This was a request from one of my patrons via private message. He requested that I show images of what I thought the starfighters looked like. Now, for a lot of the ships, there are images already available on the SW wiki. Not going to have those here. I will just say I love the Star cruisers, and feel they are easily some of the best ships in this galaxy in terms of design, Sci-fi feel, and the compromises necessary to fight in SW with its weird tech. (Yes, its weird, but I love it).
OH. I want to shout out NovusPeregrine on fanfic. His SW/My Hero Academia crossover is one of if not the best ongoing SW story I read. I husband the chapters for when I run into muse issues, and it fuels me even in those small bites. His story’s also very well researched. Give it a read, please.
Anyway, here are the images of the three starfighters I basically created from the febrile workings of my imagination. I used multiple AI image creators to create the images, and went back and pulled the descriptions from my fic.
First, the Falcons. These are the starfighters used solely by the Jedi aboard the Tyrant’s Bane. The pilots are mostly Green Jedi from the Correllian temple, with Aayla, Harry and Ahsoka having their own. Aayla’s was left behind when she and Zule left on their trip to Nar Shadda.
Designed by a team of Nabooans and Heren several years before the war began, the Falcons were designed to be dogfighters. Without the Force, despite being larger than most starfighters – around the size of an ARC-170 – the proton torpedo launcher would only be able to hold two torpedoes, and there wouldn’t have been room for a shield generator. With the runic arrays they are a LOT tougher than they should be. Armed with twin laser cannons on both wings. Very maneuverable, very fast, but again, almost all their defense relies on the runic arrays, and the Jedi pilots.
Without the runic arrays, the ARC-170 is a better fighter in every way but maneuverability. With them and a Jedi pilot, these things become the deadliest fighters in the galaxy, able to survive a point blank shot from a capital ship grade turbolaser or multiple concussion torpedoes and the toughest dogfighting odds.
I tried several image editors to get this, and it is pretty damn good. I like the colors, too, although the gold diamond at the front would be the proton torpedo launcher. The segment of the wings behind the main fuselage would be built into it and house the ship’s engines.
Still, pretty good. Tell me what you all think, and if any of you would recommend a specific Image editor.
Now onto the Arrowheads. Another design created by Serenno and also called the Arrows for short, they were the mainstay of the GDL, but are being slowly replaced by the ARC-170s, which themselves don’t quite match the original, canon design. See current chapter for the changes.
The Arrowhead fighter was designed for convoy defense and dogfighting. Shaped like an arrowhead has two lasers on either wing that can move and target independently, and a forward-facing concussion missile launcher with a small magazine, later replaced by a proton torpedo variant to simplify logistics. It is fast, very fast in comparison to most starfighters in a straight line, somewhat like the A-wing from canon, but has only okay shielding for a starfighter. Has a spot for an astromech droid. Easy to build in massive numbers, unlike the ARC-170s, which is why the rollout for the heavier starfighters is going to take a while even with orders going across the GDL to switch to them.
Hmm… More SW style than the Falcon picture. Neat. Shift the pilot and the circle for the astromech. Put another laser cannon on top of each of the wings, and make it clear they can move independently. That’s about it.
Now, here is the Manta, the bomber that finally has both a description and a name LOL. The latest, and, in Heren’s mind, least likeable (‘BAH it is too heavy, not maneuverable, not ELEGANT enough’) design to come out of the then-Bane think tank, and put into production soon after Valahari’s various design groups got their hands on it.
Made for straight-ahead speed rather than agility, they, well, look a bit like a manta ray, with two large engines sticking out of their wings facing backward. The mouth of the manta ray holds the four proton torpedo launchers. Lacking rune-enhanced magazines, the majority of Mantas only hold twenty starfighter-sized proton torpedoes. These are far smaller and less power than the Archer’s capital class torpedoes.
The Manta’s shields aren’t as powerful as canon Y-wings and don’t have the twin laser cannons or the laser on a turret manned by a gunner. However, the Manta class do have a small ion cannon on a turret (blame the Mon Calamari), and it carries more proton torpedoes and is able to fire them faster.
Wow… okay, that’s pretty damn good! Remove the guns around the mouth, shrink the mouth down, and you’ve got it! Maybe a different color too. Don’t ask me about what happened when I tried to change the image. That did not go so well, LOL. For some reason I got the image of a demon with guns coming out of its mouth.
Hmm… I think beyond the Archers – both frigate and destroyer, - that’s about it. Um… well, I can describe them well… let’s see what happens…
The Archers are, both versions, designed around the idea of launching capital sized proton torpedoes, to overwhelm and destroy large ship’s shielding beyond the range of most turbolasers and ion cannons.
The above image I think would be what I imagine the frigates to look like. Imagine those panels you can see on the top there being open to launch their broadsides. Few defensive lasers, small, but streamlined and quick. Now for the destroyer variant…
Ehh… it’s okay. Very much SW, so much so I have to change it to be more MotF. Remove the conning tower, and it’s pretty good, but I’d prefer it to have more, and smaller, guns, and actual apertures for the proton torpedo broadsides. Ehh. Not bad.
I'm adding this into the Going off the Rails collection as well as Magic of the Force because I figure I might have to eventually do this again for that fic when I start work on it fulltime.
Well, tell me what you all think of this experiment. It was okay, but trying to then change the initial images was altogether frustrating, and all in all, it took more than two hours somehow. Don't ask me to explain that... Regardless, while none of these images are perfect, I hope they help those visual people among ya, LOL, and if any of you want me to create images for the other ONGOING stories, tell me, and I will answer. I might not agree, but at least I will listen.
Have a nice day, folks. I if any of you notice mistakes in the Stallion or MotF chapters, put 'em in your reviews, and I'll take care of it today.