Strix Missile Pod

The answer to the question of 'how many missiles is too much?' the Strix missile pod is a by-product of the project that created the Sahaquiel, who, while not creating the aircraft, instead made a weapon capable of tearing hordes of smaller flyers and craft from the sky in one volley.

Design
Built in containers with row after row of missiles, the Strix is a relatively simple weapon when viewed from the outside. With well over several dozen small missiles loaded into them they are able to be mounted on a number of hardpoints on aircraft or in the case of the Talaria and Sahaquiel, two can be fitted within a single internal missile bay. They are primarliy armed with either high-explosive warheads, flakk warheads or a mixture of the two for use against air targets. To limit both ammo expenditure and as to not overwhelm the pilot with the sheer amount of firepower that might possibly damage himself, they are mainly fired in volleys that use up around a quarter of the box at a time.

The real power, however, lies within the pods themselves. Within each pod are several small cogitator units that link up to the aircraft' own machine-spirit, giving it a boost in it's capabilities. It is this boost that allows the missiles to target up to a dozen enemies per volley and be able to hit them reliably, with the accuracy only going up the more pods are connected. Mainly for use as an air-to-air weapon the Strix can be used against ground targets but it's accuracy is diminished somewhat. This is due to the cogitator-minds penchant of becoming confused with sensor returns from a variety of objects detected on the ground.

The significant issue with such large pods is a large increase in weight and a lack of heavy anti-air firepower. It is for this reason that the Strix is seldomly used alone as a pilot and the maintenance crews would make sure to account for enemy capabilities when assigning weapons. All the Strix missiles in the world might have no effect when the enemy is too heavily armoured to be damaged by them, or they could prove too manoeuvrable for the pilot should he be laden down with half a dozen missile pods slowing his speed considerably.

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