Earth Alliance SAG-10 Eagle Heavy Assault Fighter Class History During the Dilgar War, Earthforce Officers were impressed with the firepower of the Drazi Sky Serpent Super Heavy Fighter. After the war was over, Earthforce negotiated off and on for over ten years and finally purchased a Drazi Strikehawk Battle Carrier and two Drazi Sky Serpent Super Heavy Fighter's for an exorbanant price in 2245. The Drazi delayed delivery upon the start of the Earth-Minbari War a few weeks later, so as to not appear to be 'helping' the Earth Alliance and draw the wrath of the enraged Minbari Federation. When the Drazi deliverd the ship, fighters and spare parts to the Proxima Centauri Shipyards after the war's end they had removed the weapons as they were still not convinced of the Minbari surrender. The Drazi Strikehawk was re-christened the EAS Condor and fitted with Standard Particle Beam's and Particle Cannons in the same mounts that had carried them for the Drazi. Since Earthforce does not use the Particle Blaster in an official capacity, Medium Lasers were used in place of the Particle Blasters on the EAS Condor. The Drazi C3I systems proved incompatible with the Earthforce systems, so Earthforce C3I systems were subsititued for the ship and operational super heavy fighter delaying the program for six months. One of the Sky Serpents was taken to an Earthforce R&D lab for anaylsis. The other was christened the Eagle Mark Zero Super Heavy Fighter and was fitted with two Uni-Pulse cannons and a Particle Cannon in place of the Particle Blaster. The program was delayed again for months, when it was found that the power systems on the Eagle were not up to the task of powering the Particle Cannon and it was replaced with the Lt. Particle Cannon. The Lt. Particle Cannon was not satisfactory either as the damage was spread widely across the target and subsquently it did less damage to smaller ships because of the poor fire control. The Earthforce designed and built Eagle Mark I attempted to rectify this problem by using the Medium Pulse Cannon. The fire control was improved, but the range suffered in comparison to the Lt. Particle Cannon. During the Eagle Super Heavy fighter Mark I development cycle the first of three Hecate Testbed Cruisers was launched as a Medium Carrier design that would also carry the Eagle Super Heavy Fighter. Weapon Emplacement 1 was replaced by a catapult for the SHF. Weapon Emplacements 2 and 3 were fitted with Medium Pulse Cannons. Weapon Emplacements 4 and 5 were replaced by SPB's and 6 and 7 were replaced by Medium Pulse Cannons. Behind the Medium Pulse Cannons, two 6 box hangers were added to the structure of the ship. After a fierce battle in the EA Senate Appropriations Committee the program was continued. The Eagle Mark II was built with a new weapon that had been modeled after an expensive Twin Array purchased from the Centauri. The Paired Particle Beam consists of two Standard Particle Beams in a housing similiar to the Centauri twin Array, but both shots fired at the same time very close together. The Paired Particle Beam proved to be very short ranged and unreliable, firing correctly only one-third of the time. (When firing the PPB roll 1d6. On 1-2 roll 1d10 damage and on 3-6 roll the full 2d10 damage. The PPB always rolls to hit one location.) In time it was felt that the reliability problems could be fixed and the damage increased, but Senators opposed to the Eagle program were gathering momentum again. The cost-overruns, expensive foreign technology purchases and the frequent technical delays were catching up the Eagle program. The fourth and final Super Heavy Fighter built was the Eagle Mark III which used an Interceptor Mark I along with the new prototype Gatling Pulse Cannon. The program designers tried to turn the Eagle Super Heavy Fighter into a dual role fighter superiority platform with anti-ship capability. Unfortunately the competing Badger and Thunderbolt prototype designs doomed the Eagle. The Badger Long-Range Heavy Fighter carried four less missiles, but did so at less than half the cost per fighter. The Thunder Bolt Assault Fighter was to mount the Gatling Pulse Cannon as well and would also carry missiles for less than half the cost of the Eagle Super Heavy Fighter. One final attempt was made to save the program, but in the resultant wargame the Eagle was the first fighter targetted and was 'destroyed' before doing the same damage that two Badgers or Thunderbolts could be theorized to do. The Eagle Super Heavy Fighter development program was scrapped and the ships and fighters were mothballed in Jupiter orbit. They were re-activated by Loyalist forces during the Earth Civil War. During the final battles in the Earth system all four Eagle Super Heavy fighters, the EAS Condor and one of the Hecate Medium Carriers were destroyed at the jump gate near Io by Rebel forces sent by Captain Sheridan. The other two Hecate Medium Carriers were converted to the Hyperion Eta class and are still serving in Earthforce. (Note: These classes were suggested by Steve "Kizavexis" Austin.) XSAG-10Y Eagle Mk 0 SAG-10A Eagle SAG-10B Eagle SAG-10C Eagle EAS Condor Class Strike Carrier (Unique) Hectate Medium Carrier (Zeta Model)