So, this post will be about the most famous Star Wars starfighter, the X-Wing and what happens when the nutjob engineers of Outer Heaven gets their dirty hands on it
First, let us talk of how did Outer Heaven, busy building itself in the unknown regions, managed to get its hands on the X-Wing, well, it's because of the major failure of an industrial project, the V-Wing II.
The V-Wing of Emperor Palpatine, the idea that was supposed to be copied
The idea behind the V-Wing II was to (and it was hella ambitious) was to mass-produce the elite V-Wing of Emperor Palpatine guards and then to improve on it. But to do it without the genius mind of Walex Blissex would make it end in failure, with scandals all weeks long ranging from bribery, blackmail, corruption and even assassination.
All of that failure would end when the high command, led by Marshal (the equivalent of general and admiral, but for the starfighter corps) Davijaan, decided to pull the plug after a fail assassination on his wife and their daughter (mostly thanks to his wife force sensitivity)
What happened was a brutal cutting of all funds, the firing of most engineers and the subsequent trials of anyone that tried something stupid during that quagmire.
But the high command found itself at a dead end, with no starfighter and only the ARC-350 being well established on production line, they had to find a provisional solution. And the solution was a simple one : to retrofit the old Clone Z-95 with an hyperdrive and an astromech socket.
It would prove itself useful, but everyone involved knew this was only a temporary solution, and with the TIE fighter being better at anything but surviving, they knew it was only a matter of time before any small-scale conflict would turn into a disaster for their pilot rooster.
Some expert pilots found a way to temporary fix it, the 4 fingered Corellian-slip, to allow the ageing Z-95 to fight back against the TIE.
So, by the end of it, everyone was hoping to get something better than what they could get with their engineering.
Their hope finally paid off when in 8 BBY Incom Corporation revealed their latest starfigther, the X-Wing, something Outer Heaven was highly interested in.
To test it, they would send their best starfighter pilots, the veterans of Red Squadron, led by Clone Marshall Davijaan "Odd Ball" with two extra squadron of pilot on Z-95 but one squadron, squadron 187, on TIE I/N fighters that were provided as part of the package found with the requisition of a Gladiator-class Star Destroyer in 18 BBY during the "Pacification of pro-separatist locals" (in reality this was the second Heaven war) that would be basic blueprint of the one employed for this mission, called Pioneer.
a Gladiator-class Star destroyer, of which Pionnier was a part of
Using the traditional route, exiting the hyperspace barrier near Mendicat, then onto Roxuli and then Bilbringi (using a Gladiator in those part of space is an incredible cover, as no one expect such a ship to be a traitorous one). Once at Bilbringi they used the Namadii corridor to reach the core and then Coruscant. Oddly, a Gladiator in Coruscant was an odd sight, but despite the tension of the crew and pilots, they managed to slip to Fresia.
Upon the Fresia system, Pioneer would transmit the clearance code, they had come, and had credits to spend for such endeavour. The Fresian defence forces, still using their old Z-95 took a careful approach of the Imperial-looking light carrier. When they learned it was to buy, as the diplomatic contact said : To the Terminus commercial zone security forces, an aliases used by their forces when operating outside of the unknown regions to trade with other powers (Incom, the Rebellions associated industries, like the Mon Calamari shipyards, Sorosuub, Rendili and even sympathiser in Imperial companies like KDY and RHE).
A shuttle would land amongst the rocky beaches of the planet to take a closer look at the small production yard. The lead engineer of the project, Mounzk Prrips, a Verpine engineer and head of bureau 12, engineering department charged with starfighter design and production engineering visited it and was, as Odd Ball would put it "he was genuinely scared by the hand assembling of the fighter".
After the visit, Odd Ball and his men would take it from there, testing the fighter to see if it was that good. For this, he would ask his 3 best pilots to go up with him. They would first do a standard 4 VS 4 with TIE fighters. The results was far better than anything they ever hoped for, the X-Wing simply dominated the fight. This was the end of the trial and for all the crews, it finally felt like the nightmare came to an end.
After handing over a substantial amount of credits for the blueprints and the X-Wing (8). Pioneer made its journey back to the unknown regions, passing through Chiss territory and unto its home, Outer Heaven. She would dock onto the orbital Ring of Rocks and its space elevators "Starman". The X-Wing would be flown for all to see and the blueprints would pass under the vicious scalpel of the engineering teams.
a X-Wing as if it was built prior to Outer Heaven modifications.
So, now that we've seen what happens when Outer Heaven has only to lightly modify the X-Wing for mass production (it will end poorly).
First they would contract Iron Mountains Steelworks, a massive industrial complex located in the northern Iron Mountains that produced at least 36 % of all of the capital system metals, 59 % of the strategic ores and other byproducts (like carbon fibres, fertilisers, clinker for road construction…).
IMS would, under the direction of its CTO (to be fair, he was the most suited, starting at 12 years old as a trolley handler in the mills and now being a grandfather, he knew anything there was to his production facilities) and former king of the Iron Mountains, Durin, produce a substitute of the high-grade alloys used in the production of the X-Wing. His work was quickly crowned with success, cutting production time and costs (if you wonder why the Rebel alliance never got it, it's because they never wanted to pay the fees to use the patent, they even tried to stole it, which ended poorly).
In parallel, like on the previous ARC-350, the hull would be rebuilt with the traditional mix of carbon fibre and a mix of titanium and alusteel, laminated with the use of the same Geonosian technique, making the hull resilient for its size.
They would use an hypernova reactor at its core to ease the fuel logistics (only 1 fuel, metallic hydrogen) for this one.
Finally, they would use the standardised control, found across all of Outer Heaven crafts, to ease the training of pilots
What they would change is the lasers, using the far more available to them Ltl-127b from Angel's Mountain, but without the Princess mounts (who linked the ion canon and the laser one, as found on the ARC-350).
Then they would swap the torpedo tubes, from the one capable of using proton torpedoes to one for antimatter torpedoes who are bigger but carry the same devastating potential.
The X-Wing was almost ready to be put on the production chains when some pilots thoughts: hey, what if we put the small physical munitions supports that we had on the ARC-350. The engineers sighed and agreed to include those small mounts next to the lasers.
This ship would be the final one put into production, reaching 100 % of starfighter roles in 2 ABY and then lowering to 60 % in 8 ABY, with the introduction of Blissex latest starfighter, the A-Wing, a good interceptor for their usage in a final replacement of the V-Wing, which was never total as the X-Wing filled a lot of roles without encroaching on roles of the ARC-350 for bombing and EW
Let's have a small table of it before we move on.
| Class | X-Wing T-65OH |
|---|---|
| Designer | Incom/Bureau 12 |
| Manufacturer | Black Cat speeder solutions |
| Cost | 100 000 credits |
| Dimension | Identical to the T-65 X-Wing |
| acceleration | 3700 G |
| Maximum atmospheric speed | 1050 km/h |
| Engines Unit(s) | City of Lapis/Incom 4L4 (4) (licensed production) |
| Hyperdrive rating | Class 1 with no backup |
| Powerplant | Hypernova reactor size light fighter |
| Shielding | O'er sea "foam" light generator (52 SBD) |
| hull | Titanium/Alusteel alloy (rated 30 RU) |
| weapons | 4 Ltl-127b laser canon, 2 antimatter proton torpedo launcher (4 warheads), 16 small missile attachment points |
| crew | 1 Pilot + 1 Astromech unit |
Operational history.
After being finally made available, it would start being mass-produced as quickly as possible, shipped as quickly as possible for crews flying into raids deep into the Empire's territory. They would serve onboard Venator II, a fleet carrier now in its prime, for both Marine use and Navy use (I'll explain that with the Venator II and its use)
Thanks to the resilience of the fighter, the training and the use of HAAT/b "black cat" to save pilots who ejected (the rate of ejections upon damage is up to 86%, which is the highest of any armed forces in the galaxy's history thanks to how strong the hulls are).
They would serve with brilliance during the Skystrike academy raid, where the first combo of ARC-350 escorted and guiding X-Wing presented itself to the might of the finest imperial pilots. Then would come the battle of Atollon where most of them would be used not on the ground but by the relief fleet to strike the 7th fleet, but this would not be their last fight against this mighty fleet. The Raid on Lothal was where Grand Admiral Thrawn remarked how brilliant their tactic were, using four-finger tactics to lure his interceptors away from the ARC-350 getting ready for a drop as they "trimmed" out the outer layer of the fleet while also crippling his lighter elements (Carrack and Raider corvette mostly), so he slowly pulled himself out to prevent what he could save from his fleet from getting pounded by ARC-350 and the Victory III further away.
This was a mistake as it allowed the Marines Venator to slip pass his ships and land for ground operations and the end of Imperial presence in the Lothal Sector.
They will keep themselves into shape all the way through the many battles and conflict after these two encounters, especially above Jakku where veteran squadrons went out knowing it was their utmost duty to capture all ships and their crews or to destroy them as they stood with their back to the wall, Jakku was one of the many points of jump to their home in the unknown regions. In the days after the battle, as the Republic cheers upon this large victory, X-wing combed through the neighbouring systems to catch any survivor and their ships, knowing other warlord were out there, like Zsinj, the Teradoc brothers or even Delvardus, all big game for the fledgling new Republic.
They would not fight Grand Admiral Thrawn in his return until the Siege of Coruscant due to the neutrality position chosen by Prime Minister Anju that was forced out by the destruction of convoy 5397, a food convoy bound to Coruscant destroyed by salvoes coming from the ISD Death head.
a field-secure containment vessel, like those part of convoy 5397 destroyed above Coruscant
This would lead into a spiral of call to arms, no matter how much the two old companions fought together, everyone political party called for war (especially the agricultural lobbies) and as such, the fleets rushed out to meet their opponents in battle and the militaristic society effectively shook Thrawn plans, forcing him to Bilbringi where he met his fate.
They would keep themselves into the fight, even after the introduction of better crafts like the E-wing or the Stealth-X got introduced, even as Yuuzhan Vong raided into the galaxy until legends come and go.
The E-wing, which did not shadowed nor could ever replace the X-Wing for Outer Heaven pilots
Conclusion :
Here's a small presentation of what happens when the society and the poorly built lore I had mash themselves together, with a few historical references to a certain manoeuvre used to counter more agile crafts and also a certain light aircraft carrier (something I still have a heavy struggle against in the relation between the Gladiator and Venator). Next time ? I think we'll go back onto the ground