The Erinyes is a venerable series, the earliest Zaran vessel still in production. Originally intended as a low profile interceptor, the craft is also ideally suited for carrier operation due to its compact flat design, and even a destroyer might have the interior volume for a hanger and a pair of these fighters. A diverse selection of weapons and equipment make it suited for both interdiction and dogfighting, although shields are light enough that deploying it near anything with a chaingun turret is a bad idea.
Primary weapons are a set of beam projectors. The lasers together hit hard enough to cut through other fighter hulls with ease and they can handle medium armour, although the Erinyes’ role against larger ships is primarily to harass and distract. The ship also mounts two anti-fighter guided missile tubes, which are useful as a first-strike weapon or for attacking from long range. An anti-missile “peashooter” machine gun is mounted under the nose.
Even a small ship like this is equipped with good (if generic) defensive effects modules: armour hardening and resilience fields, and ionic shield boosters. The engines can be slightly overdriven, although this mainly serves as a means of catching or escaping ships that are not so equipped. Thin armour covers vital systems and the nose - the fighter is durable only from the front, but has a very narrow profile and is thus difficult to hit in the first place. As with any ship of this size, the best defence is evasion, and the best resource should that fail is a rapid retreat.
The Erinyes, in spite of being an old frame, has been thoroughly modernized and pilots can make use of several auxiliary features. The ship is fitted with a compact jump drive for emergency escapes - charging it takes around 30 seconds - and a radar jammer, deck lighting and a docking beam. The hull is shaped such that it can land on a flat surface under gravity and allow a pilot to clamber out and explore without too much trouble. The cockpit canopy can be raised and lowered to allow for exit above, and there is also a reinforced hatch below for emergencies. The ship has a Bobby AI and faction module. All computer systems are located behind advanced armour, with access through the indented plates on either side of the cockpit.
Weaponry and navigational devices are on control panel one, panel two has defensive effects.
