fighter protection, the cruiser was mousetrapped against the two small corvette escorts for the convoy, both previously being pounded by the vastly heavier ship, and the now revealed to be absurdly deadly 'Ugly'. What happened aboard the cruiser's bridge is likely never to be known when the starfighter ripple fired every torpedo it had, en masse, into the main viewport. In sacrificing endurance, the slapdash design had maximized the option of being able to fire one singularly massive salvo. One decapitated light cruiser later, yawing wildly out of control from the last dying command of a now dead helmsman, and the Alliance was suddenly very interested in what Terrans had to offer.
Turning back to Terra, smuggled partial plans for the modified Green Six begun arriving over the course of the next few years. While Terra was never able to move forwards with creating an artisan hand-built model, let alone a production runs, these plans did give them ideas for how to modify many of their still hidden military vehicles. Poetically, many of the old Apache 'helicopters' were refit to include not just turreted laser cannons, but some carried turreted blasters instead. The former performing quite adequately against Imperial tanks, while the latter were seen as harbingers of death when fielded against infantry. The well documented Terran AGMs with their massively outsized warheads, paired with cheap rocket pods, all carried by the attack helicopters, just added to Imperial misery during the four years prior to Alderaan's destruction and the turning point around Yavin.
In the Alliance Admiral Ackbar pushed hard for the A-Wing to not just return to using turreted armaments, but rotary blasters swapped in. Unfortunately due to politics, and a crackdown on high rate of fire weaponry by Imperial customs patrols, this option was sporadic at best, or done haphazardly, across the various Rebel Cells. Some were refit with comparably slow firing laser cannons and couldn't adequately realize the advantages the system gave them. While others swapped to blasters without turrets and suffered in the hands of pilots whom held down the trigger and ended up critically overheating them, rather than in short decisive bursts, before being shot down themselves due to now being unable to shoot back. To the disgust of the Terran natives, whom were firmly campaigning for centralizing the turreted, blaster equipped, models together in a single unit - even if meant 'nerf trading' upgraded designs for lesser ones, into one group - the Alliance council gave up on the idea entirely as not offering good enough results. Thankfully, Ackbar did foresee what a unit of these could do when working together, and quietly moved funds around to ensure a squadron of modified 'Green' variant X-Wings, and fully upgraded A-Wings, were available by the Battle of Endor. Their truly lopsided kill ratios, an astounding 29:1, even while being outnumbered by over 30:1, cemented the upgrades as viable. Again however, Alliance politics hamstrung things, by viewing those models as elite designs to be assigned only to their best pilots, while delegating their older 'easier/simpler to pilot' designs to the vast majority of their forces. Recent events in clashes with the First Order might have changed this however, especially in light of their TDF allies (see below) and their successes.
Two Legacies, Three ProjectsBefore going into further details, one needs to understand an aspect of Terran humor, in using wordplay to hide hidden meanings beneath innocuous words. 'Raging Space Cowboy 531', while seemingly an incoherent stream of words, is actually a three different references in a single sentence. Raging, as in the emotion, has other related words among the many Terran languages, including the word 'Fury'. Space, of course, is obvious, in referring to the void between planets & stars. This, will be important shortly. Cowboys, a well-romanticized Terra occupation of the last two centuries prior to Contact, involved a combination of something akin to nerf-herders and occasionally (if heavily fictionalized/idealized) acting as impromptu gunfighters or 'gunslingers'. Individually none of these terms seems related. However, if one remembers the famed, Terran actor turned partisian, Bruce Boxleitner, and his former career as an actor, they might clue in the name. Terra had produced a media series titled 'Babylon 5' - and due to his key role acting as an anti-authoritarian, alien 'lover', the Empire wanted him dead the moment they took over - in which the creator of the series, J. Michael Straczynski, came up with the idea for a fictional starfighter termed the 'Starfury'. While indeed fictional, the reasoning behind it was so rooted in hard physics that their real life premium space agency actually requested to be allowed rights to build one as a orbital construction workpod (note: this was years before Imperial Contact/Occupation, and back when Terra stil had yet to experience a need for armed spacecraft). This 'Starfury' could manuever along any of the 3 main axis of movement due to having sixteen near equal sized thrusters on an X shaped hull. With a pilot near the centerpoint of rotation to minimize g-forces, this was, and actually is, an extremely well-thought out design even for such as our own Galactic standards.
However, that does not quite explain the emphasis towards turreted and semi-sized armaments. For that, one needs to go back a decade further, to a 'movie' (note: Terran term for 2D motion media) that actually inspired the Straczynski to create the Starfury. In 43BBY, using some of the very first computer generated visual effects ever produced on the planet, one of their entertainment companies produced a film known as 'The Last Starfighter'. Within the movie, the main focal starfighter around which the media revolves, is known as a 'Gunstar', which explains the above links to space and cowboys. The Gunstar uses an extremely similar engine layout as the Starfury, again with on an X shaped hull, but with two portions filled in that are filled with a near absurdity of guided munitions. However, it is the other aspect to the design that truly explains how it fits into the project name. Scattered around the hull are no less than five turrets, three to the front, two to the rear, which provide near perfectly spherical coverage to the design in which to project energy weapons fire and/or defend itself by being able to track and shoot down incoming physical munitions such as torpedoes/missiles. This then explains the '5' part of the project title.
Numbers '3' and '1' in the project title is where matters diverge from the fictional to the practical, and possibly were originally there to throw off anyone whom might have guessed from the other words the platform(s) towards which the TDF were working on. In that the project is actually an umbrella over three separate designs, rather than just one. The numerals were picked as to the number of turrets on which each design would carry, along with any other fixed/semi-fixed mounted ones, not including munitions bays/launchers. Sub-Project Marduk was under the '1' label, mounting a single turret. Sub-Project Triton was under the '3' label. Sub-project Longbow was under the '5' Label. Being a light fighter, medium/multi-role fighter, and a heavy fighter/fighter-bomber, respectively.
MardukMarduk was developed first, in finding ways to use what Terrans found best in both the TIE fighter, the solar ionization reactor, solar collection panels, and the pivoting ion engines, with the best of what they admired in the X-Wing, namely it's X-form shape, cockpit, hyperdrive, larger engines, and shields. S-Foils were completely discarded as an unnecessary and overly complex/mass-intensive component, as surface radiators were incorporated into being active on the design at all times. Instead, the wings are fixed, if with small control vanes/rudders front & back, with ion engine clusters at their tips. One very large engine** is located aft, inside an aerodynamic shell, which provides 2/3 of the primary forward thrust, the remaining 1/3 by the four aft facing ion engines. Shockingly, the prototype(s) can surpass the speed of sound at least three and a half times over, which marks them at well over 250% faster than a TIE Interceptor inside an atmosphere. Armaments were a fixed laser cannon mounted just below and to the right of the cockpit, while a semi retractable 'blister' shaped turret with a single rotary blaster at the very front of the nose cone. Unlike it's spiritual ancestor, the Starfury, the Marduk prototype has a classic cockpit, if using enhanced inertia dampening to offset it's position. Sitting roughly between the TIE/LN and TIE/IN in thrust, it however has a 'classic' maneuverabilty that is matched only by the increasingly rare TIE/D starfighters, or at least until it begins to use its ability to thrust off it's main line of travel (aka: thrust sideways/vertically while not changing its heading) with 'non-classic' maneuvers that simply obliterates any challenger's chances. Guided munitions are stored in four separate compartments, one per lower wing and two in the main hull, while the upper wings share space with added micro-reactors. Another item of note is it's scale. To the Terrans, this is a light fighter, specialized as an interceptor, rapid response, and 'early arrival' space superiority. For most Galactic species, this is a medium fighter, edging into heavy fighter territory. Currently it is paired with their 'conventional' light fighter, the Spitfire II*.
TritonTriton was developed next, and is in direct competition with the more conventional fighter design of the Terrans, their F-37 Silent Eagle/Mustang II/Valkyrie/Sturmvogel II*** as to which will be the primary mid-tier combatant for their Aerospace Force and Navy. Whereas the already existing F-37 is decidedly based upon pre-Imperial designs, and as such, very munitions heavy, the Triton is based primarly around its energy armaments and only has a rather light amount of munitions carrying capacity. Specifically singled out to be a space-superiority fighter, the Triton prototypes were the closest in their design to the original 'Green Meanie' modified X-Wing Ugly. As such, much of the work was already accomplished by the Alliance and 'freelancer' Terran personnel seconded to the Alliance. However, that was taking an existing design and modifying it. Due to Terran xenophobia/paranoia leading to a case of 'not invented here' syndrome, as Terrans put it, they opted to design a similar starfighter on their own. From the ground up. Firstly, was that a aft facing second seat was added to the design, whom not only acts as an electronics warfare officer - in conjunction with one of their SI computers (note: this is not one of their famed SmartBrain AIs, but a sub-sophont 'smart' system) - but also acts to engage targets with the rear facing turret. Fitted with a rotary blaster, it can completely cover any direction in it's aft quadrant and even can be partially computer controlled in order to fire upon physical munitions either targeting the fighter itself, or anything nearby, making for an excellent escort for larger vessels. The hull itself, instead of a X shape, looks more like two Ys stuck together with a O shape between them, leading some Alliance/Republic personnel whom have been granted access to the project, to jokingly refer to it as the 'Double Y-Wing'. Each of the four small fins which can double as elevators, rudder, and ailerons, all in one, have ion engines at their tips for manuevering in space. Additionally, both of it's primary engines are each fitted with three rotating and pivoting magnetic deflection panels, which can also alter the direction of it's thrust. It is at the end of it's main wings that one finds the other two turrets, one per wingtip. Normally flush to the wing/hull when inside an atmosphere - unless in combat - they extend slightly outwards and can pivot to face front or back, or even straight out to the sides via the combined laser cannon and rotary blaster sliding partially into an empty space inside the wings, as only the tips of both barrels ever protrude from them even if extended. Like with the 'Green Meanie', a fixed mount is also located in the nose, in this case, a third combined laser-rotary blaster so to match the firing rates of it's other armaments (note: disregarding the aft turret, which is not equipped with a laser cannon, only a rotary blaster). The design completely forgoes the X-Wing's 'stacked' munitions launcher to instead carry six relatively small munitions bays. Or at least, as Terrans view them. A maximum of two Terran 'standard' AAMs or AGMs can be fitted in each bay, while upwards of 4-5 proton torpedoes or concussion missiles can be fitted per each one. A multi-role model, the third and fourth of the five prototypes, is also being tested which swaps the six small bays for three large ones, and two optional underwing hardpoints. As with all of the Project's designs, it it hyperdrive capable (Class 3, the best Terra can produce locally) and has at least one dual-mode shield generator (single fore/single aft, double fore/min aft, or min fore/double aft).
LongbowLongbow is more or less the real-life counterpart to the fictional Gunstar. While being vastly more aerodynamic and with the wings closer together, the similarities are almost painfully obvious to whomever has seen the movie and the actual prototype, such as the two person cockpit and gyroscope seat. Outside of that, the primary difference is that the centerline hull segment extends back much further, to include an additional shield generator, internal cooling systems to bypass the need for S-foils or extended radiators of any kind, and a vastly larger primary reactor in order to support its armaments. Mainly, the five turrets which house hybrid cannons. In one mode, they operate identically to rotary blasters using lasers to ignite Tibanna gas into plasma and then expel it at high velocity. In their alternative mode, the lasers are ramped up and used directly, trading instant heavy pin-point damage, for a massive boost in range and long lasting emissions to do continuous damage over time. Additionally, it is a true fighter-bomber, not just in Galactic terms, but as the Terran views matters. Five massive bays, one on the outer rim of each wing, one under each wing, and one centerline, are each large enough to mount dozens upon dozens of proton torpedoes/concussion missiles or other Galactic standard ordinance, or 'merely' a 4-6, each, of what the Terrans view as 'standard' ordinance munitions. In fact, the bays are large enough that developers have created one-man drop pods that can be inserted into them, two per bay, allowing a ten man strike team to be rapidly inserted via a single hyperdrive capable craft. Like its fictional counterpart, it can land vertically, with a retractable lift that can be deployed. Unlike the fictional version, it also has magnetized skids/wheels for landing conventionally. As with the other two designs in the overall project, it is fully VTOL capable, and can lift off without a runway. Unlike the other two, it's ordinance bays can be so heavily loaded as to 'overburden' the design, and force it to take off using a runway or at least starting from a low hover.
Ironically, the Longbow was nearly canceled due to political disbelief due to believing it was a joke/hoax that was being used to illegally funnel funds into the designer's pockets. It took a public revealing of the project, and how far they'd gone with it, including a tour of the prototype's construction site, and public access to it's test flights, to impress upon them that it was real. Real, and deadly. Politicians whom were initially going to pull the plug on it had been pushing for extra funding for PROJECT PEACEMAKER, which would eventually lead to their superb dedicated anti-fighter gunship, were convinced enough to see Longbow reach full functional prototype status before commenting further. Quite possibly this warming of the project was also caused by the sheer hysteria coming from the Imperial Remnant/First Order whom, after hearing of the design, initially scoffed at the absurd requirements, only to be stunned at it being a real design. Of course, considering that they themselves were working on the TIE/Ma 'Mauler', and TIE/Vt 'Whirlwind', both of which used various ideas crimmed from the fictional media, it is suggested this was more a reaction at being upstaged by such a newcomer to the Galactic community. At the same time, with increasingly heavy handed responses from the Remnant/First Order towards Terrans, has likely seen a push towards finishing a design already started. Doubly ironic is that the gunship, with it's simplified 'brick' layout and solely using quad-barrel turrets spread across it's hull, would end up being finalized and fielded while the Longbow was/is still in testing.
None of the three - four if counting the multi-role variant of Triton - designs have yet fully finished their development cycle(s). While Marduk and Triton have already undergo incidental combat, pirates having stumbled across the systems they were being tested in, these situations had them so massively outclass and outnumber the surprised pirates, whom were using mostly pre-Clone Wars era fighters (a Z-95 Headhunter was the newest fighter any of the Pirates had in either of the two engagements, and the others were centuries older), that engineers couldn't adequately rate the prototypes other than 'workable/functional'. Longbow has been kept inside the Sol system itself, only using its hyperdrive to rapidly move independently between planets, and while rather visible to the Terran populace (see above), this means there is little to no chance of it being spotted by anyone/anything that Terrans do not wish to have it be seen by. As such, much of it's performance is based on guesswork, practical estimates, and publicly made available details that are likely woefully underselling it's true potential. Intriguingly, there actually stands a very high chance that at least one, perhaps two, of the designs might not ever reach service. Terrans were already using highly advanced atmospheric designs that could easily compete against most combat landspeeders, even with their fairly primitive technological base, and as such, are used to building 'a certain way'. Anything which deviates from this perceived 'way' is generally frowned upon and viewed with a mix of distrust and hesitant curiosity, and generally must be tested thoroughly - often to destruction - before they will come to accept it as either a 'new way' entirely or a 'new branch of a way'. Or as some would say, a revolutionary leap, versus an evolutionary leap. The latter having multiple pre-existing steps to fall back upon as proof it works, while the former is a blind jump into the unknown.
*Uniquely Terran, in any one of three centerline bays can, instead of ordinance, carry/mount an optional hyperdrive. Ground based Spitfire IIs generally don't utilize them, while naval based ones almost always carry one that will be shifted as needed depending on other ordinance carried. The designation of 'Spitfire' has special significance to Terran pilots, whom flock to it above many of the heavier designs, possibly due to it's unrivaled superiority inside an atmosphere - even the Marduk prototypes struggle against it, as they are far more of a deep space combatant - coupled to a top atmospheric speed that is virtually unheard of, in being hypersonic capable.
**This engine is a combined ion-plasma drive, but also includes Terra's own fusion turbine-to-scramjet principles that function while within a wide range of habitable and non-habitable atmospheres. Outside of an atmosphere, it is no better/worse than any other ion-plasma drive although it is oversized due to Terrans still limited production capabilities. Inside an atmosphere, it's thrust rate is more than capable of reaching at least Mach 3.4. Publically. However, it must be noted that previous studies by Terrans involving ramjets or scramjets reveal this might well be a very, very, low underestimate of it's true top speeds, as they already were working on a hypersonic Mach 10-12+ design using a scramjet, in the decade prior to Galactic Contact/Imperial Occupation. In fact, a hypersonic missile estimated to be traveling at Mach 13.6, protected by a tiny particle shield for air friction and fitted with a seismic charge, was used to take out the Sydney Imperial Walker Garrison's primary bunker in a single strike, on their continent of Australia, three days prior to Liberation.
**Technically it is the 'F-37', nothing more, and the TDF wisely stepped back from trying to add a title to due to it incorporating ideas from dozens of Terran's planetary nations, and pilots whose originating nationalities pre-date the formation of the TDF having wildly differing opinions as to what it will be referred to informally. Note, this informal name is normally what the general public refers to it as a kind of affectionate nickname. Currently 'Valkyrie' is dominating, but Mustang II has slowly been gaining traction. Of course, this might again skew wildly due to still being in testing and very limited production runs. If and when the Triton (or the Longbow for that matter) reached full production, it is very likely another nickname may be applied to it. There is historical proof of this, as the F-16 'Fighting Falcon' was known invariably as the 'Falcon' by the general media, while internally to the nation which primarily fielded it, their pilots nicknamed it the 'Viper'.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES
IIRC, Contact with the Empire in this setting was in 2007AD, or 10BBY, and Liberation Day was either immediately after BBY or within a year after, which took place 10 years after Contact (2017AD). So going by that, Babylon 5's first episode would have been Jan 1994AD, or 33BBY, while The Last Starfighter premiered in July 1984AD, or 43BBY.
HAH! The Last Starfighter pre-dates Darth Vader's own birth (41BBY). HAH!
Marduk = roughly the size of a F-16 or Ching-kuo. Turret is controlled via pupil-scanner/tracker in the helmet and is basically the next step beyond the F-35's own 'HUD in a helmet' setup. Just that it doesn't need to be perfectly fitted like the F-35 ones (seriously, its bullshit tight for the IRL ones). Like many things Terran, eventually it'll get dragged into other roles and end up as a (very) light bomber. Or at least, in Terran eyes its 'light'. To everyone else, its a fighter-bomber from the get-go considering it can carry a very substantial number of 'standard' Proton torps or Concussion missiles, or 'Terran style' AAMs/Bombs/ASMs/Cruise Missiles/etc, or a mix of them all.
Triton = Basically its the F-15/F-22 IN SPACE, but built like an oversized X-Wing with two huge engines out the back, rather than four small ones.
Also:
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is what I meant for how it looks. In that the smaller fins are canted inwards, with the thrusters at the ends of them, and then the main/core hull between that.
Longbow = Its the Gunstar. But a bit sleeker in the nose/cockpit area. No, it doesn't quite match the linked artwork, mainly because said artwork forgot the other ball turrets. And I honestly cannot visualize how to control 5 turrets without that gyro-seat. For one, it's basically it's own escape pod if sealed off. For another, there's that instinctive 'back of the brain' primal gut feeling at FACING whatever you're aiming for (or in the case of eyeball trackers, at least looking that way even if the rest of you isn't in position). Which really is a callback to our natural primitive instincts from being hunter-gatherers, in always wanting to keep our prey in sight, even if we're not (yet) in position to strike. Additionally, giving it a spherical view ala YF-19 or some Gundams, is probably a helvalot easier to do than projecting the view into a specialized helmet. Probably a lot cheaper as well (and you'd likely be able to source parts from damn near anywhere, so long as you can shape them even remotely into a geodesic sphere (aka, connecting flat plates) or a true 'curved' sphere).
Yes, TIEs are just that slow. They max out at around 1250kph with the Interceptor, which is only Mach 1.01. No, I'm not kidding.
Yes, the F-16 really is nicknamed the Viper by a lot of pilots. Yes, its a blatant Battlestar Galactica reference, only its from oBSG and not nBSG as that nickname was around in the '90s. Just that it got a bigger boost since then.
No, I didn't stat out the Spitfire II, nor the F-37.
Why? Because I'd rather other authors on here get to go wild and have fun coming up with them. I honestly do NOT want to be 'that guy' that steals all the limelight. I'd much rather let the others have fun in filling out the setting too.
