Event Horizon Bomber

The Event Horizon is the primary bomber of the Novaean navy. It is occasionally deployed in support of other Imperial forces, especially as planetside support for the strategic bombing of high value target despite such a function being far lesser of a design consideration than its primary role as an anti-ship bomber.

## History

When the Mechanicum Rationalis on Novae IV decided to brave the all-consuming warp storms of the Age of Strife in an attempt to reunite the worlds of the Corusco Cluster, they decided to modernize their naval aviation assets, as carriers were a major part of Novaean naval doctrine. The results of this modernization program were the Shooting Star multirole starfighter and the Event Horizon bomber. While the former was required to be a highly versatile and flexible craft, the same requirements did not exist for the Event Horizon, which simply needed to be able to delivered a reasonable variety of ordnance on target with good speed and high survivability.

The Event Horizon saw little if any action during the initial reclaiming of the Corusco Cluster, but this changed when the Cluster was itself invaded by the Imperium, which intended to subjugate it all by force. The Imperium of Terra and its Martian allies marshalled an impressively enormous force against the Novaeans and their own allies, and the two forces met again and again in countless clashes both in the void and planetside. There, the Novaean bombers dwarfed their Imperial counterparts, the Marauders, in size, payload, speed and agility, being capable of delivering colossal payloads whilst maneuvering almost as well as a heavy fighter.

Though the Novaeans would eventually lose this war, they would go on to ally their former foe in reclaiming the rest of the galaxy from the morass of misery and degeneracy the Age of Strife had plunged it into. Because they were not called on to routinely perform recklessly dangerous high-G maneuvers unlike their starfighter counterparts, Event Horizons were sometimes piloted by non-Novaean pilots, especially Astartes, and saw more use with the wider Imperium up to the present day as a strategic bomber held back in reserve to destroy major strong points or super-heavy vehicles, which sometimes included Titans.

## Tactical Role

The Event Horizon was primarily designed as a naval bomber, but unlike counterparts like the Marauder or the Starhawk, it was not designed to perform conventional bombing runs with medium anti-ship missiles or plasma bombs. Instead, it was designed as a torpedo bomber carrying for its payload only a single torpedo into close-range of the enemy for a near point-blank strike with the heaviest of ordnance. These torpedoes are generally launched within 10 VU of their targets for immediate impact, but can be released up to 30 VU away if necessary. Standard Novaean Torpedoes carry melta warheads and advanced guidance systems, but it is not unheard of for Event Horizons to carry boarding torpedoes instead, delivering strike teams in the manner of an assault boat.

When used in atmospheric roles as a strategic bomber, the Event Horizon simply replaces its anti-ship torpedo by one, single, gargantuan bomb, which it can deliver at stunning speed deep inside hostile airspace if necessary, It often flies low on the approach to conceal itself from detection, then pulls sharply when nearing the outskirt of enemy lines to allow it to deliver its massive bombs from altitude. It can commonly carry air-bursting thermobaric or even atomic ordnance that detonates above a battlefield and creates a shockwave capable of felling hundreds if not thousands of troops in a tightly packed open battlefield or over trench lines. Also common amidst its potential payloads are seismic bombs that cause fortresses to collapse upon themselves by targeting their foundations, humongous melta bombs. and a variety of cluster bombs.

Event Horizons operate in small triads, as they - and the storage space dedicated to safely store their torpedoes - occupy considerably more space than typical starfighters, or even conventional bombers.

## Description

The Event Horizon is a sleek craft roughly 85m long with prominent, large delta wings for atmospheric operations, forward canards, folding wingtips and twin vertical stabilizers. Its wing roots also feature anti-grav generators to maintain atmospheric lift in case of catastrophic destruction of one of its wings in combat. It is propelled by a pair of thrust-vectoring, liquid-core nuclear rockets capable of reaching a near-hypersonic speed and assisted by a number of small radioisotope rockets acting as maneuvering thrusters. On top of its significant speed, not negligible armor and small Void Shield, the bomber is also protected by a combination of chaff and ventral plasma CIWS to confuse and destroy incoming guided missiles. Two systems are present aft and fore of the main bomb pylon

The main weakness of the Event Horizon is that the various design constraints to allow it to maintain high speed in atmosphere and the space dedicated to generators and fuel leave it with almost nothing to spare for fitting secondary weapons, unlike its Imperial and even Xeno equivalents, and it must often rely on its speed and durability to outrun interceptors if not properly escorted. For self-defense, it only has a single, rear-facing, twin-linked Multi-Melta, which it will use to make one regret their life choices if they somehow have the speed to pursue the Event Horizon on its 6 and the temerity to stay there.

## Rules

Event Horizon Bombers have a Craft Rating of +5 a Speed rating of 10 VU and a Squadron Size of 3. Due to their extreme speed and resilience, when checking for losses, an Event Horizon squadron reduces its losses by two, to a minimum of zero. Standard Novaen bomber torpedoes have Melta Warheads, inflicting 2d10+15 and an automatic Fire! Critical Hit on hit and with Seeking guidance giving it a +30 Torpedo Rating. Novaean Boarding Torpedoes are filled with toxic gas which releases when the hatch open, helping its cybernetic occupants secure a beachhead and providing +10 to the Hit and Run test.