Welcome to the first issue of “Fighters and Freighters” your guide to some of the most interesting pieces of spaceship porn, history, and lore.

Fortunes Favor By: BluesAddiction

For our first issue we will be covering a Fighter! Let us take a look at one of the galaxy’s most sought after and storied ships. I am, of course, talking about the Zneb Sedecrem Corporation’s Uokayabush S54, or as it is more commonly known, “The Fortunes Favor”. My good *cough* “friend” stampcat was kind enough to arrange a meeting with me to take a few photos and allow us to get a first-hand look at this amazing piece of Starship History.

The history and manufacture of this ship is important for several reasons. For those who did not pay attention in flight history here is a short recap.

During the cycle 3850 a group of Gek Students at the Ivory Tower of Latisphere IV were studying the application of large quantities of Gravitino on various natural and unnatural substances. They found that with enough application, Emiril could indeed be combined with the standard Gold/Titanium used in most galactic structures.

This alloy, termed “Emrigold”, while lacking an original title, was a breakthrough. Significantly less or even no titanium was needed to maintain Standard Guide Regulations for Structural Integrity and, depending on the ratio, could reduce weight by almost half. This lightweight, versatile alloy quickly became the standard for quality in spacecraft. Ship companies mass produced cheap titanium frames and “dipped” the frames in Emrigold, creating incredibly light, safe, and inexpensive spacecraft for

several thousand cycles until the Gravitino Crash of 6565. (See also Grand Council of 6565)

Due to the increased use of Gravitino in virtually all scaled manufacturing the amount of Gravitino required to produce Emrigold not only became increasingly cost prohibitive but was seen as one of many practices that jeopardized what we now know as Galactic Gravitino Supply (GGS). As a result, the production of Emrigold was systematically outlawed and eventually suffered a Galaxy-wide ban in the cycle 6981. Now, back to the ship.

In 6986 the Zneb Sedecrem Ship Corporation decided to use its remaining stockpiles of Emrigold on a final “Zneb Luxury Elite Fighter Class” model based on their incredibly successful Zneb Fighter Class and Elite Fighter Class models which are still in production today. Named after it’s designers Mino Uokaya and Jimmy Bush the “Uokayabush S54” was marketed to be the final farewell to Zneb Sedecrem’s Emrigold production line. It was to be built of Solid State Emrigold (all integral structure is pure Emrigold, no use of Titanium is employed), which at this point in History made the craft available only to those who could afford the (literally) astronomical price-tag. Thus, it became widely derided as “The Fortunes Favor”. Only ten-thousand S54s were produced and required full pre-purchase before manufacture.

Specs:

Model: Zneb Sedecrem Uokayabush S54 “Fortunes Favor”

Class: Zneb Luxury Elite Fighter

Frame: Solid State Emrigold

Core: Zneb Quantum Dual Core/Single Turbine S54

Cockpit: Zneb Elite Fighter IV (All Cockpits for this model are Customized)

Intake: Zneb Performance AT. 2600/ AT. 7200 Classic Manifold

Sound System: Zneb Sedecrem Proprietary Transcendence Audio

Design:

Lead designers Mino Uokaya and Jimmy Bush collaborated on the S54 with two clear design philosophies. Mino is stated as saying, “I want to design (a ship) that captures all the classic elements of Zneb (design) in a timeless, elegant fighter.’ Few would argue he succeeded, as the S54 is often considered one of the touchstones of Zneb design. From its Elite Fighter Class frame to the trademark Zneb Performance Series Intake on the bonnet to the unpainted, polished, pure alloy finish, it all says Zneb.

Jimmy Bush is often the subject of jokes in collector’s circles as his main contribution to the design was the inclusion of 7 wings on the craft. Often maligned for lacking any real functionality and being of

questionable taste, Jimmy was quoted later as saying, “I was hired to make the thing look badass and it does. It’s like a golden sun... sharp as a razor.”

Few S54 remain on the open market. Most exist in private collections and several hundred can be seen throughout The Museums of the Beta Arm.

AT. 2600 Intake Manifold Pictured

Interestingly, there have recently been numerous confirmed reports of S54’s being found crashed in the wild space, just sitting waiting to be found, as if left on purpose. So, I guess, if Fortune Favors you, you could have an S54 of your own. Thanks for reading, happy exploring, and until next time remember… “nothing lasts, and only time really flies…’ BluesAddiction signing off.