Alliance Space Vehicle - The Valkyrie-Pattern Light Psychotronic Fighter

ST/HP: 95

Hand/SR: +5/3

HT: 12

Move: 15/600* (+14)

LWt.: 7.0

Load: 1.1

SM: +4

Occ.: 1SV

DR: 75

Range: 18,000

Cost: $15M

Loc.: Wi3rR

Stall: 50

Total Chase Roll: +19 (+20 with afterburner)

*The Valkyrie is equipped with an Afterburner which improves the Move to 22/700 (+15) and consumes four times as much fuel (reducing range to 4,500 miles, if used continuously).

*The Valkyrie’s 75 DR covers the entire vehicle and comes from Diamondoid, and has half DR vs crushing damage. It also has a DR 300 force screen.

Notes

Psychotronic Alliance Fighter Vehicle Electronics:

• Psiberface Controls: This allows a psychic character to directly control the vehicle with their mind. This provides a +1 handling (already included in its statline) and allows the character to add their level of the Ergokinetic Interface ability, if they have it, to all rolls with the vehicle. For additional optional benefits, see “One with the Machine” in Pyramid #3/30.
  
  
• Medium Tactical Ultra-Scanner: 30-mile scan, 3-mile imaging/bioscan; 360°;
  
  
• Targeting Computer: +5 to hit target with a scan-lock.
  
  
• Night Vision Sensors: +9 nightvision, ×8 magnification (up to +3 to aimed attacks, if the vehicle aims for three turns).
  
  
• Distortion Jammer: -4 ECM penalty for missiles; +2 to jam missiles.
  
  
• Tactical ESM: +1 to dodge missiles.
  
  
• Decoy Launcher: +1 to dodge missiles and +2 to jam missiles.
  
  
• Medium Holographic Radio: 1,000 mile range (orbital); “palm sized” holographic console.
  
  
• Security and Safety: Complex Biometric Locks. Ejection Seat
  
  
• Life-Support: 5 days
  
  

The Valkyrie has room for a single pilot.

Lightly armed, the Valkyrie has two, standard fighter cannons mounted in its body.

All Valkyrie craft have design space for a single psychotronic module at no additional cost. This module is not modular in the sense that it can be easily replaced (but a skilled mechanic can replace it as easily as he can replace any other integral component), only in the sense that the module can be chosen when the vehicle is created, meaning that Valkyrie-Pattern fighters have individualized psychotronic capabilities.

Weapon	Dmg	Acc	Range	Ewt	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
Fighter Cannon	6d×5(5) burn	9	2700/ 8000	1000	3	200/Fp	75M	-10	2

Psychotronic Modules

All psychotronic modules make use of the psychic powers of the pilot. They are, in effect, just psychic powers that have been technologically augmented. As such, they are vulnerable to Anti-Psi effects. They do not require the character to have the ability in question, though the character using the module will benefit from knowing the associated skill.

Valkyrie-Pattern (Grimshaw)

Electrokinetic Shield Module: This replaces the force screen on the ship. The EK shield supplies 300 non-ablative, non-hardened DR that provides half DR against non-energy attacks (missiles and collisions, primarily); if the character has the EK Shield skill, they can use an EK-Shield block to double the DR of the screen; this may be improved with extra-effort like normal, or improved with any EK Shield technique the character knows (including suppression), but double the fatigue cost!

Surge Module: If the character has the ability at any level, this module projects the ability to so that it faces no range modifiers: the character need only see the target (thus it may not be used “Beyond Visual” range) and rolls his Surge skill in a quick contest with the target vehicle’s HT. Success inflicts 30d non-wounding surge damage that ignores DR.

Electronic Shadow Module: This replaces the Distortion Jammer. If the pilot concentrates, he can shroud his vehicle from the electronic detection. While so concentrating, the character may not attack or make any stunts (they demand too much attention). Any attempts to detect him with any active sensor (such as an ultrascanner) or to target him with missiles suffers a -6 penalty. Instead of concentrating, he can focus his attention for just a moment to disrupt a targeted missile. This allows him to attack or make stunts normally, but he makes a Power Defense (using the better of their Electronics Operations (Psychotronics) or Machine Distortion skills) with a +3 bonus against an incoming missile; success diverts the missile. If the character knows the Machine Distortion skill, he may use extra-effort to boost the working of the module, but double all fatigue costs.

Devil-Pattern (Sabine)

All Devil-Pattern variants of the Valkyrie lack a window (remove the “g” from the vehicle) and their cockpits mimic sensory deprivation chambers. Outside of the heat of battle, they can be used as such; in the heat of battle, characters with the Blind Psi perk may apply the benefit of the Perk to their psionic powers and their modules.

Tactical Awareness Module: This replaces the ultra-scanner on the ship. The pilot is granted the equivalent of the Awareness ability with a range of 3 miles. This can be used to gain a “target lock” via integrations between the psiberface controls and the targeting computer. Use of the ability requires the higher of Per or IQ-based Electronics Operations (Psychotronics) or Awareness. The Tactical Awareness module is immune to distortion jammers, machine invisibility and the effects of a nebula, but not to Mind Clouding; the character can use any Awareness techniques he has as normal, but all fatigue costs are doubled.

Combat Sense Module: This grants the fighter a +2 to all dodge attempts. Characters with the Combat Sense skill may any Combat Sense techniques he knows, or attempt to improve it with Extra Effort, but all fatigue costs are doubled.

Crusader-Pattern (Elegans)

Dread Crusader Module: This amplifies the natural fear and uncertainty of combat and centers it around the fighter. Once per hour, the pilot of the Crusader may attempt to frighten any other pilot or vehicle crew member that can see him; roll a Will (or Instill Fear skill, if he has it) against the Will of his target. If he is successful, the target must either suffer a penalty to all rolls made in relation to the pilot (attack rolls, chase rolls, dodge rolls, etc) equal to the pilot’s margin of success, or roll on the Fright Check table with a penalty equal to the pilot’s margin of success (pilot’s choice). This follows the same rules as the Instill Fear power, and the character may use the same techniques at doubled fatigue cost; the Group Scare technique is greatly expanded by the amplifier, and a standard use will apply the whole crew of a corvette or a fighter wing, a success by 5 or more will apply to a capital ship or a fighter squadron, and a success by 10 or more will affect a dreadnought.

Psychic Shadow Module: If the pilot concentrates, he can shroud his vehicle from the mind’s eye of others. While so concentrating, the character may not attack or make any stunts (they demand too much attention). Anyone who wishes to notice his vehicle by seeing it with their own eyes must roll Will vs the pilot’s IQ or suffer a -6 to all rolls to detect it; this value is halved for attempts to notice the character with electronics (the electronics will pick the Crusader just fine, but the target will find it hard to make the connection between the blip on his screen and the presence of the fighter). This does not penalize entirely electronic targeting systems, such as target locks or missiles, at all. Once the character has been detected, he must break line of sight on his vehicle (say, by diving deeper into a nebula, or flying into a debris field) if he wishes to apply this power again. Characters with the Mind Clouding skill may attempt to apply Extra-Effort to the module, but double all fatigue costs!

Look and Feel

The Valkyrie and its variants is among the oldest designs in the ARC arsenal. They date from the Communion War, when the Maradonian houses borrowed from the innovations of the Templar fighters and the Immortal Legion’s own psychotronics to create their own fighters worthy of the aristocracy. Today, only the Valkyrie, fighter of House Grimshaw, is especially common, and since each is created specifically for the nobleman intended to pilot it, the GM is within his rights to require a Valkyrie-pattern ship to be taken as signature gear. House Sabine and House Elegans have their own variations (the Devil-Pattern and the Crusader-Pattern respectively). While the vehicle has been updated, it lacks a hyperdrive, a slot for a robot or more modern missiles.

The Valkyrie-pattern psychotronic fighter has a dagger-shape to it, with thin, forward-swept, curving wings angling out of the body like the edges of a particularly baroque blade. Its diamondoid armor gleams with almost an inner light, and the armor is usually a brilliant silver or a deep, star-speckled black. The Devil-pattern fighter has no visible cockpit or window: it has a hatch that allows the pilot to enter the sensory deprivation tank at the heart of the vehicle, while the other forms of the vehicle have a visible hatch perched on the “central ridge” of the “body of the craft.” The Valkyrie and Crusader both have controls (at the GM’s discretion, a non-psion could pilot them, but hand/SR drops to 0/2), but in all three, once the pilot is comfortably seated with the vehicle, they close their eyes and make a Will-based Pilot (Starfighter) roll, or Meditatation, whichever is better, to gain control of the ship. The vehicle is controlled thereafter entirely with their mind (though they still roll the normal skills, such as DX-Based Pilot, etc, to actually control the ship). They “see” what the ship sees, and control the ship as they would control their own body.

The Valkyrie and its variants struggles to find a place in the modern Alliance. Its high acceleration and high top speed lets it compete directly with an Imperial Javelin, and it has superior defensive capabilities and equivalent firepower, which means it tends to win such engagements; it is one of the best dogfighters ever made, in the right hands. But as a “duelists” craft, it fares poorly when fighting larger craft, which means it contributes little to defeating dreadnoughts when compared to the Valiant or the Raptor. Worse, the fighter requires a psychic character to pilot it, and the psychic skills to really master it properly, and while the Alliance is loathe to admit it, their blood purity has waned a great deal since their heights during the Alexian dynasty and relatively few aristocrats have the psychic mastery necessary to pilot a valkyrie. Thus, the vehicle sees no coordinated effort to mass produce, but some skilled nobles have one made for them, and bring it with them to battle. Thus, if one finds a Valkyrie parked in the hangar of their carrier, they know that someone onboard is either exceedingly pretentious or exceedingly deadly.