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The Longsword-class Fighters, or sometimes referred to as single ships, are the fighter craft and escorts of the UNSC Fleet. This article will present the Longsword fighter from many angles as a kind of walking tour of the vehicle.
The first series of pictures demonstrates the size difference between the Fighter/Bomber and the more commonly encountered UNSC Dropship, the Pelican.
Next is the exterior of the Longsword vehicle. Aft of the cabin viewports is an entry hatch on either side. The main entry ramp is boarded facing the craft. A twin-opening bomb bay door can be seen in the bottom middle of the Longsword. The two dark areas halfway along the bottom of the engine nacelles may be landing gear hatches.
The final set of images is of the Longsword's interior. From the entry ramp, there is a control panel to the right and a ramp leading to the main level to the left:
The control panel may serve various functions, from operating the entry ramp, to controlling atmosphere and artificial gravity:
Once up the ramp, there is a hatchway facing aft that would lead around to the side hatches and provide access to the bomb bay and related engineering/maintenance areas:
From this hatchway, turn around facing the front of the vehicle and you will see your lower entry ramp on the right and a corridor on the left leading to the cabin:
Moving towards the cabin, the left of the corridor contains two small cubicle-shaped areas. These may be storage or lavatory facilities:
Inside the cabin, there are two control consoles. The pilot's position is the right-side console. To the pilot's left is the system ops specialist. The station can double as a pilot's controls as well. There are two standing consoles to the right and left of the cabin's hatchway. Four status monitors are just forward of the standing consoles:
This is the view from the pilot's console. The viewports provide a real view of the environment outside the vehicle and the central viewscreen can either do the same or display tactical or emergency information as well:
This is the perspective from the viewscreen looking aft. The flight officers have overhead controls as well as the flight stick and forward consoles:
Finally, a view inward at the cockpit as seen from outside the Longsword:
The following picture contains callouts to the various control consoles and readouts for the Longsword. The numbers correspond to the panels listed below:
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[Notes: The screencaps are from the SparkEdit map viewer. The green boxes around the comparison shots are the outer boundaries of the 3D models...just ignore them. The thrust seen on the Longsword and Pelican) are a physicality in terms of the model mesh. In-game, they'd be more transparent and moving. The canopies of both ships have a default texture on them...both would be transparent during game play. Some graphics textures...the starboard aft window, the pilot's chair top and some controls are missing graphics. It's just the way they look in the editor.]
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