Vehicle:Bladewing/Swordwing

The Bladewing is the primary Air/Space vehicle for the Fordan Empire. It was designed by Ja'Dan Fleetfather, and this Fordan has since refined the design into his personalized Bladewing, known as the Swordwing.

Hull Design
The Bladewing is fairly similar to Human-era fighter jets, with a long conical nose and wider body, but features forward swept, curved wings. These wings serve to make the ship aerodynamically unstable, allowing the pilot to perform a range of aerial maneuvres that any pursuers cannot repeat. Sophisticated computer systems and the Fordan pilot's own skill and reflexes are required to just keep the ship flying, let alone fight.

Weapons
As the name suggests, the Bladewing's primary weapon is its extremely sharp wings. Pilots frequently ram into enemy ships, slicing them in half before the enemy can react. The Swordwing takes this even further, and Ja'Dan has reputedly cut the reactor room out of an enemy cruiser with such a charge.

Other weapons include a seeker missile system that carries ten missiles, two city-buster missiles underneath the hull and a pair of blasters for dogfighting. Each seeker missile is designed for taking on enemy aircraft, and each is capable of destroying several ships if they are closely packed. One example of this is during the Jarzo Assault, during which Ja'Dan knocked out around 10-15 transports with each missile due to how tight they were.

The city-buster missiles are one of Ja'Dan's personal favorites, and are designed to take out City Halls quickly and efficiently, allowing the Bladewings to move on to new targets. They work by combining two missiles: A cluster bomb which rains heavy ordnance down on the less important buildings and unfortunate citizens, and an anti-armor missile that is aimed to knock out support columns and the like in the City Hall. This brings down the entire building with a satisfying bang and ends that colony's chance of success.

Defensive Systems
You can read about the defensive systems employed by the Bladewing and Swordwing here. The Swordwing has one system that the Bladewings do not possess, an EMP missile. While this missile does no damage on its own, it shuts down the target's electronics and can send it to the ground very fast. Since the pulse (EMP stands for ElectroMagnetic Pulse) is carried across the length and breadth of the ship via electrical conductivity, this missile can be used to put large battleships out of use for several crucial minutes.