SU-43 U/AS Star Berkut

Cassiopeia's trademark starfighter; once an advanced atmospheric fighter from several generations ago, the serial model SU43U/AS "Star Berkut" is an all-weather, atmospheric medium fighter craft with atmospheric exit and re-entry capabilities, as well as Short and Vertical Take-Offs and Landings; which purpose was mainly focused on aerial and stratospherical battle scenarios, very limited regarding outer space flight. This plane was recovered as a hollow frame by Cygnus. The only thing that says something about it's previous identity it's the serial number within the hull, and the emblem of a flying pigeon (the origin of its nickname), with the acronym "UPEO", each emblazoned on its left and right wing, respectively; which leaves its manufacturer or any known origin whatsoever a complete mystery. It's timeless design is uncannily reminescent of the Sol Republic's F-37 Fighting Falcon, but has several key differences. It is believed that this craft is some sort of predecessor of the Fighting Falcon.

#### Design

The craft design consists of a single fixed alloy frame with forward-swept wing design for exceptional maneuverability in atmospheric conditions; as well as front canards, wing flaps and ailerons, and horizontal and vertical stabilizers to keep the plane stable in the air. It also boasts 3-dimensional thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzles that further increase its maneuverability, allowing for rather advanced flight maneuvers in the hands of the right pilot. The frame itself has been streamlined to reduce air drag as much as it allows, some of the frame sections resembling the body of a stingray. The overall design of the frame has minor stealth capabilities, as the streamlined body reduces its cross-section signature to the size of a mid-sized car.

The Star Berkut is quite a small and light starfighter for its age, compared to other starfighters; having a 16.70m wingspan, a 22.60 lenght, a 6.40 height, packed on a frame that weights roughly 4.5 tons overall, when fully loaded. Compared to its bigger and heavier Fighting Falcon homonym, the Berkut seems to be a fly against a buzzard; but as small as it is, the Berkut is also a nimble and quick craft.

#### Powertrain

The Star Berkut was powered by two engines of unknown power output, as they were too damaged to really work. The current frame got its crippled engines replaced by a set of Ulysses Space Dynamics Mk.IV Vector 47/2K twin Ion engines, commonly used on Ulyssean security drones, providing the power enough for it to reach mach 4 in atmospheric conditions, and mach 10 in space. Each set of engines have a pair of retractable auxiliary thrusters; one on the top and one on the bottom sides of the ion turbofans, which move along with the 3-dimentional nozzles according to the craft's direction input when "Space Mode" is engaged; allowing Cassia to perform maneuvers in space much like she would do them in atmosphere, saving a lot of weight on gravity-negating gears that would otherwise affect the crafts aerodynamic capabilities. The Mk.IV V-47 engine series also have the particularity of releasing ion particles whenever they are engaged at maximum thrust, leaving an faint purple trail behind. The engines on their own, however, are not capable of making the Berkut reach thrust enough to escape a planet's gravitational pull.

The craft originally had an internal bay that could be loaded with a variety of guided ordnance, but Cassiopeia used the underside slot to adapt a USD VectorINFI hydrogen propulsor drone that can be deattached and re-attached onto the Berkut's lower frame, depending on the craft's needs. It works merely as a "Planetary Escape Drive", in which the propulsor is left onto the exosphere in idle function, when the craft needs to dive deep into the atmosphere and save excess weight and thrust power; and whenever the craft is headed towards outer orbit, the propulsor ignites and guides itself towards a rendezvouz point in which the Berkut re-attaches the propulsor, using a secondary reactor that ignites the hydrogen to propel it out of the planet's gravity pull. Although extremely powerful, the reactor can't make the Berkut enter warp speed, which renders the Berkut unable to travel to other planets on its power alone, requiring to be loaded into a bigger ship with a bay big enough to store the craft inside. It also poses no other purpose in combat, as it would make the craft too heavy to handle.

#### Avionics and Guidance

The Star Berkut's original design supported an enclosed cockpit, which system was solely known simply as "COFFIN", according to the few vestiges of information that came with the craft's empty hull. And the name stays true to the design, as the seating position in which the pilot seats resembles the way of how a corpse would lay down inside a coffin. With no functioning guidance and navigation systems integrated onto the frame, Cassia readapted a compatible cockpit module from a scrapped Fighting Falcon, and modified it so that the frame was guided-by-wire, with analog inputs, such as sticks, triggers, touch panels, a speed lever and rudder pedals; as well as neuro-optical HUD systems that create images of the plane's outer view within the Berkut's canopy, supported by external electronic sensors over the cockpit. Target search and tracking functions are done by neuronal sensors placed within Cassia's helmet, which allow her to target objectives just by looking at them. The whole system works on a sophisticated AI mainframe and active radar-fusion technology, giving the Berkut a kind of "self-awareness", providing Cassia with all the navigation and piloting information she could possibly need. The "Birdy Brain" mainframe, as Cassia calls it, was re-programmed by a fellow crewmate back in The Wanderer scavenger; making it similarly capable to that of the F-37, with the drawback of having a way smaller track-and-search and navigation range, making the Berkut function on a more "locale" environment, rather than long-distance combat scenarios. It also has the particularity of being able to respond to voice commands that come from Cassia, to perform self-diagnostic tasks. The AI is intelligent enough to speak back and create conversations from Cassia's commands, and can advice her of possible drawbacks of her decisions, ultimately leaving them to her reasoning.

#### Weaponry

Originally designed as a pseudo-stealth combat craft, the Star Berkut relied on its internal weapon bays on the lower middle section of the frame, as well as two auxiliary bays within the craft's air intakes to store a standard configuration of two radar guided missiles, one on each auxiliary bay; and a whole arsenal comprised of guided bombs, air-to-surface guided missiles, or cluster-type short range missiles, each loaded inside the Berkut's main bay for a determined type of sortie. But having used the internal space to house its reactor set that came along with its engines, Cassia decided to adapt the craft to be able to carry its payload on external pylons under each wing, allowing for interchangeable and versatile arsenal configurations. The design of the SU-43 is perfect to adapt the craft for dogfighting, starship attack, long range strikes, and even atmospherical missions, but Cassiopeia's standard configuration for her duties at Boston comprise of:

* A set of 2 IMP-9X "Flanker" Infrared Missile Pods, one on each wing, carrying 6 missiles on each pod; each mounted under the craft's wings.
* A set of 1 HSP-13 "Firkin" Hyperspeed Strike Platform, carrying 2 long range hyperspeed missiles on a pylon mounted under the craft's cockpit.

Granting Cassia a considerable firepower against the always looming menace of pirates raiding Boston. Additionally, replacing the aging .30 Vulcan gun that the Berkut carried, Cassia fixed and adapted a stolen Virginia Imperial Technologies standard-issue pulse laser cannon, integrating into the internal bay located on the rear and right side of the cockpit that harbored its previous solid ammunition gun, saving additional weight, while also modernizing its combat prowess.

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