SA-135 WASP:

CLASSIFICATION: Drone Fighter
LENGTH: 5 metres
TONNAGE: 7.5 tonnes
MANOEUVERABILITY: Class A+
CREW: 0
POWER SOURCE: 2 Fusion Batteries - 500 Terrawatts
DURATION: 2 hours
ACCELERATION: 5 km/s2
WEAPONS: 1 Micro Universal Weapons Bank
DEFENCES: Low-power EM Shielding System - 5cm Carbon Fibre Armour - ETS-LITE Stealth System

The Wasp was developed to act as a swarm attack system. They are launched en masse to take on both enemy fighters and capital ships. They are the ultimate in customizable military hardware.

They have one Universal Weapons Bank, which can mount any of the weapons which the SA-128S Phantom and SA-128ES Spectre fighters as well as an impressive set of minature versions of other capital ship weapons. It can also load an extra payload to increase the damage done by kamikaze attacks.

They are usually conrolled remotely by 'pilots' on board their parent ship. These pilots use the same mixture of hand control and mind-machine interface as on the Phantom series fighters to control entire flights of drones. This man-machine interface, however the interface becomes much stronger because the intensity of controlling a whole flight. The drones also carry a very highly developed computer system which allows them to function without any human controlling them.

They receive most of their power from the MPX system with their pilot commands, but can draw their own power from their fusion batteries if their parent ship needs the extra power. They have very minimal defences ecause they are easily replacable, they only have a thin layer of carbon fibre to protect the delicate internal components from micro-meteorite impacts.

They can carry either an optional fuel tank, a simple dumbfire missile or an additional payload for kamikaze missions. It is inserted just before each Wasp is launched. This allows the Wasps to be sent out in mission specific task groups, making them a much more powerful tool.

Because they are so cheap and easy to produce, durring battle their carriers continually build and launch new ones. At the end of a battle, those which are still functional automatically line up to be gathered and repaired by their parent ship. Those which are too damaged to operate, or that are so damaged that it wouldn't be efficient to repair simply move to the nearest piece of debris and wait to be reprocessed.

Though they are usually just carried by Legion class Supercarriers, other Operation Phoenix ships can mount specialized pods along their hulls which contain all required production facilities, cargo space, debris collection/processing equipment, pilot facilities and all other neccesary equipment.

Pictured is a Wasp with a particle beam weapon attatched.