Two birds moved on their own through deep interstellar space, they were beyond visual range to each other, except when one or the other very briefly fired the main engines. Each had three main engines, and in spite of what you are thinking, they weren't Vipers, produced in the same factory, true, but not Vipers, they were Asps, each had a crew of two side by side a gunner, and a pilot. The reason for three engines was to power the main laser cannon, two of them, the third engine powered either the electronic warfare suite, or the high energy spacial distortion drive. But any of the three could power, a single laser cannon or the high energy spacial distortion drive. These were fighters, not interceptors. The difference being that they were more massive, and used lower thrust, comparatively speaking engines. The one in the lead, had its main sensor array aimed forward, the other was facing back the way they came. In side the crew of two, which was always a young man, and a young woman whom could do each other's job perfectly well were the products of a very protracted war in which both sides were seeing which would run out first. In the case of these, it was people. In the cockpit the lady in question had rolled back her seat, and established her privacy curtain, and was giving herself a very needed sponge bath. To do the sponge bath gravity had to be rotated, such that the back bulkhead, became the floor. Neither felt anything for the other, and the reason was in the needle going into their thigh. This brought not only water into their bodies, nutrition as well. Yes, there was solid food, for emergencies, and bags of water, was one hundred percent recycling.
The interstellar drive had three modes in which to operate, a low energy mode, a medium energy mode, and a jump mode. The low energy mode was good for sublight tooling around an inner star system, the medium took fuel to burn, and could handle deep interstellar space voyages, with ease, then there, the jump. The jump wasn't instantaneous, no body knew for sure how long it would last, but always was at least three centons. Unlike another star spanning civilization, instead of using coils, they used rods to generate the distortion. Plus at least on this model twin pulse generators per engine. Unlike the lesser Viper, with one each.
The interstellar drive had three modes in which to operate, a low energy mode, a medium energy mode, and a jump mode. The low energy mode was good for sublight tooling around an inner star system, the medium took fuel to burn, and could handle deep interstellar space voyages, with ease, then there, the jump. The jump wasn't instantaneous, no body knew for sure how long it would last, but always was at least three centons. Unlike another star spanning civilization, instead of using coils, they used rods to generate the distortion. Plus at least on this model twin pulse generators per engine. Unlike the lesser Viper, with one each.
