Techno-Wizard Decoy Missiles:

Like Air Castle Bombers, the Coalition had a clear shoot on sight order when it came to seeing pre-rifts B-1 Bombers. While officially considered less of a threat than the more modern Iron Heart Armament design, most Coalition base defense commanders actually feared the old Pre-Rifts bomber more. While is did not have the powerful defenses of the Air Castle, the B-1 Bomber, or Lancer as most pilots called it, was far faster and that speed was combined with stealth. It was hard to detect and hard to intercept even if detected.

The Coalition Air Forces had taken a huge pounding from the fighter squadrons of the REEF, Vixen’s Pride, and Larson's Brigade and losses have been extremely heavy. The Coalition had barely enough fighters to cover the most important defense sectors and some of the less important defense sectors had to stripped of fighters to do this. It was not a good situation and they had even had to draft captured fighters such as the Grey Falcon design. Still, much of the fixed defenses were still operational.

Suddenly twelve targets appeared on Coalition radar tracking stations. Maybe the aircraft had been flying low to the ground and had been missed but suddenly they appeared. From their radar profile, it appeared that they were old Pre-Rifts B-1 Bombers and they were traveling at just below Mach One. They thought that they had tracking on thirteen for a moment but one must have been created by the confusing number of targets which suddenly appeared. The bombers split into pairs and seemed to be going after important defense stations. Troops on the ground saw the bombers overhead and also repeated them back to base. They were too important to be ignored and there was no time to delay. Fighters were vectored to intercept the heavy bombers with a total of four squadrons tasked for the intercept of the bombers. Fighters had to be pulled for the defense of other key installations which were not threatened. One of these was the sector command station.

The fighters raced to intercept the bombers and their targets went to just under Mach Two in an effort to escape the Coalition fighters. Suddenly, the sector command station went off the air and confusion reigned. A single B-1 Bomber appeared just a few miles from the main base and volleyed about fifty long range missiles into the base. The attack must be a prelude to an attempt to totally destroy the sectors defenses. The fighters continued to intercept the other attacking bombers. The Coalition fighters fired medium range missiles as soon as the got within range and eight of the twelve bombers were destroyed. Even though the loss of the base was painful, the loss of enemy bombers would be sure to be painful as well. On visual, the heavy bombers could clearly be seen.

Suddenly the four remaining bombers disappeared. In the place of the heavy bomber appeared to be a single missile, probably the size of a long range missile. It appeared to have ran out of fuel and was dropping rapidly. They had been tricked into chasing decoys. How could that be though, they had seen the planes clearly as they had closed. In the meantime, the Lancer bomber which had attacked the command station had simply disappeared.

T.W. Decoy Missiles are available as medium range missiles and long range missiles. Medium range missiles cannot be used to emulate any aircraft larger than a heavy fighter of approximately 80 feet (25 meters) in length or in wing span. Long range missiles can be used to emulate aircraft up to about 250 feet (75 meters) in length or in wing span.

The missiles use technology to create a larger radar profile than the missile would have naturally. This can be altered by the programmer of the missile to emulate a specific aircraft. A large database of different aircraft is stored including Coalition and Pre-Rifts designs is stored onboard the missile. The radar profiles are excellent but sometimes can be detected as fake. If the person tracking the target suspects that the target is false, they can roll a read sensory instruments skill roll at -40% to see if they detect that the target is fake.

In order to fake visual spotting of the missile, it employs the spell of "Apparition" to create the appearance of the actual aircraft. The wizard enchants the image which he wishes others to see from the missile when it set up. Medium range missiles have a duration of twelve minutes on the illusion and are limited to smaller targets than long range missiles which has a duration of twenty minutes on their illusion. If an enemy suspects that the aircraft is an illusion, they can save against magic and if successful then the decoy can be seen as a missile. Also, any attack which shoots iron into a target will destroy the illusion. Of course any explosion powerful enough to destroy the missile body will also destroy the illusion. The decoy is enchanted so damage which would not destroy the aircraft (and does not destroy the missile body) will seem to create damage on the aircraft.

The range of the missile varies by missile type, a long range missile decoy has a range of 500 miles (804 km) with a top speed of 2500 mph (Mach 3.3 / 4,023 kph) and medium range missile decoys have a range of 50 miles (80 km) with a top speed of 1500 mph (Mach 2 / 2,414 kph.) Unlike standard missiles, speed of the missile can be programmed and can change during based on programming. Minimum speed of missile is 200 mph (321 kph.)

Programming of missile is incredibly important and the missiles can be set for a variety of different courses and can be programmed to respond to external data such as accelerating or beginning radical maneuvers when at a specific point and/or when detected. The missiles are considered smart missiles and have +3 to dodge attacks against the. Programming also includes the maneuverability of the plane being emulated so the missile does not make maneuvers which are impossible for the place which it is mimicking. This can be overridden but it makes the decoy much easier to spot as a fake.

Black Market Cost: Medium Range: 40,000 Credits each Long Range: 200,000 Credits each.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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