Codex: Apollo Heavy Bomber (Patreon)

Manufacturer: W&D Aviation Entered Service: 2125 Classification: Carrier-Based Heavy Bomber Length: 16.1 meters Wingspan: 17.2 meters, deployed Crew: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot/weapons officer, integrated Combat VI 

The A88 Apollo Heavy Strike Bomber entered Systems Alliance Navy service in 2125 as the first human aerospace craft designed specifically to deliver heavy anti-ship ordnance for carrier formations. Developed by W&D Aviation alongside the expansion of Alliance carrier doctrine, the Apollo reflected the Alliance Navy's emerging belief that capital ships should project much of their offensive power through embarked strike craft rather than relying exclusively on direct-fire weapons. 

At 16.1 meters long with a deployed wingspan of 17.2 meters, the Apollo was substantially heavier than contemporary space-superiority fighters without becoming so large that carrier capacity suffered severely. Its broad wings folded upward against the fuselage during storage, allowing Everest-class carriers to embark approximately twenty to thirty aircraft depending on their wider aerospace complement. Later Olympus-class heavy carriers routinely carried forty. 

The Apollo's elongated armored bow housed its two-person cockpit, avionics, targeting systems, and Combat VI. The pilot controlled flight and maneuvering while the co-pilot served primarily as weapons officer, navigation specialist, and electronic-systems operator. During high-intensity attacks, the VI managed defensive systems, calculated torpedo release solutions, monitored incoming fire, and coordinated countermeasures. 

Armament 

The defining feature of the A88 was its three heavy anti-ship torpedoes, mounted beneath the central fuselage in reinforced external housings. 

Original Apollo torpedoes did not employ nuclear or plasma warheads. Instead, they carried extremely powerful high-energy explosive penetrator warheads. Mass-effect assistance reduced effective mass during the terminal approach, allowing the weapon to accelerate aggressively before restoring mass immediately prior to impact. A hardened penetrator section breached armor before a delayed explosive charge detonated within or immediately beneath the damaged plating. 

One torpedo was dangerous. 

Three arriving together were the reason Apollo pilots were rarely ignored by enemy point-defense crews. 

Secondary armament consisted of two 30mm mass accelerators, mounted in dedicated housings along either side of the forward fuselage. Their primary purpose was defense against hostile fighters, drones, and incoming missiles rather than sustained dogfighting. 

The Apollo additionally carried two compact missile pods, normally loaded with short-range interceptor missiles. Alternative loads included anti-radiation weapons and defensive decoys. 

Protection 

Because the Apollo was expected to penetrate point-defense envelopes, its protection emphasized survival against both kinetic and directed-energy fire. 

The bomber's outer skin used heavy ablative armor incorporating composite ceramic layers, concentrated around the cockpit, engines, torpedo mounts, leading edges, and other critical structures. The ceramic layers absorbed and dispersed short-duration thermal loads, while sacrificial outer coatings could char, fracture, or vaporize without immediately compromising the pressure hull beneath. 

Later production Apollos supplemented this armor with a distributed network of Polymerized Lithium Niobocene (PLN) thermal-defense nodes embedded throughout the airframe. 

Rather than covering the bomber in a continuous PLN layer, W&D Aviation installed dozens of small PLN collectors beneath and between the ceramic armor plates. Each node acted as a localized pyroelectric heat sink, absorbing sudden thermal spikes produced by laser point-defense strikes and converting part of that heat directly into electrical energy. 

The recovered charge was routed into local capacitors or dumped into the bomber's electrical and thermal-management network, reducing the amount of heat that penetrated deeper into the airframe. 

The system was particularly effective against the brief, rapidly shifting laser pulses typical of point-defense weapons. A beam striking one section of the bomber could heat and consume the outer ablative coating while the underlying PLN nodes absorbed part of the remaining thermal surge before it reached fuel lines, electronics, or structural members. 

PLN did not make the Apollo immune to directed-energy weapons. Repeated strikes against the same location could saturate the collectors, overwhelm the ceramic layer, and eventually burn through the armor. 

Its purpose was more practical: keep the bomber alive for several additional seconds during the final attack run. 

A Cyclonic Barrier System provided protection against kinetic projectiles, fragmentation, and autocannon fire. Though incapable of making the bomber invulnerable, the combination significantly increased the likelihood that an Apollo could survive the final approach long enough to release its weapons. 

Carrier Doctrine 

Apollo formations normally operated under fighter escort to suppressed hostile interceptors while bomber wings approached from multiple vectors. The bomber was never particularly agile compared with a dedicated fighter, and Alliance doctrine strongly discouraged Apollo crews from attempting to prove otherwise. 

Its job was to reach firing distance, release three heavy torpedoes, and leave. 

Later Variants 

The introduction of the Olympus-class heavy carrier and its PROMETHEUS Plasma Ordnance Foundry produced an extensively modified Apollo variant capable of carrying PHT-9 Phaethon Heavy Plasma Torpedoes. Strengthened pylons, improved thermal management, revised containment interfaces, and upgraded targeting systems were required, but the underlying airframe remained recognizable. 

The original A88 had been built to place heavy explosives against enemy warships. 

Its descendants merely changed what was inside the torpedo.