Shooting Star Starfighter

The Shooting Star is the primary starfighter of the Novaean Navy. It has also seen use as supporting force alongside other Imperial elements where it can provide either air space denial or close air support owing to its nature as a versatile multirole fighter.

## History

The Shooting Star was designed during the waning centuries of the Age of Strife, when the Mechanicum Rationalis of Novae IV began to brave the monstrous warp storm of that turbulent era to reunite the disparate worlds of the Corusco Cluster. When the Rationalis set off to explore the grand dark using their Tsiolkovsky Drives, they had no idea what to expect after millenia of isolation. This complete lack of information drove two important design imperatives: Whatever they would send out needed to be able to respond to a wide variety of threats, and it needed to be versatile enough to be used in a variety of situations. The Novaeans simply did not have the luxury of making many overly specialized designs, they could not be assured of stable logistical lines and only had limited hangar space in any given ship.

For these reasons, the Novaeans needed a Starfighter that could be used both in the void and in atmosphere with little to no change in performance, against both air and ground targets, and so the Shooting Star was created. During this initial period of reclaiming lost worlds, they proved quite capable, easily breaking whatever opposition they encountered, but most of the worlds they found posed very little resistance, and was more glad to finally hear from fellow humans after so long. Their only true challenger was the occasional Xeno raiders.

This changed abruptly and dramatically when the Imperium began its campaign to subjugate the Corusco Cluster, with immense forces of Astartes and Martian Mechanicum pouring into the sector and attacking in numbers matched only by their prejudice. This would be the Shooting Star's first real test, and although the war against the Imperium was eventually lost, the Novaean Shooting Stars became a sight feared by Imperial pilots. Though they looked diminutive - being less than half the size of the standard Imperial 'Wrath' starfighters, themselves even smaller than their giant bombers and assault boats - the Shooting Stars were able to run proverbial circles around their Imperial counterpart. Their speed and maneuvrability made it very difficult to get a shot, while in turn allowing the Novaeans to easily get on Imperial Starfighters and bombers' tail. Even guided missiles were of little succor thanks to a mix of active and passive anti-missile countermeasures.

After the armistice between the Rationalis and the Imperium was signed, Novaean Shooting Stars would go on to join the Imperial compliance, primarily accompanying the Second Legion to provide air support in reclaiming worlds across the galaxy for humanity. In the 41st millenium, they are still in production, though are rarely seen outside of the Silver Armada's battlefleets. It is sometimes said that the Dark Mechanicum took liberal inspiration from the Shooting Star to design their own Swiftdeath starfighter, also a smaller and more nimble craft equipped with plasma cannons and missiles.

## Tactical Role

Strike crafts make up an important part of the Novaean naval strategy, providing a first line of defense against enemy bombers and torpedoes. On the offense, Starfighters like the Shooting Star escort friendly bombers, destroying hostile fighters in the way and keeping defensive turrets busy to give the bombers a clear path on their own attack runs. With most factions in the galaxy preferring huge and comparatively unwieldy macro-batteries, Novaean battle doctrine makes considerable use of carriers, as their small crafts cannot be targeted by such clumsy batteries, and they can easily slip past void shields to target critical ship components with surgical precision.

While Shooting Stars' weapons are of little use against gigantic Voidships, in the planetary support role, they are more than well armed and armored and earn their title of 'multirole'. They are capable of shooting down enemy fighters in contested skies just as easily as they can crack open tanks or bomb heavy infantry. Owing to their great speed, agility and relatively durability (planetside) they are also often used for reconnaissance en force. A Naval Squadron of Shooting Stars is made up of 25 crafts, broken up in five Flights of 5 crafts.

## Description

With a length of 28m and a wingspan of 22, Shooting Stars occupy a middle ground between the enormous Starfighters fielded by the Imperium for void combat (themselves ranging between 40 and 100m) and the much smaller planetside Aeronautica, often in the range of 12 to 15m in length. They are comparable in size and durability to an Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship, Their hull is sleek and curved, with a set of prominent forward-swept wings, forward canards, and propelled by a single, thrust-vectoring liquid-core nuclear rocket, with a number of smaller radioisotope rockets used as auxiliary thrusters.

The Shooting Star's primary weapon is a Melta array with four nozzles at the four 'corners' of the Starfighter's nose. Although highly potent, it is also very short-ranged and would be nigh-on-unusable in a flyer moving at such speeds if it wasn't for the insane maneuvrability and responsiveness of the Shooting Star and the unnatural reaction speed and G-Forces tolerance of its pilots, whom are universally heavily-enhanced Novaean cyborgs. It is backed up by a pair of plasma cannons fitted in the starfighter's wingtips, which are used primarily for strafing runs against ground targets but may also be used against other starfighters due to their sheer size. Alternatively, these plasma cannons may be replaced by pylons for heavy cluster bombs, while internal weapons bay can fit up to 4 Harrower anti-air heavy missiles.

## Rules

### Rogue Trader

Shooting Star starfighters have a Craft Rating of +15, a Speed rating of 10 VU, and a Squadron Size of 25. They are capable of atmospheric operations in which case they count as a Heavy Air Forces unit with a Power Rating of 15 and a Troop Quality Rating of Veteran (Skill 50, Morale 90)

### Wargame

 Chaff Launcher

¤ Armoured Cockpit for 20p
¤ Infrared Targeting for 10p
 - The Shooting Star may take up to 4x Harrower Missiles for 15p each

 Agile

 36”
 Heavy 1, Missile, Armourbane, Precise Seeker, One Use

*Precise Seeker*

This missile is fitted with a particularly advanced seeker with very sensitive sensors who are capable of discriminating between flyers and countermeasures easily, making the latter of little use against them.

*A Weapon with the Precise Seeker special rule ignores the Invulnerable Save provided by Chaff*

*Interdictor CIWS*

This small, fast-firing plasma-based weapon system is mounted on Novaean strike crafts to actively shoot down any missile weapons currently locked onto the vehicle they protect.

*A model with an Interdictor CIWS gains a 3+ Invulnerable Save against Missile Weapons only*