The Rebel Faction

TNO - TIE Phantom Mk. II

Name/Model#: TIE/st V38 Phantom Mk. II
Designer/Manufacturer: Sienar Fleet Systems
Combat Designation: Medium-range stealth fighter
Crew: 1 pilot, 1 astromech droid brain
Propulsion System: SFS P-s5.6 Twin Ion Engines (175 KTU)
Speed Rating: 170 MGLT
Maneuverability Rating: 140 DPF
Weapons: Four SFS L-s9.3 Laser Cannons, Two general purpose warhead launchers
Hyperdrive: x1.25
Shields/Armor: Forward/Rear projecting Novaldex Shields (40SBD); Titanium hull with Quadranium Steel armored Solar Panels
Special Design: Overlay of black matte fiberplast in order to render the fighter nearly invisible when in space; reconfigured engines that burn TibannaX, a version of Tibanna gas that turns black when emitted from the engines; sensor negators and a gravitic modulator, which together render the fighter invisible to scanners. The laser cannons, mounted on the edges of the solar panels, can be fired individually, linked, or in an order designated by the pilot. They can also be set to stutter fire, normal fire, or heavy fire. The heavy fire, while firing a more powerful energy bolt, is a great risk to the pilot as the cannon can easily overheat and destroy itself and the craft.

Development History: When the last Mk. I Phantom in operaton was destroyed, the design was thought to be lost; however, the idea was still on the table of Sienar. Besides that, the prototypes were still available, and the New Order rebuilt several thousand Mk. I ships but kept them in storage as the Empire had once again grown to its former glory and the need for a cloaked ship was nonexistant, thoghh they were used for specialized missions.

However, the techs at Sienar realized the inevitable problems with the cloaking shield. By nature the shield caused the pilot to fly without sensors - essentially to fly blind. Even if this problem were worked out, firing weapons or talking on a comm would still give away the fighter's position, and certain mass sensors could still detect the craft's presence. Finally, heat signatures given off by the craft would allow it to be detected, and the drive trails could be traced. For the Phantom to be successful, a new version would have to take its place.

Sienar tasked several trusted technicians with the problem and placed them in seclusion to work. The first issue they had to deal with was solved quite simply - it involved creating a black matte fiberplast that would render the fighter invisible to the naked eye while not interfering with flight. The second problem was a bit more difficult.

It is the nature of any hidden ship to create a drive trail that is easily visible to enemy combatants. That was the very reason Admiral Thrawn was wary of using cloaked ships in battle. Sienar developed a way to combat the problem with an extremely refined version of Tibanna gas called TibannaX. After retooling ion engines to burn the new fuel, techs discovered that the emissions of TibannaX were jet black, making them impossible to track.

Sienar's next goal was to develop a way to cloak the ship from mass sensors. They wanted to stay away from a cloaking shield if possible because of the inherent problems with such things. Instead, the techs came up with a gravitic modulator. The way it worked was to alter the gravitic signature of the craft in such a way that both long-range and short-range mass sensors would register no more than a speck of space dust. This creation, based on the gravity well projector technology, wraps the gravity of the fighter around itself, essentially creating a gravitic cloak around the fighter.

The final hurdle to overcome was a way to fool short-ranged and focused sensors, such as Doplar and heat-sensors. After nearly five-hundred failed attempts, the Sienar techs developed sensor negators, which altered the heat signature and the Doplar image in such a way that the fighter was invisible to sensor scans. These negators first eliminate the heat signature of the fighter by first spreading out the emissions and second by warping heat detection attempts and sending back faulty signatures. The negators also warp any direct-beam signal around the craft, making the beam so that it will not bounce back to the sending ship. Only if there is another ship in the path of the beam that picks up its allies beam signal will an anomaly be detected. Theoretically these negators should work on any type of sensors, and it is proven that they negate all existing sensors.

Sienar also managed to come up with a stealth comm, a tight beam sent from fighter to fighter. It could only be heard on like stealth comms or other craft directly in the path of the beam. As long as transmissions were brief, the location of the fighter would remain hidden.

Taking these ideas, the techs at Sienar redesigned the TIE Phantom until the only thing that remained was the name and the idea. The new craft, invisible to both sensors and the naked eye, carried a decent punch - one that, with enough numbers, could bring down a capital ship. The only downside to the craft is its cost; the special features run the price of the fighter up to nearly the price of four TIE Defenders. But for specialized missions, the fighter is ideal.

Description: The Mk. II Phantom takes the cockpit of a TIE Interceptor and elongates it, adding space for an engine and a permanent astromech droid that acts as a navigator and programmer. The solar panels are straightened and elongated Interceptor panels that are centered around the cockpit in the same general design as the B-wing, though their length is forward rather than up and down. Sienar, intending to give the fighter a wide firing range, placed the laser cannons along the edges of the solar panels and placed warhead launchers where the cannons would usually be underneath the cockpit.

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