Design Feature

The Zangid Stinger Fighter was piloted only by Marines as it was initially to be employed as a ground attack craft. Partway through development an enterprising Dreiped tech found a way to drastically reduce the size of the beam cannon at the cost of more maintenance and expanse and decreased reliability and the Stinger became a space superiority fighter. 

Decreased reliability meant that the beam cannon overheated and exploded destroying the fighter 3% of the time due to heat build up. The development team insisted this was a design feature encouraging the pilots to get in close before firing and have a chance to gretaer damage to the enemy ship by exploding 3% of the time and suggested awarding posthumous medals in advance as an incentive.

Admiral Apsa Sanaa Ulla Arslan Sissee had the following to say: "The designers failed to realize Marines were crazy, not stupid. They were patriotic but awarding posthumous medals in advance was a bit beyond the pale. Now advanced death benefits might have had a better reaction. Marine Commandant Korsa finally forced the issue by climbing into a Stinger onboard the Battlecruiser testing the craft and firing the beam cannon out the hangar doors until the design team on board agreed to fix the bloody weapon system."


That resulted in the asymmetrical design of the craft though it distributed mass a little better and made them handle well in space. In an atmosphere the radiator would make controlling a Stinger nearly impossible so the ground support role was forgotten but the Marines kept their monopoly on piloting the Stinger and a few did make ground runs especially on Alakir 3 though it was still not enough to prevent that world's capture by the Space Fleet.

Some Stingers did tangle with the armed SH4KR shuttles with little effect. The Stingers couldn't bring their beam cannons to bear with the heat radiators deployed and the shuttles' door guns were not powerful enough to damage the fighter craft.

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