Omni Scale Ymatrian Dirk Fighters MGL

The Omega Octant is east of the Alpha Octant empires seen in the Star Fleet Universe (beyond the Inter-Stellar Concordium), on the other side of a galactic void. That void is a dead zone where life is impossible and ships fall apart, marking a separation between Octants. The Ymatrian Horde was comprised of a ferociously warlike species resembling large, hairless bears with armor-like bones protecting their heads and torsos. Prior to their expansion into space, their society was divided into a number of military dictatorships, with brutal wars between clans or nations being frequently waged. Indeed, rather than reining in these excesses, the development of weapons of mass destruction led them to escalate the carnage, leaving large portions of their home world uninhabitable.

The arrival of the Kyrihn, a friendly and peaceful people, changed the course of Ymatrian history. Treated as gods from the skies by the highly superstitious Ymatrians -- for a time, at least -- the Kyrihn took it upon themselves to “save” this wrecked planet. In this, they made a fatal error: once the Ymatrians reverse-engineered samples of advanced Kyrihn technology, they built their first crude starships and seized the orbiting Kyrihn space station. From there, the Ymatrians assembled a war fleet to invade and conquer the Kyrihn home world, on which they proceeded to unleash a full-scale xenocide upon its native inhabitants. 

Now united as an empire for the first time, the Ymatrians expanded into nearby space, searching for a new and worthy foe to fight. They found one in the robotic Drex Unity, which was located on the far side of the Wasteland (a virtually empty, yet crossable, region of space). During the Second Cycle, their brief yet savage invasion almost reached as far as the Drexari home colonies, before the Drex were able to surround and defeat the Ymatrian armada. With the Ymatrian worlds left vulnerable by their over-commitment of resources into the invasion, the Drex were able to launch a decisive counter-invasion across the Wasteland. Rather than attempt to hold Ymatrian space, and reasoning that nothing else would stem the Ymatrian thirst for battle, the Drex proceeded to bomb the Ymatrian worlds until no structure was left standing, before withdrawing back to Drex space. For their part, the surviving Ymatrians took this as a sign of displeasure from the gods for their warring ways and misuse of technology, and became nomadic wanderers. And so the survivors remained... until their home world was uncovered by the Paravians of Omega in the Seventh Cycle.

During their brief time as a space-faring empire, the Ymatrians built warships designed for one purpose: to close with an enemy ship and eviscerate it at short range. Thus, their acquired mastery of antiproton technology (an unwitting courtesy of the Kyrihn) led them to develop antiproton phasers, antiproton beams, and the antiproton lance. These weapons would later be salvaged by the Worb Technocracy, the Zosman Marauders, and the Omega-Paravians. However, while their forward-facing firepower was highly dangerous, their low average numbers of phasers left them relatively vulnerable on the flanks. In addition, Ymatrian warships had no labs, as they struck first and analyzed the ashes later.

The first - and last - fighter type to be deployed by the Ymatrians during their brief time as an independent star-faring species, the Dirk embodied both the exceedingly warlike nature and their excessive haste in launching their fateful invasion of the Drex Unity. Built after capturing samples of Drex X1 fighters in the run-up to the invasion proper, the Dirk was heavily over-gunned; it was armed with a single antiproton phaser-3 and a pair of antiproton beams. The fighter is subject to shock effects if it fires an anti-proton beam too soon after firing the first one. Given the lack of restraint possessed by its pilots, this proved an all-too-common occurrence, which only hastened their defeat when confronting their Drex counterparts. A series of conjectural fighters were later designed by the Drex battle computers for use in the simulators, based on the premise that the Ymatrians might have succeeded at least in establishing a stalemate, enabling something akin to a normal development path as seen in other Omega empires. While the Ymatrians aimed to deploy a "standard" squadron of 10 fighters, this sprue contains a dozen Dirk fighters: enough to cover the "short squadron" fielded by the hastily deployed Broadsword strike carrier, plus a pair of “casual” fighters deployed from the Battleaxe battlecruiser.     

This sprue of fighters is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.