Blade (replica)

The Esperia Blade is a Vanduul design produced by Esperia for military use. They are often used as scouts and first wave assault crafts. The Blade is the Vanduul armada’s lightest fighter, focusing on maneuverability over shields and weapons. The maneuverability of the Blade is beyond anything else out there which makes up for its lacking armor. Over the decades of conflict, they have been increasingly used to take out comm arrays and early warning systems. They have also served well as skirmisher units due to their speed allowing them to chase down any ships attempting to flee the area.

History
With over a quarter-millennia of recorded encounters, the Vanduul Blade is both one of the first of the species’ spacecraft encountered by the United Empire of Earth and one of the most common. A dedicated light fighter and skirmisher, earlier models of the Blade took part in the first raids on Human colonies in Orion. Although aspects of the design have been upgraded over the decades (and like all Vanduul ships, vary slightly from clan to clan) the modern variant has retained an extremely similar silhouette with improved control surfaces and more modern weapons attachment points. Tens of thousands of individual Blades have been destroyed over more than two centuries, and countless others have been tracked by Naval intelligence.

While the Blade’s more advanced cousins, the Scythe and its offshoots, have become iconic symbols of present-day Vanduul terror, the light fighter remains a hugely important supporting element of the Vanduul frontline fleet. The most notable feature of the Blade is its shifting wingspan, which ‘cuts’ between a streamlined travel mode and a more expansive battle mode. When in travel mode, the Blade lacks significant offensive punch but improves its direct speed and maneuverability; when in attack mode, the pilot has access to three forward-firing gun positions and a pair of missile racks.

For some decades, United Empire of Earth aggressor squadrons have operated replica Blade fighters produced under exclusive contract by Esperia, Inc. These spacecraft, produced in great quantity, have been used to train generations of fighter pilots for Vanduul engagements. Today, Esperia manufactures Scythe and Glaive clones for training and testing purposes, with most former Blades having been returned to the manufacturer for storage and disassembly. The so-called “Esperia Boneyard” (location classified) contains hundreds upon hundreds of used examples in varying states of disassembly. In the wake of the recent attack on Uriel, many of the Blade trade-ins produced in the past decade are being outfitted for frontier defense use, part of an extremely controversial program aimed at better-arming those threatened by alien attack.