The Black Widow II starfighter is the much larger cousin of the Shadow Bolt Strike Ship built by the United Worlds Warlock and is a relatively new design. A fearsome fighter that is reminiscent of the Earth's World War II Black Widow Night Fighter. Like the fighters namesake, the fighter has twin booms with engines on either side of a smaller cockpit section. Like the Shadow Bolt, the fighters wings are bat shaped. The fighter is often painted black with a red hourglass on the rear top of the crew section. Like the Shadow Bolt, this fighter is a mixture of technology, techno-wizardry, and powerful other enchantments.

The fighters main body is not as strong as the large starfighter of the Naruni and the C.A.F. However, to compensate for this, the fighter is protected by an Impervious to Energy enchantment and takes no damage from normal energy weapons. A powerful magical force field also protects the fighter. In many ways, the Black Widow II could be considered a larger cousin of the Shadow Bolt and like her smaller counterpart, the Black Widow II is inferior as a conventional fighter compared to the Consortium equivalent. This includes top speed and maneuverability. Top speed on the Black Widow II is identical to that of the Shadow Bolt. Electronic systems are also primitive compared to conventional sensors but these are backed up by magical sensors.

The fighters weaponry is equal to those used on the heavy star fighters used by other governments. On the top of the fighters crew section are four sub particle accelerator cannons that fire forward. The fighter also has two turrets with double barrel TK-Machineguns. One cannon is mounted in the rear of the crew section and the other is mounted in the nose of the crew section. In missiles, the Black Widow is one of the first to carry missiles beyond the normal bottle demon missile launchers. The fighter has four hard points on each wing. Originally, the hard points were meant to carry conventional cruise missiles. A total of eight cruise missiles could be carried. Now, the cruise missiles will often be replaced by bottle demon type cruise missiles and a variety of smaller ordnance. Carrying long range or medium range missiles, the Black Widow II can operate as a heavy interceptor. The fighter carries four standard bottle demon missile launcher with two in each boom. These have been modified so they can fire conventional mini-missiles as well. Usually a mixture of normal missiles and bottled demon missiles are carried.

The Black Widow II is the smallest design in the Three Galaxies to be able to carry a Rifts Jump Drive. The smallest other ships are the size of light destroyers. Not quite as long ranged as the standard Rift Drive, maximum range is only 10 light years per jump. Potentially, it still makes the fighter very effective. Unfortunately the system, even though the heavy fighter is already in the Warlock fleet in reasonably large numbers, should still be considered experimental and there have been glitches with the system. Most of the time the system simply requires more magical energy to activate or will simply fail but sometimes more detrimental effects will occur as well. Of course being trapped while being outnumbered is quite detrimental. The fighter has been known to be Rifted somewhere completely unexpected or have its drive rift on it own. Of course, the Leaders of the United Worlds Warlock Navy are not happy about the situation. Techno-Wizard Engineers are working on fixing the problem and several times they though it had been solved. Because of the problems with the system, few crews like to use the fighter for long range patrols. Most commonly the Rifts Drive is used for surprise attacks or emergency escapes.

The fighter is available without the jump drive and several groups have elected to purchase this design and is a bit cheaper as well. Several of these fighters have been modified with a contra-grav drive system in the empty compartment where the Rift Drive is normally mounted. The versions with the Contra-Grav are liked by many of their crews because at least the system is reliable even though it does not have all of the advantages of a Rifts Drive system It is also a bit slow compared to fighters such as the Proctor and can only cover two light years per hour.

Because it was originally planned that the fighter would operate on long range patrols, the Black Widow II heavy fighter is set up in a very similar fashion to the CAF Proctor class in crew arrangements although is a bit more compact. The ship has six coffin like sleeping arrangements for the ships crew. Some crews use these compartments for storage and contra-grav versions of the fighter do fairly often end up going on long range patrols.

This fighter uses modified starship speeds and weapon ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model Type:	WF-P60S-RD	Standard Model with Rifts Drive
	WF-P60S-LT	Stripped Model without Rifts Drive
	WF-P60S-CG	Modified Model mounting Contra-Grav FTL

Vehicle Type: Strategic Heavy Fighter/Attack Craft
Crew: Five (Pilot, Co-Pilot, Weapon Operator/Navigator, and two turret gunners). The fighter has six coffin style sleeping arrangements similar to those on the CAF Proctor class heavy fighter.

M.D.C. By Location:

	Sub Particle Acceleration Cannons (4, Above cockpit):	100 each
	TK-Machinegun Turrets (2, Front and rear of cockpit section):	140 each
	Missile Hard Points (8 racks, 4 each wing):	20 each
	Bottled Demon Missile Launchers (4, 2 each Boom)	100 each
	Reinforced Pilots Cockpit	220
	[1] Wings (2):	400 each
	[2] Cockpit Section (Main Body):	500
	[2] Twin Booms (2, Main Body):	700 each
	Magical Armor of Ithan Force Field (3 times per day):	600

Notes:
[1] Destroying a Wing will cause the plane to crash if it is flying within an atmosphere. Destruction of a wing has no effect in space.
[2] All Three sections are considered part of the Main Body. Depleting the M.D.C. of either of the boom sections or the cockpit section will put the fighter out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck. Note: The fighter is impervious to all non magical energy weapons.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 50 percent of the speed of light. Fighter can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.95 percent of light per melee.
Stardrive:
WF-P60S-RD: Rift Jump Drive; maximum safe jump of ten light years every four hours (Costs 800 P.P.E. to activate), system has a 10% chance of failure. If the drive fails, roll on table below.
WF-P60S-LT: None
WF-P60S-CG: Has a Gravity Faster Than Light Drive system which allows the ship to reach a maximum of two light-years per hour.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is Mach 5.0 (3,707.3 mph /5,966.3 kph), can enter and leave an atmosphere
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system but only has supplies for fighters crew for forty five days.

Statistical Data:
Length: 62.1 feet (18.9 meters).
Height: 18.4 feet (5.6 meters).
Width: 82.5 feet (25.1 meters).
Weight: 176.4 tons (160 metric tons) empty and 220.5 tons (200 metric tons) fully loaded
Power System: Combination Fusion & Techno-wizardry with 10 year life span. The fighter also has a P.P.E. generator that produces 200 P.P.E. per hour. (Activating the Rifts drive costs 800 P.P.E.) and can hold up to 1,600 P.P.E. in storage. This P.P.E. can be used to power the Rifts Drive or can be used to power spells cast by the fighters crew.
Cargo: Small Storage Space 4 x 6 x 6 feet (1.5 x 2 x 2 meters). In addition, each crew member has a very small locker for personal items and uniforms.
Market Cost:
WF-P60S-RD: 280 million credits.
WF-P60S-LT: 200 million credits.
WF-P60S-CG: 230 million credits.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Sub Particle Acceleration Cannons (4): Mounted on top of the pilot section of the star fighter and behind the main cockpit. Cannons can fire at up to a 30 degree angle up or down or side to side. The gun is controlled by the fighters pilot or co-pilot and does not have penalties to strike small targets. Uses the spell of the same name from page 143 of Federation of Magic. The spells must be renewed every two months (costs 400 PPE and 20,000 credits per Cannon) but during theat period the weapon can fire unlimited blasts
   Maximum Effective Range: 200 miles (320 km) in space. 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: 1D6x10+10 per cannon (4D6+40 for all four cannons)
   Rate of Fire: Equal to pilots or co-pilots hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Unlimited, although the spells must be renewed every two months whether the cannons have been used or not.
2. Forward and Rear Twin TK-Machineguns: these cannons are identical to those mounted in the Shadow Bolt Starfighter but are in twin mounts. The fighter has one turret in the nose of the Star fighters cockpit section and one in the rear of the cockpit section. Because the cannons do damage by impact, they do full damage to targets that are using the spell impervious to energy. The spells must be renewed every two months (costs 400 PPE and 20,000 credits per Cannon) but during the period the weapon can fire unlimited blasts. Each turret can rotate up to 120 degrees side to side or up and down
   Maximum Effective Range: 200 miles (320 km) in space and 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: 12D6 per burst for both cannons in a turret.
   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Unlimited, although the spells must be renewed every two months whether the cannons have been used or not.
3. Missile Pylons (8): On the wings of the fighter are eight missile racks (four each wing) that allows the fighter to carry one cruise missile, two long range missiles, or four medium range missiles each. Individual pylons must carry all the same type ordnance but each pylon may carry different types of ordnance. Cruise missile are normally carried when on an anti-capital ship role and long and medium range missiles when fighting other starfighters. Cruise Missiles has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Long Range Missiles has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship). Medium Range Missiles has a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 6% of light per turn. Since starships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will still cruise unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting starships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) Cruise missiles have minuses to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Missiles can be launched on multiple targets simultaneously.
   The fighter can also fire a special larger version of the bottle demon missiles. It has been said by many people that an escaped demon is worse than a matter/anti-matter explosion. They can be launched at the same rate as conventional cruise missiles and can use the same programming, although slightly smaller than a standard cruise missiles. The missiles accelerate at the same rate as conventional cruise missiles. Missiles are super smart and have +4 to strike and +5 to dodge. Unlike normal missile, the bottled demon does not explode and keeps striking at its target over and over. If the target is destroyed or vanishes, the missile disappears. The missiles are literally powerful demons summoned and bottled into a missile and are an aggressive and intelligent guidance system. The evil demons will continue to chase its target until destroyed (100 MDC to the missile). Bottled Demon missiles are not available outside the United World Warlock Navy.
   Optional: Because the super bottle demon missiles use a more powerful demon and the missiles are still experimental, there is a 5% chance that the missile will turn on the ship launching it.
   Maximum Effective Range: Conventional Cruise Missiles range is 8,000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds), Bottled Demon Missiles: Effectively Unlimited! Once fired, the demon controlled and powered missile will fly and pursue the designated target until its target or the missile is destroyed (or the target vanished from sight, jumps away, or gets away by another means), Long Range Missiles range is 3,400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,897,000 km/9.7 light seconds) in space, and Medium Range Missiles range is 160 miles (257.5 km) in an atmosphere and 80,000 miles (128,750 km/0.43 light seconds).
   Mega-Damage & Properties: Conventional Missiles: See Phase World Missiles (Cruise Anti-Matter does 4D6x100 MDC and Long Range Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC). Bottled Demon Cruise Missiles: 6D6x100 of magical energy every time the missile strikes (3% chance of releasing the demon every time it hits)
   Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of two, three, or four missiles.
   Payload: One Cruise Missile (Or Bottle Demon Cruise Missile), Two Long Range Missiles, or Four Medium Range Missiles per Pylon
4. Bottled Demon Missile Launchers (4): On each main boom, the fighter mounts a pair of bottle demon missile launchers. The missiles are literally demons summoned and bottled into a missile and are an aggressive and intelligent guidance system. The evil demons will continue to chase its target until destroyed (50 MDC to the missile). Bottled demons are slightly larger than mini-missiles and require special launchers. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Missiles are super smart and have +4 to strike and +5 to dodge. Unlike normal missile, the bottled demon does not explode and keeps striking at its target over and over. If the target is destroyed or vanishes, the missile disappears. The launchers have been modified so they can fire standard mini-missiles. This is done mainly by fitting the mini-missiles with a special sleeve that allows them to be fired from the launcher. Many fighters do not carry bottle demon missiles and simply replace them with conventional mini-missiles. In those cases, increase conventional missile payload. Launchers can launch on multiple targets each.
   Maximum Effective Range: Bottled Demon Missiles: Effectively Unlimited! Once fired, the demon controlled and powered missile will fly and pursue the designated target until its target or the missile is destroyed (or the target vanished from sight, jumps away, or gets away by another means) Conventional Mini-Missiles: Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space
   Mega-Damage: Bottled Demon Missiles: 3D4x10 M.D. of magical energy every time the missile strikes (3% chance of releasing the demon every time it hits). Conventional Mini-Missiles: Varies with mini-missile type (See Phase World Missiles.)
   Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two, three, or four.
   Payload: Bottled Demon Missiles: 4 per launcher for a total of 16 bottled demon missiles. If no conventional mini-missiles are carried, increase to 8 per launcher for a total of 32 bottled demon missiles. Conventional Mini-Missiles: 6 per launcher for a total of 24 mini-missiles. If Bottle Demon missiles are not carried, increase mini-missiles to 12 per launcher and to a total of 48 mini-missiles.

Rifts Drive Failure Table:

System has a 10% chance of failure and giving an unexpected result. In most cases, the system will simply burn more magical energy than required or simply not work although more detrimental effects are possible.

01 to 20% Double Cost: Creates Rift but draws double P.P.E. - The Rifts drive works but creating the Rift costs 1600 P.P.E. instead of the usual 800 P.P.E. If there is not enough P.P.E. activate the drive, it will simply fail.
21 to 75% Failure: Rifts Drive Simply Fails - No Rifts is created although still uses 800 P.P.E. and cannot be activated for four hours.
76 to 88% Random Rift: Ship rifts anywhere within a 10 light year radius. Costs 800 P.P.E. and the drive cannot be activated for four hours. Luckily, the ship cannot Rift into a planet or other celestial body.
89 to 93% Rifts Drive Disappears: Drive Rifts on its own without Starship: Still uses 800 P.P.E., the Rifts Drive could have ended up at the destination or elsewhere.
94 to 98% Disappears in Transit: While Fighter is going through Rift, the Rifts Drive disappears and leaves the ship stranded: 800 P.P.E. is expended and the ship is stranded once it goes through
99 to 00% Double Failure: Ship rifts anywhere within a 10 light year radius. As well, the Rifts Drive disappears and leaves the ship stranded: 800 P.P.E. is expended and the ship is stranded once it goes through.

[ Phase World TM, Naruni TM, Kreeghor TM, and CAF TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]

By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Copyright © 1998, 2006, & 2009, Kitsune. All rights reserved.