F-61 Trident
Overview
The F-61 Trident Fighter/Interceptor is the primary deep space, FTL capable attack craft used aboard the Fleet Carriers of the Human Systems Alliance Navy.
Due to the strength of kinetic barriers, the Alliance developed the M-89 Mass Disruptor torpedo. A specially designed anti-shield weapon. However, these torpedos were useless due to no ship being able to get them passed the highly accurate point defense lasers. To solve the issue, the Systems Alliance commissioned Hahne-Kedar Industries to develope the F-61 Trident SX1 as a delivery system for the torpedos in 2152 EST.
The purpose of the Trident was to oversaturate enemy point defense systems, by getting extremely close and and firing their torpedos in ripple-fire waves. Presenting too many targets in a very small window for them to be intercepted. Once the Fighters take down the shields of an enemy ship, they can then be swarmed by smaller, friendly ships.
On the defence, Tridents screen against enemy Fighters.
To other races, the concept of a space superiority fighter was completely foreign. Most other races believed that Fighter craft were obsolete in the age of space warfare and had abandoned their reliance on them centuries ago. So the Turian Hierarchy were left completely dumbfounded in 2157, when a previously unknown race brought Dreadnoughts filled with hundreds of smaller craft, in the place of cannons and weapons onto the battlefield. Any battle that involved these unique "Transport Dreadnoughts" as the Hierarchy designated them during the First Contact War, always resulted in a human victory. Even when outnumberd.
Following the First Contact War, other races quickly adopted space superiority fighters, reverse engineering the unique torpedos used by humanity, and even building their own Carriers.
Despite the efforts of other races, humanity had 2 centuries to perfect the tactics and design of Fighters and Carriers, before even achieving interstellar flight. To date, Alliance Carriers still outperform the Carriers of other races and the new F-61 Trident SX3, developed in 2184, is the most advanced Fighter/Interceptor in the galaxy.
Design
The craft has a length of 15.4 meters, a width of 7.9 meters, a height of 3.7 meters and a weight of 11 metric tonnes.
As the name suggests, the Trident design bares a resemblance to a 3-pronged fork. With it's single seater cockpit flanked by it's long engine modules on each side.
Attached to these engine modules are the wings, which are retractable for storage purposes and only really extended for atmospheric flight. The main guns are located beneath the engin modules and run almost the whole length. The VTOL jet does not have wheeled landing gear, but rather retractable tripod stans. one beneath the nose and two more further back.
Hull and Superstructure
The hull is covered in Ablative Ceramic-16 armour plating, with strips of pure ceramic as part of it's Defused Radiator Array heat dispersion system and is rated for transonic, supersonic and even hypersonic speeds. As well as hard vacuum and atmospheric re-entry.
Power and Propulsion
Tridents are powered by a hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell, consisting of two electrodes -- a negative electrode (or anode) and a positive electrode (or cathode) -- sandwiched around an electrolyte. Hydrogen is fed to the anode, and air is fed to the cathode. A catalyst at the anode separates hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons, which take different paths to the cathode. The electrons go through an external circuit, creating a flow of electricity. The protons migrate through the electrolyte to the cathode, where they unite with oxygen and the electrons.
This is a relatively clean form of energy generation, with the only byproducts of this oxygen hydrogen mixture being water and electricity.
Tridents are equipped with a scaled-down version of the Nyx Element Zero drive core used by starships. The Drive generates dark energy by running an electric current through the Element Zero at it's heart. This dark energy flows to the mass effect field generators which convert the raw energy into fields for practical use. This powers shields, cannons, mass effect fields and artificial gravity in the cockpit. Pilots still wear G-suits a the speed and agility of the Trident make it rather power intensive. Requiring pilots to turn off artificial gravity in order to redirect power to more important systems.
The primary propulsion is provided by military grade antiproton thruster modules with both pro and retrograde exhausts. Antiproton thrusters work by injecting antiprotons into a chamber of hydrogen. The resulting matter-antimater annihilation provides unmatched motive power.
Maneuvering is performed by an extensive array of H2/02 RCS thrusters. Of which, the Trident has 12. On on top, on the side and underneath both the front and back of each thruster module.
Armament
As standard, all F-61 Tridents are equipped with two M-530 15mm smooth bore, rapid fire, microscale mass accelerator cannons. One under each thruster module. The weapon's 11 meter length is partially the reason for the long length of the the thruster module that it's housed beneath. Each cannon is equipped with it's own ammo block. sand grain sized pieces of metal are shaved off these blocks and accelerated to 470 km/s, with a fire rate of 10 bullets/second.
The F-61 also has brackets on it's belly, capable of carrying heavier weapons such as Disruptor torpedos. The extra weight of these weapons, however, hinder the craft's speed and aren't equipped on Tridents serving in an interceptor role.
Electronic SystemsIntegral to the operation of the Trident is it's Sera-class Combat Virtual Intelligence.
During combat, the VI is responsible for the aiming and reloading of weapons. The pilot just needs to select targets and fire when the VI gives the all clear. The VI handles everything else.
The VI also automatically adjusts the Tridens's systems such as thrusters, shields and mass effect fields based on the priorities of the pilot.
When traveling at FTL, the sensors of the Trident are limited. The VI serves the role of Navigator. Plotting FTL jumps and issuing post jump course corrections based on the present destination given by the pilot
