Given the expense, difficulty in producing effective control systems, and total unfamiliarity of Capital Ship Missile production in the early Clan Invasion, the Combine turned to an old-and much maligned bit of history-perhaps inspired by a certain legendary turning point of the Invasion. The production of prototype suicide ramming fighters, meant to crash into Dropships and Warships and detonate internal bombs for added insult, reached the prototype and testing phase before the Invasion of Luthien ended any immediate threat of collapse and then the Clans gave the Draconis Combine enough breathing space to quietly shove these plans off a cliff and sweep any lingering crumbs under the rug.
The cost estimates of these designs are grossly overpriced-reports are that each engine was rated for no more than 10 hours of operation before risk of failure-and radiation shielding for the pilots was slashed to a razor thin level, just enough to prevent acute rad poisoning and damage from impacting the pilot's performance before their death via explosion. In theory, an ejection seat can be used, but in practice, punching out before the terminal stage is deleterious to accuracy, and the last kilometer is covered in less than a second. By the time a Union-C is the size of a dime on the windscreen, it is already too late to complete ejection safely.
All designs share a certain similarity of form, being simple elongated cylinders with blunt noses, stubby wings, and rudimentary control surfaces. Pilots are trained in more complex vehicles with proper landing gear, auxiliary systems, and fuller life support, but in practice many of these features are deleted from the actual attack articles. In theory, they would have been launched from planets to attack dropships in a descent phase, or just prior to atmosphere interface. Experiments were also made with heavier fighters or smallcraft towing them to a launch area ahead of an approaching battle group, and closing to attack from this position. Either way, in attack or defense, they have only one recourse-pure, unfiltered, unmitigated SPEED. The swiftest-the 15g max thrust Okha-crushed more than one test pilot, but most injuries sustained in the cockpit at full thrust were mitigated by careful design. The fact that the Okha would only need to sustain such thrust in short bursts, and could normally be content with a 'mere' 10g, was praised as a great efficiency. However, it is clear that all these designs were born of desperation, madness, and a desire to make the enemy pay at any cost.
Okha MSY-11A
IS experimental
15 tons
BV: 82
Cost: 1,414,324 C-bills
Movement: 14/21
Engine: 180
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 14
Armor: 16
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 4
Left Wing 4
Right Wing 4
Aft 4
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Booby Trap NOS
Standard AFT
Okha MXY-11A
IS experimental
15 tons
BV: 96
Cost: 2,704,216 C-bills
Movement: 20/30
Engine: 270 XL
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 20
Armor: 16
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 4
Left Wing 4
Right Wing 4
Aft 4
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Booby Trap NOS
Standard AFT
Baika BXY-1A
IS experimental
20 tons
BV: 115
Cost: 3,362,993 C-bills
Movement: 18/27
Engine: 320 XL
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 18
Armor: 24
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 8
Left Wing 6
Right Wing 6
Aft 4
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Standard AFT
Booby Trap NOS
Kaiten KAI-73n
IS experimental
30 tons
BV: 250
Cost: 4,693,035 C-bills
Movement: 14/21
Engine: 360 XL
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 14
Armor: 72
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 26
Left Wing 17
Right Wing 17
Aft 12
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Standard AFT
Booby Trap NOS
