| The "Mk2 Starfighter" is tied in the history of Aerelon; The Colony has one of the poorest populations, with only a pastoral industrial base, and has commonly been the target of the other colonies. Their militia was poorly very equipped and the Mk I Starfighter was a poor attempt to match the other Colonies fighters, such as the Scorpion and Starhound, a feat it could not do under any circumstances.During the Great Civil War, Aerelon had an advantage initially- There weren't many non-Aerelons on this agricultural world, they couldn't afford outside laborers. But as every planet was desperately churning out fighters for the "Colonial Ministry," any spare capacity went to each worlds' own militias; Aerelon was making a fortune from its agriculture but no planet would sell what it needed so desperately, so the Aerelon Tertiary formed its own company and told them to build a simple, easy and cheap to build fighter that could match the Viper, and that time was of the essence. The result was to the take the Starfighter, upgrade it and turn it into the Mk II.They didn't succeed.The Mk II Starfighter carried weaponry similar to the Viper but carried far less armor and less powerful engines. By using an existing frame, time, money and tooling up was greatly reduced, but compared to the Caprican Fighter (the primary fighter of the era), the Starfighter is a poor proposition out in the black; It is slower, less agile, and had far inferior sensor systems (barely better than a civilian ground vehicle), shortcomings it more than made up for this in the logistical capability; Many were the cases of pilots repairing their Fighters under shade trees, using only basic tools (no specialty tools required).Its controls were simple, and its design gives it an aerodynamic edge over Cylon and Colonial alike.The Starfighter helped Aerelon to keep fighting- A fight they would have never have survived without, but as the War progressed into their own skies, the ability for Aerelon to keep up with losses told. They only just managed to keep up with losses from War and accident and it was only the sheer simplicity of the design that allowed them to keep them in production, and train new pilots.At the close of the conflict, Aerelon was forced to sue for peace, and a condition thereof was the loss of their entire MkII fleet, as well as any units unable to fly; Despite it's overwhelming inferiority to literally anything else out there, the MkII had made an impression on the other colonies. Those units unable to fly and 90% of the rest were scrapped out, but about 105 were retained for various purposes; It became the basis for a wide variety of civilian craft, most notably post-War personal transportation (in an unarmed and unarmored configuration), even as a personal shuttle. After about 20 years or so, manufacturers began building them with sealed undercarriages and sealable upper fuselage, making them submersible to a limited degree, while retaining their aero-space capabilities to high orbit (they are not FTL capable in any way, shape, or form, but they can get to FTL capable ships easily enough). The MkII now lives on as a personal craft- Not a militry one.The MkII comes in three main models; Depicted is the single seat A Model; The B Model doubles the cockpit width. The C Model stretches the cockpit lengthwise. The wings are optional, especially for the C Model (where they don't provide any real use anyways).A disturbing development is the extensive use of the MkII for VBIED's, both stationary and as suicide bombers; Various attempts to detect such use have been tried, some successful but most not. The MkII seems to be popular not so much because of cost (though that is a consideration, especially used ones as are most popular) as symbology, being "the" fighter used by Aerelon to resist the other colonies in an era where they had no practical means to do so.MSRP (new): A Model: 18,000credit; B Model: 21,000credit; C Model: 28,000credit.Top Speed: 128 MPHSeats: A Model: 1; B Model: 2; C Model: 6 (8 with aft seating reversed).Cargo: A Model: About 200 lbs; B Model: About 800 lbs; C Model: up to 1.5 tons. | Aerilon MkIIa Fighter. |
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