Mirage is the name of a series of French superluminal strike craft. Named after the Dassault Mirage line of fighters and bombers of the twentieth century, they have seen extensive service in the French Starfleet and French Army since 2721 and have been exported to a number of countries.
Mirage Comète[]
The Mirage Comète was the first of many delta-wing designs built by the French. It was meant to replace the Aigle, which suffered in mobility and agility with the awkward incorporation of a hyperdrive. A new approach was needed to seamlessly and deliberately incorporate it into the design from the beginning. By 2721, development teams delivered a craft that was agile and quick despite the added bulk. Unlike its smaller predecessor, it had a large body and expansive wings. To satisfy the needs of the French Army, it was fitted with vertical-take-of-and-landing capabilities, though that was removed in later variants that were only used by the French Starfleet.
As an omnirole fighter, the Comète was meant to respond to changing circumstances with relative ease. It could be retooled to carry missiles or bombs of different sizes with few modifications, though they were not exactly interchangeable at the time. Parts needed to be added or removed from the release mechanisms to hold different types of ammunition. This was fixed in later versions of the craft as the French continued to standardize their ammunition and production methods. The Comète 1CV was known for being able to seamlessly launch almost every type of ammunition that could be found on the deck of a French carrier, a trait that would later came back in the Comète 2.
Variants
Mirage Comète (2721) - omnirole, hyperspace- Mirage Comète 1A (2729) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 1C (2735) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 1CV (2737) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 1D (2743) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 1DU2 (2756) - omnirole, hyperspace
Mirage Comète V[]
The original design of the Comète came in two variants, the normal one and a highly experimental variant called the Mirage Comète V. Though similar in many characteristics, they differed on one important point: the Comète V was equipped with a warp drive, not a hyperdrive. Only a few hundred examples of this craft were ever produced, assigned to specialized Voltigeur squadrons within the French Starfleet. They were meant to experiment with the then-theoretical Voltigeur drill, which was considered viable by 2760. The Comète V itself, however, was plagued by problems. Its design was specially tailored to the hyperdrive, and was poorly optimized for warp-based travel.
Variants
- Mirage Comète V (2723) - omnirole, warp (prototype)
- Mirage Comète V1 (2729) - omnirole, warp (prototype)
Mirage Comète 2[]
Though the Comète 1 had been designed to be easily upgradable and for its parts to be changed out as they grew obsolete, the design itself was starting to show its age by the end of the 2740's. Advances in design made the old one look clumsy by comparison. The Mirage 2 brought minute but revolutionary changes to the delta-wing design, making it easier to navigate and control. Over the course of the first half of the 2750's, it replaced the Comète 1D as the French Starfleet's primary omnirole strike craft.
Variants
- Mirage Comète 2 (2751) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 A (2767) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 A1 (2771) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 B (2779) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 C (2784) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 C1 (2786) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 C2 (2789) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Comète-M-501 (2792) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2 C3 (2795) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Comète 2A (2770) - omnirole, hyperspace
Super Mirage[]
The Super Mirage was a memorable line of heavy conventional strategic and tactical bombers. Though they all carry the same name, the designs actually differ greatly from incarnation to incarnation. It was originally meant to replace the Hydre gunship in the role of fire support in space, though through the intervention of the French Army in the design process, the project took a drastically different turn and produced a superluminal bomber with similar flight characteristics to the Comète, plus added bulk. The French Starfleet fielded the Super Mirage 1 in 2730, though quickly realized that they had little use for a bomber optimized for atmospheric flight. As the Army brought out new Super Mirages in 2750 and 2780, the Starfleet briefly considered adopting them before discarding the idea.
Variants
- Super Mirage 1 (2730) - bomber, hyperspace
- Super Mirage 2 (2750) - tactical bomber, hyperspace
- Super Mirage 3 (2780) - bomber, hyperspace
- Super Mirage d'Attaque (2782) - tactical bomber, hyperspace
- B-207F Super Mirage 3 (2790) - strategic bomber, hyperspace
- Super Mirage 3 D (2791) - strategic bomber, hyperspace
- Super Mirage SEAD (2791) - SEAD bomber, hyperspace
- Hyper Mirage Attack Ship (2793) - gunship
- Super Mirage 8M (2796) - heavy bomber, hyperspace
Super Mirage V[]
After the Voltigeur drill was shown to be feasible by the Comète V, the French set out to build a warp-optimized fighter, the likes of which had not been seen since the Hyperspace Revolution. They adopted the Super Mirage 1 as their base design and heavily modified it based on data gathered from the Comète V. The result France's first strike craft specialized for the Voltigeur drill. Like the Comète V, it was distributed to a few specialized squadrons for testing before being generally adopted.
Variants
- Super Mirage V (2737) - tactical bomber, warp
Super Mirage 2V[]
The Super Mirage 2V is widely considered as a misguided attempt to modify the French Army's Super Mirage 2 to operate within the Voltigeur drill by a different team from the one who produced the Super Mirage V. The craft was in many ways worse than the its predecessor. It handled poorly at warp, lacked maneuverability, and tried to incorporate a warp drive that rotated externally so the craft did not need to consistently enter warp backwards and could change its attack vector more easily while executing the drill. In practice, the mechanism was flimsy and was easily torn from the craft. The Super Mirage 2V4 refit attempted to fix these problems, but the problems were intrinsic to the design. A complete overhaul was needed.
Variants
- Super Mirage 2V (2758) - tactical bomber, warp
- Super Mirage 2V4 (2764) - tactical bomber, warp
Super Mirage A[]
After having been set back ten years, renewed interest in the Voltigeur project sparked the creation of the Super Mirage A. It was a complete redesign of the Super Mirage to include three seats, taking the strain of the operation off of the shoulders of a single person. It was a lot bigger than its predecessors and a lot more responsive both at warp and in real space. A new firing mechanism, added in the Super Mirage A1, allowed the fighter to perform runs at other angles than directly at the target, reducing risk of collision for the crew. Previous craft required that the craft travel in the direction it wanted the missile to go––directly at the target. If the pilot failed to activate his warp drive in time, or if the warp drive failed, he was likely to collide with his target. Attacking from a slightly offset angle negates this risk.
Variants
- Super Mirage A (2766) - tactical bomber, warp
- Super Mirage A1 (2775) - tactical bomber, warp
- Super Mirage A1B (2786) - tactical bomber, warp
Super Mirage B[]
The Super Mirage B built on the successes of the Super Mirage A, incorporating among other upgrades a drive system that could rotate three-hundred-and-sixty degrees within the craft itself. This allowed the Super Mirage B to enter warp from any angle, having been previously been confined to warping backwards.
Variants
- Super Mirage B (2790) - tactical bomber, warp
Mirage I[]
A very useful collaboration between France and POTATO, the Mirage I is a superluminal interceptor which can easily blend with hyperspace fog and remain unseen within it. It is typically used as a defensive craft for patrolling hyperspace and maintaining borders during peacetime. In times of war, its maneuverability and stealth is perfect for marauding trade routes, skirmishing, and ambushing enemy forces.
Variants
- Mirage I (2775) - superlumninal interceptor, hyperspace
- I-209F Mirage I (2775) - superlumninal interceptor, hyperspace
- Mirage I (2783) - superlumninal interceptor, hyperspace
- Mirage IP (2790) - superluminal interceptor, hyperspace
Mirage Cascabel[]
- Further reading: Mirage Cascabel
As the Mirage Roi project progressed, it became clear that it was going to be more expensive to produce than was originally thought, which might impede its performance on the market. The French government decided to collaborate with the Roreinians to produce a more affordable fighter to act as part of a deal to produce a flagship main battle tank for the French army. The French intended to use the Mirage Cascabel as a supplement to the Mirage Roi both on the market and in the French military. When a breakthrough was made in the Mirage Roi project, promising to reduce the cost of the craft greatly, the French left the project to the Roreinians. By that point, a working prototype had already been built, and the Roreinians went on to mass produce it as their main omnirole fighter.
It built on the design of the Mirage 2, and had very similar characteristics to it. Often called the "Poor Man's Roi," it is actually quite different from the Mirage Roi in several ways. At the insistence of the Roreinians, it was optimized as an atmospheric omnirole fighter, less proficient in hyperspace and in open space than it is when in an atmosphere. It is equipped with simple electronic countermeasures and VTOL capability seamlessly incorporated into the craft as to not impede its flight.
Variants
- Mirage Cascabel (2779) - omnirole, hyperspace
- RNSF Mirage Cascabel (2798) - omnirole, warp
Mirage Roi[]
- Further reading: Mirage Roi
The Mirage Roi is the pride of the French strike craft fleet. It is one of the best human omnirole fighters, and is considered the pinnacle of the French delta wing design. It is hyperspace-capable and optimized for combat in open space, though is more than capable of handling orbital and atmospheric operations. It can easily be equipped with VTOL equipment, though the base variant does not include that modification.
Variants
- Mirage Roi (2780) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi (2780) A - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi Dominant (2792) - elite fighter, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi Dominant X (2793) - precision bomber, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi Dominant X1 (2793) - precision bomber, warp
- Mirage Roi D (2793) - fighter, none
- Mirage Roi D CAS (2794) - tactical bomber, VTOL
- Mirage Roi D Hyper (2794) - superluminal interceptor, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi Q (2794) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi T (2796) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage Roi (2796) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Mirage M-2798 (2798) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Colonial Mirage Mk.1 (2798) - omnirole, hyperspace
- Imperial Mirage Mk.1 (2799) - omnirole
Mirage Revenant[]
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.
The French version's 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 ordnance.
- Mirage Revenant (2798) - stealth bomber, hyperspace
- Mirage Revenant (2798) - stealth bomber, hyperspace
- Mirage Revenant (2798) - stealth bomber, hyperspace
Gallery[]
