Rage Warden: Overview

The fastest aircraft ever created, capable of outrunning ICBMs and going from 0 to beyond escape velocity within a handful of seconds. Acting as a rapid response area control system, the Rage Warden is designed to enter enemy airspace and carry out repeated mass destruction bombardment runs at such speeds that interception of any kind is physically impossible.
One of the few unclassified systems in the Rage Warden is the “momentum cancellation” system, which allows it to make pinpoint turns in any direction at speeds of up to Mach >30 without slowing down.

Alright, I know damn well that you probably read the table of contents for this manual and immediately skipped to this section first. You’re finally going to be able to read up on the elusive Rage Warden, that mythical thing you all talked about in tech school after some OPSEC violating training instructor made an offhand comment about its existence.
Suddenly, all the people in your class “knew a guy” that worked on the Rage Warden program, worked near it, or was part of a Rage Warden’s crew.

Good news first; yes, they do exist.
Bad news second; I’m not gonna tell you as much as you’d like.

To begin, we needed an answer to the question of how we’d maintain control over a large area using some form of aircraft. We don’t have aircraft carriers (yet) so our best bet would be to stage an airfield a few hundred kilometers away from the theater of operations. In the event that enemy forces entered an engagement zone, we could dispatch Dawn Mace gunships to handle ground-based targets and Dusk Sword fighters to take on any airborne threats.
With their engines redlining, they could reach the area in a matter of minutes starting from when the first detection occurs.

Alternatively, we could set up a sensor net in the area and then have a few drone platforms or static emplacements bombard the area with artillery or missiles upon any hits by our DFD systems. Does that work at controlling an area? Sure.
Does that also cause us to earn the ire of every single nation when our artillery completely vaporizes some kid that was pulling his stuffed animals along the road in a wagon? More than likely, so we’re gonna not do that.
_{That’s not how DFD works. – Dr. Baddarick}

Both of those options would be costly in their own ways, and as much as the FOB builders in the Mechanical Legion would enjoy setting up air bases over and over again, we wanted something more flexible.
A few of us got together and argued for about three weeks every day until we settled on a concept to test out. What we needed was an aircraft that could loiter in contested airspace for extended periods of time, and then blow the absolute fuck out of anything that crossed into its defined area of control. At most we had a few scribbles on paper and notebooks full of incomprehensible notes, but it’d have to do.

All of that in hand, we headed over to Cormorant Works to see what they thought of the concept’s feasibility.

Given that anyone reading this is likely new-ish to GDS, let me explain something.
Cormorant Works is a special operations division within the Science Legion that’s comprised of engineers from the Science Legion, Mechanical Legion, and a select few experts from the Aeronautical Legion. We have aerospace engineers and researchers in the Science and Mechanical legions, but Cormorant Works is where the really absurd shit is undertaken.

Here’s how it goes every time; we present a conventionally impossible idea, hand them a blank check, and then leave them alone for a few months. We check back in, and usually find they’ve rewritten our understanding of how aerospace engineering and physics works.

To illustrate this further, think of how heat buildup occurs at high speeds. Once an aircraft hits a certain speed the outside of the hull/fuselage begins to heat up from air friction, and past a certain Mach point the aircraft’s skin will begin to corrode from the strain. This was one of the issues we had to contend with when finding a way to allow our aircraft to reach high hypersonic speeds without being destroyed or killing the crew. Integrating Gray Conduits into the aircraft could eliminate the concerns for both heat buildup and G-force dangers, but relying on that alone is a good way to get people killed. That also limited the full capabilities of our aircraft to being only within the Celestial Throne or requiring that they have topped off Chaff reservoirs to draw from.

To solve this, we went to Cormorant Works and tasked them with engineering a version of Zephatun and Maelite that could handle the heat issue. We’d work on the G-force problem after that was solved.
I come back a month later for the usual update meeting on their progress and find them all kicked back around a woodburning stove, smoking and bullshitting without a care in the world. I ask how progress on the ablative armor materials is going and they just casually mention it was solved two weeks after we’d handed them the project. On top of that, because they’re so nice, they also improved the stealth capabilities of the material while they were at it.
I’ve asked Acris how the hell that’s possible, and they just summed it up as “Everyone has an area where they intrinsically ‘get it’. For some people, that’s making shoes or planting crops. For others, it’s making aircraft do things they shouldn’t be capable of.”

Keep all of that in mind, because after presenting the aircraft’s concept to them, the entirety of Cormorant Works were totally silent. I was standing at the front of the briefing room looking like a slack jawed dumbass while I waited for any kind of response, but they weren’t exactly forthcoming with it. Eventually their lead told me “Maybe, give us a few days and we’ll let you know.”
At that point Acris and I were both in a state of shock, as we’d never seen them be anything less than absolutely confident no matter what we threw their way. Both of us left knowing that the entire project was likely going to be called off due to how unfeasible it was, so we went back to our teams to start over.

Three days later, I got a message from the head of Cormorant Works that said “ You lobbed a real head scratcher into our laps, so we’ll need a little longer than usual. Cover for us when the invoices reach Iza’s desk, and we’ll take care of the rest. I’ll give you a heads up when it’s ready for you all to take a gander at. ”
And that’s the last I heard from them for close to a year. The only thing that came out of Cormorant Works for that time were invoices for materials and the occasional report of massive explosions from the Security legionnaires posted at their facility. One time, Sonny got a request for the Mechanical Legion to head out there and scrap a destroyed airframe we’d never seen before, with the note “Found the current limit.”

The test pilots I had stationed with them also weren’t reporting back to me, but that was typical. Once they undertook a project at that facility, we all knew it was best to simply let them be and wait till they were the ones to reach out.
Around 244 days after starting, we were told to grab all the primary officers and head over to check out what they’d come up with. To say that I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see is putting it lightly, because I was expecting an area control aircraft.
It fulfilled that purpose, true.
And then they did… whatever the fuck it is that they did. I don’t understand it to this day, in fact NONE of us understand how the majority of it works.
_{Don’t speak on my behalf, after a few weeks of studying their documentation with Sonny it sort of makes sense. – Dr. Baddarick}

We were all gathered into their conference room to go over the specifications and proposed design of what they were calling the ACD-1 “Rage Warden”. The design featured an entire battleship’s worth of armaments, a powerplant that could keep it in the sky for weeks on end, and a highly modified type of armor that could handle heat buildup beyond anything you’d see in orbital reentry speeds.
When they offhandedly mentioned that it could go past Mach 30 without killing the crew or blowing up, Acris and Sonny were incredulous about the possibility as we didn’t have engines capable of such a thing.
Which was entirely true, therefore Cormorant Works had decided to go ahead and design those engines from scratch.

With a crew of 5, facilities onboard for the crew, an aerial loitering capability of weeks, the ability to respond anywhere in the world in a manner of minutes, and enough munitions to level a mid sized country, it was what we’d hoped for and more. The damn thing was even capable of maintaining detection related stealth while the engines were redlined, just how the fuckdid they manage that one? You’d hear it for sure, but there was nothing you’d be able to do to stop it by then. I can’t speak on the countermeasures for obvious reasons, but safe to say we have no idea if there’s anything even capable of shooting it down, even if we include AA systems we currently field.
From front to back, the design was nothing short of innovations on top of innovations.

And then, they talked about the one and only batshit insane system I’m allowed to disclose.

The presenter, seemingly offhandedly, mentioned “…and we’re quite proud of the momentum cancellation system. As for-“
At that point Acris held up a hand and told them to, in no uncertain terms, repeat that last part.
“Oh, you mean the momentum cancellation system?”
Oh? Oh, that thing? That small goddamn thing they’d glossed over like they were describing the cupholders?

Let me be clear when I say, I haven't the damndest clue how this system even works. They proceeded to go into depth about how it operated, and about 99% of the room's eyes glazed over due to having an aneurysm trying to comprehend the math. At one point I saw Iza looking like a kid that was taken to the front of the class and told to solve an equation the length of a locomotive, sheer goddamn bewilderment. To this day it is the only time I have seen Acris completely dumbfounded, sitting there without the slightest insight into how something ticks.
_{I wasn’t “dumbfounded” you twat, I was trying to work out the math in my head as they talked. – Dr. Baddarick.}

With that out of the way, "What the actual hell" is all I can say for this bundle of what I can only describe as illogical mathematics. None of it make sense, none of it should work, yet we've got a 1500 page long whitepaper describing why it does.

When they later did a showcase to the Science Legion, we nearly had to call in some Security Legion agents after the physicists nearly started a riot over what they were seeing. There were a lot of “bullshit” allegations and shouts of “That goes against the principle of-“ arguments thrown around until they saw it perform during a live demonstration.
But I think that only made them even more upset.

The gist of the momentum cancellation system is you can take a Rage Warden that's traveling at high-hypersonic speeds, such as >Mach 10 and then literally turn it on a dime in any direction you want.

Example, let’s say a Rage Warden is in the midst of a dangerously low bombing run and finds itself about to hit a mountain going >Mach 20. The pilot can activate this system and immediately shoot upwards at a 90-degree angle straight into the sky, with the crew barely feeling so much as a tug on their guts.

Unfortunately, it's a one-time use kind of system whereby the entire cancellation system is destroyed in the process of operation, which isn't surprising given the momentum is literally "blown out" of the aircraft. But it was designed to be somehow modular, so it’s possible to bring it back to base and swap in a replacement.

Back to the story.
Once the presenter was done frying out skulls with… that… he asked if we had any questions.
Iza asked when the first prototype would be ready.
The head of Cormorant Works then drops the line, “Oh, sorry, that wasn’t a proposed design. It’s already done, want to go see it?”

244 days.
In that span of time they’d finished the project in its entirety. They created new powerplants, new engines, new armor compositions, new armament methods, new electronic systems, new flight controls, new safety measures, new navigation equipment, a fucking momentum cancellation system, and had successfully built a fully operable Rage Warden.
244 days.

The real fun started when we go down to the hangar to look at it.
In person, a Rage Warden is way larger than you’d imagine. It sits in the Ceres class, so right below the heaviest weight class we have for our aircraft but not quite crossing over that threshold. Of course I had absolutely zero time to take this in, much less kick the damn tires, before Iza ordered me to give it a test flight and give my impressions.
Woman, no.
I was looking at an aircraft that defied my understanding of how something should fly, did all kinds of whack shit crazy nonsense, and could hit speeds that I’d only get if I’d ratcheted myself onto an ICBM. You can’t just hop into the pilot’s seat of that thing, turn the keys, and take it for a “test drive” like it’s a bicycle with the training wheels still bolted on.

As such, I muttered “Fine, sure” and walked off to go get a flight suit on.
There’s two aspects to consider when taking an aircraft for a test flight. The first is that if the design is solid, then you get to enjoy flying top secret tech at speeds you never thought possible. The second is that if the design sucks, then there’s a good chance it’s going to quickly no longer be your problem. Unfortunately, the safety measures and escape systems of a Rage Warden are top of the line, so if the worst would happen then my ejection seat would gracefully land in a nearby field, the seatbelts holding me in place as Cormorant Works makes their way over to beat the shit out of me.

After getting suited up and going over the controls with a few of the test pilots I’d assigned to the project, I found that they’d mostly copied over the controls of a Dusk Sword. Save for all the new (highly classified) options, and the incredibly distinct “Momentum Cancellation” button on the dashboard, it was far easier than I thought it’d be. Since we didn’t need any other crew members besides myself and the two test pilots, it didn’t take long to get it rolling out of the hangar.
To summarize the test flight, once I’d gotten it off the ground and become accustomed to the highly irregular size:

· Acceleration is smooth, even if you abruptly crank the throttle to max.

· Hitting Mach >30 feels the same as cruising at Mach 1, with manageable heat buildup.

· Even without the cancellation system, you can take far tighter turns than you’d expect for an aircraft that large.

· The navigation system says everything I need it to, without being cluttered or obstructive.

· After a quick call to the Intelligence Legion to ensure we had coverage, we managed to perform a complete trip around the planet at the aircraft’s operational ceiling, within a matter of such and such minutes that I’m not going to disclose.

· The momentum cancellation system worked flawlessly, as we tested it by turning the aircraft 180 degrees in 0.2 seconds. This also succeeded in nearly getting all of us killed because we were hauling ass at Mach 25 and my brain couldn’t comprehend the change in direction, so we went full on lawn dart for a few ass clenching seconds. The fabric from my drawers fused to my skin in a manner similar to contact welding.

Seemingly satisfied, after watching me land and throw up, Iza authorized the production of two more Rage Wardens. To date they’re scarcely used in any of our defense contracts, but when they are it’s usually a good way to make the other side immediately back off. Armored divisions and hordes of infantry tend to turn around the moment they hear the sound of an aircraft breaking Mach 30 over their heads.

One last note; there’s actually a fourth Rage Warden.
It was built without weapons, with far lighter armor, and the engines have been enhanced to a degree a normal Rage Warden can only dream of.

That one is used by Third Opinion, and is the core reason they can claim an ETA of three hours or less no matter the location.

-FrW Azan Kinrados