[EWimg]

FreiTek E-Wing Starfighter:
Not as well known as its incredibly famous counterpart the X-Wing, the E-wing is in fact the brainchild of the same design team that designed the fabled X-wing: The design staff from the Incom coorporation had fled to the Rebel alliance with the designs for the X-wing, and once they were free of the Empire, they started a new compagnie, named FreiTek. The E-Wing is the first of the new designs to come out of the FreiTek workstations.

The E-Wing was originally designed to do much the same job of the older A-wing fighter, to protect convoys from raiding forces. However, due to the fighters large firepower, strong armor, and incredible acceleration, the E-Wing is increasingly used as a replacement to the X-Wing, and even as a medium Fighter/Bomber.

The pilots flying the E-Wing have realized that their craft is the equal to a Tie-interceptor in speed and maneuvrability, and take great pride in the fighters capabilities. In their eyes, the E-Wing is a better design than the fabled X-wing (they are right). In the battle against the imperial Admiral Thrawn, especially at Calamari, these new fighters proved their worth.

The E-Wing is slightly shorter than the X-Wing, and its cockpit is located just in front of the center of the fighter. Because of the need to place nearly all drive and lifesupport systems in the rear of the fighter, and the large amount of Proton torpedoes in its front section, the E-Wing looks a bit more stubby than the X-Wings sleek shape. If the pilot has to eject, the top of the cockpit is blow off and the pilot ejects out of the top of the fighter. Directly behind the pilot is a compartment wich holds the astromech droid. Unlike in the X-Wing, the astromech droid is completely located inside of the hull of the fighter, and as such is much less vulnerable. Behind the droid are the complex power systems and hyperdrive of the fighter. Unfortunately these new systems are so complicated that a new kind of astromech droid had to be designed to handle them, and much of the cost of the fighter comes from the new systems and droid. The fighter has only two large wings, but these are much more resillient than the S-Foils of the X-Wing fighter, and there is no time lost deploying the wings for combat. The fighter has two huge ion engines, one under each wing. Two of the laser cannons are mounted on the outside end of the wings, next to the engines, with a third cannon located above the cockpit. Since the fighter is as aerodynamic as a X-Wing, it operates just as well within an atmosphere and that was one reason for the way the fighter was designed.

The fighters laser cannons are individually just as powerful as those on the Y-Wing but since there are three mounts instead of two, the ability to inflict damage is greater. It takes very few shots to destroy a Tie fighter with the laser cannons. The fighter carries more Proton Torpedoes than the Y-Wing carries but only has one launcher with a total of sixteen torpedoes but the launcher is designed to be able to fire two torpedoes at the same time. The Torpedoes are the equivalent of long range missiles in Rifts. These torpedoes are the main weapon normally used against larger ships or ground targets, but can target other fighters if needed.

In many ways, the fighter is as good as the fighters within the Three Galaxies. The fighter is not quite as long ranged as some but still has a very good range and endurance. It carries nearly as many missiles as most of the fighters within the Three Galaxies.

mind you, E-Wing just so happens to be my name: Ewing.