The B-Wing

[vanir]

Wedge looked over the new assault starfighter. It was certainly well armed and contained powerful auxiliary systems but looked sluggish and fairly unremarkable in terms of combat performance. Recently appointed Starfighter Wing Commander (General of Starfighters), the final decision rested on his shoulders and the Verpine, whilst certainly enthusiastic could be a little, shall we say curious about the physical and intellectual abilities humans use to pilot starships. Sluissi engineers had already helped produce the new A-Wing interceptor, which was a remarkable craft and to be perfectly honest he didn't feel the need to bring politics into starship combat just so that variously sympathetic species could compete with their technological expertise. If it wasn't of benefit to the Rebel assault force destined to hyperjump into Endor space, he didn't want his pilots dying in it.

"The cockpit looks like a weak point," he said curtly, frowning at the insectoid engineer.

The Verpine was taken aback.
"It's gyrostabilised," he informed the General, "Quite a significant feature I assure you."

Wedge continued his walk-around inspection, slapping the hull and gripping various protrusions and seams, testing them for rigidity. He stepped up the entry ladder and peered over the side, into the pilot interior and ran his hand over the capsule contained within its lightly armoured exterior. The ergonomics were terrible, the controls looked awkward, the readouts poorly aligned.

"Y-Wing cockpits are very well armoured," he remarked, "It's still a very viable assault craft."

The alien engineer cocked his head to one side bemusedly. These poor humans, he thought, make all their minds up before even testing the technologies they require. The Empire, he knew would not be so idealistic. They would slaughter the Y-Wings during the attack phase like so many inadequate space superiority attempts. By the time they sighted their targeting computers on priority locations whole flocks of TIE Interceptors would be cutting them to pieces.

"The gyrostablisation feature can be locked," he replied, "But we certainly don't advise it. Why don't we take them for a test flight?"

Wedge smirked, unconvinced. There were maybe three starfighter pilots in the entire galaxy that could outfly him.
"Okay sure, why not do that."

-----------------------------

The two B-Wings manoeuvred amid the unpredictable asteroids of the Roche Field, Wedge becoming disorientated almost immediately and relying upon years of experience alone to prevent mishap, entirely by gut instinct. It was sickening, difficult, threatening. The craft was locked into the lateral position, with S-foils deployed. It was, for all intents and purposes in normal combat trim, with the gyrostabilisation feature disengaged. Some near misses were avoided purely by angling deflection shields as per his pilot training, further encumbering his efforts.

The Verpine wasn't having nearly so much trouble. He flew it as if the piloting capsule was the only part of the craft worth worrying about and the rest of its spaceframe simply rotated about its axis to avoid near misses. It was quite a trick to keep up.

In truth however the engine compartment lay on the thrust axis of the vessel, and it took some amount of pilot skill to utilise the rotating, outrigger cockpit to best effect. But the feature was there.
It was a moderate exercise, but Wedge was having a difficult time to match his wingman's speed through the field with his own cockpit axis locked in place.

"This is starship combat," the Verpine commented over the radio, "I'm sure you know better than I do how it can be out there, when the asteroids are shooting at you as well."

Wedge felt challenged and decided to compensate, he certainly wasn't about to be schooled by some alien bookworm whose closest enemy encounter was finding a foreign object in his soup bowl.
He dove towards a fast moving chunk of rock and twirled the entire spaceframe like he was tossing a scrunched piece of paper in a windstorm, the manoeuvre was spectacular. Stars swung laterally across the cockpit as the starfighter spun about its axis, Wedge adjusting the inertial dampeners as he did so to give him a feel for vessel's orientation, working hard to visualise the ideal plane of which he wanted to wind up at its close, reyling on skill and instinct to tell him when he was there. He looked out the viewports, looked around, no wingman. The spot where the other B-Wing ought to have been with a very impressed Verpine sitting inside, it wasn't. Inertia and physics however, couldn't have it at very many other locations.

Panicking, Wedge checked his zones and glanced on the sensor display. He really hoped he hadn't killed another Engineer being the brash pilot he was. Nadine was kind of getting annoyed with him over this as it was and it was certainly never his intention.

Suddenly his fire warning alarms blared in the cockpit, emergency systems engaged, the cockpit rotated itself on auto gyrostabilisation, shields, ECM and sensor arrays lit up and Wedge instinctively shoved the controls forward and starboard, tumbling the B-Wing in a reversal, shaking the structure through a Split-S. The Verpine was right on his tail, targeting him.

It had happened like this:
Wedge dove towards the asteroid, banking. The instant his cockpit moved out of the plane of view from his wingman the Verpine set his gyrostabilisation to the fleeing craft. From then on no matter how he manoeuvred his B-Wing, it's cockpit would remain on an upright plane with its quarry, keeping it clearly in the viewport and the weapons fire control system. Wedge barrel rolled, the Verpine barrel rolled but whilst Wedge rolled inside the cockpit with his craft, the Verpine did not. The craft barrel rolled around his cockpit.

So when Wedge pulled out of the maneouvre and checked his zones, the Verpine was finalising a weapons lock.


Two months later the B-Wing formed the primary starfighter assault group at Endor. Losses were minimal. Almost all Y-Wings however, weren't so lucky.

[CRMcNeill]

Very well written fiction, but it doesn't really prove anything.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[vanir]

Still not getting what gyrostabilisation can do for you, huh?

Terrain hugging multimode pulse dopplers use a computer generated gyrostabilisation effect to predict warhead delivery, in for example the F/A-18 series.

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

A better purchase for the Alliance would've been the SoroSuub Preybird, especially since Sullust is a member of the Alliance. Equip a Preybird with ion cannon, and it outperforms the Y-Wing in every category that matters.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[vanir]

You and I are flying in formation. You bank right, I bank left. We lose sight of each other. If my cockpit stayed upright while my aircraft banked left, I'd be still watching you whilst you lost sight of me, right?

[CRMcNeill]

[Bren]

[CRMcNeill]

Hmm. I must've been looking at the stats for Mazzic's upgraded pair, which has a little more numbers disparity. I recall reading in various places that the Y-Wings were becoming much more maintenance intensive due to their age, but maintenance issues aren't reflected in the stats. IMO, a newer, more expensive starfighter might result in savings down the road for reduced maintenance costs.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[vanir]

Okay I'm out. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess you don't like the B-Wing very much

Kind of partial to the A-Wing myself.

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

I always thought the preybirds were too aligned with either pirates or slavers for the rebellion to consider using them.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[Bren]

[CRMcNeill]