Aleph-class starfighter

Aleph-class starfighter "I've played around with Aleph simulators. They've got plenty of speed, but they maneuver like big plugs of duracrete."

- Syal Antilles

The Aleph-class starfighter, originally nicknamed the Pondskipper, but more commonly known as the Aleph or Twee, was a heavy two-seater starfighter designed by Sienar Fleet Systems for use by the Galactic Alliance Navy.

Characteristics
As the nickname "Twee" suggested, an Aleph resembled the head of a Twi'lek with two long, tapering drive units thrust back behind a ball-shaped cockpit pod, similar to that of a TIE/ln starfighter but somewhat larger. To add to the fighter's ungainly appearance, the cockpit was flanked by quad laser turrets, likened by some personnel to a pair of earmuffs.

The pilot and gunner sat side-by-side in a shared cockpit with two forward-facing circular viewports. The gunner sat on the right, the pilot on the left, with an R-series astromech droid set centrally in a well behind their seats.

The Aleph's large hull was very tough&mdash;an armored chassis housed mighty power generators to feed its strong deflector shields. Its main weapons were the two flanking quad lasers already mentioned, which boasted very wide fields of fire, plus forward-firing proton torpedo and concussion missile tubes.

The fighter also had an impressive top speed, comparable to the Eta-5 interceptor, and was quick in atmospheres (although it accelerated slower than an X-wing), but its one major deficiency was a serious lack of maneuverability.

To compensate for this, rows of thruster ports were placed along the dorsal and ventral surfaces and both sides of the hull, allowing the fighter to make lateral sidesteps or vertical jumps and drops in flight. However, many pilots regarded this system as no substitute for the inherent grace and maneuverability of a smaller snubfighter.

History
The Aleph was originally designed in the last months of the Yuuzhan Vong War as a counter for the invaders' coralskippers, but it would be more than a decade before the new fighter eventually entered limited production, around 40 ABY.

As of 40 ABY, six Alephs were combined in an experimental squadron and based on Blue Diver. Syal Antilles flew as the pilot in an Aleph fighter, although she would have preferred to fly in Eta-5 interceptors.

Behind the scenes
Although likened in Betrayal to the head of a Twi'lek, the name and appearance of the Aleph-class starfighter also reflect the letter Aleph instead of the in-universe Aurek. This represents a new naming convention for starfighters, alongside the existing patterns based on the Latin and Greek alphabets (which contains the letter Alpha, derived from Aleph in the Hebrew alphabet), which continue to be represented in Betrayal by ships like X-wings and Eta-5 interceptors.

In "The Written Word" hyperspace article, Hebrew letters are associated with the Sith language. It is stated that the Aleph fighter looks similar to the Myke language letter Aleph. Aleph is also an old Semitic word for ox. This is a fitting description of the slow-maneuvering, but heavy-hulled, snubfighter.

The name "Twee" partially came from Aaron Allston's favorite phony "Darth" name for Jacen Solo, "Darth Twee."

Appearances

 * Betrayal
 * Fury
 * Backlash

Notes and references
Caza estelar clase Aleph