Post by MikDaTv on Feb 1, 2013 20:50:27 GMT -5
History:
When the war with the Mandalorians broke out, the Republic Starfighter Corps had a problem. Few of their fighters carried enough firepower to be able to punch through the thick armor of the Mandalorian ships. They could give as good as they got in dogfights and against smaller vessels, but against the Mandalorians capitol ships they just couldn't do enough damage outside of massive swarm attacks.
The Republic Commissioned Rendili StarDrive to solve the problem and Rendili's reply was the Broadsword. Its slow as a bantha, but tough as a Krayt Dragon. It was designed to be launched from a ship or space station and deployed through hyperspace to attack a target. It's size and fuel requirements make it difficult to station aboard anything but carriers or other dedicated fighter transports.
They're designed to have the weapons and armor to plow through point defenses and deploy multiple missiles in a single wave, overloading enemy defenses and causing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible.
Hull:
The Broadsword's hull is pretty standard fair for starfighter designs. They couldn't go with anything too thick or it would require too much fuel to travel the distances it's built to travel. It has multiple hard points under the wings for missiles or missile pylons. The frame can take the stress of 10,000 pounds of extra weight in ordinance.
Weapons:
For primary weaponry, the Broadsword has a total of 8 guns. Mounted on top of the wings are four rapid fire laser cannons for use in dogfighting combat. They aren't that powerful but with four of them putting out a lot of fire they can shred most star fighters to bits under sustained fire but since the Broadsword can't maneuver that well the battle is usually won or lost in the first head to head engagement.
Running the length of the wings (terminating at the wing tips at the front of the craft) are four heavy laser cannons designed for armor penetration and useful against more armored targets like corvettes and frigates. The blasts can penetrate light to medium armor which makes them useful for blasting external systems on enemy ships like turrets or sensor arrays. They're also quite useful for hulling tanks and other vehicles on the ground.
Due to power constraints, it cannot fire both sets of guns at the same time unless they draw power from some other system. (engines or shields).
For heavy weapons, the fighter can carry up to 10,000 pounds of ordinance. The most common loadout is 16 concussion missiles held in missile pods under the wings along with four heavy proton rockets also held under the wings. Designers opted for the under the wing design instead of launchers so that the Broadsword can fire its entire load of missiles all at once, effectively swarming an enemy ship with 20 missiles of various types. When grouped together in squadrons for mass fire attacks, this can become a deadly wave of explosive ordinance that many capitol ships learn to fear.
As a final offensive measure, the Broadsword comes equipped with a single, computer controlled, autoblaster turret located on the dorsal side of the craft, behind the cockpit. The turret has its own power cell so it doesn’t draw power from the fighters primary supply and is good for 500 shots. Alone it doesn’t have enough punch to do much damage, but it will give tailing enemy craft something to think about, especially if the enemy is in an unshielded fighter.
Engines:
Due to its heavy loadout and multiple weapon systems, the fighter is on the slow end of the spectrum. The designers knew this ahead of time and instead of trying to improve speed, they instead improved efficiency. Even though it’s slow, it can operate in excess of 72 hours without the need to refuel and can make Hyperspace jumps nearly twice as long as most fighters before needing to recharge. This is what gives the broadsword it’s long range capabilities. They launch from a planet or space station, then make several hyperspace jumps to attack a target with massive missile strikes and then escape to hyperspace before enemy interceptors overwhelm them.
Power to the engines can be pulled away to provide surplus power to the weapon and shield systems, effectively halving the ships top speed but providing boosted shields and allowing all eight of its guns to fire at the same time.
Shielding/Defenses:
The Broadsword’s shielding is top of the line. Using technology usually associated with Mon Calamari ships, the Broadsword makes use of 3 small generators to envelop the ship in overlapping shields. This triple layer shielding provides excellent defense against incoming blaster and laser blasts and can even survive a strike from a concussion missile. All the shields can be directed to the front to provide maximum protection during missile runs, allowing the Broadsword to get close enough to get target lock and fire all its missiles without being prematurely killed by defensive fire.
Aside from its shielding, it has a minimal sensor scrambler to try and throw off incoming target locks and a flare launcher capable of firing off three bursts of 5 flares to attempt and distract incoming missiles.
Usage:
It’s high tolerance for damage and heavy payload make it one of the few weapons of choice against the Mandalorians heavily armed and armored capitol ships, as well as good ground support vehicles.
In space, Broadswords are organized into squadrons of 12 and wings of 36. Each squad forms a firing line formation, usually in the form of a cross, so that each fighters guns have a clear shot at a target without risk of accidently shooting a friendly. These firing lines approach a target in formation and fire their weapons all at once, attempting to overwhelm enemy defenses with a mass barrage of missiles and heavy laser cannon fire. Unopposed, these mass fire techniques are deadly, and often fatal to corvettes and frigates and very damaging to even the largest of Mandalorian capitol ships. However even the most minimal of defensive fire or point defense systems can target these slow moving formations.
Only the republic’s largest dedicated carriers can haul squadrons of Broadswords for extended periods of time. They make up for this deficit by being extremely long range, allowing them to launch from a planet or space station and making hyperspace jumps to their target, but this only allows them one missile run before needing to return to base for a rearm. Projects are underway to refit shuttles with the capability of rearming these fighters mid flight, but progress on them is slow.