Grarth-captain looked at the viewscreen, surveying the convoy of supply ships that his Smasher class cruiser and its Berserker escorts were protecting. They had just dropped below lightspeed, well outside of the orbit of Axis-5, and there was little doubt that the rebel scum would try and intercept them.
"Hah!" he guffawed. Let them try. Lately all their intercepts had been with fighters and the occasional corvette, and had ended in disaster. They were obviously running out of ships, and if they couldn`t even raid the convoys to the Battlefield anymore, the rebels were indeed in bad shape.
"Captain!" warned the sensor officer, "We have multiple small FTL contacts, inbound from rebel space, and moving fast! Over six LY per hour sir."
That WAS fast, reflected Grarth-captain as he turned to the console. Still, even at those speeds the inbounds wouldn`t be in time to intercept the convoy before it reached Axis-5, and the twenty-odd gravity signatures pointed towards small craft, probably smaller than a corvette. Pretty steep contragrav signatures though. Someone was running those engines very hot. But they needed to be faster than that to intercept the convoy, and the captain turned away from the display.
"EMPEROR ALMIGHTY!!" shouted the sensor officer. "They just went to NINE LY per hour!"
For a second Grarth-captain froze were he stood, unwilling to believe what he had just heard. They he whirled around and saw the sensor readings on the console. The contragravity drive signatures of the inbound rebel ships had become steeper than they had been. Impossibly steep. Now the rebels WOULD be in time to intercept the convoy, and Grarth-captain felt something churn deep inside of his stomach. This was going to be bad. REAL bad.
He was right.

In their quest for better weapons to use against the Tri Galactic Empire, the Free World Council has come up with a truly amazing craft. Flown by only two man, with nearly the mass and size of a corvette, the Mosquito was originally meant for fast reconnaissance in enemy territory, and as a early warning patrol craft. Recently several new uses have surfaced for the craft. While most of these are combat related, the Mosquito has also proven itself to be a excellent courier, due to its incredible FTL speed.

The designers sought to make the ship fast by making it as light as possible, with only minimal armor, huge engines, and foregoing all of the (meager) comfort of a long distance fighter. Added to this was the sensor suite of a Frigate in a huge underslung pod and, almost as an afterthought, two medium lasers and two missile racks for defense. It turned out to be exactly what they wanted, and better, exactly what was needed. The Mosquito is currently the fastest production model craft in the Three Galaxies as far as contragravitic FTL flight is concerned, and at sub FTL speeds it has a acceleration equal or better than that of the fastest fighters.

On the other hand, the fighter has only a very small life support system, barely enough to supply air and water for two persons, and it is prone to breakdown. Add to this the fact that the cockpit is only slightly bigger than that of a jet fighter, and it becomes clear that the two pilots will have to stay in their suits all of the time, with little movement and no exercise.

The profile of the Mosquito is very sleek, with only a minimal hull wich houses little more than the antimatter reactor, shields, basic fighter sensors and a minute cockpit. Attached to this are two enormous wings with a giant engine pod each. Because of the huge power requirements of the engines, it was found that a fusion reactor could not provide the necessary amount of energy during full acceleration under combat. For this reason the designers of the Mosquito installed a compact antimatter reactor. This has given rise to another problem though: Even though the reactor only holds enough antimatter for 40 days of continuous use, the fighter will do terrible damage to a planets biosphere when it crashes or is shot down over a planet. This problem has been partly solved by stationing most Mosquitos on space stations and starships. In combat the danger is deemed acceptable, because the fighter is mostly used for raids into the TGE`s territories, and strikes on convoys and bases in particular. If the fighter crashes near a Imperial base, then so be it.....

Mounted on each engine pod are two hard points. Under the hull is a attachment for a standard long range sensor pod, wich gives the Mosquito excellent detection capabilities. Recently this hard point has seen other uses too.

As stated above, there are a total of four hard points. Various weapons can be fitted to these, amongst them a medium laser. These are slightly more powerful than those carried on most fighters, and only have a limited arc of fire. But these were never meant for assault purposes, only for defense. Other mountings are various missile racks, holding either a single Cruise missile per hard point, or a equivalent in smaller missiles. Still, this didn`t exactly provided the Mosquito with a wealth of missiles, especially when some of the hardpoints were taken up with medium lasers. The solution was found when a team of engineers came up with a different pod for the fighter: weighing in at only slightly more than the large recon pod usually carried, this pod could hold a enormous amount of missiles: 30 Long Range Missiles, or the equivalent in smaller missiles! The load could be carried varied, as the pod really was made up in three internal sections. The resultant Bomber variant has seen much use in the strike role, attacking Kreeghor bases and ships with good success.
The latest addition to this weapons load is a pod wich holds a large Laser Cannon, with a power equal to the secondary guns of a Warshield class cruiser! This is easily the most powerful beam weapon ever mounted in a (barely) fighter sized platform. Its only drawbacks are that it doesn`t quite have the range of capital ship mounted weapons, and that it has only a limited payload: it is run off its own fusion powercell, and that has only enough fuel for fifty shots. Linking the gun to the fighters Anti Matter reactor is not an option, as all of the fighters power is siphoned off into its hugely powerful engines.

Another pod seems to have been build, but so far, Imperial spies have been unable to certify this. Of interest is the fact that lately, more and more sabotage has been taking place in and around Imperial space, most of it apparently done by small strike teams....

Even though the conditions onboard the fighter are incredibly cramped and require the crew to be suited ALL the time, and even sleep in their seats for the entire mission (Pilots who fly the Mosquito are often referred to as "Stinkers"), the Mosquito has quickly become a favorite for Turbo-Jockeys because of its enormous turn of speed, its good handling characteristics (certainly for something nearly the size of a small corvette) and its powerful sleek looks.

Pictured above is a Mosquito with four medium laser cannons on its engine pods, and a heavy laser pod.

This starfighter design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model Type: SPD-Y1
Vehicle Type: Heavy Fighter/Bomber
Crew: Two (can be operated by one)

M.D.C By Location:

	Laser Cannons (up to 4):	100 each
	various missile struts (up to 4):	80 each
	Reconnaissance Pod:	400
	Missile Pod:	400
	Laser Cannon Pod:	400
	Strike Team Insertion Pod:	400
	[1] Wings (2):	500 each
	[1] Engine pods (2):	500 each
	Landing Struts (3):	20 each
	[2] Main Body:	1,050
	Reinforced Pilots Cockpit:	300
	[3] Variable Force Field:	400 per side (2,400 total)

Notes:
[1] Loss of an engine or a wing (the two go together) will reduce performance of fighter by one half and loss of two engines will prevent fighter from performing beyond 5% of normal (This is using maneuvering thrusters and gravitic propulsion). Due to gravitic propulsion systems, fighter will not crash in an atmosphere even if both engines are destroyed. The fighter has a 30% penalty to maneuver in a atmosphere per wing/engine lost.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the fighter out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck. In an atmosphere, the fighter will crash. Also, if the fighter crashes in a atmosphere, the reactor will explode with a explosion equal to that of a small nuclear device (See Nuclear Bomb, Large).
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (75 MDC) per melee.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 50 percent of the speed of light! Fighter can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 2 percent of light per melee maximum when clean (carrying no pods, only the missiles under the wings). When the fighter is carrying a pod, acceleration drops to 1.8 percent of light per melee maximum.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The fighter is aerodynamic and is quite capable in an atmosphere. As a result, the fighter can achieve escape velocity (Mach 32.6 / 25053 mph / 40320 kph) but normally operates at Mach 8 (6160.7 mph / 9907.2 kph) or less when clean (carrying no pods, only the missiles under the wings). When the fighter is carrying a pod, normal atmospheric speeds drops to Mach 6.5 (5018.5 mph / 8050 kph). The fighter also has Gravitic propulsion systems enabling it to leave an atmosphere even at low velocities.
Stardrive: Uses a ContraGrav system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 9 light-years per hour.
Maximum Range: the fighter has enough fuel for 560 hours (40 days) of operation. Fighter uses a very small Anti Matter reactor for power systems. The fighter carries five weeks of consumables for fighters crew.

Statistical Data:
Length: 125 feet (37.5 meters)
Height: 37.5 feet (11.25 meters) (without pods, 56 feet (16.8 meters) with pod attached)
Width: 90 feet (27 meters)
Weight: 380 tons (345,000 kg) unloaded
Average weight of pods (missile pod fully loaded) is 85 tons (77,500 kg).
Power System: Anti Matter reactor with a 40 day duration at normal output (10 days at maximum output). AM power supply can run life support without any thrust for 2 years although rations and water will have long run out.
Cargo: Small Storage Space, 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft x 2 ft. Used for emergency equipment and weapons.
Market Cost: 320 million credits to build. Each pod goes for about 40 million credits extra. None of these craft have made it to the black market yet, and less than 300 are believed to have been build so far.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Engine Pod Hardpoint Weapons: The Mosquito can carry a variety of weapons on the four hardpoints on its engine pods. The ones described here are the most common.
   1. Medium Laser Cannons: These cannons can be mounted on the hardpoints on the sides of the engine pods, with up to two lasers per engine pod. They can only fire forward within a arc of 60 degrees in front of the Mosquito. Medium powered, and mainly for self defense. The cannons can be fired linked, and up to four cannons can be carried.
      Maximum Effective Range: 1,200 miles (1,925 km) in space and 12 miles (19.3 km) in an atmosphere.
      Mega Damage: 2D6x10 per cannon, and 4D6x10 for two, 6D6x10 for three and 8D6x10 MD for four cannons when fired linked.
      Rate of fire: Equal to pilots hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
      Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
   2. Missile struts: Instead of a medium laser, the hardpoints on the on the engine pods can also carry missile struts. Several kinds of struts are available, capable of carrying one Cruise Missile, two Long Range Missiles, four Medium Range Missiles, or eight Short Range Missiles per strut. Missile struts and lasers can be mixed in any configuration needed.
      Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launching starship, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will still cruise unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) Cruise missiles have minuses to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles.
      Maximum Effective Range: Varies with missile type (See Phase World Missiles), Long Range Missile range is 3,400 miles (5,470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
      Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (See Phase World Missiles - Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC for LRM`s).
      Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2
      Payload: 1 CM, 2 LRM`s, 4 MRM`s or 8 SRM`s per hardpoint.
2. Pod configurations: The Mosquito can carry a variety of pods slung under its body. The ones described here are the most common.
   1. Type 1 (standard) Sensor/ECM Pod: This is the first pod designed for the Mosquito, and it holds a large amount of sensors and ECM, equal to that on a frigate. This provides the fighter with outstanding long range detection capabilities, and some good ECM indeed. This version is most often used for long range patrols and spying missions
      Sensor/E.C.M. pod gives an additional +1 to dodge missiles due to spoofing, +20% to read sensory equipment, and the ship cannot be detected without military class sensors, and is -2 to strike even when detected.
   2. Type 2 (missile pod): This variant gives the Mosquito a very impressive missile launching capability indeed, and this version is often used for strike missions against TGE outposts, and for support during attacks on larger starships.
      Missile sections (3): The pod consists out of three separate sections, each of wich can hold ten LRM`s, or multiples of that in smaller missile types. Each of the sections can only hold one type of missile, but the separate sections can hold different kinds of missiles.
      For example, the payload could be 10 LRM`s, 20 MRM`s and 40 SRM`s OR, 30 LRM`s.
      Maximum Effective Range: varies with missile type (See Phase World Missiles), long range missiles 3400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
      Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles ((See Phase World Missiles - Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC for LRM`s).
      Rate of fire per section: One at a time or in volleys of 1, 2, 4, 5, or 10 per melee attack per section. The entire pod can fire a total volley of 30 missiles in one turn.
      Payload: per section can hold 10 LRM`s, 20 MRM`s or 40 SRM`s.
   3. Laser cannon pod : This pod holds a single huge laser, with its own Fusion power cell. This cannon is equal in power to the secondary guns of a Warshield cruiser, and is mostly used for space assault and commercial raiding (standard doctrine is to have one Mosquito with a missile pod, one with a sensor pod, and two with cannon pods in a patrol). The cannon does NOT have penalties to hit starfighters and other small targets, due to the good maneuverability of the mosquito!
      Maximum Effective Range: 20 miles (32 km) in an atmosphere and 20,000 miles (32,000 km) in space.
      Mega Damage: 2D6x100 MDC
      Rate of fire: twice per melee.
      Payload: Fusion power cell holds power for 50 shots.
      Special: Because the Laser Pod is not streamlined, the Mosquito loses its all bonuses when flown with this pod in a atmosphere.
   4. Strike team insertion pod : This pod looks much like the streamlined missile pod, and can house a special unit of ten soldiers (or spies...) and their life support and equipment. In addition to this, it holds the same ECM as the Sensor pod, so that the Mosquito is very difficult to find when carrying this pod. Most often used to bring strike teams of saboteurs or spies to and from a Imperial planet. Few people know of this variant.
      E.C.M. gives an additional +1 to dodge missiles due to spoofing and the ship cannot be detected without military class sensors, and is -2 to strike even when detected.

COMBAT BONUSES: The Mosquito Heavy Starfighter is maneuverable and very accurate. Use the Phase World Starfighter combat (Elite or Basic) skill.

• +2 to initiative
• +2 to strike with lasers (including the Cannon Pod)
• +2 to dodge

[ Phase World TM, Kreeghor TM, and CAF are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]

Image taken from the game "Silpheed the lost planet"

By Mischa (E-Mail Mischa)

Copyright © 2001, Mischa. All rights reserved.