One of the oldest, toughest fighter models ever designed. The gunship has found its way into almost every civilian and mercenary force. Standard loadouts feature twin Light Autocannons for ranged engagement, a Mini-Gun for short range dogfights, and a light torpedo for area damage. Gunships lack in mobility but excel in reliability with good armor and easy maintenance.
The gunship is one of the most popular designs ever manufactured by Icarus Industries. Despite recent advancement in weapons and shield technology the gunship remains a reliable favorite across the Frontier. The diverse weapons loadout and offensive focus makes these fighters the perfect compliment for a commander that is looking for firepower over speed.
The gunship is especially deadly against Escort class vessels, making it the ideal counter to the more common system patrol boats. The port mounted torpedo tubes and high offensive output also allow the gunship to deal decent damage to larger capital ships. The gunship is more vulnerable to lightning quick hit and run tactics employed by lighter fighters.
Lore:
The original heavy fighter designed in the space faring era was the Gemini heavy fighter. Produced on Mars and every Core World, the Gemini was the most available and cheapest combat unit available to any government or fleet. The fighter featured a dual cockpit design, with both forward mounted weapons and a single dorsal turret. This allowed one pilot to focus on navigation and the second to focus on the turret systems and fire control.
The Gemini performed well for its time. It did suffer from several problems, however. In many engagements the turret system was unnecessary. Also the two pilot requirement was seen as more of a burden than an advantage. If one pilot died the ship was often flown solo anyway. Finally, the older weapons used in the Gemini design had neither the range or hitting power of the newer naval based Autocannons.
With the eventual development of shield technology the weaknesses of the Gemini meant that it was just a matter of time before a rival design took its place. Icarus industries at the time had mostly made a name for itself creating merchant and colony ships, and the heads of the company were eager to dip into the military market to expand their reach. Icarus developed the Gunship heavy fighter, and it quickly became one of the most common ships across the galaxy.
The first change Icarus made was to drop the dual cockpit design, opting instead to use the extra space for an additional weapons system. The entire frame of the chassis was reinforced with extra ceramic and steel, giving the Gunship incredible survivability even when it had sustained heavy damage. Finally, and critically, Icarus incorporated a native shield generation system, which was a novel idea at the time.
The firepower was also enhanced. A naval light autocannon was considered too large a weapon to be mounted on a fighter, but Icarus found a way. By reducing the ammo capacity and reworking the feed mechanism Icarus was able to make a fighter sized version of the weapon. Autocannon's were becoming the standard for larger ship engagements, but often proved too slow to effectively deal with fighters. To account for this a pair of Miniguns were placed under the cockpit, allowing the Gunship to put out incredible amounts of short range firepower with the speed needed to track lighter fighters. Finally, the former cockpit bay was filled with a single fire torpedo tube. The chassis did not allow for more ammunition, but most pilots found a way to work with the single shot design.
The result was a fighter with unrivaled toughness and firepower. The shield system backed up by the increased armor made the Gunship as tough as some light escorts. There was a price to be paid for this, however. The mobility of the fighter was greatly hampered. Furthermore, the additional burden placed on the engines meant that the Gunship required a much larger engine housing even though it gained no agility. It was ultimately not possible to incorporate the same turret system that was standard with the previous Gemini.
Variation:
With the Gunship design being well more than a century old, there has been plenty of time for variation. Maintenance on the ship is relatively simple, and over time different pilots have been known to make their own modifications.
Prime Pattern
The main variation of the Gunship was an upgrade made with the development of newer targeting computers. The Gunship's original onboard computer systems proved compatible with the newer design, and while the extra gear made the cockpit more cramped, most pilots preferred the tradeoff for additional accuracy to the weapons.
With a targeting computer in place the standard light autocannon became even more effective. In addition, newer lighter torpedo systems meant that some gunships were able to mount a second or even a third torpedo, for surprise backup firepower. The shield system and Miniguns remained unchanged.
Mustang Pattern
Torpedoes can ultimately be quite expensive, especially for merchant cartels that used Gunships as escorts. As such, more civilian forces ended up finding the torpedo mounting to be wasted space.
A common civilian configuration was to drop the torpedo pod completely and using the additional chassis space for booster rockets and a larger engine. This gave the gunship more maneuverability at the cost of firepower.
The variation did not catch on more widely, however. Even with the increased horsepower the Gunship was still painfully slow compared to other light fighters. Ultimately a little more speed for a slow ship was not worth the loss in torpedo firepower for most pilots.
Scorpion Pattern
One of the newest variations of the Gunship is also one of the most rare and least versatile. With the new development of Rail Gun technology, some enterprising pilots found a way to mount a smaller version of the Rail Gun in place of the autocannon mounts.
The results have been decidedly mixed. To make room for the increased energy requirements of the weapon the torpedo mount also had to be converted. In addition, due to the size constraints of the fighter the reloading mechanism was surprisingly slow and subject to jamming.
This variation ultimately has only the Rail Gun with a long range but very slow rate of fire, and retains the two backup miniguns. While deadly in an alpha strike, especially in a group, this variation has led to more destroyed and captured Gunships than any other. Rare and unpopular except with the most gambling of pilots.
Outrigger Pattern
The Outrigger engineers, as is often the case, have made the largest advances to Gunship design. The Outrigger variation has greatly upgraded the shield capacity of the fighter, as well installing a much more efficient converter system resulting in greater shield regen from the natural burn of the engines. In addition, upgrades to the core engine system allows for a much smaller fuel burn compared to other versions.
In addition the Outriggers have installed their own computer systems and sensor suites, resulting in much greater sensor range, including limited stealth detection. All of these upgrades have been made without any compromise to the basic firepower.
The result is a ship that is even tougher and able to operate independently away from a base for extended periods of time. Along with the increased sensor data, this variation is superior in almost every way. The Outriggers jealously guard their technological advances, however, and so this pattern can only be found used by their fleets.
Ion Pattern
Used primarily by Pirate fleets, the Ion Pattern Gunship was popular for several decades but has since fallen out of use.
The main change of the Ion pattern was to replace the torpedo system with a primitive ion gun. The ion guns are especially good against shields, and allowed the gunship to easily strip the shielding of targets making the ships easier to board (or destroy outright). Ion cannons paired with autocannons were very deadly in a wide variety of combat situations.
The variation had problems. The static fields caused by the ion weapons would consistently short out the targeting computers. Given the small size of the fighter chassis, there was no way to adequately shield the computer systems from the destructive power of the ion weapons that were installed so closely. Because of this most pirate pilots would choose to drop the advanced sensor and targeting computers completely.
Ultimately the newer designed Pirate Raider fighter was designed with the limitations of the Ion weaponry in mind. Due to this the Raider proved to be the superior ion fighter, and pirates that continued to use the gunship mostly went back to the original loadout with a torpedo and autocannons. There are still a very small number of the Ion Pattern gunships in use.
Steel Shadows:
The Gunship is one of the first units available to purchase. The player has access to the Prime Pattern, featuring one of the strongest loadouts with autocannons and a single shot torpedo, a significant amount of firepower for such a cheap ship. The Gunship also has three equipment slots allowing you to make further small customizations to fit your playstyle.
Will you survive the frontier?