Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. This week, we'll be talking about the
Nightwing class surveillance ship. First built in 2447 by DiTron Heavy Industries (designer/refitter of the
Aegis), and first published as one of the "Lost WarShips" of Tech Readout 3057 Revised, this one is a doozy.
Like the
Tracker, the
Nightwing owes its existence to a throwaway line from Tech Readout 2750's entry on the
Bug-Eye. Like these other vessels, it's ostensibly a surveillance ship, designed to mimic civilian traffic, while gathering valuable intel. That, however, is where things begin to diverge.
The first question one should ask oneself when looking at the
Nightwing, a ship designed to mimic civilian transports, is what it's meant to mimic. This is where things get interesting because there is a civilian primitive JumpShip that has the same baseline mass and identical length as the
Nightwing: the
Aquilla class. While that vessel predates the
Nightwing by three centuries, it's safe to assume updated versions must have existed, since there are also mentions of the
Aquilla being pressed into ad hoc military service by the Canopians as late as the Reunification War. So, that's a pretty safe bet.
Next, ask yourself if the
Nightwing has the tools for the surveillance job. Well, kinda. Again predating the publication of Tactical Operations, the
Nightwing was given an unstatted 75-ton sensor package in a cargo bay. Were this ship redone in a newer publication, it's entirely possible it would be swapped for a small naval comm scanner suite. But, it's something clearly devoted to the surveillance job, and while it might become an outdated sensor suite in the early 26th Century, it's something.
Something else the
Nightwing is, though, is comparatively sluggish, and short on cargo. With under 3000 tons of cargo available, and only 3/5 thrust, the
Nightwing trailed the
Tracker not only in acceleration, but endurance. Perhaps that's why the Terran Hegemony frequently paired the two classes of ships together, where the larger cargo holds of the
Tracker could help keep
Nightwings operating for extended periods.
So it's slower than the
Tracker and has roughly a tenth the cargo, while only massing 20 kilotons less. Where did the
Nightwing use up its mass?
"Guns. Lots of guns."Like the somewhat older
Vincent, the
Nightwing carries a quartet of naval autocannons, with one each gracing its fore-quarters and broadsides. Unlike the larger corvette, though, engineers sprang for NAC/20s on the
Nightwing. Oh, but they didn't stop there. The
Nightwing lacks the
Vincent's eight large lasers. Instead, it has four NL-45s, arranged in pairs in each aft-quarter. Capital missiles? Nope, instead the
Nightwing packs a medium naval PPC in the nose, with two more mounted aft. Heat sinks are plentiful. In fact, no other WarShip in Tech Readout 3057 Revised devotes as high a mass fraction to guns as the
Nightwing. And this is a surveillance ship?
Guns aren't the only area DiTron engineers went nuts, though. With an SI of 65 and 146 points of armor, the
Nightwing is durable as hell for such a small ship. To find its equal, you really have to look. Forget the
Vincent or
Vigilant. The
Mako two centuries younger, succeeds, but the
Baron and
Naga don't. We're talking about a surveillance ship from the mid-26th Century that's got comparable durability to a mid-28th Century Clan
Fredasa class corvette, with arguably better firepower.
So, the
Nightwing then is a heavily-gunned corvette that has the durabil ity of a destroyer, with average thrust, woeful cargo, and some surveillance bits tacked on, built by the same people who made the
Aegis class the overgunned monstrosity it is.
How do you use the
Nightwing? Depending on the era, it could hide amongst antiquated
Aquilla like a wolf among sheep, spying on your enemies, or, alternatively, proudly advertising its presence as a convoy escort in later centuries, keeping up with its flock and using its guns and armor to hammer its opponents.
How do you kill a
Nightwing? Three options. First, devote a much bigger WarShip you could probably better use elsewhere to hunting it. Alternatively, risk those big guns to attack it with assault droppers or Pocket WarShips, accepting that you'll take losses to those big guns. Third, and perhaps best, swarm it with fighters. The
Nightwing has only those naval laser bays to use against small craft, and only four small craft bays of its own, rendering it vulnerable to being swarmed. Expect losses here, too, though: an NAC/20 or MNPPC may be +5 to hit your fighters, but up close that's not much worse than shooting at large craft at long range, and 90-200 standard points of damage to the face can ruin a fighter jock's day.
What happened to the
Nightwing? It was taken out of active surveillance service around the same time the standard core JumpShip and docking collar became the de facto standard for civilian transports, when it could no longer hide in plain sight. TR3057R tells us that none survived the Amaris Crisis, which means they probably alternated between mothballs and typical corvette duty until the survivors all broke down or got blowed up good. Still, we heard similar about the
Farragut, so the possibility exists you may one day stumble upon one. Stranger things have happened in the Battletech universe.
(Image credit to Masterunitlist.info. Link can be found in the title)
