The Rebel Faction

Kalrechi-class Heavy Fighter

(Typical Specifications)
Name/Type: Kalrechi-class Heavy Fighter
Designer/Manufacturer: Underground Alliance Engineering
Combat Role: Heavy Fighter
Crew: 1
Length: 16 Meters
Speed: 110 MGLT, 1200 Kph
Acceleration: 16 MGLT/s
Maneuverability: 75 DPF
Hyperdrive: x2 (optional)
Shield Rating: 100 SBD
Hull Rating: 60 RU
Weapons: 4 Chain Ion Cannons, 4 Missiles, 10 Proximity Mines or other ordinance
Countermeasures: 10 Decoys

Description: The Kalrechi-class Heavy Fighter is not a particular ship class with specific components and materials. Rather, it is a vague design produced by the Underground Alliance Engineering that has been distributed to resistance cells, which can then manufacture Kalrechis cheaply and discretely for their own use by the nature of the Kalrechi’s design.

Rarely is any Kalrechi remotely similar within its manufacture; unless it was built by the same resistance cell. The ship’s thick hull has been designed to be made with a wide variety of common materials. Polymers, metals, and certain ceramics have all been used with success on some variants. This does affect the ship’s performance. For example, with a polymer hull, it is less durable but is also lighter, making the fighter faster and more maneuverable. The ship’s controls are generally those ripped off of common airspeeders or older ships. Some cells manufacture their primitive controls when not capable of obtaining their own parts. Like the basic controls and other basic systems, engines are typically second-hand off of other starships and vehicles. UAE expected this, and there is a wide amount of room left to house various types of engines. Again, some cells manufacture their own engines for easier maintenance and standardization. Most engines, however, incorporate a unique feature: a basic scramjet. This allows Kalrechis to temporarily outrun opponents within the atmosphere, usually in order to escape superior forces.

However, the most unique abilities designed for the fighter are in its weapon’s suite. UAE decided early on that laser and blaster weapons would not be ideal for a clandestine construction because large blaster gas shipments could be easily traced, and there was only one use for it. Moreover, there was the possibility that some cells based in locales with strict weapon’s controls would have little chance of getting a miniscule amount of the required gases. Instead, UAE devised a simple gun which uses civilian superconductor wiring, commonly used in home computers and other electronics, to accelerate projectiles, usually metallic slugs, within an ionic sheath generated by an ion flux generator taken from droid restrainer bolts. There is little to stop a cell from downloading the required design on home computers and manufacturing them on cheap tooling machines.

The resulting weapon, named the Chain Ion Cannon, fires a rapid stream of slow-moving projectiles (which can be made out of anything from plastics to stone to the usual scrap metal). Energy consumption is minimal and damage is significant because of the combined kinetic and magnetic energy, but it is hard to hit fast moving targets because the relatively slow speed of the bolts. This makes the Kalrechi ideal for taking on heavily armored vehicles and smaller starships, but less than ideal for targetting fast-moving craft and missiles. With time, skilled pilots can learn to use the CIC to effectively take out interceptors, but rarely missiles.

Because of its role, the Kalrechi invariably needs explosive weapons to destroy the heaviest armored targets. To this end, the starfighter has two internal ordinance bays. The first bay carries four warheads, usually homemade missiles incorporating maneuvering thrusters taken from airspeeders and any number of payloads depending on what the cell has on hand. Usually these are primitive explosives manufactured by any number of materials, such as fertilizers to volatile cleaning chemicals. Some luckier pilots have access to modern proton torpedoes and warheads, all of which can be used interchangably within the bay. The other bay is free-fall bombing bay for ground-support missions or runs on enemy capital ships. Homemade bombs, built like the missiles, are generally common. However, a common space combat variation is to use civilian plastic containers packed with explosives and fitted with a simple proximity sensor, making hard-to-detect space proximity mines. This generally makes it a bad idea to follow behind Kalrechis because in the blink of the eye, it could deploy an unavoidable, and detrimental, mine.

UAE personnel believed that enemy missiles would likely be one of the prime threats to Kalrechis, especially because the starfighter’s guns are ineffective against starfighter-grade missiles. Because of this, a rear-mounted decoy launcher was added on. Each decoy works by generating a general energy disruption field, like the Imperial Decoy Beam, but which mimics the Kelrechi’s sensor signature. The missile then generally locks onto the decoy and destroys it instead of hitting the fighter. It can also be deployed to foil enemy droid fighters into firing on it instead of the actual fighter.

Role & Deployment:

Kelrechis can be found across the galaxy as part of the Rebel Alliance’s cells. They are not generally used as superiority starfighters, but instead focus on assaulting slow-moving targets such as cargo ships or ground vehicles. Some cells use them to attack enemy installations as well, and even more rarely, enemy naval units. Because of the ship’s design, new variants designed to deal with special roles might become prevalent.

RP Thread: Kalrechi Test Thread