Grand Marshal fanonical craft

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Revision as of 10:05, 8 June 2006

The craft(s) that appear during the Grand Marshal continuity. They appear nowhere else in Star Wars canon and should not be taken as such. While it is entirely possible for this story to happen between 6.25 ABY to 8.25 ABY, it should not be assumed as such.

Spoiler warning: Plot AND ending details follow. If you're the type who LOVES revealing the ending ten seconds into a movie, and ruin the experience for all, read on. Read on, you selfish <insert insult directed at your mother here>.

Republic Strike Fighter

The Republic Strike Fighter was developed by Koensayr towards the end of the Galactic Civil War. It was an attempt to create a small fighter capable of hyperdrive. The result was a success built on several earlier designs, namely the Naboo Flash speeder and the Y-wing. The speed of the craft ranged between normal snubfighter and interceptor speeds.

This enabled it to be an all-purpose light starfighter, as opposed to the sprawling X-wing. However, the parts of the RSF Mark I, used many parts that had functions in many of the other mainstream Rebel starfighters. While the developers believed this would be a major plus, the Alliance leaders decided it would be more safe to invest in tried and tested starfighters, and production was incredibly slow.

It all changed in 5 ABY, when Alliance SpecForces raided a Sienar Flight Systems factory. Koensayr was quick to loot the factory, and the RSF was quickly converted into a SFS engine-driven strike fighter. From this point on, the RSF became a mainstay of most fighter wings of the New Republic.

It is featured as a Jedi Strike fighter in the cartoon drama Grand Marshal Trilogy: The Remnant Threat, and is flown exclusively by the members of the fledgling New Jedi Order, due to certain control issues, only allowing those in supreme self-control to pilot the craft. This changes during Wrath of the Marshal, where more Rebel pilots take to the new craft, after certain upgrades, brithing the BTL RSF Mark II.

In its appearances, it easily takes on TIE Assaulters in speed, and is a worthy challenger to the TIE interceptors seen frequently in the maleovent Grand Marshal's fleet. It eventually becomes a venerable fighter and plays an essential part in the downfall of the Marshal.

Their primary role was escort, destroying attacking enemy fighters that attempted to shake or eliminate the bombers. However, if this did not work, the hevy armament of the RSFs was enough to take on capital ships without aid. Nevertheless, this was placed as a worst case scenario, and the tactic was very rarely used, if at all.

Dyst-class Light Troop Transport

The Dyst-class Light Troop Transport has become a relatively commonplace New Republic support ship and troop carrier. Though its main purpose is troop transport, the craft functions as well if not even better as a tank, complete with heavy armanents of energized shell projectiles and reinforced with tough star destroyer armour.

The craft requires apilot crew of three, though can carry roughly 14 troops comfortably. The craft is completely versatile and is the favoured light troop transport on most New Republic strongholds, as seen in Wrath of the Marshal. It has been appropriated as an escape craft in the unlikely but possible event that the Republic has to retreat.

The interior of the ship is sparsely outfitted, though includes a holographic briefing screen to give mission outlines. Weapon storage is included too, though most troops prefer to have their arms with them when they board and disembark. For greater ease, technical readout are also given at the rear to the engineers in order to pin down possible hull problems.

The "Dyst" Class, meaning "ship" in Huttese, originated (though not exactly, as you will learn) from scrapped Mon Calamarian plans found in an abandoned shipyard. Rothana Heavy Engineering thought much of the design, though was unable to contact the Mon Calamari for permission to further develop the design, so made an almost completely different prototype under Rebellion supervision. The project was kept "black" (secret) for two years, with the craft only going into mass-production shortly after the defeat of the Emperor.

Nevertheless, the ship gained immense military popularity, spawning many copycats and even an official civilian version without the armour and weaponry. The craft set a new military production record for the most number of plants dedicated solely to production of the paticular ship.

Rothana's biggest success is set to remain popular throughout the New Republic era and beynd, until the technology turns obsolete.

TIE Assaulter

The TIE/ln, a descendant of the T.I.E. starfighter developed for the Galactic Republic, was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems. Its design was inspired from Scimitar and the Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor.

While highly maneuverable, the TIE/ln had no combat shields. It did not carry missile tubes, but such weapons could be added on if necessary. Life-support systems were not usually included, but each TIE pilot had a fully-sealed flight suit superior to their Rebel counterparts. The absence of a hyperdrive rendered the fighter totally dependent on carrier ships when deployed in enemy systems. Because of all of these weaknesses, TIEs were designed to attack in large numbers, overwhelming the enemy craft.

Despite the aforementioned design features, TIE/ln laser cannons were relatively strong, and a direct hit on a starfighter or medium transport could damage or destroy it.

Contrary to popular belief, the ships did possess ejection seats, but the nature of space warfare often resulted in pilots riding their craft down to a swift end rather than ejecting and risking slow death by heat loss and oxygen starvation.

The relative weakness of the TIE/ln could arguably be explained by Imperial military philosophy, which viewed the starfighters and their pilots as expendable. Though Imperial pilots were of an elite stock, they considered themselves expendable, in accordance with their ideological training. Like stormtroopers, TIE pilots were addressed by a number, such as DS-61-2 (the first two letters indicated the posting, the next two or three digits indicated the squadron number, and the last number indicated the pilot's ranking in the squadron). This procedure reduced them to being no more than anonymous and standardized operatives of the Imperial war machine.