Sparrowhawk

* Base
* Prototype

Once upon a time...

Even before that time...

This hull is a stolen pre-production model intended for combat testing, with all the little quirks and faults that implies.

The **Sparrowhawk**, originally named the **Storm Kestrel**, is a flexible and highly mobile cruiser fielded by the Blade Breakers. They are commonly seen in larger Blade Breaker battle groups but are often less numerous than the unmanned Black Lancer-class cruisers.

## Overview

Despite being classified as an “escort cruiser”, the Sparrowhawk is more than capable of fulfilling a multitude of roles. The Stutterwarp Dash system grants the ship exceptional mobility, allowing it to capture contested objectives faster than many frigates even, as well as allowing the ship to easily engage and disengage from combat. Compared to the Phase Skimmer, the Stutterwarp Dash is safer to use as it doesn’t disable shields upon activation, and can even be used to ram targets. However, the AI can be somewhat reckless when using this ship system, frequently spamming it, and often colliding with other vessels.

At a glance, the Sparrowhawk doesn’t pack as much firepower as one’d expect from a cruiser that costs 30DP to deploy, having only 2 medium mounts and a multitude of small mounts. However, most of the mounts available are hybrids, giving the Sparrowhawk very flexible loadout options, the build in Sigma Matter Engineering hullmod also provides an ordnance point discount to all energy and ballistic weapons. The multitude of built-in point defense weapons also allows the player to install offensive weapons in the various small hybrid turret mounts instead. The Sparrowhawk also comes with a single modular fighter bay, and thanks to its ability to approach targets at a rapid pace, the Sparrowhawk synergizes rather well with bombers.

Much like most of the Blade Breaker hulls, the Sparrowhawk is not particularly durable, its hull integrity and armor rating comparable only to light cruisers. Its shield efficiency is on par with midline ships but its flux capacity and dissipation rate are on par with high tech designs. Thus the Sparrowhawk must rely on its superior mobility to engage and disengage from battles and ensure its survival. When fighting against Blade Breakers, despite presenting themselves as a constant source of irritation to the player, it’s recommended to ignore them at first and instead focus on the more heavily armed and more numerous Black Lancers or Spearheads. Since most ships lack the mobility needed to chase down and destroy the Sparrowhawks, focusing too much on them may lead to the player being overwhelmed by other Breakers.

Much like the other manned Blade Breaker ships, the Sparrowhawk cannot be obtained by the player in a legitimate way, as they cannot be recovered post battle and there exists no market that trades them nor any source for its blueprint. However, it’s possible to obtain a prototype version by selecting the Blade Breaker Deserter start in Nexerelin. The prototype version however is slightly weaker than the mass produced model, with the medium universal mount replaced by a hybrid and a ship system that stores fewer charges. The prototype variant can always be recovered in case disabled or destroyed, but cannot be scuttled or sold.

## Gallary

Post v1.6 sprite for the Sparrowhawk.Post v1.6 sprite for the Sparrowhawk prototype.