Source: Technical Readout 3025
Mass: 65 tons
Frame: Lockheed/CBM 200
Engine: WAS 195
Armament:
1 Maxell Medium Laser
1 Holly Long Range Missle 20 Rack
4 Maxell Small Lasers
2 Maxell Large Lasers
Manufacturer: Lockheed/CBM Corporation
Communications System: Lockheed/CBM COM-SET 100
Targeting and Tracking System: Lockheed/CBM TarSet 55
Overview:
First built in 2526, the LCF-Rl5 Lucifer medium fighter is well armored and fairly well armed, with enough heat sinks to allow tight maneuvering and prolonged weapons fire. From the start, however, the LCF series was plagued with difficulties. Structural problems forced a recall in 2528 and led to massive alterations of the fighter's Lockheed/CBM frame. When coolant problems traced to defective lasers cropped up a year later, the original Randolph lasers were replaced with Maxell laser systems.
Other problems include the Lucifer's targeting and communications systems, which are sensitive to jarring and to the electromagnetic waves commonly encountered in combat. Even with constant preventive maintenance, the two systems are plagued with minor inaccuracies. The placement of the fighter's armor causes imbalance during dead-stick glide re-entry maneuvers, and the Lucifer also lost its emergency ejection system when its frame was refitted. A Lucifer pilot is strapped into the craft until he lands or crashes, whichever comes first.
Despite the craft's many drawbacks, its ability to sustain prolonged attacks against DropShips in orbit led its backers in the House Steiner military to push for its construction in large numbers. The Lucifer eventually became a prominent part of House Steiner's arsenal.
Capabilities:
The Lucifer's main advantage is the large number of heat sinks it carries, which enable it to sustain concentrated weapons fire and overthrust capacity in tight combat situations. The heat sinks also give it an advantage attacking DropShips in orbit, allowing the Lucifer to take punishment from an enemy DropShip's weapons while moving in close to the larger vessel for the kill.
The fighter is so slow that its pilots have nicknamed it "the Dragger," and an attack force composed of Lucifers is usually accompanied by an escort of faster fighters. Because of the large ammunition supplies they carry, internal explosions are a constant risk with Lucifer fighters, even when not in combat.