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(HDY) Scythe Interceptor

When HDY's main fighter designer Jonathan Riedfield suggested a replacement design for the aging Scalpel Interceptor, rumors are the first reaction of his superior was a snort as he sent a stream of coffee flying across the room in surprise, and calling Riedfield a mad man. The Scalpel was Hades Driveyards' most sucessful fighter, and had become a true legend amongst fighter pilots on both sides of the Endurance War and the Earth-Ori conflict. Unmatched in peformance even by most modern day fighters, the small, fragile ship had become a symbol of HDY. Riedfiled's suggestion of creating a sucessor to the old champion seemed like an impossible feat. Yet, Riedfield did not give up on his idea, and started working on the design in his free time. His aim was to create a ship with similar maneuverability and speed, but with improved operation range and weapon loadout. Over the course of several years, his "dreamfighter" slowly came together, and piece by piece, the new ship named the Scythe was born.

Five years after he first suggested the project, Riedfield met again with his superior, and presented his entire work to the man. On studying the blueprints, he hesitatingly became more and more convinced that the Scythe would become HDY's new carrier-based Interceptor, and that it would be more than capable of upholding the legacy of its predecessor. The fighter was ordered for production after intense simulation runs, without even producing a prototype in advance. With a tight budget due to the AI crisis (during which the entire fleet of advanced Hades warships came under the control of a sentient network of computers and had to be destroyed) and little time, the Scythe became an "all-in project". This meant that, if the craft would not sell well, the company could not afford new projects. HDY would fall behind even more on its larger compeditpors at ACI and BSY, which would in the end lead to the "death" of the company.

When the Scythe was revealed at the Armed Forces Expo the same year however, everything went according to plan. Soon, over one thousand orders for the fighter were submitted, leading to the most profitable day in the history of HDY.

The Scythe nowadays serves as the main fighter of the HDY SDF, and it is famous amongst pilots for its speed and firepower, and amongst engineers for its ease of maintenance and resilience. Many smaller defense contractor arond two different solar systems rely on the Scythe for escort, combat and reconaissance. Estimates by independent engineering teams promise that the hull of the Scythe is the most resilient fighter ever produced, and it might remain in service for almost fifty more years before a major hull retrofit would be inevitable.

Hades Driveyards.
Warships since 2016.