Ghost SF-6 Osprey class Medium Starfighter:

In many encounters with the Ghost Cruiser "Theodora," the capital ship is surrounded by Osprey type medium starfighters. The magical energies which transformed the ship which they were onboard appears to have also transformed the fighters. The cruiser, when it was lost, had a full compliment of twelve fighters, a half squadron of interceptors and a half squadron of attack fighters. It appears that all twelve fighters were transformed by the magic which transformed the cruiser.

Only a handful of visuals have even been made of these fighters. From what can be seen, the fighters appear to have the markings of the original squadron about the Theodora. As well, they transmit the same ID codes as the fighters are suppose to although the signal is skewed. Attempts to peer inside the cockpit have shown nothing beyond possibly shadowy figures.

There seem to be a variety of personalities with these fighters. Some appear to be show offs while others appear to be cold and quiet. There are some examples where these fighters have zoomed right next to other fighters. There have also been a few crackling messages which might have been attempts to communicate with others. These attempts have come across so garbled that nobody has been able to make sense of them. One thing seems to be a hatred for the Kreeghor and being protective of ships that appear to belong to the Human Alliance. There is an incident where a Ghost Osprey off the Theodora engaged a Flying Fang fighter flown by an independent government. The fighter pilots seem to also be of different skill levels. A couple seem to be elite pilots, likely the squadron leader and second in command, with the other of lesser skill levels.

Even though the fighters look a bit worn, they seem able to withstand more damage than they could before being lost. As well, these fighters seem to regenerate any damage that they take. Even their shields seem stronger than they should be. There have been battles where one or more of these fighters seems to have been destroyed. Later reports though seem to be that these fighters were not destroyed. Most speculation is that after being destroyed that they reappear after a set amount of time aboard the cruiser.

Performance of the fighters seem to be the same as a normal Osprey which puts them a little behind that of more modern fighters such as the Black Eagle and Katana fighters. These fighters are rarely seen very far from the cruiser itself. Some speculate that the magic that empowers them does not allow them to travel far from the Theodora. This is in "stellar" distances so some consider this to be vast distances but the fighters are never seen in a different star system than the Theodora. Limit seems to be about a light hour from the cruiser. As such, when the fighters are seen, it is known that the cruiser is somewhere nearby.

As with the Theodora, the fighters often seem to only be almost invisible on sensors. Missiles fired at the fighters seem to often lose lock. This is also part of the reason why there are so few images of these fighters. Most attempts result in nothing but garbled data.

These fighter’s weaponry are the same yet are changed at the same time. The laser cannons no longer fire lasers but instead a strange crackling energy often called "Balefire." These weapons do not have some of the effects of the heavier “Balefire” weapons aboard the Theodora but they are devastating against force fields. Otherwise, the “Balefire” lasers have the same range and damage of the original weapon systems.

As well, the fighter’s missiles are replaced by a “Wraith” missile which is in some ways like Bottle Demon missiles although the missiles fade after a few minutes and will not come back and strike the ship launching. Half of the fighters have long range missiles and half have capital missiles. Each has a load of medium range missiles as well. Unlike the cruiser, these missiles don't seem to reappear on their own but instead the fighters need to land on the Theodora before they seem to regenerate. Once this happens, they seem to reappear immediately. Of course, like the missiles carried aboard the cruiser, these missiles should have long run out.

Ghost starfighter design uses modified starship speed and weapon range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type:	SF-6A	Attack Model
	SF-6I	Interceptor Model

Vehicle Type: “Ghost” Attack or Interceptor Fighter.

Crew: Two (Haunting Entities - Originally were pilot and weapons and sensor / electronic warfare officer)

M.D.C. By Location:

	Wing “Balefire” Laser Cannons (2):	45 each
	Heavy “Wraith” Missile Bays (2):	115 each
	Medium “Wraith” Range Missile Bays (2):	75 each
	[1] Main Body:	900
	Cockpit:	150
	[2] Variable Force Field:	300 per side (1,800 total)

Notes:

[1] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the starfighter out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The fighter itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.

[2] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (90 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Note: The fighter will regenerate at 20% of the hit locations M.D.C. per day, meaning all damage will be restored within 5 days of being damaged. Even if a hit location is completely destroyed, it will slowly regenerate until completely restored. If a section is destroyed, it will not be operational until 20% of the M.D.C. is restored.

If fighter is completely destroyed, it will reappear in the Theodora's hanger in 4D6 hours fully restored.

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 40 percent of the speed of light. Fighter can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 1.2 percent of light per melee.

Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum normal speed is Mach 6 (4,448.7 mph /7,159.5 kph), can enter and leave atmosphere because flight system is using contra grav. Because missiles are in a bay, they do not reduce the fighters atmospheric top speed.

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited, the engines appear to need no refueling and seem to run on magical energy. Fighter’s crew does not require provisions. Missiles regenerate when the fighters land on the Theodora's hangers. Note though that the fighters seem to always stay within about a light hour of the Theodora.

Statistical Data:

Length: 48 feet (14.6 meters).

Height: 15 feet (4.6 meters).

Width: 42 feet (12.8 meters).

Weight: 15 tons (13.6 metric tons) empty and 21 tons (19.1 metric tons) fully loaded.

Power System: Magic, systems seem to work as if run by magic. Originally was powered by advanced fusion power plant with a 20 year life span but would have run out of power long ago.

Cargo: Theoretically, Minimal Storage Space, place for a rifle, handgun, small survival kit, signal flares, and food rations. Does not include missile bays. Of course, the entities crewing the fighter have no need for supplies.

Market Cost: Not for Sale, due to the haunted nature of the fighter it is doubtful anyone would want the fighter and the fighter is completely independent.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Two (2) “Balefire” Light Laser Cannons: On each wing of the starfighter were laser cannon mounts. Instead of firing laser beams, these weapons appear to fire magical “Balefire” energies. They retain the same range and approximate damage as the lasers. While they don't inflict the havoc effect of the heavy batteries of the Theodora, the weapons do inflict double damage against non-magical force fields. he gun pods are controlled by the fighters pilot.
Maximum Effective Range: 6 miles (9.7 km) through atmosphere and 600 miles (966 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: 2D4x10+10 per single blast, or 4D4x10+20 per double blast. Weapons inflict double damage against non-magical force fields.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the pilot (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Two (2) Heavy “Wraith” Missile Launchers: Half of the Ghost Osprey fighters carried aboard the Theodora are Interceptors while the other half of the fighters at attack fighters (6 of each.) The fighters retain their missile launchers but instead of firing normal missiles, the fighters fire “Wraith” missiles. The fighters carry four capital type “Wraith” missiles or eight long range type “Wraith” missiles. Once fired, the missiles do not reappear until after the fighters land aboard the cruiser. Launchers can launch on multiple targets at the same time.
1. “Wraith” Cruise Missile Bays (Attack Model): The fighter carries four “Wraith” cruise missiles with two in each bay. The missiles accelerate at the same rate as conventional cruise missiles (Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn.) Missiles are brilliant and have +7 to strike and +6 to dodge. They also have three attacks per melee round. Unlike a normal missile, the wraith missile does not explode and keeps striking at its target over and over. If the target is destroyed or vanishes, the missile disappears. They also will fade four minutes after being launched. These wraith missiles have 100 M.D.C. each.
  Maximum Effective Range: Effectively Unlimited! Once fired, the wraith missile will fly and pursue the designated target until its target or the missile is destroyed (or the target vanished from sight, jumps away, or gets away by another means.) It will also fade after four minutes of flight time.
  Mega-Damage & Properties: 6D6x100 of magical energy every time the missile strikes (per missile which hits.)
  Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), three (3), or four (4) missiles.
  Payload: Four (4) Cruise Missiles (2 each bay) - Missiles regenerate when fighter lands in the Theodora's landing bays.
2. “Wraith” Long Range Missile Bays (Interceptor Model): The fighter carries eight “Wraith” long range missiles with four in each bay. The missiles accelerate at the same rate as conventional long range missiles (Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn.) Missiles are brilliant and have +7 to strike and +6 to dodge. They also have three attacks per melee round. Unlike a normal missile, the wraith missile does not explode and keeps striking at its target over and over. If the target is destroyed or vanishes, the missile disappears. They also will fade two minutes after being launched. These wraith missiles have 50 M.D.C. each.
  Maximum Effective Range: Effectively Unlimited! Once fired, the wraith missile will fly and pursue the designated target until its target or the missile is destroyed (or the target vanished from sight, jumps away, or gets away by another means.) It will also fade after two minutes of flight time.
  Mega-Damage & Properties: 2D6x100 of magical energy every time the missile strikes (per missile which hits.)
  Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), three (3), four (4), or eight (8) missiles.
  Payload: Eight (8) Long Missiles (4 each bay) - Missiles regenerate when fighter lands in the Theodora's landing bays.
Two (2) “Wraith” Medium Range Missile Bays: On the outside of the heavy missile bays are “Wraith” two medium range missile bays. The missiles accelerate at the same rate as conventional medium range missiles (Missile has a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 6% of light per turn.) The missiles are considered super smart and have +4 to strike and +5 to dodge. They also have two attacks per melee round. Unlike a normal missile, the wraith missile does not explode and keeps striking at its target over and over. If the target is destroyed or vanishes, the missile disappears. They also will fade one minutes after being launched. These wraith missiles have 30 M.D.C. each.
Maximum Effective Range: Effectively Unlimited! Once fired, the wraith missile will fly and pursue the designated target until its target or the missile is destroyed (or the target vanished from sight, jumps away, or gets away by another means.) It will also fade after one minute of flight time.
Mega-Damage & Properties: 6D6x10 of magical energy every time the missile strikes (per missile which hits.)
Rate of Fire:Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of Two (2), Four (4), Eight (8), or Sixteen (16) missiles.
Payload: Eight (8) medium range missiles per bay for a total of Sixteen (16) medium range missiles - Missiles regenerate when fighter lands in the Theodora's landing bays.

Special Abilities as a Haunted Vehicle:

Will of Their Own: The fighters seem to have will of their own (or it could be the ghost pilot / crew) and operates more or less independently (are strongly tied to the Theodora.) The actions of the fighters are hard to make any real sense of. The fighters seem to follow actions which the escort squadron of a cruiser would be expected to perform. These fighters will sometimes defend other ships. Most people who have studied these fighters do not really consider them to be good but more aberrant in their alignment and something appears spooky about these fighters beyond that of most haunted craft. Still, the fighters will often help those in need. Seem to target specifically ships with Trans-Galactic Empire markings or their designs (although they usually waits for them to attack the fighters or another ship).
Some ghost pilots seem to be rookie pilots while others are expert. Rookie fighters / pilots have a 70% piloting skill, has 6 attacks per melee, have +3 to strike, +7 to dodge. More experienced fighters / pilots will have an 80% piloting skill, have 7 attacks per melee, have +5 to strike, +8 to dodge, and +1 to initiative. Highly Experienced fighters / pilots have a 90% piloting skill, have 8 attacks per melee, have +6 to strike, +12 to dodge, and +3 to initiative.
Ghost Voices: Sometimes bits of badly scrambled communications will be received by craft which encounter these fighters. As well, they will pick us such things as the codes which the fighters are suppose to transmit but scrambled badly. It is hard to know if the pilots are trying to communicated with others although those who appear to be Human Alliance are most likely to be "contacted."
Inexhaustible Propulsive Force: Range and fuel are not a problem; the craft seems able to go on forever, powered by a magical power source. The fighters seem to also produce energy to run all of the craft's systems.
Regenerates Damage: The fighters will regenerate at 20% of the hit locations M.D.C. per day, meaning all damage will be restored within 5 days of being damaged. Even if a hit location is completely destroyed, it will slowly regenerate until completely restored. If fighter is completely destroyed, it will reappear in the Theodora's hanger in 4D6 hours fully restored.
Techno-Ghost: The fighters are extremely hard to detect and target using standard sensor systems including gravity sensors. As well, video images, especially digital images, are usually extremely broken up and distorted. Only magical or partially magical sensor systems are immune. Sensor rolls against ship are at -80% and targeting rolls against ship are at -8 to strike. Missile guidance against ship, tend to go haywire and have an 80% of losing target and veering off course.

Quirks:

Rejects Modern Components: The fighters will not accept the addition of modern components and components will seem to fail within a few days. This probably does not matter because the fighters has no crew beyond that of ghosts.

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Image created and copyrighted by Dieter Ludmann (dieter.ludmann@inka.de) .

More Dieter Ludmann artwork at DL-SPACE

Special Credit to Talis D. Merrill (taalismn@pop.tiac.net) for many of the concepts and enchantments / powers for Ghost / Haunted vehicles.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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