William'sXASTER X

Dossier

The X is the smallest ship William's has ever drawn — and the most stubborn. Five point eight metres of hull, four S1 guns and not a centimetre to spare.

Its X-shaped planform gives it away from a distance: two sculpted blade-arms reach forward past the nose, each carrying a pair of S1 weapons half-buried in an H-section cradle. Between them sits the cockpit capsule; behind it, a single circular sixteen-petal engine inside its glow ring.

There is no ladder. The canopy swings 125 degrees aft on its spine hinge; two four-stage telescopic booms lift the seat, carry it forward over the nose and lower it to chair height in front of the radome. You sit down without climbing, and the seat returns you to the controls in 8.6 seconds. The canopy closes itself.

On the ground, the blade-arms fold 95 degrees on their exposed hinges and the X shrinks to 5.46 m across. It parks where nothing else fits.

House and pattern

The XASTER line is a William's pattern: a lineage of drawings that began in the shipyards of Solmera and entered the MMU (Matriz de Manufactura Unificada) during the Éxodo. The Matrix builds every X on its standard chassis; William's homologates it — signs it and answers for it. That is why its guns, missiles and spares are the ones everyone else uses, and why the Zenith and the Nadir fly the same X, each in its own paint. What makes it a William's is the line.

Strengths

• Boarding by seat: from the ground to the controls in 8.6 s — no ladder, no ground crew.
• Four S1 guns: standard fit of four Lanza laser repeaters in twin cradles.
• Folds to 5.46 m: the blade-arms fold 95° for tight bays, holds and outposts.
• Missiles: two S1 missiles per salvo, eight in reserve, from a revolver launcher in two belly bays.
• A true XASTER: the same line plan, horseshoe dashboard and standard MMU weapon mounts as the rest of the family.

Role in the fleet

The common fleet of Aurin is built around transport — the Tortuga-class and its variants — with the Pathfinders' Starhopper for exploration and an Aura-class corvette that no one has finished rebuilding. Among the Tortuga's variants, the closest thing to a fighter is the “Espolón”, a light-assault Tortuga. The XASTER line covers the ground the Tortugas cannot: fighters and patrol ships.

The X is its escort: the ship that flies beside a loaded Tortuga across the Cementerio de Aura, and the kind of escort an Aura-class corvette would keep at its side. It carries no cargo and does not explore; that is the work of the Tortuga and the Starhopper.

Within the family

The X opens the XASTER ladder. Barely more than half the length of the S (7.14 m against 12.48 m overall) and a third of its combat mass (5.0 t against 15.0 t), it swaps the S's two wing-mounted S2 guns for four S1s and gives up the walk-on wing for its boarding seat. The rest of the family grows from the S; the X is the snub that keeps up with all of them.