Pseudo-Fighter

Pseudo-Fighters are semi-independent warships somewhere between a Heavy Fighter and a Frigate. They are employed by the Gorn Confederacy and the Lyran Star Kingdom and are often more powerful than the Escorts of other races, although lack their range and independence.

## History

After the Hydrans re-introduced Fightercraft to the galactic stage, most powers scrambled to create their own versions. These all took different forms, varying from flexible Strike Fighters to powerful Heavy Fighters to stealthy Cloakshape Fighters. However, none varied so much as the approach taken by the Gorn Royal Navy and the Imperial Lyran Navy. These two powers rejected small Fightercraft for larger, semi-independent warships. Neither employed Escorts, preferring larger and better armed Frigates, although their reasons for adopting these new Super-Heavy Fighters, known as Pseudo-Fighters, were quite different.

For the Imperial Lyran Navy, it was a simple limitation with their weapons technology of the time that lead to the adoption of Pseudo-Fighters. On a Fightercraft sized frame, Lyran Designers were simply unable to mount sufficient weaponry to make such a craft worthwhile. Their technology required a larger hull, which allowed sufficient weaponry, a full-sized shield generator, and a multi-person crew which aided in combat performance. The result was the Occicat Class Pseudo-Fighter.

The Gorn Royal Navy meanwhile had a far more basic problem. Gorns themselves are larger than members of most other species, and simply fitting a pilot inside a craft whilst keeping it small enough to function effectively as a Fightercraft was not possible. Instead they simply scaled up the design, accommodating similar equipment to their Lyran counterparts. Their Viper Class Pseudo-Fighter was the result.

## Tactical Usage

In addition to being born from different design issues, the Occicat and the Viper are employed in very different ways.

The Gorn Royal Navy uses their Vipers as system defence craft, mainly along the Romulan Frontier, operating from Mooring Stations. With the exception of a sole prototype (GNS Queen Derenesktta), the Gorn Royal Navy does not employ Pseudo-Fighter Tenders and their use of Pseudo-Fighters is entirely defensive.

The Imperial Lyran Navy however, in addition to using their Occicats as defence craft operating from Outposts, also employ Pseudo-Fighter Tenders of the Lioness Class actively in their fleet formations.

## Apocrypha

Much like their smaller brethren, Pseudo-Fighters were rendered increasingly obsolete in the early 24th Century by advances in starship weaponry and shielding technology, which along with further miniaturisation allowed fully fledged Frigates to exceed the performance of Pseudo-Fighters in every respect, without the need for supporting Tenders. They did however remain in service with the Gorn Royal Navy until the Gorn Confederacy joined the United Federation of Planets in 2325. Lyran Pseudo-Fighters remained in service until the (peaceful) annexation of the Lyran Star Kingdom by the Klingon Empire in 2340, but by this time the Imperial Lyran Navy had ceased to exist for some years, when the Kingdom split into independent Duchies in the 2320s.