The Banji Killerbee

A fighter craft made exclusively for outer space

By Nikolaj Lemche

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The Banji Killerbee on maneuvers in the Crab Nebula
By Nikolaj Lemche

But now humanity has been involved in all-out space warfare, and the shortcomings of this concept has become clear. Not only is only space itself important, but whoever controls space, also controls the planet below, so this new kind of fighting needs new vehicles.

Banji were the first ones to realize this. After the failure of the Hyo, they began to look at the results from the fighting, and they soon realized the need for the purebred spacefighter. Designing a purebred spacefighter were much simpler than designing a hybrid. It only needed one drive, the frame didn't need the structure to withstand re-entry and the electronics and programming were much easier when they didn't need to perform as many tasks. 7 months after they began, Banji could present the first prototype of its new space fighter, the Killerbee.

The Killerbee is a pure space fighter. It hasn't any aerodynamic form and all parts of it is made to enhance its performance in space. It has the same type of drives that the Hyo used, but with the lighter mass and the extra space from the removal of the atmosphere engine that allows for much more reaction mass, the resulting acceleration and endurance is much better. It is X shaped to give max maneuverability from the maneuver drives, and this shape also gives the sensors a much broader sensing area, so the electronics don't need to be as advanced to perform as well as the best current fighters. Only the Clear/Bioware combination systems gives a better sensor system than the ones in the Killerbee. The fighter has also been equiped with Banji's powerful Raimi laser cannons and smart missiles.

All in all, it is a powerful combat vehicle and it is expected to cost less than half than a Bakuhatsu E15. It only has one crewmember, but he will be piloting humanity's first pure space fighter.

So far, most governments has been hesitant to order this new fighter as long as the ones they have has performed so well against the opposition so far. But the UN has shown interest. Rumor has that it is because they have had some nasty surprise in the battle with the Coalition. Karroo has also shown great interest because they have no use for the atmospheric ability of normal space fighters and because of the expected price. This is the reason why a flight of 4 Killerbees are currently on a "training" mission in the Crab Nebula. They haven't been involved in any conflict with the Chromatics, but it is only a question of time.

System:

VT: Space fighter
Tech: W
VS: 5
Handling: +4
Mass: 14
Cost: Not available commercially
Armor: 3[5]
Weapons:

• 2 forward-mounted Ramei laser cannons (Acc. +2, Dmg 10[5]L)
• 2 smart missiles (Acc +3, Damage 10[15]L)