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SWE Star Racer
Summary
The StarWing Star Racer 100 was originally a commercial vehicle meant for light-drifting across star systems, competing directly with custom Royal Ampbersamd star ships. They were converted to fighters during The Endless War for The Eternal Throne after Sop and Hop commissioned additional manufacturers to create military variations of their commercial ships. This ship was chosen due to its size allowing several to be placed in hangars on larger carriers at once.
Design
As with most commercial vehicles and star fighters, this vehicle is meant for one occupant, the pilot. It was meant to enter and exit atmosphere with no deceleration while allowing extremely high visibility and durability with regard to impact with debris like asteroids and satellites. The military version lacked heat shields, but was thicker in plating, armed with dual, heat and mass tracking cannons. This was because the military version only deployed in space environments, where as other starships were better suited for in-atmosphere, pilot-only situations. The exhaust was shortened and widened to be slightly harder to hit and easier to replace after battle, due to that redesign having the same exact width as the traffic tunnels underground on Karrots.
Loadouts
The standard version is equipped with:
- A cockpit sized to fit a fluff person's body, with modular controls to match each race.
- A battery unit that charges via photo exposure, or direct electrical injection.
- Solar panels mounted on the frame, protected with semi-transparent metal plates.
- Twin mag-pulse engines, generating momentum with heat and compression, allowing for exhaust to propel the vehicle forward, even in space.
- Two live feed sensors on the exterior hood, for when the glass over the canopy is obscured, feeding thermal vision and a gravity graph mode on the center display of the cockpit.
- Landing gear, featuring either treads, parachutes and triple wheel configurations available from manufacturer.
- A dual exhaust design to prevent heat buildup from damaging the controls or sensors.
- On late models (known as Star Racer 101), a hinge and pair of motors was added to the frame joints that connected the wings to the frame, allowing the ship to fold its wings up or down for more versatile storage in tight areas. This feature is included in the Star Racer 200.
The Type-M version (for military use) is modified to equip:
- Dual energy cannons.
- A slightly larger pair of engines, capable of faster acceleration and needing time to take off from a dead stop.
- An additional battery unit, in case of primary unit failure during battle (also used to overcharge/boost the engines or cannons if needed).
- Better thermal insulation to prevent heat buildup.
- Thicker blast-resistant exterior plating, removing solar panels in the wings, but not behind the canopy, which is reinforced with double thick standard plating.
Hop commissioned a personal change for any Knights of Sop that were using this vehicle, including:
- Small belongings storage for Knight's armor and their weaponry, in place of an additional battery.
- An independently powered computer located near the landing gear, constantly pinging the nearest Hoppist Network devices, so that Knights cannot be stranded.
History
Creation
The vessel was born as a commercial venture for light-drifting. It was the underdog for its entire production until the Star Racer 100 Type-M was released, boasting new features and military technology.
Military Adoption
Hop and his father requested that a military variant be mass produced for Hoppists and their allies to use against The Infinite Empire. Seats, canopies and controls were modified for several body types and sizes, but the Hop race version was the standard base platform. The exhaust beings converted to use an existing mass produced part of similar shape (excluding being bent) was Hop's idea, after being told how valuable resources were for the war effort. It was used by numerous divisions of the Grand Sop Army, often being a favorite vessel of pilots.
Due to supply issues in the early parts of the war, retiring veterans could not take the vehicle with them after leaving service, and were promised to receive one as a substitute for one of their benefits once production improved. Most veteran pilots had their vehicles modified in peace time to be more like the successor, instead of the familiar military variant. Converted Star Racer 100's are more common than surviving Type-M variants, commonly called 150's by the starship community, despite not being an actual designation.
Replacement
The Star Racer 200 was made to completely replace the original after The Infinite Empire discovered design weaknesses with the original. The cannons and exhaust were easy to disrupt with heavy ion weapons. To fix this, the shape was modified to be harder to hit without loss to performance and destructive power. The alternator also was meant to withstand being overloaded with ion charges by diverting power to their own cannon capacitors.
While seeing half the lifespan of the original 100 series of the model, this vehicle is often the first thought in the public's mind when StarWing Enterprises is brought up, especially due to civilians modifying their ships to appear like them. Because of the changes, the Type-M variant of the 200 is fairly minimal, only adding an extra battery and cannons.
The line was ended early, during the destruction of the planet Manyo, the only official manufacturing spot of all SWE vehicles. The Hoppist records of the Type-M conversion is still preserved in the archives on Karrots, however the process of making the ship from raw materials is guesswork. The Ackiians firmly held the information from other beings, often forcing their employees to retired on Manyo until the line of ships was officially planned to retire.