"180,000 Republic credits?" Max scratched his head. "For a little thing like this, you're charging 180k?"
"Commander Vizsla, the smaller a starfighter's profile, the bigger its edge in a dogfight," explained Mankveem, chief engineer at Feethan Ottraw Scalable Assemblies. "The Belbullab-22 has everything it needs—this is our flagship product, built to compete head-on with other companies' heavy fighters!"
The Belbullab-22 starfighter was only 6.71 meters long. Small frame, full system suite: it integrated two triple laser cannons, a propulsion package composed of two sublight ion engines plus a Class 6 hyperdrive and a Class 15 backup hyperdrive, and a deflector shield generator.
The Belbullab-24 strike bomber—an improved, widened-hull derivative of the Belbullab-22—kept all of that, and added two concussion missile launchers with a total loadout of twelve missiles.
"Can I test-fly it?" Max asked.
"Of course. This way," Mankveem said, gesturing him forward as they walked. "However, we don't manufacture a two-seat trainer variant. For safety, we'll have you run the flight simulator first."
"This is the Way." Max nodded and followed, with Christopher Rane, Pavel Kryze, and the rest close behind.
…
Both Max and Christopher Rane had extensive starfighter experience. After half a day on the sim, on February 2, the two of them each took a Belbullab-22 up and punched out of Utapau's atmosphere.
Max set his fighter's deflector shields to maximum output, then told Christopher, "Chris, open fire on me. One full burst."
"Yes, Commander. Uh—give me a second, I can't get a lock yet. I need to manually disable the IFF. Okay."
"Fire."
"Yes, Commander."
Christopher thumbed the trigger on the stick. Four green bolts lanced out.
"Whoa!" Max heard Christopher's shout over comms at the same time the bolts slammed into Max's shields, green glare washing the entire cockpit. "Are you okay, Commander?! I pressed too hard!"
"I'm fine." Max checked the HUD—shields were at 62%. "It can eat a full five-shot short burst."
Christopher let out a long breath.
Max then held his cannons on open space for one second. About thirty bolts sprayed out like rain. The two triple laser cannons had solid output, he thought.
After that, they stopped messing around with live fire. They ran a set of mock engagements, then returned to FOSA's flight test center.
On the way back, Max asked, "What's your take?"
"No proton torpedoes or concussion missiles—so there's a gap in strike firepower. But purely on cannon output, it's excellent. If all shots land, the cannon damage should be close to a Kom'rk's forward gun output. And its rate of fire is extremely high—enemy craft will struggle to evade. That's a major advantage."
"With shields off, maneuverability is close to a Fang-class. At 50% shields, it's slightly better than a Z-95 with shields off. At maximum shields, its handling sits between a Kom'rk Mark III at full shields and a Z-95."
"Overall? Not bad," Christopher concluded. "If you could give the Belbullab-22 proton torpedoes or concussion missiles, I'd rate it as a better starfighter than the Z-95."
"Shame." Max smiled and shook his head. "The Belbullab-22's too tightly packed—there's nowhere to add torpedo or missile launchers. Grab some water. We'll swap to the Belbullab-24 next."
"Yes, Commander."
Ninety minutes later…
Max asked again, "What's your take?"
"Good handling—about on par with the Z-95, better than the Kom'rk Mark III. But its concussion missiles only fire in two-missile salvos, and the reload cycle is slow. For something called a strike bomber, the output tempo is… underwhelming."
"If I had to choose, I'd take the Kom'rk Mark III," Christopher concluded.
BAE's modified Kom'rk Mark III fighter-bomber replaced the troop/cargo bay with a stripped-down 4×3 concussion missile launcher array derived from the C-80 Hammerhead-class light frigate—no reload mechanism, but it could ripple all twelve missiles in a single salvo when needed.
Same twelve-missile loadout, but the Kom'rk Mark III fighter-bomber's strike efficiency far outpaced the Belbullab-24.
Mankveem personally helped Max out of the cockpit and asked with a smile, "How did it feel?"
"Mm!" Max gave him a thumbs-up. "Great. Really great. Your work is excellent."
Praise aside, Max didn't place an order on the spot.
If he couldn't compare three vendors, comparing two was still worth doing. Next stop: Bupper Torsckil Abbey Devices.
"Commander Vizsla, take a look—this is our flagship product, the Porax-38 starfighter!" introduced BTAD's technical director, Martin Mayton, a Pau'an.
The Porax-38 measured 12.7 meters long, with a 12.88-meter wingspan and a height of 2.71 meters. Its engine package consisted of four sublight ion engines plus a Class 2 hyperdrive, with an optional upgrade to a Class 1 hyperdrive.
With that abundant power margin, the craft also carried high-output efficient sensors and a deflector shield generator.
On the weapons side, each wingtip mounted one fire-linked laser cannon. A bomber variant of the Porax-38 could additionally carry eight concussion missiles or proton torpedoes.
"For a ship this big, only two cannons—doesn't that waste a lot of space?" Max asked, stroking his chin.
"It's enough, it's enough," Martin Mayton said with an ingratiating smile. The Pau'an's pale face made the expression look unsettling.
"Each cannon has an independent high-efficiency cooling assembly. They cycle energy fast—high burst rate and strong sustained rate. And that's only the baseline fit. If you want more firepower, we can offer an upgraded weapons package. With four sublight ion engines, the P-38 has plenty of power headroom."
"Can I test-fly it?" Max asked.
-
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🛡️🔥🌌 STAR WARS: THE RISE OF MANDALORE 🌌🔥🛡️
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The clans are stirring.
The armor remembers.
And Mandalore will rise again.
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⚔️ Mandalorian warriors🔥 Clan warfare🚀 Galactic conflict🌌 Star Wars worldbuilding👑 Power & leadership💥 Massive battles🛡️ The resurgence of Mandalore
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