 Star League Gunstar (Prototype)
Craft: Star League Gunstar Prototype
Type: Prototype all-purpose space fighter
Scale: Starfighter
Dimensions:
-Length: 18.5m
Skill: Starfighter piloting: Gunstar
Crew: 2 (1 pilot/navigator, 1 gunner/starfighter)
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D, starfighter piloting 5D+2, starship gunnery 6D, missile weapons 6D, capital ship weapons 6D
Passengers: 0 (1 in emergency)
Cargo Capacity: 20 kilograms
Consumables: 1 week (emergency packs)
Cost:
Hyperdrive: x1
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 3D
Speed:
-Space: 8
-Atmosphere: 365; 1,050kmh
Hull: 5D+2
Defenses:
-Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 25/1D
Scan: 50/1D+2
Search: 75/2D+1
Focus: 3/4D
WEAPONS:
5 Laser Turrets (fire-linked)
Location: 1 mounted under the nose, 2 mounted either side behind top of cockpit
Fire Arc: turret
Crew: 1 (gunner/Starfighter)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/12/24
Atmosphere Range: 50-300/1.2/2.4km
Damage: 7D
Ammo: N/A
Rate of Fire: 1
Special: Fire-linked to fire any three turrets in any fire-arc at any time.
4 Photon Bolt Launchers (fire-link optional!)
Location: mounted behind cockpit around central fuselage
Fire Arc: front/"turret"
Crew: 1 (gunner/Starfighter)
Skill: Missile Weapons
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700m
Damage: 8D
Ammo: 6 (missile bolts per launcher)
Rate of Fire: 1 to 4; OR 1 (fire-linked)
Particle Beam
Location: mounted in nose
Fire Arc: front
Crew: 1 (gunner/starfighter)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-4/16/30
Atmosphere Range: 50-400/1.6/3km
Damage: 4D
Ammo: N/A
Rate of Fire: 1/3 rounds (must recharge for 2 rounds after every shot)
"Death Blossom"
Location: four panels along the front of the side portions that open and reveal rows of energy weapon ports
Fire Arc: ALL!
Crew: 2 (starfighter AND navigator)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 1-3/5/7
Atmosphere Range: 20-300/500/700m
Damage: 7D
Ammo: N/A (see below)
Rate of Fire: 1 (see below)
DESCRIPTION:
Aside from a few improved stats, such as hull and shields, speed, and the death blossom, the gunstar prototype had similar stats to the standard model.
The Gunstar prototype was the ship used by Grig and Alex Rogan against Xur and his Kodan armada when they breached the frontier's energy barrier to invade Rylos. It is stated to have a weapons modification, indicating the "Death Blossom", as well as improved speed, maneuverability, power, and also having 'Deflector Plating' and being able to withstand many direct hits.
During the course of the story, this gunstar takes many hits from various weapons and holds its groundm even from enemy missiles.
For the Deflector Plating, any time a wepaon deals damage to the gunstar, the player has the option of instead removing a pip from the Hull Dice of the ships's stats, removing 1 pip per damage status: 1 for Light damage, 2 for Heavy Daage and a full die for Severe Damage. The limit is 1D, after which damage is sustained as normal to the ship.
The Death Blossom is the gunstar prototype's most devestating weapon. It has a shorter maximum range, as it is able to fire in every fire arc, at every enemy in range, with one attack action. The Gunstar loses all weapons for 1 combat round as the Death Blossom charges. Also, this is the time where the gunstar crew must wait for every target to come into range of the Death Blossom's volley. Once this is done, the Starfighter gunner activates the Death Blossom system, and immediately makes an attack roll. This roll is counted against every target in range, who must make a standard Dodge against this attack roll. The Death Blossom attack lasts for 3 combat rounds, where the Starfighter may make as many attack rolls as he wishes, but every extra attack per round lessens his Starship Gunnery skill rolls by 1D (so technocally he could have as many attack as he has dice in the skill, per combat round, plus the fire Control dice of the Death Blossom).
After the Death Blossom has finished its attack, the ship is left powerless and floating dead in space, having used up its power reserves in the atttack. The navigator pilot must make a Very Difficult Starfighter Repair roll to restore power to the gunstar's systems, or remain powerless until then. If some enemy targets were left outside of Death Blossom range, or somehow evaded the volley during the attack, this could be a problem.
-"The Last Starfighter" Storyline-
"Grretings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Kodan armada."
And with these words, a legend was born in "The Last Starfighter", a movie about a young man from a trailer park on Earth who got to live out every gamers fantasy of reaching the stars in a space ship and becoming a hero.
As the story starts, Alex Rogan is out of high school and trying to make something of himself, gaining entry into a college and leaving his trailer park home behind for a better life...and not being able to get it. He spends his days playing an arcade game called "Starfighter" in the park, always getting better at it.
One day, he beats the game, gaining the highest score it has ever recieved, with his neighbors and friends watching. Later, a strange and highly advanced-looking car arrives with a man asking to speak to the person who beat the game. The man calls himself Centauri, and quickly abducts Alex, while leaving a mysterious person behind who's face is not yet shown. Centauri's car then takes off into the air and launches into space, leaving the system and arriving on the planet Rylos, center of the Star League. There, he meets aliens of several kinds, and discovers that the conflict depicted in the Starfighter arcade game is very real, and very dangerous.
Alex objects to becoming a Starfighter, the title given to the well-trained gunners of the Star League's Gunstar fighter craft, and feels as though he has been abducted against his will. Also, it was not legal for Centauri to recruit from Earth as it was not mature enough to make contact with yet by the League. As Centauri tries to change his mind, telling everyone that Alex has "the gift" needed to be a great Starfighter, Xur then projects a holographic image of himself into the midst of the Star League base and their Starfighter recruits. He is shown to be another Rylan, the species of Rylos who leads the Star League, and tells them of his impending invasion at the head of a Kodan armada or ships. Xur then broadcasts to their base the live feed of a Rylan master spy captured by Xur dying a gruesome, painful death. After the broadcast, Centauri is forced to take Alex back to Earth.
On Earth, Alex is given a communicator in case he changes his mind. he finds out that a "Beta Unit", an android duplicate of sorts, was left in his stead to look and act like him and leave none the wiser of his absence on Earth. Alex then uses the communicator to call Centauri and retrieve the Beta Unit. At the same time, he is attacked by a Zan-Do-Zan, an alien bounty hunter sent by Xur to assassinate him. With the arrival of Beta and then Centauri with his own weapon, the Zan-Do-Zan is killed, injuring Centauri in the process. Beta and Centauri then tell Alex that if he stays on Earth, more Zan-Do-Zans will come for him, but that in a Gunstar he at least stands a fighting chance. Alex agrees and leaves once again with Centauri back to Star League headquarters.
When they return, Centauri begins losing conciousness on the landing, almost crashing when they make the landing. Worse still, the base is seen from outside then from within to have been heavily damaged since Alex has been gone. Grig, an alien navigator Alex met the last time, meets them now, and they both watch as Centauri seems to die in front of their eyes, telling Alex it was of the greatest good that he brought him back...but that it also never hurts to be rich, then he smiles and dies.
Grig gives Alex a flight suit and they proceed to the Gunstar launch bay. As they board the craft, Grig tells Alex about their ship being a prototype, about its improvements over the standard model, and about the attck upon the Star League base. Grig states he survived because he was in the hangar working on the prototype when the attack happened. When Alex asks about the other Starfighters, Grig tells him all were killed except him, leaving the two of them as the only defence left for the Star league when the Kodan breach the Frontier energy barrier.
After launching, Grig releases practice drones for Alex to work on, and to give the weapons a proper test before live combat, since this is the prototype's maiden voyage. Not long after, they encounter a transport cargo ship along the frontier that is discovered to be a Xurian supporter. they engage it, chasing it down tunnels in an asteroid. Alex is reluctant to fire upon it, knowing they are living people, and still not having fully commited himself to being a Starfighter yet. They pin the ship in a dead end, where it opens fire upon them, and Alex is forced to open fire and destroy the ship.
After, Grig and Alex argue over what happened, Grig having forced Alex into the situation and Alex still not wanting to fight. Grig relents and agrees to take Alex home since he isn't ready for a fight, even after telling him of what the kodan will do when the Frontier falls. Earth may last longer since it is farther away and not a member of the League, but the Kodan would eventually reach it as well and enslave the human race.
As they travel through the tunnels, they converse about their homeworlds, peoples, and families. grig shows a picture of his "wife-oid", and mentions that they have children, but that they are also enslaved by the Kodan, while Alex talks about his family, girlfriend and their mobile home. he then gets the idea that they could stay hidden in the caves and let the armada pass them, allowing them to get behind the Kodan's fighters and their command ship, easily destroying the communications turret that aids their fighters in acting as one in combat. Grig states that this is a great plan, and that it is too bad that there are no more Starfighters to pull it off. Alex looks thoughtful on this, as they exit the cave and are attacked by many more Xurian space ships en masse. As they battle the Xurians, Alex comes alive and shows his true skills, and they defeat they easily defeat the Xurians. he then looks eye to eye with grig and says "Hey Grig? Maybe there is still a Starfighter left", much to Grig's pleasure.
They hide themselves and wait. Eventually, the Kodan finish making their entrance through the Frontier, sending their fighters ahead to use energy probes to scout ahead of the command ship (sensors at Focus range). Grig and Alex power down all systems and wait. The fighters pas on overhead, eventually seeing the massive command ship pass behind them. grig then begins a slow countdown from six, each number with Alex stating a system or weapon hat he checks off and powers up. As Grig almost completes the countdown, Alex then quotes the Starfighter videogame he played back on Earth that had prepared him for this final battle. Then Grig shouts "CHARGE!", and they launch forward at full speed towards the Kodan Armada.
As they approach, the Kodan commander and Xur pick the Gunstar up on sensors, registering it as a Star League Gunstar, and realize that the last Starfighter is not dead as they had presumed from a cut transmission from Earth. Xur is then placed under arrest, as the Kodan's have had enough of his boasting, extremist mentality.
Grig and Alex fly directly under the command ship, evading enemy weapons fire, then reaching the forward under section and destroying the communications turret, leaving the forward Kodan fighters in disarray. As they keep flying forward away from the command vessel, Alex launches a volley of photon bolts, which criss-cross in front of the Gunstar and fly directly behind, slamming into the command ship's forward hull.
When they reach the Kodan fighters, they ready the Gunstar's prototype weapon syetem, called "Death Blossom", which is supposed to launch a single, powerful volley of blasts at very close range and is meant as a weapon of last resort. Alex states that they should already be dead by this point, which Grig agrees, and they prep the "Death Blossom" for use. Weapons at this point are piqued on ammo, but when the "Death Blossom" is ready, weapons will shut down as the system charges for its devestating attack. Four ports along the forward sides of the craft open to reveal rows of energy blast ports in four straight lines streaming outwards away from the central fuselage, with the retracted panels extended outwards past the engine thrusters.
Grig and Alex then charge into the Kodan fighter ranks, blowing them apart one after another. The Kodans scramble to reform and engage the Gunstar, even slamming into themselves in the confusion. As the battle reaches its climax, the Kodan fighters finally have the Gunstar it their sites, and Alex's weapons go dead when the death Blossom begins its final phase. Grig tells Alex not to activate it yet, not until the kodan fighters all come into Death Blossom range. Their Gunstar takes many direct hits in the climactic seconds while they wait, until Grig shouts "NOW!", and Alex hits the switch to activate the weapon.
His Starfighter chair then swivels rapidly in every direction, as he fires all his guns in every fire arc, attacking every Kodan fighter around them in rapid succession. When the Death Blossom finally drains all power, their Gunstar is dead in space and floating adrift, after having destroyed every fighter in the Kodan armada.
Then the command ship comes up. Having suffered damage from the Gunstar and also losing their entire fighter compliment, the commander gives the order to ram them. Grig works quickly to perform repairs to give them power to their systems, drawing it from their life support and restoring power just in time. They begin evading the command ship and, with Alex having power back to weapons, they unload upon the command ship and damage it as much as possible before getting away.
The Kodan and their ship, having lost all weapons and navigational controls, have no way to control their ship as it is pulled into the gravity well of Rylos' moon and crash, the explosion leaving no doubt that the ship was totally destroyed. Though Xur escaped earlier via escape pod earlier during the attack.
On Rylos, Alex is held as a great hero, having saved Rylos and the Star League from invasion by the Kodan forces. They ask him to stay and help rebuild the Star League and train a new generation of Starfighters to take up the cause, and tell him he would have the help of an old friend, as Centauri walks up, revealing he did not die, but having entered a form of healing stasis for his species to recooperate.
Alex agrees to stay and rebuild the League. But first, he returns to Earth, blasting through the sky to land in his previous trailer park home called "Starlight, Starbright", to met his family, friends and neighbors, letting them know where he has been and what has happened, also letting them know about the Beta Unit. They all get to meet Grig, who speaks to Alex's little brother about what Alex has done in space. Alex takes his girlfriend Maggy with him, and as they blast off for space again, his little brother, Louise, begins playing the Starfighter game, starting the cycle all over again...
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