Fiction:Mirage Roi

The Mirage Roi is an advanced French omnirole, single engine, delta-wing strike craft. It was developed in the late 2770's and was adopted by the French Starfleet and French Army in 2780, replacing the Mirage Comète 2 as France's primary omnirole fighter. It would later be acquired by the nation of South Africa as it became available for international purchase on the human arms market in the late 2780's.

Base Design
The Mirage Roi was created with versatility in mind. Its design allows it to operate equally well in hyperspace, open space, orbit, and the atmosphere of a planet as a capable fighter, interceptor, and tactical bomber, though its size and bulk might put it at a disadvantage in a dogfight against smaller subluminal fighters of similar quality. Sixty years of meticulous refinement have given the French delta-wing design extreme mobility, allowing the Roi to turn on a dime and execute maneuvers that would be impossible with craft of previous generations.

Like its predecessor, the Mirage Comète 2, the Roi was meant to be easily retooled to fit a different role on the deck of a carrier in the heat of battle. Though modifiable, the undersides of its wings can hold up to eight missiles or bombs. Twin plasma autocannons line the outside of the cockpit for close-quarter combat. Their angle of convergence can be set from the inside of the cockpit, enabling the craft to engage more effectively at different ranges. This also allows the craft to execute strafing runs without special modification.

The base variant of the Mirage Roi comes equipped with active ECM equipment, technology that disguises the craft's presence on sensors and makes automatic targeting difficult. While not nearly as proficient as POTATO's exceptional ECM equipment, it is well worth the increased manufacturing cost, especially if a nation intends to use it as a SEAD aircraft. However, many users of the craft have found it more advantageous to remove the active ECM equipment to make the craft easier to mass-produce, relying instead on its average passive resistance to sensors and high maneuverability to avoid fire.

Its base variant does not come equipped with atmospheric vertical-take-off-and-landing gear, though many––including the French Army––have chosen to add on that capability in their own craft.

France

 * Mirage Roi A (2781) - The French Army adopted the Mirage Roi as its primary omnirole fighter in 2781. Their version brought several modifications to the craft: it was optimized for orbital and atmospheric flight, and equipped with VTOL gear.
 * Mirage Roi Dominant (2792) - Adopted by both the French Army and Navy during the Dominatus War, the Mirage Roi Dominant Dominatus killer was a direct response to the Tyranny's overwhelming fleets of disposable interceptors. It was designed to hold no more than two high-yield tactical warheads. Traveling embedded in squadrons of regular Mirage Roi's, it would dispatch large swarms of Dominatus interceptors before helping them with those remaining. Its advanced ECM equipment and enhanced hyperdrive made it very expensive to produce, but increased its range and viability as a lone strategic bomber dramatically. The Army employed them to deliver continent-shattering missiles ahead of an invasion, in many cases rendering an invasion unnecessary.
 * Mirage Roi (2796) - General improvements and updates to the main design.
 * Mirage Revenant (2798) - The Mirage Revenant is a stealth bomber fashioned after the successes of the Mirage Dominant. It was originally the brainchild of the African Economic Alliance, a program plagued with problems that the French were recruited to solve. The result of the four nations was a highly advance and very expensive bomber. A two person craft, the hull is larger than the Roi to make room for a bomb bay built to house WMD's and other such explosives. It has optical cloaking as well as stealth and highly advanced ECM equipment. Its armament differs from the South African version: The missile launchers under the wings are fewer and larger, built to accommodate heavier missiles. The ball turrets present on the South African variant are also absent. A bombardier sits in the second seat behind the pilot and is in charge of remotely guiding the heavy ordnance.

South Africanus Dominion

 * Mirage Roi D (2793) - The South African Variant has been repurposed into becoming the primary interceptor of the Dominion. Its provides air cover for the Dominion's heavy artillery guns on the ground, as well as wreaking havoc on reconnaissance aircraft. Though it has vaccum shielding, the hyperdrive was removed in order to cut down on expense and mass. It has thus been retooled to have a larger fuel tank and bigger engines than the standard Mirage, allowing it to stay in the battlespace for longer. France's active ECM equipment has also been removed to reduce production costs.


 * Mirage Roi D CAS (2794) - A different retrofit made by the Dominion removes some of the Mirage's air to air capability in return for increasing its air to ground capability. The craft carries six missile pods instead of the standard eight, exchanging the other two for another set of linked cannons. The rest of the craft is also heavily armored, reducing its speed, but allowing it to withstand multiple impacts. Its also equipped with VTOL gear, allowing it to hover and provide continuous ground support. The lack of active ECM equipment makes it decently manageable to produce.


 * Mirage Roi D Hyper (2794) - A standard Mirage Roi D, but differing in some aspects. Due to the nature of the vacuum of space, the plasma pulse cannons have been switched to continuous beam weapons, with a primary plasma cannon nose mounted instead. Like most other South African variants, it relies largely on its inherent resistance to being detected rather than on active ECM equipment.


 * Mirage Revenant Stealth Bomber (2798) - A major change to the Mirage Roi. This particular variant is a larger, two person craft optimized for bombing runs without being detected. The hull is larger than the standard Roi to make room for a bomb bay built to house WMD's. It has optical cloaking as well as stealth and highly advanced ECM equipment. Its armament consists of ten missile pods and a single nose mounted plasma cannon. There is also two ball turrets, one on the bottom of the craft, the other on the top. The bombardier sits behind the pilot and is in charge of remotely guiding the heavy ordnance launched from the craft into the target, as well as operating the ball turrets via computer, the craft does have a hyperdrive, as well a much larger engine than the standard fighters, allowing for increased speed. Due to expenses involving the craft, there are a limited number at the moment. They are seeing active service in France, The Dominion and the African Economic Alliance.

Central African States

 * Mirage Roi Q (date) -
 * Mirage Roi W (date) -
 * Mirage Roi E (date) -

Trivia

 * The original Spore model of the Mirage Roi was conceived by user rain1995rus, an imitation of the real-life French Mirage F-1 aircraft. It was then simplified by Jossboss10, who made the design more appealing and realistic. It was then heavily modified by Angrybirds to resemble the delta-wing Mirage 2000C, which inspired the fictional Mirage Roi.